More than a hundred adults and kids gather for the Star Party on a cold evening, chattering excitedly as they stand in the dark on a Virginia hillside. The odd thing is, no one has turned on a flashlight, and no streetlights or house lights wink(闪烁) on around them.
These people have traveled to the countryside more than an hour from Washington, D. C., to get away from the glow of city lights. That's because they are attending a star party. Star parties are gatherings where professional and amateur astronomers set up their telescopes and invite people to come learn about the night sky. Getting away from light pollution, or artificial skylight from buildings for example, helps stargazers (看星星的人) see objects in the sky much better.
At this star party, Sean O'Brien of the National Air and Space Museum’s Einstein Planetarium starts off by asking the crowd to simply look up and take in all they can see. He points out plenty of things that can be seen without special equipment. Stars, satellites, and even the Andromeda galaxy(仙女座) can be found if you know where to look.
After that, several dozen astronomers offer close-up views. Each has focused their telescope on a different part of the sky. As kids take a look, the owner gives a mini-lesson.
O’Brien says you can have your own star party at home and learn a lot just by paying attention to what's happening up above. "Watch the sky as the seasons pass, and you will see that it changes," he says. "Or start with the moon. Notice when and where you are seeing it—maybe even in the early morning while you wait for the school bus. "What was it special about the Star Party ?
A.It was organized by the local authority. |
B.It was carried out without any lights. |
C.It was so cold that people chatted to cheer up. |
D.It was held in the town center of Virginia |
According to the passage, who were involved in the activity ?
a. some invited guests
b. some government officials
c. some experts in astronomy
d. those who were interested in astronomy
e. students who were major in agriculture
A.a, c, d | B.a, d, e | C.b, d, e | D.c, d, e |
From the passage, we can infer that if you want to see the objects in the sky .
A.you'd better escape from pollution and sunlight |
B.you'd better follow Sean O'Brien's guidance |
C.you'd better buy some advanced equipment |
D.you'd better make use of your imagination |
Which of the following can be best describe what O'Brien says about discovering the stars'?
A.Roman is not built in a day. |
B.No pains, no gains. |
C.All roads lead to Roman. |
D.Time and tide wait for no man. |
A funny thing happened on the way to the communications revolution: we stopped talking to one another.
I was walking in the park with a friend recently, and his cell phone rang, interrupting our conversation. There we were walking and talking on a beautiful sunny day and... I became invisible, absent from the conversation. The telephone used to connect you to the absent. Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent. Why is it that the more connected we get, the more disconnected I feel? Every advance in communications technology is a tragedy to the closeness of human interaction(互动). With email and instant messaging over the internet, we can now communicate without seeing or talking to one another. With voice mail, you can conduct entire conversations without ever reaching anyone. If my mom has a question, I just leave the answer on her machine.
As almost every contact we can imagine between human beings gets automated(自动化), the alienation index(疏远指数) goes up. You can't even call a person to get the phone number of another person any more. Directory assistance is almost always fully automated.
I am not against modern technology. I own a cell phone, an ATM card, a voice mail system, and an email account. Giving them up isn't wise... they're a great help to us. It's some of their possible consequences that make me feel uneasy.
More and more. I find myself hiding behind email to do a job meant for conversation. Or being relieved that voice mail picked up because I didn't really have time to talk. The industry devoted to helping me keep in touch is making me lonelier ...or at least facilitating my antisocial instincts.
So I've put myself on technology restriction: no instant messaging with people who live near me, no cell phoning in the presence of friends, no letting the voice mail pick up when I'm at home.Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
A.The Advance of Communications Technology |
B.The Consequences of modern Technology |
C.The Story of Communications Revolution |
D.The Automation of Modern Communications |
The sentence “Now it makes people sitting next to you feel absent” means that ________.
A.the people sitting beside you have to go away to receive a phone call |
B.you can hardly get in touch with the people sitting beside you |
C.modern technology makes it hard for people to have a face-to-face talk |
D.people can now go to work without going to the office |
The writer feels that the use of modern communications is ________.
A.satisfying | B.encouraging | C.disappointing | D.embarrassing |
The passage implies that ________.
A.modern technology is bridging the people |
B.modern technology is separating the people |
C.modern technology is developing too fast |
D.modern technology is interrupting our communication |
Sherlock Holmes was the greatest detective in history. His astonishing power of observation and analysis meant that he was able to solve cases which left the real police completely perplexed. As a problem solver in the law forced business, he was a knowledgeable person equal to Superman, the comic book hero.
Like Superman, of course, Holmes did not exist. He was the creation of a Scottish doctor and novelist Arthur Conan Doyle, and remains one of the most famous literary fiction characters of all time.
Holmes’ general rule when trying to solve a case was as follows: completely get rid of the impossible. Then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
It’s said that Holmes’ powers of deduction (推断) were superhuman, particularly his ability to process information from what he observed. In a story called The Boscombe Valley Mystery, Holmes examines the area near a lake where a murder has been committed. The local police have already searched the area and found no clues. Holmes spends ten minutes in the area, and announces that the murderer “is a tall man, left-handed, limps with the right leg, wears thick-soled shooting boots and a gray coat, smokes Indian cigars, uses a cigar holder, and carries a penknife in his pocket. There are several other indications, but these may be enough to aid us in our search.” Needless to say, he has found evidence to support all of these statements.
The fictional Holmes lived in an apartment at 221 Baker Street, a real street in Central London. When Conan Doyle wrote about Holmes, there was no 221 Baker Street, but after the street was extended northwards, there was. There is currently a bank at that address.
The fact that Holmes didn’t actually exist doesn’t stop thousands of people writing to him for help every year.The bank kindly responds to every letter they receive with the following message: “Mr. Holmes thanks you for your letter. At the moment he is retired in Sussex, keeping bees, and does not undertake detective work nowadays.”In the first paragraph the underlined word “perplexed” suggests that the police were _______
A.confident | B.worried | C.confused | D.sure |
How does the writer describe Holmes and Superman?
A.Neither Superman nor Holmes was a real character. |
B.Both Superman and Holmes used super intellect to solve problems. |
C.Superman was a comic book figure, while Holmes was a real detective. |
D.Superman and Holmes were equally intelligent and brave. |
How did Holmes use his powers of deduction in the fourth paragraph?
A.He spent a long time thinking about possible solutions. |
B.He found clues to help him create a full description of a suspect. |
C.He observed the crime area and guessed what happened. |
D.He searched the area with the police and discussed with them, |
When letters are written to Holmes, _______
A.he answers letters when he receives them |
B.his secretary answers them for him. |
C.the bank at 221 Baker Street where he used to live sends the letters back |
D.the bank at his address replies that Holmes is no longer working as a detective |
It was time to break free.
I needed to run away and the Bloomsburg Fair was the best place to go.
I don’t know if you can call it running away wince it was only and hour away from my home. But once I entered the fair grounds, I crossed over into another world. The loudspeaker offered background music over the sounds of people of people talking, bargaining and food sellers yelling for your attention.
I belonged here. I didn’t know if I had it in my blood or not, but I always wanted to have a small food stand and travel in my off season from fair to fair selling goodies. Perhaps one day. It certainly wasn’t a priority(优先考虑的事)in my life , Perhaps it should be.
After I was there a while, I needed to get away to a quiet spot. Most of the time, I could find that anywhere the farm animals were kept. They needed the quiet. So I went there to find peace with the cows, goats, horses, pigs and yes, the turkeys. You'd think being this close to "Thanksgiving", they'd be a little scared, but they were not.
It was in the dairy barn(仓库)where I found peace this time. I so admired the young folks who tended to farm animals. I thought they had a greater appreciation for life. They participated in it firsthand. I once watched a young fanner help bring a baby cow into the world.
My favorite scene was to come across a young cowboy lying in the hay asleep among the cows that had settled down for a rest. There, with his heads in a small soft spot alongside his favorite cow, I had seen him in a much deserved sleep. Perhaps better at rest there than in his own bed.
I had the pleasure of speaking with a young teenage farm girl that day.
"You look so comfortable," I said to her.
"Oh I am," she said. "Life makes it comfortable for me."
"You mean being a farm girl?"
"No, Life! That's the name of my cow," she said, smiling as she gently patted the cow's side.
"I thought they called cows Betsy and Elsie. Why did you call her Life?"
“I discovered life again here. It was the only meaningful name that came to mind. I had been raised in the big city and really hated it. Then we moved to the country, running away from Lt all. I think my parents called it a mid-life crisis," she said, laughing.
"Oh, I can understand that. I've been in one since birth," I said.
"It was on the farm that I learned to love life again. I was there when Life was born. It was so exciting. My whole outlook on the world changed. So I named her Life. Now, I can say I really love 'Life'," she said.
"How amazing! I write stories and I am always trying to get people to enjoy life, to wake up each day expecting the best from it. But they all too often go to bed with so much bad stuff in their soul, and on their mind, that they wake up feeling bad and expect it to only get worse from there. All too often it does, just because that's all they choose to see in that otherwise perfectly beautiful day," I told her.
"That's too bad. They need to see a cow born, a chicken hatch. I guess they need to wake up early and hug Life!" she said, laughing.
"When was the last time you hugged Life?" she asked me.
"I am sorry to say even I have had trouble doing that lately," I said.
"Come here!" she said.
Then standing up and stepping aside, she said, "Go ahead…hug Life!"
I paused for a moment and dropping all thoughts of looking silly, I did. I hugged a cow.The writer went to the Bloomsburg Fair probably in order to.
A.have fun | B.get ideas for writing |
C.do shopping | D.escape something he disliked |
The following things happened in the Bloomsbury Fair except.
A.food sellers' shouting |
B.the writer's selling goodies |
C.people's bargaining and talking |
D.the loudspeaker's broadcasting music |
What can we learn from Paragraphs 5, 6 and 7_______?
A.The writer tended to farm animals firsthand. |
B.The cowboy was lazy and fell asleep among the cows. |
C.The writer found peace where farm animals were kept. |
D.The turkeys got into panic with "Thanksgiving" approaching |
The underlined word "it"(Paragraph 14)refers to.
A.the city | B.the country | C.the barn | D.the fair |
The writer was surprised at the farm girl's words and he thought people often________.
A.expected to get the best things |
B.enjoyed perfectly beautiful days |
C.ignored the bright side of each day |
D.felt really bad due to poor sleep at night |
What can be the best title for the passage?
A.Farm Life and Happiness | B.Hugging Life |
C.A Farm Girl and Her Cow | D.Enjoying Freedom |
During her junior year of high school, Diane Ray's teacher handed her a worksheet and instructed the 17-year-old to map out her future financial life. Ray pretended to buy a car, rent an apartment, and apply for a credit card. Then, she and her classmates played the "stock market game", investing(投资) the hypothetical(虚拟的) earnings from their hypothetical jobs in the market in the disastrous fall of 2008. "Our pretend investments crashed," Ray says, still frightened. "We got to know how it felt to lose money."
That pain of earning and losing money is a feeling that public schools increasingly want to teach. Forty states now offer some type of financial instruction at the high-school level, teaching students how to balance checkbooks and buy stock in math and social-studies classes. Though it's too early to measure the full influence of the Great Recession(大萧条), the interest in personal-finance classes has risen since 2007 when bank failures started to occur regularly. Now, many states including Missouri, Utah, and Tennessee require teenagers to take financial classes to graduate from high school. School districts such as Chicago are encouraging money-management classes for kids as young as primary school, and about 300 colleges or universities now offer online personal-finance classes for incoming students. "These classes really say, 'This is how you live independently,' " says Ted Beck, president of National Endowment for Financial Education.
Rather than teach investment methods or financial skills, these courses offer a back-to-the-basics approach to handling money: Don't spend what you don't have. Put part of your monthly salary into a savings account, and invest in the stock market for the long-term rather than short-term gains. For Ray, this means dividing her earnings from her part-time job at a fast-food restaurant into separate envelopes for paying bills, spending and saving. "Money is so hard to make but so easy to spend," she says one weekday after school. "That is the big takeaway."
Teaching kids about the value of cash certainly is one of the programs' goals, but teachers also want students to think hard about their finances long term. It's easy for teenagers to get annoyed about gas prices because many of them drive cars. But the hard part is urging them to put off the instant satisfaction of buying a new T-shirt or an iPod. "Investing and retirement aren't things teenagers are thinking about. For them, the future is this weekend," says Gayle Whitefield, a business and marketing teacher at Uth’s Riverton High School.
That’s a big goal for these classes: preventing kids from making the same financial missteps their parents did when it comes to saving, spending, and debt. Though the personal savings rate has increased up to 4. 2 percent, that’s still a far distance from 1982, when Americans saved 11. 2 percent of their incomes. “It’s hard for schools to reach strict money-management skills when teenagers go home and watch their parents increase credit-card debt. It’s like telling your kids not to smoke and then lighting up a cigarette in front of them,” Beck says.
Even with these challenges, students such as Ray say learning about money in school is worthwhile. After Ray finished her financial class, she opened up a savings account at her local bank and started to think more about how she and her family would pay for college. “She just has a better understanding of money and how it affects the world,” says her mother, Darleen-and that’s sown to the details of how money is spent from daily expenses to various taxes. All of this talk of money can make Ray worry, she says, but luckily, she feels prepared to face it.The “stock market game” mentioned in Paragraph 1 is meant to.
A.introduce a new course to students |
B.help students learn about investment |
C.teach how to apply for a credit card |
D.encourage students’ personal savings |
How does the writer show us that schools’ interest in teaching financial classes has increased in paragraph 2_________?
A.By giving examples. | B.By providing data. |
C.By raising questions. | D.By making comparisons. |
According to the passage, taking money-management courses will.
A.better students’ learning methods |
B.prevent students going into debt |
C.help students get accepted by colleges |
D.make students become very wealthy |
After completing the financial class, Diane Ray is likely to.
A.pay off all her debts. | B.handle her money better |
C.find a job in a bank. | D.manage the family income |
The passage is mainly about.
A.ways to teach students to earn money |
B.how Diane Ray learns to value money |
C.the push to teach personal finance in school |
D.how students choose a proper financial class |
Below is an introduction to Top 5 Teen Magazines from the US and the UK.
J-14
Marked to preteen and teenage girls ages 11-19, J-14 --a shortened name of “Just For Teens” --is packed with features like teen gossip, quizzes, fashion advice, posters, and celebrity(名人) interviews in every issue.
Some of the magazine’s most popular features include: “Hot Topic”, “Life’s Big Questions” and “Real Life”. Throughout the year, J-14 publishes several editions, such as “Summer Entertainment Guide”, “Back-to-School Special” and the annual “Best of Year Special and J-13 Teen Icon Awards” issue.
Teens who have a passion for pop culture would love a subscription to J-14 magazine!
Twist
Twist covers the latest fashion and stytles with lots of photos and easy-to-follow how-tos, giving teens both instruction and inspiration to experiment with what works for them. Body image(形象) and relationships are popular topics of interest to teens, and the magazine offers tips on building strong self-esteem.
Additional content in every monthly issue inculdes reader polls, teen celebrity gossip, news and interviews. During the yaer, Twist publishes several special editions about seasonal fashion and major teen events, like prom and back-to-school. The magazine publishes a “Best of Year” issue every December.
Teens who love fashion and celebrity news would love a subscription to Twist magazine!
Discovery Girls
First published in 2000, the magazine often addresses the topics of school, sports, and friendship.
Content in the magazine is created by girls, which gives it the authentic opinions of its target audience. Each bimonthly issus features quizzes, fashion advice, and games in addition to some regular sections that appear in each magazine. Mant of the following sections that appear in every issue also feature content submitted by readers: “The Worst Day”, “Embarrassing Moments”, “The Great Debate” and “Mailbag”.
Young girls and teens would find a friendly, identifiable voice in each issue of Discovery Girls, and parents would approve of giving a gift subscription to this award-winning magazine!
Boy’s Life
First published in 1911, Boy’s Life is written for young males ages 6 to 18 and is distributed in two editions. One edition is printed for the youngest members 6-to-10-year-old Tiger Cubs and first-year Webelos Scouts. The other is for ages 11-18 and is aimed at second-year Webelos Scouts through 18-year-old Boy Scouts.
A central focus of Boy’s Life is encouraging physical activity among boys, like camping, hiking, swimming, and kayaking. Each month, the magazine features articles on history, the outdoors, science, and much more. Fitness, technology, and video game and biik reviews are other common topics Boy’s Life often addresses.
A subscription to Boy’s Life magazine would make a great gift for active young boys!
Seventeen
Seventeen magazine celebrates teens where they are in life while also providing age-appropriate advice to the complex issues young women face every day.
The magazine organizes its content into five sections, such as “Your Body”, a range of fitness motivation and encouragement about positive body image, “Love & Guys”, advice columns and tips on understanding relationships with the opposite sex, and “Your Awesome Life”, personal development tips about hot topics like building confidence and selecting a college, plus inspirational stories about teens.
Special editions include the “Back-to-school Issue” in August and “The Freebie Issue” in May.
Teens who want to look good, feel great, and be their best would enjoy a subscription to Seventeen magazine!According to the passage, what content do J-14, Twist and Discovery Girls share?
A.Teen gossip. | B.Advice on fashion. |
C.Sports and friendship. | D.Self-respect building. |
What content does Boys 'Life mainly center on?
A.Sports. | B.Games. |
C.Beauty. | D.Education. |
We can learn from the passage that.
A.J-14 is distributed in two editions for teens of different ages |
B.the content of Discovery Girls is closely related to teen girls |
C.Seventeen covers aspects like looking good, keeping fit and writing stories |
D.all the five magazines mentioned publish special editions except Boys 'Life |
The main purpose of the introduction to the five magazines is.
A.to distinguish their features |
B.to explain the secret to their popularity |
C.to encourage the subscription to the magazines |
D.to arouse people's interest in reading teen magazines |