HumanCapitalHowwhatyouknowshap-优题课

It's not a new phenomenon, but have you noticed how many nouns are being used as verbs? We all use them, often without noticing what we're doing.
I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, and my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!
Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. Then along came email, and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we do without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.
Email reminds me, of course, of my computer and its software, which has produced another couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb comes from an adjective not a noun.
Now my children bought me a mobile phone, known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message for them on their phone. Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ll start using it myself!
“I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means .

A．it was a firm arrangement

B．he prefers a pencil to a pen

C．the arrangement should be written as a diary

D．it was an uncertain arrangement

A website address can be easily found if it has been______.

A．favorited

B．messaged

C．emailed

D．texted

Which of the following has not been used as a verb yet?

A．message

B．mobile

C．email

D．page

The best title for this passage is____.

A．Technology and Language.	B．Development of the English language
C．New Technology and New words	D．New Verbs from Nouns

Teens’ lives hit by economy
Some teenagers are crossing their dream colleges off their lists. Others are thinking of skipping（略过）their senior trips or reducing prom(毕业舞会)costs. Many are finding their work hours cut while their expenses rise.
So, who exactly is punishing them？Is it their parents, teachers or employers？No, it’s the economy（经济状况）.
If you are like most teenagers, you probably don’t understand what “recession”, “negative economic growth” and “subprime mortgage crisis (次贷危机)”actually mean. And you probably don’t spend your days watching the ups and downs of the stock market.
It’s safe to say that most teens don’t know much about the economy except for one thing：it’s bad. But just how exactly is the economy affecting teens?
“The single largest thing I have noticed is the recession’s ability to affect my college choice, “said Heather Richars from Downey High School in California, US. “With the economic situation the way it is, I have thought less about going to a private or out-of-state university, and more about public schools in California, mainly because of the price of tuition, “said Richars. “I had been a fan of attending a private school up until this year.”
The economy cuts into other areas of teenagers’ lives, too.
Joey Camarda, a student at Modesto High School in California, who works at an ice cream store, said,“ Probably due to the economy, I have been getting less hours at my job, and because of that, I am not getting enough money to help pay for college.”
Tara Mooney, a senior at Beyer High School, has also begun to notice that money is tight.
“Things are getting expensive,” she said. “When it comes to applying for colleges and wanting to go on senior trips, I have to pick and choose instead of doing it all.”
The purpose of writing the passage is mainly to tell us ________.

A．the economic recession has had a big effect on teens’ work, life and study

B．teenagers are now having difficulty in deciding which colleges to apply for

C．teenagers don’t know much about the economic recession

D．teenagers are considering giving up their senior trips to save money

Because of the bad economic situation, Heather Richars will most probably ________.

A．go to a private university

B．attend an out-of-state college

C．attend a public college in California

D．find a good university as he planned

How has Joey Camarda found the recession affects him?

A．He has to find more part-time jobs.

B．He has to help his mother do more chores.

C．He has found that he had more time to study.

D．His plan to pay for college will be hard to realize.

What can we conclude from the passage?

A．Parents punish their teens by giving them less money.

B．Most teens understand what negative economic growth means.

C．Teenagers are finding it harder to do what they want than before.

D．Teenagers have realized the importance of managing their own money.

Chocolate is good for your heart, skin and brain. Usually, people think that chocolate is bad for their health. They describe chocolate as “something to die for” or say “death by chocolate”. Now they should bite their tongues! Evidence(证据) is showing that some kinds of chocolate are actually good for you in the following ways:
A happier heart
Scientists at Harvard University recently examined 136 studies on cocoa—the main ingredient in chocolate and found that it does seem to strengthen the heart. Studies have shown heart benefits from increased blood flow. These benefits are the result of cocoa’s chemicals, which seem to prevent both cell damage and inflammation(炎症).
Better blood pressure
Ifyoursishigh,chocolatemayhelp.JeffreyBlumbergfromTuftsUniversityrecently
foundthatpeoplewithhighbloodpressurewhoate3.5ouncesofdarkchocolate
perdayfortwoweekstheirbloodpressuredropquickly.
Muscle magic
Chocolate milk may help you recover after a hard workout(锻炼). In a small study at Indiana University, people who drank chocolate milk between workouts did better on a tiredness test than those who had some sports drinks.
Better for your skin. German researchers gave 24 women a half-cup of special cocoa every day. After three months, the women’s skin was moister(滑润的)and smoother. The research shows that chocolate helps protect and increase blood flow to the skin, improving its appearance.
Brain gains
It sounds almost too good to be true, but research suggests that chocolate may improve your memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving by increasing blood flow to the brain.
Which of the following is wrong?

A．Coca’s chemicals can prevent both cell damage and inflammation.

B．Chocolate may help you lower your blood pressure.

C．People early know chocolate is good for their health.

D．Chocolate may improve your memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving.

What’s the meaning of the underlined sentence in the fourth paragraph?

A．Sports drinks are better than chocolate milk.

B．Sports drinks can make people easy to be tired.

C．Drinking milk can keep you energetic at work.

D．We should drink chocolate milk between times when we work hard.

What’s the main idea of the text?

A．Chocolate, a Healthy Food	B．More Chocolate, Less Health
C．Chocolate and Blood Pressure	D．Advice on Eating Chocolate

What’s the meaning of “bite their tongues” in the first paragraph?

A．Think of it.

B．Speak up.

C． Stop talking

D．Listen to it

Hi! Have you ever suddenly felt that someone you knew was in trouble — and was he? Have you ever dreamed something that came true later? Maybe you have ESP (超感觉知觉).
　　ESP stands for Extrasensory Perception. It may be called a sixth sense. It seems to let people know about events before they happen, or events that are happening some distance away.
　　Here’s an example. A woman was ironing clothes. Suddenly she screamed, “My father is dead! I saw him sitting in the chair!” Just then, a telegram came. The woman’s father died of a heart attack. He died sitting in a chair.
　　There are thousands of stories like this one on record. Scientists are studying them to find out what’s behind these strange mental messages. Here’s another example—one of hundreds of dreams that have come true.
A man dreamed he was walking along a road when a horse and a carriage came by. The driver said, “There is room for one more.” The man felt the driver seemed dead, so he ran away. The next day, when the man was getting on a crowded bus, the bus driver said, “There is room for one more.”
　　Then the man saw that the driver’s face was the same face he had seen in the dream. He wouldn’t get on the bus. As the bus drove off, it crashed and burst into flames. Everyone was killed!
　　Some people say stories like these are coincidences. Others, including some scientists, say that ESP is real. From studies of ESP, we may someday learn more about the human mind.
According to the passage, the author believes that the sixth sense is ________.

A．in existence

B．imaginative

C．not real

D．impossible

ESP lets people know _________.

A．about events before they happen

B．about events after they happen

C．about events that are happening some distance away

D．A and C

By studying ESP, scientists may get to ________.

A．learn how people tell lies

B．know more about human dreams

C．know more about human mind

D．learn how strange things happen

In the last paragraph the underlined word “coincidences” probably means _______.

A．things that may not happen

B．things that happen in a dream

C．things that must happen

D．things that happen by accident

We were standing at the top of a church tower. My father had brought me to this spot in a small town not far from our home in Rome. I wondered why.
“Look down, Elsa,” father said. I gathered all my courage and looked down. I saw the square in the center of the village. And I saw the crisscross (十字形) of twisting, turning streets leading to the square. “See, my dear,” father said gently. “There is more than one way to the square. Life is like that. If you can’t get to the place where you want to go by one road, try another.”
Now I understood why I was there. Earlier that day I had begged my mother to do something about the awful(糟糕的) lunches that were served at school. But she refused because she could not believe the lunches were as bad as I said.
When I turned to father for help, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he brought me to this high tower to give me a lesson. By the time we reached home, I had a plan.
At school the next day, I secretly poured my luncheon（午餐）soup into a bottle and brought it home. Then I asked our cook to serve it to mother at dinner. The plan worked perfectly. She swallowed one spoonful and sputtered（喷溅出）” The cook must have gone mad！” Quickly I told her what I had done, and Mother stated firmly that she would take up the matter of lunches at school the next day!
In the years that followed I often remembered the lesson father taught me. I began to work as a fashion designer two years ago. I wouldn’t stop working until I tried every possible means to my goal. Father’s wise words always remind me that there is more than one way to the square.
The author’s father took her to the top of a church tower to _____.

A．enjoy the beautiful scenery of the whole town

B．find out how many ways lead to the square

C．inspire her to find out another way to solve her problem

D．help her forget some unpleasant things earlier that day

What did the author want her mother to do earlier that day?

A．Do something delicious for lunch.

B．Taste her awful lunch.

C．Dismiss the mad cook.

D．Speak to the school about lunch.

By sharing her own experiences, the author tries to tell us ____________.

A．when one road is blocked, try another

B．how bad the lunch of her school is

C．how wise her father is

D．about the church tower near her home