Before she appeared on the reality show (真人秀) Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle was just an ordinary middleaged British woman.Now all this is going to change.
She lives in a house with her cat Pebbles in a tiny Scottish town.Because of learning difficulties, she doesn't have much education.But what she does have is a very good voice.As a kid, she sang in church and choirs and school plays.For a living, she sang at local pubs.
When she took the stage on April 10th her hair was untidy and her clothes seemed just_one_step_up_from rags.The audience laughed at her.
But then she opened her mouth.A few bars into the song and the laughing audience went silent.A beautiful voice was singing I Dreamed a Dream from the musical Les Miserables.Everyone was amazed.At the end of her song, the audience jumped to their feet and applauded wildly.
Almost overnight, Susan became a household name.She won fans and millions of admirers.Her online videos have drawn over 85.2 million hits.
Susan's story proved the truth of an old saying: “Never judge the book by its cover.” Susan may look ordinary, and doesn't have much dress sense, but she can certainly sing.
Susan's fans admire her courage, as much as they do her voice.She has experienced mockery and many disappointments, but her love for music has kept her going, which is worth anyone's respect.According to the passage, Susan Boyle ________.
| A．is a famous young actress | B．became famous after a show |
| C．used to be a good student | D．is good at dancing and has millions of admirers |
The underlined phrase “just one step up from” in the third paragraph probably means ________.
| A．far from | B．close to | C．different from | D．the same as |
The audience jumped and applauded wildly because ________.
| A．her hair was untidy and her clothes seemed just one step up from rags |
| B．she looked very funny |
| C．she sang so well that everyone was amazed |
| D．she made a foolish mistake in the end |
Susan Boyle has many fans now because of ________.
| A．her beautiful face | B．her knowing how to dress |
| C．her good education | D．her beautiful voice and courage |
The passage is mainly about ________.
| A．how to win fans | B．how to sing well |
| C．a woman's sudden success | D．a woman's simple life |
Hi, everybody!
Welcome to our newly-opened Richards Cinema Bookstore!
Now let me introduce to you some of the new film books in our store.
Are you Chinese film fans? OK, here comes the latest 25 New Takes about Chinese films. It is a collection of 25 fresh readings of different Chinese films from the 1930s to the present. In recent years, Chinese films are very popular in the States, such as Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Flowers of Shanghai.
Do you like French films? Well, here is The French Cinema Book. It covers French films from the 1890s to the beginning of the 21st century. It is written for all lovers of French cinema: students and teachers, specialists and fans, and so on.
Maybe you are Indian film fans and star-chasers. Then here is Encyclopedia ( 百科全书 ) of Indian Cinema. The book is a complete introduction to all the best Indian films. It also offers a full list of names of the famous and successful film stars in the past ten years. You know, the Indian film industry is the largest in the world after our Hollywood.
If you like British films, we have The British Cinema Book. It is a good review of British cinema. This book contains a good many nice pictures.
In our bookstore, you can also find books about Mexican, Japanese, Australian, German and Italian films.
Well, please help yourselves to some coffee or tea, and have a good time here!
60. The speaker of the passage is most probably _______.
A. the author of 25 New Takes B. a tourist in the cinema bookstore
C. the manager of the cinema bookstore D. a reader of Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema
61. How many Asian countries does the speaker refer to when he talks about the film books?
A. Two. B. Three. C. Four. D. Nine.
62. Which of the following statements is NOT mentioned in the passage？
A. Indian cinema is second only to Hollywood.
B. The British Cinema Book includes a complete list of names of stars.
C. Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon is well received in the States.
D. The French Cinema Book covers over a century's French films.
63. The purpose of the speaker is_______.
A. to satisfy the customers' various tastes
B. to keep the authors in the cinema bookstore
C. to offer the tourists chances to meet the film stars
D. to mm the readers into film producers
There are two kinds of physical activity which require special training. The first demands exact careful movements of the muscles（肌肉）. This kind of activity must be strictly controlled because even a slight movement in the wrong direction will lead a mistake. To type quickly, for example, a person needs training; the slightest movement of a finger in the wrong direction may cause a spelling mistake. A dancer who has to dance on the point of her shoes or turn around on one foot must be trained for a long period of time before she can sense her own center and balance herself. You may have seen a girl walking on a rope across an empty space, which, too, requires a lot of practice.
The second kind of physical activity needs greater strength or extra effort. Most of us get tired if we try to run half a mile without stopping, but a specially-trained person can do this without much effort. Three years ago, some scientists carried out experiments, which produced meaningful and unexpected results. They wanted to find out whether a certain amount of physical exercise would injure those suffering from heart problems. They selected some male patients and trained them in continuous bicycle riding. They were surprised to find that the harmful effect of given amount of physical effort was actually less on the hearts of these trained patients than on those of the patients who were not similarly trained. This is important because it shows that regular physical exercise enables us to make better use of the oxygen（氧气）we breathe in and that this training, in fact, reduces the amount of work our hearts do. Many tasks which are hard for untrained people are not hard at all for trained people.
72．The first kind of physical activity must be strictly controlled because _________.
A．a mistake in the wrong direction is dangerous to the fingers
B．a wrong movement in a direction will cause no mistakes
C．a movement in the wrong direction will cause a mistake
D．a slight movement of a finger will lead to a mistake
73．What must a dancer do before she can balance herself?
A．She must dance on the point of her shoes. B．She must receive long-time training.
C．She must turn around on one foot. D．She must perform again and again.
74．The experiments done by some scientists showed that ________.
A．some male patients were asked to ride bicycles regularly in the experiments
B．the physical exercise had more harmful effect on the hearts of the untrained patients
C．the physical exercise was harmless to the male patients with heart trouble
D．the physical exercise could be helpful for the patients to take in more oxygen
75．What would be the best title for this text?
A．Training Our Bodies B．Physical Activities
C．Movement Training D．Extra Body Effort
Everyone’s at it , even my neighbors. I thought I might be the only person left in the world who hadn't done an eBay deal. So, I decided to try my hand at online auction(网上拍卖).
Buying for beginners: Sign up on www. ebay. co. uk. Most items ( e. g. tables, computers, and books) ready for auction will come with a picture and a short description; others may be marked with "Buy It Now" and have a fixed price. You can buy these right away.
If the item is being auctioned, you offer the highest price you are prepared to pay and eBay bids (出价) for you. The bid will be increased little by little until it goes beyond your highest bid, then you are emailed and asked if you would like to bid again. Auctions last up to 10 days and when they finish you get an email telling you whether you have won the item.
How to pay: Sellers decide how they would like to be paid and you need to check this before placing a bid as you might not want to post a cheque or postal orders. The easiest way is through PayPal, an online payment system that takes the money away from your credit card (信用卡).
Selling made simple: If you plan to sell on eBay, it helps to include a picture of the item. I followed my friends' advice and put up the items I wanted to sell for a 10-day auction, starring on a Thursday. This way buyers had two weekends to bid.
The big things in life: It' s easy to post a small item, but furniture is a big part of eBay and this has to be collected or sent by deliverymen. Cheek the ways of delivery before you bid.
36. What is the passage mainly about?
A. How to make payment online. B. Ways of making delivery online
C. Advantages of an online-auction system. D. How to use an online-auction system.
37. After bidding for an item, a buyer.
A. will get what he wants in ten days B. should make payment immediately
C. has chances to make higher bids D. may check its picture and description
38. The easiest way of making payment mentioned in the passage is .
A. through an online payment system B. through a local banking system
C. by sending the money to the seller D. by paying the deliveryman directly
How could we possibly think that keeping animals in cages in unnatural environments－mostly for entertainment purposes－is fair and respectful?
Zoo officials say they are concerned about animals. However, most zoos remain “collections” of interesting “things” rather than protective habitats (栖息地). Zoos teach people that it is acceptable to keep animals bored, lonely, and far from their natural homes.
Zoos claim (声称) to educate people and save endangered species(物种), but visitors leave zoos without having learned anything meaningful about the animals’ natural behavior, intelligence, or beauty. Zoos keep animals in small spaces or cages, and most signs only mention the species’ name, diet, and natural range(分布区). The animals’ normal behavior is seldom noticed because zoos don’t usually take care of the animals’ natural needs.
The animals are kept together in small spaces, with no privacy and little opportunity for mental and physical exercise. This results in unusual and self-destructive behavior called zoochosis. A worldwide study of zoos found that zoochosis is common among animals kept in small spaces or cages. Another study showed that elephants spend 22 percent of their time making repeated head movements or biting cage bars, and bears spend 30 percent of their time walking back and forth, a sign of unhappiness and pain.
Furthermore, most animals in zoos are not endangered. Captive breeding(圈养繁殖)of endangered big cats, Asian elephants, and other species has not resulted n their being sent back to the wild. Zoos talk a lot about their captive breeding programs because they do not want people to worry about a species dying out. In fact, baby animals also attract a lot of paying customers. Haven’t we seen enough competitions to name baby animals?
Actually, we will save endangered species only if we save their habitats and put an end to the reasons people kill them. Instead of supporting zoos, we should support groups that work to protect animals’ natural habitats.
64. How would the author describe the animals’ life in zoos?
A. Dangerous. B. Unhappy. C. Natural. D. Easy.
65. In the state of zoochosis, animals _________.
A. remain in cages B. behave strangely
C. attack other animals D. enjoy moving around
66. What does the author try to argue n the passage?
A. Zoos are not worth the public support.
B. Zoos fail in their attempt to save animals.
C. Zoos should treat animals as human beings.
D. Zoos use animals as a means of entertainment.
67. The author tries to persuade readers to accept his argument mainly by _____.
A. pointing out the faults in what zoos do B. using evidence he has collected at zoos
C. questioning the way animals are protected D. discussing the advantages of natural habitats
68. Although he argues against zoos, the author would still agree that _______.
A. zoos have to keep animals in small cages
B. most animals in zoos are endangered species
C. some endangered animals are reproduced in zoos
D. it’s acceptable to keep animals away from their habitats
Throughout the history of the arts，the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists. No matter what objects they select，artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change—to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before.
Landscape（风景）is another unchanging element of art. It can be found from ancient times through the 17th-century Dutch painters to the 19th-century romanticists and impressionists. In the 1970s Alfred Leslie，one of the new American realists，continued this practice，Leslie sought out the same place where Thomas Cole, a romanticist, had produced paintings of the same scene a century and a half before. Unlike Cole who insists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature，Ledge pains what he actually sees. In his paintings，there is no particular change in motion，and he includes ordinary things like the highway in the background. He also takes advantage of the latest developments of color photography（摄影术）to help both the eye and the memory when he improves his painting back in his workroom.
Besides，all art begs the age-old question：What is real？Each generation of artists has shown their understanding of reality in one form or another. The impressionists saw reality in brief emotional effects，the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes，and the Cro-Magnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in the ancient forests. To sum up. understanding reality is a necessary struggle for Artists of all periods.
Over thousands of years the function of the arts has remained relatively constant. Past or present，Eastern or Western，the arts are a basic part of our immediate experience. Many and different are the faces of art，and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings.
71. The underlined word “poetry” most probably means______________.
A. an object for artistic creation B. a collection of poems
C. an unusual quality D. a natural scene
72. Leslie’s paintings are extraordinary because______________.
A. they are close in style to works in ancient times
B. they look like works by 19th-cenary painters
C. they draw attention to common things in life
D. they depend heavily on color photography
73. What is the author’s opinion of artistic really？______________.
A. It will not be found in future works of art. B. It does not have a long-lasting standard.
C. It is expressed in a fixed artistic form. D. It is lacking in modern works of art.
74. What does the author suggest about the arts in the last paragraph？
A. They express people’s curiosity about the past.
B. They make people interested in everyday experience.
C. They are considered important for variety in form.
D. They are regarded as a mirror of the human situation.
75. Which of the following is the main topic of the passage？
A. History of the arts. B. Basic questions of the arts.
C. New developments in the arts.D. Use of modern technology in the arts.