BTheHarpSealisoneofnature’smos-优题课

On a cold evening I was waiting for a taxi in New York. About 5 minutes later, I was picked up by a driver, and he said how terrible some people were. I knew there was a part of me that wanted to be silent, but I had to listen out of kindness.
The man told me that he had just come from JFK Airport without a customer. Over the courses of that taxi ride, what started as anger changed slowly and he mentioned that he had read an article which said that the happiest people are the ones that give, so he hoped he’d have more chance to give in his life. I was really starting to enjoy being with this man.
As we arrived at the place where I wanted to go, I paid my money by credit card. I pulled out an extra $20 and said, “Sir, since we’ve been talking about giving this whole time, I want to share that feeling with you. I’ve already paid my money, but here’s an extra little bit. You can tell the next passenger in this taxi that their ride is a gift from another.”
I thought I was pretty cool at this point, but he turned toward me, tears in his eyes, and said, “Sir, I have a better idea. You give that $20 to a homeless person around here and I will give the next passenger a free ride myself.
It was a great honor meeting that man and learning the lesson of how everyone gives and adds joy to another with their generosity.
According to the text, when the author got in the taxi, the driver was.

A．angry

B．nervous

C．worried

D．regretful

The author gave the driver an extra $20 in order to _.

A．help him to get out of trouble	B．know what he was really like
C．experience the joy of giving	D．learn how to get along with others.

What can be inferred from the taxi driver’s words in Paragraph 4?

A．A driver should be willing to help.	B．People should understand each other.
C．The driver was deeply moved.
D．One needs to keep an optimistic attitude (乐观态度).

What would be the best title for the text?

A．A cold evening in New York	B．Learning from a taxi driver
C．A gift to a generous stranger	D．Always being a happy person

By 2050
Futurologists predict that life will probably be very different in 2050.
TV channels will have disappeared. Instead, people will choose a program from a “menu” and a computer will send the program directly to the television. Today, we can use the World Wide Web to read newspaper stories and see pictures on a computer thousands of kilometers away. By 2050, music, films, programs, newspapers, and books will come to us by computer.
Cars will run on new, clean fuels and they will go very fast. Cars will have computers to control the speed and there won’t be any accidents. Today, many cars have computers that tell drivers exactly where they are. By 2050, the computer will control the car and drive it to your destination. Space planes will take people halfway around the world in 2 hours. Today, the United States Space Shuttle can go into space and land on Earth again. By 2050, space planes will fly all over the world and people will fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in just 2 hours.
Robots will have replaced people in factories. Many factories already use robots. Big companies prefer robots—they don’t ask for pay rises or go on strike, and they work 24 hours a day. By 2050, we will see robots everywhere—in factories, schools, offices, hospitals, shops and homes.
Medical technology will have conquered many diseases. Today, there is equipment that connects directly to the brain to help people hear. By 2050, we will be able to help blind and deaf people to see and hear again.
Scientist will have discovered how to control genes（基因）. Scientists have already produced clones(克隆) of animals. By 2050, scientists will be able to produce clones of people, and decide how they look, how they behave and how clever they are. Scientists will be able to do these things, but should they?

According to the passage, the following can be realized today EXCEPT __________.

A．reading newspapers on a computer

B．making a space shuttle go into space and land on Earth again

C．creating cloned animals

D．choosing TV programs freely from a “menu”

We can learn from the passage that some big companies prefer robots to human workers, because human workers __________.

A．can work 24 hours a day	B．often ask for more pay
C．are not clever enough	D．are often late for work

From Paragraph 5 we can infer that __________.

A．there will be no blind and deaf people by 2050

B．few diseases will attack people by 2050

C．equipment is connected directly to the brain to help people hear today

D．medical technology will be more effective by 2050

What is the author’s attitude towards the cloning technology?

A．The author does not support the use of cloning technology.

B．The author thinks human cloning is impossible.

C．The author does not really support the idea of human cloning.

D．The author is quite excited about human cloning.

I was shopping in the supermarket when I heard a young voice. “Mom, come here! There’s this lady near my size!” The mother rushed to her son; then she turned to me to apologize. I smiled and told her, “It’s okay.” Then talked to the boy, “Hi, I’m Darry Kramer. How are you?” He studied me from head to toe, and asked, “Are you a little mommy?” “Yes, I have a son,” I answered. “Why are you so little?” he asked. “It’s the way I was born,” I said. “Some people are little. Some are tall. I’m just not going to grow any bigger.” After I answered his other questions, I shook the boy’s hand and left.
My life as a little person is filled with stories like that. I enjoy talking to children and explaining why I look different from their parents.
It takes only one glance to see my uniqueness. I stand three feet nine inches tall. I was born an achondroplasia dwarf (侏儒). Despite this, I did all the things other kids did when I was growing up.
I didn’t realize how short I was until I started school. Some kids joked on me, calling me names. Then I knew. I began to hate the first day of school each year. New students would always stare at me as I struggled to climb the school bus stairs.
But I learned to smile and accept the fact that I was going to be noticed my whole life. I decided to make my uniqueness an advantage rather than a disadvantage. What I lacked in height, I made up for in personality.
I’m 47 now, and the stares have not diminished as I’ve grown older. People are amazed when they see me driving. I try to keep a good attitude. When people are rude, I remind myself, “Look what else I have – a great family, nice friends.”
It’s the children’s questions that make my life special. I enjoy answering their questions. My hope is that I will encourage them to accept their peers (a person of the same age, class, position, etc.), whatever size and shape they come in, and treat them with respect.

Why did the mother apologize to the author?

A．Because the boy ran into the author.

B．Because the boy laughed at the author.

C．Because they boy said the author was fatter than him.

D．Because the mother thought the boy’s words had hurt the author.

When did the author realize that she was too short?

A．When she grew up.

B．When she was 47 years old.

C．When she began to go to school.

D．When she met the boy in the supermarket.

Which of the following word can best replace the underlined word “diminished”?

A．doubted

B．increased

C．decreased

D．improved

.How does the author feel about people’s stares now?

A．Angry

B．Calm

C．Painful

D．Discouraged

When we think about giving help to developing countries, we often think about giving money so that these countries can build schools and hospitals, buy food and medicine, or find clean water supplies. These seem to be the most important basic needs of the people we are trying to help. However, it's far from enough. Ladies and gentlemen, we've got to come up with some better ideas to help them.
I was very surprised, then, when I read about a plan to make cheap laptop computers for children in developing countries. A man called Nicholas Negroponte invented a cheap laptop computer and he planed to produce a lot and sell them to the children in developing countries at a low price after he visited a school in Cambodia. The laptop will be covered in rubber so that it is very strong and won't be damaged easily. The idea is that these computers will help the children's education as they will be able to surf the Internet. By improving children's education they should help people to find their own solutions to their problems in the long term.
Another idea to help children in developing countries is to recycle old mobile phones so that they can be used again. In the UK, and probably in many other countries too, millions of mobile phones are thrown away every year. The waste created by throwing away these old phones is very bad for the environment, so it seems to be an excellent idea to recycle them. In this way we will be able to achieve two important goals at the same time. We will reduce the waste we produce and help others. In other words, we will be able to 'kill two birds with one stone’, and that is always a good thing.

It's an excellent idea to recycle old mobile phones because.

A．it reduces waste and can help others

B．it prevents waste and can earn lots of money

C．it can send the waste produced by developed countries to other countries

D．it is good for the environment and very educative for phone users

The author gives the example of Mr. Negroponte’s cheap computers.

A．to show what high technology can bring us

B．to show the kindness of

people in the developed countries

C．to show how to find business opportunities in developing countries

D．to give an example of how to help developing countries

Where does this passage probably come from?.

A．A newspaper.	B．A magazine.
C．A lecture.	D．An advertisement.

Animation means making things which are lifeless come alive and move.
Since earliest times, people have always been astonished by movement. But not until last century had we managed to take control of movement, to record it, and in the case of animation, to retranslate it and recreate it. To do all this, we use a movie camera and a projector (放映机).
In the world of cartoon animation, nothing is impossible. You can make the characters do exactly what you want them to do.
A famous early cartoon character was Felix the Cat, created by Pat Sullivan in America in the early nineteen twenties. Felix was a wonderful cat. He could do all sorts of things no natural cat could do like taking off his tail, using it as a handle and then putting it back.
Most of the great early animators lived and worked in America, the home of the moving picture industry. The famous Walt Disney cartoon characters came to life after 1928. Popeye the Sailor and his girl friend Olive Oyo were born at Max Flcischer in 1933.
But to be an animator, you don’t have to be a professional. It is possible for anyone to make a simple animated film without using a camera at all. All you have to do is to draw directly onto an empty film and then run the film through a projector.

What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．Animal world

B．Movie camera

C．Cartoon making

D．Movement

Which of the following statements is True?

A．People were unable to recreate the movement or record it in the nineteenth century.

B．Pat Sullivan was a famous early cartoon character.

C．It is impossible to make cartoon characters to do what they are designed to

do.

D．Only professional animators can make animated films.

According to the passage, Felix the Cat _________.

A．was created by the American cartoonist Felix.

B．was designed by Pat Sullivan in the early twentieth century.

C．was unable to do what natural cats could not do.

D．was created in the United States in the nineteenth century.

It can be inferred from the passage that _________.

A．Walt Disney’s cartoon characters were born earlier than Pat Sullivan’s.

B．only professionals can create cartoon character

C．Popeye the Sailor and Olive Oyo were famous cartoonists.

D．the cartoon industry started in the United States.