YOUR mom might cook a bowl of noodles for you on your birthday. But in the US, a mom makes a cupcake for her children on their birthday.
Cupcakes are small, round cakes topped with frosting (糖霜). It has been an American tradition that moms bring cupcakes to the classroom to celebrate their child’s birthday.
But recently some doctors have called for this to be banned. They believe cupcakes contribute to child obesity.
Despite their good intentions, however, some people believe that experts are interfering (妨碍) with American culture. The cupcake is seen as American as apple pie — only prettier.
According to Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University, the cupcake is the most democratic (民主的) of desserts. As they are small enough for one person, you don’t have to share your cupcake with anyone — it’s all yours. They are also all the same size, so there can’t be any cries of 
“she got the bigger piece!”
Each bite can taste different depending on how much icing you have. It is a lesson in self- determination. Some people eat only a little of the frosting every time, others have it all in just one bite.
In recent years, eating a cupcake has become as trendy as having a cup of Starbucks coffee.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton jokingly promised on a talk show that if she was electe
d president, she would give everyone a cupcake on her birthday.
Ruth Reichl, editor-in-chief of Gourmet magazine, explains that the rise of the cupcake is very much about going back to American national identity in food, which is all about comfort. “People want to think about when they and their country were innocent,” she said.According to the passage, it has been an American tradition that ___________.
| A．the family holds a party for children on their birthday |
| B．a mom cooks a bowl of noodles for her children on their birthday |
C．a mom makes a cupcake for her children on their birt hday and brings it to the classroom |
| D．parents go travelling with their children on their birthday |
Why do doctors ask people to ban cupcakes on children’s birthday?
| A．Because they themselves don’t like cupcakes. |
| B．Because they think cupcakes are not so delicious. |
| C．Because they believe cupcakes will cause cries of “She got the bigger piece”. |
| D．Because they believe cupcakes are one of the causes to make children become fat. |
What cannot be inferred according to Marion Nestle?
| A．The cupcake is more democratic than any other desserts in the US. |
| B．The cupcake is too small to share with others. |
| C．The sizes of cupcakes are the same so it’s equal to everyone. |
| D．Cupcakes will lead to child obesity so they should be banned. |
The underlined word “trendy” in paragraph 7 probably means ________.
| A．popular | B．gentle | C．delicious | D．different |
Why did the writer mention Hillary Clinton and Ruth Reichl?
| A．To arouse the readers’ attention to banning the tradition of making cupcakes. |
| B．To show that cupcakes are becoming a popular way to show kindness and comfort. |
| C．To make a comparison between them in order for readers to remember them. |
| D．To give readers some idea of cupcakes so as to better understand the American culture |
“The first and best of victories is for a man to conquer himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” says Plato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in to his impulses and feelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral freedom.
A single angry word has lost many a friend. When Socrates found in himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order to control himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut so that you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in great anger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.” “Keep cool,” says George Herbert, “for fierceness makes error a fault.”
To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strong your self. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “bring with folly and ends with regret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he conquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.
Self-control is man’s last greatest victory.
If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have no self-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lacking also. What does the reader learn from the first paragraph ?
The greatest victory for a man is to conquer everything except himself.
One’s moral freedom is based on the control of himself.
To control oneself is the most difficult in one’s life.
If a person is too stubborn, he will feel most shameful. What is the correct interpretation of “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad”?
If the gods want to kill you, they make you crazy first.
If you always lose your temper, you will soon be finished.
If you cannot control yourself, you will become crazy.
If you are mad, you will be punished by the gods. If a man lacks self-control, he lacks all of the following EXCEPT _________.
the very backbone and nerve of character
the patience and power to control himself
strong feelings
self-confidence The author’s main purpose in writing this article is to ___________.
explain that self-control is the key to success
teach people how to control everything in order to make a great success
distinguish all kinds of self-control and suggest ways for keeping it
advise people not to lose temper so as to make and keep more friends
Every afternoon hundreds of thousands of youth fill Internet cafes, switch on a game console (游戏机), or otherwise sit down to enter fantasy worlds. I’m talking about video games. These games can be fun and exciting, but we need to look out when this pastime becomes an addiction.
Games are often quite exciting and dramatic, but they generally aren’t very intellectual. We don’t learn as much from them as we would only reading a book. Spending too much time playing them can take away our study time. We need to remember that we are students first. Nothing should ever get in the way of proper studying.
Video games can also be a bad effect on younger children who may be watching. Many video games are violent and the object in most of them is to kill the other player(s). This does not send the right message to the children who need to be told that violence is not acceptable and need to be taught how to deal with situations maturely. Even if we do need to sit down and play a violent video game, we need to make sure that it is not affect the younger people around us.
Playing a computer game in our spare time is not a bad thing. Games can be a great way to relax after studying, to connect to our friends, or just to help our creativity. However, games should not become the focus of our life. We need to make sure that laying games never interferes with our studies and that we aren’t thinking about them all day. If we ever find ourselves playing them too much, we need to break the addiction. If that happens, we need to step away from the computer or television screen and learn to spend our time more productively. The writer mainly tells the readers __________.
to play computer games every afternoon
not to play computer games too much
not to affect other people while playing games
to spend more time studying The writer thinks about computer games all of the following except _________.
| A．exciting | B．dramatic | C．intellectual | D．violent |
Computer games may have bad effect on younger children because __________.
these children often stay in Internet cafes all day long
children often forget to do their lessons
computer games are often violent
children don’t have enough money to play computer games The writer advises computer game players ________.
not to affect younger people around
not to play violent games
never to enter Internet cafes
to teach younger children how to play computer games
Electronic waste, or e-waste, refers to electronic products that are no longer usable. This can include TVs, cell phones and computers and other office electronics, electronic toys and videos machines. Today, the average turnover（更换）rate for a computer in the United States is every two years, according to the environmental group, Greenpeace.
The group's Dai Yun says e-waste is a global problem. "The electronic industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. The high speed of growth in this industry means more and more electronic products are being wasted and thrown away. If no one decides to retrieve the old products and process them properly, the electronic waste will sweep over the earth like the huge wave behind me and pollute the Earth seriously."
Greenpeace works out that 20 to 50 million tons of e-waste are produced globally each year. The components（部件）in many electronic products contain harmful chemicals that pollute ground water and the environment.
At present , the U.S. has no federal law for the disposal (处理) of e-waste although a few states have e-waste recycling programs in place, but there is no law. The U.S. exports much of its e-waste to third world countries, such as India and China, where workers took apart computers for valuable parts, hoping to sell them for money. But harmful wastes expert, Dr. Bakul Rao, says that's a dangerous practice. "From now on, the recyclers are not very educated. All they know is they can retrieve copper or gold out of it. So, the easiest way to do that is leach (过滤) it out in an acid or burn it off to retrieve it. So, that's where they don't know how to deal with it, neither do they have any health systems in place. So, their exposure is more." Which of the following is most likely not to be a form of e-waste?
| A．A mobile phone | B．A radio | C．An e-bike | D．A table |
What does the underlined word "retrieve" (paragraph 2) probably mean?
| A．look into | B．take apart | C．get back | D．throw away |
What of the following statements is true according to the passage？
| A．The U.S. has strict national laws for dealing with e-waste. |
| B．Third world countries import e-waste to get valuable parts, which is a safe and easy way to make money. |
| C．The way uneducated workers deal with old computers does great harm to the environment as well as to their own health. |
| D．More and more electronic waste is being wasted and thrown away mainly because of |
people's bad habits.What is the purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To attract more people's attention to e-waste. |
| B．To call on people not to throw away e-waste anywhere. |
| C．To tell people what e-waste is and how to deal with it well. |
| D．To warn people to break away from the electronic industry. |
The next paragraph probably concerns_______.
| A．how to deal with e-waste properly |
| B．how to protect ourselves from harm by e-waste |
| C．How to slow down the development in the electronic industry |
| D．how to make full use of e-waste |
Moses Mendelssohn, the grandfather of the well-known German composer(作曲家), was far from being handsome. Along with a rather short stature(身材), he had a hunchback(驼背) .
One day he visited a merchant in Hamburg who had a lovely daughter named Frumtje. Moses fell hopelessly in love with her. But Moses was refused by his ugly appearance
When it was time for him to leave, Moses picked up his courage and climbed the stairs to
her room to take one last chance to speak with her. She was a heavenly beauty, but caused him deep sadness by her refusal to look at him. After several attempts at conversation, Moses shyly asked, “Do you believe marriages are made in heaven？”
“Yes, ”She answered, still looking at the floor. “And do you？”
“Yes I do, ”He replied. “You see, in heaven at the birth of each boy, the God announces which
girl he will marry. When I was born, my future bride(新娘) was pointed out to me. Then the God added, ‘But your wife will be humpbacked. ’”“Right then and there I called out, ‘Oh God, a humpbacked woman would be a tragedy(不幸). Please, God, give me the hump and let her be beautiful. ’”
Then Frumtje looked up into his eyes and was stirred by some deep memory. She reached out and gave Mendelssohn her hand and later became his devoted wife.At first Moses was refused by Frumtje because_______.
| A．he had a bad intention |
| B．he was not handsome and humpbacked |
| C．he had no courage to express himself |
| D．he was a hopeless man |
Frumtje accepted Moses’ request in the end because of_______.
| A．Moses’ good heart and honesty |
| B．Moses’ sweet words and devotion |
| C．Moses’ tricks and lies |
| D．Moses’ wealth and humor. |
Which of the following word can replace the underlined word “stirred” in the last paragraph ?
| A．mixed | B．moved | C．caused | D．surprised |
The writer of the passage intends to try to tell us _______.
| A．how to run after e a girl | B．a marriage in heaven |
| C．a moving love story | D．What true love is. |
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| C．persuading fat people to buy Wu-Long tea. |
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The underlined sentence “we're putting our money where our mouth is” probably means______.
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Which of the following is not the function of Okuma's Wu-Long?
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If you want to get 4 boxes of Wu-Long tea, you should pay______.
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