The easy way out isn’t always easiest. I learned that lesson when I decided to treat Doug, my husband of one month, to a special meal. I glanced through my cookbook and chose a menu which included homemade bread. Knowing the bread would take time, I started on it as soon as Doug left for work. As I was not experienced in cooking, I thought if a dozen was good, two dozen would be better, so I doubled everything. As Doug loved oranges, I also opened a can of orange and poured it all into the bowl. Soon there was a sticky dough (面团) covered with ugly yellowish marks. Realizing I had been defeated, I put the dough in the rubbish bin outside so I wouldn't have to face Doug laughing at my work, I went on preparing the rest of the meal, and, when Doug got home, we sat down to Cornish chicken with rice. He tried to enjoy the meal but seemed disturbed. Twice he got up and went outside, saying he thought he heard a noise. The third time he left, I went to the windows to see what he was doing. Looking out, I saw Doug standing about three feet from the rubbish bin, holding the lid up with a stick and looking into the container. When I came out of the house, he dropped the stick and explained that there was something alive in our rubbish bin. Picking up the stick again, he held the lid up enough for me to see. I felt cold. But I stepped closer and looked harder. Without doubt it was my work. The hot sun had caused the dough to double in size and the fermenting yeast (酵母) made the surface shake and sigh as though it were breathing. I had to admit what the ‘living thing’ was and why it was there. I don’t know who was more embarrassed by the whole thing, Doug or me. The writer’s purpose in writing this story is ________.
| A．to tell an interesting experience |
| B．to show the easiest way out of a difficulty |
| C．to describe the trouble facing a newly married woman |
| D．to explain the difficulty of learning to cook from books |
Why did the woman’s attempt at making the bread turn out to be unsuccessful?
| A．The canned orange had gone bad. |
| B．She didn’t use the right kind of flour. |
| C．The cookbook was hard to understand. |
| D．She did not follow the directions closely. |
Why did the woman put the dough in the rubbish bin?
| A．She didn’t see the use of keeping it |
| B．She meant to joke with her husband. |
| C．She didn’t want her husband to see it. |
| D．She hoped it would soon dry in the sun. |
What made the dough in the rubbish bin look frightening?
| A．The rising and falling movement. |
| B．The strange-looking marks. |
| C．Its shape. |
| D．Its size. |
When Doug went out the third time, the woman looked out of the window because she was ________.
| A．surprised at his being interested in the bin |
| B．afraid that he would discover her secret |
| C．unhappy that he didn't enjoy the meal |
| D．curious to know what disturbed him |
Why do human beings still risk their lives under ground and doing one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the world? It is an increasingly urgent question, given the recent mining accidents in Sago, W. Va and Huntington, Utah. A small group of engineers and robotics experts look forward to a day in the not-too-distant future when robots and other technology do most of the dangerous mining work.
Robotic technology, in particular, holds much promise, McAteer says, especially when it comes to mapping mines and rescuing trapped miners --- the special operations of the mining industry.
One of the first mining robots was developed five years ago at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute. It was called Groundhog. It used lasers(激光器) to “see” in dark tunnels and map abandoned mines—some of the most dangerous work in the business.
The latest design is called Cave Crawler. It’s a bit smaller than Groundhog，and even more advanced. It can take photos and videos and has more sensors that can detect the presence of dangerous gases. Incredibly，the robot has a real sense of logic. If it comes across an obstacle it gets momentarily confused. It has to think about what to do and where to go next. Sometimes it throws a fit just like a real person.
The greatest problem, though, is cost. The money of the earliest research project was provided by the government, but that money had dried up, and it’s not clear where future money will come from. Partly for that reason, and partly because of advances in safety, mining is not nearly as dangerous as it was in the past. Since 1990, fatalities(致命性) have declined by 67% and injuries by 51% , according to the National Mining Association.
Some experts predict that robots in mines will serve much of the same function that they do in the automotive industry. The robots do the most boring and dangerous jobs，but won’t get rid of the need for human workers. The latest robot is more advanced than Groundhog, mainly because ____.
| A．it can map abandoned mines |
| B．it can see in the dark tunnels |
| C．it’s smaller than Groundhog |
| D．it has a real sense of logic |
The underlined phrase “throws a fit” in paragraph 4 probably means“______”
| A．gets angry | B．gets sick |
| C．becomes hungry | D．becomes cheerful |
We can infer from the last paragraph that _____ .
| A．robots in mines will serve much in the automotive industry |
| B．there will be no need for human workers in mines |
| C．the mine robots will have a very bright future |
| D．robots in mines only do some simple jobs now |
We can infer from the text that ______.
| A．the mining robots do most of the mining work at present |
| B．groundhog can discover the presence of dangerous gases |
| C．experts are trying to make robots help miners with dangerous work |
| D．robots cannot do dangerous work in dark areas |
What can be the best title for the text?
| A．Mining Accidents in America |
| B．Robots in Mines |
| C．Cave crawler, the Latest Robot |
| D．The Future of Robots |
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on well with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it had ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one number of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds: they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with me.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over. ”What is the popular image of the teenagers today？
| A．They worry about school. |
| B．They dislike living with their parents. |
| C．They have to be locked in to avoid troubles. |
| D．They quarrel a lot with other family members. |
The study shows that teenagers don’t want to __________.
| A．share family responsibility |
| B．cause trouble in their families |
| C．go boating with their family |
| D．make family decisions |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents ____________.
| A．go to clubs more often with their children |
| B．are much stricter with their children |
| C．care less about their children’s life |
| D．give their children more freedom |
According to the writer, teenage rebellion __________.
| A．may be a false belief |
| B．is common nowadays |
| C．existed only in the 1960s |
| D．resulted from changes in families |
What is the passage mainly about？
| A．Negotiation in family. |
| B．Education in family. |
| C．Harmony in family. |
| D．Teenage trouble in family. |
Library Special Needs Service
Shellharbour City Library provides a rang of Library Special Needs Service for people who are unable to access our library service in the usual way. As long as you live in Shellharbour City, we’ll provide a full rang of library services and resources including:
● Large printed and ordinary printed books
● Talking books on tape and CD
● DVDs and music CDs
● Magazines
● Reference and information requests
You will be asked to complete a ‘Statement of Need’ application form which must be signed by a medical professional.
Home delivery service
Let us know what you like to read and we will choose the resources for you.Our staff will deliver the resources to your home for free. We also provide a service where we can choose the resources for you or someone instead of you choose the things from the library .You can also choose the resources you need personally.
Talking books and captioned videos
The library can provide talking books for people who are unable to use printed books because of eye diseases. You don’t have to miss out on reading any more when you can borrow talking books from the library. If you have limited hearing which prevents you from enjoying movies, we can provide captioned videos for you at no charge.
Languages besides English
We can provide books in a rang of languages besides English. If possible, we will request these items from the State Library of NSW, Australia.
How to join?
Contact the Library Special Needs Coordinator to register or discuss if you are eligible for any of the services we provide ---Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday 9am ---5pm on 4297 2522 for more information.Library Special Needs Service are meant for .
| A．those who are fond of reading |
| B．only those who have walking disabilities |
| C．people living in Shellharbour City with an illness or disability |
| D．those who can’t get medical help in Shellharbour City |
If people with eye diseases want to learn about history, they can choose .
| A．captioned videos | B．talking books |
| C．magazines | D．large printed books |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Books with different languages are available. |
| B．Few entertaining resources are offered here. |
| C．People with limited hearing have to pay for captioned videos. |
| D．People have to choose what they need by themselves. |
To get home delivery service, you must .
| A．only choose printed books |
| B．register ahead of time |
| C．pay the library ahead of time |
| D．have others choose the resources for you |
How can you learn more about the special service information?
| A．By emailing the library. |
| B．By visiting the library personally. |
| C．By contacting the library on weekends. |
| D．By phoning the library at the required time. |
An Ofsted (英国教育标准办公室）study reports that teachers are discouraging students who want to leave school and work as apprentices (学徒）in beauty salons (美容中心）or hair dressers.
Inspectors questioned 105 young people for a report on apprenticeships published on Wednesday. They found several examples of young people who felt they had been laughed at by their teachers for wanting to progress to work-based learning, particularly in care or hairdressing, rather than stay on at school.
Right or wrong, is it any surprise that this is happening? From 2014，the government will measure schools according to the rate of their pupils who go to university. Brian Lightman , general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says the government has already put teachers under “very great pressure to focus on academic subjects”.
On the other hand, the Education Act 2011，which came into force in November, places schools under a duty to give fair career advice to pupils. This advice must include information on all post-16 education and training choices, including apprenticeships. This doesn’t appear to be happening in several schools, according to Ofsted9S report. Many of the young people the inspectors talked to said the advice they had received on apprenticeships was “unsatisfactory”.
Schools were also blamed for lack of work experience courses, which are particularly important for teenagers considering an apprenticeship. They help students decide whether they enjoy a line of work and enable employers to see whether those on work experience have the potential to be hired as apprentices in future years.
But there is a good reason why they can’t do this: they’d be unable to adapt to GCSE (英国普通中等教育证书）exams if they did. Sometimes, it seems, schools just can’t win.Why do teachers oppose the students’ leaving school and working as apprentices?
| A．The government urges teachers to concentrate on academic subjects. |
| B．The students are only wasting time working as apprentices. |
| C．Employers are under great pressure of taking GCSE exams. |
| D．Employers don’t give students chances to work as apprentices |
Pressure for schools to provide pupils with career advice comes from ______.
| A．Association of School and College Leaders | B．Education Act 2011 |
| C．GCSE exams | D．OFSTED |
What does the author think of teachers’ discouraging students working as apprentices?
| A．Surprising | B．Understandable | C．Wrong | D．Right |
Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there’s a whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position. If you ignore your personality, it will get you a long-term hurt regardless of your skills or the job’s pay. There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job. Here are a few of those main areas:
1) Do you prefer working alone or with other people?
There are isolating（孤立的）jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy. Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer. There are also positions that are sometimes a combination of the two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation.
2) How do you handle change?
Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others. If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don’t happen so often. Other people would be bored of the same daily routine.
3) Do you enjoy working with computers？
I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic. There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day. Again, these are extremes and you’ll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well.
4) What type of work environment do you enjoy？
This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won’t know immediately to a smaller setting where you’ll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly.
5) How do you like to get paid?
Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that. The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this.
Anyway, these are a great starting point for you. I’ve seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love. It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?
| A．You may ignore your skills when you select job. |
| B．Job skills are the most important things when you select job. |
| C．There are more important things than job skills when you select job. |
| D．Selecting job, you should assess your skills and match them with the position. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Isolating jobs usually drive people mad. |
| B．Interactive jobs make people shy easily. |
| C．Extreme people tend to work with others. |
| D．Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs. |
What is the missing word about a job search in the following chart?
| A．Design | B．Changes | C．Cooperation | D．Hobbies |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．Lifestyles and Job Pay | B．Jobs and Environment |
| C．Job Skills and Abilities | D．Personalities and Jobs |