Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding of black culture in America.
During the 1940’s and the 1950’s, Gwendolyn Brooks used her poems to describe conditions among the poor, racial (种族的) inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women.
But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience.
Gwendolyn Brooks once said that she wrote about what she saw and heard in the street. She said she found most of her materials through looking out of the window of her second-floor apartment in Chicago, Illinois.
In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago, where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was “A Street in Bronzeville” that gained the attention of literary experts in 1945. Critics praised her poetic skills and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection.
In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called “Annie Allen”. “Annie Allen” is a collection of poetry about a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and a mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and poverty (贫穷).
Gwendolyn Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life.
Her next work was a novel written in 1953 called “Maud Martha”. “Maud Martha” attracted little attention when it was first published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult lives of many women are popular among female writers today. Gwendolyn Brooks became world-famous because .
| A．she was an expert on the language of poetry |
| B．she introduced black culture by writing poems |
| C．she fought for black rights by writing poems |
| D．her poems showed the lives of black women |
Which of the following can we learn from the text?
| A．Gwendolyn Brooks’ poems focused on black people in Africa. |
| B．Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Literature was important to Brooks. |
| C．Gwendolyn Brooks used to suffer a lot from drugs. |
| D．Gwendolyn Brooks was very strict with herself. |
How did Gwendolyn Brooks get ideas for most of her poems?
| A．By observing life. | B．By having talks. | C．By reading widely. | D．By traveling. |
We can infer that the book “Annie Allen” mainly deals with .
| A．family life | B．inequality | C．adventure | D．failure |
Pulling heavy suitcases all day in the summer is hard work, especially when you’re a thin 14-year-old. That was me in 1940—the youngest and smallest baggage boy at New York City’s Pennsylvania Railway Station.
After just a few days on the job, I began noticing that the other fellows were overcharging passengers. I’d like to join them, thinking, “Everyone else is doing it.”
When I got home that night, I told my dad what I wanted to do. “You give an honest day’s work,” he said, looking at me straight in the eye. “They’re paying you. If they want to do that, you let them do that.”
I followed my dad’s advice for the rest of that summer and have lived by his words ever since.
Of all the jobs I’ve had, it was my experience at Pennsylvania. Railway Service that has stuck with me. Now I teach my players to have respect for other people and their possessions. Being a member of a team is a totally shared experience. If one person steals, it destroys trust and hurts everyone. I can put up with many things, but not with people who steal. If one of my players were caught stealing, he’d be gone.
Whether you’re on a sports team, in an office or a member of a family, if you can’t trust one another, there’s going to be trouble.What can be inferred about the baggage boys?
| A．They could earn much, but they had to work hard. |
| B．Many of them earned money in a dishonest way. |
| C．They were all from poor families. |
| D．They were all thin, young boys. |
What does the father’s advice imply?
| A．It is wrong to give more pay to the passengers. |
| B．Don’t believe them if they are paying you more. |
| C．Don’t follow others to overcharge the passengers. |
| D．It is difficult to work hard and live as an honest boy. |
The writer can’t put up with stealing because he thinks that ___.
| A．it is a totally shared experience |
| B．it is considered as the most dangerous |
| C．it does great harm to human relationship |
| D．it may lead to the loss of his sports team |
It can be concluded from the text that ___.
| A．his father’s advice helped him to decide which job to take up |
| B．working in the sports team was his most important experience |
| C．he learnt much from his shared experience with his team members |
| D．his experience as a baggage boy had a great influence on his latter life |
Shopping is not as simple as you may think! There are all sorts of tricks at play each time we reach out for that particular brand(品牌) of product on the shelf.
Coloring, for example, varies according to what the producers are trying to sell. Health foods are packaged(包装)in green, yellow or brown because we think of these as healthy colors. Ice cream packets are often blue and expensive goods, like chocolates, are gold or silver.
When some kind of pain killer was brought out recently, researchers found that the colors turned the customers off because they made the product look weak and ineffective. Eventually, it came on the market in a dark blue and white package because we think of it as safe, and white as calm.
The size of a product can attract a shopper. But quite often a bottle doesn’t contain as much as it appears to.
It is believed that the better-known companies spend, on average, 70 percent of the total cost of the product itself on packaging!
The most successful producers know that it’s not enough to have a good product. The founder of Pears soap, who for 25 years has used pretty little girls to promote(推销) their goods, came to the conclusion: “Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius(天才)to sell it.”Which of the following may trick a shopper into buying a product according to the text?
| A．The cost of its package. |
| B．The price of the product. |
| C．The color of its package. |
| D．The brand name of the product. |
The underlined part “the colors turned the customers off”(in Para.3) means that the colors ____.
| A．attracted the customers strongly |
| B．had weak effects on the customers |
| C．tricked the customers into shopping |
| D．caused the customers to lose interest |
Which of the following is the key to the success in product sales?
| A．The way to promote goods. |
| B．The discovery of a genius. |
| C．The team to produce a good product. |
| D．The brand name used by successful producers. |
Which of the following would be the best title for this text?
| A．Choice of Good Products |
| B．Disadvantages of Products |
| C．Effect of Packaging on Shopping |
| D．Brand Name and Shopping Tricks |
When someone has deeply hurt you, it can be extremely difficult to let go of your anger. But forgiveness is possible—and it can be surprisingly helpful to your physical and mental health. Indeed, research has shown that people who forgive report more energy, better appetite(胃口) and better sleep patterns. “People who forgive show less anger and more hopeful,” says Dr. Frederic Luskin, who wrote the book Forgive for Good. “So it can help save on the wear and tear on our system and allow people to feel more energetic.”
So when someone has hurt you, calm yourself first. Take a couple of breaths and think of something that gives you pleasure: a beautiful scene in nature, someone you love. Don’t wait for an apology. “Many times the person who hurt you may never be thinking of apologizing,” says Dr. Luskin. “They may have wanted to hurt you or they just don’t see things the same way. So if you wait for people to apologize, you could be waiting a very long time.” Keep in mind that forgiveness does not necessarily mean accepting the action of the person who upset you. Mentally going over your hurt gives power to the person who brought you pain. Instead, learn to look for the love, beauty and kindness around you. Finally, try to see things from the other person’s perspective(视角). You may realize that he or she was acting out of ignorance(无知)，fear—even love. To gain perspective, you may want to write a letter to yourself from that person’s point of view.The text is mainly written to explain ___.
| A．how to keep yourself from being hurt | B．how to stay mentally healthy |
| C．how and when to remain calm | D．why and how to pardon others |
According to the writer, what is the right way to calm down after being hurt?
| A．Try to figure out why you get hurt. |
| B．Write a letter to the person who hurts you. |
| C．Persuade yourself to accept what others have done to you. |
| D．Think about pleasant things and forget about the hurt. |
Dr. Luskin advised us not to wait for an apology after being hurt because___.
| A．we are not patient enough | B．we’d feel worse accepting other’s apology |
| C．people seldom want to apologize | D．people don’t mean it when they apologize |
If the world were a village of 1,000 people, it would include:
★ 584 Asians
★ 124 Africans
★ 95 Eastern and Western Europeans
★ 84 Latin America
★ 55 former Soviets (including Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, and other national groups)
★ 52 North Americans
★ 6 Australians and New Zealand
The people of the village would speak:
★ 165 Mandarin
★ 86 English
★ 83 Hindu/Urdu
★ 64 Spanish
★ 58 Russian
★ 37 Arabic
The above list covers the mother tongues of only half the village.
One-third of the people in the village are children, and only 60 are over the age of 65. Just under half of the married women in the village have access to modern equipments.
This year 28 babies will be born. Ten people will die, 3 of them for lack of food, 1 from cancer. Two of the deaths will be of babies born within the year. With the 28 births and 10 deaths, the population of the village next year will be 1018.
In this village of 1,000 persons,200 people receive 75 percent of the income: another 200 receive only 2 percent of the income.
About one third have access to clean, safe drinking water.
Of the 670 adults in the village, half can not read nor write.
The village has a total yearly budget(预算), public and private, of over $ 3 million--$ 3,000 per person if it is distributed evenly. Of the total $ 3 million:
★ 181,000 goes to weapons and warfare
★ 159,000 to education
★ 132,000 to health care
These weapons are under the control of just 100 of the people. The other 900 are watching them with deep anxiety, wondering whether they can learn to get along together. Which of the following is true about Mandarin according to the text?
| A．Nearly one third of Asian people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| B．About 25 percent of the people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| C．About 16.5 percent of the people speak Mandarin in the village. |
| D．Nearly all the Mandarin-speaking people are from Asia in the village. |
Which of the following problems is NOT mentioned in the text?
| A．Poverty | B．Education. | C．Environment. | D．Marriage. |
The underlined part “have access to”(in Para. 4) means____.
| A．use | B．buy | C．produce | D．try |
The last sentence in the text implies that most of the people long for ___.
| A．a peaceful world | B．good education | C．better health care | D．a life without anxiety |
If you are a recent social science graduate who has had to listen to jokes about unemployment from your computer major classmates, you may have had the last laugh. There are many advantages for the social science major because this high-tech “Information Age” demands people who are flexible(灵活的) and who have good communication skills.
There are many social science majors in large companies who fill important positions. For example, a number of research studies found that social science majors had achieved greater managerial success than those who had technical training or pre-professional courses. Studies show that social science majors are most suited for change, which is the leading feature(特点) of the kind of high-speed, high-pressure, high-tech world we now live in.
Social science majors are not only experiencing success in their long-term company jobs, but they are also finding jobs more easily. A study showed that many companies had filled a large percentage of their entry-level positions with social science graduates. The study also showed that the most sought-after quality in a person who was looking for a job was communication skills, noted as “very important”, by 92 percent of the companies. Social science majors have these skills, often without knowing how important they are. It is probably due to these skills that they have been offered a wide variety of positions.
Finally, although some social science majors may still find it more difficult than their technically trained classmates to land the first job, recent graduates report that they don’t regret their choice of study.By saying that “you may have had the last laugh” in the first paragraph, the author means that you may have____.
| A．shared the jokes with computer majors | B．earned as much as computer majors |
| C．found jobs more easily than computer majors | D．stopped joking about computer majors |
Compared with graduates of other subjects, social science graduates ___.
| A．are ready to change when situations change | B．are better able to deal with difficulties |
| C．are equally good at computer skills | D．are likely to give others pressure |
The underlined word “land” in the last paragraph probably means ___.
| A．keep for some time | B．successfully get | C．immediately start | D．lose regretfully |
According to the text, what has made it easy for social science graduates to find jobs?
| A．Willingness to take low-paid jobs. | B．Readiness to gain high-tech knowledge. |
| C．Skills in expressing themselves. | D．Part-time work experience. |
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