I made a pledge (发誓) to myself on the way down to the vacation beach cottage. For two weeks I would try to be a loving husband and father. Totally loving . No ifs, ands or buts.
The idea had come to me as I listened to a talk on my car radio. The speaker was quoting (引用) a Biblical (圣经的) passage about husbands being thoughtful（体贴的） of their wives. Then he went on to say," Love is an act of will. A person can choose to love." To myself, I had to admit that I had been a selfish husband. Well , for two weeks that would change.
And it did. Right from the moment I kissed Evelyn at the door and said," That new yellow sweater looks great on you."
"Oh, Tom, you noticed," she said, surprised and pleased, maybe a little puzzled.
After the long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Evelyn suggested a walk on the beach. I started to refuse, but then I thought, "Evelyn's been alone here with the kids all the week and now she wants to stay with me. " We walked on the beach while the children flew their kites.
So it went. Two weeks of not calling the Wall Street firm where I am a director; a visit to the shell museum though I usually hate museums. Relaxed and happy, that's how the whole vacation passed, I made a new pledge to keep on remembering to choose love. There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment, however. Evelyn and I still laugh about it today. Last night at our cottage, preparing for bed, Evelyn stared at me with the saddest expression.
“What’s the matter?” I asked her.
“ Tom ,” se said in a voice filled with distress, “ do you know something I don’t?”
"What do you mean?"
"Well...that checkup(体检) I had several weeks ago...our doctor...did he tell you something about me? Tom , you've been so good to me... am I dying?"
It took a moment for it all to sink in. Then I burst out laughing.
"No, honey," I said, wrapping her in my arms. "You're not dying; I'm just staring to live."
71.In the first paragraph, "No ifs, ands or buts" probably means___.
A. unnecessarily B. unexpectedly C. impossibly D. unconditionally
72. From the story we may infer that Tom went to the beach cottage___.
A. with his family B. with Evelyn C. alone D. with his children
73. During the two weeks on the beach, Tom showed more love to his wife because___.
A. she looked lovely in her new clothes
B. he had made a lot of money in Wall Street
C. he was determined to be a good husband
D. she was seriously ill
74.The underlined words "one thing" in the passage refer to the fact that___.
A. he praised her sweater, which puzzled her
B. she insisted on visiting a museum, which he hated
C. he knew something about her illness but didn't tell her
D. he was so good to her that she thought she must be dying
75.By saying "I'm just starting to live", Tom means that___.
A. he is just beginning to understand the real meaning of life
B. he is just beginning to enjoy his life as a loving husband
C. he lived an unhappy life before and is now starting to change
D. he is beginning to feel regretful for what he did to his wife
Daniel stays home on workdays. He starts his personal computer in order to connect with the office which is about three hundred miles away in another city. After work, he puts on his headphones, watches a movie on his home video recorder, or plays baseball on the computer. On many days, Daniel doesn’t talk to any other human beings, and he doesn’t see any people except the ones on television. Daniel is imaginary, but his lifestyle is very possible. The inventions of modern technology seem to be cutting us off from contact with our fellow human beings.
The world of business is one area in which technology is separating us. Experts say, for example, that many people will soon be able to work at home. With access to a large central computer, employees such as office clerks, insurance agents, and accountants could do their jobs at display terminals (终端) in their own homes. They would never have to actually see the people they’re dealing with. In addition, the way employees are paid will change. Workers’ salaries will be automatically paid into their bank accounts, making paper checks unnecessary. No workers will stand in line to receive their pay or cash their checks. Personal banking will change, too. Customers will deal with machines to put in or take out money from their accounts. Many companies and consumers have already changed the way they sell or buy products. E-commerce, or business done on the Internet, is becoming more and more popular. This, therefore, makes it possible for people to do shopping without going out of their homes.
Another area that technology is changing is entertainment. Music, for example, was once a group experience. People listened to music at concert halls o
r in small social gatherings. For many people now, however, music is an individual experience. Walking along the street or sitting in their living-rooms, they wear headphones to build a wall of music around them. Movie entertainment is changing as well. Movies used to be social events. Now, fewer people are going
out to see a movie. Many more are choosing to wait for a film to appear on television or are borrowing videotapes to watch at home. Instead of laughing with others, viewers watch movies in their own living-rooms.After work, Daniel likes to ______.
| A．listen to music at the concert hall | B．watch a movie in his living-room |
| C．chat with his friends on the net | D．play baseball with his workmates |
The underlined sentence “Daniel is imaginary, but his lifestyle is very possible” means ______.
| A．Daniel is a person full of imagination and he can make his life colorful. |
| B．Daniel is not a real person but the lifestyle of his kind does exist. |
| C．Daniel is only an ordinary person but he has his own way of living. |
| D．Daniel is a model who makes full use of modern technology in life. |
What will the writer most probably discuss after the last paragraph?
| A．Games and sports | B．Personal banking |
| C．Music and films | D．International business |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．We may no longer need to communicate with other human beings. |
| B．Modern technology seems to be separating human beings. |
| C．We may no longer need to work in the office. |
| D．Modern technology makes it possible for us to work and entertain ourselves at home. |
Fish Ears Tell Fish Tales
Fish have ears. Really. They’re quite small and have no opening to the outside world carrying sound through the body. For the past seven years, Simon Thorrold, a university professor, has been examining fish ears, small round ear bones called otoliths (耳石).
As fish grow, so do their otoliths. Each day, their otoliths gain a ring of calcium carbonate (碳酸钙). By looking through a microscope and counting these rings, Thorrold can determine the exact age of a young fish. As a fish gets older, its otoliths no longer get daily rings. Instead, they get yearly rings, which can also be counted, giving information about the fish’s age, just like the growth rings of a tree.
Ring counting is nothing new to fish scientists. But Thorrold has turned to a new direction. They’re examining the chemical elements (元素) of each otolith ring.
The daily ring gives us the time, but chemistry tells us about the environment in which the fish swam on any given day. These elements tell us about the chemistry of the water that the fish was in. It also says something about water temperature, which determines how much of these elements will gather within each otolith ring.
Thorrold can tell, for example, if a fish spent time in the open ocean before entering the less salty water of coastal areas. He can basically tell where fish are spending their time at any given stage of history.
In the case of the Atlantic croaker, a popular saltwater food fish, Thorrold and his assistant have successfully followed the travelling of young fish from mid-ocean to the coast, a journey of many hundreds of miles.
This is important to managers in the fish industry, who know nearly nothing about the whereabouts of the young fish for most food fish in the ocean. Eager to learn about his technology, fish scientists are now lending Thorrold their ears. What can we learn about fish ears from the text?
| A．They are small soft rings. |
| B．They are not seen from the outside. |
| C．They are openings only on food fish. |
| D．They are not used to receive sound. |
Why does the writer compare the fish to trees?
| A．Trees gain a growth ring each day. |
| B．Trees also have otoliths. |
| C．Their growth rings are very small. |
| D．They both have growth rings. |
Why is it important to study the chemistry of otolith rings?
| A．The elements of the otoliths can tell the history of the sea. |
| B．Chemical contents of otoliths can tell how fast fish can swim. |
| C．We can know more about fish and their living environment. |
| D．Scientists can know exactly how old a fish is. |
How would you understand “fish scientists are now lending their ears”?
| A．They are very interested in Thorrold’s research findings. |
| B．They want to know where they can find fish. |
| C．They lend their fish for chemical studies. |
| D．They wonder if Thorrold can find growth rings from their ears. |
| McGill Comedy Club Important meeting today. Discussions on putting on Blazing Saddles. Union room 302, 3－4 pm. New members (both actors and non-actors, living and dead) are welcome. |
History Students’ Association Prof. Michael Cross of Dalhousie University will be speaking on “Unskilled Labors on Rivers and Canals in Upper Canada, 1820－1850: The Beginnings of Class Struggle,” at 10 am in Leacock 230. |
Design Mirror Sale All types and sizes of design mirrors priced to please. Sale today in Union room 108. |
| McGill Teaching Assistants’ Association A general meeting, for all the TAs, will be held at 4 p.m. in Leacock 116. |
Women’s Union Important. General Meeting at 6 pm, Union room 423. Speaker on “Importance of deciding basic goals of the Women’s Union.” Everyone, old, new and those interested, please attend. |
|
| Film Society Last meeting of the term for all members. All managers are required to be present. 6:00 sharp, Union room 434. |
Canadian University Students Overseas CUSO presents “Guess Who’s Coming to Breakfast” at 7 pm, Newman Centre, 3484 Peel. Find out about CUSO here and overseas. Everyone welcome. |
Where can you probably find this text?
| A．In a school magazine | B．In a national paper. |
| C．In a guide book. | D．In a university daily newspaper. |
If you are interested in arts, where would you go for a visit?
| A．Leacock 116. | B．Union room 423. |
| C．Union room 108. | D．Newman Centre, 3484 Peel. |
Which of the following is the name of a play?
A. Blazing Saddles.
B. Guess Who’s Coming to Breakfast.
C. Importance of deciding basic goals of the Women’s Union.
If you ask people to name one person who had the greatest effect on the English language, you will get answers like “Shakespeare,” “Samuel Johnson,” and “Webster,” but none of these men had any effect at all compared to a man who didn’t even speak English—William the Conqueror.
Before 1066, in the land we now call Great Britain lived peoples belonging to two major language groups. In the west-central region lived the Welsh, who spoke a Celtic language, and in the north lived the Scots, whose language, though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic. In the rest of the country lived the Saxons, actually a mixture of Anglos, Saxons, and other Germanic and Nordic peoples, who spoke what we now call Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), a Germanic language. If this state of affairs had lasted, English today would be close to German.
But this state of affairs did not last. In 1066 the Normans led by William defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England. For about a century, French became the official language of England while Old English became the language of peasants. As a result, English words of politics and the law come from French rather than German. In some cases, modern English even shows a distinction (区别) between upper-class French and lower-class Anglo-Saxon in its words. We even have different words for some foods, meat in particular, depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked, which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming, while the upper-class Normans were doing most of the eating.
When Americans visit Europe for the first time, they usually find Germany more “foreign” than France because the German they see on signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its beginning and that the French influences are all the result of one man’s ambition. The two major languages spoken in what is now called Great Britain before 1066 were
________.
| A．Welsh and Scottish | B．Nordic and Germanic |
| C．Celtic and Old English | D．Anglo-Saxon and Germanic |
Which of the following groups of words are, by inference, rooted in French?
| A．president, lawyer, beef | B．president, bread, water |
| C．bread, field, sheep | D．folk, field, cow |
Why does France appear less foreign than Germany to Americans on their first visit to
Europe?
| A．Most advertisements in France appear in English. |
| B．They know little of the history of the English language. |
| C．Many French words are similar to English ones. |
| D．They know French better than German. |
What is the subject discussed in the text?
| A．The history of Great Britain. |
| B．The similarity between English and French. |
| C．The rule of England by William the Conqueror. |
| D．The French influences on the English language. |
The easy way out isn’t always easiest. I learned that lesson when I decided to treat Doug, my husband of one month, to a special meal. I glanced through my cookbook and chose a menu which included homemade bread. Knowing the bread would take time, I started on it as soon as Doug left for work. As I was not experienced in cooking, I thought if a dozen was good, two dozen would be better, so I doubled everything. As Doug loved oranges, I also opened a can of orange and poured it all into the bowl. Soon there was a sticky dough (面团) covered with ugly yellowish marks. Realizing I had been defeated, I put the dough in the rubbish bin outside so I wouldn't have to face Doug laughing at my work, I went on preparing the rest of the meal, and, when Doug got home, we sat down to Cornish chicken with rice. He tried to enjoy the meal but seemed disturbed. Twice he got up and went outside, saying he thought he heard a noise. The third time he left, I went to the windows to see what he was doing. Looking out, I saw Doug standing about three feet from the rubbish bin, holding the lid up with a stick and looking into the container. When I came out of the house, he dropped the stick and explained that there was something alive in our rubbish bin. Picking up the stick again, he held the lid up enough for me to see. I felt cold. But I stepped closer and looked harder. Without doubt it was my work. The hot sun had caused the dough to double in size and the fermenting yeast (酵母) made the surface shake and sigh as though it were breathing. I had to admit what the ‘living thing’ was and why it was there. I don’t know who was more embarrassed by the whole thing, Doug or me. The writer’s purpose in writing this story is ________.
| A．to tell an interesting experience |
| B．to show the easiest way out of a difficulty |
| C．to describe the trouble facing a newly married woman |
| D．to explain the difficulty of learning to cook from books |
Why did the woman’s attempt at making the bread turn out to be unsuccessful?
| A．The canned orange had gone bad. |
| B．She didn’t use the right kind of flour. |
| C．The cookbook was hard to understand. |
| D．She did not follow the directions closely. |
Why did the woman put the dough in the rubbish bin?
| A．She didn’t see the use of keeping it |
| B．She meant to joke with her husband. |
| C．She didn’t want her husband to see it. |
| D．She hoped it would soon dry in the sun. |
What made the dough in the rubbish bin look frightening?
| A．The rising and falling movement. |
| B．The strange-looking marks. |
| C．Its shape. |
| D．Its size. |
When Doug went out the third time, the woman looked out of the window because she was ________.
| A．surprised at his being interested in the bin |
| B．afraid that he would discover her secret |
| C．unhappy that he didn't enjoy the meal |
| D．curious to know what disturbed him |