Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage.
A wise teacher once told me that every teenager needs to experience a not-so-fun first job from working at a grocery store to the fast food industry.
Now I still remember my first day at a fast food restaurant three years ago. I wanted to save up money and buy my own car, so I applied everywhere I could that summer. The restaurant called me right away and I thought to myself, this is going to be easy. Within four hours of my first shift (.轮班)， I had angry customers who complained how slow I was. I watched in fear as a kid spilled his milk everywhere, and I heard the words that no 16-year-old boy or anyone for that matter wants to hear: "Mike, there's a problem in the men's bathroom and you might want gloves for this one." I realized right away that working at the restaurant was not going to be a picnic. The manager expected a clean environment and, particularly, fast service with a friendly smile.
Over three years later I still work at that restaurant whenever I go home during vacations. I love my co-workers there and all the customers know who I am. Every morning the same senior citizens come in and get their morning coffees. They chat with us workers and joke around. Our smiles have just as much to do with them making us a part of their everyday lives as the coffee does.
From my first job at the restaurant, I learned teamwork and devotion. I also learned staying positive no matter how rough things seem to get. I will forever carry the experience that I gained at the restaurant with me as I go forward in my life.Why did the author apply everywhere that summer?
(No more than 12 words) (2 marks)What did the manager particularly expect the workers to do?
(No more than 14 words) (3 marks)Why does the author still work at the restaurant during vacations?
(No more than 13 words) (2 marks)What did the author learn from his first job?
(No mom dm II words) (3 marks)
There are many older people in the world and there will be many more. A little-known fact is that over 60 percent of the older people live in developing countries. According to the World Health Organization, by 2020 there will be 1 billion, with over 700 million living in developing countries.
It is a surprising fact that the population aging is particularly rapid in developing countries. For example, it took France 115 years for the rate of older people to double from 7 percent to 14 percent. It is estimated to take China a mere 27 years to achieve this same increase.
What are the implications of these increased numbers of older folk? One of the biggest worries for governments is that the longer people live, the more likelihood there is for diseases and for disability. Attention is being paid to the need to keep people as healthy as possible, including during old age, to lessen the financial burden on the state.
Another significant problem is the need for the younger generations to understand and value the older people in their society. In some African countries, certainly in Asia, older people are respected and regarded as the ones with special knowledge. Yet traditions are fading away daily, which does not make sure the continued high regard of older people. As society changes, attitudes will change.
Much needs to be done to get rid of age discrimination in employment. Life-long learning programs need to be provided to enable older people to be active members in a country’s development.
Social security policies need to be established to provide adequate income protection for older people. Both public and private schemes are vital in order to build a suitable safety net.The rate of older people________.
A. is bigger in developed countries than in developing countries
B. B. is one-seventh of the population in developing countries
C. C. will increase much faster in China than in France
D. D. will be sixty percent in developing countries by 2020
2.According topassage,whichofthefollowingaregovernmentsmostworried
About______.
A.Thediseasesanddisabilityofolderpeople.
B.Thelongerlifeandgoodhealthofpeople.
C.Thelossoftaxesonolderpeople.
D.Theincreasingrespectforolderpeople. It is stated directly in the passage that older people should ________.
| A．be treated differently in different cultures |
| B．enjoy a similar lifestyle |
| C．be ignored as society changes |
| D．be valued by the younger generations |
Which of the following measure is NOT mentioned to solve the population aging problem?
| A．Getting rid of age discrimination in employment. |
| B．Supplying life-long learning programs to older people. |
| C．Making sure adequate income protection for older people. |
| D．Providing free health care for sick older people. |
The author concludes in the last paragraph that ________.
| A．governments have spent lots of time in solving the aging problem |
| B．population aging is a hard problem, but it needs to be solved urgently |
| C．people are too busy to solve the population aging problem |
| D．much time and effort will be lost in solving the aging problem |
Engineering students are supposed to be examples of practicality and rationality (理性), but when it comes to my college education I am an idealist and a fool. In high school I wanted to be an electrical engineer and, of course, any reasonable student with my aims would have chosen a college with a large engineering department, many famous professors and lots of good labs and research equipment. But that’s not what I did.
I chose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts (文科) university that doesn’t even offer a major in electrical engineering. Obviously, this was not a practical choice; I came here for more noble reasons. I wanted a broad education that would provide me with flexibility and a value system to guide me in my job. I wanted to open my eyes and expand my vision by communicating with people who weren’t studying science or engineering. My parents, teachers and other adults praised me for such a wise choice. They told me I was wise and grown-up beyond my 18 years, and I believed them.
I headed off to the college and sure I was going to have an advantage over those students who went to big engineering "factories" where they didn’t care if you had values or were flexible. I was going to be a complete engineer: technical expert and excellent humanist all in one.
Now I’m not so sure. Somewhere along the way my noble ideas crashed into reality, as all noble ideas finally do. After three years of struggling to balance math, physics and engineering courses with liberal-arts courses, I have learned there are reasons why few engineering students try to reconcile engineering with liberal-arts courses in college.
The reality that has blocked my path to become the typical successful student is that engineering and the liberal arts simply don’t mix as easily as I supposed in high school. Individually they shape a person in very different ways. The struggle to reconcile the two fields of study is difficult. Why did the author choose to study engineering at a small liberal-arts university?
| A．He intended to become an engineer and humanist. |
| B．He intended to be a reasonable student with noble ideals. |
| C．He wanted to be an example of practicality and rationality. |
| D．He wanted to communicate with liberal-arts students. |
According to the author, by communicating with people who study liberal arts, engineering students can ___________.
| A．become noble idealists |
| B．broaden their knowledge |
| C．find a better job in the future |
| D．balance engineering and liberal arts |
Which word below can replace the underlined word “reconcile”?
| A．confuse | B．compare | C．combine | D．compete |
The underlined sentence in 1st paragraph means ___________.
| A．he has failed to achieve his ideal aims |
| B．he is not a practical and rational student |
| C．his choice of attending to a small liberal-arts university is reasonable |
| D．his idea of combining engineering with liberal - arts is noble and wise |
The author suggests in this passage that ___________.
| A．liberal-arts students are supported to take engineering courses |
| B．technical experts with a wide vision are expected in the society |
| C．successful engineering students are more welcomed in the society |
| D．engineering universities with liberal-arts courses are needed |
Few of us haven’t read Cinderella, the story of a young woman living in poverty who meets the prince of her dreams. Some might not want to admit it, but there is a hidden Cinderella in everyone’s heart—we all wish we could achieve recognition or success after a period of obscurity(默默无闻).
Mary Santiago has that secret dream, too. Her story is featured in Another Cinderella Story, a film set in a US high school.
Mary is shy but loves to dance. Compared with other girls, she is invisible. However, her world changes completely when a famous teenager pop singer, Joey Parker, appears.
Joey is everything the rest of the boys in her class are not—kind, handsome and desirable. Mary and Joey’s paths cross at a ball. They meet and fall in love with each other. But when Mary has to rush back home, she leaves behind her MP3 player, which becomes the only clue Joey has to find the girl of his dreams. Of course, there is a wicked(邪恶的) stepmother, who turns out to be Dominique Blatt and she takes in Mary after her dancer mother dies. Dominique treats Mary like a maid and does everything she can to make sure Mary doesn’t get into the top dance school. Her two daughters are equally determined to stop Joey falling for Mary, even if that means embarrassing her.
The story, though it mostly follows Cinderella, does add a few modern day twists to the classic fairy tale. Refreshingly, the film, unlike many high school films, does not focus on looks, although the actors are all beautiful. There is also a lot less materialism in Another Cinderella Story than in many similar movies.
“The movie takes the Cinderella fairytale as its jumping off point,” writes movie critic Amber Wilkinson. “The focus is firmly on following your dream.”The first paragraph is mainly to ____________.
| A．build interest and lead us to Mary’s secret dream |
| B．remind us why Cinderella is popular all the years |
| C．inform us of the main topic of the whole passage |
| D．tell us how interesting the fairy tale Cinderella is |
In the movie, Mary Santiago is the main character who _____________.
| A．is brave in expressing her love |
| B．is attended badly by the stepmother |
| C．has a dream of meeting a prince |
| D．is embarrassed by the pop singer |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Joey is just like other boys in Mary’s class. |
| B．Mary’s mother influences her a lot in singing. |
| C．Not many people have a dream to be realized. |
| D．The MP3 player helps Joey in finding Mary. |
The passage is mainly about ___________.
| A．an introduction to a film |
| B．a review about a film |
| C．an essay about dreams |
| D．an advertisement of Cinderella |
According to the passage, Another Cinderella Story ________.
| A．follows Cinderella with nothing new |
| B．pays more attention to the looks of the actors |
| C．encourages young people to follow their dreams |
| D．focuses more on materialism than other films |
What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology(生物技术). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today’s leading killers, such as heart diseases, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memory.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells(细胞) are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs(器官). The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on---in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic conditional human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future.According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by _______.
| A．diseases and aging | B．accidents and war |
| C．accidents and aging | D．heart diseases and war |
In the author’s opinion, today’s most important advance in technology lies in _____.
| A．medicine | B．the internet | C．brain cells | D．human organs |
Humans may live longer in the future because ______.
| A．heart disease will be far away from us |
| B．human brains can decide the final death |
| C．the basic materials of cells will last forever |
| D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine |
We can learn from the passage that _____.
| A．human life will not last more than 120 years in the future |
| B．human have to take medicine to build new skin cells now |
| C．much needs to be done before humans can have a longer life |
| D．we have already solved the technical problems in building new cells. |
A baby can quickly damage a new mother’s well-laid plans for getting back to pre-pregnancy(孕前的) weight and shape.
The constant demands, together with the exhausting effects of interrupted sleep, can make it hard to find the time and energy to exercise or prepare healthy meals.
Here are some tips for common problems new moms face:
Problem: No time to cook proper meals. When you’re caring for a baby, cooking proper meals seems like a luxury. Instead you rely on convenience meals and processed foods.
Solution: Try to get more support. Friends, family members, and neighbors are often delighted to help, so don’t feel you have to do everything yourself. Use the extra time to prepare some healthy meals. Follow the basic rules of cutting down on fat and increasing fruit and vegetable intake.
Problem: Sugary or high-fat snacks（零食）. Tiredness can leave you feeling sleepy, run-down, and in need of an immediate help from sweets and high-fat snacks.
Solution: Turn snacking to your advantage. Eat high-fiber, low-fat, low-sugar snacks; these will fill you up without adding too many calories. For an energy boost, eat a banana, which is high in potassium -- a mineral essential for muscle and nerve function -- or try a handful of raisins, which are high in iron but low in fat.
Problem: No time or energy to exercise. A baby is a constant demand on your time, so you’re too tired or busy to exercise.
Solution: Increasing activity levels will help you obtain a net calorie loss, while toning exercises will tighten your muscles. Though you may feel too tired to do any exercise, it is worth persevering because in the long run your energy levels will increase. Involve your baby in your postnatal(产后) exercises; start by walking with the child in a carriage or sling. Swimming is another aerobic exercise that you can both enjoy by joining a mother and baby class. Many pools have childcare facilities, so you can swim a few laps on your own.
Problem: Lack of sleep. The new baby interrupts your sleep, depleting your energy and leaving you tense and exhausted.
Solution: Practice some relaxation techniques whenever you have a few free moments. Meditation, visualization, or yoga can help your body recover and give you more energy.