This is a talk by a London taxi（出租车）driver.
“I’ve been a taxi driver for nearly ten years. Most London taxi drivers have their own taxis.”
“It’s a nice job most of time. you meet a lot of people. I always work at night，because there is too much traffic during the day. I live twenty miles（英里）outside London and I go to work at 5:30 in the afternoon.”
“I usually go home between 2 and 3 in the morning.”
“Some very strange things happened late at night .The other day I was taking a woman home from a party .She had her little dog with her. When we got to her house，she found that she had lost her key. So I waited in the car with the dog while she climbed in through the window.”
“I waited and waited. After half an hour of ringing the bell I decided to find out what was going on.I tied the dog to a tree and started to climb in through the window. The next thing I knew was that the police came. They thought I was a thief（小偷）.
Luckily the woman came downstairs（下楼）.She must have gone to sleep and forgotten about me and the dog！”The driver always worked at night because it was easier to _____.
| A．drive |
| B．make money |
| C．climb in through the window |
| D．meet a lot of people |
The woman climbed in through the window because _____.
| A．she wanted to have a sleep |
| B．her husband didn’t open the door for her |
| C．she didn’t want to pay the driver |
| D．she couldn’t find her key |
The story happened _____.
| A．early in the morning |
| B．late at night |
| C．20 miles outside London |
| D．near the police station |
Which of the following is wrong？
| A．The driver worked until between 2 and 3 in the morning. |
| B．The police made a mistake. |
| C．The woman had no money to pay the driver. |
| D．The woman had forgotten about the driver and the dog. |
The driver climbed in through the window to
| A．get money from the woman |
| B．return the dog to the woman |
| C．see what was happening in the house |
| D．phone the police |
The Rugby (英式橄榄球) World Cup is currently being held in New Zealand. The tournament, due to finish on October 23, is living up to the famous English saying, “Rugby is a thug's (暴徒) game played by gentlemen. ”
The games are physically aggressive; the tackles (冲撞) on the pitch are brutal; but the end of each match is a civilized affair. Players shake hands and applaud each other. Of course, the other side to this saying is: "Football is a gentleman's game played by thugs. " Indeed, unlike soccer players, rugby players don't often question the referee's (裁判员) decisions or pretend to be injured when they are not.
“Football could learn a lot from rugby," said Brian Moore, a former England rugby player "The wonderful spirit of rugby is: there is a gentlemanly code to it. You play hard on the pitch, but you always respect your opponent..
Rugby is mainly played in Europe. Australia, New Zealand and parts of Africa. "It is more enjoyable to play than soccer because you are always involved in the game," said Peter, a Welsh rugby coach. "Rugby is also a far superior test of strength, stamina (耐力) and determination. "
Most professional rugby players are large, strong and weigh over 90 kilograms. People who play the sport need to be tough and be prepared to get hurt. Black eyes, broken bones, lost teeth and being knocked unconscious—all these are common injuries. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is blind in one eye thanks to a rugby accident at school.
In England, children begin playing the game at school at the age of 8. When they enter high school, many begin to play full contact rugby. Children are taught to play for around one hour a week during their PE lessons. Most schools have a rugby team. Children who play for the school team are usually the sportiest kids, and are seen as brave and athletic.What can be concluded from the first three paragraphs?
| A．Football players are not real gentlemen. |
| B．There is a better spirit in playing rugby than football. |
| C．Football players are not as athletic as rugby players. |
| D．Brian Moore thinks that rules should be stricter in football. |
According to the passage, Peter thinks ______.
| A．rugby players pretend to be injured when they are not |
| B．rugby is not very popular in America and Asia |
| C．rugby makes people enjoy sports better than soccer |
| D．rugby needs players' strong will rather than strength |
The example of Gordon Brown is mentioned in order to .
| A．prove that playing rugby can earn people fame |
| B．explain why Gordon Brown is blind in one eye |
| C．support the point that rugby players often get hurt |
| D．warn teenagers against playing rugby at school |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Teenagers will lose interest in football. |
| B．English children have a talent for rugby. |
| C．Playing rugby doesn't involve skills. |
| D．Rugby is not suitable for everyone. |
During the teenage years, hormonal (荷尔蒙的) changes lead to physical changes like rapid muscle growth, burst in height, and weight gain in both boys and girls. Take a look at the information and height and weight charts for teens presented in this article if the question “How much should I weigh for my age and height” is bothering you.
Average Height and Weight Charts for Teens
Faster growth in kids usually can be noticed at age 8. Genetic factors also determine the physical growth of a child. So, it is perfectly normal for two kids of the same age to have different weights and heights. The following figures should be used as guidelines only.
| For Boys |
For Girls |
|||
| Age |
Height |
Weight |
Height |
Weight |
| in Years |
in Inches |
in Pounds |
in Inches |
in Pounds |
| 12-13 |
58-62 |
85-100 |
60-63 |
95-105 |
| 14-15 |
63-66 |
105-125 |
63-64 |
105-115 |
| 16-17 |
67-70 |
130-150 |
64 |
115-120 |
| 18-20 |
68-70 |
150-160 |
64 |
125-130 |
Ideal Body Fat Percentage
Fit men have 14% - 17% body fat.
Fit women have 21% -24% body fat.
Male athletes have 6% -13% body fat.
Female athletes have 14% - 20% body fat.
The ideal body fat percentage varies mainly according to age, sex and the physical activity of the individual. But it is a fact that some female athletes have body fat as low as 10 % and some male athletes had lower than 4% body fat. So, it can be observed that other than the above mentioned factors, genetic factors also influence the body-fat ratio.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
You may use the following formula to calculate your BMI:
As per SI Units (国际单位) : BMI =" mass" (kg)/[height (meters) ]2
Imperial (英制的) Units 1: BMI =" mass" (Ib. ) x703/[ height (in. ) ]2
Imperial Units 2: BMI =" mass" (Ib. ) x 4. 88/[ height (ft) ]2
Following conclusions can be derived from (得到) calculating the BMI:
| BMI Calculated |
Conclusion |
| BMI 18.5~25 |
Normal or ideal weight |
| BMI > 25 |
Overweight |
| BMI < 18. 5 |
Underweight |
| BMI < 17. 5 |
Extremely underweight |
| BMI =" 30" or BMI > 30 |
Obese(病态肥胖的) |
| BMI =" 40" or BMI > 40 |
Extremely obese |
According to the Average Height and Weight Charts for Teens, ____.
| A．girls keep on growing taller during the teenage years |
| B．girls grow faster at the end of teenager years than boys |
| C．girls grow faster at the beginning of teenager years than boys |
| D．boys' average weight is always heavier than girls' during the teenage years |
Which of the following statements about ideal body fat percentage is RIGHT?
| A．Fit men have higher body fat percentage than fit women. |
| B．Male athletes have higher body fat percentage than fit men. |
| C．Female athletes have lower body fat percentage than male athletes. |
| D．Male athletes have much lower body fat percentage than female athletes. |
After calculating the BMI, you can reach the conclusion whether ____.
| A．your weight is normal |
| B．your hormone level is normal |
| C．your height is right for your age |
| D．your body fat percentage is ideal |
If a boy is 1. 5 meters in height and weighs 68 kilograms, then he is ____.
| A．normal | B．obese |
| C．extremely obese | D．underweight |
If you saw another kid ride her bike too fast around a corner and fall down, you might ride your bike more slowly on that turn. Yes, we humans are very sensitive to others' mistakes. And the same is true for other animals. Animals mess up all the time. They might eat poisonous leaves, fall off a tree or let their prey (猎物) slip away. By watching others fail, an animal can avoid making the same mistakes, thus improving its chance of survival.
Scientists suspected that one part of the brain helps animals process information about others' errors. Cells in that part appear to become more active when a person sees someone else making a mistake. But researchers didn't know whether individual cells in this part of the brain play different roles in detecting errors.
To investigate the brain's response to errors in more detail, the researchers taught a game to two macaques, a type of monkey. One monkey could press a yellow or green button while the other watched. If the first monkey pressed the right button, the team gave both animals a treat. Every couple of rounds, the two monkeys switched roles. Meanwhile, the scientists monitored individual cells in the animal's brains.
When the first monkey messed up the game by pressing the wrong button, a group of cells in the second monkey's brain fired. But if the second monkey also made the wrong choice during its turn, some of the cells in that group didn't respond. Those unresponsive cells reacted specifically to mistakes made by others, not to the monkey's own mistakes.
Scientists believe other parts of the brain also might help people process information about another's errors. "You start to think about this other person and see things from his angle. " Ellen de Bruijn, told Science News. She studies the brain at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. According to Paragraph 1 , animals' ability to learn from others' mistakes ______.
| A．used to be ignored by humans |
| B．ensures that they will never fail |
| C．is being lost because of humans |
| D．helps them to survive better |
The underlined word "detecting" in Paragraph 2 probably means "______".
| A．correcting | B．making | C．sensing | D．drawing |
In the experiment mentioned, those unresponsive cells are only sensitive to ______.
| A．the same buttons | B．others' mistakes |
| C．one's own mistakes | D．the monkey's brain |
Petroleum, consisting of crude oil（原油） and natural gas, seems to originate from organic matter in marine sediment（海洋沉淀物）.Tiny organisms settle to the seafloor and gather in marine mud. The organic matter may partially break down, using up the dissolved oxygen in the sediment. As soon as the oxygen is gone, decay stops and the remaining organic matter is preserved.
Continued sedimentation buries the organic matter and subjects it to higher temperatures and pressures, which change the organic matter to oil and gas. As muddy sediments are pressed together, the gas and small drops of oil may be squeezed out of the mud and may move into sandy layers nearby. Over millions of years, accumulations of gas and oil can collect in the sandy layers. Both oil and gas are less dense than water, so they generally tend to rise upward through rock and sediment.
Oil pools are valuable underground accumulations of oil, and oil fields are regions underlain by one or more oil pools. When an oil pool or field is discovered, wells are drilled into the ground. When the well reaches a pool, oil usually rises up the well because of its density difference（密度差） with water beneath it or because of the pressure of expanding gas trapped above it. Although this rise of oil is almost always carefully controlled today, strong natural flows of oil were common in the past. Gas pressure gradually dies out, and oil is pumped from the well. Water or steam may be pumped down neighboring wells to help push the oil out.
As oil becomes increasingly difficult to find, the search for it is extended into more unfriendly environments. The development of the oil field on the North Slope of Alaska and the construction of the Alaska pipeline are examples of the great expense and difficulty involved in new oil discoveries. Offshore drilling platforms extend the search for oil to the ocean’s continental shelves. More than one-quarter of the world’s oil and almost one-fifth of the world’s natural gas come from offshore, even though offshore drilling is six to seven times more expensive than drilling on land.
Of course, there is far more oil underground than can be recovered. Even given the best exploration techniques, only about 30 to 40 percent of the oil in a given pool can be brought to the surface. The rest is far too difficult to reach and has to remain underground.Which of the following is true about petroleum formation?
| A．Microscopic organisms that live in mud produce crude oil and natural gas. |
| B．Large amounts of oxygen are needed for petroleum formation to begin. |
| C．Petroleum is formed when organic material in sediments combines with decaying organisms. |
| D．Petroleum formation appears to begin in marine sediments where organic matter exists. |
What does the development of the Alaskan oil field mentioned illustrate?
| A．More petroleum is extracted from the sea than from land. |
| B．Drilling for oil requires huge financial investments. |
| C．The global demand for oil has been increasing over the years. |
| D．The North Slope of Alaska has substantial amounts of oil. |
What does the author mainly intend to tell us in the passage?
| A．The formation, processing and exploration of petroleum |
| B．The specific techniques involved in oil exploration. |
| C．The changing relationships between countries. |
| D．The future intense situation in oil product markets. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Available exploration techniques serve our purpose of exploring oil very well. |
| B．More and more public regions will be further protected from being drilled in the future. |
| C．Countries may suffer from unpleasant relationships for respective benefits in exploring oil. |
| D．Powerful flows of oil is a phenomenon which can be witnessed rarely now. |
While success is surely sweeter than failure, it seems failure is a far better teacher, and organizations that fail miserably often flourish (繁荣) more in the long run, according to a new study by Vinit Desai, assistant professor of management at the University of Colorado Denver Business School. Researchers have found that people missing their goals perform much better in the long run. That is because they gain more knowledge from their failures than their successes and the lessons are more likely to stay longer in their minds.
“We found that the knowledge gained from success was often fleeting while knowledge from failure stuck around for years,” said professor Desai, who led the study. “But companies often ignore failure. Managers may fire people or turn over the whole workforce while they should treat the failure as a learning opportunity.”
Prof Desai compared the flights of the space shuttle Atlantis and the Challenger. During the Atlantis flight last year, a piece of insulation (绝缘体) broke off and damaged the left solid rocket booster (助推火箭) but didn’t influence the program. There was little investigation. The Challenger was launched next and another piece of insulation broke off. This time the shuttle and its seven–person crew were destroyed. The disaster led to a major investigation resulting in 29 changes to prevent future disasters.
The difference in response in the two cases came down to this: Atlantis was considered a success and the Challenger a failure.
“Despite crowded skies, airlines are extremely reliable,” he said. “The number of failures is extremely small. And past researches have shown that older airlines, those with more experience in failure, have a lower number of accidents.”
Prof Desai doesn’t recommend finding out failure in order to learn. Instead, he advises organizations to analyze small failures to collect useful information rather than wait for major failures.Why did experts pay little attention to the problem of Atlantis?
| A．Because it worked perfectly. |
| B．Because the right booster was still OK. |
| C．Because nothing serious happened then. |
| D．Because fewer people died in the flight. |
Fewer accidents happen to older airlines in that ________.
| A．their planes couldn’t fly high in the sky |
| B．they gained much from experience in failure |
| C．their planes were often checked by the experts |
| D．they were unpopular among passengers |
The passage is written mainly to ________.
| A．show failure is a better teacher than success |
| B．explain why Challenger failed |
| C．introduce something about Prof Desai |
| D．tell managers how to achieve success |
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