Almost everybody in America will spend a part of his or her life behind a shopping cart（购物手推车）. They will, in a lifetime, push the chrome-plated contraptions many miles. But few will know—or even think to ask—who it was that invented them.
Sylvan N. Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937. At that time he was in the supermarket business. Every day he would see shoppers lugging（吃力地携带） groceries around in baskets they had to carry.
One day Goldman suddenly had the idea of putting baskets on wheels. The wheeled baskets would make shopping much easier for his customers, and would help to attract more business.
On June 4, 1937, Goldman’s first carts were ready for use in his market. He was terribly excited on the morning of that day as customers began arriving. He couldn’t wait to see them using his invention.
But Goldman was disappointed. Most shoppers gave the carts a long look, but hardly anybody would give them a try.
After a while, Goldman decided to ask customers why they weren’t using his carts. “Don’t you think this arm is strong enough to carry a shopping basket?” one shopper replied.
But Goldman wasn’t beaten yet. He knew his carts would be a great success if only he could persuade people to give them a try. To this end, Goldman hired a group of people to push carts around his market and pretend they were shopping! Seeing this, the real customers gradually began copying the phony（假冒的） customers.
As Goldman had hoped, the carts were soon attracting larger and larger numbers of customers to his market. But not only did more people come—those who came bought more. With larger, easier-to-handle baskets, customers unconsciously bought a greater number of items than before.
Today’s shopping carts are five times larger than Goldman’s original model. Perhaps that’s one reason Americans today spend more than five times as much money on food each year as they did before 1937—before the coming of the shopping cart.
1.The underlined words “chrome-plate contraptions” in Paragraph 1 refer to ______.（within 3 words）
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2.What was the purpose of Goldman’s invention? （within 10 words）
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3.Why was Goldman disappointed at first? （within 10 words）
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4.Why did Goldman hire people to push carts around his market? （within 10 words）
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5.What is the main idea of this article? （within 10 words）
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阅读下面对话，从所给的七个选项中，选出最佳选项，填入空格处，使对话完整。并在答题卡上将对应项涂黑。每个选项只能使用一次，有两个选项多余。
-----Mary, we are going to have a party on New Year’s Eve. I’m sure we’ll have a good time.__ 1._.
-----I’d like to. __2.__
-----In our classroom. We are going to decorate it and turn it into a splendid ballroom.
-----__3.__. I shall be very glad to spend my first new year in China with you.
-----But we are going to ask everyone at the party to give a performance. ___4.___.
-----I will. My voice is not very pleasant to the ear, though.
-----I heard you sing once. __5.___ I’m sure you ‘ll be the star of our new year party.
-----Oh, thank you.
A. Your voice was sweet and beautiful.
B. Where are you going to have it?
C. Would you like to join us?
D. Thank you for inviting me.
E. Oh. It is great.
F. Let’s go to the ball together.
G. Do sing us some English songs, please.
In a recently published book, I came across some exercises with interesting names such as fishbone diagrams, lotus flowers and clustering. As I used these exercises in my classes, I noticed that students were interested. They said more and wrote more. They enjoyed expressing their ideas and sharing them in groups. They were no longer passively waiting for the bell , but actively taking part in the lesson. I find that creativity can act as a way to increase participation and improve fluency.
Creativity has become a popular word in recent years. Scholars in arts, psychology, business, education and science are all working to get a deeper understanding of it. Robert J. Stemberg is a creativity specialist and Yale professor of psychology. He defines creativity as “the ability to produce work that is both new (original） and appropriate(applicable to the situation ） ”. This definition is useful, as we want our students to use language in a new way and to use it correctly and properly. Mot scholars say there are two types of creativity: big “C” creativity and small “c” creativity. Big “C” creativity refers to genius level thinking that results in artistic masterpieces and scientific breakthroughs. Small “c” creativity refers to everyday level thinking that can be used in any situation our emphasis is on the latter. While it goes without saying that any of our students could go on to be the next Picasso or Edison, our aim is to help students produce more ideas and use language in a new way.
1. The underlined words “waiting for the bell ” in the first paragraph probably means______.
A. longing for a phone call B. hoping to have a bell
C. expecting the end of the class D. waiting to speak in the class
2.It can be inferred from the passage that the author thinks the exercises in the book were _____.
A. popular B. useful C. scientific D. Creative
3.When you use a familiar word in a new way, you are ________.
A creative in the sense of big “C” creativity.
B. creative in the sense of small “c” creativity..
C. not creative in the sense of big “C” creativity..
D. not creative in the sense of small “c” creativity.
4.The main purpose of the passage is to _________.
A. show how useful the book is
B. explain what creativity is
C. discuss how one can be creative
D. tell what teaching aims at
How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time? Far too many.
This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal (排演）and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.
We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life.
In America they have a saying much laughed at by the English：“Have a nice day” they speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day.
How often do we say to ourselves, "I'll take up horse-riding (or golf, or sailing） as soon as I get a higher position," only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position.
When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal (反常的） mental state. How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area？I wanted to know.
Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure. He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains.
1.The first paragraph of the passage tells us that _______ .
A. we always try to find some time to write a book
B. we always make plans but seldom fulfil them
C. we always enjoy many of life's best moments
D. we always do what we really want to do
2.The underlined phrase "turn his back on" (paragraph 6） most probably means .
A. leave for B. return to C. give up D. rely on
3. The man ( paragraph 6） left his first job partly because he was ______.
A. in an abnormal mental state B. under too much pressure
C. not well paid not respected
4.What is probably the best title for the passage?
A. Provide Homes For Our Family B. Take Up Horse-riding
C. Value This Very Day D. Stay Alive
Childhood was an illusion (错觉）and the illusion was this: everything was bigger. No, I mean everything, not just houses and shops and grown-ups, but colors and flowers and journeys, especially journeys which seemed endless. “Are we there yet, Daddy?”
Funfairs (游乐场） were huge things that spread for miles around you with noise and lights and exciting danger. Rainy days at home when you were ill seemed to last for ever. Being a grown-up yourself was an unthinkable distant possibility. Every sound was louder, every game was grander, every pain unbearable.
As I’ve grown old, life has become smaller. Tastes have dulled. Surprises have turned into shocks. Days go by unnoticed. How can I regain childhood when it was an illusion?
I have only one repeatable and wonderful way and even in this way I can regain only part of that larger world. I can play upon the stage like a child and make the crowd laugh and laugh with them, sometimes helplessly like a child, and then, even though I’m a sixty-one-year-old man, I can almost catch the colors and sounds and stillness of those bigger years when I was little.
1.How does the author feel about his childhood?
A. It was endless. B. It was unpleasant.
C. He is glad that it is over. D. He misses it as a grown-up
2.The author thinks that everything was bigger in childhood because ________
A. children could not make proper judgments.
B. children were curious and eager about life
C. things appeared really big in children’s eyes
D. to grow up seemed so long for children
3.The world seems to have become smaller to the author because _______.
A. life is disappointing B. time goes by too fast
C. he has had too many surprises D. foods no longer taste delicious
4.The author enjoys playing on the stage so as to _______.
A. act like a child B. live an unusual life
C. make the crowd laugh D. regain his childhood
Instead of hitting the beach, fourteen high school students traded swimming suits for lab coats last summer and turned their attention to scientific experiments.
The High School Research Program offers high school students guidance with researchers in Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Jennifer Funkhouser, academic adviser for the Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, directs this four-week summer program designed to increase understanding of research and its career potential.
Several considerations go into selecting students, including grades, school involvement and interest in science and agriculture. And many students come from poorer school districts, Funkhouser says, “This is their chance to learn techniques and do experiments they never would have a chance to do in high school.”
Warner Ervin of Houston is interested in animal science and learned how to tell male from female mosquitoes(蚊子）.His adviser, Craig Coates, studies the genes of mosquitoes that allow them to fight against malaria and yellow fever. Coates thought this experience would be fun and helpful to the high school students.
The agricultural research at A&M differs from stereotypes. It’s “molecular(分子）science on the cutting edge,” Funkhouser says. The program broadened students’ knowledge. Victor Garcia of Rio Grande City hopes to become a biology teacher and says he learned a lot about chemistry from the program.
At the end of the program, the students presented papers on their research. They’re also paid $600 for their work-another way this program differs from others, which often charge a fee.
Fourteen students got paid to learn that science is fun, that agriculture is a lot more than milking and plowing and that research can open many doors.
1.The research program is chiefly designed for _______.
A. high school advisers from Houston
B. college students majoring in agriculture
C. high school students from different places
D. researchers at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
2.It can be inferred from the text that the students in poorer areas ___________ .
A. had little chance to go to college
B. could often take part in the program
C. found the program useful to their future
D. showed much interest in their high school experiments
3.When the program was over, the students ________.
A. entered that college B. wrote research reports
C. paid for their research D. found way to make money
4.The underlined expression “on the cutting edge” in paragraph 5 means “on the most ___ position”.
A. important B. favorable
C. astonishing D. advanced
