With more and more cars on the road, traffic jams are inevitable. Traffic jams can lead to increased accidents as there are more cars, with more people trying to get to their destination, all the while getting worse. Although it’s impossible to avoid traffic jams altogether, there are some tips you can follow to reduce the amount of time on the road.
Check for traffic jams before you leave. You can listen to the radio for traffic news, or check on the Internet to get up-to-minute information on traffic. If the route you want to take is heavy with traffic, you can choose another.
Look for a different route permanently. Most traffic jams occur on busy roads. Using country roads could see you avoiding a lot of traffic. Although the distance you may have to travel is further, it can work out quicker.
Set your car radio to receive traffic bulletins. Many new car stereo systems (汽车音响系统) are equipped with a radio system by which you can hear the traffic channel. This way you can get the latest traffic information and change your journey if necessary.
_____________________________. Most traffic jams usually occur during rush hour, so try to avoid this time period if possible. Some jobs offer flexible working hours so that you can travel to work outside of rush hour. Some jobs even allow you to work at home so as to avoid commuting altogether. Ask your manager to see what you can do if traffic is a problem for you.
Use public transport alternatives where available. The easiest way to avoid traffic jams is to take buses or the underground instead of driving your own car. Not only will you avoid traffic jams but you will most likely be saving money as the cost of motoring rises.The underlined word “inevitable” in Paragraph 1 probably means _____.
| A．hard to accept | B．impossible to avoid |
| C．getting less serious | D．seen everywhere |
The author wrote the text in order to ______.
| A．explain why there are traffic jams | B．tell us the negative effects of traffic jams |
| C．tell us what we can do on the road | D．tell us how to save time on the road |
To get the latest traffic information, you could do the following EXCEPT ______.
| A．surfing the Internet | B．listening to the radio for traffic news |
| C．listening to the traffic channel | D．turning to other drivers for information |
Which of the following can be put in the blank in the text?
| A．Choose a job that has flexible working hours | B．Try traveling at different time |
| C．Make friends with your manager | D．Work from home |
阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每小题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
It is quite reasonable to blame traffic jams, the cost of gas and the great speed of modern life, but manners on the road are becoming horrible. Everybody knows that the nicest men would become fierce tigers behind the wheel. It is all right to have a tiger in a cage, but to have one in the driver’s seat is another matter.
Road politeness is not only good manners, but good sense too. It takes the most cool-headed drivers great patience to give up the desire to beat back when forced to face rude driving. On the other hand, a little politeness goes a long way towards reducing the possibility of quarrelling and fighting. A friendly nod or a wave of thanks in answer to an act of politeness helps to create an atmosphere of good will and calm so necessary in modern traffic conditions. But such behaviors of politeness are by no means enough. Many drivers nowadays don’t even seem able to recognize politeness when they see it.
However, misplaced politeness can also be dangerous. Typical examples are the driver who waves a child crossing the street at a wrong place into the path of oncoming cars that may be not able to stop in time. The same goes for encouraging old ladies to cross the road wherever and whenever they want to.
An experienced driver, whose manners are faultless, told me it would help if drivers learnt to correctly join in traffic stream without causing total blockages that give rise to unpleasant feelings. Unfortunately, modern drivers can’t even learn to drive, let alone master the roadmanship. Years ago, experts warned us that the fast increase of the car ownership would demand more give-and-take from all road users. It is high time for all of us to take this message to heart.The passage mainly talks about .
| A．road politeness | B．traffic jams |
| C．good manners | D．modern drivers |
Troubles on the road are often caused by .
| A．traffic jams | B．the behavior of the drivers |
| C．great speed | D．terrible road conditions |
According to the writer, a good driver should .
| A．beat back when forced to face rude driving |
| B．be able to recognize politeness when he sees it |
| C．encourage old ladies to cross the roads whenever they want to |
| D．join in traffic stream quickly however other people feel |
The following statements are right EXCEPT that .
| A．some modern drivers are not good at driving |
| B．road politeness is good sense as well as good manners |
| C．it is also right to have a tiger in the driver’s seat |
| D．a friendly driver should nod or wave thanks in answer to an act of politeness |
It is not always right for drivers to .
| A．master roadman ship |
| B．recognize politeness when they see it |
| C．wave a child crossing the street at a wrong place into the path |
| D．give a friendly nod in answer to an act of politeness |
The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help clarify hospitals who are charged with wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients overcome discomfort and pain.
A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Lenoardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to watch either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly paintings, or a blank panel while the team struck a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been hurt by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when considering the ugly paintings or the blank panel.
Electrodes (电极) measuring the brain’s electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings. While distractions(娱乐), such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part. The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process.
“Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their aesthetic(审美能力) aspects should be taken into account too,” said the neurologist. “Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. I think these results show that more research is needed into how a beautiful environment can reduce suffering.”
Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticellis’ Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonino Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero. “these people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world,” said Prof de Tommaso.According to the first paragraph, people didn’t approve_______________.
| A．hospitals spend money on medical equipment |
| B．hospitals decorate their rooms with works of art |
| C．hospitals make their environment pleasant to patients |
| D．hospitals treat patients with works of art |
How did the researchers make the research?
| A．By asking the subjects to listen to music. |
| B．By requiring the subjects to draw paintings. |
| C．By ordering the subjects to choose which picture is beautiful and ugly. |
| D．By aching the subjects’ hands while they are watching paintings. |
According to the research, when designing a hospital, we should consider its____________.
| A．convenient facilities |
| B．functional operating room |
| C．pleasing environment |
| D．bright waiting room |
The best title for the passage may be__________.
| A．Patients Don’t Like Pictures |
| B．Arts Can Be Used As a Medicine |
| C．Ugly Patients Feel Less Pain |
| D．Beautiful Art Can Ease Pain |
As the new semester begins, millions of college students across the country are trying hard to remember how best to write a paper or, more likely, how best to delay that paper.
Procrastination is the thief of time and a lot of students suffer from it. They can spend whole days in the library doing nothing but staring into space, eating snacks, surfing the Internet, watching videos and looking at other students sitting around them, who, most likely, are doing nothing either.
Paralyzed (使失去活力) by their habit to procrastinate, they write micro blogs about their fears, asking their online friends if they sometimes have the same issue. But this does nothing to break the spell (魔咒).
According to a recent report, 95 percent of us procrastinate at some point and 20 percent of the world’s population are always procrastinating. The figures are disappointing. Procrastinators are less wealthy, less healthy and less happy than those who don’t delay. Procrastinators like to find excuses to justify their behavior, but BBC columnist Rowan Pelling says they are all wrong.
Many procrastinators tell themselves they are perfectionists who work best under pressure. Pelling says this is nonsense, as work done at the last minute is more likely to have mistakes than work done on time. The behavior of procrastinators often makes them feel ashamed, inconveniences others and annoys loved ones.
Pelling also points out that procrastination feels particularly delinquent (过失的）in a society that thinks of speedy action as admirable, and, at times, even as a moral good.
Fortunately, social scientists have thrown their weight behind efforts to understand this behavioral mistake and offer strategies to control it. Piers Steel, a Canadian social scientist and author of The Procrastination Equation, believes human is “designed” to procrastinate. Nevertheless, he suggests a couple of good ways to get through the task at hand.From the first two paragraphs we can learn that_________.
| A．procrastination is beneficial to many students |
| B．many students are under great pressure in their study |
| C．many students have the habit of delaying finishing their tasks |
| D．lots of college students work hard to write good essays on time |
Which behavior belongs to procrastination?
| A．Never dream away the time. |
| B．Always complete the tasks ahead of time. |
| C．Never put off till tomorrow what should be done today. |
| D．Always wait to work until the “good mood” or “good time”. |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is not true?
| A．Procrastination makes people waste their time. |
| B．Procrastinators usually complete their tasks perfectly. |
| C．Speedy action is considered as a moral standard in the society. |
| D．Procrastination is common among people. |
What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Measures to deal with procrastination. |
| B．Approaches to handling the study pressures. |
| C．More examples to illustrate procrastination. |
| D．Introduction to the book The Procrastination Equation. |
Well, parents, surprise! Lots of us are using Twitter and Facebook to find rides, and not just to school. It’s awkward to call a friend and ask for a ride, and half the time they’ll say, “Sorry, my car is full.” But with Twitter, you just tweet (贴子,留言) and look for other people heading the same way.
It may sound risky, but many teens stay within their own social circles to find rides, and don’t branch out beyond friends of friends when asking on Twitter. For me, I only rideshare with people I know, but to some young people, especially those taking longer trips, stranger danger is less of a concern.
The sharing economy got big during the recession（经济衰退）. It allows people to access more goods and services using technology, while also allowing them to share cost. And that technology, for me, is what the car was for my mom, a gateway to more freedom.
According to the researchers at the University of Michigan, 30 years ago, eight in ten American 18-year-olds had a driver’s license. Today it’s six in ten. So it’s not that surprising that on my 16th birthday I wasn’t rushing to get a license. All I wanted was an iPhone. Juliet Schor (Sociology professor at Boston College) knows people my age love being connected and for young people driving means they have to disconnect from their technology, and that’s a negative. So if they could sit in the passenger side and still be connected, that’s going to be a plus.
To me, another plus is ridesharing represents something much bigger than trying to save money. I see it as evidence that people still depend on each other. My generation shares their cars and apartments the way neighbors used to share cups of sugar. For the system to work, some of us still need our own cars. But until I get my own version of the silver Super Beetle, you can find me on Twitter.The writer usually rideshares with _____.
| A．anyone heading the same way | B．people he knows |
| C．friends of friends | D．strangers of his age |
Fewer young people choose to ride by themselves because _____.
| A．driving means offering free rides to others. |
| B．getting a driving license becomes more difficult. |
| C．driving one’s own cars causes a negative impression. |
| D．driving makes them disconnected from technology. |
We can conclude from the passage that _____.
| A．the writer rideshares just to save money |
| B．people under 18 are not allowed to drive |
| C．silver Super Beetle is the writer’s favorite |
| D．the older generation had to fight for freedom |
Which is the best title for the passage?
| A．Teens use Twitter to thumb rides. |
| B．Tips on reducing risks in ridesharing. |
| C．Car is no longer a gateway to freedom. |
| D．New generation knows how to save money. |
“Everybody loves a bargain.” One person's useless, ugly, or broken object can be another person's bargain. That is why so many Americans do not throw things away. They put them outside their houses. They put on a “For Sale” sign. And, as simple as that, they have a yard sale.
The sellers put a paid announcement(付费通告) in a local newspaper. It tells when and where the yard sale will take place. These sales are very popular during weekends in spring, summer, and autumn. Early in the morning, all the things to be sold are carried out of the house. Then they sit all day in the sunlight----like tired guests at a party----waiting for someone to take them home.
Just about anything can be sold at a yard sale. Sometimes, there are more clothes than anything else. Cooking equipment is also popular. So are old toys, tools, books, tables and chairs. Then there are objects called “white elephants”. A white elephant is something you think is extremely ugly or useless. It may be an electric light shaped like a fish. You feel a sharp pain whenever you look at it. To someone else, however, it might be a thing of beauty and joy.
Some people go to yard sales to find a special thing that they collect. It may be old toy trains, for example, or painting of dogs. Experts say more Americans are collecting old things now than ever before. Most people who go to yard sales, however, are not looking for anything special. They might buy an object simply because it costs so little. They enjoy negotiating(谈判) over prices, even if they really do not need the object. Later, they may hold their own yard to sell all the things they have bought.What kind of things will go to a yard sale?
| A．Cheap and ugly things. |
| B．Things people no longer use. |
| C．Things out of season. |
| D．Things of great value. |
A white elephant refers to _________.
| A．something that can cause a feeling of pain |
| B．something disliked by the owners while appreciated by others |
| C．something sold at the lowest prices |
| D．a toy shaped like a fish |
Most people go to yard sales to________.
| A．find valuable paintings |
| B．look for something special |
| C．find a bargain |
| D．kill their time |
We can infer from the last paragraph that__________.
| A．people may find something of great value on a yard sale |
| B．yard sales only attract those who have a low income |
| C．things on a yard sale can cost people a lot |
| D．most people don’t want to go to yard sales. |