When my daughter, Sophie, was admitted to a college we were very happy, but a little worried about becoming empty nesters. I knew I had to do something to help myself adapt, starting with the summer before she left.
Sophie had a pack of colorful T-shirts. I knew she wouldn’t wear them any more, so I decided to make a quilt out of them for her bed at college. It focused my energy, and also let me relive some memories. I tried to work on the quilt when Sophie wasn’t at home----which turned out to be often. She was very busy with her friends. Even when she was around, her door was shut more than usual. I felt a bit hurt. After all, we didn’t have much time together before she went to college, I was already missing her, and she hadn’t ever left yet.
When we arrived at the college, a wave of emotion flooded me. I tried to hold it back, but Sophie saw it in my face. She took a big red book from her bag. “I made this for you, Mom,” she said. Then I knew why she had been staying behind a closed door that summer. It was an album of photographs documenting the life of our family over the last 17 years.
I broke into tears. Some of it was sadness at having to let her go, but some of it was joy. I knew that our connection was more powerful than ever, and that we’d always be connected by the strongest of threads, the love that went into every stitch of her quilt and every photo of my album.
In Sophie’s dormitory I unfolded the quilt on her bed. For a moment she was speechless. Then she threw her arms around me. “Mom, I love you,” she said. One of her new friends was calling her outside. Sophie turned, and I let her go.
What do we learn about Sophie from the passage?
A.She did not understand how her mother felt about her leaving. |
B.She had few friends, and kept to herself at home that summer. |
C.She made a photo album to show her love. |
D.She liked her colorful T-shirts very much. |
Why did the author feel hurt, according to the second paragraph?
A.Because Sophie was not interested in what she was doing. |
B.Because Sophie had little time for her. |
C.Because Sophie was going to leave home for a long time. |
D.Because Sophie did not help her to make the quilt. |
How did the author feel when they arrived at the college?
A.She felt worried. |
B.She felt nervous. |
C.She was sorry to be leaving her daughter. |
D.She missed her daughter very much. |
Why did the author finally let her daughter go?
A.She realized that her daughter had to go to college by herself. |
B.She realized that the love between them would never be cut off. |
C.Sophie’s present had made her forget her sorrow. |
D.Sophie’s new friends were calling her outside the dormitory. |
An old woman went suddenly blind. She promised a doctor a lot of money if he could make her see again. “If you fail”, she said, “ you will get nothing,” The doctor agreed with her.The doctor soon discovered what was wrong with her, but he decided not to cure her right away. Instead, each time he visited, he secretly took some of her things. When he had taken everything that he wanted, he cured her blindness and sent her a large bill. Now when the old woman could see again she noticed that all her things had gone and she refused to pay the bill. So the doctor took her before a judge.
“What the doctor says is true.” she said to the judge. “But I say I’m not cured, because I still
can’t see any of the things in my house.”
The old woman won her case and the doctor went away unhappily without getting his pay.The doctor didn’t cure the old woman right away because __________.
A. He didn’t know how to cure her B. He wanted to get a lot of money
C. He wanted to take the woman’s things D The woman refused to pay him The woman was _______ .
A.clever | B.greedy | C.cruel | D.dishonest |
The doctor was ________.
A.honest | B.a cheat | C.a kind man | D.ready to help others |
The word “case” in the last paragraph means ______.
A.a single example | B.a particular situation |
C.a question to be decided in a court of law | D.box |
Which sentence is right according to the passage?
A.The judge didn’t believe the old woman |
B.The doctor cured the woman’s blindness in a short time. |
C.The woman got back all her things taken by the doctor. |
D.The doctor failed to get his pay . |
Ideas about polite behavior are different from one culture to another. Some societies, such as America and Australia, for example, are mobile and very open. People here change jobs and move houses quite often. As a result, they have a lot of relationships that often last only a short time, and they need to get to know people quickly. So it’s normal to have friendly conversations with people that they have just met, and you can talk about things that other cultures would regard as personal.
On the other hand, there are more crowded and less mobile societies where long–term relationships are more important. A Malaysian or Mexican business person, for example, will want to get to know you very well before he or she feels happy to start business. But when you do get to know each other, the relationship becomes much deeper than it would in a mobile society.
To Americans, both Europeans and Asians seem cool and formal at first. On the other hand, as a passenger from a less mobile society puts it, it’s no fun spending several hours next to a stranger who wants to tell you all about his or her life and asks you all sorts of questions that you don’t want to answer.
Cross-cultural differences aren’t just a problem for travelers, but also for the flights that carry them. All flights want to provide the best service, but ideas about good service are different from place to place. This can be seen most clearly in the way that problems are dealt with.
Some societies have “universalist” cultures. These societies strongly respect rules, and they treat every person and situation in basically the same way. “Particularist” societies, on the other hand, also have rules, but they are less important than the society’s unwritten ideas about what is right or wrong for a particular situation or a particular person. So the normal rules are changed to fit the needs of the situation or the importance of the person.
This difference can cause problems. A traveler from a particularist society, India, is checking in for a flight in Germany, a country which has a universalist culture. The Indian traveler has too much luggage, but he explains that he has been away from home for a long time and the suitcases are full of presents for his family. He expects that the check–in official will understand his problem and will change the rules for him. The check–in official explains that if he was allowed to have too much luggage, it wouldn’t be fair to the other passengers. But the traveler thinks this is unfair, because the other passengers don’t have his problem.Often moving from one place to another makes people like Americans and Australians ______.
A.like traveling better |
B.easy to communicate with |
C.difficult to make real friends |
D.have a long–term relationship with their neighbors |
People like Malaysians prefer to associate with those ______.
A.who will tell them everything of their own |
B.who want to do business with them |
C.they know quite well |
D.who are good at talking |
Which of the following is true about “particularist societies”?
A.There is no rule for people to obey. |
B.People obey the society’s rules completely. |
C.No one obeys the society’s rules though they have. |
D.The society’s rules can be changed with different persons or situations. |
The writer of the passage thinks that the Indian and the German have different ideas about rules because of different ______.
A.interests | B.habits and customs | C.cultures | D.ways of life |
If you think English means endless new words, difficult grammar and sometimes strange pronunciation, you are wrong. Haven’t you noticed that you have become smarter since you started to learn a language?
According to a new study by a British university, learning a second language can lead to an increase in your brain power. Researchers found that learning other languages changes grey matter. This is the area of the brain which processes information. It is similar to the way that exercise builds muscles.
The study also found the earlier people learn a second language, the greater the effect is.
A team led by Dr. Andrea Mechelli, from University College London(UCL), took a group of Britons who only spoke English. They were compared with a group of “early bilinguals(通两种语言的人)”, who had learnt a second language before the age of five, as well as a number of later learners.
Scans showed that grey matter density in the brain was greater in bilinguals than in people without a second language. But the longer a person waited before mastering a new language, the smaller the difference was.
“Our findings suggest that the structure of the brain is changed by the experience of learning a second language,” said the scientists.
It means that the change itself increases the ability to learn.
Professor Dylan Vaughan Jones of the University of Wales, has researched the link between bilingualism and maths skills.
“Having two languages gives you two windows on the world and makes the brain more flexible,” he said, “You are actually going beyond language and have a better understanding of different ideas.”
The findings were matched in a study of native Italian speakers who had learned English as a second language between the ages of 2 and 34. Reading, writing and comprehension were all tested. The results showed that the earlier they started to learn, the better. “Studying a language means you get an entrance to another world,” explained the scientists. What does the underlined part “grey matter” (in Paragraph 2) refer to?
A.Grey hair. | B.Material of the brain. |
C.Intelligence. | D.Difficult situations. |
The experience of learning a second language can ________.
A.change one’s brain completely | B.improve one’s maths skills |
C.make one smarter than others | D.increase the ability to learn |
We can learn from the passage that ________.
A.the researchers from UCL did another study in Italy |
B.a similar study was done on native Italian speakers who learn English as a second language |
C.the research done on the Italians showed a totally different result |
D.it will be easier for one to travel around the world by learning a second language |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
A.Learning a second language can help improve your brain power. |
B.You should learn a second language that is not your native language. |
C.If you want to learn a second language, you should do it at a certain age. |
D.The research done by the researchers from UCL is very successful. |
Ifhas anyone noticed how, with the passage of time, one’s relationship with one’s grown-up daughters and sons becomes changed? I’ve been aware of this for some time but I’m not quite sure how to deal with it.
Take the kitchen sink for example.
Following a family get-together at my place, I walked into the kitchen to find Kate, my daughter, carefully cleaning the sink.
“Don’t do that; what are you doing that for?” I said, unhappy about the hidden criticism.
“Mum,” she said, “you really ought to put your glasses on when you clean the sink. Behind the tap here was black!”
But it’s not just things like kitchen sinks. Another time Kate arrived to pick me up to lunch. She looked at me and then asked, “Mum, why do you use brown eyebrow pencil when your hair is grey?”
A sudden memory of her, aged 14, going to her first mixed party flooded back. She had come in to say goodbye. For a moment I thought she’d been an accident. Both eyes were black. I remember suggesting that perhaps a little less eye make-up might be more effective.
Now I told her, “My hair used to be brown.”
“It looks absurd.(荒唐)”
“Mrs. Menzies had dark eyebrows with grey hair.”
“Yes, but you’re not Mrs. Menzies, are you?” she said triumphantly, as if that proved her point.
But a recent event made me realize that something really must be done.
She had returned home for a few weeks before getting married. One evening I went out on a dinner date. By the time my companion left me at the front door, it was about 2am. As I stepped in, an angry figure in a white nightgown(睡衣)stopped me.
“Well, what time of night is this to be coming home?” she shouted. “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick!”
Shades of the past come back to disturb me. But what should I do about all this? Nothing, probably. Maybe, after all, it’s only a stage young people are going through.The daughter thought her mother didn’t clean the kitchen sink well because of her .
A.laziness | B.carelessness | C.unhappiness | D.poor-quality glasses |
From the passage we know the daughter .
A.didn’t want to help with the sink |
B.didn’t like brown eyebrow pencils |
C.had an accident when she went to her first party |
D.shouted at her mum because she came home late |
How does the mother feel after all these have happened?
A.Shocked. | B.Proud. | C.Envious.(嫉妒) | D.Confused. |
The author writes the stories to prove that ________.
A.their relationship became stronger |
B.their roles changed as time passed |
C.her daughter very much cared about her |
D.her daughter got upset as she grew up |
We can stay young forever. That is the message Dr. Shen Ziyin wants to give the world. And the Chinese doctor claims that he has found an answer to the problems of aging.
His solution is a herbal medicine to slow the process of aging.
Dr. Shen Ziyin has been trained in Western medicine. At the same time he studied traditional Chinese medicine. And, he has been working for the past forty years to put together the best of both and find a cure for aging. He has taken a hint from the ancient Chinese medicine system called “shen”.
According to Shen, it is the kidney(肾脏)which adjusts the functioning of the body as well as its aging process. It is responsible for the level of activity that the human bodies go through. Studies conducted by Dr. Shen show that herbal medicine based on the shen system slow the aging process, says a report in The Telegraph newspaper.
We notice that when people grow old, they have reduced strength, loss of hair, backache, weakness in general, and wrinkles, among others. This happens because when people grow old, their bodies produce T-cells. These T-cells contain a particular substance called Fas. Fas makes the cells in the body destruct themselves.
So the only way to slow down aging is to slow the production of T-cells in the body. This can happen if people eat low calorie food. Then the body is not active enough to produce extra T-cells. But, is going hungry all the time a good price to pay for staying young?
This is where Dr. Shen’s herbal medicine comes in. But how effective it will be, only time can tell.How did Dr. Shen find the solution to the problem of aging?
A.By studying Western medicine. |
B.By learning traditional Chinese medicine. |
C.By combining both Western and Chinese medicine. |
D.By doing research on both Western and Chinese people. |
What plays the most important role in keeping people young according to Shen?
A.Medical treatment. | B.People’s good kidney. |
C.Level of people’s activity. | D.Positive life attitude. |
The reason why people become old is that _________.
A.their bodies produce T-cells |
B.their bodies are unable to fight diseases |
C.they have reduced strength, loss of hair |
D.they become weaker and weaker |
We can probably learn from the passage that _________.
A.producing more low calorie food allows people to keep young |
B.the more Chinese herbal medicine people drink, the better for health |
C.people should try to quicken the production of T-cells in the body |
D.it remains unknown how effective Dr. Shen’s herbal medicine is |