Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus. One family between us and the ticket counter made a big impression on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. Their clothes were clean. The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands.
The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly said, “Please let me buy eight children’s tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus.”
The ticket lady told him the price. The wife’s head dropped, and the man’s lip began to quiver (抖动). The father asked, “How much did you say?”
The ticket lady told him the price again.
The man didn’t have enough money.
Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill and dropped it on the ground (We were not wealthy either). My father reached down, picked up the bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, “Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket.”
The man knew what was going on. He wasn’t begging for money but certainly thanked the help in a difficult, embarrassing situation. He looked straight into my dad’s eyes, took my dad’s hand in both of his, and with a tear streaming down his cheek, he replied, “Thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family.”
My father and I went back to our car and drove home. We didn’t go to the circus that night, but we didn’t go without.Why was the writer impressed by the family?
| A．Because the family was very large. |
| B．Because the family was very happy. |
| C．Because the family was very noisy. |
| D．Because the family was very poor. |
When the ticket lady told them the price, the wife .
| A．hardly heard | B．felt disappointed |
| C．hardly understood | D．felt confused |
Which of the following words can be best used to describe the writer’s father?
| A．Patient. | B．Careful. | C．Honest. | D．Kind. |
What did the writer mean by saying “we didn’t go without”?
| A．They returned home with another kind of joy. |
| B．They were very happy to meet the family. |
| C．They wanted to go to the circus very much. |
| D．They had already seen the circus before. |
Surfing for hours on the Internet consumes a lot of electricity and is harmful to the environment. However, a new ecological PC saves energy as it operates：it produces about 70 percent less CO2 than conventional computers.
As a work tool, a leisure activity resource, and a personal assistant, computers seem to be everywhere. Yet the environmental performance for today's computers leaves a lot to be improved: they rapidly become out of date, and typically contain poisonous materials and individual parts that are difficult to recycle. Moreover, they consume plenty of power whose production, in return, causes the release of CO2 into the atmosphere.
Employees at the MicroPro Company in Ireland, teaming with colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration IZM in Berlin, have engineered a wooden—frame computer with reduced environment impact. As the first computer for its class, the“iameco”(pronounced I-am-eco) was awarded the “EU Ecolabel”, the European Union’s environmental label. “This touch-screen PC has very low energy consumption over the entire lifecycle” explains Alexander Schlosser, scientist at IZM.
Over the full product life cycle, it releases 70 percent less CO2 than a typical desktop PC with monitor. In addition, it can be easily recycled. Of the materials used, 98 percent can be recycled. Indeed, 20 percent of the computer can be reused immediately—in other words, many parts can be reused for repairing other computers—such as parts of the wooden frame.Paragraph 2 mainly talks about______________.
| A．the popularity of computers |
| B．the latest development of computers |
| C．the improvement of computers |
| D．the environmental pollution of computers |
The “EU Ecolabel” is probably awarded to_____________.
| A．products made of wood |
| B．products saving energy |
| C．products releasing much CO2 |
| D．products made by the EU |
The wooden frame is used because__________.
| A．it has better appearance |
| B．it can reduce weight |
| C．it doesn’t break easily |
| D．it can be recycled directly |
The author uses figures in the last paragraph to______________.
| A．record valuable data |
| B．give detailed description |
| C．provide concrete evidence |
| D．introduce a research method |
What’s the text mainly about?
A. The fun of surfing the Internet.
B. Disadvantages of the desktop PC.
C. The recycling of computers.
D. Benefits of the new ecological PC.
It was Thanksgiving morning. I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together on the top step.
"Any old papers, lady?" asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say "no" until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals(凉鞋), wet with heavy snow.
"Come in and I'll make you a cup of hot cocoa."
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and bread to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started cooking.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands,
looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, "Lady, are you rich?"
"Am I rich? Pity, no!"
I looked at my worn-out slipcovers(椅套). The girl put her cup back in its saucer carefully
and said, "Your cups match your saucers." They left after that, holding their papers against the wind. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.
Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a regular job, these matched, too. I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy marks of little sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．Lady, are you rich? |
| B．Thanksgiving Day |
| C．Don't forget how rich you are |
| D．Does cups and saucers match well? |
The writer let the two children come in and served them well because________.
| A．she wanted to sell old papers to them |
| B．she wanted to invite them to her Thanksgiving party |
| C．she showed great pity and care on them |
| D．she had the same experience as them in the past |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The girl thought the writer was rich just because she wanted to make the writer happy. |
| B．The writer had thought she wasn't rich because her supplies were not expensive. |
| C．If cups and saucers match well, they are a best pair even though cheap. |
| D．After hearing what they said, the writer seemed to understand what a rich life was. |
The writer left the muddy marks of little sandals on the floor for a while to________.
| A．show that she was a kindhearted lady |
| B．remind her that she shouldn't forget how rich she was |
| C．leave room for readers to think about what being rich is |
| D．prove that she had understood what meant being rich |
It can be inferred from the text that whether you are rich depends on________.
| A．how much money you have made |
| B．what attitude you have had towards life |
| C．the way you help others |
| D．your social relationship |
Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable occupations. Personal consultants give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants (被告). But in the executive (行政管理的) circle, beauty can become a liability.
While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman.Handsome male executives were considered as having more integrity than plainer men; effort and ability were thought to lead to their success.
Attractive female executives were considered to have less integrity than unattractive ones; their success was attributed not to ability but to factors such as luck.
All unattractive women executives were thought to have more integrity and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly, though, the rise of the unattractive overnight successes was attributed more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of the attractive overnight successes.
Why are attractive women not thought to be able? An attractive woman is considered to be more feminine and an attractive man more manly than the less attractive ones. Thus, an attractive woman has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally manly position appears to lack the "manly" qualities required.
This is true even in politics. "When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently," says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.
The results showed that attractive males completely defeated unattractive men, but the women who had ranked most attractive invariably received the fewest votes.The underlined word "liability" most probably means
| A．disadvantage | B．advantage |
| C．misfortune | D．trouble |
In traditionally female jobs, attractiveness
| A．makes women look more honest and capable |
| B．strengthens the feminine qualifies required |
| C．is of no importance to women |
| D．often enables women to succeed quickly |
Bowman's experiment shows that when it comes to politics, attractiveness
| A．turns out to be a disadvantage to men |
| B．is more of a disadvantage than an advantage to women |
| C．affects men and women alike |
| D．has as little effect on men as on women |
It can be inferred from the passage that people's views on beauty are often
| A．practical | B．supportive |
| C．old-fashioned | D．one-sided |
The author writes this passage to .
| A．give advice to job-seekers who are attractive |
| B．discuss the disadvantages of being attractive |
| C．demand equal rights for women |
| D．state the importance of appearance |
One of our biggest fears nowadays is that our kids might some day get lost in a “sea of technology” rather than experiencing the natural world. TV and computer games are leading to a serious disconnect between kids and the great outdoors, which will change the wild places of the world, its creatures and human health for the worse, unless adults get working on child’s play.
Each of us has a place in nature we go sometimes, even if it was torn down. We cannot be the last generation to have that place. At this rate, kids who miss the sense of wondering outdoors will not grow up to be protectors of natural landscapes. “If the decline in parks use continues across North America, who will defend parks against encroachment (蚕食)?” asks Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods.
Without having a nature experience, kids can turn out just fine, but they are missing out a huge enrichment of their lives. That applies to everything from their physical health and mental health, to stress levels, creativity and cognitive (认知的) skills. Experts predict modern kids will have poorer health than their parents---and they say a lack of outside play is surely part of it. Research suggests that kids do better academically in schools with a nature component and that play in nature develop leadership by the smartest, not by the toughest. Even a tiny outdoor experience can create wonder in a child. The three-year-old turning over his first rock realizes he is not alone in the world. A clump of trees on the roadside can be the whole universe in his eyes. We really need to value that more.
Kids are not to blame. They are overprotected and frightened. It is dangerous out there from time to time, but repetitive stress from computers is replacing breaking an arm as a childhood rite of passage.
Everyone, from developers to schools and outdoorsy citizens, should help regain for our kids some of the freedom and joy of exploring, taking friendship in fields and woods that strengthen love, respect and need for landscape. As parents, we should devote some of our energies to taking our kids into nature. This could yet be our greatest cause.The main idea of Paragraph 2 is that____.
| A．Kids are missing the sense of wondering outdoors |
| B．Parks are in danger of being gradually encroached |
| C．Richard Louv is the author of Last Child in the Woods |
| D．Children are expected to develop into protectors of nature |
According to the passage, children without experiencing nature will ____.
| A．keep a high sense of wonder |
| B．be over-protected by their parents |
| C．be less healthy both physically and mentally |
| D．change wild places and creatures for the better |
According to the author, children’s breaking an arm is ____.
| A．the fault on the part of their parents |
| B．the natural experience in their growing up |
| C．the result of their own carelessness in play |
| D．the effect of their repetitive stress from computers |
What does “sea of technology” mean in the first paragraph?
| A．The technology of TV and computer games. |
| B．The technology of food. |
| C．The technology of sea food. |
| D．The technology of catching animals in the sea. |
In writing this passage, the author mainly intends to ____.
| A．blame children for getting lost in computer games |
| B．encourage children to protect parks from encroachment |
| C．show his concern about children’s lack of experience in nature |
| D．inspire children to keep the sense of wonder about things around |
As a junior at McGill University, Doreen Sykora had a difficult time when she first began college. She said, “I was always well prepared for my examinations. But when I go into class to take the exam, I would fall apart. I could just blank out because of nervousness and fear.” Hitoshi Sakamoto, an anthropology(人类学) student at Temple University in Tokyo reports similar experiences.
These two young students were experiencing something called test anxiety. Because a student worries and is stressed about a test, his or her mind does not work as well as it usually does. The student cannot write or think clearly because of the severe tension and nervousness.
Now there are special university courses to help students. In these courses, advisors and psychologists try to help students by teaching them to manage test anxiety. Such a course helps students learn to live with stress and not fail because of it. First students take a practice test to measure their worry level. If the tests show that their stress level is high, the students can take a short course to manage the fear. These courses teach students how to relax their bodies. They get training to become calm in very tense situations. By controlling their nervousness, they can let their minds work more easily. Learned information then comes out without difficulty on a test.
Doreen Sykora saw immediate results after taking such a course. She now has enthusiasm about the relaxation methods. “Mostly, what I do is imagine myself in a very calm place. Then I imagine myself picking up a pencil. I move slowly and carefully. I breathe easily and let all the tension out. With each breath, more worry leaves me. It really works too. My grades have improved greatly! I’m really doing well at McGill now. This relaxation method works not only on examinations, but it has improved the rest of my life as well.”
For Hitoshi in Tokyo, the results were much the same. He is enjoying school a lot more and learning more.What is the similarity between Doreen Sykora and Hitoshi Sakamoto?
| A．They both had experiences of test anxiety. |
| B．They failed in all the examinations. |
| C．They are students from the same university. |
| D．They both had the same poor studying habits. |
The underlined phrase “blank out” in Paragraph 1 refers to “_______.”
| A．get an extra paper |
| B．be unable to think clearly |
| C．lose interest in the exam |
| D．refuse to take the exam |
What’s the purpose of some special university student-help courses?
| A．To learn more knowledge about test anxiety. |
| B．To show a stress level experienced by students. |
| C．To help students to reduce test anxiety. |
| D．To have a better understanding of test anxiety. |
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