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Sad Tale for Sale

Hundreds of thousands of puppies (小狗) are born in puppy factories each year. Because the main purpose of the puppy factory is to make money, puppy factory owners fail to spend enough money on the dogs. 1. The animals almost never get exercise or attention. Their cages (笼子) are often dirty, with little protection from sun, wind or cold.

Many puppies born in puppy factories are taken away from their mothers before they are ready. 2.  The moms left behind are then bred (繁殖) again to produce more puppies.

3. Although the puppies may seem healthy, these problems can show up when they’re fully grown — sometimes even sooner. Some of the puppies die within days or weeks of purchase (购买).

Kind kids and their families can help. 4. Even if a pet store says that they don’t sell dogs from puppy factories, chances are they really do. And don’t trust newspaper or website ads made by people who sell puppies.

If your family is ready for a dog, your best choice is to adopt one from an animal shelter (收容所). Animal shelters have different kinds of dogs just waiting for homes.   5.

A. Puppy factories need to stop.

B. In the future, don’t buy puppies from pet stores.

C. To save money, they keep dogs in packed cages.

D. By doing this, you’re in the business of helping pets!

E. There are many puppies killed in puppy factories.

F. Then they are shipped cross-country to be sold in pet shops.

G. Many of the dogs born in puppy factories have serious health problems.

If you have a chance to take a walk in a park, look carefully at the people walking their dogs. You’ll probably find friendly-looking people with friendly dogs; quiet people with quiet dogs; large men with oversized dogs and long-haired women with long-eared dogs. As you’ve probably noticed, dogs and their owners look alike. Have you ever wondered why?

These similarities are so common that researchers have tried to explain them. There are two theories (理论): the convergence (趋同) theory and the selection theory. The convergence theory says that as the owner and the dog spend more time together, they influence each other to the point where they grow similar. In other words, they “converge.”The selection theory, on the other hand, says that owners are interested in dogs that look like them, so they choose those dogs as pets.

Recently, researchers at the University of California decided to test the two theories by taking pictures of 45 dogs separately from their owners. Then they asked some students to match the dogs’ photos with their owners. The students were quite successful with purebred (纯种的) dogs: they correctly matched 16 out of 25 with their owners. However, they had almost no success connecting mixed-breed (杂交的) dogs with their owners. When owners select a purebred dog, they can easily predict (预测) what it will look like later. But that is not true with mixed-breed dogs because it’s hard to predict what a mixed-breed dog will look like when it grows up. And since it was the purebreds not the mixed-breeds that looked like their owners, the research seems to prove the“selection theory”.

But one bit of warning. Although many people look like their dogs, not all dog owners enjoy having the similarity pointed out to them. So, even if the similarity is amazing, don’t go up to a stranger and say,“Wow, you look just like your dog!”

1.The convergence theory explains that the similarity between dogs and their owners _____.

A. decreases with the age of them

B. decreases with increasing differences

C. increases with the period of ownership (所有权, 拥有权)

D. increases with increasing attractiveness

2.According to the selection theory, why do dogs look like their owners?

A. They influence each other.

B. They often do the same thing.

C. Dogs follow what their owners do.

D. Owners pick dogs that look like them.

3.What’s the purpose of the research?

A. To test two similarity theories.

B. To prove the selection theory.

C. To help people choose proper dogs.

D. To show the differences between dogs.

4.What can we learn from the research?

A. Purebred dogs have predictable appearance.

B. Most owners want their dogs to look like them.

C. Mixed-breeds and their owners share similarities.

D. Most owners prefer purebred dogs to mixed-breeds.

Jimmy is an automotive mechanic (汽修工), but he lost his job a few months ago. He has good heart, but always feared applying for a new job.

One day, he gathered up all his strength and decided to attend a job interview. His appointment was at 10 am and it was already 8:30. While waiting for a bus to the office where he was supposed to be interviewed, he saw an elderly man wildly kicking the tyre of his car. Obviously there was something wrong with the car. Jimmy immediately went up to lend him a hand. When Jimmy finished working on the car, the old man asked him how much he should pay for the service. Jimmy said there was no need to pay him; he just helped someone in need, and he had to rush for an interview. Then the old man said,“Well, I could take you to the office for your interview. It’s the least I could do. Please. I insist.”Jimmy agreed.

Upon arrival, Jimmy found a long line of applications waiting to be interviewed. Jimmy still had some grease (润滑油) on him after the car repair, but he did not have much time to wash it off or have a change of shirt. One by one, the applicants left the interviewer’s office with disappointed look on their faces. Finally his name was called. The interviewer was sitting on a large chair facing the office window. Rocking the chair back and forth, he asked, “Do you really need to be interviewed?”Jimmy’s heart sank.“With the way I look now, how could I possibly pass this interview?”he thought to himself.

Then the interviewer turned the chair and to Jimmy’s surprise, it was the old man he helped earlier in the morning. It turned out he was the General Manager of the company.

“Sorry I had to keep you waiting, but I was pretty sure I made the right decision to have you as part of our workforce before you even stepped into the office. I just know you’d be a trustworthy worker. Congratulations!”Jimmy sat down and they shared a cup of well-deserved coffee as he landed himself a new job.

1.What did Jimmy see on the way to the interview?

A. A friend’s car had a flat tyre.    B. A wild man was pushing a car.

C. A terrible car accident happened.    D. An old man’s car broke down.

2.Why did the old man offer Jimmy a ride?

A. He was also to be interviewed.    B. He needed a traveling companion.

C. He always helped people in need.    D. He was thankful to Jimmy.

3.How did Jimmy feel on hearing the interviewer’s question?

A. He was sorry for the other applicants.

B. There was no hope for him to get the job.

C. He regretted helping the old man.

D. The interviewer was very rude.

4.What can we learn from Jimmy’s experience？

A. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.    B. A friend in need is a friend indeed.

C. Good is rewarded with good.    D. Two heads are better than one.

Joey was born in 1990 in Connecticut and now lives in North Carolina in the United States. When Joey was six, he started racing small cars in competitions. He began to win many races, but they weren’t big races. His parents decided to move to Atlanta, Georgia, so Joey could compete in bigger and better competitions. When he was 12, he set a record by winning 14 races in a row at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. He continued to win many races, and finally began racing with regular-sized (正常大小的) race cars.

When Joey was 15 years old, he met the race car driver Mark Martin. Martin is a famous NASCAR driver. NASCAR is the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and it is the biggest and most popular car-racing organization in the United States. Martin was interested in Joey and thought he was “the real deal.” He said, “I am sure that he can be one of the greatest that ever raced in NASCAR. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Martin was right. Joey started as a NASCAR driver in 2007. NASCAR has many races, and at first, Joey was only able to compete in smaller races because of his age. In his first NASCAR season, he won a championship (冠军). In 2008, he was able to compete in bigger NASCAR competitions. He competed in one of the top NASCAR racing series called the Nationwide Series, and at 18, he became the youngest winner in Nationwide Series history.

In 2009, he became the youngest winner in another top NASCAR racing series called the Sprint Cup Series, and he also won the Nationwide Series for the fifth time. To be one of the best drivers in the history of racing, Joey has to win many more races. But at 19, he’s off to a good start.

1.Why did Joey’s parents decide to move to Atlanta?

A. To make more money for Joey.

B. To allow Joey to watch more car races.

C. To provide Joey with a better education.

D. To let him compete in bigger and better races.

2.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 mean?

A. Joey had a bright future.

B. Joey was a true lover of race cars.

C. Martin won a nationwide competition.

D. Martin became the youngest NASCAR winner.

3.What happened when Joey was 19 years old?

A. He won the Sprint Cup Series.

B. He had his first NASCAR season.

C. He won the Nationwide Series for the first time.

D. He broke many records for NASCAR racing series.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A. A good start.    B. NASCAR races.

C. Racing to success.    D. Best drivers in history.

The Nobel Prize Winners in Literature

Rabindranath Tagore(1913)

Prize motivation: because of his deep sensitive, fresh and beautiful poetry, with perfect skills, he has made his poetic thought, expressed in his own English words，part of the literature of the West.

William Faulkner (1949)

Prize motivation: for his powerful and artistically unique contribution to the modern American novel.

Ernest Miller Hemingway(1954)

Prize motivation：for his mastery of the art of narrative, most recently demonstrated in The Old Man and the Sea.

John Steinbeck (1962)

Prize motivation: for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining sympathetic humour and keen social perception.

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill(1953)

Prize motivation：for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for his brilliant speech skills in defending noble human values.

Claude Simon (1985)

Prize motivation: he in his novel combines the poet’s and the painter’s creativeness with a deepened awareness of time in the description of the human condition.

Mo Yan (2012)

Prize motivation：he, with dreamlike realism，combines folk tales，history and the contemporary.

Bob Dylan (2016)

Prize motivation：for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.

1.Which writer won Nobel Prize for his poetry?

A. Ernest Hemingway.    B. Rabindranath Tagore.

C. William Faulkner.    D. Winston Churchill.

2.Whose works will you turn to if you are interested in a song writing Nobel Prize winner?

A. Mo Yan’s.    B. Bob Dylan’s.

C. Claude Simon’s.    D. Rabindranath Tagore’s.

3.Who was famous for his speech?

A. John Steinbeck.    B. Mo Yan.

C. Ernest Hemingway.    D. Winston Churchill.