The biggest threat to the future of Oxfordshire’s economy is transport.
That is the key finding of a major new report which interviewed more than 120 county companies. The results show 76 percent of the company owners and directors believe traffic jams and the quality of transport are affecting their business.
More than 30 percent say this is costing them dearly in the form of extra fuel(燃料) costs, while some say the situation of being stuck in jams on key roads such as the A34 and A40 every day is making it harder to employ workers.
But lack of safer cycling plans is encouraging 72 percent of people to continue to go to work by car.
The report has led the government to try to work out a solution to the situation on the county’s crowded roads.
Nicola Blackwood, an official of Oxfordshire, recently brought transport minister Stephen Hammond to the county and said he became stuck in a traffic jam on the A34.
As a result, he has promised that he will aim to look at entire roads, rather than individual projects such as improving junctions (交叉路口).
Ms Blackwood said: “If we are able to achieve anything like our economic growth, we need to solve the problems that not only affect the new companies but also the growth of existing local businesses. What I want to see most of all is the quick production of a plan to solve the problem of the A34.”
John Cardy, co-founder of Garden Games, said he had considered moving his business from a farm in Garford to Witney but traffic fears had made him reconsider. He added: “Most of our employees were not prepared to use the A40 which is always crowded.”According to the report, _____.
| A．the A34 and A40 are the most crowded roads |
| B．more and more workers are losing their jobs |
| C．companies spend more on fuel than before |
| D．there is a serious lack of fuel |
What do we know about the report mentioned in the text?
| A．It aims to develop safer cycling plans. |
| B．It focuses on the unemployment problem. |
| C．It has attracted the government’s attention. |
| D．It is based on Stephen Hammond’s experience. |
According to Ms Blackwood, what’s the most important thing to do?
| A．To solve the problem of heavy traffic. |
| B．To limit the growth of new businesses. |
| C．To invite the transport minister to Oxfordshire. |
| D．To find ways to develop the county’s economy. |
John Cardy’s worry shows _____.
| A．his employees are always caught in traffic jams on the A40 |
| B．most of his employees aren’t satisfied with him |
| C．transport is holding back business growth |
| D．business growth leads to traffic jams |
Leadership is the most significant word in today’s competitive business environment because it directs the manager of a business to focus inward on their personal abilities and style. Experts on leadership will quickly point out that“how things get done”influences the success of the outcomes and indicates a right way and a wrong way to do things. When a noted leader on the art of management, Peter Drucker,coined the phrase“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things, he was seeking to clarify the distinctions he associates with the terms.
When Stephen Covey,founder and director of the Leadership Institute, explored leadership styles in the past decade, he focused on the habits of a great number of higllly effective individuals. His Seven Habits of Highly Effective People became a popular bestseller very quickly. His ideas forced a reexamination of the early leadership example, which centered on the feature that was found in the character ethic(道德)and the personality ethic. The former ethic suggested success was founded on modesty,loyalty,courage, patience, and so on. The personality ethic suggested it was one’s attitude, not behavior,that inspired success, and this ethic was founded on a belief of positive mental attitude. In contrast to each of these ideas, Covey advocates that leaders need to understand universal principles of effectiveness, and he highlights how vital it is for leaders to first personally manage themselves if they are to enjoy any hope of outstanding success in their work environments; To achieve a desired vision for your business, it is essential that you have a personal vision of where you are headed and what you value. Business leadership means that managers need to“put first things first,” which implies that before leading others, you need to be clear on your own values, abilities, and strengths and be seen as trustworthy.
【改编】 What does the first passage infer?
| A．Leadership is doing the right thing. |
| B．Leaders should be good at doing things right. |
| C．Leaders should be good at ignoring distinctions. |
| D．Leaders needn't associate with the terms. |
【改编】What does Stephen Covey say?
| A．When people have little determination, they will be successful. |
| B．When people have good behaviour, they will gain success. |
| C．If people have positive mental attitude, they are likely to succeed. |
| D．If people have negative mental attitude, they are certain to succeed. |
【改编】 To be good leaders, what must managers pay close attention to?
| A．Universal principles of effectiveness． |
| B．Values，abilities and strengths． |
| C．Good qualities such as modesty． |
| D．Courage as well as patience． |
From a plane we can see the fields, cities, mountains or seas below．If we go into space, we see more and more of the earth．People and man-made satellites have been sent out into space to look at the earth carefully and people have learnt more about the earth in the last years．
The sea looks very beautiful when the sun is shining on it．But it can be very terrible when there is a strong wind．
The sea is very big, it nearly covers three quarters of the earth．The sea is also very deep in some places．There is one place in the sea is about 11 kilometres deep．The highest mountain in the world is about 9 kilometres high．If that mountain was put into the sea at that place, there would be still 2 kilometres of water above it!
In most parts of the sea, there are many kinds of fishes and plants．Some live near the top of the sea．Others live deep down．There are also a lot of small living things, and lots of fishes live by eating them．
The sea can be very cold．The further people go down, the sea becomes colder and colder．At one time only some men could go down into the deep sea．But, in 1970, five women scientists lived in the deep sea for fourteen days．【改编】 The land covers about _________ of the earth．
| A．1/3 | B．1/4 | C．1/2 | D．3/4 |
【改编】The fishes feed on _________.
| A．plants |
| B．small fish |
| C．small living things |
| D．islands |
【改编】What can we infer from the passage？
| A．The highest mountain is in the deepest place of the sea. |
| B．We can see the fields, cities, mountains or seas in everywhere. |
| C．In 1970, five men scientists lived in the deep sea for fourteen days. |
| D．The further people go down, the colder and colder the sea becomes. |
There once was a master who went to India．In those times, we didn't have the communications or airplanes or many kinds of transportation that we do now．So the master went to India on foot．He had never been to India before; perhaps he came from Persia．And when he got there, he saw a lot of fruit．In India they have plenty of fruit to sell, but much of it is expensive because they can't grow much due to the water situation．So he saw one basket, a big basket of some very red, long fruit．And it was the cheapest in the shop, not expensive at all．
So he went up and asked, "How much per kilo?" And the shopkeeper said, "Two rupees（卢比）．" Two rupees in India is nothing; it's like dirt．So he bought a whole kilogram of the fruit and started eating it．But after he ate some of it: Oh, my God! His eyes watered, his mouth watered and burned, his eyes were burning, his head was burning and his face became red．As he coughed and choked and gasped for breath, he jumped up and down, saying, "Ah! Ah! Ah!"But he still continued to eat the fruit! Some people who were looking at him shook their heads and said, "You're crazy, man．Those are chilies（辣椒）! You can't eat so many; they're not good for you! People use them as a condiment（作料）, but only a little bit to put into food for taste．You can't just eat them by the handful like that; they're not fruit!" So the stupid master said, "No, I can't stop! I paid money for them, and now I'll eat them．It's my money!"
And you think that master was stupid, right? Similarly, we sometimes do a lot of things like that．We invest money, time or effort in a relationship, business or job．And even though it's been a long time, bitter experience tells us it won't work, and we know there's no more hope that things will change in the future — this we definitely know by intuition（直觉）— we still continue just because we've invested money, time, effort and love into it．Just like the man who ate the chilies and suffered so much but couldn't stop because he didn't want to waste the money he'd paid．【改编】 Why did the master go to India on foot?
| A．Because he likes doing sports. |
| B．Because there aren't any kinds of transportation that we do now. |
| C．The price of transportation is very expensive. |
| D．Because the master had lots of time. |
【改编】 What can we infer about the master according to the passage?
| A．His eyes watered because the fruit he ate was delicious. |
| B．He came from Persia on his own． |
| C．He has been to India before. |
| D．He likes chilies very much. |
【改编】 What does passage want to tell us?
| A．To tell us we have to give up sometimes. |
| B．To share us a funny story about a silly master. |
| C．To show us a wise master. |
| D．To offer some information about buying fruits. |
Have you winterized your horse yet? Even though global warming may have made our climate more mild, many animals are still hibernating(冬眠). It’s too bad that humans can’t hibernate. In fact, as a species, we almost did.
Apparently, at times in the past, peasants in France liked a semi-state of human hibernation. So writes Graham Robb, a British scholar who has studied the sleeping habits of the French peasants. As soon as the weather turned cold people all over France shut themselves away and practiced the forgotten art of doing nothing at all for months on end.
In line with this, Jeff Warren, a producer at CBC Radio’s The Current, tells us that the way we sleep has changed fundamentally since the invention of artificial(人造的) lighting and the electric bulb.
When historians began studying texts of the Middle Ages, they noticed something referred to as “first sleep”, which was not clarified, though. Now scientists are telling us our ancestors most likely slept in separate periods. The business of eight hours’ uninterrupted sleep is a modern invention.
In the past, without the artificial light of the city to bathe in, humans went to sleep when it became dark and then woke themselves around midnight. The late night period was known as ”The Watch” It was when people actually kept watch against wild animals, although many of them simply moved around or visited family and neighbours.
According to some sleep researchers, a short period of insomnia(失眠) at midnight is not a disorder. It is normal. Humans can experience another state of consciousness around their sleeping, which occurs in the brief period before we fall asleep or wake ourselves in the morning. This period can be an extraordinarily creative time for some people. The impressive inventor, Thomas Edison, used this state to hit upon many of his new ideas.
Playing with your sleep rhythms can be adventurous, as anxiety may set in. Medical science doesn’t help much in this case. It offers us medicines for a full night’s continuous sleep, which sounds natural; however, according to Warren’s theory，it is really the opposite of what we need. The example of the French peasants shows the fact that________.
| A．people might become lazy as a result of too much sleep |
| B．there were signs of hibernation in human sleeping habits |
| C．people tended to sleep more peacefully in cold weather |
| D．winter was a season for people to sleep for months on end |
The late night was called “The Watch” because it was a time for people______.
| A．to set traps to catch animals |
| B．to wake up their family and neighbours |
| C．to remind others of the time |
| D．to guard against possible dangers |
What does the author advise people to do?
| A．Sleep in the way animals do. |
| B．Consult a doctor if they can’t sleep. |
| C．Follow their natural sleep rhythm. |
| D．Keep to the eight-hour sleep pattern. |
What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
| A．To give a prescription for insomnia. |
| B．To urge people to sleep less. |
| C．To analyze the sleep pattern of modern people. |
| D．To throw new light on human sleep. |
This brief book is aimed at high school students, but speaks to anyone learning at any stage of life.
Its formal, serious style closely matches its content, a school-masterly book on schooling. The author, W. H. Armstrong, starts with the basics: reading and writing. In his opinion, reading doesn’t just mean recognizing each word on the page; it means taking in the information, digesting it and incorporating it into oneself just as one digests a sandwich and makes it a part of him. The goal is to bring the information back to life, not just to treat it as dead facts on paper from dead trees. Reading and writing cannot be completely separated from each other; in fact, the aim of reading is to express the information you have got from the text. I’ve seen it again and again ：some-one who can’t express an idea after reading a text is just as ineffective as someone who hasn’t read it at all.
Only a third of the book remains after that discussion, which Armstrong devotes to specific tips for studying languages, math, science and history. He generally handles these topics thoroughly(透彻地) and equally, except for some weakness in the science and math sections and a bit too much passion(激情) regarding history to his students, that was a hundred times more than my history teachers ever got across. To my disappointment, in this part of the book he ignores the arts. As a matter of fact, they demand all the concentration and study that math and science do, though the study differs slightly in kind. Although it’s commonly believed that the arts can only be naturally acquired, actually, learning the arts is no more natural than learning French or mathematics.
My other comment is that the text aged. The first edition apparently dates to the 1960s—none of the references(参考文献)seem newer than the late 1950s. As a result, the discussion misses the entire computer age.
These are small points, though, and don’t affect the main discussion. I recommend it to any student and any teacher, including the self-taught student. According to Armstrong, the goal of reading is to________.
| A．gain knowledge and expand one’s view |
| B．understand the meaning between the lines |
| C．experts ideas based on what one has read |
| D．gets information and keeps it alive in memory |
The author of the passage insists that learning the arts_________.
| A．requires great efforts |
| B．demands real passion |
| C．is less natural than learning maths |
| D．is as natural as learning a language |
What is a shortcoming of Armstrong’s work according to the author?
| A．Some ideas are slightly contradictory. |
| B．There is too much discussion on studying science. |
| C．The style is too serious. |
| D．It lacks new information. |
This passage can be classified as________.
| A．an advertisement |
| B．a book review |
| C．a feature story |
| D．A news report |
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