When I was a college student, I did a lot of traveling abroad. That was because a professor _____ me to do so. She said, “Now it is the time for you to travel around the world, _____ your knowledge through actual experiences and have fun?” I ______ her.
Since I started to work for a ______ company, however, I have done most of my traveling through the Internet. By using the Internet, I have seen the ___ of many cities on my computer screen. And I have really made business ______, too. With the help of the Internet, I have also got _____ about food in different countries.
Therefore, I was beginning to feel that actual trips were ______ necessary when I happened to read a famous chef's comment on the Internet. He said, “It is very difficult to have real Italian food in a foreign country, because we enjoy food and the ____ around us at the same time. So why don't you fly over to Italy and enjoy real Italian _____? “Those words reminded me of my ____ advice. As information technology ______, you might be able to do without making some real trips. But this also means that you will miss the various ______ you can get from traveling.
Today there are people who ______ direct communication with others and spend much of their time on the Internet. It is not surprising to see a group of people ___ not with each other but into their micro phones. It seems as if such people are ____ by an invisible wall. They seem to be losing out on a good chance to _____ and talk with other people. I do not think that they are taking good advantage of information technology. We should use information technology as a tool to make our daily ______ more fruitful. However, we should never let it ______ our time for face to -face communication. Let's make use of information technology more ______, and have great fun in experiencing the actual world.
1.A. promised B. allowed C. hurried D. encouraged
2.A. build up B. use C. practise D. exchange
3.A. agreed with B. learned from C. followed D. obeyed
4.A. car B. food C. clothing D. machine
5.A. life B. rivers C. sights D. houses
6.A. plans B. bargain C. progress D. trips
7.A. information B. taste C. cooks D. feelings
8.A. even more
B. no longer C. much D. actually
9.A. people B. drink C. atmosphere D. environment
10.A. shoes B. dishes C. customers D. situations
11.A. friend's B. parents' C. professor's D. boss's
12.A. produces B. advertises C. forms D. advances
13.A. news B. pleasures C. troubles D. places
14.A. avoid B. keep C. lose D. enjoy
15.A. meeting B. talking C. communicating D. traveling
16.A. stopped B. met C. surrounded D. hurt
17.A. look at B. employ C. travel D. meet
18.A. communication B. study C. work D. action
19.A. spare B. increase C. reduce D. make use of
20.A. wisely B. correctly C. or less D. slowly
Smiles and tears are part of life. But do you find enough time for laughing? I’m not asking if you experience lots of good times. Of course, we should laugh during the happy times. 1..
2.But she wrote one about a more serious subject--cancer in children. The book is titled I WANT TO GROW HAIR, I WANT TO GROW UP. Erma talks with many children who have cancer and learns important lessons from them. She learns, for example, that cancer survivors know how they should smile at life, though they are receiving chemotherapy（化疗）.
3..Jessica’s leg was cut off at the knee because of cancer. She was learning to wear a prosthesis（假肢）. Jessica told about playing soccer. She hit the ball hard with her foot. The ball flew off in one direction while her man-made leg flew another way. Then the brave girl lay on the floor, laughing happily.
As the saying goes, “4.” Do you find plenty of time to laugh?
You can, if you find reasons to laugh during the difficult times. Survivors know how to laugh. If you can laugh even when you’re in trouble, you will make it. Remember, laugh and the whole world laughs with you. 5..
A. We just laugh about it.
B. Cry and you cry alone!
C. There’s a time to cry and a time to laugh.
D. Erma Bombeck is known for her funny books.
E. But do you also laugh during the difficult times?
F. She tells about the experience of 15-year-old Jessica.
G. I still remember those happy days when we were at college.
As an effect of the high fuel prices spent on bus transportation, some American schools are changing to a four-day week. That means longer days instead of the traditional Monday through Friday schedule.
Having been approved for three years and beginning in the fall, students in the Maccray school district in Minnesota will be in school from Tuesday to Friday. Each school day will be 65 minutes longer. Officials say the district expects to save about sixty-five thousand dollars a year in transportation costs.
In new Mexico, the first school district changed to a four-day week in 1974 because of the Arab oil boycott(抵制). Now, 17 out of 89 districts use it.
In Custer, South Dakota, students have been going to school four days a week since 1995. Superintendent Tim Creal says the change has saved about one million dollars over just the past eight years. He sees other benefits, too. Students get more instructional time, and activities that used to take up class time are now held on non-school days. He says that in the future, the growth of online classes could make it possible to require even fewer days in school. High fuel prices are driving college students to take more online classes.
A four-day school week sounds like a great idea for students and teachers, but working parents may have to pay for child care for that fifth day.
1.According to Tim Creal, what makes it possible to have even fewer days in school?
A. The increasing number of private tutors.(私人教师)
B. The development of teaching methods.
C. The increase in the number of online classes.
D. The growth in the income of Americans.
2.It can be learned from the passage that______
A. students will be in school from Monday to Tuesday.
B. four-day week was first carried out in South Dakota.
C. Maccray will save one million dollars every year.
D. Minnesota state has approved the four-day week plan
3.The passage is mainly about______
A. some school’s four-day week plan
B. districts using a four-day week.
C. how to save on transportation fees.
D. expense of school transportation.
Parties, iPods, concerts, movies, TV shows, video games, traffic. All of these things of the modern world make life entertaining and enjoyable. But our 21st-century lifestyle is also loud and, if we don’t take notice, it can have an effect on our hearing.
Most teenagers don’t think about hearing loss. But if you experience any of the following symptoms , you may already be hearing damaged: you make efforts to hear normal talk, you have to turn up the TV or radio so high that others complain, you watch other people’s expressions to understand what they are saying, you ask people to repeat themselves, you misunderstand what people are saying or you hear ringing in your ears.
iPods and other MP3 players are as common as the clothes you wear, and just as fashionable. But if you turn up an iPod to more than 60 percent of its maximum volume , and listen to music for more than an hour, you are asking for trouble. And, it does not matter if the music you play is classical, rock or heavy metal.
Some researchers find that young people who break the so-called 60-percent/60-minute rule in listening to iPods are at the risk of suffering hearing loss.
Why is an iPod dangerous? With ear buds placed directly in the ear canal and high-volume music played over a long period of time, it’s like working in a loud factory all day, being a maintenance person under a jet airplane or using a jackhammer（手提钻）on a building site.
Similarly, iPod music can cause a short time or permanent hearing damage. A loud iPod can cause a ruptured（破裂的）eardrum and, over time, may cause permanent damage to the tiny hairs in the inner ear. If these tiny hairs are damaged, they cannot effectively send sounds to the auditory nerves（听觉神经）that connect to the brain. If this happens, hearing loss becomes permanent.
1.Which of the following shows that you are suffering hearing loss?
A. You are interested to listen to others’ talking.
B. You have to read others’ expressions to understand them.
C. You can only understand others over the phone.
D. You always think you hear the ringing of the phone.
2.Which of the following is TRUE when you listen to music?
A. Listen at least an hour every time.
B. Turn up the volume to the highest level.
C. Keep the sound lower than 60% of its highest volume.
D. Choose classical, rock or heavy metal music.
3.What is the correct order of causing permanent hearing loss?
a. The eardrum is broken.
b. The auditory nerves cannot receive sounds.
c. Tiny hairs are damaged.
d. Ear buds are placed directly in the ear canal.
e. High-volume music is played over a long time.
A. d-a-c-b-e B. e-c-a-b-d
C. b-c-a-d-e D. d-e-a-c-b
On the first day of the 11th grade, our new math teacher Mr Washington asked me to go to the blackboard to do a math problem. I told him that I couldn’t do it. He asked, “Why not?” I paused, and then I said, “Because I’m educable mentally retarded (可教育智能迟滞).”
He came from behind his desk and looked at me. “Don’t ever say that again. Someone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality,” he said.
It was a very special moment for me. Doctors said that I was educable mentally retarded in the fifth grade, and I was put back into the fourth grade. When I was in the eighth grade, I failed again.
But Mr Washington changed my life. This person always gave students the feeling that he had high expectations of them, and then all of the students did their best to live up to what those expectations were. He often said, “You have greatness within you.”
One day, I caught up with him in the parking place and said, “Mr Washington, is there greatness within me, sir?”
He said, “Yes, Mr Brown.”
“But what about the fact that I failed English, math, and history? What about that, sir? I’m slower than most kids.”
“It doesn’t matter. It just means that you have to work harder. Your grades don’t determine who you are or what you can produce in your life.”
“I want to buy my mother a house.”
“It is possible, Mr Brown. You can do that.” And he turned to walk away.
“Mr Washington?”
“What do you want now?”
“Uh, I’m the one, sir. One day you’re going to hear my name. I’m the one, sir.”
School was a real struggle for me. Mr Washington put many demands on me. He made me believe that I could do it. At the end of that year, I was on the honor roll for the first time in my life.
Years later, I produced five programs on public television. When one of my programs was shown on the educational television channel, I had some friends call him. I was sitting by the phone waiting when he called me. He said, “May I speak to Mr Brown, please?”
“Oh, Mr Washington, is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me. You were the one, weren’t you?”
“Yes, sir, I was.”
1.What does Mr Washington mean by saying “Someone’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality”?
A. You needn’t have the same opinion as others.
B. You should believe what other people say.
C. What other people say about you may not be correct.
D. The doctor made a mistake.
2.What happened to the author at last?
A. He entered a good university. B. He earned much honor.
C. He got a good job. D. He made television programs.
3.In the passage, the author implies that _________.
A. people shouldn’t believe what doctors say
B. no one can be successful with hard work and confidence
C. no one is really educable mentally retarded
D. a good teacher can change a student’s life
4.The best title for the passage would be “__________”.
A. Don’t believe others B. I am the one
C. My best teacher D. I succeeded at last
Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s.The sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 percent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people’s diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.
Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetable.
People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.
Today, we know that the little iron there is in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid.
It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.
1.A good title for this reading passage is______.
A. Popeye the Sailor B. The Truth About Spinach
C. A Mistake with Numbers D. Folic Acid Makes You Strong
2.Why did many people eat spinach after they saw Popeye the Sailor?
A. They thought spinach made them strong.
B. They thought Popeye was funny.
C. Spinach had a lot of iron.
D. People liked folic acid.
3.A research group told people that spinach______.
A. made Popeye strong
B. was a green vegetable
C. had less iron than other green vegetables
D. had more iron than other green vegetables
4.The reading passage says that perhaps Popeye got his strength from______.
A. iron B. folic acid
C. spinach D. exercise
5.Folic acid is ______.
A. something in food B. a vegetable
C. dangerous D. a certain kind of spinach
