Qiang Shuping was so busy making cloth shoes1. she didn’t even rest during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. The woman from Baipu County, Jiangsu Province, 2. (make) shoes since she was 19 years old, and this year marks her 31st year making cloth shoes.
She spends the entire day in her tiny studio, which 3.(measure) less than 10 square meters altogether, filled with cloth shoes in4.(variety) stages of completion.
Nowadays, many stores make cloth shoes5. (use) machines, but Qiang sticks to the technique of making shoes entirely 6. hand. She says the shoes 7. (produce) by the machine are not of the same quality as handmade ones. The handmade cloth shoes are more durable and comfortable, 8.(soft), and absorb sweat better.
Some people buy cloth shoes out of nostalgia(怀旧), while others trust 9.(they) quality. Making shoes isn’t a profitable job, but Qiang still insists as she wants to preserve the craft and pass it down to the younger generation.
Handmade cloth shoes are also called qiancengdi (shoes with a thousand layers), 10. can date back to the ancient Zhou Dynasty. In 2009, the making technique of qiancengdi was listed as the national intangible cultural heritage.
Experts say boredom is good for kids. It forces them to be creative, ____their imaginations and helps them discover new things. A (n)____in point is 13-year-old Luke Thill from Dubuque, Iowa.
Luke was____of playing video games and riding his bike, so he decided to build a tiny house in his backyard instead. He made money from cutting lawns(草坪)and____exchanged some services, such as gaining the help of an electrical engineer____sweeping his garage. Luke also____spare materials from his grandmother’s house and other____materials from his neighbors for some of the windows and the door.
The 89-square—foot home cost $1,500 to build and ____18 months. Inside there’s a kitchenette, a back sitting room, a table and a mounted(镶嵌的)TV, and an upstairs bedroom can be easily____by stairway.
Although Luke did the____and learned how to do all the work, he had his father’s____throughout the project. Greg Thill was very happy that his son learned to stay on____and deal with grown-ups.____，he had some simple rules when Luke____the house: “You ____the money. You build it. And you own it.’’
Luke is now in love with ____. He has a YouTube channel and hopes to ____other kids to start building.____, he wants to build a bigger tiny house to live in, but for now, he____in his new home a few nights a week, does homework there, and uses it to take a____from his twin brother.
1.A. changes B. ignores C. improves D. weakens
2.A. method B. explanation C. procedure D. case
3.A. tired B. fond C. confident D. guilty
4.A. thus B. even C. still D. anyhow
5.A. in exchange for B. in praise for C. in support of D. in place of
6.A. updated B. ordered C. removed D. used
7.A. recycled B. cheap C. new D. raw
8.A. spent B. took C. saved D. wasted
9.A. supported B. accessed C. held D. landed
10.A. research B. housework C. experiment D. discovery
11.A. permission B. help C. control D. order
12.A. credit B. business C. budget D. duty
13.A. Therefore B. Besides C. Rather D. However
14.A. finished B. decorated C. started D. painted
15.A. borrow B. donate C. raise D. distribute
16.A. books B. videos C. riding D. building
17.A. inspire B. press C. command D. warn
18.A. Luckily B. Eventually C. Frequently D. Strangely
19.A. brings out B. leaves out C. hangs out D. puts out
20.A. ride B. risk C. chance D. break
They Just Can't Help It
My theory is that the female brain is mainly built for empathy — the ability to understand other people — and that the male brain is mainly built for building systems. 1. For example, women are more likely to read magazines on fashion and parenting, while men will choose magazines that feature computers and sport.
You may think that these preferences are influenced by the way people are taught to behave when they are growing up. However, this is not the case. A new study carried out at Cambridge University shows that newborn girls look longer at a face, and newborn boys look longer at a mobile. 2. It has also been observed that girls are better at noticing signs of changes in other people's feelings. Boys, however, seem to enjoy building toy towers and playing with toys which have clear functions. 3. People whose jobs are in the construction industries are almost male. Math and engineering, which require high levels of systems-thinking, are also male-chosen disciplines. Why do men and women have the difference? Actually women have four times as many brain neurons (神经) that connect the right and left part of their brains. Because of it, women have a better ability to multitask than men. 4. Men tend to focus on a limited number of problems at a time. They will separate themselves from problems and view tasks as independent from one another.
Some people may worry that I am suggesting one gender (性别) is better than the other, but this is not the case. My theory says that males and females differ in the kinds of things that they find easy, but that both genders have their strengths and weaknesses. 5. It is not true. The study simply looks at males and females as two groups, and asks what differences exist, and why they are there.
A. Generally speaking, there are clear differences.
B. Their preference for building systems may change over time.
C. You can see the same kind of pattern in the adult workplace.
D. They will consider many sources of information at the same time.
E. It is important to stress that the female brain may be built more for empathy.
F. That suggests certain differences between male and female brains are biological.
G. Others may think the theory creates a belief of what a particular type of person is like.
Can you be too beautiful? It is hardly a problem that most of us have to bother — as much as we might like to dream that it were the case.
Yet the blessings and curses of beauty have been a long-standing interest in psychology. Do those blessed with shiny faces and an attractive body live in a cloud of appreciation — or does it sometimes pay to be ordinary?
At the most basic level, beauty might be thought to carry a kind of halo (光环) around it; we see that someone has one good quality, and by association, our deep mind may assume that they have other good ones too.
Even in the courts, a pleasing appearance can work its magic. Attractive criminals are likely to get less strict sentences, or to escape punishment entirely; attractive plaintiffs (原告), meanwhile, are more likely to win their case and get bigger financial settlements. “It’s an effect seen everywhere,” says Walker.
But if beauty pays in most circumstances, there are still situations where it can have opposite results. While attractive men may be considered better leaders, for instance, hidden sexist prejudices (偏见) can work against attractive women, making them less likely to be hired for high-level jobs that require power. And as you might expect, good-looking people of both sexes run into envy — one study found that if you are interviewed by someone of the same sex, they may be less likely to employ you if they judge that you are more attractive than they are.
More worryingly, being beautiful or handsome could harm your medical care. We tend to link good looks to health, meaning that illnesses are often taken less seriously when they affect the good-looking. When treating people for pain, for instance, doctors tend to take less care over the more attractive people.
Ultimately, scientists point out that focusing too much on your appearance can itself be harmful if it creates stress and anxiety — even for those already blessed with good looks. “If you are crazy about attractiveness, it may affect your experience and interactions,” she says. It’s an outdated saying, but no amount of beauty can make up for a bad personality. As the writer Dorothy Parker put it so elegantly: “Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone.”
1.From paragraph 1, we can learn that _______.
A. some may be bothered by their unattractive appearance
B. most people are not afraid of being too beautiful
C. we might always dream about being bothered by others
D. being too beautiful can be a problem bothering everyone
2.Which is the benefit for beautiful people?
A. All attractive plaintiffs have more chances to get away with punishment.
B. Women with pleasing appearance will always be considered as better leaders.
C. Good-looking people are often regarded as having many good qualities.
D. Beautiful criminals are more likely to persuade the judge and win the case.
3.The writer mentioned the underlined sentence in the last paragraph to _______.
A. persuade us to pay more attention to our looks from now on
B. suggest that beauty can help make a better personality
C. encourage us to focus more on improving our personality
D. ask ugly people to have more confidence in their personality
4.What might be the best title for the passage?
A. Beauty, a blessing? B. Sexist Prejudice.
C. Real beauty. D. Benefits Beauty holds.
Humans have been keeping animals as pets for tens of thousands of years, but Dr. Jean-Loup Rault, an animal scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, believes new companions are coming: robot pets.
“Technology is moving very fast,” Rault told ABC News, “The Tamagotchi in the early 1990s was really the first robotic pet, and now Sony and other big companies have improved them a lot.”
This may not sit well with pet lovers. After all, who would choose a plastic toy over a lovely puppy? But Rault argues that the robotic kind has a lot going for it: “You don’t have to feed it, you don’t have to walk it, it won’t make a mess in your house, and you can go on a holiday without feeling guilty.” The technology also benefits those who are allergic to pets, short on space, or fearful of real animals.
It’s not clear whether robot pets can replace real ones. But studies do suggest that we can bond with these smart machines. People give their cars names and kids give their toy animals life stories. It’s the same with robots. When Sony stopped its repair service for its robot dog Aibo in March 2014, owners in Japan held funerals.
As an animal welfare researcher, Rault is concerned about how robotic pets could affect our attitudes towards live animals. “If we become used to a robotic companion that doesn’t need food, water or exercises, perhaps it will change how humans care about other living beings,” he said.
So are dogs and cats a thing of the past, as Rault predicts? For those who grew up with living and breathing pets, the mechanical kind might not do. But for our next generation who are in constant touch with smart technology, a future in which lovely pets needn’t have a heartbeat might not be a far-fetched dream.
1.What does the underlined phrase “sit well with” means?
A. be refused by B. be beneficial to
C. make a difference to D. receive support from
2.What are the advantages of robot pets?
a. They are plastic and feel smooth.
b. Owners needn’t worry about them when going out.
c. They can help cure allergies.
d. They save space and costs.
A. ab. B. bc. C. bd. D. cd.
3.The passage mainly tells us ______.
A. the advantages of robot toys B. the popularity of robot pets
C. living pets are dying out D. robot pets are coming
Hundreds of years ago, news was carried from place to place by people on foot or by horse. It took days, weeks and sometimes months for people to receive news. Now it is possible to send words and pictures around the world in seconds. Billions of people learn about news stories of their own country and all over the world every day, either by watching TV or reading newspapers.
Newspapers have been an important part of everyday life since the 18th century. Many countries have hundreds of different newspapers. How do newspaper editors decide which news stories to print? Why do they print some stories and not others? What makes a good newspaper story?
Firstly, it is important to report new stories. TV stations can report news much faster than newspapers. Yet, newspapers give more about the same story. They may also look at the story in another way, or they may print completely different stories to those on TV.
Secondly, a news story has to be interesting and unusual. People don’t want to read stories about everyday life. As a result, many stories are about some kind of danger and seem to be "bad" news. For example, newspapers never print stories about planes landing safely; instead they print stories about plane accidents.
Another factor is also very important in many news stories. Many people are interested in news in foreign countries, but more prefer to read stories about people, places and events in their own country. So the stories on the front page in Chinese newspapers are usually very different from the ones in British, French and American newspapers.
1.According to the passage, how do people learn about news stories in the world now?
A. They carry news stories and tell others from place to place on foot or by horse.
B. They tell each other what they have seen with their eyes.
C. They watch TV or read newspapers.
D. They listen to the radio every day.
2.The difference between newspaper stories and TV news reports is that _______.
A. people can learn more about the same news story from a newspaper
B. people can read the news story more quickly in a newspaper
C. people can read news stories in other countries
D. people can read news stories about their own country
3.According to the passage, which of the following can you most possibly watch on TV?
A. You often play football with your friends after school.
B. Your teacher has got a cold.
C. A tiger in the city zoo has run out and hasn’t been caught.
D. The bike in front of your house is lost.
