Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant. A half century ago in the United States, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear. 
The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer; in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible,” is often debated. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other? These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years — but unless we meet the truant officer （学监）, we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working,” but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes （构成） “overtime” is a matter of legal definition. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight-saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how we organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law — as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess. . By saying “Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be”, the writer means that .
| A．work time is equal to rest time |
| B．many people have a day off on Monday |
| C．it is hard for people to decide when to rest |
| D．the line between work time and rest time is unclear |
The author raises the questions in Paragraph 2 to introduce the fact that people ________ .
| A．fail to make full use of their time | B．enjoy working overtime for extra pay |
| C．are unaware of the law of time | D．welcome flexible working hours |
According to the passage, most children tend to believe that they go to school because they ______.
| A．need to acquire knowledge | B．have to obey their parents |
C．need to find companions | D．have to observe the law |
The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph probably refers to ___
_____ .
| A．influence |
| B．overtime |
| C．a law of time |
| D．being late to work |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Our life is governed by the law of time. | |
| B．How to organize time is not worth debating. |
C．New ways of using time change our society. |
| D．Our time schedule is decided by social customs. |
Five-year-old Jocelyn Rojas spent all day playing happily with her friends outside her grandmother’s apartment building. Her mom, Jaimee, kept her eye on the little girl from a window. At about 4 p.m., Jocelyn walked around the corner of the building to get her bicycle. However, half an hour later, she disappeared. Jaimee called 911.
A short time later, police officers and firefighters crowded inthe area, blocking streets and searching the neighborhood. Officers handed out photos of the girl wearing thick-framed glasses.
Temar Boggs, 15, a school athlete in track, was with some friends moving a couch into the apartment of his elderly neighbor when one officer approached him and asked if he’d seen Jocelyn. Unfortunately, none of them had seen her. A little bit later, Temar and his friends went to check out the situation. By 6:30 p.m., Jocelyn had been missing for more than two hours, and the search team was worried that the sun would set before she was found.
Just at that moment, Temar felt an intense emotion that he was going to find her. He and his friend Chris Garcia, 13, rode alongside, simply keeping a sharp eye out as they circled around. Then Temar spotted a car circling around, as if the driver were unfamiliar with the neighborhood. Temar cycled close and made eye contact with the man behind the wheel, an older guy wearing a red-and-white striped shirt, and saw a tiny blond girl in the passenger seat. Temar instantly realized it must be the missing girl.
The boys cycled after the car, but the driver kept moving, winding his way through the neighborhood.
Finally, the driver had to park the car ahead of them and pushed open the passenger-side door. A girl slipped out of the car. It was Jocelyn. Temar got off his bike, and carried her to the police. The kidnapper sped away.
A police report later identified the man as a 63-ycar-old sex offender. He is still at large.
Neil Harkins, chief of the Manheim Police Department, says “The boys’ heroics are ‘something we don’t normally hear about.’ It is a very brave thing for young boys to do that.” But when asked, Temar, now a tenth-grade student at Lucy Laney High School, says “I didn’t do it for attention. I just wanted to help.”Why did Jaimee call 911?
| A．Because her mother was in need of help. |
| B．Because her house was on fire. |
| C．Because her daughter was missing. |
| D．Because she was trapped in the building. |
What was Temar doing when the police were searching for Jocelyn?
| A．He and his friends were playing outside the building. |
| B．He was helping the police hand out the photos of the missing girl. |
| C．He and his friends were helping his neighbor moving a couch. |
| D．He and his friends were having a cycling race. |
What do the underlined words mean in Paragraph 7?
| A．as large as a man. | B．free. |
| C．put in prison. | D．arrested. |
From what Neil Harkins says, we can know _______.
| A．Temar and his friends did a heroic thing. |
| B．Temar is a boy with little courage. |
| C．The kidnapper was under control because of Temar and his friends. |
| D．Temar didn’t want to catch people’s attention. |
| Book Introductions |
| The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling This is the story of a child who is found and brought up by Mr. Allworthy. The child, Tom Jones, has a good life at first but then gets into trouble. His life has a series of adventures and difficulties but eventually he becomes a good and happy man. |
| The Picture of Dorian Bray Young Gray has his picture painted by an artist who is impressed by his beauty. But after he realizes the shortness of youth, he wishes that he would remain young and untouched as years go by. He threw himself into a life of degradation(堕落) and crime. The story ends with the death of young Gray. |
| Dombey and Son Dombey, the owner of a shipping house, is a rich , proud, and heartless man, whose concern in life is his good name in connection with his firm. He doesn’t take good care of his daughter and lays all his hopes on his son, Paul, who will carry on his business. But Paul dies in childhood because of poor health. Having lost both his pride and wealth, his business goes from bad to worse. Dombey lives alone, and finally is taken care of by his daughter. |
| Vanity Fair The central character, Becky Sharp, is an orphan. In order to climb up into the upper class, she tries to marry the fat brother of her schoolmate Amelia Sedley, a daughter of a rich man. And then she remarries. Becky and her husband spend their time in Paris and London, living comfortably. She ends up as a “respected” member of society. |
In The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Tom __________.
| A．becomes a successful businessman |
| B．lives a poor and troubled life |
| C．lives alone and has no friends |
| D．becomes a happy man |
In Dombey and Son, we can learn that Dombey __________.
| A．loves his son more than himself |
| B．shares his wealth with his family |
| C．feels sorry for his poor health |
| D．suffers a series of losses in his life |
Which book centers on a young man of great beauty?
| A．The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling. |
| B．The Picture of Dorian Bray. |
| C．Dombey and Son. |
| D．Vanity Fair. |
According to Vanity Fair, __________desires to live an upper-class life.
| A．Becky Sharp | B．Becky Sharp’s second husband |
| C．Amelia Sedley | D．Amelia Sedley’s brother |
In my twenty-six years as a free writer, I have worked for newspapers, magazines and the Internet sites.
I have reviewed the famous people, and criticized the political characters. Yet along my journalistic journey there have been several interviews that remain deeply in my memory. For not only did the characters of those specific people impress me, they actually influenced my life.
Lynn R. Taylor is such a special person.
Born in Buffalo, New York, on May 2, 1962, Lynn Taylor was just like all the other kids in her neighborhood. At the age of three she was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor, a cancer of the kidneys. Given a “no-chance” prediction, doctors completely removed one of Lynn’s kidneys and part of another. They then predicted that if she survived to the age of five, she might possibly make ten.
In the decade that followed, Lynn Taylor met and surpassed all medical experts’ gloom-and-doom predictions. At the age of fourteen she was in full remission(缓解), and by seventeen, she was considered cured. Yet in this case, Lynn’s medical history was far from closed.
Over the next twenty-three years, Lynn earned her undergraduate degree and master’s degree in economics. Then she was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Sussex in England. There she was invited to teach and earned her second master’s degree. Upon returning to Buffalo, the successful young woman engaged in a variety of high level jobs, including head of Multicultural Affairs at a local college.
Recently Lynn has added a new activity to her schedule----that of a cancer hospital volunteer. It is her wish to provide living proof for patients that cancer is not necessarily a death sentence but rather, as she has proved, something to overcome.When Lynn Taylor was diagnosed with cancer, the doctors __________.
| A．tried their best to make her live until then |
| B．thought it was a wonder that she could live to three |
| C．thought that she couldn’t live long |
| D．believe that she could survive |
Lynn is working as a cancer hospital volunteer mainly to __________.
| A．help the cancer patient to recover |
| B．encourage the patients to fight cancer bravely |
| C．help the doctors and nurses as a reward |
| D．entertain the cancer patients |
What can we learn about Lynn’s condition now?
| A．she is still not strong enough to do much work. |
| B．she is learning medicine at a college. |
| C．she still can’t do without medicine. |
| D．she is fully recovered. |
The purpose of the writer is to tell us __________.
| A．his experience as a free writer. |
| B．a special person who influenced his life. |
| C．there is a cure for Wilms Tumor. |
| D．how Lynn Taylor fought against cancer. |
Something as simple as a smile can mean friendliness in one culture, but impatience in another. Even silence means different things in different places.
When trying to communicate in a foreign language, it’s natural to use gestures as a way of explaining your points.
Tapping your finger to your temple is a gesture to show memory in North America, but suggests insanity（精神失常）in Russia. Even nodding one’s head to show “yes” or shaking one’s head to show “no” can be misunderstood abroad. The yes-no gestures are different in countries like Bulgaria and Albania. In Turkey, “no” is gestured by nodding the head up and down.
It’s not just individual gestures that can cause miscommunication, but the rate of gesturing can also cause miscommunication. Some countries, like Italy and Spain, are known for talking with their hands. Others use few body movements as a form of politeness. In parts of East Asia, the gesture is considered unpleasant behavior, and even rude.
Britain, along with many countries of northern Europe and the Far East, is classed as a “non-contact”culture, in which there’s very little physical contact in people’s daily communication. Even accidentally touching someone’s arm is considered rude. By comparison, in the high-contact cultures of the Middle East, Latin America, and southern Europe, physical touch is a big part of socializing.
Naturally, these different standards of contact can lead to misunderstanding. An Argentinian may see a Scandinavian as cold, while the Scandinavian may see the Argentinian as impolite.
In most Western countries, frequent eye contact is a sign of confidence and attentiveness. But in many Asian, African, and Latin American countries, however, unbroken eye contact would be considered rude. These cultures tend to pay more attention to hierarchy（等级制度）, and avoiding eye contact is a sign of respect for bosses and elder. In these parts of the world, children won’t look at an adult who is speaking to them, and nor will employees to their bosses.What will Turkish people do when they don’t agree on something?
| A．Keep silent for a while. |
| B．Shake their heads. |
| C．Tap their fingers to the temple. |
| D．Nod their heads up and down. |
Where is physical touch considered impolite or rude?
| A．In Britain. | B．In Russia. |
| C．In Turkey. | D．In Bulgaria. |
What will happen when an Argentinian meets a Scandinavian?
| A．They will try to keep each other at a distance. |
| B．The Argentinian will try to contact the Scandinavian. |
| C．The Scandinavian will try to contact the Argentinian. |
| D．They will try to touch each other as much as possible. |
What does the writer intend to tell us in the passage?
| A．Most body language means the same in different cultures. |
| B．It’s natural to make mistakes in learning body language. |
| C．Body language can be confusing in different cultures. |
| D．There is no short cut to learning body language. |
A man wakes up with a big hangover(过量饮酒后的不适反应) the morning after attending his company’s annual Summer Party. He can’t even remember how he got home from the party, let alone how he got so drunk and is deathly afraid of what he may have done or said the night before to make his wife angry.
The man forces his eyes open and the first things he sees are two headache tablets next to a glass of water on his table, and, next to them, a single red rose! He sits up with difficulty and sees his clothing hung on the back of his chair all clean and pressed and the rest of the house all in perfect order.
Incredulous(不能相信的), the man takes the tablets and sees a black eye looking back at him from the bathroom mirror. Then he finds a note next to the red rose on the table, “Sweetie, breakfast is waiting for you on the stove. I left early to buy the cooking materials to make your favorite dinner tonight. I love you, darling! ” The note was signed, “Your loving wife.”
The man then walks into the kitchen. His daughter Jessie is at the table, eating. “Jessie…what happened last night?” The man asks, with great fear.
“Well, you came home around four o’clock in the morning, drunk and out of your mind. You tripped and fell onto the coffee table and broke it, and got this black eye when you crashed into the table’s edge.”
Puzzled, the man asks Jessie, “Then why is there a rose on my table and breakfast on the stove waiting for me?”
“Oh that,” Jessie replies, “well, Mom pulled you into your bedroom, and when she tried to undress you, you yelled, ‘Leave me alone; I’m married and I love my wife!’”Why did the man have a black eye?
| A．He had a terrible headache. |
| B．He didn’t sleep well the night before. |
| C．He was hit in the eye by his wife. |
| D．He fell over and crashed into the table. |
The wife did so much for her husband that morning probably because __________.
| A．she took it for granted |
| B．her husband got drunk |
| C．she was moved by his words |
| D．she wanted to give her husband a surprise |
The passage is intended to __________.
| A．tell us a funny story |
| B．show us how to take care of a person who is drunk |
| C．tell us how bad it is to be drunk |
| D．suggest we shouldn’t get drunk |