WASHINGTON, Sept. 23 — The House of Representatives, which prides itself on being " the People’s House" has been turning into, a rich men’s club.
The representatives newly elected in 1984 were almost four times as wealthy as the first term lawmakers elected only six years before, according to a new study on the members’ financial reports.
Behind this remarkable swing, the study says, there are two main factors: a court decision that outlawed limits on what candidates could give to their own campaigns, and the enormous growth in the cost of pursuing a seat in Congress. As a result, it is increasingly difficult for candidates of modest means, particularly women to amount successful challenges to entrenched office holders.
One solution, the authors contend, is a system of public financing for campaigns, but Congress seems in no mood to change the political rules any time soon.
"The lower chamber is going upper class," said Mark Green, the President of the Democracy Project, a public policy institute based in New York. ".But this evolution from a House of Representatives to a House of Lords denies the diversity of our democracy. It establishes a de facto property qualification for office that increasingly says: The people with low and middle income need not apply. "
The Democracy Project produced the study in cooperation with the United States Public Interests Research Group, a similar institute situated in Washington. But their research was not entirely theoretical. In 1980 Mr. Green was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 15th District, in Manhattan. The winner was. Bill Green, one of the wealthiest members of Congress.
5. What can we know from the passage?
A. The House of Representatives is poor men’s club.
B. The House of Representatives was made up of people with low and middle income.
C. The House of Representatives, was rich men’s club;
D. The House of Representatives is made up of people with low and middle income.
6. What does "this remarkable swing" in the third paragraph refer to?
A. The House of Representatives prides itself on being" the people’s House".
B. The new study based on the members’ financial reports.
C. A court decision that outlawed limits on what candidates could give to their own campaigns.
D. The representatives elected now are much wealthier than those elected a few years ago.
7. Which of the following is wrong according to the study?
A. Any honest man can become a representative of the House.
B. Women are more difficult than men to be an entrenched office holder.
C. Limits on what a candidate could give to his campaign are outlawed.
D. One must spend much money getting a seat in the Congress.
8. What is the United States Public Interests Research Group like?
A. The House of Representatives.
B. A public policy institute based in New York.
C. A public policy institute based in Washington.
D. The House of Lords.
9. What does the writer think of the study?
A. Doubtful. B. Believable. C. Opposed. D. Normal.
Your kids learn a lot from their friends—things you can’t teach them, no matter how much you
want to.
Probably the most important thing kids learn is how to have peer relationships. As a parent, you can’t do this, because you and your child aren’t equals.
For example, when you’re sitting on your family room floor and your very young child asks you to pass him the blocks, you probably hand them right over. If your child is sitting with a peer and asks the same thing, though, he might not get what he wants.
To succeed, your child will need to learn strategies for getting what he wants. For example, he might simply yank (猛拉) the toy out of his friend’s hand. If he does that, he may learn that it’s not the best way of getting what he wants because it leads to fighting and time-outs. The successful child will learn that he needs to negotiate a trade, to wait patiently, or to find something else equally fun to play with.
Friends also provide emotional support, something that is part of the foundation of healthy adulthood. You can’t be with your child on the elementary school playground or at the high school dance. Your child’s friends will be the ones to stick up for her, to include her in games, and later, to tell her she looks great even if her lousy prom (糟糕的舞会) date wanders off instead of dancing with her.
Friends also help your children learn. Friends solve problems together, imitate each other, and
pass on knowledge .
Some experts believe that the single biggest predictor of your child’s success later in life is her ability to make friends. In fact, they claim it’s even more important than IQ and grades.
This doesn’t mean that the kids who are most popular in school do the best later on in life. What matters is not the number of friends a child has but rather the quality of the relationships.
This is good news for those of us who hate to think that popularity really is the Holy Grail of childhood and adolescence. While it’s true that popularity has many advantages, and that many popular kids really are nice people—and not just the best dressed or best looking—it’s better to have a few good friends than to have the admiration of the masses.By giving the example in Paragraph 3, the author wants to show that .
| A．kids can learn how to deal with the relationships when they stay with their peers |
| B．parents should spend more spare time playing with their kids |
| C．kids should learn how to be polite when they ask their parents for help |
| D．parents can teach their kids how to be good members in the modern society in their daily life |
What does the underlined phrase“stick up for” in the fifth paragraph mean?
| A．envy | B．oppose |
| C．support | D．ignore |
In the author’s opinion, is more important than being popular for kids.
| A．getting high grades |
| B．having some real friends |
| C．developing a good habit |
| D．knowing how to dress themselves up |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．How to Bridge the Generation Gap |
| B．What It Takes to Be a Good Friend |
| C．Why Friends Are Important |
| D．How to Be Popular in School |
Brownie and Spotty were neighbor dogs who met every day to play together. These two loved each other and played together so often that they had worn a path through the grass of the field between their respective houses.
One evening, Brownie’s family noticed that Brownie hadn’t returned home. They went looking for him with no success and by the next week he was still missing.
Curiously, Spotty showed up at Brownie’s house alone. Barking, whining (哀叫) and generally pestering (纠缠) Brownie’s human family. Busy with their own lives, they just ignored the nervous little neighbor dog.
Continuously,Ted, Brownie’s owner, was disturbed by the angry, determined little dog. Spotty followed Ted about, barking insistently, then rushing toward a nearby empty lot and back, as if to say, “Follow me! It’s urgent!”
Eventually, Ted followed Spotty to a deserted spot half a mile from the house. There Ted found his beloved Brownie alive, one of his hind legs crushed in a steel leghold trap. Horrified, Ted now wished he’d taken Spotty’s earlier appeals seriously. Then Ted noticed something quite remarkable.
Spotty had done more than simply led Brownie’s human owner to his trapped friend. In a circle around the injured dog, Ted found an array of dog food and table scraps which were later identified as the remains of every meal Spotty had been fed that week!
Spotty had been visiting Brownie regularly, in the hope of keeping his friend alive by sacrificing his own comfort. Spotty had evidently stayed with Brownie to protect him from hunger and other dangers, and keep his spirits up.
Brownie’s leg was treated by a veterinarian (兽医) and he recovered. For many years thereafter, the two families watched the faithful friends chasing each other down that well worn path between their houses.Why did Ted pay little attention to Spotty at the very beginning?
| A．Because Ted was tired of listening to Spotty barking. |
| B．Because Ted only cared about Brownie’s safety. |
| C．Because Ted was not free at that moment. |
| D．Because Ted knew where Brownie was. |
When Ted was led by Spotty to Brownie, he.
| A．was curious to find out what had happened |
| B．highly appreciated Spotty’s help |
| C．was worried about Brownie’s health |
| D．regretted not following Spotty earlier |
Not only did Spotty help Ted find Brownie but also .
| A．he went to see his friend and played with him secretly |
| B．he sent messages to some other persons in his community to save his friend |
| C．he managed to lead a veterinarian to treat his friend |
| D．he sent food to his friend, accompanied him and inspired him to cheer up |
What can we learn from the story?
| A．Barking dogs seldom bite. |
| B．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| C．Love me, love my dog. |
| D．Every dog has its day. |
Some kinds of mental skills naturally decrease as people get older. Yet research seems to show that some training can improve such skills. A recently published study also appears to attest that the good effects of training can last for many years after that training has ended.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland wanted to learn how long memory and thinking skills would last in older people who were trained to keep them. The people were part of the ten-year research project. They were taught methods meant to improve their memory, thinking and ability to perform everyday tasks.
More than 2,800 volunteered for the study called ACTIVE — short for Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly. Most were studied when they were more than 70 years old.
The volunteers took one of several short training classes meant to help them keep their mental abilities. One class trained participants in skills including how to remember word lists. Another group trained in reasoning. A third group received help with speed-of-processing — speed of receiving and understanding information. A fourth group — the control group did not get any training.
Earlier results had established that the training helped the participants for up to five years. Now, leading study writer George Rebok says, the research showed most of the training remained effective a full ten years later.
Professor Rebok and his team found that the people trained in reasoning and speed-of- processing did better on tests than the control group.
“We are wondering whether those effects which endured over time would still be there ten years following the training, and in fact, that's exactly what we found.,,
The effect on memory, however, seemed not to last as long. Still, the old people in any of the three classes generally reported less difficulty in performing daily activities than the control group.The total training time for the older people was between 10 and 15 hours. Which statement is false according to the text?
| A．This kind of training can only have effects on people for a few years. |
| B．The people were trained during a period of ten years. |
| C．Most of the people who were studied were more than 70 years old. |
| D．The first group were trained how to remember word lists. |
How would the old in the second group perform after receiving the trauung?
| A．Remember more words. |
| B．Understand information more quickly. |
| C．Act as poorly as before. |
| D．Perform daily activities better. |
What does the underlined word "attest" in the first paragraph mean7
A-Affect. B. Deny.
C. Prove. D. Improve. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Some Kinds of Mental Skills Naturally Decrease. |
| B．Mental Training Helped Elderly Stay Sharp for Years. |
| C．Four Groups of Old People Were Trained Mentally. |
| D．A Ten-year Research Affects Elderly. |
British singer Sarah Brightman began training for a 2015 flight to the International Space Station where she hopes to become the first professional musician to sing from space, the company arranging the trip said on Tuesday.
Brightman, a famed soprano (女高音) who starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber' s "Phantom of the Opera" , will pay about $ 52 million for a 10-day stay aboard the orbital outpost, Tom Shelley, president of privately owned Space Adventures, said.
Brightman, who will become the eighth privately funded space tourist, is scheduled to fly in September 2015. Her training to fly on a Russian Soyuz capsule began last fall.
Brightman has planned to be the first professional musician to sing from space. But she faces competition from Lady Gaga, who, according to media reports late last year, intends to be the first when she performs one song in space in early 2015 on a Virgin Galactic flight. Virgin Galactic, part of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, plans to offer suborbital(亚轨道的) space flights.
Brightman said in 2012 that she would travel to the space station, but her plans haven't been confirmed until now. So far. Space Adventures has arranged for nine private missions to the space station, a $ 100 billion research laboratory that flies about 260 miles above the earth. Microsoft co-founder Charles Simonyi made two trips.
Brightman will be the first private citizen to visit the station since Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Lalibarte paid about $ 35 million for an 11-day stay in September 2009.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has an option to fly on the next available Soyuz seat after Brightman, which most likely will be in 2017, Shelley told Reuters. What is the purpose of the passage?
| A．To praise Brightman. |
| B．To persuade the readers that Brightman is more famous than Lady Gaga. |
| C．To instruct the readers how to begin a space flight. |
| D．To give some information about Brightman. |
When did Brightman start training for her space travel?
| A．Last winter. | B．Last autumn. |
| C．Next spring. | D．Next summer. |
The underlined word "she" in Paragraph 4 refers to ____.
| A．Brightman | B．Lady Gaga |
| C．Andrew Lloyd Webber | D．Tom Shelley |
The fifth paragraph is mainly carried out ____.
| A．in time order | B．in space order |
| C．by giving examples | D．by comparison |
Considering Australia' s size and the fact that early settlements were far apart, Australian society is remarkably homogeneous ( 同种的). Its citizens are fundamentally prosperous and the way of life in the major cities and towns is much the same however many miles divide them. It takes a sharp ear to identify regional accents.
However, there is some difference in lifestyle between city settlers and the country people. Almost 90 percent of the population lives in the fast-paced cities along the coast and has little more than a passing familiarity with the desert. The major cities preserve images of colonial heritage, but the overall impression is modem, with new buildings reflecting the country' s youth. In contrast, the rural communities tend to be slow-moving and conservative. For many years, Australia was said to have "ridden on the sheep' s back" , a reference to wool being the country' s main money earner. However, it is no longer dominant ( 主宰的) . Much of Australia' s relatively sound economy is now achieved from natural coal and wheat, and by being the largest diamond producer in the world. Newer industries such as tourism and wine making are also increasingly important. Australians are generally friendly and relaxed, with a modest sense of humor.
Yet, contrary to widespread belief, very few Australians have true prisoner origins. Within only one generation of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, Australia had become a nation of immigrants. Originally coming almost entirely from the British Isles, today one in three Australians comes from elsewhere. Australia' s liberal postwar immigration policies led to a flowing of survivors from war-torn Europe, most notably Greeks, Italians, Poles and Germans.
The emphasis has shifted in recent years and today the majority of new immigrants are from Southeast Asia. Today Australia is a "mixture of nations" and although some racism exists, it has generally been a successful experiment and the country is reasonably proud to have one of the most harmonious multicultural communities in the world. What does the writer mean by saying "has little more than a passing familiarity with the desert" in the second paragraph?
| A．The major population has a close relationship with the desert. |
| B．The fast-paced cities are just located by the desert. |
| C．The major population knows little about the desert. |
| D．The major population is familiar with the people living in the desert. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The pace of life in the city is different from that in the country. |
| B．One third of people living in Australia come from Europe. |
| C．The Australian economy is dependent on sheep exports. |
| D．Most Australians have ancestors who were prisoners. |
What used to be Australia' s main money earner?
| A．Wheat. | B．Wool. | C．Tourism. | D．Diamond. |
We can infer from the passage that ____.
| A．nothing about Australia' s colonial part in modem cities can be seen by visitors |
| B．tourism and wine making resulted in fast development in rural communities only |
| C．immigrants from Europe have brought racial problems |
| D．Australia' s recent immigration policy encourages immigrants from Southeast Asia |