It’s interesting that the arrival of snow has effect on people in different countries. For some countries it is an important happening to celebrate each year, while for others a catastrophe(灾害) or even a wonder.
But there are countries between these two kinds that normally expect snow some time over the winter months, but never receive snow regularly or in the same quantities every year. Britain is one of them, for which the arrival of snow quite simply causes problems. Within hours of the first snowfalls, however light, roads are blocked, trains and buses have to stop in the middle of the way. Normal communication is affected as well: telephone calls become difficult and the post immediately takes more time than usual. And almost within hours, there are also certain shortages----bread, vegetables and other things-----not because all these things can no longer be produced or sent to shops, but mainly because people are frightened and go out and store up with food and so on…just for fear that something bad should happen.
But why does snow have this effect? After all, the Swiss, the Austrians and the Canadians don‘t have such problems. It is simple because there is not enough planning and preparation. We need money to buy equipment to deal with snow and ice. To keep the roads clear, for example, requires snow-ploughs(扫雪机) and machines to spread salt. The reason why a country like Britain does not buy snow-ploughs is that they are used for a few days in any one year, and the money could be more useful in other things such as hospital, education, helping the old and so on..
1.According to the writer, Britain is a country ________.
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A．which has regular snow |
B．which is not well prepared for snow |
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C．for which snow is a catastrophe |
D．for which snow is a wonder |
2.After a few hours’ snowing there are often some shortages of food because ______.
A. shops have closed down B. people buy as much as they can
B. farmers cannot produce any more D. people eat more vegetables in winter
3.The words "two kinds" in the passage mean the countries ______.
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A．which have weather as yearly happening to celebrate or as rare(少见) weather |
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B．which either have heavy snow or light snow |
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C．to which snow either causes problems or no problems |
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D．which either have snow-ploughs or no snow-ploughs |
The greatest recent social changes have been in the lives of women. During the twentieth century there has been a remarkable shortening of the time of a woman’s life spent in caring for children. A woman marrying at the end of the nineteenth century would probably have been in her middle twenties, and would be likely to have seven or eight children, of whom four or five lived till they were five years old. By the time the youngest was fifteen, the mother would have been in her early fifties and would expect to live a further twenty years, during which health made it unusual for her to get paid work. Today women marry younger and have fewer children. Usually a woman‘s youngest child will be fifteen when she is forty-five and can be expected to live another thirty-five years and is likely to take paid work until retirement(退休) at sixty. Even while she has the care of children, her work is lightened by modern living conditions.
This important change in women’s life-pattern has only recently begun to have its full effect on women‘s economic position. Even a few years ago most girls left schools at the first chance, and most of them took a full-time job. However, when they married, they usually left work at once and never returned to it. Today the school-leaving age is sixteen, many girls stay at school after that age, and though women usually marry younger, more married women stay at least until shortly before their first child is born. Very many more afterwards return to full or part-time work. Such changes have led to a new relationship in marriage, with the husband accepting a greater share of the duties and satisfactions of family life, and with the both husband and wife sharing more equally in providing the money, and running the home, according to the abilities and interests of each of them.
1.According to the passage, around the year 1900 most women married ________.
A. at about twenty-five B. in their early fifties
C as soon as possible after they were fifteen
D. at any age from fifteen to forty-five
2. We are told that in a common family about 1900 _________.
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A．many children died before they were five |
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B．seven or eight children lived to be more than five |
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C．the youngest child would be fifteen |
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D．four or five children died when they were five |
3.When she was over fifty, the late nineteenth-century mother _________.
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A．would be healthy enough to take up paid jobs |
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B．was usually expected to die fairly soon |
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C．would expect to work until she died |
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D．was unlikely to find a job even if she wanted one |
4.According to the passage, the women of today usually _________.
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A．marry instead of getting paid work |
B．marry before they are twenty-five |
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C．have more children under fifteen |
D．have too few children |
Lillian Hanson, a college student, expects to graduate in about two years. What makes Mrs Hanson different from her classmates is her age-----73 years. She has been studying at college, a few courses at a time, for 27 years.
When Lillian Hanson graduated from high school, she went to the bank to borrow money for further education. The banker gave her no encouragement. He didn‘t think that a country girl should borrow money to go to college. He thought she should be at home doing work in the house or around the farm. So Lillian Hanson went home and raised a family of nine children instead of going to college. Mrs Hanson never forgot her dream of getting a higher education. When her children were grown, she tried again.
She finds that it is the hardest part of going back to school at her age to sit in class for long periods of time. Because she is not as quick as she used to be, Mrs Hanson often gets up and walks around classes to keep from getting stiff(不灵活). At the beginning of a course in using the computer, the other students all stood up to give her a warm welcome when she introduced herself and explained why she was there and what her aims were.
1. Mrs Hanson couldn’t go to college immediately after she graduated from high school because _____.
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A．she hadn‘t got enough money |
B．she was a country girl |
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C．the banker ordered her not to borrow any money |
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D．the banker thought she should raise a family of nine children |
2.The computer students welcomed Mrs Hanson warmly because ______.
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A．she had got an excellent result in the exam |
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B．she was good at telling funny stories |
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C．they wanted to get her help in their studies |
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D．they were deeply moved by her spirit |
3. Mrs Hanson is the sort of person who ________.
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A．cares for study very much |
B．likes to borrow money from the bank |
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C．never misses a chance to talk |
D．tries to save any money for her family |
4. In which order did Mrs Hanson do the following things?
a. she began her studies at college.
b. She finished high school.
c. She got married and gave birth of nine children.
d. She had her 73 rd birthday.
e. She went to the bank to borrow money.
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A．a c b e d |
B．b e c a d |
C．b c e d a |
D．e d a c b |
PALO ALTO, California------"Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter------ even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise," US researchers said last week.
A study of 192 third and fourth graders, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds(0.9kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
"The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity," said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician(儿科专家) at Stanford University.
"American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing video games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years," Robinson said.
In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies‘ annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continued their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet or took part in any extra exercise.
"One explanation for the weight loss could be the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around more and burning off calories," Robinson said.
"Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more," Robinson said.
1.The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that ________.
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A．children will get fatter if they eat too much |
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B．children will get thinner if they eat less |
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C．children will get fatter if they spend less time watching TV |
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D．children will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV |
2.According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV_____.
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A．is more than four hours a day |
B．is less than four hours a day |
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C．doubled in the last twenty years |
D．is more than on any other activities |
3. The time children spend on TV viewing every day is suggested to be about ________.
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A．six hours |
B．eight hours |
C．three hours |
D．one hour |
4.Which one of the following is right?
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A．Children usually eat fewer while watching TV. |
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B．Children usually eat more while watching TV. |
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C．Children eat the same amount of meals while watching TV. |
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D．Children usually eat nothing while watching TV. |
5.Why can watching TV increase kids’ weight according to the passage?
A. They usually eat more while watching TV.
B. They burn off fewer calories.
C. They change their diet while watching TV.
D. Both A and B.
The selfless village doctor treated whoever came to his family without any_ _.
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A．cost |
B．payment |
C．charge |
D．price |
When we got to the stadium hurriedly, the leaders________their speeches and the performance __________.
A. have finished; began B. had just finished; had begun
C. had just finished; was about to begin D just finished; began
