It may seem to be a hard task to trace back the history of rap music, though you often see the informal music associated with highly informal dance style. As far as the origin of rap music is concerned, most people agree that it is from Afro-American and Latino Street culture of New York City. Not only in this city but in the surrounding areas there is the influence of African people and their culture.
Rap is a vocal (口头的) style in which the performer speaks rhythmically and in rhyme, generally to a beat. The term of rap music is the same with hip-hop music typically-consisting of a rhythmic vocal style called rap. If we see it carefully, then we will definitely notice that the music usually is sung at higher pitches (调). Most of the time rap music is associated with chorus. Though rap music was primarily an American music style with African influence over its music and lyrics, recently it has been spread to almost the entire world.
There is hardly any country or nation where rap music cannot be seen in some form or another, and it is one of the most popular music styles among the youngsters. However, when it comes to its history, it is believed that hip-hop or rap music started in the early 1970s，and gained much popularity throughout the world during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The history of rap music and hip-hop music is full of controversies (争议) and bans, as the lyrics sometimes relate to drugs and crime; even most famous pop stars and hip-hop musicians and singers were found to be associated with the controversies in their life. For that reason, no matter how popular this music style was or still is, it has always had a bad reputation in the eyes of mainstream society.The passage is mainly about _____.
| A．when rap music started | B．how rap music develops |
| C．what rap music is like | D．why rap music is popular |
The characteristics of rap music are _____.
| A．solo, rhymes，beats and pops |
| B．speaking, rhythms，beats and solo |
| C．repeating, speaking, pops and chorus |
| D．speaking, rhymes, beats and chorus |
Rap music is now one of the music styles mostly run after by _____.
| A．the teenagers in Africa |
| B．all kinds of people in the world |
| C．the youngsters all over the world |
| D．the young people in the US |
Rap music is often not well thought of by the mainstream because _____.
| A．it comes from the lower class |
| B．it has a short history |
| C．it is associated with crimes and drugs |
| D．its music is full of controversies |
“Hey, Jenna, do you think we’ll still be friends when we’re eighty-two?” I asked my friend．It was clear that she was wondering where I had come up with such a question．Losing Jenna would be like losing a very close sister．We hung out together．We gave each other advice．
“Of course, we’ll still be friends when we’re eighty-two.” Jenna announced loudly．
The next year, in the fourth grade, we met Jamie．The three of us soon became close friends．We played together almost every day．I thought even time couldn’t pull us apart, but I was sadly mistaken．
The three of us started fighting a lot．Before Christmas, we had a really big fight, and Jamie and Jenna were against me, both saying I was bossy．I felt helpless and lonely．I thought Christmas would be horrible!
I was surprised when Jenna came to my house and gave me an awesome Christmas card she had made for me．I was so sure that she was still disappointed with me．
“Wow, ” I said, breaking the silence as we stood on either side of my front door．“Thanks．”
“Okay…well…I have to go,” she said softly．
“Okay．See you later then…” and I closed the door．
“Who was that at the door?” my mum asked．
The card started off with “Merry Christmas”, but then it said, “I am so glad we’re friends．I am sorry about what I said when we were fighting．A fight won’t stop us from being friends．Besides, we said we were going to be friends even when we’re eight-two．”
I stopped reading and started laughing．I couldn’t believe I had forgotten what she said that day in her backyard．I couldn’t believe I had been so selfish in making my friends feel sorry for me that I had forgotten about real friendship．How would the author and Jenna get along with each other after Christmas?
| A．They would be close friends again． |
| B．They would not speak to each other． |
| C．They would lose touch with each other． |
| D．They would go on fighting with each other． |
The underlined sentence “I was bossy” in the fourth paragraph means “_________”．
| A．I looked like a boss | B．I acted as a boss |
| C．I was fond of giving orders | D．I was fond of fighting |
Which of the following is the right time order according to the passage?
a．Jamie became our friend．
b．I felt lonely and unhappy．
c．Jenna, Jamie and I fought a lot．
d．Jenna brought me a Christmas card．
e．I was sorry for what I did to her．
f．Jenna and I promised to be lifelong friends．
| A．f a b c e d | B．a c f b d e | C．a b c f e d | D．f a c b d e |
The author was delighted when she read the card from Jenna because _________．
| A．what Jenna wrote was funny |
| B．Jenna would be her friend again |
| C．she was happy about the coming Christmas |
| D．she was happy to receive a Christmas card |
Bobby Moresco grew up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, a poor working-class neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side. But Hell’s Kitchen lies right next door to Broadway, and the bright lights attracted Bobby from the time he was a teen. Being stage-struck was hardly what a street kid could admit to his partners. Fearing their making fun of him, he told no one, not even his girlfriend, when he started taking acting lessons at age 17. If you were a kid from the neighborhood, you became a cop, construction worker, longshoreman or criminal. Not an actor.
Moresco struggled to make that long walk a few blocks east. He studied acting, turned out for all the cattle calls (试戏通告)-- and during the decade of the 1970s made a total of $2,000. “I wasn’t a good actor, but I had a driving need to do something different with my life,” he says.
He moved to Hollywood, where he drove a cab and worked as a waiter. “ My father said, 'Stop this craziness and get a job; you have a wife and daughter.' ”But Moresco kept working at his chosen career.
Then in 1983 his younger brother Thomas was murdered in a killing. Moresco moved back to his old neighborhood and started writing as a way to explore the pain of Hell’s Kitchen. Half-Deserted Streets, based on his brother’s killing, opened at a small Off-Broadway theater in 1988. A Hollywood producer saw it and asked him to work on a screenplay.
His reputation grew, and he got enough assignments to move back to Hollywood. By 2003, he was again out of work and out of cash when he got a call from Paul Haggis, a director who had befriended him. Haggis wanted help writing a film about the country after September 11. The two worked on the writing Crash, but every studio in town turned it down. They kept trying. Studio executives, however, thought no one wanted to see hard lives in modern America.
Crash slipped into the theaters in May 2005, and quietly became both a hit and a critical success. It was nominated for six Academy Awards and won three -- Best Picture, Best Film Editing and Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Paul Haggis and the kid from Hell’s Kitchen.
At age 54, Bobby Moresco became an overnight success. “If you have something you want to do in life, don’t think about the problems,” he says, “think about other ways to get it done.”Why Bobby Moresco did not tell anyone that he started taking lessons at age 17?
| A．He wanted to give his girlfriend a surprise. |
| B．His girlfriend did not allow him to do this. |
| C．He was afraid of being laughed at. |
| D．He had no talent for acting. |
Which of the following sentences is NOT true?
| A．His father did not support his work as a bartender. |
| B．Before he became an overnight success, his life experienced ups and downs. |
| C．His brother’s death inspired his writing Half-Deserted Streets. |
| D．Moresco grew up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen which is a few blocks east of Broadway. |
The Studio executives turned the script Crash down because ______________.
| A．they thought the script would not be popular. |
| B．the script was not well written. |
| C．they had no money to make the film based on the script. |
| D．they thought Moresco was not famous. |
Which of the following can best describe Bobby Moresco?
| A．ambitious and persistent | B．shy but hardworking |
| C．caring and brave | D．considerate and modest |
The fourth round of heavy smog to hit Beijing in four weeks has sent more people to the hospital with respiratory (呼吸的) illnesses and led to calls for laws to control the pollution.
Pan Shiyi, a celebrity, said he is planning to propose a Clean Air Act to the local government. As a representative to the Beijing Municipal People's Congress, he started an online survey at 9:20 a.m. Within three hours, more than 25,000 web users, or 99 percent of total respondents (应答者) , welcomed his proposal.
They have good reasons to stand alongside Pan. The latest round of haze（雾霾）reduced visibility to under 500 meters in many parts of the city. The smog has also led to a great increase in respiratory illnesses, particularly among children and the elderly. Anxious parents and doctors almost all blame the smoggy air for the illnesses. Though most schoolchildren are home for the winter holidays, the bad air can easily move indoors. Besides, ordinary medical masks fail to provide enough protection, so some people have turned to gas masks.
The causes of the frightening smog are rather mysterious, though experts blame too much emissions (排放) and the mountains around Beijing that trap pollution in winter, unless there is enough wind to clear it away. Some critics blamed China’s top two oil firms, China National Petroleum Corp and China Petrochemical Corporation, saying the companies’ outdated production technologies produce large quantities of high-polluting gas fuel.
Meanwhile, some Beijingers have moved their brainstorming discussion to computers. If Pan’s proposal for a Clean Air Act is adopted, netizens say the new law should include items providing for “car-free days” in times of smog, higher standards for vehicle fuel, stricter limit to industrial and engine gas emissions, and more effective protection for the public.
Beijing is not the only city that has ever lost the blue sky. Five days of thick fog caused thousands of deaths in Britain in December 1952, urging the government to pass the first Clean Air Act in 1956, which introduced smokeless zones and cleaner fuels to reduce pollution. That may provide some experience for Beijing to refer to.Why did Pan Shiyi started an online survey?
| A．To know the public’s opinions on pollution |
| B．To tell people the danger of the smoggy weather |
| C．To call on people to support his proposal |
| D．To collect supporting evidence for his proposal |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．People are clear about the causes of the smoggy weather. |
| B．Children staying indoors will not get respiratory illnesses. |
| C．Smog is worse for people with lower resistance to diseases. |
| D．Masks can give people protection against the smoggy weather. |
Britain is mentioned in the last paragraph to ______.
| A．suggest Beijing should learn from other countries |
| B．let people know many places have this problem |
| C．tell people the situation in Britain is worse |
| D．call on the government to pass Britain’s Clean Air Act |
What’s the best title for this passage？
| A．The Use of Gas masks and Engines |
| B．Beijingers Call for Clean Air Act |
| C．Effective Protection for Blue Sky |
| D．The Mysterious Causes of the Scary Smog |
My mind seems always to return to the day when I met Carl. The city bus stopped at a corner to pick up the daily commuters (someone who travels regularly to and from work), a group in which I was included. Boarding the bus, I looked for a place to sit. At last, I found a place near the back.
The man in the seat next to the one I was going for was an older man in a grey suit, well-worn dress shoes, and a black hat like I always pictured reporters wearing, but without the little press card. Seated, I began to read the book I had been carrying, which was Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. The man in the seat next to me introduced himself by asking if I had read any other book like the one I was holding. When I told him I had, he seemed to become interested, and so did I. He introduced himself as Carl and asked if I liked jazz, and I told him that I didn’t really listen to it, and that I liked rock and roll. Waiting for Carl to tell me that I should listen to real music, I was shocked when he just smiled and nodded. He said, "You remind me of myself when I was your age. I remember how my parents hated jazz and how they couldn’t see how I could listen to that awful noise. I bet your parents say the same thing, don’t they?" Now it was my turn to smile, amused with how right he was.
As the bus carried us from one side of the city to the other, Carl and I talked about a lot of different things. The more we talked, the more amazed I became at how much the two of us really had in common, despite the age difference. I haven’t seen him since we parted, but the thought of our connection that day rarely leaves my mind.
Carl really made me think about how much we can learn from each other if we just break through the blocks between us we’ve got. I mean, I would have never thought before that day that I could have anything in common with someone so much older than I. But Carl taught me that no matter what we are, we are all just people, and that we should make an extra effort to try and get to know our neighbors and people we see every day, regardless of age, race, religion, sex, or anything else. If we all take the time to attempt to understand each other, I think that the world would be a much better place that we could share together, as humans.From the first paragraph we know that the author _____________.
| A．did not mind whether there was a seat or not |
| B．hoped to have a seat when getting on the bus |
| C．thought the bus was overcrowded |
| D．looked for a seat but failed |
The author usually imagined a reporter as one who _____________.
| A．liked jazz music |
| B．enjoyed talking with others |
| C．liked reading Jack Kerouac’s works |
| D．usually wore a black hat and press card |
After talking with Carl, the author realized that _____________.
| A．older people were nice to talk to |
| B．he should have known Carl earlier |
| C．his parents were so different from Carl in listening to music |
| D．age was not necessarily a problem in heart-to-heart communication |
It can be inferred from the passage that _________.
| A．the author hasn’t seen the old man since then |
| B．jazz music used to be more popular than rock and roll |
| C．the author was not satisfied with human relationships in the world |
| D．Carl made the author realize we humans live in peace and brotherhood |
Dick lived in England. One day in January he said to his wife, "I'm going to fly to New York next week because I've got some work there." "Where are you going to stay there?" his wife asked. "I don't know yet." Dick answered. "Please send me your address from there in a telegram (电报)," his wife said. "All right," Dick answered.
He flew to New York on January 31st and found a nice hotel in the center of the city. He put his things in his room and then he sent his wife a telegram. He put the address of his hotel in it.
In the evening he didn't have any work, so he went to a cinema. He came out at nine o'clock and said, "Now I'm going back to my hotel and have a nice dinner."
He found a taxi and the driver said, "Where do you want to go?" But Dick didn't remember the name and address of his hotel.
"Which hotel are my things in?" he said, "And what am I going to do tonight?" But the driver of the taxi did not know. So Dick got out and went into a post office. There he sent his wife another telegram, and in it he wrote, "Please send me my address at this post office.Dick flew to New York because ________.
| A．he went there for a holiday | B．he had work there |
| C．he went there for sightseeing (观光) | D．his home was there |
Why did his wife want a telegram from him?
| A．Because she didn’t know his address yet. |
| B．Because she wanted to go to New York, too. |
| C．Because she might send him another telegram. |
| D．Because she couldn't leave her husband by himself in New York. |
Where did Dick stay in New York?
| A．In the center of the city. | B．In a hotel. |
| C．In a restaurant. | D．At his friend's house. |
Who would send him the name and address of his hotel?
| A．The manager (经理) of his hotel. | B．The police office. |
| C．The taxi driver. | D．His wife. |
Which of the following is not true?
| A．Dick stayed at a nice hotel in the center of the city. |
| B．Dick didn't work on the first night of his arrival. |
| C．Dick forgot to send his wife a telegram. |
| D．Dick wanted to go back to his hotel in a taxi. |