Today，people all over the world are moving out of small villages in the country to go and live in big，noisy cities.They are moving from the peaceful hills，mountains，fields，rivers and streams of the countryside to the busy world of streets，buildings，traffic and crowds.This movement from rural areas to urban_areas has been going on for over two hundred years.
In many countries，the main reason why people come to live in towns and cities is work.After one or two large factories have been built in or near a town，people come to find work，and soon an industrial area begins to grow.There is usually a residential area nearby，where the factory workers can live.The families of these workers need schools，hospitals and shops，so more people come to live in the area to provide these services and a city grows.
In every major city in the world，there is a business district where the big companies have their main offices.In the United States，this area is usually in the city centre.It is here that you can see the huge skyscraper office blocks.The people who work here often travel a long way to work each day.Many of them live in the suburbs of the city，far away from the industrial area and the city centre.Some suburbs are very pleasant，with nice houses and big gardens.There are usually parks for children to play in and large department stores where you can buy all you need.
But what is the future of the big cities? Will they continue to get bigger? Perhaps not.Some major cities have actually become smaller in the last ten years，and it is quite possible that one day we will see people moving out of the major cities and back into smaller towns and villages.We can easily know that the underlined phrase “urban areas” means________.
| A．areas of the countryside |
| B．areas of a town or city |
| C．areas near the countryside |
| D．areas near a town or city |
Why do people move to live in cities or towns?
| A．Because they can live more comfortably there. |
| B．Because they prefer a noisy life to a peaceful life. |
| C．Because they want to find work. |
| D．Because they are sure of having a better life there. |
In a residential area，you can see________.
| A．rows of houses，schools and shops |
| B．many offices and factories |
| C．a lot of factories and farms |
| D．many houses with offices and factories |
In the United States many people work in the centre of a big city________.
| A．while living on the faraway edge of the city |
| B．and live there |
| C．but live in another city |
| D．but live far away out of the city |
Mobile communications and the IP phone business have gradually replaced traditional long-distance calls. Mobile communications account for 28.5 percent of the total long-distance communications business. IP phones have 41.4 percent, while traditional long-distance calls are down to 30.1 percent.
China Mobile, the country's largest mobile communication operator, has accounted for nearly 40 percent of taxes in the domestic telecom market. That puts it at the top of the six major telecom operators in the nation, according to the latest official statistics. The other five are: China Telecom, 31.1 percent; China Netcom, 16.6 percent; China Unicom, 13.4 percent; China Satellite Communications Corp and China Railcom, 1.5 percent.
China Mobile is being chased by smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom, both of which are making significant 3G subscriber gains. That’s aided in no small part by deals to offer the iPhone. However, as of March, China Mobile did have 15 million iPhone users on its network.
In another ranking, Xiaomi, Huawei, Lenovo, vivo and OPPO came in as the top five mobile phone sellers in China by April, 2015, according to IHS Technology. The report also says that during this period, China produced 82 million handsets. (手机) (including GSM, GPRS and CDMA phones) and sold 80 million. Of the phones sold, 37 million were exported to other countries. Analysts point out that China's lack of core technologies and its heavy reliance on overseas technologies have proved to be an obstacle for development of domestic phone makers.
Nowadays, mobile communications have gradually taken the place of________ .
| A．IP phone service |
| B．telecom operators |
| C．traditional telephones |
| D．traditional long-distance calls |
The underlined word "obstacle" means________ .
| A．advantage | B．puzzle | C．difficulty | D．factor |
We can infer from the text that __ .
| A．most phones are sold in foreign countries |
| B．most long-distance calls are made through mobile phone today |
| C．China had the most mobile phone users |
| D．China Telecom brings in more taxes of all the companies |
The thing is, my luck’s always been ruined.Just look at my name: Jean.Not Jean Marie, or Jeanine, or Jeanette, or even Jeanne.Just Jean.Did you know in France, they name boys Jean? It’s French for John.And okay, I don’t live in France.But still, I’m basically a girl named John.If I lived in France, anyway.
This is the kind of luck I’ve had since before Mom even filled out my birth certificate.So it wasn’t any big surprise to me when the cab driver didn’t help me with my suitcase.I’d already had to tolerate arriving at the airport to find no one there to greet me, and then got no answer to my many phone calls, asking where my aunt and uncle were.Did they not want me after all? Had they changed their minds? Had they heard about my bad luck—all the way from Iowa—and decided they didn’t want any of it to rub off on them?
So when the cab driver, instead of getting out and helping me with my bags, just pushed a little button so that the trunk (汽车后备箱) popped open a few inches, it wasn’t the worst thing that had ever happened to me.It wasn’t even the worst thing that had happened to me that day.
According to my mom, most brownstones in New York City were originally single-family homes when they were built way back in the 1800s.But now they’ve been divided up into apartments, so that there’s one—or sometimes even two or more families—per floor.
Not Mom’s sister Evelyn’s brownstone, though.Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Ted Gardiner own all four floors of their brownstone.That’s practically one floor per person, since Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Ted only have three kids, my cousins Tory, Teddy, and Alice.
Back home, we just have two floors, but there are seven people living on them.And only one bathroom.Not that I’m complaining.Still, ever since my sister Courtney discovered blow-outs, it’s been pretty frightful at home.
But as tall as my aunt and uncle’s house was, it was really narrow—just three windows across.Still, it was a very pretty townhouse, painted gray.The door was a bright, cheerful yellow.There were yellow flower boxes along the base of each window, flower boxes from which bright red—and obviously newly planted, since it was only the middle of April, and not quite warm enough for them.
It was nice to know that, even in a sophisticated (世故的) city like New York, people still realized how homey and welcoming a box of flowers could be.The sight of those flowers cheered me up a little.
Like maybe Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Ted just forgot I was arriving today, and hadn’t deliberately failed to meet me at the airport because they’d changed their minds about letting me come to stay.
Like everything was going to be all right, after all.
Yeah.With my luck, probably not.
I started up the steps to the front door of 326 East Sixty-Ninth Street, then realized I couldn’t make it with both bags and my violin.Leaving one bag on the sidewalk, I dragged the other up the steps with me.Maybe I took the steps a little too fast, since I nearly tripped and fell flat on my face on the sidewalk.I managed to catch myself at the last moment by grabbing some of the fence the gardeners had put up…Why did the author go to New York?
| A．She intended to go sightseeing there. |
| B．She meant to stay with her aunt’s family. |
| C．She was homeless and adopted by her aunt. |
| D．She wanted to try her luck and find a job there. |
According to the author, some facts account for her bad luck EXCEPT that ________.
| A．she was given a boy’s name in French |
| B．the cab driver didn’t help her with her bags |
| C．her sister Courtney discovered blow-outs |
| D．nobody had come to meet her at the airport |
The underlined phrase “rub off on” in Paragraph 3 probably means _________.
| A．have an effect on | B．play tricks on |
| C．put pressure on | D．throw doubt on |
From the passage, we can know that _________.
| A．the author left home without informing her mother |
| B．the author arrived in New York in a very warm season |
| C．her aunt’s family lived a much better life than her own |
| D．her aunt and uncle were likely to forget about her arrival |
Patients and doctors alike have long believed in the healing (治疗) power of humor.It is claimed that humor not only affects patients’ moods, but can actually help them recover faster.
Several studies seem to support this.Patients in better spirits are known to have higher immune cell counts.Some have even claimed to have healed themselves of serious illnesses by reading comics and watching comedies.
Despite all this, many researchers are not convinced.They point out the fact that many sufferings have been known to disappear naturally, with or without a daily dose of laughter.They also say that while optimism in general does seem to be related to better health, it is hard to tell which comes first.
Humor in times of stress, however, clearly makes us feel better.On one level, it takes our minds off our troubles and relaxes us.On another, it releases powerful endorphins, a chemical produced by your body that reduces pain.
There are cases where the appreciation of a good joke is indeed directly related to a person’s health.It can show, for example, whether a person has suffered damage to one particular area of the brain: the right frontal lobe (额叶).
Scientists confirmed this by having people read jokes and asking them to choose the funniest endings from a list.Subjects with normal brains usually chose endings that were based on a relatively complex synthesis (综合) of ideas.Subjects with specifically located brain damage, however, responded only to slapstick (闹剧) endings, which did not depend on a particular context.When pressed, the brain-damaged subjects saw the logic in the correct endings.They simply did not find them funny.
Of course, humor is largely an individual matter.Next time your friend does not get one of your jokes, there is no need to accuse him of being a lamebrain.However, you might suggest that he lighten up—for the health of it.We can infer from the passage that ________.
| A．all researchers have agreed on the healing power of humor |
| B．people seldom accuse their friends of not understanding jokes |
| C．the author holds a positive attitude to the healing power of humor |
| D．reading comics will surely become a popular way of treating diseases |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．Many researchers are not convinced of the healing power of humor. |
| B．Patients in bad moods are known to have higher immune cell counts. |
| C．Optimism in general does seem to be related to better health. |
| D．People should try their best to cheer up for their good health. |
Scientists had some people read jokes and asked them to choose the funniest endings from a list to confirm that ________.
| A．the brain-damaged people are different from those with normal brains |
| B．a person with a normal brain usually responds to slapstick endings |
| C．a person suffering certain brain damage doesn’t appreciate a good joke |
| D．humor takes our minds off our troubles by releasing powerful endorphins |
Which would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Which comes first, humor or health? |
| B．Humor can cure different illnesses |
| C．People need humor in times of stress |
| D．Humor contributes to good health |
What Is Natural Medicine
Natural Medicine is to use the natural environment, the nature of the material itself to cure diseases and restore the health.It involves bettering one’s breathing way, sunbathing, improving one’s diets and so on, which play an important part in our healthcare.
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Why Study at the Australian Institute of Applied Sciences
With over 36 years of specialized training and 120 courses, our Natural Medicine College is Australia’s longest running and most sought after training provider for Natural Medicine Education.Our state of the art facilities, highly experienced instructors and friendly support staff make us the first choice for Distance Education and On-campus study.
Studying at Home
All of our courses are available to study at home.We provide all the material and support you will need to successfully complete your course.
Benefits of Studying at Home
●Work at your own pace.
●No need to travel or relocate closer to a campus.
●No interruption to your existing commitments.
●You are still in full contact with the college via Telephone, Email and Post, so you won’t be out of touch with the latest training techniques.You can learn how to ______ at the Australian Institute of Applied Sciences College of Natural Medicine.
| A．apply science to our life |
| B．operate on various patients |
| C．adjust one’s diet or breath |
| D．look after mentally-ill people |
One of the reasons for your choice of going to the college is that _______.
| A．it is the oldest college of this type in Australia |
| B．it offers more courses than any other college |
| C．you may find the best art facilities there |
| D．you will get accredited certificate or diploma |
If you take the courses at home, you are more likely to _______.
| A．focus on your own interests |
| B．adjust your study schedules |
| C．get any help from instructors |
| D．keep up with new techniques |
It was graduation day at Etihad Training Academy, where the national airline of the United Arab Emirates holds a seven-week training course for new flight attendants.
Despite her obvious pride, Ms.Fathi, a 22-year-old from Egypt, was amazed to find herself here.“I never in my life thought I’d work abroad,” said Ms.Fathi, who was a university student in Cairo when she began noticing newspaper advertisements employing young Egyptians to work at airlines based in the Persian Gulf.
Twenty years ago, unmarried Arab women like Ms.Fathi, working outside their home countries, were rare.But just as young men from poor Arab nations poured into the oil-rich Persian Gulf states for jobs, more young women are doing so.
Flight attendants have become the public face of the new mobility for some young Arab women, just as they were the face of new freedoms for women in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.They have become a subject of social anxiety and fascination in much the same way.
For many families, allowing a daughter to work may call her virtue into question.Yet this culture is changing, said Musa Shteiwi, a sociologist at Jordan University in Amman.“We’re noticing more and more single women going to the gulf these days,” he said.“It’s still not exactly common, but over the last four or five years it’s become quite an observable phenomenon.”
Many of the young Arab women working in the Persian Gulf take delight in their status as pioneers, role models for their friends and younger female relatives.Young women brought up in a culture that highly values community, have learned to see themselves as individuals.The experience of living independently and working hard for high salaries has forever changed their beliefs about themselves, though it can also lead to a painful sense of separation from their home countries and their families.
—From New York Times (December 22, 2014)It can be inferred from the passage that young Arab women _________.
| A．go to work abroad after American women’s example |
| B．didn’t start to work abroad until the late 20th century |
| C．are commonly used to living and working separately |
| D．expect to take the same family responsibilities as men |
According to the passage, the Arab women flight attendants can be described as _________.
| A．proud, homesick or independent |
| B．honest, outstanding or optimistic |
| C．mature, enthusiastic or energetic |
| D．painful, desperate or conservative |
How do the public respond to young Arab women’s new mobility?
| A．The public think highly of it. |
| B．The public care very little about it. |
| C．The public show both interest and anxiety. |
| D．The public are strongly against it. |
The author intends to tell the readers that __________.
| A．Arab women can hardly find any work |
| B．flight attendants are badly needed in the gulf |
| C．flight attendants lead quite a different life |
| D．young Arab women’s values are changing |
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