One summer I was driving from my hometown of Tahoe City，Calif.，to New Orleans.In the middle of the desert, I came upon a young man standing by the roadside. He had his thumb out and held a gas can in his other hand. I drove right by him.There was a time in the country when you'd be considered a jerk if you passed by somebody in need. Now you are a fool for helping. With gangs, drug addicts, murderers, rapists, thieves lurking everywhere, “I don't want to get involved” has become a national motto.
Several states later I was still thinking about the hitchhiker.Leaving him stranded in the desert did not bother me so much.What bothered me was how easily I had reached the decision.I never even lifted my foot off the accelerator.
Does anyone stop any more? I wondered.I recalled Blanche DuBois's famous line：“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers”. Could anyone rely on the kindness of strangers these days? One way to test this would be for a person to journey from coast to coast without any money, relying solely on the goodwill of his fellow Americans.What kind of Americans would he find? Who would feed him, shelter him，carry him down the road?
The idea intrigued me.
The week I turned 37，I realized that I had never taken a gamble in my life.So I decided to travel from the Pacific to the Atlantic without a penny.It would be a cashless journey through the land of the almighty dollar.I would only accept offers of rides, food and a place to rest my head.My final destination would be Cape Fear in North Carolina，a symbol of all the fears I'd have to conquer during the trip.
I rose early on September 6, 1994, and headed for the Golden Gate Bridge with a 50pound pack on my back and a sign displaying my destination to passing vehicles：“America”．
For six weeks I hitched 82 rides and covered 4,223 miles across 14 states.As I traveled, folks were always warning me about someplace else.In Montana they told me to watch out for the cowboys in Wyoming; in Nebraska they said people would not be as nice in Iowa. Yet I was treated with kindness everywhere I went.I was amazed by people's readiness to help a stranger, even when it seemed to run contrary to their own best interests.Why did the author drive past the young man in the desert without stopping?
| A．Because he failed to notice this man. |
| B．Because he was driving too fast. |
| C．Because he thought the young man didn't need help. |
| D．Because he was afraid of being tricked. |
What was it that made the author upset?
| A．Leaving the young man alone in the desert. |
| B．Being considered a fool. |
| C．Making the decision of not offering help so easily. |
| D．Keeping thinking about the young man. |
The author decided to travel without a penny in order to ________.
| A．find out how long he could survive without help |
| B．go through the great difficulty in surviving unexpected environment |
| C．find out whether strangers would offer help to him |
| D．figure out how strangers thought of his plan |
In the passage，the author described his journey as a gamble because ________.
| A．he was not so sure of the outlook of the journey |
| B．he had no money to give to strangers |
| C．he was sure of the coming sufferings |
| D．he wasn't sure whether to make the journey |
The following part might probably ________.
| A．describe how he fooled strangers |
| B．describe how strangers went out of their way to help him |
| C．explain why people refused to help strangers |
| D．explain how he overcame his difficulties on the way |
Long bus rides are like television shows. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end with commercials （商业广告）thrown in every three or four minutes. The commercials are unavoidable. They happen whether you want them or not. Every couple of minutes a billboard glides by outside the bus window. "Buy Super Clean Toothpaste." "Drink Good Wet Root Beer." "Fill up with Pacific Gas." Only if you sleep, which is equal to turning the television set off, are you spared the unending cry of "You Need It! Buy It Now!"
The beginning of the ride is comfortable and somewhat exciting, even if you’ve traveled that way before. Usually some things have changed new houses, new buildings, sometimes even a new road. The bus driver has a style of driving and it’s fun to try to figure it out the first hour or so. If the driver is particularly reckless （鲁莽的） or daring, the ride can be as thrilling （惊心动魄的） as a suspense story. Will the driver pass the truck in time? Will the driver move into the right or the left hand lane? After a while, of course, the excitement dies down. Sleeping for a while helps pass the middle hours of the ride. Food always makes bus rides more interesting. But you’ve got to be careful of what kind of food you eat. Too much salty food can make you very thirsty between stops.
The end of the ride is somewhat like the beginning. You know it will soon be over and there’s a kind of expectation and excitement in that. The seat of course, has become harder as the hours have passed. By now you’ve sat with your legs crossed, with your hands in your lap, with your hands on the arm rests even with your hands crossed behind your head. The end comes just at no more ways to sit.
| A．To give the writer’s opinion about long bus trips. |
| B．To persuade you to take a long bus trip. |
| C．To explain how bus trips and television shows differ. |
| D．To describe the billboards along the road. |
| A．bus drivers who aren’t reckless |
| B．driving alone |
| C．a television set on the bus |
| D．no bill boards along the road |
| A．the commercials both on TV shows and on billboards along the road are fun |
| B．they both have a beginning, a middle, and an end, with commercials in between |
| C．the drivers are always reckless on TV shows just as they are on buses |
| D．both traveling and watching TV are not exciting. |
| A．exciting | B．comfortable |
| C．tiring | D．boring |
Geena David knew she wanted to be a movie star when she was very young. She was not sure what gave her the idea, but she wanted to look like a movie star. “I have a lot of pictures from my childhood of me wearing sunglasses,” she says. “I used to wear them to watch TV.”
Early movie actors started wearing sunglasses not because they looked good, but because their eyes hurt. The lights used on movie sets were extremely bright and could cause a painful problem known as “Klieg eyes”. It was named after the Klieg brothers who invented the lights. Actors wore sunglasses to give their eyes a rest. But when movie stars began wearing their sunglasses in public, they quickly became a must.
Eventually actors started wearing sunglasses in their movies as well as on the street. Audrey Hephburn wore ultra-cool Ray-Ban sunglasses in the 1961 movie, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. As a result, Ray-Ban sunglasses started to appear more and more in the movies. In 1979, Ray-Ban “Wayfarers” were worn by Jake and Elwood in The Blue Brothers. Tom Cruise wore Ray-Ban “Aviator” sunglasses in the 1986 hit, Top Gun. Then in 1997, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones made Ray-Ban “Predator” sunglasses famous in Men in Black.
Of course sunglasses aren’t just a fashion statement. The main reason to wear sunglasses is to protect our eyes against UV radiation. UV radiation can damage our eyes, so people now choose their sunglasses carefully. But you don’t have to give up style for safety. The choice of frames and lenses available these days is huge. So you can protect your eyes and still be the coolest person on the beach.
| A．The use of sunglasses. |
| B．The history of sunglasses. |
| C．The sunglasses wearing. |
| D．Why movie stars like to wear sunglasses. |
| A．She was a movie star. |
| B．She wanted to follow a movie star. |
| C．Wearing sunglasses was good to her eyes. |
| D．It was good to wear sunglasses when watching TV. |
| A．they wore sunglasses |
| B．they went out in the sun too much |
| C．the lights on movie sets were too bright |
| D．their scripts were written in very small writing |
| A．just to protect their eyes |
| B．for fashion and to protect their eyes |
| C．because of bright lights |
| D．because movie stars wear them |
Did you know that many people today are getting extra work by taking translating jobs online?
It’s true! And you can do it too. Many companies in the USA need translators now to translate simple documents online from Chinese to English, such as emails, website content, movie subtitles and more.
Companies like Real Translator Jobs are actively seeking translators from China to fill demand. There are more translation jobs than people to complete them. This leaves a big opportunity for anyone to start doing this and earn extra money.
Do you have to speak perfect English? No! Even basic knowledge of English is OK. This is really a job for anyone from China who wants to do it.
We spoke to one student from Beijing, Harris, who has been doing this for 2 years now and is earning between $150 and $225 every day. He completes about 3 to 4 jobs per day which takes him about 3 hours. It’s an incredible amount of money to earn on your spare time!
It is great that we now live in the “Information Age” and opportunities like this are available to people in China to earn extra money working from home over the Internet. It’s something that our parent’s generation could have never imagined. This type of work is surely to do great things for young people in China.
If you would also like to do this, it’s easy to get started. Just follow these steps:
1. Sign up at Real Translator Jobs (where Chinese translators are needed now), or a similar service.
2. Review the job posting and complete the ones you like.
3. Get paid once per month by cheque, PayPal or bank wire transfer.
I hope you enjoyed this information and good luck earning extra money online translating documents.What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．How to find a job on the Internet |
| B．How to earn extra money |
| C．Getting extra work by taking translating jobs online |
| D．How to find a friend on the Internet |
Which of the following is not mentioned about the documents online translated?
| A．Articles. | B．Emails. |
| C．Website content. | D．Movie subtitles. |
If one company in the USA needs a translator, he or she ______.
| A．should speak perfect English |
| B．can speak basic English |
| C．must come from China |
| D．must come from Beijing |
Which step is not followed if you get started the translating job online?
| A．Signing up at Real Translator Jobs. |
| B．Reviewing and completing the job posting. |
| C．Getting paid once per month by cheque. |
| D．Getting paid once a month in cash. |
It's generally believed that people act the way they do because of their personalities and attitudes. They recycle their garbage because they care about the environment. They pay $5 for a caramel brulée latte because they like expensive coffee drinks.
It's undeniable that behavior comes from our inner dispositions (性情), but in many instances we also draw inferences about who we are, as suggested by the social psychologist Daryl Bern, by observing our own behavior. We can be strangers to ourselves. If we knew our own minds, why would we need to guess what our preferences are from our behavior? If our minds were an open book, we would know exactly how much we care about the environment or like lattes. Actually, we often need to look to our behavior to figure out who we are.
Moreover, we don't just use our behavior to learn about our particular types of character—we infer characters that weren't there before. Our behavior is often shaped by little pressures around us, which we fail to recognize. Maybe we recycle because our wives and neighbors would disapprove if we didn't. Maybe we buy lattes in order to impress the people around us. We should not mistakenly believe that we always behave as a result of some inner disposition.
Whatever pressures there can be or inferences one can make, people become what they do, though it may not be in compliance (符合) with their true desires. Therefore, we should all bear in mind Kurt Vonnegut's advice: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”According to the passage, personalities and attitudes are commonly believed to _______.
| A．determine one's behavior |
| B．reflect one's taste |
| C．influence one's surroundings |
| D．result from one's habits |
Which of the following would Daryl Bern most probably agree with?
| A．The return of a wallet can indicate one's honesty. |
| B．A kind person will offer his seat to the old. |
| C．One recycles plastics to protect the environment. |
| D．One buys latte out of true love of coffee. |
What can be inferred from the underlined sentence in the passage?
| A．We fail to realize our inner dispositions. |
| B．We can be influenced by outside pressures. |
| C．Our behavior is the result of our true desires. |
| D．Our characters can shape our social relationships. |
What does the author mainly discuss in the passage?
| A．Personalities and attitudes. |
| B．Preferences and habits. |
| C．Behavior and personalities. |
| D．Attitudes and preferences. |
A couple who held hands at breakfast every morning even after 70 years of marriage have died 15 hours apart. Helen Felumlee, died at 92 on April 12. Her husband, 91-year-old Kenneth Felumlee, died the next morning.
The couple’s eight children say the two had been inseparable since meeting as teenagers, once sharing the bottom of a bunk (双层) bed on a ferry rather than sleeping on night apart.
They remained deeply in love until the very end, even eating breakfast together while holding hands, said their daughter, Linda Cody. “We knew when one went, the other was going to go,” she said. According to Cody, about 12 hours after Helen died, Kenneth looked at his children and said, “Mon’s dead.” He quickly began to fade, surrounded by 24 of his closest family members and friends when he died the next morning. “He was ready,” Cody said, “He just didn’t want to leave her here by herself.”
Son Dick said his parents died of old age, surrounded by family.
The pair had known each other for several years when they eloped（私奔）in Newport across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, on Feb. 20, 1994. At two days shy of his 21st birthday, Kenneth-who went by Kenny-was too young to marry in Ohio. “He couldn’t wait.’ son Jim said.
Kenneth worked as a railroad car inspector and mechanic before becoming a mail carrier for the Post Office. He was active in the church as a Sunday teacher.
Helen stayed at home, not only cooking and cleaning for her own family but also for other families in need in the area. She taught Sunday school, too, but was known more for her greeting card ministry, sending cards for birthdays, sympathy and the holidays to everyone in her community, each with a personal note inside. “She kept Hallmark in business,” daughter-in-law Debbie joked.
When Kenneth retired in 1983 and the children began to leave the house, the Felumlees began to explore their love of travel, visiting almost all 50 states by bus. “He didn’t want to fly anywhere because you couldn’t see anything as you were going,” Jim said.
Although both experienced declining health in recent years, Cody said, each tried to stay strong for the other. “That’s what kept them going,” she said.From the second paragraph we can infer ______.
| A．Helen and Kenneth have two children |
| B．Helen and Kenneth have eight children |
| C．Helen and Kenneth once stayed on a ferry together |
| D．Helen and Kenneth loved each other since teenage times |
From what Cody said, we can learn the children _____.
| A．were not in front of their father |
| B．don’t look after their father |
| C．foresaw their father would go |
| D．surrounded their father |
What can we learn from the fifth paragraph?
| A．Helen and Kenneth got married when they didn’t reach the demanded ages. |
| B．Helen and Kenneth got married after they had known for 2 days. |
| C．Helen didn’t wait for Kenneth. |
| D．Kenneth was 22 years old when they got married. |
How many jobs did Kenneth get?
| A．Four. | B．Three. | C．Two. | D．One. |
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