Tens of thousands of theatre tickets will be given away to young people next year as part of a government campaign to inspire a lifelong love for theatre.
The plan to offer free seats to people aged between 18 to 26—funded with £2.5 million of taxpayers’ money—was announced yesterday by Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary. It received a cautious welcome from some in the arts world, who expressed concern that the tickets may not reach the most underprivileged.
The plan comes as West End theatres are enjoying record audiences, thanks largely to musicals teaming up with television talent shows. Attendances reached. 13.6 million in 2007, up 10 percent on 2006, itself a record year. Total sales were up 18 percent on 2006 to almost £470 million.
One theatre source criticised the Government’s priorities(优先考虑的事) in funding free tickets when pensioners were struggling to buy food and fuel, saying: “I don’t know why the Government’s wasting money on this. The Yong Vic, as The Times reported today, offers excellent performances at cheap prices.”
There was praise for the Government’s plan from Dominic Cooke of the Royal Court Theatre, who said: “I support any move to get young people into theatre, and especially one that aims to do it all over England, not just in London.”
Ninety-five publicly funded theatres could apply for funding under the two-year plan. In return, they will offer free tickets on at least one day each week to 18 to 26-year-olds, first-come, first-served. It is likely to be on Mondays, traditionally a quiet night for the theatre.
Mr. Burnham said: “A young person attending the theatre can find it an exciting experience, and be inspired to explore a new world. But sometimes people miss out on it because they fear it’s ‘not for them’. It’s time to change this perception.”
Jeremy Hunt, the Shadow Culture Secretary, said: “The real issue is not getting enthusiastic children into the theatre, but improving arts education so that more young people want to go in the first place. For too many children theatres are a no-go area.”
Critics of the plan argued that ______.
| A．the theatres would be overcrowded |
| B．it would be a waste of money |
| C．pensioners wouldn’t get free tickets |
| D．the government wouldn’t be able to afford it |
According to the supporters, the plan should ______.
| A．benefit the television industry |
| B．focus on producing better plays |
| C．help increase the sales of tickets |
| D．involve all the young people in England |
Which of the following is TRUE about the plan?
| A．Ninety-five theatres have received funding. |
| B．Everyone will get at least one free ticket. |
| C．It may not benefit all the young people. |
| D．Free tickets are offered once every day. |
We can infer from the passage that in England ______.
| A．many plays are not for young people |
| B．many young people don’t like theatre |
| C．people know little about the plan |
| D．children used to receive good arts education |
According to the passage, the issue to offer free tickets to young people seems ______.
| A．controversial | B．inspiring | C．exciting | D．unreasonable |
Everybody has had at least one experience from which he knows the meaning of life．This time, which took place several years ago, but seems as if it just happened．
On an afternoon several years ago, my brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister's dress and picked out a beautiful skirt．"Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago．She never wore it．She was saving it for a special occasion．" he said．I guess this was the occasion: it was the funeral (葬礼) of my sister, after her unexpected death．
He took the shirt and put it on bed, with the other clothes we were taking to the funeral．Then he closed the drawer and turned to me, "Don't ever save anything for a special occasion．Every day you're alive is a special occasion．"
I'm thinking about his words, and they've changed the way I live my life．I'm spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings．Whenever possible, life should be a kind of experience to enjoy, not to suffer．"Someday" and "one of these days" are losing their importance on my vocabulary．If it's worth seeing or hearing or doing,I want to see and hear and do it now．
Ever since that day, I have been trying very hard not to put off, hold hack or save anything that would add laughter and color to our lives．Every morning when I open my eyes．I tell myself that every day, every minute, every breath, truly is a gift．So cherish every day and find the true meaning of your life．Why did Jan buy the beautiful skirt but didn't wear it?
| A．She waited for a special occasion to wear it on． |
| B．She wanted to keep it for someone else． |
| C．She saved it till she grew up． |
| D．She would give it to herself as a gift some day． |
What does the underlined word "cherish" mean?
| A．Treasure． | B．Waste． | C．Own． | D．Save． |
From his experience, the author learns that _______．
| A．everybody can have a happy life through efforts |
| B．every day in our lives is worth cherishing |
| C．enjoying ourselves is the most important thing in our lives |
| D．everybody will have some things left to do after his death |
What does the author write this passage for?
| A．To show how to make good use of every day in life． |
| B．To explain the true meaning of his brother-in-law's words． |
| C．To tell people to cherish every day and find the meaning of life． |
| D．To encourage people to waste time and enjoy themselves in life． |
What's the best title for this passage?
| A．Every Day Is a Gift |
| B．My Sister Jan |
| C．What Is the Meaningful Life Like |
| D．The Most Important Time in Your Life |
Every year thousands of tourists visit Pompeii, Italy. They see the sights that Pompeii is famous for-its stadium and theatres, its shops and restaurants. The tourists do not, however, see Pompeii’s people. They do not see them because Pompeii has no people. No one has lived in Pompeii for almost 2000 years.
Once, Pompeii was a busy city of 22,000 people. It lay at the foot of Mount Vesuvius, a grass-covered volcano. Mount Vesuvius had not erupted for centuries, so the people of Pompeii felt safe, But they were not.
In August of AD 79 , Mount Vesuvius erupted. The entire top of the mountain exploded, and a huge black cloud rose into the air. Soon stones and hot ash began to fall on Pompeii . When the eruption ended , Pompeii was hurried under 20 feet of stones and ashes. Almost all of its people were dead.
For centuries, Pompeii lay buried under stone and ash. Then, in the year 1861,an Italian scientist named Ginseppe began to uncover Pompeii. Slowly, carefully, Ginseppe and his men dug. The city looked almost the same as it had looked in AD79 , There were streets and fountains, houses and shops, There was a stadium with 20,000 seats , Perhaps the most important of all, there were everyday objects, which tell us a great deal about the people who lived in Pompeii. Many glasses and jars had some dark blue color in the bottom, so we know that the people of Pompeii liked wine, They liked bread, too; metal bread pans were in the bakery .In one bakery there were 81 round , flat loaves of bread –a type of bread that is still sold in Italy today . Tiny boxes filled with a dark, shiny powder tell us that women liked to wear eye-makeup.Why do large numbers of people come to Pompeii each year?
| A．To find the volcano |
| B．To shop and eat there |
| C．To watch sports and plays |
| D．To see how Pompeians lived |
Why did the city uncovered look almost the same as it had looked in AD 79?
| A．Ginseppe and his men dug it slowly and carefully. |
| B．The city was buried alive and remained untouched. |
| C．Scientists successfully rebuilt the city with everyday objects. |
| D．Nobody had lived in the city ever since the volcano erupted. |
What do we know about the Pompeians who lived 2000 years ago?
| A．They lived more or less the same as Italians now do . |
| B．They liked women wearing all kinds of makeup. |
| C．They enjoyed a lazy life with drinking and eating. |
| D．They went back to Pompeii after the eruption in AD79. |
40 years ago the idea of disabled people doing sport was never heard of. But when the yearly games for the disabled were started at Stoke Mandeville, England in 1948 by Sir Ludwig Guttmann, the situation began to change.
Sir Ludwig Guttmann, who had been driven to England in 1939 from Nazi Germany, had been asked by the British government to set up an injuries center at Stoke Mandeville Hospital near London, His ideas about treating injuries included sport for the disabled.
In the first games just two teams of injured soldiers took part .The next year, 1949, five teams took part. From those beginnings, things have developed fast. Teams now come from abroad to Stoke Mandeville every year. In 1990 the first Olympics for the disabled were held in Rome, in the same place as the normal Olympic Games. Now, every four years the Olympic Games for the disabled are held, if possible, in the same place as the normal Olympic Games, although they are organized separately. In other years games for the disabled are still held at Stoke Mandeville, In the 1984 Wheelchair Olympic Games, 1,064 wheelchair athletes form about 40 countries took part. Unfortunately, they were held at Stoke Mandeville and not in Los Angeles, along with the other Olympics.
The games have been a great success in helping the progress of international friendship and understanding, and in proving that being disabled does not mean you can’t enjoy sport. One small source of disappointment for those who organize and take part in the games, however, has been the unwillingness of the International Olympic Committee to include disabled events at the Olympic Games for the able-bodied. Perhaps a few more years are still needed to persuade those fortunate enough not to be disabled that their disabled fellow athletes should be included.The first games for the disabled were held ___ after Sir Ludwig Guttmann arrived in England.
| A．40 years | B．21 years | C．10 years | D．9 years |
Besides Stoke Mandeville, surely the games for the disabled were once held in_____.
| A．New York | B．London | C．Rome | D．Los Angeles |
What do we know about Sir Ludwig Guttmann from the passage?
| A．He is an early organizer of the games for the able-bodied |
| B． He is welcomed by the British government |
| C．He is an injured soldier. |
| D．He is from England. |
From the passage, we may know that the writer is_____.
| A．in favor of holding the games for the disabled |
| B．against holding the games for the disabled |
| C．a disabled person who once took part in the games |
| D．one of the organizers of the games for the disabled |
It is estimated that some seven hundred million people, about half the world’s adult population, are unable to read or write, and there are probably two hundred and fifty million more whose level is so slight that it is hardly called literacy(有文化).
Recently the attack on illiteracy had been stepped up. A world plan has been drawn up by a committee of UNESCO experts in Paris, as part of the United Nations Development Decade（十年计划）,and an international conference of the subject has also been held. UNESCO stresses that functional literacy is the aim. People must learn the basic skills of responsible citizenship, the ability of reading notices, newspapers, timetables, letters, price-lists to keep simple records and accounts, to select the importance of the information gathered, and to fill in the forms.
The major areas of illiteracy are in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. In Africa there are at least one hundred million illiterate people, which is eighty to eighty-five percent of the total population. In Europe the figure is about twenty-four million; most of them are in Sothern Europe, with Spain, Italy, Portugal, Yugoslavia heading the list (the United Kingdom has about seven hundred thousand).
UNESGO is eager for each country in the world, poor or rich, to wipe out illiteracy.The author implies that this world plan is to______.
| A．be carried out in the major areas of illiteracy like Africa. |
| B．be realized in the years |
| C．be drawn up by Parisian experts |
| D．be discussed at an international conference |
The world plan mentioned in the passage aims at____.
| A．asking African countries to take the lead in attacking illiteracy |
| B．strengthening the function of the UNESCO |
| C．helping illiterate people learn functional reading and writing |
| D．training responsible citizens |
According to the passage, which of the following countries has the most illiterate people?
| A．England | B．France | C．Sweden | D．Spain |
Which of the statements is true?
| A．The major areas of illiteracy are in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. |
| B．In the USA there are at least one hundred million illiterate people, |
| C．the United Kingdom has about seven hundred million illiterate people |
| D．In Europe the figure is about twenty-four million; most of them are in Northern Europe. |
A small piece of fish each day may keep the heart doctor away. That’s the finding of a study of Dutch men in which deaths from heart disease were more than 50 percent lower among those who consumed（消费） at least an ounce of salt water fish per day compared to those who never ate fish.
The Dutch research is one of three human studies that give strong scientific support to the long held belief that eating fish can provide health benefits, particularly to the heart.
Heart disease is the number-one killer in the United States, with more than 550,000deaths occurring from heart attacks each year. But previous research has shown that the level of heart disease is lower in cultures that consume more fish than Americans do. There are fewer heart disease deaths, for example, among the Eskimos of Greenland, who consume about 14 ounces of fish a day, and among the Japanese, whose daily fish consumption averages more than 3 ounces.
For 20 years, the Dutch study followed 852 middle-aged men, 20 percent of whom ate no fish.
At the start of the study, average fish consumption was about two-thirds of an ounce each day, with more men eating lean fish than fatty fish.
During the next two decades, 78of the men died from heart disease , The fewest deaths were among the group who regularly ate fish, even at levels far lower than those of the Japanese of Eskimos, This relationship was true regardless of other factors such as age, high blood pressure, or blood cholesterol(胆固醇)levels.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The Dutch research has proved that eating fish can help to prevent heart disease. |
| B．People who regularly eat fish never suffer from heart disease. |
| C．Heart disease causes more deaths in America than any other disease. |
| D．There is a low level of heart disease in such countries as Japan and Greenland. |
The passage is mainly about______.
| A．the changes in people’s diet |
| B．the daily fish consumption of people in different cultures. |
| C．the high death rate of disease in some countries. |
| D．the effect of fish eating on people’s health |
We can infer from the passage that there are fewer heart disease deaths____.
| A．in Dutch |
| B．in America |
| C．in countries with high consumption of fish |
| D．in countries with good production of fish |
The phrase“this relationship (paragraph 6) refers to the connection between ____ and the level of heart disease.”
| A．the amount of fish eaten |
| B．regular fish-eating |
| C．the kind of fish eaten |
| D．people of different areas |