The wedding took place in a Birmingham hotel. The bride(新娘) and her father arrived in a new black American sports car. Her father looked nervous and uncomfortable in front of the cameras. The bride wore a silk wedding dress. She smiled nervously at the waiting photographers and went to a room on the first floor where she met her future husband for the very first time.
Carla Germaine and Greg Cordell were the winners of a radio station's competition. The aim of the competition was to find two strangers prepared to marry without having met each other. Miss Germaine, 23, is a model. Mr. Cordell, 27, is a TV salesman. They were among the two hundred people who entered for a peculiar "experiment" organized by BMRB radio in Birmingham, England. Greg and Carla were among eight finalists who were interviewed live on radio. They took a lie detector (测谎仪）test and the station also spoke to their friends and family about their personalities. The competition judges included an astrologer (占卜家) who declared that they were suited .
The couple celebrated their wedding with a wedding breakfast and a party for 100 guests in the evening, but not everyone shared their joy. Miss Germaine's mother looked anxious throughout the wedding and Mr. Cordell's parents are reported to be less than delighted.
Organizations, including the marriage guidance service Relate, have criticized the marriage. As one expert put it, "we have enough problems getting young people to take marriage seriously without this. Marriage should always be about love. "
The couples are now on a Caribbean honeymoon followed by journalists. Their other prizes include a year's free use of a wonderful apartment in the centre of Birmingham, and a car. But will it last?
64. How did the couple's parents react to the wedding?
A. The bride's mother shared their joy.
B. The bride's father felt uncomfortable about the wedding.
C. The bridegroom's parents were quite delighted.
D. The bridegroom's parents were not that joyful.
65. Some experts believe that _____
A. marriage without the couple's meeting each other first ends up in divorce.
B. young people nowadays are too careless about marriage
C. taking a lie detector test can not solve all the marriage problems
D. most young people take marriage seriously except this couple.
66. One of the prizes for the couple is _____
A. to spend their honeymoon wherever they like.
B. to use an apartment free for some time.
C. to have a wedding dress free.
D. to own an American sports car.
67. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
A. Two Strangers and a Wedding. B. A Wedding Based on love.
C. A Short-lived Marriage. D. A Well-Matched Couple.
Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. The judge said, “You may go to prison, or you may go to Camp Green Lake.” Stanley was from a poor family. He had never been to camp before. So, Stanley Yelnats seems set to serve an easy sentence, which is only fair because he is as innocent as you or me. But Stanley is not going where he thinks he is.
Camp Green Lake is like no other camp anywhere. It is a place that has no lake and nothing green. Nor is it a camp, at least not the kind of camp kids look forward to in the summertime. It is only a desert wasteland, dotted with countless holes dug by the boys who live at the camp.
The trouble started when Stanley was accused of stealing a pair of shoes donated by basketball great Clyde “Sweetfeet” Livingston to a celebrity auction (名流拍卖会). In court, the judge doesn’t believe Stanley’s explanation that the shoes fell from the sky onto his head. And yet, that’s exactly what happened. Strangely, though, Stanley doesn’t blame the judge for falsely convicting (宣告有罪) him. Instead, he blames the whole thing on his “no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-
stealing-great-great-grandfather.” Thanks to this distant relative, the Yelnats family had been cursed (诅咒) for generations. For Stanley, his current troubles are just a natural part of being a Yelnats.
At Camp Green Lake, the warden (看守) makes the boys “build character” by spending all day, every day, digging holes: five feet wide and five feet deep. It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is searching for something, and before long Stanley begins his own search — for the truth. Fate is to find a solution to it all — the family curse, the mystery of the holes. The great wheel of justice has ground slowly for generations, but now it is about to reveal its verdict (裁决).Stanley Yelnats went to Camp Green Lake to__________________.
| A．enjoy the summertime | B．show his innocence |
| C．Serve his sentence | D．make a choice |
We can learn from the passage that Stanley__________________.
| A．stole the shoes for his relative |
| B．got the shoes by accident |
| C．donated the shoes to an auction |
| D．blamed the judge for the sentence |
In fact，the warden made the boys dig holes to________________.
| A．kill the time | B．build character |
| C．break the family curse | D．look for something |
In which section of a newspaper does this passage probably appear?
| A．Law． | B．Geography． |
| C．News． | D．Literature． |
As a public school superintendent(督导), I believe the best way to prepare students for colleges and careers is to focus on providing instructional programs and opportunities that help them become good thinkers. To do this, teachers and actually everyone else in a community, should play a role as a “cognitive coach” to students, helping develop good thinkers among our youth.
The best way for you to become a cognitive coach is to seek out and engage school children and adolescents in meaningful conversations. The objective here is to get kids talking about what they think, how they feel, and what they believe whenever and wherever you may find them. It may be in a classroom. It may be at the grocery store. It may be at a basketball game. It doesn’t matter where as long as you engage students in a topical conversation and, hopefully, even a debate. Mainly, you want to encourage students to voice their opinion about things. Get them to take a position on “this thing, or that thing,” and ask them to support their position with evidence. Curiously enough, the simple process of engaging students in real life conversations and debates will serve to strengthen what they have learned in the classroom, and help them create their own knowledge about a subject or a topic.
Learning indicates that a student has been exposed to material, understands the material, and can recall the information. Knowledge, on the other hand, goes beyond recall and includes information processing, application to other situations, consideration of meaning, and contrasting with other concepts. Naturally, the topic of conversation you engage in with one of your learners will differ from student to student, and in the level of complexity based on child’s age and developmental level. Even a kindergartener has an opinion about things that are going on in his or her life. Engaging in conversation with any members of your learning community in ways that get at what they have learned and what they know will help them develop higher order reasoning skills.
A student’s synthetic thinking(综合思维) process occurs when a respected adult asks a question, particularly a question that requires reflection. I think all adults in a community have a responsibility to help children with this process, with the goal of producing independent thinkers.According to writer, what most helps develop students’ thinking?
| A．Enlarging one’s knowledge. |
| B．Learning from respected adults. |
| C．Attending instructional programs. |
| D．Making evidence-based arguments. |
Which is the best question raised by a cognitive coach?
| A．What have you learnt recently? |
| B．Will you pay by the credit card? |
| C．Where are you going this weekend? |
| D．How do you like this basketball team? |
The writer mentions a kindergartener in Paragraph 3 in order to _____.
| A．emphasize the importance of being a good thinker |
| B．suggest that education should start at an early age |
| C．prove that even children have their own ways of thinking |
| D．explain the necessity of choosing proper conversation topics |
What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To state an education idea. |
| B．To assess a teaching strategy. |
| C．To introduce a learning method. |
| D．To compare different education methods. |
When Barbra Streisand discovered in 2003 that a photograph of her California beach house was among 12,000 photos on theInternetas part of a collection by photographer Kenneth Adelman, she did what any famous person would do:hit him with a $50 million lawsuit. But in trying to hold back the images, she caused a different outcome. Her legal actions led to almost half a million people visiting the website, viewing and copying the photos within a month.
Ever since then, the effect of letting public know something you are trying to keep secret has been called the“Streisand effect”. The problem for anyone trying to suppress information is that the Internet is the world’s biggest and most efficient copying machine. Put a document on to a connected machine and it will spread. So when you want to be famous, you can’t, but if you find yourself in the spotlight and want to erase yourself, you cannot.
There is no shortage of examples of the Streisand effect. Nine-year-old Martha Payne created a simple blog, posting the meals her school served. She took a photo of what was barely a filling meal by anyone’s standards. With the photo, she filled a comment, “Now Dad understands why I am hungry when I get home.” The thing did not go too far, until the local authority banned little Martha from doing that again. Martha posted a supposedly final post called “Goodbye”, explaining everything. Once the media found this out, things went from bad to worse for the authority. Now the blog has more than 9.5 million page views. Martha has even expanded her blog by including pictures of school meals taken by other kids from all over the world, like Germany and Japan.
We can find similar examples throughout history, to be frank. Man has experienced the Streisand effect ever since the birth of mass communication. Why does it exist? Every time you are told not to see what’s in the secret shiny box wrapped in gift paper, you’re going to do everything in your power todo exactly that! Just realizing that knowing something about someone is harmful to their status, we will want to know that piece of information. This is exactly the human nature. This is what lawyers and authorities should be familiar with. Unfortunately, a few of them fail to grasp it.The underlined word “suppress” in Paragraph 2 probably means________.
| A．give away | B．look into |
| C．cover up | D．search for |
What speeded up the spread of Martha’s story?
| A．Parents’ complaints. |
| B．The authority’s order. |
| C．The photos of other kids. |
| D．Supporting from the school. |
What is the last paragraph mainly about?
| A．The root of Streisand effect. |
| B．The influence of Streisand effect. |
| C．People’s reaction to Streisand effect. |
| D．Historical examples of Streisand effect. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Streisand effect benefits most famous people. |
| B．It’s not a good idea to argue against authorities. |
| C．The ban on something may have opposite effect. |
| D．Turning to the law is a perfect way to get one out of trouble. |
The girl was hanging by her hands from the railings of a balcony(阳台的栏杆). The balcony was on the twelfth floor of the high-rise block next to his. His flat was on the ninth floor and he had to look up to see her. It was half-past six in the morning. He had been awakened by the sound of an aircraft flying dangerously low overhead, and had got out of bed to look. His sleepy eyes, moved from the blue sky which was empty of cloud, empty of anything but the bright disappearing arrow of the aircraft, and then rested on the hanging figure.
He really thought he must be dreaming, for this sunrise time was the hour for dreams. Then, when he knew he wasn’t, he decided it must be a scene in a film. There were cameramen down there, a whole film unit, and all the correct safety precautions had been taken. Probably the girl wasn’t even a real girl, but a dummy(假人). He opened the window and looked down. The car park, paved courts, grass spaces between the blocks, all were deserted. On the balcony rail one of the dummy’s hands moved, desperately. He had to believe then what was obviously happening. The girl was trying to kill herself. She had lost her courage and now was trying to stay alive. All these thoughts and conclusions of his occupied about thirty seconds. Then he acted. He picked up the phone and dialed the emergency number for the police.
The arrival of the police cars and the rescue of the girl became the focus of talk for the people of the two blocks. Someone found out that it was he who had called the police and he became an unwilling hero. He was a modest, quiet young man, and was in relief when the talk began to die away. Again he was able to enter and leave his flat without being pointed at as a kind of St George and sometimes even congratulated.
About a fortnight after that morning, he was getting ready to go to the theatre, just putting on his overcoat, when the doorbell rang. He didn’t recognize the girl who stood outside. He had never seen her face. She said, “I’m Lydia Simpson. You saved my life. I’ve come to thank you.”What did the man do first after he got up?
| A．He looked down from the window. |
| B．He went to see the noisy aircraft. |
| C．He called the police to save the girl. |
| D．He hurried to check who was outside. |
The moment the man saw the girl hanging there, he felt it was _________.
| A．scaring | B．desperate |
| C．unbelievable | D．dangerous |
We can learn from the passage that __________.
| A．the man disliked to be talked about |
| B．the girl was unwilling to be rescued |
| C．the police arrived quickly on the scene |
| D．the girl was actually an actress in a film |
Come out and let us teach you how to skydive today! We are located in Xenia, Ohio and is within a reasonable driving distance of major cities in Ohio. Situated on a private airport, Skydive Greene County offers world-class training. We didn’t start skydiving but we are Ohio’s oldest skydiving school which opened in 1961!
Tandem Skydiving
Tandem skydiving is required if this is your first time skydiving. After filling out paperwork and watching a short video, you will be ready to make your skydive. Somewhere around 11,500 feet you will be secured to your tandem instructor. The door will open and you exit the plane.
Your freefall with your instructor will last for approximately 40-50 seconds. We can almost guarantee this will be the most exciting minute of your life as you reach the speed of around 120 mph, falling for about two miles back to the earth!
Don’t forget to have a video taken of your skydive to show all those that didn’t think you would jump from an airplane!
Static Line Courses
Once you have made your tandem skydiving, you can move on to our Static Line Program. The Static Line Jump is the traditional way to learn to skydive. We have classes throughout the year. Every student will be led through the entire day by a licensed instructor. Never does the student feel unattended.
Once training is over, students will make their first jump on that very same day! If the weather does not cooperate, you can come back the next day, or we will re-schedule a time to make your skydive.
Price
$165.00 Tandem skydiving only
$175.00 Static Line Course only
Invite one of our professional videographers on your skydive:
$125.00 DVD with photos
Booking
To book your tandem skydive or skydiving course, call us at (937) 372-0700. We just ask for a call if you cannot keep your scheduled appointment. And you must be at least 18 years old to make a skydive at SGC.
Come to learn with the best and make a skydive today! For further information, please call us at (937) 372-0700 or visit ourwebsite www. greenecounty.com!Skydive Greene County ________.
| A．offers training in major cities in Ohio |
| B．is the oldest skydiving school in the USA |
| C．guarantees every skydiver a freefall experience |
| D．requires all the students to receive one-day training |
Skydivers doing tandem skydiving will have to________.
| A．practise before skydiving |
| B．jump with a professional coach |
| C．have a video taken while skydiving |
| D．show others how to skydive from a plane |
What will a student probably do after training in Static Line Course?
A. Make a tandem skydiving.
B. Receive a skydive license.
C. Pay 165 dollars to SGC.
D. Try the freefall at once.To book a skydive in SGC, one must________.
| A．telephone SGC |
| B．fill in some forms |
| C．visit SGC’s website |
| D．keep the appointment |