Fora400yearoldartform,operahad

更新 2022-09-03
科目英语
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For a 400-year-old art form, opera had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which were hard to understand in one of those romantic languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $145 a performance, operagoers also had 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 keep opera alive and take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience.
Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to associate opera with the common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or bank-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 usual places as parks, libraries and public schools.
The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions 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 is the main idea of this passage?

A．Opera is famous for its long history.

B．Opera is only performed for rich people.

C．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.

D．Young people are not interested in opera.

The underlined phrase in the second paragraph 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 short 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 students in order to _________.

A．celebra

te its 75th anniversary

B．reduce the cost

C．attract young people

D．make Cinderella popular

From the passage we can infer that _________.

A．the tickets for opera are very expensive

B．opera is performed in a di

fficult language

C．opera is not so popular an art form today

D．students enjoy performing opera very much

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Animals can move from place to place, but plants cannot. When an animal is under attack, it can run away or fight back. Plants certainly cannot run away, and they lack teeth and claws. But plants can defend themselves by using both physical and chemical means.
Some plants have their own ways to keep animals away. For example, the leaves of the holly plant have sharp spines (刺) that discourage grass-eating animals. Holly leaves on lower branches have more spines than leaves on upper branches. This is because the lower leaves are easier for most animals to reach.
Some plants, such as the oak tree, have thick and hard leaves that are difficult for animals to eat. Some grasses may contain a sandy material; eating such grasses wears down the animal's teeth.
Many plants also have chemical defenses. Some plants produce chemicals that taste bitter or cause an unpleasant reaction. Some plants may fight against an attack by increasing the production of these chemicals. When a caterpillar (毛虫) bites a tobacco leaf, the leaf produces a chemical messenger. This messenger sends to the roots the information to produce more nicotine. The higher levels of nicotine discourage the caterpillar.
Many plants depend on both physical and chemical defenses. A certain plant in China, for instance, has prickly (多刺的) leaves, and each prickle contains poisonous venom (毒液) A single experience with this kind of plant will teach an animal to stay away from it in the future.
68. The holly plant has more spines on the lower leaves because most animals________.
A. are not tall enough            B. like the lower leaves only
C. are not clever enough        D. can get the lower leaves easily
69. To defend themselves, oak trees use________.
A. chemical means                    B. physical means
C. bitter chemicals                    D. sandy materials
70. How does tobacco protect itself against an attack from a caterpillar?
A. Its leaves fight against the attack by physical means.
B. Its roots send a messenger to discourage the caterpillar.
C. Its roots increase the production of nicotine when it is attacked.
D. Its leaves produce poisonous sand to drive the caterpillar away.
71. What would be the best title for this passage?
A. Plants and Animals           B. How Plants Defend Themselves
C. Attacks and Defenses       D. How Animals Eat Plant Leaves

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The Sahara Festival is a celebration of the very recent past. The three-day event is not fixed to the same dates each year, but generally takes place in November or December. It is well attended by tourists, but even better attended by locals.
During the opening ceremonies（仪式）, after the official greetings from the government leaders, people who attend the festival begin to march smartly before the viewing stands, and white camels （骆驼）transport their riders across the sands. Horsemen from different nations display their beautiful clothes and their fine horsemanship. One following another, groups of musicians and dancers from all over the Sahara take their turn to show off their wonderful traditional culture. Groups of men in blue and yellow play horns and beat drums as they dance in different designs（传统文化）. On their knees in the sand, a group of women in long dark dresses dance with their hair: their long, dark, shiny hair is thrown back and forth in the wind to the rhythm of their dance.
The local and visiting Italian dogs are anxious to run after hares. The crowd is on its feet for the camel races. Camels and riders run far into the distance, and then return to the finish Line in front of the cheering people.
Towards the evening, there comes the grand finale of the opening day, an extremely exciting horserace. All the riders run very fast on horseback. Some riders hang off the side of their saddles. Some even ride upside down -- their legs and feet straight up in the air -- all at full speed. Others rush down the course together, men arm in arm, on different horses. On and on they went. So fast and so wonderful!
64. The Sahara Festival is a festival which________.
A. has a very long history in North Africa
B. is held in the same place on the same day
C. is attended mainly by the people in the Sahara
D. is celebrated mostly by travelers from different countries
65. Before the races begin, ________ take part in the activities during the opening ceremonies.
A. musicians, dancers, horses and hares                 B. camel riders, musicians, dogs and hares
C. horsemen, dancers, camels and dogs               D. musicians, officials, camels and horses
66. The underlined word "finale" in the fourth paragraph most probably means the ________of the opening day.
A. first part         B. middle          C. last part          D. whole
67. This passage mainly tells readers_______.
A. what happens on the opening day of the Sahara Festival
B. how people celebrate during the three-day Sahara Festival
C. what takes place at the closing ceremonies of the Sahara Festival
D. how animals race on the first and the last days of the Sahara Festival

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Hi, everybody!
Welcome to our newly-opened Richards Cinema Bookstore!
Now let me introduce to you some of the new film books in our store.
Are you Chinese film fans? OK, here comes the latest 25 New Takes about Chinese films. It is a collection of 25 fresh readings of different Chinese films from the 1930s to the present. In recent years, Chinese films are very popular in the States, such as Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Flowers of Shanghai.
Do you like French films? Well, here is The French Cinema Book. It covers French films from the 1890s to the beginning of the 21st century. It is written for all lovers of French cinema: students and teachers, specialists and fans, and so on.
Maybe you are Indian film fans and star-chasers. Then here is Encyclopedia ( 百科全书 ) of Indian Cinema. The book is a complete introduction to all the best Indian films. It also offers a full list of names of the famous and successful film stars in the past ten years. You know, the Indian film industry is the largest in the world after our Hollywood.
If you like British films, we have The British Cinema Book. It is a good review of British cinema. This book contains a good many nice pictures.
In our bookstore, you can also find books about Mexican, Japanese, Australian, German and Italian films.
Well, please help yourselves to some coffee or tea, and have a good time here!
60. The speaker of the passage is most probably _______.
A. the author of 25 New Takes                    B. a tourist in the cinema bookstore
C. the manager of the cinema bookstore       D. a reader of Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema
61. How many Asian countries does the speaker refer to when he talks about the film books?
A. Two.         B. Three.            C. Four.              D. Nine.
62. Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage？
A. Indian cinema is second only to Hollywood.
B. The British Cinema Book includes a complete list of names of stars.
C. Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon is well received in the States.
D. The French Cinema Book covers over a century's French films.
63. The purpose of the speaker is_______.
A. to satisfy the customers' various tastes
B. to keep the authors in the cinema bookstore
C. to offer the tourists chances to meet the film stars
D. to mm the readers into film producers

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There are two kinds of physical activity which require special training. The first demands exact careful movements of the muscles（肌肉）. This kind of activity must be strictly controlled because even a slight movement in the wrong direction will lead a mistake. To type quickly, for example, a person needs training; the slightest movement of a finger in the wrong direction may cause a spelling mistake. A dancer who has to dance on the point of her shoes or turn around on one foot must be trained for a long period of time before she can sense her own center and balance herself. You may have seen a girl walking on a rope across an empty space, which, too, requires a lot of practice.
The second kind of physical activity needs greater strength or extra effort. Most of us get tired if we try to run half a mile without stopping, but a specially-trained person can do this without much effort. Three years ago, some scientists carried out experiments, which produced meaningful and unexpected results. They wanted to find out whether a certain amount of physical exercise would injure those suffering from heart problems. They selected some male patients and trained them in continuous bicycle riding. They were surprised to find that the harmful effect of given amount of physical effort was actually less on the hearts of these trained patients than on those of the patients who were not similarly trained. This is important because it shows that regular physical exercise enables us to make better use of the oxygen（氧气）we breathe in and that this training, in fact, reduces the amount of work our hearts do. Many tasks which are hard for untrained people are not hard at all for trained people.
72．The first kind of physical activity must be strictly controlled because _________.
A．a mistake in the wrong direction is dangerous to the fingers
B．a wrong movement in a direction will cause no mistakes
C．a movement in the wrong direction will cause a mistake
D．a slight movement of a finger will lead to a mistake
73．What must a dancer do before she can balance herself?
A．She must dance on the point of her shoes.       B．She must receive long-time training.
C．She must turn around on one foot.               D．She must perform again and again.
74．The experiments done by some scientists showed that ________.
A．some male patients were asked to ride bicycles regularly in the experiments
B．the physical exercise had more harmful effect on the hearts of the untrained patients
C．the physical exercise was harmless to the male patients with heart trouble
D．the physical exercise could be helpful for the patients to take in more oxygen
75．What would be the best title for this text?
A．Training Our Bodies                             B．Physical Activities
C．Movement Training                              D．Extra Body Effort

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Everyone’s at it , even my neighbors. I thought I might be the only person left in the world who hadn't done an eBay deal. So, I decided to try my hand at online auction(网上拍卖).
Buying for beginners: Sign up on www. ebay. co. uk. Most items ( e. g. tables, computers, and books) ready for auction will come with a picture and a short description; others may be marked with "Buy It Now" and have a fixed price. You can buy these right away.
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Selling made simple: If you plan to sell on eBay, it helps to include a picture of the item. I followed my friends' advice and put up the items I wanted to sell for a 10-day auction, starring on a Thursday. This way buyers had two weekends to bid.
The big things in life: It' s easy to post a small item, but furniture is a big part of eBay and this has to be collected or sent by deliverymen. Cheek the ways of delivery before you bid.
36. What is the passage mainly about?
A. How to make payment online.                  B. Ways of making delivery online
C. Advantages of an online-auction system.    D. How to use an online-auction system.
37. After bidding for an item, a buyer                .
A. will get what he wants in ten days                B. should make payment immediately
C. has chances to make higher bids                      D. may check its picture and description
38. The easiest way of making payment mentioned in the passage is             .
A. through an online payment system            B. through a local banking system
C. by sending the money to the seller             D. by paying the deliveryman directly

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