For a 400-year-old art form, operas had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which are hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $ 145 a performance, opera goers also have a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.
But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to bring the opera to the audience. It needs to keep it alive, the young and not-so-rich.
Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or band-breaking ticket prices. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.
The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions (剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel & Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program. Which of the following is the main idea of this passage?
| A．Opera is famous for is history. |
| B．Opera is only for rich people. |
| C．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive. |
| D．Young people are not interested in opera. |
The underlined part in Paragraph 2
most probably means .
| A．breaking up the old rules | B．changing the dresses |
| C．making the audience at ease | D．advertising themselves |
Opera companies prefer to perform smaller versions because .
| A．they can be performed in public libraries |
| B．short versions are easy to perform |
| C．it is hard to find long versions |
| D．they can make people interested |
The San Francisco Opera employs young students in order to .
| A．attract young people | B．reduce the cost |
| C．celebrate its 75th anniversary | D．make Cinderella popular |
What can you infer from the passage?
| A．The tickets for opera are very expensive at present. |
| B．Opera is performed in a language difficult to understand. |
| C．Opera is not so popular an art form today. |
| D．Students enjoy performing operas very much. |
Football is so popular in China. Almost everyone is interested in the sport — young and old, boys and girls, and now even robots.
Last week at Hangzhou Guangming Middle School, kids from several schools played football with their robots.
Robot football was very different from human football. Only two robots played in each match. The field was as big as a ping-pong table. One half was black and the other was white. Each robot tried to catch the “football” and score a goal. The robot with more goals won.
Gao Linge, a boy from Guangming Middle School, helped make one of the robots for the match.
“My school bought the main board (主板),” said Gao, 14. “Then I decided what my robot looked like and made a computer programme for it.”
Gao’s robot was eight centimeters tall and had two arms. It had four sensors (传感器) to “see” and “kick” the football.
Ying Xuehai, a 12-year-old student from Gao’s school, also made a robot. His robot played against Gao’s. The match decided who would go to the final game. Ying lost the game. So he gave many of his robot’s parts to Gao.
Even so, Gao’s robot didn’t win the final. It played well in the first five minutes. Then it slowed down. By the end of the match, it could hardly move. What was wrong? Gao and Ying found the problem — their robot ran out of batteries (电池)!
“We’ll solve the problem and beat the other school next time!” said the two boys. How many robots are needed in one match?
| A．Only one. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
The third paragraph mainly talks about ________.
| A．a wonderful robot football game. | B．how to let robots score more goals |
| C．the rules of the robot football games. | D．the way for robots to win the match |
Why did Gao Linge lose the final?
| A．Because his robot had no power. | B．Because he broke the rules of the match. |
| C．Because he used Ying Xuehai’s parts. | D．Because his robot went wrong. |
From the passage we know that if you want to take part in the match, ________.
| A．you must go to Hangzhou. | B．you must know something about computers |
| C．you must know how to play football on the playground | |
| D．you must get along with Gao Linge and Ying Xuehai |
From a young age, it was my dream to go to Africa and work with animals. Everybody laughed at me, but my mother, Vanne, told me never to give up, and that I could always find a way.
So, when I was 23, after saving up my earnings from working as a waitress, I went to wild, untamed (野性的) Africa and began my work. In 1960 I went to the Gombe Stream Chimpanzee Reserve. At that time, we knew nothing of the behavior or social structure of chimps (黑猩猩), and I was to go there and see what I could find out. Usually, when you wake up, you leave your dreams behind you, but I found myself waking up to my dream.
As the British government wouldn’t let me go without older women’s company, my amazing mother came with me and stayed for four months. We shared a second-hand army tent, and we used the stream for fresh water and washing. We could swim in the lake, although there were crocodiles.
It was beautiful there, although both my mother and I nearly died of malaria (疟疾). I was scared I wouldn’t be able to do what I had set out to, because, at first, the chimps ran away from me in fear. I spent my days watching, listening, tracking and in the evenings writing up my notes.
For my mother, who stayed back at the camp, it must have been terrifying, and very lonely. There were snakes and spiders, as well as an old leopard who would come by. But she had an amazing way with people, and would hand out medicines to the fishermen, who saw her as a witch doctor.
In my fifth month there, I finally saw one of the chimps, which I called David Greybeard, stripping (剥光) straw to “fish” for termites (白蚁). It proved that man wasn’t the only toolmaker, and that everything had to be redefined.What does the author mean by saying “I found myself waking up to my dream” in the second paragraph?
| A．She lacked sleep due to busy work. |
| B．She found her dream was hard to realize. |
| C．She had more new dreams about her work. |
| D．She tried to realize her dream every day. |
The author was afraid at the Reserve in the beginning because _____.
| A．there were crocodiles in the lake | B．she could not get close to the chimps |
| C．it was hard to get clean water | D．the chimps attacked her sometimes |
The author’s mother was thought of by the local people as _____.
| A．helpful and warm-hearted | B．funny and selfish |
| C．romantic and talkative | D．honest and hardworking |
Which of the following is the author’s important discovery?
| A．She found a new kind of termite. |
| B．Chimps can communicate with each other. |
| C．Some other animals can also make tools. |
| D．Chimps can find medicines to cure themselves. |
Officials in a remote Russian city have drawn up a list of practical tips for locals on how to survive encounters (相遇) with bears, after growing numbers have wandered into the streets in search of food.
Officials in the city of Syktyvkar drew up the guidelines to guide the local people, after several bears were caught sight of in the city, going hungry after a heat wave shriveled their usual diet of nuts and berries.
The guide warns that city people there should stay calm and stand still if they meet with a bear. “Speak to the bear in a firm voice” and “Don’t turn your back on it,” it adds. In the worst case, if the bear attacks, the person should also be ready to attack, the guide says. “Shout angrily at it and look it straight in the eye,” the guide advises. “Bears have started coming into the areas where people live more and more often,” the city officials said in a statement. “Any encounter with a bear is unsafe for humans, so our task is to do all we can to prevent such accidents.”
In September, a bear attacked a 25-year-old man in a central street of the city, wounding him in the neck before he managed to run away, police said. “Three or four people who met with brown bears have been recorded recently,” the head of the hunting department in the regional agriculture organization, Alexander said.
Officials have asked police to patrol (巡逻) streets close to wooded areas in the evenings.
Syktyvkar is the regional capital of the remote Komi region in northwest Russia. Its population is just over 230,000. The city issued the guidelines to help the local people to _____.
| A．avoid bear encounters | B．survive bear encounters |
| C．get along well with bears | D．drive hungry bears away |
The underlined word “shriveled” in Paragraph 2 probably means _____.
| A．piled up | B．saved up | C．kept up | D．dried up |
What can be inferred from Alexander’s words?
| A．Bears have been seen frequently recently. |
| B．Bears like to wander around schools. |
| C．Brown bears are usually very fierce. |
| D．Too many bears have disappeared. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Bears are short of food worldwide |
| B．Ways to got along well with bears |
| C．Tips are issued on bear encounters |
| D．Bears have started coming into cities |
Laughter Yoga (瑜伽) is a unique technique invented by Dr Kataria, a doctor from India, by which you can learn to “Laugh for No Reason”. You don’t even need a sense of humor, no funny jokes or comedy programs — just a willingness to laugh — and in the present climate everyone needs to laugh more.
Laughter Yoga is a combination of Laughter Exercises and Yogic Breathing, so that you increase the amount of oxygen in your body while being playful, resulting in you feeling healthier, energetic and alive. This actually changes the physical conditions of your body so that you start to feel happier.
Laughter Yoga is generally done in groups although it can be practiced alone. When you make eye contact with someone and you’re both willing to laugh, the laughter is increased. However, we do say that you can “Fake (假装) it, fake it till you make it” because the body doesn’t know the difference between fake and true laughter; as long as you’re willing to laugh you’ll experience the same health benefits.
Laughter Yoga started in a park in Mumbai in 1995 with just 5 participants, and now there’re over 6,000 laughter clubs in 60 different countries — showing the willingness of the world to laugh together.
In the UK, Julie was one of the first people to train as a Laughter Leader with Dr Kataria in June 2002. In 2006 she was awarded Laughter Ambassador for her selfless service to promote Laughter Yoga.
“Yoga has been part of my life for 30 years but 7 years ago my life changed when I discovered Laughter Yoga. I believe laughter and yoga are both good for your health,” says Julie.Why do people practicing Laughter Yoga laugh a lot?
| A．They have a sense of humor. | B．They are amused by jokes. |
| C．They are willing to laugh. | D．They can’t help laughing a lot. |
What do we know about Julie from the passage?
| A．She took up Laughter Yoga 30 years ago. |
| B．She helped make Laughter Yoga more popular. |
| C．She used to suffer from serious physical problems. |
| D．She was the first person to practise Laughter Yoga. |
The purpose of the passage is to _____.
| A．persuade people to take up Laughter Yoga |
| B．tell people how to practise Laughter Yoga |
| C．describe the good effects of Laughter Yoga |
| D．introduce Laughter Yoga as a new event |
At middle school level, there are many academic clubs in which the students can participate. Students can choose clubs that focus on an area of interest.
Mathcounts Club
Mathcounts tries to increase excitement about mathematic achievement. It hopes to provide students with the foundation for success in science, technology, engineering and mathematic careers. Schools select individuals and teams to participate in competitions. Mathcounts works to challenge student math skills, develop self-confidence and give rewards for their achievements.
Envirothon
The Envirothon program focuses on natural resources knowledge and exposes students to diverse environmental issues, ecosystems, and topography (地形学). The ecology field competition for five-member middle school teams offers competitions in wildlife, soils, forestry, current environmental issues and aquatics (水上运动). Students work and learn in middle school clubs ·and can compete at local and state level.
Future Problem Solvers
Future Problem Solvers is an academic club that uses a six-step process to solve problems that may happen in the future. Students who like to “think outside the box” may like this club. Teams made up of four students read future scenes and write up solutions in a booklet using the six-step process. Teams that score high enough can go to the state competition and then to the international competition.
Builders Club
Builders Club is open to any middle school student who wishes to perform community service. The members learn by doing, and they learn organization, teamwork, and leadership. Builders Clubs can sponsor a “Teacher of the Year” program, provide a recycling collection point, organize canned food and clothing to support local shelters, adopt a resident at a local senior citizens home, adopt highway, tutor, etc. The students who are not interested in competition would probably choose _____.
| A．Mathcounts Club | B．Builders Club |
| C．Future Problem Solvers | D．Envirothon |
Why do some of the students choose Mathcounts club?
| A．To be successful in science careers. | B．To enjoy solving future problems. |
| C．To perform community service. | D．To study wildlife and soils. |
What is the common feature of the four clubs?
| A．Competition. | B．Sponsorship. | C．Scientific research. | D．Teamwork. |
The passage mainly talks about _____.
| A．the state academic competitions | B．middle school clubs |
| C．extra-curricular activities | D．the gifted students |
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