The engineer Camilla Olivetti was 40 years old when he started the company in 1908. At his factory in Ivrea, he designed and produced the first Italian typewriter. Today the company’s head office is still in Ivrea, near Turin, but the company is much larger than it was in those days and there are offices all around the world,
By 1930 there was a staff of 700 and the company turned out 13.000 machines a year. Some went to customers in Italy, but Olivetti exported more typewriters to other countries.
Camillo’s son, Adriano, started working for the company in 1924 and later he became the boss. He introduced a standard speed for the production line and he employed technology and design specialist. The company developed new and better typewriters and then calculators(计算器). In 1959 it produced the ELEA computer system. This was the first mainframe(主机) computer designed and made in Italy.
After Adriano died in 1960, the company had a period of financial problem. Other companies, especially the Japanese, made faster progress in electronic technology than the Italian company.
In 1978, Carlo de Benedetti became the new boss. Olivetti increased its marketing and service networks and made agreements with other companies to design and produce more advanced office equipment. Soon it became one of the world’s leading companies in information technology and communications. There are now five independent companies in the Olivetti group—one for personal computers, one for other office equipment, one for systems and service, and two for telecommunications.
1.From the text we learn that
A．by 1930 Olivetti produced 13.000 typewriters a year
B．Olivetti earned more in the 1960s than in the 1950s
C．some of Olivetti’s 700 staff regularly visited customers in Italy
D．Olivetti set up offices in other countries from the very beginning
2.What was probably the direct result of Olivetti’s falling behind in electronic technology
A．Adriano’s death B．A period of financial problems
C．Its faster progress D．Its agreements with other companies.
3.What do we know about Olivetti?
A．It produced the best typewriter in the world.
B．It designed the world’s first mainframe computer.
C．It exported more typewriters than other companies.
D．It has five independent companies with its head office in Ivrea.
4.The best title for the text would be
A．The Origin of Olivetti. B．The Success of Olivetti.
C．The History of Olivetti D．The Production of Olivetti.
Driving to a friend’s house on a recent evening, I was attracted by the sight of the full moon rising just above my friend’s rooftop. I stopped to watch it for a few moments, thinking about what a pity it is that most city people --- myself included --- usually miss sights like this because we spend most of our lives indoors.
My friend had also seen it. He grew up living in a forest in Europe, and the moon meant a lot to him then. It had touched much of his life.
I know the feeling. Last December I took my seven-year-old daughter to the mountainous jungle of northern India with some friends. We stayed in a forest rest house with no electricity or running hot water. Our group had campfires outside every night, and indoors when it was too cold outside. The moon grew to its fullest during our trip. Between me and the high mountains lay three or four valleys. Not a light shone in them and not a sound could be heard. It was one of the quietest places I have ever known, a bottomless well of silence. And above me was the full moon, which struck me deeply.
Today our lives are filled with glass, metal, plastic and fiber-glass. We have television,
cell phones, pagers, electricity, heaters and ovens and air-conditioners, cars, computers.
Struggling through traffic that evening at the end of a tiring day, most of it spent indoors, I thought, “Before long, I would like to live in a small cottage. There I will grow vegetables and read books and walk in the mountains. And perhaps write, but not in anger. I may become an old man there, and wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled and measure out my life in coffee spoons. But I will be able to walk outside on a cold silent night and touched the moon.”
1.The best title for the passage would be _________.
A．Touched by the Moon B．The Pleasures of Modern Life
C．A Bottomless well of Silence D．Break away from Modern life
2.The writer felt sorry for himself because __________.
A．there was too much pollution.
B．he failed to see the fullest moon.
C．he didn’t adapt to modern inventions
D．there were too many accidents on the road.
3.What impressed the writer most in the mountainous jungle of northern India?
A．No modern equipment. B．Complete silence.
C．The nice moon. D．The high mountain.
4.Modern things are mentioned mainly to ___________.
A．show that the writer likes city life very much.
B．tell us that people greatly benefit from modern life.
C．explain that people have less chances to enjoy nature.
D．show that we can also enjoy nature at home through them.
5.The author wrote the passage to __________.
A．express the feeling of returning to nature.
B．show the love for the moonlight.
C．advise modern people to learn to live.
D．want to communicate longing for modern life.
You hear the comment all the time: the U.S. economy looks good by figures, but it doesn’t feel good. Why doesn’t ever-greater wealth promote ever-greater happiness? It is a question that dates at least to the appearance in 1958 of The Wealthy Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, who died recently at 97.
The Wealthy Society is a modern classic because it helped describe a new moment in the human condition. For most of history, “hunger, sickness, and cold” threatened nearly everyone, Galbraith wrote. “Poverty (贫穷) was found everywhere in that world. Obviously it is not of ours.” After World War II, the fear of another Great Depression gave way to an economic growth. In the 1930s unemployment had averaged 18.2 percent; in the 1950s it was 4.5 percent.
To Galbraith, materialism (物质主义) had gone mad and would cause discontent. Through advertising, companies conditioned consumers to buy things they didn’t really want or need. Because so much spending was artificial, it would be unsatisfying. Meanwhile, government spending that would make everyone better off was being cut down because people wrongly considered government only as “a necessary bad.”
It’s often said that only the rich are getting ahead; everyone else is standing still or falling behind. Well, there are many undeserving rich — overpaid chief managers, for instance. But over any meaningful period, most people’s incomes are increasing. From 1995 to 2004, people feel “squeezed” because their rising incomes often don’t satisfy their rising wants — for bigger homes, more health care, more education, and faster Internet connections.
The other great disappointment is that it has not got rid of insecurity. People regard job stability as part of their standard of living. As company unemployment increased, that part has gradually become weaker. More workers fear they’ve become “the disposable American,” as Louis Uchitelle puts it in his book by the same name.
Because so much previous suffering and social conflict resulted from poverty, the arrival of widespread wealth suggested utopian (乌托邦式的) possibilities. Up to a point, wealth succeeds. There is much less physical suffering than before. People are better off. Unfortunately, wealth also creates new complaints.
Advanced societies need economic growth to satisfy the multiplying wants of their citizens. But the search for growth cause new anxieties and economic conflicts that disturb the social order. Wealth sets free the individual, promising that everyone can choose a unique way to self-accomplishment. But the promise is so unreasonable that it leads to many disappointments and sometimes inspires choices that have anti-social consequences, including family breakdown. Figures indicate that happiness has not risen with incomes.
Should we be surprised? Not really. We’ve simply confirmed an old truth: the seeking of wealth does not always end with happiness.
1.The Wealthy Society is a book ________.
A．about poverty in the past
B．written by Louis Uchitelle
C．indicating that people are becoming worse off
D．about why happiness does not rise with wealth
2.According to Galbraith, people feel discontented because ________.
A．materialism has run wild in modern society
B．they are in fear of another Great Depression
C．public spending hasn’t been cut down as expected
D．the government has proved to be necessary but ugly
3.Why do people feel“squeezed”when their average income rises considerably?
A．They think there are too many overpaid rich.
B．There is more unemployment in modern society.
C．Their material demands go faster than their earnings.
D．Health care and educational cost have somehow gone out of control.
4.What does Louis Uchitelle mean by “the disposable American” ?
A．People with a stable job.
B．Workers who no longer have secure jobs.
C．Those who see job stability as part of their living standard.
D．People who have a sense of security because of their rising incomes.
5.What has wealth brought to American society?
A．Stability and security.
B．Materialism and content.
C．A sense of self-accomplishment.
D．New anxiety, conflicts and complaints.
About ten years ago, I was on a plane going west, and a young woman boarded and sat across the aisle (过道) from me. I ___21____ her for two reasons. She was very attractive, and she was holding a teddy bear about half her ____22____. I teased her by asking if she had a ___23___ for the bear. She laughed and said no.
About halfway through the flight she ___24____ over and told me she was going to Tucson to enter rehab (进行康复治疗). She ___25___ to share her life story with me. She had been working as a dancer in a nightclub. That ___26____ had led her down a dark ____27____ to drugs and alcohol. As I listened to her story. I was ____28____ at all she had gone through. I listened to all she shared and told her I was sure she was going to ____29___ it. At the end of the flight, she ___30____ me for listening to her.
A few years later, I got a ___31____ in the mail saying, “Wow, it’s been years since we met on that plane. It is ___32____ how you touched my life.” She went on to tell me that she had ____33____ to stay away from drugs, and had been working for a radio station. She felt she had achieved things she could not have ____34___ that day on the plane. We agreed to set up a time to get ___35___.
When I saw her, she was ____36____ the attractive young woman I remembered. She told me that that little ___37___ we had had turned her life around. She had boarded the plane ___38___ anything would work in her life, and my affirmation (肯定) of her as a person and of her ___39___ had given her the last bit of ___40___ she needed to work through her problems.
The young woman taught me it’s never too late to make a new start in life.
1. A．found B．helped C．recognized D．noticed
2. A．shape B．size C．weight D．leg
3. A．name B．friend C．ticket D．cloth
4. A．moved B．leaned C．looked D．pulled
5. A．agreed B．learned C．continued D．refused
6. A．manner B．feeling C．event D．lifestyle
7. A．door B．path C．key D．point
8. A．disappointed B．worried C．surprised D．blamed
9. A．own B．reach C．leave D．make
10. A．criticized B．avoided C．thanked D．remembered
11. A．note B．word C．case D．text
12. A．effective B．amazing C．easy D．clear
13. A．managed B．tried C．decided D．worked
14. A．realized B．produced C．required D．imagined
15. A．through B．along C．together D．off
16. A．never B．still C．once D．even
17. A．expectation B．explanation C．information D．conversation
18. A．doubting B．promising C．believing D．admitting
19. A．condition B．discoveries C．criticism D．possibilities
20. A．delight B．interest C．strength D．character
---- I was riding along the street and all of a sudden, a car cut in and knocked me down.
---- You can never be _______ careful in the street.
A．very B．too C．so D．much
Can you image that the CEO of Pu Tian Software Company doesn’t __________ dress?
A．call for B．apply for
C．care about D．allow for
