How often one hears children wishing they were grown-ups and old people wishing they were young again! Each age has its pleasures and its pains, and the happiest person is the one who enjoys what each age gives him without wasting his time in their useless regrets.
Childhood is a time when there are few responsibilities for them to make a living. If a child has good parents, he is well fed, looked after and loved, whatever he may do. It is impossible that he will ever again in his life be given so much without having to do anything in return. What's more, life is always giving new things to the child—things that have lost their interest for older people because they are too common for them. But a child has his pains: he is not so free to do what he wishes to do; he is repeatedly being told not to do something, or being punished for what he has wrongly done.
When a young man starts to earn his own living, he can no longer expect others to pay for his food, his clothes, and his room, but has to work if he wants to live comfortably. If he spends most of his time playing about in the way that he used to as a child, he will go hungry. And if he breaks the laws of society just as he used to break the rules of his parents, he may go to prison. If, however, he works hard, keeps out of trouble and has good health, he can have the great happiness of building up for himself his own position in society.According to paragraph 2, the writer thinks that ______________.
| A．life for a child is fairly easy |
| B．only children are interested in life |
| C．a child is always loved whatever he does |
| D．if much is given to a child, he must do something to pay back |
A young man ___________ if he expects to live in the way he wants.
| A．should lose his heart to his work |
| B．should try to keep out of trouble |
| C．should spend most of his time enjoying himself |
| D．should build up his own position in society for himself |
The main idea of the passage is that ______________.
| A．children's time is the most enjoyable in one's life |
| B．life is not enjoyable since each age has some pains |
| C．young men can have the greatest happiness if they work hard |
| D．one can enjoy what each age gives him though there are some pains |
“Image is everything．” An entire industry has been built upon the assumption that image is everything, but when it comes down to it, an appealing image is not enough．If there is no substance（事实） behind the image, the product, service or person will fail eventually．
First of all, one should consider how important image is in the selling of products and services．Advertising agencies have raised the art of creating an image to a state of near perfection．Public concept of that product or service is certainly managed by the images created by the advertising agencies．But if the product or service does not live up to the image that was created, the customer will be very dissatisfied and possibly ask for their money back．For example, the Arthur Andersen accounting firm had spent decades building up an image of trustworthiness．But the recent scandal （丑闻） showed that behind that image, it cheated in business practices．Despite the previous positive image, the firm is being accused of criminal actions and it will probably not survive as a business unit．Although the image had been nearly perfect, the reality behind the image has led to the downfall of the world famous accounting firm．
Similarly, personal advisers can build up a public image for politicians and movie stars．Putting out positive news releases, making sure that only the best photographs are published, and ensuring that the person is seen in all the right places can build up a very positive image in the view of the general commons．But once again, history is filled with examples of both politicians and movie stars that fell from grace like the story of the Hollywood actor giving in to the pressures of fame and fortune．With people, just as with products and services, image is certainly important, but without positive substance behind the image, failure is close．
To summarize, it is clear that an appealing image is extremely important to success, whether that image is related to selling a product or service or to the “selling” of a person．But image is only half of the equation．What lies behind that image is every bit as important as the image itself —— the person or product must deliver on that image or there is little chance for long-term success．The downfall of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm is due to ________．
| A．its dishonesty in business | B．its previous images |
| C．its bad management | D．its poor service |
Why did some famous people fall from grace?
| A．Their images were not well built up |
| B．They failed to live up to their images． |
| C．They felt much pressure from the public |
| D．They paid little attention to fame and fortune． |
The structure of the passage is ________．
A: Argument P: Point C: Conclusion
The author tries to argue that _________．
| A．image creates everything | B．image is the key to success |
| C．truth is unlikely ever to be equaled | D．truth and image are equally important |
In the next few years, battery technology is going to grow rapidly.
No more charging your smart phone every day...
No more “range anxiety” for electric cars, as new lithium batteries （锂电池）allow them to drive hundreds of miles on a single charge, just like a tank of gas.
And a tiny Chinese company is to be the leader of it all.
It already counts Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung as customers for its advanced batteries.
But the real money is going to come when it starts selling electric cars.
Right now, the stock is trading at an extreme discount, offering in-the-know investors a chance to get in and make a killing.
You need to know all the details about this opportunity today — and not a day later.
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NO-JUNK: By no means will we EVER rent, sell or give away your email address for any reason. Unsubscribing from Energy & Capital is quick, easy, and painless... with just a few clicks. View our Privacy Policy.What does the underlined part “make a killing” in Paragraph 7 mean?
| A．Beat all other businesses. |
| B．Make a lot of money in a short time. |
| C．Force other batteries to withdraw from market. |
| D．Be the business leader in battery making. |
What is the possible problem with online subscribing?
| A．The giving-away of privacy. |
| B．Getting lots of junk emails. |
| C．Becoming a member of some organization unwillingly. |
| D．Not being able to unsubscribe. |
Where is this material probably from?
| A．A magazine. | B．A newspaper. | C．A website. | D．A booklet. |
This passage is mainly to ______.
| A．advertise new batteries | B．find potential investors |
| C．promote Energy & Capital | D．sell new technology |
Two men, Alan and Henry, both seriously ill, shared a hospital room. Alan was allowed to sit up in his bed and his bed was next to the room’s only window. Henry had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours, of their wives, families, their homes and their jobs. And every afternoon when Alan, in the bed next to the window, could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm among flowers. Trees and skyline could be seen in the distance. As he described all this, Henry, on the other side of the room, would close his eyes and imagine the scene.
One warm afternoon Alan described a parade (游行) passing by. Although Henry could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind. Unexpectedly, an alien though: entered his head: why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never got to see anything? It doesn’t seem fair. Henry felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sight, his envy grew and soon let him down. He began to find himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window ---- and that thought now controlled his life.
Late one night, as he lay staring at the ceiling. Alan began to cough. He was choking. Henry watched in the dim room as the struggling man tried hard to reach for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room, he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have brought the nurse running. In less than five minutes, the coughing and choking stopped, along with the sound of breathing. Now, there was only silence ---- deathly silence.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, Henry asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he struggled to take his first look. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He looked out, but faced a black wall.Judging from the passenger, the meaning of the underlined word “alien” in Paragraph 3 is ______.
| A．disappointing | B．sudden | C．new | D．strange |
What finally happened to Alan?
| A．He was moved to another room. | B．He died. |
| C．He switched his bed with Henry. | D．He was very sick. |
Henry, who had his bed switched, had expected _____.
| A．to see the blank wall |
| B．to feel the joy of seeing the outside world |
| C．to feel the joy of breathing fresh air |
| D．to see more than Alan |
Which of following words could be used to describe Alan?
| A．Kind-hearted and imaginative | B．Well-informed and humorous |
| C．Talkative and funny | D．Cold-hearted and indifferent |
It has been argued that an infant under three who is cared for outside the home may suffer because of the separation from his parents．The British psychoanalyst John Bowlby believes that separation from the parents during the sensitive "attachment" period from birth to three may scar （留下疤痕） a child's personality and incline to emotional problems in later life．Some people have drawn the conclusion from Bowlby's work that children should not be sent to day care before the age of three, and many people do believe this．But there are also arguments against such a strong conclusion．
Firstly, anthropologists （人类学家） point out that the hidden love between children and parents found in modem societies does not usually exist in traditional societies．For example, we saw earlier that among the Ngonis the father and mother of a child did not raise their infant alone．But traditional societies are so different from modern societies that comparisons based on just one factor are hard to understand．
Secondly, common sense tells us that day care would not be so widespread today if parents and caretakers found that children had problems with it．But Bowlby's analysis raises the possibility that early day care has delayed effects．The possibility that such care might lead to more mental illness or crime 15 or 20 years later can only be noticed by the use of statistics．Statistical studies of this kind have not yet been carried out, and even if they were, the results would be certain to be complicated and controversial．
Thirdly, in the last decade, there have been a number of careful American studies of children in day care, and they have reported that day care had a neutral of slightly positive effect on children's development．But tests that have had to be used to measure this development are not widely enough accepted to settle the issue．This passage is mainly talking about________．
| A．children's personality |
| B．advantages of infants' early care |
| C．infants' education |
| D．negative effect of infant school |
The phrase "day care in the first paragraph probably means_____.
| A．nursing school | B．baby-sitter |
| C．boarding school | D．primary school |
According to Bowlby, children under the age of three______．
| A．should not be sent to school |
| B．should be cared for outside the home |
| C．will not suffer fro m parental separation |
| D．don't mind who will look after them |
The argument against Bowlby's conclusion shows that___．
| A．children have problems with day care |
| B．there is no negative effect on infants who go to school before three |
| C．there is a long-term effect on infants who go to school before three |
| D．children who are sent to school before three are sent to mental illness |
Botany （植物学） , the study of plants, occupies a particular position in the history of human knowledge．For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest （模糊的）） of insights．It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must be extremely ancient．This is logical．Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things even for other plants．They have always been enormously important to the welfare of people not only for food but also for clothing, tools, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes．Tribes living today in the jungle of the Amazon recognize hundreds of plants and know many properties of each．To them, botany has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of "knowledge" at all．
Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become, the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge grows．Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose or an apple．When nor Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer fields the next season—the first, great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken．Grains were discovered and from them flowed the wonder of agriculture: cultivated crops．From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild, and the accumulated knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience with plants in the wild would begin to fade away．What does the writer mean when he says "This is logical" in the first paragraph?
| A．Human knowledge of plants is well organized and very detailed． |
| B．It is not surprising that early humans had a detailed knowledge of plants． |
| C．There is no clear way to determine the extent of our ancestor's knowledge of plant． |
| D．It is reasonable to assume our ancestors behave much like people in pre-industrial societies． |
According to the passage, general knowledge of botany begun to fade away because ____．
| A．people no longer value plants as a useful resource |
| B．direct contact with a variety of plants has decreased |
| C．botany is not recognized as a special branch of science |
| D．research is unable to keep up with the increasing number of plants |
We learn that the first great step toward the practice of agriculture is____．
| A．the changing diets of early humans |
| B．the development of a system of names for plants |
| C．the invention of agricultural implements （工具） and machinery |
| D．the discovery of certain grasses that could be harvested and replanted |
Human would depend on the controlled production of a few plants for living with
| A．the knowledge of plants |
| B．the discovery of certain grasses |
| C．the development of machinery |
| D．the appearance of agriculture |
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