The Internet will open up new vistas (前景), create the global village——you can make new friends all around the world. That, at least, is what it promised us. The difficulty is that it did not take the human mind into account. The reality is that we cannot keep relationships with more than a limited number of people. No matter how hard the Internet tries to put you in communication, its best efforts will be defeated by your mind.
The problem is twofold（双重的）. First, there is a limit on the number of people we can hold in mind and have a meaningful relationship with. That number is about 150 and is set by the size of our brain. Second, the quality of your relationships depends on the amount of time you invest in then. We invest a lot in a small number of people and then distribute what’s left among as many others as we can. The problem is that if we invest little time in a person, our engagement with that person will decline until eventually it dies into “someone I once knew”.
This is not, of course, to say that the Internet doesn’t serve a socially valuable function. Of course it does. But the question is not that it allows you to increase the size of your social circle to include the rest of the world, but that you can keep your relationships with your existing friends going even though you have to move to the other side of the world.
In one sense, that’s a good thing. But it also has a disadvantage. If you continue to invest in your old friends even though you can no longer see them, then certainly you aren’t using your time to make new friends where you now live. And I suspect that probably isn’t the best use of your time. Meaningful relationships are about being able to communicate with each other, face to face. The Internet will slow down the rate with which relationships end, but it won’t stop that happening eventually.The number of friends we can keep relationships with is decided by__________.
| A．the Internet | B．the time we have | C．the place we live | D．the mind |
The underlined word “engagement” in the second paragraph probably means “__________”.
| A．appointment | B．connection | C．interview | D．agreement |
The author holds the view that___________.
| A．the Internet helps to keep in touch with friends far away |
| B．the Internet determines the quality of social relationships |
| C．the Internet greatly increases the size of social circles |
| D．the Internet is of no value in social communication |
What will the author encourage us to do?
| A．To keep in touch with old friends when we have moved away. |
| B．To chat with friends often on the Internet. |
| C．To make more new friends face to face. |
| D．To stop using the Internet to make new friends. |
What is the author’s attitude towards the use of the Internet to strengthen relationships?
| A．He thinks it useless | B．He is hopeful of it. |
| C．He approves of it. | D．He doubts it. |
One day when Jack was walking in the park, he saw a woman, who lived a few miles away, sitting on a bench with a dog beside her. The dog was looking up at the woman.
Jack walked up to the woman and said, "Hello, Sue, how are you? May I sit and talk with you for a while?" "Of course, please sit down," Sue said. Jack sat down next to Sue on the bench, and they talked quietly together. The dog continued to look up at Sue, as if waiting to be fed.
"That's a nice dog, isn't he?" Jack said, pointing at the animal.
"Yes, he is. He's handsome. He's a bit of a mixture, but that's not a bad thing. He's strong and healthy."
"And hungry, "Jack said." He hasn't taken his eyes off you. He thinks you've got some food for him."
"That's true, "Sue said." But I haven't."
They both laughed and then Jack said, "Does your dog bite?"
"No, "Sue said, "He's never bitten anyone. He's always gentle and friendly."
Hearing this, Jack decided to hold out his hand and touched the animal's head. Suddenly it jumped up and bit him.
"Hey!" Jack shouted." You said your dog didn't bite."
Sue replied in surprise, "Yeah, I did. But this is not my dog. My dog's at home."The dog looked at the woman because ___.
| A．the woman wanted to feed him | B．the woman was friendly |
| C．he was strong and healthy | D．he was hungry |
Jack touched the dog because he believed ___.
| A．the dog was handsome | B．Sue's dog was unfriendly |
| C．the dog belonged to Sue | D．Sue's dog was at home |
We can infer form the passage that ___.
| A．Sue gave a wrong answer | B．Jack made a mistake |
| C．the dog wasn't dangerous | D．both Jack and Sue liked the dog |
Which of the Following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．A Wrong Question | B．Sue's Dog |
| C．A pleasant Meeting | D．Sue's Friend |
Years ago, I lived in a building in a large city. The building next door was only a few feet away from mine. There was a woman who lived there, whom I had never met, yet I could see her seated by her window each afternoon, sewing or reading.
After several months had gone by, I began to notice that her window was dirty. Everything was unclear through the dirty window. I would say to myself, "I wonder why that woman doesn't wash her window. It really looks terrible."
One bright morning I decided to clean my flat, including washing the window on the inside.
Late in the afternoon when I finished the cleaning, I sat down by the window with a cup of coffee for a rest. What a surprise! Across the way, the woman sitting by her window was clearly visible. Her window was clean!
Then it dawned on me. I had been criticizing (批评) her dirty window, but all the time I was watching hers through my own dirty window.
That was quite an important lesson for me. How often had I looked at and criticized others through the dirty window of my heart, through my own shortcomings?
Since then, whenever I wanted to judge (评判) someone, I asked myself first, "Am I looking at him through my own dirty window?"
Then I try to clean the window of my own world so that I may see the world about me more clearly.The writer couldn't see everything clearly through the window because_____.
| A．the woman's window was dirty |
| B．the writer's window was dirty |
| C．the woman lived nearby |
| D．the writer was near-sighted |
The writer was surprised that_____.
| A．the woman was sitting by her window |
| B．the woman's window was clean |
| C．the woman did cleaning in the afternoon |
| D．the woman's window was still terrible |
The underlined sentence "It dawned on me" probably means "____".
| A．I began to understand it | B．it cheered me up |
| C．I knew it grew light | D．it began to get dark |
It's clear that _____.
| A．the writer had never met the woman before |
| B．the writer often washed the window |
| C．they both worked as cleaner |
| D．they lived in a small town |
From the passage, we can learn ______.
| A．one shouldn't criticize others very often |
| B．one should often make his windows clean |
| C．one must judge himself before he judges others |
| D．one must look at others through his dirty windows |
According to an old story, a farmer once found that a bag of corn had been stolen from his house. He went to the judge and told him about his loss. The judge ordered all the people of the farm to come before him. He took a number of sticks of equal length and gave one stick to each man.
He then said, “Come before me again tomorrow. I shall then know which of you is the thief because the stick given to the thief will be one inch longer than the others.”
The thief was afraid of being found out, and so he cut an inch off his stick. The next day the thief’s stick was found to be one inch shorter than any of the others. In this way the thief was found out, and was at once taken away to prison.The judge gave each man a stick _______.
| A．to change back the farmer’s corn |
| B．to beat the thief |
| C．as a tool to find out the thief |
| D．so as to play a game together |
Since the thief cut the stick short, ________.
| A．he was found out |
| B．the judge couldn’t catch him |
| C．his stick had an equal length with the others’ |
| D．his stick wouldn’t be any longer |
The wise way the judge found out the thief in the end was to make ______.
| A．the thief cut the stick off |
| B．the thief cut an inch off the stick |
| C．the stick grow an inch longer |
| D．the other’s sticks would become one inch shorter |
The quality of drinking water in Shanghai will meet European Union standard by 2010 and, a decade later, citizens in Shanghai will drink the best water in the world.
These were the goals set out by the Shanghai Water Authority. With the city’s population expected to increase only slightly and the economy to boom by 2020, Chen Yin, an official in the water authority, said Shanghai’s water consumption will not increase from its present amount.
Zhang Yue, director of the Urban Construction Division under the Ministry of Construction, said, “Shanghai is the first city in the country to publicize these ambitions. They will not be easy to achieve.” He said water saving will help keep the sustainable development of China’s economy.
Saving one cubic meter of water means saving the city’s infrastructure（基础设施）costs by 10,000 Yuan. Last year, Shanghai saved 300 million cubic meters of water either from readjustment of industrial structure or the employment of new technology.
“The aim is to arouse public awareness of the seriousness of water shortages,” Chen said. “The abundant surface water and amount of rain of the city are so misleading that they result in improper use of water.”
Shanghai lacks drinkable water. The Huangpu River, which supplies 80 percent of the city’s drinkable water, is nearing exhaustion. The city, therefore, has been exploring new sources from the Yangtze River and growing forests along it to conserve quality water.
Besides penning regulations, the authority is popularizing technology among the public to efficiently cut the amount of water used.
At present, the city has 600,000 family toilets, each using 13 liters of water per flush. These are to be renovated（整修）to use only 9 liters of water per flush. The authority is renovating the first 200 toilets for households – at a cost of Yuan each. In three years, all the toilets will be renovated, which saves the city nearly 15 million Yuan every year in water conservation.
Another task the city is engaged in is the treatment of sewage（污水）to improve the water environment. At present the city can only treat 44 percent of its daily 5.04 million tons of waste water. To meet the total demand, 27 more sewage treatment factories are to be established with an estimated investment of 18 billion Yuan.People in Shanghai get their daily water mainly from _______now.
| A．the underground | B．the Huangpu River |
| C．the rain | D．the Yangtze River |
According to the passage, some people have the wrong opinion of using water because .
| A．the renovating of family toilets will save plenty of water |
| B．about half of waste water has been treated already |
| C．there is plenty surface water and large amount of rain at present |
| D．advanced technology makes people use water as much as possible |
Which group of measures are all mentioned in the passage to save water?
a．improve drinking water quality
b．change some industrial structure
c．introduce or use some new technology
d．speed the economic development of Shanghai
e．renovate some family toilets
f．build more sewage treatment factories
| A．a, b, c, d | B．a, b, e, f |
| C．b, c, d, e | D．b, c, e, f |
We can infer from the passage that .
| A．not everyone today in Shanghai is aware of water shortage |
| B．citizens today in Shanghai drink the best quality of water in the world |
| C．the boom of economy will need a larger amount of water in the future |
| D．all the family toilets will be renovated to save water within 3 years |
Movie makers at one time worried that they might be put out of business by television. Recently, however, more and more people have been going to the movies. This may be partly because the economic situation in America has worsened. When at the movies, people forget their troubles, as they get involved in the story on the screen. Also, directors have recently been producing pictures that large numbers of people want to see.
Americans in the millions are returning to their love affair with the movies. Motion picture industry experts see two main factors responsible for this: an increased need by Americans to escape from economic worries and a large number of new movies with broad audience appeal.
Movie makers admit that their rising popularity is partly the result of poor economic conditions, which traditionally bring an increase in theater attendance. “When people are fearful about the future, they look for escape,” comments Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America. “In a shaded theater, with a 65-foot screen, you lose yourself for two and a half hours and people find this beneficial.”What did movie makers worry about before?
| A．That people preferred watching TV to seeing films. |
| B．That movies couldn’t be a business any more. |
| C．That their movies might be played on television. |
| D．That no one would go to the cinema. |
Why are so many people going to see movies now?
| A．Because people now have much more money. |
| B．Because people wanted to escape from real life. |
| C．Because people have troubles. |
| D．Because watching movies is now much cheaper than watching TV. |
What does the underlined word “worsened” mean in the first paragraph?
| A．become attractive | B．become amazing |
| C．become bad | D．become popular |
The main topic of American movies is about .
| A．economy | B．love | C．tradition | D．not mentioned |