Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s smartest physicists, once said: “I’m obsessed by time.”Many of us are, and the popularity of time travel TV series has just proved that.
After Palace and Startling by Each Step 《步步惊心》achieved startling ratings last year, Palace 2 aired on January 20, attracting time travel fans back to TV.“It’s fun to watch characters travel back in time and deal with the conflicts between modernity and ancient times,” Xia Xiaoyan, who works for a foreign-owned enterprise in Shanghai, told China Daily. “Time travel series connect both today and the past, thus offering room for imagination,” said Cai Yinong, the producer of Startling by Each Step.
“I’m hooked by the shows because they are characterized by dramatic and poetic love and have eye-pleasing actors,” Xia explained her love for time travel TV series.Her comment echoes a 2011 survey by Great Marketing Research Co Ltd in China. When asked about what’s so appealing about time travel TV series, 21 percent of respondents answered: “Those attractive characters.”
A bigger reason behind the popularity of time travel stories, however, is the relaxation they offer, according to the survey.Cai Yinong agrees. “Many people are facing tremendous pressures in their fast-paced lives, so this genre is more relaxing than other shows as it provides people with a terrific outlet to escape reality,” Cai told China Daily.
The love for time traveling is universal.Woody Allen’s latest movie Midnight in Paris, which has been nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Art Direction for the 2012 Academy Awards, features modernity versus cultural nostalgia.Which might be the best title for this passage ?
| A．Time travel is universal | B．Time travel TV series |
| C．A introduction to Startling by Each Step | D．Time travel wins fans |
The reasons why people like time travel are as followings except______.
| A．It’s fun to watch characters travel back and deal with the conflicts between modernity and ancient times. |
| B．Time travel series offer room for imagination. |
| C．The characters are attractive. |
| D．After watching time travel series, you can escape reality. |
Which word can replace the underlined word “hooked” in the third paragraph.
| A．pleased | B．moved | C．attracted | D．surprised |
It can be inferred from the passage that________.
| A．Stephen Hawking likes time travel TV series. |
| B．A bigger reason behind the popularity of time travel stories, however, is the relaxation they offer. |
| C．Not only Chinese audience but also foreigners like watching time travel stories. |
| D．Startling by Each Step has been nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Art Direction for the 2012 Academy Awards. |
We can learn form what Cai Yinong said in the fourth paragraph that ________.
| A．Everyone likes watching time travel stories. |
| B．Many people want to escape reality because of the pressures in their fast-paced lives. |
| C．Many people want to go back to the ancient times. |
| D．People can get more relaxation in the ancient times. |
A train sped up through the countryside at 60 mph as a“traveller”relaxes with his newspaper. But this is no businessman taking it easy—the driver of the passenger express（快车）is doing the reading.
A Sunday Express reader caught this Virgin employee on film as the train sped through Derbyshire on its way to Plymouth from Newcastle.
Virgin，which has come under repeated criticism over their rail service, yesterday fired the driver after being shown the photograph. A spokesman said an inquiry（调查）was under way to make sure exactly what he was doing and why he appeared to have taken his eyes off the track ahead.
The picture comes in the week that the public inquiry into the Southall rail disaster, which claimed seven lives, heard that the driver at the centre of that case had earlier been spotted with his feet on the control button of his cab.
Larry Harrison，who worked for Great Western Trains，drove through two warning signals before crashing at 60 mph into a waiting train.
The reader who took this picture was standing on a bridge outside Chesterfield early one summer’s evening. He said，“I only realized what I’d got when I had the pictures developed. I couldn’t believe it.”
“As far as I could see，there was no one else in the cab with the drive，unless they were hiding, The person with the paper open was certainly sitting in the driver’s normal seat.”
The photographer works on the railways and does not want to be named，but he added，“I’ve seen many drivers with their feet on the control panel but I’ve never seen them reading papers like this. There is an automatic warning system and driver’s safety device which reminds him when he passes yellow and red signals. But you should never take your eyes off the track and rely only on sounds because you could have unexpected objects on the line or suddenly have speed limits given.”
63．Who is the“traveller”mentioned in the first paragraph？
A．A train driver. B．A businessman.
C．A passenger. D．A newspaper reader.
64．The train ______________when the picture was taken.
A．was driving to Plymouth
B．was ready for a picture
C．had seven people on it
D．crashed into another train
65．Who took the picture of the driver of the passenger express？
A．A professional photographer.
B．A newspaper reporter.
C．Another train driver.
D．A member of the railway staff.
66．According to what we have read，we may find this passage most probably______________.
A．at a train station
B．from a news report
C．from a driver’s safety guide
D．from the police inquiry
People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals. They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill. Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows why they were painted there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures.
About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures of signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet.
The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting writing and pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip. But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary people could not understand it.
By the year 1,000 BC, people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter, represented only one sound in their language. The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world.
These days，we can write down a story，or record information，without using pictures. But we still need pictures of all kinds：drawing，photographs，signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere：in books and newspapers，in the street，and on the walls of the places where we live and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily，and they can make a story much more interesting.
59．Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because_________.
A．the hunters wanted to see the pictures
B．the painters were animal lovers
C．the painters wanted to show imagination
D．the pictures were thought to be helpful
60．The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons EXCEPT that ______________.
A．the former was easy to write
B．there were fewer signs in the former
C．the former was easy to pronounce
D．each sign stood for only one sound
61．Which of the following statements is TRUE？
A．The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet.
B．The Egyptians liked to write comic strip stories.
C．The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one.
D．The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.
62．In the last paragraph，the author thinks that pictures ______________.
A．should be made comprehensible
B．should be made interesting
C．are of much use in our life
D．have disappeared from our life
“First we make our habits，then our habits make us.”——Charles C．Noble
It’s such a simple concept，yet it's something we don’t always do. It’s not extremely difficult to do, and yet I think it’s something that would make a world of difference in anyone’s life. Break your goals into habits，and focus on putting those habits into autopilot. My belief is that having one goal to focus on is much more powerful than having many goals.
I try to turn my goals into habits，and in doing so，I put my goals on autopilot. Turning a goal into a habit means really focusing on it，seriously，for at least a month，to the exclusion of all else. The more you can focus on it, the more it’ll be put on autopilot. Let’s look at my marathon goal as an example. I was just starting out in running，and l had the brilliant idea to run a marathon within a year. But in order to achieve that goal，I broke it down into two habits：
1．I had to make running a daily habit.
2．I had to report to people in order to have accountability（责任）—I did this through family，friends and coworkers，through a blog，and through a column in my local newspaper every two weeks. With this accountability，there’s no way l would stop running.
The accountability habit took a couple of months，mainly because I didn’t focus on it too much while l was building the running habit. But it stuck，and for that first year of running，I would report to people I knew and blog about my running every day and I would write a column every two weeks for my local paper.
Once those two habits were firmly fixed，my marathon goal was pretty much on autopilot. I still had to do the work，of course，but it didn’t require constant focus. And eventually，I ran the marathon. I was able to achieve this because，all year long，I had the daily running habit and daily accountability habit. I put my marathon goal into autopilot，and that made it much easier--instead of struggling with it daily for an entire year，I focused on it for one month and was able to accomplish it while focusing on new habits and goals.
55．According to the passage，we can see the key to forming a habit is ______________.
A．to break the goals into habits
B．to report to other people about your plan
C．to set a reasonable goal first
D．to focus on the habit as much as possible
56．The author told people about his running in order to ______________.
A．get more support
B．ask for their opinions
C．carry out his plan better
D．earn more admiration
57．What do we know about the author？
A．He was a local athlete.
B．He often gave people advice.
C．He had no blogs before.
D．He wrote for a local newspaper.
58．The passage is mainly about ______________.
A．goals and habits
B．how to turn your goals into habits
C．habits and achievements
D．how to make running a good habit
第三部分阅读理解(共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项。
When Paul was a boy growing up in Utah，he happened to live near a copper smelter（炼铜厂），and the chemicals that poured out had made a wasteland out of what used to he a beautiful forest. One day a young visitor looked at this wasteland and called it an awful area. Paul knocked him down. From then on，something happened inside him.
Years later Paul was back in the area，and he went to the smelter office. He asked if they had any plans or if they would let him try to bring the trees back. The answer from that big industry was“No”.
Paul then went to college to study the science of plants. Unfortunately，his teachers said there weren't any birds or squirrels to spread the seeds. It would be a waste of his life to try to do it. Everyone knew that，he was told. Even if he was knowledgeable as he had expected，he wouldn’t get his idea accepted．
Paul later got married and had some kids. But his dream would not die. And then one night he did what he could with what he had. As Samuel Johnson wrote，“It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. Attainable good is often ignored by minds busied in wide ranges.”Under the cover of darkness，he went secretly into the wasteland and started planting.
And every week，he made his secret journey into the wasteland and planted trees and grass. For fifteen years he did this against the plain common sense. Slowly rabbits appeared. Later，as there was legal pressure to clean up the environment，the company actually hired Paul to do what he was already doing.
Now the place is fourteen thousand acres of trees and grass and bushes，and Paul has received almost every environmental award Utah has. It took him until his hair turned white，but he managed to keep that impossible vow he made to himself as a child.
51．When Paul was a boy，______________.
A．he had decided never to leave his hometown
B．the economy of Utah depended wholly on the copper smelter
C．no laws were made to protect the environment against pollution
D．he had determined to stop the copper smelter polluting the area
52．Why did Paul go to college to study the science of plants？
A．Because he wanted to find out the best way to save the area himself.
B．Because he was interested in planting trees since he was young.
C．Because he wanted to get more knowledgeable people to help him.
D．Because he thought his knowledge would make his advice more persuasive.
53．What does the underlined phrase“the plain common sense”probably refer to?
A．That it was impossible for trees to grow on the wasteland.
B．That his normal work and life would be greatly affected.
C．That no one would like to join him in the efforts.
D．That he had to keep everything he did secret.
54．The message of the passage is that _____________.
A．action speaks louder than words
B．perseverance（持之以恒）will work wonders
C．God helps those who help themselves
D．many hands make light work
Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre
86 Todd Street
Tel：(08)8982 3408
www. aboriginalart. com. au
Admission Free. Tours from S5
Daily 9am一6pm
Closed Christmas Day only
The Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre includes a gallery showing Arrernte culture and an Aboriginal music museum. Learn to play a didgeridoo at the only Didgeridoo University in the world. You can have a go at spear throwing, try billy tea and damper and experiment with bush tucker.
Alice Springs School of the Air
 |
80 Head Street
Tel：(08)8951 6834
Adult：$3.50 Child：$2.50 (5～16)
Mon ~ Sat 8.30am ~ 4.30pm
Sun 1.30pm ~ 4.30pm
Closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day & New Year’s Day
They call it the biggest classroom in the world 1.3 million square kilometers — and for children living in isolated communities around the NT, it is the only classroom they know. This unique educational facility was the first of its type. Interpretive displays demonstrate the important role it has in the Outback. On school days you can hear lessons being broadcast.
Panorama Guth
 |
65 Hartley Street
Tel：(08)8952 2013
Adult：$5.50 Child：$3.30 (6～16)
Mon ~ Sat 9am~5pm，Sun 12pm ~ 5pm
Closed 14 Dec ~ 31 Jan
An art gallery／Aboriginal museum, with a full 360～degree panoramic painting by artist Henk Guth. The painting measures 60 metres in circumference by 6 metres high, depicting scenic areas of Central Australia．Original oil paintings and reproductions are also for sale．
Red Centre Dreaming
Red Centre Resort
North Stuart Highway
Tel：(08)8950 5555
www. Aurora ~ resorts. com. au
Open all year
Experience the magic of Aboriginal culture with Aurora’s Red Centre Dreaming Dinner & Show. A high quality Aboriginal performance by traditional artists dancing, weaponry and didgeridoo playing are features of the show. Local artifacts and art are available for purchase. The evening includes three course meal, wine, soft drink and return transfers. Bookings essential.
66. What does the underlined word “didgeridoo” mean?
A. a piece of music B. a record C. a musical instrument D. a game
67. You can go to visit ______ on Christmas Day.
A. Red Centre Dreaming B. Panorama Guth
C. Aboriginal Art & culture Centre D. Alice Springs School of the Air
68. How much do you have to pay if you go to visit Alice Springs School of the Air with your family, in which there is your three-year-old brother and your ten-year-old sister besides your parents and you, an eighteen-year-old boy?
A. $ 19.80. B. $15.50. C. $14.50. D. $13.00.
69. What is special about Red Centre Dreaming?
A. You can get information about it on the Internet.
B. You need to book in advance.
C. You can learn about Aboriginal culture.
D. You can learn to play a didgeridoo.
70. If you are interested in art, you can go to ____.
A. Alice Springs School of the Air or Panorama Guth
B. Aboriginal Art & culture Centre or Panorama Guth
C. Red Centre Dreaming or Alice Springs School of the Air
D. Aboriginal Art & culture Centre or Alice Springs School of the Air
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