The malls were filled with people seeking gifts for their loved ones. Some of the malls remained open around the clock, partly to satisfy our needs to buy gifts.
Behind the materialistic aspect of shopping for gifts lies the idea of caring, being attentive to the desires of special people in our lives. However, to use a well-worn play on words: it is our presence, not our presents, that truly counts. Many of us, unfortunately, can be so inattentive, even in the presence of our loved ones, that we might as well not be there at all.
Attention is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other. Companies around the globe spend billions every year on advertising to catch our attention for just a short moment at a time. Whole industries – media, entertainment, education – rely on the precious gift of our attention for their continued existence. A baby lacking attention for a long time is likely to he psychologically unhealthy.
In earlier times, both diet and attention could be left unregulated without major cause for concern. There were natural checks and balances: limited availability of food meant few got fat, for example. Similarly, in bygone times we might have spent a few hours communicating with the village storyteller, today, watching an entire TV series, while speaking to nobody, is common. In traditional societies, with smaller population, everyone would get a fair deal of attention. On many issues we might go to see Grandma or Grandpa; now we have Google and Wikipedia.
“She just wants attention.” people tend to think little of those doing things simply for attention. But the truth is that human beings need attention, and giving attention to each other is, to a large extent, what human civilization is based upon. This perhaps explains the runaway success（一举成功）of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. While we use such sites for “micro blogging”, “idea voicing” and “status updates” – the reality is that we are often doing no more or less than fulfilling our basic human drive for attention exchange.
I friend you, you friend me, I retweet you, you retweet me. The charming case with which we can now get and give attention is why many people appear overly attached to their smartphones. It is also a vicious（恶性）circle. As ever more people are busy exchanging attention online, there is increasingly less attention to be paid in the real world, which forces more people to seek their attention exchange online, or else risk attention-starvation.
The very nature of attention exchange is being rapidly transformed, and there is a danger that some of us will develop unhealthy practices. Just as eating red meat every day is a bad idea, so it is with too much attention exchange. The biological consequences of our technological advancement in food production are highly visible; heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The consequences of our transformed attention exchanges will be psychological and social, and so may take longer to identify, but they will be equally damaging.
Face-to-face attention is becoming rarer, and therefore more valuable. In a sense it is priceless. And it is a gift that can be given all-year-round.In the first two paragraphs the author .
| A．offers advice to attention givers | B．analyses the present problems |
| C．states the necessity of presents | D．puts forward his point of view |
People use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to .
| A．obtain information | B．give attention to others |
| C．voice their opinions | D．notice and get noticed |
Attention exchange was not a major concern in traditional societies because of .
| A．limited availability of food | B．natural checks and balances |
| C．a much smaller population | D．the guidance from old people |
What can we infer from Paragraph 6-7?
| A．More people will risk attention-starvation in future. |
| B．The nature of attention exchange is rarely changed. |
| C．Technological advancement contributes to all diseases. |
| D．Transformed attention exchanges do harm to society. |
The writer’s purpose for writing the passage is to .
| A．advocate more focus on real life attention |
| B．analyze the necessity of attention giving |
| C．give practical tips on attention exchange |
| D．recommend some social networking sites |
''If you can see the magic in a fairytale童话）, you can face the future”-- Danielle Steel
Who have not read fairytales? We all have had the experience of taking great delight in the beauty and innocence of fairytales．May it be Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty．．．Fairytale is a word which cannot be new to us. But haveyou ever travelled ages back to the earliest of times and uncovered the fascinating facts about these stories?
The history of the fairytale is particularly difficult to track．The oral tradition of the fairytale came long before the written page．The oldest known fairytales date back to ancient Egypt around 1300B.C.and now, after travelling through various periods of time, they have grown and matured in various aspects and have become the most popular forms of stories for young children
The characters and themes of fairytales are simple and similar:Princesses and goose girls, youngest sons and brave princes, wicked, stepmothers, fairy godmothers, talking animals, glass mountains, witches, castles and the like. The tale goes into an unreal world and in this never-never land our heroes kill the enemy, succeed to kingdoms and marry the ever beautiful princesses. W. H Auden said, “The way to read a fairytale is to throw yourself in.” It is very true indeed or you will not be able to feel the ecstasy of reading a fairytale. So whenever you read a fairytale, imagine you arethe hero/heroine and you will be carried to a mysterious land where everything will be as you want.
Every child believes in fairies（仙女), dragons, etc. Yet, as we grow up we fail to believe in these fantasy-based characters．Fairytales are told to children when they are young. This is very essential indeed, for if in the beginning of our lives, our minds are touched by the beauty, innocence and the morals in these tales, we will be able to obtain the optimistic side of happenings．In life, sometimes, believing in such mystics can lead to greathappiness．
Well, I don’t know about you, but I do believe in fairies…and who knows I may someday meet one because, after all, believing is just the beginning! And as J.M. Barries said, “When you say I don’t believe in fairies, a fairy somewhere drops dead.” And I wouldn’t want anyone dead on my account, would you?In Paragraph 1, thewriter mentioned Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty to __
| A．tell the beauty and innocence of thefairytales |
| B．present us the fascinating facts behind them |
| C．show us that fairytales are something we are familiar with |
| D．describe his feeling towards fairytales |
The underlined word '"ecstasy" in Paragraph 3 probably means“___”
| A．delight | B．innocence |
| C．mystery | D．the optimistic side |
Why is it important to tell the fairytales to the children when young?
| A．Because they can gain greathappiness． |
| B．Because it is easier for the children to throw themselves in the role |
| C．Because they tend to have wild imagination |
| D．Because when they see the magic in the tales in the beginning, they can face the future |
How do you understand the sentence in the last paragraph "When you say I don't believe in fairies, a fairy somewhere drops dead.” ?
| A．If you don’t believe in the tales, the fairy will be really sad． |
| B．We need the beauty, innocence, and moral of the fairytales to stay optimistic． |
| C．If nobody believes in us, we will be heartbroken． |
| D．The writer is just trying to be humorous by saying this． |
If you didn't look at them, they weren't there, right? On seeing those in rags on the corner, I only wanted the light to turn green fast enough so that I wouldn't have to keep pretending not to see them.
Then, one day, as I was holding the hand of my best friend Jane who was young but dying of breast cancer, she told me that she made every moment count by slowing down and by seeing everything . I held her hand for five years and then she passed away. She did teach me something. It took a while for her words to really sink in. I can be a slow learner.
I started by seeing everything, and focused on their presence. One day I saw a Vietnam veteran(老兵). I asked him what would make his day.
"A hot cup of coffee," he told me.
I bought him a cup of coffee, a stack of pancakes, some eggs, and so on. After our meal together, I asked him if there was anything else that would make his life a bit easier.
"A new pair of socks, "he said.
Socks, really? I actually happened to be wearing a nice pair of wool hiking socks at that very moment. I told him that I wanted to give him the pair I was wearing if he would accept it. Finally he agreed. We sat down on a bench, and he started to first take off his boots, and then remove the black socks that had once been white off his feet. I think a layer or two of skin might have come off with them. Taking his new pair of socks, he held the socks up to his cheeks and said they were warm and smelled as good as me, pools of tears in his eyes.
Such a simple luxury (奢侈品) I used to take for granted. Now I always have an extra pair with me in my car. They are always my best pair, just waiting to be given away. On seeing the homeless, the author used to_______.
| A．act as if they were not there | B．show mercy to them |
| C．hide in the corner | D．make fun of them |
What can we learn about the author from Paragraph 2?
| A．He was slow in learning things. |
| B．His best friend was once a teacher. |
| C．He was sad that his friend was dying. |
| D．He didn't understand Jane's words at first. |
Why does the author always have an extra pair of socks in his car?
| A．To decorate his car. |
| B．To sell it to others. |
| C．To keep it for a change. |
| D．To donate it to a needy person. |
What does the author want to convey to us?
| A．All men are born equal. |
| B．Don't miss doing any good thing. |
| C．A beggar's purse is bottomless. |
| D．Don't trouble trouble until trouble troubles you. |
The kids in this village wear dirty, ragged clothes. They sleep beside cows and sheep in huts made of sticks and mud. They have no school. Yet they all can chant the English alphabet, and some can make words.
The key to their success: 20 tablet computers(平板电脑) dropped off in their Ethiopian village in February by a U.S. group called One Laptop Per Child.
The goal is to find out whether kids using today’s new technology can teach themselves to read in places where no schools or teachers exist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers analyzing the project data say they’re already amazed. “What I think has already happened is that the kids have already learned more than they would have in one year of kindergarten,” said Matt Keller, who runs the Ethiopia program.
The fastest learner—and the first to turn on one of the tablets—is 8-year-old Kelbesa Negusse. The device’s camera was disabled to save memory, yet within weeks Kelbesa had figured out its workings and made the camera work. He called himself a lion, a marker of accomplishment in Ethiopia.
With his tablet, Kelbasa rearranged the letters HSROE into one of the many English animal names he knows. Then he spelled words on his own. “Seven months ago he didn’t know any English. That’s unbelievable,” said Keller.
The project aims to get kids to a stage called “deep reading,” where they can read to learn. It won’t be in Amharic, Ethiopia’s first language, but in English, which is widely seen as the ticket to higher paying jobs.How does the Ethiopia program benefit the kids in the village?
| A．It contributes to their self-study. |
| B．It trains teachers for them. |
| C．It helps raise their living standards. |
| D．It provides funds for building schools. |
It amazed Keller that with the tablet Kelbesa could _______.
| A．draw pictures of animals. |
| B．learn English words quickly. |
| C．write letters to researchers. |
| D．make phone calls to his friends. |
What is the aim of the project?
| A．To offer Ethiopians higher paying jobs. |
| B．To make Amharic widely used in the world. |
| C．To assist Ethiopians in learning their first language. |
| D．To help Ethiopian kids read to learn in English. |
The behavior of a building’s users may be at least as important as its design when it comes to energy use, according to new research from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC). The UK promises to reduce its carbon emissions (排放）by 80 percent by 2050, part of which will be achieved by all new homes being zero-carbon by 2016. But this report shows that sustainable building design on its own — though extremely important- is not enough to achieve such reductions: the behavior of the people using the building has to change too.
The study suggests that the ways that people use and live in their homes have been largely ignored by existing efforts to improve energy efficiency (效率)，which instead focus on architectural and technological developments.‘Technology is going to assist but it is not going to do everything explains Katy Janda, a UKERC senior researcher，‘consumption patterns of building users can defeat the most careful design. ’In other words，old habits die hard, even in the best-designed eco-home.
Another part of the problem is information. Households and bill-payers don’t have the knowledge they need to change their energy-use habits. Without specific information，it’s hard to estimate the costs and benefits of making different choices. Feedback (反馈） facilities, like smart meters and energy monitors，could help bridge this information gap by helping people see how changing their behaviour directly affects their energy use; some studies have shown that households can achieve up to 15 percent energy savings using smart meters.
Social science research has added a further dimension (方面），suggesting that individuals’ behaviour in the home can be personal and cannot be predicted — whether people throw open their windows rather than turn down the thermostat (恒温器) , for example.
Janda argues that education is the key. She calls for a focused programme to teach people about buildings and their own behaviour in them.As to energy use, the new research from UKERC stresses the importance of________.
| A．the behaviour of building users |
| B．zero-carbon homes |
| C．sustainable building design |
| D．the reduction of carbon emissions |
What are Katy Janda’s words mainly about?
| A．The necessity of making a careful building design. |
| B．The importance of changing building users’ habits. |
| C．The variety of consumption patterns of building users. |
| D．The role of technology in improving energy efficiency. |
The information gap in energy use _______.
| A．affects the study on energy monitors |
| B．can be bridged by feedback facilities |
| C． brings about problems for smart meters |
| D．will be caused by building users’ old habits |
What does the dimension added by social science research suggest?
| A．The social science research is to be furthered. |
| B．The education programme is under discussion. |
| C．The behaviour preference of building users is similar. |
| D．The behaviour of building users is unpredictable. |
Wealth starts with a goal saving a dollar at a time. Call it the piggy bank strategy(策略). There are lessons in that time-honored coin-saving container.
Any huge task seems easier when reduced to baby steps. I f you wished to climb a 12,000-foot mountain, and could do it a day at a time, you would only have to climb 33 feet daily to reach the top in a year. If you want to take a really nice trip in 10 years for a special occasion, to collect the $15,000 cost, you have to save $3.93 a day. If you drop that into a piggy bank and then once a year put $1,434 in a savings account at 1% interest rate after-tax, you will have your trip money.
When I was a child, my parents gave me a piggy bank to teach me that, if I wanted something, I should save money to buy it. We associate piggy banks with children, but in many countries, the little containers are also popular with adults. Europeans see a piggy bank as a sign of good fortune and wealth. Around the world, many believe a gift of a piggy bank on New Year’s Day brings good luck and financial success. Ah, but you have to put something in it.
Why is a pig used as a symbol of saving? Why not an elephant bank, which is bigger and holds more coins? In the Middle Ages, before modern banking and credit instruments, people saved money at home, a few coins at a time dropped into a jar or dish. Potters(制陶工) made these inexpensive containers from an orange-colored clay(黏土) called “pygg,” and folks saved coins in pygg jars.The Middle English word for pig was “pigge”. While the Saxons pronounced pygg, referring to the clay, as “pug”, eventually the two words changed into the same pronunciation, sounding the “i” as in pig or piggy. As the word became less associated with the orange clay and more with the animal, a clever potter fashioned a pygg jar in the shape of a pig, delighting children and adults. The piggy bank was born.
Originally you had to break the bank to get to the money, bringing in a sense of seriousness into savings. While piggy banks teach children the wisdom of saving, adults often need to relearn childhood lessons. Think about the things in life that require large amounts of money--- college education, weddings, cars, medical care, starting a business, buying a home, and fun stuff like great trips. So when you have money, take off the top 10%, put it aside, save and invest wisely.What is the piggy bank strategy?
| A．Paying 1% income tax at a time. |
| B．Setting a goal before making a travel plan. |
| C．Putting aside a little money regularly for future use. |
| D．Aiming high even when doing small things. |
Why did the writer’s parents give him a piggy bank as a gift?
| A．To delight him with the latest fashion. |
| B．To encourage him to climb mountains. |
| C．To teach him English pronunciation. |
| D．To help him form the habit of saving. |
The piggy bank originally was ________.
| A．a cheap clay container |
| B．a potter’s instrument |
| C．an animal-shaped dish |
| D．a pig-like toy for children |
The last paragraph talks about ________.
| A．the seriousness of educating children |
| B．the enjoyment of taking a great trip |
| C．the difficulty of starting a business |
| D．the importance of managing money |