At railway stations all across Britain next week, groups of students will gather with their backpacks to wait for the trains that will carry them home for Christmas. This is as large a movement of human beings as before, but with more contradictory traffic flows, so that trains filled with the young pass each other travelling in every direction.
At first, I went home every weekend with my washing, but then those visits became less regular. How did I let my parents know I was coming? They had no phone. Perhaps I wrote to them ("Expect me with dirty shirts this Friday afternoon"), but more likely I didn't let them know, and just turned up or didn't turn up, not understanding that my parents' dashed hopes of seeing me were a greater casualty of my carelessness than a spoiled tea.
And in all this I suspect I was typical, at least of young men. As for our fathers and mothers, none of them talked of "empty-nest syndrome", even though its implication that the principal human duty is to protect and feed the young would have suited their generation better than ours. Then, the feelings of loss went without a name. Today, it's a condition with remedies, which will make parents feel more enjoyable in their life. The Mayo Clinic, for example, suggests you try to maintain regular contact with your children through "visits, phone calls, emails, texts or video chats". If you feel depressed, lean on loved ones or your mental health provider. Above all, stay positive: "Thinking about the extra time and energy you might have to devote to your marriage or personal interests after your last child leaves home might help you adapt to this major life change."
What can’t be denied, however, is that children often leave home. In modern societies, this is what they do. Christmas is the very time they can be depended on to return. For the non-religious, that may be this season’s true comfort and significance.The main reason for the busy traffic across Britain next week is that .
| A．young students will travel home for Christmas |
| B．young people will travel in every direction |
| C．it is a large movement of human beings |
| D．the traffic flows will be more contradictory |
From the second paragraph we can learn that the writer .
| A．went home every week to wash dirty clothes |
| B．understood his parents’ desire of seeing him |
| C．didn’t understand his parents’ feelings |
| D．went home to see his parents regularly |
The underlined word “remedies” in paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to .
| A．reasons | B．excuses | C．habits | D．solutions |
From the last paragraph we know that .
| A．in modern society, children should leave home |
| B．Christmas is likely a time for family reunion |
| C．the significance of Christmas is celebration |
| D．Christmas is not a comfort for the non-religious |
From the passage we can infer that by writing the article the writer’s purpose is to .
| A．persuade the young to show concern for their parents |
| B．ask the young to go home regularly |
| C．make the young understand their parents’ interests |
| D．enable the young to be more independent |
The moral view of violence, labeling it as bad and wrong, has done little to end it. The alternative view is to release our judgments and see violence for what it is: a form of suffering. This is a difficult change for many people. Not only are they in the habit of making knee-jerk(下意识的) judgments, but violent people cause harm, and therefore their suffering seems to deserve less sympathy.
You hurt me, so why should I have sympathy for you? It should be the other way around. Does it take a saint(圣人) to make the change from strong anger to sympathy?
Turning points arrive when we can make a choice not to suffer in silence. We then strike a soul bargain that is fearful but necessary. The bargain is that redemption(解救) is possible through love.The absence of love is absolutely the problem, and love is absolutely the solution. We don’t have to reach into another area to locate the magic power of love that is available to us here and now.
The problem is that love comes through a fallible human being. The rule is constant work on the spiritual path to clear away the obstacles that prevent love from coming through us. The work is much more like working on blocked pipe system than it is like copying a saint.
Hope is the emotion that keeps this dogged work even when results seem to be slow or impossible. Can I love the terrorist who harms my country? Can I love the criminal who wants to harm me? At the level of the soul I already do, and the spiritual path is a means to arrive at that level.
No one is required to leap into sudden sympathy for terrorists, or even to announce publicly that our enemies deserve love. But in our souls each of us harbors the knowledge that only love is going to bring violence to an end. No matter how you and I live our outward lives, our spiritual lives must remain devoted to that vision.Which one is NOT true for moral view of violence?
| A．It thinks violence is bad and wrong. |
| B．It plays an important role in ending violence. |
| C．It is a knee-jerk judgment of people. |
| D．It thinks violent people deserve less sympathy. |
Why should violent people deserve sympathy?
| A．Because we should perform like a saint. |
| B．Because love is absolutely the solution. |
| C．Because our spiritual lives must remain devoted to that vision. |
| D．Because they are first in suffering then choose violence, so they need love. |
What's the meaning "The problem is that love comes through a fallible human being"?
| A．Human being is full of love. |
| B．It is difficult and long way. |
| C．Human being is easy to make friends. |
| D．It's a problem to get love from an imperfect human being. |
Which would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Violence Is Harmful to Us |
| B．Love Can End Violence |
| C．Change Our View of Violence |
| D．Our Soul Needs Purifying |
When travelers think of an Adriatic cruise, scenes of Venice, Italy—its canals, bridges, piazzas, and stunning architecture—come to mind. It's one of the most popular cruise destinations in Europe. And for many, the sail-away from Venice, through its Giudecca Canal, is an awe-inspiring experience.
Venice may be known as La Serenissima, or "the most peaceful," which, however, isn't entirely accurate these days. Venetians have been increasingly concerned about the impact of tourism and the potential for an environmental disaster off its shoreline due to the number of cruise ships that enter and exit its lagoon(泻湖).
That's why earlier last month, Venice announced a new policy to forbid the transit(穿越) of cruise ships to the city via the Giudecca Canal. It's not that the city wants to shun the cruise industry altogether: It simply wants to force traffic further away from the landmarks along the shoreline. City officials say that most ships will now transit the Contorta Sant'Angelo Canal.
Additionally, the city is clamping down on the size of ships that can visit Venice, as well as the total number of ships that call on it on a daily basis. As of January 2014, Venice plans to reduce the visitations of larger ships (those that are 40,000 tons or heavier) by 20 percent. This effectively caps the number of ships that can enter per day to five. In November, ships heavier than 96,000 tons will not be allowed to enter Guidecca Canal at all.
How the city plans to carry out the new five-ships-per-day rule remains to be seen and have yet to be announced. Which ships will be allowed passage? Will it be first-come, first-served? However they proceed, cruise line executives want their passengers to know that Venice will remain a regular port of call—even if the transit to and from the city must evolve.Before last month, toursits left Venice by ship through ______.
| A．the Giudecca Canal | B．La Serenissima |
| C．the Contorta Sant'Angelo Canal | D．the Adriatic Sea |
The new policy was issued in order to_____________.
| A．stress the accuracy of Venice's fame for peace |
| B．reduce the damage to Venice's enviironment |
| C．depend less on the crusie industry |
| D．limit the number of toursits |
It can be learned from the passage that _____________.
| A．People in Venice are complaining about the toursits' behaviors. |
| B．Venetians are often bothered by noise and pollution. |
| C．The city government has announced the concrete ways to carry out the new five-ships-per-day rule. |
| D．The new policy will not discourage the tourism from developing. |
What does the underlined phrase "clapming down on" mean?
| A．limiting | B．abandoning |
| C．banning | D．punishing |
In spite of the uncertainty of the economy, the movie industry has been stricken by a box-office outburst. Suddenly it seems as if everyone is going to the movies, with ticket sales this year up 17.5 percent, to $1.7 billion.
And it is not just because ticket prices are higher. Attendance has also jumped, by nearly 16 percent. If that pace continues through the year, it would amount to the biggest box-office increase in at least two decades.
Americans, for the moment, just want to hide in a very dark place. People want to forget their troubles, and they want to be with other people. Helping feed the outburst is the mix of movies, which have been more audience-friendly in recent months as the studios have tried to adjust after the discouraging sales of more serious films.
As she stood in line at the 18-screen Bridge theater complex here on Thursday to buy weekend tickets for “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience,” Angel Hernandez was not thinking much about escaping reality. Instead, Ms. Hernandez, a Los Angeles parking lot attendant and mother of four young girls, was focused on one very specific reality: her wallet.
“Spending hundreds of dollars to take them to Disneyland is ridiculous right now,” she said. “For $60 and some candy money I can still be a good mom and give them a little fun.”
A lot of parents may have been thinking the same thing Friday, as “Jonas Brothers” sold out more than 800 theaters, and was expected to sell a powerful $25 million or more in tickets.
The film industry appears to have had a hand in its recent good luck. Over the last year or two, studios have released movies that are happier, scarier or just less depressing than what came before. After poor results for a rush of serious dramas built around the Middle East, Hollywood got back to comedies.Which of the following is not a reason for the improvement of the movie industry?
| A．A growing number of people are going to the cinema. |
| B．People are richer with the development of economy. |
| C．More comedies are made than serious films. |
| D．People have to pay more to watch a movie. |
Ms. Hernandez purchased the movie tickets because ________.
| A．she tried to escape reality |
| B．she was a crazy movie fan |
| C．she was fond of Disneyland |
| D．she wanted to please her kids |
According to the text, which of the following number is not used to describe the shooting up of the movie industry?
| A．17.5% | B．$1.7 billion |
| C．$60 | D．$25 million |
The passage is developed mainly by ________.
| A．presenting the effect and analyzing the causes |
| B．following the order of time |
| C．describing problems and drawing a conclusion |
| D．making comparison of ideas |
They’re WILD animals
By Ernst-Ulrich Franzen
March 11, 2010(3) Comments
The story about the woman who lost some fingers while feeding a bear at a zoo in Manitowoc, after she ignored warnings and barriers(栅栏), reminded me of the story I heard about a couple who put their baby on the back of a wild horse in South Dakota to get a really cute picture. We all do silly things at times — no one is immune — but treating wild animals as lovely pets has to fall into a special category. Teddy bears and Disney movies aren’t actually representative of real bears.
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1. TosaLeft - Mar 11, 2010 10:46AM
Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe some alcohol was involved?
2. tk421 - Mar 11, 2010 11:09 AM
It was already approved that alcohol was involved. Stories that begin with a drunk person saying “Hey, I got an idea, watch this!” rarely end well.
3. Tristan Kloss - Mar 11, 2010 11:41 AM
Alcohol certainly isn’t involved when people decide to keep “pets” like chimpanzees, baby tigers, etc. Stupidity, definitely. Dogs are pets because of thousands of years of domestication. Even farm animals, which have been kept by humans for thousands of years as well, aren’t let in the house. So why keep animals that treat human contact with, at best, indifference(冷淡、不在乎) and, at worst, violence?In Ernst-Ulrich Franzen’s opinion, the woman lost her fingers because ________.
| A．the zoo keepers didn’t warn her of the danger |
| B．she didn’t know the bear was a wild animal |
| C．she was somehow influenced by cartoon characters |
| D．she climbed over the barriers and angered the bea |
TosaLeft thinks the wounded woman ________.
| A．may have been drunk | B．may be a little stupid |
| C．was addicted to wine | D．fed wine to the bear |
tk421 means a drunk person ________.
| A．should be forbidden to enter the zoo |
| B．usually gets himself into trouble |
| C．is often fond of making up stories |
| D．usually likes to show himself off |
What does Tristan Kloss think of people treating wild animals as pets?
| A．Kind. | B．Illegal. |
| C．Loving. | D．Stupid. |
One day in l965, when I worked at View Ridge School in Seattle, a fourth-grade teacher approached me. She had a student who finished his work before all the others and needed a challenge. "Could he help in the library?" She asked. I said, "Send him along."
Soon a slight, sandy-haired boy in jeans and a T-shift appeared. "Do you have a job for me?" he asked.
I told him about the Dewey Decimal System for shelving books. He picked up the idea immediately. Then I showed him a stack of cards for long-overdue books that I was beginning to think had actually been returned but were misshelved with the wrong cards in them. He said, "Is it kind of a detective job?" I answered yes, and he became working.
He had found three books with wrong cards by the time his teacher opened the door and announced, "Time for break!" He argued for finishing the finding job; She made the case for fresh air. She won.
The next morning, he arrived early. "I want to finish these books," he said. At the end of the day, when he asked to be a librarian on a regular basis, it was easy to say yes. He worked untiringly.
After a few weeks I found a note on my desk, inviting me to dinner at the boy's home. At the end of a pleasant evening, his mother announced that the family would be moving to neighbouring school district. Her son's first concern, she said, was leaving the View Ridge library. "Who will find the lost books?" he asked.
When the time came, I said a reluctant good-bye. I missed him, but not for long. A few days later he came back and joyfully announced: "The librarian over there doesn't let boys work in the library. My mother got me transferred back to View Ridge. My dad will drop me off on his way to work. And if he can't, I'll walk!"
I should have had an inkling(感觉) such focused determination would take that young man wherever he wanted to go. What I could not have guessed, however, was that he would become a wizard of the Information Age: Bill Gates, tycoon of Microsoft and America's richest man. What was the author when the story happened?
| A．A teacher. | B．A librarian. |
| C．A detective. | D．A professor. |
What was the boy told to do on his first day in the library?
| A．To rearrange the books according to the new system. |
| B．To put those overdue books back to the shelves. |
| C．To find out the books with wrong cards in them. |
| D．To put the cards back in the long-overdue books. |
The boy got transferred back to View Ridge because _______.
| A．he did not like his life in the new school |
| B．the transportation there was not convenient |
| C．he missed his old schoolmates and teachers |
| D．he was not allowed to work in the school library |
What impressed the author most was that the boy _______.
| A．had a thirst for learning |
| B．had a strong will |
| C．was extremely quick at learning |
| D．had a kind heart |