Why do people buy art? To answer this question, ask yourself what your reasons are for thinking of getting a piece of art. An artwork can cost a large amount of money, but if it meets your needs, it’ s worth every penny.
People buy art for many reasons. Many people buy an artwork simply because they like it, even if it is by an unknown artist. Art, as long as you enjoy it, is never a waste of money.
Art is for enjoyment. Art is meant to be shown. Don’t ever feel pressured into buying something you won’t enjoy looking at day after day, no matter what other people may say. Don’t buy something that doesn’t attract you just because it is trendy, or because the artist is famous, or because you have been advised that the artwork will make a good investment. If you don’t like the artwork at all, don’t buy it!
Art improves your environment. Have you ever noticed that all beautiful homes have art as an integral（必需的） part of the decoration? Art lends life and color to otherwise plain and ordinary walls. A well thought--out art collection will help create a unique atmosphere in your home and make it more attractive.
Art makes a statement. The kind of art you surround yourself with says much about your personality, tastes and values. Art truly is a mirror of the soul.
Art enriches your life. Love--even the love of a work of art--contributes to healthier living and a longer lifespan (寿命). Art should enrich your life. Otherwise, why do you spend precious time and resources on it?
Just remember to select something which will appeal to your tastes, and keep to a sensible budget. Good art needn’t cost an arm and a leg.
Happy art collecting!
64. What’s the purpose of the passage?
A. To advise us to buy an expensive artwork.
B. To remind us to be sensible when buying an artwork.
C. To teach us how to choose works of art.
D. To explain the benefit of art to people.
65. According to the author, what should you consider when buying a piece of art?
A. Whether it brings pleasure to you.
B. Whether it is fashionable at present.
C. Whether you can profit from it in the end.
D. Whether it is created by a famous artist.
66. Which of the following words best describes a work of art placed in a house?
A. Ordinary B. Attractive C. Necessary D. Unique
67. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 5 means that ____.
A. art can show what you look like
B. art is an expression of yourself
C. a mirror has a feature similar to art
D. a mirror can be a piece of true art
Eight-year-old Bethany and seven-year-old Eliza are having a great time jumping around in the orchard of their home in a village near Penrith. They can play any time they like because they don't go to school. Instead, they are educated at home by their parents, Paul and Veronika Robinson. But they don't have lessons, have never used a timetable and learn only what and when they want to learn. .
“I want my kids to have freedom in their childhood,
not spend it in an institution," says 37-year-old Veronika, "School is all about control and following the rules." Veronika and her 56-year-old husband Paul have never experienced the daily rush to get dressed and out of the door that is common in most households with school-aged children. "We get up at our leisure - usually around 8:30," says Veronika. "We might visit a friend, or go to the library, and on Tuesdays we shop at the market. In summer, we spend most of our time outside and the girls entertain themselves a lot.” .
New research due to be published this spring reveals a very different picture of Britain's home educators. "Out of 297 families, 184 said that they never use a timetable,” says Mike Fortune-Wood of Home Education UK. "Ninety per cent never or rarely use textbooks, and nearly all said that happiness, contentment and self-fulfillment were more important than academic achievement. Only 15% felt that planning what to learn was very important.” .
So far, so good. But what, you might ask, are the children actually learning?
"It wasn't important to me that the girls could read by a certain age, but they both picked it up for themselves at around seven," says Robinson. "Weighing cooking ingredients uses maths, and making a shopping list teaches them to write. Observing five hens has taught the girls about survival of the fittest. "
But what about when the children grow up? Can they go to university? The home educators' answer is they can if they want to. There are a variety of routes into higher education, but probably the most common is to join a local college. This is what Gus Harris-Reid has done. "I was educated at home al
l my life. I'd never had a lesson or been inside a classroom until I started GCSEs," says the 18-year-old. "I'm now studying for 4 A-levels at Exeter College. I've had no problem with the work or with fitting in." When asked to reflect on his experience of home education, his considered response is, "Like a permanent holiday, really!" Not a bad start for someone who plans to take a mechanical engineering degree next year. .What is the topic of this article?
| A．New ways of learning to read and write | B．Problems with UK schools |
| C．Home education in the UK | D．Wild, undisciplined children |
According to the article, in homes with school-going children, ______.
| A．mornings are rushed and stressful. |
| B．the children hardly ever go outside. |
| C．the family wakes up around 8:30am. |
| D．the children must ask permission to go to the toilet. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．Most home educators believe that happiness is more important than good grades. |
| B．Most home educators believe that planning is important. |
| C．Most home educators do not follow a timetable or use textbooks. |
| D．Most home educators are not worried about when their children learn to read and write. |
What does the article say about home-educated children getting into university?
| A．They learn so many useful skills at home that universities are happy to accept them. |
| B．They can get into university if they have 4 A-levels. |
| C．They can go to school later and get the qualifications they need in order to enter university. |
| D．Home education is so relaxed that they are likely to experience problems when faced with the pressures of a degree course. |
Joanne was stuck in a traffic jam in central Birmingham at 5：30. and at 6：30 she was expected to be chairing a meeting of the tennis club. At last，the traffic was moving. She swung quickly racing to her house. As she opened the door，she nearly tripped over Sheba.
“Hey，Sheba，”she said，“I've got no time for you now，but I'll take you out as soon as I get back from tennis club. ”Then she noticed Sheba seemed to be coughing or choking Obviously，she could hardly breathe. Immediately. Joanne realized she would have to take her to the vet(兽医) . When she got there，the vet was just about to close for the day. Seeing the state of Sheba，Dr. Sterne brought her quickly into his office.
“Listen，doctor，I'm really in a rush to get to a meeting, can I leave her with you，and go and get changed? I'll be back in ten minutes
to pick her up，and then I'll take her on to the meeting with me, Is that OK?”
“Sure. ”said the doctor
Joanne made the quick trip back to her house in a couple of minutes. As she was once more entering the hallway，the phone by the door began to ring.
“This is Dr. Sterne，”said an anxious voice. “I want you to get
out of that house immediately，”said the doctor's voice. “I'm coming round right away，and the police will be there any time now. Wait outside!”
At that moment，a police car screeched to a stop outside the house. Two policemen got out and ran into the house. Joanne was by now completely confused and very frightened. Then the doctor arrived.
“Where’s Sheba? Is she OK
?” shouted Joanne.
“She’s fine，Joanne. I took out the thing which was choking her，and she’s OK now. ”
Just then，the two policemen reappeared from the house，half-carrying a white—faced man，who could hardly walk. There was blood all over him.
“My God，”said Joanne，“how did he get in there? And how did you know he was there?”
“I think he must be a burglar. ”said the doctor. “I knew he was there because when I finally removed what was stuck in Sheba’s throat：it turned out to be three human f
ingers”What was Joanne supposed to do at 6：30？
| A．To walk her dog. |
| B．To see her doctor. |
| C．To attend a club meeting. |
| D．To play tennis with her friends. |
Joanne wanted to get back to her home again.
| A．to dress up for the meeting |
| B．to phone the police station |
| C．to catch the badly hurt burglar |
| D．to wait for her dog to be cured |
From the passage，we can infer that.
| A．Sheba fought against the burglar |
| B．the police found the burglar had broken in |
| C．Joanne had planned to take her dog to the meeting |
| D．the doctor performed a difficult operation on the dog |
In this passage，the writer intends to tell us that the dog is.
| A．clever | B．friendly | C．frightening | D．devoted |
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion(提升), the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(空闲), it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned. By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion(热情) as it ought to be lived.The best title of this passage probably is
| A．Love your friends | B．Live a real life |
| C．Don't waste time | D．Be a good mother and wife |
The underlined sentence "It is so easy to exist instead of to live" in the fifth paragraph probably has the same meaning as
| A．it is so easy to keep alive but not to live a real life |
| B．it is very hard to live a real life |
| C．it is so easy to make a living |
| D．it is more difficult to exist than to live a happy life |
What's the author's attitude toward
work?
| A．Do it well to serve others. |
| B．To earn enough money to make life better. |
| C．Try your best to get higher position and pay. |
| D．Don't let it affect your real life. |
It can be inferred from the passage that
| A．the author is a success in personal life |
| B．the author didn't try her best to work well |
| C．the author spent all her time caring for her children |
| D．the author likes traveling very much |
.
For more than twenty years scientists have been searching for signs of life on other planets. Most of these searches have been done over the radio. The hope is that someone in outer space may be trying to get in touch with us. Scientists also have sent radio and television messages on spaceships travelling through space, on the chance that someone may be receptive to such message.
Scientists are using powerful radio telescopes to listen to signals from about 1,000 stars, all within 100 light years of Earth. In addition, they will scan the entire sky to "listen" for radio messages from more distant stars. Using a computer, they will be able to monitor more than eight channels at one time. Scientists are looking for any signal that stands out from the background noise.
Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, scientists find that five percent are like our sun. Perhaps half of them have a planet like Earth. Such a planet would be a reasonable distance from the star for temperatures to be right for the evolution (进化) of life. Based on the inhabitable (可居住的) planets in our galaxy, most scientists agree that chances are likely that one or more of these planets support some life.
However, many scientists wonder whether intelligent life exists on other planets. Some believe that twenty years of searching without any intelligible messages shows that no one is out there. They say that the evolution of intelligence comparable to ours is unlikely.
Other scientists believe that our search hasn’t been long enough to rule out the possibility that intelligent life exists in our galaxy. Although our sun family is only about five billion years old, our galaxy is about 20 billion years old. In that time, some scientists think it is likely that civilization much more advanced than ours have developed. Perhaps these civilizations send us no signals; perhaps we have not recognized the signals they have sent us. If we hope to find intelligent life, these scientists believe that we have to keep looking.
57. According to the passage, how many planets in our galaxy might be inhabitable?
A. 5 billion B. 10 billion C. 15 billion D. 200 billion
58. The first paragraph in this passage is mainly about __________.
A. how scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
B. why scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
C. where scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
D. When scientists are looking for signs of life on other planets
59. The underlined word “monitor” in Paragraph two means “__________”.
A. find B. follow C. check D. form
60. Which of the following is TRUE based on the information in the passage?
A. The earth is the oldest planet in our galaxy.
B. All scientists believe that there is intelligent life on other planets.
C. Scientists are trying different ways to find signs of life on other planets.
D. Scientists will give up the search for signs of life on other planets.
.
How the iron of tomorrow (the first Self Cleaning Iron) can change your lifestyle today?
General Electric introduces the iron of tomorrow. The iron can clean itself every time you empty it. How? With a push of a magic blue button.
The magic blue button
The first thing you’ll notice that’s different about this iron is the blue button on the side. It’s marked “Self Clean”. Push this blue button, and you can wash out loose mineral deposits(沉淀物) that remain and block up inside. Push this button, and you’ve made life a lot easier.
Less chance of brown spots
Sure, the Self Cleaning Iron is going to cut down on brown spots (those ugly spots that happen on nice, cleanly pressed clothes) because a Self Cleaning Iron becomes clean quickly each time you press that magic blue button.
Steam better longer
Common sense tells you that if you’ve got an iron that blocks less often it has to stay younger for a long, period of time. In other words, it steams better longer. That’s another joy of owning General Electric’s Self Cleaning Iron.
What does it mean to you
Today you are doing so much more than just running a house and running after the kids. You’re working. You’re going to school. It’s all part of your lifestyle. The iron can change that lifestyle by giving you less trouble before you iron. If we can make it easier for you to be a better wife, a better mother, a better homemaker, we want to. The new Self Cleaning Iron is another one of Home-Makers from General Electric. ^*
53. This passage is mainly about __________.
A. an introduction to the General Electric
B. an operating instruction of the Self Cleaning Iron
C. an advertisement of the Self Cleaning Iron
D. a description of the change of lifestyle
54. This iron can clean itself by __________.
A. emptying itself B. washing out mineral deposits
C. blocking up mineral deposits D. giving off more steam
55. According to the passage, what is most likely to attract the customers?
A. It is made by General Electric.
B. The iron will not produce mineral deposits.
C. Their clothes will be cleaned at the same time.
D. There will be fewer brown spots on pressed clothes.
56. The Self Cleaning Iron can help change your lifestyle because __________.
A. you can run your house better B. you don’t have to run after the kids
C. you can use it while you are working D. we want you to be a better house maker