In the age of reality television, success isn’t the only way to the public eye. Failure can also create fame, just like William Hung, 21, a native of Hong Kong.
Hung recently has made an agreement with US-based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network. They will publish a full-length record, titled “The True Idol” on April 6.
The idol is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley. He did a version（改写本）of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on the television show “American Idol 3”, on January 27. The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people. In the case of Hung, however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act.
Hung’s response? “I already gave my best, so I have no regrets at all.” That’s good, because any common person would have found plenty to regret: the off-key singing; the blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high; the terrible dancing; the hips jerking（摇摆）to a beat that did not belong to the song, maybe not even to this planet. It was, by all accounts, bad. But, it was this very bad act that sold well.
Marc Juris, president of Fuse, explained it this way: “Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom, completely off-key and completely unworried. That’s what William did and immediately won the hearts of America. ”
Whatever it is, for the moment it’s big. Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks. Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station.
So, what does Hung think of this?
“There were all these people saying things about me. A lot were saying I was very courageous and that I was great on the show, but some didn’t have much respect for me and some were kind of mean ”
Now, he says he’s not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour（魅力）or to accept it. Returning to normal hasn’t been easy. What is the main idea of this passage?
| A．Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly. |
| B．Hung’s performance attracted the public eye. |
| C．How an unsuccessful person became famous. |
| D．Success sometimes does not require hard work. |
Hung was popular in America for all the following reasons EXCEPT ________.
| A．his shirt and pants | B．his off-key singing |
| C．his hips jerking | D．his excellent version |
What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 6 refer to?
| A．William Hung. | B．Hung’s bad act. |
| C．Hung’s website. | D．The public’s opinion. |
Which of the following shows the correct order of what happened to Hung?
a．The entertainment firms made an agreement with Hung.
b．The judges cut Hung off in mid-act in the singing contest.
c．Hung became popular among Americans.
d．Hung gave a terrible performance though he tried his best.
e．Three websites put Hung’s funny performance on the Internet.
| A．d, b, e, c, a | B．a, c, d, b, e | C．a, d, b, c, e | D．d, b, a, e, c |
Why was Hung able to win the hearts of America?
| A．His success was based on his own hard work. |
| B．He attracted people’s attention in the contest. |
| C．He was good-looking though he didn’t sing well. |
| D．His character was completely different from other idols” |
I always felt sorry for the people in wheelchair. Some people, old and weak, cannot get around by themselves. Others seem perfectly healthy, dressed in business suits. But whenever I saw someone in a wheelchair, I only saw a disability, not a person.
Then I fainted at Euro Disney due to low blood pressure. This was the first time I had ever fainted, and my parents said that I must rest for a while after First Aid. I agreed to take it easy but, as I stepped toward the door, I saw my dad pushing a wheelchair in my direction! Feeling the color burn my cheeks, I asked him to wheel that thing right back to where he found it.
I could not believe this was happening to me. Wheelchairs were fine for other people but not for me, as my father wheeled me out into the main street, people immediately began to treat me differently.
Little kids ran in front of me, forcing my father to stop the wheel chair suddenly. Bitterness set in as I was thrown back and forth. "Stupid kids—they have perfectly good legs. Why can't they watch where they are going?" I thought. People stared down at me, pity in their eyes. Then they would look away, maybe because they thought the sooner they forgot me the better.
"I'm just like you!" I wanted to scream. "The only difference is you've got legs, and I have wheels."
People in wheelchairs are not stupid. They see every look and hear each word. Looking out at the faces, I finally understood: I was once just like them. I treated people in wheelchairs exactly the way they did not want to be treated. I realized it is some of us with two healthy legs who are truly disabled. The author once __________ when she was healthy.
| A．laughed at disabled people |
| B．looked down upon disabled people |
| C．imagined herself sitting in a wheelchair |
| D．saw some healthy people moving around in wheelchairs |
Facing the wheelchair for the first time, the author __________.
| A．felt curious about it |
| B．got ready to move around in it right away |
| C．refused to accept it right away |
| D．thought it was ready for his father |
The experience of the author tells us that "__________".
| A．life is the best teacher |
| B．people often eat their bitter fruit |
| C．life is so changeable that nobody can foretell |
| D．one should not do to others what he would not like others do to him |
Which is the best title for this passage?
| A．How to Get Used to Wheelchairs |
| B．The Wheels Are as Good as Two Legs |
| C．People with Two Legs Are Truly Healthy |
| D．The Difference between Healthy People and the Disabled |
Wilderness
"In wilderness (荒野) is the preservation of the world." This is a famous saying from a writer regarded as one of the fathers of environmentalism. The frequency with which it is borrowed mirrors a heated debate on environmental protection: whether to place wilderness at the heart of what is to be preserved.
As John Sauven of Greenpeace UK points out, there is a strong appeal in images of the wild, the untouched; more than anything else, they speak of the nature that many people value most dearly. The urge to leave the subject of such images untouched is strong, and the danger exploitation (开发) brings to such landscapes (景观) is real. Some of these wildernesses also perform functions that humans need—the rainforests, for example, store carbon in vast quantities. To Mr. Sauven, these "ecosystem services" far outweigh the gains from exploitation.
Lee Lane, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, takes the opposing view. He acknowledges that wildernesses do provide useful services, such as water conservation. But that is not, he argues, a reason to avoid all human presence, or indeed commercial and industrial exploitation. There are ever more people on the Earth, and they reasonably and rightfully want to have better lives, rather than merely struggle for survival. While the ways of using resources have improved, there is still a growing need for raw materials, and some wildernesses contain them in abundance. If they can be tapped without reducing the services those wildernesses provide, the argument goes, there is no further reason not to do so. Being untouched is not, in itself, a characteristic worth valuing above all others.
I look forward to seeing these views taken further, and to their being challenged by the other participants. One challenge that suggests itself to me is that both cases need to take on the question of spiritual value a little more directly. And there is a practical question as to whether wildernesses can be exploited without harm.
This is a topic that calls for not only free expression of feelings, but also the guidance of reason. What position wilderness should enjoy in the preservation of the world obviously deserves much more serious thinking. John Sauven holds that __________.
| A．many people value nature too much |
| B．exploitation of wildernesses is harmful |
| C．wildernesses provide humans with necessities |
| D．the urge to develop the ecosystem services is strong |
What is the main idea of Para.3?
| A．The exploitation is necessary for the poor people. |
| B．Wildernesses cannot guarantee better use of raw materials. |
| C．Useful services of wildernesses are not the reason for no exploitation. |
| D．All the characteristics concerning the exploitation should be treated equally. |
What is the author's attitude towards this debate?
| A．Objective. | B．Disapproving. | C．Sceptical. | D．Optimistic. |
Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point (次要点)
C: Conclusion
A couple from Miami, Bill and Simone Butler, spent sixty-six days in a life-raft (救生艇) in the seas of Central America after their boat sank.
Twenty-one days after they left Panama in their boat, Simony, they met some whales (鲸鱼). "They started to hit the side of the boat," said Bill, "and then suddenly we heard water." Two minutes later, the boat was sinking. They jumped into the life-raft and watched the boat go under the water.
For twenty days they had tins of food, biscuits, and bottles of water. They also had a fishing-line and a machine to make salt water into drinking water—two things which saved their lives. They caught eight to ten fish a day and ate them raw (生的). Then the line broke. "So we had no more fish until something very strange happened. Some sharks (鲨鱼) came to feed, and the fish under the raft were afraid and came to the surface. I caught them with my hands. "
About twenty ships passed them, but no one saw them. After fifty days at sea their life-raft was beginning to break up. Then suddenly it was all over. A fishing boat saw them and picked them up. They couldn't stand up. So the captain carried them onto his boat and took them to Costa Rica. Their two months at sea was over. The whales hit the side of the boat, and then __________.
| A．they brought in a lot of water |
| B．they broke the side of the boat |
| C．they pulled the boat |
| D．they went under the water |
After their boat sank the couple __________.
| A．jumped into the life-raft |
| B．heard water |
| C．watched the boat go under water |
| D．stayed in the life-raft |
During their days at sea, __________ saved their lives.
| A．tins of food and bottles of water |
| B．a fishing-line and a machine |
| C．whales and sharks |
| D．Twenty passing ships |
When they saw the fishing boat which later picked them up, __________.
| A．they were too excited to stand up |
| B．they couldn't wait to climb onto the boat |
| C．their life-raft was beginning to break up |
| D．they knew their two months at sea would be over |
After giving a talk at a high school, I was asked to pay a visit to a special student. An illness had kept the boy home, but he had expressed an interest in meeting me, and it would mean a great deal to him. I agreed.
During the nine-mile drive to his home, I found out something about Matthew. He had muscular dystrophy (肌肉萎缩症). When he was born, the doctor told his parents that he would not live to five years old, then they were told again he would not live to ten. Now he was thirteen. He wanted to meet me because I was a gold-medal weight lifter, and I knew about overcoming obstacles and going for my dreams.
I spent over an hour talking to Matthew. Never once did he complain or ask "Why me?" He talked about winning and succeeding and going for his dreams. Obviously, he knew what he was talking about. He didn't mention that his classmates had made fun of him because he was different. He just talked about his hopes for the future, and how one day he wanted to lift weight with me.
When we finished talking, I went to my briefcase (公文包) and pulled out the first gold medal I won and put it around his neck, I told him he was more of a winner and knew more about success and overcoming obstacles than I ever would. He looked at it for a moment, then took it off and handed it back to me. He said, "You are a champion. You earned that medal. Someday when I get to the Olympics and win my own medal, I will show it to you."
Last summer I received a letter from Matthew's parents telling me that Matthew had passed away. They wanted me to have a letter he had written to me a few days before: Dear Rick,
My mom said I should send you a thank-you letter for the picture you sent me. I also want to let you know that the doctors tell me that I don't have long to live anymore. But I still smile as much as I can.
I told you someday I was going to the Olympics and win a gold medal. But I know now I will never get to do that. But I know I'm a champion, and God knows that too. When I get to Heaven, God will give me my medal and when you get there, I will show it to you. Thank you for loving me.
Yours,
Matthew The boy wanted to meet the author because __________.
| A．he was interested in weight lifting |
| B．he wanted to get a gold medal |
| C．he admired the author very much |
| D．he wanted the author to know him |
The underlined part in the third paragraph probably means " __________ "
| A．Why do you come to see me? |
| B．Why do I have to stay at home? |
| C．Why does the disease fall on me? |
| D．Why not give a gold medal to me? |
We can infer from the passage that __________.
| A．Matthew is a determined boy |
| B．Rick used to have the same disease |
| C．Matthew became a champion finally |
| D．Rick regarded Matthew as normal |
The boy refused the author's medal because __________.
| A．he was not worthy of it |
| B．he would not be pitied by others |
| C．he knew he would die soon |
| D．he thought he himself could earn one in the future |
Motorists who used to listen to the radio or their favorite tunes on CDs may have a new way to entertain themselves, after engineers in Japan developed a musical road surface.
A team from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute has built a number of "melody roads," which use cars as tuning forks (音叉) to play music as they travel.
The concept works by using grooves (凹槽). They are cut at very specific intervals in the road surface. The melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes.
Depending on how far apart the grooves are, a car moving over them will produce a series of high or low notes, and designers are able to create a distinct tune.
Paten documents for the design describe it as notches (刻痕) "formed in a road surface so as to play a melody without producing simple sound or rhythm and reproduce melody—like tones".
There are three musical strips in central and northern Japan—one of which plays the tune of a Japanese pop song. Reports say the system was invented by Shizuo Shinoda. He scraped some markings into a road with a bulldozer (推土机) before driving over them and found that they helped to produce all kinds of tones.
The optimal speed for melody road is 44kph, but people say it is not always easy to get the intended sound.
"You need to keep the car windows closed to hear well," wrote one Japanese blogger. "Driving too fast will sound like playing fast forward, while driving around 12 mph [20km/h] has a slow-motion effect, making you almost car-sick." According to the passage, melody roads use __________ to create different notes.
| A．cars | B．grooves |
| C．spaces between intervals | D．bulldozers |
We can learn from the passage that the highness of notes is depended on __________.
| A．how far the grooves are | B．how big the grooves are |
| C．the number of the grooves | D．the speed of the car |
The underlined word "optimal" in the passage might mean __________.
| A．fastest | B．possible | C．best | D．suitable |
What's the best title of the passage?
| A．A New Type of Music | B．Melody Roads in Japan |
| C．A Musical Road Surface | D．A New Invention in Japan |