Professor Barry Wellman of the University of Toronto in Canada has invented a term to describe the way many North Americans interact(互动)these days. The term is “networked individualism”. This concept is not easy to understand because the words seem to have opposite meanings. How can we be individuals(个体)and be networked at the same time? You need other people for networks.
Here is what Professor Wellman means. Before the invention of the Internet and e-mail, our social networks included live interactions with relatives, neighbors, and friends. Some of the interaction was by phone, but it was still voice to voice, person to person, in real time.
A recent research study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project showed that for a lot of people, electronic interaction through the computer has replaced this person-to-person interaction. However, a lot of people interviewed for the Pew study say that’s a good thing. Why?
In the past, many people were worried that the internet isolated(孤立)us and caused us to spend too much time in the imaginary world of the computer. But the Pew study discovered that the opposite is true. The Internet connects us with more real people than expected—helpful people who can give advice on careers, medical problems, raising children, and choosing a school or college. About 60 million Americans told Pew that the Internet plays an important role in helping them make major life decisions.
Thanks to the computer, we are able to be alone an together with other people—at the same time!The underlined phrase “networked individualism” probably means that by using computers people .
| A．stick to their own ways no matter what other people say |
| B．have the rights and freedom to do things of their own interest |
| C．do things in their own ways and express opinions different from other people |
| D．are able to keep to themselves but at the same time reach out to other people |
According to the Pew study, what do many people rely on to make major life decisions?
| A．Networks. | B．Friends. | C．Phones. | D．Parents. |
It can be inferred from the Pew study that .
| A．people have been separated from each other by using computers |
| B．the Internet makes people waste a lot of time and feel very lonely |
| C．the Internet has become a new tool for a new kind of social communication |
| D．a lot of people regard the person-to-person communication as a good thing |
Which would be the best title for this passage?
| A．We’re Alone on the Internet |
| B．We’re Communicating on the Internet |
| C．We’re Alone Together on the Internet |
| D．We’re in the Imaginary World of the Internet. |
A few years ago，my friend Al won the lottery. It changed his life. He did not have a rich family. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Instead，my friend was always hard up for cash. He did not have much money. And the money he did earn was chicken feed — very little.
Sometimes Al even had to accept handouts，gifts from his family and friends. But do not get me wrong. My friend was not a deadbeat. He was not the kind of person who never paid the money he owed. He simply pinched pennies. He was always very careful with the money he spent. In fact，he was often a cheapskate. He did not like to spend money. The worst times were when he was flat broke and had no money at all.
One day，Al scraped together a few dollars for a lottery ticket. He thought he would never strike it rich or gain lots of money unexpectedly. But his combination of numbers was chosen and he won the lottery. He hit the jackpot. He won a great deal of money.
Al was so excited. The first thing he did was buy a costly new ear. He splurged on the one thing that he normally would not buy. Then he started spending money on unnecessary things. He started to waste it. It was like he had money to burn. He had more money than he needed and it was burning a hole in his pocket so he spent it quickly.
When we got together for a meal at a restaurant，Al paid every time. He would always foot the bill，and pick up the tab. He told me the money made him feel like a million dollars. He was very happy.
But，Al spent too much money. Soon my friend was down and out again. He had no money left. He was back to being strapped for cash. He had spent his bottom dollar, his very last amount. He did not even build up a nest egg. He had not saved any of the money.
I admit I do feel sorry for my friend. He had enough money to live like a king. Instead，he is back to living on a shoestring—a very low budget. Some might say he is penny wise and pound foolish. He is wise about small things，but not about important things.The underlined word “pinched” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “___________”.
| A．took | B．carried |
| C．squeezed | D．spent |
How did Al feel at first after he bought a lottery ticket?
| A．He expected to win the lottery. |
| B．He was excited to wait for the money. |
| C．He didn’t think he could win the lottery. |
| D．He regretted spending money for a lottery ticket. |
Why did A1 live a poor life again after he won the lottery?
| A．Because he lost a lot of money he had won. |
| B．Because he spent much money freely on unnecessary things. |
| C．Because his friend borrowed much money from him. |
| D．Because he gave away a lot of money to others. |
What can we learn from the story of Al?
| A．Keep on and you will succeed one day. |
| B．Do not pick up the sesame seeds but overlook the watermelons. |
| C．It is no use crying over spilt milk. |
| D．No pains, no gains. |
By the time I reached junior high，I was sure I wanted to be a nurse. If you didn’t study Latin，you couldn’t be a nurse，so I enrolled. Many Latin words were familiar to me. The hard part turned out to be the usage and creating sentences with the words that seemed so easy to pronounce. Several weeks into the course my teacher came to me，saying，“I think you should withdraw from this course. It seems to be too hard for you. ”
That was the day I learned I wasn’t smart enough to become a nurse. With shame. I handed in my Latin textbook.
After high school，the years raced by. I married and had children. Then one day my husband John came home. “Carol. Max died this afternoon. ”I looked at my husband with disbelief.
John was touched by this tragedy. Finally one evening he said，“Carol，Jackie has never worked and now she’s alone with four children. I've been thinking — if anything happens to me. I want you to be able to take care of yourself and the children. Why don’t you think about what you’d like to do and get the training you’ll need to do it?”
I signed up for the entrance exam for nursing programs. One day I received a letter from the schoo1. I wanted so badly to open it，but with my lack of confidence，I laid it on the kitchen counter saying，” I'm not in the mood for a rejection letter today. ”
Finally I forced myself to open it. “Dear Carol，”I read. ”We are pleased to inform you that you successfully passed the entrance exam.”
An insensitive teacher once stole my dream. If you have a dream, exhaust every effort to reach it. I’ve worked thirty years now as a nurse and I’ve never been more certain that this is what I was meant to be.Why did John advise Carol to find a job?
| A．To support the family |
| B．To be able to live independently |
| C．To live a more colorful life |
| D．To provide more money for her kids |
From the text, we know what the teacher said____________.
| A．saved Carol from wasting her time |
| B．helped Carol find her true interest |
| C．destroyed Carol’s dream to be a nurse |
| D．encouraged Carol to be careful in learning |
After receiving the letter from the schoo1, Caro1____________.
| A．couldn’t wait to open it |
| B．had no mood to read it then |
| C．didn’t take it seriously at all |
| D．was uncertain about the result |
What may be the best title for the text？
| A．Too stupid to be a nurse |
| B．A dream too high to achieve |
| C．Never too late to 1earn |
| D．A chance too important to miss |
A dog’s tail can tell you a lot more than you might think. Is it wagging (摇) to the left or is it wagging to the right?
“The direction of tail wagging does in fact matter，”said Giorgio Vallortigara，a professor at the University of Trento in Italy. Professor Vallortigara finds that the way the tail is wagging can tell you a lot about a dog’s state of mind—whether you’re a human or another dog.
What’s the difference between a left wag and a right wag？Professor Vallortigara and his colleagues have studied 43 dogs of various breeds — German Shepherds，Beagles，Boxers，Border Collies and some mutts. They find that if a dog wags its tail to the left. it’s feeling anxious or nervous. The reason could be an unfamiliar or dangerous situation，an unfamiliar person，or an unfamiliar and possibly threatening dog. But if the tail is wagging to the right，it means the dog is feeling relaxed and approachable.
“The tail is a very important signal，”said Thomas Reimchen，a biologist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. ”There is a lot of visual information that dogs use when communicating with each other. ”
How did the scientists figure all this information out? They had the dogs in their study watch videotapes of other dogs. When the dog on the tape wagged its tail to the right，they say the other dogs remained calm and cool. But when the dog on the tape wagged its tail to the left，the other dogs got anxious.
The researchers are still not exactly sure if the direction of tail wagging is something the dog does consciously. They suspect that it might be something the dog does without even thinking about it — kind of like when you get goose bumps if something scares or startles you. They plan to do more research to get more information about what dogs are thinking and feeling while they’re wagging. As Reimchen said，“I'm not going to be surprised if we find all sorts of really interesting processes that nobody has ever seen before. ”Professor Vallortigara’s study focused on the relationship between_________.
| A．a dog’s state of mind and its owner's feeling |
| B．a dog’s state of mind and the direction of its tail wagging |
| C．a dog’s sense of direction and its state of mind |
| D．a dog’s intention of tail wagging and its feeling |
According to the study，dogs which wag their tails to the left may feel_________.
| A．calm | B．happy | C．angry | D．nervous |
It is implied in Thomas Reimchen’s words in Paragraph 4 that___________.
| A．dogs’ tails play all important role in their growth |
| B．dogs show their feelings only by wagging their tails |
| C．dogs get to know others by watching tail wagging |
| D．dogs can understand each other by repeating tail wagging |
How does the passage mainly develop?
| A．By asking and analyzing questions |
| B．By making comparisons |
| C．By following the order of time |
| D．By providing examples |
The scene in the Hollywood movie The Day After Tomorrow, when global warming could soon turn the global climate into a new ice age, may never occur, according to a new research.
The next ice age could be 15,000 years away, say European scientists who last month announced a continuous record of 740,000 years of climate data obtained from the Antarctic ice.
Scientists from 10 nations have now almost completely drilled through a 3,000-meter depth of ice high in the Antarctic mainland. They figure out that the area, where summer temperatures can fall to – 40℃, has at least 900,000 years of snowfalls, kept as neatly as the growth rings of a tree. And the ice and air caught in each layer(层) have begun to answer questions about the climates in the past..
The results show that there have been eight ice ages in the past 740, 000 years and eight warmer periods. And by comparing the pattern of global conditions today with those of the past, the researchers reported in Nature that the present warm period could last another 15, 000 years.
Research suggests that there is a very close connection between greenhouse gas levels and global average temperatures. It also shows that carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) levels are the highest for at least 440,000 years.
"If people say to you: ‘the greenhouse effect is a good thing because we would go into an ice age otherwise,’ our data say no, a new ice age is not hanging over our heads,” said Eric Wolff from the British Antarctic Survey. "Now we have eight examples of how the climate goes in and out of ice ages… and you can learn what the rules are that go into the climate models that tell us about the future."
Scientists found that whenever temperatures rose in the frozen record, so did carbon dioxide level. "In 440,000 years we have never seen greenhouse gas get as thick as it is today," said Dr Wolff.In drilling through the ice in Antarctica, scientists have found that______.
| A．the lowest temperature there is – 40℃ |
| B．the depth of ice is 3,000 meters |
| C．the ice has existed for 15,000 years |
| D．snowfalls are kept in certain patterns |
The information of the global climate conditions in the past can be obtained through______.
| A．separating carbon dioxide from the air |
| B．examining the growth rings of trees |
| C．comparing temperatures in different areas |
| D．studying the ice and air caught in each layer |
We can infer from Eric Wolff's words that_______.
| A．there is something wrong with the data |
| B．greenhouse effect is always a bad thing |
| C．a new ice age will not come in the near future |
| D．greenhouse gas will get thick in the future |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Research over the Antarctic area. |
| B．Warm period to last about 15, 000 years. |
| C．Report on the eight ice ages in the past. |
| D．Hollywood movies and the global climate. |
Money is the root of all evil and new study claims there may be some truth behind the saying．Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, US，announced on February 27 that rich people are more likely to do unethical (不道德的) things, such as lie or cheat, than poorer people．
The scientists did a series of eight experiments. They published their findings online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS,《美国国家科学院院刊》)．
They carried out the first two experiments from the sidewalk near Berkeley. They noted that drivers of newer and more expensive cars were more likely to cut in on other cars and pedestrians at crosswalks. Nearly 45 percent of people driving expensive cars ignored a pedestrian compared with only 30 percent of people driving more modest cars．
In another experiment, a group of college students was asked if they would do unethical things in various everyday situations. Examples included taking printer paper from work and not telling a salesperson when he or she gave back more change. Students from higher-class families were more likely to act dishonestly.
According to the scientists, rich people often think money can get them out of trouble. This makes them less afraid to take risks. It also means they care less about other people’s feelings.
Finally，it simply makes them greedier．“Higher wealth status seems to make you want even more，and that increased want leads you to bend the rules or break the rules to serve your self-interest,” said Paul Piff, leading scientist of the study.
Piff pointed out that the findings don’t mean that all rich people are untrustworthy or that all poor people are honest. He said the experiments were to show how people living in different social situations express their instincts and values in different ways.By saying “money is the root of all evil”，the author wants to ____________．
| A．draw readers’ attention to the research |
| B．1ink wealth with bad behavior |
| C．show how the saying proves the findings |
| D．defend rich people who do unethical things |
What makes rich people unethical according to the scientists?
a．they become more selfish b．they have more desires
c．they believe money talks d．they welcome risks
| A．a、b | B．a、b、d |
| C．b、c | D．a、b、c |
Why did the scientists do the experiments?
| A．To show how social status affects people's ethics． |
| B．To show people’s instincts and values in different ways. |
| C．To test whether the saying “money is the root of all evil” is true． |
| D．To show the difference between higher-class people and lower-class people． |
What does the article really want to show us?
| A．Money is the root of all evil． |
| B．The rich are more likely to act badly． |
| C．The saying is unreasonable． |
| D．All rich people are untrustworthy． |
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