Some people succeed in unbelievable ways.
Roussel was orphaned at the age of eight and went to live with his grandfather. He built on the music he had learned from his mother, entertaining himself by reading through the family music collection and playing his favorite songs on the piano.
Three years later, Roussel’s grandfather died, and his aunt adopted him. Her husband arranged for young Albert to take regular piano lessons. Summer vacations at a Belgian seaside resort added a second love to his life -- the sea. He studied to be a naval cadet (海军学员), but still made time to study music.
In the French Navy, while he served on a warship based at Cherbourg, he and two friends found the time to play the music of Beethoven and other composes (作曲家). Roussel also began composing. At the Church of the Trinity in Cherbourg on Christmas Day 1892, he had his first performance as a composer.
That success encouraged Roussel to write a wedding march, and one of his fellow offices offered to show it to a well-known conductor (指挥家), Edouard Colonne. When Roussel’s friend returned with the manuscript (手稿), he reported that Colonne had advised Roussel to give up his naval career and devote his life to music.
Not long afterwards, at the age of 25, Roussel did just that. He applied characters that he had developed in the navy to his composing and became a major force in twentieth century French music. As for Eduoard Colonne’s inspiring advice that Roussel devote his life to music, Roussel's navy friend later admitted that he had made it up and that he had never even shown Roussel's manuscript to the conductor.Which of the following shows the right order of the story?
a. Roussel gave up his naval career.
b. Roussel was adopted by his aunt.
c. Roussel read through the family music collection.
d. Roussel had his first performance as a composer in Cherbourg.
| A．c, b, d, a | B．b. c, d, a | C．b, c, a. d | D．c, b, a, d |
What ______ did played the most important part in Roussel's final success.
| A．his mother | B．the husband of his aunt |
| C．his navy friend | D．Edouard Colonne |
We can infer from the article that______.
| A．Roussel's aunt adopted him after his grandfather died. |
| B．Roussel read through the family music collection in his grandfather's. |
| C．Colonne advised Roussel to give up his naval career and devote his life to music. |
| D．If Roussel hadn't joined the navy, he might not have achieved so much. |
Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
| A．A clever musician | B．A white lie |
| C．A helpful conductor | D．A great manuscript |
When tea was first brought to England between 1652 and 1654, it was so expensive that only the rich could buy it. It was said that an old couple had some sent to them as a great treat. But they did not know how it ought to be used. Eventually they boiled the leaves, put some of them on a piece of bacon for dinner, ate the leaves, and threw the tea soup away. However, tea quickly proved popular enough to replace ale（麦芽酒）as the national drink of England after King Charles II and his Portuguese wife began to follow this foreign tea tradition.
Before the introduction of tea into Britain, the English had two main meals — breakfast and dinner. Breakfast was ale, bread and beef. Dinner was a long, massive meal at the end of the day. It was no wonder that Anna, the Duchess of Bedford (1788 — 1861) experienced a “sinking feeling” in the late afternoon. So she invited friends to join her for an additional afternoon meal at five o’clock in her castle. The menu centered around small cakes, bread and butter sandwiches, and, of course, tea. This summer practice proved so popular that the Duchess continued it when she returned to London, sending cards to her friends asking them to join her for “tea and a walking the fields”.
The practice of inviting friends to come for tea in the afternoon was quickly picked up by other social hostesses. A common pattern of service soon came into practice. The first pot of tea was made in the kitchen and carried to the lady of the house who waited with her invited guests, surrounded by fine porcelain（瓷器）from China. The first pot was warmed by the hostess from a second pot (usually silver) that was kept heated over a small flame. Food and tea was then passed among the guests, the main purpose of the visiting being conversation.The story of the old couple in Paragraph 1 is to show ____________.
| A．how impolite the old couple were |
| B．how English people cooked tea |
| C．how difficult it was to introduce tea to England |
| D．how little English people knew about tea in those days |
The underlined phrase “sinking feeling” in Paragraph 2 refers to a feeling of ____________.
| A．hunger | B．loneliness |
| C．thirst | D．anger |
According to the passage, the key factors of a typical afternoon tea include ____________.
a. cakes and bread
b. a massive meal
c. tea d. ale
e. fine porcelain
f. silver tea pot
g. a small flame
| A．a, b, c, d, f | B．a, c, e, f, g |
| C．a, b, e, f, g | D．a, c, d, e, g |
We can know from the passage that afternoon tea ____________.
| A．leads to the wide planting and large production of tea in England |
| B．helps bring King Charles II and his wife together in their childhood |
| C．is not only an additional afternoon meal but helps bring people together |
| D．contributes to the increasingly high price of tea and porcelain in England |
【改编】Is language, like food, a basic human need without which a child at a critical period of life can be starved and damaged? Judging from the experiment of Frederick in the thirteenth century, it may be. Hoping to discover what language a child would speak if he heard no mother tongue, he told the nurses to keep silent.
All the infants died before the first year. But clearly there was more than lack of language here. What was missing was mothering. Without good mothering, in the first year of life especially, the capacity to survive is seriously affected.
Today no such severe lack exists as that ordered by Frederick. Nevertheless, some children are still backward in speaking. Most often the reason for this is that the mother is insensitive to the signals of the infant, whose brain is programmed to learn language rapidly. If these sensitive periods are neglected, the ideal time for acquiring skills passes and they might never be learned so easily again. A bird learns to sing and to fly at the right time, but the process is slow and hard once the critical stage has passed.
Experts suggest that speech stages are reached in a fixed order and at a constant age, but there are cases where speech has started late in a child who eventually turns out to be of high IQ. At twelve weeks a baby smiles and makes vowel-like sounds; at twelve months they can speak simple words and understand simple commands; at eighteen months he has a vocabulary of three to five words. At three he knows about 1,000 words, which he can put into sentences, and at four his language differs from that of his parents in style rather than grammar.
Recent evidence suggests that an infant is born with the capacity to speak. What is special about man’s brain, compared with that of the monkey, is the complex system which enables a child to connect the sight and feel of, say, a toy-bear with the sound pattern “toy bear”. And even more incredible is the young brain’s ability to pick out an order in language from the mixture of sound around him, to analyze, to combine and recombine the parts of a language in new ways.
But speech has to be induced（激发，引起）, and this depends on interaction between the mother and the child, where the mother recognizes the signals in the children’s babbling（咿呀声）,grasping and smiling, and responds to them. Insensitivity of the mother to these signals dulls the interaction because the child gets discouraged and sends out only the obvious signals. Sensitivity to the child’s nonverbal signals is essential to the growth and development of language.The experiment of Frederick proved ____.
| A．lack of mothering didn’t affect the development of a baby |
| B．only lack of language could kill a baby |
| C．very cruel to the babies in the experiment |
| D．babies could be starved to death |
Why are some children backward in speaking?
| A．Because they are born disabled. |
| B．Because they lack language input when in sensitive periods. |
| C．Because they are exposed to too much language at once. |
| D．Because their mothers are not smart enough |
Which of the following is true ?
| A．If a child starts to speak later than others, he will be backward in future. |
| B．If the ideal time for acquiring skills passes, there will be a second time. |
| C．A child can only imitate others’ language. |
| D．An infant is born with the ability to speak. |
What is the purpose of the example of birds in the third paragraph?
| A．To prove the importance of the sensitive periods. |
| B．To prove birds has the same ability to speak as human. |
| C．To explain why some birds can’t sing. |
| D．To inform the results of Frederick’s experiment. |
where can you read this passage?
| A．In a science report. |
| B．In an Entertainment magazine. |
| C．In a health report. |
| D．In a science fiction story. |
Human beings are the most intelligent of all animals because we are gifted with the ability to think and reason logically. Scientists and even common people with special intelligence have made a lot of inventions and contributions to modern lifestyle in the past. "Houses" have been the most popular area for discoveries and inventions in the past and even now.
Many household items have been the result of inventions of people who desired better functioning of the existent products. Every individual has intelligence and if it is used properly for the right purpose it leads to invention of a new tool or device. Many new household inventions are made almost every day and there are specific companies, which particularly keep a record of all these inventions.
A lot of inventions have been made recently in the household field. These products are patentedand have trade mark licenses. The patented sliding cinch is a very simple but effective method to prevent shoulder stress and injury for those who work before computers all day long. Vanity PC is a type of computer furniture that specifically hides all the computer wires and keeps a clean and good look. All the outdoor dust, mud and snow can be kept out of the house by installing（安装）the dirt drain（排水管）at the entrance of the door. Another important invention is the automatic toilet night-light, in which a small light starts when the lid of the toilet seat is opened and closes as soon as the lid is closed.
These are some of the new household inventions invented mostly by common people. Thus, a variety of new household items are invented every day, which helps in a better functioning of household chores（家务）and in a more useful manner.The first paragraph is intended to _____________.
| A．stress the importance of inventions |
| B．introduce the topic of the article |
| C．show the advantages of modern lifestyle |
| D．tell the differences between human beings and animals |
According to the passage, people make house inventions to _____________.
| A．earn more money and gain awards |
| B．accumulate their wealth |
| C．improve the present living conditions |
| D．meet the new demands of new science |
It can be inferred that the sliding cinch is used to ___________.
| A．prevent your shoulder from being over-pressured |
| B．keep your shoulder safe and sound when you are in an accident or an operation |
| C．help you practice your shoulder more often and reduce shoulder pains |
| D．cover your shoulder and make it stronger to resist the outside strike |
Common people can also make good inventions because ___________.
| A．wisdom and inspiration sometimes come from everyday life |
| B．some inventions are easy to be made and can be mastered by them |
| C．common people have a strong desire to do something for science research |
| D．success is often connected with hardship and bitter experience of common people |
The passage mainly talks about _______________.
| A．the correct use of household facilities |
| B．different ideas about household inventions |
| C．the history of household inventions |
| D．household inventions and their influence |
【改编】What is funny? The short answer is: Who knows? The joke that causes a burst of laughter from one listener might be met with a puzzled look from another.
In general, you should avoid jokes at any business or social gathering where there are more than two people in your conversational group. If there are only two people — and they consist of you and your best friend — go ahead and tell it.
Admittedly, a few people possess a perfect sense of timing, appropriateness, and joke delivery. You are probably not one of them. You might be quite funny and have many great jokes. But there’s a place for jokes — over dinner with family, hiking with friends, but business or social affairs with colleagues and acquaintances (熟人) are not it. It takes a whole other level of joke-telling ability to put a joke into the more formal conversations.
The best jokes come into the conversation so that by the time listeners realize a joke is in progress, the punchline that produces humour is being delivered — to their surprise and delight.
Jokes don’t translate well when you’re in a group with mixed backgrounds: those whose first language is not English, those who might not understand a special term or an “in” expression, young people who wouldn’t catch a reference to some bit of culture familiar to older people — and vice versa (反之亦然).
Never joke about another person in the group — about their name, habits, hometown, profession, appearance, or past. It’s not a question of whether the joke is cheery or appropriate. No one enjoys being singled out this way. When you are the subject of the joke, the laughter doesn’t feel good no matter how hard you try to tell yourself they’re not laughing at you. Because that’s what it feels like.
What do you say if you realize your joke upset someone? Apologize as briefly and as sincerely as you can, and hope that someone changes the subject. Try saying: “I’m sorry. I should have known better” or “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”
What do you do if people don’t get your joke or don’t appear to find it as funny as you do? First, do not retell it, only louder this time, hoping the point of the joke will be seen. Second, don’t try to push people to get it. People do not like people whose jokes they don’t understand. They feel stupid and need to blame someone. If you want to leave with the goodwill of your listeners, say something to make them feel less foolish. You could say: “I don’t know why I tell jokes when I’m so poor at it.”
The world needs laughter, and good humour is a success wherever it goes, so this caveat (告诫) about joke-telling is not meant to dampen high spirits or to advocate dull conversation. If you’re a gifted story-teller and you know people love your jokes, go for it. We need your kind. The rest of us will save our jokes for family and close friends.From the first paragraph we can know______.
| A．Not all jokes are funny. |
| B．Not all people like jokes. |
| C．No one knows what jokes are. |
| D．People may have different reactions to the same joke. |
Which occasion is appropriate for you to tell jokes?
| A．At a business meeting. |
| B．At a social gathering. |
| C．Over dinner with your boss and colleagues. |
| D．At home with family.. |
Which of the following statement is true?
| A．Jokes are welcome in whatever situation. |
| B．People should repeat the joke when it isn’t understood well. |
| C．Not all jokes work well as expected. |
| D．Jokes have no borders. |
When you are the subject of a joke, you may feel _____.
| A．uncomfortable | B．worried |
| C．happy | D．satisfied |
In the passage, the writer suggests that _____.
| A．jokes are useful in any situation. |
| B．joke-telling is a very complex thing. |
| C．joke-telling can help people get along well. |
| D．jokes are forbidden in some areas. |
【原创】Noah McQueen is part of "My Brother's Keeper," a White House program aimed at young men of color.
His teen years have been rough, and include several arrests and a short period of being in prison. But last week, he was at the White House talking with President Obama.
"Growing up, I didn't have a stable household. I attended eight schools in three years," McQueen says.
McQueen adds his dad lives down the street from him, but he doesn't really have a relationship with him.
"That's one of the things we have in common," Obama says. "As I get older, I start reflecting on how that affected me. How do you think that affected you?"
"I think I learn right and wrong on my own terms." McQueen says.
"Obviously you've straightened yourself out and become successful as a black man. " Obama says. " But did you feel pressure to look back on the way you once acted?"
"Definitely, there's always pressure." McQueen says, "People will say, 'You are the success story,' but it's hard to always make the right decision and always be the leader."
"You shouldn't feel like you can't make mistakes.” Obama says. “You've discovered this strength inside yourself. If you stay true to that voice that clearly knows what's right and what's wrong, sometimes you're going to mess up, but you can steer back and keep going."
About his future plan, McQueen says" I want to do education because I want to work with kids," "You know, to see the beginnings, and to see where I was, to see the exact same kid doing the exact same thing. And it's like, we owe it to everyone and ourselves to come back and change that. That's like our duty.
"Yeah, and Noah, I just want to say how proud I am of you, man," Obama says. "It's not an easy thing to do what you've done. And I think you give others a lot of confidence and a sense of what's possible for them. And that makes me real proud. I know you're going to do great things."What doe the underlined words “steer back” possibly mean?
| A．Turn to the right direction. |
| B．Hesitate to go ahead. |
| C．Stop to have a rest. |
| D．Adapt to the environment. |
From the passage we can know Obama ____.
| A．got along well with his father when young |
| B．cares about the growth of the American youth |
| C．hates the youth to make mistakes |
| D．asks McQueen to work with kids |
Why does McQueen want to do education?
| A．Because he wants to make a living. |
| B．Because he wants to help children grow healthily. |
| C．Because he is encouraged by Obama. |
| D．Because there is a great need for teachers. |
Which is wrong about Noah McQueen ?
| A．Heisa black boy. |
| B．He did something wrong |
| C．He is praised by the president. |
| D．He founded “My Brother's Keeper”. |
What can be the best title?
| A．You Have This Strength Inside Yourself. |
| B．Don’t be Afraid to Make Mistakes. |
| C．My Brother's Keeper—A Nice Program. |
| D．Black People should be Treated Equally. |
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