A
Are you a big fan of pirate（海盗） stories? Do you know how to talk like apirate? You can have fun on September 19th. This special holiday is called International Talk Like A Pirate Day. It was invented in 1995 by two young Americans, John Baur and Mark Summers.
These two good friends came up with this idea when they were playing racquetball, and began to talk like pirates. At that moment,theythought, “Young people are interested in pirate. But there is no such a chance for people to gettogether to share it. Why not have a day when everybody talks like a pirate?” They decided to make September 19th the date. Since then, Baur and Summers have tried hard to promoteTalk Like APirate Day. As Baur said, “We've talked like pirates, and encouraged several of our friends to do so every September 19th.”
At first, this day was only known by a few people. In 2002, Baur and Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to Dave Barry. This columnist（专栏作家）really liked their idea. He promoted the holiday and made it known to more and more people. Now, it has really become an international holiday. On Talk Like A Pirate Day, you need to dress like apirate. You should wear a big hat or maybe cover one of your eyes.You can pretend to be any kind of pirate that you can find in any story or movie.
Having fun and being relaxedare not the only best things aboutthe holiday. Young peopleshare the same interest and childhooddreams that day. That's whyit is welcomed by so many people, especially young people.
Unlike traditional holidays, International Talk Like A Pirate Day is a brand new holiday which is invented by the youth themselves and celebrated by themselves too. Because of Baur and Summers' imagination and creativity,thousands of young people's pirate dream come true. Next time, when you have a good idea, why not share it with your fiends and insist on your belief? Maybe you can create another wonderful holiday for the youth in the future.
1. How did John Baur and Mark Summers invent the special holiday?
A. Many young people asked them to do it
B. They did it just for pleasure
C. They thought out the idea by chance and imagination
D. They did it in order to honor pirates
2. Why are the holiday become more and more popular？.
A. You can have fun and relax yourself freely.
B. young people can exchange ideas and dreams on the day
C. young people can have fun and be relaxed.
D. you can play the role of the pirate in the movie on the day
3. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A. It was Dave Barry who made more people know the holiday.
B. Talk Like A Pirate Day is a young, active and lively holiday
C. Thanks to John Baur and Mark Summers’ imagination and creativity, a lot of people realize their pirate dream.
D. The holiday has been popular since the birth of it.
4. According to the passage, which of the following can show that the holiday is special?
A. It has a long history.
B. It is a wonderful and instructive holiday.
C.It is a brand new holiday invented and celebrated by the youth themselves.
D. People can make their dream come true on this day.
5. Which of the following can serve as the best title of the passage？
A. Can you talk like a pirate?
B. Young people’s pirate dream
C. John Baur and Mark Summers
D. September 19th ,—a day in honor of pirates
The other morning on the subway I sat next to an attractive young blonde woman who was reading something on her iPad. She was very well-dressed, carrying a Prada bag with tastefully applied make-up indeed, she had an unmistakable air of wealth, material success and even authority. I suspected she worked as a highly-paid Wall Street lawyer or stockbroker or something of that sort. So, I was curious to see what she was so focused on. The Wall Street Journal perhaps? The Economist?
Quite the contrary; rather, she was concentrating on a romance novel. Then I realized that I have known many women who love romance novels—smart, attractive, successful, “liberated,” modem females who nonetheless find some kind of deep satisfaction and thrill from those hyper-romantic, artificial and extremely unrealistic tales of handsome, manly heroes falling in love with virginal women, enduring a series of adventures, then no doubt having a happy ending.
These romance stories are to literature what hot dogs are to fine food. Yet, the genre(体裁) remains enormously popular. Consider some of these surprising statistics from the good folks at the Romance Writers of America (RWA):
*More than 9,000 romance titles were released last year, with sales of about $1.44 billion (more than triple the revenues generated by classic literary fiction).
*More than 90 percent of the market are women (okay, that’s not at all surprising).
* Readers are typically women between the ages 30 and 54 who are themselves involved in a romantic relationship (betraying the stereotype that only lonely women long for these tales of love and adventure).
*Almost 40 percent of romance book consumers have an annual income of between $50,000 and $99,900 (placing them firmly in the middle class).
I had thought that romance novels accounted for a very small share of the literary market, so I was quite surprised that this part has such enormous popularity. But I must wonder why so many women—forty years after the women’s liberation movement continue to indulge in the fanciful tales?
I’m not sure if it represents a kind of “rejection” of the women’s liberation movement, but clearly something is missing in the lives of contemporary ladies. A romance author named Donna Hatch who focuses on the Regency period (early 19th century Britain) explained the appeal of such books this way: “Regency men were civilized and treated women with courtesy. When a lady entered the room, gentlemen stood, doffed their hats, offered an arm, bowed, and a hundred other little things I wish men still did today. But they were also very athletic; they hunted, raced, boxed, rode horses. They were manly. Strong. Noble. Honorable. And that is why I love them!”
Mrs. Hatch may have expressed the secret desires and attitudes of untold millions of her peers---that is, in the early 21st century, have women grown tired of the burdens and expectations that the “freedoms” they have gained give them? Is this a rejection of modem feminism? Do women long for days of old when men were masculine gentlemen and women were feminine and protected as precious treasures and regarded as possessions?
Perhaps most women (even the ones who get lost in romance novels) do not want to go all the way back but it is obvious, .
What is the function of the opening paragraph?
| A．To summarize the whole passage. |
| B．To prove the author’s argument. |
| C．To lead in the main topic of the passage. |
| D．To raise problems that will be solved later. |
What does the underlined sentence in the third paragraph imply?
| A．Romance novels are satisfying and thrilling. |
| B．Romance novels are not of much “nutrition”. |
| C．Romance novels are as popular as hot dogs. |
| D．Romance novels are an essential part of contemporary life. |
In the author’s opinion, what is missing in the lives of contemporary women?
| A．Authority. | B．Dignity. | C．Liberty. | D．Care. |
Which sentence can be put in the blank in the last paragraph?
| A．they prefer tales of innocent romance to classics |
| B．they are unhappy with how the world has turned out |
| C．true love described in romance novels does exist in reality |
| D．romance novels provide them with an access to society |
Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
2015 High School Video Contest
Here’s the Scoop on Pet Waste!
Submission Deadline March 27, 2015.
| Eligibility Ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth grade students that attend schools located in Bartow, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coweta, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Forsyth, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Paulding and Rockdale counties are invited to participate in the video contest. Entries can be a team or individual effort. Guidelines » Each video must be uploaded to YouTube. The video’s YouTube link must be included in the entry/release form. » Team members must be from the same school. » The video must be between 30-60 seconds in length. » No professional assistance or use of copyright material is allowed, including background music. » Each student participating in the contest or appearing in the video must fill out a form. For teams, submit an entry/release form for each team member. » One video per team or individual. » All entry/release forms must be postmarked or received by Friday, March 27, 2015. Email: kvaIlianos@atlantaregional.com OR Mail: 2015 Water Video Contest Metro Water District 40 Courtland Street, NE Atlanta, GA 30303 |
Judging Submissions will be judged based on the following criteria: » incorporation of the “Here’s the Scoop on Pet Waste’’ message. Use the "Here's the Scoop on Pet Waste’’ messaging fact sheet for background information on the issue. » Composition (length, technical construction, audio quality). » Entertainment value. » Accuracy of information. » Creativity. Prizes » 1st Place $1500 » 2nd Place $1000 »3rd Place $500 50% of the prize money will go to the individual or team who submits the video and 50% to the high school they attend. Winners will be notified directly. |
| Page 1 of 3 www.northgeorgiawater.org |
What does the underlined word “Eligibility” probably mean?
| A．Age. | B．Qualification. |
| C．Location. | D．Grade. |
When entering the contest, ________.
| A．one must ask his or her teacher to sign the entry form |
| B．winners can earn at least $750 as a prize |
| C．one can invite friends from other schools to act in the video |
| D．participants had better add some humor and fun to the video |
E
However wealthy we may be, we can never find enough hours in the day to do everything we want. Economics deals with this problem through the concept of opportunity cost, which simply refers to whether someone’s time or money could be better spent on something else.
Every hour of our time has a value. For every hour we work at one job we could quite easily be doing another, or be sleeping or watching a film. Each of these options has a different opportunity cost—namely, what they cost us in missed opportunities.
Say you intend to watch a football match but the tickets are expensive and it will take you a couple of hours to get to and from the stadium. Why not, you might reason, watch the game from home and use the leftover money and time to have dinner with friends? This—the alternative use of your cash and time—is the opportunity cost.
For economists, every decision is made by knowledge of what one must forgo—in terms of money and enjoyment—in order to take it up. By knowing precisely what you are receiving and what you are missing out on, you ought to be able to make better-informed, more reasonable decisions. Consider that most famous economic rule of all: there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Even if someone offers to take you out to lunch for free, the time you will spend in the restaurant still costs you something in terms of forgone opportunities.
Some people find the idea of opportunity cost extremely discouraging: imagine spending your entire life calculating whether your time would be better spent elsewhere doing something more profitable or enjoyable. Yet, in a sense it’s human nature to do precisely that we assess the advantages and disadvantages of decisions all the time.
In the business world, a popular phrase is “value for money.” People want their cash to go as far as possible. However, another is fast obtaining an advantage: “value for time.” The biggest restriction on our resources is the number of hours we can devote to something, so we look to maximize the return we get on our investment of time. By reading this passage you are giving over a bit of your time which could be spent doing other activities, such as sleeping and eating. In return, however, this passage will help you to think like an economist, closely considering the opportunity cost of each of your decisions.According to the passage, the concept of “opportunity cost” is applied to ________.
| A．weighing the choice of opportunities |
| B．reducing missed opportunities |
| C．making more money |
| D．taking more opportunities |
The “leftover ... time” in Paragraph 3 probably refers to the time ________.
| A．taken to have dinner with friends |
| B．spared for watching the match at home |
| C．saved from not going to watch the match |
| D．spent on the way to and from the match |
What are forgone opportunities?
| A．Opportunities you make up for. |
| B．Opportunities you forget in decision-making. |
| C．Opportunities you give up for better ones. |
| D．Opportunities you miss accidentally. |
What is the author’s attitude towards the concept of “opportunity cost”?
| A．Indifferent | B．Negative |
| C．Subjective | D．Objective |
D
Mars was the first planet that humans attempted to get to. Since the 1960’s, scientists have been working to learn more information about the Mars’ past, We now know that Mars was once a warm, wet place with great oceans and deep rivers. We also know that about 3.7 billion years ago, all that water disappeared when the planet lost its air. But why did the atmosphere on Mars change so greatly?
NASA had launched the MAVEN spacecraft in the hope of answering that very question. MAVEN will study the remains of Mars’ air and help scientists figure out what became of the rest of it．
The spacecraft was launched on Monday, November 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The trip to Mars takes about 10 months. and MAVEN is scheduled to go into orbit in September 2014. It is the first spacecraft created with the purpose of studying Mars’ atmosphere. Its wings measures 37.5 feet not quite the length of a school bus, and it weighs 1991 pounds about the same amount as a small car. MAVEN is equipped with eight different tools to measure and study the planet’s atmosphere. To collect information, it will fly in orbit as fast as 3278 miles per hour, and as slow as 93 miles per hour.
Once it arrived at Mars, MAVEN will have plenty of company. The spacecraft Curiosity is still walking around the planet’s rocky surface, studying the geology, chemistry and possible biology there. NASA currently has a number of spacecrafts getting unique views of Mars with powerful cameras and telescopes. These missions are all slow, steady steps forward to discover Mars secret past. While the results may not be revealed for some time, an exciting exploration is on the way.We can learn from the first paragraph that________
| A．all the scientists wanted to live on Mars |
| B．people have had a better knowledge of Mars nowadays |
| C．spaceships have been sent up to Mars since 1960s |
| D．all the water on Mars has been gone for ten billion years |
The MAVEN spacecraft has been launched with the purpose of________
| A．analyzing the change of the atmosphere on Mars |
| B．assisting Curiosity in studying the surface of Mars. |
| C．analyzing what is contained in Mars’ air |
| D．checking whether water still exists on Mars |
It can be inferred from, the text that__________．
| A．many different tasks will be given to MAVEN when it lands on Mars |
| B．many spacecrafts are working around Mars to study its water |
| C．more wonderful things about Mars will be found in the future |
| D．more spacecraft will be sent up to help Curiosity |
What is the best title of this text?
| A．A new finding on Mars |
| B．A new spacecraft sent to Mars |
| C．The rapid development of Mars |
| D．The great change of the Mars’ atmosphere |
C
Free Fun Guides
What is new about this year’s Museum Day?
| A．People will get free tickets online. |
| B．Two museums offer free admission. |
| C．People must buy tickets for visiting a museum. |
| D．People can visit museums online and get a small gift. |
The main purpose of the passage is to___________.
| A．introduce ways to save money |
| B．help people who are very poor |
| C．give guidance on how to have some fun |
| D．provide information about free things to do |
How can kids get a free book?
| A．By reading eighty books at any Barnes & Noble. |
| B．By downloading and printing out a passport before October. |
| C．By signing up for a summer reading program and choosing one of the books they have read. |
| D．By signing up for a winter reading program and make a list of the books. |
Which of the following shows the similarity between Museum Day and Free Night of Theater?
| A．They last for the same length of time |
| B．The same number of free tickets is given away. |
| C．The tickets can be used in any U.S. city |
| D．They take place once a year. |
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