Section B
Directions: Read the following three passages. Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage you have just read.
(A)
The elephant was lying heavily on its side, fast asleep. A few dogs started barking at it. The elephant woke up in a terrible anger: it chased the dogs into the village where they ran for safety.
That didn't stop the elephant. It destroyed a dozen houses and injured several people. The villagers were scared and angry. Then someone suggested calling Parbati, the elephant princess.
Parbati Barua's father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer. He taught Parbati to ride an elephant before she could even walk. He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant round-up -- how to catch wild elephants.
Parbati hasn't always lived in the jungle. After a happy childhood hunting with her father, she was sent to boarding school in the city. But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to her old fife. "Life in the city is too dull. Catching elephants is an adventure and the excitement lasts for days after the chase," she says.
But Parbati doesn't catch elephants just for fun. "My work," she says, "is to rescue man from the elephants, and to keep the elephants safe from man." And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years. Increasingly, the Indian elephant is angry: for many years, illegal hunters have attacked it and its home in the jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land. It is now fighting back. Whenever wild elephants enter a tea garden or a village, Parbati is called to
guide the animals back to the jungle before they can kill.
The work of an elephant tamer also involves love and devotion. A good elephant tamer will spend hours a day singing love songs to a newly captured elephant. "Eventually they grow to love their tamers and never forget them. They are also more loyal than humans," she said, as she climbed up one of her elephants and sat on the giant, happy animal. An elephant princess indeed!
1. For Parbati, catching elephants is mainly to .
A. get long lasting excitement B. keep both man and elephants safe
C. send them back to the jungle D. make the angry elephants tame
2. Before Parbati studied in a boarding school, .
A. she spent her time hunting with her father
B. she learned how to sing love songs
C. she had already been called an elephant princess
D. she was taught how to hunt tigers
3. Indian elephants are getting increasingly angry and they revenge because __________.
A. they are caught and sent for heavy work
B. illegal hunters capture them and kill them
C. they are attacked and their land gets limited
D. dogs often bark at them and chase them
4. The passage starts with an elephant story in order to explain that in India _________.
A. people easily fall victim to elephants' attacks
B. the man-elephant relationship is getting worse
C. elephant tamers are in short supply
D. dogs are as powerful as elephants
What makes one person more intelligent than another? What makes one person a genius, like the brilliant Albert Einstein, and another person a fool? Are people born intelligent or stupid, or is intelligence the result of where and how you live? These are very old questions and the answers to them are still not clear.
We know, however, that just being born with a good mind is not enough. In some ways, the mind is like a leg or an arm muscle. It needs exercise. Mental exercise is particularly important for young children. Many child psychologists (心理学家) think that parents should play with their children more often and give them problems to think about. The children are then more likely to grow up bright and intelligent. If, on the other hand, children are left alone a great deal with nothing to do, they are more likely to become dull and unintelligent.
Parents should also be careful with what they say to young children. According to some psychologists, if parents are always telling a child that he or she is a fool or an idiot, then the child is more likely to keep doing silly and foolish things. So it is probably better for parents to say very positive things to their children, such as “That was a very clever thing you did.” or “You are such a smart child.”The words “intelligent” and “brilliant” in the first paragraph probably mean _______ while “dull” in the second paragraph means ________.
A.bright and splendid; slow in thinking and understanding |
B.pretty and handsome; ordinary-looking |
C.great and important; common |
D.hopeful and helpful; careless |
According to the context we can guess that a genius is ________ while an idiot is ________.
A.a normal person; a funny person |
B.a strong person; a weak person |
C.a highly intelligent person; a foolish or weak-minded person |
D.a famous person; an ordinary person |
A person ________ is more likely to become a genius.
A.whose parents are clever |
B.often thinking about difficult problems |
C.often helped by his parents and teachers |
D.born with a good brain and putting it into active use |
It is better for parents ________.
A.to praise and encourage their children more often |
B.to be hard on their children |
C.to leave their children alone with nothing to do |
D.to give their children as much help as possible |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the article?
A.Parents play an important part in their children’s growth. |
B.The less you use your mind the duller you may become. |
C.Intelligence is obviously the result of where and how you live. |
D.What makes a person bright or stupid is still under discussion. |
O. Henry was a pen name used by an American writer of short stories. His real name was William Sydney Porter. He was born in North Carolina in 1862. As a young boy he lived an exciting life. He did not go to school for very long, but he managed to teach himself everything he needed to know. When he was about 20 years old, O. Henry went to Texas, where he tried different jobs. He first worked on a newspaper, and then had a job in a bank, when some money went missing from the bank. O. Henry was believed to have stolen it. Because of that, he was sent to prison. During the three years in prison, he learned to write short stories. After he got out of prison, he went to New York and continued writing. He wrote mostly about New York and the life of the poor there. People liked his stories, because simple as the tales were, they would finish with a sudden change at the end, to the reader’s surprise. In which order did O. Henry do the following things?
a. Lived in New York. b. Worked in a bank. c. Travelled to Texas.
d. Was put in prison. e. Had a newspaper Job. f. Learned to write stories.
A.e. c. f. b. d. a | B.c. e. b. d. f. a | C.e. b. d. c. a. f. | D.c. b. e. d. a f. |
People enjoyed reading O. Henry’s stories because
A.they had surprise endings | B.they were easy to understand |
C.they showed his love for the poor | D.they were about New York City |
O. Henry went to prison because .
A.people thought he had stolen money from the newspaper |
B.he broke the law by not using his own name |
C.he wanted to write stories about prisoners |
D.people thought he had taken money that was not his |
What do we know about O. Henry before he began writing?
A.He was well-educated. | B.He was not serious about his work. |
C.He was devoted to the poor. | D.He was very good at learning. |
Where did O. Henry get most material for his short stories?
A.His life inside the prison. | B.The newspaper articles he wrote. |
C.The city and people of New York. | D.His exciting early life as a boy. |
In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is about, It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbours.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighbourhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants, Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbours.
It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich life--style of their neighbours. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories, He called it ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ because ‘Jones’ is a very common name in the United States.’ Keeping up with the Joneses’ came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are ‘Jonses’ in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.
A.want to be as rich as their neighbours |
B.want others to know or to think that they are rich |
C.don’t want others to know they are rich |
D.want to be happy |
It can be inferred from the story that rich people like to ________.
A.live outside New York City | B.live in New York City |
C.live in apartments | D.have many neighbours |
The underlined word neighbourhood in the second paragraph means ________.
A.a person who lives near another | B.people living in an area |
C.an area near the place referred to | D.an area in another town or city |
Arthur Momand used the name ‘Jones’ in his series of short stories because’ Jones’ is ________.
A.an important name | B.a popular name in the United States |
C.his neighbour’s name | D.not a good name |
According to the writer, it is to keep up with the Joneses.
A.correct | B.interesting | C.impossible | D.good |
Have you ever had the strange feeling that you were being watched? You turned around and, sure enough, someone was looking right at you!
Parapsychologists (灵学家) say that humans have a natural ability to sense when someone is looking at them. To research whether such a “sixth sense” really exists, Robert Baker, a psychologist (心理学家) at the University of Kentucky, did two experiments.
In the first one, Baker sat behind unknowing people in public places and stared at the backs of their heads for 5 to 15 minutes. The subjects(受试者)were eating, drinking, reading, studying, watching TV, or working at a computer. Baker made sure that the people could not tell that he was sitting behind them during those periods. Later, when he questioned the subjects, almostall of them said they had no sense that someone was staring at them.
For the second experiment, Baker told the subjects that they would be stared at from time to time from behind in a laboratory setting. The people had to write down when they felt they were being stared at and when they weren’t. Baker found that the subjects were no better at telling when they were stared at and when they weren’t.
Baker concludes that people do not have the ability to sense when they’re being stared at. If people doubt the outcome of his two experiments, said Baker, “I suggest they repeat the experiments and see for themselves.” The aim of the two experiments is to________.
A.explain when people can have a sixth sense |
B.show how people act while being watched in the lab |
C.study whether humans can sense when they are stared at |
D.prove why humans have a sixth sense |
The underlined word “outcome” in the last paragraph most probably means________.
A.value | B.result | C.performance | D.connection |
In the second experiment, the subjects _________.
A.could tell when they were stared at and when they weren’t. |
B.could tell when they were stared at but couldn’t tell when they weren’t. |
C.couldn’t tell when they were stared at but could tell when they weren’t. |
D.couldn’t tell when they were stared at or when they weren’t. |
What can be learned from the passage?
A.People are born with a sixth sense. |
B.The experiments support parapsychologists’ idea. |
C.The subjects do not have a sixth sense in the experiments. |
D.People have a sixth sense in all places. |
Maybe you know some well-known buildings, such as the Great Wall, the Great Hall of the People, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But do you know the Royal Academy of Arts ?
Lying in the heart of London, the Royal Academy of Arts is an independent fine arts institution (机构) which supports modern artists and promotes interest in the arts through all kinds of exhibition programs. The Academy is completely independent. It is a self-funded (自筹资金的), organization which is governed by the Royal Academicians—eminent painters, printmakers, sculptors and architects who are elected to the position. The Academy has a long history and was founded in 1768 with Sir Joshua Reynolds as its first President. The Academy lies in Burlington House which itself has a long colorful history with parts of the original structure dating back to 1664. Today, the Academy attracts over one million visitors each year, making it one of London's top 10 attractions for paying visitors.
Air: London's City Airport. Gatwick Airport, Heathrow Airport, Luton Airport and Stansted Airport.
Rail: Underground: Piccadilly and Green Park or a short walk from Oxford Circus and Bond Street.
Road: Bus: Public services.
Contact Addresses:
Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London WIJ OBD
Telephone: 020 7300 8000
Website: www.royalacademy.org.ukWhich of the following is TRUE about the Academy of Arts?
A.It dates back to 1664. |
B.You can't get there by underground. |
C.It is much older than Burlington House. |
D.It is one of London’s top 10 attractions. |
You can contact the Academy of Arts by all the following EXCEPT________________.
A.sending an e-mail | B.writing a letter |
C.visiting the website | D.making a call |
The main purpose of this passage is to_______________________.
A.introduce the arts of England |
B.introduce the well-known building of England |
C.show the long history of England |
D.attract more visitors to the Royal Academy of Arts |