“Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move,” said David Belle, the founder of parkour(跑酷).
Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond’s wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.
Yes, that’s parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.
Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.
Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy(理念) behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back from them in your life, to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, “I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.”
Another philosophy we’ve learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself that you earn energy and confidence. Parkour has become popular throughout the world because of .
| A．its founder, David Belle | B．the film, Casino Royale |
| C．its risks and tricks | D．the varieties of participants |
The underlined word “obstacles” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “ ”.
| A．streets | B．objects | C．barriers | D．roofs |
Which of the following is true of parkour?
| A．It challenges human abilities. | B．It is a good but boring sport. |
| C．It needs special training. | D．It is a team sport. |
As its participants move around a city, .
| A．they can ask for help | B．they may choose to escape |
| C．they should run to extremes | D．they must learn to survive |
Which of the following is the philosophy of parkour?
| A．Sports and extremes. | B．Excitement and popularity. |
| C．Dreams and success. | D．Determination and freedom. |
Maple Lane Bakery
At 8260 S. State Rd. Claypool, IN. (574) 566-2917, it offers a variety of cooked pies, cookies, and bread. With 20 years’ experience Maple Lane Bakery has specialized in the making of pies. The menu includes peach pie $7.19, berry pie $ 7.70, apple pie $7.19 and banana pie $6.99. Feel free to place an order at least 24 hours in advance.
Berry’s Cakes &Candy Shop
At 816 E. Winona Avenue Warsaw, IN. (574)269-1231, it specializes in cakes and offers cookies and candies. The chocolate cookies are sold at $8.99 a dozen. Betty’s Cakes &Candy Shop, started half a century ago, specializes in wedding cakes and birthday cakes. Buying a cake from Betty’s will not disappoint you as they are always excellent.
Crepes’ Quality Bakery
At 217 S. Cavin Street Ligonier, IN. (260)894-3024, this bakery with a history of over a century is located downtown Ligonier. It offers cookies and cupcakes, and specializes in rolls and bread. If you plan to buy cookies for the office or work area, you had better get there early as the building workers arrive just before 5:00am waiting for the doors to open.
Olympia Candy Kitchen
At 136 N. Main Street Goshen, IN. (574)533-5040, it has been welcoming visitors for almost a century in its unchanged location in downtown Goshen, Indiana. Its tradition began in 1912 when Greek Nicholas began making his own chocolates. Today this family-owned operation offers all kinds of candies and boxed candies.
If you need an order, you should call ahead of time to see if they can meet your request. Which of the following pies is the most expensive?
| A．Peach pie. | B．Banana pie. | C．Apple pie. | D．Berry pie. |
If you want to order a birthday cake, you are advised to call______.
| A．(574)533-5040 | B．(574)269-1231 | C．(260)894-3024 | D．(574)566-2917 |
Which of the following bakeries has the shortest history?
| A．Crepes’ Quality Bakery |
| B．Betty’s Cake & Candy Shop |
| C．Olympia Candy Kitchen |
| D．Maple Lane Bakery |
The author wrote this passage mainly to ______.
| A．tell readers some travel information |
| B．persuade more people to eat pies |
| C．make the bakeries better known to readers |
| D．warn customers to order bakeries in advance |
Suppose you want to buy some new clothes or a new TV. Or maybe you need some work done on your car. How can you find the best price without shopping all over town? Ads can help you. Ads can show you lots of prices. And you don’t have to go anywhere to see them. Just open a newspaper or magazine, and you’ll find plenty of ads.
The following is an ad about TV sets for sale. Please read it and answer the questions below. 
How many different kinds of TV sets does the store advertise( 打广告) here ?
| A．Four. | B．Three. | C．Two. | D．Five. |
Which of the following statements is true according to the advertisement?
| A．You can buy any kind on July 14th. |
| B．The service time is9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day except Monday. |
| C．The larger the screen is, the higher the price will be. |
| D．The lowest price is a little more than 300. |
Which is NOT mentioned in the advertisement?
| A．The deadline(最后期限) of all the TV set sales. |
| B．The post code of the area where the store is. |
| C．The address of the store. |
| D．The name of the store. |
What can ads do for us according to the passage?
| A．They can help us cut down the prices before shopping. |
| B．They can show us plenty of prices after shopping all over town. |
| C．They can help us learn about the quality of the advertised things. |
| D．They can help us find the best price without shopping everywhere. |
The Cost of Higher Education
Individuals (个人) should pay for their higher education.
A university education is of huge and direct benefit to the individual. Graduates earn more than non-graduates. Meanwhile, social mobility is ever more dependent on having a degree. However, only some people have it. So the individual, not the taxpayers, should pay for it. There are pressing calls on the resources (资源) of the government. Using taxpayers' money to help a small number of people to earn high incomes in the future is not one of them.
Full government funding (资助) is not very good for universities. Adam Smith worked in a Scottish university whose teachers lived off student fees. He knew and looked down upon 18th-century Oxford, where the academics lived comfortably off the income received from the government. Guaranteed salaries, Smith argued, were the enemy of hard work; and when the academics were lazy and incompetent, the students were similarly lazy.
If students have to pay for their education, they not only work harder, but also demand more from their teachers. And their teachers have to keep them satisfied. If that means taking teaching seriously, and giving less time to their own research interests, that is surely something to celebrate.
Many people believe that higher education should be free because it is good for the economy (经济). Many graduates clearly do contribute to national wealth, but so do all the businesses that invest (投资) and create jobs. If you believe that the government should pay for higher education because graduates are economically productive, you should also believe that the government should pay part of business costs. Anyone promising to create jobs should receive a gift of capital from the government to invest. Therefore, it is the individual, not the government, who should pay for their university education. The underlined word "them" in Paragraph 2 refers to ______.
| A．taxpayers | B．pressing calls | C．college graduates | D．government resources |
The author thinks that with full government funding ______.
| A．teachers are less satisfied | B．students are more demanding |
| C．students will become more competent | D．teachers will spend less time on teaching |
The author mentions businesses in Paragraph 5 in order to ______.
| A．argue against free university education | B．call on them to finance students' studies |
| C．encourage graduates to go into business | D．show their contribution to higher education |
Pacing and Pausing
Sara tried to befriend her old friend Steve's new wife, but Betty never seemed to have anything to say. While Sara felt Betty didn't hold up her end of the conversation, Betty complained to Steve that Sara never gave her a chance to talk. The problem had to do with expectations about pacing and pausing.
Conversation is a turn-taking game. When our habits are similar, there's no problem. But if our habits are different, you may start to talk before I'm finished or fail to take your turn when I'm finished. That's what was happening with Betty and Sara.
It may not be coincidental that Betty, who expected relatively longer pauses between turns, is British, and Sara, who expected relatively shorter pauses, is American. Betty often felt interrupted by Sara. But Betty herself became an interrupter and found herself doing most of the talking when she met a visitor from Finland. And Sara had a hard time cutting in on some speakers from Latin America or Israel.
The general phenomenon, then, is that the small conversation techniques, like pacing and pausing, lead people to draw conclusions not about conversational style but about personality and abilities. These habitual differences are often the basis for dangerous stereotyping (思维定式). And these social phenomena can have very personal consequences. For example, a woman from the southwestern part of the US went to live in an eastern city to take up a job in personnel. When the Personnel Department got together for meetings, she kept searching for the right time to break in --- and never found it. Although back home she was considered outgoing and confident, in Washington she was viewed as shy and retiring. When she was evaluated at the end of the year, she was told to take a training course because of her inability to speak up.
That's why slight differences in conversational style --- tiny little things like microseconds of pause --- can have a great effect on one's life. The result in this case was a judgment of psychological problems --- even in the mind of the woman herself, who really wondered what was wrong with her and registered for assertiveness training.What did Sara think of Betty when talking with her?
| A．Betty was talkative. | B．Betty was an interrupter. |
| C．Betty did not take her turn. | D．Betty paid no attention to Sara. |
According to the passage, who are likely to expect the shortest pauses between turns?
| A．Americans. | B．Israelis. | C．The British. | D．The Finns. |
We can learn from the passage that ______.
| A．communication breakdown results from short pauses and fast pacing |
| B．women are unfavorably stereotyped in eastern cities of the US |
| C．one's inability to speak up is culturally determined sometimes |
| D．one should receive training to build up one's confidence |
The underlined word "assertiveness" in the last paragraph probably means ______.
| A．being willing to speak one's mind | B．being able to increase one's power |
| C．being ready to make one's own judgment | D．being quick to express one's ideas confidently |
Open Letter to an Editor
I had an interesting conversation with a reporter recently --- one who works for you. In fact, he’s one of your best reporters. He wants to leave.
Your reporter gave me a copy of his resume(简历) and photocopies of six stories that he wrote for you. The headlines showed you played them proudly. With great enthusiasm, he talked about how he finds issues(问题), approaches them, and writes about them, which tells me he is one of your best. I’m sure you would hate to lose him. Surprisingly, your reporter is not unhappy. In fact, he told me he really likes his job. He has a great assignment (分工), and said you run a great paper. It would be easy for you to keep him, he said. He knows that the paper values him. He appreciates the responsibility you’ve given him, takes ownership of his profession, and enjoys his freedom.
So why is he looking for a way out?
He talked to me because he wants his editors to demand so much more of him. He wants to be pushed, challenged, coached to new heights.
The reporter believes that good stories spring from good questions, but his editors usually ask how long the story will be, when it will be in, where it can play, and what the budget is.
He longs for conversations with an editor who will help him turn his good ideas into great ones. He wants someone to get excited about what he’s doing and to help him turn his story idea upside down and inside out, exploring the best ways to report it. He wants to be more valuable for your paper. That’s what you want for him, too, isn’t it?
So your reporter has set me thinking.
Our best hope in keeping our best reporters, copy editors, photographers, artists --- everyone --- is to work harder to make sure they get the help they are demanding to reach their potential. If we can’t do it, they’ll find someone who can.What does the writer think of the reporter?
| A．Optimistic. | B．Imaginative. | C．Ambitious. | D．Proud. |
What does the reporter want most from his editors in their talks?
| A．Finding the news value of his stories. | B．Giving him financial support. |
| C．Helping him to find issues. | D．Improving his good ideas. |
Who probably wrote the letter?
| A．An editor. | B．An artist. | C．A reporter. | D．A reader. |
The letter aims to remind editors that they should ______.
| A．keep their best reporters at all costs |
| B．give more freedom to their reporters |
| C．be aware of their reporters’ professional development |
| D．appreciate their reporters’ working styles and attitudes |