Ever since farmers began to grow grain, they have had to protect their crops from birds. In the 1300's, English farmers hired children to protect their crops. They were called “bird scares”. The children chased birds and threw stones at them.
Bird scares were replaced in the 1800's by scarecrows. A scarecrow is anything that is set in a field to scare birds away. Often it is a pole dressed like a person. Some farms with small fields still use scarecrows today.
Farming became big business in the twentieth century. Scarecrows could no longer protect the huge fields of grain, so farmers used poisonous chemicals on the fields. The poison made the grain bitter. The birds usually would not eat the bitter grain.
Although they can prevent crops from being destroyed by insects and birds, some chemicals can be harmful to humans. Therefore, farmers are using fewer chemicals now than they did twenty years ago. Perhaps scarecrows may be seen more often in the fields in the future.English farmers began to hire children to get away birds since_____.
| A．the twelfth century | B．the fifteenth century |
| C．the sixteenth century | D．the fourteenth century |
“Bird scares” keep birds away from crops by_____.
| A．feeding them bitter grain | B．pretending to be scarecrows |
| C．spreading chemicals in the fields | D．chasing them and throwing stones |
Which statement from the passage supports the idea that scarecrows may be seen more often in the fields in the future?
| A．Scarecrows could no longer protect fields. | B．They were called “bird scares”. |
| C．English farmers hired children. | D．Farmers are using fewer chemicals. |
The author's purpose is to ________.
| A．give information about children who worked as bird scares |
| B．tell how crops have been protected from birds |
| C．make the readers feel sorry for birds that eat poisoned grain |
| D．entertain the readers with a funny story |
On Nov. 18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City．
If you have ever been to a Perlman concert，you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him．He was stricken with polio (小儿麻痹症) as a child，and so he has braces (支架) on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches (双拐)．
He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair．Then he sits down，slowly, puts his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs，tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward．Then he bends down and picks up the violin, puts it under his chin，nods to the conductor and proceeds to play．
But this time，something went wrong．Just as he finished the first few bars (小节)，one of the strings on his violin broke. You could hear it snap (嘣断) --- it went off like gunfire across the room. There was no mistaking what that meant. There was no mistaking what he had to do．
We figured that he would have to get up, put on the clasps again, pick up the crutches and limp his way off stage——to either find another violin or else find another string for this one. But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.
The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. And he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before．
When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered．He smiled，wiped the sweat from this brow, raised his bow to quit us，and then he said in a quiet tone．“You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.’’By saying “getting on stage is no small achievement for him”, the author really means .
| A．it’s very difficult for Itzhak Perlman to play the violin with three strings |
| B．it’s not easy for Itzhak Perlman to get on the stage because he is disabled |
| C．it’s not easy for ltzhak Perlman to face such a large audience |
| D．it’s really great achievements for ltzhak Perlman to play the violin with three strings |
Itzhak Perlman when one of the strings of the violin broke．
| A．gave up playing |
| B．didn’t know what to do |
| C．went on playing the same piece of music |
| D．went on playing a different piece of music |
Itzhak Perlman can be best described as a man who is ．
| A．clever | B．strong willed |
| C．humorous | D．quite skilled |
One day my uncle had been riding a horse in rain when he reached a small restaurant. Wet and coldly, and he wanted to warm himself very much. However, the restaurant was too crowded with people that he could not get near the fire. “Taking some fish to my horse!” he called out to the waiter. “Sorry, sir. But a horse didn’t eat fish!” the waiter answered. “Never mind, just do as I tell you,” my uncle said. The crowd of people felt surprising at the strange order. To see a horse eat fish, all of whom ran out. Having the whole room to himself, my uncle sat down besides the fire and began warm himself.
“People are ruder today because they are rushed and more ‘time poor’ than ever before,” says Patsy Rowe, “ Manners have fallen off the radar(雷达).” Due to our strong attraction to electronic equipment it is a wonder more people don’t wake up each morning and greet the singing birds with a complaint（抱怨）about the noise. Here are some examples of rudeness.
Some people prefer to do almost everything over the Internet. To them, dealing with an actual human is like an evolutionary step backward. It feels very slow because humans don’t work at 4G speeds. When you have dinner with friends, you will often notice someone paying more attention to his mobile phone. We have programmed ourselves to think that every new message brings life-changing news, so taking calls and checking our texts are more important than talking to the people we are with. What is worse, some people even tend to send anonymous（匿名的） rude messages by email.
However, rudeness is never acceptable. Don’t assume it is OK to be rude if the person you’re in touch with won’t recognize you. If you have something awful to say, have the courage to face the person and say it, write a letter or email and sign it, or forget it. Upsetting people with unsigned messages is cruel and disgusting.
We shouldn′t blame technology for our shortcomings. Technology is here to help us, but we should not allow it to take over our lives. An important step is acknowledging our shortcomings. People spend a lot of time pointing out bad manners but it would be even more helpful if we′d publicly acknowledge good manners when we see them. What can be infer from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1?
| A．People can tell good from bad behavior. |
| B．Radar is able to observe human behavior. |
| C．Radar can be used to predict human behavior. |
| D．People care little about their behavior. |
Some people are less willing to deal with humans because _______.
| A．they are growing too independent |
| B．they are becoming less patient |
| C．they have to handle many important messages |
| D．they have to follow an evolutionary step backward. |
The author thinks sending unsigned awful messages is _______.
| A．ridiculous | B．acceptable |
| C．disgusting | D．reasonable |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Technology will take over lives one day. |
| B．Technology can never be blamed |
| C．We should keep pointing out mistakes. |
| D．We should applaud good behavior. |
Some people think that success is only for those with talent or those who grow up in the right family, and others believe that success mostly comes down to luck. I’m not going to say luck, talent, and circumstances don’t come into play because they do. Some people are born into the right family while others are born with great intelligence, and that’s just the reality of how life is.
However, to succeed in life, one first needs to set a goal and then gradually make it more practical. And, in addition to that, in order to get really good at something, one needs to spend at least 10,000 hours studying and practicing. To become great at certain things, it’ll require even more time, time that most people won’t put in.
This is a big reason why many successful people advise you to do something you love. If you don’t enjoy what you do, it is going to feel like unbearable pain and will likely make you quit well before you ever become good at it.
When you see people exhibiting some great skills or having achieved great success, you know that they have put in a huge part of their life to get there at a huge cost. It’s sometimes easy to think they got lucky or they were born with some rare talent, but thinking that way does you no good, and there’s a huge chance that you’re wrong anyway.
Whatever you do, if you want to become great at it, you need to work day in and day out, almost to the point of addiction, and over a long period of time. If you’re not willing to put in the time and work, don’t expect to receive any rewards. Consistent, hard work won’t guarantee you the level of success you may want, but it will guarantee that you will become really good at whatever it is you put all that work into. Paragraph 1 mainly talks about ________.
| A．the standards of success | B．the meaning of success |
| C．the reasons for success | D．the importance of success |
In Paragraph 2, the underlined word “that” refers to ______.
| A．setting a practical goal | B．being good at something |
| C．putting in more time | D．succeeding in life |
What is the main theme of the passage?
| A．Having a goal is vital to success. |
| B．Being good is different from being great. |
| C．One cannot succeed without time and practice. |
| D．Luck, talent and family help to achieve success. |
One day, when I was working as a psychologist in England，an adolescent boy showed up in my office. It was David. He kept walking up and down restlessly, his face pale, and his hands shaking slightly. His head teacher had referred him to me. "This boy has lost his family," he wrote. "He is understandably very sad and refuses to talk to others, and I'm very worried about him. Can you help?”
I looked at David and showed him to a chair. How could I help him? There are problems psychology doesn’t have the answer to, and which no words can describe. Sometimes the best thing one can do is to listen openly and sympathetically.
The first two times we met, David didn't say a word. He sat there, only looking up to look at the children's drawings on the wall behind me. I suggested we play a game of chess. He nodded. After that he played chess with me every Wednesday afternoon一in complete silence and without looking at me. It's not easy to cheat in chess, but I admit I made sure David won once or twice.
Usually, he arrived earlier than agreed, took the chess board and pieces from the shelf and began setting them up before I even got a chance to sit down. It seemed as if he enjoyed my company. But why did he never look at me?
"Perhaps he simply needs someone to share his pain with," I thought. "Perhaps he senses that I respect his suffering.”Some months later, when we were playing chess, he looked up at me suddenly.
"It’s your turn," he said.
After that day, David started talking. He got friends in school and joined a bicycle club. He wrote to me a few times about his biking with some friends, and about his plan to get into university. Now he had really started to live his own life.
Maybe I gave David something. But I also learned that one一without any words一can reach out to another person. All it takes is a hug, a shoulder to cry on, a friendly touch, and an ear that listens. When he first met the author, David .
| A．looked a little nervous | B．walked energetically |
| C．felt a little excited | D．showed up with his teacher |
As a psychologist, the author .
| A．was able to describe David's problem |
| B．was skeptical about psychology |
| C．was ready to listen to David |
| D．was sure of handling David's problem |
David enjoyed being with the author because he________.
| A．wanted to ask the author for advice |
| B．beat the author many times in the chess game |
| C．liked the children’s drawings in the office |
| D．need to share sorrow with the author |
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