Tom was a poor boy. He made a living by cleaning leather shoes for others in the street. Tom was also a clever boy.
One day, a very rich man with the name Miser appeared in front of Tom. He watched his dirty shoes for a while, and then looked at Tom. Tom knew this kind of people well: they love money very much and hate to spend it.
Tom said, “Let me clean your shoes, sir.”
“For nothing?” the rich man asked.
“Only two pence, sir.”
Mr Miser shook his head and walked away.
Tom thought for a moment and then called out, “I’d like to clean it for nothing!” This time Mr Miser agreed. And soon one of his shoes was shining brightly.
When the rich man put his other shoe on the stool(凳子), Tom said he wouldn’t clean it for him unless he was paid two pence for his work. Mr Miser was very angry. He refused to pay anything and went away with a smile on his face.
But to his surprise, the well-cleaned shoe was so bright that it made the other one look even dirtier. Mr Miser took a look around. People in the street were laughing at him. He couldn’t walk on any further.
Finally the rich man returned and gave Tom two pence. In a very short time his two shoes shone brightly.The story happened___________.
| A．in a shoe shop | B．in the street |
| C．at the rich man’s house | D．near the boy’s home |
The boy called the man back and agreed to clean his shoes for nothing, because_______.
A.he was afraid of the rich man
B.B.he liked to clean shoes for rich men
C.he wanted to get something else instead of money
D.he was sure he could get his pay from Mr. MiserMr Miser smiled because________.
| A．he liked to walk with only one shoe cleaned |
| B．He had one of his shoes cleaned without paying for it |
| C．He thought his other shoe needn’t be cleaned at all |
| D．He thought he wouldn’t be laughed at by the people in the street. |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The boy was waiting for the rich man that day. |
| B．Mr. Miser didn’t want to have his shoes cleaned. |
| C．The rich man won at last. |
| D．The rich man had to pay the boy for his work. |
From the passage we know__________.
A.Mr. Miser was a generous man
B.B.the boy was fooled by the rich man
C.the boy was clever enough to have his work paid
D.it is good manners to have one’s shoes cleaned before he or she goes out.
All over the world, and for many different reasons, there are millions of people who rarely or never eat meat. These people are called vegetarians. To people who eat meat, being a vegetarian may seem like a very strange thing, diets for several different reasons.
First, vegetarians have an enormous health advantage. One of the major health problems in modern societies is not too much protein but too much fat, especially in the form of animal fats. Medical evidence suggests that animal fats, including butter, contribute to the development of cholesterol in the human body. High amount of cholesterol seem to be part of the cause of heart disease. Most vegetarians have low level of cholesterol. High amounts of animal fats also seem to lead to certain kinds of cancer, and vegetarians are typically less vulnerable to these cancers than people who eat a lot of meat. Overall, studies comparing the health of vegetarians and meat-eaters show that the meat-eaters are twice as likely to die of heart disease as vegetarians are.
Better health is one reason that people choose to become vegetarians. Another reason is religion. Some religions forbid the eating of meat. The largest of these is the Hindu religion, which has about 600 million believers in the world. Although not all Hindus are vegetarian, many are, and there are many believers of other religions such Buddhism and even some Christian religions that also do not eat meat.
Many vegetarians do not eat meat simply because they do not like the taste of it. They have no religious or philosophical reasons; they just do not like meat. Another important reason that vegetarians give for not eating meat is the health advantages that were given above. Lastly, there are many people who do not eat meat because they just do not like the idea of killing animals for food. They believe that life, all life, is valuable , and that we do not have to destroy life to feed ourselves when there are other good sources of food.According to the passage, people choose to be vegetarians for the following reasons EXCEPT________.
| A．they want to stay healthy |
| B．they are too kind to put the idea of killing animals |
| C．they live in areas where meat supply is not adequate |
| D．they should not eat meat due to their religious belief |
Which of the following is true according to Paragraph 2 ?
| A．Vegetarians enjoy a more healthy life than the meat eaters. |
| B．Heart disease and cancer are caused by large amounts of protein. |
| C．There are twice as many meat-eaters as vegetarians who die of cancer. |
| D．There are less health problems in modern society due to advanced medical care. |
What does “vulnerable” mean in Paragraph 2?
| A．Having low level of cholesterol. |
| B．Having high level of cholesterol. |
| C．Having weak ability to resist diseases and harms. |
| D．Having strong ability to resist disease and harms. |
It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
| A．being a vegetarian may be a very strange thing |
| B．vegetarians eat meat on some special occasions |
| C．all vegetarians have reasons for their not eating meat |
| D．most vegetarians believe that life without meat is happy. |
A new planet-hunting technique has detected the most earth-like planet yet around a star other than our sun, raising hopes of finding a space rock that might support life, astronomers (天文学家) reported recently.
“This is an important discovery to answer the question ‘Are we alone?’” said Michael Turner of the National Science Foundation.
“The team has discovered the most earth-like planet yet, and more importantly, has proved the power of a new technique that is sensitive (灵敏的) to detecting planets that are fit for people to live on,” Turner said in a statement.
In the last decade, astronomers have detected more than 160 planets moving around stars outside our solar system. Most of these have been gas giant planets like Jupiter, which are unfit for life.
But an international team has detected a cold planet about 5.5 times more massive than the earth — still small enough to be considered earth-like — moving around a star about 20,000 light years away, close to the center of the Milky Way.
To find this new planet, the team used a technique called gravitational microlensing (引力微观透镜法). When a planet is circling the closest star, the planet’s gravity can add its own signature to the light. This kind of light signature was observed on July 11 by a group of telescopes in a project known as OGLE, short for Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment.
“The main advantage of microlensing is the signals for low-mass planets: They’re not weak signals. They’re just rare,” Bennett of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana said by telephone. “If there happens to be a straight line between a foreground star with its planet and the background source star, then you’re able to detect that planet.”The underlined word “detected” in Paragraph 1 probably means “_________”.
| A．discovered | B．destroyed |
| C．created | D．searched |
The author’s purpose in writing this passage is to ____.
| A．prove that scientists have a lot of difficulties in doing scientific research |
| B．explain why this planet moves around a star like our sun |
| C．teach the readers some basic knowledge about the universe |
| D．tell people about a new technique that finds the most earth-like planet moving round another star |
From the news report we can infer that _________.
| A．the planet is like the earth because it is close to the center of the Milky Way |
| B．it is quite possible that life may exist on other planets in the universe |
| C．people have no interest in finding a planet that might support life |
| D．the question “Are we alone” is too difficult for scientists to answer |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The signals coming from low-mass planets are too weak to be noticed. |
| B．Most of the discovered planets are not fit for people to live on. |
| C．If a star with its planet happens to be in line with the source star, then the planet can be found. |
| D．The power of the new technique is proved by the discovery of the earth-like planet. |
When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance, the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as mere entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and values and the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts explore the emotive meaning of the same phenomenon. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thoughts as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the meaning and value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.According to Paragraph 1, students _______.
| A．disagree with their parents on education |
| B．regard music as a way of entertainment |
| C．view music as an overlooked subject |
| D．prefer the arts to science |
In Paragraph 2, the author uses jazz as an example to _______.
| A．compare it with rock music |
| B．introduce American musical traditions |
| C．show music identifies a society |
| D．prove music influences people’s lifestyles |
According to the passage, the arts and science _______.
| A．approach the world from different angles |
| B．explore different phenomena of the world |
| C．express people’s feelings in different ways |
| D．explain what it means to be human differently |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Music is an effective communication tool. |
| B．Music should be of top education priority. |
| C．Music makes students more imaginative |
| D．Music education deserves more attention. |
The Chinese word “Shanzhai” means a small mountain village, but now it becomes an accepted name for fakes (假货), after “Shanzhai Cell-phones” produced by small workshops in southern China became popular in the mainland market over the past two years.
Besides “Shanzhai” electronic products, there are “Shanzhai” movies, “Shanzhai” stars and even a “Shanzhai” Spring Festival Gala (联欢晚会), a copy of the 25-year-old traditional show presented by CCTV on Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve.
“Shanzhai” has become a culture of its own, meaning anything that imitates something famous.
In Chongqing, “Shanzhai” version “Bird’s Nest” and “Water Cube” woven by farmers with bamboo attract wide attention from tourists. Both are copies of the famous Olympic buildings in Beijing.
A literature critic said that taking the “Shanzhai” Gala as an example, when the traditional CCTV program becomes less and less attractive to the audience, the“Shanzhai” version appears timely to attract people. “Although it is often connected with poor techniques and operation, ‘Shanzhai’ culture meets the psychological needs of common people and could be a comfort to their minds,” he said.
To the mainstream (主流的) culture, the rise of “Shanzhai” culture is a challenge and a motivation (动力). People believe different kinds of cultures developing together is a perfect situation and it is for the public to choose.The Chinese word “Shanzhai” may have started with ______.
| A．Spring Festival Gala | B．electronic products |
| C．fake cell-phones | D．Olympic buildings |
According to the passage, “Shanzhai” culture refers to ______.
| A．the action that a person imitates famous people |
| B．products with poor techniques and quality |
| C．those similar names to famous brands |
| D．anything that imitates something famous |
We can infer that the mainstream culture ______.
| A．may develop faster because of the challenge of “Shanzhai” culture |
| B．is the challenge of “Shanzhai” culture |
| C．will be replaced by “Shanzhai” culture |
| D．is held back by “Shanzhai” culture |
Women are overtaking men in education and in the workplace, a senior Government minister said yesterday – creating a new generation of stay-at-home fathers.
Universities minister David Willetts predicted relationships and traditional household structures will be transformed as the female’s power ahead, and women earn more than their male partners.
Successful women will have to “marry down” by choosing partners less qualified than them – and may increasingly select men based on how supportive they might be to their careers, rather than whether they can support them financially.
And experts say women will often become the main breadwinners, with more men staying at home to look after children. Mr. Willetts said there was clear evidence from schools that boys are “lagging behind”, and are being overtaken by female students at university．He said: “I am not against women having those advantages but there is now a rather striking gap, if you look at the statistics, where it looks as if approximately 50 percent of women are graduating from university by the time they’re 30 and perhaps about 40 percent of men.” He added: “It may lead to changes in the patterns of household living．So there are some deep questions here.” The Philadelphia-based Pew Research Centre study, published in The Atlantic magazine, suggests female graduates are being put in similar situation to that faced for some time by black women．In America, 70 percent of black women have no husband and there are twice as many black women as black men with university degrees.
Many educated British women believe there is already a dearth of traditional husbands．Claire Davis, 33, who works in financial services and lives in south London, told The Times: “I have a good job and my own flat and I can pretty much do what I want, but a lot of them I meet aren't really of the right quality. If I look at the friends I went to university with, the men don't tend to be doing as well as the women.”
David Willetts’ attitude toward women’s overtaking men in education and in the workplace could be described as .
| A．worried | B．positive |
| C．supportive | D．excited |
Claire Davis’ example is used to indicate that .
| A．a lot of women prefer to be single |
| B．black women do not want to be married |
| C．women are less excellent than men in general |
| D．excellent women have difficulty in looking for a good husband |
The underlined word “dearth” in the last paragraph most probably means .
| A．shortage | B．respect |
| C．oversupply | D．pride |
The best title of this passage would probably be .
| A．Successful Women Forced to “Marry Down” |
| B．A Poor Generation of Stay-at-home Fathers |
| C．The Marriages’ Influence on Economy |
| D．The Advantages of the Traditional Family Pattern |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号