Fans of US television dramas watch their favorite series for different reasons: some want to improve their English skills, others just want to kill time.
Some TV series are more than pure entertainment―they have a certain depth. Mad Men, which returned with a sixth season recently; Monday Mornings, which just finished its first season; and Modern Family, which sweeps the awards every year, are just a few examples.
Why do these shows stand out among so many similar ones? TV critics Raymond Zhou will give you an idea of why some shows are better than others.
Period drama—More than time travel
Period dramas are intended to capture the ambience (气氛) of a particular era. Directors must therefore attract audiences as much by their recreation of a historical setting as by an interesting storyline.
Mad Men is an excellent example of this balance being struck. Set in New York during the 1960s, it accurately shows US attitudes in the workplace through the alcoholism and chain-smoking common of the time, and places an absorbing plot right in its center.
But rather than merely presenting a past decade, Mad Men’s subtle (微妙的) description of the struggles of white-collar workers at the time, both male and female, makes it stand out.
“The series’ attention to detail is superb,” Raymond Zhou said. “For example, creator Matthew Weiner makes Don Draper―the leading role of the series―drive a Buick instead of a Cadillac, because Weiner thinks the ad man lacks the self-pride to buy a luxury car. It’s this kind of attentiveness that raises the show’s artistic value.”
Critics also recommend
Another period drama that works is Broadwalk Empire, set during the prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Heather Havrilesky at Salon magazine noted how the show “revels in the oddities(怪事) of its time, peeling back the layers of polite society to reveal a shadow world of criminals and politicians working together to keep the liquor flowing.”
Why does it appeal to viewers? Because they know that the “liquor” is a metaphor (暗喻) for today’s political scandals (丑闻). How many US TV series are mentioned in this passage?
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
The following statements are the reasons why many people are attracted by US television dramas EXCEPT that __________.
| A．US television dramas merely present a past decade |
| B．directors recreate a historical setting and adopt interesting storylines |
| C．the dramas can improve their English skills, and help people kill time |
| D．some TV series are more than pure entertainment, and they have a certain depth |
According to Raymond Zhou, Don Draper’s driving a Buick instead of a Cadillac shows __________.
| A．Mad Men attaches much importance to details |
| B．Mad Men places an absorbing plot right in its center |
| C．the director wants to raise the show’s artistic value |
| D．Mad Men’s description of the struggling white-collar workers makes it stand out |
What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．Directors of US dramas. | B．US dramas and their storylines. |
| C．US period dramas to kill time. | D．US dramas and their magic touch. |
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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑
A
In the early morning of September 7, 2006, Akif woke suddenly．"Where am I?" she thought, confused, only to realize she'd fallen asleep in the children's bedroom in their east-end Montreal apartment．There was a sharp and acrid （刺鼻的） smell in the room．Could that be smoke? She leaped up, opened the door and began to cough．She ignored the flames that lit up the apartment as she raced across the small hall to her own bedroom, where a window was already open, "Help!" she cried into the dark．But it was 3:30 in the morning and nobody was around to hear．She was on her own．
Later, she'd say she thought of nothing at all．It was female's instinct （本能）that helped her uncover a supermum strength she never knew she had．She had no choice; her children would surely have died had they waited in their own bedroom for rescue．She ran back through the flames for her children, first lifting Sami, still half asleep, into her arms and carrying him to the open window in her room and dropping him to the ground from the second floor．Then, she turned back for Majda．
By then, a neighbour had called 9-1-1．Looking out of the window, Akif knew that jumping would be her only chance of survival．She also knew if she didn't, the very reason her family had moved out from Morocco five years earlier—— to make a better life and give the children opportunities they wouldn't have had back home ——would be for nothing．But
why couldn't she move her left leg? She didn't know that her polyester pants had caught fire and melted into her body．All she knew was that she had to get out of the apartment．
56．After finding her house was on fire, Akifwent to her own room to _______.
A．save her children B．wake up her husband
C．ask for help D．escape from the fire
57．We can infer from the passage thatAkif__________．
A．was bom a brave lady B．was brave as a mother
C．liked to be independent D．was careless about her children
58．Why did Akifs family move to the country where they live?
A．Because they longed for a better life and more opportunities．
B．Because they had to continue their study abroad．
C．Because they were forced to leave their motherland．
D．Because they were fond of moving to new places．
59．What follows the last passage is probably about __________．
A．why Akif was praised B．what made Akif so brave
C．how the fire was put out D．how Akif was saved
Many Older Doctors Plan to Give up Their Practice
The results of a new survey indicate that 48 percent of physicians between 50 and 65 years of age are planning to reduce or end their clinical practice in the next l to 3 years. The findings also suggest that many older physicians believe that their younger counterparts do not have the work ethic they do.
The survey, which was conducted by Merritt Hawkins＆Associates, a Texas-based physician search and consulting firm, suggests that many older physicians are simply unhappy with the changes that have taken place in medicine over the years.
"When Baby Boom doctors entered medicine, they had control over how they practiced and the fee they charged. But the rules changed on them in mid-stream and now many are looking for a ticket out," Mark Smith, executive vice president of Merritt Hawkins＆Associates, said in a statement. "Our study is the only one I am aware of that examines the career plans of physicians in the 50-to-65 age group." This age group represents more than one-third of all physicians in the U. S. If they stop working in the coming years, it will have a "significant impact" on the overall supply of physicians, Smith told Reuters Health.
The results of the survey, which included 1,170 respondents（调查对象）, show that 24 percent of older physicians are planning to leave clinical practice all together in the next 1 to 3 years. Specifically, 14 percent said they were planning on retiring, 7 percent said they were looking for a medical job in a non-patient care setting, and 3 percent said they were seeking a job in a non-medical field.
For those physicians not leaving clinical practice, many said they would make changes to reduce the number of patients they treat. For instance, 12 percent said they would begin working part-time, 8 percent said they planned to stop taking new patients or markedly reduce their patient load, and 4 percent expressed a desire to work on a temporary basis.
When asked about the work ethic of physicians entering practice today, 68 percent of the respondents said that these younger doctors are not as dedicated or as hard working as physicians who entered practice 20 t0 30 years ago. Fifty-seven percent of older physicians said they would not recommend medicine as a career to their own children. Similarly, 44 percent said they would not select medicine as a career if they were starting out today.
"The most ominous（不祥的）finding is that about one half of physicians surveyed plant to either abandon patient care in the next 1 to 3 years, or significantly reduce the number of patients they see," Smith said. "The U. S. already is facing a widespread shortage of physicians. Should older, ‘workhorse' physicians choose to give up patient care, access to medical services will be further restricted."
66. Which is NOT true of physicians in the 50-to-65 age group in the U. S.?
A. They are mostly baby boomers.
B. They have nothing to complain about.
C. Many of them plan to gradually stop their practice.
D. They account for over one-third of all physicians in the country.
67. The survey was focused on .
A. the living conditions of older physicians in the U. S.
B. the career plans of older physicians in the U. S.
C. the retirement plans of older physicians in the U. S.
D. the achievements of older physicians in the U.S.
68. Many older physicians in the U. S. view the work ethic of their younger
counterparts .
A. with appreciation B. with disapproval
C. with jealous D. with indifference
69. In the eyes of many older physicians, medicine .
A. comes first in their choice of a career for their children
B. remains their lifelong pursuit
C. is not as good a career as it used to be
D. is more demanding than it used to be
70. If many older physicians stop working in the coming years, Americans will have .
A. even less access to medical services B. even better patient care
C. a shortage of younger physicians D. more job opportunities
Scientists have devised a way to determine roughly where a person has lived using a strand (缕) of hair, a technique that could help track the movements of criminal suspects or unidentified murder victims.
The method relies on measuring how chemical variations in drinking water show up in people’s hair.
“You’re what you eat and drink, and that’s recorded in your hair,” said Thure Ceiling, a geologist at the University of Utah.
While U.S. diet is relatively identical, water supplies vary. The differences result from weather patterns. The chemical composition of rainfall changes slightly as rain clouds move.
Most hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water are stable, but traces of both elements are also present as heavier isotopes (同位素). The heaviest rain falls first. As a result, storms that form over the Pacific deliver heavier water to California than to Utah.
Similar patterns exist throughout the U.S. By measuring the proportion of heavier hydrogen and oxygen isotopes along a strand of hair, scientists can construct a geographic timeline. Each inch of hair corresponds to about two months.
Cerling’s team collected tap water samples from 600 cities and constructed a map of the regional differences. They checked the accuracy of the map by testing 200 hair samples collected from 65 barber shops.
They were able to accurately place the hair samples in broad regions roughly corresponding to the movement of rain systems.
“It’s not good for pinpointing (精确定位),” Ceding said. “It’s good for eliminating many possibilities.”
Todd Park, a local detective, said the method has helped him learn more about an unidentified woman whose skeleton was found near Great Salt Lake.
The woman was 5 feet tall. Police recovered 26 bones, a T-shirt and several strands of hair.
When Park heard about the research, he gave the hair samples to the researchers. Chemical testing showed that over the two years before her death, she moved about every two months.
She stayed in the Northwest, although the test could not be more specific than somewhere between eastern Oregon and western Wyoming.
“It’s still a substantial area,” Park said. “But it narrows it way down for me.”
61. According to the passage scientists’ new discovery is that .
A. One’s hair growth has to do with the amount of water they drink.
B. A person’s hair may reveal where they have lived.
C. Hair analysis accurately identifies criminal suspects.
D. The chemical composition of hair varies from person to person.
62. The underlined sentence “You’re what you eat and drink” (Line 1, Para. 3) means .
A. Food and drink affect one’s personality development.
B. Food and drink preferences vary with individuals.
C. Food and drink leave traces in one’s body tissues.
D. Food and drink are indispensable to one’s existence.
63. Which of the following is true of the rainfall in America’s West?
A. There is much more rainfall in California than in Utah.
B. The water it delivers becomes lighter when it moves inland.
C. Its chemical composition is less stable than in other areas.
D. It gathers more light isotopes as it moves eastward.
64. Cerling’s team produced in their research?
A. a map showing the regional differences of tap water
B. a collection of hair samples from various barber shops
C. a method to measure the amount of water in human hair
D. a chart illustrating the movement of the rain system
65. What is the practical value of Cerling’s research?
A. It helps analyze the quality of water in different regions.
B. It helps the police determine where a crime is committed.
C. It helps the police narrow down possibilities in detective work.
D. It helps identify the drinking habits of the person under investigation.
PART THREE: READING COMPREHENSION (30分)
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are 4 choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage.
A
At dawn on Friday, May 19, 1780, farmers in New England stopped to wonder at the pink color of the sun. By noon the sky had darkened to midnight blackness, causing Americans, still in the painful struggle of a prolonged war of independence, to light candles and tremble at thoughts of the Last Judgment. As the birds quieted and no storm accompanied the darkness, men and women crowded into churches, where one minister commented that “The people were very attentive.” John Greenleaf Whittier later wrote that “Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp . . .”
A recent study of researchers, led by Richard Guyette from the University of Missouri’s Tree Ring Laboratory, has shown that vast forest fires in the Algonquin Highlands of southern Ontario and elsewhere in Canada brought this event upon New England. The scientists have discovered “fire scars” on the rings for that year, left when the heat of a wildfire has killed a part of a tree’s cambium (形成层). Evidence collected also points to a drought that year. An easterly wind and low barometric pressure (低气压) helped force smoke into the upper atmosphere. “The record fits pretty close,” says Guyette. “We had the right fuel, the drought. The conditions were all there.”
Lacking the ability to communicate quickly over long distances, Americans in 1780 remained in the dark about the event, which had disappeared by the next day. Over the next several months, the papers carried heated debates about what brought the darkness. Some were the voices of angry prediction, such as one Massachusetts farmer who wrote, “Oh! Backsliding New-England, attend now to the things which belong to your peace before they are forever hid from your eyes.” Others gave different answers. One stated that a “flaming star” had passed between the earth and the sun. Ash, argued another commentator. The debate, carried on throughout New England, where there were no scientific journals or academies yet, reflected an unfolding culture of scientific enquiry already sweeping the Western world, a revolution nearly as influential as the war for independence from the English.
New Englanders would not soon forget that dark day; it lived on in folklore, poems, and sermons for generations.
56. New Englanders crowded into churches because they were frightened by .
A. the pink color of the sun B. the darkened sky at daytime
C. the Last Judgment on Friday D. the American War of Independence
57. What can we infer about the event in New England on May 19, 1780?
A. Prayers remained silent and attentive.
B. Night birds no longer came out to sing.
C. People’s ears became sharper than usual.
D. Midday meals were served by candlelight.
58. According to the researchers, the origin of the event was .
A. an east wind B. a severe drought
C. some burning fuel D. low barometric pressure
59. What can we know about the debates after the dark day?
A. They focused on causes of the event.
B. They swept throughout the Western world.
C. They were organized by scientific institutions.
D. They improved Americans’ ability to communicate.
60. What can be the best title for the text?
A. New England’s dark day. B. Voices of angry prediction.
C. There is no smoke without fire. D. Tree rings and scientific discovery.
As bananas ripen， the green skin turns ye11ow gradually. Chemical changes occur in the f1esh of the fruit as well：starch（淀粉）changes to sugar；pectin（果胶）breaks down，losing its stiffness； and the f1esh softens.
Is ripening fruit a self－contained system， or is the rate of these changes affected by the environment？ We designed the experiment below to see if different atmospheres， produced by different packaging， affected the rate of ripening. You will vary the atmosphere surrounding unripe bananas and observe the effect on the ripening process。
Now set up the bananas in their environments as follows：
1. Put two green bananas in a paper bag and fo1d the top over to seal out the air.
2．Put one green banana and the very ripe banana in the other paper bag and fold over the top.
3. Put two green bananas in a plastic bag and seal it.
4. Wrap（包）one green banana tightly in a plastic bag.
5. Leave one green banana exposed to the air.
Leave the fruit a1one or five days to ripen. Ripening fruit“breathes”． This means that it takes up oxygen and gives off C02. Oxygen is extremely important and necessary for the chemical reactions involved in ripening. In addition, ripening fruit gives off another gas, called ethylene（乙烯）. Not only is ethylene a product of ripening fruit, it also promotes the further ripening of the fruit.
Paper bags tend to keep the ethylene in, but they allow oxygen and ethylene to pass through slowly. Plastic bags do not allow the free flow of oxygen or ethylene. In this experiment, the green banana in paper bag with the ripe banana should ripen most quickly. The green bananas in the paper bag should ripen faster than the bananas in the plastic bag. The banana left exposed to air has an unlimited supply of oxygen, so it will turn brown most quickly. You will notice that the side of this banana that rests on the counter will ripen more quickly than the other sides, because it has the
closest contact（接触）with its own ethylene. The banana that is tightly wrapped in plastic has no oxygen supply and should ripen most slowly. Now can you see why bananas are sealed in plastic in many supermarkets？
72. What makes the green banana in Bag 2 ripen more quickly than the ones in Bag 1？
A. Ethylene from the very ripe banana. B. The free flow of oxygen or ethylene
C. C02 from the very ripe banana. D. The limitation of oxygen supply.
73. How can we slow down the ripening of bananas exposed to the air？
A. To rest them on the counter. B. To keep them in the basket.
C. To put them on the ground. D. To hang them up from the ceiling
74. It can be concluded from the passage that .
A. the ripening banana is a self-contained system
B. the rate of ripening bananas is affected by the environment
C. wrapped bananas experience no chemical changes to ripen
D. ripening bananas give off oxygen, C0, and ethylene
75. Why are bananas sealed in plastic in many supermarkets？
A. To make them ripen more quickly. B. To make them ripen more slowly.
C. To make banana flesh soften. D. To turn green bananas yellow.
粤公网安备 44130202000953号