My whole career is about clothes – but I have no interest in fashion. What I love doing with clothes is using them to tell a story. That’s what costume design is all about. I wasn’t one of those little girls always dressing up dolls. My parents were musicians, so there was never any money, but our household was artistic.
As a child in the 1950s there was no TV, so we drew, painted and made things out of cardboard boxes. My parents encouraged me and my younger sister to be creative – making a mess was fine, and we were even allowed to draw on one of the walls at our home in Kensington, west London. After school I studied at Central Saint Martins School of Art, where I learned how to draw patterns and cut fabric. Back then it was set design, not costumes, that most interested me.
Thanks to a childhood friend, Nick Young, I was offered some unpaid work on early Merchant Ivory film productions. For a 1978 movie called Hullabaloo Over Georgie And Bonnie’s Pictures, I was asked to put together clothes for its star, Dame Peggy Ashcroft, to wear in India. After a meeting with her, Peggy took me aside. ‘My dear, we’re getting on quite well,’ she said. ‘They’ve given me a first-class ticket to India, now if I change it for two economy flights, will you come with me?’ Of course I said yes! No question.
It was before The Jewel In The Crown and A Passage To India, and Peggy had never been to India. At 70, she was a little nervous, but great fun. We shared a room and I looked after her in every possible way. At night we sat up in our little beds, having a brandy or whisky and discussing our day. After the shoot we went on holiday to Goa together. Peggy rode around on the back of my motorbike!
I became part of the Merchant Ivory team and went on to work on many other period films, including 1996’s Sense And Sensibility. I’ve known Emma Thompson for 30 years and she’s hilarious and wonderful.
I had won an Oscar before, in 1987 for A Room With A View, and have been nominated a further eight times. I keep my Oscars on a desk that belonged to my mother in my study, so they are very much on display but off the beaten track. Not in the living room and certainly not in the downstairs loo!
For a career I somehow fell into, it’s provided me with a wonderful life, really.
1.Why did Peggy and the author make friends with each other?
A.They were of the same age. B.They worked in the same theater.
C.They were both good actors. D.They got along very well.
2.Which of the following works’ location was not mentioned?
A.The Jewel In The Crown.
B.A Room With A View.
C.Hullabaloo Over Georgie And Bonnie’s Pictures.
D.A Passage To India.
3.Why did the author mention her parents when she was a child?
A.To show she was not talented in designing clothes.
B.To amuse the readers with a funny story.
C.To show her parents inspired her creativity.
D.To share a precious memory in her childhood.
4.Which of the following best describes the author as a designer?
A.Ambitious B.Dedicated
C.Caring D.Demanding
Researchers from Pennsylvania University suggest that loud snoring can be caused by having a fat tongue. Scientists have long known that losing weight can help the condition, but now they know why. It explains why losing weight reduces the risk of obstructive sleep apnoea (阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停).
Improved symptoms are linked to slimming down the unexpected part of the body - opening the door to better treatments. Professor Richard Schwab, chief of sleep medicine at Pennsylvania University, said: "Most clinicians, and even experts in the sleep apnoea world, have not typically focused on fat in the tongue for treating sleep apnoea."Having a large neck was previously believed to be the culprit(引起问题的事物). Prof Schwab said: "Now we know tongue fat is a risk factor and sleep apnoea improves when tongue fat is reduced, we have established a unique therapeutic target that we've never had before.
In sleep apnoea the airways become blocked - leading to snoring . It blights the lives of four and two percent of middle aged men and women, respectively, in the UK. Long term, sleep apnoea is linked with a number of chronic diseases, including high blood pressure , heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke and depression.
Analyzing MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans of the throat and nose of obese patients, the researchers found reducing tongue fat is the key. They found that a reduction in tongue fat volume was the key factor. Weight loss also resulted in a smaller pterygoid - the jaw muscle that controls chewing. This is irrespective of whether they appear to fall into the typical "high-risk" obese categories, said Prof Schwab.
He added: "Primary care doctors, and perhaps even dentists, should be asking about snoring and sleepiness in all patients, even those who have a normal body mass index, as, based on our data, they may also be at risk for sleep apnoea."
Twenty-two million Americans suffer from sleep apnoea, in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts, causing patients to wake up randomly throughout their sleep cycles. One of the recommended treatments is CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), which has been free on the NHS since March 2008.
1.What can we learn from Prof Schwab?
A.People with high tongue fat must be at high risk of obesity.
B.Sleep apnea improves when tongue fat is reduced.
C.Patients with a normal body mass index won’t develop sleep apnea.
D.Most clinicians focus on the fat on the tongue to treat sleep apnea.
2.What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
A.The shape of tongue fat.
B.The harm of tongue fat.
C.The feature of tongue fat.
D.The cause of tongue fat.
3.What does the underlined word “blight” in the third paragraph most probably mean?
A.harm B.affect
C.benefit D.cost
Back in November, we did a study that found (surprise) that Babbel ranks as one of the most efficient ways to learn a language. The independent study was conducted by researchers at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of South Carolina, and evaluated the overall efficacy（功效） of Babbel Spanish courses, examining the progress of 391 randomly selected learners and assessing participants’ knowledge of Spanish at the beginning
STUDY FINDING #1: “Truly novice users（初学者） with no knowledge of Spanish need on average 15 hours of study in a two-month period to cover the requirements for one college semester of Spanish.”
STUDY FINDING #2: “The average study time for the final study sample was about 19 hours, or a little over two hours a week.”
STUDY FINDING #3: “The Babbel app works similarly well for people with different gender, age, native language, education, employment status, etc.”
Learning a language is about speaking a language, and with the help of Babbel, our novice challenge participants were able to start having conversations in just three weeks’ time, proving that Babbel is, indeed, the shortest path to a real-life conversation.
1.How does the writer recommend Babbel to readers?
A.By listing research findings.
B.By introducing some of its contents.
C.By telling stories at the beginning.
D.By comparing it with other apps.
2.What is the purpose of the last paragraph of the text?
A.To introduce Babbel .
B.To appreciate Babbel.
C.To advertise Babbel.
D.To analyze Babbel.
I’m from California, where I have the honor of serving as an ocean lifeguard. The ocean is _______ for its massive currents. If you want to _______ lives, that’s where you work.
One day, I was working in _______ Fifteen. Mike, working in Seventeen, _______ me over the phone and said, “Hey, I got a couple kids and got to give them a(n) _______. Keep an eye on us.” _______ you get out of your tower, you should let somebody else know, _______ a situation develops. As soon as he grasped his buoy (救生圈), a current was snapped under these two kids, and they were getting _______ into the currents. Mike saw it before it happened, and he ran toward the ocean. I _______ the water with my binoculars (双筒望远镜). ________, the mother of the kids had realized what was happening. She was on her ________ and screamed. Mike told me later that he got the boy first, and when he turned to the girl, he had to ________ down into the water and catch her by the hair to ________ her back. When I reached their mother, Mike was in waist-deep water. These kids were so exhausted, so Mike got one under each arm.
I saw the ________ start to drain out of the kids’ mother. Then she got her first look at Mike, I saw a new kind of panic ________ over her as though there was some new, equally dangerous ________ to her kids’ lives. She rushed up to Mike, ________ her kids and left the beach without a thank you.
Mike had a rough upbringing, and his shaved head showed the ________ he got from a broken bear bottle. Although he lacks something, he ________ it with lifesaving ability. As I jogged back, I promised I’d never let my own fear or ________ prevent me recognizing a hero when I see one.
1.A.mysterious B.known C.endless D.sacred
2.A.save B.enrich C.find D.cultivate
3.A.tower B.house C.office D.place
4.A.addressed B.emailed C.faxed D.called
5.A.explanation B.caption C.warning D.notice
6.A.Anytime B.Unless C.Anywhere D.While
7.A.as if B.in case C.even though D.or else
8.A.drowned B.pressed C.sucked D.wrapped
9.A.identified B.noticed C.detected D.scanned
10.A.On occasion B.At present C.Until then D.By now
11.A.legs B.feet C.shoes D.back
12.A.bend B.lay C.fall D.reach
13.A.pull B.push C.hug D.scratch
14.A.excitement B.terror C.calmness D.pain
15.A.get B.knock C.wash D.turn
16.A.threat B.challenge C.suffering D.struggle
17.A.protected B.scolded C.comforted D.grasped
18.A.stain B.scar C.wound D.injury
19.A.makes up for B.stands up for C.catches up with D.puts up with
20.A.conservation B.injustice C.prejudice D.definition
When the new employee started to speak with customers, his natural abilities as a sales man were __________.
A.as sharp as a spear B.as plain as day
C.as stupid as a goose D.as sly as a fox
— Learn from past mistakes or history is bound to repeat ________.
— Thank you for your reminding.
A.it B.that C.something D.itself
