Real-life Friends
Most people know the saying: A man's best friend is his dog; and that Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. However, dogs can’t offer advice or make you a cup of tea when you need one; and precious stones are cold comfort when you need a hug, and a shoulder to cry on.
What are Friends?
There are many ways to describe a friend. Friends are the family you can choose for yourself. Friends are a much better medication（医疗）than medication is, and people who spend time with friends are happier with their lives as they are less lonely.
A good friend will put you to bed when you’re lost consciousness. Ensure you’re not laid on your back, and remember to remove your shoes. You should be able to tell a true friend anything without being judged by them.
How do Friendships Begin?
This is an easy question. Find someone else who has similar interests with you. You now have another person to talk to about your shared interest but remember they like to talk too, so be prepared to shut up and listen once in a while. Hopefully they will have other friends and will introduce you to them, thereby expanding your circle.
Friendships which begin due to location, for example, next-door neighbors or school classmates, rarely survive transitions such as moving to other neighborhoods, schools, colleges, jobs, immigration, and so forth. Attend a school reunion and you’ll wonder what on earth you ever had in common with these people other than your age, although it is possible to have a friendship with someone you met at school. Mutually maintain it, and eventually become godparent or “uncle” to each others’ children.
How Friendships are Maintained
To have a friend you must also be a friend and be prepared to be there for them should they need you. Failure in this respect would label you a fair-weather friend and you would most probably be abandoned.
Boundaries
Like every other relationship you have in your life, there are boundaries you shouldn’t cross with your friends. One of those is money: Don’t lend to your friend and don’t ask for a loan yourself.
Friends are unpaid counselors（顾问）,but phoning them at 2 am because you’re awake and would like a chat is not a good idea. Neither is phoning them at 10 am if you know they’re a shift-worker. Friends are people who need some space and quiet time. Generally, it all boils down to mutual respect and understanding.
It’s not a good plan to interrupt your friend while they’re on a date/on holiday/attending an orchestral recital/at a funeral.
Trust
Trust is the most vital element in any relationship. If you’re not trustworthy then you probably don’t deserve friends, so try to remember that you promised to see that dull film with them or applaud them at their first attempt at a karaoke or an Open Mic night. If you have promised to look after their clothes while they go for a bet, then make sure you do. You might like to carry enough cash to help them out too, as you never know when that situation might be reversed.
Don’t lie to your friend: if they know you well they’ll know you’re lying or will at least be suspicious. If you find out something that you know will hurt your friend, be tactful（圆滑）. Do they need to know? Would they appreciate knowing? Can you tell their mum so she can break the news? Cowardly, yes, but mums usually have a much better way with words. Remember, if you do decide to tell them and it’s painful, they will probably need some time alone, after lashing out at（抨击）the closest thing—you. In that case, play the waiting game. Then don’t beat them up about it afterwards.
A Friend for Life
Strong friendships can last a lifetime with care and consideration. The benefits are multi-folds; you’ve got someone to share birthday cake with, and especially for single people, a pub meal or a trip to the cinema is no fun alone, is it? Plus it’s always nice to know there’s someone there for you, as you’re there for them, through the bad times as well as the good. Altogether now: Oh I get by with a little help from my friends. Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends.
1.According to the passage we can learn that good friends should be ___________.
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A．paid counselors |
B．money lenders |
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C．good listeners |
D．next-door neighbors |
2.The author brings in the topic by ___________.
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A．giving negative examples |
B．raising a relative question |
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C．describing a natural fact |
D．explaining what friends are |
3.The underlined phrase “a fair-weather friend” in Para 6 probably refers to a friend who _____.
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A．likes only fine weather |
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B．will always stand by you |
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C．likes to make friends in fine weather |
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D．will run away from you when you need help badly |
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
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A．The more friends you have, the happier you will be. |
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B．Medication is also a better way to maintain strong friendships. |
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C．You may lose a friend if you are always telling lies to him or her. |
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D．We should only make friends with those having similar interests. |
5. From the last paragraph we can learn that the author ____________.
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A．doubt whether there are true friends and friendship |
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B．has lost a lot of good friends without any reasons |
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C．has already benefited a great deal from his friends |
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D．has been tired of making friends with single people |
6. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
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A．How to make friends. |
B．Friends and friendship. |
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C．Ways to maintain friendship. |
D．Boundaries of friends. |
An Australian man who has been donating(捐献) his extremely rare kind of blood（血液） for 56 years has saved the lives of more than two million babies.
James Harrison has an antibody（抗体） in his plasma(血浆) that stops babies dying from Rhesus disease, a form of severe anaemia(贫血). He has enabled countless mothers to give birth to healthy babies, including his own daughter, Tracey, who had a healthy son thanks to her father's blood.
Mr. Harrison has been giving blood every few weeks since he was 18 years old and has now racked up a total of 984 donations. When he started donating, his blood was deemed so special that his life was insured（保险） for one million Australian dollars.
He was also nicknamed the “man with the golden arm” or the “man in two million”. He said, “I've never thought about stopping. Never!” He made a pledge to be a donor aged 14 after undergoing major chest surgery in which he needed 13 liters of blood. “I was in hospital for three months,” he said. “The blood I received saved my life so I made a pledge to give blood when I was 18.”
Just after he started donating he was found to have the rare（稀有的） and life-saving antibody in his blood. At the time, thousands of babies in Australia were dying each year of Rhesus disease. Other newborns suffered permanent(永久的) brain damage because of the condition. The disease creates an incompatibility between the mother's blood and her unborn baby's blood. It stems from one having Rh-positive（阳性） blood and the other Rh-negative（阴性）.
His blood has since led to the development of a vaccine called Anti-D. After his blood type was discovered, Mr. Harrison volunteered to undergo a series of tests to help develop the Anti-D vaccine. “They insured me for a million dollars so I knew my wife Barbara would be taken care of,” he said. “I wasn't scared. I was glad to help. I had to sign every form going and basically sign my life away.”
Mr. Harrison is Rh-negative and was given injections of Rh-positive blood. It was found his plasma could treat the condition and since then it has been given to hundreds of thousands of women. It has also been given to babies after they are born to stop them developing the disease.
It is estimated he has helped save 2.2 million babies so far. Mr. Harrison is still donating every few weeks now.
1.How old is James Harrison?
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A．74 |
B．70. |
C．56 |
D．78 |
2.What does the underlined phrase “two million” refer to?
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A．mothers |
B．babies |
C．dollars |
D．blood |
3.Why did James decide to donate his blood? Because _____.
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A．his daughter asked him to help her son |
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B．he has a golden arm worth a million dollars |
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C．a vaccine called Anti-D is to be developed |
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D．someone else’s blood saved his life |
4.The sentence “The disease creates an incompatibility between the mother's blood and her unborn baby's blood” (underlined in Paragraph 5) suggests that _____.
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A．the mother and the baby have different types of blood |
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B．babies suffer permanent brain damage before born |
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C．Rhesus disease contributes to permanent brain damage |
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D．all the patients have a rare antibody in their blood |
5.What can we infer from the sixth paragraph?
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A．His wife Barbara needed to be taken care of badly then. |
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B．Mr. Harrison was not glad to help develop a new vaccine. |
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C．Some of the tests to develop the vaccine are dangerous. |
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D．His blood type was accidentally discovered after tests. |
Subways
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The Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines |
Features: The Tokyo Metro and Toei lines that make up of Tokyo’s huge subway system carry almost 8 million people each day, making it the busiest system in the world. The system is famous for its oshiya-- literally “pusher”--- who push passengers into crowded subway cars so the doors can close. And you think your ride is hell. |
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The Moscow Metro |
Features: The Moscow Metro has some of the most beautiful stations in the world. The best of them were built during the Stalinist era and feature chandeliers (枝行吊灯)，marble moldings and elaborate murals(精美壁画). With more than 7 million riders a day, keeping all that marble clean has got to be a burden. |
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The Hong Kong MTR |
Features: The Hong Kong MTR has the distinction of being one of the few subway systems in the world that actually turns a profit（利润）. It’s privately owned and uses real estate development along its tracks to increase income and ridership. It also introduced “Octopus cards” that allow people to not only pay their fares electronically, but buy stuff at convenience stores ,supermarkets, restaurants and even parking meters. It’s estimated that 95% of all adults in Hong Kong own an Octopus card. |
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Shanghai Metro |
Features: Shanghai is the third city in China to build a metro system, and it has become the country’s largest in the 12 years since it opened. Shanghai Metro has 142 miles of track and plans to add another 180 miles within five years. By that point, it would be three times larger than Chicago “L”. The system carries about 2.18 million people a day. |
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The London Metro |
Features: Londoners call their subway the Underground, even though 55 percent of it lies above ground. No matter when you’ve got the oldest mass-transit system in the world, you can call it anything you like. Trains started in 1863 and they’ve been running ever since. Some 3 million people ride each day, every one of them remembering to “Mind the gap” |
1.______ is done with the purpose of making money.
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A．The Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines |
B．The Moscow Metro |
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C．Shanghai Metro |
D．The Hong Kong MTR |
2.We can learn from the passage that Shanghai Metro______.
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A．carries the most people each day |
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B．is the world’s largest |
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C．may be larger than the Chicago “L” in the future |
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D．is the busiest in the world |
3.How many subways carry more than 5 million people per day?
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A．2 |
B．3 |
C．4 |
D．5 |
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
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A．Shanghai is the third to build a metro system in China, which has become the largest in the world. |
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B．You’ll feel sick when you travel on the Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines. |
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C．Londoners call their subway the Underground because 55 percent of it lies above ground. |
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D．It is estimated that 95% of the population in Hong Kong own an Octopus card |
I had just finished high school when a disaster hit our family. It was October 1962, and 21 was out of the question. So I found a job. In 1971, my employer announced only graduates(大学毕业生) would get 22 . My job seemed at a dead end unless I 23 further. And to graduate, I had to pass the higher secondary examination first.
I 24 an admission form（表格） and rode to the Human Resource（人力资源） Management office. On arriving there, I was 25 ---I couldn’t find the form. It was the last day to 26 the form, and no blank forms were 27 at the office. I was standing there, disappointed, 28 an elderly gentleman asked me why I looked so 29 . I told him what happened, 30 , “Now I’ll have to wait another year.”
“Well,” he said, “if you’re really serious about studying further, come with me. I have a 31 blank form at home.”
It was 12:30 pm. The counter（柜台） would 32 at 2 pm. His home was 10 km away and I had a slight 33 of going somewhere with a stranger. Anyway, this was my last chance. We reached his house on my bike. He advised me to remain 34 , and gave me a pen and the form. When it was 35 , he told me to rush back and 36 carefully. I reached the office at 1:58 pm. There were two people in line, waiting for their 37 . Just then, the counter official announced that no more forms would be 38 after mine. I breathed a sigh of 39 .
I passed the exam and later got a bachelor’s degree. I also got the promotions. I 40 it all to the timely help from a true gentleman whose name I forgot to ask.
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---Can I come and have a look at your new iphone 5?
---Yes, _____!
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A．with pleasure |
B．by all means |
C．I quite agree |
D．I like it |
Despite all the benefits of building the subway in the city center, only a few people argued ______ the project.
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A．in terms of |
B．in place of |
C．in favor of |
D．in need of |
