He’s an old cobbler(修鞋匠) with a shop in the Marais, a historic area in Paris. When I took him my shoes, he at first told me, “I haven’t time. Take them to the other fellow on the main street; he’ll fix them for you right away.”
But I’d had my eye on his shop for a long time. Just looking at his bench loaded with tools and pieces of leather, I knew he was a skilled craftsman(手艺人) . “No,” I replied, “The other fellow can’t do it well.”
“The other fellow” was one of those shopkeepers who fix shoes and make keys “while-U-wait” —without knowing much about mending shoes or making keys. They work carelessly, and when they have finished sewing back a sandal strap(鞋带) you might as well just throw away the pair.
The man saw I wouldn’t give in, and he smiled. He wiped his hands on his blue apron（围裙）, looked at my shoes, had me write my name on one shoe with a piece of chalk and said, “Come back in a week.”
I was about to leave when he took a pair of soft leather boots off a shelf.
“See what I can do?” he said with pride. “Only three of us in Paris can do this kind of work.”
When I got back out into the street, the world seemed brand-new to me. He was something out of an ancient legend, this old craftsman with his way of speaking familiarly, his very strange, dusty felt hat, his funny accent from who-knows-where and, above all, his pride in his craft.
These are times when nothing is important but the bottom line, when you can do things any old way as long as it “pays”, when, in short, people look on work as a path to ever-increasing consumption(消费) rather than a way to realize their own abilities. In such a period it is a rare comfort to find a cobbler who gets his greatest satisfaction from pride in a job well done.Which of the following is true about the old cobbler?
| A．He was equipped with the best repairing tools. |
| B．He was the only cobbler in the Marais. |
| C．He was proud of his skills. |
| D．He was a native Parisian. |
The sentence “He was something out of an ancient legend”(Paragraph 7) implies that .
| A．nowadays you can hardly find anyone like him |
| B．it was difficult to communicate with this man |
| C．the man was very strange |
| D．the man was too old |
According to the author, many people work just to .
| A．realize their abilities |
| B．gain happiness |
| C．make money |
| D．gain respect |
This story wants to tell us that .
| A．craftsmen make a lot of money |
| B．whatever you do, do it well |
| C．craftsmen need self-respect |
| D．people are born equal |
Not long ago, many people believed that babies only wanted food and to be kept warm and dry. Some people thought babies were not able to learn things until they were five or six months old.
Yet doctors in the United States say babies begin learning on their first day of life. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is a federal government agency. Its goal is to determine which experiences can influence healthy development in people.
Researchers at the institute note that babies are strongly influenced by their environment. They say a baby will smile if her mother does something the baby likes. A baby learns to get the best care possible by smiling to please her mother or other caregiver. This is how babies learn to connect and communicate with other people.
The researchers say this ability to learn exists in a baby even before birth. They say newborn babies can recognize and understand sounds they heard while they were still developing inside their mothers.
Another study has suggested that low birth weight babies with no evidence of disability may be more likely than other children to have physical and mental problems.
American researchers studied almost five hundred boys and girls. They were born in, or admitted to, one of three hospitals in New Jersey between 1984 and 1987. At birth, each child weighed fewer than two thousand grams.
The boys and girls had an average age of sixteen at the time of the study. They were asked to complete intelligence and motor skill tests in their homes. Their test results were compared with those of other children their age.According to the passage, some people used to think that babies began to learn _________.
| A．on their first day of life | B．even before they were born |
| C．before five or six months old | D．at or after five or six months old |
Babies learn to connect and communicate with other people through_____________.
| A．smiles | B．cries | C．facial expressions | D．body language |
The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development tries to find out ________.
| A．what affects people’s healthy development |
| B．what influences babies’ learning ability |
| C．how to cure some children’s health problems |
| D．how to develop children’s learning ability |
What will be mentioned in the following passage?
| A．The evaluation method of the tests. |
| B．The cause of low birth weight babies. |
| C．The result of the intelligence and motor skill tests. |
| D．The evidence proving babies began to learn before birth. |
Fans of US television dramas watch their favorite series for different reasons: some want to improve their English skills, others just want to kill time.
Some TV series are more than pure entertainment―they have a certain depth. Mad Men, which returned with a sixth season recently; Monday Mornings, which just finished its first season; and Modern Family, which sweeps the awards every year, are just a few examples.
Why do these shows stand out among so many similar ones? TV critics Raymond Zhou will give you an idea of why some shows are better than others.
Period drama—More than time travel
Period dramas are intended to capture the ambience (气氛) of a particular era. Directors must therefore attract audiences as much by their recreation of a historical setting as by an interesting storyline.
Mad Men is an excellent example of this balance being struck. Set in New York during the 1960s, it accurately shows US attitudes in the workplace through the alcoholism and chain-smoking common of the time, and places an absorbing plot right in its center.
But rather than merely presenting a past decade, Mad Men’s subtle (微妙的) description of the struggles of white-collar workers at the time, both male and female, makes it stand out.
“The series’ attention to detail is superb,” Raymond Zhou said. “For example, creator Matthew Weiner makes Don Draper―the leading role of the series―drive a Buick instead of a Cadillac, because Weiner thinks the ad man lacks the self-pride to buy a luxury car. It’s this kind of attentiveness that raises the show’s artistic value.”
Critics also recommend
Another period drama that works is Broadwalk Empire, set during the prohibition period of the 1920s and 1930s in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Heather Havrilesky at Salon magazine noted how the show “revels in the oddities(怪事) of its time, peeling back the layers of polite society to reveal a shadow world of criminals and politicians working together to keep the liquor flowing.”
Why does it appeal to viewers? Because they know that the “liquor” is a metaphor (暗喻) for today’s political scandals (丑闻). How many US TV series are mentioned in this passage?
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
The following statements are the reasons why many people are attracted by US television dramas EXCEPT that __________.
| A．US television dramas merely present a past decade |
| B．directors recreate a historical setting and adopt interesting storylines |
| C．the dramas can improve their English skills, and help people kill time |
| D．some TV series are more than pure entertainment, and they have a certain depth |
According to Raymond Zhou, Don Draper’s driving a Buick instead of a Cadillac shows __________.
| A．Mad Men attaches much importance to details |
| B．Mad Men places an absorbing plot right in its center |
| C．the director wants to raise the show’s artistic value |
| D．Mad Men’s description of the struggling white-collar workers makes it stand out |
What does the passage mainly talk about?
| A．Directors of US dramas. | B．US dramas and their storylines. |
| C．US period dramas to kill time. | D．US dramas and their magic touch. |
When I was struggling with cancer a few years ago, my wife and I formed our own “couple caution circle”. Anytime a doctor came with news of my progress, my wife would give me a big hug. The reports were seldom good during the early stages of my illness, and one day a doctor brought particularly frightening news. Staring at my reports, he said in a low voice, “It doesn’t look like you’re going to make it.”
Before I could ask him a question, my wife stood up, handed me my clothes, adjusted the tubes fastened to my body and said, “Let’s get out of here. This man is a risk to your health. ” As she helped me struggle to the door, the doctor came near us. “Stay back,” demanded my wife. “Stay away from us.”
As we walked together down the hall, the doctor attempted to catch up with us “Keep going,” said my wife, pushing the intravenous（静脉注射的）stand. “We’re going to talk to someone who really knows what is going on.” Then she held up her hand to the doctor. “Don’t come any closer to us.”
The two of us moved as one. We escaped to the safety and hoped of a doctor who did not confuse diagnosis with conclusion. I could never have made that walk toward wellness alone. When hearing his progress, what did the author’s wife usually do?
| A．She would give a present to the doctor. |
| B．She would keep quiet and cry. |
| C．She would not say anything about the progress. |
| D．She would give her husband a big hug. |
From the passage we know ________.
| A．the wife’s decision in crisis contributed to the husband’s wellness |
| B．hearing that her husband was not going to make it, the wife went out of her mind |
| C．the husband was diagnosed with cancer by mistake |
| D．the husband became weaker and weaker as a result of the treatment conducted by the doctor |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The wife loved her husband very much. |
| B．The doctor was a dangerous man. |
| C．The wife was a woman hard to get along with. |
| D．The husband was a man who believed everything would be OK. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．A Happy Couple in Crisis | B．In Crisis, Become As One |
| C．Struggle with Cancer | D．Don’t Believe the Doctor |
A regular drop in the sun’s radiation(辐射) can cause unusually cold winters in parts of North America and Europe, scientists say, a finding that could improve long-range forecasts and help countries prepare for snowstorms.
Scientists have known for a long time that the sun has an 11-year cycle during which radiation measured by sunspots on the surface reaches a peak then falls. But explaining a clear connection to weather is harder.
“Our research confirms the observed connection between solar change and regional winter climate,” lead author Sarah Ineson of the UK Met Office told the reporters in an email. The study was published in the magazine Nature Geoscience on Monday.
The researchers found that the reducing of ultraviolet(UV，紫外线) radiation from the sun can affect high-altitude wind patterns in the Northern Hemisphere(半球), causing cold winters.
“While UV levels won’t tell us what the day-to-day weather will do, they show us the bright future of improved forecasts for winter conditions for months and even years ahead. These forecasts play an important role in long-term possibility planning,” Ineson, a climate scientist, said.
Ineson and colleagues from Imperial College London and the University of Oxford used satellite data that more accurately(精确的) measures UV radiation from the sun and found a much greater change than previously thought.
They found that in years of low activity, unusually cold air forms high in the atmosphere over the tropics. This causes a redistribution(重新分配) of heat in the atmosphere, making easterly winds that bring freezing weather and snowstorms to northern Europe and the United States and milder weather to Canada and the Mediterranean.
When solar UV radiation is stronger, the opposite occurs.
More study was needed, though. A key uncertainty in the experiment lay in the satellite data used, because it covers only a few years. “So questions remain concerning both accuracy(精确) and also applicability to other solar cycles,” she said.The new finding claims cold winters in the North Hemisphere can be caused by ______.
| A．a sharp rise in the amount of sunspots |
| B．a drop in the sun’s UV radiation |
| C．a complex computer model simulation |
| D．a clear link between the sun and the earth |
It has long been known by scientists that ______.
| A．UV radiation can affect high-altitude wind patterns |
| B．there’s a clear connection between the sun’s activity and weather |
| C．the sun’s radiation reaches a peak every eleven years |
| D．they can predict day-to-day weather conditions from UV levels |
What will happen if the sun turns into years of high activity according to the finding?
| A．Canada and the Mediterranean will have milder weather. |
| B．The whole Northern Hemisphere will suffer from extreme winter days. |
| C．Freezing cold weather will appear in northern Europe. |
| D．Burning hot weather will appear in the United States. |
It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
| A．researchers have analyzed the data collected in eleven years |
| B．long-term weather conditions can be accurately predicted depending on UV levels |
| C．the research doesn’t seem correct and true enough due to limited satellite data used |
| D．climate scientists have just begun their research in severe weather forecast |
Do you know mulch? Mulch is a protective cover of material that is spread on top of soil. It is usually made out of organic material, like crop waste. Farmers may keep the remains of corn or other crops on top of the soil. This creates mulch on the soil surface. The plant remains help protect the soil against wind and water damage. Mulching is one of the best things people can do for their plants. It also helps keep the soil from getting dry, and reduces the need for watering plants. It also limits temperature changes in the soil. And it stops unwanted plants, or weeds, from growing.
Organic mulch improves the condition of soil. As the mulch breaks down, it provides material which keeps the soil from getting hard. This improves the growth of roots and increases the movement of water through the soil. It also improves the ability of the soil to hold water. Organic mulch contains nutrients for plants. It also provides good environment for earthworms and other helpful living things in the soil.
It is easy to find organic mulch materials. Cut-up leaves and small pieces of tree bark can be used. Grass cuttings are also a good mulch for plants. Mulch from news- papers works well in controlling weeds.
The best time to add mulch depends on your goal. Mulch provides a thick barrier between the soil and the air. This helps to reduce temperature changes in the soil. As a result, mulched soil will be cooler than other soil in the summer. In winter, the mulched soil may not freeze as deeply as other soil. The best time is after the ground has frozen, but before the coldest weather arrives. Spreading mulch before the ground has frozen may attract small animals searching for a warm place to spend the winter. Delaying the spreading should prevent this problem. The animals will probably find another place to live.The author tells us the following EXCEPT ______.
| A．what mulch is and its advantages |
| B．the best time to add mulch |
| C．the bad effects of mulch |
| D．what can be mulch on the soil surface |
The following can be used as organic materials to make mulch EXCEPT ______.
| A．tree barks | B．plastic | C．grass cuttings | D．cut-up leaves |
The main idea of Paragraph 2 is that organic mulch can ______.
| A．improve the condition of soil |
| B．improve the ability of the soil to hold water |
| C．provide a good environment for earthworms |
| D．improve the growth of roots and increase the movement of water through the soil |
From the last paragraph, we know ______.
| A．the best time to add mulch is in spring and summer |
| B．the best time to add mulch is after the coldest weather arrives |
| C．the best time to add mulch is exactly the same time of each year |
| D．choosing the best time to add mulch can avoid attracting small animals |
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