When Debbie Parkhurst choked on a piece of apple at her Maryland home, her dog jumped in, landing hard on her chest and forcing the piece of apple to pop out of her throat. Debbie Parkhurst’s husband, Kevin, was at his job at a Wilmington, Del., chemical firm when she took a midday break from jewelry and bit into an apple. When the Keesling family of Indiana were about to be overcome by carbon monoxide(CO), their cat clawed(抓) at wife Cathy’s hair until she woke up and called for help.
For their timely acts, Toby, a golden 2 1/2-year-old dog, and Winnie, a gray-eyed American shorthair, were named Dog and Cat of the Year by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Neither Parkhurst nor Keesling could explain their pets’ timely heroics,though Parkhurst suggested it might have been guided by God intervention(干预). “That’s what our veterinarian(兽医) said,”she said. “He wasn’t making a joke; he’s very spiritual, and now I have to agree with him.”
But both pets were themselves rescued in baby, Toby as a 4-week-old baby thrown into a garbage bin to die, and Winnie as a week-old orphan hiding under a barn, so helpless that Keesling’s husband, Eric, had to feed her milk.
As the Keeslings recalled it, a gas-driven pump spread carbon monoxide through the house. By the time Winnie moved into rescue spot, the couple’s 14-year-old son, Michael, was already unconscious. “Winnie jumped on the bed and was clawing at me, with a kind of angry noise,” Cathy Keesling said. “When I woke up I felt like a T-bar had hit me across the head.”
State police and officers responding to her 911 call said the family was only minutes from death, judging by the amount of poisonous gas in the house.We can know Debbie Parkhurst _________.
| A．works in a Wilmington, Del.,chemical firm |
| B．was making jewelry when she had the accident |
| C．might have died but for her pet’s help |
| D．was unconscious when her pet found her |
Both pet’s heroic acts most probably connected with _________.
| A．God arrangements | B．their being once helped |
| C．their sense of danger | D．their veterinarians’ training |
Why did Winnie try to wake Cathy Keesling up?
| A．Because a T-bar was going to hit him. |
| B．Because he was hungry and wanted milk. |
| C．Because Debbie choked something in her throat. |
| D．Because there was danger in her house. |
From the passage we can infer that _________.
| A．if you love me love my animals |
| B．all pets are useful to people |
| C．we can’t never be too careful in our daily life |
| D．to help others sometimes can get reward |
Arthur Miller(1915-2005)is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller`s father had moved to the USA from Austria Hungary．Drawn like so many other by the"Great American Dream"However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the earlv l930s.
Milles's most famous play, Death of a SaIesman, is a powerful attack on the American system.with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into double with his worth. Willy is "burnt out" and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment : if he can't do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at loss as to what to do with his lack of sucess. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949 ,the play was greeted with enthusiastic revews,and it won the Tony Award for Best Play,the New York Drama Critics` Circle Award,and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Millerl died of hear failure at his home in Roxbury,Connecticut,on the evening of February 10,2005,the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.
| 1． |
Why did Arthur Miller' s father move to the USA?
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| 2． |
The play Death of a Salesman
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| 3． |
What can we learn about Willy Loman?
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| 4． |
After it was first staged, Death of a Salesman
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What is the text mainly about?
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Which are you more likely to have wath you at sny given mement—your cell phone or your wallet? Soon you may be able to throw your wallet away and pay for things with a quick wave of your smart phone over an electroue scannet.
In January, Starbucks announced that customers could start using their phones to buy coffee in 6,800 of its states. This is the first pay-by-phone practice in the U.S., but we’re likely to see more witeless payment alternatives as something called ucar field communcation(NFC)GETS IN TO America’s consumet electanies. Last Deccmbet some new smart phanes which cantain an NFC chip were introduced to the public.
Already in use in part of Asia and Europe, NFC allows shoppers to wave theie phones a few inchs above a payment terminal-a contact-free system build for speed and convenience. plan a few incees live a payment tetminal a one a few ptaht need to be worked out, like who will get to collect the profitable trunsacian(交易)fees. Although some credit card providers have been experimenting with wave and pay systems that use NFC enabled credit cards, cellphone service providers truay try to mused their way into the point of sale (POS)market. Three big cell phone service providers have formed a joinf tenture(合资企业)that will go into opention over the next 15 months. Its goal is“to lead the U.S. payments industry from cards to mobile phone.”
The other big NFC sue, apart from how paymeats will be processed, is security, For instance, what’s to stop a thief from digitally pickpocketing you? “We’re still not at the point where an attacker can just brush against yee in a crowd and steal all the money out of your phone,”says Jimmy Shah. A mobile security rescarcher, “Usera may also be able to set transaction timeits,requiring a password to be enteced for larger putchases.
Bussiness? Keep in mund you lost your smart phone, it can be located on a located on a map and remotely disabled. Plus, your phone can be password protected, Your wallet isn’t.What is predicted to happen in the U.S.?
| A．The expansion of cellphone companices. |
| B．The boom of pay by phone business. |
| C．The dissppearanceof credit cards. |
| D．The increase of Starbucks sales.s |
The NFC technology can be used to________.
| A．ensure the safety of shoppers |
| B．collect transaction fees easily |
| C．make purchase faster and smpler |
| D．improve the quality of cellphones |
Three cellphone service providers form a joint venture to__________.
| A．strengthen their relationship |
| B．get a share in the payments industry |
| C．sell more cellphones |
| D．test the NFC teehnoingy |
According to the what can users do if they lose their smart phones?
| A．Stop the luneting of niet phones. |
| B．Stop a passwant. |
| C．Cat all the money out of their phones. |
| D．Can large purchases. |
Feeling blue about world ? “Cheer up.” Says science writer Matt Ridley.”The world has never been a better place to live in, and it will keep on getting better both for humans and got nature.”
Ridley calls himself a tat ional optimist—tactical .because he’s carefully weighed the evidence optimistic .because that offence shows human progress to be both unavoidable and good .And this is what he’s set out to prone from unique point of view in his most recent book. The Rant anal Opting .He views mankind as grand enterprise that .on the whole .has done little but progress for 100.000 years. He backed his finding with hard gathered though years of research.
Here’s how he explains his views.
Shopping fuels invention
It is reported that there are more than ten billion different producers for sale in London alone. Even allowing for the many people who still live in poverty .our own generation has access to more nutritious food .more convenient transport .bigger houses, better ears .and of course, more pounds and dollars than any who lived before us .This will continue as long as we there things to make other things, This more we specialize and exchange, the better off we’ll be.
2) Brilliant advances
One reason we are richer, healthier, taller, cleverer, longer-lived and freer than ener before is that the four most basie human needs -food, clothing, fuel and shelter- have grown a lot cheaper. Take one example. In 1800 a candle providing one hour’s light cost six hours’ work. In the 1880s the same light from an oil lamp took 15 minutes’ work to pay for. In 1950 it was eight seconds. Today it’s half second.
3) Let’s not kill ourselves for climate change
Mitigating(减轻) climate change could prove just as damaging to human welface as climate change itself. A child that dies from indoor smoke in a village, where the use of fassil-fuel(化石燃料) electrieity is forhidden by well meaming members of green polucal movements trying to save the world, is just as great a tragedy as a child that mes in a flood caused by climate change. If chmaic change proves to be xxxx, but cutting carbon canses realparn, we may well find that we have stopped a nose bleed by putting a tournquet(止血带) around our necks.What is the theme of Ridley’s most recent book?
| A．Weakness of human nature. |
| B．Concern about climate change. |
| C．Importance of practical thinking. |
| D．Optimism about human progress. |
How does Ridley look at shopping?
| A．It encourages the creation of things. |
| B．It results in shortage of goods. |
| C．It demands more fossil fuels. |
| D．It causes a poverry problem. |
The candle and lamp example is used to show that .
| A．oil lamps give off more light than candles |
| B．shortening working time brings about a happier life. |
| C．advanced technology helps to produce better candles. |
| D．increased production rate leads to lower cost of goods. |
What does the last sentence of the passage imply?
| A．Cutting carbon is necessary in spite of the huge cost. |
| B．Overreaction to cliamate change may be dangerous. |
| C．People’s health is closely related to climate change. |
| D．Careless medical treatment may cause great pain. |
In today's throw away society, dealing with the city's growing mountain of waste is an inereasing challenge for the city countil(市议会)。
Recently. Edinburgh is faced with the problem of dssposing of(处理)about250,000 Million tons of waster a year . Despite different ways to dispose of much of it in a green manner---largely through encouraging tecycling---its aging facilities such as the Powderhall landfill do not have the ability to deal with it.
The European Union(EU) has issued a new policy, regulating how such mountains of waster are to hr disposed of. The five councils (Edinburgh. East Lothian. West Lothian. Midlethian and Borders) face fine around $18million a year from 2013 it they don't inerease recycling levels and rely less on landfill. With this in mind, the coumlls got together with the idea of building a lage incinerator plant (垃圾焚烧厂)to burn half of the waste produced in their districts. But the plan fell apart after the change of target levels by a new UK government waste policy which required that no more than 25% of the city's waste should be disposed of in this way by 2025.
After the plan was abandoned, a private company which already transported millions of tons of the city's wast by train to a landfill site near Dunbar, offered an alternative soution when it suggested opening a huge waste site near Portobello.
Since Powderhall is supposed to close in 2015, it seemed necessary for the members of the Edinburgh Council to accept the suggestion. But soon they turned it down-after 700 local objections reached them-because it would have meant hundreds of lorries a day making loud noise through heavily populated areas.
That still leaves eth council with a problem. By 2013,only50%of 1995 levels of waste will benllewed to be sent to landfill. Even if recveling large are met, there will still be a large amount of rubbish to be burnt up. Due build an Edinburgh and Midlothian councils have now decided to work together to build an ineinerator plant as time to find a solution is fast running out.
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The main way of handling waste in a green manmer in Edinburgh is.
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The five councils worked out a plan to build an incinerator plant to.
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The city council of Edinburgh rejected the suggestion to open a huge landfill site near Portobello because.
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What is the final dream an Edinburgh and Midlothian Country ?
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Howling is a behavior commonly observed among a wolf nark. An animals, wolves work together to hunt and rely on howling was an important means of communication each other. There are different explants of a wolf’s howl and it appears that there may be more to discover. One theory is that wolves howl to bend better together. It’s almost as if howling together helps the pack stay together. Perhaps something similar to people feeling a sense of involvement with each other when singing a song together . But this theory may be wrong, explains Fred H. Harington, a professor who studies wolf behavior. Indeed, there have been tines when wolves have been seen one moment howling in a exhorts, and the next, quarreling anions each other. It appears that usually the lowest-tanking menthes of the pack may actually be “punished” for
Joining in the churs at times. So is howling a way to strcagthen a social boad or just a way to reconfirm status among its members? ——Why do welves howl for sure?
What is cleat, however, is that howling is often used among packmates to locate each other. Hunting grounds are distant and it happens that woloves may separate from one another at times. When this happens, howling appcars to be an ercellent means of gathering.
Howling, interestingly, is a contagious behaviour. When one wolf starts to howl, very likely others will follow. This is often seen to occat in the morning, as if wolves were doing some sotr of “roll rall”where wolves all howl togeter to howl, very likely others will follow. This is often seen to occar in the morning, as if wolves were doing w some sotr of “roll call”where wolves all howl together to repotr their pteence..What the por similarity between wolves’ how humaes ting in chorus?
| A．The act of calling each other. |
| B．the sense of accomplishment. |
| C．The act of hunting for something. |
| D．The sense of belonging to a group. |
.Why does Harrington think the“secial boad”theory may be wrong?
| A．Wolves separate from each other after howling. |
| B．Wolves tend to protect their hunting grounds. |
| C．Wolves sometimes have quarrels after howling together. |
| D．Wolves of low rank are encouraged to join in the chorus. |
Reseatchers are sure that wolves often howl to______.
| A．show their ranks |
| B．find their companion |
| C．report the missing ones |
| D．express their lonelingess |
“Howling… is a contagious behaviour”(in the last paragraph)means_ ______.
| A．howling is a signal for hunting |
| B．howling is a way of communication |
| C．howling aften occurs in the morning |
| D．howling spreads from one to another |
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