After having more than a few acquaintances online, it might come a blow to keen social networkers like Barack Obama, or even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg himself.
According to a research, the average person has in fact twice as many online friends as physical ones. Users of social-networking sites have on average 121 online friends as compared with physical ones. The study also claims that people tend to be more open, confident and honest with their virtual friends than their “real” ones.
“For most people , the Internet is a way of keeping in touch with loved ones and friends, but for people who are isolated due to illness, it plays a more vital role, and can often act as a lifeline.” says Helen Oxley, a psychologist at Wythenshawe hospital.
“People with illnesses often rely on the Internet to facilitate（促进） friendships, since they blog and use networking sites as a way of dealing with their illness. It can foster a sense of social connection for those who frequently feel isolated, which is important to psychological well-being.”
In wider society, the ways in which friendships are formed are changing, with people recognizing that they can develop deep and meaningful connections with others that they’ve never met, and may never meet. About one in 10 people has either met their best friends online, or believes they can make lifelong friends on the Web.
The findings highlight how social introductions are also changing. Only five percent would ask for someone’s phone number, while 23 percent are now likely to ask for an email address or a full name with the intention of adding the person to their social network.
At the same time, however, a questionnaire completed by 4,427 suggests that 20 percent of parents believe their children’s education is affected by surfing the Net. They think their children are doing poorly at the school due to the amount of time they spend on non-educational websites.
1.The underlined word “it” in Para 1 most probably refers to ________.
A. people spending too much time surfing the Net
B. people relying on the Internet to connect with friends
C. people having more virtual friends than real ones
D. people making meaningful connections with strangers
2.We can infer from the text that________.
A. sick people can recover more quickly by surfing the Net
B. students get important information online
C. students who surf the net always perform not so well
D. people tend to trust their virtual friends more than their real ones
3.What percentage of parents believe that the Internet has a bad effect on their children?
A. About 5 percent. B. About 20 percent.
C. About 10 percent. D. About 23 percent.
4.In the following paragraph, the author will probably discuss ________.
A. how much time children spend on the Internet
B. how children learn about the world through the Net
C. how parents feel about their children’s studies
D. how children make use of the Internet to study
Have Fun at UK’s Most Famous Theme Park
Alton Towers Theme Park re-opens with selected rides and attractions for Half-Term from 19th to 27th of February 2011, and then again for the main season, starting on 26th March, 2011.
There’s something for the whole family at Alton Towers, with lots of terrific rides, amazing live shows, and wonderful costume characters. Guests of all ages will enjoy many different fun-packed activities. Here are some of the rides.
Thirteen
Thirteen is based on the discovery of an ancient burial site in an area of unexpected woodland known as the Dark Forest, and built on the site of the old Corkscrew roller-coaster. You are invited to take the final ride on Thirteen, going deep into the seemingly living, breathing Dark Forest.
You must be at least 1.2m tall to go on the ride. If you are 1.96m or over , you can’t go on the ride.
Laughs and frights
Are you up for a bit of light-hearted fun with friends and family? The roller-coaster at the Alton Towers Resort makes for an unforgettable experience. There is a great deal of fun and lots of laughs and fun frights on its amusement rides.
Attractions
There is entertainment for the whole family. There are lots of rides and activities to keep all ages happy, all day long. You may take a ride on the Skyride or start or finish your day with a round of Extraordinary Golf.
Save 20% by booking online and benefit from Early Ride Time. There is no online booking fee—the price you see is the price you pay.
Ticket Type Including Early Ride Time | Online Only Price |
Online Family of Four Ticket | £ 90.24 |
Online Adult Ticket | £31.68 |
Online Child Ticket (age 4-11) | £24.48 |
1.The feature of the theme park is that ________.
A. it only provides terrific rides
B. everyone in the family can have fun there
C. only adults can go on the ride
D. none of the activities are suitable for tall people
2.If a family of four wants to buy tickets to the theme park at the booking office, they should pay________.
A. about 72 pounds B. about 90 pounds
C. about 150 pounds D. about 113 pounds
3.Which of the following statements is true?
A. A 13-year-old boy needs to pay 24.48 pounds for his ticket.
B. Guests can visit the theme park at any time of the year.
C. The theme park re-opens mainly for children.
D. You can save 20% of booking fee if you book online.
Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made. In my early 20s, I hardly went to bed before midnight, and I would always get up late the next morning.
But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high relationship between success and rising early. On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity was always higher. So I set out to become a habitual early riser. But whenever my alarm went off, my first thought was always to stop that noise and go back to sleep. Eventually some sleep research showed that my strategy was wrong. The most common wrong strategy is this: supposing you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go to bed earlier. It sounds very reasonable, but will usually fail.
There are two main schools of thought on sleep patterns. One is that you should go to bed and get up at the same time every day. The second school says you should go to bed when you’re tired and get up when you naturally wake up. However, I have found both are wrong if you care about productivity. If you sleep at fixed hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed when you aren’t sleepy enough. You’re wasting time lying in bed awake.
My solution is to combine both methods. I go to bed when I’m sleepy and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time. So I always get up at the same time (in my case 5 a.m.), but I go to bed at different times every night.
However, going to bed only when I’m sleepy, and getting up at a fixed time every morning are my ways. If you want to become an early riser, you can try your own.
1.Why did the author want to become a habitual early riser?
A. Because he / she found that the productivity was higher.
B. Because he / she wanted to do morning exercise.
C. Because he / she wanted to test which school is better.
D. Because he / she wanted to have more sleep time.
2.The author experienced all the following EXCEPT ________.
A. going to bed after midnight
B. asking scholars for advice on sleeping habits
C. getting up early occasionally
D. pressing off the alarm to go on sleeping
3.According to the passage, the underlined phrase refers to ___________.
A. People who stays up late until the next morning
B. People who feel sleepy in the morning
C. People who get up early in the morning
D. People whose productivity is the highest in the morning
4.The passage is mainly about ________.
A. main schools of thought on sleep patterns
B. how to have a good sleep
C. wrong strategies for getting up early
D. how to become an early riser
书面表达
请阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Wishing Away
Have you ever noticed how people always want to be something they’re not?
Tall want to be short, young long to age, single dream of marriage, and no matter what body shape, everyone wants to lose at least another five pounds.
It’s almost like a natural preoccupation (天性), this wishing away of our lives.
Think about it. When was the last time you heard someone say, “I am totally satisfied with myself and my life. I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
It just doesn’t happen. So, I have this idea to create a virtual reality machine that would allow people to actually experience the life of their dreams. For instance, for all the women who live with the unanswered hope that their husband will one day wait at the back door with a dozen roses and a cool bottle of Dom Perignon... the opportunity to live with Prince Charming.
Or, for sports fans, how about the chance to score the winning goal, kick the overtime fieldgoal, drive the victory lap, or hit that “must-win” two pointer at the buzzer? Music fans might choose to jump onstage and perform with their favorite rock band or conduct a full orchestral symphony.
The possibilities are endless.
But I wonder about the down side to such an invention. Would experiencing the dreams of a lifetime really make us better people? I'm not sure of that answer, or of the true possibility of such an invention.
But what I am sure of is that perfection is often over-evaluated.
[写作内容]
1．用约30个单词写出上文概要；
2．用约120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括：
(1) 陈述你对上文的观点；
(2) 用2～3个理由或论据支撑你的观点。
[写作要求]
1. 发表观点时必须提供理由或论据；
2. 阐述观点或提供论据或叙述经历时,不能直接引用原文语句；
3. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
4. 不必写标题。
[评分标准]
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
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任务型阅读
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。
Child sponsorship moves beyond the basics
One of the most popular forms of charitable giving in use today is child sponsorship as witnessed by the fact that just one of the leading child sponsorship charities currently has over 1 million individual child sponsors worldwide. Despite this huge level of support, it is not generally understood exactly what child sponsorship actually involves.
Most people tend to assume that one’s chosen charity arranges for sponsors to be matched up with an underprivileged child in one of the poorer underdeveloped countries. The idea is that you essentially take a child under your wing and act almost like a fairy godmother or father until he or she attains adulthood and can stand on his or her own two feet.
To a large extent, this is a pretty accurate impression. New sponsors are matched with individual children and can typically choose which country, which sex and which age group they would prefer. They then exchange photos and letters on a regular basis. This obviously helps the sponsors to see at first-hand how their donations are benefiting the children.
The sponsorship itself costs approximately £15 per month and many donators choose to sponsor more than one child at once. One common wrong impression about these regular donations is that they go direct to the child’s parents or guardian in order to pay for essentials such as food or education. In reality, some of the longest established child sponsorship charities have found that this is largely ineffective and can cause anger among other children in the community who might not be so fortunate.
Instead, some of the largest charities prefer to pool total donations and carry out larger schemes to assist the whole community. Nor are all the funds diverted (分配使用) towards obvious short term relief like providing food, water and basic healthcare. There is a strong emphasis on self-help and personal development so that future generations will be self-sustaining and not so reliant on outside assistance.
To this end, sponsors will often find their donations finding their way into things like training courses to teach teenagers how to farm, small grants (补助金) for business start-ups and introducing the concept of village-based savings and loan organizations.
There is no doubt that the top sponsorship charities have been active for so long in many countries that they are now taking a leading role in aiding the overall welfare of children and ensuring that they are not exposed to discrimination and abuse.
Child sponsorship moves beyond the basics | |
Passage outline | Supporting details |
Current 1. of child sponsorship | ◇Child sponsorship has enjoyed great popularity and huge support. ◇What it actually involves is not quite 2. to the general public. |
A usual practice of child sponsorship | ◇Donators help them until they grow up and can 3. themselves. ◇The charity4. the underprivileged children with sponsors according to their preference. ◇Sponsors keep in5. with the children to know what’s going on with the donation. ◇Donations go to the children’s parents or guardians to pay for essentials, which proves 6. . |
A new practice of child sponsorship | ◇Charities 7. larger schemes covering the whole community by gathering the individual donations. ◇The schemes include training teenagers, 8. their business start-ups and developing their financial awareness. ◇It9. personal development and independence for future generations by focusing on larger schemes. |
Conclusion | ◇Thanks to the 10. efforts of child sponsorship, the overall welfare and the rights of children are guaranteed. |
I’m sitting here in this coffee shop. You know the one there by Allen street. The town is filled with thousands of middle class college kids living off their parent’s money.
The coffee shop is where the ones come to play the part of sophisticated bohemians (放荡不羁的文化人). The pretensions (自命不凡) glow from their line-less faces as they sip cappuccinos and chew strawberry cookies. The boys to my right are discussing Nabokov with a serious air, a copy of Sartre’s Cuba lies on the table.
The young woman on my left is declaring that she can never allow her creativity to be killed by entering the work force. The man with her scratches his goatee (胡子) in agreement, occasionally suggesting they go back to his place to hear his new Washington Squares CD. Matt has just designed a new international symbol for peace. He moves from table to table trying to sell hand painted T-shirts that bear the design. Tomorrow he’s leaving for the 25th anniversary Woodstock concert where he hopes to strike it rich with his creation.
Gopha the skinny Indian boy feels like singing me a verse of ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’ when I ask him if he’s a friend of Monica’s. Jason is trying to talk Gopha into a dollar bet on a game of chess. Between times Jason will chew your ear off with his plans to conquer the music industry while studying entertainment law, but when it comes to his never ending dollar chess matches he’s quiet as a church mouse.
I sit among them. To all surface appearances one and the same. If they could only see I would rather reach into their flesh and tear out their shallow little hearts than listen to another second of their prattle (闲扯).
With no job, no gigs, and my girlfriend’s so far gone she might as well be on another planet, I’ve been leading the writer’s quiet cafe life, spending my free time outdoors drinking iced teas and cheap wines. I chat warmly with whoever decides to squander away their hours in my surrounding area.
But behind my eyes is an unspoken challenge to any and every one of these social elites (精英) to just once say one thing that would inspire me. Just one little idea which is new and meaningful. Unfortunately original thoughts are zero here.
In my secret mind I wish to run like a madman banging gongs and speaking in tongues. Or maybe jump on a table and sing the Star Spangled Banner in the forgotten language of the Hottentots. I know these thoughts only reveal me as a fool because the spark I search for cannot be found in acts of shocking performance art. Where it truly comes from is one of the mysteries which will always hang around me.
1.The college students in the coffee shop can be described as ______.
A. shallow and aimless B. determined and independent
C. vain and ambitious D. honest and hardworking
2.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. Matt’s T-shirts will be a hit at the concert and bring him wealth.
B. Jason seems to show more enthusiasm in the dollar chess matches.
C. The young woman agrees to listen to a new Washington Squares CD.
D. The hero envies the lifestyle of the college students in the coffee shop.
3.Why is the hero in the coffee shop?
A. To recall the pleasant memories.
B. To relieve his sorrows and worries.
C. To know what is in fashion nowadays.
D. To find something new to inspire himself.
4.What does the passage imply?
A. The hero is sure that he can find the original thoughts in a crazy way.
B. The hero is disappointed at the college students failing his expectation.
C. The hero is quite content with his quiet café life as a writer.
D. The hero is lost in the physical world and hopeless about his future.
