People think what I do is so wonderful because I interview stars. And I have to admit that when I first started working at Sassy in 1987 I was excited about that part of my job for the first couple of months，anyway. Then I noticed how stars would fool me around for months. I could never get enough time with a star to find out anything interesting, and some acted just simply rudely. I started hating the way I was treated, and I was really disappointed to see that these people I had worshipped (崇拜）before were pretty ordinary. So I decided I would just tell the truth instead of keeping up their myths(神秘）.If the star was a bad guy, I would say so. If I thought anyone was stupid, I did not hold back that information.
I thought readers would appreciate that kind of honesty. Surprisingly, many of them hated me for it. I have gotten so many attacks on my character. In their eyes，being famous is everything, even more desirable than being truly creative and talented
Why do we need stars? In fact, the media created stars to satisfy our basic need for gossip (闲话）.Over time, talking about people we have never met and we are never likely to meet has become what we are crazy about. Thus, some people are more interested in the personal lives of the stars than in the lives of their own family and their own friends. That is why it is so ridiculous when a star wants to discuss only his or her work in an interview -as we care. We want the dirt on their personal lives.
There is another reason we worship stars. As a whole, our society is not as religious as it once was. It seems that people need something to fulfill them the way religion once did. Star worship exists as an unfulfilling desire for true heroes.
We make them stars, but then their reputation makes us feel unimportant, and we truly feel better about ourselves when they die. I am part of this whole process. No wonder I feel soiled at the end of workday.What are the stars like according to the author?
| A． They always treat others rudely. |
| B． They always talk about something dull. |
| C． They are acutually ordinary people. |
| D． They are usually honest and polite, |
We worship stars because ______.
A, we need true mental heroes to support us
B. we can learn something useful from famous stars
C. we concern about the stars ，family and friends
D. we like talking about the stars ，dressing stylesWhen the author is writing this article ，his tone sounds ______.
A, excited B. angry C. worried D. calmWhat is the main purpose of the author writing the passage?
| A． To show the disadvantages of working with stars. |
| B． To remind us not to worship famous stars blindly. |
| C． To laugh at the failures of stars he has interviewed. |
| D． To talk about the reasons why we worship stars. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
My elder brother Steve, in the absence of my father who died when I was six, gave me important lessons in values that helped me grow into an adult.
For instance, Steve taught me to face the results of my behavior. Once when I returned in tears from a Saturday baseball game, it was Steve who took the time to ask me what happened. When I explained that my baseball had soared through Mrs. Holt’s basement window, breaking the glass with a crash, Steve encouraged me to confess to her. After all, I should have been playing in the park down Fifth Street and not in the path between buildings. Although my knees knocked as I explained to Mrs. Holt, I offered to pay for the window from my pocket money if she would return my ball.
I also learned from Steve that personal property is a sacred thing. After I found a shiny silver pen in my fifth-grade classroom, I wanted to keep it, but Steve explained that it might be important to someone else in spite of the fact that it had little value. He reminded me of how much I’d hate to lose to someone else the small dog my father carved from a piece of cheap wood. I returned the pen to my teacher, Mrs. Davids, and still remembered the smell of her perfume as she patted me on the
shoulder.
Yet of all the instructions Steve gave me, his respect for life is the most vivid in my mind. When I was twelve, I killed an old brown sparrow in the yard with a BB gun. Excited with my accuracy, I screamed to Steve to come from the house to take a look. I shall never forget the way he stood for a long moment and stared at the bird on the ground. Then in a dead, quiet voice, he asked, “Did it hurt you first, Mark?” I didn’t know what to answer. He continued with his eyes firm, “The only time you should ever think of hurting a living thing is if it hurts you first. And then you think a long, long time.” I really felt terrible then, but that moment stands out as the most important lesson my brother taught me.What is the main subject of the passage?
| A．The relationship between Mark and Steve. |
| B．The important lesson Mark learned in school. |
| C．Steve’s important role in Mark’s growing process. |
| D．Mark and Steve’s respect for living things. |
In the story about the pen, which of the following lessons did Steve teach his brother?
| A．Respect for personal property. | B．Respect for life. |
| C．Sympathy for people with problems. | D．The value of honesty. |
According to the writer, which was the most important lesson Steve taught his young brother?
| A．Respect for living things. | B．Responsibility for one’s actions. |
| C．The value of honesty. | D．Care for the property of others. |
The underlined word “knocked” in the second paragraph means ______.
| A．tapped | B．beat | C．struck | D．trembled |
When a group of children politely stop a conversation with you, saying: "We have to go to work now," you' re left feeling surprised and certainly uneasy. After all, this is the 1990s and the idea of children working is just unthinkable. That is, until you are told that they are all pupils of stage schools, and that the "work" they go off to is to go on the stage in a theatre.
Stage schools often act as agencies (代理机构) to supply children for stage and television work. More worthy of the name "stage school" are those few places where children attend full time, with a training for the theatre and a general education.
A visit to such schools will leave you in no doubt that the children enjoy themselves. After all , what lively children wouldn't settle for spending only half the day doing ordinary school work, and acting, singing or dancing their way through the other half of the day?
Then of course there are times for the children to make a name and make a little money in some big shows. Some stage schools give their children too much professional work at such a young age. But the law is very tight on the amount they can do. Those under 13 are limited to 40 days in the year; those over 13 to 80 days.
The schools themselves admit that not all children will be successful in the profession for which they are being trained. So what happens to those who don' t make it? While all the leading schools say they place great importance on children getting good study results, the facts seem to suggest this is not always the case.In the writer' s opinion, a good stage school should _________ .
| A．produce star performers |
| B．help pupils improve their study skills |
| C．train pupils in language and performing arts |
| D．provide a general education and stage training. |
"Professional work" as used in the text means _________ .
| A．ordinary school work | B．money-making performances |
| C．stage training at school | D．acting, singing or dancing after class |
Which of the following best describes how the writer feels about stage schools?
| A．He thinks highly of what they have to offer . |
| B．He favours an early start in the training of performing arts. |
| C．He feels uncomfortable about children putting on night shows. |
| D．He doubts the standard of ordinary education they have reached. |
Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you're doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you're holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation (感觉) of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions－those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
Psychologists have known that one person's perception (感知) of another's "warmth" is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either "warm" or "cold" is a primary consideration, even trumping evidence that a "cold" person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies' conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth "mother" rather than one made of wire, even when the wire "mother" carried a food bottle. Harlow's work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills. Feelings of "warmth" and "coldness" in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as "warm " or "cold" is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study's hypotheses (假设) , handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form: The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of "Person A" based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
" We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly," says Bargh.The author mentions Harlow's experiment to show that _________ .
| A．adults should develop social skills | B．babies need warm physical contact |
| C．caregivers should be healthy adults | D．monkeys have social relationships |
In Bargh’s experiment, the students were asked to _________ .
| A．evaluate someone's personality | B．write down their hypotheses |
| C．fill out a personal information form | D．hold coffee and cold drink alternatively |
We can infer from the passage that _________ .
| A．abstract thinking does not come from physical experiences |
| B．feelings of warmth and coldness are studied worldwide |
| C．physical temperature affects how we see others |
| D．capable persons are often cold to others |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Drinking for Better Social Relationships |
| B．Experiments of Personality Evaluation |
| C．Developing Better Drinking Habits |
| D．Physical Sensations and Emotions |
My grandfather came from Hungary and was the only one in his family who settled down in the United States. The rest of his family remained in Europe. When World War I broke out, he seemed to have become another man , downhearted. Such obvious change was not born out of concern for his welfare, but out of fear: if his only son, my uncle, had to go to war, it would be cousin fighting against cousin.
One day in 1918, my Uncle Milton received his draft notice. My grandparents were very upset. But my mother, at the age of 10, felt on top of the world about her soldier brother going off to war. Realizing how he was regarded by his little sister and all of her friends, my uncle bought them all service pins, which meant that they had a loved one in the service. All the little girls were delighted.
The moment came when my uncle and the other soldiers, without any training but all in uniforms, boarded the train. The band played and the crowd cheered. Although no one noticed. I'm sure my grandmother had a tear in her eye for the only son. The train slowly pulled out, but not about a thousand yards when it suddenly paused. Everyone stared in wonder as the train slowly returned to the station. There was a dead silence before the doors opened and the men started to step out. Someone shouted, "The war is over!" For a moment, nobody moved, but then the people heard someone bark orders at the soldiers. The men lined up in two lines, walked down the steps, and with the band playing, marched down the street, as returning heroes, to be welcomed home. My mother said it was a great day, but she was just a little disappointed that it didn't last a tiny bit longer.What the grandfather was most worried about was _________ .
| A．the spread of the world war | B．the safety of his two cousins |
| C．a drop in his living standards | D．his relatives killing each other |
The underlined phrase "draft notice" means _________ .
| A．order for army service | B．train ticket for Europe |
| C．letter of rejection | D．note of warning |
What did the "service pins" (in Para. 2) stand for in the eyes of the little girls?
| A．Strength. | B．Courage. | C．Victory. | D．Honour. |
Which of the following words can best describe the ending of the story?
| A．Disappointing. | B．Unexpected. | C．Uncertain. | D．Inspiring. |
Which of the following statements is True according to the passage?
| A．The grandfather felt downhearted because he was afraid of receiving a draft notice. |
| B．The train was traveling fast to the front when the news came that the war was over. |
| C．Few soldiers on the train had training in advance. |
| D．Most people including the mother were disappointed that the war didn't last a bit longer. |
The Maldives faces the threat of extinction from rising sea levels, but the government said it was looking to the future with plans to build homes and a golf course that float.
An increase in sea levels of just 18 to 59 centimeters would make the Maldives－a nation of tiny coral islands in the Indian Ocean－virtually uninhabitable by 2100, the UN’s climate change panel(专门小组) has warned.
President Mohamed Nasheed has vowed a fight for survival, and he signed a deal with a Dutch company to study proposals for a floating structure that could support a convention center, homes and an 18-hole golf course.
The company , Dutch Docklands, is currently building floating developments in the Netherlands and Dubai.
The Maldives began work on an artificial island known as the Hulhumale near the crowded capital island of Male in 1997 and more than 30,000 people have been settled there to ease congestion.
The city, which has a population of 100,000, is already protected from rising sea levels by a 30-million-dollar sea wall, and the government is considering increasingly imaginative ways to combat(对抗) climate change.
Nasheed has even spoken of buying land elsewhere in the world to enable Maldivians to relocate if their homes are submerged. He has also pledged to turn his nation into a model for the rest of the world by becoming "carbon neutral (碳中和)" by 2020.
His plan involves ending fossil fuel use and powering all vehicles and buildings from "green" sources such as burning coconut husks.What do you know about Maldives?
| A．It has a population of 100,000. | B．It has a floating golf course. |
| C．It is a nation of tiny coral islands. | D．It is located in the Pacific Ocean. |
The underlined word "uninhabitable" might mean _________ .
| A．不能居住的 | B．不习惯的 | C．不能改变的 | D．不能忍受的 |
The floating structure will be used as all the following except ________ .
| A．a convention center | B．a sports center |
| C．homes | D．a golf course |
What are the government's ways to combat climate change?
| A．Buy land elsewhere in the world. |
| B．Make the nation "carbon neutral" by 2020. |
| C．Use "green" sources instead of fossil fuel. |
| D．All of the above. |
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