While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.
The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to compete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I’m not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold – his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.
I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.
But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.
No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout “Come on, you can do it!” and he did.
A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and he should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.
Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.
In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitirs, it is nice to watch an underdog.From the passage we can learn that the young man .
| A．made his turn to start back pitifully |
| B．was skillful in freestyle in the game |
| C．swam faster than the average swimmer |
| D．was not capable enough to win the medal |
The crowd changed their attitudes because .
| A．they felt sorry for the young man |
| B．they were moved by the young man’s courage |
| C．they wanted to show their sympathy |
| D．they meant to please the young man |
According to the passage, “it is nice to watch an underdog” probably means .
| A．it’s amazing to watch an ordinary man challenging himself |
| B．it’s amusing to watch a man with awful swimming skills |
| C．it’s cheerful for athletes to act proudly before their competitors |
| D．it’s brave enough for some athletes to remove the silver medals |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The event started with three men, two of whom were disqualified later. |
| B．The crowd started to laugh at the athlete’s arms waving in an attempt at freestyle. |
| C．The athlete, as well as the author, is an expert swimmer. |
| D．The swimming event is a show of courage rather than a fierce competition. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．Compete for Gold! | B．Try again! |
| C．Break a Record! | D．Go for it! |
LONDON (Reuters Life!) ---- Forget about talking your children into considering life as a doctor or a teacher and start training them for the talent show.
A survey of British parents showed the aspirations (志向) of their children are greatly different from what they dreamed about when considering who they wanted to be when they grew up.
Although astronaut (宇航员) still remains fairly high on the list of careers (事业) kids dream about these days, others like doctor and teacher have been taken the place of by the desire (欲望) to win good name and money as a sporting hero, pop star or actor.
The parents of children aged 5 to 11 said the choice of lawyer had dropped by only one place on a top 10 list to sixth, while teacher had dropped to ninth from top in the last 25 or more years.
The survey for British TV channel “Watch” found a great difference between the genders (性别) of today’s young people when compared with their parents’ dreams 25 years or more ago.
Playing professional football, being an astronaut and joining the firefighting service topped the boys’ choices, while girls are more likely to be dreaming of taking to the stage as a pop star or actress or joining the medical profession.
When asked what they would like their children to do for a living, today’s parents still like the academic (学术的) professions (职业), with law and medicine scoring highly, while being a boss came third.
Parents also praised job happiness above wealth (财富) when it comes to their hopes for their children.
Nearly 70 percent of the parents surveyed thought that they failed to follow their dreams when it came to their career, with 37 percent thinking it was caused by a lack of aspiration and not having the necessary conditions.From the passage we know that most parents still hope that in the future their children can take up ______.
| A．jobs such as musicians, singers and dancers |
| B．jobs related to academic professions like lawyers and doctors |
| C．jobs in which they will not be endangered |
| D．jobs which will be well paid only |
According to the survey for British TV channel “Watch”, which of the following is the boys’ best career choice?
| A．A pop star | B．An actor | C．A doctor | D．A firefighter |
What can be learnt from the passage?
| A．Parents’ hope for their children’s career did not change too much. |
| B．Parents pay much attention to the income of their children. |
| C．Less than half of the parents who were surveyed didn’t follow their dreams. |
| D．Most parents didn’t have the necessary conditions to realize their dreams. |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Many reasons cause the change of children’s dreams. |
| B．Parents’ dreams are different form children’s. |
| C．Parents are changing their own dreams. |
| D．Children’s dreams are always changing. |
The other day I heard a few local musicians talking:
"I hate all the pianos in this town and I hate that rubbish they play on the radio. They cannot even understand rhythm (韵律)."
"Nobody wants to pay musicians anything. I’m sick of all the people who want you to play without paying you."
One younger musician said, "There are several clubs who want me to play for a few nights a month, and I’m trying to find other places to play. I’m also planning to join in several summer festivals this year."
I really liked what the younger musician said so I made friends with him.
Attitudes are important. Whether they’re positive (积极的) or negative (消极的), they’re all rubbing off on you. If you’re around people who are always complaining or blaming (责备) others, it is possible that you will start doing the same as well. If you spend lots of time with people who don’t support (支持) your dreams, it is time to take a look at the people you call "friends".
There is an easy exercise you can try. Make a list of the people who you often stay with, and simply stop spending time with the negative ones on your list. Set a new standard for yourself and don’t become friends with people who fall below that standard.
Of course, this exercise is entirely different from making friends only for the good of oneself. We really should try to help and spend time with those who are working towards a goal or dream.The musicians’ conversation at the beginning is there to show that ______.
| A．musicians’ living conditions are not good |
| B．people in that town have poor taste in music |
| C．young people are more likely to succeed |
| D．different people have different attitudes |
The underlined part "they’re all rubbing off on you" in Paragraph 6 means ______.
| A．they’ll push you ahead |
| B．they’ll help you realize your dreams |
| C．they’ll keep you from moving on |
| D．they’ll have an influence (影响) on you |
Why did the author want to make friends with the younger musician?
| A．He is more active than the others. |
| B．He can earn more than the others. |
| C．His attitude is more positive than the others. |
| D．He has more things to do than the others. |
We can get the following information from the passage EXCEPT ______.
| A．the younger musician is a positive person and would be a good friend |
| B．one should avoid (避免) making friends with people who have lots of difficulties |
| C．the exercise can help you keep close to really helpful Friends |
| D．one will start complaining if one spends too much time with negative people |
It’s summer movie time again. And heroes are ready to try their strength and magic on the silver screen. Check out our list of four films that look most promising to young audience.
Harry potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Release Date: June 4
Story: It’s the summer before Harry Potter’s third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A shadow is hanging over Hogwarts. A dangerous murderer, Sirius Black, has escaped the Wizards’ Prison. And he broke out to fulfill one task to kill Harry Potter.
Around the World in 80 Days
Release Date: June 16
Story: This version of the classic novel set in 1872 focuses on Passepartout ( Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan), a Chinese thief who seeks refuge with a strange London adventurer, Phileas Fogg. Passepartout uses his martial arts skills to defend Fogg from danger as he travels around the world in 80 days to win a bet.
Spider- Man 2
Release Date: June 30
Story: Peter Parker is still coming to terms with his dual (双重的) identity as the crime superhero Spider-Man. He wants to reveal his secret identity to Mary Jane: meanwhile, his aunt May has fallen on hard times. A new villain (坏人) , Dr Otto Octavius, has appeared to cause more trouble.
King Arther
Release Date: July 7
Story: King Arthur is presented as a clever ruler who manages to unite all the knights(骑士) in Britain after the fall of the Roman Empire（帝国）. Under the guidance of Merlin and the beautiful, brave Guinevere, Arthur will struggle to realize his dreamsAccording to the passage, if you want to see a film whose leading actor is Jackie Chan, you will see the film on _____.
| A．June 4 | B．June 16 | C．June 30 | D．July 7 |
In Spider-Man 2, Aunt May’s trouble is caused by_____.
| A．Peter Parker | B．Mary Jane | C．Dr. Otto Octavius | D．Spider-Man |
Which of the following films is set in ancient Britain?
| A．Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. | B．Spider-Man 2 |
| C．Around the World in 80 Days. | D．King Arthur |
Imagine a boy from a small village in East Africa. He, since a very early age, has been looking after cattle. At twelve years old he knows more about cattle than most of you. However, he has never been to school. Has this boy had any education?
Education is discovering about ourselves and about the people and things around us. All the people who care about us — our parents, brothers, sisters, friends — are our teachers. In fact, we learn something from everyone we meet. We start learning on the day we were born, not on the first day we go to school. Every day we have new experiences, like finding a bird’s nest, discovering a new street in our neighborhood, making friends with someone we didn’t like before. New experiences are even more fun when we share them with other people.
Encouragement from the people around us enables us to explore things as many as possible. As we grow up, we begin to find out what we are capable of doing. You may be good at cooking, or singing or playing football. You find this out by doing these things. Just thinking about cooking doesn’t tell you whether you are good at it.
We learn so much just living from day to day. So why is school important? Of course you can learn some things better at home than at school, like how to do the shopping, and how to help old or disabled people who can’t do everything for themselves. At school, teachers help us to read and write. With their guidance, we begin to see things in different ways.In the opinion of the writer, .
| A．the school is not important at all. |
| B．we have to learn from the people around us. |
| C．education takes place everywhere. |
| D．only people who care for us can teach us. |
One can find out what he / she is good at by _.
| A．what people encourage him/ her to do. |
| B．trying and practising things. |
| C．thinking about it when growing up. |
| D．he teachings of those he / she meets. |
The passage tells us that _.
| A．different classes of people receive different kinds of education. |
| B．everyone gets education from the day he or she was born. |
| C．the school is absolutely necessary if one wants to understand the world. |
| D．everyone will find out what he or she is good at. |
According to the last paragraph, we know that .
| A．the school enables us to understand the world in other ways. |
| B．the school is not so important as our living places. |
| C．the school teaches us things which are useless at home. |
| D．the school cannot prepare us for our daily lives. |
Forbes asked a panel of architects and campus designers to nominate their picks for the best-looking campuses in the world. These are their top choices.
Kenyon College
Gambier, Ohio, US
Mike Evans, a principal at Norfolk, Va., design firm Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company, says to be beautiful a campus must have a “signature campus space as a carrier of the campus brand.” At Kenyon College, that space is “Middle Path,” a 10-foot-wide footpath that serves as the Gothic hilltop campus’ central artery. More than just a trail, it’s a village green for the tight-knit campus community. Sergei Lobanov-Rostovsky, who teaches 17th-century poetry at Kenyon, says the college, both isolated and pastoral, is “a small place to think big thoughts.”
Oxford University
Oxford, England
Teaching within Oxford’s stone walls dates as far back as the 11th century, and the school is considered a paradigm(典范) for all college campuses. With its labyrinth of quads, cloisters, and archways, it evokes elegance and tradition at every turn. “Its monastic roots and the spectacular quality of its buildings make it an architectural wonderland,” says David Mayernik, associate professor at Notre Dame’s School of Architecture.
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J., US
Princeton’s style is pure Collegiate Gothic（学院派哥特式）; most of it executed in gray stone covered in, yes, ivy. As imposing as these old stone structures are, the campus keeps life on a “human scale” by preserving green spaces and walkability.Sinuous footpaths, archways, plazas – all are designed to inspire spontaneous discussion and learning.
Scripps College
Claremont, Calif., US
The total plan of this women’s college, founded in the 1920′s, has always called for artistic connection between buildings and landscape. Together, architect Gordon Kaufmann, in collaboration with landscape architect Edward Huntsman-Trout, created a distinctively Southern Californian blend of Mission Revival-inspired architecture and landscape, which is lovely, evocative and intact. An expert in deciduous trees, Trout planted rows of liquid amber trees to give the students “a sense of autumn” come fall. He also peppered the campus with tulip trees, sycamores, almond and orange trees, as well as rare shrubs.
Stanford University
Palo Alto, Calif., US
New additions like the Science and Engineering Quad manage to gracefully blend modern and technological elements with the timeless, elegant aesthetics of the campus’ early California Mission Revival architecture. The campus also scores big points for its dramatic entrance via Palm Drive, its romantic Spanish red-tile roofs and myriad patches of green.
Tsinghua University
Beijing, China
Forbe’s panel of architects says natural setting plays a big part in assessing a campus’ beauty. In that regard, this campus is blessed: Founded in 1925, Tsinghua sits on the former site of the Qing Dynasty’s royal gardens. Many of Beijing’s most notable historical sites, like the Summer Palace, are close by. The campus is peppered with artificial ponds where stone benches and floating lotus blossoms inspire reflection.In this text, the writer mentioned many best-looking campuses in the world.How many Universities are in America?
| A．Six. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
which school is considered a paradigm for all college campuses.?
| A．Oxford University. | B．Stanford University. |
| C．Scripps College. | D．Princeton University. |
Which University has the style of pure Collegiate Gothic?
| A．Tsinghua University | B．Oxford University |
| C．Princeton University | D．Kenyon College |
In which part of a magazine can we probably read this passage?
| A．Entertainment. | B．Education. | C．Culture. | D．Health. |
Why does Tsinghua University enter the list of the best-looking campuses in the world？
| A．because the amber trees give the students “a sense of autumn” come fall. |
| B．because the artistic connects between buildings and landscape. |
| C．because its natural setting plays a big part. |
| D．because it is founded in 1925. |