An ATM that spits out cupcakes instead of cash is now filling a popular demand in the American market：late-night desire for freshly baked sweets．
In six cities across the country, sugar addicts can now purchase a cupcake for $4．25 from an automatic machine 24 hours every day．The freshly baked goods are made by the California-based cupcake shop Sprinkles．
The idea came to the company's co-founders Candace and Charles Nelson when Candace was pregnant with their first child. Candace thought it was ridiculous that she owned cupcake bakeries aad couldn’t get a freshly baked treat at an unusual hour．That desire inspired the company’s first cupcake ATM in Beverly Hills,Calif．in 2012。
Charles said each ATM serves about l，000 cupcakes per day．The machine is so popular that when it appeared in Manhattan, customers were lined up around the block to use it.
Yet，inventing the first cupcake ATM was not as easy as convincing customers to use it．When the Nelsons started defigning the machine，they quickly realized nothing existed that could give a fully unbroken cupcake to a customer．The company had to partner with a European firm to develop the technology that could deliver a cupcake without dropping it several feet like a typical machine．After going through a seeond development cycle with the product, the ATMs can now satisfy tlle demand of growing customers and even make as many as four cupcakes at a time．
In terms of the company, the-machine allows Sprinkles to do the impossible：increase hours of operation without raising costs．Now the company can sell cupcakes around the clock through the ATM without paying employees.
Now the company is partnering with a Middle Eastern company to open 34 new locations abroad．What’s the purpose of the text?
| A．To tell us a newtrend of the diet． |
| B．To advertisefor the cupcake ATM． |
| C．To introduce a newly-invented cupcake ATM． |
| D．To advise more customers to buy cupcakes on ATM． |
How did the Nelsons come up with the idea of’a cupulke ATM?
| A．Their first child wagted to eat fresh cupcakes． |
| B．Candace hoped to eat a fleshly baked cupcake at any time． |
| C．The cupcakes they sold couldn’t satisfy the customers’ demands． |
| D．They couldn’t afford to employ enough workers． |
What problem did the Nelsons face when starting to design the machine?
| A．Serving an unbroken cupcake to customers． |
| B．Convincing the customers to use the machine． |
| C．Dealing with so many orders every day． |
| D．Making as many as four cupcakes at a time． |
What does the underlined word‘‘it’’in Paragraph 4 refer to?
| A．The machine． | B．The block． |
| C．The cupcake． | D．The customer． |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．The ATM will replace the traditional cake shops． |
| B．The ATM will appear in more cities in the world． |
| C．The company will promote different kinds of products． |
| D．People will get cupcakes through the ATM without paying． |
When nature is left alone, a balance is reached among the animals and plants living in one area. But when man starts his work in nature, the balance is likely to be destroyed. He grows a crop and takes it away to eat; then there are no dead leaves to fall on the ground, holding water while it sinks into the surface, or decaying (腐烂) and adding humus (腐殖质) to the soil. Unless a farmer acts with knowledge and skill, he is therefore most likely to make the land poorer. To take the place of the useful matter in the crops that he removes, he uses some kind of fertilizer. Chemical fertilizers are of great help, but the waste products of animals and decaying remains of plants should also be put on the land. In some places, it is a habit to burn waste material lying about, but such burning destroys the useful matter in the dead plants. Although the ashes that are left are valuable when put on the land, a better practice is to bury the waste so that it decays and increases the humus in the soil.
In the past, when the world population was much lower than it is now, a man had little difficulty in ordinary times in growing the food that was needed. When a field had been used some years and had become tired, the farmer could move to another place. The tired land then slowly recovered. Gradually grasses and other plants would appear on it and its productive power would slowly return to normal through their decay. But nature, left alone, would take a long time to bring back the land to its former state; the length of time required would depend on local conditions, but it might well be ten years.
It is a bad practice to grow the same crop in a field year after year. If the crop is changed, the land will suffer less because it is treated and used in a different way. Different plants have different effects on the soil. Therefore, a change of crop will do less harm than the growing of the same crop year after year and a regular change to grass will do good to the soil. Much will therefore be gained if different crops are grown one after another, a method known as the rotation (轮作) of crops.According to the passage, the land will become poorer________.
| A．if all the dead leaves are cleared away |
| B．if the humus is increased after the harvest |
| C．if dead leaves decay in the soil by themselves |
| D．if waste plant material lying about is buried |
We can learn from the passage that the tired land has gradually recovered_______.
| A．when grasses and other plants appear again |
| B．when the treatment is given by nature alone |
| C．after new grasses and other plants have decayed again |
| D．after nature has been left alone for several months |
A modern farmer can hardly move to another place as he did before because_______.
| A．the productive power of a new field isn't higher than that of an old one |
| B．there are few free fields left for him to do farming |
| C．it takes a farmer more than ten years to start farming in a new field |
| D．there will be too many grasses in a new field to grow crops |
It is most likely that the author will go on to ______ in the paragraph following the passage above.
| A．introduce other methods of planting crops |
| B．deal with how to prevent land getting tired |
| C．start another topic of how to make use of land |
| D．explain what the rotation of crops is |
One of Britain’s bravest women told yesterday how she helped to catch suspected (可疑的) police killer David Bieber — and was thanked with flowers by the police. It was also said that she could be in line for a share of up to ￡30,000 reward money.
Vicki Brown, 30, played a very important role in ending the nationwide hunt. Vicki, who has worked at the Royal Hotel for four years, told of her terrible experience when she had to walk silently into Bieber’s bedroom and to watch him secretly. Then she waited alone for three hours while armed police prepared to storm the building.
She said: “I was very nervous. But when I opened the hotel door and saw 20 armed policemen lined up in the car park I was so glad they were there.”
The alarm had been raised because Vicki became suspicious (怀疑) of the guest who came at 3 pm the day before New Year’s Eve with little luggage and wearing sunglasses and a hat pulled down over his face. She said: “He didn't seem to want to talk too much and make any eye contact .” Vicki, the only employee on duty, called her bosses Margaret, 64, and husband Stan McKale, 65, who phoned the police at 11 pm.
Officers from Northumbria Police called Vicki at the hotel in Dunston, Gateshead, at about 11:30 pm to make sure that this was the wanted man. Then they kept in touch by phoning Vicki every 15 minutes.
“It was about ten past two in the morning when the phone went again and a policeman said ‘Would you go and make yourself known to the armed officers outside?’. My heart missed a beat.”
Vicki quietly showed eight armed officers through passages and staircases to the top floor room and handed over the key.
“I realized that my bedroom window overlooks that part of the hotel, so I went to watch. I could not see into the man’s room, but I could see the passage. The police kept shouting at the man to come out with his hands showing. Then suddenly he must have come out because they shouted for him to lie down while he was handcuffed (戴上手铐).”The underlined phrase “be in line for” (paragraph 1) means________.
| A．get | B．be paid | C．ask for | D．own |
Vicki's heart missed a beat because ________.
| A．the phone went again | B．she would be famous |
| C．the policemen had already arrived | D．she saw 20 policemen in the car park |
David Bieber was most probably handcuffed in ________.
| A．the passage | B．the man's room |
| C．Vicki's bedroom | D．the top floor room |
The whole event probably lasted about ________ hours from the moment Bieber came to the hotel to the arrival of some armed officers.
| A．6 | B．8 | C．11 | D．14 |
Animation(动画) means making things which are lifeless come alive and move.
Since earliest times, people have always been surprised by movement. But not until this century have we managed to take control of movement, to record it, and in the case of animation, to retranslate it and recreate it. To do all this, we use a movie camera and a projector.
In the world of cartoon animation, nothing is impossible. You can make the characters do exactly what you want them to do.
A famous early cartoon character was Felix the Cat, created by Pat Sullivan in America in the early nineteen twenties. Felix was a wonderful cat. He could do all sorts of things no natural cat could do like taking off his tail, using it as a handle and then putting it back.
Most of the great early animators lived and worked in America, the home of the moving picture industry. The famous Walt Disney cartoon characters came to life after 1928. Popeye the Sailor and his girl friend Olive Oyo were born at Max Ficischer in 1933.
But to be an animator, you don’t have to be a professional. It is possible for anyone to make a simple animated film without using a camera at all. All you have to do is to draw directly on to an empty film and then run the film through a projector. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．People were unable to cause the movement to last or record it in the last century. |
| B．Pat Sullivan was a famous early cartoon character. |
| C．It is impossible to make cartoon characters do what they are designed to do. |
| D．In ancient times people were surprised by movement. |
According to the passage, Felix the Cat________.
| A．was created by the American cartoonist Felix |
| B．was designed by Pat Sullivan in the early twentieth century |
| C．was unable to do what natural cats could not do |
| D．was created in the United States in the nineteenth century |
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．Walt Disney’s cartoon characters were born earlier that Pat Sullivan’s |
| B．only professionals can create cartoon characters |
| C．Popeye the Sailor and Olive Oyo were famous cartoonists |
| D．the cartoon industry started in the United States |
Which of the following statements best describes the author’s attitude towards cartoon making?
| A．Cartoon making is an easy job. Anyone can do it. |
| B．Only trained people can be employed in cartoon making industry. |
| C．Anyone can make cartoons under the instructions of professionals. |
| D．Cartoon making is no easy job. You have to spend much time drawing onto the empty film. |
I was telling my boy Sonny the story of the hare (兔子) and the tortoise (乌龟). At the end I said. “Son, remember: Slow and steady (稳固的) wins the race. Don’t you think there’s something to learn from the tortoise?”
Sonny opened his eyes wide, “Do you mean next time when I’m participating in the 60-metre race I should wish that Billy and Tony and Sandy would all fall asleep halfway?”
I was shocked, “But the tortoise didn’t wish that the hare would fall asleep on the way!”
“He must have wished that,” Sonny said. “Otherwise how could he be so stupid as to race with the hare? He knew very well the hare ran a hundred times faster than he himself did.”
“He didn’t have such a wish,” I insisted, “He won the race by perseverance , by pushing on steadily.”
Sonny thought a while. “That’s a lie,” he said. “He won it because he was lucky. If the hare hadn’t happened to fall asleep, the tortoise would never have won the race. He could be as steady as you like, or a hundred times steadier, but he’d never have won the race. That’s for sure.”
I gave up. Today’s children are not like what we used to be. They’re just hopeless.Sonny believed that the tortoise ________.
| A．won the race by his own effort |
| B．took a risk by agreeing to race |
| C．was not given a fair chance in the race |
| D．in fact did not win the race |
Billy, Tony and Sandy must be ________.
| A．boys who were unknown to Sonny’s father |
| B．boys Sonny had run races with before |
| C．boys Sonny had never raced with before |
| D．boys Sonny did not expect to race with again |
The writer thinks that his generation (代) ________.
| A．were more clever than Sonny’s generation |
| B．had the same ideas about life as Sonny’s generation |
| C．were more hopeful than Sonny’s generation |
| D．had different ideas about life from Sonny’s generation |
When nature is left alone, a balance is reached among the animals and plants living in one area. But when man starts his work in nature, the balance is likely to be destroyed. He grows a crop and takes it away to eat; then there are no dead leaves to fall on the ground, holding water while it sinks into the surface, or decaying (腐烂) and adding humus (腐殖质) to the soil. Unless a farmer acts with knowledge and skill, he is therefore most likely to make the land poorer. To take the place of the useful matter in the crops that he removes, he uses some kind of fertilizer. Chemical fertilizers are of great help, but the waste products of animals and decaying remains of plants should also be put on the land. In some places, it is a habit to burn waste material lying about, but such burning destroys the useful matter in the dead plants. Although the ashes that are left are valuable when put on the land, a better practice is to bury the waste so that it decays and increases the humus in the soil.
In the past, when the world population was much lower than it is now, a man had little difficulty in ordinary times in growing the food that was needed. When a field had been used some years and had become tired, the farmer could move to another place. The tired land then slowly recovered. Gradually grasses and other plants would appear on it and its productive power would slowly return to normal through their decay. But nature, left alone, would take a long time to bring back the land to its former state; the length of time required would depend on local conditions, but it might well be ten years.
It is a bad practice to grow the same crop in a field year after year. If the crop is changed, the land will suffer less because it is treated and used in a different way. Different plants have different effects on the soil. Therefore, a change of crop will do less harm than the growing of the same crop year after year and a regular change to grass will do good to the soil. Much will therefore be gained if different crops are grown one after another, a method known as the rotation (轮作) of crops.
72. According to the passage, the land will become poorer________.
A. if all the dead leaves are cleared away
B. if the humus is increased after the harvest
C. if dead leaves decay in the soil by themselves
D. if waste plant material lying about is buried
73. We can learn from the passage that the tired land has gradually recovered_______.
A. when grasses and other plants appear again
B. when the treatment is given by nature alone
C. after new grasses and other plants have decayed again
D. after nature has been left alone for several months
74. A modern farmer can hardly move to another place as he did before because_______.
A. the productive power of a new field isn't higher than that of an old one
B. there are few free fields left for him to do farming
C. it takes a farmer more than ten years to start farming in a new field
D. there will be too many grasses in a new field to grow crops
75. It is most likely that the author will go on to ______ in the paragraph following the passage above.
A. introduce other methods of planting crops
B. deal with how to prevent land getting tired
C. start another topic of how to make use of land
D. explain what the rotation of crops is
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