After their 15-year-old dog Bailey died in 2007, Ron and his wife, Ann, looked for months to find the right new pet. “I love dogs,” says Ron, a worker at a health club in Waukesha, Wisconsin. “I can’t imagine not having one.”
Finally, the couple spotted a young dog at the Humane Society in Milwaukee. His name was Oscar. “He was very attractive,” says Ron, 65. Oscar quickly made himself at home, sleeping on his new owners’ bed at night.
A diabetic(糖尿病人) for 25 years, Ron faithfully took his medicine four times a day and generally had no problems. But on March 17, at about 3 a.m., he got out of bed to use the bathroom. Suddenly, he fell down to the floor. “I must have taken the wrong amount of medicine before I went to sleep, because my blood sugar was dangerously low,” he says.
“Normally, Oscar is very quiet and well-behaved,” says Ron. “But when I hit the floor, he let out sounds like a wild animal.”
“Honestly, it sounded like the dog from hell,” says Ann, who was awakened by the sound.” I didn’t know what the sound was. Then I saw my husband lying on the bathroom floor. He was cold.” She ran for the phone and called an ambulance.
Ron spent several hours in the hospital. By 6:30a.m., he was well enough to go home. “You would never suspect Oscar of any heroism.” says his grateful owner. “He’s a wonderful little guy. We are lucky enough to own him.”
Even before Oscar’s heroic action, the couple had given their pet a new nickname(昵称). “We felt the name Oscar wasn’t good enough,” says Ron, “so sometimes we call him Eduardo”—more suitable, they think, for their dog.What was Ann doing when Ron went to the bathroom?
| A．She was sleeping. |
| B．She was watching TV. |
| C．She was taking care of Oscar. |
| D．She was talking with someone on the phone. |
Why did Ron fell onto the floor in the bathroom?
One morning, Ann’s neighbor Tracy found a lost dog wandering around the local elementary school. She asked Ann if she could keep an eye on the dog. Ann said that she could watch it only for the day.
Tracy took photos of the dog and printed off 400 FOUND fliers（传单）, and put them in mailboxes. Meanwhile, Ann went to the dollar store and bought some pet supplies, warning her two sons not to fall in love with the dog. At the time, Ann’s son Thomas was 10 years old, and Jack, who was recovering from a heart operation, was 21 years old.
Four days later Ann was still looking after the dog, whom they had started to call Riley. When she arrived home from work, the dog threw itself against the screen door and barked madly at her. As soon as she opened the door, Riley dashed into the boys’ room where Ann found Jack suffering from a heart attack. Riley ran over to Jack, but as soon as Ann bent over to help him the dog went silent.
“If it hadn’t come to get me, the doctor said Jack would have died,” Ann reported to a local newspaper. At this point, no one had called to claim the dog, so Ann decided to keep it.
The next morning Tracy got a call. A man named Peter recognized his lost dog and called the number on the flier. Tracy started crying, and told him, “That dog saved my friend’s son.”
Peter drove to Ann’s house to pick up his dog, and saw Thomas and Jack crying in the window. After a few moments Peter said, “Maybe Odie was supposed to find you, maybe you should keep it.” What did Tracy do after finding the dog?
| A．She looked for its owner |
| B．She gave it to Ann as a gift. |
| C．She sold it to the dollar store. |
| D．She bought some food for it. |
How did the dog help save Jack?
| A．By breaking the door for Ann. |
| B．By leading Ann to Jack’s room. |
| C．By dragging Jack out of the room. |
| D．By attending Jack when Ann was out. |
What was Ann’s attitude to the dog according to Paragraph 4?
| A．Sympathetic |
| B．Doubtful |
| C．Tolerant |
| D．Grateful |
For what purpose did Peter call Tracy?
| A．To help her friend’s son. |
| B．To interview Tracy |
| C．To take back his dog. |
| D．To return the flier to her. |
What can we infer about the dog from the last paragraph?
| A．It would be given to Odie. |
| B．It would be kept by Ann’ family. |
| C．It would be returned to Peter. |
| D．It would be taken away by Tracy. |
Charlotte Whitehead was born in England in 1843, and moved to Montreal, Canada at the age five with her family. Whileher ill elder sister throughout the years, Charlotte discovered she had a(an) in medicine. At 18 she married anda family. Several years later, Charlotte said she wanted to be a . Her husband supported her decision. , Canadian medical schools did not women students at the time. Therefore, Charlotte went to the United States to study at the Women’s Medical College in Philadelphia. It took her five years toher medical degree. Upon graduation, Charlotteto Montreal and set up a private . Three years later, she moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and there she was once again a doctor. Many of her patients were from the nearby timber and railway camps. Charlotte herself operating on damaged limbs and setting bones, in addition to delivering all the babies in the area.
But Charlotte had been practicing without a license. She had a doctor’s license in both Montreal and Winnipeg, but was . The Manitoba College of Physicians and Surgeons, an all-male board, wanted her toher studies at a Canadian medical college! Charlotte refused to her patients to spend time studying what she already knew. So in 1887, she appeared to the Manitoba Legislature toa license to her but they, too, refused. Charlotte to practice without a license until 1912. She died four years later at the age of 73.
In 1993, 77 years after her , a medical license was issued to Charlotte. This decision was made by the Manitoba Legislature to honor “this courageous and pioneering woman.”
| A．raising | B．teaching |
| C．nursing | D．missing |
| A．habit | B．interest |
| C．opinion | D．voice |
| A．invented | B．selected |
| C．offered | D．started |
| A．doctor | B．musician |
| C．lawyer | D．physicist |
| A．Besides | B．Unfortunately |
| C．Otherwise | D．Eventually |
| A．hire | B．entertain |
| C．trust | D．accept |
| A．history | B．physics |
| C．medicine | D．law |
| A．improve | B．save |
| C．design | D．earn |
| A．returned | B．escaped |
| C．spread | D．wandered |
| A．school | B．museum |
| C．clinic | D．lab |
| A．busy | B．wealthy |
| C．greedy | D．lucky |
| A．helped | B．found |
| C．troubled | D．imagined |
| A．harmful | B．tired |
| C．broken | D．weak |
| A．put away | B．taken over |
| C．turned in | D．applied for |
| A．punished | B．refused |
| C．blamed | D．fired |
| A．display | B．change |
| C．preview | D．complete |
| A．leave | B．charge |
| C．test | D．cure |
| A．sell | B．donate |
| C．issue | D．show |
| A．continued | B．promised |
| C．pretended | D．dreamed |
| A．birth | B．death |
| C．wedding | D．graduation |
The kids in this village wear dirty, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts made of sticks and mud. They have no school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet, and some can make words.
The key to their success: 20 tablet computers(平板电脑) dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a U.S. group called One Laptop Per Child.
The goal is to find out whether kids using today’s new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project data say they’re already amazed. “What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten,” said Matt Keller, who runs the Ethiopia program.
The fastest learner—and the first to turn on one of the tablets—is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse. The device’s camera was disabled to save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out its workings and made the camera work. He called himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.
With his tablet, Kelbasa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own. “Seven months ago he didn’t know any English. That’s unbelievable,” said Keller.
The project aims to get kids to a stage called “deep reading,” where they can read to learn. It won’t be in Amharic, Ethiopia’s first language, but in English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs.How does the Ethiopia program benefit the kids in the village?
| A．It trains teachers for them. |
| B．It contributes to their self-study. |
| C．It helps raise their living standards. |
| D．It provides funds for building schools. |
It amazed Keller that with the tablet Kelbesa could _______.
| A．learn English words quickly. |
| B．draw pictures of animals. |
| C．write letters to researchers. |
| D．make phone calls to his friends. |
What is the aim of the project?
| A．To offer Ethiopians higher paying jobs. |
| B．To make Amharic widely used in the world. |
| C．To help Ethiopian kids read to learn in English. |
| D．To assist Ethiopians in learning their first language. |
Store Scent(香味)
What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed（展示） at the entrance? Or the soft background music?
But have you ever noticed the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. but while a shop's scent may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is proving be an increasingly powerful tool in encouraging people to purchase.
A brand store has become famous for its distinctive scent which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, via scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers' intention to purchase increased by 80 percent.
When it comes to the best shopping streets in pairs, scent is just as important to a brand's success as the quality of its window displays and goods on sale. That is mainly because shopping is a very different experience to what it used to be.
Some years ago, the focus for brand name shopping was on a few people with sales assistants' disproving attitude and don't-touch-what-you-can't-afford displays. Now the rise of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has opened up famous brands to a wider audience. But while e-shops can use sights and sounds, only bricks-and-mortar stores（实体店）can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave. Another brand store seeks to be much more than a shop, but rather a destination. And scent is just one way to achieve this.
Now, a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store's windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent. According to the passage, what is an increasingly powerful tool in the success of some brand stores?
| A．Friendly assistants |
| B．Unique scents |
| C．Soft background music |
| D．Attractive window display |
E-shops are mentioned in the passage to_____
| A．show the advantage of bricks-and-mortar stores |
| B．urge shop assistants to change their attitude |
| C．push stores to use sights and sounds |
| D．introduce the rise e-commerce |
The underlined word “destination” in Paragraph 5 means______
| A．a platform that exhibits goods |
| B．a spot where travelers like to stay |
| C．a place where customers love to go |
| D．a target that a store expects to meet |
The main purpose of the passage is to _____
| A．compare and evaluate |
| B．examine and assess |
| C．argue and discuss |
| D．inform and explain |
Choosing the Right Resolution
Millions of Americans began 2014 with the same resolution they started 2013 with, a goal of losing weight. However, setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake.
To reach our goal of losing weight-the output, we need to control what we eat-the input(输入). That is, we tend to care about the output but not to control the input. This is a bad way to construct goals. The alternative is to focus your resolution on the input. Instead of resolving to lose weight, try an actionable resolution: “I'll stop having dessert for lunch,” or “I'll walk every day for 20 minutes.” Creating a goal that focuses on well-specified input will likely be more effective than concentrating on the outcome.
Recently a new science behind incentives(激励), including in education, has been discussed. For example, researcher Roland Fryer wanted to see what works best in motivating children to do better in school. In some cases, he gave students incentives based on input, like reading certain books, while in others, the incentives were based on output, like results on exams. His main finding was that incentives increased achievement when based on input but had no effect when based on output. Fryer's conclusion was that the incentives for inputs might be more effective because students do not know how to do better on an exam, aside from general rules like “study harder.” Reading certain books, on the other hand, is a well-set task over which they have much more control.
As long as you have direct control over your goal, you have a much higher chance of success. And it's easier to start again if you fail, because you know exactly what you need to do.
If yo want to cut down on your spending, a good goal would be making morning coffee at home instead of going to a cafe, for example. This is a well-specified action-based goal for which you can measure your success easily. Spending less money isn't a goal because it's too general. Similarly, if you want to spend more time with your family, don't stop with this general wish. Think about an actionable habit that you could adopt and stick to, like a family movie night every Wednesday.
In the long run, these new goals could become a habit. The writer thinks that setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake because .
| A．it is hard to achieve for most Americans |
| B．it is focused too much on the result |
| C．it is dependent on too many things |
| D．it is based on actionable decisions |
In Roland Fryer's research, some students did better than the others because .
| A．they obeyed all the general rules |
| B．they paid more attention to exams |
| C．they were motivated by their classmates |
| D．they were rewarded for reading some books |
According to the writer, which of the following statements is a good goal?
| A．“I'll give up dessert.” |
| B．“I'll study harder.” |
| C．“I'll cut down my expenses.” |
| D．“I'll spend more time with my family.” |
The writer strongly believes that we should .
| A．develop good habits and focus on the outcome |
| B．be optimistic about final goals and stick to them |
| C．pick specific actions that can be turned into good habit |
| D．set ambitious goals that can balance the input and output |