D
KIDS in a Sudanese refugee camp raise a cloud of dust as they kick around a football. NBA superstar Traey Mc Grady watches from a distance before offering to buy the kids a grass patch for $1,000.
Perhaps he sees a Ronaldinho rising up out of the African soil. Or maybe he just wants to do something—anything—to give these children some hope. But he is told, politely, that grass is not what the kids need.
Mc Grady, 29, writes on his website that he traveled to Africa because he was tired of only reading about it in the news.“Who are the faces behind the statistics?” he said.“I need to see it for myself.” And he did. He stepped out of his beautiful house and flew to a place torn to bits by war and famine(饥荒). He slept in a tent. He talked with people who had suffered. And he swallowed his pride.
But no one should blame Mc Grady for wanting to buy the kids a patch of grass. Sport gave him a chance, so perhaps he thought it would do the same for the refugees.
Mc Grady was eyed by NBA scouts as a teenager and he didn’t bother going to college. Instead, he leaped right into the NBA. Since that move, basketball has given him a handsome living, but one very far removed from the lives of ordinary people. As Mc Grady would learn in Africa, most people see sport as just a break from life’s difficulties. They don’t mistake it for life itself. Only Mc Grady knows how the trip to Africa changed him, but I’d bet that, at the very least, it has given him a new sense for what is truly meaningful.
Mc Grady doesn’t own an NBA championship ring. He hasn’t risen to the heights of Kobe Bryant or Michael Jordan. But, perhaps, now he knows he doesn’t have to in order to truly make a difference in the world.
63.The refugee children most probably need______.
A.clean drinking water B.a grass football patch
C.necessities of survival D.a tent to sleep in
64.What can we learn about Mc Grady from the passage?
A.Basketball made him what he is today.
B.He is an NBA superstar as great as Kobe or Jordan.
C.He didn’t show his talent for basketball as a teenager.
D.He taught children to play football in a refugee camp.
65.What does the underlined part “scouts” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?
A.players. B.fans. C.audience. D.hunters.
66.Mc Grady learned from his visit to Africa that______.
A.he needn’t improve his basketball skills to reach the heights of his seniors
B.sport gave him a chance and means everything to him
C.people in hunger can never understand the importance of sport
D.what’s truly meaningful can be a world of difference to different people
Educating girls quite possibly outputs a higher rate of return than any other investment (投资) available in the developing world. Women’s education may be an unusual field for economists, but raising women’s contribution to development is actually as much an economic as a social problem. And economics, with its emphasis on motivation, provides an explanation for why so many girls can’t receive education.
Parents in low-income countries fail to invest in their daughters because they do not expect them to make an economic contribution to the family: girls grow up only to marry into somebody else’s family and bear children. Girls are thus seen as less valuable than boys and are kept at home to do housework while their brothers are sent to school—the prediction turns into reality, trapping women in a vicious circle (恶性循环) of neglect.
An educated mother, on the other hand, has greater earning abilities outside the home and faces an entirely different set of choices. She is likely to have fewer but healthier children and can insist on the development of all her children, ensuring that her daughters are given a fair chance. The education of her daughters then makes it much more likely that the next generation of girls, as well as of boys, will be educated and healthy. The vicious circle is thus transformed into a good circle.
Few will disagree with it that educating women has great social benefits. But it has enormous economic advantages as well. Most obviously, there is the direct effect of education on the wages of female workers. Wages rise by 10 to 20 per cent for each additional year of schooling. Such big returns are impressive by the standard of other available investments, but they are just the beginning. Educating women also has a significant influence on health practices, including family planning.The author argues that educating girls in developing countries is ________.
| A．troublesome | B．rewarding |
| C．labor-saving | D．expensive |
What does the underlined part probably mean?
| A．Girls will turn out to be less valuable than boys. |
| B．Girls will be capable of realizing their own dreams. |
| C．Girls will eventually find their goals in life beyond reach. |
| D．Girls will be increasingly discontented with their life at home. |
The author believes that a vicious circle can turn into a good one when ________.
| A．women care more about education |
| B．girls can gain equal access to education |
| C．a family has fewer but healthier children |
| D．parents can afford their daughters’ education |
The passage mainly discusses ________.
| A．unequal treatment of boys and girls in developing countries |
| B．the potential earning power of well-educated women |
| C．the major contributions of educated women to society |
| D．the economic and social benefits of educating women |
Finding time to enjoy life is becoming harder and harder. As the average workweek lengthens, leisure time drops. Yet some of the world’s busiest people are able to develop rewarding careers and also make time for family and leisure activities. Here is their best advice plus that of time-management experts:
1. Use your peak hours wisely.
People tend to be most alert in late morning and midevening. Afternoon brings an increase in sleepiness. Use your high-efficiency hours to handle difficult jobs or engage in creative thinking. For low-efficiency times, concentrate on cleaning up or sorting your mail. By adapting to your mental condition, you can accomplish more in less time.
2. Make a plan.
Just 20 minutes of organizing can save an hour of extra effort remembering what must be done. “Don’t try to carry your life around in your head,” says Lucy Hedrick, author of Five Days to an Organized Life. “Write things down so you can free your brain for more inventive pursuit (追求).”
3. Discourage drop-ins.
The person who welcomes every visitor will get plenty of conversation but won’t accomplish much.
The trick is to develop harmless ways to protect yourself from minute-stealing interruptions. David E. Levy, a public-relations consultant (顾问), uses an alternative to the open-door policy by keeping his door half open. The message is clear: he really doesn’t want you to come in, but you can if it is important.
4. Tame (驯服) the telephone.
Few devices save more minutes—or waste so many more—than the telephone. Signal the end of your conversation with a phrase such as “Before we hang up…” You can save even more time by not taking every incoming call.
Keep a record of when people you call regularly are least busy and call them at those times. Even better, make appointments to call important contacts.
To help us gain an extra hour every day, a clockmaker in Dallas has created a timer measuring each minute at 57.6 seconds. The 2.5 seconds borrowed from each minute add up to an extra 60 minutes at the end of each day.According to Lucy Hedrick, you should ________.
| A．carry out your plans when you are free |
| B．stop occupying your mind with lots of things |
| C．forget everything annoying when taking a walk |
| D．enjoy your life whenever you can |
Why does David E. Levy keep his door half open?
| A．To show drop-ins are not welcome at all. |
| B．To tell drop-ins to come if they want. |
| C．To keep unimportant visitors from dropping in. |
| D．To indicate he is expecting a visitor. |
Who works most efficiently according to the passage?
| A．An editor who is trying to produce a title for his article in the afternoon. |
| B．A manager who is designing selling plans with his office door open. |
| C．A visitor to a mayor without making an appointment. |
| D．A student in class without taking any incoming calls. |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Gain an Extra Hour Every Day |
| B．Live One Day at a Time |
| C．How to Live Your Life to the Fullest |
| D．Create Your Own Opportunities |
Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s cars and action figures weren’t just toys. “They would always be characters, and I would always put on stupid voices,” says Thomas (Born on 16 May 1990). For him, acting was just a matter of moving childhood games to a set.
Maturity and independence came to Thomas early as he started work at ten. After his first audition (试镜), he learned about rejection. Though hurt and disappointed, he took a part in a tiny, unknown TV film in 2001. No one noticed his performance – no one except screenwriter Richard Curtis. Two years later, he played Sam, a twelve-year-old in love in Curtis’s Love Actually. After that hit film, he played actor Colin Firth’s son in Nanny McPhee. Firth then joined a film called The Last Legion and supported Thomas for its lead role. As a result, the boy played Rome’s final ruler in the action-adventure.
At about 16, Thomas had to make a decision. Did he really want to devote his life to acting? Many people in the public “aren’t letting you be you because they see you as something special”, he says. Also, friendship made during filming was often broken soon after the project finished. Despite these things, he found enough joy and satisfaction in the work to continue. Actually, Thomas seems to find joy in difficulty itself. He played 10-year-old Adolf Hitler in a TV movie and a teenage Paul McCartney in Nowhere Boy. The subject of his film Death of a Superhero made it his most challenging film. Still, he found a positive message in its story of a schoolboy with cancer.
Thomas now enjoys roles in Game of Thrones and the upcoming Maze Runner films. Popular as those projects may be, most still recognize him as Sam in Love Actually. Sam seems to run after Thomas, just as he ran through Heathrow airport to his sweetheart.Thomas Brodie-Sangster reached maturity early probably because of ________.
| A．his failure in the first audition |
| B．his starting acting as early as ten |
| C．his being supported by adult actors |
| D．his acting in a tiny unknown TV film |
The underlined word “rejection” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．recovery | B．respect |
| C．response | D．refusal |
What can be considered as one of the negative aspects of acting according to Thomas?
| A．Pressure from the public. |
| B．Long-term working friendship. |
| C．Finding joy in difficulty itself. |
| D．Reading scripts and memorizing lines. |
Thomas played the lead role in ________.
| A．Love Actually | B．Games of Thrones |
| C．The Last Region | D．Nanny McPhee |
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity (繁荣). Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit (追求) of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which only values the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among those who are against competition are young people who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by them is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot.
Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to disappear can we discover a new meaning in competition.What is the best title of this passage?
| A．Competition! Why friends turn into enemies. |
| B．Competition! What self-respect depends on. |
| C．New meaning found in competition. |
| D．Two mistaken beliefs about competition. |
Why do some young people suffering from competitive pressures seek failure?
| A．Because they are aware that they will not succeed in competition. |
| B．Because they don’t think it worthwhile to compete with others. |
| C．Because they are afraid that they would not be valued if they lost. |
| D．Because they are fed up with the great efforts needed to compete with others. |
Which of the following will the author probably agree with?
| A．One should treat competition as a life-and-death affair. |
| B．One should make every endeavor to avoid competition. |
| C．One should get rid of the fear of failure in competition. |
| D．One should be given rewards after competing with others. |
The true competitors and those with a desire to fail both believe _______.
| A．one’s self-worth comes from how well he performs in comparison with others |
| B．one’s dream can be achieved if he has mastered good communication skills |
| C．one’s failure happens when he is suffering from emotional problems |
| D．one’s success is based on how hard he has tried |
TODAY, Friday, November 12
JAZZ with the Mike Thomas Jazz Band at The Derby Arms. Upper Richmond Road West, Sheen.
DISCO Satin Sounds Disco. Free at The Lord Napier, Mort lake High St., from 8 a. m. to 8 p. m. Tel: 682—1158.
SATURDAY, November 13
JAZZ Lysis at The Bull’s Head, Barnes. Admission ￡60.
MUSICAL HALL at The Star and Garter, Lower Richmond Road, Putney, provided by the Aba Daba Music Hall company. Good food and entertainment fair price. Tel: 789—6749.
FAMILY night out? Join the sing-along at The Black Horse. Sheen Road, Richmond.
JAZZ The John Bennett Big Band at The Bull’s Head, Barnes. Admission ￡80.
THE DERBY ARMS, Upper Richmond Road West, give you Joe on the electric accordion (手风琴). Tel: 789—4536.
SUNDAY, November 14
DISCO Satin Sounds Disco. Free at The Lord Napier, Mort Lake High Street, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
FOLK MUSIC at The Derby Arms. The Short Stuff and residents the Norman Chop Trio. Non-members ￡70. Tel: 688—4626.
HEAVY MUSIC with Tony Simon at The Bull. Upper Richmond Road West, East Sheen.
THE DERBY ARMS, Upper Richmond Road West, give you Joe on the electric accordion. If you want to enjoy the electric accordion on Saturday, you should ring _______ to find out at what time it starts.
| A．789—6749. | B．789—4536. |
| C．682—1158. | D．688—4626. |
You want to spend the Saturday by joining the entertainment with your family. Where should you go?
| A．Jazz at The Bull’s Head. |
| B．Disco at The Lord Napier. |
| C．The sing-along at The Black Horse. |
| D．The electric accordion at The Derby Arms. |
Where and when can you hear the Norman Chop Trio?
| A．At the Bull on Saturday. |
| B．At the Derby Arms on Sunday. |
| C．At the Bull’s Head on Sunday. |
| D．At the Black Horse on Saturday. |