I’ve spent over a year in India, and in those 365 plus days, I’ve learned a lot about getting around Indian cities. My biggest lessons have been learned through being cheated, particularly by taxi and rickshaw (人力车) drivers, but that doesn’t mean those are bad ways to travel, as long as you know what you’re doing. Below are the best ways to get around the city of Delhi, India, and tips for how to keep from being the victim of scams (欺骗).
Taking taxis is a great way to get around the city of Delhi and chances are, if you arrive in Delhi by plane, as soon as you make it through customs, you’ll be swarmed by Indian taxi drivers. At the Delhi airport, be sure to arrange for a taxi to your hotel at one of the two Delhi Traffic Police Taxi Booths. One is inside the airport, and one is outside. The key is to make sure to go to a booth run by the police, rather than by independent taxi drivers.
Rickshaws are one of my favorite ways to get around Indian cities, partly because it’s how the locals often travel. Auto-rickshaws are more common, but bicycle rickshaws are still used in Old Delhi. If you do have a chance to take a bicycle rickshaw, you should do it at least once for a unique experience that should only set you back about 15 rupees. Auto-rickshaw rates around Delhi range between 30 and 80 rupees, depending on distance.
If you really want to travel around Delhi like the locals, take a public bus. Indian buses become very crowded and most do not have air conditioning. They are, however, very cheap. A bus trip won’t set you back any more than 15 rupees, as long as you stay within the city limits. Since Indian buses get so crowded, try to board the bus at the start of the route so you can get a seat.
The train is a great way to get around within the city of Delhi. Fares are reasonable, between six and 22 rupees. All departure announcements are in both Hindi and English, and tokens can be purchased for between six and 22 rupees. What is the author trying to do through this text?
| A．Expect us to travel around Delhi. |
| B．Show his/her experiences in Delhi. |
| C．Give some advice of traveling in Delhi. |
| D．Explain the difficulties of traveling in Delhi. |
What should you do to avoid being cheated when taking a taxi at the Delhi airport?
| A．Go to a police-run booth. |
| B．Go out of the airport. |
| C．Show your ticket to the driver. |
| D．Pay more to the drivers to keep safe. |
The author suggests taking a rickshaw in order to ______.
| A．save some money |
| B．gain some unique experience |
| C．enjoy the comfortable trip |
| D．help the local rickshaw drivers |
Which may be the topic that follows?
| A．Car rentals in Delhi |
| B．Food and drink in Delhi |
| C．Weather conditions in Delhi |
| D．Hotel recommendations in Delhi |
Ocean animals have been getting bigger over the last half-billion years. Not a little bigger. Not even a lot bigger. They have mushroomed gigantically, scientists now conclude.
Their new finding lends support for something known as “Cope’s rule.” It holds that animals tend to evolve into species that are much larger than their distant ancestors. This hypothesis(假说)takes its name from the 19th century paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope. While studying fossils(化石), he was the first to notice this trend.
Noel Heim is a paleontologist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. He also is a co-author of the new study. His team compared the body size of animals between the Cambrian Period and modern times. This was a span of 542 million years. The animals studied included species from more than 17,000 genera. They ranged from ancient trilobites, plesiosaurs (extinct reptiles with a long neck and flippers) and many less familiar creatures to today’s whales and clams.
Ocean animals today are an average of 150 times larger than they were during the Cambrian, Heim’s group reports. The smallest animals alive today — tiny crustaceans called ostracods — are only about one-tenth the size of the Cambrian’s tiniest animals. But today’s largest ocean animals — whales — are more than 100,000 times bigger than the biggest in the Cambrian.
“Classes of animals that were already big … tended to live longer,” Heim says. They also tended to change more than classes of animals that were small did.
The size gains in ocean animals are much larger than would be expected by chance, saysJonathan Payne. He’s a co-author who also works at Stanford.
The scientists don’t know what drives the trend. One possibility is an arms race(军备竞赛)between predators and prey. The idea here is that larger animals are less likely to become some other animals’ meal. Another possibility has to do with oxygen. Land animals evolved from species that started in the ocean. Some of these land animals eventually returned to the ocean. And they kept the ability to breathe oxygen-rich air. That may have made it easier for them to outgrow animals that had to filter(过滤)their oxygen out of the water.What current animals may best illustrate “mushroomed” in paragraph one?
| A．Plesiosaurs. | B．Ostracods. |
| C．Whales. | D．African Elephants. |
What is the third paragraph mainly about?
| A．The result of the study. |
| B．The participants of the study. |
| C．The significance of the study. |
| D．The targeted animals of the study. |
The ocean animals’ change in size ______.
| A．is determined by environment |
| B．cannot be predicted by any factor |
| C．is fully explained by the new study |
| D．relates to the size of their ancestors |
In the last paragraph, the explanations for the trend suggest that ______.
| A．bigger animals will never be eaten |
| B．land animal can get oxygen more easily |
| C．oxygen is important to all ocean animals |
| D．land animals can grow bigger than ocean animals |
As I drive about the Sois in rural Thailand I catch little glimpses of things that barely register on the mind as the scenery flies by; strange things, beautiful things, sad things, interesting things. I wish I could hold on to these scenes; explore them in detail. I wish that I had the time to stop and investigate further as I’m driving by, but time is a commodity(商品)worth more than all the moneys in the world. I wish I had more.
I once had a guy wave to me as I passed him. He yelled out something, almost in greeting, as if he knew me. I wonder if we knew each other once, in another place, another time, and he recognized my soul as I drove by in the truck, and just had to yell a hello. I wish I had stopped and said hello too.
I saw two young girls, dressed in school uniforms. White blouses, blue skirts, books in hand. They were holding hands, talking, walking down the road, jostling(推，搡)each other with their shoulders and teasing each other as they strolled along. As I passed the one closest to the truck looked up. She was close enough to touch almost. Her smiling face, her clear eyes and golden smooth skin are there in my mind’s eye now. I can see her as if she were standing next to me. Once in a while her face just pops into my head. Why? Why is she still there? Sometimes I think maybe I’m a bit mad.
I stopped at a road stop on a corner one time. An old lady standing by the roadside walked over to the truck and put her hand on my arm and smiled at me. Her palm was so cool. It must have been a hundred degrees out that day. She said something in Thai and giggled(咯咯地笑) and walked away. Who was she? Why did she touch me? Why was her hand so cool? Why did I just sit there and let her touch me? I didn’t flinch(退缩)away. It was almost as if I knew her, and we were just saying a quick hello. Her cool touch almost seemed familiar; like my long dead grandmother’s soothing cool touch remembered from when I was just a little boy.
I need more time. I need to stop the truck more often, and just say hello. Things glimpsed along the road are often far more interesting and wonderful than that which seems to consume our daily lives. Slow down. Stop the truck. Get out, and say hello.What kind of life does the writer normally lead?
| A．Busy. | B．Tiring. | C．Meaningless. | D．Boring. |
The man in paragraph two yelled out because he ______.
| A．had met the writer before |
| B．recognized the writer’s soul |
| C．wanted to show friendliness |
| D．mistook me as one of his friends |
The writer describes the two school girls in great details to show ______.
| A．his liking for them |
| B．that he was kind of crazy |
| C．his interest in observing people |
| D．the deep impression they left on him |
Why does the author compare the old lady with his grandmother?
| A．The old lady behaved like his grandmother. |
| B．He suggests the old lady had very cold hands. |
| C．He suggests the old lady’s touch was comforting. |
| D．The old lady reminded the writer of his entire childhood. |
The first time my father and I ever went fishing became a family legend(传奇故事). We spent hours waiting for a bite. The sun was bursting with fire. We were hot, sticky, and mad that the fish refused to suck up our night crawlers(蚯蚓).
Being only seven years old, I observed that perhaps the worms were the problem. Maybe the night crawlers only moved at night, and now they were just lying there motionless on the hook. Dad ignored my assessment of the situation.
We began to pack up to leave. As we headed back to our truck, we heard tires spinning in the distance. Getting into our truck was tough. Having sat in the boiling sun for six hours, the seats were blistering. Naturally, I was wearing shorts.
I shifted from side to side in the seat so as not to cook my bottom. While driving out we saw a truck with a boat trailer and boat that was stuck in the mud. That explained the sound of spinning tires we’d heard.
Being a nice guy, my dad helped pull the man from the mud. In return, this fellow gave Dad some fish for being a Good Samaritan. As Dad climbed back into our truck with a brown bag full of fish, we waved goodbye to our newfound friend.
On the drive home, we agreed to take in the fish as if we had caught them. We were sure there was no way for Mom to know the difference. It was just a little white lie.
We arrived home hot, sweaty, and smelly, and went to clean up while Mom prepared the fish. We made a big deal out of the fact that we had already cleaned them and put them in the bag so as not to make a mess.
After showering, Dad and I met in the hall and exchanged conspiratorial grins(心照不宣的笑). Sitting down to freshly fried fish, we started eating happily and went on about how good something tasted that we had actually caught ourselves. Mother looked suitably impressed.
As we got up to do the dishes, Mom cleared her throat. “I just have one question of you two great fishermen,” she said. We looked at her expectantly, thinking we had another opportunity to delight her with our great fishing ability. With a tiny smile, Mom asked, “How was it again that you two managed to not only clean your fish, but also freeze them before you got home.”Why didn’t the fish eat our night crawlers?
| A．The weather was too hot. |
| B．The reason was not clear. |
| C．The fish were not hungry. |
| D．The fish only ate night crawlers alive. |
Dad was called a Good Samaritan for______.
| A．taking in the fish |
| B．helping a stranger |
| C．showing great strength |
| D．making friends with a stranger |
Mom smiled at the end because she ______.
| A．was amused by the little white lie |
| B．was satisfied with their fishing ability |
| C．was impressed that the fish were clean and frozen |
| D．was delighted that she did not need to deal with the mess |
Why did the fishing become a family legend?
| A．They caught a lot of fish. |
| B．They cooperated well in telling the lie. |
| C．They chose to benefit a stranger rather than themselves. |
| D．They make themselves a fool in front of the mother since they lied. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项, 并在答题卡上将该选项的标号涂黑。
It may help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech. At some point in every speech, every speaker says something that is not understood exactly as he has planned. Fortunately, the moments are usually not obvious to the listeners. Why? Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say. They hear only what the speaker does say. If you lose your place for a moment, wrongly change the order of a couple of sentences, or forget to pause at a certain point, no one will be any the wiser. When such moments occur, don’t worry about them. Just continue as if nothing happened.
Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech, that doesn’t really matter. If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King’s famous speech—“I Have a dream”, you may notice that he stumbles(结巴) over his words twice during the speech. Most likely, however, you don’t remember. Why? Because you were fixing your attention on his message rather than on his way of speech-making.
People care a lot about making a mistake in a speech because they regard speechmaking as a kind of performance rather than as an act of communication. They feel the listeners are like judges in an ice-skating competition. But, in fact, the listeners are not looking for a perfect performance. They are looking for a well-thought-out speech that expresses the speaker’s ideas clearly and directly. Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker’s attractiveness by making him more human.
As you work on your speech, don’t worry about being perfect. Once you free your mind of this, you will find it much easier to give your speech freely.The underlined part in the first paragraph means that no one will ______.
| A．be smarter than you | B．notice your mistakes |
| C．do better than you | D．know what you are talking about |
You don’t remember obvious mistakes in a speech because________.
| A．your attention is on the content |
| B．you don’t fully understand the speech |
| C．you don’t know what the speaker plans to say |
| D．you find the way of speech-making more important |
It can be inferred from the passage that________.
| A．giving a speech is like giving a performance |
| B．one or two mistakes in a speech may not be bad |
| C．the listeners should pay more attention to how a speech is made |
| D．the more mistakes a speaker makes, the more attractive he will be |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．How to Be a Perfect Speaker |
| B．How to Make a Perfect Speech |
| C．Don’ t Expect a Perfect Speech |
| D．Don’t Expect Mistakes in a Speech |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中，选出最佳选项, 并在答题卡上将该选项的标号涂黑。
The literal meaning of philosophy is “love of wisdom”. But this meaning does not tell us very much. Unlike the other disciplines(学科)，philosophy cannot be defined by what you study, because it is actually unlimited. Anything can be the subject matter of philosophy: art, history, law, language, literature, mathematics, medicine, psychology, religion, science, and values. Philosophy is one of the world’s oldest subjects of study, and in fact, the other academic disciplines are directly related to philosophy. For this reason you get a Doctorate(博士学位) of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in biochemistry, or computer science, or psychology.
Two broad sub-fields of philosophy are logic and the history of philosophy. Logic is the science of argument and critical thinking. It provides sound methods for distinguishing good from bad reasoning. The history of philosophy involves the study of major philosophers and periods in the development of philosophy.
Of what use is philosophy? First it is useful in educational advancement. It is necessary for understanding other disciplines. Only philosophy questions the nature of the concepts used in a discipline, and its relation to other disciplines. And through the study of philosophy, one develops sound methods of research and analysis that can be applied to any field.
There are a number of general uses of philosophy. It strengthens one’s ability to solve problems, to communicate, to organize ideas and issues, to persuade, and to take what is the most important from a large quantity of data.These general uses are of great benefit in the career field, not necessarily for obtaining one’s first job after graduation, but for preparing for positions of responsibility, management and leadership later on. It is very short-sighted after all, to take a course of studies only for the purpose of getting one’s first job. The useful skills developed through the study of philosophy have significant long-term benefits in career advancement. No other discipline systematically follows the ideals of wisdom, leadership, and capacity to resolve human conflict.According to Paragraph 1, philosophy can best be described as the study of______.
| A．social sciences |
| B．natural sciences |
| C．both social and natural sciences |
| D．the subject matter of politics |
With the study of philosophy, you can_______.
| A．become a great leader |
| B．succeed in everything |
| C．find a good job soon after graduation |
| D．make progress in your career development |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Philosophy is an independent discipline. |
| B．Logic helps you to become a better thinker. |
| C．The study of philosophy brings you immediate benefits. |
| D．The meaning of philosophy is too limited to define. |
From the passage, we can conclude______.
A．not all the subjects have to do with philosophy
B．a person will get a Ph.D. if he/she studies philosophy
C．philosophy can be helpful for the study of any other subjects
D．philosophy is the only solution to all the problems to the world