Throughout the ages, man has tried to create beauty through painting, music, sculpture(雕刻) and other kinds of artistic expression. It seems to be a basic need for humans to surround themselves with art. Some people, however, feel that the government is wasting money by spending it on art, particularly when there are so many other more important things that the money can be used for.
It can be wrong for governments to spend large sums of money on art. Too often, governments spend the money unwisely. Cities end up with huge statues or expensive, empty buildings that are only used by a few people. Many times, the art is also chosen to represent social or political
rather than artistic ideas, and even if it represents artistic ideas, tastes in art can change very rapidly. Without thinking carefully about how to spend the money, the people may end up with an expensive collection of worthless paintings of tasteless productions.
At the same time it would be wrong to say that governments should not spend any money at all on art. Painters, musicians, and composers cannot survive without monetary support. Many times, the art is inaccessible (很难到的) to ordinary people because only rich people and large companies can afford it. Governments have a duty to make this art available to everyone. Art helps people enjoy life,
Although people do need to be provided with the necessities of life, governments also have a duty to provide their citizens with something more. I firmly believe that spending money on art is vital (必不可少的) part of a government’s responsibility, and I am confident that my country is able to contribute a great deal to the rich collection of art from around passage?
45. What does the author mainly tell us in the passage?
A. Why tastes in art change so rapidly.
B. The importance of art to human beings.
C. Humans’ need to be surrounded by art.
D. Whether or not the government should spend money on art.
46. The following are reasons why governments spend too much money on arts EXCEPT that _____.
A. art is changing with time rapidly
B. they choose art to serve political purpose
C. they don’t think carefully enough about what to buy
D. art is necessary for the life of poor people
47. The underlined word “monetary” in the third paragraph probably means“_____”.
A. political B. financial C. temporary(临时的) D. continuous
48. According to the author, what is the function of art?
A. Art can be very valuable when it is traded. B. Art makes people’s lives worthwhile.
C. Art can unite governments. D. Art can make governments fashionable.
Cafe Hub
Next to the Castle lies The Hub, home of the Edinburgh International Festival and one of the most talked about spots in town. Our cafe is open every day for mouth-watering lunches, snacks and fine dining. Come in and enjoy the atmosphere of The Hub or watch the world go by from our beautiful terrace.
The Hub, Castlehill, Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Open every day from 9:30 a.m. till late.
Tel: 0131 473 2067 www.thehub-edinburgh.com
Farm World
Enjoy being "A Farmer for a Day". Join in delivering and feeding our spring babies — bottle feeding sessions twice daily. Fun for all family. Horse Rides, BMX Bikes Cross Country Course, Tractor Ride through 600 acres, New Adventure Playground, Nature Trails. Full details on website.
Open: May—Oct Wednesdays to Saturdays and daily during school holidays 11 a. m.—5 p. m.
Tel: 01797 260256/260321 www. Farmworld. rye. co. uk
Enter the Europe-wide student competition!
Are you curious, creative and energetic? Are you interested in the new media? Are you between 12 and 19 years of age? Then Join Multimedia 2006 is for you!
Your challenge will be to build a team and develop a multimedia presentation in English — based on one of three different topics. You can register between May 1 and June 15, 2006 and will have to turn in your entry before September 15, 2006.
The rewards are wonderful: £150,000 in prize for schools and teams and the chance to attend a European student camp — plus new experiences, an opportunity to make friends throughout Europe!
For further information and registration forms go to: www. Siemens. com/join. multimedia.You' ll have to register first if you want ________.
| A．to enjoy delicious food |
| B．to try Tractor Ride through 600 acres |
| C．to enter the Europe-wide student competition |
| D．to watch the world go by from the beautiful terrace |
According to the passage, there will be _______ rewards for the Europe-wide student competition.
| A．only one | B．two | C．three | D．four |
You can visit Farm World________.
| A．on Monday in May | B．any day in October |
| C．at 2 p.m. at Christmas | D．at 10:30 a.m. during school holidays |
From the advertisements above, we can learn that ________
| A．families can enjoy Horse Rides on New Adventure Playground |
| B．Farm World provides lunches, snacks and fine dining |
| C．the Europe-wide student competition will be held on June 15, 2006 |
| D．Cafe Hub is a popular place in the local area |
Robert Ballard was born in 1942. From an early age, he loved the sea. Ballard grew up in Southern California. He spent his free time at the beach near his home. He enjoyed fishing and swimming. He even learned to dive.
When Ballard wasn’t at the ocean, he loved reading about it. At age 10, he read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a book which describes the undersea adventures of Captain Nemo. Ballard decided he wanted to be like Captain Nemo when he grew up. His parents helped him follow his dream.
Ballard was a hardworking student. He spent many years learning all he could about the ocean. By the age of 28, he was an expert. In 1970, he took a job as a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. There he studied underwater mountains of the Atlantic Ocean. He came up with ways to predict volcanoes under the oceans.
Working with other scientists, Ballard also found previously unknown sea animals. These animals lived far below the ocean’s surface, where scientists had believed no animals could live.
By the 1980s, Ballard’s interests changed. He developed unmanned vehicles to explore the ocean bottom. His first find, the well-known ship Titanic, made Ballard famous. He was not happy with just one big find, however. He looked for — and found — other well-known ships. One was the German battleship Bismarck. Another was the U.S. Yorktown, an aircraft carrier that sank during World War II.
Today Robert Ballard is still an underwater explorer. He also heads an organization that encourages students to learn about science. Ballard hopes that some of the students will follow in his footsteps. After all, the world’s huge oceans are mostly unknown. Who knows what remains to be discovered under the sea?What was Ballard’s dream when he was young?
| A．To be a science teacher. |
| B．To be an animal expert. |
| C．To be a famous writer. |
| D．To be an underwater explorer. |
When Ballard worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, he _____.
| A．explored the undersea world by ship |
| B．thought of ideas to predict underwater volcanoes |
| C．found some unknown sea animals alone |
| D．set up an organization to teach students science |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．Ballard’s parents felt disappointed at his undersea adventures. |
| B．Ballard didn’t like fishing and swimming in his childhood. |
| C．Ballard was greatly influenced by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. |
| D．Human beings have explored more than half of the sea. |
Taking a picture of your tongue with a mobile phone could soon instantly tell you how healthy you are. Researchers believe the images can reveal important information about a patient’s health and even give them early warning of serious illness.
A team at the University of Missouri is developing a system that can analyze pictures using a 5,000-year-old Chinese principle, which is based on the flow and balance of positive and negative energies in the body, and uses the tongue as a key to learning about a person’s physical health, or “zheng” according to Chinese medicine.
“Within a year, our goal is to create an application for smart phones that will allow anyone to take a photo of their tongue and learn the status of their zheng,” said Dong Xu, chair of MU’s Computer Science Department in the College of Engineering and the co-author of the latest study.
The software analyzes images based on the tongue’s color and coating to distinguish between tongues showing signs of “hot” or “cold” zheng. Shades of red and yellow are associated with hot zheng, whereas a white coating on the tongue is a sign of cold zheng.
“Hot and cold zheng doesn’t refer directly to body temperature,” said Xu, “Rather, it refers to a series of symptoms associated with the state of the body as a whole.”
For the study, 263 gastritis(胃炎) patients and 48 healthy volunteers had their tongues analyzed. The gastritis patients were classified by whether they showed infection by a certain bacteria as well as the intensity of their gastritis symptoms. In addition, most of the gastritis patients had been previously classified with either hot or cold zheng. This allowed the researchers to test the accuracy of the software’s analysis.
“Our software is able to classify people based on their zheng status. And as we continue to work on the software we hope to improve its ability,” said another co-author Ye Duan, “Eventually everyone will be able to use this tool at home using webcams or smart phone applications, which will allow them to monitor their zheng and get an early warning about possible ailments.” The software mentioned in the passage is based on ________.
| A．the latest development of smart phones |
| B．a traditional Chinese medical principle |
| C．the changes in one’s flow and energy |
| D．symptoms related with the state of the body |
According to Chinese medicine, zheng refers to ________.
| A．one’s body temperature | B．the physical health of a person |
| C．the possible disease of a person | D．the color and coating of one’s tongue |
The study led by Dong Xu proves _________.
| A．the effect of the software |
| B．the software’s great prospect |
| C．the advancement of smart phones |
| D．the greatness of Chinese medicine |
The underlined word “ailments” can be replaced by _________.
| A．analysis | B．effects | C．illnesses | D．applications |
It can be inferred from the passage that _________.
| A．the software still needs improvement |
| B．the subjects in the study are all gastritis |
| C．the software has been in market for a year |
| D．the subjects in the study are classified by age |
A board game is a game played on a pre-marked surface or “board” according to a set of rules. Board games have been played in most cultures and societies throughout history. Do you think of yourself as a bit of an expert at board gameslikechessorGo?
Maybe you’re not quite as good as you think. New research from the University of Manchester and Oxford suggests complex games like these are impossible to learn fully. They may even be too complex for the human mind to understand.
Researchers studied two-player games, to try and understand the strategies which people use to make decisions during the game. Some games with two players are simple, with only a small number of possible moves. Players can quickly work out the best strategy but that means the game soon becomes boring.
It gets more interesting when there are many possible moves. That’s why people are so fascinated by complex board games like chess or Go, or somecard games. But what the researchers found was that with difficult games, players find it hard to work out the best strategy and theiractionsbecomeless reasonable.
This research is part of the field calledgame theory: the study of human strategic decision-making. Much thinking on how people play complex games is based on something called “the balance point”, which is when players have a perfect knowledge of what they are going to do and of what theirrivals are going to do.
When you add more than two players then of course the game becomes even harder to understand. Trading on the stock market is an example of a complex multi-player game.Which of the following games belongs to board games?
| A．football | B．badminton | C．swimming | D．Mahjong |
It can be inferred in the passage that _______.
| A．the simpler the board game is, the better it is |
| B．people dislike board games for the complex moves |
| C．players are easy to lose patience when in difficult games |
| D．it’s possible for people to understand complex games thoroughly |
If players want to get to the balance point, they should ______.
| A．ask other players to work out the best strategy |
| B．have a good knowledge of the games they are playing |
| C．figure out the next actions of themselves and their opponents |
| D．come to a quick decision about what to do next by themselves |
In which section can we read this passage in a newspaper?
| A．Culture | B．Discovery | C．Career | D．Campus |
The author intends to tell us ___________.
| A．a new research about board games |
| B．the importance of playing board games |
| C．how the players win board games |
| D．how to learn board games fully |
September is an exciting month in every college freshman’s life. For many, it’s the first time that they’ve left home to live in a new environment. But after the hustle and bustle of a few weeks, excitement gives way to a less enjoyable emotion— homesickness.
Homesickness manifests itself in many ways. You may miss mum’s cooking, your pets, or even your old bed. All this becomes a fond memory of the past. Homesickness can be a bitter feeling for many students, especially when faced with the challenges of settling into an unfamiliar environment.
But remember, you’re not alone. According to a recent BBC article, 70 percent of British college students experience homesickness. In this increasingly globalized world in which people migrate to faraway places for a relationship, education or work, homesickness is a feeling shared by many adults.
Homesickness can have similar symptoms to depression and in extreme cases it can develop into a panic attack. As for the term, homesickness or nostalgia wasn’t invented until the 17th century. It was considered a disorder by a Swiss physician, who attributed soldiers’ mental and physical discomfort to their longing to return home, “nostos” from Greek, and the accompanying pain, “algos”.
Studies in recent years, however, have shown that nostalgia may have some benefits to our mental health. After a decade of surveys and researches, Constantine Sedikides, a US social psychologist, found that nostalgia is what makes us human. He explains that nostalgia can resist loneliness, boredom and anxiety. Therefore, it’s necessary for college students to learn some ways to overcome the uncomfortable feeling. From the first two paragraphs, we can infer that __________.
| A．homesickness means a fond memory of the past |
| B．only a few students will experience homesickness |
| C．homesickness is an enjoyable emotion among freshmen |
| D．college freshmen usually suffer from homesickness after weeks |
According to the passage, we can know that _________.
| A．homesickness may cause mental diseases |
| B．homesickness is a feeling only shared by adults |
| C．homesickness won’t do any good to our health |
| D．homesickness is also called nostalgia in Switzerland |
What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?
| A．some benefits about homesickness |
| B．other problems in college freshmen’s life |
| C．how to make campus life more meaningful |
| D．some tips on how to cope with homesickness |
The attitude of Sedikides towards homesickness is _________.
| A．negative | B．supportive | C．skeptical | D．critical |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Let’s embrace homesickness |
| B．How to fit into the college life |
| C．A harmful emotion—homesickness |
| D．The disadvantages of homesickness |