A. An Acrobatic (杂技) Soul
To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the China Acrobatic Troupe will present "The Soul of China", where the seemingly impossible is made real. Chills will run down your spine as you watch breathlessly as performers take their art and their bodies to the edge.
Time: 7:30pm, September 13-19
Place: the Capital Theatre, 22 Wangfujingdajie Street, Dongcheng District
B. Exhibitions Joint Show
A group ink painting exhibition is running at the ltuangshicheng Art Gallery in Beijing. About 50 works by 25 young artists including Ge Yun and Yu Yang are on display.
Time: 9am-5pm until September 10
Place: Huangshicheng Gallery, 136 Nanchizi Road, Dongcheng District
C. Oil Paintings
The Wanfang Art Galley will host a joint show of oil paintings by 10 young and middle-aged artists. On display are more than 30 of their latest works, which capture the wonderful variety of life in unique styles.
Time: 9am-4pm until September 15
Place: 136 Nanchizi Street, Dongcheng District
D. Literature Museum
The National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature offers a study of the evolution of Chinese contemporary literature from 1919 to 1949.
Time: 9am-4pm, daily
Place: 45 Anyuandonglu Road, Chaoyang District (Shaoyaoju area)
E. Concerts
Beijing rocks: "The Fashion Night of Chinese Rock" is set to bring rock fans out next month. Nine Chinese rock bands will perform at the concert, including older generation bands, middle generation and some recent arrivals. Audiences will be given a chance to decide what songs they want to hear, which is sure to bring a crowd.
Time: September 16
Place: The Olympic Center
F. Belgium Orchestra
La Petite Band, the Baroque Orchestra of Belgium, will perform in Beijing at Grand Theatre of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities as part of activities across the world to commemorate(纪念) the 250th anniversary of Bach's death.
Time: 7:30pm, September 11-14
Place: Grand Theatre of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities
阅读下面待选人的信息，然后匹配他／她所选的活动：Wang Lin: Wang Lin is a university student who studies music. He hopes to hear some live examples of foreign music from a western band.
Simon: Simon is interested in Chinese literature, so he came to China with his parents. During his stay in Beijing, he wants to learn more about Chinese contemporary Literature.
Li Hua: Li Hua is an eighteen-year-old boy. He is studying in a high school. After many months of hard studying, he is tired of his lessons. He would like to experience something adventurous.
Alice: Alice is an American girl who studies art at Beijing University. She has no classes on September 14. She hopes to enjoy some wonderful oil paintings.
Victoria: Victoria is fond of Chinese music. She hopes to listen to various songs performed by different bands. She doesn't care what kinds of songs they are.
New rules for pubs and clubs, including a ban (禁令) on drinking games like the awful "dentist's chair", will be introduced in Britain this year to prevent the heavy drinking culture, which costs the country billions of pounds a year.
Other activities like "all you can drink for 10 pounds ", "women drink free" nights and speed drinking competitions will also be banned.
But, on the other hand, offers of cheap alcohol in supermarkets will not be affected, which is widely regarded as one of the main sources of Britain's problems with under-age and over-drinking.
Doctors and health experts argue that the government has failed to use its most effective weapon, the taxation(征税) of minimum price controls on alcohol.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that the government and the industry had a duty to act on heavy drinking." These bans have a real impact on society, not to mention the lives of those who just want to enjoy a good night out," he said.
“The dentist's chair”, where drinks are poured directly into the mouth by others, was made famous by the celebrations of footballer Paul Gascoigne at Euro '96. That game and others that promote large consumption will be banned from April and publicans (酒店老板) will have to ensure free tap water is made available to the drinkers.
The government says over-drinking costs Britain up to 12 billion pounds a year and has announced that any pubs that go against the new mandatory code (强制性规定) will face severe punishment. For instance, publicans and vendors (小贩) could lose their licenses, be fined up to 20,000 pounds ($32,750) or face six months in prison.New rules for pubs and clubs will be introduced in Britain to ban heavy drinking because ________.
| A．people drink too much without paying taxes |
| B．drinking games are infamous |
| C．drinking competitions are very crazy |
| D．drinking in the country costs too much |
Some people believe when the tough new rules come into effect, ________.
| A．supermarkets will stop selling alcohol in low prices |
| B．“women drink free” nights will not be closed |
| C．over-drinking will still not be stopped |
| D．under-age people will not continue drinking |
What is probably the most effective way to control alcohol?
| A．bans | B．education | C．force | D．taxation |
According to the passage, “the dentist’s chair” is ________.
| A．a chair for the patient whose teeth should be treated |
| B．a drinking game made famous by the celebrations of footballers |
| C．a way to advertise different types of alcohol |
| D．to be banned in October this year |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Heavy drinking will be banned in Britain. |
| B．Over-drinking will be taxed. |
| C．Drinking in Britain will be banned. |
| D．12 billion pounds is spent on drinking. |
Are morning people born or made? In my case it was definitely made. In my early 20s, I hardly went to bed before midnight, and I would always get up late the next morning.
But after a while I couldn’t ignore the high relationship between success and rising early. On those rare occasions where I did get up early, I noticed that my productivity (效率) was always higher. So I set out to become a habitual early riser. But whenever my alarm went off, my first thought was always to stop that noise and go back to sleep. Eventually some sleep research showed that my strategy was wrong.
The most common wrong strategy is this: supposing you’re going to get up earlier, you’d better go to bed earlier. It sounds very reasonable, but will usually fail.
There are two main schools (流派) of thought on sleep patterns. One is that you should go to bed and get up at the same time every day. The second school says you should go to bed when you’re tired and get up when you naturally wake up. However, I have found both are wrong if you care about productivity. If you sleep at fixed hours, you’ll sometimes go to bed when you aren’t sleepy enough. You’re wasting time lying in bed awake.
My solution is to combine both methods. I go to bed when I’m sleepy and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time. So I always get up at the same time (in my case 5 a.m.), but I go to bed at different times every night.
However, going to bed only when I’m sleepy, and getting up at a fixed time every morning are my ways. If you want to become an early riser, you can try your own.According to the passage, the underlined phrase refers to ________.
| A．people who stay up until the next morning |
| B．people who get up early in the morning |
| C．people who feel sleepy in the morning |
| D．people whose productivity is the lowest in the morning |
Why did the author want to become a habitual early riser?
| A．Because he / she wanted to have more sleep time. |
| B．Because he / she wanted to do morning exercise. |
| C．Because he / she wanted to test which school is better. |
| D．Because he / she found that the productivity was higher. |
The author experienced all the following EXCEPT ________.
| A．going to bed after midnight |
| B．asking scholars for advice on sleeping habits |
| C．getting up early occasionally |
| D．pressing off the alarm to go on sleeping |
What’s the author’s sleep pattern?
| A．Going to bed early and getting up early. |
| B．Going to bed late and getting up late. |
| C．Going to bed when sleepy and getting up at a fixed early time. |
| D．Going to bed early and getting up late. |
The passage is mainly about ________.
| A．main schools of thought on sleep patterns | B．how to have a good sleep |
| C．wrong strategies for getting up early | D．how to become an early riser |
Time out
Cover Price: ￡2.35
Save up to 42%
Time out — London’s arts and entertainment weekly. This magazine offers the best listings and reviews of arts, music, films and nightlife, and it is a necessary guide to the entertainment capital of the world. If you’re not using Time out, you’re losing out on London.
School Sport Magazine
Cover Price: ￡4.40
School Sport Magazine is the only publication of its kind to celebrate the sporting achievements of schools, pupils and teachers in the UK. The purpose of the magazine is to report sporting news and record national and regional school sporting events as well as interviews with famous sport stars about their own sporting schooldays. Five issues (期) a year.
Time
Cover Price: ￡2.70
Save up to 76%
Every week, Time keeps you well informed of world news, covering all the matters that affect your life, from political struggles to scientific progress, environmental problems, and what’s new in business, fashion and arts. Its feature articles give you brief but true information and unique insights from world-leading journalists. Time is a great magazine, which can help you develop a truly global perspective.
FourFourTwo
Cover Price: ￡3.90
Save up to 25%
FourFourTwo is a monthly football magazine for grown-up readers. Feature articles and wonderful action photographs will keep you attracted. You can read interviews with big name football stars, from today, tomorrow and yesterday. You’ll love it!Among all of the above, there is/ are ________ weekly magazine(s).
| A．one | B．two | C．three | D．four |
Which of the following magazines will probably provide you with articles about paintings and their painters?
| A．Time Out & School Sport Magazine. | B．School Sport Magazine & FourFourTwo. |
| C．Time Out & Time. | D．only Time. |
Which of the following magazines is suitable for a 13-year-old boy who wants to know about a famous football star’s playing experiences at school?
| A．Time Out. | B．School Sport Magazine. |
| C．Time | D．School Sport Magazine or FourFourTwo. |
We can learn from the passage that ________ .
| A．all of the magazines are intended for adults. |
| B．among all the magazines, only School Sport Magazine is about sports. |
| C．Time Out & School Sport Magazine might be published in the United Kingdom. |
| D．among all the magazines, Time Out will cost you the least. |
The author’s purpose in writing this passage is to ________ .
| A．advertise four best-sellers |
| B．introduce four popular magazines to readers |
| C．ask readers to decide which of the four magazines is the best |
| D．get more people to buy these magazines |
Why are we addicted to upgrades? According to Donald Norman, American author of the book The Design of Everyday Things, “planned obsolescence”（计划性报废） is the trick behind the upgrading culture of today’s consumer electronics industry.
The New York Times cited Norman last month, saying that electronics manufactures strategically release new upgrades periodically, both for hardware and software, so that customers on every level feel the need to buy the newest version.
“This is an old-time trick– they’re not inventing anything new,” he said.
Thomas Wensma, a Dutch designer, despises the “planned obsolescence” of companies, as recently reported by UK-based The Guardian.
Wensma said this is a wasteful system through which companies – many of them producing personal electronics – release shoddy products simply because “they know that, in six months or a year, they’ll put out a new one”.
But the new psychology of consumers is part of this system, as Wensma said to the newspaper: “We now want something new, something pretty, the next shiny thing.”
____________________
“It’s to the damage of the consumer and the environment,” as the New York Times quoted Norman. “But perhaps to the betterment of the stockholder.”
In its most recent fiscal(财务的) year, Apple’s profit margin was more than 21 percent, reported the Los Angeles Times. At Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest PC manufacturer, it was only 7 percent.
“Steven Jobs pushed the principle of ‘planned obsolescence’ to new heights,” the newspaper commented on the company’s profits and marketing strategy. “Apple’s annual upgrades of its products generate sales of millions of units as owners of one year’s MacBook or iPhone line up to buy the newest version, even when the changes are incremental.”
Peer pressure
As to Li Jijia, the need for upgrading his smart phone comes mainly from friends and classmates. When the majority of friends are switching to the latest devices, he worries about feeling left out.
“Some apps and games require better hardware to run,” said Li. “If you don’t join in, you lose part of the connection to your friends.”Donald Norman believes that electronics makers strategically release new upgrades periodically because __________.
| A．customers need the latest version | B．technology is developing so fast |
| C．they want to invent something new | D．they can make a lot of money |
Thomas Wensma’s attitude to the “planned obsolescence” is __________.
| A．positive | B．negative | C．indifferent | D．neutral |
What subtitle can best fit into the blank in the text?
| A．Huge profits | B．Apple’s principle |
| C．Environmental damage | D．Marketing strategy |
The writer takes the example of Li Jijia to show that __________.
| A．the new psychology of consumers is also to blame for the wasteful system |
| B．young people are always fond of something new, pretty and shiny |
| C．if you don’t upgrade your smart phone, you will lose contact with your friends |
| D．needs of consumers help to promote the development of electronics industry |
Women consistently lie on social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter to make their lives appear more exciting, a survey has found.
Researchers found that at least one in four women exaggerated or distorted what they are doing on social media once a month. The survey of 2000 women found they mostly pretended to be out on the town, when in fact they are home alone, and embellished about an exotic holiday or their job.
The most common reasons for women to write “fibs” included worrying their lives would seem “boring”, jealousy at seeing other people’s more exciting posts and wanting to impress their friends and acquaintances.
Psychologists suggested that as people attempt to “stay connected” on social media, they can in fact “paradoxically” be left “more isolated”. They also said that the “more we try to make our lives seem perfect, the less perfect we feel”.
According to the OnePoll survey, one third of women surveyed admitted to “dishonesty” on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter at some stage.
Almost one in four admitted to lying or exaggerating about key aspects of their life online between one and three times a month while almost one in 10 said they lied more than once a week.
Nearly 30 percent of women lied about “doing something when I am home alone”, almost a quarter overstated their alcohol consumption while one in five were not truthful about their holiday activities or their jobs. Almost one in five women even lied about their “relationship status”.
“We work very hard presenting ourselves to the world online, pretending and attempting to be happy all the time which is exhausting and ultimately unfulfilling,” said Dr Michael Sinclair, a leading British consultant psychologist.
“Omitting the less desirable imperfections of our lives from the conversations with our `friends` online leads to less opportunity to feel empathized with(与…产生共鸣), resulting in a greater sense of disconnection from others.”
The survey was commissioned by Pencourage, a new anonymous “diary-style” social media website.Which of the words below is closest in meaning to the underlined word “fibs” in Para 3?
| A．life experiences | B．short stories |
| C．careful thoughts | D．insignificant lies |
A woman tends to tell a lie online when she__________.
| A．hopes to make more friends | B．envies other people’s exciting life |
| C．feels lonely at home | D．gets tired of the boring life |
A woman might pretend to be happier online than she actually is by __________.
| A．avoiding conversations with friends |
| B．describing her holiday activities |
| C．leaving out the imperfections in life |
| D．overstating her trouble at work |
According to Dr Michael Sinclair, constantly lying online may __________.
| A．eventually make one’s life more exciting |
| B．actually lead to a sense of isolation |
| C．really improve one’s sense of happiness |
| D．scarcely have any influence on relationships |