Warmwaterfreezesmorequicklytha-优题课

Cleverness is a gift while kindness is a choice. Gifts are easy---they’re given after all. Choice can be hard.
I got the idea to start Amazon 16 years ago. I came across the fact that the Internet usage was growing at 2300 percent per year. I’d never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles was very exciting to me, I had just turned 30 years old , and I’d been married for a year, I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go to do this crazy thing that probably wouldn’t work since most start-ups don’t , and I wasn’t sure what to expect, MacKenzie told me I should go for it. As a young boy, I’d been a garage inventor, I’d always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion.
I was working at a financial firm in New York City with a bunch of very smart people, and I had a brilliant boss that I much admired. I went to my boss and told him I wanted to start a company selling books on the Internet. He took me on a long walk in Central Park, listened carefully to me, and finally said, “That sounds like a really good idea, but it would be an even better idea for someone who didn’t already have a good job.” That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision. Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn’t think I’d regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all.
After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I’m proud of that choice, For all of us, in the end, we are our choice.
What inspired the author with the idea of building an online bookstore?

A．His dream if being an inventor.

B．The support of his wife.

C．The greatly increasing usage of the Internet.

D．Millions of exciting titles.

Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined sentence?

A．The idea of not trying would keep coming to his mind and disturb him.

B．He would be very excited if he tried it out.

C．He would be always having a doubt if he didn’t try.

D．The decision to not try the online bookstore would terrify him.

We can know from the passage that ______.

A．the boss thought the idea was suitable for the author

B．the author wanted someone else to try the idea

C．the author might not regret if he failed the idea

D．the author might go back to his boss if he failed

Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．Cleverness and Kindness	B．The Starting of Amzon
C．Following My Passion	D．We Are What We Choose

You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it .But Lee Gray, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the “Elevator Guy”.
“The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette is sort of odd,” Gray told the BBC, “They [elevators] are socially very interesting but often very awkward places”.
We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, lift users unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.
He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want – it’s your own little box.
If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally(对角地) across from each other to create distance.
When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle. And when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.
New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the rule is simple – look down, or look at your phone.
Why are we so awkward in lifts?
“You don’t have enough space,” Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. “Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm’s length of distance between us. And that’s not possible in most elevators.”
In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be construed as threatening or odd. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact,” she said.
According to Gray, when people enter an elevator, they usually _____.

A．turn around and greet one another

B．look around or examine their phone

C．make eye contact with those in the elevator

D．try to keep a distance from other people

Which of the following describes how people usually stand when there are at least two people in an elevator?

The underlined phrase “size up” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to _____.

A．judge	B．ignore
C．put up with	D．make the best of

According to the article, people feel awkward in lifts because of _____.

A．someone’s odd behaviors

B．the lack of space

C．their unfamiliarity with one another

D．their eye contact with one another

The English test will be removed from China’s college entrance exam by 2020, according to the Ministry of Education. The national college entrance exam, known as the “Gaokao” has been used to evaluate Chinese students for three decades. The Ministry of Education has worked out a plan for reforming exams and enrollment. Tests will be held several times a year to allow students to choose when and how often they sit the exam so as to reduce study pressure and change China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system.
The decision has aroused a heated discussion among Shanghai educators and parents who doubted the reform would reduce the burden of learning English or if the substitute test could reflect a student’s English skills and help students learn English better. Cai Jigang, a professor from Fudan University said, “The reform shows China is to give students more test-taking chances. But more chances might become more of a burden since Chinese students are likely to repeat the test until they get the highest score.”
“In my opinion, the reform doesn’t mean English is no longer important for Chinese students after it will be excluded from the unified college entrance exam,” said Yu Lizhong, chancellor of New York University Shanghai, “In a way, English is even more important than before since the test would only serve as reference, while every college and university, even every major, canhave different requirements of a student’s English skills under a diverse evaluation system.”
Yu said some students will have their study pressure reduced if the major they choose doesn’t need excellent English while others still need to study hard if they want to be among the best students.
The education ministry said the reform would not affect students attending the college entrance exam over the next three years. But parents with younger children are concerned. Zhang Hui, the mother of a fourth-grade girl at Pudong Zhuyuan Primary School, said English was her daughter’s strength, so canceling the English test would not favor her child.
What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．English will become less and less important in the stage of compulsory education.

B．It has been 30 years since English became one subject of Chinese “Gaokao”.

C．China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system is unacceptable at all.

D．The system that tests are held several times does more good than once-in-a-lifetime

According to the passage, some Shanghai educators and parents argue that _____.

A．the new exam and admission system will make no difference

B．English shouldn’t be removed from China’s college entrance exam

C．the reform may accomplish the very opposite

D．Western educational system does not apply to China

According to Yu Lizhong, _______________.

A．Students needn’t lay a good foundation during the period of high school.

B．Whether students should study English hard may depend on their major.

C．Students can constantly strive for perfection only in their major.

D．English must be close to full mark.

What’s the purpose of writing the passage?

A．To advise students not to devote themselves to learning English.

B．To call on Education Department to remove English from “Gaokao”.

C．To support Education Department’s act of removing English from “Gaokao”

D．To report people’s opinions on English being removed from “Gaokao”

It was a cold morning at a metro station in Washington DC, a man started to play the violin. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the tin without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most beautiful pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment.
The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we enjoy beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected situation?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”
Few people stopped to listen to Joshua Bell playing because____________.

A．it was too cold in the subway

B．they were not interested in music

C．people were in a hurry

D．the performance was not good enough

Which of the following is true about Joshua Bell’s performance?

A．Nobody gave him money

B．Nobody recognized him.

C．Nobody appreciated it

D．Nobody organized it

Joshua Bell played in the metro station in order to ____________.

A．make more money on the street

B．practice his skills in playing music

C．made an advertisement for his concert

D．find out people’s reaction under such a circumstance

Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?.

A．The Importance of Music	B．A Talented Violinist
C．A Subway Violin Performance	D．The Things We Miss

According to a new US study, couples who expect their children to help care for them in old age should hope they have daughters because they are likely to be twice as attentive overall.
The research by Angelina Grigoryeva, a sociologist at Princeton University, found that, while women provide as much care for their elderly parents as they can manage, men do as little as they can get away with and often leave it to female family members.
Her analysis of the family networks of 26,000 older Americans concluded that gender(性别) is the most important predictor(预示物) of whether or not people will actively care for elderly parents.
In a paper being presented at the annual conference of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco, she concludes that simply having a sister makes men statistically likely provide less care.
Using data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a study which has been tracking a cross-section of over-50s for the last decade, she calculated that women provide an average of 12.3 hours a month of care for elderly parents while men offer only 5.6 hours.
“Whereas the amount of elderly parent care daughters provide is associated with limitations they face, such as employment or childcare, sons’caregiving is associated only with the presence or absence of other helpers, such as sisters or a parent’s spouse(配偶),” she explained.
“Sons reduce their relative caregiving efforts when they have a sister, while daughters increase theirs when they have a brother.”
“This suggests that sons pass on parent caregiving responsibilities to their sisters.”
In the UK, the 2011 census(人口普查) showed that there are now around 6.5 million people with caring responsibilities – a figure which has risen by a tenth in a decade.
But many are doing so at the risk of their own health. The census showed that those who provide 50 hours or more of care a week while trying to hold down a full- time job are three times more likely to be struggling with ill health than their working counterparts(相对应的人) who are not carers.
What’s the most important factor to predict if people will actively care for the elderly?

A．Gender.	B．Education.
C．Career.	D．Family networks.

The US study finds that _______.

A．sons are twice likely as daughters to care for parents in old age

B．having a sister makes men less likely to do their fair share

C．sons and daughters seem to give equal care to their parents

D．sons are unwilling to leave caregiving responsibilities to female family members

What does the author stress in the last paragraph?

A．People should give up their jobs to care for the elderly.

B．Many care providers work longer hours than others.

C．People shouldn’t pass on caring responsibilities to others.

D．Many care providers have potential health problems.

The author develops the text by _______.

A．explaining social networks of careers

B．describing people’s experiences

C．analyzing various research and data

D．comparing different gender behavior

A．late in the 19th century	B．early in the 20th century
C．three years ago	D．late in the 20th century