A Dog’s Day in Court
We used to live about a quarter mile from a train crossing. Our dog, Lenny, had a very annoying habit: he howled (嗥叫)whenever a train whistled for the crossing, due to his very ______ hearing. Outside or in the house, he howled and howled ______ the train went by. When the wind was ______, he would even howl for the crossings farther down the ______. We learned to ______ the noise, mainly because we loved our pet so much.
Early one morning while we were eating breakfast, we heard a long very high sound of a train’s ______ efforts followed by a terrible crash. We ______ out and discovered a twisted car jammed on the cowcatcher (排障器) of the massive locomotive (火车头). Unfortunately, the driver of the car had died ______.
Back in the house, we called the local rescue workers. But we all immediately said to each other, “Lenny didn’t howl. The whistle could not have blown!”
At the ______, my brother recognized what was left of the car ______ that of his friend’s father and knew the sad news would now have to be ______ to the family. When the rescue team arrived, my brother told them, “The engineer couldn’t have blown the ______ because our dog did not howl. And he always does!”
The story of Lenny’s howling ______ rapidly around our small town as everyone ______ in the sorrow of the wife and family. Left without the ______, the family of nine was in a difficult situation. One of the county’s best-known lawyers ______ to pursue a claim against the, by now, infamous Soo Line Cooperation for the sake of the widow and children. The lawyer hired an investigator and recording technician, who, for days, at all hours, visited our home listening for oncoming trains and ______ recording Lenny’s howl. Lenny never ______ to respond with his howl to the sharp sound of an approaching train.
The taped evidence,______ in court, along with the testimony (证词) of my family members, convinced the judge and jury. The settlement ______ to the family secured their home and future. County court records give evidence of the success of a “dog’s day in court!”
1.A.sensitive B.public C.accurate D.adequate
2.A.unless B.until C.before D.although
3.A.bitter B.right C.small D.sharp
4.A.car B.train C.house D.track
5.A.keep up with B.give in to C.put up with D.live up to
6.A.speeding B.approaching C.operating D.braking
7.A.headed B.marched C.dashed D.started
8.A.peacefully B.naturally C.eventually D.instantly
9.A.agency B.corner C.scene D.entrance
10.A.as B.for C.like D.by
11.A.confirmed B.conveyed C.declared D.leaked
12.A.sign B.whistle C.howl D.wind
13.A.circulated B.disappeared C.flowed D.delivered
14.A.suffered B.abandoned C.shared D.struggled
15.A.assistant B.master C.breadwinner D.host
16.A.happened B.decided C.refused D.demanded
17.A.vividly B.occasionally C.secretly D.faithfully
18.A.failed B.bothered C.rejected D.managed
19.A.negotiated B.exposed C.accumulated D.presented
20.A.donated B.awarded C.allocated D.distributed
根据《黑布林》小说内容，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
1.What is Gatsby’s real name and where is he from?
A.Floyd Jay Geisinger from Nevada B.Jaime Garcia from New York
C.James Gatz from Nevada D.James Gatz from North Dakota
2.Which of these details is true about Gatsby’s past?
A.He received a degree from Oxford.
B.He is the son of wealthy people from the Midwest.
C.He fought in the war.
D.He once hit and kill a person.
3.Which of the things is not symbolized by the green light?
A.Optimism B.American dream
C.nature D.money
4.What does the tattoo on Bruno’s forearm mean?
A.To be optimistic B.Seize the day
C.Live and learn D.Honest is the best police
5.What does Bruno use to record the entire meeting?
A.Earphones B.Mobile phone
C.Sunglasses D.Coconut
Every animal sleeps, but the reason for this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month. 1.
One idea is that sleep helps us strengthen new memories. 2. We know that, while awake, fresh memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强) connections between brain cells, but the memory processes that take place while we sleep have been unclear.
Support is growing for a theory that sleep evolved so that connections between neurons(神经元) in the brain can be weakened overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day. 3.
Now we have the most direct evidence yet that he is right. 4.The synapses in the mice taken at the end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before sleep, showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.
If Tononi’s theory is right, it would explain why, when we miss a night’s, we find it harder the next day to concentrate and learn new information — our brains may have smaller room for new experiences.
Their research also suggests how we may build lasting memories over time even though the synapses become thinner. The team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same size. 5. “You keep what matters,” Tononi says.
A. We should also try to sleep well the night before.
B. It’s as if the brain is preserving its most important memories.
C. Similarly, when people go for a few days without sleeping, they get sick.
D. The processes take place to stop our brains becoming loaded with memories.
E. That’s why students do better in tests if they get a chance to sleep after learning.
F. “Sleep is the price we pay for learning,” says Giulio Tononi, who developed the idea.
G. Tononi’s team measured the size of these connections, or synapses, in the brains of 12 mice.
As Connie took the plates away, I noticed a stack of newspapers that had obviously been read before I got there.
"You bother keeping up with the news?" I asked. "Yes," Morrie said. "Do you think that's strange? Do you think because I'm dying, I shouldn't care what happens in this world?"
Maybe.
He sighed. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I shouldn't care. After all, I won't be around to see how it all turns out.”
"But it's hard to explain, Mitch. Now that I'm suffering, I feel closer to people who suffer than I ever did before. The other night, on TV, I saw people in Bosnia running across the street, getting fired upon, killed, innocent victims . . . and I just started to cry. I feel their anguish as if it were my own. I don't know any of these people. But how can I put this? I'm almost . . . drawn to them."
His eyes got moist, and I tried to change the subject, but he dabbed his face and waved me off.
"I cry all the time now," he said. "Never mind."
Amazing, I thought. I worked in the news business. I covered stories where people died. I interviewed grieving family members. I even attended the funerals. I never cried. Morrie, for the suffering of people half a world away, was weeping. Is this what comes at the end, I wondered? Maybe death is the great equalizer, the one big thing that can finally make strangers shed a tear for one another.
Morrie honked loudly into the tissue. "This is okay with you, isn't it? Men crying?"
"Sure, " I said, too quickly.
He grinned. "Ah, Mitch, I'm gonna loosen you up. One day, I'm gonna show you it's okay to cry."
"Yeah, yeah, " I said. "Yeah, yeah," he said.
We laughed because he used to say the same thing nearly twenty years earlier. Mostly on Tuesdays. In fact, Tuesday had always been our day together. Most of my courses with Morrie were on Tuesdays, he had office hours on Tuesdays, and when I wrote my senior thesis which was pretty much Morrie's suggestion, right from the start-it was on Tuesdays that we sat together, by his desk, or in the cafeteria, or on the steps of Pearlman Hall, going over the work.
So it seemed only fitting that we were back together on a Tuesday, here in the house with the Japanese maple out front. As I readied to go, I mentioned this to Morrie.
"We're Tuesday people," he said. "Tuesday people, " I repeated.
Morrie smiled.
"Mitch, you asked about caring for people I don't even know. But can I tell you the thing I'm learning most with this disease?"
"What's that? "
"The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "Let it come in. We think we don't deserve love, we think if we let it in we'll become too soft. But a wise man named Levine said it right. He said, `Love is the only rational act.' "
He repeated it carefully, pausing for effect. " ‘Love is the only rational act.’"
I nodded, and he exhaled weakly. I leaned over to give him a hug. And then, although it is not really like me, I kissed him on the cheek. I felt his weakened hands on my arms, the thin stubble of his whiskers brushing my face.
"So you'll come back next Tuesday?" he whispered.
1.What kind of person do you think Morrie is?
A.Kind and sensitive B.Sensitive and energetic
C.Committed and stubborn D.Depressed and stubborn
2.What relationship do you suppose Morrie and Mitch share?
A.Neighbors B.Colleagues
C.Father and son. D.Teacher and student
3.Which of the following details shows that Mitch has been influenced by Morrie?
A.I learned over to give him a hug B.I felt his weakened hands
C.I kissed him on the cheek D.Sure, I said, too quickly
4.What does the underlined phrase “loosen you up” mean?
A.let you go B.make you relaxed
C.lose control of you D.allow you to be free
Landscapes are not only the setting for history; they are also a major source of our sense of history and identity. Read them right, and historical landscapes can be more informative than any other kind of source. This is even more the case with sacred landscapes, which were reflection of our ancestors’ beliefs about their relation to the cosmos and can still today seem to hold a spiritual influence.
Over the years, I’ve had the good fortune to have spent time in many historical landscapes, hoping to picture something of the spirits of the people who shaped them over the centuries. I still remember years ago walking along the Inca sacred lines around Cusco, Peru. In this ancient landscape, old sites that once belonged to Incan royals had become torn Spanish mansions. Or many years ago, before the Gulf Wars, I took a journey through south Iraq, the heart land of civilization, where the desert is still crossed by dried-up riverbeds of the Euphrates and canals that once sustained the world’s first cities.
Britain also has its own magical ancient landscapes. From the Mesolithic to the Bronze and Iron Ages, rich layers of the past are still present in the landscape surrounding Stonehenge, even as traffic rushes down the A303. It is the A303 that is the problem. As the main road to the south west from the home counties, the road runs right past Stonehenge. One of humanity’s most famous monuments, Stonehenge is an archaeological landscape without parallel in Europe, and perhaps the world. The first circle at Stonehenge was made 5,000 years ago, and the great stone circle itself in a round 2,500 BC — the age of the pyramids! And the mysteries of this amazing monument and the complex prehistoric societies that produced it are by no means exhausted, as new discoveries continue to show.
All the more worrying to me then, this unique landscape is currently at the centre of a projected plan by Highways England, which aims to relieve congestion on the A303 by creating a four-lane road with a 1.8-mile tunnel, and an expressway interchange 1.5 miles to the west. While the National Trust and English Heritage have offered qualified support for the plan, UNESCO has expressed its opposition. Meanwhile, the Stonehenge Alliance, a group of archaeologists and environmental campaigners, says the plan is based on inadequate and obsolete information. In the end, the argument is about the totality of an ancient landscape, and that includes the ancient astronomical alignment that was purposefully chosen by our ancestors, and that will, in my view, be wrecked by the expressway interchange. Time perhaps for a rethink in the name of future generations?
1.What can historical landscapes offer us?
A.Details of ancient lifestyle. B.Sacred writings
C.Rich historical information D.Breathtaking sights.
2.What did the author want to explore when touring historical landscapes?
A.Different architecture. B.His sense of belonging.
C.The rise of ancient cities. D.The spirits of ancestors.
3.Which of the following is True about Stonehenge?
A.The first stone circle has a longer history than the pyramids.
B.New discoveries have solved the mysteries of the monument.
C.The ancient monument must have been the heart land of civilization.
D.The landscape surrounding Stonehenge has rich layers of the present.
4.What is the author’s attitude towards the projected plan by Highways England?
A.He is for it because it will benefit the future generations.
B.He keeps cool but believes a better solution could be adopted.
C.It should be stopped because it will destroy the totality of the monument.
D.It is rather practical especially with qualified support from the government.
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Here are some insider tips that we’d like to share with you.
Join an Airline Loyalty Program Even if you don’t think you travel often enough to make an airline loyalty program worth it, join one. This is your best chance of getting a flight upgrade (升级), even if you stay at a low point level. | Get the Weekly Car Rental Rate It’s a bit puzzling that car rental companies charge more for driving less, but the weekly rate is often cheaper than driving just four days. You may be able to get the weekly rate for just five days, so keep the car a bit longer if you can. |
Ask the Crew about Free Souvenirs Lots of free stuff is lying around cruise ships, such as T-shirts, crossword puzzles, and postcards. Make friends with the crew members and nicely ask what kind of freebies may be available for souvenirs. Just don’t forget to tip! | Ask for a Corner Room When you check in at a hotel, ask if there’s a corner room available. These are usually larger and quieter for the same price as ones in the middle of the hall. Upgrades are most often offered at the end of the day when hotels have a better sense of their occupancy. |
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1.Which of the following statements is true?
A.If you join an airline loyalty program, you will surely get a flight upgrade.
B.In different locations, rooms of the same price may vary in size and surroundings.
C.You will have to pay more for car rental as your driving time increases.
D.Make friends with crew members and you can take away all the souvenirs aboard.
2.Why is it more likely to be upgraded in a hotel at the end of the day?
A.Because people usually check out.
B.Because there are more rooms available.
C.Because hotels make it a rule to offer upgrades at that time.
D.Because hotels know better about the number of rooms used.
