TheInternethasledtoahugeincrea-优题课

Directions：Read the following three passages．Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements．For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D．Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
Friends and fellow citizens：I stand before you tonight under accusation of the unproven crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote．It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution(宪法), beyond the power of any state to deny.
Our democratic-republican government is based on the idea of the natural right of every individual member to a voice and a vote in making and executing the laws．We declare the duty of government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their unchallengeable right．We throw to the winds the belief that government can give right.
‘All men are created equal, and gifted by their Creator with certain undeniable rights．Among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness．To secure these, governments are established among men, gaining their just powers from the agreement of the governed.’
Here is no shadow of government authority over rights, or exclusion of any class from their full and equal enjoyment．Here is pronounced the right of all men, and ‘therefore,’ as the Quaker minister said, ‘of all women,’ to a voice in the government．And here, in this first paragraph of the Declaration, is the declaration of the natural right of all to the vote; for how can ‘the agreement of the governed’ be given, if the right to vote be denied?
The introduction of the Federal(联邦的) Constitution says: ‘We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic peacefulness, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity(子嗣), do establish this Constitution for the United States of America.’
It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; not we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union．And we formed it, not to give the blessings of liberty, but to secure them; not to the half of ourselves and the half of our posterity, but to the whole people - women as well as men．And it is absolute ridicule to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government - the vote.
The speaker was standing in front of the audience to ________.

A．accuse the government of having denied treating her unfairly

B．fight for the legal right to vote in the United States as a woman

C．share a recent victory on voting for the president of the States

D．guarantee that they could better understand the National Constitution

The expression ‘throw to the winds’ (Paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to ‘________’.

A．abandon

B．emphasize

C．shake

D．spread

Which of the following statements is true according to the speech?

A．The Quaker minister holds conflicting opinions on women’s right to vote．

B．Government authority has the right to bar some of the governed out of liberty.

C．The policy is undeniably adopted that all the governed in America have the equal rights．

D．There’s no way to the real agreement of the governed if women’s vote right is robbed.

It can be inferred from the speech that ________.

A．it’s more important to have liberty than have good wishes of it

B．the Federal Constitution comes from the National Constitution

C．it’s ridiculous that women enjoy liberty while their rights are not secured

D．racial and gender issues are among the major social problems of the USA

Which of the following might be the best title of the speech?

A．For the Sake of Liberty and Happiness

B．Vote on the Women’s Rights

C．In the Name of Equal Right to vote

D．Power of American Constitution

Directions：Read the following three passages．Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements．For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D．Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
Death is a serious theme worthy of great poets．For example, John Keats’s ‘When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be’ and John Donne’s ‘Death, Be Not Proud’ both discuss death in reflective ways．However, the imagery(意象) in these poems shows that while Keats believes that death can only destroy, Donne believes that death can be overcome.
Keats is afraid of death, because to him death means the loss of those things that make his life worth living: ‘On the shore/ of the wide world I stand alone, and think/ Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.’ Earlier in the poem, Keats says that he hopes this ‘Love’ will be a ‘high romance’ with a ‘fair creature.’ He also says that he hopes the ‘Fame’ he seeks will be the result of the ‘high piled books’ produced by his ‘crowded brain.’ In other words, Keats’s fear is that death is a ‘nothingness’ that will arrive before he can finish his life’s work or find his true love.
Donne has a different attitude toward death, and so the imagery in his poem is different, too．To Donne, death should ‘be not proud,’ because it is not ‘mighty and dreadful.’ Unlike Keats, Donne sees death as weak and merely a ‘slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate men.’ He also says that death is like ‘rest and sleep’．Donne believes that we will all wake from the sleep of death to everlasting life, just as we wake from our normal sleep to our everyday lives．In fact, Donne believes that it is death itself that will die: ‘One short sleep past, we wake forever,/ And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.’
Keats and Donne both know that death is a prat of life, and both poets use powerful imagery to talk about that difficult theme．The differences in this imagery show two very different attitudes toward the subject, one of which is much more positive than the other．Which poet to believe is up to the reader to decide.
Not surprisingly, the readers’ own experiences may play a part in the way they respond to these poets’ approaches．Like the two poets and their beliefs, contemporary readers also may be divided on the subject．This may explain why Keats’s and Donne’s poetry remains fascinating years after their won deaths.
According to the passage, ________ makes Keats’s life worth living.

A．expressing his grand passion for poetry

B．walking on the shore with a pretty lady

C．defeating nothingness with his true love

D．pursuing the fame of being a romantic poet

In Donne’s poems he believes that death is ________ .

A．generally powerful and terrible

B．only a ceaseless sleep

C．merely the loss of work and love

D．hardly worth the fear

Contemporary readers may view the two poets’ serious subject differently because ________.

A．they are attracted to the two poets’ everlasting opposite beliefs

B．they are divided naturally by their positive or negative personalities

C．their own life experiences affect the understandings of the poems

D．their preferences for the poets’ strong imageries are various

Which of the following best describes the main writing style of the passage?

A．Analysis．

B．Argument．

C．Comparison．

D．Reasoning.

Traveler
My fifteen-year-old son has just returned from abroad with rolls of exposed film and a hundred dollars in uncashed traveler’s checks, and is asleep at the moment．His blue duffel(粗呢) bag lies on the floor where he dropped it．Obviously, he postponed as much sleep as he could: when he walked in and we hugged, his electrical system suddenly switched off, and he headed directly for the bed, where I imagine he beat his old record of sixteen hours.
It was his first trip overseas, so weeks before it, I pressed travel books on him, and a tape cassette of useful French phrases; drew up a list of people to visit; advised him on clothing and other things．At the luggage store where we went to buy him a suitcase, he headed for the duffels, saying that suitcases were more for old people．
During the trip, he called home three times: from London, Paris, and a village named Ullapool．Near Ullapool, he climbed a mountain in a rainstorm that almost blew him off．In the village, a man spoke to him in Gaelic, and, too polite to interrupt, my son listened to him for ten or fifteen minutes, trying to nod in the right places．The French he learned from the cassette didn’t hold water in Paris．The French he talked to shrugged and walked on.
When my son called, I sat down at the kitchen table and leaned forward and hung on every word． His voice came through clearly, though two of the calls were like ship-to-shore communication．When I interrupted him with a “Great!” or a “Really?”, I knocked a little hole in his communication．So I just sat and listened． I have never listened to a telephone so attentively and with so much pleasure．It was wonderful to hear news from him that was so new to me．In my book, he was the first man to land on the moon, and I knew that I had no advice to give him and that what I had already given was probably not much help.
The unused checks are certainly evidence of that．Youth travels light．No suitcase, not much luggage and a slim expense account, and yet he went to the scene, and came back safely．I sit here amazed． The night when your child returns with dust on his shoes from a country you’ve never seen is a night you would gladly turn into a week．
During the trip, the author’s son ______.

A．ran out of money

B．had inadequate sleep

C．forgot to call his mother

D．failed to take good pictures

According to the passage, which of the following could best describe the author’s son?

A．Polite and careless．

B．Creative and stubborn.

C．Considerate and independent.

D．Self-centered and adventurous.

What does the underlined word “that” in the last paragraph refer to?

A．It is important to listen to your child’s story.

B．It’s easy to interrupt the chat with your child.

C．The author is proud of her son landing on the moon.

D．The son no longer needs much help from his mother.

What can we infer from the passage?

A．Good parents should protect their children from potential dangers.

B．The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

C．It’s a win-win choice to give a child space to experience and explore．

D．Communication between parents and children is extremely important.

Showrooming
One of the biggest challenges facing brick-and-mortar retailers(实体零售店) in recent years has been the “showrooming”．Driven by the desire to get the best prices, many shoppers are now visiting brick-and-mortar stores to personally check on products that interest them, only to leave and then buy the items online．The new trend is forcing retailers to find out new ways to keep consumers from leaving their store for cheaper prices online.
Recent research found that 40 percent of U.S．shoppers have showroomed previously, with big-box retailers suffering the most．Specifically, the study shows that Best Buy, Walmart and Target are the most likely brick-and-mortar stores to have shoppers test out a product in-store and then purchase it online later, while Amazon is benefiting most from the practice, with nearly 60 percent of shoppers using the online retail giant(巨人) most often to make their showrooming purchases.
Smartphones have pushed showrooming into the front．Shoppers no longer have to wait until they get home to see if they can find a cheaper price for the products they’re considering buying．With smartphones, consumers can now compare virtual prices, at both other brick-and-mortar stores and online ones while still inside a retail store．If they can find what they’re seeking for less online, the majority will be seeking the first exit．A recent study showed that 45 percent of customers shopping at brick-and-mortar stores walk out and buy their purchase online for a discount of as little as 2.5 percent．
This puts pressure on retailers to provide both an in-store experience worth staying for and an online presence that can attract shoppers who are showrooming in other businesses.
To cut down on showrooming, many retailers are adopting new methods to keep shoppers in their stores．Among the steps they’re taking are price-matching guarantees that allow shoppers to pay a discounted price if they find it cheaper online．This ensures that even a showrooming shopper can make the purchase in the store—regardless of whether they find the cheaper price online.
Another popular method to fight against showrooming is to give shoppers the ability to buy something online and pick it up at the store．This reduces shipping costs and gets customers in the store, where they may be encouraged to make an additional purchase．
It is also important for businesses to take into consideration what makes shoppers purchase something in-store rather than online, and meet those needs．Research has found that more than 8 in 10 Americans consider being able to take the goods home immediately and the ability to touch and feel them—the most important aspects when deciding to purchase in a store rather than online.
According to the passage, a showrooming shopper tends to ______.

A．pay for everything online

B．have better bargaining skills

C．rush to buy things in a store

D．purchase online for a lower price

What contributes to the growing popularity of showrooming?

A．The wide use of smartphones．

B．The competition between big stores.

C．The advertisement by online retail giants.

D．The decline of the brick-and-mortar stores.

The underlined words “seeking the first exit” in Paragraph 3 probably mean ______.

A．searching for lower prices

B．leaving as soon as possible

C．locating the first exit quickly

D．making a purchase on the spot

The last three paragraphs mainly talk about ways of ______.

A．increasing sales at stores

B．preventing purchase online

C．satisfying customers’ needs

D．advising shoppers to buy more

More People Are Leaving the Rat Race for the Simple Life
Time is more precious than money for an increasing number of people who are choosing to live more with less—and liking it
Kay and Charles Giddens, two lawyers, sold their home to start a B&B hotel．Four years later, the couple dishes out banana pancake breakfast, cleans toilets and serves homemade chocolate chip cookies to guests in a B&B hotel surrounded by trees on a hill known for colorful sunsets.
“Do I miss the freeways? Do I miss the traffic? Do I miss the stress? No,” says Ms．Giddens, “This is a phenomenon that’s fairly widespread． A lot of people are reevaluating their lives and figuring out what they want to do．If their base is being damaged, what’s the payoff?”
Simple living ranges from cutting down on weeknight activities to sharing housing, living closer to work, avoiding shopping malls, borrowing books from the library instead of buying them, and taking a cut in pay to work at a more pleasurable job.
Vicki Robin, a writer, lives on a budget equal to a fifth of what she used to make．“You become conscious about where your money is going and how valuable it is,” Ms．Robin says, “You tend not to use things up．You cook at home rather than eat out…”
Janet Luhrs, a lawyer, quit her job after giving birth and leaving her daughter with a nanny for two weeks．“It was not the way I wanted to raise my kids,” she says, “Simplicity is not just about saving money; it’s about me sitting down every night with my kids to a candlelit dinner with classical music.”
Mrs．Luhrs now edits a magazine, Simple Living, which publishes tips on how to buy recycled furniture and shoes, organize potluck dinners instead of expensive receptions, and generally how to consume less.
“It’s not about poverty,” Mrs．Luhrs explains, “It’s about conscious living and creating the life you want．The less stuff you buy, the less money goes out of the door, and the less money you have to earn.”
Kay and Charles Giddens sold their home to ______.

A．pay off the debt

B．start a private hotel

C．cut down expenses

D．buy living necessities

Simple living includes ______.

A．building a home library

B．living in the countryside

C．enjoying a colorful night life

D．sharing housing with others

It can be learned from the passage that now Janet Luhrs ______.

A．spends more time with her kids

B．has an interest in classical music

C．works as a reporter of a magazine

D．helps people buy recycled clothes

How does the author develop the passage?

A．By using figures.

B．By asking questions.

C．By giving examples．

D．By making comparisons．