In April 2014, the world’s oldest known message in a bottle was discovered floating in the Baltic Sea. It had spent 101years lost in the ocean! The message was finally sent to the author’s granddaughter.
A German fisherman named Konrad Fischer found the brown bottle near Kiel, Germany. He said he nearly threw the bottle back into the water after pulling it out of a fishing net. Then he noticed something inside.
The bottle in good condition contained a Danish postcard with two German stamps, dated May 17, 1913. Although dampness had made most of the writing illegible(字迹模糊的), the readable part of the message asked whoever found it to return it to an address in Berlin. It even contained two stamps to pay for postage.
From the address, researchers found that the postcard was written by a man named Richard Platz, who was 20 years old when he wrote the message. While he was hiking on the Baltic coast with a nature appreciation group, he threw the bottle into the sea. Then the researcher began a research for any living relatives of his. Sure enough, they were able to find his 62-year-old grandfather, Angela Erdmann, who still lives in Berlin.
"It was almost unbelievable," Erdmann said upon being presented with her grandfather's bottle and message, as quoted in The Local. "That was a pretty moving moment. Tears rolled down my face."
Erdmann never knew her grandfather, who died in 1946, but says that the discovery of the bottle has made her want to learn more about him.
The bottle remained on display at the International Maritime Museum Hamburg until May 1. After that, the researchers examined the postcard and tried to figure out the meaning of the rest of the message.
Previously, the oldest message found in a bottle spent nearly 98 years at sea and was discovered in April 2012, according to Guinness World Records.When Konrad picked up the bottle from the sea, __________.
| A．he thought it would bring him good luck. |
| B．he noticed the postcard inside immediately. |
| C．he decided to uncover the secret of the bottle. |
| D．he wanted to throw it back into the sea at first. |
Why did Richard Platz throw the bottle with the message into the sea?
| A．He expected his grandfather could find the postcard. |
| B．He wished the finder would send the postcard to his home. |
| C．He believed his postcard would be kept secret at sea forever. |
| D．He thought he could make friends with the finder of the bottle. |
What can be the best title for this passage?
| A．The finding of a floating bottle at the sea. |
| B．A one-century-old letter to a grandfather. |
| C．The world’s oldest message in a floating bottle. |
| D．The oldest Danish postcard in a floating bottle. |
University Room Regulations
Approved and Prohibited Items
The following items are approved for use in residential (住宿的) rooms: electric blankets, hair dryers, personal computers, radios, televisions and DVD players. Items that are not allowed in student rooms include: candles, ceiling fans, fireworks, waterbeds, sun lamps and wireless routers. Please note that any prohibited items will be taken away by the Office of Residence Life.
Access to Residential Rooms
Students are provided with a combination (组合密码) for their room door locks upon check-in. Do not share your room door lock combination with anyone. The Office of Residence Life may change the door lock combination at any time at the expense of the resident if it is found that the student has shared the combination with others. The fee is $25 to change a room combination.
Cooking Policy
Students living in buildings that have kitchens are only permitted to cook in the kitchen. Students must clean up after cooking. This is not the responsibility of housekeeping staff. Kitchens that are not kept clean may be closed for use. With the exception of using a small microwave oven (微波炉) to heat food, students are not permitted to cook in their rooms.
Pet Policy
No pets except fish are permitted in student rooms. Students who are found with pets, whether visiting or owned by the student, are subject to an initial fine of $100 and a continuing fine of $50 a day per pet. Students receive written notice when the fine goes into effect. If, one week from the date of written notice, the pet is not removed, the student is referred to the Student Court.
Quiet Hours
Residential buildings must maintain an atmosphere that supports the academic mission of the University. Minimum quiet hours in all campus residences are 11:00 pm to 8:00 am Sunday through Thursday. Quiet hours on Friday and Saturday nights are 1:00 am to 8:00 am. Students who violate quiet hours are subject to a fine of $25.Which of the following items are allowed in student rooms?
| A．Ceiling fans and waterbeds. |
| B．Wireless routers and radios. |
| C．Hair dryers and candles. |
| D．TVs and electric blankets. |
What do we know about the cooking policy?
| A．A microwave oven can be used. |
| B．Cooking in student rooms is permitted. |
| C．A housekeeper is to clean up the kitchen. |
| D．Students are to close kitchen doors after cooking. |
When can students enjoy a party in residences?
| A．7:00 am, Sunday. | B．7:30 am, Thursday. |
| C．11:30 pm, Monday. | D．00:30 am, Saturday. |
In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I’d hitch a ride (搭便车).
I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn’t give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured （使…放心）me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.
Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I’d been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.
After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven’t changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.”
I couldn’t remember where I’d met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.
The author had to hitch a ride one day in 1978 because .
| A．her work delayed her trip to Sydney |
| B．she missed the only train back home |
| C．she was going home for her holidays |
| D．the town was far away from Sydney |
Which of the following did Gordon do according to Paragraph 2?
| A．He helped the girl find a ride. |
| B．He gave the girl a ride back home. |
| C．He bought sandwiches for the girl. |
| D．He watched the girl for three hours. |
The reason why the author offered a lift to the elderly man was that .
| A．she realized he was Gordon |
| B．she had known him for decades |
| C．she was going to the nearby town |
| D．she wanted to repay the favour she once got |
What does the author want to tell the readers through the story?
| A．Those who give rides will be repaid. |
| B．Good manners bring about happiness. |
| C．Giving sometimes produces nice results. |
| D．People should offer free rides to others. |
You may have heard of the American Dream, an ideal that has powered the hopes of Americans for generations.
It began as a belief that the US was a land of opportunity, and that anyone could achieve success through hard work. At times, the dream has referred to home ownership, a good job, retirement security or each generation doing better than the last.
Yet today, this concept seems to have greatly changed. As Time magazine pointed out, quite different from the older generation, many Millennials (the generation born after 1980) redefine(重新定义) the American Dream as “day-to-day control of your life”. They “prize job mobility, flexible schedules, any work that is more interesting than typing, and the ability to travel”, said the magazine.
Home ownership, once the cornerstone of the American Dream, is becoming a smaller priority for this generation. Meanwhile, nearly 40% of them choose travel as part of their dream. And entrepreneurship(创业) is a rising favorite, as nearly 26% of Millennials consider self-employment as part of their dream.
So what has led to this huge change?
Many point fingers at the poor economy. “Modern young Americans seem bound to face a world stamped by ever narrowing opportunity and social stagnation(停滞),”noted The Daily Beast.
“The rate of 16-to 24-year-olds out of school and out of work is unusually high at 15%. Many college graduates have taken jobs that don’t require a degree,” Time reported.
The magazine worries that these difficulties may lead to a lost generation who are “unable to ever truly find their feet on the corporation’s ladder”.
Dan Kadlec, a reporter of Time, sees Millennials as resetting their expectations. “This situation is different for young adults today,” he wrote. “A true American dream has to feel attainable, and many Millennias are feeling they can only attain a day-today lifestyle that suits them.”
What’s the passage mainly about?
| A．Meaning of American Dream |
| B．Redefinition of American Dream |
| C．Value of Achieving American Dream |
| D．History of Changing American Dream |
The underlined word “cornerstone” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to “ ”.
| A．growth | B．balance | C．purpose | D．basis |
According to the passage, what has changed Millennials’ view of the American Dream?
| A．A lack of confidence in themselves |
| B．Fierce competition in the job market |
| C．The discouraging economy and unemployment |
| D．Their dissatisfaction with the government |
Dan Kadlec thinks Millennials’ new definition of the American Dream is ______.
| A．understandable | B．beautiful |
| C．worrying | D．Positive |
The bed should be reserved as a place for sleep, but people tend to read an iPad a lot in bed before they go to sleep.
Charles Czeisler, a professor at Harvard Medical School, and his colleagues got a small group of people for an experiment. For five days in a row, the subjects (实验对象) read either a paper book or an iPad for four hours before sleep. Their sleep patterns were monitored all night. Before and after each trial period, they took hourly blood tests to paint a day-long picture of just how much melatonin (褪黑激素) was in their blood at any given time.
When the subjects read on the iPad as compared to the paper books, they reported feeling less sleepy at night and less active the following morning. They also took longer to fall asleep on the iPad nights, and the blood tests showed that their melatonin secretion (分泌) was delayed by an hour and a half.
The researchers conclude in today's journal article that given (考虑到)the rise of e-readers and the increasingly widespread use of e-things among children and adolescents, more research into the long-term consequences of these devices on health and safety is urgently needed. Czeisler and colleagues go on, in the research paper, to note：“Reading an iPad in bed may increase cancer risk.”
However, software has been developed that can reduce some of the blue light from the screens of phones and computers according to time of day, and there are also glasses that are made to filter (过滤) short wavelengths. While they seem like a logical solution for the nighttime tech users, it needs more research.In Charles Czeislers experiment, all the subjects were asked to______.
| A．sit in a row and receive the strict tests |
| B．have their blood tested per hour during the trial |
| C．read a paper book and an iPad at the same time |
| D．have their sleep patterns observed all night |
The third paragraph tells us the iPad readers were likely to______.
| A．feel less sleepy and tired in the day |
| B．become less energetic the next morning |
| C．have a lot more melatonin secretion |
| D．fall asleep more easily after reading |
The special software recently developed can______.
| A．weaken the harm done by doing nighttime e-reading |
| B．help prevent eyes being harmed by short wavelength |
| C．remove the blue light from your devices completely |
| D．be used in all the e-things widely and safely |
Which title is the best one for the text?
| A．Wrong behaviors before bedtime |
| B．New software for night e-readers |
| C．No e-reading in bed before sleep |
| D．No games on iPad in bed |
Russia’s security chief has blamed an act of terror for the Russian A321 airliner crash in Egypt last month which killed 224 people. Whatever happened, the tragedy raises sad memories of horrific airplane crashes that have cost thousands of lives in recent decades .
Some of the worst such incidents—like four crashes in frightening succession into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001; the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland; and a 1977 crash involving the apparent hijacking of a Malaysian Airlines jet that left 100 dead—involved terrorist activity. But there are many others that did not, with mechanical problems, pilot error or other reasons blamed for loss of life. Below are some examples of the latter: crashes that left at least 200 people dead in each incident.
March 27 , 1977 : A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 747 beginning its takeoff crashed into Pan American World Airways Boeing 747 then still on the runway at the Los Rodeos Airport at Tenerife in the Canary Islands. A total of 574 people, aboard both planes, died .
July 11 , 1991 : The landing gear of a Nigeria Airways DC-8 catches fire shortly after takeoff Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It doesn’t make it back to the airport, crashing nose-down less than 10,000 feet short of the runway and killing all 261 people aboard.
April 26 , 1994 : The pilot of a China Airlines’ Flight 140 alerts the control tower at Japan’s Nagoya Airport of his intention not to land and try another approach. But something goes wrong and, a short time later, the Airbus A300 crashes leading to 264 deaths—though a few passengers do survive.
September 2 , 1998 : A Swiss air jetliner that had departed New York’s Kennedy airport on its way to Geneva, Switzerland, goes down off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada; none of the 229 people aboard Flight 111 make it. Investigators believe that the MD-11 lost all electrical power immediately before the crash.
June 1 , 2009 : Air France Flight 447 is on the way from Rio de Janiero to Paris when it and its 228 passengers and crew go missing somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s not until five days later that the first bodies are found about 600 miles off the northern coast of Brazil. Two years later, French authorities blame the crash on equipment breakdown.The first paragraph is intended to ______.
| A．memorize those people aboard the Russian A321 airline. |
| B．show it is the most serious incident in history. |
| C．direct attention to some disastrous air plane crashes. |
| D．analyze the cause of the disaster and blame the airline company. |
Which air crash resulted from terrorist attack ?
| A．China Airlines’ Flight 140 |
| B．Pan Am Flight 103 |
| C．Air France Flight 447 |
| D．Swissair Jetliner Flight 111 |
Which of the following statements is not true ?
| A．Two planes of the same type hit each other on March 27 , 1977. |
| B．There were over 264 people aboard China Airlines’ Flight 140. |
| C．It took five days to find some bodies of Air France Flight 447. |
| D．Swissair Jetliner Flight 111 crashed during its landing. |
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