“Life is speeding up. Everyone is getting unwell.”
This may sound like something someone would say today. But in fact, an unknown citizen who lived in Rome in AD 52 wrote it.
We all love new inventions. They are exciting, amazing and can even change our lives. But have all these developments really improve the quality of our lives?
Picture this: You’re rushing to finish your homework on the computer. Your mobile phone rings, a QQ message from your friend appears on the screen, the noise from the television is getting louder and louder. Suddenly the computer goes blank and you lose all your work. Now you have to stay up all night to get it done. How calm and happy do you feel?
Inventions have speeded up our lives so much that they often leave us feeling stressed and tired. Why do you think people who live far away from noisy cities, who have no telephones, no cars, not even any electricity often seem to be happier? Perhaps because they lead simpler lives.
One family in the UK went “back in time” to see what life was like without all the inventions we have today. The grandparents, with their daughter, and grandsons Benjamin, 10, and Tomas, 7, spent nine weeks in a 1940s house. They had no washing machine, microwave, computer or mobile phones.
The grandmother, Lyn, said, “It was hard physically, but not mentally.” She believed life was less materialistic. “The more things you have, the more difficult life becomes,” She said. The boys said they fought less to fight over, such as their computer. Benjamin also noticed that his grandmother had changed from being a “trendy（时髦的）, beer-drinking granny, to one who cooked things.”
Here are some simple ways to beat the stress often caused by our inventions!
Don’t be available all the time. Turn off your mobile phone at certain times of the day. Don’t check your e-mail every day.
Don’t reply to somebody as soon as they leave a text message just because you can. It may be fun at first, but it soon gets annoying.
1.The passage is mainly about _______.
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A．problem with technology |
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B．improvements of our life with technology |
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C．the important roles technology plays in our everyday life |
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D．major changes which will be likely to happen to technology |
2.The writer quoted (引用) what a citizen in ancient Rome said at the beginning of the story in order to ______________.
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A．share a truth about life |
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B．tell us what life was like long time ago |
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C．make us wonder what causes such a thing to happen |
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D．point out that you experience some big problems and they may be the same |
3.Why did the family choose to spend some time in a 1940’s house? Because ______________.
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A．they liked to live simple lives |
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B．they were curious about how people lived without modern inventions |
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C．they were troubled by modern inventions |
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D．living in a different time would be a lot of fun for them |
4.What do you think the underlined word “available” in the first suggestion offered by the writer mean?
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A．Busy on line |
B．Free |
C．Be able to |
D．Be found by others. |
Some people are lucky enough to be born with a good sense of direction and even if they have only visited a place once, they will be able to find it again years later.
I am one of those unfortunate people who have poor sense of direction and I may have visited a place time after time but I still get lost on my way there. When I was young I was so shy that I never dared ask complete strangers the way and so I used to wander round in circles and hope that by some chance I would get to the spot I was heading for.
I am no longer too shy to ask people for direction, but I often receive replies that puzzle me. Often people do not like to admit that they didn’t know their hometown and will insist on telling you the way, even if they do not know it; others, who are anxious to prove that they know their hometown very well, will give you a long list of directions which you can not possibly hope to remember, and still others do not seem to be able to tell between their left and their right and you find in the end that you are going in the opposite direction to that in which you should be going.
If anyone ever asks me the way to somewhere, I always tell them I am a stranger to the town in order to avoid giving them wrong direction but even this can have embarrassing results.
Once I was on my way to work when I was stopped by a man who asked me if I would direct him the way to the Sunlight Building. I gave my usual reply, but I had not walked on a few steps when I realized that he had asked for directions to my office building. However, at this point, I decide it was too late to turn back and search for him out of the crowd behind me as I was going to meet with someone at the office and I did not want to keep him waiting.
Imagine my embarrassment when my secretary showed in the very man who had asked for directions of my office and his astonishment when he recognized me as the person he had asked.
1.What is the writer going to do when someone asks him for direction?
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A．He will direct the right way to the person willingly. |
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B．He will reply to it by the means of being a stranger to the town. |
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C．He will give the very person long list of direction. |
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D．He is going to show the man an opposite direction. |
2. Why did the writer consider himself to be an unlucky dog?
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A．Because of his poor sense of direction. |
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B．Because he always forget the way to home. |
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C．Because he did not have any friend. |
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D．Because he used to be shy and dared not ask others the way. |
3.How did the visitor feel when he was showed into the very room?
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A．He felt strange. |
B．He felt embarrassed. |
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C．He felt very sad. |
D．He felt astonished. |
4. Who showed the right way to the interviewee according to the passage?
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A．Someone we don’t know. |
B．The writer did it for himself. |
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C．The secretary did so. |
D．A warm-hearted old lady did such a thing. |
Almost two-thirds of children want their parents to spend more time reading to them before bed, and most prefer Mum’s storytelling to Dad’s, researchers said.
They conducted a study that showed younger children aged 3-4 were most hungry for more stories, with over three-quarters saying they wished their parents read to them more often.
More than half of all children aged 3-8 said story time was their favourite pastime with their parents.
"The results of our research confirm the traditional activity of storytelling continues to be a powerful learning and emotional resource in children's lives," said child psychologist Richard Woolfson.
Storytelling ranked higher than television or video games among pastimes for kids, and 82 percent said reading a story with their parents helped them sleep better, according the survey of 500 children aged 3-8 in Britain.
The best storytellers were mothers who used funny voices to illustrate different characters or made their own special sound effects to keep the story moving, researchers said.
When mum and dad are not at hand, celebrities will do: over 30 percent of children said they would like to hear a bedtime story from Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe, with teen idols Zac Efron, Miley Cyrus and Emma Watson.
"It can be very difficult for parents to find the time to read with their children, but these moments can help build strong bonds and play a vital part in their child's development," said Woolfson.
1.The underlined word “pastime” in the passage mot probably means .
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A．old time |
B．entertainment |
C．emotion |
D．character |
2.The author develops the passage mainly by .
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A．pointing out similarities and differences |
B．following the natural time order |
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C．comparing opinions from different fields |
D．providing examples and statistics |
3.Reading a story with their parents helped most kids aged 3-8 .
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A．grow stronger |
B．become more emotional |
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C．sleep better |
D．become more powerful |
They like using the Internet. They have lots of pocket money to spend. And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us. Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy－games, CDs and clothing－are easily sold on the Web.
But paying online is a tricky business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards. Most have to use a parent’s card. They want a facility that allows them to spend money.
That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber (网络的) space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. If successful, these products can stimulate online sales.
In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153bn (billion) in the US last year and ￡20bn annually in the UK. Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school－88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK. According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online－mainly CDs and books.
In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children. Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing on the high street. They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online.
One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as InternetCash in the US and Smart cards in the UK. Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as￡20 or $50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account.
1. What does the word “They” in paragraph 1 refer to?
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A．Sellers. |
B．Buyers. |
C．Teenagers. |
D．Parents. |
2.According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
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A．More than half of the teenagers in the US and the UK have Internet access. |
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B．Teenagers pay for goods online with their own credit cards. |
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C．Most teenagers in the US and the UK have bought something online. |
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D．Teenagers found it easier to persuade parents to buy online than in a shop. |
3.New way to help teenagers shop online is to use ______.
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A．a new machine |
B．special coins and notes |
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C．prepaid cards |
D．pay-as-you-go mobile phones |
4.What is the passage mainly about?
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A．Online shopping traps. |
B．Internet users in the US and the UK. |
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C．New credit cards for parents. |
D．The arrival of cyber pocket money. |
完形填空（共20小题；每小题1.5分, 满分30分）
Have you ever tried to draw a straight line, only to find it turns out all wrong? Or, wanted to show 1 at a party but the song you’d practised so many times suddenly 2 more difficult?
I've had both these 3 . As a Senior 3 student, I have to 4 many exams. Each time, I enter one, thinking “I 5 fail this time.”
But don't be surprised --- it's not 6 we don't try, or don’t do enough preparation, 7don’t take it seriously. On the contrary, it is because we put ourselves under too much 8 . It is thinking: “I must…” that makes us taste the terrible flavor of 9．
We often 10 to our friends: “Don't be too hard 11 yourself!” But when we 12 our own goals, we may not listen to our own advice．
In doing so, we are making our path to success increasingly difficult．
So why not 13 this crazy pursuit(追求)to get the best? Just face the problem 14 before you with a calm mind, enjoy the hard work and you will succeed．
In my opinion, 15 a calm state of mind is a skill for life. For people who want to succeed,16 this is a very important lesson．
So 17 time when you're trying to draw a straight line or 18 a performance, tell yourself: “If I can just do it better than last time, it's a 19 ．”
Keep a calm state of mind, and you will be happy 20 you succeed or fail．
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Emergency line operators must always _____ calm and make sure that they get all the information they need to send help.
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A．grow |
B．stay |
C．appear |
D．become |
