Happy birthday
The China Nation Opera (CNO)will give a concert to celebrate its 50th birthday.
Different generations of CNO vocalists(歌手), like Li Guangxi, Yao Hong and Ma Mei, will present the concert which will feature both songs from famous Chinese operas like “The White-haired GM “and “The Hundredth Bride”, as well as, arias (咏叹调) of such Western opera classics as “Madame Butterfly”, “La Traviata” and “Rigoletto”.
Time/date : 7:30 pm, September 7, 8
Location : Tianqiao Theatre
Tel : 6551-4787, 8315-6170
Tickets : 60—50 yuan (US $7.2-60.2)
Folk music
A concert will be held to feature some recently-composed traditional Chinese music works.
The concert, given by the Folk Orchestra of the China Opera and Ballet Theatre, will include such pieces as “Memory of Childhood”, “Memorial Ceremony for God” and “Wine Song”.
Time/date : 7:30 pm, September 13
Location: Concert hall at the National Library of China
Tel: 6848-5462, 6841-9220
Tickets : 30-200 yuan (US $ 3.6—24.1)
Moon music
A concert of traditional Chinese music will be given on the eve of the Moon Festival which falls on September 21st this year.
The concert will feature a number of famous pieces centered on this theme of the moon, such as “Moonlight”, “Spring Night on a Moonlit River” and “Lofty Mountain and Flowing River.”
A number of established traditional Chinese music performers, like Zhou Yaokun and Fan Weiqing, will play solos（独奏）as well as collaborate（合奏）with the folk music orchestra.
Time/ date: 7:30 pm, September 21st
Location: Grand Theatre of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities
Tel: 6606-8888, 6606-9999
1. If you want to buy tickets for listening to the music “Memory of Childhood”, you will dial .
| |
A. 6551-4787 |
B. 6848-5462 |
C. 8315-6170 |
D. 6606-9999 |
2. “Madame Butterfly” is .
| |
A. a Chinese opera |
B. a song |
C. a piece of music |
D. a Western opera |
3. The passage will most probably appear in the column “ ”of a newspaper.
| |
A. Animals |
B. People |
C. Entertainment |
D. Sports |
根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Most drinks stating that they are fruit-flavored (水果味道的) contain no fruit at all, while most of the rest contain only a small quantity of fruit, according to a study carried by the British Food Commission.
“Shoppers need to check the labels (标签)before buying drinks, though sometimes the actual content can be non-existent,” said Food Commission spokesperson Ian Tokelove. “Food production is highly competitive. 1 It will increase profits, and consumers won’t always realize they are being tricked.”
Flavorings are focused on the flavors of natural food products such as fruits, meats and vegetables, or creating flavor for food products that do not have the desired flavors. Researchers analyzed the contents of 28 strawberry-flavored products sold in stores. 2 Of the 11 products that did contain strawberries, five of them contained less than one percent real fruit. In addition, each juice box contained nearly eight teaspoons of sugar.
3 Let’s take jam as an example. Some strawberry-flavored jam was labeled as containing no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners, but it contained absolutely no strawberries at all.
4 Consumers have the rights to know clearly about what they have bought. Under current UK law, food packages do not have to distinguish between natural and artificial flavoring. “Describing a product as strawberry flavor and covering the surface of the packet with pictures of strawberries is misleading. 5 Unfortunately, it is also legal and widespread,” Tokelove said. “It’s time to take measures to protect the consumers’ rights.”
| A．The products which contain real fruit are popular with people. |
| B．Even products advertised as more natural often contained no fruit. |
| C．They found that about 60 percent of them didn’t contain any fruit at all. |
| D．If companies can cut their costs by using flavoring, they are likely to do so. |
E. It is important and necessary to demand a small amount of flavoring in the products.
F. Actually the product contains just a tiny percentage of strawberry or even no fruit at all.
G. The Food Commission suggested all flavors used in a product should be listed on the packaging.
WASHINGTON—Two-thirds of the world’s polar bear population could be gone by 2050 if predictions of melting sea ice hold true, the US Geological Survey reported on Friday.
The fate of polar bears could be even worse than that estimate, because sea ice in the Arctic might be disappearing faster than the available computer models predict, the geological survey said in a report aimed at determining whether the big white bear should be listed as a threatened species.
“There is a definite link between changes in the sea ice and the welfare of polar bears,” said Steve Amstrup, who led the research team. He says Arctic sea ice is already at the lowest this year and is expected to retreat(退却) farther this month.
That means that polar bears—some 16,000 of them -- will disappear by 2050 from parts of the Arctic where sea ice is melting most rapidly, along the north coasts of Alaska and Russia, researchers said in a telephone briefing(简报).
Other polar bears could survive beyond that date but many of those could be gone by 2100, Amstrup said. By this century’s end, the only polar bears left might live in the Canadian Arctic islands and along the west coast of Greenland.
“It is likely to result in loss of approximately two-thirds of the world’s current polar bear population by the mid 21st century,” the report’s executive summary said.
“Because the observed trajectory(轨迹)of Arctic sea ice decline appears to be underestimated by currently available models, this assessment of future polar bear status may be conservative(保守的).”
In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species, noting polar bears depend on sea ice as a platform to hunt seals, their main food.
Without enough sea ice, polar bears would be forced onto land, but they are poor hunters once they get out of the water and ice, the researchers said. The bears’ disappearance would probably take place as young cubs(幼兽)failed to survive to adulthood and females were unable to reproduce successfully.What was the US Geological Survey intended to do?
| A．To determine whether the polar bear was in danger. |
| B．To measure how fast the sea ice melts in the Arctic. |
| C．To check the predictions of the computer models. |
| D．To find out the exact number of the polar bear. |
What causes the polar bears to disappear by 2050?
| A．The pollution of the Arctic region. | B．The sea ice melting at high speed |
| C．Fewer food sources being left. | D．The temperature getting colder. |
The key to preventing polar bears dying out seems to _______________.
| A．help young polar bears to survive the cold winter |
| B．have large number of seals living in the oceans |
| C．make sure there is enough sea ice in the Arctic |
| D．provide chances for adult polar bears to reproduce |
Read the advertisements carefully. Then answer the questions that follow.
| WE NEED OFFICE CLEANERS! Three people are required for professional cleaning in the CBD area. Working hours from 5:00 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. Approximately five hours per shift. A good record is necessary. Experience preferred. Phone 63457843 now. |
| FLORIST WANTED! Are you a creative and trained florist with at least two years of experience? Then this may be just what you are seeking. The city’s leading Florist Artist Studio needs another part-time member on their wedding team. Please phone 6098 7888 now! |
|
| WANT TO WORK AS A DENTAL NURSE? This is an exciting opportunity for a qualified dental nurse with a confident and cheerful personality to work in the School Dental Health Schemae. You must be able to get along well with children because work involves talking to groups about dental health practices. For further information, visit our website at:schooledntalservices@ gov. sg. And fax your resume to 62344567. |
|
| INTERESTED IN CHILDCARE? Qualified person or preschool teacher needed for busy childcare center, south of the river. Full-time work guaranteed. Immediate start necessary. The candidate must be able to work as a co-operative team member. Phone 63452345 for an interview and fax resume to 63452345. |
You may find the above advertisements .
| A．in a store window | B．in a newspaper |
| C．in a school magazine | D．on a company notice-board |
The position of a(n) is a part-time job.
| A．preschool teacher | B．artist |
| C．florist | D．dental nurse |
Which of the following is the most important for the childcare job?
| A．Cooking skills. | B．Childcare experience. |
| C．The ability to start work in two weeks. | D．The ability to work well with other people. |
The office cleaners will be required to work about hours a week.
| A．5 | B．10 | C．15 | D．20 |
Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well-being at any moment are determined to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.
Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference.
Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.
“Dollars buy status, and status makes people feel better,” conclude some experts, which helps explain why people who can seek status in other ways－scientists or actors, for example－may happily accept relatively poorly-paid jobs.
In a research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desire－not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health－rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap(差距). Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the only measures of income.” Says Michalos.
Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad. “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied?” asks Professor Laura Carstensen.
In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotions questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people, but negative emotions much less often.
Why are old people happier? Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their goals, only setting ones that they know they can achieve. But Carstensen thinks that with time running out, older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don’t.
“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”According to the passage, the feeling of happiness __________.
| A．has little to do with wealth | B．increases gradually with age |
| C．is determined partly by genes | D．is measured by desires |
Some actors would like to accept poorly-paid jobs because the jobs ____________.
| A．make them feel much better | B．improve their social position |
| C．provide chances to make friends | D．satisfy their professional interests |
Aged people are more likely to feel happy because they are more _________.
| A．optimistic | B．successful | C．practical | D．emotional |
Professor Alex Michalos found that people feel less happy if __________.
| A．the gap between reality and desire is bigger |
| B．they have a stronger desire for friendship |
| C．their income is below their expectation |
| D．the hope for good health is greater |
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had “seven fathers,” because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated(躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.
In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university’s Writers’ Workshop, however, she felt lonely----a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her “Creative voice.”
“It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That’s when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn’t write about.”
Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book tells about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school through graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children’s book, and a short-story collection.Which of the following is TRUE about Cisneros in her childhood?
| A．She had seven brothers. | B．She felt herself a nobody. |
| C．She was too shy to go to school. | D．She did not have any good teachers. |
The graduate program gave Cisneros a chance to _____.
| A．develop her writing style | B．run away from her family |
| C．make a lot of friends | D．work for a school magazine |
According to Cisneros, what played the decisive role in her success?
| A．Her early years in college. | B．Her training in the Workshop. |
| C．Her childhood experience | D．Her feeling of being different. |
What do we learn about The House on Mango Street?
| A．It wasn’t success as it was written in Spanish. |
| B．It is the only book ever written by Cisneros. |
| C．It is quite popular among students. |
| D．It won an award when Cisneros was twenty-nine. |
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