John, a famous musician, took his priceless antique violin and played it in the crowded subway station. The music from the violin was delicately streaming throughout the whole station. However, during the one-hour play, only six or seven people were truly appreciating the charming music. A three-year-old kid was so fascinated by the music that he forgot everything around. John only got 52 dollars for his work that day.
However, in normal days, when John is about to hold a concert, one ticket can be sold at more than 100 dollars and it is extremely hard to buy a ticket even at such a high price. Therefore, later, many passers-by in the station that day felt deeply regretful for not recognizing the famous musician and missing such a valuable but cheap music feast.
I have a very busy friend who had totally changed after knowing that his wife came down with incurable illness. He cooked by himself for the family and took a walk with his wife every day. Nonetheless, his wife still did not manage to conquer the illness and passed away after three months. After that, he often sighed miserably that due to his past busy life, he had missed a lot of beautiful time with his wife. But now, it is impossible to make up for it.
It is no use crying over spilt milk. We have missed a lot of precious things in our life without knowing to cherish them.
Actually, I also missed something precious before. The reason why we would have missed those precious things is less than simple: we had thought that we could still own them tomorrow.
Nevertheless, tomorrow is actually by no means reliable. There was a famous Buddhist monk saying that in many people’s lives, they have only done two things: waiting and regretting. The result is that they were always too late to cherish what they had before they lost it. We would often claim to do something when we grow up, or when we have money or when we become old, etc. However, when we reach the condition we have expected, we could no longer realize our wish, because we have lost it by then.The reason why people often regret may be that _______.
| A．they are too busy to notice the beautiful things |
| B．they are too careless to cherish precious things |
| C．they are lazy to observe the surroundings |
| D．they think that it’s none of their business |
The idea the author would like to get across to us seems that _______.
| A．actions speak louder than words |
| B．a bad beginning makes a bad ending |
| C．the lost will never come back |
| D．each day brings its own bread |
What method does the author employ to support his opinion？
| A．By listing data. | B．By comparing the details . |
| C．By explaining the procedures . | D．By taking examples. |
How do we understand the underlined parts “waiting and regretting”?
| A．Many people will not cherish what they have until they lost them. |
| B．Many people cannot do well until they get older. |
| C．Many people know what they are doing. |
| D．Many people regret for what they don’t possess. |
You don't need to get in a time-traveling machine to see how technology will reshape our lives, such as the way we shop．Several new technologies that are to change your buying habits already exist．Let's see what's in store for your future shopping．
Try it on, virtually （虚拟的）．Want to shop online for a new pair of eyeglasses? You don't need to guess which pair looks best on you. Go and see the eBay Fashion iPhone app to try a pair of eyewear you're checking out on a picture of your face．But what if you want to buy something bigger? Thanks to Microsoft Kinect's motion tracking camera, you can cover clothes on your screen body．You can even choose the background of your virtual fitting room to enrich your shopping experience．
Get a perfect, custom fit．Everyone's body is shaped differently．To get a perfect fit, you sometimes have to get your clothes changed．But by using 3D scanning technology, all the clothes you buy will fit your body perfectly．Some companies scan your body using High-tech to get the most accurate measurements, so they can make special clothes just for you．
High-tech shopping carts and checkout counters．High-tech shopping carts could, in time, be a common sight in malls and supermarkets．Microsoft Kinect-enabled carts are currently under test．The cart can follow you along the aisles （通道）, controlled merely by your movement and your voice．In China, a supermarket chain introduced tablet-equipped carts that guide shoppers around the stores' aisles．
In the United States, several supermarkets use a device called Scan It that gives buyers the freedom to scan purchases on their own while they shop．While it's great not having to line up at a checkout counter, we wouldn't mind it if the store used Toshiba's new Object Recognition Scanner．The machine identifies a product as soon as it's placed in front of a camera just by its shape and color, even if it has no bar code．What's the best title for this text?
| A．Ways for future shopping |
| B．Influence of new technology |
| C．Inventions to change habits |
| D．A new time-traveling machine |
According to Paragraph 2, The eBay Fashion iPhone app can _____．
| A．make vivid pictures of our face |
| B．help us sell more clothes online |
| C．create us a virtual dressing room |
| D．choose suitable eyeglasses for us |
Which of the following can get the most accurate shape of our body?
| A．Object Recognition Scanner． |
| B．The eBay Fashion iPhone app． |
| C．3D scanning technology． |
| D．Microsoft Kinect-enabled carts． |
The Object Recognition Scanner can identify a product more quickly by____．
| A．the customer's voice |
| B．its shape and color |
| C．the customer's movement |
| D．the bar code on it |
What can we infer from this text?
| A．Checkout counters will disappear from supermarkets in future． |
| B．Buyers can use Scan It to go around the supermarket by themselves． |
| C．High-tech shopping carts will be widely used in malls and supermarkets． |
| D．The new technologies are only dreams that are impossible to come true． |
AFRICAN MANGO FAQs
Q : How do I use AFRICAN MANGO?
A : It’s simple… Just take one rapid – release capsule, 3 times daily before meals (i.e., 30 minutes before breakfast, lunch, and dinner.)
Q : Is it safe?
A : Yes. Unlike other diet pills, Pure African Mango Extract (lrvingia gabonensis) does not contain any natural or artificial stimulants. Clinical studies have shown this nutrient to be both safe and well-tolerated. It’s easy on your system and helps you lose body fat naturally.
Q : Who uses AFRICAN MANGO?
A : Everybody from A-List Hollywood movie stars to everyday men and women who want to lose pounds and inches of excess body fat. It’s currently popular in Hollywood today because many of today’s movie scripts call for actors and actresses to be in their absolute best shape.
Q : Do I have to exercise and diet in order to see results?
A : Research shows 100% Pure African Mango Extract helped people lose weight and belly fat without additional diet or exercise. However, in order to achieve your best weight–loss results, we highly recommend incorporating fun lifestyle exercises (like walking, tennis, etc.) and replacing high-calorie foods with healthy nutrient–dense foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and lean proteins. Also, drinking more water daily speeds weight loss, according to a new study from Viginia Tech University.
Q : When I place my order, it’s a one-time-only transaction (交易), right?
A : Yes. Rest assured. When you shop with us, you can shop with confidence and peace of mind. Every order placed with us is 100% safe and secure. Our site is scanned and tested daily by McAfee SECURE. “The McAfee SECURE” trust mark (see the upper-left corner of our website) only appears when the website has passed their intensive, daily security scan.
What’s more, our customers never have to worry about being enrolled in auto-reship or auto-rebilling (自动付款) scams (骗局). Each and every order placed with us is a one-time-only transaction.
CONSUMER TIP: Beware of sites that offer “free trials”, which claim to charge only a small fee for shipping. However, more often than not, these “free trials” websites will continue to charge your card for regular monthly shipments if you don’t return your “free trials” within 10 to 14 days.
As the Official Website of African Mango, we offer only the purest, most effective African Mango available. What’s more, as an accredited business, we do not engage in auto-rebilling, auto-reshipping, or any other business practices that are considered morally unacceptable. Your results, and your satisfaction, are 100% guaranteed. What does the word FAQs in the title of the article mean?
| A．Fully accepted qualities. |
| B．Fantastic African qualities. |
| C．Face – to – face associated quotations. |
| D．Frequently asked questions. |
In what way will the medicine take effect to its fullest?
| A．Take pills regularly and you are sure to achieve your absolute best shape. |
| B．Drinking more water daily will guarantee the pills to work efficiently. |
| C．A healthy diet, adequate water and more exercise will contribute. |
| D．High-calorie food and enough water are essential to make the pills work well. |
It can be learned from the passage that___________________. .
| A．the pills are unpopular with film stars |
| B．auto-rebilling and auto-reshipping are reliable business practices |
| C．Virginia Tech University doubted whether drinking water helps lose weight |
| D．the one-time-only transaction service ensures customers’ confidence |
How can we buy African Mango securely?
| A．We can place an order securely with the help of search engine. |
| B．The official web site is your best choice. |
| C．McAfee SECURE promises the security of your order. |
| D．Many web sites providing “free trials” service are considered to be secure. |
Dear Alcohol,
You’ve been around forever. I can remember all the pain you’ve caused for me.
Do you remember the night you almost took my father’s life? I do. He loves you. Sometimes I think he loves you more than he loves me. He’s addicted to you, to the way you promise to rid him of his problems only to cause more of them. You just sat back and laughed as his car went spinning through the street, crashing into two other cars. He wasn’t the only one hurt by you that night.
Do you remember the night of my first high school party? You were there. My friends were intrigued by you. They treated you as if they were never going to see you again, drinking all of you that they could. I spent two hours that night helping my friends who had fallen completely. “I’m so embarrassed,” they said as I held their hair back so that they could vomit (呕吐). “I’m sorry,” they said when I called taxies for them, walking them out and paying the driver in advance. “This won’t happen again,” they said as they were sent to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped. Two 15-year-old girls slept in hospital beds that night thanks to you.
Do you remember the night when you took advantage of my 17-year-old neighbor who had to drive to pick up his sister from her dance lessons? Do you know how we all felt when he hit another car and killed the two people in the other car? He died the next morning too. His sister walked home from her dance lesson, and passed police cars and a crowd of people gathering on the sidewalk just two blocks away from the dance studio. She didn’t realize her brother was in the midst of it all. She never saw him again. And it’s all your fault.
I wish you’d walk out of my life forever. I don’t want anything to do with you. Look at all the pain you’ve caused. Sure, you’ve made people happy too from time to time. But the damage you’ve caused in the lives of millions is inexcusable. Stop luring (引诱) in the people I love. Stop hurting me, please.
Sincerely,AnonymousWhat is author’s purpose in writing to alcohol?
| A．To introduce Mr. Alcohol to the readers |
| B．To describe the harm alcohol did to his family. |
| C．To show how much alcohol can hurt people. |
| D．To show the great fun that alcohol can bring to people’s life. |
What did alcohol do to the author’s father?
| A．It made him crash into two other cars and took his life. |
| B．It made him drink too much and he had to get his stomach pumped. |
| C．It made him kill two other people when driving. |
| D．It made him get into a car accident and badly injure himself. |
The underlined phrase “were intrigued by” is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．were familiar with | B．were interested in |
| C．were disappointed with | D．were satisfied with |
What is the tone of the article?
| A．Critical. | B．Doubtful. | C．Unconcerned. | D．Humorous. |
What is the main writing technique of the passage?
| A．Making something more noticeable than usual. |
| B．Representing something in the form of a person. |
| C．Describing something by listing its harmfulness. |
| D．Comparing one thing with another to make his point clear. |
We are always told that TV is not good for us. If it is true, how come the TV-addicted kids of our young generation nowadays are much smarter than we are? In my family, the only persons who can work the TV remote control well are the children.
Probably TV really educates us. For example, we can learn a very useful medical fact: A man that has been shot always has time to speak a broken sentence when he is dying. “The killer was…” (dies)
But I suppose the biggest things that we learn from TV can be regarded as “Life Skills”. Bad things simply happen on either stormy or dark nights. Emotional breakdowns make people wander in the heavy rain without raincoats or umbrellas. And contrary to the scientists, the crack of lightning and the accompanying flash come on at exactly the same time, wherever the scenes are.
I’ve even got to know useful geographical facts from science-fiction shows: Aliens only speak the language of English no matter which planet they come from.
To make good use of something that we learn from TV can make our security better. Consider these truths. When you are really attacked by 20 bad guys, you needn’t worry about your being outnumbered. The criminals will hang back and take turns to approach you in ones and twos just so you can conveniently defeat them all. Bad guys who are completely covered in black clothes always remove their black masks to reveal that they are in fact, aha, women.
TV often teaches us a lot of important information as well about escaping from danger. Watch and learn. (1) If anyone is running after you down a passage, you will find that boxes have been conveniently placed near all the walls you need to jump over. (2) If you are tall and handsome, you can run from any number of armed criminals, and every shot will miss you.
Be warned, however, if your name card says “henchman” (帮凶) and you are part of a group of plain-looking people trying to catch a handsome individual, a single shot will kill you. But don’t be anxious: TV also delivers useful information for bad guys. All cars are inflammable (易燃的) and have amazing shock absorbers that enable them to fly into the air and land without damage — except police cars.
TV even teaches us about TV. Whenever anyone turns on a TV, it shows a news flash about someone they know. They then turn the box off immediately after that news item. When the writer says “A man that has been shot always has time to speak a broken sentence when he is dying” (Paragraph 2), he shows his________.
| A．humor | B．sympathy | C．deep concern | D．medical knowledge |
We can learn from Paragraph 3 that in the real world________.
| A．bad things cause people to break down in the rain |
| B．bad things never happen on dark and stormy nights |
| C．people with emotional problems like to walk in the rain without umbrellas |
| D．you can’t hear the crack of lightning and see the accompanying flash exactly at the same time |
On TV what usually happens when a person turns it on?
| A．The program shown is always about the importance of TV. |
| B．The person always turns off the TV when it’s time for news. |
| C．The news shown is always about someone the person knows. |
| D．TV always shows news about famous people. |
What’s the main idea of this passage?
| A．Life skills can be learned from TV. |
| B．What happens in TV is quite different from reality. |
| C．Watching TV makes people more creative. |
| D．TV plays an important role in society. |
The writer of this passage takes a(n) ________ attitude towards TV plays.
| A．positive | B．casual | C．negative | D．indifferent |
For as early as I could remember, my mother had been a bright, cheerful woman deeply interested and involved in the world around her. However, in the last fifteen years of her life, she had to live with senile dementia (老年痴呆). I would go to my home to pay her a visit in California and she would curiously look at me and then ask, “Who are you?” I would answer, “I’m your own son, of course.” “Where do you live?” She would ask. “In Virginia”, I would tell her. “Isn’t that interesting,” she would say, “I have a son in Virginia.”
Mother seemed only forgetful as well as confused at the beginning of that disease, but sometime later she would go through different time of intense anxiety. She would keep walk ing through the house she used to live in most of her life crying uneasily that she would like to go home. Or sometimes she left home and wandered away if she were unattended for a short time.
Hoping to make her happy and put her mind at ease I would take her in my car, visiting sites where she used to live when she was a child. In the yard of the hillside house in Shipman I sat in the car and admired the view of the old oaks and long green lawn(草坪). I pictured my mother there was a little girl playing with the pet lamb she had been so fond of. I looked to her for some response. She shook her head and said, “I want to go home.”
Over the years I have decided that what my mother was calling home was not a place, but a time. I think it was a time when she was much younger, when her children were still underfoot, when her husband was still energetic and attentive.
Watching my mother’s suffering set me wondering where I would have in mind if someday I couldn’t find home and wanted to go there. In this family we tend to be long-lived and we grow fuzzy (糊涂的) minded as the years go by. At eighty I have already noticed some alarming symptoms. My doctor says the forgetfulness is only natural and that it comes with age. Still the fear of senile dementia is haunting there. Someday if and when I become even more cloudy minded than I am now, unable to drive and unable to tell you where "home" is, my dear son, I expect I will ask you to take me home, I know you will do your best to find the place I need to be. I leave these notes for your guidance. What’s the main idea of the first and second paragraphs?
| A．The mother of the author could not find her home. |
| B．The mother of the author could not remember who’s his son. |
| C．The author’s mother suffered with serious senile dementia. |
| D．The author didn’t know how to cure his mother. |
Which of the following is NOT the symptom of the mother of the author?
| A．forgetful | B．confused | C．cheerful | D．uneasy |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word “picture”?
| A．photograph | B．describe | C．appear | D．paint |
What can you infer from the third paragraph?
| A．The author cared much about his mother. |
| B．The mother of the author liked pet lambs very much. |
| C．The author found a very little girl who was playing with a pet lamb. |
| D．The mother of the author did not like her usual home. |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Where Is Home? | B．A story about a son and a mother. |
| C．Everyone will suffer with senile dementia. | D．Take Mother Home. |
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