For a 400-year-old art form, operas had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which are hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school. And with tickets costing as much as $ 145 a performance, opera goers also have a certain appearance in people’s mind: rich, well-dressed and old.
But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to bring the opera to the audience. It needs to keep it alive, the young and not-so-rich.
Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people. That means no formal suits, old-styled theatre or band-breaking ticket prices. And because young people don’t or won’t come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools.
The Houston Grand Opera’s choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas”, shortened versions (剧本) of child-friendly operas. This summer’s production is Hansel & Gretel. By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level. The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists’ Training Program.
1.Which is the main idea of this passage?
A．Opera is famous for its long history.
B．Opera is only for rich people.
C．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive.
D．Young people are not interested in opera.
2.The underlined part in paragraph 2 means ______.
A．breaking up the old rules B．changing the formal suits
C．making the audience at ease D．advertising themselves
3.Opera companies prefer to perform smaller versions because .
A．they can be performed in public libraries
B．short versions are easy to perform
C．it is hard to find long versions
D．they can make people interested
4.The San Francisco Opera Company employs student actors in order to ______.
A．attract young people B．reduce the cost
C．celebrate its 75th anniversary D．make Cinderella popular
5.What can you infer from the passage?
A．The tickets for operas are very expensive at present.
B．Operas are performed in a difficult language difficult to understand.
C．Operas are not so popular an art form today.
D．Students enjoy performing operas very much.
The rising costs of health care have become a problem for man y countries in the world. To deal with this problem, it is recommended that a big part of the state health budget be used for health education and disease prevention instead of treatment. Actually, many kinds of diseases are preventable in many ways and preventing a disease is usually much cheaper than treating it. For example, people could avoid catching a cold if they dressed warmly when the weather starts getting cold. But many people get sick because they fail to do so, and have to spend money seeing a doctor.
Daily habits like eating more healthy food would have kept millions of families from becoming bankruptif the patients had taken ways for early prevention. For example, keeping a balanced diet, such as not consuming too much animal fat and trying to have enough vegetables and fruits, seems to be quite important.
One very effective and costless way of prevention is regular exercise, which is necessary for a healthy mind and body. Regular exercise, such as running, walking, and playing sports is a good way to make people feel better or reduce stress.
In addition, health education plays a key role in improving people’s health. By giving people more information about health, countries could help people understand the importance of disease prevention and ways to achieve it. For example, knowing one’s family medical history is an effective way to help keep healthy. Information about health problems among close relatives will make them aware of what they should do to prevent certain diseases through lifestyle changes, which will work before it is too late.
However, paying more attention to disease prevention does not mean medical treatment is unimportant. After all, prevention and treatment are just two different means toward the same effect. In conclusion, we could save money on health care and treat patients more successfully if our country spends more money on health prevention and education.
1.What’s the best title of the passage?
A．Prevention or Education? B．Exercise or Illness?
C．Health or Illness? D．Prevention or Treatment?
2.Which of the following can replace the underlined word “bankrupt”?
A．Unable to be cured. B．Unable to pay one’s debts.
C．Stronger than ever before. D．More successful than ever before.
3.We learn from the passage that ______．
A．dressing warmly can prevent diseases.
B．a balanced diet is cheaper than regular exercise.
C．the more health education, the better.
D．the government’s health budget should be increased.
4.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
Research advances over the past decade have told us that, with a little work, we humans can clone just about anything we want, from frogs to monkeys and probably even ourselves!
So, we can clone things, but why would we want to?
Of all the reasons, cloning for medical purposes has the most potential to benefit large numbers of people. How might cloning be used in medicine?
1. Cloning animal models of disease
Much of what researchers learn about human disease comes from studying animal models such as mice. Often, animal models are genetically engineered to carry disease-causing mutations(变异) in their genes. Creating these transgenic（转基因的） animals is a time-intensive process that requires trial-and-error and several generations of breeding（培育）. Cloning technologies might reduce the time needed to make a transgenic animal model, and the result would be a population of genetically identical animals for study.
2．Cloning stem cells(干细胞) for the treatment of diseases
Stem cells are the body's building blocks, responsible for developing and repairing the body throughout life. As a result, they might be used to repair damaged or diseased organs and tissues. Researchers are currently looking up cloning as a way to create certain human stem cells for the research of diseases.
3. Cloning farm animals for drug production
Farm animals such as cows, sheep and goats are currently being genetically engineered to produce drugs or proteins that are useful in medicine. Just like creating animal models of disease, cloning might be a faster way to produce large herds of genetically engineered animals.
1.From Purpose One, we can infer that .
A．most transgenic animals are clone
B．most animals carry engineered genes
C．most transgenic animal models are not cloned
D．most animals carry disease-causing mutations in their genes
2.It can be learned from Purpose Two that cloning technologies can be mainly use do .
A．create damaged or diseased organs and tissues
B．clone genetically defined human stem cells
C．develop and maintain the body
D．repair the body throughout life
3.According to Purpose Three, cloning technologies can be mainly used to .
A．speed up the producing of genetically engineered animals
B．produce drugs or proteins that are useful in medicine
C．raise genetically engineered cows, sheep and goats
D．produce large herds of animals for human beings
With the introduction of family planning policies in the 1970s, most Chinese teenagers have no brothers or sisters．They get to be the beloved（心爱的）__36__child．But they may not realize that they will have to “__37__”the love as their__38__ones grow old．They will have to__39__lots of old people—their parents, grandparents, their__40_parents and grandparents．China is being__41__country．
According to the United Nations, an aging society refers to one 42 10 percent or more of the population is over 60, or 7 percent or more is over 65. According to 43 from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, by 2008, Chinese over 60 years old made up 12 percent of the nation’s total population. The 44 for those aged 65 or older was 8.3 percent.
In China, people have a belief that “parents raise children; then the children care for the parents as they get old”．But this__45__is under stress as the market ey puts millions of young Chinese on the road__46__better paying jobs．They are leaving their parents__47 ．Now many families are looking more to the government than to their__48__for support when they’re old．China has increased its basic social security（基本社会保险）plan which is__49__protecting those__50__, including the old, the disabled and others．These programs are now broad, __51__they are still not highly developed．
As more people grow__52__, China will have fewer working people, __53__will slow down economic growth. According to a November 26 report in the Economic Information Daily, an expert said China should 54 its people to have more than one child in the future 55 China should keep its labor population and total population size stable(稳定的).
1.A．only B．lonely C．friendly D．heartily
2.A．take up B．take back C．pay back D．pay for
3.A．hated B．loved C．tired D．hearted
4.A．care for B．bring up C．look for D．pay attention to
5.A．daughter’s or son’s B．niece’s or nephew’s
C．wife’s or husband’s D．aunt’s or uncle’s
6.A．an old B．an aging C．a developing D．a developed
7.A．where B．when C．which D．that
8.A．an article B．an email C．a magazine D．a report
9.A．conclusion B．character C．figure D．survey
10.A．tradition B．opinion C．saying D．way
11.A．in favor of B．in search of C．in the way of D．in the face of
12.A．out B．off C．ahead D．behind
13.A．friends B．relatives C．parents D．children
14.A．an act B．a case C．a program D．a plan
15.A．in danger B．in need C．in desperate D．in disaster
16.A．but B．or C．and D．so
17.A．strong B．realistic C．rich D．old
18.A．as B．which C．what D．that
19.A．forbid B．promise C．encourage D．order
20.A．so that B．though C．even if D．because
My friend Li Ping felt when he was not admitted into the university.
A．cooled down B．cast down C．taken down D．out down
—Why are you so nervous?
—To our great surprise, we found by the strangers.
A．we monitored B．ourselves monitored
C．us to monitor D．ourselves monitoring
