A good heart
Dikembe Mutombo grew up in Africa among great poverty and disease. He came to Georgetown University on a scholarship(奖学金) to study medicine — but Coach(教练) John Thompson got a look at Dikembe and had a different idea. Dikembe became a star in the NBA, and a citizen of the United States. But he never forgot the land of his birth, or the duty to share his fortune with others. He built a new hospital in his old hometown in the Congo. A friend has said of this good-hearted man: “Mutombo believes that God has given him this chance to do great things.”
Success and kindness
After her daughter was born, Julie Aigner-Clark searched for ways to share her love of music and art with her child. So she borrowed some equipment, and began filming children’s videos(录像) in her own house. The Baby Einstein Company was born, and in just five years her business grew to more than $20 million in sales. And she is using her success to help others — producing child safety videos with John Walsh of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Julie says of her new program: “I believe it’s the most important thing that I have ever done. I believe that children have the right to live in a world that is safe.”
Bravery and courage
A few weeks ago, Wesley Autrey was waiting at a Harlem subway station with his two little girls when he saw a man fall into the path of a train. With seconds to act, Wesley jumped onto the tracks, pulled the man into the space between the rails(铁轨), and held him as the train passed right above their heads. He insists he’s not a hero. He says: “We have got to show each other some love.” Mutombo believes that building the new hospital is ______.
| A．helpful to his personal development | B．something he should do for his homeland |
| C．a chance for his friends to share his money | D．a way of showing his respect to the NBA |
What did the Baby Einstein Company do at its beginning?
| A．Produce safety equipment for children. | B．Make videos to help protect children. |
| C．Sell children’s music and artwork. | D．Look for missing and exploited children. |
Why was Wesley Autrey praised as a hero?
| A．He helped a man get across the rails. | B．He stopped a man from destroying the rails. |
| C．He protected two little girls from getting hurt. | D．He saved a person without considering his own safety. |
The title of the passage is most like
ly to be_______________.
| A．Three Stories | B．Heroes of Our Time |
| C．Be Ready to Help Others | D．To Be a Kind Person |
Across Britain, burnt toast will be served to mothers in bed this morning as older sons and daughters rush to deliver their supermarket bunches of flowers. But, according to a new study, we should be placing a higher value on motherhood all year.
Mothers have long known that their home workload was just as heavy as paid work. Now, the new study has shown that if they were paid for their parental labours, they would earn as much as￡172,000 a year.
The study looked at the range of jobs mothers do, as well as the hours they are working, to determine the figure. This would make their yearly income ￡30,000 more than the Prime Minister earns.
By analysing the numbers, it found the average mother works 119 hours a week, 40 of which would usually be paid at a standard rate and 79 hours as overtime. After questioning 1,000 mothers with children under 18, it found that, on most days, mums started their routine work at 7 am and finished at around 11 pm.
To calculate just how much mothers would earn from that labour, it suggested some of the roles that mums could take on, including housekeeper, part-time lawyer, personal trainer and entertainer. Being a part-time lawyer, at ￡48.98 an hour, would prove to be the most profitable of the “mum jibs”, with psychologist(心理学家) a close second.
It also asked mothers about the challenges they face, with 80 percent making emotional(情感的) demand as the hardest thing about motherhood.
Over a third of mums felt they needed more training and around half said they missed going out with friends.
The study shows mothers matter all year long and not just on Mother’s Day. The emotional, physical and mental energy mothers devote to their children can be never-ending, but children are also sources of great joy and happiness. Investing(投入) in time for parenting and raising relationships is money well spent.
How much would a mother earn a year if working as the Prime Minister?
| A．￡30,000. | B．￡142,000. |
| C．￡172,000. | D．￡202,000. |
The biggest challenge for most mothers is from .
| A．emotional demand | B．low pay for work |
| C．heavy workload | D．lack of training |
What is stressed in the last paragraph?
| A．Mothers’ importance shows in family all year long. |
| B．The sacrifices mothers make are huge but worthwhile. |
| C．Mothers’ devotion to children can hardly be calculated. |
| D．Investing time in parenting would bring a financial return. |
What can we conclude from the study?
| A．Mothers’ working hours should be largely reduced. |
| B．Mothers should balance their time for work and rest. |
| C．Mothers’ labour is of a higher value than it is realized. |
| D．Mothers should be freed from housework for social life. |
In ancient Egypt, a shopkeeper discovered that he could attract customers to his shop simply by making changes to its environment. Modern businesses have been following his lead, with more tactics(策略).
One tactic involves where to display the goods. For example, stores place fruits and vegetables in the first section. They know that customers who buy the healthy food first will feel happy so that they will buy more junk food(垃圾食品) later in their trip. In department stores, the women’s shoe section is generally next to the women’s cosmetics(化妆品) section: while the shop assistant is going back to find the right size shoe, bored customers are likely to wander over and find some cosmetics they might want to try later.
Besides, businesses seek to appeal to customers’ senses. Stores notice that the smell of baked goods encourages shopping, so they make their own bread each morning and then fan the bread smell into the store throughout the day. Music sells goods, too. Researchers in Britain found that when French music was played, sales of French wines went up.
When it comes to the selling of houses, businesses also use highly rewarding tactics. They find that customers make decisions in the first few seconds upon walking in the door, and turn it into a business opportunity. A California builder designed the structure of its houses smartly. When entering the house, the customer would see the Pacific Ocean through the windows, and then the pool through an open stairway leading to the lower level. The instant view of water on both levels helped sell these $10 million houses. Why do stores usually display fruits and vegetables in the first section?
| A．To save customers times. |
| B．To show they are high quality foods. |
| C．To help sell junk food. |
| D．To sell them at discount prices. |
According to Paragraph 3, which of the following encourages customers to buy?
| A．Opening the store early in the morning. |
| B．Displaying British wines next to French ones. |
| C．Inviting customers to play music. |
| D．Filling the store with the smell of fresh bread. |
What is the California builder’s story intended to prove?
| A．The house structure is a key factor customers consider. |
| B．The more costly the house is, the better it sells. |
| C．An ocean view is much to the customers’ taste. |
| D．A good first impression increases sales. |
What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To explain how businesses turn people into their customers. |
| B．To introduce how businesses have grown from the past. |
| C．To report researches on customer behavior. |
| D．To show dishonest business practices |
Do you want to get home from work knowing you have made a real difference in someone’s life?
If yes, don’t care about sex or age! Come and join us, then you’ll make it!
Position: Volunteer Social Care Assistant
(No Pay with Free Meals)
Place: Manchester
Hours: Part Time
We are now looking for volunteers to support people with learning disabilities to live active lives! Only 4 days left. Don’t miss the chance of lending your warm hands to help others!
Role:
You will provide people with learning disabilities with all aspects of their daily lives. You will help them to develop new skills. You will help them to protect their rights and their safety. But your primary concern is to let them know they are valued.
Skills and Experience Required:
You will have the right values and great listening skills. You will be honest and patient. You will have the ability to drive a car and to communicate in fluent written and spoken English since you’ll have to help those people with different learning disabilities. Previous care-related experience will be a great advantage for you.The text is meant to ________
| A．leave a note | B．send an invitation |
| C．present a document | D．carry an advertisement |
What does the underlined part mean?
| A．You’ll make others’ lives more meaningful with this job. |
| B．You’ll arrive home just in time from this job. |
| C．You’ll earn a good salary from this job. |
| D．You’ll succeed in getting this job. |
The volunteers’ primary responsibility is to help people with learning disabilities ________.
| A．to get some financial support |
| B．to properly protect themselves |
| C．to learn some new living skills |
| D．to realize their own importance |
Which of the following can first be chosen as a volunteer?
| A．The one who can drive a car. |
| B．The one who has done similar work before. |
| C．The one who has patience to listen to others. |
| D．The one who can use English to communicate. |
Attempts to understand the relationship between social behavior and health have their origin in history. Dubos (1969) suggested that primitive（原始的）humans were closer to the animals because they, too, relied upon their instincts to stay healthy. Yet some primitive humans recognized a cause and effect relationship between doing certain things and alleviating（减轻）symptoms of a disease or improving the condition of a wound. Since there was so much that primitive humans did not understand about the functioning of the body, magic became an integral component（不可或缺的成分）of the beliefs about the causes and cures of health disorders. So it is not surprising that early humans thought that illness was caused by evil spirits. Primitive medicines made from vegetables or animals were always used in combination with some form of ritual（礼仪）to drive harmful spirits away from a diseased body.
One of the earliest attempts in the Western world to formulate principles of health care based upon rational（理性的）thought and rejection of supernatural phenomena is found in the work of the Greek physician Hippocrates. Little is known of Hippocrates who lived around 400 B.C., not even whether he actually authored the collection of books that bears his name. Nevertheless, the writings attributed to him have provided a number of principles underlying modern medical practice. One of his most famous contributions, the Hippocratic Oath, is the foundation of contemporary medical ethics（道德）. Among other things, it requires a physician to swear that he or she will help the sick, keep oneself from intentional wrong-doing or harm, and keep secret all matters to keep the doctor-patient relationship.
Hippocrates also argued that medical knowledge should be derived（源自于） from an understanding of the natural sciences and the logic of cause and effect relationships. In this classic thesis（论点）, On Airs, Waters, and Places, Hippocrates pointed out that human-being is influenced by the totality of environmental factors: living habits or lifestyle, climate, geography of the land, and the quality of air and food. Interesting enough, concerns about our health and the quality of air, water, and places are still very much written in the twentieth century. The topic of the first paragraph is summarized in ________.
| A．Sentence 1 | B．Sentence 2 |
| C．Sentence 3 | D．the last sentence |
Why did primitive humans rely on magic in their beliefs about the causes and cures of diseases?
| A．Because magic was an inseparable part of their life. |
| B．Because they had little knowledge about the body. |
| C．Because the diseases were caused by the evil spirits. |
| D．Because magic must be used in going through the rituals to drive out the evil spirits. |
Considering Hippocrates’ background, we can see from the second paragraph that ________.
| A．he was the forefather of modern medicine |
| B．experts are sure that the books bearing his name were not written by him |
| C．he had a rational mind aided by supernatural instincts |
| D．experts do not know much about him except when and where he lived |
All of the following are included in the Hippocratic Oath EXCEPT ________.
| A．helping patients |
| B．keeping oneself from harming patients |
| C．keeping secret all matters to maintain a good relationship with the patients |
| D．obeying rules for modern medicine practice |
A deal has been signed to turn by-products from a Scottish distillery（酿酒厂）into fuel for cars.
In what is declared to be a world first, the Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire has linked up with a spin-out company from Napier University in Edinburgh. They plan to use bacteria to feed on the "leftovers" from the whisky（威士忌酒）making process. This will produce butanol which can be used to fuel vehicles.
More than 90% of the stuff that comes out of a whisky distillery is not whisky. It is leftovers like draff and pot ales（酒糟）— both produced in the early stages of the process. They are high in sugar and are currently used for things like fertiliser and cattle feed. Napier University's Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) has already shown that the right bacteria can feed on those by-products to produce butanol—a direct replacement for vehicle fuel. Now the spin-out company, Celtic Renewables, and independent whisky producer Tullibardine have signed an agreement. Together they will apply the process to thousands of tons of the distillery's leftovers.
Professor Martin Tangney, founder of Celtic Renewables, said "Our partnership with Tullibardine is an important step in the development of a business which combines two important Scottish industries — whisky and renewables. This project shows that creative use of existing technologies can utilize resources on our doorstep to benefit both the environment and the economy."
Douglas Ross, managing director of Tullibardine, which spends £250,000 disposing of its by-products every year, said "We are delighted to be partnering Celtic Renewables in this creative business, the obvious benefits of which are environmental. It takes a cost to us and turns it into something that has social as well as commercial value."
The project is being supported by a grant（拨款） from the Scottish government's Zero Waste Scotland initiative. Celtic Renewables said it eventually aimed to build a processing plant in Scotland, with the hope of building an industry that could be worth £60m a year.
According to the passage, ______will be used to take the place of petrol.
| A．whisky | B．whisky leftovers |
| C．butanol | D．draff and pot ales |
How do people deal with whisky leftovers at present?
| A．They throw them away. |
| B．They use them to feed people. |
| C．They use them to feed bacteria. |
| D．They use them for crops or cattle. |
What does the underlined word “utilize” in the fourth paragraph probably mean?
| A．make use of. | B．get rid of. |
| C．use up. | D．find out. |
Which of the following categories does this passage belong to?
a. Health b. Science c. Food
d. Nature e. Environment f. Business
| A．b,c,e | B．b,e,f | C．a,b,f | D．a,b,c |
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