高中英语阅读理解

While residents of wealthy nations tend to have greater life satisfaction, new research shows that those living in poorer nations report having greater meaning in life.
These findings, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological science, suggest that meaning in life may be higher in poorer nations as a result of greater religiosity (笃信宗教). As countries become richer, religion becomes less central to people’s lives and they lose a sense of meaning in life.
“Thus far, the wealth of nations has been almost always associated with longevity, health, happiness or life satisfaction,” explains psychological scientist Shigehiro Oishi of the University of Virginia. “Given that meaning in life is an important aspect of overall well-being, we wanted to look more carefully at differential patterns, correlates (相关物), and predictors for meaning in life.”
Oishi and colleague Ed Diener of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign investigated life satisfaction, meaning, and well-being by examining data from the 2007 Gallup World Poll, a large-scale survey of over 140,000 participants from 132 countries. In addition to answering a basic life satisfaction question, participants were asked: “Do you feel your life has an important purpose or meaning?” and “Is religion an important part of your daily life?”
The data revealed some unexpected trends:
“Among Americans, those who are high in life satisfaction are also high in meaning in life,” says Oishi. “But when we looked at the societal level of analysis, we found a completely different pattern of the association between meaning in life and life satisfaction.”
When looking across many countries, Oishi and Diener found that people in wealthier nations were more educated, had fewer children, and expressed more individualistic attitudes compared to those in poorer countries – all factors that were associated with higher life satisfaction but a significantly lower sense of meaning in life.”
The data suggest that religiosity may play an important role: Residents of wealthier nations, where religiosity is lower, reported less meaning in life and had higher suicide rates than poorer countries.
According to the researchers, religion may provide meaning to life to the extent that it helps people to overcome personal difficulty and cope with the struggles of working to survive in poor economic conditions:
“Religion gives a system that connects daily experiences with the coherent whole (连贯的整体) and a general structure to one’s life … and plays a critical role in constructing meaning out of extreme hardship,” the researchers write.
Oishi and Diener hope to reproduce these findings using more comprehensive measures of meaning and religiosity, and are interested in following countries over time to track whether economic prosperity gives rise to less religiosity and less meaning in life.
Which of the following questions couldn’t the participants have answered?

A．Does your life have a purpose or meaning?

B．Do you have relatives living abroad?

C．Are you satisfied with your everyday life?

D．Is religion involved in your daily life?

Which of the following statements is true?

A．Those who have higher life satisfaction usually have lower sense of meaning in life.

B．People in wealthier nations were more educated, have fewer children and express less individualistic attitudes compared to those in poorer countries.

C．Religion may provide meaning to life in that people can get strong support from it in face of hardship.

D．Wealthy people are more likely to commit suicide than poor people.

What can be inferred from the passage?

A．The poorer a country is, the more religious its people are.

B．Economic prosperity gives rise to less religiosity and less meaning in life.

C．If you want to find meaning in life, you must practice a religion.

D．Meaning in life doesn’t have much to do with the amount of wealth one possesses.

The main purpose of the passage is to explain the possible reason why __________.

A．greater life satisfaction leads to lower sense of meaning

B．residents of poorer nations enjoy greater meaning in life

C．residents of poorer nations are so religious

D．residents of wealthy nations have greater life satisfaction

Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the ability to read and understand emotions in ourselves and others. It is said that emotional intelligence makes up 80 percent of one’s success.
Ever since the 1995 publication of US writer Daniel Goleman’s best-seller, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, EQ has been seen by leaders and educators as the solution to many social problems. In some Western countries such as the US, emotional intelligence is now taught widely in secondary, business and medical schools.
EQ is important. But our enthusiasm for it has hidden a dark side, says a recent article in The Atlantic.
Recent research and studies show that as people improve their emotional skills, they become better at manipulating (操控) others. When someone knows what others are feeling, they can motivate them to act against their own best interests.
Does this remind you of those “managers” at pyramid scheme (传销) companies? Hundreds of thousands of otherwise cautious and rational (理性的) people have been brainwashed by their impassioned speeches and become bankrupt as a result.
Social scientists have begun to document this dark side of emotional intelligence. A study by the University of Cambridge found that when a leader gave an inspiring speech filled with emotion, the audience was less likely to look over the message and remembered less of the content.
Researchers call this the “awestruck effect” (敬畏效应), but it may just as easily be described as the dumbstruck effect, says The Atlantic article. Leaders who master emotions can rob us of our ability to reason. If they have self-serving motives, or their values are out of step with our own, emotional intelligence becomes a weapon of manipulation and the results can be destroyed.
Another recent study from Kyoto University shows that people with high interpersonal EQ influence others’ emotions based on their own goals.
A research team led by University College London professor Martin Kilduff shed more light on this dark side of emotional intelligence. According to them, emotional intelligence helps people disguise (伪装) one set of emotions while expressing another for personal gain. Emotionally intelligent people “intentionally shape their emotions to leave favorable impressions of themselves”, Kilduff’s team writes in the journal Research in Organizational Behavior.
It seems that to better understand the dark side of EQ, we need to look no further than Shakespeare’s Macbeth or its modern adaption on TV: House of Cards.
Which of the following statements about EQ is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Many westerners have a good knowledge of EQ.

B．EQ plays an important role in solving social problems.

C．EQ can help you read and understand emotions in yourself and others.

D．If a person has a high level of EQ, he will surely succeed in everything.

The underlined sentence in the last paragraph but one means that the research team __________.

A．made clear the dark side of EQ

B．hid the positive side of EQ

C．understand the positive side of EQ

D．discovered the dark side of EQ

What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A．Macbeth was adapted from House of Cards.

B．House of Cards helps us understand the dark side of EQ better.

C．The dark side of EQ is shown neither in Macbeth nor in House of Cards.

D．To understand the dark side of EQ better, we’d better not refer to House of Cards and Macbeth.

What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．The dark side of EQ.

B．The importance of EQ to readers.

C．The definition of EQ.

D．The positive and negative aspects of EQ.

	NEMS	NEWRI Environmental Master of Science
NEWRI: Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute
Be a leader in environmental science and engineering through the NEMS programme
NEWRI Environmental Master of Science(NEMS) is a primary graduate education and research programme conducted by Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU’s) NEWRI, with summer attachment at Stanford University. It aims to train engineers and scientists to meet the increasing environmental challenges for Asia and the wider region.	NEWRI-Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute NEWRI is enabling Singapore to be a global center of environmental science and technology in providing technological solutions to the world. It is committed to environmental and water technologies through its ecosystem of education, research and developmental activities. NEWRI is trying its best to pull together NTU’s water and environment-related centers and institutes, gathering one another’s strengths for the benefit of industry and society.
Master of Science Applications ● Applications open now and close on 30 May 2013 for Singapore applicants. ● Graduates having relevant engineering or science background, including final-year students, are invited to apply. ● Applicants are required to have a certificate of GRE. Further information and application materials are available at the Website: http:// www. Cee.ntu.edu.sg/Graduate/NEMS
Highlights of Programme: ★ Students spend a full summer term at Stanford taking regular courses and continue with the rest of their academic programme at NTU. ★ It is a 12-month full-time course in environmental science & engineering. ★Students under NEMS will have opportunities to do research projects under NEWRI as well as to continue for the Doctor’s degree. ★ Graduating students receive the NTU degree and a certificate from Stanford for their summer attachment.
Scholarship for tuition grants and living expenses at both Stanford and NTU are available
Enquiry contact:  Ms Christian Soh Tel：[phone]    Fax:[phone] Email: [e-mail] Information on other graduate programmes available at： www.ntu.edu.sg/cee/program/postgrad.asp

If one wants to apply for the NEMS programme, it is essential for him to __________.

A．have passed the GRE test

B．make contact with Ms Soh

C．possess a university diploma

D．major in engineering or science

Students admitted to the NEMS Programme __________.

A．are required to obtain a Doctor’s degree

B．will first have regular courses at Stanford

C．needn’t be released from their regular jobs

D．can receive degrees of both NTU and Stanford

What’s the main purpose of the NEMS programme?

A．To offer scholarship for tuition grants and living expenses.

B．To strengthen the cooperation between NTU and Stanford.

C．To train experts on environmental science and engineering.

D．To introduce Nanyang Environment & Water Research Institute.

Alexis Pilkington was a popular 17-year-old and a well-liked athlete who had already won a soccer scholarship to college. But none of that stopped Alexis from becoming the target of online bullying (欺凌). Alexis began to receive hundreds of online unpleasant comments via the latest social networking site called www.formspring.com. In March 2010, Alexis committed suicide and although all agreed that the online bother was not the single factor that led to Alexis’ death, everyone did agree that it was a contributory factor.
Unfortunately, Alexis’ story is not unique. A 2010 study conducted by the Cyberbullying Research Center showed that cyberbullying victims were almost twice as likely to have attempted suicide compared to youth who had not experienced cyberbullying.
Suicide is obviously the extreme and no one can minimize the tragedy of it. However, there are other damages that occur as a result of aggressive bullying. It can damage self-esteem and lead to feelings of worthlessness, and also increase social isolation and make victims become withdrawn, depressed, anxious, and insecure. So what causes girls to be so unkind towards each other?
A term known as relational aggression may best describe the cause of girl-on-girl bullying. It starts with a clique (派系) usually led by a girl with a high level of social status and popularity. In order not to lose her position, she will control girls within the clique and take action if she feels threatened. At the leader’s directive the girls within the clique will spread rumors and lies and annoy other girls continuously. The bullying starts at school but will quickly go to cyberbullying due to anonymity (匿名). Girls will easily do so in the anonymity of the Internet. Ultimately the cause will be summarized as the insecurity and jealousy of one girl and the twisted loyalty of members within her clique. Underneath the confident exterior (外表) of a female bully lie desperate insecurities.
The example of Alexis Pilkington is given to show        .

A．popular youth are not easy to become the target of bullying

B．cyberbullying is quite common among teenagers

C．today’s youth don’t like to study any more

D．suicide is a serious problem among youth

The bullying will quickly go to cyberbullying mainly because         .

A．the bullies don’t have to give their names online

B．it’s free to post comments online

C．it will not attract much attention

D．it will not affect their real life

Which of the following is NOT the cause of bullying?

A．Lack of security.

B．Jealousy of others.

C．Trying to be friendly.

D．The twisted loyalty of members within a clique.

We can infer from the last paragraph that a female bully         .

A．has strong self-confidence	B．has strong leadership skills
C．is actually weak inside	D．is usually good at study

Do you dream of owning your own house? Canadian Kyle MacDonald, a 26-year-old from Vancouver who is a resident in Montreal, has just achieved it. MacDonald, who has spent much of his time since graduating from college backpacking round Europe and Asia and whose main income appears to come from working as a pizza-delivery man, decided last year that he wanted to settle down. However, when he checked the real estate market, he quickly realized that he had no chance of raising the depositon a home of his own.
So he came up with an inventive solution. Using the power of the Internet, he decided to try to barter(易货贸易) his way to a house. His starting offer One red paper clip (回形针). Of course, he didn’t expect someone to offer him a house for the paper clip, he simply wanted to trade it for something that was more valuable. 14 trades later, he is now the owner of a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan.
His first trade took place when two women from his hometown offered him a pen in the shape of a fish. MacDonald then traded the fish-pen for a doorknob, then the doorknob for a stove. Further transactions brought him an electricity generator and a ski-bob, a small vehicle on tracks that people use to ride across snow and ice. After nine trades, he had a recording contract at a music studio in Toronto.
But Kyle pressed on, still convinced that he would eventually get a house. After trades which brought him the opportunity to spend a day with rock star Alice Cooper and to have a small part in a Hollywood movie, he struck gold.
When words of Kyle’s astonishing barter journey reached the people of Kipling, they decided to make their move. The population of the town is a little more than l,000, and falling fast. By offering the keys to an empty house on Main Street, Kipling hoped to bring much needed publicity—and residents—to the fading town. And they seem to have succeeded!
When Kyle MacDonald started his Internet bartering, he          .

A．hoped that someone would give him a house for his paper clip

B．didn’t expect anyone to give him a house for a paper clip

C．didn’t know if anyone would exchange a house for a paper clip

D．expected that he would have a house after 14 trades

The third thing that Kyle MacDonald received was          .

A．something you can write with

B．something you hold when you open a door

C．something you can cook food on

D．a small vehicle for riding across snow and ice

The people of Kipling, Saskatchewan wanted to          .

A．give all the houses on Main Street away

B．leave town and live somewhere else

C．attract more people to come and live there

D．offer the keys to houses in the city

What does the underlined word “transaction” refer to?

A．deal	B．knowledge
C．vehicle	D．decision

Three Yale University professors agreed in a discussion that the automobile was what one of them called “Public Health Enemy No. 1 in this century”. Besides polluting the air and overcrowding the cities, cars are involved in more than half the disastrous accidents, and they contribute to heart disease “because we won’t walk anywhere any more,” said Richard Weeinaman, professor of medicine and public health.
Speaking of many of those man-made dangers of the automobile, Arthur W. Galson, professor of biology, said it was possible to make a kerosene-burning turbine car that would “lessensmog by a very large factor”. But he expressed doubt whether Americans were willing to give up moving about the countryside at 90 miles per hour in a large vehicle. “America seems wedded to the motor car—every family has to have at least two, and one has to be a convertible (敞篷汽车) with 300 horsepower,” professor Galson continued. “Is this the way of life that we choose because we treasure these values?”
For professor Sears, part of the blame lies with “a society that regards profit as a supreme value, under the illusion that anything that’s technically possible is, therefore, morally justified”. Professor Sears also called the country’s dependence on its modern automobiles “terrible economics” because of the large horsepower used simply “moving one individual to work”. But he admitted that Americans have painted themselves into a corner by allowing the national economy to become so dependent on the automobile industry.
“The solution,” Dr Weeinerman said, “is not finding a less dangerous fuel but a different system of inner city transportation. Because of the increasing use of cars, public transportation has been allowed to wither (衰弱) and grow worse, so that if you can’t walk to where you want to go, you have to have a car in most cities,” he declared. This, in turn, Dr Weeinerman contended, is responsible for the “arteriosclerosis (动脉硬化)” of public roads, for the pollution of the inner city and for the middle-class movement to the suburbs.
The main idea of the passage is that         .

A．Americans are used to travelling by cars

B．American public transportation is growing worse

C．American car industry caused disastrous road accidents

D．American people’s health is threatened by automobiles

It can be inferred from the passage that        .

A．Americans prefer cars to anything else

B．Americans are interested in fast automobiles

C．kerosene-burning engines cause more problems

D．kerosene-burning engines are green transportation

In Paragraph 3, Professor Sears implies that         .

A．technology is always good for people

B．technology is a sword with two sides

C．more attention should be paid to social effects

D．US doesn’t care about the environment at all

According to Dr Weeinerman, the best solution is        .

A．to look for a fuel alternative

B．to improve public transportation

C．to walk to where people want to go

D．to control the production of the automobile

Listening to your favorite music can make a person feel great and can make their emotions change. The song you are listening to can affect how you feel. Different types of music may make you cry, laugh, or even feel anger. According to researches, music is a complex sound that causes a large variety of emotional responses in listeners.
The nature of emotions created by music has been a matter of much debate. Researches have shown that basic emotions, such as happiness, anger, fear, and sadness, can be recognized in and created by musical stimuli (刺激) in humans.
I know from experience that when I am in a bad mood, I’ll listen to my favorite CD. I don’t know what it is about the music but it just makes me feel better almost instantly. All of you have CDs or songs that make you feel great when you’re feeling down. Music has that power and none of us realize that until we really think about it. The physical effects that music has on us are almost the same as the emotional ones.
Music can change you in many ways, depending on the kind of music you are being exposed to. According to “Music and Emotions”, electronic music with loud sounds will physically affect you more easily than any other type of music. Certain types of music can give you courage and strengthen your willpower, while other types can make you relaxed. I can think of a good example for music bringing willpower and strength to you, when you are getting ready before a sport. The sport I play is football and I know that if I don’t listen to a certain mix of songs, my head is all over the place. If I listen to some certain songs I become very energized and feel better about things.
Music affects your emotions in many ways. It also affects your physical status. Music also is the key to your enjoying of a movie. Music affects your emotions by being able to change your state of mind from a sad mood to a happy one. It can also make a person feel great before a competition. Music is also the key to Movies. Without music in movies there would be no suspense, no horror and no excitement. It makes movies what they are to us.
The main idea of Paragraph l is          .

A．the effects of different types of music

B．music can affect our emotions

C．how music affects our emotions is complex

D．why people laugh, cry or become angry when listening to music

The underlined sentence in the 2nd paragraph probably means “         ”.

A．people have different opinions in what is the best kind of music

B．people can’t agree with each other in what is the nature of music

C．people have been arguing about the effects of music on our emotions

D．people have been discussing about what causes our emotions

The main purpose of the last paragraph is to illustrate           .

A．music will also be accepted by movies

B．music can change us in many ways

C．music can be popular with music lovers forever

D．music will give the common people excitement

Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Music may cheer you up, but it can’t let you down.

B．Music used to comfort sport players in games.

C．Electronic music can affect our emotions much less.

D．Different music will cause different emotions in us.

My mother is the only living person who has never communicated via email or text. She has never turned on a computer, registered an email account, used data storage media or searched the Internet. Since 1955, she has settled in Silicon Valley, married to an extremely technical specialist in applied physics and engineering, designing photometric systems for NASA. Only when Dad suffered from cancer could we convince her she needed a cell phone. Mom’s being separated from the information age is voluntary and deliberate.
Mom is still that farm girl, and she takes the most pride in it. She sees her neighbor and her community “real”. She shows no interest in the digital and virtual life. My mother saw Depression, World War II and the beginning of the Cold War before reaching voting age. She enjoyed country music on “The Sons of the Pioneers”, a Canadian broadcast. The battery was so precious a resource that radio was limited to the barn because Grandma thought it helped cows produce milk. In the age when Churchill moved millions for the first time with radio broadcasts, she only experienced live media monthly, if at all.
In her early twenties, Mom completed nurses’ training and worked in that field before marriage, family and church became her life’s concerns. She never really warmed up to television, though I think she appreciated a few of the series we watched, comedies like All in the Family. Computers, the Internet and mobile apps are simply not part of her experience.
Mom disagrees with the opinion that technology simplifies life. In her life, she sees online records, email and paperless systems as mysteries in which no written reference can assist her.
However, I can partly understand: I like such kind of experience and relationship one has with physical books. I am a child of television who only recently switched to online viewing. I’ve written down my awkward, love-hate relationship with my devices. Mom’s technophobia surely played a role here, but it works for her. She’s happiest as she is.
The author’s mother began to use mobile phone when          .

A．she found it hard to contact with her husband

B．she settled in Silicon Valley for fifty years

C．she got marred to a technical specialist

D．her husband suffered from cancer

What is the author’s mother most proud of according to the passage?

A．Having so many close neighbors.

B．Experiencing too much all her life.

C．Living simply and in her own style.

D．Being involved in modern technology.

What is the author’s attitude towards his mother’s such kind of experience?

A．Critical.	B．Positive.
C．Neutral.	D．Negative.

It is implied in the underlined sentence that           .

A．the author should make efforts to learn from his mother

B．the author prefers watching movies online to watching TV

C．Mom’s attitude towards technology has an effect on the author

D．Mom should also set down the relationship with physical books

In a class this past December, after I wrote some directions on the board for students about their final examination, one young woman quickly took a picture of the board using her smart phone. When I looked in her direction, she apologized: “Sorry. Was it wrong to take a picture?”
“I can’t read my own handwriting ,”the young woman explained.“It’s best if I take a picture of your writing so I can understand the notes.”
That remark started a class-wide conversation about taking a picture instead of taking notes. For those in the photo-taking camp, motivations extended beyond their inability to comprehend their own handwriting. Some took pictures of notes because they knew their phone was a safe place to store material. They might lose paper, they reasoned, but they wouldn’t lose their phones. Some took photos because they wanted to record exactly the manner in which I had noted information on the board. Others told me that during class they liked to be able to listen to the discussion attentively.
Yet the use of cameras as note takers, though it may be convenient, does raise significant questions for the classroom. Is a picture an effective replacement for the process of note-taking?
Instructors encourage students to take notes because the act of doing so is more than merely recording necessary information—it helps prepare the way for understanding. Encouraging students to take notes may be an old-fashioned instructional method, but just because a method has a long history doesn’t mean it’s out of date. Writing things down engages a student’s brain in listening, visual, and kinesthetic（触觉的）learning—a view supported by a longstanding research. The act of writing down information enables a person to begin committing it to memory, and to process and combine it, establishing the building blocks of learning new concepts.
Taking a picture does indeed record the information, but it deletes some of the necessary mental engagement that taking notes employs. So can the two be equally effective?
I’m not sure how to measure the effectiveness of either method. For now, I allow students to take notes however they see fit—handwritten or photographed—because I figure that some notes, no matter the method of note-taking, are better than none.
The woman apologized in the class because she_________.

A．took a picture of the board

B．missed the teachers’ directions

C．had the bad handwriting

D．disturbed other students’ learning

Students refuse to take notes by hand because__________.

A．they are unable to take notes

B．they are more likely to lose notes

C．they are interested in using their phones

D．they have a good memory of teachers’ instructions

According to the passage, taking notes by hand__________.

A．requires students to think independently

B．is unsuitable for students to learn new ideas

C．helps students actively participate in learning

D．proves to be an old and useless learning method

What’s the author’s opinion towards taking notes by phones?

A．Supportive.

B．Neutral.

C．Doubtful.

D．Disapproving.

Self-control can make you happier not only in the long-run, but also in the moment.
The research showed that self-control isn’t about giving up desires, but more about managing conflicting goals. Since most people consider highly self-controlled ones as being more task-centered, the scientists decided to find out the connection between self-control and people’s happiness to determine if being self-disciplined leaves people feel less joyful.
Through a set of tests-including one that assessed 414 middle-aged participants on self-control and another that randomly interviewed volunteers on their smart phones about their mood and any desires they might be experiencing, researchers found a strong connection between higher levels of self-control and satisfaction.
The smart phone experiment also showed how self-control may improve mood. Those who showed the greatest self-control reported more good moods and fewer bad ones. But this didn’t appear to be linked to being more able to resist temptation(诱惑)—it was because they exposed themselves to fewer situations that might inspire desires in the first place. They were doing a number of things that bring them happiness and avoiding problematic desires and conflicts.
That became clear in the study’s last experiment, which looked into how self-control affects the way people handle goals that conflict with one another. In particular, the researchers were interested in how self-disciplined and less-disciplined people differed when it came to choosing among “virtues” and “vices” like the pleasure of eating sugar cookie vs. the pain of gaining weight. Participants were asked to list three important goal conflicts they experienced regularly and were also questioned on how they managed to balance the goals.
The highly self-controlled showed an obvious difference from those with less discipline over their lives. They tended to avoid creating situations in which their goals would conflict, and reported fewer instances of having to choose between short-term pleasure and long-term pain. As a result, they experienced fewer negative emotions.
And self-control doesn’t always mean self-denial: it may mean saving now to get big payoff later. For dieters, it means making choices to avoid entering a bakery since you are more likely to buy a cupcake. Granted, self-control isn’t the best way to instant satisfaction, but it may bring something even better: long-term contentment.
According to the research, the self-controlled people _____.

A．enjoy less pleasure of life

B．focus less on completing their tasks

C．make others feel less delighted

D．are better solving problems and conflicts

From the smart phone experiments, the researchers found self-controlled people _____.

A．like to challenge more goals

B．may have more good moods

C．are easier to resist temptation

D．are less satisfied with their life

Different from the less-controlled ones, the highly self-controlled people_____.

A．rarely prefer pleasures

B．often create conflicting goals

C．like to put up with pain

D．stay away from negative emotions

The underlined word ‘self-denial’ in the last paragraph probably means______.

A．self-sacrifice

B．self-help

C．self-confidence

D．self-improvement

We’re always looking for well-written reviews of books, music, movies, television shows, websites, video games and other products. When writing a review, concentrate on exactly what you liked or didn’t like. Give examples of strengths and weaknesses, be descriptive and provide background information on an author, director, actor or musician, if possible. Find professional reviews in magazines or newspapers and see how reviewers deal with their topic, but be sure to express your own voice in your review. 
Grammar Hint for Reviews: When describing a book, movie, album or anything else, use the present tense.
Book Reviews
Discuss an author’s technique, strengths and weaknesses instead of focusing on the plot. Does the story flow? Is there a strong sense of character and place? Did you stay up until dawn to finish it? Is it good reading for teenagers? What influence did it have on you and why? If you’ve read other books by the same author, discuss how this book compares.
Movie Reviews
Think of the major Oscar categories and consider the performances, music, lighting and setting, etc. Do these work together? Did some hold up while others didn’t? If the movie is based on a book, discuss whether one is better than the other and why. If the movie is a remake, compare the film to its original.
Remember that a well-written movie review should discuss strengths and weaknesses. Some readers may not have seen a movie yet, so don’t give away an exciting scene or the ending!
College Reviews
Begin by providing an overview of the college, including location, size and a description of the campus and/or dorm life. Think about all aspects of your college visit. What academic, athletic and after-class programs are available? What are the students like? What makes the college different from others? Every school has strengths and weaknesses. Be objective. Consider what the school has to offer and who might enjoy or benefit the most from attending there.
When writing a review, you ________.

A．cannot refer to any previous review

B．must express your own views and opinions

C．must provide some information about the author

D．needn’t give any examples to support your views

Which aspects should be included in all three reviews?

A．Strengths and weaknesses.	B．Plot and character.
C．Programs and scenes.	D．Location and description.

Where can you probably find the passage?

A．In a personal diary.

B．In an official report.

C．In a tourist guidebook.

D．In a popular magazine.

One morning when I was 11, I explored the town’s abandoned round grain barn（谷仓）. I found a chained sliding door that was wide enough for me to pass through.
Inside, there was a heavy smell of dead mice in the dark. After my eyes adjusted, I noticed a shaft (升降机井) that rose all the way to the top of the barn. On one side was a one-man elevator with a long rope and roller.
I stepped onto the platform and gave the rope a drag and the elevator began sliding up the shaft, but stopped halfway. After a brief panic attack, I noticed holes in the wall at regular intervals, forming a ladder. For reasons known only to an 11-year-old, I decided it would be better to go up than down. So, with shaking hands, I began climbing the wall.
After what seemed like forever, I reached the top of the shaft. I stood up, dusted myself off and found…absolutely nothing of interest. It was just an empty room with a ladder leading up to the roof. I climbed all the way up here for this? Then I noticed a fire extinguisher（灭火器）,which I’d always wanted to shoot off. So this was the chance of a lifetime. I tried it, and, much to my surprise, the thing worked! It shot out a thick cloud of powder that instantly filled the room. I couldn’t breathe. I was going to choke to death, and they’d probably never even find my body.
Luckily, I remembered the ladder to the roof. I climbed up, popped the straw roof and saw a bright blue sky.
I suddenly realized the dust and powder pouring out of the top could draw attention. So when the dust had settled, I climbed down and slipped out of the chained door. I’m not sure if I was more excited about being alive or about not being caught, but I ran all the way back home.
When the author got inside the barn, he _______.

A．noticed a man on the elevator

B．opened the chained sliding door

C．saw many dead mice in the dark

D．found a shaft leading to the top

Which of the following is the right order of the author’s adventure?
a. The elevator stopped halfway.
b. He entered the round grain barn.
c. He climbed to the top of the shaft.
d. He found a fire extinguisher and shot it off.

A．b-a-c-d	B．b-c-a-d
C．b-a-d-c	D．b-c-a-d

After getting out of the chained door, the author might feel _______.

A．inspired	B．relieved
C．surprised	D．disappointed

From the passage, we can learn that the author was probably a boy full of _______.

A．passions	B．dreams
C．curiosity	D．imagination

A characteristic of American culture that has become almost a tradition is to respect the self-made man — the man who has risen to the top through his own efforts, usually beginning by working with his hands. While the leader in business or industry or the college professor occupies a higher social position and commands greater respect in the community than the common laborer or even the skilled factory worker, he may take pains to point out that his father started life in America as a farmer or laborer of some sort.
This attitude toward manual(体力的) labor is now still seen in many aspects of American life. One is invited to dinner at a home that is not only comfortably but even luxuriously (豪华地) furnished and in which there is every evidence of the fact that the family has been able to afford foreign travel, expensive hobbies, and college education for the children; yet the hostess probably will cook the dinner herself, will serve it herself and will wash dishes afterward, furthermore the dinner will not consist merely of something quickly and easily assembled from contents of various cans and a cake or a pie bought at the nearby bakery. On the contrary, the hostess usually takes pride in careful preparation of special dishes. A professional man may talk about washing the car, digging in his flowerbeds, painting the house. His wife may even help with these things, just as he often helps her with the dishwashing. The son who is away at college may wait on table and wash dishes for his living, or during the summer he may work with a construction gang on a highway in order to pay for his education.
From paragraph 1, we can know that in America _________.

A．people feel painful to mention their fathers as laborers

B．people can always rise to the top through their won efforts

C．college professors win great respect from common workers

D．people tend to have a high opinion of the self-made man

According to the passage, the hostess cooks dinner herself mainly because _________.

A．servants in American are hard to get

B．she takes pride in what she can do herself

C．she can hardly afford servants

D．It is easy to prepare a meal with canned food

The expression “wait on table” in the second paragraph means “_________”.

A．wait to lay the table

B．keep accounts for a bar

C．serve customers in a restaurant

D．work in a furniture shop

Which of the following may serve as the best title of the passage?

A．American Attitude toward Manual Labor

B．A Respectable Self-made Family

C．Characteristics of American Culture

D．The Development of Manual Labor

For a long time the packaging industry has been attacked for using what is thought as large amounts of packaging, choosing materials which are felt to have high impacts on the environment, and for being responsible for littering and overflowing land fills. In a study performed by WRAP, one of the first to study food waste in the UK in 2012, the most frequent responses when consumers were asked about packaging were “uses too much material” and “bad for the environment”. The conclusions of these reports highlighted that the degree of the problem has been largely underestimated：at least 30% of food produced in the world is wasted. These figures are similar no matter if you are in the developed or developing world.
However, two publications from cross—industry work groups were published recently, and have managed to reset the discussion to take into account the benefits of packaging for sustainability(可持续性).The first publication, “The Global Protocol on Packaging Sustainability”, describes an agreed common approach towards measuring packaging sustainability metrics(指标), so that the industry is not competing based on the definition of a metric, but rather competing based on performance. The second was, “'Packaging in the Sustainability Agenda, A Guide for Corporate Decision Makers”, which highlighted the contributions of packaging to the three aspects of sustainability: packaging protects products and prevents waste(environmental aspect); packaging enables efficient business conduct(economic aspect); and packaging provides consumers with the benefits of the products it contains(social aspect).
Packaging performs indeed a wide variety of functions throughout the value chain and contributes to reducing food waste by protecting ingredients(佐料)and products during transportation and by delivering family—sized packages. Food waste could be avoided for single households if they are provided with the choice of pack sizes meeting their consumption patterns and are not forced to buy larger packs that they may not be able to finish before the use—by date. Despite the fact that smaller sized packs use more packaging, the fact that food waste is reduced would nevertheless decrease overall environmental impacts of the packed product.
It has long been thought that _______.

A．larger quantities of food are wasted in developed countries

B．WRAP is the first authority to study food waste in UK

C．packaging does great harm to the environment

D．packaging offers a powerful means to reduce food waste

According to the two publications in Paragraph 2，_______.

A．an agreement should be reached on measuring packaging sustainability

B．the industry should compete based on the definition of sustainability metrics

C．smaller sized packs promotes less packaging and purchase among consumers

D．sustainable packaging is eco-friendly，economically practical and socially beneficial

The author’s attitude towards packaging is ___________.

A．approving	B．negative
C．casual	D．doubtful

If you’re travelling in the following cities, these exciting events may drag you out of the house.
CONCERTS
Mayday Noah’s Ark World Tour
Info: Jul 13, Xiamen; Jul 19/20, Shanghai; Aug 3, Shenzhen; Aug 17, Beijing
The rock band Mayday is about to bring their attractive tour to an end — and, as usual, it's going to happen in a grand way. On Aug 17, they will rock the National Stadium, or the Bird's Nest Stadium, and hold their last Noah’s(诺亚方舟) Ark concert in China, before heading to Europe in September.
Tanya Chua 2013 Concert Tour
Info: Aug 10, Shanghai; Aug 31, Beijing
In her music career of more than 15 years, the 38-year-old Singaporean singer-songwriter has never been short of popular songs that astonish the heart. Now, for the first time since 2008, when she played a small Christmas concert in Shanghai, Chua is visiting China as part of a concert tour.
THEATER
What is Success?
Director: Edward Lam
Performers: Chu Hung-chang, Ethan Wei, Shi Yi-hsiu
Info: Aug 9-10, Guangzhou; Aug 16-17, Chongqing; Aug 29-Sept 1, Beijing
In Part Three of Edward Lam’s Four Great Classics Series, which looks back at Luo Guanzhong’s novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it is sure to give you a surprise. Will it be true? Find out for yourself!
To Live
Director: Meng Jinghui
Performers: Huang Bo, Yuan Quan
Info: Jul 30-Aug 4, Beijing; Aug 6-7, Tianjin; Aug 9-11, Hangzhou; Aug 13-18, Shanghai
After their world show in September, theater director Meng Jinghui and his team are back for another tour around China. While audiences can renew their memories of Yu Hua’s new realism works, film stars Huang Bo and Yuan Quan will also impress audiences with their excellent performance.
EXHIBITIONS
Andy Warhol: 15 Minutes Eternal(永恒)
Info: Apr 29-Jul 28, Shanghai
Launched in 2012 — the 25th anniversary of the pop artist Andy Warhol's death — the exhibition brings the largest ever collection of Warhol’s work to Asia. It includes more than 300 paintings, photographs, drawings and 3-D art, including his works such as Marilyn Monroe, Mao, Campbell’s Soup and Self-Portrait.
You may find the above advertisements ____.

A．in a store window	B．in a school magazine
C．in a newspaper	D．on a company notice-board

The rock band Mayday is going to give concerts in ____ after they perform in Beijing.

A．Australia	B．Japan
C．Europe	D．the USA

Tanya Chua 2013 Concert Tour is her ____ concert in China.

A．first

B．second

C．third

D．fourth

The main purpose of the advertisements is to tell you ____ when you are in these cities.

A．how to enjoy these activities

B．how to improve your artistic level

C．how to amuse yourselves

D．what to enjoy