You need to be of a certain age to understand why so many people in Hollywood are caring about the possible closing down of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (米高梅电影公司)．For the past 40 years, its output has been good, but now it is on the ropes, with debts of $ 3.7 billion and will have to sell off its most valuable assets.
In its golden time, MGM stood for something．If Warner Brothers meant social dramas and gangster movies, and Disney meant cartoon films, then MGM was healthy fantasy．This business model found its most glorious expression in its musicals of the post-war era．It also featured such many famous stars as Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly and Judy Garland.
But MGM had always put its hopes on the quality of stars it could attract．From the time MGM became a company in 1924, the studio and his associate proved themselves good at creating big names.
For 35 years, this worked well enough, but the growing power of television disturbed Hollywood．MGM continued to throw money into making gorgeous-looking musicals, but despite some big successes audiences gradually started to drift away．Throughout the sixties, MGM's decline set in．Things went from bad to worse．In 1973, MGM stopped distributing its own films．Since then, the Lion's roar has been reduced to a whimper (呜咽).
How far MGM has fallen can be shown by its recent releases．This was a studio that for years offered a reliable supply of first-class films．Yet last year its total output was three．To make it worse, all were co-produced with other studios．And this year? Only one so far, and maybe the last.
What now? MGM will probably be sold, though recent buyers have been cautious about a price thought to be around $ 2 billion.MGM is becoming the focus in Hollywood because it _______．
| A．has more supporters | B．has produced good films |
| C．might be closed down | D．has lost all its assets |
What can we learn about MGM from the text?
| A．It has been sold out for around $ 2 billion. |
| B．The Internet was a factor causing its decline. |
| C．It only produced three films by itself last year. |
| D．It made a wrong decision for its development. |
What's the main idea of the text?
| A．The past glories of MGM． | B．The musicals made by MGM. |
| C．The decline of MGM． | D．A historical decision by MGM |
LONDON, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- A four-year-old child’s ability to draw could be an indicator of intelligence at age 14, according to a study published on Tuesday in the British journal Psychological Science.
The researchers from King’s College London (KCL) studied 7,752 pairs of identical and non-identical twins, and found that the link between drawing and later intelligence was influenced by genes.
At the age of 4, children were asked by their parents to complete a ‘Draw-a-Child’ test. Their drawings were rated from 0 to 12, based on the presence and correct number of body-parts, like arms, legs, head, eyes and nose.
The children were also given verbal and non-verbal intelligence tests at ages 4 and 14. According to researchers, the test was devised in the 1920’s to assess children’s intelligence, so it’s not surprising that the test correlated with intelligence at age 4.However, they found that higher scores on the test were also moderately associated with higher scores of intelligence at 14.
The researchers also measured the heritability of figure drawing. Identical twins share all their genes, whereas non-identical twins only share about 50 percent. Overall, at age 4, drawings from identical twin pairs were more similar to one another than drawings from non-identical twin pairs.
Therefore, the researchers concluded that differences in children’s drawings have an important genetic link. They also found that drawing at age 4 and intelligence at age 14 had a strong genetic link.
“Drawing is an ancient behaviour, dating back beyond 15,000 years ago,” Dr. Rosalind Arden, lead author of the paper from KCL, said that: “This capacity to reproduce figures is a uniquely human ability and a sign of cognitive ability, in a similar way to writing, which transformed the human species’ ability to store information, and build a civilisation.”According to the passage, which of the following statement about ‘Draw-a-Child’ test is true?
| A．The test was devised in the 1920’s. |
| B．7,752 identical and non-identical twins took part in it. |
| C．The test was set to assess children’s intelligence. |
| D．The children took the test at four. |
Which of the following words is closest in meaning to the underlined word “devised” in the 4th paragraph?
| A．changed | B．formed | C．taken | D．designed |
What do we know about the twins from the passage?
| A．Those who could draw better at 4 tend to be more intelligent at 14. |
| B．Twins who look similar to each other draw better pictures. |
| C．They were chosen to take the drawing test by the researchers. |
| D．They were tested on how smart they were once. |
From the last paragraph, we can infer that ___________.
| A．human society develops because of the ability to draw figures |
| B．drawing helps improve humans’ ability to study |
| C．one’s intelligence is related to his ability to draw pictures |
| D．only human beings are able to draw pictures |
To win an Oscar is an achievement at any age. To do so at 22, as Jennifer
Lawrence has, is just amazing. Recently, the American star won Best Actress at this year's Academy Awards for her role in the film The Silver Linings Playbook. According to Time magazine's Richard Corliss, Lawrence is that rare young actress who "lends a mature intelligence to any role".
Though Lawrence has found great success through her big screen work, Lawrence wasn't sure what she really liked doing before the age of 14. She thought she'd go to college and maybe find a career as a doctor or a travel agent.
Lawrence's two brothers were star athletes and one of them was a straight-A student. Unlike them, she suffered through school, never quite finding where she belonged. However, during a trip to New York, Lawrence suddenly realized that she wanted to be an actress. When she was enjoying the beautiful city, a model seeker asked if he could take her picture, and the next day he called her in for an audition (试镜).
"I read the script and it was the first time I had that feeling like I understand this," Lawrence said.
"Within 20 minutes, in the cab ride from the hotel room, I decided I didn't
want to be a model. In fact, I wanted to be an actress." Having appreciated
this young lady's performance, the agency was so impressed with her reading
that they signed her on the spot. But she insisted on finishing high school so
she could give her full attention to her acting career.
Lawrence burst onto the Hollywood scene last year with The Hunger Games,
which established her as the highest-grossing (票房最高的) female action hero of all time. Rolling Stone called her“the most talented young actress in America".What can we know about Jennifer Lawrence from Paragraph 3?
| A．Her parents were really strict with her. |
| B．She seemed not to fit in with her school days well. |
| C．Her school performance made her today's fame. |
| D．Her two brothers were doing well in all school subjects. |
Lawrence made up her mind to be an actress because of ______.
| A．a model interview |
| B．her brothers' examples |
| C．the taxi-ride to her hotel room |
| D．the beautiful scenery of New York |
From the text we can know that Lawrence is an actress of great ______.
| A．confidence | B．ambition | C．independence | D．talent |
What is the best title of the text?
| A．Choosing Right | B．Acting Wisely |
| C．Following Dreams | D．Winning Young |
I used to think of myself as a person learned in books, but my bookshelves told a different story. Apart from a few Indian novels and an Australian book, my literature collection only consisted of British and American titles. Worse still, I couldn’t ever found anything in translation. My reading was limited to stories by English-speaking authors.So, at the start of 2012, I set myself the challenge of trying to read a book from every country in a year to find out what I was missing.
With no idea where to get those books, I was unlikely to find publications from nearly 200 nations on the shelves of my local bookshop, so I decided to ask the readers all over the world for help. I created a blog called A Year of Reading the World and put out an appeal for suggestions of titles that I could read in English.
The response was amazing. People all over the world were getting in touch with me, offering ideas and book lists. Some posted me books from their home countries. In addition, several writers, like Turkmenistan’s Ak Welsapar and Panama’s Juan David Morgan, sent me unpublished translations of their novels, giving me a rare opportunity to read works unavailable in Britain. Even with
such an extraordinary team of bibliophiles(爱书者) behind me, however, sourcing books was no easy task. With translations making up only around 4.5 per cent of literary works published in the UK, getting English versions of stories was tricky.
One by one, the books from the countries on the list filled my heart with laughter, love, anger, hope and fear. Lands that had once seemed exotic and remote became close and familiar to me. At its best, I learned, reading makes the world real.The author realized she was not a learned person when she found ________.
| A．she could do nothing but read books |
| B．she didn’t have any translated books. |
| C．she had never been to Indian and Australian |
| D．she could only read simple English stories |
What was the challenge the author set for herself?
| A．Looking for publications to publish her own books. |
| B．Creating a blog to offer help to other readers. |
| C．Reading books from nearly 200 countries in a year. |
| D．Giving some suggestions on learning English. |
It was not easy to find the books mainly because ________.
| A．the readers were unwilling to offer help |
| B．there were too few translations in the UK |
| C．the author had no time and no chance to do it |
| D．the writers didn’t want to publish their books |
We can infer that by reading the books from other countries, the author feels ________.
| A．satisfied and rewarded |
| B．thankful and pitiful |
| C．calm and peaceful |
| D．bored and regretful |
Eating too much fatty food，exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease. But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately：the air you breathe.
Previous studies have linked high exposure（暴露）to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problems, but two analyses now show that poor air quality can cause heart attack or stroke（中风） within as little as a few hours after exposure. In one report of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants（污染物）were up to 5% more likely to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure. Another study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency（EPA）considers to be of “moderate”(良好) quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.
The authors of both studies stress that these risks are relatively small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure. However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices. So stricter regulation by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health. The text mainly discusses the relationship between _________.
| A．heart problems and air quality | B．heart problems and exercising |
| C．heart problems and smoking | D．heart problems and fatty food |
The underlined word “modest” in Paragraph 3 most probably means _________ .
| A．relatively high | B．extremely low |
| C．relatively low | D．extremely high |
We can learn from the text that __________？
| A．eating fatty food has immediate effects on your heart. |
| B．the EPA conducted many studies on air quality. |
| C．moderate air quality is more harmful than smoking. |
| D．stricter regulations on pollutants should be made. |
The author’s purpose of writing the text is most likely to _________ .
| A．inform | B．persuade |
| C．describe | D．entertain |
Plastic surgery is becoming popular with young people. But just a few days ago, it took the life of a pop singer in China. Wang Bei, 24, a former singer on Super Girl, died on Nov 15 during plastic surgery in Wuhan, Hubei province. The young singer’s jaw suddenly started bleeding during the procedure, blocking her throat and causing her to suffocate.
The Ministry of Health stepped in on Nov 27, calling on health authorities all over China to increase supervision of the country’s medical plastic surgery industry. It also told the Hubei health department to look into Wang’s death and “to make the results of the investigation public as soon as possible”
Wang’s death has raised concerns about the dangers of plastic surgery in China. In China, people, especially youngsters, are becoming more and more conscious of their looks and are willing to go to great lengths to make themselves look more attractive. Today, many young people see plastic surgery as the key to love, wealth and success.
Ding Xiaobang, a plastic surgeon at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said that in the past decade, he had seen a growing number of patients, like Wang Bei, who were young and naturally good-looking. “They want to improve their appearance to find better opportunities in work and in marriage,” said Ding.
Zhao, 23, a student at the Beijing International Studies University, spent 3,000 yuan on a eyelid tuck before graduating this year. She said: “ Of course I want to look prettier. I want to make a good impression on potential employers.”
Ding also owed this trend to frustration. “Some are frustrated with life and use surgery as a way to try and recover,” said Ding.
But a lot of people ignore the risk and danger of plastic surgery. In 12 years as a doctor, Zhu Wenbo from Chengdu has often seen unsuccessful plastic surgeries.“ I’ve met several people whose faces were ruined by plastic surgery, and helping them recover is difficult,” said Zhu.
Being yourself is the most beautiful thing in the world. But if you are considering plastic surgery, here is some advice from experts:
1. Choose qualified hospitals, especially those with a good reputation for plastic surgery. Avoid beauty salons.
2. Do not expect too much from changing your appearance. It can only change your face or another body part in certain ways. And safety should always come first. What does the underlined phrase “ go to great length” mean in para3 ?
| A．go as long as |
| B．try one’s best |
| C．spend a lot of money |
| D．go through all kinds of difficulties |
What is NOT the reason for so many young people go to plastic surgery?
| A．to make themselves more attractive |
| B．to improve their appearance and find better job opportunities |
| C．to seek better opportunities in marriage. |
| D．to stay young forever. |
What kind of lesson can we draw from Wang Bei’s case?
| A．Sometimes people can even sacrifice life to pursue beauty. |
| B．Being natural beauty is the most beautiful thing so there is no need to have plastic surgeries. |
| C．Choose qualified hospitals to do the plastic surgery if you really need one. |
| D．Accidents can always happen during the plastic surgery so never try it. |
What is the best title of this passage?
| A．The death of Wang Bei. |
| B．Plastic surgery—better job, better marriage. |
| C．The price of beauty. |
| D．Some advice on plastic surgery. |