In America, after middle school comes high school, which includes grades 9 through 12. Students are required to take compulsory subjects like English, social studies, math, science, and physical education. In addition, they choose among elective subjects （选修科目）to complete their high school education. Electives include subjects in technology, music, art, and foreign languages.
Each student in the school has their own locker（储物柜）for books and personal items. This convenience saves students from carrying textbooks, and allows students a small space they can decorate with（以……装饰）posters and favorite objects.
Cheating in any form is strictly prohibited（禁止）in American schools. And in fact, high school students usually don't cheat. If they are caught cheating, they will have to face severe punishment.
Each school holds certain yearly activities for all school students, such as homecoming（返校节）, prom night（学年舞会）, holiday celebrations, etc.
Most high schools have at least one sports team that competes in local games, and all students are encouraged to take part in athletics. Schools often offer football, baseball and softball, basketball, volleyball, tennis, and soccer. Some may even have sports like golf, swimming, gymnastics and cross-country skiing.
Many high school students have part-time jobs by the age of 15 or 16, some even earlier. Their first jobs are often babysitting or cutting lawns（草坪）, but later they will likely get a job at a fast-food restaurant, video store, or clothing shop.
Sixteen years old is legal（法定）driving age in most states, and students usually want to own a car as soon as they can. Some parents allow their children to drive a family car, and may even buy a car as a graduation present. Others prefer that their sons and daughters earn enough to buy a used car. Many teenagers feel it's necessary to own a car, and will do whatever it takes to be able to drive.Which is the best title of this passage?
| A．How American Students Study. |
| B．American High School Life |
| C．The Life of American Students. |
| D．Introduction to American School. |
Which statement is right according to the passage?
| A．Cheating is strictly banned（禁止. only in American high schools. |
| B．Teenagers in America can be allowed to drive after sixteen years old. |
| C．Schools encourage all students to take part in sports. |
| D．English, social studies, math, science, and physical education are elective subjects. |
The underlined word compulsory in the second line stands for .
| A．voluntary |
| B．difficult |
| C．optional |
| D．necessary |
From the short passage we can infer that .
| A．All high school hold some activities for students every year, like homecoming. |
| B．American parents usually buy cars as graduation presents for their children. |
| C．If the American boys and girls can earn enough money they can buy a used car to drive. |
| D．High school students must have part-time jobs by the age of 15 or 16. |
The second paragraph suggests
| A．A locker can give students a small space to save money. |
| B．Students can share their lockers. |
| C．Students can put their posters and favorite objects in the lockers. |
| D．School provides students lockers to keep their books and personal things. |
Finding time to enjoy life is becoming harder and harder. As the average workweek lengthens, leisure time drops. Yet some of the world’s busiest people are able to develop rewarding careers and also make time for family and leisure activities. Here is their best advice plus that of time-management experts:
1. Use your peak hours wisely.
People tend to be most alert in late morning and midevening. Afternoon brings an increase in sleepiness. Use your high-efficiency hours to handle difficult jobs or engage in creative thinking. For low-efficiency times, concentrate on cleaning up or sorting your mail. By adapting to your mental condition, you can accomplish more in less time.
2. Make a plan.
Just 20 minutes of organizing can save an hour of extra effort remembering what must be done. “Don’t try to carry your life around in your head,” says Lucy Hedrick, author of Five Days to an Organized Life. “Write things down so you can free your brain for more inventive pursuit (追求).”
3. Discourage drop-ins.
The person who welcomes every visitor will get plenty of conversation but won’t accomplish much.
The trick is to develop harmless ways to protect yourself from minute-stealing interruptions. David E. Levy, a public-relations consultant (顾问), uses an alternative to the open-door policy by keeping his door half open. The message is clear: he really doesn’t want you to come in, but you can if it is important.
4. Tame (驯服) the telephone.
Few devices save more minutes—or waste so many more—than the telephone. Signal the end of your conversation with a phrase such as “Before we hang up…” You can save even more time by not taking every incoming call.
Keep a record of when people you call regularly are least busy and call them at those times. Even better, make appointments to call important contacts.
To help us gain an extra hour every day, a clockmaker in Dallas has created a timer measuring each minute at 57.6 seconds. The 2.5 seconds borrowed from each minute add up to an extra 60 minutes at the end of each day.According to Lucy Hedrick, you should ________.
| A．carry out your plans when you are free |
| B．stop occupying your mind with lots of things |
| C．forget everything annoying when taking a walk |
| D．enjoy your life whenever you can |
Why does David E. Levy keep his door half open?
| A．To show drop-ins are not welcome at all. |
| B．To tell drop-ins to come if they want. |
| C．To keep unimportant visitors from dropping in. |
| D．To indicate he is expecting a visitor. |
Who works most efficiently according to the passage?
| A．An editor who is trying to produce a title for his article in the afternoon. |
| B．A manager who is designing selling plans with his office door open. |
| C．A visitor to a mayor without making an appointment. |
| D．A student in class without taking any incoming calls. |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．Gain an Extra Hour Every Day |
| B．Live One Day at a Time |
| C．How to Live Your Life to the Fullest |
| D．Create Your Own Opportunities |
Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s cars and action figures weren’t just toys. “They would always be characters, and I would always put on stupid voices,” says Thomas (Born on 16 May 1990). For him, acting was just a matter of moving childhood games to a set.
Maturity and independence came to Thomas early as he started work at ten. After his first audition (试镜), he learned about rejection. Though hurt and disappointed, he took a part in a tiny, unknown TV film in 2001. No one noticed his performance – no one except screenwriter Richard Curtis. Two years later, he played Sam, a twelve-year-old in love in Curtis’s Love Actually. After that hit film, he played actor Colin Firth’s son in Nanny McPhee. Firth then joined a film called The Last Legion and supported Thomas for its lead role. As a result, the boy played Rome’s final ruler in the action-adventure.
At about 16, Thomas had to make a decision. Did he really want to devote his life to acting? Many people in the public “aren’t letting you be you because they see you as something special”, he says. Also, friendship made during filming was often broken soon after the project finished. Despite these things, he found enough joy and satisfaction in the work to continue. Actually, Thomas seems to find joy in difficulty itself. He played 10-year-old Adolf Hitler in a TV movie and a teenage Paul McCartney in Nowhere Boy. The subject of his film Death of a Superhero made it his most challenging film. Still, he found a positive message in its story of a schoolboy with cancer.
Thomas now enjoys roles in Game of Thrones and the upcoming Maze Runner films. Popular as those projects may be, most still recognize him as Sam in Love Actually. Sam seems to run after Thomas, just as he ran through Heathrow airport to his sweetheart.Thomas Brodie-Sangster reached maturity early probably because of ________.
| A．his failure in the first audition |
| B．his starting acting as early as ten |
| C．his being supported by adult actors |
| D．his acting in a tiny unknown TV film |
The underlined word “rejection” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．recovery | B．respect |
| C．response | D．refusal |
What can be considered as one of the negative aspects of acting according to Thomas?
| A．Pressure from the public. |
| B．Long-term working friendship. |
| C．Finding joy in difficulty itself. |
| D．Reading scripts and memorizing lines. |
Thomas played the lead role in ________.
| A．Love Actually | B．Games of Thrones |
| C．The Last Region | D．Nanny McPhee |
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity (繁荣). Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit (追求) of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which only values the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among those who are against competition are young people who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by them is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot.
Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to disappear can we discover a new meaning in competition.What is the best title of this passage?
| A．Competition! Why friends turn into enemies. |
| B．Competition! What self-respect depends on. |
| C．New meaning found in competition. |
| D．Two mistaken beliefs about competition. |
Why do some young people suffering from competitive pressures seek failure?
| A．Because they are aware that they will not succeed in competition. |
| B．Because they don’t think it worthwhile to compete with others. |
| C．Because they are afraid that they would not be valued if they lost. |
| D．Because they are fed up with the great efforts needed to compete with others. |
Which of the following will the author probably agree with?
| A．One should treat competition as a life-and-death affair. |
| B．One should make every endeavor to avoid competition. |
| C．One should get rid of the fear of failure in competition. |
| D．One should be given rewards after competing with others. |
The true competitors and those with a desire to fail both believe _______.
| A．one’s self-worth comes from how well he performs in comparison with others |
| B．one’s dream can be achieved if he has mastered good communication skills |
| C．one’s failure happens when he is suffering from emotional problems |
| D．one’s success is based on how hard he has tried |
TODAY, Friday, November 12
JAZZ with the Mike Thomas Jazz Band at The Derby Arms. Upper Richmond Road West, Sheen.
DISCO Satin Sounds Disco. Free at The Lord Napier, Mort lake High St., from 8 a. m. to 8 p. m. Tel: 682—1158.
SATURDAY, November 13
JAZZ Lysis at The Bull’s Head, Barnes. Admission ￡60.
MUSICAL HALL at The Star and Garter, Lower Richmond Road, Putney, provided by the Aba Daba Music Hall company. Good food and entertainment fair price. Tel: 789—6749.
FAMILY night out? Join the sing-along at The Black Horse. Sheen Road, Richmond.
JAZZ The John Bennett Big Band at The Bull’s Head, Barnes. Admission ￡80.
THE DERBY ARMS, Upper Richmond Road West, give you Joe on the electric accordion (手风琴). Tel: 789—4536.
SUNDAY, November 14
DISCO Satin Sounds Disco. Free at The Lord Napier, Mort Lake High Street, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
FOLK MUSIC at The Derby Arms. The Short Stuff and residents the Norman Chop Trio. Non-members ￡70. Tel: 688—4626.
HEAVY MUSIC with Tony Simon at The Bull. Upper Richmond Road West, East Sheen.
THE DERBY ARMS, Upper Richmond Road West, give you Joe on the electric accordion. If you want to enjoy the electric accordion on Saturday, you should ring _______ to find out at what time it starts.
| A．789—6749. | B．789—4536. |
| C．682—1158. | D．688—4626. |
You want to spend the Saturday by joining the entertainment with your family. Where should you go?
| A．Jazz at The Bull’s Head. |
| B．Disco at The Lord Napier. |
| C．The sing-along at The Black Horse. |
| D．The electric accordion at The Derby Arms. |
Where and when can you hear the Norman Chop Trio?
| A．At the Bull on Saturday. |
| B．At the Derby Arms on Sunday. |
| C．At the Bull’s Head on Sunday. |
| D．At the Black Horse on Saturday. |
A few years ago, pop poets such as Murray Lachlan Young began to set poetry to rock music with some surprising results. People thought that poetry was the new rock ‘n’ roll. However, despite the brief popularity of a few pop poets, poetry and pop music didn’t seem to mix. But are they really so different?
If you look back at the origins of poetry, there is a strong connection between poems and popular music. In Greek mythology, for example, the muse (女神) Erato is pictured with a lyre (里拉琴) in her hand, and looks just like the ancestor of the modern rock star with his electric guitar. In addition, the poets Shelley and Byron were as famous in the nineteenth century as the pop stars of today.
But despite their common origins, there are many differences between poetry and pop music. Pop songs are always written for a public performance, whereas poetry often isn’t. And the lyrics in pop songs sometimes have less rhythm than those in poetry. This is because the music provides the rhythm rather than the words. Pop lyrics are also simpler and often keep on saying the same thing. This repetition works well in a performance and means that pop songs are easier for people to sing and learn by heart.
Both songs and poems tell a story or talk about feelings. Songs in particular deal with the different stages in a relationship, such as falling in love or breaking up. The words and ideas in songs are usually easier to understand than those in “serious” poetry. However, talented performers like Paul McCartney, or newer stars like Robbe Williams, often give simple songs more expression when they perform them. And some of the best lines from pop lyrics are as beautiful as poetry.
So although pop music and poetry have many differences, they do have one important thing in common: the power to make us think about how we feel.What did Murray Lachlan Young do a few years ago?
| A．He had poems and rock music combined. |
| B．He surprised people with his beautiful style of writing. |
| C．He wrote beautiful music for some famous poems. |
| D．He invented a new kind of poem for his fans. |
According to the article, the difference between poetry and pop songs is that _______.
| A．there is more rhythm in pop songs than poetry |
| B．pop songs are more difficult to understand than poetry |
| C．some words in pop songs are repeated over and over again |
| D．pop songs are not always performed before audience |
According to Paragraph 4, which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Songs and poems are equally beautiful. |
| B．The main theme of songs is about relationship. |
| C．Songs tell stories but poems tell about feelings. |
| D．Songs and poems express a similar message. |
What does the writer say about talented performers today?
| A．They look at poetry to find ideas for their songs. |
| B．They think their songs are more serious than poetry. |
| C．They give songs more meaning when they sing them. |
| D．They consider themselves to be more popular than poets. |