It was late in the afternoon, and I was putting the final touch on a piece of writing that I was feeling pretty good about. I wanted to save it, but my cursor(光标) had frozen. I tried to shut the computer down, and it seized up altogether. Unsure of what else to do, I yanked (用力猛拉) the battery out.
Unfortunately, Windows had been in the midst of a crucial（紧要关头） undertaking. The next morning, when I turned my computer back on, it informed me that a file had been corrupted and Windows would not load. Then, it offered to repair itself by using the Windows Setup CD.
I opened the special drawer where I keep CDs. But no Windows CD in there. I was forced to call the computer company's Global Support Centre. My call was answered by a woman in some unnamed, far-off land. I find it annoying to make small talk with someone when I don't know what continent they're standing on. Suppose I were to comment on the beautiful weather we've been having when there was a monsoon(季风) at the other end of the phone? So I got right to the point.
"My computer is telling me a file is corrupted and it wants to fix itself, but I don't have the Windows Setup CD."
"So you're having a problem with your Windows Setup CD." She has apparently been dozing and, having come to just as the sentence ended, was attempting to cover for her inattention.
It quickly became clear that the woman was not a computer technician. Her job was to serve as a gatekeeper. Her only duty, as far as I could tell, was to raise global stress levels.
To make me disappear, the woman gave me the phone number for Windows' creator, Microsoft. This is like giving someone the phone number for, I don't know, North America. Besides, the CD worked; I just didn't have it. No matter how many times I repeated my story, we came back to the same place. She was calm and polite.
When my voice hit a certain decibel (分贝), I was passed along, like a hot, irritable potato, to a technician.
"You don't have the Windows Setup CD, ma'am, because you don't need it," he explained cheerfully.
"Windows came preinstalled on your computer!"
"But I do need it."
"Yes, but you don't have it." We went on like this for a while. Finally, he offered to walk me through the use of a different CD, one that would erase my entire system. "Of course, you'd lose all your e-mail, your documents, your photos." It was like offering to drop a safe on my head to cure my headache. "You might be able to recover them, but it would be expensive." He sounded delighted. "And it's not covered by the warranty (产品保证书)!" The safe began to seem like a good idea, provided it was full.
I hung up the phone and drove my computer to a small, friendly repair place I'd heard about. A smart, helpful man dug out a Windows CD and told me it wouldn't be a problem. An hour later, he called to let me know it was ready. I thanked him, and we chatted about the weather, which was the same outside my window as it was outside his.Why did the author shut down her computer abruptly?
| A．She had saved what she had written. |
| B．She couldn't move the cursor. |
| C．The computer refused to work. |
| D．The computer offered to repair itself. |
Which of the following is the author's opinion about the woman at the Global Support Centre?
| A．She sounded helpful and knowledgeable. |
| B．She was there to make callers frustrated. |
| C．She was able to solve her computer problem. |
| D．She was quick to pass her along to a technician. |
According to the passage, the solution offered by the technician was_________________.
| A．effective | B．economical | C．unpractical | D．unsatisfied |
"It was like offering to drop a safe on my head to cure my headache" in the last but one paragraph means that_____________________.
| A．the technician's proposal would make things even worse |
| B．the technician's proposal could eventually solve the problem |
| C．files stored on her computer were like a safe |
| D．erasing the entire system was like curing a headache |
It can be inferred from the passage that the differences between the Global Support Centre and the local repair shop lie in all the followings except ________________.
| A．efficiency | B．location | C．setup CDs | D．attitude |
When it comes to hard, noisy traveling, we’ve found that sometimes we’d rather read about it than actually go. Here are some bestsellers for armchair travelers.
The Station by Robert Byron. In 1928, the 22-year-old man made a journey to Mount Athos, resulting in one of the best travel books ever written, matched only by Byron’s own, much more famous The Road to Osciana.
In Darkest Africa by Henry Monton Stanley. It’s about his great efforts to save an unlucky German doctor Eduard Schnitzer, who had no desire to be rescued at all.
A Traveler’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs by Sir Steven Runciman. A to Z and around the world. He provides priceless information of long-gone princesses, priests, and places.
South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage by Sir Ernest Shackleton. As the planet started the global war, Shackleton and his brave group of explorers made an unsuccessful but heroic journey to cross Antarctica from 1914 to 1917.
The Michelin Red Guide: France 2005 Reading through this final listing of all the nice hotels and wonderful restaurants in France is better than going there, listening to Chirac talk about the poisonous American culture, and spending the price of this book for a tiny cup of tea and a cookie the size of your thumb.
The Past Is a Foreign Country by David Lowenthal. This great book of an armchair exploration tells us what has happened in the past and shows the relationship between us and the past travelers.The underlined phrase “armchair travelers” in the first paragraph refers to those who___________ .
| A．can only travel with special equipment for the disabled |
| B．find fun teaching others how to travel to other places |
| C．like to write about their strange traveling experiences |
| D．like to read about travels instead of traveling themselves |
Which of the books has a very low price according to the passage?
| A．The Past Is a Foreign Country. |
| B．South: A Memoir to the Endurance Voyage. |
| C．The Michelin Red Guide: France 2005. |
| D．A Traveler’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The Station is more famous than The Road to Osciana |
| B．Henry Monton Stanley, was saved by a German doctor in Africa. |
| C．It took Shackleton and his men 3 years to cross Antarctica. |
| D．In his book, Lowenthal focuses more on history than the present. |
This passage is written____________ .
| A．to warn readers against traveling |
| B．to sell more books about travels |
| C．as an introduction to famous travelers |
| D．to tell people where to travel |
Everywhere I look outside my home I see people busy on their high-tech devices（装置）, while driving, walking, shopping, even sitting in toilets. When connected electronically, they are away from physical reality.
People have been influenced to become technology addicted. One survey reported that “addicted” was the word most commonly used by people to describe their relationship to iPad and similar devices. One study found that people had a harder time resisting the allure of social media than they did for sleep, cigarettes and alcohol.
The main goal of technology companies is to get people to spend more money and time on their products, not to actually improve our quality of life. They have successfully created a cultural disease. Consumers willingly give up their freedom, money and time to catch up on the latest information, to keep pace with their peers or to appear modern.
I see people trapped in a flu-like relationship with time-sucking technology, where they serve technology more than technology serves them. I call this technology servitude. I am referring to a loss of personal freedom and independence because of uncontrolled consumption of many kinds of devices that eat up time and money.
What is a healthy use of technology devices? That is the vital question. Who is really in charge of my life? That is what people need to ask themselves if we are to have any chance of breaking up false beliefs about their use of technology. When we can live happily without using so much technology for a day or a week, then we can regain control and personal freedom, become the master of technology and discover what there is to enjoy in life free of technology. Mae West is famous for claiming the wisdom that “Too much of a good thing is wonderful.” But it’s time to discover that it does not work for technology.
Richard Fernandez, a former CEO at Google acknowledged that “we can be swept away by our technologies.” To break the grand digital connection people must consider how life long ago could be fantastic without today’s overused technology.The underlined word “allure” in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
| A．advantage | B．attraction |
| C．adaptation | D．attempt |
From the passage, technology companies aim to ______.
| A．attract people to buy their products |
| B．provide the latest information |
| C．improve people’s quality of life |
| D．deal with cultural diseases |
It can be inferred from this passage that people ______.
| A．consider too much technology wonderful |
| B．have realized the harm of high-tech devices |
| C．can regain freedom without high-tech devices |
| D．may enjoy life better without overused technology |
What’s the author’s attitude towards the overusing of high-tech devices?
| A．Objective | B．Positive |
| C．Disapproving | D．Sympathetic |
Tens of thousands of ancient pictures carved into the rocks at one of France’s most important tourist sites are being gradually destroyed. Scientists and researchers fear that the 36,000 drawings on rocks in Mont Bego in the French Alps are being damaged so rapidly that they will not survive for future generations.
The mountain, believed to have once been a site for prayer, is scattered (散布) with 4,000-year-old drawings cut into bare rock. They include pictures of cows with horns, cultivated fields (耕地) and various gods and goddesses. But as the popularity of the site increases, the pictures are being ruined by thoughtless graffiti (涂鸦).
Jean Clottes is the chairman of the International Committee on Rock Art. He says, “People think that because the pictures have been there so long they will always continue to be there. But if the damage continues at this rate there will be nothing left in 50 years.”
He describes seeing tourists stamping on the drawings, wearing away the rock and definition (清晰) of the artwork as they do so. Some visitors, he says, even cut off parts to take home as souvenirs. “When people think they can’t take a good enough photograph, they rub the drawings to get a clearer picture,” he said. “The drawings are polished by the weather, and if the sun is shining and the visitors can’t see them properly they simply rub them to make them look fresher.” Other researchers describe how people arrive carrying long sticks with sharp ends to scratch (刮) their own drawings, or even their names, in the rocks.
But experts are divided over the best way to preserve the drawings. Henry de Lumley, director of the Museum of Natural History in Paris, believes that the only way to save the site is to turn the whole mountain into a “no-go” area, preventing the public from going there except on guided tours. Otherwise, he says, not only will the site be completely destroyed but important research work will be reduced.
Clottes disagrees, “The measure suggested by Henry de Lumley is the most severe, and while it is the most effective, it is also certain to bring about protests from people who live there,” he said. “The site was classified as a historic monument years ago by the Ministry of Culture, and we must do as much as possible to save what is there.”
David Lavergne, the regional architect, also wants to avoid closing the site. “Henry de Lumley’s idea isn’t ideal,” he said. “Our department feels that the best solution is to let people look at the site, but because the area is very big it is difficult to prevent visitors from damaging it. I would prefer that everyone was able to look at it, but the main problem is money. We do not have the funds to employ the necessary number of guards. We may have to consider charging a fee. It doesn’t seem to be possible to get the government support.”
In Nice, Annie Echassoux, who also worked on researching the site, is alarmed that as the mountain becomes easier to reach — tourists can now avoid the three-and-a-half-hour walk by hiring vehicles — the damage will increase rapidly. She thinks that the only solution is to rope off the area and provide guides. “You can’t say the plan can’t go ahead because there is no money,” she said. “That is not good enough. Money must be provided because the Ministry of Culture has classified this area as a historic site. If we don’t take steps, we will be responsible for losing the drawings for the next generation.”Jean Clottes says that people who visit the mountain____.
| A．do not believe the drawings are old. |
| B．believe they are allowed to paint there |
| C．think the drawings should be left alone |
| D．think the drawings will not disappear |
According to Jean Clottes, some of the visitors to the area have____.
| A．helped to clean the drawings |
| B．taken bits of the rock home |
| C．been unable to take photographs |
| D．misunderstood what the pictures mean |
Henry de Lumley is eager to ____.
| A．set up research projects |
| B．protect public rights |
| C．keep out individual visitors |
| D．ban traffic in the area |
Which word best describes Annie Echassoux’s attitude towards saving the historic site?
| A．Supportive. | B．Disappointed. |
| C．Worried. | D．Hesitant. |
This passage has been written about Mont Bego to ____.
| A．advertise the closing of the site |
| B．warn visitors about the dangers of the site |
| C．encourage scientists to visit the site |
| D．describe fears for the future of the site |
Nobody likes home economics (家政学). But restoring the program could help us in the fight against obesity and chronic (慢性的) diseases today.
The home economics movement was founded on the belief that housework and food preparation were important subjects that should be studied scientifically. The first classes occurred in the agricultural and technical colleges that were built in the 1860s. When most departments of universities rejected women, home economics was a back door into higher education.
Indeed, in the early 20th century, home economics was a serious subject When few people understood germ (微生物) theory and almost no one had heard of vitamins, home economics classes offered vital information about washing hands regularly, eating fruits and vegetables and not feeding coffee to babies.
However, today we remember only the fixed ideas about home economics, forgetting the movement’s most important lessons on healthy eating and cooking. Too many Americans simply don’t know how to cook. Our diets, consisting of highly processed foods made cheaply outside the home, have contributed to many serious health problems. In the last decade, many cities and states have tried to tax junk food heavily or to ban the use of food stamps (食品券) to buy soda. Clearly, many people are doubtful about any governmental steps to promote healthy eating. But what if the government put the tools of obesity prevention in the hands of children themselves by teaching them how to cook?
My first experience with home economics happened two decades ago when I was a seventh grader in a North Carolina public school. A year later, my father’s job took our family to Wales, where I attended a large school for a few months. It was the first time I had ever really cooked anything. I remember that it was fun, and with an instructor standing by, it wasn’t hard. Those lessons stuck with me when I first started cooking for my husband and myself after college and they still do. Teaching cooking in public schools can help solve some problems facing Americans t day. The history of home economics shows it’s possible.Home economics______.
| A．is a subject becoming more and more popular with Americans |
| B．is often used to help fight against obesity and chronic diseases |
| C．once offered women a. special approach to university education |
| D．was first taught in the agricultural and technical colleges in the early 1900s |
The third paragraph mainly tells us______ .
| A．the importance of regular hand washing |
| B．the health benefits of fruits and vegetables |
| C．the contents of home economics classes in the early 20th century |
| D．the significance of teaching home economics in the early 20th century |
In the opinion of the author, how should we fight against childhood obesity?
| A．Children should be taught how to cook. |
| B．A heavy tax should be put on junk food |
| C．Healthy eating should be promoted at school |
| D．Using food stamps to buy soda should be banned |
What does the author imply in the last paragraph?
A. Her family moved frequently in her childhood.
R Cooking classes have a far-reaching influence on her later life.
C. To receive a better education, she went to a large school in Wales.
D. Teaching cooking is the key to solving Americans’ health problems.
The baby monkey is much more developed at birth than the human baby. Almost from the moment it is born, the baby monkey can move around and hold tightly to its mother. During the first few days of its life the baby will approach and hold onto almost any large, warm, and soft object in its environment, particularly if that object also gives it milk. After a week or so, however, the baby monkey begins to avoid newcomers and focuses its attentions on “mother” ---- the real mother or the mother-substitute(母亲替代物）.
During the first two weeks of its warmth is perhaps the most important psychological（心理的） thing that a monkey mother has to give to its baby. The Harlows, a couple who are both psychologists, discovered this fact by offering baby monkeys a choice of two types of mother-substitutes ---- one covered with cloth and one made of bare wire. If the two artificial mothers were both the same temperature, the little monkeys always preferred the cloth mother. However, if the wire model was heated, while the cloth model was cool, for the first two weeks after birth the baby monkeys picked the warm wire mother-substitutes as their favorites. Thereafter they switched and spent most of their time on the more comfortable cloth mother
Why is cloth preferable to bare wire? Something that the Harlows called contact（接触的） comfort seems to be the answer, and a most powerful influence it is. Baby monkeys spend much of their time rubbing against their mothers’ skins, putting themselves in as close contact with the parent as they can. Whenever the young animal is frightened, disturbed, or annoyed, it typically rushes to its mother and rubs itself against her body. Wire doesn’t“rub”as well as does soft wire cloth. Prolonged（长时间的）“contact comfort” with a cloth mother appears to give the babies confidence and is much more rewarding to them than is either warmth or milk.
According to the Harlows, the basic quality of a baby’s love for its mother is trust. If the baby is put into an unfamiliar playroom without its mother, the baby ignores the toys no matter how interesting they might be. It screams in terror and curls up into a fury little ball. If its cloth mother is now introduced into the playroom, the bay rushes to it and holds onto it for dear life. After a few minutes of contact comfort, it obviously begins to feel more secure. It then climbs down from the mother-substitute and begins to explore the toys, but often rushes back for a deep embrace（拥抱）as if to make sure that its mother is still there and that all is well. Bit by bit its fears of the new environment are gone and it spends more and more time playing with the toys and less and less time holding on to its “mother.”Psychologically, what does the baby monkey desire most during the first two weeks of its life?
| A．Warmth | B．Milk |
| C．Contact | D．Trust |
After the first two weeks of their life, baby moneys prefer the cloth mother to the wire mother because the former is __.
| A．larger in size |
| B．closer to them |
| C．less frightening and less disturbing |
| D．more comfortable to rub against |
What does the baby monkey probably gain from prolonged “contact comfort”?
| A．Attention | B．Softness |
| C．Confidence | D．Interest |
It can be inferred that when the baby monkey feels secure,_____________.
| A．it frequently rushes back for a deep embrace when exploring the toys |
| B．it spends more time screaming to get rewards |
| C．it is less attracted to the toys though they are interesting |
| D．it cares less about whether its mother is still around |
The main purpose of the passage is to______________.
| A．give the reasons of the experiment |
| B．present the findings of the experiment |
| C．introduce the method of the experiment |
| D．describe the process of the experiment |