When your parents advise you to “get an education” in order to raise your income, they tell you only half the truth. What they really mean is to get just enough education to provide manpower（人力资源） for your society, but not so much that you prove an embarrassment to your society.
Get a high school diploma, at least. Without that, you will be occupationally dead unless your name happens to be George Bernard Shaw or Thomas Alva Edison, and you can successfully dropout in grade school.
Get a college degree, if possible. With a B. A., you are on the launching pad. But now you have to start to put on the brakes. If you go for a master’s degree, make sure it is an M.B.A., and the famous law of diminishing(逐渐减少的) returns begins to take effect.
Do you know, for instance, that long-haul truck drivers earn more per year than full professors? Yes, the average salary for those truckers was $24000 while the full professors managed to earn just $23030.
A doctorate is the highest degree you can get. Except for a few specialized fields such as physics or chemistry where the degree can quickly be turned to industrial or commercial purposes, if you pursue such a degree in any other field, you will face a future which is not bright. There are more doctors unemployed or underemployed in this country than any other part of the world.
If you become a doctor in English or history or anthropology or political science or languages or—worst of all—in philosophy, you run the risk of becoming overeducated for our national demands. Not for our needs, mind you, but for our demands.
Thousands of doctors are selling shoes, driving cars, waiting on table, and endlessly filling out applications month after month. They may also take a job in some high school or backwater(闭塞) college that pays much less than the doorkeeper earns.
You can equate the level of income with the level of education only so far. Far enough, that is, to make you useful to the gross national product, but not so far that nobody can turn much of a profit on you.According to the writer, what the society expects of education is to turn out people who ______.
| A．will not be a disgrace to society |
| B．will become loyal citizens |
| C．can take care of themselves |
| D．can meet the nation’s demand as a source of manpower |
Many doctors are out of job because ______.
| A．they are improperly educated |
| B．they are of little commercial value to their society |
| C．there are fewer jobs in high schools |
| D．they prefer easier jobs that make more money |
The nation is only interested in people ______.
| A．with diplomas |
| B．who specialize in physics and chemistry |
| C．who are valuable to the gross national product |
| D．who receive little education |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Bernard Shaw didn’t finish high school, nor did Edison. |
| B．One must think carefully before pursuing a master’s degree. |
| C．The higher your education level, the more money you will earn. |
| D．If you are too well-educated, you’ll be overeducated for society’s demands. |
The writer sees education as ______.
| A．a means of providing job security and financial security and a means of meeting a country’s demands for technical workers |
| B．a way to broaden one’s horizons |
| C．more important than finding a job |
| D．an opportunity that everyone should have |
Grasshoppers are having to change their song — one of the iconic sounds of summer — to make themselves heard above the noise of road traffic, ecologists have discovered. The study, published in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology, is the first to show that human-made noise affects natural insect populations. Animals use sound to communicate for many reasons, including marking out territory, warning of predators and finding mates, and although previous research shows birds, whales and even frogs change their calls in noisy environments, the impact of human-made noise on insects has been neglected until now. Ulrike Lampe and colleagues from the University of Bielefeld in Germany caught 188 male bow-winged grasshoppers, half from quiet locations and half from beside busy roads. The grasshoppers use their song to attract mates.
The team then studied the differences in the two groups' songs in the laboratory. To encourage them to sing they exposed the males to a female grasshopper, and then recorded their courtship songs. Analysis of almost 1,000 recordings revealed grasshoppers living beside noisy roads produced different songs to those living in quieter locations.
According to Lampe: "Bow-winged grasshoppers produce songs that include low and high frequency components. We found that grasshoppers from noisy habitats increase the volume of the lower-frequency part of their song, which makes sense since road noise can mask signals in this part of the frequency spectrum(频谱)."
The team's findings are important because traffic noise could be upsetting the grasshopper's mating system(交配系统). "Increased noise levels could affect grasshopper courtship in several ways. It could prevent females from hearing male courtship songs properly, prevent females from recognizing males of their own species, or impair females' ability to estimate how attractive a male is from his song," Lampe explains.
Having discovered that human-made noise affects insect communication, the researchers now want to learn more about how the mechanism works, and whether the grasshoppers adapt to noise during their development as larvae（幼虫）, or whether males from noisy habitats produce different songs due to genetic differences.
The bow-winged grasshopper is a common species in Central Europe. Adults occur mainly between July and September, preferring dry grasslands. Around 1.5 cm long, they vary in colour from green and browns to red and purple. The male's song consists of 2 second-long phrases that increase in amplitude (振幅) towards the end. The beginning of a phrase is characterized by slower ticking sounds that increase in speed and amplitude, leading to a buzzing sound towards the end of the phrase. A courtship song usually includes 2 phrases.The author wrote the article to _________________.
| A．introduce how grasshoppers make noises to attract mates. |
| B．raise the awareness of protecting bow-winged grasshoppers. |
| C．inform us of a recent discovery of ecological research. |
| D．warn us that human-made noise has changed ecological system. |
Which of the following could be the main idea of the passage?
| A．Bow-winged grasshoppers use their songs to communicate. |
| B．Grasshoppers change their songs to adapt to the noisy environment. |
| C．Grasshoppers’ songs include both low and high frequency components. |
| D．Bow-winged grasshoppers are a common species in Central Europe. |
What does the underlined word “impair” in the fourth paragraph mean?
| A．repair | B．develop |
| C．weaken | D．improve |
Which of the following statements is true according the passage?
| A．Road noise can cover the lower-frequency part of their song. |
| B．Animals make sounds only for the purpose of finding mates. |
| C．Grasshopper larvae learn to adapt to human-made noise. |
| D．Bow-winged grasshoppers grow up into adults in spring. |
Since 2004，Time magazine has six times made a survey to name the l00 most influential people in the world．Only one person has appeared on it for six times, Oprah Winfrey．
Born in l954 in Mississippi，Oprah Winfrey spent her early years living in poverty with her grandmother and later her absent mother, followed by unfair treatment by her unfriendly relatives．Worse still，she was addicted to drugs and at the young age of l4，she gave birth to a baby, who died after a few months．Finally she was sent to live with her strict father in Tennessee. Amazingly though，her father’s rules did make sure she received a good education and finally overcame her problems．
Oprah’s media career began at age l7．She became the co-author of local news in Baltimore in her early 20’s．Her first local talk show, People Are Talking, was first performed in l978，when she was 24．
In l986，Oprah moved to Chicago to host a low-rated half-hour morning talk show, AM Chicago．Oprah talks like a family member in your and my house．Within months she took over，the show became the highest-rated talk show in Chicago．It was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show．
Only two years after hosting the show, she was able to set up her own production company Harpo, and buy the full rights to The Oprah Winfery Show．She is also involved in magazine publishing，books，education and a lifestyle channel for women with the aim of improving people’s lives, inspiring and praising good honest values，making the world a better place for present and future generations．
As her business grew, so did her wealth and power, and she became the first ever black billionaire in 2003 and the most powerful woman in media broadcasting．The amazing influence she has over a large part of the American public means that anything she promotes on her shows is guaranteed to succeed.What do we know about Oprah’s childhood?
| A．She lived with her mother for 14 years． |
| B．She married young and brought up a baby． |
| C．she lacked concern and care． |
| D．She couldn’t stand her father's rules． |
Why was The Oprah Winfrey Show so popular?
| A．Oprah was very famous in the world． |
| B．Oprah talked in a family way in the show． |
| C．Oprah was the co-author of the show． |
| D．Oprah had the full rights to the show． |
Which of the following is true according to the text?
| A．Oprah Winfrey was the most influential woman in America． |
| B．Oprah Winfrey hosted her first local talk show in her 20’s． |
| C．AM Chicago became the highest-rated immediately after Oprah hosted it. |
| D．Oprah Winfrey was the first billionaire in media broadcasting． |
What does the last paragraph mainly tell us?
A．Oprah was a quite successful woman．
B：Oprah aimed to be wealthy and powerful．
C．What Oprah promoted was sure to succeed．
D．Oprah became the most influential woman．
WASHINGTON The head of the World Bank says for the first time in human history, it is possible to end poverty around the world. Jim Yong Kim told a Washington audience Tuesday, he wants to make ending world poverty by 2030 a top goal for the bank and governments around the world.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim says that the problems of poverty, hunger and inequality are wide, urgent and a matter of survival of millions.
“We know that despite the great successes of the last decade, there are still about 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty, 870 million who go hungry every day, and 6.9 million children under five dying every year,” he said.
But Kim told a Washington audience that the previous successful efforts to cut the number of people living in extreme poverty by half give them hope.
“We are at an auspicious moment in history, when the successes of past decades and an increasingly favourable economic outlook combine to give developing countries a chance－for the first time ever－to end extreme poverty within a generation,” he said in a speech at Georgetown University. “Our duty now must be to ensure that these favourable circumstances are matched with deliberate decisions to realize this historic opportunity.”
Kim says success will require increasing the speed of economic growth, particularly in South Africa and South Asia.
But he warned that civil unrest could happen if economic growth does not help people at all income levels, and also include women and youth．
Kim says that the World Bank and other development agencies will have more resources to get this job done right. “Meeting this 2030 goal will take extraordinary effort,” he said.
However, Kim warned that all the progress in fighting poverty could be destroyed by climate disasters unless the nations of the world do more to prevent climate change.In the opinion of Jim Yong Kim, world poverty _____．
| A．is difficult but hopeful to end by 2030 |
| B．exists only in Africa and Asia |
| C．is not quite hard to end by 2030 |
| D．will be sure to disappear by 2030 |
Which of the following gives Jim Yong Kim the hope to end world poverty?
| A．Economic growth is increasing in developing countries． |
| B．Great successes have been achieved in science and technology． |
| C．A decreasing number of people are living in poverty． |
| D．All countries have started to fight poverty． |
The underlined word "auspicious" in Paragraph 5 most probably means "_____"．
| A．unforgettable | B．lucky |
| C．disappearing | D．important |
What’s the passage mainly about?
| A．The key of ending world poverty is preventing climate change. |
| B．A top goal－ending world poverty will possibly be achieved by 2030. |
| C．The success of ending poverty－economic growth. |
| D．The progress in fighting poverty. |
You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes (撞击) through a wind and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead！Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars or even catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress (床垫). Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman' s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff (悬崖) a thousand feet high. His parachute (降落伞) failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too.Stuntmen are those who ______.
| A．often dress up as actors |
| B．prefer to lead dangerous lives |
| C．often perform seemingly dangerous actions |
| D．often fight each other for their lives |
Stuntmen earn their living by ______.
| A．playing their dirty tricks |
| B．selling their special skills |
| C．jumping out of high windows |
| D．jumping from fast moving trains |
Which of the following is the main factor (因素) of a successful performance?
| A．Strength. | B．Exactness. |
| C．Speed. | D．Carefulness. |
What can be inferred from the author' s example of the Norwegian stuntman?
A.Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman.
B The percentage of serious accidents is high.
C. Parachutes must be of good quality.
D. The cliff is too high.
Several interesting American museums tell about health subjects. One is the Doctor Samuel D. Harris National Museum of Dentistry. It is at the University of Maryland in Baltimore. That is where the first college in the world to train dentists began. The museum tells about the history of the medical treatment of teeth.
Visitors can see some frightening devices that once were used to remove infected (受感染的) teeth. They also can see sets of teeth made of animal bone. They were made for a famous American -- the first President, George Washington. Most people do not consider a visit to the dentist their idea of a good time. However, the director of the museum says he wanted to make the museum a fun place to visit. He says he also wants to teach visitors about the importance of taking care of their teeth.
Another museum collects devices that help people hear. The Kenneth W. Berger Hearing Aid Museum is at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio. The museum has more than three-thousand hearing aids from around the world. They include old and strange devices. Some hearing aids were made to look like other objects. That is because in the past many people did not want anyone to know they were wearing a hearing aid. It is common for people to think it uneasy to pay a visit to ____.
| A．the University of Maryland | B．the Museum of Dentistry |
| C．the Hearing Aid Museum | D．the dentist |
The text mainly tells about _____.
| A．museums in the US |
| B．interesting American museums |
| C．American museums with health subjects |
| D．the history of the medical treatment of teeth |
What do we learn about George Washington from the text?
| A．He once visited the National Museum of Dentistry. |
| B．He considered the Museum of Dentistry a fun place to visit |
| C．His artificial teeth were collected in the National Museum of Dentistry. |
| D．His teeth seemed to be made of animal bone. |
The underlined word “devices” in the first and last paragraph probably means _____.
| A．museums | B．strategies |
| C．hearing aids | D．tools |
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