When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance, the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as mere entertainment, but certainly not an education priority（优先）. This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students.
Music tells us who we are. Because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and values, as well ad the social environment it came influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception（感知）that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts explore the emotive（情感的）meaning of the same phenomenon. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the meaning and value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize.
1.According to Paragraph 1, students _______.
A. regard music as a way of entertainment
B. disagree with their parents on education
C. view music as an overlooked subject
D. prefer the arts to science
2.In Paragraph 2, the author uses jazz an example to
A. compare it with rock music
B. show music identifies a society
C. introduce American musical traditions
D. prove music influences people’s lifestyles
3.According to the passage, the arts and science .
A. approach the world from different angles
B. explore different phenomena of the world
C express people’s feelings in different ways
D. explain what it means to be human differently
4.What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Music education deserves more attention.
B. Music should be of top education priority.
C. Music is an effective communication tool.
D. Music education makes students more imaginative
We often use the words “growth” and “development” as if they meant basically the
same thing. But this may not always be the case. One can easily imagine instances in
which a country has achieved higher levels of income (growth) with little or no benefit
coming to most of its citizens (development).
In the past, most development policies were aimed at increasing the growth rate of income per capita (人均所得). Many are still based on the theory that benefit of economic growth will come to all members of society. If this theory is correct, growth should encourage development.
By the early 1970s, however, the relationship between growth and development was being questioned. A major study by the World Bank in 1974 concluded that it is now clear that more than decades of rapid growth in developing countries has been of little benefit to a third of their population.
The World Bank study showed that increase in GNP per capita did not promise
important improvements in such development indicators as nutrition (营养), health, and
education. Although GNP per capita did indeed rise, its benefit came down to only a
small part of the population. This realization gives rise to a call for new development
policies. These new policies favor agriculture over industry, call for national redistribution (资源分配) of income and wealth, and encourage programs to satisfy such basic needs as food and shelter.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s the international macroeconomic crises (大规模的经济危机) of high oil prices, worldwide recession (衰退) and the third world debt, forced attention away from programs designed to get rid of poverty. however, the lesson remains: economic growth does not promise economic development. Efforts may be required to change growing output capacity (能力) into economic benefit that reach most of a nation’s people.
1.What do we learn from the first paragraph about the relationship between growth and development?
A. Growth and development refer to the same thing.
B. Growth always brings about development.
C. Development is not a necessary result of growth.
D. Development is a reliable measure of growth.
2.Before the 1970s, most development policies were based on theory that economic growth would benefit ________.
A. most people in society B. some people in society
C. few people in society D. everyone in society
3.According to the study by the World Bank in 1974, economic growth in some
backward countries brought ________.
A. benefit to a third of their population B. benefit to two thirds of their population
C little benefit to their people D. no benefit at all to their people
4.If the passage continues, what would the author most likely discuss in the next
paragraph?
A. How to turn growth into development. B. How to remove poverty from society.
C. How to decrease the third world debt. D. How to cope with economic crises.
Today, ultrasonic(超声的) waves are being put to work in laboratories and factories. If an ultrasound generator is placed in a liquid, the waves move the liquid back and forthhundreds of thousands of times each second. This causes materials to mix quickly or to dissolve(使分解，使溶解) in liquids. Paint manufacturers(制造商) use ultrasound to do a better job of blending colors. The companies that make film for your camera find that mixing chemicals by the use of sound waves will produce a more sensitive film.
The new lightweight(轻量的) type of washing machine uses ultrasonic waves to get
clothes clean. Its special ultrasound generator is put into a pail of soapy water containing the soiled clothes. The sound waves drive the soapy water back and forth through the
cloth so fast that everything is soon clean. There is also a new kind of dishwasher that works in much the same way.
Ultrasonic waves can shake a liquid so fast that tiny holes form all through it. The
liquid is actually torn apart by this action. Almost as soon as these holes are made, they fall together again. The result is a powerful pounding action. In the dairy industry this is used for the double purpose of making homogenized(使均匀，使匀质) milk and sterilizing(使无菌) it at the same time. If you look at some raw milk with a microscope, you find that it is made up of little drops of butter fat floating around in a watery liquid. In order to make milk easier to digest, these fat droplets(微粒) may be broken up by forcing the milk through very small openings. The result is called homogenized milk. When the ultrasonic method is used, the sound waves not only break up the droplets but also kill the germs in the milk by pounding them to pieces.
1.Why does a paint manufacturer use ultrasound to do a better job of blending colors?
A. Because it is cheap to use ultrasound to blend colors.
B. Because the waves move the liquid so quickly that it can make materials mix quickly or dissolve in liquids.
C. Because they can mix chemicals by the use of sound waves.
D. Because the waves can clean the paint.
2.What properties does ultrasound wave have?
A. Homogenizes and sterilizes the milk. B. Mix materials and break droplets.
C. Kill germs and sterilize milk. D. Move liquids quickly.
3.What exists in the raw milk?
A. Little drops of butter fat. B. Small holes.
C. Fat droplets and germs. D. Chemicals.
4.Where is ultrasound wave not used?
A. In the paint manufacture. B. In the shop mixing bread flour.
C. In the film-making company. D. In the dairy industry.
Several days ago, a Beijing-based IT company fired about 400 people overnight. No one had expected the job cuts, which broke with traditional ways of letting go of workers in China. Moreover, what was special about this case was that the day before the 400 were fired, they all received from their boss a gift—the book “Who Moved My Cheese?
The book—a bestseller in the US—is being used by men and women to deal with
changes in their lives and work. Some large organizations, including Coca-Cola, Kodak and General Motors, ask their employees to read it in order to encourage them to be active towards changes.
Cheese is something related to everyone’s livelihood—our jobs, the Industries we
work in, relationships and love as well.
With China’s official entry into the WTO, the whole nation will face more changes
and challenges. So what should we do once this “cheese” on which we are so dependent is moved?
“Whatever challenges and changes we meet, we should face up to them bravely,” Jiang Hengwei, a civil servant said after reading the book.
Professor Zhang Yang in Renmin University of China agrees. “We should change ourway of thinking. The coming competitive foreign companies and products provide us withgreat chances to learn from them and improve our own products to meet international standards and be more competitive.”
“With hard work and wisdom, we will create a much larger and better piece of
cheese.” Zhang smiled confidently.
1.The whole passage is about _______.
A. people’s opinions about a bestseller of the US
B. what people think about China’s entry into the WTO
C. the change in people’s attitude towards changes and challenges
D. how a book influences the Chinese
2.The company in Beijing gave each of the 400 fired workers a copy of “Who Moved My Cheese” in order to _______.
A. be more competitive with foreign firms
B. find an excuse for their job cuts
C. let the workers make a living on their own
D. encourage the fired workers
3.The word “cheese” in the passage can refer to _______.
A. something we depend on for a living B. a most important kind of food
C. change or challenge D. way of life
4.From what Hengwei and Professor Zhang Yang said, we can know that _______.
A. they have different opinions on changes and challenges
B. people are not afraid of competition from foreign companies
C. the Chinese people are ready to face any changes and challenges
D. they are both greatly encouraged by the book
Once there was an 11-year-old boy who went fishing with his father in the middle of a New Hampshire lake. On the day before bass(巴斯鱼) season opened, they were fishing early in the evening, catching other fish with worms. Then the boy tied on a small silver lure(鱼饵) and put it into the lake. Suddenly he felt that something very big pulling on the lure. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully brought the fish beside the bank. Finally he lifted the tired fish from the water. It was the largest one he had ever seen, but it was a bass.
The boy and his father looked at the big fish. The father lit a match and looked at his watch. It was 10 p.m.—two hours before the season opened. He looked at the fish, then at the boy. “You’ll have to put it back, son,” he said.
“Dad!” cried the boy. “There will be other fish,” said his father. “Not as big as this one,” cried the boy. He looked around the lake. No other fishermen or boats were in sight in the moonlight. He looked again at his father.
Even though no one had seen them, nor could anyone ever know what time he had caught the fish, the boy could tell from his father’s voice that the decision couldn’t be changed. He threw the huge bass into the black water. The big fish disappeared. The boy thought that he would never again see such a big fish.
That was 34 years ago. Today the boy is a successful architect in New York City. He often takes his own son and daughters to fish at the same place.
And he was right. He has never again caught such a large fish as the one he got that night long ago. But he does see that same fish ... again and again ... every time he has an ethical (道德的) decision to make. For, as his father had taught him, ethics are simple matters of right and wrong. It is only the practice of ethics that is difficult.
1.What happened when the big fish turned out to be a bass?
A. The boy and his father discussed what to do with the big fish.
B. The boy threw the bass back into the water willingly.
C. The father lit a match in order to check the time.
D. They worried other fishermen may discover what they had done.
2.From the text we know that the father _________.
A. didn’t love his son B. always disagreed with his son
C. disliked the huge fish D. was firm and stubborn
3.The successful architect went fishing with his children at the same place because _______.
A. they might catch a big fish there B. he was taught a moral lesson there
C. it was a most popular fishing spot D. their children enjoyed fishing there
4.What does the story imply?
A. It is easy to say something, but difficult to do.
B. An ethical decision is always easy to make.
C. It’s hard to tell right from wrong sometimes.
D. Fishing can help one to make right decisions.
Sometimes I really doubt whether there is love between my parents. Every day they are very busy trying to __1__ in order to pay the high tuition for my brother and me. They don’t act in the __2__ ways that I read in books or I see on TV. In their opinion, “I love you” is too __3__ for them to say. Sending flowers to each other on Valentine’s Day is even more out of __4__.
One day, my mother was sewing a quilt. I sat down beside her. “Mom, I have a question to ask you. Is there __5__ between you and Dad?” I asked her in a very low voice. She didn’t answer immediately. She __6__ her head and continued to sew the quilt.
I was very worried because I thought I had _7_ her. I was in a great _8__ and I didn’t know what I should do. But at last I heard my mother say the following words:
“Susan,” she said thoughtfully, “Look at this thread．Sometimes it __9_, but most of it disappears in the quilt. The thread really makes the quilt __10__. If life is a quilt, then love should be a thread．It can hardly be seen __11_, but it’s really there. Love is __12__.”
I listened carefully but I couldn’t __13__ her until the next spring. At that time, my father suddenly got __14_ seriously. My mother had to stay with him in the hospital for a month. When they returned from the hospital, they both looked __15. It seemed both of them had had a serious illness. After they were back, every day in the morning and dusk, my mother helped my father __16__ slowly on the country road．
“Dad, how are you feeling now?” I asked him one day.
“Susan, don’t __17__ about me.” he said gently. “To tell you the truth, I just like walking with your mom.”__18__ his eyes, I know he loves my mother deeply.
Once I thought love meant flowers, gifts and __19__. But from this experience, I understand that love is just __20__ in the quilt of our life. Love is inside, making life strong and warm.
1.A．keep fit B．rise early C．earn money D．collect money
2.A．magic B．romantic C．fantastic D．attractive
3.A．simple B．easy C．relaxing D．luxurious
4.A．the question B．question C．reach D．control
5.A．feeling B．love C．quarrel D．smile
6.A．raised B．shook C．nodded D．bowed
7.A．hurt B．injured C．wounded D．harmed
8.A．surprise B．embarrassment C. depression D．sorrow
9.A．happens B．comes about C．appears D．occurs
10.A．warm and soft B．hot and hard C．thin and cool D．strong and durable
11.A．somewhere and sometime B．anywhere or anytime
C．more or less D．here and there
12.A．inside B．outside C．faraway D．nearby
13.A．believe B．understand C. recognize D. know
14.A． sick B． stuck C． up D．disabled
15.A. healthy B． pale C．red D. surprised
16.A．jump B．ride C．run D．walk
17.A．think B．talk C．worry D．concern
18.A．Reading B．Seeing C．Saying D．Writing
19.A. roses B． ring C． kisses D． jewelry
20.A． thread B． needle C． cloth D． cotton
