Protecting Copyright
Having finished her homework, Ma Li wants some music. As usual, she starts her computer and goes to Baidu.com to download music files. But this time she is surprised when an announcement about protecting songs’ copyright bursts onto the screen. The age of free music and movie downloads may have come to an end as Web companies like Baidu are accused of pirating copyright. Lawsuits have been filed against four websites offering free downloads. In September 2005, a Beijing court ordered Baidu to pay recording company Shanghai Push compensation for their losses. Baidu was also told to block the links to the pirated music on the website. This caused a heated discussion on Interact file sharing.
“Baidu’s defeat in the lawsuit shows it is not right to get copyrighted songs without paying. Down loaders may face lawsuits or fines,” said an official.
Like many teens, Huang Ruoru, an 18-year-old girl from Puning in Guangdong Province, doesn’t think that getting music from websites is wrong. She always shares her favourite songs downloaded from Baidu with her friends. When told about the lawsuit, she began to feel a little guilty about obtaining others’ work without paying.
However, other teenagers have different ideas. Wang Yafei, a Senior 2 girl from Jinan, Shandong Province pointed out that file sharing is a good way to promote pop singers. “If I download a song and really like it, I will buy the CD,” she said. “So what the recording companies really should concentrate on is improving their music, rather than pursuingfile-sharers.”Which of the following best describes the passage?
| A．Downloading material can be illegal. |
| B．Music on the Internet is of better quality. |
| C．It’s good to get free music on the Internet. |
| D．Baidu is a popular web company. |
The four web companies were put to court because ________.
| A．they got copyrighted songs without paying |
| B．they make copyrighted files for free downloads |
| C．they downloaded copyrighted music for people |
| D．they offer free music on line |
How do some of the teenagers feel while downloading free music after the lawsuit?
| A．A bit guilty. | B．A little sad. |
| C．Extremely angry. | D．Awfully sorry. |
What’s the advantage of file sharing for recording companies?
| A．Getting more money from web companies. |
| B．Making pop singers more popular. |
| C．Helping to improve the music. |
| D．Enabling people to download favorite songs. |
It can be inferred from the text that _________.
| A．Web companies are still ignoring the copyright laws. |
| B．Teenagers haven’t got money to buy CDs. |
| C．Teenagers are probably still downloading free music. |
| D．Teenagers prefer CDs with copyright to pirated music. |
Common phrases like “ no pains, no gains” give the impression that we ought to be suffering while we study. It’s almost as though the only way to know if we’re putting in enough work is the sense of hardship we bear.
When we haven’t taken the time to come up with another idea, all we know how to do is shut ourselves in a room with a book. It’s no surprise that we find revision boring and difficult. Just as children learn from playing, we can learn from doing, or at least from study techniques that interest us, rather than make us switch off.
Shutting yourself away can make you learn to hate studying. This leads to a situation where instead of being able to concentrate on your work, you are troubled by how unfair it is that you must study.
When you hate your work it’s very difficult to make yourself star, or approach it with any kind of structure or enthusiasm. This can be part of a vicious cycle(恶性循环) that traps you into ineffective revision, your poor progress fuelling further annoyance.
Just being around other people really helps fight against feelings of loneliness and, thankfully, it’s perfectly possible to work in the company of other people. We just need to learn how to deal with distractions(使人分心的事物).
It’s not necessary to avoid all company, just idle(懒散的) company. Studying in the same room as someone who is ironing or working out is perfectly possible. People who are bored and looking to be distracted, however, are terrible to work around. They constantly try to keep others in conversation.
It’s also a good idea to avoid the company of people involved in activities that you would rather be doing than studying. Working while sitting next to someone playing video games is much more likely to end with a new high score than a productive few hours of revision.
If being around others means working in a noisy environment, a pair of headphones and some background music can block out even noisy children. They also act as a psychological barrier, so that people think twice before interrupting you.
When you’re studying for a big exam, it seems like your whole life is taken up with study. Friends and family can lessen feelings of isolation(孤立). And connecting with other people makes us happy, so it’s important not to give that up and to make sure that we take the time to socialize.The author might believe that the phrase “no pains, no gains” ______.
| A．best describes how to study well |
| B．makes people treat study as a habit |
| C．encourages people to learn step by step |
| D．is not a good inspirational phrase for study |
Which saying about study might the author prefer?
| A．There is no royal road to learning. |
| B．It’s better to work behind closed door. |
| C．A positive motivation leads to good study results. |
| D．He who is ashamed of asking is ashamed of learning. |
Which might lead to an effective study based on this text?
| A．A correct goal. | B．A good teacher. |
| C．A favorable interest. | D．A hard task. |
The underlined sentence in Paragraph 7 implies that ______.
| A．playing video games is helpful for an effective study |
| B．one shouldn’t let a video player to be his / her company |
| C．one should study from certain activities that he / she is interested in |
| D．the more time one spends in playing games, the higher marks he / she will get |
If you are studying in a noisy environment, you’d better ______.
| A．give indication of not wanting to be interrupted |
| B．give up others’ company at one |
| C．think twice before taking any action |
| D．force yourself to be accustomed to the environment |
In winter Hammerfest is a thirty-hour ride by bus from Oslo, though why anyone would want to go there in winter is a question worth considering. It is on the edge of the world, the northernmost town in Europe, as far from London as London is from Tunis, a place of dark and cruel winters, where the sun sinks into the Arctic Ocean in November and does not rise again for ten weeks.
I wanted to see the Northern Lights. Also, I had long harboured a half-formed urge to
experience what life was like in such a remote and forbidding place. Sitting at home in England with a glass of whisky and a book of maps, this had seemed an excellent idea. But now as I picked my way through the grey, late-December slush（融雪） of Oslo I was beginning to have my doubts.
Things had not started well. I had overslept at the hotel, missing breakfast, and had to leap into my clothes. I couldn't find a cab and had to drag my unreasonably overweighted bag eight blocks through slush to the central bus station. I had had huge difficulty persuading the staff at the Kreditkassen Bank on Karl Johans Gate to cash sufficient traveller's cheques to pay the overcharged 1,200-kroner bus fare-they simply could not be made to grasp that the William McGuire Bryson on my passport and the Bill Bryson on my traveller's cheques were both me-and now here I was arriving at the station two minutes before departure, breathless and steaming from the endless uphill exertion（费力）that is my life, and the girl at the ticket counter was telling me that she had no record of my reservation.
"This isn't happening," I said. "I'm still at home in England enjoying Christmas．Pass me a
drop more port, will you, darling?" Actually, I said, "There must be some mistake. Please look
again."
The girl studied the passenger list. "No, Mr Bryson, your name is not here·”
But I could see it, even upside-down. "There it is, second from the bottom.”
"No," the girl decided, "that says Bemt Bjornson. That's a Norwegian name·”
"It doesn't say Bernt Bjornson. It says Bill Bryson. Look at the loop（圆圈） of the 'y', the two
‘I's. Miss, please." But she wouldn't have it. "If I miss this bus when does the next one go?"
"Next week at the same time．，，
Oh, splendid.
"Miss, believe me, it says Bill Bryson."
"No, it doesn't."
"Miss, look, I've come from England. I'm carrying some medicine that could save a child's
life.”She didn't buy this. "I want to see the manager."
"He's in Stavanger.”
"Listen, I made a reservation by telephone．If I don't get on this bus I’m going to write a letter to your manager that will cast a shadow over your career prospects（前景）for the rest of this century." This clearly did not alarm her. Then it occurred to me. "If this Bemt Bjornson doesn't show up, can I have his seat?"
"Sure.”
Why don't I think of these things in the first place and save myself the suffering? "Thank you," I said, and dragged my bag outside.What words can best describe Hammerfest in winter?
| A．Grey and dirty. | B．Dark and cold. |
| C．Unfriendly and expensive. | D．Wild and forbidden. |
Why did the author mention the Kreditkassen Bank on Karl Johans Gate?
| A．To suggest that people there could be ridiculous and stubborn. |
| B．To introduce the cultural differences in northern Europe and England. |
| C．To give an example of an interesting story during his journey. |
| D．To indicate that the bus fare was very expensive． |
What could be inferred from the passage?
| A．The author booked his bus ticket with a Norwegian name. |
| B．The author paid the bus fare by traveller's cheque. |
| C．The author would hopefully get on the bus． |
| D．The girl at the ticket counter cared about the author's complaints. |
According to the last paragraph, the author probably felt＿at that moment.
| A．embarrassed | B．contented |
| C．regretful | D．grateful |
We can learn from the passage that＿．
| A．the author's journey to the north was not worthwhile |
| B．the Europeans didn't welcome visitors |
| C．the author wrote a letter to the girl's manager |
| D．the author's journey to the north was not smooth |
I was brought up in the British, stiff upper lip style. Strong feelings aren’t something you display in public. So, you can imagine that I was unprepared for the outpouring of public grief at a Chinese funeral.
My editorial team leader died recently after a short illness. He was 31. The news was so unexpected that it left us all shocked and upset. A female colleague burst into tears and cried piteously at her desk. Somehow we got through the day's work. The next day was the funeral.
Our big boss stepped forward to deliver a eulogy(悼词) and was soon in tears. She carried on, in Chinese of course, but at the end said in English: "There will be no more deadlines for you in heaven." Next came a long-term colleague who also dissolved in tears but carried on with her speech despite being almost overcome by emotion. Then a close friend of the dead man paid tribute, weeping openly as he spoke. Sorrow is spreading. Me and women were now sobbing uncontrollably. Finally, the man's mother, supported between two women, addressed her son in his coffin. She almost collapsed and had to be held up. We were invited to step forward to each lay a white rose on the casket. Our dead colleague looked as if he was taking a nap. At the end of the service I walked away from the funeral parlor stunned at the outpouring of emotion.
In the UK, families grieve privately and then try to hold it together and not break down at a funeral. Here in China it would seem that grieving is a public affair. It strikes me that it is more cathartic to cry your eyes out than try to keep it bottled up for fear of embarrassment, which is what many of us do in the West.
Afterwards, a Chinese colleague told me that the lamenting at the funeral had been restrained(克制) by Chinese standards. In some rural areas, she said, people used to be paid to mourn noisily. This struck me like something out of novel by Charles Dickens. But we have all seen on TV scenes of grief-stricken people in Gaza and the West Bank, in Afghanistan, Iraq and the relatives of victims of terrorist bombings around the world. Chinese grief is no different. I realized that it's the reserved British way of mourning that is out of step with the rest of the world.At the funeral, ________.
| A．five individuals made speeches |
| B．the boss’s speech was best thought of |
| C．the writer was astonished by the scene |
| D．everyone was crying out loudly |
According to the writer, people in the West ________.
| A．prefer to control their sadness in public |
| B．cry their eyes out at the public funeral |
| C．are not willing to be sad for the dead |
| D．have better way to express sadness |
It is implied that ________.
| A．Chinese express their sadness quite unlike other peoples |
| B．the English might cry noisily for the dead in Dickens’ time |
| C．victims of terrorist bombings should be greatly honored |
| D．English funeral culture is more civilized than the others |
This passage talks mainly about_______.
| A．an editor’s death | B．funeral customs |
| C．cultural differences | D．western ways of grief |
We walked in so quietly that the nurse at the desk didn't even lift her eyes from the book. Mum pointed at a big chair by the door and I knew she wanted me to sit down. While I watched mouth open in surprise, Mum took off her hat and coat and gave them to me to hold. She walked quietly to the small room by the lift and took out a wet mop. She pushed the mop past the desk and as the nurse looked up, Mum nodded and said, "Very dirty floors."
"Yes, I'm glad they've finally decided to clean them, "the nurse answered. She looked at Mum strangely and said, "But aren't you working late?"
Mum just pushed harder, each swipe(拖一下)of the mop taking her farther and farther down the hall. I watched until she was out of sight and the nurse had turned back to writing in the big book.
After a long time Mum came back. Her eyes were shining. She quickly put the mop back and took my hand. As we turned to go out of the door, Mum bowed politely to the nurse and said, "Thank you."
Outside, Mum told me, "Dagmar is fine. No fever. "
"You saw her, Mum?"
"Of course I told her about the hospital rules, and she will not expect us until tomorrow. Dad will stop worrying as well. It's a fine hospital. But such floors! A mop is no good. You need a brush."When she took a mop from the small room what Mum really wanted to do was .
| A．to clean the floor | B．to please the nurse |
| C．to see a patient | D．to surprise the story-teller |
When the nurse talked to Mum she thought Mum was a_____.
| A．nurse | B．visitor |
| C．patient | D．cleaner |
From the text we know that Dagmar is most likely
| A．the story-teller's sister | B．Mum's friend |
| C．the story-teller's classmate | D．Dad's boss |
Is your family interested in buying a dog? A dog can be a good friend to your family, but if you choose the wrong kind of dog, it can cause you a lot of trouble.
Families should sit down and discuss the problems before buying a dog．Even if the children in your family are the ones who want the dog，the parents are the ones who are really responsible(有责任的) for seeing that the animal is properly cared for．If you don’t know much about dogs，it’s a good idea to go to the library for books about different kinds of dogs，as well as books about how to train a young dog. Dogs of different kinds change in popularity as the years go by. One of the most popular dogs these days is the German shepherd(牧羊犬). This is because it provides protection. The family should be warned that these dogs grow up to be very big, and may he too powerful for children, If your house is not big, a toy dog may be a good choice(选择). These dogs are very small and easy to train. They don’t need to be walked daily.According to the passage, who should take care of the dog?
| A．Children. | B．Parents. |
| C．Family. | D．Friends. |
The writer suggests one can get information about the different kinds of dogs .
| A．by reading books about dogs |
| B．by buying a dog from a pet shop |
| C．by watching dogs in a zoo |
| D．by asking some friends |
The passage is mainly about .
| A．how to take care of dogs |
| B．different kinds of books about dogs |
| C．how to choose the right dogs for family pets |
| D．different kinds of dogs |
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