subways
| The Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines |
Features: The Tokyo Metro and Toei lines that make up of Tokyo’s huge subway system carry almost 8 million people each day, making it the busiest system in the world. The system is famous for its oshiya- literally, “pusher”- who push passengers into crowded subway cars so the doors can close. And you think your ride is hell. |
| The Moscow Metro |
Features: The Moscow Metro has some of the most beautiful stations in the world. The best of them were built during the Stalinist era and feature chandeliers(枝行吊灯)，marble moldings and elaborate murals(精美壁画). With more than 7 million riders a day , keeping all that marble clean has got to be a burden. |
| The Hong Kong MTR |
Features: The Hong Kong MTR has the distinction of being one of the few subway systems in the world that actually turns a profit. It’s privately owned and uses real estate development along its tracks to increase income and ridership. It also introduced “Octopus cards” that allow people to not only pay their fares electronically, but buy stuff at convenience stores ,supermarkets, restaurants and even parking meters. It’s estimated that 95% of all adults in Hong Kong own an Octopus card. |
| Shanghai Metro |
Features: Shanghai is the third city in China to build a metro system, and it has become the country’s largest in the 12 years since it opened. Shanghai Metro has 142 miles of track and plans to add another 180 miles within five years. By that point, it would be three times larger than Chicago “L”. The system carries about 2.18 million people a day. |
| The London Metro |
Features: Londoners call their subway the Underground, even though 55 percent of it lies above ground. No matter when you’ve got the oldest mass-transit system in the world, you can call it anything you like. Trains started in 1863 and they’ve been running ever since. Some 3 million people ride each day, every one of them remembering to “Mind the gap” |
Which one can provide the riders with some wonderful decorations at the stations?
| A．The Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines | B．The Moscow Metro |
| C．The London Metro | D．The Hong Kong MTR |
___________ is done with the purpose of making money.
| A．The Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines | B．The Moscow Metro |
| C．Shanghai Metro | D．The Hong Kong MTR |
We can learn from the passage that Shanghai Metro ___________.
| A．carries the most people each day |
| B．is the world’s largest |
| C．may be larger than the Chicago “L” in the future |
| D．is the busiest in the world |
How many subways carry more than 5 million people per day?
| A．2 | B．3 | C．4 | D．5 |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Shanghai is the third to build a metro system in China, which has become the largest in the world. |
| B．You’ll feel sick when you travel on the Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines. |
| C．Londoners call their subway the Underground because 55 percent of it lies above ground. |
| D．It is estimated that 95% of the population in Hong Kong own an Octopus card. |
Last Friday a storm swept through two villages in the New Territories, destroying (摧毁) fourteen homes. Seven others were so badly damaged (破坏) that their owners had to leave them, and fifteen others had broken windows or broken roofs. One person was killed, several were badly hurt and taken to hospital, and a number of other people received smaller hurt. Altogether over two hundred people were homeless after the storm.
A farmer, Mr. Tan, said that the storm began early in the morning and lasted for over an hour.
“I was eating with my wife and children,” he said, “When we heard a loud noise. A few minutes later our house fell down on top of us. We tried our best to climb out but then I saw that one of my children was missing. I went back inside and found him,
safe but very frightened.”
Mrs. Woo Mei Fong said that her husband had just left for work when she felt that her house was moving. She ran outside at once with her children.
“There was no time to take anything,” she said, “A few minutes later, the roof came down.”
Soldiers helped to take people out of the flooded (水淹的) area and the welfare department (福利机构) brought them food, clothes and shelter. How many homes altogether (总共) were damaged in the storm?
| A．Fourteen | B．Twenty-one |
| C．Twenty-nine | D．Thirty-six |
Where was Mr. Tan when the storm first began?
| A．He was in bed. | B．He was inside the house. |
| C．He was outside the house. | D．He was on the roof. |
Mrs. Woo and her family didn’t get hurt because _________.
| A．her husband knew there would be a storm |
| B．they were all outside the house when the storm became worse |
| C．she felt the house was moving |
| D．the welfare department helped her |
The underlined word “shelter” in this passage means ______.
| A．something to eat | B．something to wear |
| C．somewhere to study | D．somewhere to stay |
Which of he following may be the best title for this passage?
| A．A Terrible Storm | B．A Lucky Woman |
| C．Good Soldiers | D．Clever People |
Nick Petrels is a doctor in Montreal. He works 60 hours a week. He takes care of 159 patients a week in the hospital and at his office. He’s been a doctor for ten years.
Dr. Petrels gives his patients good medical advice. But he doesn’t just tell his patients what to do. He also sings to them on television! Dr. Petrels has his own TV show. The show is in Italian, English and French. The doctor starts the show with a song and then gives medical advice. He explains a medical problem or disease in simple language. After that, he sings another song.
Dr. Petrels produces and performs in his own show every week. The program is very popular with his patients and with people who enjoy his singing. His dream is to perform(表演) in Las Vegas. His favorite songs are love songs, and he has a compact disk of love songs that he wrote. Dr. Petrels says, “I always loved to sing. All my problems are gone when I sing.” But when Dr. Petrels was young, his father didn’t want him to be a singer, so he went to medical school.
Some people tell Dr. Petrels he can help people more as a doctor. But Dr. Petrels says he helps people when he sings, too. “I like to make people smile. Sometimes it’s difficult to make a sick person smile. Medicine and entertainment(娱乐) both try to do the same thing. They try to make people feel good.” Dr. Petrels works 60 hours a week, because he _______.
| A．gives his patients medical advice |
| B．takes care of 159 patients a week |
| C．sings on television |
| D．has his own TV show |
Dr. Petrels _______, so he is called a singing doctor.
| A．has been a doctor for ten years |
| B．always loved to sing |
| C．is popular with his patients |
| D．also sings to his patients on TV |
In his TV show, Dr. Petrel _______.
| A．sings and gives medical advice |
| B．sings about different diseases |
| C．starts to explain diseases with a song |
| D．sings love songs he wrote |
Dr. Petrels’ show is popular _______.
| A．in Las Vegas. | B．at medical school |
| C．with people who like his singing | D．with patients in Montreal |
Dr. Petrels says he likes to _______.
| A．help people sing | B．make people feel better |
| C．do the same thing | D．make difficult people smile |
Dick lived in England. One day in January he said to his wife, "I'm going to fly to New York next week because I've got some work there." "Where are you going to stay there?" his wife asked. "I don't know yet." Dick answered. "Please send me your address from there in a telegram (电报)," his wife said. "All right," Dick answered.
He flew to New York on January 31st and found a nice hotel in the center of the city. He put his things in his room and then he sent his wife a telegram. He put the address of his hotel in it.
In the evening he didn't have any work, so he went to a cinema. He came out at nine o'clock and said, "Now I'm going back to my hotel and have a nice dinner."
He found a taxi (出租车) and the driver said, "Where do you want to go?" But Dick didn't remember the name and address of his hotel.
"Which hotel are my things in?" he said, "And what am I going to do tonight?" But the driver of the taxi did not know. So Dick got out and went into a post office. There he sent his wife another telegram, and in it he wrote, "Please send me my address at this post office." Dick flew to New York because ___.
| A．he went there for a holiday |
| B．he had work there |
| C．he went there for sightseeing (观光) |
| D．his home was there |
Why did his wife want a telegram from him?
| A．Because she didn't know his address yet |
| B．Because she wanted to go to New York, too |
| C．Because she might send him another telegram |
| D．Because she couldn't leave her husband by himself in New York |
Where did Dick stay in New York?
| A．In the center of the city. | B．In a hotel. |
| C．In a restaurant. | D．At his friend's house. |
Who would send him the name and address of his hotel?
| A．The manager (经理) of his hotel. | B．The police office. |
| C．The taxi driver. | D．His wife. |
Which of the following is not true?
| A．Dick stayed at a nice hotel in the center of the city. |
| B．Dick didn't work on the first night of his arrival. |
| C．Dick forgot to send his wife a telegram. |
| D．Dick wanted to go back to his hotel in a taxi. |
Doris Lessing was born in 1919 in Persia, moving as a child with her family to southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where she stayed in school only to the age of 14.
A year after moving to London, she published her first novel in 1950. The Grass is Singing examines unbridgeable racial conflict in colonial Africa through the eyes of a white farmer's wife and her black servant.
Her literary breakthrough came in 1962 with publication of The Golden Notebook, seen by many, though not necessarily Lessing, as a pioneering work of modern feminism（女权运动）. A disjointed study of the mind of the main character, Anna Wulf, the novel explores her thoughts about Africa, politics, relationships with men and sex, and Jungian analysis and dream interpretation.
Lessing's themes changed to psychology in her works from the 1960s, and by the 1970s she was interested in the Islamic mystic tradition of Sufism（苏菲教派）. Her turn toward science fiction with the Canopus series in the early 1980s was not warmly received by traditional critics, but she has continued to be popular with new readers and numerous literary awards, including the David Cohen British Literary Prize and the Companion of Honour from the Royal Society of Literature, both in 2001.
Following the announcement, the Horace Engdahl told VOA why he was personally so pleased with Lessing's selection.
“She is one of the truly great writers -- of novels, short stories, fiction and non-fiction,” Engdahl said. “She is one of the few writers who have had the courage to uphold the principle of equality between the male and female experience, and she has given the impulse to numbers of other women writers. And she is really the mother of a school that is one of the most important in our contemporary literature.”
At 87, Doris Lessing is the oldest Nobel Literature winner since the first prizes were awarded in 1901. What would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Doris Lessing’s Great Writings. |
| B．Doris Lessing’s Concern about Africa. |
| C．A Great Writer of Novel and a Pioneer of Modern Feminism. |
| D．A Nobel Prize Winner for Literature. |
It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
| A．there are only two characters in The Grass is Singing |
| B．The Golden Notebook is regarded as Lessing’s masterpiece by herself |
| C．life in Africa in her early age lays solid foundation for her writing |
| D．Doris Lessing is strongly against traditional culture in Africa |
According to the fourth paragraph, _______.
| A．Lessing began to believe in Christ in the 1970s |
| B．Lessing’s science fiction won readers |
| C．Lessing had won two literary medals for her writings |
| D．Lessing changed her themes to meet the needs of traditional critics |
The underlined word “impulse” in the 6th passage is closest in meaning to _______.
| A．pressure | B．inspiration | C．energy | D．desire |
Archaeologists believe they are on the turning point of throwing light on the life of William Shakespeare — by excavating (发掘) what may have been the playwright’s dust hole.
Experts have begun excavating the ruins of New Place, Shakespeare’s former home in Stratford-upon-Avon, which was destroyed 250 years ago. Although little remains of the property, the team, led by Birmingham Archaeology, believes it has identified a dust hole used by the 16th century poet.
Small pieces of pottery (陶瓷) and broken clay pipe have already been found from a muddy hole on the site, which they claim could yield some of the most significant discoveries about Shakespeare in decades. The dig focuses on three areas of the property, which Shakespeare bought in 1597 when he returned to his home town from London having achieved fame — including the so-called knot garden at the back of the building.
Dr Diana Owen, Director of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, which owns the site, said, “We do not know if the knot garden was an area used by Shakespeare — it may have been a yard simply used by his servants. But this could actually yield some fantastic results, especially if it was an area where rubbish was thrown or the dust hole was located.”
Kevin Colls, from Birmingham Archaeology,added, “Through documentary evidence we know Shakespeare lived at New Place but we have very little information regarding the layout (布局) of the house and gardens at this time. Through archaeological fieldwork, in particular the dig of structural remains and the recovery of artifacts, we hope to fill in the blanks.”
Until October, visitors will be able to watch archaeologists and volunteers at work as they excavate the remains of the house, which was knocked down in 1759. Experts hope to unearth evidence to support theories that Shakespeare wrote many of his most famous works at the property. This excavation intends to ______.
| A．know something about the playwright’s dust hole |
| B．search for some treasure in the dust hole |
| C．explore the life of William Shakespeare |
| D．find something that Shakespeare lost |
New Place was destroyed in the ______ century.
| A．15th | B．16th | C．17th | D．18th |
Small pieces of pottery and broken clay pipe on the site ______.
| A．could show Shakespeare’s luxurious life |
| B．could lead to important discoveries about Shakespeare |
| C．could show us that Shakespeare lived at New Place |
| D．could prove when New Place was knocked down |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．Shakespeare used to live at New Place. |
| B．Shakespeare became famous after 1597. |
| C．Only his servants used the knot garden. |
| D．Dr Diana Owen owns Shakespeare’s property. |