Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.
Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members, but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care most about. I know this from personal experience.
E-mail makes it easier to work at home, which is where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren’t necessarily much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my younger daughter than I might have if she’d been born before electronic mail became such a practical tool.
The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun—see a great movie perhaps—and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may tire of telling the story.
With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience, and address it to all the friends who you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read only as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.
E-mail is also an inexpensive way to stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children off at college.
We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don’t take the place of any of the old ways.The purpose of this passage is to ________.
| A．explain how to use the Internet |
| B．describe the writer’s joy of keeping up with the latest technology |
| C．tell the merits(价值) and usefulness of the Internet |
| D．introduce the reader to basic knowledge about personal computers and the Internet |
The use of E-mail has made it possible for the writer to ________.
| A．spend less time working | B．have more free time with his child |
| C．work at home on weekends | D．work at a speed comfortable to him |
According to the writer, E-mail has an obvious advantage over the telephone because E-mail helps one ________.
| A．reach a group of people at one time conveniently |
| B．keep one’s communication as personal as possible |
| C．pass on much more information than the latter |
| D．get in touch with one’s friends faster than telephone. |
The best title for this passage is _________.
| A．Computer: New Technological Advances |
| B．Internet: New Tool to Maintain Good Friendship |
| C．Computer Have Made Life Easier |
| D．Internet Have helped us to communicate |
Laptop computers are popular all over the world. People use them on trains and airplanes, in airports and hotels. These laptops connect people to their workplace. In the United States today, laptops also connect students to their classrooms.
Westlake College in Virginia will start a laptop computer program that allows students to do schoolwork anywhere they want. Within five years, each of the 1500 students at the college will receive a laptop. The laptops are part of a ＄10 million computer program at Westlake, a 110-year-old college. The students with laptops will also have access to the Internet. In addition, they will be able to use e-mail to “speak” with their teachers, their classmates, and their families. however, the most important part of the laptop program is that students will be able to use computers without going to computer labs. They can work with it at home, in a fast-food restaurant or under the trees—anywhere at all!
Because of the many changes in computer technology, laptop use in higher education, such as colleges and universities, is workable. As laptops become more powerful, they become more similar to desktop computers. In addition, the portable computers can connect students to not only the Internet, but also libraries and other resources. State higher-education officials are studying how laptops can help students. State officials are also testing laptop programs at other universities, too.
At Westlake College, more than 60 percent of the staff use computers. The laptops will allow all teachers to use computers in their lessons. As one Westlake teacher said, “ Here we are in the middle of Virginia and we’re giving students a window on the world. They can see everything and do everything.”The main purpose of the laptop program is to give each student a laptop to _______.
| A．use for their schoolwork | B．access the Internet |
| C．work at home | D．connect them to libraries |
Why is the word “speak” in the second paragraph in quotation marks(引号)?
| A．They don’t really talk. | B．They use the computer language. |
| C．Laptops have speakers. | D．None of the above reasons is correct. |
Which of the following is true about Westlake College?
| A．All teachers use computers. | B．1500 students have laptops. |
| C．It is an old college in America. | D．Students there can do everything. |
A window on the world in the last paragraph means that students can _______.
| A．attend lectures on information technology |
| B．travel around the world |
| C．get information from around the world |
| D．have free laptops |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．The program is successful. | B．The program is not workable. |
| C．The program is too expensive. | D．We don’t know the result yet. |
As you research music, you will find music that is familiar to you. You will find music which tells of interesting places and exciting things to do. You will find music which expresses feelings that are often your own.
Music is an expression of the people. As you research, you will find music of people at work and play. You will find music expressing love of the country, love of nature, and love of home.
Music is also an expression of the composer(作曲家). The composer expresses his own musical ideas. He studies the materials of music and discovers ways of using them. He looks for new kinds of musical expression.
Music can suggest actions and feelings which we all share. We can enjoy playing and singing music, dancing and listening to the music of the people and the composers of different times and places. In the first paragraph, the author tells us to_______.
| A．find entertainment(娱乐) in music | B．be friendly to music |
| C．express your feelings in music | D．discover the things and places in music |
From the second paragraph, we know that ________.
| A．if we love music, we will love the country, nature and home |
| B．music sings of the country, nature and home |
| C．you may listen to music at work or at play |
| D．music can express how people live, work and think |
By means of music, the composer wishes that ________.
| A．you would study with them |
| B．you would share his feelings and ideas |
| C．you would express your own feelings |
| D．you help discover ways of using music and new kinds of musical expression |
The last paragraph shows that music makes it possible ________.
| A．the music can express actions and feelings at the same time |
| B．bring understanding between people of different times and places |
| C．that people can enjoy playing and singing music, dancing and listening to the music at the same time |
| D．that people of different time and places can get together |
Which of the following statements is NOT true. Music expresses ________.
| A．the feelings of our own | B．people’s love of the country |
| C．the composer’s feelings | D．people’s musical ideas |
Surfing—the art of riding a wave on a pointed board—is the wildest, fastest natural water sport known to man. In recent years, it has developed into a major sport around the world, from Australia to South Africa. Australians brave(挑战) men—eating sharks to ride the green waves Down Under, Hawaiian experts risk(冒…之险) their lives on huge, thirty foot swells(浪涛) against the wind of Oahu; Californians of all ages go out the year-round. In the winter, surf-riders put on life-suits to ride grave waves so cold that their flesh turns blue.
Surfing is no sport for weak persons. Swimming a quarter of a mile or more, and pushing a surfboard out to where the swells are just right for riding, can be real work. Then, at exactly the right moment, you climb up the wave and go fast across the face of a powerful swell with the white water jumping at your feet. The huge wave bites at your shoulder, threatening(威胁) at any moment to smash your flat. In the next several seconds, a cool head and lightning—quick action back to the pressure of the attacking wave will bring your board under control for that great ride down the back of the great, green mountain of water. Once on the beach, you know why surfing is growing in popularity as an international sport, and you’re glad to be a member of this new water world.The first paragraph mainly tells us ______.
| A．people around the world go surfing all the year round |
| B．the definition(定义) of the sport |
| C．how to surf in the sea |
| D．where to surf around the world |
The author believes that surfing _______.
| A．is not an easy sport | B．can be done by anyone |
| C．should be done by everyone | D．does not require courage |
In order to experience what real surfing is, _______.
| A．you must first swim a quarter of a mile to warm your body |
| B．you will first ride on a board to reach the swells |
| C．you must first put on your life-suits before doing surfing |
| D．you must first swim to the swells with your board |
I love charity(慈善) shops and so do lots of other people in Britain because you find quite a few of them on every high street. The charity shop is a British institution, selling everything from clothes to electric goods, all at very good prices. You can get things you won’t find in the shops anymore. The thing I like best about them is that your money is going to a good cause and not into the pockets of profit-driven companies, and you are not damaging the planet, but finding a new home for unwanted goods.
The first charity shop was opened in 1947 by Oxfam. The famous charity’s appeal to aid postwar Greece had been so successful it had been flooded with donations(捐赠物). They decided to set up a shop to sell some of these donations to raise money for that appeal. Now there are over 7,000 charity shops in the UK. My favourite charity shop in my hometown is the Red Cross shop, where I always find children’s books, all 10 or 20 pence each.
Most of the people working in the charity shops are volunteers, although there is often a manager who gets paid. Over 90% of the goods in the charity shops are donated by the public. Every morning you see bags of unwanted items outside the front of shops, although they don’t encourage this, rather ask people to bring things in when the shop is open.
The shops have very low running costs: all profits go to charity work. Charity shops raise more than ￡110 million a year, funding（资助）medical research, overseas aid, supporting sick and poor children, homeless and disabled people, and much more. What better place to spend your money? You get something special for a very good price and a good moral sense. You provide funds to a good cause and tread lightly on the environment.The author loves the charity shop mainly because of _______.
| A．its convenient location | B．its great variety of goods |
| C．its spirit of goodwill | D．its nice shopping environment |
The first charity shop in the UK was set up to ____.
| A．sell cheap products | B．deal with unwanted things |
| C．raise money for patients | D．help a foreign country |
Which of the following is TRUE about charity shops?
| A．The operating costs are very low. | B．The staff are usually well paid. |
| C．90% of the donations are second-hand. | D．They are open twenty-four hours a day. |
Which of the following may be the best title for the passage?
| A．What to Buy a Charity Shops. | B．Charity Shop: Its Origin & Development. |
| C．Charity Shop: Where You Buy to Donate. | D．The Public’s Concern about Charity Shops. |
As kids, my friends and I spent a lot of time out in the woods. “The woods” was our part-time address, destination, purpose, and excuse. If I went to a friend’s house and found him not at home, his mother might say, “Oh, he’s out in the woods, ” with a tone(语气) of airy acceptance. It’s similar to the tone people sometimes use nowadays to tell me that someone I’m looking for is on the golf course or at the gym, or even “away from his desk.” For us ten-year-olds, “being out in the woods” was just an excuse to do whatever we feel like for a while.
We sometimes told ourselves that what we were doing in the woods was exploring(探索). Exploring was a more popular idea back then than it is today. History seemed to be mostly about explorers. Our explorations, though, seemed to have less system than the historic kind: something usually came up along the way. Say we stayed in the woods, throwing rocks, shooting frogs, picking blackberries, digging in what we were briefly persuaded was an Italian burial mound.
Often we got “lost” and had to climb a tree to find out where we were. If you read a story in which someone does that successfully, be skeptical: the topmost branches are usually too skinny to hold weight, and we could never climb high enough to see anything except other trees. There were four or five trees that we visited regularly----tall beeches, easy to climb and comfortable to sit in.
It was in a tree, too, that our days of fooling around in the woods came to an end. By then some of us has reached seventh grade and had begun the rough ride of adolescence（青春期）. In March, the month when we usually took to the woods again after winter, two friends and I set out to go exploring. We climbed a tree, and all of a sudden it occurred to all three of us at the same time that were really were rather big to be up in a tree. Soon there would be the spring dances on Friday evenings in the high school cafeteria.The author and his fiends were often out in the woods to _______.
| A．spend their free time | B．play gold and other sports |
| C．avoid doing their schoolwork | D．keep away from their parents |
What can we infer from Paragraph 2?
| A．The activities in the woods were well planned. |
| B．Human history is not the result of exploration. |
| C．Exploration should be a systematic activity. |
| D．The author explored in the woods aimlessly. |
The underlined word “skeptical” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．calm | B．doubtful | C．serious | D．optimistic |
How does the author feel about his childhood?
| A．Happy but short. | B．Lonely but memorable. |
| C．Boring and meaningless. | D．Long and unforgettable. |