Wearing a big hat and playing a guitar, a country music singer is using his rising and falling voice to tell the audience about his love, hope and loss. Few people could avoid getting caught up in his feelings.
This is the appeal（魅力）of country music, which speaks to the basic emotions of human life. Throughout the 20th century, it has grown into one of the most original and lasting American musical forms.
Country music's roots are in the songs of the American South, brought over by early immigrants(移民) from England. Those songs expressed the hardships of rural life and deep religious beliefs. In the 1920s, country music came into being as its first recordings were made. Early stars like Jimmy Rodger, known as "The Father of Country Music", and the Carter Family established its strong traditions － good song-writing, singing and playing.
Much of this music was written for and brought to the American public through the cowboy films of the 1930s and 1940s. It was widely popular then and many singers turned up on stage wearing Western fringe and cowboy hats.
In the 1950s, the country music recording industry was set up in Nashville and moved away from its rough roots. But singers like John Denver, with his hit track "Take Me Home, Country Roads", insisted on the originality and emotions of "real" country music.
Younger artists in the 1990s turned to older country styles and mixed t3vhem with elements of rock 'n' roll. Steve Earle, with his song "The Devil's Right Hand", is typical of this so-called "another country music".
Country music continues to speak to Americans of all ages and backgrounds. And it gives the nation an identity（独特性）.
Unlike pop music, country music was American, and only American. During its development, it continued to emphasize that "American" element and sounded completely different from its English ancestors. It may even be said that its sound and story tell the history of the United States. Which of the following is the typical image(形象) when a country music singer performs?
| A．Wearing a big hat and playing a guitar. |
| B．Using the rising and falling voice. |
| C．Telling about his love, hope and loss. |
| D．Singing for those working in the fields. |
Which of the following statements about country music is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Country music was created by immigrants from England. |
| B．Country music comes from South American songs. |
| C．John Denver was known as "The Father of Country Music" |
| D．Country music that belongs to pop music was American, and only American. |
The underlined expression “getting caught up in” probably means_________.
| A．become interested or involved in |
| B．becoming fashionable or popularin |
| C．become caught in |
| D．breaking away from |
The author mentioned Jimmy Rodger, John Denver and Steve Earle to __.
| A．tell us the stage singing style of country music |
| B．show the process of the development of country music |
| C．attract the audience's attention to country music |
| D．introduce some famous stars to readers |
When did Country music begin to turn into a stage art？
| A．In the 1920s | B．In the 1940s | C．in the 1950s | D．in the 1990s |
Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say.
One day I went up to Michael and asked him, “I don’t get it. You can’t be positive all the time. How do you do it?” Michael replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself ‘Mike, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining（抱怨） I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.”
I often thought about that when I made a choice about life. Several years later, Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling off 60 feet from a communica－tion tower. After l8 hours of operation, and weeks of intensive care, Michael was re－leased from the hospital with rods placed in his back.I asked him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
“The first thing that went through my mind was the well being of my soon-to-born daughter,” Michael replied. “Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. In the operation room, I told the doctors and nurses, ‘I’m choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.”
Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 really means that Michael is a person ______.
| A．people would fall in love with |
| B．people would easily get tired of |
| C．people would envy for his positive life attitude |
| D．people wouldn’t take seriously |
Each time something bad happens, Michael chooses to ______.
| A．be in a good mood |
| B．learn from it |
| C．complain about it |
| D．ignore the negative side of it |
From the passage we can infer that ______.
| A．most people manage to lead a positive life at any time |
| B．most people can’t lead a positive life at any time |
| C．only Michael can be so positive |
| D．the author is always a sad person |
If you feel at present that you don’t have enough friends in your life, one reason may be that you have let yourself become too busy to make time for the relationships you already have. Starting and keeping friendship requires effort and commitment.
Our lives let many of us become so busy with work and other things that we don’t get around to scheduling time for pleasure and renewal（叙旧）with the friends, relatives and acquaintances we already have.
Making the effort to call your friends more regularly and accept more of the invitations you receive from others can improve your social life quickly!
Are there any people you could call right now and are assured of a pleasant welcome? Are there people that you could count on to help you in time of difficulty? Can you have close talks with them? Do you have fun when you are together? Are you happy to have them in your life?
If you haven’t seen most of them lately, is it because you have become too busy? Have you lived apart? Was there an argument?
If the main reason you haven’t been getting together with the people you already know is that you have got too busy, take a good look at how you spend your time. Compare it with your real values and priorities（优先考虑的事）in life. Is your busy lifestyle really bringing you the quality of life that you want?
If you have become too busy to have time for friends, why has this happened? Are you seeking material joys in your life at the expense of relationships with other human beings? Have you allowed your time to be over-committed because you never say “No” to anyone? Do you insist on doing things by yourself that could be delegated to others? If so, why? Do you believe that everything depends on you?
Examine whether the way you are now spending your time accurately reflects your deepest values and priorities. Make sure that you schedule adequate time for the things that are truly most important to you.
If you really want to keep friends in your life, make space in your schedule and in your heart for them.In this passage the author mainly discusses ____.
| A．how to balance friendship and work |
| B．how to spend our spare time |
| C．whether we should keep friendship |
| D．whether we should invite friends to dinner |
Which of the following doesn’t indicate a good relationship?
| A．You have someone to count on when you are in trouble. |
| B．You have someone to have close talks with. |
| C．You have fun when you are with someone. |
| D．You feel depressed with others in life. |
.What does the underlined word “ delegated ” in Paragraph 7 probably mean?
| A．declined | B．replaced | C．appointed | D．handled |
What is the most important feature of the writing style of the passage?
| A．Offering arguments | B．Raising questions |
| C．Making comparisons | D．Giving examples |
What will power your house in the future？Nuclear, wind or solar power？According to scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, it might be leaves — but artificial (人造的) ones.
Natural leaves are able to change sunlight and water into energy. It is known as photosynthesis (光合作用). Now researchers have found a way to imitate this seemingly simple process.
The artificial leaf developed by Daniel Nocera and his colleagues at MIT can be seen as a special silicon chip with catalysts (催化剂). Similar to natural leaves, it can split water into hydrogen and oxygen when put into a bucket of water. The hydrogen and oxygen gases are then stored in a fuel cell，which uses those two materials to produce electricity，located either on top of a house or beside the house.
Though the leaf is only about the shape of a poker card, scientists claimed that it is promising to be an inexpensive source of electricity in developing countries. “One can imagine villages in India and Africa not long from now purchasing an affordable basic power system based on this technology,” said Nocera at a conference of the American Chemical Society.
The artificial leaf is not a new idea. The first artificial leaf was invented in 1997 but was too expensive and unstable for practical use. The new leaf, by contrast, is made of cheap materials, easy to use and highly stable. In laboratory studies, Nocera showed that an artificial leaf prototype (原型) could operate continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity.
The wonderful improvements come from Nocera’s recent discovery of several powerful, new and inexpensive catalysts. These catalysts make the energy transformation inside the leaf more efficient with water and sunlight. Right now, the new leaf is about 10 times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural one. Besides, the device can run in whatever water is available; that is, it doesn’t need pure water. This is important for some countries that don’t have access to pure water.
With the goal to “make each home its own power station” and “give energy to the poor”，scientists believe that the new technology could be widely used in developing countries，especially in India and rural China.Which of the following orders correctly shows how the artificial leaf is used to produce electricity?
a. artificial leaves split water into hydrogen and oxygen
b. the hydrogen and oxygen gases are stored in a fuel cell
c. the artificial leaves are put in water
d. the fuel cell uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity
| A．c, a, b, d | B． c, b, a, d |
| C．b, c, a, d | D． c, a, d, b |
The purpose of the scientists at MIT in developing the new artificial leaf is to ________.
| A．build up more power stations in the world |
| B．provide cheaper energy for developing countries |
| C．offer people in developing countries access to pure water |
| D．gain a deeper understanding of the photosynthesis process |
The main idea of this passage is ________.
| A．an introduction to the history of artificial leaves |
| B．a mixture of water power and solar energy |
| C．giving energy to the poor |
| D．an invention copying photosynthesis |
On countless mornings over the past year, I stood with my son, James, in our driveway, watching our neighbor hurry off to kindergarten. My wife and I wanted to give James the best education, but that meant we’d have to change our jobs and spend less time with our kid. I asked myself, “Would this trade-off be worth it?” When I look at the research on child development, I think it might not. Where our kids go to school might matter less than most American parents think.
Social scientists have long tried to determine why some children grow up to be successful. In a 2001 study, Greg Duncan, a professor of education at the University of California, measured the influence that the people in a child’s life have on how well the child does in school. Duncan and his team found almost no relationship between how students did on the test and whom they sat beside in class, whom they hung out with after school and who lived in their block. The only meaningful link they found was between siblings（兄弟姐妹）and twins in particular.
For a long time, scholars thought that a family’s income heavily affected how well kids did in life. But that might not be the case. When Susan Mayer at the University of Chicago looked at the relationship between family income and lifetime achievement, she ran a series of experiments to measure it, finding such outcomes weren’t caused by income. She argued that the things that make a difference are relatively inexpensive: the number of books a kid has or how often his family goes to museums.
Lareau, another scholar began one of the most in-depth observations of American parenting. He concluded that success is much more related to the amount of time parents spend with their children. He said “Many parents I interviewed are anxious about their children’s futures．But they have exaggerated（夸大）the sense of the risks involved if they don't give their children the best of everything..”
So at last, we decided to leave things as it were. More time with our kid is the best we can provide.The first paragraph is intended to __________.
| A．introduce the topic of the passage |
| B．confirm the result of a research |
| C．stress the importance of good education |
| D．support a research on child development |
From the passage we know that most American parents _________.
| A．spend a lot of time with their children |
| B．like to buy a variety of books for their children |
| C．think children's achievement largely depends on schools |
| D．believe their income cannot afford children's education |
Who believes children's brothers and sisters may influence their academic performance?
| A．Lareau． | B．Greg Duncan． |
| C．Susan Mayer． | D．James． |
Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Parents' time matters to children's future． |
| B．School education determines children's future． |
| C．Family income counts to children's achievements． |
| D．Less education means more risks for children's success． |
Nowadays women appear to have a positive image of themselves as safer drivers than men.
In a survey done for insurer MetLife, 51% of women said they drive more safely. The evidence is on their side: Men are 3.4 times more likely than women to get a ticket for careless driving and 3.1 times as likely to be punished for drunk driving. “Women are on average less aggressive and more law abiding (守法的) drivers, which leads to fewer accidents,” the report says. However, not all male drivers share the same opinion. Of the men surveyed by MetLife, 39% claimed male drivers were safer. The findings did back them upon one point: automotive knowledge. The report showed that more men are familiar with current safety equipment such as electronic stability control，which helps prevent rollover accidents.
Auto safety unavoidably matters to Money. Insurance companies focus on what classes of drivers have the lowest dollar amounts of claims, and for now, that mainly includes women. In general, women pay about 9% less for auto insurance than men. A study by the website Insweb also showed that auto insurance rates are lower for women in most states. Among individual states, women get the greatest, advantage in Wyoming (where they pay 20% less), South Dakota and Washington, D.C, where their insurance costs are 16% lower.
“More than 11,900 male drivers died in US traffic accidents in 2009，compared with just under 4,900 women drivers” according to the study. “Based on miles traveled, men died at a rate of 2.5 deaths per 100 million miles traveled, vs.1.7 deaths for women.”According to the study，female drivers ________.
| A．are more aggressive while driving |
| B．are more interested in auto knowledge |
| C．are more likely to stick to driving laws |
| D．are more familiar with safety equipment |
Insurance companies focus on female driver clients probably because they________.
| A．cause more accidents on the road |
| B．pay more money to the insurance companies |
| C．take the most part of the insurance clients |
| D．have the lowest amount of money on insurance claims |
We can infer from the passage that________.
| A．men are 3.1 times more likely to get tickets than women |
| B．all women in the USA pay the same for their auto insurance |
| C．more female drivers die every year than male drivers |
| D．women are generally safer drivers than the opposite gender |
The writer mainly develops paragraphs by________.
| A．giving examples |
| B．making comparisons |
| C．drawing a conclusion |
| D．presenting an argument |
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