“How was school, Ben?” I asked my grandson after he began kindergarten(幼儿园) this year. “The work is too long… and there’s not enough time to play,” he replied.
I couldn’t help but remember Ben’s own mother, my daughter, Jane, and her reaction(反应) to the first day of school. Julie was also disappointed with the first day of school and so was her little sister. My three-year-old daughter announced angrily after her big sister got on the big yellow school bus, “I want to go ‘sool’ and you not let me!”
When Julie returned home that afternoon, I asked her the same question that I asked Ben, “How was school, Julie?” Julie replied, “I didn’t learn to read today.”
This year as the school bus passed my house, my mind went back to those school days again. I could almost smell the chalk dust in the air. I also wonder what the children these days manage to get chosen to do in order to get out of school for a few moments since there are no erasers to clean. It was fun to be “chosen” for eraser cleaning duty. This was a task finished by going outside and beating erasers together while sneezing and coughing. No wonder so many babies now have allergies(过敏症), and it’s simply because we all have chalk dust in our lungs!
On the first day of school, the expectation was so great that I would be ready long before it was time to leave for school. We didn’t have backpacks because we had cigar boxes. We carried our small supplies inside a cigar box from one of the local stores. We saved the cigar boxes and used them from year to year until they fell apart.
The first day of school was exciting. It was a new beginning. The doors of knowledge had been opened. The first day of school is an event in our lives that most of us remember. It’s a big step for a small child toward leaving babyhood and so “there isn’t enough time to play”.Why did Jane become angry according to the passage?
| A．Because she didn’t learn to read on the first day of school. |
| B．Because there was too much work for her to do at school. |
| C．Because she had no time to play at school. |
| D．Because she was not allowed to go to school. |
The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 suggests that .
| A．the author was thinking of her school days jokingly |
| B．the author warned students against the harm of chalk dust |
| C．the author suffered from an allergy because of chalk dust |
| D．the author doubted whether her lungs had chalk dust |
In the opinion of the author, the first day of school is .
| A．a day when a child is the happiest |
| B．a day when a child does much work |
| C．the beginning of great learning |
| D．the end of childhood full of toys |
In our world today, the media and entertainment industries are constantly focusing on beauty over brains. Movies, television shows, commercials, and magazines all make use of models and actors whose physical attributes(特性) will sell their product.
As our country is trying to reduce the obesity numbers, eating disorder statistics continue to increase due to the push for thinner people. While obesity is a serious medical condition that can lead to many health problems, many of us try to lose weight for appearance purposes. Children as young as elementary school age have begun to worry about the numbers that appear on the scale. In my opinion, it seems that “fat” has become the new“ugly”.
Two weeks ago, 37-year-old Wisconsin television reporter Livingston, who is 235 pounds, received an email from a man named Krause. In the email Krause attacked her, writing,“Your physical condition hasn’t improved for many years. Surely you don’t consider yourself a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular.”
Today, it seems that a vast majority of people care more about how they look and appear to their peers rather than what is inside. The truth is that every person is built differently; we all come in different shapes and sizes. Just because someone is heavier, that doesn’t mean they eat large amounts of junk food around the day. Likewise, even though a person is thin, that doesn’t mean they are necessarily healthy and fit.
If you are reading this and you struggle with your weight or your appearance, please recognize that you are beautiful and special in your own way. You are worth so much more than you realize, and even if I don’t know you, understand that I respect and support you. Beauty is not defined by size; it is defined by how we treat others and respect ourselves. In the words of the talented film actress Kirstie Alley, “There’s a lot more to life than how fat or thin you are.” With so many people losing weight, it will end in .
| A．models’ and actors’ appearance in ads |
| B．the fall of media and entertainment industries |
| C．more and more people becoming obesity |
| D．more people’s suffering from eating disorder |
The underlined phrase “the numbers that appear on the scale” in the second paragraph may mean .
| A．intelligence | B．weight | C．patience | D．strength |
The writer used the example of Jennifer Livingston to show .
| A．people think “fat” looks ugly | B．fat people are becoming cleverer |
| C．physical condition is good | D．young people never follow example |
What Kirstie Alley said means .
| A．people should pay attention to the appearance |
| B．there is no need for any people to go on diet |
| C．people are beautiful when they concern others |
| D．there’s always someone who understands and supports you |
What is a six-letter word that immediately comes to mind when you need some information on the Internet? You probably thought of Google. But Google wasn’t always the name of the famous search engine. In fact, the original name was BackRub!
BackRub was the name two graduate students gave to the new search engine they developed in 1996. They called it BackRub because the engine used backlinks to measure the popularity of Web sites. Later, they wanted a better name — a name that suggests huge quantities of data. They thought of the word googol. (A googol is a number followed by 100 zeros.) When they checked the Internet registry of names to see if googol was already taken, one of the students misspelled the word by mistake, and that’s how Google was born.
Google is just one example of a name change in the business world. Many other companies have decided to change their names or the names of their products. Here are some more examples:
Jerry Yang and David Filo, two young computer specialists, developed a guide to Internet content in 1994. They called it “Jerry and David’s Guide to World Wide Web.” But they soon realized that this wasn’t a very catchy name, so they searched through a dictionary and found a better one: “Yahoo.”
Sometimes companies change their names because of the popularity of one of their products. In 1962, a young runner named Phil Knight started a company called Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1971, Knight decided to design and manufacture his own brand of shoes. He named the shoes after the Greek goddess of victory — Nike. Nike shoes became so well known that Knight changed the name of the whole company to Nike.According to the text, Google .
| A．has been famous since 1996 |
| B．is a result of a spelling mistake |
| C．means a number followed by 100 zeros |
| D．is the original name of the search engine |
Jerry and David changed the guide’s name to Yahoo because the original name .
| A．had been registered | B．had been forgotten |
| C．was not attractive | D．was too short |
The company Nike got its name from .
| A．its founders | B．its customers |
| C．its popular products | D．its advanced techniques |
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
| A．The name changes | B．The history of Google |
| C．How to choose a name? | D．Why are names important? |
"Can I get a light?" This question is among the most common between smokers. What if this question was to come from an unusual source? In April 2014, the National Health Promotion Foundation uploaded an anti-smoking advertisement onto YouTube. The anti-smoking ad has quickly been known as the "most powerful anti-smoking ad."
The anti-smoking video, called the "Smoking Kid," features children walking up to adult smokers asking for a light. The children in the ad are actors but the adults smoking are unsuspecting participants in the project.
The video begins with the statement "adults know that smoking is harmful, but don’t remind themselves of this fact " Once a "smoking kid" approaches the adults, every adult asked is shocked that a child with a cigarette in hand is asking for a light. The first adult starts by saying, "I’m not giving it to you," and the video goes on to state "every adult filmed said no and reminded the children that smoking is bad."
Before going away, the kid hands each adult a booklet after being turned down for a light. The booklet says, "You worry about me, but why not about yourself?" Each adult looks around for the child as their faces are filled with confusion and discomfort.
The video shows that a few of the smokers quickly threw away their cigarettes or put their cigarettes away, showing that this experiment was affective at that moment.
The most influential element in the ad isn't the use of children or the responses from the smoking adults. It comes down to something much simpler than that. Why is it that we worry about other people, forgetting to worry about ourselves? According to the text, the anti-smoking ad is ______.
| A．unusual | B．shocking | C．influential | D．encouraging |
The underlined word "unsuspecting" (in Para. 2) probably means ______
| A．uninformed | B．unwilling | C．unfortunate | D．unacceptable |
What are the adults，reactions to the children asking for a light?
| A．They pay no attention to children's request. |
| B．They reject kids，request and educate them. |
| C．They look around for children's parents. |
| D．They quickly throw children's cigarettes away. |
The best title of the text might be ______.
| A．Give up smoking, for your own sake | B．Keep away from smoking, adults |
| C．Tell your children not to smoke | D．Reject a child asking for a light |
When I decided to quit my job as a wedding photographer, I was in my late twenties, fresh from my divorce from Bob who had left me empty and confused. I decided to leave the US and travel. I had no savings, plus more than $5,000 in debt. What I did have were two sponsored tasks as a travel photographer- and with that along, I thought, it would be easy.
My first experience was a road trip from Toronto to Las Vegas, paid for by a car delivery service. Other trips followed and then I started a travel blog (博客). It was intended to be my calling card for assignment travel photography. Yet even with my blog and past experience, email after email I sent to publications, trying to get work, went unanswered. When they did get in touch, editors told me that I had no chance of making a career with travel photography. While I struggled to get on the path that I wanted, and as I expanded my blog to help get me there, I found myself wearing the hat of a full-time blogger.
Luckily, I got in at the right time. It was 2010，and the travel industry was just starting to turn its attention to bloggers. As I never could have predicted, my blogging-not my photography-did take me around the world successfully. At first，I thought it was for personal reasons, but I realized later that it was for free marketing for my blogging.
Within two years, I was being asked to speak at travel blogging conferences, which helped me to raise a network of friends around the world. Even more meaningful, however, was when I saw that my travels were also helping other people. My blog and social media followers saw that I chased my dreams and told me over and over again how they needed that kind of example, which was absent in their lives elsewhere.After the author quit her job, she decided to ______.
| A．divorce her husband | B．be a wedding photographer |
| C．pay off all her debt | D．go travelling abroad |
What can we learn about the author from the 2nd paragraph?
| A．She paid money to a car delivery agency for a road trip. |
| B．She realised his dream of becoming a travel photographer. |
| C．She got a job as an editor in a publishing house. |
| D．She finally became a professional blogger unintentionally. |
The author believed her success mainly resulted from ______.
| A．her personal reasons | B．her photographing skills |
| C．free marketing for blogging | D．booming of travel industry |
What did the author think of her two years' work?
| A．Inspiring. | B．Appealing. | C．Interesting. | D．Challenging. |
Einstein's connection with the politics of the nuclear bomb is well known: He signed the letter to President Franklin Roosevelt that persuaded the United States to take the idea seriously, and he engaged in postwar efforts to prevent nuclear war. But these were not just the isolated actions of a scientist dragged into the world of politics. Einstein's life was, in fact, "divided between politics and equations(方程式)."
Sickened by what he saw as the waste of human lives during the First World War, he became involved in antiwar demonstrations. His support of civil disobedience did little to endear him to his colleagues. Then, following the war, he directed his efforts toward reconciliation(调停) and improving international relations. And soon his politics were making it difficult for him to visit the United States, even to give lectures.
Einstein's second great cause was Zionism(犹太复国主义). Although he was Jewish, Einstein rejected the idea of God. However, a growing awareness of anti-Semitism(反犹太主义), both before and during the War, led him gradually to identify with the Jewish community, and later to become an outspoken supporter of Zionism.
His theories came under attack. One man was accused of motivating others to murder Einstein and fined a mere six dollars. When a book was published entitled 100 Authors Against Einstein, he retorted, "If I were wrong, then one would have been enough!" When Hitler came to power, Einstein then in America declared he would not return to Germany. While Nazi attacked his house and confiscated his bank account, a Berlin newspaper displayed the headline "Good News from Einstein--He's Not Coming Back."
Fearing that German scientists would build a nuclear bomb, Einstein proposed that the United States should develop its own. But he was publicly warning of the dangers of nuclear war and proposing international control of nuclear weaponry. Throughout his life, Einstein's efforts toward peace probably achieved little and won him few friends. His support of the Zionist cause, however, was recognized in 1952, when he was offered the presidency of Israel. He declined, saying he was too naive in politics. But perhaps his real reason was different:" Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity."The reason why Einstein was against the war was that __
| A．he tried to get involved in politics |
| B．the nuclear bomb could be built by German scientists |
| C．many people died during the war in vain |
| D．President Franklin persuaded him to do so |
We can learn from the passage that Einstein __
| A．believed in God |
| B．was proud of being Jewish |
| C．suggested that nuclear weaponry should be banned |
| D．made great achievements in peace |
The examples in paragraph 4 are used to prove __
| A．many people in support of Zionism hated Einstein |
| B．the reason why Einstein would not return to Israel |
| C．Einstein was in danger of being killed |
| D．Einstein didn't enjoy his popularity in the field Of politics |
What is the structure of the passage?
