They’re WILD animals
By Ernst-Ulrich Franzen
March 11, 2010 (3) Comments
The story about the woman who lost some fingers while feeding a bear at a zoo in Manitowoc, after she ignored warnings and barriers(栅栏), reminded me of the story I heard about a couple who put their baby on the back of a wild horse in South Dakota to get a really cute picture. We all do silly things at times — no one is immune — but treating wild animals as lovely pets has to fall into a special category. Teddy bears and Disney movies aren’t actually representative of real bears.
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1. TosaLeft - Mar 11, 2010 10:46AM
Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe some alcohol was involved?
2. tk421 - Mar 11, 2010 11:09 AM
It was already approved that alcohol was involved. Stories that begin with a drunk person saying “Hey, I got an idea, watch this!” rarely end well.
3. Tristan Kloss - Mar 11, 2010 11:41 AM
Alcohol certainly isn’t involved when people decide to keep “pets” like chimpanzees, baby tigers, etc. Stupidity, definitely. Dogs are pets because of thousands of years of domestication. Even farm animals, which have been kept by humans for thousands of years as well, aren’t let in the house. So why keep animals that treat human contact with, at best, indifference(冷淡、不在乎) and, at worst, violence?
60．In Ernst-Ulrich Franzen’s opinion, the woman lost her fingers because ________.
A. the zoo keepers didn’t warn her of the danger
B. she didn’t know the bear was a wild animal
C. she was somehow influenced by cartoon characters
D. she climbed over the barriers and angered the bear
61．TosaLeft thinks the wounded woman ________.
A. may have been drunk B. may be a little stupid
C. was addicted to wine D. fed wine to the bear
62．tk421 means a drunk person ________.
A. should be forbidden to enter the zoo B. usually gets himself into trouble
C. is often fond of making up stories D. usually likes to show himself off
63．What does Tristan Kloss think of people treating wild animals as pets?
A. Kind. B. Illegal. C. Loving. D. Stupid.
For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict（冲突）between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part，this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ （青少年）complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrel on unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong，for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress. Why does the author compare the parent teen war to a border conflict?
| A．Both can continue for generations. |
| B．Both are about where to draw the line. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens accuse their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to__________.
| A．give orders to the other | B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other | D．get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war |
| C．Solutions for the parent-teen problems |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship |
Read the following directions on a bottle of medicine：
“Take two tablets(药片)with water, followed by one tablet every eight hours, as required, For maximum(最大量) night-time and early morning relief(缓解疼痛), take two tablets at bed - time, Do not take more than six tablets in twenty-four hours.
For children six to twelve years old, give half the amount for a grownup. For children under six years old, ask for your doctor’s advice.
Reduce the amount if nervousness, restlessness, or sleeplessness occurs,”The directions on this medicine bottle clearly warn the patient not to take more than _____ .
| A．twenty-four tablets a day. | B．eight tablets a day. |
| C．six tablets a day. | D．three tablets a day. |
We can infer from the directions that ______ .
| A．the medicine could cause some people to feel nervous. |
| B．children may take the same amount that grown-ups take. |
| C．one may not take this medicine before going to bed. |
| D．the medicine is a liquid. |
If one cannot sleep, it is suggested that he _____ .
| A．take two tablets before going to bed. |
| B．take less than two tablets before going to bed. |
| C．stop taking the medicine. |
| D．ask advice of a doctor. |
Obviously the medicine _______ .
| A．may be dangerous to small children. |
| B．cannot be taken by children under twelve years old. |
| C．may be taken by children but not by grown-ups. |
| D．may be taken by grown-ups but not by children. |
Robert Frost was one of America’s best known and most honored serious writers. But his fame came late in his life.
He was born in San Francisco, California in 1874. He lived in California during his early childhood. He was named after the chief Southern general in America’s Civil War. The general’s name was Robert Edward Lee. The poet was named Robert Lee Frost, because his father wanted to honor the general.
Someone once asked another American writer, Ernest Hemingway, how to become a writer. The best thing, he said, was to have an unhappy childhood. If this is true, Robert Frost’s childhood was unhappy enough to make him a very good writer. Robert Frost’s father was a reporter who wanted to be a politician. He often drank too much wine and became angry. Robert was the victim (受害者) of his anger.
Robert Frost finished high school in 1891. After high school, Robert’s grandfather offered to pay his costs at Dartmouth College. But Robert left the school after a few months. He did not like it. He spent the next few years working at different jobs. At one time, he worked in a factory. Later, he repaired shoes. He was a teacher. He was a reporter. Always, he wrote poetry.
Robert Frost attended Harvard University for two years. After that, he returned to the many jobs he held before. For a while, Frost tried to take care of a farm in the state of New Hampshire. He was not a successful farmer. And he continued to write poetry. He said that until 1930, he earned only about ten dollars a year from writing.
In 1912, he decided to try to make a new start. He took his family to Britain. The cost of living was low. In Britain, Frost found a publisher for his first book of poems. The book was called A Boy’s Will. When it appeared in 1913. Frost received high praise from British readers. Praise was something he had not received in his own country.
Ezra Pound, another American poet living in Britain, read the poems and liked them very much. He wrote a magazine article about Frost. He also helped get Frost’s second book of poems published in America. That book was called North of Boston.The followings are writers EXCEPT ________.
| A．Robert Edward Lee | B．Robert Lee Frost |
| C．Ernest Hemingway | D．Ezra Pound |
The passage wrote about Hemingway in order to show that
| A．he had great influence on Frost’s poetry and life |
| B．Frost’ s poetry style was the same as Hemingway’s |
| C．Frost was unhappy because he was the victim of his father |
| D．Frost spent his childhood unhappily |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Once Frost’s first book was published he gained great praise in his country. |
| B．After leaving Harvard University, he began to learn to write poetry. |
| C．Frost was found lo have a gift in poetry while he studied in high school. |
| D．Robert Frost’s father was angry and drank a lot because he didn’t realize his dream. |
What’s the passage mainly about?
| A．Robert Frost’s unhappy childhood. | B．Robert Frost’s first and second book. |
| C．Robert Frost’s family and jobs. | D．Robert Frost’s life and poetry. |
A friend is better than fortune. A friend is worse than poison in some cases.
The two sentences above have opposite meanings and seem to be unreasonable, but they can be explained as follows: the first refers to all good friends who drive us towards good while the second all bad ones who lead us into bad ways.
My ideal friend is of course a good friend whose goodness is shown below — he has no bad habits, such as smoking and drinking. He lives in frugality (节俭). He studies hard so as not to waste his golden time. At home he honors his parents and loves his brothers; at school he respects his teachers and shares the feelings of his classmates. He treats those truly who are true to him. In a word, he has all the good characteristics that I don’t have. I can follow him as a model. With his help I can be free from all difficulties.
Indeed, if I have such a person as my friend, I shall never fear difficulty and I shall never know the existence of the word “failure”. This passage tells us ____.
| A．how to make friends with others |
| B．how to help friends |
| C．what kind of person the writer’s friend is |
| D．what kind of person we should make friends with |
According to the writer, an ideal friend refers to _______.
| A．a friend without bad habits |
| B．a famous man |
| C．a perfect man |
| D．a respectable man |
From the passage we can learn that ________.
| A．the writer and his ideal friend have a lot to learn from each other |
| B．the writer has a lot to learn from his ideal friend |
| C．the writer’s ideal friend has a lot to learn from him |
| D．the writer has only a little to learn from his ideal friend |
From the second paragraph, we can infer the writer is sure that _______.
| A．friendship means a great deal to him |
| B．nothing can be done without friends |
| C．he who does not smoke or drink must be a good friend |
| D．good friends should always help each other |
Maybe it is true that we do not know what we have got until we lose it, but it is also true that we do not know what we have been missing until it arrives.
It takes an hour to like someone, and a day to love someone, but it takes a lifetime to forget someone. Giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Do not expect love in return; but if it does not, be content it has grown in yours. Do not rely on one’s appearance; it can trick you. Do not rely on wealth; even that fades away. Rely on someone who makes you smile, because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright.
There are moments in life when you miss someone so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them. Dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go; be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you want to do.
The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past. You cannot go on well in life until you let your past failures and heartaches go off. May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trails to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people do not necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. Happiness waits for those who cry, those appreciate the importance of people who have touched their lives. Always put yourself in others’ shoes. If you feel that it hurts you, it probably hurts the other person, too.
When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so that when you die, you are the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.In this passage, the writer wants to tell us ______.
| A．what to do in our life |
| B．where to go with other persons |
| C．how to treat our life |
| D．how to get on well with other persons |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．If you give someone your love, you are sure to receive love in return. |
| B．We often don’t know what we have lost until it happens someday. |
| C．It is wise not to rely on anybody because you are likely to be deceived. |
| D．If it takes you a short time to love someone, you will easily forget the person. |
If you put yourself in another person’s position, ______.
| A．you shouldn’t do what will hurt other people |
| B．you should put on other people’s shoes |
| C．you should believe in other people |
| D．you should depend on your imagination |
In the last paragraph the writer is actually telling us that a person in the world should be one who ______.
| A．can accept the suggestions made by others |
| B．can live happily and forget the past |
| C．does good to other people and is respected and loved by them |
| D．has made a lot of money for himself before he dies |