Whatsonstage.com is the UK’s biggest and best online guide to the performing arts including theatre, opera, classical music, dance and so on.
◆The Lion King
Musical: The stage adaptation of the Disney film taken from an original African story. A young lion grows up and learns that taking over the pride requires wisdom and maturity(成熟).
Place: Lyceum Theatre, Wellington Street, London
Telephone: 0870 243 9000
Date: Friday, 18 Nov. 2013
Ticket price:￡37.5
◆Oliver
Musical: Dickens’ story of a boy in a London workhouse and his adventures on the way to discovering his family. The songs include Food glorious food, You’ve got to pick a pocket or two， Who will buy this wonderful morning，I am reviewing the situation and Consider yourself at home.
Place: Theatre Royal, Catherine Street, London
Telephone: 020 7494 5061
Date: Thursday, 17 Nov. 2013
Ticket price: ￡25 but now save 20%
◆Jersey Boys
Musical: It tells the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons: the blue-collar kids from New Jersey formed a singing group and became famous. The musical features many of the group’s popular songs such as Big girls don’t cry, Oh, What a night and Can’t take my eyes off you.
Place: Prince Edward Theatre, Old Compton Street, London
Telephone: 0870 850 9191
Date: Saturday, 9 Nov. 2013
Ticket price:￡22.5
◆All’s Well That Ends Well
Play: A romantic story. Helena, daughter of a poor physician, loves Bertram, son of a Countess(女伯爵).
Place: Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Park Street, London
Telephone: 020 7401 9919
Date: Sunday, 20 Nov. 2013
Ticket price: ￡40.5 If Mary is available on Friday, which of the following should she call to buy a ticket?
| A． 0870 850 9191 | B． 020 7494 5061 |
| C． 0870 243 9000 | D． 020 7401 9919 |
If you want to buy a ticket at a discount, you should go to __________.
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre B. Theatre Royal
C. Prince Edward Theatre D. Lyceum Theatre
THIS is an excerpt（摘录）from therapist Laura Trice’s speech at TED in 2008:
Hi. I'm here to talk to you about the importance of praise, admiration and “thank you”s, and making them specific and genuine.
The way I got interested in this was, I noticed that when I was growing up, and until about a few years ago, I would want to say thank you to someone. I would want to praise them. I would want to take in their praise of me and then I'd just stop myself. I asked myself: why? I felt shy. I felt embarrassed. And then my question became: am I the only one who does this? So I decided to study that question.
I'm fortunate enough to work in a rehab facility, so I get to see people who are facing life and death with addiction. Sometimes it comes down to something as simple as their core wound is how their father died without ever saying he's proud of them. But then, they hear from all the family and friends that the father told everybody else that he was proud, but he never told the son. It's because he didn't know that his son needed to hear it.
I used to take my bike into the bike store and they'd do something called "truing（校正）" the wheels. The guy said: "You know, when you true the wheels, it's going to make the bike so much better." I get the same bike back, and they'd have taken all the little warps out of those same wheels I've had for two and a half years, and my bike would feel like new. So, I'm going to challenge all of you. I want you to true your wheels: be honest about the praise that you need to hear. What do you need to hear? Go home to your wife and ask her: “What do you need?” Go home to your husband and ask him what he needs. Go home and ask those questions and then help the people around you.
It's simple. But why should we care about this? We talk about world peace. How can we have world peace with different cultures, different languages? I think it starts in each of our households. So, let's make things right in our own backyards.Why did Laura mention truing the wheels of her bike in the speech?
To thank the staff of the bike shop.
To show the importance of praise and admiration.
To advise readers to get their bike wheels trued, too.
To remind readers to renew their relationships with the people around them.The purpose of the speech is most likely to ___________.
| A． surprise | B． persuade |
| C． describe | D． entertain |
Fahad Azad, an engineer in India, invented a robot named DuctBot．The toy-car sized DuctBot measured 23 centimeters in length, 19 centimeters in width and 9 centimeters in height and weighs just two kilograms．
The robot is designed to snake through dark, narrow air conditioning ducts （管道） and clean them．A pair of LEDs fitted on the robot light up the dirty scenery, so it can be captured （抓拍） by a camera．
In order to control it more easily, Mr. Azad chooses to fix DuctBot on wheels．The robot can clean off lots of dirt, as well as dead pigeons and insects．Keeping indoor air in good quality and monitoring carbon-dioxide levels in buildings with central air conditioning is a challenge．It is important in some places where clean air can mean a difference between life and death, such as hospitals．Dirty air has a bad influence on people's health．
EPSCO, a Dubai-based company which specializes in improving indoor air quality, read about Mr. Azad's invention in a national newspaper after he had won an international robotics competition．EPSCO had cleaning equipment, but it needed someone to get into those ducts to do the dirty, dangerous work．Across India, for example, the task still falls to children．They are small enough to go through those ducts．
In 2005, Mr. Azad who was still at university decided to do something about it．Six years later his own company, Robosoft Systems, has Bluestar, EPSCO and the Indian Navy, some leading air condition makers, as partners．
Mr. Azad and his ten employees are currently exploring robot designs to examine oil tanks or sewage （污水）pipes．Their biggest challenge is to make the robots user-friendly enough．Mr. Azad hopes that the robot could eventually be operated not by engineers but by workers．There will be lots of difficulties they need to overcome in the future．What can we learn about Ductbot?
| A．It is a toy car and popular with children． |
| B．It is designed to move like a snake in the ducts． |
| C．many LEDs are fitted on it to tell its location． |
| D．It is actually a camera to capture dirty scenery． |
The underlined word "it" in Paragraph 2 refers to "____"．
| A．the camera | B．the conditioning duct |
| C．the LED light | D．the dirty scenery |
What can the Ductbot do for us?
| A．Clean off the dirt in the ducts． |
| B．Control the central conditioning． |
| C．Reduce carbon-dioxide in buildings． |
| D．Protect more animals in city． |
According to the text, EPSCO____．
| A．has won an international robotics competition |
| B．hired children to clean the dirty ducts in the past |
| C．is the only partner of Robosoft Systems |
| D．specializes in improving people's health |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．Only engineers can operate the Ductbot now． |
| B．New ways have been found to examine oil tanks． |
| C．Azad's difficulties are impossible to overcome． |
| D．Azad's team are working to improve their robot designs． |
An eighteen-year-old high school student from Utah won the top prize in the Intel Science Talent Search in the United States. The winner received a computer and a scholarship for a college education.
More than 1,500 students from across the country entered projects in the competition this year. Their research included chemistry, medicine, physics, mathematics, engineering, and computer science—almost every area of science.
Forty students were invited to Washington, D.C. for the final judging. A group of scientistsjudged them on their research abilities, critical thinking skills and creativity. The judges alsoquestioned the students about scientific problems before deciding on the winners.
The top winner received 100,000 dollars for college. Shannon Babb of American Fork High School studied the water quality of tile Spanish Fork River in Utah for six years. She found that people have a harmful effect on the river through human activity, including agriculture. And she suggested ways to improve the water quality in the future. These include educating the public not to put household chemicals down the drains（下水道）, which lead to the river eventually.
Seventeen-year-old Yi Sun of the Hanker School in San Jose, California, earned the second place. He won a 75,000-dollar scholarship for new discoveries about a mathematical theory known as random walks. His work could help computer scientists and chemists. Yi Sun was born in China.
The third-place winner was also seventeen and born in China. Yuan “Chelsea” Zhang of Montgomery Blair High School in Rockville, Maryland, won a 50,000-dollar scholarship. She researched the molecular genetics（分子遗传学）of heart disease. Her findings could aid the development of new medicines.
The Intel Science Talent Search is the oldest science competition for high school students in the United States. It is 65 years old this year. Past winners have gone on to receive six Nobel prizes and other top honors in science and math.What do we know about the talent search project?
| A．Most of its winners have received Nobel prizes. |
| B．The project includes researches in every area of science. |
| C．Only a small part of the students can attend the final judging. |
| D．Most of the winners come from Asian countries. |
According to the text, .
| A．water quality in Utah will be better than that in the other states |
| B．the river was polluted only by those living near it |
| C．Shannon Babb suggested more than one way to improve the water quality |
| D．household chemicals should be kept in the drains forever |
Which of the following about the girl from Maryland is NOT true?
| A．The scholarship she received was half as many as Shannon Babb. |
| B．Her discovery is of great help to Chinese medicine. |
| C．Her research will contribute to the cure of heart disease. |
| D．She and the second-place winner Yi Sun have something in common. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．Three winners' contributions to science and math. |
| B．Three Chinese students won the Science Talent Search. |
| C．Great rewards were given to winners in the competition. |
| D．Winners of the Intel Science Talent Search in the US. |
Where are you most likely to find this text?
| A．In a newspaper. | B．In a handbook. |
| C．In a textbook. | D．In a medical magazine. |
You have probably heard of the Mozart effect. It’s the idea that if children or even babies listen to music composed by Mozart, they will become more intelligent. A quick Internet search reveals plenty of products to assist you in the task. Whatever your age there are CDs and books to help you taste the power of Mozart’s music, but when it comes to scientific evidence that it can make you more clever, the picture is more mixed.
The phrase “the Mozart effect” was made up in 1991, but it was a study described two years later in the journal Nature that sparked real media and public interest about the idea that listening to classical music somehow improves the brain. It is one of those ideas that sound reasonable. Mozart was undoubtedly a genius himself; his music is complex and there is a hope that if we listen to enough of it ,we’ll become more intelligent.
The idea took off, with thousands of parents playing Mozart to their children, and in 1998 Zell Miller, the Governor of the state of Georgia in the US, even asked for money to be set aside in the state budget so that every newborn baby could be sent a CD of classical music. It was not just babies and children who were exposed to Mozart’s music on purpose, even an Italian farmer proudly explained that the cows were played Mozart three times a day to help them to produce better milk.
I’ll leave the debate on the impact on milk yield to farmers, but what about the evidence that listening to Mozart makes people more intelligent? More research was carried out but an analysis of sixteen different studies confirmed that listening to music does lead to a temporary improvement in the ability to handle shapes mentally, but the benefits are short-lived and it doesn’t make us more intelligent.
What can we learn from paragraph 1?
| A．Mozart composed many musical pieces for children. |
| B．Children listening to Mozart will be more intelligent. |
| C．There are few products on the Internet about Mozart’s music. |
| D．There is little scientific evidence to support Mozart effect. |
Why did many people believe in the idea of Mozart Effect?
| A．Because a study described it in the journal Nature. |
| B．Because Mozart himself was a genius. |
| C．Because Mozart’s music is enjoyable. |
| D．Because Mozart’s music makes people relaxed. |
The underlined sentence in paragraph3 suggests that .
| A．people were strongly against the idea |
| B．the idea was accepted by many people |
| C．Mozart played an important part in people’s life |
| D．the US government helped promote the idea |
What is the author’s attitude towards the Mozart effect?
| A．Favorable | B．Objective |
| C．Doubtful | D．Positive |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Listening to Mozart , necessary? | B．What music is beneficial? |
| C．What is the Mozart effect? | D．To be or not to be? |