A winter wonderland on the outskirts of Quebec City has become one of Canada's hottest attractions and most sought out accommodations. Guests stay close for warmth in sleeping bags on beds of ice, hats pulled over their ears to prevent frostbite, while sipping cocktails (鸡尾酒) in glasses also made of ice.
A cool place to host a memorable wedding or for a romantic getaway, the Quebec Ice Hotel has attracted 600,000 curious tourists, including 30,000 who stayed overnight, since opening seasonally 11 years ago. Like Victoria and Jeremy Martin, dozens of couples will exchange vows (誓约) this winter in a temporary church next to the hotel, made entirely from blocks of ice with seats covered in furs.
Average temperatures fall below minus 20 degrees C (minus four F) in winter, but inside the hotel's 36 rooms it is relatively comfortable. Thick walls of packed snow and ice act as an insulator, trapping body heat inside. Each room is uniquely decorated, using designs created by Quebec architecture students. Two hotel bars also sell special cocktails in ice glasses.
First-time guests of the hotel, however, are recommended to stay only one night as sleeping in sub-zero temperatures is not very refreshing. This year for the first time the ice hotel has teamed up with a brick and concrete Quebec City hotel to offer packages(全套服务) for one-night accommodations at each. Prices for one night only at the ice hotel start at 200 US dollars per person.
The 3,000-square-metre (32,300-square-feet) buildings take six weeks starting in December to build, using 15,000 tons of snow and 500 tons of ice, at a cost of some 750,000 US dollars. Eleven weeks after its seasonal grand opening, the hotel will close on March 27 and then melt away with the arrival of spring.What is true with the ice hotel?
| A．630,000 people have visited it. |
| B．Its rooms all look alike. |
| C．It stays open for two months each year. |
| D．Wedding ceremonies are often held there. |
The underlined word “insulator” in Paragraph 3 possibly refers to something that ______.
| A．stops heat passing through it | B．collects and reflects light and heat |
| C．makes things become very cold | D．works like an air-conditioner |
First-time guests are advised to stay there only one night because _______.
| A．they may not be able to stand the cold |
| B．their other night is with an ordinary hotel |
| C．new guests have no advantages over old ones |
| D．they may find the beds made of ice too hard to sleep on. |
| Looking for Teens Interested in Child Care This is a chance for teens to accompany a child through projects and activities, play with them indoors and outdoors, help with arts and crafts, deliver flyers to homes in the neighborhood，and so on. When: We welcome teen volunteers whenever they are available. How often: Our volunteers determine the amount of time they give and their schedule. Where: Wilder Child Development Center, 911 Lafond Ave. St. Paul |
| Library Intern （实习生） Part-time, Temporary $12.48一$13 .87 /per hour Program: Wilder Research Responsibilities: Help with moving to new buildings, record reports and other documents using a specialized library database, get items from area libraries, help library users, help with literature searches, other everyday library chores, and so on. Qualifications: Bachelor's Degree with some library experience or a current Master of Library and Information Science student. Strong attention to detail, good search skills and customer service skills. How to apply: Send resume to Wilder Research, 1295 Bandna Blvd, or send an e-mail to jobs@wilder.org. |
| Site Responder Part-time, Regular $9.46一$10.52/per hour Program: Jackson St. Village Responsibilities: Work at night to handle emergencies, provide services such as lawn care and snow removal, support the needs of residents and take care of the property and buildings. Qualifications: Must have good communication skills and must be able to solve the problems and concerns of the residents, their visitors, and staff. Individuals or teams are encouraged to apply. How to apply: Send resume to Wilder Foundation, 516 Humboldt Avenue, St.Paul, MN 55107 or a fax to （651） 223-7273, or an e-mail to jobs@wilder.org. |
As a volunteer in the child center, __________
| A．you should follow the schedule of the center strictly |
| B．you must keep the child you look after indoors |
| C．you will earn some money for what you have done |
| D．you yourself can decide how long to stay there |
What may NOT be needed if you apply to Wilder Research program?
A college degree and library experience.
B. Having knowledge of the Internet.
C. Being willing to help others
D. Being able to handle emergencies.From the third advertisement, we can learn that __________．
| A．only individuals can apply for the job |
| B．applicants should pay close attention to detail |
| C．applicants are required to do some physical work |
| D．applicants will deliver flyers homes in the neighborhood. |
The three advertisements _________．
| A．are not all for part-time opportunities |
| B．are not all chances to make some extra money |
| C．all can be communicated on the Internet |
| D．are offered by the same organization |
Everyone gets sick of hearing. “Put on your seat belt!”But it’s good advice. People who wear seat belts are 45 percent less likely to be killed while riding in the front seat of a car.
The US government wants more seat belt laws. It says children aged 4 to 15 are often killed in car accidents. In 2005, there were 1,627 children aged 4 to 15 killed in car accidents. More than 1,000 of those children were not wearing seat belts. If they had been wearing seat belts, 500 of those children could be alive today.
These children are too old to be in car seats, but they often sit in the back seat. Seat belt laws in many states, including Wisconsin, only require people in the front seat to wear seat belts. Children who aren’t wearing seat belts can be thrown from the car. The risk of dying in an accident is three times greater if the person is thrown from the car.
New laws could require children aged 4 to 8 to be in booster seats in the car. Booster seats help seat belts fit children properly. Right now, only 5 percent of children aged 4 to 8 are seated in booster seats.
While parents have the choice of whether wearing seat belts or not, children are too young to make that choice. Even if you decide not to wear a seat belt, make sure you children are in seat belts and car seats. It’s the law and it will save their lives.The underlined sentence “Everyone gets sick of hearing”in the first paragraph means“________”.
| A．there is something wrong with everyone’s ears |
| B．all people fall ill when they hear something |
| C．many people don’t pay attention to wearing seat belts |
| D．none of the people knows it is a piece of good advice |
More than two-third of 1,627 children were killed because ___________.
| A．they weren’t using seat belts |
| B．they were too careful when they walked on the road |
| C．they were not old enough to sit in the car |
| D．they wore seat belts |
You must get your children to put on seat belts in order to ________.
| A．keep them comfortable in the car seat | B．keep them safe |
| C．keep them awake in the car all the time | D．prevent all kinds of traffic accidents |
What would be the best title of this passage?
| A．Children Should Put on Seat Belts. |
| B．Too Many Traffic Accidents Happened Recently. |
| C．Traffic Laws Are Very Important. |
| D．Parents Are Important to Children. |
When I was 15, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my short-comings(缺点). Week by week her list grew. I was skinny(瘦的), I talked too loud, I was too proud, and so on. I put up with(忍受)her as long as I could. At last, I ran to my father in tears and anger. He listened to my outburst quietly. They he asked, “Are the things she says the true or not?”True? I wanted to know how to strike back. What did truth have to do with it?
“Mary, didn’t you ever wonder what you are really like? Well, you now have that girl’s opinion. ”Go and make a list of every thing she said and mark the points that are true. You needn’t pay attention to the other things she said.
I did as he told me and discovered to my surprise that about half the things are true. Some of them I couldn’t change(like being skinny), but a good number I could and suddenly wanted to change. For the time in my life I began to get a quiet clear picture of myself.
I brought the list back to Daddy, but he wouldn’t take it.“That’s just for you,”he said.“You know better than any else the truth about yourself, once you hear it. But you’ve got to learn to listen, not close your ears in anger or hurt. When someone says something about you, you’ll know if it’s true or not. If it is ,you’ll find it will echo(共鸣)inside you.”
“I still don’t think it very nice of her to talk about me in front of everybody.”
“Mary, there is one way you could stop others talking about you ever again, and criticizing(批评) you—just say nothing and do nothing. But then, if you do that, you’d find you were nothing. You wouldn’t like that now, would you?”“No, I admitted(承认)”One day the writer ran to her father in tears and anger because__________.
| A．she found she talked too much. | B．she found she was too proud. |
| C．her classmates were not friendly to her. | D．a girl pointed out many of her shortcomings. |
The writer’s father asked her ____________.
| A．to pay attention to all that her“enemy”said about her. |
| B．not to pay attention to what her“enemy”said about her. |
| C．to pay attention only to the points that were true about her. |
| D．to pay attention only to the points that were not true about her. |
The writer found that___________.
| A．about half the things her“enemy”said were true. |
| B．most of the things her“enemy”said were true. |
| C．few of the things her“enemy”said were true. |
| D．none of the things her“enemy”said were true. |
The writer’s father thinks__________.
| A．if one says nothing and does nothing, people will praise him. |
| B．one should not do anything because others will talk about him. |
| C．it is not good to talk about others. |
| D．everyone is talked about by others. |
I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died “full of years”, as the Bible would say. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence (吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.
At the first home, the son of the deceased (已故的) woman said to me, “If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow , she would be alive today. It’s my fault that she died.” At the second home, the son of the other deceased woman said, “If only I hadn’t insisted on my mother’s going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take. It’s my fault that she’s dead.”
You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out badly, they believe that the opposite course — keeping Mother at home, putting off the operation — would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?
There seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.
The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.
A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to its tasks. He cries, and someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.The author had to hold the two women’s funerals probably because .
| A．he wanted to comfort the two families | B．he was an official from the community |
| C．he had great pity for the deceased | D．he was priest of the local church |
People feel guilty for the deaths of their loved ones because .
| A．they couldn’t find a better way to express their sorrow |
| B．they believe that they were responsible |
| C．they had neglected the natural course of events |
| D．they didn’t know things often turn out in the opposite direction |
According to the passage, the underlined part in paragraph 4 probably means that .
| A．everything in the world is predetermined |
| B．the world can be interpreted in different ways |
| C．there’s an explanation for everything in the world |
| D．we have to be sensible in order to understand the world |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Life and death is an unsolved mystery. |
| B．Every story should have a happy ending. |
| C．Never feel guilty all the time because not every disaster is our fault. |
| D．In general, the survivors will feel guilty about the people who passed away. |
What is a good education? The question is far from being answered. Once more, colleges and universities are changing their programs: they drop "fun courses" and restart some of the traditional subjects neglected (忽视) since the 1960s. Many great schools are again requiring the students to take a number of classes in English, history, literature, the social sciences, philosophy, the natural sciences, and art if they want to get a degree. Meanwhile, the experts are trying to describe the good education of our time. Obviously the purely vocational training once favored is not enough. But neither is the gentleman's education of the nineteenth century. Educational programs must meet the demands of a modern world where men and women have to work and to deal with big problems.
What, then, is a good education of this century? Some educators suggest that it should include foreign languages and the study of foreign cultures; a mastery of English, including the ability to write and speak well, because communications have become all-important in the modern world, and also because "a person who doesn't speak and write clearly doesn't reason clearly either"; some knowledge of the social sciences (sociology, psychology) that deal with human relations and human problems; some basic knowledge of modern science, which would enable future voters to be better informed about current problems like nuclear. Finally, many educators insist that all college graduates should be familiar with computers and modern information system since the educated professionals of tomorrow will have to understand their machines. Is that all? "No, of course not." answer the educators. "We have not mentioned the two great building blocks of education: history and literature!" The best title for this passage might be _______.
| A．Education | B．A Mastery of English |
| C．A Good Education | D．Something About Study |
The underlined word "drop" in the first paragraph means _______.
| A．desert | B．dislike | C．decline | D．neglect |
The author thinks that the question about what a good education is _______.
| A．has been answered fairly well |
| B．hasn't been put forward yet |
| C．has been dealt with successfully |
| D．has not been answered satisfactorily |
Some educational experts believe a mastery of English should include the ability _______.
| A．to read fast | B．to write and speak well |
| C．to write clearly and accurately | D．to listen and speak skillfully |
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