Today, roller skating is easy and fun. But a long time ago, it wasn't easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn't exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin's work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked
to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.
One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball. He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he
would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.
Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention and dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.
On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror
that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin's grand entrance for a long time! The text is mainly about_________.
| A．a strange man |
| B．how people enjoyed themselves in the 18th century |
| C．an unusual party |
| D．how roller skating began |
People thought Merlin was a dreamer because he________.
| A．often gave others surprises | B．was full of imagination |
| C．was a gifted musician | D．invented the roller skates |
Merlin put wheels under his shoes in order to_______.
| A．arrive at the party sooner |
| B．impress the party guests |
| C．test his invention |
| D．show his skill in walking on wheels |
What is the main point the writer is trying to make in the last paragraph?
| A．The roller skates needed further improvement. |
| B．Merlin got himself into trouble. |
| C．The party guests took Merlin for a fool. |
| D．Merlin succeeded beyond expectation. |
This dictionary tells you about English words and how to use them in reading, writing and speaking English. It not only gives the meaning of words, it can also help you with spelling, word-building, grammar and pronunciation.
To use your dictionary correctly, you need to understand how the dictionary works. At the front of the book, you will find some exercises to help you make the most use of your dictionary.
If you look up the word “colour”, you will find two spellings for this word. “Colour” is used in British English, while “color” is used in American English. When there are differences between British and American spelling, the dictionary shows it with the word “BrE” for British English and “AmE” for American English.
The dictionary also helps you pronounce words correctly. We use a special alphabet (特殊字母) to show pronunciation. If you turn to the inside back face, you will see all the phonetic letters (音标) with some words to show you how they are pronounced. Just look at the inside back cover when you’re not sure how to say a word.
The most important reason for using a dictionary is to find out the meaning of a word—its definition
In this dictionary, the definitions have been written using only 2000 words. This means that the definitions of even the most difficult words are simply explained and easy to understand.
When a word has more than one meaning, read all the meanings until you find the one that correctly tells the use of the word you are looking for.
Most of the words in this dictionary can be used by people in all parts of the world.The AmE spelling of the Chinese word “颜色” in this dictionary is ________.
| A．colour | B．colar | C．color | D．corner |
The phonetic alphabet help you ________ each word correctly.
| A．understand | B．write | C．say | D．know |
The underlined word ‘definition’ means__________
| A．词性 | B．词条 | C．词义 | D．词库 |
The dictionary explains ________.
| A．some of the difficult words |
| B．all the words in the dictionary in a simple way |
| C．all easy words |
| D．the words with two meanings |
About ten men in every hundred suffer from color blindness in some way. Women are luckier; only about one in two hundred is affected in this matter. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to be driven by a woman!
There are different forms of color blindness. In some cases a man may not be able to see deep red. He may think that red, orange and yellow are all shadows of green. Sometimes a person cannot tell the difference between blue and green. In rare cases an unlucky man may see everything in shades of green － a strange world indeed.
Color blindness in human beings is a strange thing to explain. In a single eye there are millions of very small things called “cones”. These help us to see in a bright light and to tell difference between colors. There are also millions of “rods”, but these are used for seeing when it is near dark. They show us shape but no color.
Some insects have favorite colors. Mosquitoes prefer blue to yellow. A red light will not attract insects, but a blue lamp will. In a similar way human beings also have favorite colors. Yet we are lucky. With the aid of the cones in our eyes we can see many beautiful colors by day, and with the aid of the rods we can see shapes at night. One day we may even learn more about the invisible colors around us.The passage is mainly about _____________.
| A．color and its surprising effects. |
| B．women being luckier than men |
| C．danger caused by color blindness |
| D．color blindness |
According to the passage, with the help of the “cones”, we can_______________.
| A．tell different shapes | B．see in a weak light |
| C．kill mosquitoes | D．tell orange from yellow |
Why do some people say it is safer to be driven by women?
| A．Women are more careful. |
| B．There are fewer color-blind women |
| C．Women are fonder of driving than men. |
| D．Women are weaker but quicker in thinking. |
Which of the statements about the color- blind is true?
| A．Not all of them have the same problem in recognizing color. |
| B．None of them can see deep red. |
| C．None of them can tell the difference between blue and green. |
| D．All of them see everything in shades of green. |
We can attract and kill mosquitoes by using a _____________.
| A．red light | B．yellow light | C．blue light | D．green light |
Frank Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York., in 1852. His family were very poor farmers, and there was never enough to eat. Frank decided he did not want to be farmer. He took a short business course, and went to work as a salesman in a large city.
Woolworth realized he had a natural skill for showing goods to attract people’s interest, but he soon learned something more important. One day his boss told him to sell some odds and ends (小商品 ) for as much as he could get. Frank put all these things on one table with a sign which said FIVE CENTS EACH. People fought and pushed to buy the things and the table was soon cleared.
Soon afterwards, Woolworth opened his own store., selling goods at five and ten cents. But he had another lesson to learn before he became successful. That is, if you want to make money by selling low-price goods, you have to buy them in large quantities directly form the factories. Once, for example, Woolworth went to Germany and placed an order for knives. The order was so large that the factory had to keep running 24 hours a day for a whole year. In this way, the price of the knives was cut down by half.
By 1919, Woolworth had over 1000 stores in the US and Canada, and opened his first store in London. He made many millions and his name became famous throughout the world. He always run his business according to strict rules, of which the most important was: “ THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT.”Frank took a short business course in order to ____________.
| A．earn more money for his family |
| B．learn something from a salesman |
| C．get away from the farm |
| D．get enough to eat. |
Frank sold the odds and ends quickly because _____________.
| A．he knew how to get people to buy his goods. |
| B．he cut down the price by half |
| C．he had put the goods on a table in a very nice way. |
| D．the sign he put on the table was well designed. |
The price of the knives was cut down by half because ______________.
| A．the factory workers worked 24 hours a day. |
| B．knives were ordered in large quantities directly from the factory. |
| C．the knives were made in Germany, where labour (劳动力) was cheap. |
| D．the knives were produced in one factory. |
_____________ make Woolworth a world-famous man.
| A．His business skills and his wealth. |
| B．The low price of the goods he sold. |
| C．His trip to Germany and his huge order of knives. |
| D．His natural skill for showing things. |
The belief that : “ The customer is always right” suggests that _______________.
| A．whenever there is a quarrel between the customer and shop assistant, the customers are always right. |
| B．If you want to succeed, the rule is the only way. |
| C．stores must always follow the customer’s orders if they want to make more money. |
| D．stores should do their best to meet the customer’s needs if they want to be successful. |
It helps us understand the world better if we know a little geography and have some maps at hand. But with maps in Chinese only, misunderstanding is possible in studying world events. Chinese names are long, hard to pronounce and without meaning to a foreigner. For the opening of the country maps are important and helpful and needed badly.
I wish maps various languages, such as those used in the United Nations, would come out and be sold in all bookstores open to Chinese.The writer is mainly talking about ____.
| A．geography | B．maps |
| C．Chinese names | D．the opening of the country |
Knowing a little geography and having some maps in Chinese only, a foreigner ____.
| A．can study world events easily |
| B．can study world events without misunderstanding |
| C．can’t study world events without misunderstanding |
| D．will fell joy in studying world events |
What are the difficulties for a foreigner to use a map in Chinese?
| A．A foreigner has nowhere to buy a map |
| B．All the bookstores only open to Chinese. |
| C．The names of Chinese people are long, hard to pronounce and without meaning. |
| D．The names of places on a map in Chinese are long, hard to pronounce and without meaning. |
In the United Nations people use maps in ____.
| A．foreign languages only | B．Chinese only |
| C．various languages | D．English only |
According to the passage maps in foreign language are badly needed ____.
| A．in a country open to other parts of the world |
| B．if a country is going to join the United Nations |
| C．when we are learning geography |
| D．if there are no maps in bookstores open to Chinese |
An experimental treatment that causes AIDS patients to develop a dangerously high fever has shown promise as a way of prolonging and improving the patients’ life.Called the Biologic-HT System, the new treatment lets doctors extract the blood of a patient and heat it before circulating it back into the body. The heated blood causes the patient’s body temperature to rise above 42 degrees Celsius. In people with AIDS, that increase in temperature kills some heat-sensitive HIV, the virus, most doctors say, causes AIDS.
Heating the blood of AIDS patients has been tried before, say doctors. But during previous attempts, the treatment induced deadly chemical changes in the blood. The Biologic-HT System prevents those changes from happening, allowing the heat to kill viruses with few ill side effects.
The new heat treatment cannot be considered a cure for Aids, says president of the company that makes the system. He says the treatment doesn’t kill all traces of the virus. However, it kills enough virus particles to give a patient’s immune system a reprieve in its deadly duel with HIV.
Tests of the Biologic-HT treatment began on 36 patients earlier this year. The treatment takes about four hours, and the patient normally feels well enough to leave the hospital or clinic the following morning.
So far, the patients who have had the treatment say they feel better and have developed no new opportunistic infections—disease that strike people with damaged immune systems. The patients also have experienced about a 50 percent increase in the number of T cells in their bodies. T cells are key disease-fighting cells of the immune system and the main target of HIV.This passage is mainly concerned with ____________.
| A． a way for treating AIDS |
| B． a heat-sensitive virus |
| C． the immune system of the human body |
| D． the function of high temperature |
The blood of the patient___________.
| A． is heated with a single injection |
| B． is heated by being circulated at a higher rate |
| C． is taken out from the body and then circulated through a heating system. |
| D．is taken out from the body, heated outside and then put back into the body. |
The previous attempts to use high temperature for treating AIDS failed because they_________.
| A．caused chemical changes |
| B．could not kill HIV effectively |
| C．resulted in deaths |
| D．killed both HIV and healthy cells |
According to the passage, the new treatment___________.
| A．can kill all the HIV viruses |
| B．cannot eliminate the viruses completely |
| C． can double the number of disease-fighting cells |
| D．can reconstruct the patient’s immune system. |
The result of the experiment seems to be ___________.
| A．disappointing | B．incomplete | C．successful | D．surprising |
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