The time of year a baby is born can shape what profession they will embark on in later life, a new study has suggested. Being born in a certain month appears to indicate the possibility of what job a person will end up with, the study by the Office for National Statistics found.
Researchers have uncovered that the month in which babies are born could also affect everything from intelligence to length of life. A child born in December is more likely to become a dentist while someone whose birthday falls in January will tend to a debt collector, they found.
A February birth appears to increase the chances of being an artist while March babies appear to go on to become pilots. Meanwhile, April and May are said to have a fairly even spread of professions, births in the summer months mean a much lower chance of becoming a high-earning football player, doctor or dentist. The study was gained by researchers who analyzed the birth months of people in 19 separate occupations using information from the last census (人口普查), the Daily Mail reported. Although these trends may be difficult to explain, relations between birth months and specific health problems have a scientific basis.
Spring babies are at greater risk of illnesses including schizophrenia(精神分裂症), Alzheimer’s disease(早老性痴呆病), asthma(哮喘) and autism(自闭症). They may also be less clever than classmates born in other parts of the year.What does the underlined phrase “embark on” refer to?
| A．land on | B．keep in touch with |
| C．be engaged in | D．break from |
According to the researchers, a child born in March is likely to become_______.
| A．a debt collector | B．a pilot |
| C．a dentist | D．an artist |
We can learn from the text that______.
| A．the month babies are born could only affect his intelligence and length of life |
| B．People born in the summer months are more likely to get highly paid |
| C．Spring babies may have the bigger chance to get ill |
| D．the choice of profession for April and May is very narrow |
What can be included from the passage?
| A．There exist connections between birth date and occupations |
| B．The fate has been already decided when people are born |
| C．People born in Autumn would be more successful than those born in Spring |
| D．The time of year one is born decides which specific health problems one has |
Bali Beach Resort has plenty of attractions. It is a holiday paradise（乐园）. The self-styled ‘Ultimate Island’ certainly has plenty for everyone.
Where in the world ?
Bali is located just off the eastern edge of the main Indonesian island of Java. To the east is the neighboring island of Lombok. To the south of Bali lies the expanse of the Indian Ocean, while to the north is the Bali Sea. The most popular resort with holidaymakers is Ubud north of Sanur.
When to go?
Bali has a tropical climate year round with an average daily temperature of 31℃(87℃F). The wet season is between October and April. The dry season is between May and September, and is the busiest time to visit the island as travelers take advantage of the long hot days and little rain.
Beach
Bali has a string of beaches, mainly in the south of the island. Head away from Bali’s beaches and a totally different world awaits you. Ubud is an easily accessible （接近的）jungle resort town with a good range of hotels, shops and restaurants. The active volcano of Mount Batur is a highlight and so are the mountain lakes.
Family fun
All of the resorts have plenty of facilities （设施）for families. In Ubud there is a monkey park, where young ones can see monkeys that are not kept in tiny cages and an elephant park where holidaymakers can ride an elephant.
Eating out
All of Bali’s holiday resorts offer international cooking to suit every tourist’s taste, with most of the better hotels having excellent restaurants. Indonesian Bintang beer is very popular.
Getting around
There are a limited number of local buses. The other public transport is to take the local “bemo” minibuses. These colourful little minibuses speed around the winding roads with fares negotiated （商议）on board, so it helps to speak a little of the local language. There are also taxis and both electric bikes and cars can be hired.From the passage we learn that Bali is __________.
| A．on the east of the Lombok Island |
| B．to the west of the Lombok Island |
| C．off the north of Bali Sea |
| D．surrounded by the Indian Ocean |
The least busy time to visit Bali is probably in _________.
| A．January and February | B．April and May |
| C．June and July | D．September and October |
_________ to get around Bali Beach Resort.
| A．It is very convenient for visitors to take a local bus |
| B．You don’t need to pay money to take a “bemo” minibus |
| C．You have to learn to speak the local language |
| D．You may take an electric bike |
It was graduation day at the university where I work and a beautiful day quite unlike the first graduation I attended as a young professor. On that cold day years ago, as we watched the students walking into the hall, one of my colleagues（同事）turned to me and said, “Graduation will be one of the happiest and one of the saddest time of your life.” At my request, he answered, “Because the students you have got to know have to leave.”
As years went by, my previous confusion about my colleague’s words no longer existed. When I came across naughty students, I had to rethink why I chose to be a teacher. It obviously isn’t the money. Once a former computer science student of mine called me, asking me if I wanted to have a change. He was working at Nintendo Corporation. His salary was higher than my present one, though I have more education and have worked for over 10 years. With my programming skills, he said he could get me hired, I thanked him, but refused his kind offer.
A few days before this graduation, while working on final grades, I found a note a student had slipped in with her homework. She thanked me for being her teacher and said the things she had learned in my class – not about math, but about life – would be things she would remember long after the math skills had faded away. As I finished reading, I remembered why I had become a teacher.
Now, on this sunny graduation day, as I again observed the sea of blue hats and gowns, I did so with a deeper sense of satisfaction – I will always be grateful that I am a teacher.Hearing his colleague’s description of graduation for the first time, the author ______.
| A．quite agreed with his colleague | B．was very puzzled |
| C．thought it very funny | D．was very sad |
The computer science student called the author because he ______.
| A．wanted to inform the author of his present job |
| B．wanted the author to share his joy and satisfaction |
| C．tried to persuade the author to work with him |
| D．thought the author wasn’t fit to be a teacher |
The underlined phrase blue hats and gowns refers to ______.
| A．the new graduates | B．the university colleagues |
| C．life memories | D．decorations in the hall |
We can learn from the text that the author ______.
| A．was only a young professor |
| B．didn’t do well in his work |
| C．taught his students more about life than math |
| D．was content with the job as a teacher |
I don’t want to talk about being a woman scientist again. There was a time in my life when people asked constantly for stories about what it’s like to work in a field dominated (controlled) by men. I was never very good at telling those stories because truthfully I never found them interesting. What I do find interesting is the origin of the universe, the shape of space, time and the nature of black holes.
At 19, when I began studying astrophysics(天体物理学), it did not bother me in the least to be the only woman in the classroom. But while earning my Ph.D. at MIT and then as a post-doctor doing space research, the issue started to bother me. My every achievement—jobs, research papers, awards—was viewed through the lens (镜片) of gender (性别) politics. So were my failures. Sometimes, when I was pushed into an argument on left brain versus (相对于) right brain, or nature versus nurture (培育), I would instantly fight fiercely on my behalf and all womankind.
Then one day a few years ago, out of my mouth came a sentence that would eventually become my reply to any and all provocations (挑衅) : I don’t talk about that anymore. It took me 10 years to get back the confidence I had at 19 and to realize that I didn’t want to deal with gender issues. Why should curing sexism be yet another terrible burden on every female scientist? After all, I don’t study sociology or political theory.
Today I research and teach at Barnard, a women’s college in New York City. Recently, someone asked me how many of the 45 students in my class were women. You cannot imagine my satisfaction at being able to answer, 45. I know some of my students worry how they will manage their scientific research and a desire for children. And I don’t dismiss those concerns. Still, I don’t tell them “war” stories. Instead, I have given them this: the visual of their physics professor heavily pregnant doing physics experiments. And in turn they have given me the image of 45 women driven by a love of science. And that’s a sight worth talking about.Why doesn’t the author want to talk about being a woman scientist again?
| A．She is fed up with the issue of gender discrimination (歧视). |
| B．She feels unhappy working in male-dominated fields. |
| C．She is not good at telling stories of the kind. |
| D．She finds space research more important. |
From Paragraph 2, we can infer that people would attribute (把…归因于) the author’s failures to ________.
| A．the burden she bears in a male-dominated society |
| B．her involvement in gender politics |
| C．her over-confidence as a female astrophysicist |
| D．the very fact that she is a woman |
What did the author constantly fight against while doing her Ph.D. and post-doctoral research?
A. Lack of confidence in succeeding in space science.
B. Unfair accusations from both inside and outside her circle.
C. People’s fixed attitude toward female scientists.
D. Widespread misconceptions about nature and nurtured. What does the image the author presents to her students suggest?
| A．Women students needn’t have the concerns of her generation. |
| B．Women can balance a career in science and having a family. |
| C．Women have more barriers on their way to academic success. |
| D．Women now have fewer problems pursuing a science career. |
My daughter recently asked me what a Travel Agency does. There is one located on our street and it has just been completely rebuilt. I told her that they helped people book their trips and vacations. “Why haven’t we ever been in there?” she wanted to know. “Because we do everything ourselves online these days” I explained. “But why do it yourself if other people want to do it for you?” she wondered out loud.
The answer is that the travel agency makes a little bit of money on each ticket you book through them. If you book your ticket yourself, online, you save that money. Saving money sounds great except that when you think about it you typically spend three evenings comparing prices to end up saving $30 on a $300 trip. All those $30 discounts add up of course so I guess we should be happy with that.
Still, how bad is it really to pay someone $30 and trust them to buy you something decent? Wouldn’t you say your free evenings are worth more than $10 a piece?
Consider books for a moment. Buying your book at Amazon saves you maybe 30% to 40% on each book. Add to that the convenience of shopping from home and getting the package delivered to your home address. So far so good.
Unfortunately that does mean you spend way too much time browsing Amazon. com while you could do something fun instead. Like maybe reading an actual book?
Then the package arrives and you aren’t home and end up having to pick it up at the local post- office. All in all I wonder how much time I end up investing in the whole process.
Time sounds free, but to most of us, it is more valuable than money.
The Internet Economy promised to get rid of the middle-men and we loved it. Somehow, I’m starting to get the feeling that we ourselves ended up doing the work of that middle-men we were so eager to get rid of.
In any project you can always pick two of these: fast, cheap or good. We seem to have focused a lot on ‘cheap’ and ‘good’ but the extra time we need to invest to keep it ‘fast’ comes out of our own pockets.
You can always make more money but you can never make more time.What is the purpose of the first paragraph?
| A．It mainly shows the curiosity of the author’s daughter. |
| B．It indicates that the Internet has influenced our daily life. |
| C．It tells us the importance of a travel agency. |
| D．It shows why people need a travel agency. |
What’s the author’s attitude towards the Internet Economy?
| A．The author thinks online shopping saves time and is a convenient way to buy products. |
| B．The author worries about sending personal information over the internet. |
| C．The author doesn’t think online shopping is satisfactory in every way. |
| D．The author likes the convenience but is concerned about the e-commerce environment. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．The convenience of the Internet Economy. |
| B．How to save money in the Internet Economy. |
| C．The hidden cost of the Internet Economy. |
| D．How to save time in the Internet Economy. |
Celebrated in the city of Munich, Germany, the Oktoberfest, as it is popularly called, is a 3-week festival that takes place in the months of September and October. Also called the largest beer festival in the world, the Oktoberfest gathers about 6 million visitors worldwide every year. Seeing the popularity of the festival, many countries around the world have adapted to what they call their own version of the Oktoberfest. So if you are not able to make it to Germany, you can always enjoy the festival in the areas mentioned below. Don’t miss out on it!
Brazil: welcome to the German town of Blumenau in Brazil. Well, we are not talking about Germans living in the town, but the place was originally founded by immigrants from Germany in the year 1850. The town is built in a traditional German style and there are a fair number of people who still live the way it used to be in good old days. The Oktoberfest is celebrated in a small village called Parque Vila Germanica between the dates of October 1st to October 18th. Guests can enjoy the festival in addition to exploring the town and its sites which include a beer museum.
Vietnam: celebrated in Ho Chi Minh City since 1992, the Oktoberfest event over here is conducted between the 6th and the 11th of October and the decorations are like the original festival in Munich, with large wooden tables lined with beer.
The Philippines: unlike the original Oktoberfest which is celebrated in a certain area, the Oktoberfest in the Philippines is a recent addition to the already existing festival which takes place between the 4th of September and the 9th of October. Now the event is set to be celebrated in a total of 30 parties in various cities around the country.
Canada: over 700,000 guests (second highest after Munich) in and around Canada take part in the Oktoberfest celebrated in Ontario between the 9th and the 17th of October.In which place does the Oktoberfest take place from September to October?
| A．In Blumenau. | B．In Ontario. | C．In Ho Chi Minh City. | D．In Munich. |
From the first paragraph we can know that _______.
| A．the Oktoberfest in Germany is the biggest beer festival in the world. |
| B．every year about 600,000 people celebrated the Oktoberfest in Germany |
| C．the Oktoberfest lasts longer in Germany than in any other country |
| D．in Germany the name “beer festival” is better known than the Oktoberfest |
About the Germany town of Blumenau, we know that ______.
| A．only Germans live in the town |
| B．the town was first founded by Germans |
| C．people in the town all live in the old German way |
| D．the town has many beer festivals |
The author’s purpose in writing this passage is ______.
| A．to call on more people to travel abroad |
| B．to attract more tourists to the Oktoberfest in Munich |
| C．to introduce Oktoberfest celebrations in the world |
| D．to describe the development of the Oktoberfest |
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