The United States of America is the most culturally diverse(多样化) country in the world in terms of culture religion, ethnicity(种族) and sexual orientation. As a combination of various races and cultures, America is home to all. The culture here is so unique that citizens can be just as proud of their original cultural heritage(遗产) as they are to be American.
What is now the US was initially inhabited(居住) by native people until the land was settled by various European groups and African slaves. Since the 20th century, the country has become a heaven for people from all over the globe(全球).
The arrival of immigrants(移民) has shifted populations from rural(农村的) areas into cities because immigrants tend to settle in urban areas. At present, 81 percent of the inhabitants in the US live in cities.
Cultural and ethnic diversity adds a unique flavor to cities that is expressed through distinct(独特的) neighborhoods, restaurants, places of worship, museums, nightlife and multicultural learning environments.
Unique musical forms, such as jazz, rock and roll, Chicano music, and the blues, grow in the US by mixing a variety of culturally distinct musical traditions to create a new form.
At the executive (行政的) level, the country is headed by a mixedrace president; two posts(职位) on the Supreme Court are held by members of the country's two largest minorities.There is also diversity in state and local governments.
Without its rich mixture of races and cultures, America would not be the nation that it is today. Founded upon the basis of equality and freedom, America acts as a stage where different cultures not only coexist peacefully, but develop well.According to the passage, America is a country________.
| A．that welcomes people from all over the world |
| B．where citizens take more pride in their original culture |
| C．that is mostly settled by Europeans and Africans |
| D．where 81% of the population are immigrants |
Where did most people live before many immigrants came to America?
| A．In the urban areas. | B．In the rural areas. |
| C．In the southern part of America. | D．In the northern part of America. |
We can learn from the sixth paragraph that________.
| A．diversity(多样化) has existed in America in almost every aspect(方面) |
| B．most posts in American state governments are held by mixedrace people |
| C．equality and freedom make America a fair country |
| D．diversity has greatly affected the American political field |
What's the best title for this passage?
| A．The effects of culture and diversity on America. |
| B．The influence of globalization on America. |
| C．The political development of America. |
| D．The bright future of America. |
We would most probably read this passage in a book about________.
| A．science | B．history | C．culture | D．amusement |
In his lowest days when few people bought his records, Taiwan singer Steve Chou lived alone in Canada and did little. One day, he passed by a local CD store and heard a song that greatly attracted him.
“My heart tells me that music is the thing I truly want to do, not for fame or money,” Chou said. That’s how we luckily have such a music genius, who has since then composed lots of hits for the pop music charts (排行榜).
“Sometimes we need to get close to nature to look deeply into our souls and see what we really want to follow,” he said.
Recently he has made public his latest work Lovers Genesis. In this album he explores human relationships in the Internet age.“Technology itself is a good thing, but it depends on how you’re going to use it,”is Chou’s advice to teenagers.
Chou often gets his music ideas from trips. He has traveled to many places around the world and believes that learning a country’s language is the fastest way of experiencing the culture behind it.
Chou has worked hard on learning English to push forward his music career. He has flown to the UK to attend months-long English training schools three times. There he lives with local families and practices daily conversations.
“So I could easily read the English instructions on recording machines and communicate with the local music producers,” said Chou, “The music reviews of the US or British singers that I appreciate could help me learn and grow with them.”Which of the following about Steve Chou is the correct order?
a. He made public his work Lovers Genesis.
b. He passed by a local CD store and heard a song that greatly attracted him.
c. He composed lots of hits for the pop music charts.
d. Few people bought his records.
| A．abcd | B．dbca | C．acbd | D．dacb |
Why has Chou flown to the UK to learn English?
| A．Because he wants to live in the UK. |
| B．Because his record company asks him to. |
| C．Because he wants to sell his album in the UK. |
| D．Because he thinks it will be helpful for his music career. |
Steve Chou may agree with the following except that __________.
| A．taking trips gives him some ideas of music |
| B．what we really want to follow is the most important |
| C．music is a thing that can bring him fame and money |
| D．in International age, technology itself is not a bad thing |
What is Steve Chou like according to the passage?
| A．Kind and helpful. | B．Proud and confident. |
| C．Active and hard-working. | D．Calm and disappointed. |
Why do parents have such a difficult time to communicate openly and honestly with their teens? For this, there are many reasons but most of them stem from not being able to properly understand their teens. It is a dangerous gap because parents will have to communicate with their teens about a wide variety of issues during the most important years of their lives. Thus, parents must know how to communicate openly and honestly with their teens.
Here are a few tips to make communication easier between parents and teenagers.
1. Try not to talk down to your teens. Make them feel as if their views really matter, which not only helps your discussions with your teen but bring you closer to him.
2. Imagine what it would be like to be a teen. Try to remember some of the negative feelings you experienced as a teenager and apply it to your teen's situation.
3. Never make negative remarks to your teen about what she has said or done.
4. Remember how much courage it would have taken for your teen to come and talk to you about his personal issues. So listen respectfully.
5. Don't ignore your teen's feelings because it is usually a cry for help. For instance, if your teen is unusually angry, it may be time to spend a bit of quality time with your teen to determine what is wrong and where he is coming from.
It is, therefore, necessary for parents to strive to keep lines of communication open at all times with their teens. Try to remember what it was like to be a teenager and how vulnerable（脆弱的）you felt. Then you will be well on your way to help your teen communicate more openly and honestly.Why don't teens want to talk about their personal issues with their parents?
| A．Because they can't respect their parents. |
| B．Because they can't understand their parents. |
| C．Because their parents won't understand them well. |
| D．Because their parents are not honest. |
When your son comes to you for help, you should NOT _____.
| A．listen respectively | B．treat him seriously |
| C．care about his feeling | D．make negative remarks |
Which of the following has the similar meaning to the underlined phrase “talk down to”?
| A．put down | B．look down upon | C．chat with | D．quarrel with |
The best title for this passage is _____.
| A．Causes of generation gap |
| B．Relations between teens and parents |
| C．Suggestions for parents-children effective communication |
| D．Problems with communication between teens and parents |
Making an advertisement for television often costs more than a movie. For example, a two – hour movie costs ＄6 million to make. A TV commercial can cost more than ＄6 000 a second. And that does not include cost of paying for air time. Which is more valuable, the program or the ad? In terms of money – and making money is what television is all about – the commercial is by far the more important.
Research, market testing, talent, time and money —— all come together to make us want to buy a product.
No matter how bad we think a commercial is, it works. The sales of Charm went up once the ads began. TV commercials actually buy their way into our head. We, in turn, buy the product.
And the ads work because so much time and attention are given to them. Here are some rules of commercial ad making. If you want to get the low middle – class buyer, make sure the announcer has a though, manly voice. Put some people in the ad who work with their hands. If you want to sell to upper – class audience, make sure that the house, the furniture, and the hair style are the types that the group identifies with. If you want the buyer feel superior to the character selling the product, then make that person so stupid or silly that everyone will feel great about himself or herself.
We laugh at commercials. We don’t think we pay that much attention to them. But evidence shows we are kidding ourselves. The making of a commercial that costs so much money is not kid stuff. It’s big, big business. And it’s telling us what to think , what we need, and what to buy. To put simply, the TV commercial is a form of brainwashing.TV commercials are more important than other programs to television because .
| A．they bring in great profits | B．they require a lot of money to make |
| C．they are not difficult to produce | D．they attract more viewers than other programs |
The purpose of all the efforts made in turning out TV commercials is.`
| A．to persuade people to buy the product |
| B．to show how valuable the product is |
| C．to test the market value of the product |
| D．to make them as interesting as TV movies |
From the rules set for making commercial ads, we can see that.
| A．the lower – middle – class buyer likes to work with his hand |
| B．the more stupid the characters, the more buyers of the product |
| C．ad designers attract different people with different skills |
| D．an upper – class buyer is only interested in houses and furniture |
It is believed by the writer that.
| A．few people like to watch TV commercials |
| B．TV commercials are a good guide to buyers |
| C．TV commercials often make people laugh |
| D．people do not think highly of TV commercials |
What does the author actually mean in the last paragraph?
| A．He asks TV viewers never to laugh at the TV commercial ads. |
| B．Commercials are used to show the true value of a product to be sold. |
| C．TV commercials cost much and they do influence us in one way or another. |
| D．Brainwashing must be introduced to sell something on TV. |
Harvard University named historian Drew Gilpin Faust as its first female president on Sunday, ending a lengthy and secretive search to find a successor（接任者）to Lawrence Summers .
The seven-member Harvard Corporation elected Faust, a noted scholar on History of the American South and dean of Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, as the university’s 28th president.
“This is a great day, and a historic day for Harvard,” James R. Houghton, chairman of the presidential search committee, said in a statement. “Drew Faust is an inspiring and accomplished leader, a superb scholar, a dedicated teacher, and a wonderful human being.”
Her selection is noteworthy given the heated debates over Summers’ comments that genetic differences between the sexes might help explain the lack of women in top science jobs.
Faust has been dean of Radcliffe since 2001, two years after the former women’s college was combined into the university as a research center with a mission to study gender issues.
Some professors have quietly groused that the 371-year-old university is appointing a fifth president who is not a scientist. No scientist has had the top job since James Bryant Conant retired in 1953; its last four have come from the fields of classics, law, literature and economics.
|
Faust is the first Harvard president who did not receive a degree from the university since Charles Chauncy, a graduate of Cambridge University, who died in office in 1762. She attended the University of Pennsylvania.
“Teaching staff turned to her constantly,” said Sheldon Hackney, a former president of the University of Pennsylvania and historian who worked closely with Faust. “She’s very clear. She has a sense of humor, but she’s very strong-minded. You come to trust in her because she’s so solid.”| A．Harvard named its 1st female president. |
| B．History of Harvard University changed. |
| C．Debates on female equality ended |
| D．Drew Gilpin Faust, a famous woman historian. |
Which is NOT true about Drew Gilpin Faust?
| A．She is the 28th president of Harvard University. |
| B．She is a famous scholar from the American South. |
| C．She isn’t a graduate from Harvard University |
| D．She was head of Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. |
Lawrence Summers held the view that .
| A．women cannot achieve as much as men in management |
| B．women cannot hold important positions in society |
| C．women can match men in science jobs |
| D．few women make top scientists owing to genes |
The underlined word “groused” in the 6th paragraph means .
| A．approved | B．commented | C．complained | D．indicated |
This passage probably appears in a .
| A．biography | B．personal letter | C．research paper | D．newspaper report |
Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface(BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.
Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic school in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated（展示）a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person’s thoughts.
In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.
“our brain has billions of nerve ceils. These send signals through the spinal cord（脊髓）to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles,” Tavella says. “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices.”
The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.
Prof. Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. “The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair.”
He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to make sure that they can use the technology over long periods of time.BCI is a technology that can______.
| A．help to update computer systems | B．link the human brain with computers |
| C．help the disabled to recover | D．control a person's thoughts |
How did Tavella operate the wheelchair in the laboratory?
| A．By controlling his muscles. | B．By talking to the machine |
| C．By moving his hand. | D．By using his mind. |
Which of the following shows the path of the signals described in Paragraph 5?
| A．scalp→computer→cap→wheelchair | B．computer→cap→scalp→wheelchair |
| C．scalp→cap→computer→wheelchair | D．cap→computer→scalp→wheelchair |
The team will test with real patients to _____ .
| A．make profits from them | B．prove the technology useful to them |
| C．make them live longer | D．learn about their physical condition |
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．Switzerland, the BCI Research Center |
| B．New Findings About How the Human Brain Works |
| C．BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled |
| D．Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries |