We were standing at the top of a church tower. My father had brought me to this spot in a small town not far from our home in Rome. I wondered why.
“Look down, Elsa,” father said. I gathered all my courage and looked down. I saw the square in the center of the village. And I saw the crisscross (十字形) of twisting, turning streets leading to the square. “ See, my dear,” father said gently. “ There is more than one way to the square. Life is like that. If you can’t get to the place where you want to go by one road, try another.”
Now I understood why I was there. Earlier that day I had begged my mother to do something about the awful(糟糕的) lunches that were served at school. But she refused because she could not believe the lunches were as bad as I said.
When I turned to father for help, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he brought me to this high tower to give me a lesson. By the time we reached home, I had a plan.
At school the next day, I secretly poured my luncheon（午餐）soup into a bottle and brought it home. Then I asked our cook to serve it to mother at dinner. The plan worked perfectly. She swallowed one spoonful and sputtered（喷溅出） “ The cook must have gone mad！” Quickly I told her what I had done, and Mother stated firmly that she would take up the matter of lunches at school the next day!
In the years that followed I often remembered the lesson father taught me. I began to work as a fashion designer two years ago. I wouldn’t stop working until I tried every possible means to my goal. Father’s wise words always remind me that there is more than one way to the square.The author's father took her to the top of a church tower to _____．
| A．enjoy the beautiful scenery of the whole town |
| B．find out how many ways lead to the square |
| C．inspire her to find out another way to solve her problem |
| D．help her forget some unpleasant things earlier that day |
What did the author want her mother to do earlier that day?
| A．Do something delicious for lunch. |
| B．Taste her awful lunch. |
| C．Dismiss the mad cook. |
| D．Speak to the school about lunch. |
By sharing her own experiences, the author tries to tell us ____________.
| A．when one road is blocked, try another |
| B．how bad the lunch of her school is |
| C．how wise her father is |
| D．about the church tower near her home |
Visiting London can be an expensive trip, so establishing a budget and finding bargains when you arrive will help you get around London on the cheap. The following steps can help you find cheaper alternatives for transport for your London trip.
lFamiliarize yourself with the city’s boroughs and specifically the area where you will be staying. You can use a street map, or an online map search engine, to establish where in the city you will be staying and the distance you are from the major tourist attractions you want to visit.
lFind a local provider of Transport for London tickets or travel cards, since your first bargain purchase will be an Oyster Card. Traveling around London with an Oyster Card will give you access to the cheapest option of transportation methods and the Oyster Card is accepted citywide on buses, boats and the London Underground, known by the locals as “the tube”.
lSeek out your nearest Tube Station. The Tube is the cheapest and most reliable form of transportation and runs from around 6 a.m. until around 1 a.m. ..., depending on the line or the station.
There are 287 tube stations in London that accept the Oyster Card, with a high concentration in central London. If you are staying anywhere in central London, there will be a tube station less than 10 minutes away.
The Transport for London website offers a tube station search facility to find the nearest subway station to any location in the city. When you find a tube station, you can easily locate the closest bus stop by using the comparison bus-tube maps at the station’s entrance.
lFollow the Transport for London Tube Guide to your destinations and always plan ahead. Making a plan for transport will save you unnecessary expenses, wasted trips on the tube and doubling back on your journey .What’s the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
| A．To introduce the public transport system in London. |
| B．To show readers how to use the Oyster Card. |
| C．To prove the subway in London is easy to use. |
| D．To offer tips for saving transport costs in London. |
Which of the following can help a traveler spend the least money on transport?
| A．Trying different transportation methods. |
| B．Taking buses as much as possible. |
| C．Traveling with an Oyster Card. |
| D．Making a plan before your journey. |
By visiting the Transport for London website, people can ________.
| A．identify their own location | B．locate the nearest bus station |
| C．find the nearest subway station | D．use an online map to avoid getting lost |
We can conclude from the passage that ________.
| A．the subway is the cheapest means of transport in London. |
| B．only Tube stations in Central London accept Oyster Card. |
| C．subway lines in London run no less than 19 hours a day. |
| D．the transfer from subway to bus is very convenient. |
Elephants have four distinct personalities that help their herd survive in the African bush, scientists have found.
With their grey skin, mournful eyes and slow heavy pace, you could be forgiven for thinking elephants are uniformly melancholy(忧郁的) creatures. But scientists have now discovered the largest living land animals have personalities to match their size.
In a new study of African elephants, researchers have identified four distinct characters that are common in a herd – the leaders, the gentle giants, the playful rogues(小淘气) and the reliable plodders (辛勤工作的人).
Each of the types has developed to help the giant mammals survive in their harsh environment and is almost unique in the animal kingdom, according to the scientists.
Professor Phyllis Lee and her colleague Cynthia Moss studied a herd of elephants in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya known as the EB family — famous for their matriarch Echo before she died in 2009.
Using data collected over 38 years of watching this group, the researchers analyzed them for 26 types of behavior and found four personality features tended to emerge.
The strongest personality to emerge was that of the leader. Unlike other animals, where leadership tends to be won by the most dominant and aggressive individual, the elephants instead respected intelligence and problem solving in their leader. Echo, the matriarch and oldest in the group, her daughter Enid, and Ella, the second oldest female, all emerged as leaders.
The playful elephants tended to be younger but were more curious and active. Eudora, a 40-year-old female in the herd, seemed to be the most playful, consistently showing this feature throughout her life while playfulness in some of the other elephants declined with age.
Gentle elephants, which included two 27-year-old females Eleanor and Eliot, touched and rubbed against others more than the others.
Those that were reliable tended to be those that were most consistent at making good decisions, helped to care for infants in the herd and were calm when faced with threats. Echo and her youngest daughter Ebony seemed to be the most reliable.
Professor Lee said that elephants with these features tended to be the most socially integrated in the group while those who tended to be less reliable and pushy were more likely to split from the herd.From the passage we get to know that ________.
| A．the researchers reached their conclusion by analyzing the data |
| B．the research centered on the 26 types of behavior of the matriarch |
| C．the scientists conducted the research by comparing elephants with other animals |
| D．professor Phyllis Lee and her colleague spent nearly 38 years tracking the herd |
According to the new findings of the scientists, ________.
| A．playfulness of an elephant will always decline with age |
| B．those elephants which are caring and wise are most reliable |
| C．each elephant can be matched with only one of the four personalities |
| D．once becoming a member of a herd, an elephant will never split from it |
In the EB family Echo and Eudora are ________.
| A．mother and daughter | B．two oldest females |
| C．the gentlest ones | D．leader and member |
When Steve Maxwell graduated from college, he had an engineering degree and a high tech job — but he couldn’t balance his checkbook. “I took one finance class in college but dropped it to go on a ski trip,” says the 45-year-old father of three, who lives in Windsor, Colorado. “I actually had to go to my bank and ask them to teach me how to read my statement.”
One of the biggest obstacles to making money is not understanding it: Thousands of us avoid investing because we just don’t get it. But to make money, you must be financially literate. “It bothered me that I didn’t understand this stuff,” says Steve, “so I read books and magazines about money management and investing, and I asked every financial whiz (能手) I knew to explain things to me.”
He and his wife started applying the lessons: They made a point to live below their means. They never bought on impulse, always negotiated better deals (on their cars，cable bills, furniture) and stayed in their home long after they went for an expensive vacation. They also put 20 percent of their annual salary into investments.
Within ten years, they were millionaires, and people were coming to Steve for advice. “Someone would say, ‘I need to refinance my house — what should I do? ‘A lot of times, I wouldn’t know the answer, but I’d go to find it and learn something in the process,” he says.
In 2003, Steve quit his job to become part owner of a company that holds personal finance seminars for employees of corporations like Wal Mart. He also started going to real estate investment seminars, and it’s paid off: He now owns $ 30 million worth of investment properties, including apartment complexes, a shopping mall and a quarry.
“I was an engineer who never thought this life was possible, but all it truly takes is a little self education,” says Steve. “You can do anything once you understand the basics.”The underlined part “live below their means” (in Paragraph 3) probably means “______”.
| A．take effective measures | B．live a miserable life |
| C．spend more money than they had | D．spend less money than they had |
Since Steve Maxwell became a millionaire, he ______.
| A．has been unwilling to help others |
| B．hasn’t stopped learning from practice |
| C．has been willing to follow others’ advice |
| D．has stopped to invest in houses |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．A self made engineer |
| B．How to balance your checkbook |
| C．Don’t avoid investing |
| D．Educate yourself to become a millionaire |
It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
| A．self education is very important to one’s life |
| B．everyone should learn how to invest in their life |
| C．Steve Maxwell was quite interested in finance classes in college |
| D．Steve became rich because he saved every penny he had earned |
Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organization for children that works to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. Our founder Eglantyne Jebb drafted the “Declaration of the Rights of the Child” in 1922 which was adopted by the League of Nations in 1924.
Save the Children works to bring about a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.
Our Approach:
Save the Children actively works with the communities, the State governments and the national government to bring lasting changes for children by:
Providing them with immunisation (免疫) and nutrition.
Ensuring that they have a chance to join formal school.
Exposing and preventing exploitative child labour practices and running prevention programs.
During emergencies, we provide emergency supplies as well to ensure that children are protected in safe places as well to continue schooling.
We cannot do this without your support. Please contribute by choosing an amount below.
Rs. 20,000 can provide Child Friendly Space for 50 children ensuring that they receive Psycho-Social and Educational support.
Rs. 10,000 can provide hygiene kits and house-hold cooking utensils (厨房用具) for 4 families affected by emergencies.
Rs. 5,000 can provide education kits and uniforms for 5 under-privileged (贫困的) children who have lost belongings in an emergency.
Rs. 2,500 can provide a hygiene kits and house-hold cooking utensils for a family during an emergency.
You will receive your Tax Exemption Certificate (免税证明) within 12 days of making a donation.What is the main purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To introduce the organization to readers. |
| B．To raise awareness of children’s living conditions. |
| C．To draw public attention to educating children. |
| D．To persuade more people to donate to the organization. |
Save the Children is an organization ______.
| A．founded in 1922 by Eglantyne Jebb |
| B．joining the League of Nations in 1924 |
| C．only cooperating with the local government |
| D．concerning children’s physical and mental health |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Save the Children will provide cooking utensils for 4 families with a 2500 RS donation. |
| B．Providing help during emergencies is a most important part of the work of Save the Children. |
| C．Save the Children will reply to donors within 12 days of making their donation. |
| D．Child Friendly Space is a formal school for children to receive social and psychological education. |
Researchers have found more evidence that suggests a relationship between races and rates of lung cancer among smokers. A new study shows that black people and Native Hawaiians are more likely to develop lung cancer from smoking. It compared their risk to whites, Japanese-Americans and Latinos.
Researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of Hawaii did the new study. The New England Journal of Medicine published the findings. The eight-year research studied more than 180,000 people. They included present and former smokers and people who never smoked. Almost 2,000 people in the study developed lung cancer.
Researchers say genetics might help explain the racial and ethnic differences. There could be differences in how people's bodies react to smoke. But environmental influences, including the way people smoke, could also make a difference.
African-Americans and Latinos in the study are reported smoking the fewest cigarettes per day. Whites are the heaviest smokers. But the scientists point out that blacks have been reported to breathe cigarette smoke more deeply than white smokers. This could fill their lungs with more of the chemicals in tobacco that cause cancer.
Scientists know that some diseases effect different groups differently. And some drug companies have begun to develop racially targeted medicines. Last June, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved a drug designed to treat heart failure in black patients. The name is BiDil. The agency called it "a step toward the promise of personalized medicine." Which of the following orders is from higher to lower risk of having lung cancer?
| A．Whites—Native Hawaiians |
| B．Africans—Americans—Latinos |
| C．Asians—Native Hawaiians |
| D．Africans—Americans—Native Hawaiians |
Researchers agree that it is _____ that may probably determine black people’s risk of lung cancer.
| A．the larger amount of smoking than white people |
| B．the living style or habit of the blacks |
| C．the depth of cigarette smoke into their lungs |
| D．the physical strength to react to cigarette smoke |
People in the new study are made up of _____.
| A．heavy smokers in America | B．the black and white people |
| C．the Asians and Hawaiians | D．smokers and non-smokers |
The production of BiDil referred to in the last paragraph is to _____.
| A．explain different races react to some diseases differently |
| B．tell the readers that racial differences exist in smokers |
| C．show a big step people have taken in the medicine area |
| D．support the idea that it is easy for blacks to have cancers |