Habits, whether good or bad, are gradually formed. When a person does a certain thing again, he is driven by some unseen force to do the same thing repeatedly, then a habit is formed. Once a habit is formed, it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to get rid of. It is therefore very important that we should pay great attention to the formation of habits. Children often form bad habits, some of which remain with them as long as they live. Older persons also form bad habits lasting as long as they live, and sometimes become ruined by them.
There are other habits which, when formed in early life, are of great help. Many successful men say that much of their success has something to do with certain habits in early life, such as early rising, honesty and so on.
Among the habits which children should not form are laziness, lying, stealing and so on. These are all easily formed habits. Unfortunately older persons often form habits which could have been avoided(避免).
We should keep away from(远离) all these bad habits, and try to form such habits as will be good for ourselves and others.________ are formed little by little.
A.Good habits | B.Bad habits |
C.Both good habits and bad habits | D.Either good habits or bad habits |
The underlined word "them" in the first paragraph refers to ________.
A.bad habits | B.good habits | C.children | D.other persons |
Generally speaking, it's difficult for one _____ and easy for them _____which should be avoided.
A.to form bad habits; to form good habits |
B.to form good habits; to form bad habits |
C.to form such habits as will be good; to get rid of bad habits |
D.to get rid of bad habits; to form good habits |
Why should we pay much attention to the formation of habits?
A.Because habits are of great help to every one of us. |
B.Because a man can never get rid of a habit. |
C.Because it's hard and sometimes even impossible to throw away bad habits. |
D.Because we are forced to do them again and again. |
According to the passage, early rising ________.
A.has something to do with success |
B.is an easily formed habit |
C.is such a habit as should have been avoided |
D.is such a habit as will be kept |
What is eBay? The simple answer is that it is a global trading platform where nearly anyone can trade practically anything. People can sell and buy all kinds of products and goods. Including cars, movies and DVDs, sporting goods, travel tickets, musical instruments, clothes and shoes—the list goes on and on.
The idea came from Peter Omidyar, who was born in Paris and moved to Washington when he was still a child. At high school, he became very interested in computer programming and after graduating from Tuft University in 1988,he worked for the next few years as a computer engineer. In his free time he started eBay as a kind of hobby, at first offering the service free by word of mouth. By 1996 there was so much traffic on the web-site that he had to upgrade (升级)and he began charging a fee to members. Joined by a friend, Peter Skill, and in 1998 by his capable CEO, Meg Whitman, he has never looked back. Even in the great. com crashes of the late 1990s, eBay has gone from strength to strength. It is now one of the the most visited online shopping websites on the Internet.
eBay sells connections, not goods* putting buyers and sellers into contact with each other. All you have to do is make an e-photo, write a description, fill out a sales form and you are in business: the world is your market place. Of course for each item (商品)sold eBay gets a percentage and that is a great deal of money. Every day there are more than sixteen million items listed on eBay and eighty percent of the items are sold.We learn from the text that eBay provides people with ________ .
A.a way of buying and selling goods |
B.a website for them to upgrade |
C.a place to exhibit their own photos |
D.a chance to buy things at low prices |
Why did Peter create eBay after graduating from university?
A.For fun. |
B.To make money. |
C.For gathering the engineers. |
D.To fulfill a task of his company. |
From "he has never looked back" in Paragraph 2 we learn that Peter ________ .
A.did not feel lonely |
B.was always hopeful |
C.did not think about the past |
D.became more and more successful |
How does eBay make money from its website?
A.By bringing callers together. |
B.By charging for each sale. |
C.By listing items online. |
D.By making e-photos. |
A 33-year-old financial analyst in California recently quit his job to devote himself to an unpaid job teaching math on the Internet, and his lessons are reaching almost 100,000 people a month. Sal-man Khan's voice is heard every day on the net—by tens of thousands of students around the world who are hungry for help in learning math. He has posted 1,200 lessons on YouTube—lessons that appear on an electronic blackboard, which range from basic addition to advanced mathematics for science and finance. And they are free.
Khan lives in Silicon Valley, with his wife, a doctor, and their new baby. He got the idea for his “Khan Academy" four years ago, when he taught a young cousin how to convert (转换)kilograms to grams. With Khan's help, the cousin got good at math, and Khan began a new career.
Now, Khan records his lessons himself, but he never goes on camera. “It feels like my voice in their head. You're looking at it and it feels like someone's over your shoulder talking in your ear, as opposed to someone at the blackboard, which is distant from you,” he said.
When Springfield High School in Palo Alto, California invited Khan to speak in person—he immediately connected to the students there.
The idea of short lessons that can be played over and over again attracted high school senior Bridget Meaney. She says she had trouble with math in the seventh grade. “I think the teachers are good, but they can't teach at a speed that's perfect for everyone,” she said. “I like the idea of learning something in class but then going back and pressing pause or rewind (倒回)and actually getting a deeper understanding of it. ”
Originally, Khan kept his lessons short because of YouTube restrictions (限制). Now, he thinks short is better. “Education researchers now tell me that 10 minutes is how long someone can have a high level of concentration. And anything beyond that and your brain switches off,"he said.
For Khan, teaching math, science, and finance is just the beginning. He says he's ready to expand his YouTube site to include other subjects as well. What gave Khan the idea of teaching math online?
A.His success in helping his cousin learn math. |
B.His discovery that many students found learning math difficult. |
C.A suggestion made to him at a local high school. |
D.His interest in Internet teaching. |
Why does Khan never go on camera?
A.He's too shy to show his face on camera. |
B.It's restricted by YouTube for education videos. |
C.He wants to keep distant from the viewers. |
D.He wants to create a more relaxed learning atmosphere. |
Why does Bridget Meaney like Khan's lessons?
A.Khan teaches seventh grade math better than her teacher. |
B.The lessons can be watched repeatedly until fully understood. |
C.She can perfectly follow the pace of Khan's teaching. |
D.She cannot concentrate when learning in class. |
From the passage, we know that __________.
A.Khan travels to many schools to promote his lessons |
B.Khan plans to include more subjects in the future |
C.Khan gives live math lessons every day for free |
D.Khan set up the Khan Academy with his wife |
Most people have a general list before a job interview—updating a resume (简历),ironing a professional suit, rehearsing an explanation for those two years spent after college. However, if tidying up the Facebook profile isn't on that list, maybe it should be.
According to a new study conducted by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder. com45 percent of employers questioned are using social networks to screen people looking for jobs this year—more than double from a year earlier, when a similar survey found that just 22 percent of employers were researc-hing potential hires on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and Linkedln.
The study, which questioned 2,667 managers and human resource workers, found that 35 percent of employers decided not to offer a job to a candidate based on the content uncovered on a social net-working site.
The report showed that Facebook was the most popular online destination for employers to do their online sleuthing(侦查),followed by Linkedln and MySpace. In addition,7 percent followed job applicants on Twitter. More than half of the employers who participated in the survey said that provocative(挑衅的)photos were the biggest factor contributing to a decision not to hire a potential employee, while 44 percent of employers aimed at references to drinking and drug use as red flags. Other warning signs included bad-mouthing of previous employers and colleagues and poor online communication skills.
While most of these may seem like obvious blocks, what consists of alarming behavior to a particular employer? Would photographs of a trip to the beach be considered inappropriate? To be on the safe side, it's probably wise to use the new privacy settings offered by Facebook to keep everything but the most innocuous(无害的)content away from the public eye. Your general list before a job interview should include all the following EXCEPT __________.
A.a written form of your education and previous jobs |
B.preparing appropriate clothes |
C.tidying up your information on social net-works |
D.rehearsing what the employer would say to you |
What can we learn from the passage?
A.Social networks are not important in job hunting. |
B.Online information about job hunters is not reliable. |
C.We should be careful while sending photos to social networks. |
D.Facebook is not so popular as it used to be. |
Why should the job seekers use the new privacy settings offered by Facebook?
A.Because they can keep everything from being seen by others. |
B.Because they can keep the employers from seeing the inappropriate content. |
C.Because they can only allow a particular employer to see their data online. |
D.Because they can allow their friends to see their trips to the beach. |
The passage is mainly intended for __________.
A.employers |
B.employees |
C.people work for Facebook |
D.job applicants |
America is becoming a nation of book lovers— notebooks, netbooks and smartbooks; that is, if you believe the computer manufactures.
Notebooks
Notebooks, the senior citizens of mobile computing, are slimmed-down laptops. A notebook is an extremely lightweight PC, typically weighing less than 6 pounds and often compact enough to fit easily into a briefcase(公文包). Aside from portability (轻便)and size, the biggest difference between a notebook computer and a desktop PC is the display screen. In terms of computing power, modern notebook computers are nearly equal to PCs.
Netbooks
The weight of a notebook can cause a lot of wear and tear on the shoulders, which is one reason why mobile workers joined the netbooks land rush. Also called mini notebooks, ultra portables or sub- notebooks, these small, light and inexpensive lap-top computers are used for general computing and for access to web-based applications.
When first introduced, netbooks featured smaller screens and keyboards, often had reduced specification and computing power, and lacked key features, such as optical drives (光驱). They've since grown in size and features, often confusing the distinction between a netbook and notebook computer.
A netbook's display typically ranges from 7 to 10 inches. It weighs less than 3 pounds, and sup-ports a keyboard that is reduced in size. Netbooks have built-in WiFi, Ethernet, USB ports and slots (扁口)for flash memory cards. To keep them small and compact, netbooks do not have a CD or
DVD drive, and many use solid-state flash drives in-stead of hard drives for storage. Flash drives have no moving parts so they're less likely to break, and are smaller than regular hard drives, which saves space and weight.
Smartbooks
Smartbooks are the newest book on the block. Smartbooks combine the features of both a smart- phone and a netbook computer in a device that's mobile like a phone, yet comes in a laptop-style body with a screen that's 5 to 10 inches in size. Other features include long battery life,3G connectivity and GPS capability. And it has long battery life,8 to 12 hours.
Smartbooks are for the group who like multimedia and social networking, and have real-time information flow. What do we know about a notebook?
A.It can serve as a briefcase. |
B.It may cause pain in your shoulders. |
C.It has as big a display screen as PCs. |
D.It can deal with calculation as well as PCs. |
A netbook does NOT have __________
A.a hard drive |
B.a USB slot |
C.a flash drive |
D.a keyboard |
Which of the following is a smart book?
The purpose of writing this passage is to __________
A.prove how Americans love books now |
B.advertise several new kinds of books |
C.introduce some mobile computing devices |
D.explain the development of computers |
Some young Cambodians are learning a new sport—skateboarding. The country's first skateboard park is located on the grounds of a local charity group at the edge of Phnom Penh, the capital.
Sports like Khmer boxing and soccer are wildly popular in Cambodia. But Chea, who has been skating for 6 months, says skateboarding has already become his favorite sport.
The skateboarders are learning tricks like launching a jump or flying through the air on their narrow wooden boards.
A non-governmental organization called Skateistan Cambodia organizes weekly programs at the park. Skateistan started its work in Afghanistan years ago. Rory Burke is working with the group which expanded to Cambodia last year.
Rory Burke points out, "Yeah, it's definitely not a typical Cambodian pastime(休闲活动). And I think the idea of* why skateboarding'exists because it's not been done before here. We want to use skateboarding as something saying, ‘Hey, this is something new and different.' And that kind of itself becomes a little bit of hook. People see it and they think and they say, 'Wow, what is that?' and they want to get involved. "
Skateistan partners with local groups work with young people. The park is on the grounds of the group known as PSE, where children attend school and learn a trade. There are almost one hundred and twenty participants. They all come from troubled lives.
Seventeen-year-old Sang Rotha is a student at PSE. "Sometimes I don’t do well in subjects like math, "he sayst" I feel bad when I find it hard to keep up with my lessons. So that is why I skateboard to improve my bad feelings. "
He says he began skateboarding more than a year ago. Before he started training, it seemed very easy. But it was very difficult to learn tricks, and he got hurt a lot from falling off.
Rory Burke says learning to deal with the difficulties is part of the lesson for these young skateboarders. According to the passage, PSE is a group ________ .
A.that works with Cambodian students |
B.for young Cambodians to learn a trade |
C.for young Cambodians in troubled lives |
D.for young Cambodians taking skateboarding |
What is said about skateboarding in the passage?
A.It is easy for young Cambodians to learn. |
B.It is a good sport to help regain good feelings. |
C.It originated in Afghanistan years ago. |
D.It is as popular as Khmer boxing in Cambodia. |
The underlined part" a little bit of hook" in Paragraph 5 probably means ________ .
A.something strange | B.something new |
C.something different | D.something attractive |
It can be inferred from the passage that skateboarding is becoming ________ .
A.a sport liked by most young Cambodians |
B.an increasingly popular sport in Cambodia |
C.a sport used to better young Cambodians’ life |
D.a good way to train young Cambodians' learning skills |