Few laws are so effective that you can see results just days after they take effect. But in the nine days since the federal cigarette tax more than doubled-to $1.01 per pack-smokers have jammed telephone "quit lines" across the country seeking to kick the habit.
This is not a surprise to public health advocates. They've studied the effect of state tax increases for years, finding that smokers, especially teens, are price sensitive. Nor is it a shock to the industry, which fiercely fights every tax increase.
The only wonder is that so many states insist on closing their ears to the message. Tobacco taxes improve public health, they raise money and most particularly, they deter people from taking up the habit as teens, which is when nearly all smokers are addicted. Yet the rate of taxation varies widely.
In Manhattan, for instance, which has the highest tax in the nation, a pack of Marlboro Light Kings cost $10.06 at one drugstore Wednesday. In Charleston, S.C., where the 7-cent-a-pack tax is the lowest in the nation, the price was $4.78.
The influence is obvious.
In New York, high school smoking hit a new low in the latest surveys-13.8%, far below the national average. By comparison, 26% of high school students smoke in Kentucky. Other low-tax states have similarly depressing teen-smoking records.
Hal Rogers, Representative from Kentucky, like those who are against high tobacco taxes, argues that the burden of the tax falls on low-income Americans "who choose to smoke".
That's true. But there is more reason in keeping future generations of low-income workers from getting hooked in the first place. As for today's adults, if the new tax drives them to quit, they will have more to spend on their families, cut their risk of cancer and heart disease and feel better.
1.The text is mainly about .
A. the price of cigarettes
B. the rate of teen smoking
C. the effect of tobacco tax increase
D. the differences in tobacco tax rate
2.What does the author think is a surprise?
A. Teen smokers are price sensitive
B. Some states still keep the tobacco tax low
C. Tobacco taxes improve public health
D. Tobacco industry fiercely fights the tax rise
3.Rogers' attitude towards the low-income smokers might be that of .
A. tolerance B. unconcern
C. doubt D. sympathy
4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. The new tax will be beneficial in the long run
B. Low-income Americans are more likely to fall ill
C. Future generations will be hooked on smoking
D. Adults will depend more on their families
Outside her shabby cottage, old Mrs. Tailor was hanging out laundry on a wire line, unaware that some children lay hidden in the leaves of a nearby tree watching her every move. They were determined to find out if she really was a witch.
They watched as she took a broomstick to clean the dirt from her stone steps. But, much to their disappointment, she did not mount the broomstick and take flight. Suddenly, the old lady's work was interrupted by the cackling of her hen-a signal that an egg had been laid in the warm nest on top of the haystack.
The old broomstick was put aside as she hobbled off towards the haystack followed by Sooty, a black cat she had rescued from a fox trap some time back. With only three legs, it was hard for Sooty to keep up with the old lady. The cat provided proof-the children were sure that only a witch could own a black cat with three legs.
There, standing on a wooden box, was Mrs. Tailor, stretching out to gather her precious egg. Taking the egg in one of her hands, she began to climb down when, without warning, the box broke and the old lady fell.
"We have to got and help her," whispered Amy.
"What if it is a trick?" replied Ben.
"Don't be silly, Ben. If she were a witch, she would have turned us into frogs already," reasoned Meg. "Come on Amy, let's go." The girls climbed down the tree and ran all the way to the haystack.
Approaching carefully, they could see a wound on the old lady's face. She had knocked her head on a stone and her ankle was definitely broken. "Go and get Dad," Amy yelled to her brother. "Tell him about the accident."
The boys did not need another excuse to leave. They ran as fast as they could for help, hoping that Mrs. Tailor would not wake and turn the girls into frogs.
1.Why were the children hiding in the tree?
A. They wanted to watch Mrs. Tailor do her housework closely
B. They were playing a hide-and-seek game
C. They wanted to find out if the story about Mrs. Tailor was true
D. They were pretending to be spies
2.Mrs. Tailor stopped sweeping when .
A. her front steps were clean
B. she noticed the children in the tree
C. she was ready to take a flight
D. she heard the hen cackling
3.Ben did not rush to help Mrs. Tailor because .
A. he thought that she could be tricking them
B. he knew that they could not have been in the tree
C. he did not see the old lady fall down
D. he was afraid of the three-legged cat
4.Which of these old sayings best suits the story's lesson for us?
A. Make hay while the sun shines
B. Never judge a book by its cover
C. People in glasshouses should not throw stones
D. A bird in the hands worth two in the bush
What’s On?
Trouble in Mind
Alice Childress won an Off-Broadway award in 1956 for this story of a black actress rehearsing a play with a white director who increasingly finds it impossible for the show to go on. Tanya Moodie and Joseph Marcell star in the play directed by Laurence Boswell.
8.30p.m.-- 10.30p.m, Theatre Royal. Box office: 01225 448844.
Lazarus
Inspired by the sci-fi (science fiction) novel and movie, The Man Who Fell to Earth, this musical deals with a hero, Thomas Newton. Likely to be the autumn’s hottest ticket, the score includes new songs composed by Bowie.
7.00p.m.--9.00p.m., King’s Cross theatre. Box office: 0844 871 7604.
The Gaul
On the night of 8 February 1974, a fisherman FV Gaul disappeared off the coast of Norway. For people on board, waiting for news was great suffering. Theories began to come up, including the possibility that the boat had fallen victim to cold war. Even when he was discovered, many still felt there were questions that remained unanswered. Mark Babych directs Janet Plater’s play.
8.00p.m.--11.00 p.m., Royal Shakespeare theatre. Box office: 01482 323638.
The Suppliant Women
It is a new version of Aeschylus’s 2,500-year-old play about a group of women seeking shelter who make the long journey to escape forced marriage. It was written by David Greig and directed by Ramin Gray. An ancient piece asks a contemporary question: when we are in trouble, who will open their doors and give us a harbor?
8.30p.m.-- 10.00p.m, Hampstead theatre. Box office: 0131 248 4848.
1.In which theatre can the audience enjoy Joseph Marcell’s performance?
A. Hampstead theatre B. Royal Shakespeare theatre
C. King’s Cross theatre D. Theatre Royal
2.Which one will probably sell best?
A. Trouble in Mind B. Lazarus
C. The Gaul D. The Suppliant Women
3.Who directed the play about the story in Norway?
A. Bowie B. Ramin Gray
C. Mark Babych D. Laurence Boswell
The Lazy Donkey
A man bought a donkey at the market one day and took him home on approval. Now the man owned several donkeys already and he knew each one’s character very well.
One of the donkeys was very strong and brave. Another was eager to please but quickly exhausted. One donkey was very lazy. He hated going to work in the morning and he did as little as he possibly could all day long. When the other animals were being loaded up he always tried to be the last so that he would get the lightest load.
The man led the new donkey into the stable yard. For a moment he stood sniffing at his new companions. Then, without hesitation, he trotted up to the lazy donkey and began feeding comfortably at his side.
Though it was late in the day, the man immediately led the new donkey out of the yard, straight back to the market.
“You cannot have given him a fair trial yet,” said the merchant. “It is only ten minutes since you bought him.”
“I don’t need to try him any more,” replied the man. “I know just what he is like from the friend he chose for himself. Take him away and give me my money back. I can do without donkeys like him.”
【写作内容】
1．以约30个词概括以上短文的主要内容。
2．以约120个词谈谈你对故事的看法，内容包括：
(1) 故事的寓意；
(2) 你对交友的认识；
(3) 你对青少年交友的建议。
【写作要求】
1. 作文中可参照阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称。
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Music is a Universal Language
“Music is the universal language of mankind.” – Henry Longfellow
Everyone has the inborn ability to understand and enjoy music. There are many theories as to why this is, but it has become a part of human beings. Since the beginning, humans have expressed themselves through music. Simple tribal rhythms evolved into many types of more complex music, including classical, rock, jazz, and R&B. While the styles between these many types of music may vary, everyone is able to understand and relate to them.
What are the essential parts of a language? Every language uses vocabulary, or a set of words, to create sentences that convey messages. The tone and style of the sentences convey different feelings or emotions. Music is exactly the same way. Twelve tones, or notes, are combined to create phrases that also convey emotion. Music can even be written, like most other languages. Conversations even take place in music. Two saxophonists can play melodies back and forth, expressing different styles and feelings, building off of each other, responding to each other. Music changes over the years like other languages. Most people who speak fluent English cannot read one of Shakespeare’s plays because the language has changed so much. Music is also affected by time, and over a long period, many new types of music and instruments have emerged to create different sounds and convey different messages. There are so many similarities between vocal language and music that they must be same.
I recently had a chance to experience conversation through music. In 2008, I traveled to Manila, Philippines to participate in a high school jazz exchange where many students from all over Asia came together to share their talents. Everyone was mixed into different small groups to prepare for a concert at the end of week. Few people spoke fluent English so vocal communication was very tough. However, it wasn’t needed. Everyone seemed to understand each other simply through the music and there were few times where direct translation was needed. At the performance, every group played for a live audience. They all sounded phenomenal and it felt like they were in perfect time and harmony. During my group’s performance, I was able to improvise with a Korean boy who spoke very little English. But we managed to have a conversation through our instruments, building off each other’s riffs until we were creating our own melody on the fly. It was a great experience.
Because of the many similarities that music shares with other languages, it is a very effective way to communicate with others. Music brings us together, connects us with other people, and allows us to express ourselves in ways that are different from speech and writing. It has the ability to convey emotions and messages to the core of people, which is why Henry Longfellow is absolutely correct when he states that “music is the universal language of mankind.”
Music is a Universal Language
Introduction | ● Human beings have the ability to appreciate music since they were 1.. ● Despite the different types2. from simple tribal rhythms, everyone is able to understand music. |
3. between language and music | ● The tone and style of the sentences convey different feelings or emotions, 4. does music. ● Like most other languages, music even has its 5. forms. ● Both language and music have gone 6. many changes over the years. ● Conversations even take place in music. ● Time also has a great 7. on music. New forms of music and instruments come up to convey different messages. |
My chance of 8. conversation through music | I participated in a high school jazz exchange in Philippines in 2008, where students came from all over Asia. While there were language 9. between us, we still managed to communicate well by music. |
Conclusion | Music is a very effective way to communicate with others. Just as Henry Longfellow 10. it, “music is the universal language of mankind.” |
My timing has always been a little off with Elizabeth Strout. I’ve read and pretty much admired everything she’s written, but, for whatever reason, the books of hers I’ve picked to review have been the good ones, like Amy and Isabelle and The Burgess Boys, rather than the extraordinary ones, like Olive Kitteridge, which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. Anything Is Possible is Strout’s latest book and it’s gorgeous. Like Olive Kitteridge, Anything Is Possible reads like a novel constructed out of linked stories. In fact, it’s hard to know exactly what to call this — a novel or a short story collection. In any case, these stories are animated (栩栩如生) by Strout’s signature themes: class humiliation, loneliness, spiritual and, sometimes, reawakening. When Strout is really on her game, as she is here, you feel like you’ve been carefully lowered into the unquiet depths of quiet lives.
Strout began working on Anything Is Possible at the same time she was writing her novel My Name Is Lucy Barton, which was published last year. Lucy, a dirt-poor child who grows up to become a celebrated writer, floats in and out of these interlocking stories. Some characters catch a glimpse of her being interviewed on TV; one travels to see her at a bookstore. An older Lucy even appears “in the flesh” in one story when she returns home to the small town in rural Illinois where most of these tales are set to visit her troubled brother; but Anything Is Possible also stands on its own. Indeed, a few of the characters here would be ticked off if they thought their stories depended in any way on that Barton girl. Strout’s writerly eye works like a 360 degree camera, so that a character or place that’s on the margins of one tale takes center stage in a later one. This technique sounds contrived, but Strout carries it off lightly.
①__ One of the most powerful stories here is called “Dottie’s Bed & Breakfast,” which is an establishment we readers glimpse earlier in the book. Dottie desires to be middle-class and she harbors a grudge (怨恨) against life because she’s had to rent out rooms to make a living. Dottie also possesses a sensitive nose for sniffing out the lower-class origins of some of her guests.
②__ “Shoes always gave you away,” comments a woman in a story called “Cracked” about a houseguest’s too-high cork wedges(坡跟鞋). And, in the final story here, called “Gift,” a once-poor man made good says, “The sense of apology did not go away, it was a tiring thing to carry.”
③__ But, back to Dottie. When an elderly doctor and his wife come to stay at her guesthouse, Dottie bonds over tea with the wife, Shelley, who shares a story about a long-ago social humiliation.
④__ At breakfast the next morning, however, Shelley obviously regrets that confidence and becomes the Doctor’s wife again. She freezes Dottie out and puts her back in her place as the inn-keep.
There’s comic satisfaction in seeing Dottie secretly spitting into the breakfast jam, but the more profound rewards of this story have to do with its recognition of the many varieties of human insecurity — or, as Lucy Barton herself more bluntly puts it, the many ways “people are always looking to feel superior to someone else.”
Other stories have to do with sexual shame, or with the tragic ways close neighbors or family members misread each other; but I’m making Anything Is Possible sound too grim when, in fact, so many of these stories end in an understated (低调的) gesture of forgiveness. Strout is in that special company of writers like Richard Ford, Stewart O’Nan and Richard Russo, who write simply about ordinary lives and, in so doing, make us readers see the beauty of both their worn and rough surfaces and what lies beneath.
1.The author of the article may have reviewed these books EXCEPT_______.
A. Amy and Isabelle B. The Burgess Boys
C. Anything Is Possible D. Olive Kitteridge
2.What can be inferred according to the second paragraph?
A. The book Anything Is Possible depends wholly on that Barton girl.
B. The character Lucy floats in and out of these disconnected stories.
C. An ordinary character in one story can be a leading role in another.
D. Elizabeth Strout isn’t skillful at describing small characters in life.
3.Shelley freezes Dottie out the next morning because _______.
A. she feels she is superior to Dottie
B. Dottie spits into the breakfast jam
C. Dottie desires to be middle-class
D. she regrets the confidence in Dottie
4.The sentence “Indeed almost all of Strout’s characters have sharp eyes and even sharper observations to make when it comes to that great American subject: class.” should be put in ______.
A. ① B. ②
C. ③ D. ④
5.The tone of the article can be described as _______.
A. depressing B. critical
C. appreciative D. indifferent
6.What might be the best title for the passage?
A. Anything Is Possible — unquietness depths of ordinary lives
B. Elizabeth Strout — an outstanding Pulitzer Prize Winner
C. Anything Is Possible — a collection of grim short stories
D. Elizabeth Strout — a writer with clever writing techniques
