All of us can give others a hand as long as we are willing to do so. Actually, there are some people doing kind things all the time. Spreading kindness, one good deed at a time, is Karla Gibson's mission. "I wish everyone could join me. There are so many ______things going on in the world; 1 mean every day," said Karla.
Karla had the commitment and sense of_______in December of 2013. The single mother of three said she tended to feel depressed around the holidays, so she _______to do something to cheer others up. She started a Facebook page and_______her good deeds each day, from feeding the homeless to giving Easter gifts to the incarcerated( 囚犯) .She hoped to _______others.
"We have to do something. Our_______can make a difference in someone's day. You_______know when someone might be having their worst day, and then somethin! like buying them a coffee can change their whole attitude," Karla______
Karla's greatest_______so far had to do with coffee. On September 27th, Karla i birthday, she went to her local Starbucks and gave the_______$ 127 to pay for othe: people's drinks. She sat at the end of the drive-through holding a_______that read. "Have a great day." She ended up_______about 23 customers. "It was really fun. I was_______one of the best birthdays ever," she said. Her kindness that day didn't gc ______One couple were so grateful that they surprised her with flowers and ballooni to show their______
Karla's acts of kindness have become a_______affair. Her two sons are alwayi_______others. "Sometimes I'll ask Kyle, ‘ So, did you do anything extra nice today? and his answers are like ’Somebody_______something in the hallway and I picked it up or 'I held the door for someone', that kind of thing," said Karla.
It's because of Mom that the boys think it's_______to give a hand to others.“ think it's a great idea of hers. It's always nice to help someone out_______they reallneed it," said Karla's 15-year-old son Chad.
1.A. good B. bad C. new D. casual
2.A. appointment B. duty C. preference D. success
3.A. managed B. agreed C. determined D. hesitated
4.A. did B. mentioned C. shared D. told
5.A. inspire B. greet C. introduce D. remember
6.A. kindness B. happiness C. stories D. sadness
7.A. still B. often C. never D. even
8.A. whispered B. explained C. replied D. reported
9.A. surprise B. challenge C. moment D. place
10.A. cashier B. customer C. beggar D. secretary
11.A. logo B. sign C. symbol D. flag
12.A. paying back B. picking up C. paying off D. paying for
13.A. occasionally B. usually C. probably D. hardly
14.A. unoccupied B. unnoticed C. unorganized D. unquestioned
15.A. wisdom B. existence C. generosity D. appreciation
16.A. society B. love C. holiday D. family
17.A. encouraging B. inviting C. helping D. affecting
18.A. fell B. bought C. found D. dropped
19.A. strange B. reasonable C. cool D. funny
20.A. after B. though C. unless D. when
Winning an Oscar isn't all about acting ability
While the awards claim they recognize the top performances from around the world, a new study has found that you're more likely to win an Oscar if you're an American acting in a film that portrays American culture.1.British actors are more likely to take home an award.
Researchers say the trend suggests viewers are more likely to perceive a performance as "truly brilliant" if they are members of the same social group as the actor. It can be seen, perhaps most famously, in the case of Leonardo DiCaprio, who finally won a long-awaited Oscar in the 88th Academy Awards for his role in The Revenant,which follows the story of an American frontiersman.2.In 2014, Matthew McConaughey won an Oscar for his role in Dallas Buyers Club,and Jennifer Lawrence took an award home in 2013 for Silver Linings Playbook3.The findings come from a new study published in the British Journal of Psychology. The team investigated a total of 908 merit prize winners: 97 winners and 383 nominees for the Oscars, and 97 winners and 331 nominees for the BAFTAs. Overall,they found that US actors dominated the awards,claiming over 50 percent of the prizes across the Oscars and BAFTAs.
4.When the performer and judge shared membership within a particular social group-for example, being American-the actor was more likely to win. As a result, American actors were found to win 52 percent of all BAFTAs, and 69 percent of all Oscars. While British actors won just 18 percent of all Oscars, and 34 percent of BAFTAs.
5.In the Oscars, Americans who performed in films about non-US culture accounted for just 26 percent of the award winners. But, those who performed in films about American culture made up 88 percent of the winners.
A. In recent years, many actors have cast themselves as frontiersmen.
B. Subject matter played a role,too, according to the researchers.
C. And, the same applies to London's BAFTAs.
D. But they also noted a trend within social groups.
E. But the trend also stretches back throughout the years.
F. Things are different in Britain.
G. Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar in 2008 for his role in There Will be Blood.
China's box office numbers continue to grow rapidly. It is estimated that the revenues( 收入) may pass the U. S. market's as soon as this year. However, this cinematic party could be over just as it's getting started. Some companies are working to convince consumers that the ultimate viewing experience is not on the big screen.
Instead, it's on the small ones that are already in their pockets-thanks to the technology of virtual reality.
Already,VR experience centers are popping up in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai. They give customers the opportunity to watch VR movies or play VR games for about the same price as a discount movie ticket. Online video sites, meanwhile, are also moving into the VR field. Some of them, like Youku, have launched(推出) their own VR apps and channels.
China has more than 700 million smartphone users. A large percentage of them are already more than willing to download and watch TV shows and even full-length movies on their handsets. This potentially makes them more likely to embrace VR content than Americans and Europeans.
But in fact, it's not just Chinese companies and video websites that believe VR will pull viewers away from movie theaters. International production companies that, for years, have made block busters (大片) for cinema audiences are also warning that disruptive change is around the corner.
Maureen Fan, chief executive of the Silicon Valley VR start-up Baobab Studios, after bringing her company's animated VR short Invasion to the Shanghai International Film Festival last year, concluded that the field had been evolving much more rapidly than she expected. "What I thought would take ten years has happened in one or two," she said. However, she also noted that the industry needs more people who can create great stories to move VR beyond a niche product(小众产品 ) and into the mass market. "The technology is already there. What continues to be lacking is good content," Fan said. "There's a certain amount, but we would love to see more."
1.What is the main idea of the article?
A. China's box office numbers might see a slight decline in the coming years.
B. People don't need to mind their manners when watching VR movies.
C. Movie theaters in China will be increasingly challenged by virtual reality.
D. More and more Chinese online video sites have had their own VR channels.
2.According to the article, Chinese people might be readier for VR movies than Westerners because .
A. China's box office numbers have been growing faster than those in the West
B. more Chinese people have experienced virtual reality than Westerners
C. China has been more supportive of the development of VR than Western countries
D. more Chinese people have been watching shows on handsets than Westerners
3.According to the article, it could be hard for VR movies to move into the mass market until
A. VR movies become available in theaters
B. online video sites launch more VR channels
C. VR experience centers appear in smaller cities
D. there is a larger amount of good content
4.Which of the following statements would Maureen Fan probably agree with?
A. VR movies will completely replace traditional movies sooner or later.
B. Virtual reality has been experiencing an enormous development.
C. Content matters more than technology when it comes to making movies.
D. The West will catch up with China in terms of the development of VR.
People traveling long distances frequently have to decide whether they would prefer to go by land, sea, or air. Hardly can anyone positively enjoy sitting in a train for more than a few hours. Train carriages soon get crowded. Reading is only a partial solution, for the monotonous(单调的) rhythm of the wheels clicking on the rails soon makes you sleep. During the day, sleep comes in snatches. While at night you rarely manage to sleep. Inevitably you arrive at your destination almost exhausted.
Long car journey are even less pleasant, for it is quite impossible even to read. On motorways you can, at least, travel fairly safely at high speed, but more often than not, the greater span of the journey is spent on narrow, uneven roads which are crowded with traffic.
By comparison, trips by sea offer a great variety of civilized comforts. You can stretch your legs on the broad decks, play games, swim, meet interesting people and enjoy good food-always assuming, of course, that the sea is calm. If it is not and you are likely to get seasick, no form of transport could be worse. Even if you travel in ideal weather, sea journeys take a long time. Relatively few people are prepared to sacrifice up to a third of their holidays for the pleasure of traveling on a ship.
Airplanes have the reputation of being dangerous and a little expensive. But nothing can match them for speed and comfort. Traveling at a height of 30,000 feet and at over 500 miles an hour is a pleasant experience. For a few hours, you settle back in a deep armchair to enjoy the flight. The real relaxation can be a free film show and some other services. An airplane also offers you an unusual and breathtaking view of the world. You really see the shape of the land. If the landscape is hidden from the view, you can enjoy the extraordinary sight of unbroken cloud plains that stretch on for miles before you, while the sun shines brilliantly in a clear sky. The journey is so smooth that there is nothing to prevent you from reading or sleeping. However you decide to spend your time, one thing is certain: you will arrive at your destination fresh and untired.
1.The author indicates that reading can help lessen .
A. the boredom of being in the train
B. the tiresome clicking of the wheels
C. the sleeplessness during the journey
D. the poor atmosphere of the carriages
2.What can we learn about the long distance journey by car?
A. It is safe because the car usually goes at high speed.
B. It is unpleasant because reading is quite impossible.
C. It is exhausting because you seldom manage to sleep.
D. It is dangerous because the traffic is always too busy.
3.Traveling by air is quite different from traveling by other means in that .
A. traveling by air is not so tiring as the others
B. traveling by air brings more fun than the others
C. traveling by air is much more expensive than the others
D. traveling by air offers more time for sleep than the others
4.What's the purpose of writing this passage?
A. To introduce diverse ways of traveling.
B. To point out the best means of traveling.
C. To emphasize the advantages of traveling.
D. To introduce how to relax when traveling
I was now in my twenty-third year of residence in this island and was so naturalized to the place and to the manner of living that I finally enjoyed the certainty that no savagesc(野人) would come to the place to disturb me, and that I could have been content to spend the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I had laid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave.
I had also arrived to some little recreations and amusements, which made the time pass more pleasantly with me a great deal than it did before.
At first, I had taught my Poll to speak. And he did it so familiarly and talked so clearly and plainly that it was very pleasant to me. And he lived with me no less than six years. How long he might live afterwards, I don't know; though 1 know people have an idea in Brazil that they live a hundred years. Perhaps poor Poll may be alive there still, calling Poor Robin Crusoe to this day. I wish no other English man the ill luck to come there and hear him. But if he did, he would certainly believe it was the devil.
My dog was a very pleasant and loving companion to me, for no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of mere old age.
As for my cats, they multiplied to that degree that I had to shoot several of them at first to keep them from eating up all I had.
Besides these, I had two more parrots which talked pretty well and would all call Robin Crusoe, but neither like my first. Nor indeed did I take the pains with any of them that I had done with him. I had also several tame sea-fowls, whose names I don't know, who I caught upon the shore and cut their wings and the little stakes which 1 had planted before my castle wall being now grown up to a good thick bush; these fowls all lived among these low trees and bred there, which was very agreeable to me; so that as 1 said above, I began to be very well contented with the life I led, if it might have been secured from the threat of the savages.
1.How many kinds of animals except humans are mentioned in this passage?
A. 3. B. 5.
C. 7. D. 9.
2.What does the underlined word "they" in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Savages. B. Brazilians.
C. Islanders. D. Parrots.
3.This passage is selected from a novel. The hero of this novel probably comes from
A. Brazil B. Australia
C. Britain D. the U.S.
4.Which of the following can best summarize the passage?
A. Robin Crusoe loved animals and savages very much.
B. Robin Crusoe trained his animals in pleasant ways.
C. The animals raised by Robin Crusoe brought him much pleasure.
D. The savages always spoiled Robin Crusoe's happy life.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
211-535-7710 www.metmuseum.org
Entrances
Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street
Hours
Open 7 days a week.
Sunday-Thursday 10:00-17:30
Friday and Saturday 10:00-21:00
Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1，and the first Monday in May. Admission
$ 25. 00 recommended for adults, $ 12. 00 recommended for students, includes the Main Building and the Cloisters（回廊）on the same day; free for children under 12 with an adult.
Free with Admission
All special exhibitions, as well as films, lectures, guided tours, concerts, gallery talks, and family/children's programs are free with admission.
Ask about today's activities at the Great Hall Information Desk.
The Cloisters Museum and Gardens
The Cloisters Museum and Gardens is a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art devoted to the art and architecture of Europe in the Middle Ages. The extensive collection consists of masterworks in sculpture, colored glass, and precious objects from Europe dating from about the 9th to the 15th century.
Hours
Open 7 days a week.
March-October 10:00-17:15
November-February 10:00-16:45
Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, and January 1.
1.When can people visit the Cloisters Museum and Gardens?
A. At 11:00, on December 25th.
B. At 9:30, on March 3rd.
C. At 17:00, on February 16th.
D. At 15:00, on October 20th.
2.How much may they pay if an adult with her 10-year-old son visits the museum?
A. $12. B. $37.
C. $ 25. D. $ 62.
3.The attraction of the Cloisters Museum and Gardens lies in the fact that .
A. it opens all the year round
B. its collections date from the Middle Ages
C. it has a modern European-style garden
D. it sells excellent European glass collections
