Two brothers, Herbert and James, lived with their mother and a cat named Edgar. James was particularly devoted to the cat, and when he had to leave town for several days, he left Herbert careful instructions about the pet’s care. At the end of his first day away, James telephoned his brother, “How is Edgar?”
“Edgar is dead.” Herbert answered. There was a pause. Then James said, “Herbert, you’re insensitive (漠然的). You know how close I was to Edgar. You should have broken the news to me slowly. When I asked about Edgar tonight, you should have said, ‘Edgar’s on the roof , but I have called the fire department to get him down.’ And tomorrow when I called, you could have said the firemen were having trouble getting Edgar down, but you were hopeful they would succeed. Then when I called the third time, you could have told me that the firemen have done their best, but unfortunately Edgar had fallen off the roof and was at the veterinarian’s (兽医站). Then when I called the last time, you could have said that although everything possible had been done for Edgar, he had died. That’s the way a sensitive man would have told me about Edgar. And, oh, before I forget,” James added, “how is mother?”
“Oh,” Herbert said, pausing for a moment, “She’s on the roof.” James telephoned his brother at the end of his first day away because he wanted to know _____.
| A．what he was doing |
| B．whether he was good |
| C．whether the cat was good |
| D．where his mother was |
Why did James say his brother was insensitive?
| A．Because he told him the news directly. |
| B．Because he killed their pet. |
| C．Because his mother was on the roof. |
| D．Because he missed the truth about the cat. |
From the last paragraph of the passage, we can know that the mother was probably _____.
| A．on the roof | B．ill or even dead |
| C．repairing the house | D．playing games |
Language learning begins with listening. Children are greatly different in the amount of listening they do before they start speaking, and later starters are often long listeners. Most children will “obey” spoken instructions some time before they can speak, though the word“obey”is hardly exact as a description of the eager and delighted co- operation（合作） usually shown by the child. Before they can speak, many children will also ask questions by gestures and by making questioning noises.
Any attempt to study the development from the noises babies make to their first spoken words leads to considerable difficulties. It’s agreed that they enjoy making noises, and that during the first few months one or two noises sort themselves out as particular expression like delight, pain, friendliness and so on. But since these can’t be said to show the baby’s intention to communicate, they can hardly be regarded as early forms of language. It is agreed too, that from about three months they play with sounds for enjoyment, and that by six months they are able to add new words to their store. This self - imitation（自我模仿）leads out to deliberate（有意的）imitation of sounds made or words spoken to them by other people. The problem then arises to the point at which one can say that these imitations can be considered as speech.
It is a problem we need to get our teeth into. The meaning of a word depends on what a particular person means by it in a particular situation and it is clear that what a child means by a word will. change as he gains more experience of the world. Thus the use, at seven months, of“ mama” as a greeting for his mother cannot be dismissed as a meaningless sound simply because he also uses it at another time for his father, his dog, or anything else he likes. Playful and meaningless imitation of what other people say continues after the child has begun to speak for himself. I doubt, however , whether anything is gained when parents take advantage of his ability in an attempt to teach new words.
Children who start speaking late ________
| A．may have problems with their listening |
| B．probably do not hear enough language spoken around them |
| C．usually pay close attention to what they hear |
| D．often take a long time in learning to listen properly |
A baby’s first noises are ________ .
| A．an expression of his moods and feelings |
| B．an early form of language |
| C．an imitation of the speech of adults |
| D．a sign that he means to tell you something |
The problem of deciding at what point a baby’s imitation can be considered as speech ________ .
| A．is important because words have different meanings for different people |
| B．is not especially important because the change takes place gradually |
| C．is one that should be ignored（忽略）because children’s use of words is often meaningless |
| D．is one that can never be properly understood because the meaning of words changes with age |
The speaker implies that ________ .
| A．even after they have learnt to speak, children still enjoy imitation |
| B．children who are good at imitating learn new words more quickly |
| C．children no longer imitate people after they begin to speak |
| D．patents can never hope to teach their children new sounds |
More surprising, perhaps, than the current difficulties of traditional marriage is the fact that marriage itself is alive and thriving（旺盛的）. As Skolnich notes, Americans are a marrying people: relative to Europeans, more of us marry and we marry at a younger age. Moreover, after a decline（衰退）in the early 1970s, the rate of marriage in the United States is now increasing. Even the divorce（离婚）rate needs to be taken in this pro- marriage context: some 80 percent of divorced individuals remarry. Thus, marriage remains by far the preferred way of life for the vast majority of the people in our society.
What has changed more than marriage is the nuclear family. Twenty- five years ago, the typical American family consisted of the husband, the wife, and two or three children. Now, there are many marriages in which couples have decided not to have any children, and there are many marriages where at least some of the children are from the wife’s previous marriage, or the husband’s, or both. Sometimes these children spend all of their time with one parent from the former marriage; sometimes they are shared between the two former spouses （配偶）．
Thus, one can find every type of tamely arrangement. There are marriages without children; marriages with children from only the present marriages; marriages with “full - time” children from both the present and former marriages; marriages with“full- time”children from the present marriage and“ part- time”children from former marriages. There are stepfathers, stepmothers, half- brothers and half - sisters. It is not all that unusual for a child to have four parents and eight grandparents! These are enormous changes from the traditional nuclear family. But even so, even in the midst of all this, there remains one constant: most Americans spend most of their adult lives married.By calling Americans a marrying people the writer means that ________.
| A．Americans are more traditional than Europeans |
| B．Americans expect more out of marriage than Europeans |
| C．there are more married couples in the USA than in Europe |
| D．more of Americans, as compared with Europeans, prefer marriage and they accept it at a younger age |
Divorced Americans ________ .
| A．prefer the way they live |
| B．will most likely remarry |
| C．have lost interest in marriage |
| D．are the majority of people in the society |
Which of the following can be presented as the picture of today’s American families？
| A．Which types of family arrangements have become socially acceptable. |
| B．A typical American family consists of only a husband and a wife. |
| C．Americans prefer to have more kids than before. |
| D．There are no nuclear families any more. |
Want a glance of the future of health care? Take a look at the way the various networks of people about patient care are being connected to one another, and how this new connectivity is being exploited to deliver medicine to the patient - no matter where he or she may be.
Online doctors offering advice based on norman symptoms（症状）are the most obvious example. Increasingly, however, remote diagnosis（远程诊断）will be based on real physiological data（生理数据）from the actual patient. A group from the University of Kentucky has shown that by using personal data assistance plus a mobile phone ,it is perfectly practical to send a patient’s important signs over the telephone. With this kind of equipement, the cry asking whether there was a doctor in the house could well be a thing of the past.
Other medical technology groups are working on applying telemedicine to rural （countryside） care. And at least one team wants to use telemedicine as a tool for disaster need - especially after earthquakes. On the whole, the trend is towards providing global access to medical data and experts’ opinions.
But there is one problem. Bandwidth（宽带） is the limiting factor for sending complex （复杂）medical pictures around the world,—CU photos being one of the biggest bandwidth users. Communication satellites say be able to deal with the short - term needs during disasters such as earthquakes or wars. But medicine is looking towards both the second - generation Internet and third generation mobile phones for the future of remote medical service.
Doctors have met to discuss computer - based tools for medical diagnosis, training and telemedicine. With the falling price of broadband communications, the new technologies should start a new time when telemedicine and the sharing of medical information, experts’opinions and diagnosis are common.
The writer chiefly talks about ________ .
| A．the use of telemedicine |
| B．the on -lined doctors |
| C．medical care and treatment |
| D．communication improvement |
Which of the following statements is true according to the text?
| A．Patients don’t need doctors in hospitals any more. |
| B．It is impossible to send a patient’s signs over the telephone. |
| C．Many teams use telemedicine dealing with disasters now. |
| D．Broadband communications will become cheaper in the future. |
The“problem”in the fourth paragraph refers to the fact that ________ .
| A．bandwidth isn’t big enough to send complex medical pictures |
| B．the second - generation of Internet has not become popular yet |
| C．communication satellites can only deal with short - term needs |
| D．there is not enough equipment for spreading the medical care |
A few days ago I asked my sons’ governess（女家庭教师）Julia to come into my study. “Be seated, Julia, ”I said, “Let’s settle our accounts. I guess you most likely need some money, but maybe you’re too polite to mention it. Now then, we agreed on thirty dollars a month...”
“Forty.”
“No, thirty. I made a note of it. I always pay our governess thirty. Well, um, you’ve been here two months, so...”
“Two months and five days.”
“Exactly two months. I made a special note of it. That means you have sixty dollars coming to you. Take off nine Sundays... you know you didn’t work with Tom on Sundays, you only took walks. And three holidays... ”Julia was biting her finger nail nervously, her face red, but - not a word.
“Three holidays, therefore take off twelve dollars. Four days Tom was sick and there were no lessons, as you were occupied only with Dick. Three days you had a toothache and my wife gave you permission not to work after lunch. Twelve and seven - nineteen. Take nineteen off ... that leaves. hmm.... forty one dollars. Correct？”
Julia’s left eye reddened with tears welling up. Her chin trembled; she coughed nervously and blew her nose, but - still not a word.
“Around New Year’s Day you broke a teacup and a saucer; take off two dollars. The cup cost more, it was a treasure of the family, but- forget it. When didn’t I take a loss! Then, due to your neglect （疏忽）, Tom climbed a tree and tore his jacket; take away ten. Also due to your carelessness the maid stole Dick’s shoes. You ought to watch everything! You get paid for it. So, that means five more dollars off. The tenth of January I gave ten dollars.”
“You didn’t. ”sobbed Julia.
“But I made a note of it.”
“Well... if you say so.”
“Take twenty seven from forty one -that leaves fourteen.”
Both her eyes were filled with tears. Beads of sweat stood on the thin pretty little nose. Poor girl!
“Only once was I given any money,” she whispered, her voice trembling, “and that was by your wife. Three dollars, nothing more.”
“Really? You see now, and I didn’t know that! Take three from fourteen.. leaves eleven. Here’s your money, my dear. Three, three, three, one and one. Here it is !”
I handed her eleven dollars. She took them and pocketed them.
“Merci （法语: 谢谢）,”she whispered.
I jumped to my feet and started pacing the room. I was overcome with anger. “For what, this - ‘merci’?” I asked.
“For the money. ”
“But you know I’ve cheated you - robbed you ! I have actually stolen from you ! Why this‘merci’？”
“In my other places they didn’t give me anything at all.”
“They didn’t give you anything? No wonder! I played a little joke on you, a cruel lesson, just to teach you... I m going to give you all the eighty dollars! Here they are in the envelope all ready for you... Is it really possible to be so spineless （懦弱）?Why didn’t you protest? Why were you silent? Is it possible in this world to be without teeth and claws（爪）—to be such a fool?”
Embarrassed, she smiled. And I could read her expression,“It is possible.”
I asked her pardon for the cruel lesson and, to her great surprise, gave her the eighty dollars. She murmured her little“merci”several times and went out. I looked after her and thought,“How easy it is to crush the weak in this world !”
While talking to Julia, the wrier expected from her ________.
| A．a protest | B．gratitude |
| C．obedience | D．an explanation |
What shocked the writer was Julia’s ________.
| A．nervousness in front of her boss |
| B．acceptance of injustice |
| C．shyness when talking about money |
| D．reluctance to express herself |
The writer said, “Is it possible in this world to be without teeth and claws?” He was actually telling the governess ________.
| A．to be more aggressive |
| B．to be more careful in her work |
| C．to protect her right |
| D．to live independently |
At the end of the story, the writer said,“ How easy it is to crush the weak in this world!”to show ________.
| A．his understanding of Julia’s anxiety |
| B．his worry about Julia’s future |
| C．his concern on the living condition of working - class people |
| D．his sympathy for the mental state of those exploited |
In a few years, you might be able to speak Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French,and English—and all at the same time. This sounds incredible, but Alex Waibel,a computer science professor at US's Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Germany's University of Karlsruhe,announced last week that it may soon be reality. He and his team have invented software and hardware that could make it far easier for people who speak different languages to understand each other.
One application, called Lecture Translation, can easily translate a speech from one language into another. Current translation technologies typically limit speakers to certain topics or a limited vocabulary. Users also have to be trained how to use the programme.
Another prototype(雏形机) can send translations of a speech to different listeners depending on what language they speak.“It is like having a simultaneous translator right next to you but without disturbing the person next to you,” Waibel said.
Prefer to read? So-called Translation Glasses transcribe(转录) the translations on a tiny liquid-crystal(液晶) display(LCD) screen.
Then there's the Muscle Translator. Electrodes capture the electrical signals from facial muscle movements made naturally when a person is mouthing words. The signals are then translated into speech. The electrodes could be replaced with wireless chips implanted in a person's face, according to researchers.
During a demonstration held last Thursday in CMU's Pittsburgh campus, a Chinese student named Stan Jou had 11 tiny electrodes attached to the muscles of his cheeks, neck and throat. Then he mouthed—without speaking aloud—a few words in Mandarin(普通话) to the audience. A few seconds later, the phrase was displayed on a computer screen and spoken out by the computer in English and Spanish: “Let me introduce our new prototype.”
This particular gadget(器械),when fully developed, might allow anyone to speak in any number of languages or, as Waibel put it, “to switch your mouth to a foreign language”. “The idea behind the university's prototypes is to create ‘good enough’ bridges for cross-cultural exchanges that are becoming more common in the world,” Waibel said.
With spontaneous(自发的) translators, foreign drivers in Germany could listen to traffic warnings on the radio, tourists in China could read all the signs and talk with local people, and leaders of different countries could have secret talks without any interpreters there.Which of the following statements is not TRUE?
| A．A lecture translation can translate what you said into other languages easily. |
| B．There is no Muscle Translator in the world now. |
| C．Muscle Translators can translate what you think into speech if you just move your mouth. |
| D．The spontaneous translators will help us a lot. |
What kind of equipment is NOT mentioned in this passage?
| A．Lecture Translation. |
| B．Muscle Translator. |
| C．Multiple Translator. |
| D．Translation Prototype. |
What's the final destination of inventing the language translators?
| A．To make cultural exchanges between different countries easier. |
| B．To help students learn foreign languages more easily. |
| C．To make people live in foreign countries more comfortably. |
| D．To help people learn more foreign languages in the future. |
Where can this passage probably excerpted from?
| A．A newspaper. | B．A magazine on science. |
| C．A fairy tale. | D．A scientific fantasy book. |
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