It started four years ago. My wife would see a ______ man near where she worked. It was the week before Christmas and she said she wanted to purchase a new coat for him because his coat was ______. We don’t have a lot of ______. We are really a step away from being homeless in rags most months but we try to ______ when we can.
We talked and found a way to get some money together to ______ him a coat. I ______ that since we were giving a coat to him, we should look at what else he might ______. We decided to fill a ______ with some useful ______ things—a toothbrush, soap, clothes, a hat, gloves and some food. A small gift and Christmas card was put in it as well.
We haven’t had money to exchange ______ for birthdays or Christmas for many years, too. It feels wonderful to have someone ______ you at Christmas but I’ve always been a little ________ when friends ask “What did you get for Christmas?” It always makes my wife feel bad that she can’t ______ to give me anything and I feel the same. So I would ______ and say she bought me this thing or that. But that year we could say we ______ something to others instead and that’s ________ what happened.
People asked and we said what we did. They also wanted to help the following ______ and we made ten more backpacks the following Christmas, and this year we really ______ the gifts.
I still can’t afford to buy my wife some gifts to _______on Christmas day, but the ________ we feel makes up for it ten times!
1.A. sick B. generous C. homeless D. energetic
2.A. loose B. shabby C. large D. tight
3.A. money B. power C. time D. trouble
4.A. recover B. bargain C. escape D. help
5.A. buy B. make C. show D. lend
6.A. commanded B. insisted C. regretted D. warned
7.A. ignore B. store C. dislike D. need
8.A. backpack B. room C. suitcase D. car
9.A. left B. external C. daily D. cheap
10.A. principles B. gifts C. opinions D. congratulations
11.A. think of B. turn to C. rely on D. stand for
12.A. pleased B. contradictory C. embarrassed D. content
13.A. expect B. reject C. wait D. afford
14.A. admit B. lie C. debate D. disagree
15.A. compared B. exposed C. presented D. sold
16.A. briefly B. hardly C. finally D. exactly
17.A. year B. month C. day D. season
18.A. removed B. replaced C. added D. decorated
19.A. wear B. open C. eat D. judge
20.A. peace B. sorrow C. attitude D. joy
I think it is safe to say that happiness is the king of emotions. Everyone wants to talk about how to get it, ways to prolong it and the benefits associated with it. Not surprisingly, negative emotions are considered to be bad. 1. But bad feelings can be a valuable way to arouse you to take action. In fact, they can be a surprising source of personal growth by doing the following things.
● Recognize what you are feeling. There are going to be times when the negative emotions are just temporary. 2. However, if it happens on a frequent basis, your mind is trying to tell you something and you need to handle it.
●3. Once you recognize the negative emotion you are feeling, you need to understand just what is behind it. The trouble is that often the cause of your bad feelings might be hard to see. Is it your home life, work, friends, unrealized dreams or various other frustrations? Take your time figuring it out and get to the root of what is causing the negative emotion.
● Take correct action. In some cases, it might be easy. If someone consistently makes you angry, you can just avoid them. In many other cases, you might need to take even bolder（大胆的） action. 4. Hopefully you have a different opinion on negative emotions now. They are not things designed to only make your life miserable. 5.
A. Understand the causes.
B. Action is the real cause of pain.
C. Acknowledge your true feelings.
D. They are to be avoided at all costs.
E. What they really are is a signal for change.
F. Everyone feels a little down every once in a while.
G. An example of that would be ending a failing marriage or quitting your job.
The dangers of drowsy（昏昏欲睡） driving have been widely known. Now several companies have developed face-tracking technology that can tell when drivers become dangerously sleepy.
Here is how it might work. A camera in your car monitors your facial expression, compares it to a database of expressions and determines if you are likely sleepy or distracted. The car then alerts you to pay attention or pull over.
Affectiva has developed emotion recognition technology that aims to detect when people are just starting to get tired. The idea is to catch the warning signs before drowsiness really strikes. “Actually, when someone is drowsy, that is too late.” Gabi, vice president of Affectiva said. “What if you can see trends in someone’s face about five minutes before they become sleepy?” Affectiva’s program can recognize seven different emotions and 15 facial expressions. Its standards were developed by sifting （筛选） through a database of 4 million faces from 75 countries, said Zijderveld. She suggested that carmakers could coordinate （协调）the program’s facial recognition data with oral reminders, such as sound warnings, or （nonverbal）alerts, like a change of temperature and vibrations （continuous slight shaking movements）.
Eyeris is another company working in facial analytics. Modar Alaoui, the company’s CEO, said that its software detects “eye openness” in addition to other facial indicators. The software can also read head position, which may indicate when someone begins to nod off.
These technologies aren’t the first attempt to fight drowsiness behind the wheel. Inventors came up with the similar device “sleeper beeper” to prevent sleep in cars back in 1983. The sleeper beeper was attached to a driver’s ear and would issue a noisy warning when the driver’s head nodded past a certain point. But the latest software would intervene （干涉） earlier and more effectively.
1.The camera in the car can determine if a driver is ________.
A. cold-blooded B. near-sighted
C. bad-tempered D. absent-minded
2.When will drivers be reminded to pay attention or pull over by the face-tracking technology?
A. When they are just beginning to get tired.
B. Five minutes after they become sleepy.
C. When they are really tired.
D. When they are drowsy.
3.It is most likely that the “sleeper beeper” would send out a warning by ________.
A. shaking slightly B. making noise
C. flashing brilliantly D. changing temperature
4.What is the main idea of the text?
A. The dangers of drowsy driving have been widely known.
B. Inventors have tried out the similar device “sleeper beeper”.
C. Several companies have found some ways to fight drowisness behind the wheel.
D. Face-tracking technology for drowsy driving has been developed by several companies.
In the space of just two years, the app Douyin, created by Beijing-based company ByteDance, has gathered more than half a billion users—around 40％ of them outside China—who share short videos of themselves lip-syncing （假唱）, cooking, dancing or just being silly. What sets ByteDance apart is its success in the social media category, which is controlled by Facebook, Twitter and Snap—all Western companies.
ByteDance calls itself an artificial intelligence company. It uses machine learning and algorithms （算法） to figure out what people like most and give them more of what they want to see. On Douyin, people can edit and beautify 15-second videos before posting them online. The app has even made a phrase to describe people glued to their customized feeds: “shua Douyin” or “scrolling through Douyin”. Last year, the company released TikTok, the overseas version of Douyin. ByteDance’s growing video empire has made it the world’s fifth biggest app maker. ByteDance says TikTok and Douyin together have more than 500 million monthly active users.
Investors like ByteDance because its hundreds of millions of users attract a lot of advertising money. The video apps are lucrative because they attract a lot of users in their teens and 20s, who are more generous with the money. ByteDance also makes money through income sharing deals. People on TikTok, for example, can buy digital coins to give to other people on the app—like throwing money in a performer’s tip jar. ByteDance takes a cut of those earnings.
ByteDance’s founder and CEO is Zhang Yiming, a 35-year-old former Microsoft employee. People who have worked with Zhang describe him as someone who thinks deeply about technology and spends much of his free time writing code.
Like Facebook and Twitter, ByteDance is also battling fake news and inappropriate content. ByteDance promises to add thousands more employees to review the content on Douyin.
1.What makes ByteDance so special?
A. Its app challenges similar companies’ rule in Western world.
B. It invented the social media app initially in the world.
C. It is the biggest artificial intelligence company on the earth.
D. It has controlled Facebook, Twitter and Snap.
2.Why is Douyin so popular?
A. It is a new generation hi-tech product.
B. It has both home and overseas version.
C. It is easy and totally free to operate online.
D. It meets the demand of people individually.
3.How does ByteDance make a profit?
A. By charging the users. B. By charging the advertisement.
C. By forcing the users to donate. D. By selling its artificial intelligence.
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A. Douyin, a Popular App
B. ByteDance, a Successful Company
C. Facebook Together with Douyin Is Batting Fake News
D. Twitter Is Helping Douyin Attract More Advertising Money
In the western Los Angeles sits the famous city of Hollywood, known as the global center of movie studios and film stars.
The Selig Film Manufacturing Company was the first major film company to come to Hollywood, shooting its first film entitled The Heart of A Race Tout in 1908. The next year the film company built the first permanent film studio.
Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film. The best source of illumination for movie production was nature sunlight. Besides the sunny weather, film producers were also drawn to Hollywood because of its open spaces and wide variety of natural scenery.
Another reason was the distance of Southern California from New Jersey, which made it more difficult for Thomas Edison to enforce his film patents. At that time, Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to film production. As a result, in the East, movie producers acting independently out of Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company were often accused by Edison. But in Los Angeles, things were different. If he sent his men to California, word would usually reach Los Angeles before they did and the movie makers could escape to nearby Mexico.
In 1911, a second movie studio—Nestor Studios, was founded. At about the same time, many film production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to sunny California because of the good weather.
The first Academy Awards presentation ceremony took place in 1929 in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Tickets were $10 and there were 250 people attending the ceremony.
From about 1930, five major “Hollywood” movie studios in Hollywood, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros, owned almost all large theatres throughout the country for the exhibition of their movies. The period between the years 1927 to 1984 was considered the “Golden Age of Hollywood”.
1.The word “illumination” in the third paragraph can be replaced by ________.
A. light B. story
C. patent D. film
2.According to the text, film producers were drawn to Hollywood for the following reasons EXCEPT ________.
A. open spaces B. various scenery
C. unique culture D. sunny weather
3.What can we infer from paragraph 4?
A. Thomas Edison moved his office to Hollywood to enforce his film patents.
B. Movie producers working on the West Coast were never accused by Edison.
C. Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company owned many studios in Hollywood.
D. Movie makers in Los Angeles could work independently out of Edison’s control.
4.What do we know about the first Academy Awards presentation ceremony?
A. It was held in a restaurant.
B. There were 250 people receiving the awards.
C. There were 250 people present at the ceremony.
D. It was held by five major “Hollywood” movie studios.
If you have never been on a cruise （乘船游览）, it can seem like its own world—with its own rules and secret language. So here we are going to lay out the very basics of going on a cruise.
Do I need a passport to go on a cruise?
You may need a passport, but you should take one anyway. Besides the fact that you are going to need an ID card to board the ship in the first place, a lot of ports require one.
How much luggage can I take on board?
For the most part, cruise ships aren’t like planes—there isn’t a strictly regulated amount of luggage you can take with you, and you are not going to be charged for bringing too much. Keep in mind that cabin storage space can be tight. Everything, including your empty luggage, is going to have to fit inside and you don’t want to be tripping over it for your whole vacation.
Things like guns and knives are banned, but regulations vary from ship to ship about things like irons （generally a no） and hair dryers （generally a yes）. Some ships allow you to bring a bottle of wine, but nearly all ban bringing your own hard alcohol.
What’s the process for boarding a cruise ship?
Boarding a cruise ship is like boarding a plane—there are regulations or when to arrive, how to check-in, and what security you have to go through. Most cruise lines have transportation available from the airport; otherwise they normally own a paid parking lot where you can leave your car.
1.What will you have to show when you board a ship in the first place?
A. A credit card. B. A post card.
C. An ID card. D. Luggage.
2.What can you take when you are on a cruise?
A. As much alcohol as you can. B. More luggage than on a plane.
C. Less luggage than on a plane. D. As many guns and knives as you can.
3.Where does the text probably come from?
A. A storybook. B. A guidebook.
C. A book review. D. A science report.
