From good reading we can get pleasure, companionship, experience, and instruction. A good book may absorb our attention so completely that for the time being we forget our surroundings and even our identity. Reading good books is one of the greatest pleasures in life. It increases our contentment when we are cheerful, and lessens our troubles when we are sad. Whatever may be our main purpose in reading, our contact with good books should never fail to give us enjoyment and satisfaction.
With a good book in our hands we need never be lonely. Whether the characters in it are taken from real life or are purely imaginary, they may become our companions and friends. In the pages of books we can walk with the wise and the good of all lands and all times. The people we meet in books may delight us either because they resemble (相像) human friends whom we hold dear or because they present unfamiliar types whom we are glad to welcome as new acquaintances(熟人). Our human friends sometimes may bore us, but the friends we make in books need never weary us with their company. By turning the page we can dismiss them without any fear of hurting their feelings. While human friends desert us, good books are always ready to give us friendship, sympathy, and encouragement.
Of all the gifts from reading books, the most valuable one is experience. Few of us can travel far from home or have a wide range of experiences, but all of us can lead varied lives through the pages of books. Whether we wish to escape from the seemingly dull realities of daily routines or whether we long to visit some far-off place, a book will help us when nothing else can. To travel by book we need no bank account to pay our way; no airship or ocean liner or stream-lined train to transport us; no passport to enter the land of our heart's desire. Through books we may get the thrill of hazardous adventure without danger. We can climb high mountains, brave the perils (危险) of an Antarctic winter, or cross the scorching sands of the desert, all without hardship. In books we may visit the studios of Hollywood; we may mix with the merry crowds of the Paris boulevards; we may join the picturesque peasants in an Alpine village or the kindly natives on a South Sea island. Indeed, through books the whole world is ours for the asking. The possibilities of our literary experiences are almost unlimited. The beauties of nature, the enjoyment of music, the treasures of art, the triumphs of architecture, the marvels of engineering, are all open to the wonder and enjoyment of those who read.Why do we sometimes forget our surroundings and even our identity while reading?
| A．No one is trying to disturb you there. |
| B．All is so quiet and calm around you. |
| C．The book you read is so fascinating. |
| D．Our life is just far from satisfactory. |
What makes people like their acquaintances in books even more?
| A．They are just like our human friends. |
| B．They are unfamiliar types we like. |
| C．They will never ever abandon us. |
| D．They will never hurt our feelings. |
The word “hazardous” means ______.
| A．“unexpected” | B．“dangerous” |
| C．“imaginary” | D．“unusual” |
What is the most suitable title for this passage?
| A．Reading and traveling | B．Experiencing the world |
| C．Traveling with books | D．Gifts from reading |
British men are couch potatoes. They spend nearly half their freetime watching TV. They watch more TV than women, do less housework, less charity work and less childcare—but spend more time shopping, a poll(民意测验) suggests. Analysts(分析家) from Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, interviewed working men and women in 10 countries.
Britain, where men devoted 49% of their freetime to the box, came a narrow second to the Hungarians with 51%.German and Norwegian men watched the least TV—just over one third of their spare time.
The analysts took the average of the figures for the whole year including holidays and weekends. They broke down the “average day” into five categories(类)—free-time, sleep, meals and personal care, travel, domestic chores(家务事) and work or study. It shows that British men have four hours and 41 minutes free time each day—20 minutes more than women. But women spend nearly double the amount of time on domestic chores than men. Almost three-and-a-half hours of a woman's day is taken up with domestic work, compared to less than two hours for men.
Food preparation makes up the bulk(量) of the chores, with leaning and shopping the next most time-consuming. They further broke down the free-time and domestic categories to show that men spend 137 minutes each day in front of the TV, compared to women's 114 minutes.
Women spend slightly more time socializing resting and reading than men, but slightly less time on hobbies, sport and exercise. Universally unpopular with both sexes is culture—accounting for just 2% of both men and women's leisure time.According to the passage, couch potatoes refer to _______.
| A．a kind of potatoes produced in Britain |
| B．people spending much time sitting and watching television |
| C．a kind of food offered by the English people |
| D．people who like doing housework instead of watching TV |
According to the passage, which of the following may NOT be included in the ten countries?
| A．Germany. | B．Norway. | C．Hungary. | D．Russia. |
What both men and women don't like in their spare time is _______.
| A．taking part in cultural activities | B．shopping |
| C．enjoying their hobbies | D．doing domestic chores |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Domestic Chores—Only Women's Right |
| B．British Men—Couch Potatoes |
| C．What the Research Means |
| D．Men and Women in Different Situations |
Parents often believe that they have a good relationship with their teenagers. But last summer, Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son, suddenly he seemed to be talking far more to his friends than to his parents. “The door to his room is always shut,” Joanna noted.
Tina and Mark noticed similar changes in their 14-year-old daughter. “She used to cuddle up(蜷伏) with me on the soft and talk,” said Mark.“Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something. Sometimes she wants to be treated like a young lady. The problem is figuring out which time is which.”
Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what's on their minds.“In fact, parents are first on the list,” said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers.“This completely changes during the teen years.” Riera explained.“They talk to their friends first, then maybe their teachers, and their parents last.”
Parents who know what's going on in their teenagers' lives are in the best position to help them. To break down the wall of silence, parents should create chances to understand what their children want to say, and try to find ways to talk and write to them. And they must give their children a mental break, for children also need freedom, though young.Another thing parents should remember is that to be friend, not a manager, with their children is a better way to know them.“The door to his room is always shut” suggests that the son_______.
| A．is always busy with his studies |
| B．doesn't want to be disturbed |
| C．keeps himself away from his parents |
| D．begins to dislike his parents |
What troubles Tina and Mark most is that _______.
| A．their daughter isn't as lovely as before |
| B．they can't read their daughter's mind exactly |
| C．they don't know what to say to their daughter |
| D．their daughter talks with them only when she needs help |
Which of the following best explains “the wall of silence” in the last paragraph?
| A．Teenagers talk a lot with their friends. |
| B．Teenagers do not want to understand their parents. |
| C．Teenagers do not talk much with their parents. |
| D．Teenagers talk little about their own lives. |
What can be learned from the passage?
| A．Parents are unhappy with their growing children. |
| B．Parents have suitable ways to talk with their teenagers. |
| C．Parents should be patient with their silent teenagers. |
| D．Parents should try to understand their teenagers. |
Common indoor plants may prove to be a valuable weapon in the fight against rising levels of indoor air pollution. Those plants in your office or home are not only pretty, but NASA scientists are finding them to be surprisingly useful in absorbing possible harmful gases and cleaning the air inside modern buildings.
NASA have announced the finds of a 2-year study that suggested the common indoor plants may provide a natural way of helping fight against “Sick Building Syndrome(综合症)”.
Research into the use of biological processes as a means of solving environmental problems, both on Earth and in space habitats, has been carried out for many years by Dr. Bill Wloverton, a senior research scientist at NASA.
Based on preliminary evaluations(初步评估) of the use of common indoor plants for indoor air purification(净化),NASA funded a study using about a dozen popular varieties of attractive plants to determine their effectiveness in removing several key pollutants linked with indoor air pollution. NASA research on indoor has found that living plants are so efficient at absorbing pollutants in the air that some will be launched into space as part of the biological life support system aboard future orbiting space stations.
While more research is needed, Wolverton says the study has shown that common indoor plants can remove certain pollutants from the indoor environment. “We feel that future results will provide an even stronger argument that common indoor plants can be a very effective part of a system used to provide pollution free homes and work places,” he concludes.
“Combining nature with technology can increase the effectiveness of plants in removing air pollutants,” he said.
NASA research has always shown that living, green and flowering plants can remove several poisonous chemicals from the air inside buildings. You can use plant in your home or office to improve the quality of the air to make it a more pleasant place to live and work—where people feel better, perform better, and enjoy life more.The main idea of the passage is _______.
| A．plants are very useful to human beings |
| B．indoor plants can help remove indoor air pollution |
| C．indoor plants should be raised in both homes and offices |
| D．NASA have studied indoor plants for many years |
Why do you think NASA are very interested in indoor plants?
| A．Some indoor plants would be used in space stations. |
| B．They want to find a way to cure Sick Building Syndrome. |
| C．They need indoor plants to carry out their experiments. |
| D．Indoor plants are pretty and attractive. |
The underlined word “pollutants” refers to _______.
| A．some kinds of indoor plants | B．ways to solve air pollution |
| C．research on indoor plants | D．poisonous chemicals in the air |
Artificial(假的) flowers are used for scientific as well as for decorative purposes. They are made from a variety of materials, such as wax and glass, so skillfully that they can scarcely be distinguished from natural flowers. In making such models, painstaking and artistry are called for, as well as thorough knowledge of plant structure. The collection of glass flowers in the Botanical Museum of Harvard University is the most famous in North America and is widely known throughout the scientific world. In all, there are several thousand models in colored glass, the work of two artist-naturalists, Leopold Blaschka and his son Rudolph.
The intention was to have the collection represent at least one member of each flower family native to the United States. Although it was never completed. It contains more than seven hundred species representing 164 families of flowering plants, a group of fruits showing the effect of fungus diseases, and thousands of flower parts and magnified details. Every detail of these is accurately reproduced in color and structure. The models are kept in locked cases as they are too valuable and fragile for classroom use.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．An Extensive Collection of Glass Flowers |
| B．The Lives of Leopold and Rudolph |
| C．Flowers Native to the United States |
| D．Material Used for Artificial Flowers |
It can be inferred from the passage that the goal of Leopold and Rudolph was to _______.
| A．create a botanical garden where only exotic flowers grew |
| B．do a thorough study of plant structure |
| C．make a copy of one member of each United States flower family |
| D．show that glass are more realistic than wax flowers |
The underlined word “it” refers to _______.
| A．the intention | B．the collection |
| C．one member | D．each flower family |
The name “cowboy” conjures up many different images from movies, songs and TV. These imagined cowboys range from white-hat-wearing heroes to gun-shooting hooligans(流氓).But, cowboys are actually real people from US history.
When the US Civil War ended, many soldiers had no place to call home. So, they began to drift to the country's rural West. Ranchers(农场主) hired these men to take care of the cattle and work around the ranch. When the ranch owner wanted to sell the cattle, the cowboys would round up the herd from the open prairie(牧场) and drive the cattle miles to the market.
With the invention of barbed wire(铁丝网),the cowboy era(1865-1890) began to come to an end. But people in the East had always been curious about their lifestyle. Many country/western songs during this time tried to capture the true cowboy spirit. Newspapers published cowboy tales in serial form and adventure novels followed. The bigger the fiction, the better the sales. These novels often portrayed cowboys as cruel and violent men. Cowboys carried the bad reputation for many years afterwards.
When movies began to be popular in the 1920s,the cowboy image changed again. Now, a cowboy became the great white knight(骑士) that loved his horse more than the beautiful ladies he rescued. As the cowboy of the “Old West” spent more time with his horse than the ladies, this era's image was not entirely false.
Then, in the 50s,Hollywood began producing so-called “spaghetti westerns(意大利西部片)”.They earned the nickname because Italian companies financed the films and TV shows. This started the decade's “Cowboy Craze”.While this didn't last long, it made modern country/western music, fashion and dance extremely popular.
In recent years, with the help of musicians, radio stations and bars, cowboy nostalgia(怀旧情绪) has returned. Even though his image is still changing—somewhere between ballad singing country boy and barroom fighter—there's one thing for sure, you can't keep the cowboy down.The purpose of this story is to _______.
| A．introduce cowboy movies and novels |
| B．introduce various productions associated with cowboys |
| C．show the cowboy's everlasting charm |
| D．inform us about the cowboy's spirit |
Before they became cowboys, they _______.
| A．served in the army | B．worked as bar-room fighters |
| C．owned ranches | D．were adventurous explorers |
During “the cowboy era” mentioned in the story, _______.
| A．the cowboy often came to the rescue of ladies in newspaper tales |
| B．the distant Wild West appealed to people in the East |
| C．cowboys were shown as cruel and violent men on the silver screen |
| D．country music started the cowboy craze which swept the whole country |
By saying “you can't keep the cowboy down”,the writer means that _______.
| A．cowboys are real people in history | B．cowboys still fascinate people |
| C．you can't make cowboys unhappy | D．you can't grasp the cowboy spirit |
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