Most people agree that the direct, assertive(过分自信的) American personality is a virtue, but it sometimes surprises foreigners. In many cultures, respect for older people or those in positions of authority keeps others from expressing their true feelings. But in the U.S, children often argue with their parents, students may disagree with their teachers, and citizens may express opposition to the actions of the government. If the soup has a fly in it or the meat is too tough to chew, the diner can complain to the waiter, if the boss makes a mistake, an employee will politely point it out.
Some straight talk about the American character must include the admission that Americans have their faults. The extremely competitive nature of Americans is probably their worst fault. Of course, competition isn’t always bad. As a matter of fact, it promotes excellence by encouraging individuals and businesses to try to do their best. But the desire to get ahead of others sometimes causes people to do things that are unkind and even dishonest. Also, Americans admire what is practical, fast, efficient, and fresh. Sometimes they fail to understand and appreciate practices that have greater respect for more traditional, leisurely ways of doing things. On the other hand, people from other cultures may dislike the practical, challenging American lifestyle.
Despite culture differences, most foreigners give Americans credit for their virtues. Americans are generally viewed as friendly, adaptable, energetic, and kindhearted. Most newcomers to the U.S. like Americans, and the feeling is usually mutual. Perhaps the greatest American virtue is a deep interest in new ideas and new people. In a nation of immigrants, the foreigner does not remain an outsider for long.
In order to show the respect for older people,. .
| A．people from some other cultures will always express their true feeling |
| B．people from some other cultures may sometimes hide their true feeling |
| C．Americans always show their true feelings |
| D．Americans usually argue with them |
Why is the extremely competitive nature considered as one of American faults?
| A．Because people from other cultures fear competition. |
| B．Because only American people own it. |
| C．Because it will make people forget leisure. |
| D．Because it may sometimes urge people to do something bad. |
It can be inferred from the passage that . .
| A．American people are more critical of everything than people from other cultures |
| B．the author believes that American character has more faults than virtues |
| C．the author admires American virtues as they are viewed as competitive and anti traditional |
| D．it is difficult for newcomers to get on with Americans |
The passage mainly talks about . .
| A．American virtues | B．American characters | C．American faults | D．American lifestyles |
Remembering your dreams will require some efforts on your part. But what your dreams can offer and tell you about yourself will be well worth it. Here are some tips to help recall your dreams:
1. Before going to bed, keep a clear mind. Tell yourself that “I will remember my dreams when I wake up”. This is actually a proven and effective way to recall your dreams.
2. Have a regular bedtime and wake-up time. Make this your routine. Going to bed and waking up at a regular time every day could aid in dream recollection.
3. Avoid alcohol consumption and taking medicine before going to bed. These things may prevent you from remembering your dreams.
4. Keep a pencil and a notebook next to your bed so that they will be within reach as soon as you wake up. Having a small lamp by your bedside is also a good idea, so you wake up in the middle of the night and can record your dreams immediately.
5. Do not get out of bed immediately. Upon waking from a dream, lie still in your bed, keeping your eyes closed and moving as little as possible. Let your mind wander among the images of what you have just dreamed.
6. Write down as many details in your dreams as you can, no matter how seemingly unimportant they may be. Do not judge the content or worry if they make sense.
7. Sometimes it may help to draw pictures. A picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes. Even if you are not an artist, a simple drawing can help to recall details of your dreams. This passage tells you ______ .
| A．some useful tips to recall your dreams | B．the way to recall your dreams |
| C．the reason to remember dreams | D．many details in your dreams |
Which of the following ways may NOT be useful for recalling dreams?
| A．Avoiding taking alcohol and medicine. | B．Not getting out of bed immediately. |
| C．Drinking a cup of hot milk. | D．Writing down as many details as possible. |
What does the underlined “it” in the first paragraph mean? ______
| A．Remembering your dreams. |
| B．Some tips to help recall your dreams. |
| C．Your making efforts to remember your dreams. |
| D．What your dreams can offer and tell you about yourself. |
The author uses the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” to_______.
| A．show that a picture is better than words |
| B．say a picture is equal to thousands of words |
| C．prove that it’s more important to draw pictures than to speak |
| D．indicate drawing pictures really helps to recall dreams |
The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the nor
thernmost position on earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work n
ext year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill（钻孔） deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0ºC. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will e from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to 
be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0ºC. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s safest gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first put forward the idea in the 1980s. But safety concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The project is meant to ______.
| A．increase the world’s food output in the future |
| B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes |
| C．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds |
| D．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?
| A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone. |
| B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago. |
| C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the nuclear war forever. |
| D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place. |
We can infer from the text that _______.
| A．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 20 years before. |
| B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture |
| C．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year. |
| D．There haven’t been any seed storage centres in the world before. |
What is probably the best title
of the passage?
| A．The Best Place to Store Seeds |
| B．Noah’s Ark（诺亚方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan |
| C．Concerns of World Food Supply |
| D．A New Way to Feed the World |
Among various programmes, TV talk shows have covered every inch of space on daytime television. And anyone who watches them regularly knows that each one is different in style. But no two shows are more opposite in content, while at the same time standing out above the rest, than the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey shows.
Jerry Springer could easily be considered the king of “rubbish talk”. The contents on his show are as surprising as they can be. For example, the show takes the ever-mon talk show titles of love, sex, cheating, and hate, to a different level. Clearly, the Jerry Springer show is about the dark sid
e of society, yet people are willing to eat up the troubles of other people’s lives.
Like Jerry Springer, Oprah Winfrey takes TV talk show to its top. But Oprah goes in the opposite direction. The show is mainly about the improvement of society and different quality of life. Contents are from teaching your children lessons, managing your work week, to getting to know your neighbors.
pared to Oprah, the Jerry Springer show looks like poisonous waste being poured into society. Jerry ends every show with a “final word”. He makes a small speech about the entire idea of the show. Hopefully, this is the part where most people will learn something very valuable.
Clean as it is, the Oprah show is not for everyone. The sho
w’s main viewers are middleclass Americans. Most of these people have the time, money, and ability to deal with life’s tough problems. Jerry Springer, on the other hand, has more of a connection with the young adults of society. These are 18-to-21-year-olds whose main troubles in life include love, relationship, sex, money and drug. They are the ones who see some value and lessons to be learned through the show’s exploitation.pared with other TV talk shows, both the Jerry Springer and the Oprah Winfrey are ____.
| A．more interesting | B．more formal |
| C．more detailed | D．unusually popular |
Which of the following is likely to be a topic of the Oprah Winfrey show?
| A．Family ine planning. | B．Nation hatred. |
| C．A new type of robot. | D．Street accident. |
We can learn from the passage that the two talk shows_____.
| A．have bee the only ones of its kind |
| B．attract different people |
| C．appear at different times of the day |
| D．exploit the weaknesses in human nature |
Today just as technology changed the face of industry, farms have
experienced an “agricultural revolution”. On the farm of today, machines provide almost all the power.
One of the most important benefits will be the farm puter. A few forward-looking farmers are already using puters to help them run their farms more efficiently. The puters help them keep more accurate records so they can make better decisions on what crops to plant, how much livestock(家畜) to buy, when to sell their products, and how much profit they can expect. Many puter panies have been developing special puter programs just for farmers. Programs are being written for pig producers, grain farmers, potato farmers, and dairy farmers. In the future, farmers will be able to purchase puter programs made to their needs. Because of the growing importance of puters on the farm, students at agricultural colleges are required to take puter classes in addition to their normal agricultural courses. There can be no doubt that farmers will rely on puters even more in the future. While the old-time farm depended on horse power, and modern farms depend on machine power, farms of the future will depend on puter power.
Another technological advance which is still in the experimental stage is the robot, a real “mechanized hired hand” that will be able to move and, in some ways, think like a human being. Agricultural engineers believe that puter-aided robots will make shocking changes in farming before the end of the century. Unlike farmers of the present, farmers of the future will
find that many day-to-day t
asks will be done for them. Scientists are now developing robots that will be able to shear（修剪） sheep, drive tractors, and harvest fruit. Even plex jobs will be done by robots. For example, in order to milk their cows, farmers must first drive them into the barn, then connect them to the milking machines, watch the machines, and disconnect them when they are finished. In the future, this will all be done by robots. In addition, when the milking is pleted, the robots will automatically check to make sure that the milk is pure. The plete change of the farm is far in the future, but engineers expect that some robots will be used before long.Which sentence carried the main idea of the whole passage?
| A．The first sentence of the third paragraph. |
| B．The first sentence of the second paragraph. |
| C．The first sentence of the first paragraph. |
| D．The last sentence of the second paragraph. |
According to the passage, puters can not help farmers decide _______.
| A．how much money they can earn from their products |
| B．whether to plant a certain kind of crop |
| C．what livestock to raise |
| D．when to sell their products |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．Farmers in the future will depend totally on puters. |
| B．Farmers mainly use machines on their farms at present. |
| C．Both puters and robots have been in use on today’s farms. |
| D．Students at agricultural colleges must take puter classes because they can do |
Nothing without the help of puters on today’s farms.What is the best title for the whole passage?
| A．puter, Farmers’ Best Friend | B．Farmers in The Future |
| C．The Agricultural Revolution | D．puters and Robots |
“It was all his own idea, ” says Pat Peters, the 38-year-old wife of Palo Alto, California high school football coach Bob Peters, 39. Bob had just drawn up a “motherhood contract” --a document stating that for 70 days th
is summer he would take over the care and feeding of the couple’s four children, plus all household chores. Although he didn’t even know how to make coffee when he signed, he was quite confident.(He thought the experience would make a nice book.)
After 40 of the 70 days, he was ready to give up. “I was beaten down, pletely humbled（挫败的）,” admits Peters. Three weeks later he spoke to the local press, stating, “Not only is motherhood a difficult task, not only is it never-ending, it is an impossible job for any normal human being.”
Bob and Pat were high school sweethearts. After they were married in 1960, she worked as a secretary to help put him through university. Since then Bob has been the football and wrestling coach at Palo Alto’s Cubberley High while Pat raised the kids. Then two years ago Pat went back to work
as a secretary at Cubberley. “I had been around children so much,” she sighs, “I couldn’t talk to a grown-up.” She continued to run the household, however----until Bob signed the contract, therefore, she decided to relax and enjoy it.
Although Peters had consulted(咨询) with his school’s home economics teachers and the head of the cafeteria, his meals were sometimes a disaster. “I tried to slip the butter I’d forgotten under the eggs after they were frying, ” he says. For the last three weeks, the family ate out a lot—sometimes having Macdonald’s hamburgers for lunch and dinner.
As for housekeeping, a home economics teacher had told Bob that a room always looks clean if the bed is made. “
I found an easier way-I shut the doors, ” he says. Soon the kids were wearing the same clothes for a week. “I made them wear their shirts inside out, and when we went to pick up Pat at work they turned them right side out so they would look clean.”
Now that Bob has publicly admitted he was wrong, he is routinely sharing the child-raising
and household tasks with Pat. The tentative（暂时的） title of his book about the summer is taken from something he shouted at the kids one day. The couple signed the contract because _______.
| A．Pat plained a lot about her doing the housework all by herself |
| B．Bob loved taking care of children and wanted his wife to have a good rest |
| C．they agreed that husband and wife should share household tasks |
| D．Bob thought it easy to take care of the family and wanted the experience for a book |
It was agreed that if Bob failed to keep to the contract, he would have to _______.
| A．pay a certain amount of money |
| B．admit publicly he was wrong about motherhood |
| C．say sorry to his wife |
| D．do all the housework for years |
What can we learn about Pat Peters?
| A．She was hard-working and selfless. |
| B．She was pretty and kind-hearted. |
| C．She was tired of the child-raising and household tasks. |
| D．She did not love Bob any longer. |
Which of the following can best end the news story?
| A．“Wait till your mother gets home!” |
| B．“My experience of being a mother.” |
| C．“I’m proud of you all, my dear!” |
| D．“Motherhood: an impossible job for anyone.” |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号