The days of elderly women doing nothing but cooking huge meals on holidays are gone. Enter the Red Hat Society －a group holding the belief that old ladies should have fun.
“My grandmothers didn’t do anything but keep house and serve everybody. They were programmed to do that,” said Emils Comette, head of a chapter of the 7-year-old Red Hat Society.
While men have long spent their time fishing and playing golf, women have sometimes seemed to become unnoticed as they age. But the generation now turning 50 is the baby boomers (
生育高峰期出生的人), and the same people who refused their parents’ way of being young are now trying a new way of growing old.
If you take into consideration feminism (女权主义), a bit of spare money, and better health for most elderly, the Red Hat Society looks almost inevitable(必然的). In this society, women over 50
wear red hats and purple (紫色的) clothes, while the women under 50 wear pink hats and light purple clothing.
“The organization took the idea from a poem by Jenny Joseph that begins: “When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple. With a red hat which doesn’t go,” said Ellen Cooper, who founded the Red Hat Society in 1998. When the ladies started to wear the red hats, they attracted lots of attention.
“The point of this is that we need a rest from always doing something for someone else,” Cooper said. “Women feel so ashamed and sorry when they do something for themselves.” This is why chapters are discouraged from raising money or doing anything useful. “We’re a ladies’ play group. It couldn’t be more simple,” added Cooper’s assistant Joe Heywood.The underlined word “chapter” in paragraph 2 means __________.
| A．one branch of an organization | B．a written agreement of a club |
| C．one part of a collection of poems | D．a period in a society’s history |
From the text, we know that the “baby boomers” are a group of people who
| A．have gradually become more noticeable |
| B．are worried about getting old too quickly |
| C．are enjoying a good life with plenty of money to spend |
| D．tried living a different life from their parents when they were young |
DIt could be inferred from the text that members of the Red Hat Society are .
| A．interested in raising money for social work |
| B．programmers who can plan well for their future |
| C．believers in equality between men and women |
| D．good at cooking big meals and taking care of others |
Who set up the Red Hat Society ?
| A．Emily Cornette . | B．Ellen Cooper . |
| C．Jenny Joseph . | D．Joe Heywood . |
Women join the Red Hat Society because .
| A．they want to stay young |
| B．they would like to appear more attractive |
| C．they would like to have fun and live for themselves |
| D．they want to be more like their parents[来 |
If you plan on visiting to Fiji, you are probably looking for some fun things to do. Below are four unusual places.
The Poseidon Resort
The Poseidon resort is an underwater resort that gives visitors a beautiful view of sea life. This resort covers 255 acres. It’s covered and surrounded by a lagoon (咸水湖) that covers 5,000 acres and is about 90 feet under water, giving you a beautiful view of sea life righ
t before your eyes. This resort even has a hotel for those who would prefer to have the unusual experience of sleeping and waking up to the beautiful scenery all around them.
The Sabeto Mud Pool
If you’re looking for something unusual to do, you can’t pass up the mud pool at Sabeto. It is located in a mountain range with a huge group of Geothermal (地热的) pools full of nice, warm mud. Getting down and into the mud in the pool is believed to have benefits for healthy skin. This is unusual, but adults and especially kids will love it.
Fire Walking
Fire walking in Fiji is believed to have originated on the island of Beau. Fire walking is when you walk on white-hot stones barefoot. To do this, you have to be mentally prepared for it. Trust me; there is a lot of preparation and strict rules that travelers follow in order to do this safely.
The Fiji Museum
The Fiji museum is unusual due to all the amazing artifacts you’ll see dating back 3,000-4,000 years. This museum has a certain attraction that makes it funny—a shoe. It’s been said that a man named Thomas Baker was eaten by the locals several centuries ago and the only thing left was his shoe. This unusual museum is a great idea if you bring the whole family to Fiji.Visitors who have the unusual experience of sleeping at the Poseidon resort can _________.
| A．enjoy the excellent service in the hotel |
| B．open windows to see sea life swimming |
| C．see sea life around them in the room |
| D．only watch videos about sea life |
Why do adults like to get down into the mud pool?
| A．To float on the warm mud |
| B．To make them strong |
| C．To play with the warm mud |
| D．To keep their skin healthy |
Which of the following things needs more courage and stricter rules?
| A．Trying fire walking |
| B．Visiting the Poseidon resort |
| C．Getting into the Sabeto Mud Pool |
| D．Visiting the Fiji museum |
The underlined word “artifacts” in Paragraph 5 means__________.
| A．historic things made by man |
| B．things invented not long ago |
| C．things that look very strange |
| D．useful things in people’s daily life |
As we all know, any country has good reasons to want its citizens to be as healthy as possible. This led to the introduction of a health service in many countries. France has developed into a country in which all citizens can get most of the health treatment free. The money for this is partly from the people who are willing to offer.
But there are different opinions about the Health Service. The number of patients treated every year and the cost of treatment are much greater than expected. This means that the people who work for the Health Service --- doctors, nurses and other hospital workers, have much more work to do, and as a result they have little time for preventive treatment.
However, the tough problem is that as many people are able to receive treatment more expensive than they can pay, sometimes people go and visit their doctors when they don’t really need to. As there are many patients, doctors cannot spend time long enough with each patient. So some people prefer to pay for their own treatment so that their doctors can examine them more carefully. In fact, some rich people feel that they should pay more free money, which would be given to other citizens. France is described as an example to show that __________.
| A．people have to pay part of the medical care |
| B．everyone in France enjoys free medical care |
| C．it is a country with the Health Service |
| D．it is a very rich country in Europe |
What is the problem in the Health Service?
| A．Money is not enough to employ more medical workers. |
| B．There are not enough well-treated doctors. |
| C．People can get more preventive treatment. |
| D．Doctors and nurses are not working hard. |
Why do many people go and see the doctors even when they really don’t need to?
| A．To keep himself even more healthy. | B．To receive treatment free of charge. |
| C．To take back some expensive medicine. | D．To get necessary protective treatment. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph?
| A．The Health Service is quite successful so far. |
| B．People should not go to the doctors unless necessary. |
| C．There is much to improve the Health Service. |
| D．The rich should be allowed to pay for the treatment. |
In many countries today, laws protect wildlife. In India, the need for such protection was realized centuries ago.
About 300 B.C. an Indian writer described forest that were somewhat like national parks today. The killing of game beasts was carefully supervised(监视). Some animals were fully protected．Within the forest, nobody was allowed to cut timber(wood for building), burn wood for charcoal(炭), or catch animals for their furs. Animals that became dangerous to human visitors were caught or killed outside the park so that other animals would not become uneasy.
The need for wildlife protection is greater now than ever before. About a thousand species of animals are in danger of extinction, and the rate of extinction was about one species every fifty years from A.D. 1 to 1800, but now it is about one species every year. Everywhere, men are trying to solve the problem of protecting wildlife caring for the rapid growth of the world’s population. In forest of ancient India __________.
| A．people were permitted to hunt for fun |
| B．only few kinds of animals could be killed |
| C．the killing of game beasts was strictly limited |
| D．no killing of beasts was allowed． |
Dangerous animals were caught or killed outside the park so as to __________.
| A．keep human visitors safe | B．free the rest of the animals from worry or fear |
| C．both A and B | D．supply other animals with more food |
The underlined word “extinction” probably means __________.
| A．being hungry | B．dying out | C．growing slowly | D．being killed |
The example of man’s connection with wildlife protection can date back to _______.
A. the third century B. more than 2000 years ago
C. A. D. 1 to 1800D. over 300 years ago
As prices and building costs keep rising, the “do-it-yourself”（DIY）trend in the US continues to grow.
“We needed furniture for our living room,” says John Ross, “and we just didn’t have enough money to buy it. So we decided to try making a few tables and chairs.” John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high. The Roses took a 2-week course for $280 at a night school. Now they build all their furniture and make repairs around the house.
Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died. He has a full-time job at home as well as in a shoe making factory. Last month, he received a car repair bill for $520. “I was deeply upset about it. Now I have finished a car repair course, I should be able to fix the car by myself.”
John and Jim are not unusual people. Most families in the country are doing everything they can to save money so they can fight the high cost of living. If you want to become a “do-it-yourself”, you can go to DIY classes. And for those who don’t have time to take a course, there are books that tell you how you can do things yourself.We can learn from the text that many newly married people__________.
| A．find it hard to pay for what they need |
| B．have to learn to make their own furniture |
| C．take DIY courses run by the government |
| D．seldom go to a department store to buy things |
John and his wife went to evening classes to learn how to __________.
| A．run a DIY shop | B．make or repair things |
| C．save time and money | D．improve the quality of life |
Jim decided to become a do-it-yourselfer when__________
| A．his car repairs cost too much | B．the car repair class was not helpful |
| C．He couldn’t possibly do two jobs | D．keeps house and looks after his children |
When the writer says that Jim has a full-time job at home, he means Jim_________.
| A．makes shoes in his home | B．does extra work at night |
| C．does his own car and home repairs | D．keeps house and looks after his children |
There was a king who gave his daughter a beautiful diamond necklace. The necklace was stolen and his people in the kingdom searched everywhere but could not find it. So the king asked to search for it and put a reward for＄50,000 for anyone who found it.
One day, a clerk was walking home along a river when he saw something shinning in the river and when he looked, he saw the diamond necklace. He decided to try and catch it to get the ＄50,000 reward.
He put his hand in the river and tried to catch the necklace, but somehow missed it and didn’t catch it. He took his hand out and looked again and the necklace was still there. He tried again.
But strangely, he still missed the necklace! He came out and started walking away, feeling sad. Just then, an old man walking by saw him, and asked him what was the matter. The clerk didn’t want to share the secret with him, thinking he might take the necklace for himself, so he refused to tell him anything.
The old man could see this man was troubled. He again asked the clerk to tell him the problem and promised that he would not tell anyone about it. The clerk told him about the necklace and how he tried and tried to catch it, but kept failing.
The old man then told him that perhaps he should try looking upward, toward the branches of the tree, instead of in the river. The clerk looked up and true enough, the necklace was hanging on the branch of a tree. He had been trying to take a reflection of the real necklace all this time. The clerk tried to get the diamond necklace to __________.
| A．make the king happy. | B．keep it for himself. |
| C．get the big reward. | D．sell it at a high price. |
Before the old man asked the clerk what was the matter, the clerk .
| A．was searching in the water | B．was trying to find help |
| C．felt rather tired | D．was not feeling good |
Where did the clerk find the necklace at last?
| A．On the tree | B．On the bank | C．In the river | D．In the sand |
What might be the best title for the passage?
| A．A beautiful diamond necklace | B．A king’s promise |
| C．A lucky young clerk | D．Changing the way of thinking |