The energy crisis (危机) has made people aware of how the careless use of the earth’s energy has brought the whole world to the edge of disaster. The over – development of motor transport, with its increase of more cars, more traveling, has contributed to the near – destruction of our cities and the pollution not only of local air but also of the earth’s atmosphere.
Our present situation is unlike natural disasters of the past. Worldwide energy use has brought us to a state where long – range planning is vital. What we need is not a continuation of our present serious state, which endangers the future of our country, our children, and our earth, but a movement forward in order to work rapidly and effectively on planetary problems.
This country has been falling back under the continuing exposures of loss of morality and the revelation (揭露) that lawbreaking has reached into the highest place in the land. There is a strong demand for morality to turn for the better and for some devotion that is vast enough and yet personal enough to enlist the devotion of all. In the past it has been only in a way in defense of their own country and their own benefits that people have been able to devote themselves wholeheartedly.
This is the first time that we have been asked to defend ourselves and what we hold dear in cooperation with all the other people of this planet, who share with us the same endangered air and the same endangered oceans. There is a common need to reassess our present course, to change that course and to employ new methods through which the world can survive. This is a priceless opportunity.
To grasp it, we need a widespread understanding of nature if the crisis we and the world are facing is no passing inconvenience, no byproduct of the ambitions of the oil – producing countries, no environmentalists’ only fears, no byproduct of any present system of government. What we face is the result of the invention of the last four hundred years. What we need is transformed life style. This new life style can flow directly from science and technology, but its acceptance depends on a sincere devotion to finding a higher quality of life for the world’s children and future generation.
1．Which of the following has nearly destroyed our cities?
A．The loss of beliefs and ideas. B．More of law – breaking.
C．Natural disasters in many areas. D．The rapid growth of motors.
2．By comparing past problems with present ones, the author draws our attention to the__________.
A．seriousness of this crisis B．ineffectiveness of laws
C．similarity of the past to the present D．hopelessness of the situation
3．Which of the following is used as an example to show the loss of morality?
A．Disregard for law. B．Lack of devotion.
C．Lack of understanding. D．Destruction of cities.
4．The author wrote the passage in order to_______
A．make a recommendation for a transformed life style
B．limit ambitions of the people of the whole world
C．demand devotion to nature and future generation
D．encourage awareness of the decline of morality
Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In some modern countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all whether rich or poor, clever or stupid, one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough: we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees; they refuse to do what they think “low” work; and in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor; we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we would get terrible diseases in our towns.
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we are educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work suited to his brains and ability, and secondly, that we realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that it is very bad to be ashamed of one’s work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.The writer of this passage thinks that________.
| A．free education for all probably leads to a perfect world |
| B．free education can solve all of the world’s problems |
| C．free education won’t help to solve social problems |
| D．all the social problems can’t be solved by free education |
The writer wants to prove that ___________.
| A．a farmer is more important than a professor |
| B．our society needs all kinds of jobs |
| C．our society needs free education for all |
| D．people with university degrees earn more money |
According to the passage, ____________.
| A．work with hands is low work |
| B．work with hands is dirty and shameful |
| C．work with hands is the most important |
| D．we can’t regard work with hands as low work |
The purpose of education is ___________.
| A．to prepare children for their future life |
| B．to let everyone receive education |
| C．to choose a system of education |
| D．to prepare children for well-paid jobs |
When I was 12, all I wanted was a signet (图章) ring. They were the "in" thing and it seemed every girl except me had one. On my 13th birthday, my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials (姓名首字母) carved into it. I was in heaven.
What made it even more special was that it was about the only thing that wasn't being "replaced". We'd been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the “new" stuff (东西) we got was really just to replace what we'd lost. But not my ring. My ring was new.
Then, only one month later, I lost it. I took it off before bed and it was missing in the morning. I was sad and searched everywhere for it. But it seemed to have disappeared. Eventually, I gave up and stopped looking for it. And two years later, we sold the house and moved away.
Years passed, and a couple of moves later, I was visiting my parents' when Mum told me that she had something for me. It wasn't my birthday, nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. Mum noticed my questioning look. “You’ll recognize this one," she said, smiling.
Then she handed me a small ring box. I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside. The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations, which included replacing the carpets. When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom, they found the ring. As it had my initials carved into it, they realized who owned the ring. They'd had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother. And it still fits me.The underlined word "in" in the first paragraph probably means "_____".
| A．practical | B．available | C．fashionable | D．renewable |
When she got the ring back, the writer was about _____.
| A．13 years old | B．15 years old |
| C．26 years old | D．28 years old |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The writer's family moved several times. |
| B．The writer never stopped looking for her ring. |
| C．The writer lost her ring in the morning when she took it off. |
| D．The writer's ring was cleaned up by the new house owner. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．My New Ring | B．Lost and Replaced |
| C．Lost and Found | D．An Expensive Ring |
Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels, yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for. We do know, however, that they existed over 5,500 years ago in ancient Asia.
The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia. It is over 5,100 years old. Evidence suggests that wheels for transport didn't become popular for a while, though. This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.
But it could also be because of a difficult situation. While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces, roads with smooth surfaces weren't going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand for them. Eventually, road surfaces did become smoother, but this difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later. There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modem road design.
In the mid-1700s, a Frenchman came up with a new design of road—a base layer (层) of large stones covered with a thin layer of smaller stones. A Scotsman improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong, lasting road surface became a reality. At around the same lime, metal hubs (the central part of a wheel) came into being, followed by the pneumatic tyre(充气轮胎) in 1846. Alloy wheels were invented in 1967, sixty years after the appearance of tarmac roads (柏油路). As wheel design took off, vehicles got faster and faster.What might explain why transport wheels didn't become popular for some time?
| A．The existence of transport wheels was not known. |
| B．Humans carried farming tools just as well. |
| C．Animals were a good means of transport. |
| D．Few knew how to use transport wheels. |
What do we know about road design from the passage?
| A．It provided conditions for wheel design to develop. |
| B．It was easier than wheel design. |
| C．It was promoted by fast-moving vehicles. |
| D．It improved after big changes in vehicle design. |
How is the last paragraph mainly developed?
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By following time order. |
| D．By making classifications. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The beginning of road design. |
| B．The history of public transport. |
| C．His invention of fast-moving vehicles. |
| D．The development of transport wheels. |
In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five days off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I’d hitch a ride (搭便车).
I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn’t give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured （使…放心）me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.
Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the favour I’d been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.
After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven’t changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.” I couldn’t remember where I’d met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.The author had to hitch a ride one day in 1978 because ______.
| A．she was going home for her holidays |
| B．she missed the only train back home |
| C．the town was far away from Sydney |
| D．her work delayed her trip to Sydney |
Which of the following did Gordon do according to Paragraph 2?
| A．He watched the girl for three hours. |
| B．He gave the girl a ride back home. |
| C．He bought sandwiches for the girl. |
| D．He helped the girl find a ride. |
The reason why the author offered a lift to the elderly man was that ______.
| A．she had known him for decades |
| B．she realized he was Gordon |
| C．she wanted to repay the favour she once got |
| D．she was going to the nearby town |
What does the author want to tell the readers through the story?
| A．Giving sometimes produces nice results. |
| B．People should offer free rides to others. |
| C．Good manners bring about happiness. |
| D．Those who give rides will be rapid. |
I have had just about enough of being treated like a second-class citizen, simply because I happen to be that unfairly treated member of society --- a customer. The more I go into shops and hotels, banks and post offices, railway stations, airports and the like, the more I am convinced the things are being run merely to suit the firm, the system, or the union. There seems to be a deceptive (欺骗的) new motto for so-called “service” organizations --- Staff Before Service.
How often, for example, have you queued for what seems like hours at the Post Office or the supermarket because there was not enough staff on duty to manage all the service grilles or checkout counters? Surely in these days of high unemployment it must be possible to hire cashiers and counter staff. Yet supermarkets, hinting darkly at higher prices, claim that uncovering all their cash registers at any one time would increase operating costs. And the Post Office says we cannot expect all their service grilles to be occupied “at times when demand is low”.
It is the same with hotels. Because waiters and kitchen staff must finish when it suits them, dining rooms close earlier or menu choice is cut short. As for us guests, we just have to put up with it. There is also the nonsense of so many friendly hotel night porters having been thrown out of their jobs in the interests of “efficiency” and replaced by coin-eating machines which offer everything. Not to mention the tea-making kit in your room a kettle with a mixed collection of tea bags, plastic milk boxes and lump sugar. Who wants to wake up to a raw teabag? I do not, especially when I am paying for “service”.
Can it be stopped, this worsening of service, this growing attitude that the customer is always a trouble? I angrily hope so because it is happening, sadly, in all walks of life.
Our only hope is to hammer home our anger whenever and wherever we can and, if all else fails, bring back into practice that other, older slogan --- Take Our Deal Elsewhere.The writer feels that nowadays customers __________.
| A．have become victims of modern organizations |
| B．are unworthy of proper consideration |
| C．have received high quality service |
| D．deserve the lowest status in society |
The writer argues that the quality of service is changing because __________.
| A．customers’ demands have greatly changed |
| B．customers’ needs have become more complex |
| C．the staff receive more consideration than customers |
| D．staff members are less considerate than their employers |
According to the writer, long queues at counters are caused by __________.
| A．not having enough male staff on duty |
| B．difficulties in hiring more efficient staff |
| C．not providing enough staff on purpose to reduce budget |
| D．lack of cooperation between staff members |
The writer suggests that a customer __________.
| A．go to other places where good service is available |
| B．put up with the rude manners of the staff |
| C．try to control his temper when ill-treated |
| D．be patient when queuing before checkout counters |