I was feeling a little blue because my mother had been laid off from her job and she had lots of bills to pay. It left me wondering what was going to happen to us now. But it reassured me some when my mother told me she was relieved to be leaving since her boss wasn't the nicest person to be around.
I got off the college shuttle bus and started walking. That's when I heard piano music and singing rising above the noise of the people and the traffic. I walked a little slower so I could find out where it was coming from. Through the crowd I saw a young lady sitting at a piano with a carriage next to her.
She was singing songs about love, keeping on trying, and not underestimating the power within yourself. The way she was singing comforted me a bit. I stood there watching her play for about fifteen minutes, thinking that it must take courage to perform on your own in the middle of a crowded New York ferry terminal.
So I stood there listening.
She must have felt my presence because she would occasionally look in my direction. By now I was telling myself that if she could perform in front of hundreds of people she didn't know then I could at least tell her how good she sounded. I walked over and put some money in her carriage and she said, "Thank you." Instead of continuing my way home, I said to her, "I have been going through a rough time lately, but you've made me hopeful again."
"I'm happy that I could help," she replied. "Why are you so sad?"
"Well, my mum told me she had got fired from her job, and that made me sad. I'm not so sure what to do ..."
"You see, here's the problem," she explained. "The way you were walking, your head was down. Don't look defeated, because opportunity comes in different ways and if your head is down you might never see it. You should smile more ... lift your head up."
I smiled faintly, amazed by how she was encouraging me. So, I asked her, "Why are you playing the piano in the middle of a crowded place? I've seen you do this more than once."
She explained to me that she sees a lot of negative people in the world and she tries to alleviate the pain and bring more positivity by sharing motivational music. She told me that when she wasn't making music she studied psychology. So, that was how she knew some of the things she was telling me.
I smiled a little wider because I knew that she was doing a good thing. So, after that we parted, my heart touched and lightened by a musical soul!
1.We can learn from Paragraph 3 that the young lady sang to _________.
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A．show her love for life |
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B．rid herself of low spirits |
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C．earn money for her schooling |
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D．inspire others to live positively |
2.Which word may best describe the young lady?
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A．helpful |
B．outgoing |
C．ambitious |
D．humorous |
3.Which do you think is the best title of the passage?
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A．An Unforgettable Experience |
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B．A Heart Touched By A Musical Soul |
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C．Music Can Do Wonders |
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D．A Good Deed Helped Me Out |
There at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass, my l4-year-old son, John, and I noticed the coat. While the other coats drooped (低垂), this one looked as if it were 41 itself up. The coat was beautifully made, with a Fifth Avenue label and an 42 price of $28, which was popular just then with 43 , but could cost several hundred dollars new. John tried it on and the 44 was perfect.
John 45 the coat to school the next day and came home with a big smile. “Did the kids like your coat?” I asked. “They loved it,” he said, 46 folding it over the back of a chair and smoothing it flat. Over the next few weeks, a 47 came over John. Agreement replaced contrariness (作对) and 48 discussion replaced fierce argument. He became more mannerly and 49 , eager to please. He would generously lend his younger brother his tapes and lecture him 50 his behavior. When I mentioned this 51 to his teacher and wondered what caused the changes, she said laughing. “It 52 be his coat!” Another teacher told him she was giving him a good mark not only because he had earned 53 but because she liked his coat. At the library, we ran 54 a friend. “Could this be John?” he asked surprisingly, 55 John’s new height, appreciating the cut of his coat and holding out his hand, one gentleman to another.
John and I both know we should never 56 a person’s clothes for the real person within them. 57 , there is something to be said for wearing a standard of excellence for the world to see and for 58 what is on the inside with what is on the outside.
For John, it is a time when it is as easy to try on different 59 to life as it is to try on a coat. The whole world, the whole future is stretched out ahead, a vast landscape 60 all the doors are open. And he could picture himself walking through those doors wearing his wonderful, magical coat.
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Not until I ________ to work ____ how much time I had wasted.
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A．did begin; didn't I realize |
B．began; I realized |
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C．did begin; I realized |
D．began; did I realize |
–--I play high-temperature Yoga in the gym every Sunday.
---- Good habit, but the air in the gym is bad ________.
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A．to be breathed |
B．to breathe |
C．breathing |
D．being breathed |
___________ his poem, he didn’t dare to submit it to the professor.
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A．Not having polished |
B．Having not polished |
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C．Not polished |
D．Not being polished |
Plants can’t communicate by moving or making sounds, as most animals do. Instead, plants produce volatile compounds (挥发性化合物) —— chemicals that easily change from a liquid to a gas. A flower’s sweet smell, for example, comes from such volatile compounds to attract insects such as bugs and bees.
Plants can also discover volatile compounds produced by other plants. A tree under attack by hungry insets, for instance, may give off these chemicals in order to let other trees know about the attack. In response, the other trees may send off their chemicals to keep the bugs away —— or even chemicals that will attract the bugs’ natural enemies.
Now scientists have created a quick way to understand what plants are saying: a chemical sensor (传感器) called an “electronic nose”. The “e-nose” can tell such compounds as plants make. When plants are attacked, scientists say, the e-nose could help quickly decide whether plants are being eaten by insects. But today, the only way to spot such insects is to inspect individual plants by observing them. This is a challenging task for managers of greenhouses, including those that can house thousands of plants. The research team is working with an e-nose that can recognize volatile compounds. Inside the device, 13 sensors chemically react with volatile compounds based on the interactions (相互作用), and then the e-nose will give off electronic signals that the scientists can analyze by using computer software.
To test the e-nose, the team presented it with healthy leaves from cucumber, pepper and tomato plants, all being common greenhouse crops. Then scientists collected samples of the air around damaged leaves from each type of crop. These plants had been damaged either by insects or by scientists who made holes in the leaves with a hole punch (打孔器).
The e-nose, it turns out, can identify healthy cucumber, pepper and tomato plants based on the volatile compounds they produce. It could also identify tomato leaves that had been damaged. But even more impressive, the device could tell which type of damage —— by insects or with a hole punch —— had been done to the tomato leaves.
With some fine-tuning (微调), a device like the e-nose can one day be used in greenhouses to quickly spot harmful bugs, the researchers say. A device like this can also be used to identify fruits that are perfectly ripe and ready to pick and eat, says Natalia Dudareva, a biochemist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, India, who studies smells of flowers and plants. Hopefully, scientists believe, the device can bring large benefits to greenhouse managers in the near future.
1.We learn from the text that plants communicate with each other by ______.
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A．making some sounds |
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B．waving their leaves |
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C．producing some chemicals |
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D．sending out electronic signals |
2.What did the scientists do to find out if the e-nose worked?
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A．They fixed 13 sensors inside the device. |
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B．They presented it with all common crops. |
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C．They collected different damaged leaves. |
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D．They do tests on damaged and healthy leaves. |
3.According to the writer, the most amazing thing about the e-nose is that it can ______.
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A．pick out ripe fruits quite expertly |
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B．spot the insects in a very quick way |
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C．tell different damages to leaves |
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D．recognize unhealthy tomato leaves |
4.We can infer from the last paragraph that the e-nose ______.
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A．is unable to tell the smell of flowers |
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B．is not yet tested in greenhouses |
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C．is designed by scientists at Purdue |
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D．is helpful in killing harmful insects |
