“The price of books for our students is just getting higher and higher and，combined with the rising cost of tuition，it’s killing these students，”said Peter Jason，a college professor. “Remember，students are one of the poorest groups of people in America. Almost half of them have at least one part-time job. In fact，one of my students has three jobs. And she still manages to have high scores and go to school full-time. ”
Textbook prices are traditionally high. Adding to that problem, many college teachers change textbooks year after year; they either upgrade to a new edition or switch to an entirely different textbook. This further hurts students because if an instructor no longer uses a particular textbook，that book has no resale value.
Dr. Jason decided to make reading a little easier and a lot cheaper for his students by writing his own book on public speaking. “Many books have an increased price because of CD-ROMs，lots of color photographs and pictures. I talked to my students，and many of them，like me，prefer to keep things simple! So，a few years ago，I wrote my own textbook. Compared to most other public speaking books，mine is half the number of pages，and one-third the price. That is，$30 instead of $90. When I wrote a second edition last year，students only had to buy the 35 new pages, For only $7. 00，they had almost a new book. Now my loose-leaf textbook enjoys great popularity among the students. Maybe in the future more writers and publishers will try it. ”
1.What did Dr. Jason say about students at college?
A.They are short of money.
B.They need better textbooks.
C.They should do part-time jobs.
D.They are trying to get high scores.
2.What did Dr. Jason decide to do to help the students?
A.To choose cheaper textbooks.
B.To write a textbook himself.
C.To speak to his students.
D.To use old textbooks.
3.How much does a public speaking textbook usually cost?
A.About 7 dollars. B.About 30 dollars.
C.About 37 dollars. D.About 90 dollars.
4.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A.Dr. Jason’s textbook has CD-ROMs and nice pictures.
B.More writers and publishers will write simpler textbooks.
C.Dr. Jason teaches public speaking at a college.
D.Dr. Jason’s textbook is not well received.
Who is your role model? Normally the answer to this question would be anyone around you who you find truly inspiring. It could also be someone like J. K. Rowling or Martin Luther King. Jr. , who have proven to be strong and intelligent people.
However, in today’s world, stars are regarded as role models along with the heroes listed above, despite their intentions or actions. Teens attempt to imitate their actions for two major reasons. Firstly, to be fashionable and accepted by popular culture, and secondly because stars’ actions are so well documented by the media that it seems to grab our attention and turns it to following stars’ lives. Much of the reports about stars is shocking and exhibits bad morals or lifestyles that aren’t right for teenagers. In addition, almost everything stars do is described beyond truth to make a shocking story by taking it to the next level.
However, teens must take responsibility for their actions. We can’t always blame stars for influencing us. Only you have control over yourself and only you choose to do something. Our bodies and actions are in the hands of no one else.
Now, whoever said stars are role models? Whether they choose to be or not, stars set examples as soon as they step into the spotlight. With reporters following and recording every move they make, it is impossible not to be watched and then be imitated. These people influence teens whether or not they want to. Why should someone who doesn’t want to be setting an example set one? So，should we look up to them or to people who are true and good role models? It’s our responsibility as teens to know right from wrong, and it’s time for us to take responsibility for our actions. In doing so，we will lean toward those inspiring people that want to be setting an example, and follow in their steps to be like them.
1.According to the first paragraph, _______ can usually be role models.
A. political leaders
B. wealthy writers
C. people inspiring others
D. people with great intelligence
2.What are the major reasons for the teens to imitate stars?
A. Interest in stars’ life and expectation of getting rich.
B. Motivation for being fashionable and inspiration from popular examples.
C. Intentions to gain acceptance and encouragement from stars’ lifestyle.
D. Desires to be stylish and great influence from the mass media.
3.The author writes the passage mainly to advise the teenagers to _______.
A. have a control over their own bodies and actions
B. be responsible for their own choices and behaviors
C. follow fashionable stars’ steps to be more popular
D. choose right role models according to different reports
4.It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
A. stars have the responsibility for teenagers’ actions
B. not all famous stars choose to influence teenagers
C. teenagers choose those inspiring people as their role models
D. stars set examples immediately they stepped into the spotlight
Decision-making under Stress
A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative (负面的) consequences of a decision.
The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways.
“Stress affects how people learn,” says Professor Mara Mather. “People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress.”
For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images(影像) with either rewards or punishments. In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water. In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn’t gone through the stress.
This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress –at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind. But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect. Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also easily recalled.
The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women. While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different.
Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.
This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men: they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction.
1.We can learn from the passage that people under pressure tend to ______.
A.keep rewards better in their memory
B.recall consequences more effortlessly
C.make risky decisions more frequently
D.learn a subject more effectively
2.According to the research, stress affects people most probably in their ______.
A.ways of making choices B.preference for pleasure
C.tolerance of punishments D.responses to suggestions
3.The research has proved that in a stressful situation, ______.
A.women find it easier to fall into certain habits
B.men have a greater tendency to slow down
C.women focus more on outcomes
D.men are more likely to take risks
假定你是李华，你的美国朋友Tony打算假期再次来你市参加中文培训班。他想提前了解近年来你市的变化。请你给他写封回信，包括下列内容：
1. 环境更优美了；
2. 出行更方便了：
3. 传统文化更受重视了。
注意：1.词数100左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文流畅。
Dear Tony,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多有两处。每处错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧）, 并在其下写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线, 并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2.只允许修改10处, 多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Recently, it was reported that a girl got her feet stick in a waste pipe because she kept looking at her mobile phone. It sounds a kind of ridiculous. However, when we look people around us, we can find that new technologies take up much of people time. They like talking on the Internet, which makes themselves ignore things in real life. No matter what they are done, waiting for the bus or having dinners with some friends, smart phones are always in their hands. It seems that the smart phone had controlled their life total. Life is beautiful if we can fully enjoy it, and we will miss many amazing moments.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。
The Silk Road is in fact a1.(relative) recent term. These ancient roads had no particular name 2. in the middle of the 1800s, Baron Ferdinand Von Richthofen named the trade and communication network the Silk Road. Since then the term has been accepted globally.
In the 3.(nineteen) century, a new type of travelers stepped onto the Silk Road: archaeologists and geographers, enthusiastic explorers who were eager 4.(look) for adventure. Researchers who came from many countries traveled through the Taklamakan Desert, which is now in Xinjiang, to explore ancient sites along the Silk Road, leading 5.many discoveries and 6. (study), and most of all,a renewed interest in the history of these routes.
Today, many historic buildings and monuments still stand, 7. (mark) the passage of the Silk Road through hotels, ports and cities. What's more, the long-standing legacy（遗产）of this8.(remark) network is reflected in a large number of cultures, languages, customs and religions that 9.(develop) for many years along these routes. The passage of merchants and travelers of many different nationalities resulted not only in commercial exchange, but in a widespread and continual process of cultural interaction. Obviously,it has become 10.driving force in the formation of diverse societies.
