Directions: After reading the passage below. fill in the blanks to make the passage coherent and grammatically correct. For the blanks with a given word, fill in each blank with the proper form of the given word; for the other blanks, use one word that best fits each blank
A few months 1. (early) Aunt Pat had bought a badly used piano for a few dollars and put it in the parlor, on the theory 2. every civilized house 3. have a piano in the parlor, though 4. she, Uncle Allen, nor Uncle Charlie played. I was standing on the sidewalk in the darkness 5. I heard piano music inside. Curious, because I’d never heard the piano played before, I went inside. Aunt Pat, Uncle Allen, Uncle Charlie, and Doris were sitting in the parlor, and my mother was at the piano wearing her dark suit and a small dark hat with a little veil that fell over her eyes, and she was playing “rock of Ages”.
I 6. (not know) she could play the piano. She wasn’t playing very well, I guess, because she stopped occasionally and had to start over again. She concentrated intensely on the music, and the others in the room sat absolutely silently. My mother was facing me but didn’t seem to see me. She seemed to be staring 7. me toward something 8. wasn’t there. All the happy excitement died in me at that moment. Looking at my mother, so 9. (isolate) from us all, I saw her for the first time as a person utterly alone.
Suddenly I realized I had been happy there. It had been six years 10. my mother had brought us to Uncle Allen and Aunt Pat to live for a few months until she could set up a home of our own. Now her youth had passed without a single triumph. She was in her fortieth year.
Gender Stereotypes Are Messing with Your Kid
Gender stereotypes are messing with your kid. It’s not just one movie. It’s not just one TV show. It’s constant exposure to the same dated concepts in the media over and over, starting before preschool and lasting a lifetime --- concepts like: Boys are smarter than girls: certain jobs are best for men and others for women; and even that girls are responsible for their own sexual assaults.
According to a recent report, which analyzed more than 150 articles, interviews, books, and other social-scientific research, gender stereotypes in moves and on TV shows are more than persistient.1. what make these messages stick --- and harder for parents to counteract – is that they’re timed for the precise moment in kids’ development when they’re most receptive to their influence.
Think of preschoolers who are just beginning to identify as boys or girls. The characters they see on TV often have an obvious masculine or feminine appearance, such as a superhero’s big muscles or a princess’ long hair. These characters also are often associated with specific traits---for example, being strong and brave or fearful and meek. 2. That “Strong and brave” superhero becomes aggressive and hostile. That “fearful and meek” princess becomes submissive and weak.
For young audiences who absorb ideas from the media on how to behave and what to become, these characterizations can lead to false assumptions and harmful conclusions. These oversimplified characterizations play out in many ways over and over. According to the report, a lifetime of viewing stereotypical media becomes so ingrained that it can ultimately affect kids’ career choices, self-worth, relationships, and ability to achieve their full potential.
And lots of parent are concerned about these issues, too. We polled nearly 1,000 parents across the country and found that they believe the media has a significant influence on their kids, from how girls should look and behave to how seeing violence can affect boys’ beliefs about themselves. 3.Because, let’s face it: exaggerating the differences entertained. It’s not what we really want our kids to emulate.
While there are movies and TV shows that defy gender stereotypes---and Hollywood is making some progress on this front --- you’re not going to be able to prevent your kids from seeing everything that sends the wrong message. And your kids probably like a lot of media that reinforces stereotypes. 4.When you actively role-model gender equality, speak out against stereotypes, and challenge outdated ideas, kids will hear that loud and clear.
A.Luckily, parents can assert control over the messages that Hollywood dishes out.
B.You have a lot of control over your kids’ media --- mostly when they’re little, but even as they grow.
C.Fortunately, the most powerful messages kids absorb are from you.
D.Ideally, self-segregate based on gender --- boys want to play with boys, and girls want to play with girls.
E.They’re incredibly effective at teaching kids what the culture expects of boys and girls.
F.Fast-forward to the tween and teen years, when characters begin to wrestle with relationships, life, and job prospects.
The most thoroughly studied intellectuals in the history of the new world are the ministers and political leaders of seventeenth-century New England. According to the standard history of American philosophy, nowhere else in colonial American was “so much important attached to intellectual pursuits.” According to many books and articles, New England’s leaders established the basic themes and preoccupations of an unfolding, dominant Puritan tradition in American intellectual life.
To take this approach to the New Englanders normally mean to start with the Puritans’ theological（神学的）innovations and their distinctive ideas about the church --- important subjects that we may not neglect. But in keeping with our examination of southern intellectual life, we may consider the original Puritans as carriers of European culture, adjusting to New would circumstances. The New England colonies were the scenes of important episodes in the pursuit of widely understood ideals of civility and virtuosity.
The early settlers of Massachusetts Bay included men of impressive education and influence in England. Besides the ninety or so learned ministers who came to Massachusetts church in the decade after 1629, there were political leaders like John Winthrop, an educated gentleman, lawyer, and official of the Crown before he journeyed to Boston. These men wrote and published extensively, reaching both New World and Old World audiences, and giving New English an atmosphere of intellectual earnestness.
We should not forget, however, that most New Englanders were less will educated. While few craftsmen or farmers, let alone dependents and servants, left literary compositions to be analyzed. Their thinking often had a traditional superstitions quality. A tailor named John Dane, who emigrated in the late 1630s, left an account of his reasons for leaving England that is filled with signs. Sexual confusion, economic frustrations, and religious hope --- all came together in a decisive moment when he opened the Bible, told his father the first line he saw would settle his fate, and read the magical words: “come out from among them, touch no unclean thing, and I will be your God and you shall be my people.” One wonders what Dane thought of the careful sermons explaining the Bible that he heard in Puritan churches.
Meanwhile, any settlers had slighter religious commitments than Dane’s, as one clergyman learned in confronting folk along the coast who mocked that they had not come to the New World for religion. “Our main end was to catch fish.”
1.The author notes that in the seventeenth-century New England______.
A.Puritan tradition dominated political life.
B.intellectual interests were encouraged.
C.Politics benefited much from intellectual endeavors.
D.intellectual pursuits enjoyed a liberal environment.
2.Which of the following meaning is closest to that of the underlined word in para.2?
A.a virtue B.an intelligent mind
C.a taste for fine arts D.a nice character
3.It is suggested in paragraph 2 that New Englanders __________.
A.experienced a comparatively peaceful early history.
B.brought with them the culture of the Old World
C.paid little attention to southern intellectual life
D.were obsessed with religious innovations
4.The early ministers and political leaders in Massachusetts Bay______.
A.were famous in the New World for their writings
B.gained increasing importance in religious affairs
C.abandoned high positions before coming to the New World
D.created a new intellectual atmosphere in New England
5.The story of John shows that less well-educated New Englanders were often_________.
A.influenced by superstitions
B.troubled with religious beliefs
C.puzzled by church sermons
D.frustrated with family earnings
Villa d’Este, Tivoli (Italy) --- Official Site Useful Information
Call Center 199766166
Number to dial from all of Italy for pre-sales and reservations for: tickets, guided tours, school groups, instructional visits.
Bookings from abroad:
email: villadestetivoli@teleart.org fax: 0039 0412770747
Visiting Hours:
Opening 8.30 – closed one hour before sunset.
The ticket office closes one hour before the closing of the monument.
The hydraulic organ of the Organ Fountain is active daily, from 10.30 am, every two hours.
The Fontana della Civetta functions daily, from 10.00 am, every two hours.
Ticket Prices:
(from May 17 to October 20, 2015)
Full ticket (exhibition + villa and gardens, not divisible): €11.
Reduced ticket: €7.
These prices will be valid during the daytime openings of the Villa until the closure of the exhibition, due on the 20th of October, 2015 (From the 22nd of October, 2015)
Full ticket: €8 Reduced ticket €4
These fares may vary in conjunction with exhibitions set inside the Villa. The right to purchase reduced price tickets belongs to all citizens of the European Union between the ages of 18 and 24 as well as permanent teachers of state schools (upon presentation of identity documents).
School Visits:
Reservations are required. The management of Villa d’Este, in the aim of preserving the monument and better distributing the flow of students, has limited the number of students allowed into the Villa to 100 students per hour. Should any school group arrive at the Villa without having made a reservation, it will be admitted to the Villa according to space availability at a particular time and asked to wait until such space becomes available. Right of reservation cost: €1,00.
Notices:
Certain areas of the villa may be closed for restoration: for information inquire at the ticket office. Please pay particular attention to the areas marked with signs indicating danger (in Italian: pericolo).
1.How can a visiting Chinese professor of architecture in Rome make a booking?
A.By dialing 199766166.
B.By writing an email to villadestetivili@teleart.org.
C.By calling 0039 04127 19036.
D.By sending a fax to 0039 0412 770747
2.The receptionist at the ticket office may recommend you to see ______first, if you arrive at 10.25 am.
A.the exhibition inside the villa B.the Organ Fountain
C.the gardens D.the Fontana della Civetta
3.Why are reservations essential for school visits?
A.Reservations are more economical.
B.Reservations enable as many students as possible to visit the monument.
C.Reservations ensure a pleasant visit for students and a manageable one of the Villa.
D.Reservation fees can help preserve the site.
The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
——By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The tide rises, the tide falls,
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in the darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but never more
Returns the traveler to the shore,
And the tides rises, the tide falls.
1.What is the figurative meaning of the title “The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls” indicate?
A.The change of the ocean B.the sequence of human history
C.the coming and going of travelers D.the eternity of the natural world
2.Which line is parallel to “The morning breaks: the steeds in their stalls”?
A.The tide rises, the tide falls
B.The twilight darkens, the curlew calls
C.Along the sea-sands damp and brown
D.The traveler hastens toward the town
3.In stanza 2, the word “Efface” in line 4 is the closest to ________ in meaning.
A.Draw B.engrave
C.erase D.impress
4.In stanza 3, “the day returns, but nevermore; returns the traveler to the shore”, the poet possibly means________.
A.Time hustles; people bustle
B.The traveler comes to the town just once
C.People will die while time goes on
D.If time had feelings, people would stay
“Just the man I was looking for,” said a voice at Winston’s back.
He turned round. It was his friend Syme, who worked in the Research Department. Syme was a philologist, a specialist in Newspeak. Indeed, he was one of the enormous team of experts now ______ in compiling the Eleventh Edition of the Newspeak dictionary.
“How is the dictionary ______?” asked Winston.
“Slowly,” said Syme. “I’m on the adjectives. It’s fascinating.”
He had ______ immediately at the mention of Newspeak.
“The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition,” he said. We’re getting the language into its final shape --- the shape it’s going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we’ve finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We’re ______words --- scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We’re cutting the language down to the ______. The Eleventh Edition won’t ______ a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.”
His thin dark face had become animated and his eyes had grown almost dreamy.
“It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. It isn’t only the synonyms, there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other words? A word contains its ______in itself. Take ‘good’, for instance. If you have a word like good, what need is there for a word like ‘bad’? ‘Ungood’ will do just as well --- better, because it’s an exact opposite, which the other is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of ‘good’, what sense is there in having a whole string of ______useless words like ‘excellent’ and ‘splendid’ and all the rest of them? ‘Plusgood’ covers the meaning, or ‘doubleplusgood’ if you want something ______ still. Of course we sue those forms already, but in the final version of Newspeak there’ll be nothing else. In the end the whole notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words --- in reality, only one word. Don’t you see the beauty of that, Winston?”
A sort of vapid eagerness fitted across Winston’s face. Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a certain ______ of enthusiasm.
“You haven’t a real appreciation of Newspeak, Winston,” he said almost sadly. “In your heart you’d prefer to ______ to Oldspeak with all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don’t grasp the beauty of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year? Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to ______ the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly ______. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we’re not ______ that point. But the process will still be continuing ______ you and I are dead. Every year fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, there’s no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. But in the end there won’t be any need even for that. Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?”
1.A.engaged B.dressed C.elected D.appointed
2.A.getting on B.putting on C.carrying on D.taking on
3.A.woken up B.brightened up C.put up D.lived up
4.A.escaping B.inventing C.coining D.destroying
5.A.skin B.flesh C.bone D.muscle
6.A.involve B.hold C.contain D.include
7.A.meaning B.similarity C.origin D.opposite
8.A.random B.vague C.precise D.misery
9.A.stronger B.better C.more D.less
10.A.share B.margin C.lack D.ounce
11.A.react B.object C.flee D.stick
12.A.offer B.narrow C.widen D.shoot
13.A.associated B.lost C.defined D.explained
14.A.far from B.close to C.along with D.parallel to
15.A.long after B.long before C.shortly after D.shortly before
