If you haven’t heard or seen anything about Road Rage in the last few months, you’ve probably been avoiding the media. There have been countless stories about this new and scary phenomenon, considered a type of aggressive driving. You have most likely encountered aggressive driving or Road Rage recently if you drive at all.
While drunk driving remains a critical problem, the facts about aggressive driving are surely as disturbing. For instance, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Association, 41,907 people died on the highway last year. Of those deaths, the agency estimates that about two-thirds were caused at least in part by aggressive driving behavior.
Why is this phenomenon occurring more than ever now, and why is it something that seemed almost nonexistent a few short years ago? Experts have several theories, and all are probably partially correct. One suggestion is sheer overcrowding. In the last decade, the number of cars on the roads has increased by more than 11 percent, and the number of miles driven has increased by 35 percent. However, the number of new road miles has only increased by 1 percent. That means more cars in the same amount of space; and the problem is magnified（增强） in urban areas. Also, people have less time and more things to do. With people working and trying to fit extra chores and activities into the day, stress levels have never been higher. Stress creates anxiety, which leads to short tempers. These factors, when combined in certain situations, can spell Road Rage.
You may think you are the last person who would drive aggressively, but you might be surprised. For instance, have you ever yelled out loud at a slower driver, sounded the horn long and hard at another car, or sped up to keep another driver from passing? If you recognize yourself in any of these situations, watch out!
Whether you are getting angry at other drivers, or another driver is visibly upset with you, there are things you can do to avoid any major conflict. If you are easily influenced by Road Rage, the key is to discharge your emotion in a healthy way. If you are the target of another driver’s rage, do everything possible to get away from the other driver safely, including avoiding eye contact and getting out of their way.The first sentence in Para. 1 implies that ______.
| A．onemaybeangeredbymediareportsandwantstoavoidthem | ||
| B．themediainventedtheterm“RoadRage”onlyafewmonthsago | C．RoadRagehasreceivedmuchmediacoverageinthelastfewmonths | D．peoplenotinterestedinthemediaknowlittleaboutrecenthappenings |
The underlined word “spell” in Para. 3 means ________.
| A．relieve | B．cause | C．spread | D．prevent |
Which of the following characterizes aggressive driving?
| A．Talking while driving. | B．Driving at high speed. |
| C．Sounding the horn when passing. | D．Shouting at another driver. |
The last paragraph is intended to _________.
| A．tellpeoplehowtodealwithRoadRage |
| B．informpeoplehowaggressivedriverscouldbe |
| C．showpeoplehowtocontrolthemselveswhenangry |
| D．warnpeopleagainsteyecontactwithanotherdriver |
When it comes to hard, noisy traveling, we’ve found that sometimes we’d rather read about it than actually go. Here are some bestsellers for armchair travelers.
The Station by Robert Byron. In 1928, the 22-year-old man made a journey to Mount Athos, resulting in one of the best travel books ever written, matched only by Byron’s own, much more famous The Road to Osciana.
In Darkest Africa by Henry Monton Stanley. It’s about his great efforts to save an unlucky German doctor Eduard Schnitzer, who had no desire to be rescued at all.
A Traveler’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs by Sir Steven Runciman. A to Z and around the world. He provides priceless information of long-gone princesses, priests, and places.
South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage by Sir Ernest Shackleton. As the planet started the global war, Shackleton and his brave group of explorers made an unsuccessful but heroic journey to cross Antarctica from 1914 to 1917.
The Michelin Red Guide: France 2005 Reading through this final listing of all the nice hotels and wonderful restaurants in France is better than going there, listening to Chirac talk about the poisonous American culture, and spending the price of this book for a tiny cup of tea and a cookie the size of your thumb.
The Past Is a Foreign Country by David Lowenthal. This great book of an armchair exploration tells us what has happened in the past and shows the relationship between us and the past travelers.The underlined phrase “armchair travelers” in the first paragraph refers to those who___________ .
| A．can only travel with special equipment for the disabled |
| B．find fun teaching others how to travel to other places |
| C．like to write about their strange traveling experiences |
| D．like to read about travels instead of traveling themselves |
Which of the books has a very low price according to the passage?
| A．The Past Is a Foreign Country. |
| B．South: A Memoir to the Endurance Voyage. |
| C．The Michelin Red Guide: France 2005. |
| D．A Traveler’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The Station is more famous than The Road to Osciana |
| B．Henry Monton Stanley, was saved by a German doctor in Africa. |
| C．It took Shackleton and his men 3 years to cross Antarctica. |
| D．In his book, Lowenthal focuses more on history than the present. |
This passage is written____________ .
| A．to warn readers against traveling |
| B．to sell more books about travels |
| C．as an introduction to famous travelers |
| D．to tell people where to travel |
It is a tall tale that terrifies most young children. Swallow a piece of chewing gum and it will remain in your body for seven years before it is digested. An even worse tale is that swallowed gum can wrap itself around your heart.
But what does happen if you should accidentally eat a stick of gum? Chewing gum is made out of gum base, sweeteners, coloring and flavoring. The gum base is pretty indigestible一it is a mixture of different ingredients that our body can’t absorb.
Most of the time, your stomach really cannot break down the gum the way it would break down other foods. However, your digestive system has another way to deal with things you swallow. After all, we eat lots of things that we are unable to fully digest. They keep moving along until they make it all the way through the gut and come out at the other end one or two days later.
The saliva in our mouths will make an attempt at digesting chewing gum as soon as we put it in our mouths. It might get through the shell but many of gum’s base ingredients are indigestible. It’s then down to our stomach muscles一which contract and relax, much like the way an earthworm moves一 to slowly force the things that we swallow through our systems.
Swallowing a huge piece of gum or swallowing many small pieces of gum in a short time can cause a blockage within the digestive system, most often in children, who have a thinner digestive tube than adults 一but this is extremely rare.Children might feel terrified after swallowing chewing gum mainly because .
| A．they believe the tall tales about chewing gum |
| B．chewing gum will stay in their body for years |
| C．their heart will be wrapped by chewing gum |
| D．chewing gum is indigestible for children |
What happens to the food that can’t be fully broken down?
| A．It remains in our digestive system forever. |
| B．It will be eventually moved out of our body. |
| C．It will fight against the power of the gut. |
| D．It will stick to the gut for one or two days. |
What would be the best title for text?
| A．How does our digestive system work? |
| B．Can chewing gum be swallowed by kids? |
| C．Does swallowing chewing gum matter? |
| D．Why swallowing chewing gum frightens kids? |
| Joshua, Helmut ,and Bethlehem Michelle O. Donovan ISBN 9781462058679 Life is not easy for nine-year-old Joshua during World War II. Because of his family’s Jewish background, they are sent to live in the concentration camps. Scared and alone, Joshua one day makes friends with a little mouse he calls Bethlehem who becomes his closest friend. |
More Things in Heaven Bill Bosworth ISBN 9780595433582 In his More things in Heaven, Bill Bosworth presents the highlights of his 83 years of life, including his trips to India and the study of the writings of several great spiritual leaders. More Things in Heaven will appeal to anyone who insists on finding the deepest meaning for their existence based on their own experiences. |
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| Encourage Me! Inspirational Poetry Gloria Coykendall ISBN 9781412027854 It is an easy-to-read collection of poems originally written to encourage in faith and to be a cure for chronic depression… cure to strengthen identity and purpose. |
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| Creation or Evolution Michael Ebifegha ISBN 9781450289023 Were humans created, or did they evolve? How old is the Earth? The debate between science and religion continues to be heated. In Creation or Evolution, Michael Ebifegha examines these two opposed world views within the structure of empirical science. |
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| Seeking the Edge Dr. Joseph L. Rose ISBN 9781462031795 Seeking the Edge provides the tools and techniques to find that edge in one’s life—driving readers to achieve success whether in your current job, finding a new job, in education, family, or even hobbies. |
Who wrote the story about a little boy and a little mouse?
| A．Bill Bosworth. | B．Michelle O. Donovan. |
| C．Dr. Joseph L. Rose. | D．Gloria Coykendall. |
The ISBN for the book of poems is _______.
| A．9781462031795 | B．9781412027854 |
| C．9780595433582 | D．9781462058679 |
What kind of readers will probably like reading More Things in Heaven?
| A．Those who are searching for the meaning of life |
| B．Those who are trying to be spiritual leaders. |
| C．Those who study the art of writing |
| D．Those who like traveling abroad. |
Which of the following books explores the origin of humans?
| A．Seeking the Edge. |
| B．Creation or Evolution. |
| C．Joshua, Helmut, and Bethlehem. |
| D．More Things in Heaven. |
Bursting into the classroom from recess, 15 children take their seats and face the woman they know as Ms. Yang.
“What day is it today?” she asks, in Mandarin Chinese.
“Confucius’ birthday!” the fifth graders shout in Mandarin.
“Why do we celebrate Confucius’ birthday?”
“Because he’s the greatest teacher in the history of China!” exclaims a brown-haired girl. She is speaking Mandarin.
English is rarely heard in Lisa Yang’s class at the Chinese American International School(CAIS), despite the fact that few students are native speakers of Mandarin.
The United States is actively trying to increase the group of students in “critical languages” such as Mandarin. The students at CAIS are way ahead in such a trend.
Founded 25 years ago, this small private school in San Francisco, USA, does what few other American schools do: It produces fully fluent speakers of Mandarin Chinese, by far the most commonly spoken language in the world.
Mandarin Chinese is suddenly hot in American schools. As China becomes the world’s leading economy sometimes this century, schools in the U. S. are scrambling to add Mandarin to their list of foreign languages or expand Chinese programs already in place.
“It really is almost unprecedented. People are looking at China as a force to be reckoned with… And to ensure that the U. S. has the ability to conduct trade, and to work with the Chinese. Certainly having an understanding of Chinese language and culture is an advantage,” said Marty Abbott of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages(ACTFL).
To develop Chinese-language programs has not been smooth. A shortage of trained teachers has made it difficult for some schools to join the race. When schools do get teachers, they often hire them straight from China, and the teachers usually suffer culture shock when they come to the U. S.
Robert Liu remembers his first two years in an American classroom It was not an easy adjustment. “In China, students respect their teachers,” he said. Liu found that American students, however, expect an active teaching style. He had to use games to engage them rather than lectures.
To avoid many of the problems with foreign teaching styles, the CAIS has been working with the Chinese government to improve training of teachers who are sent to the U. S.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Understanding Chinese language and culture is helpful to work with Chinese. |
| B．Chinese-language programs have met trouble during the development. |
| C．Many other American schools do the same as CAIS, founded 25 years ago. |
| D．A lack of trained Mandarin Chinese teachers is a problem for the programs. |
What kind of problem is the most difficult to adjust in teaching Chinese in America?
| A．To adapt themselves to the American life styles. |
| B．To communicate with the American students. |
| C．To get along well with the American students. |
| D．To be fit for the cultural differences in teaching styles. |
The meaning of the underlined word “scrambling” is similar to .
| A．climbing | B．rushing |
| C．changing | D．beating |
It can be learned from the passage that .
| A．the students in Lisa Yang’s class usually speak Chinese |
| B．There are few American students in Lisa Yang’s class |
| C．We celebrate Confucius’ birthday because he’s the greatest history teacher |
| D．in America the students don’t respect their teachers |
Owning a smart phone may not be as smart as you think. They may let you surf the Internet, listen to music and snap photos wherever you are… but they also turn you into a workaholic, it seems.
A study suggests that, by giving you access to emails at all times, the all-singing, all-dancing mobile phone adds as much as two hours to your working day. Researchers found that Britons work an additional 460 hours a year on average as they are able to respond to emails on their mobiles.
The study by technology retailer Pixmania reveals the average UK working day is between 9 and 10 hours, but a further two hours is spent responding to or sending work emails, or making work calls. More than 90 percent of office workers have an email-enabled phone, with a third accessing them more than 20 times a day. Almost one in ten admits spending up to three hours outside their normal working day checking work emails. Some workers confess they are on call almost 24 hours a day, with nine out of ten saying they take work emails and calls outside their normal working hours. The average time for first checking emails is between 6 am and 7 am, with more than a third checking their first email in this period, and a quarter checking them between 11 pm and midnight.
Ghadi Hobeika, marketing director of Pixmania, said, “The ability to access literally millions of apps, keep in contact via social networks and take photos and video as well as text and call has made smart phones invaluable for many people. However, there are drawbacks. Many companies expect their employees to be on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and smart phones mean that people literally cannot get away from work. The more constantly in contact we become, the more is expected of us in a work capacity.”What can we conclude from the text?
| A．All that glitters is not gold. |
| B．Every coin has two sides. |
| C．It never rains but pours. |
| D．It’s no good crying over spilt milk. |
The underlined word “accessing” in the third paragraph can be replaced by .
| A．calling | B．reaching |
| C．getting | D．using |
Which of the following is true according to the text?
| A．The average UK working day is between nine and twelve hours. |
| B．Nine-tenths spend over three hours checking work emails. |
| C．One fourth check their first mails between 11 pm and midnight. |
| D．The average time for first checking emails is between 6 am and 8 am. |
What’s the main idea of the text?
| A．Workaholics like smart phones. |
| B．Smart phones bring about extra work. |
| C．Smart phones make our live easier. |
| D．Employers don’t like smart phones. |