As one comes to some crossroads, he or she sees a sign which says that drivers have to stop when they come to the main road ahead. At other crossroads, drivers have to go slow, but they do not actually have to stop unless, of course, there is something coming along the main road; and at still others, they do not have either to stop or to go slow, because they are themselves on the main road.
Mr Williams, who was always a very careful driver, was driving home from work one evening when he came to a crossroad. It had a “SLOW” sign. He slowed down when he came to the main road, looked both ways to see that nothing was coming, and then drove across without stopping completely.
At once he heard a police whistle(口哨声), so he pulled into the side of the road and stopped. A policeman walked over to him with a notebook and a pen in his hand and said, “You didn’t stop at that crossing.”
“But the sign there doesn’t say ‘STOP’,” answered Mr Williams, “ It just says ‘SLOW’, and I did go slow.”
The policeman looked around him, and a look of surprise came over his face. Then he put his notebook and pen away, scratched(抓) his head and said, “Well, I’m in the wrong street !”Mr Williams was driving ____ one evening.
| A．to a party | B．to his office |
| C．home after work | D．to work from home |
When he was stopped by a policeman, he ____.
| A．was driving at a high speed | B．was driving onto the main road |
| C．was going to stop his car | D．was driving slowly |
Though slowly, Mr Williams continued driving at the crossing because____ .
| A．he didn't see any “STOP” sign there |
| B．he paid no attention to the traffic rules |
| C．he didn't have to stop |
| D．he was eager to get home |
Looking round Mr Williams, the policeman was surprised because____ .
| A．he met a mad man |
| B．he realized that he himself was mistaken |
| C．Mr Williams dared to speak to him like that |
| D．Mr Williams would not apologize to him |
The World’s Most Impressive Subways
| The Tokyo Metro And Toei Lines |
The Tokyo Metro and Toei lines that compose Tokyo’s massive 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 pushes passengers into crowded subway cars so the doors can close. And you think your ride is hell. |
| The Moscow Metro |
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 beautiful lamps, marble moldings and fantastic wall paintings. With more than 7 million riders a day, keeping all that marble clean has got to be a burden. |
| The Hong Kong MTR |
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 |
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 |
Londoners call their subway the Underground, even though 55 percent of it lies above ground. No matter when you access 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 of the following 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. |
According to the passage, the only subway that can bring more financial gains is _______.
| A．the Tokyo Metro and Toei Lines | B．the Moscow Metro |
| C．the London 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 Subway in the future |
| D．is the busiest in the world |
What do we know about the Hong Kong MTR?
| A．It is not owned by the government. |
| B．It has become the country’s largest subway since it opened. |
| C．It carries the most people every day. |
| D．It is the busiest system in the world. |
This passage mainly tells us the _______ of the five subways.
| A．features | B．development | C．background | D．system |
With eco-tourism on the rise, eco-hotels are fast becoming the darling of the travel industry. These days, however, staying at an eco-hotel doesn’t necessarily mean vacationing in a tree house in the Costa Rican jungle, although that is certainly a choice.
The majority of eco-hotels fall into one of several categories: hotels and resorts that conserve ecologically important habitats; “green” hotels that reduce, recycle, minimize waste, and protect water; sustainable hotels that harvest food from gardens on the hotel property or get part or all of their power from renewable energy; hotels that encourage community involvement such as guests taking part in trail clearing; and hotels that offer some form of environmental education to their guests.
As such, eco-hotels are a various group. Stylish urban hotels like the Willard Inter-Continental Washington focus on energy conservation whereas the Rosario Resort & Spa on Orcas Island in Washington State offers a wildly popular “green” vacation package where guests can “take a hike, clear a trail”.
No matter what you call them, eco-hotel, eco-lodge, eco-resort, or green hotel, they’re all part of the “greening” of the tourism industry.
Part of what drives this greening of the hotel industry is no doubt competition. Going green is yet another way to distinguish a hotel from the mass of other excellent hotels that consumers have to choose from. But for many hotels, it’s also part of their philosophy. With the concept of “going green” firmly rooted in consumers’ minds, eco-hotels have taken it to the next level, and whether or not money is the driving factor behind the greening of the hotel industry doesn’t matter so much as it’s good for the planet.The underlined part in the first paragraph means _______.
| A．lovers like staying at an eco-hotel when traveling |
| B．eco-hotels are very popular in the travel industry |
| C．eco-hotels are where young people love to live |
| D．romantic love stories often happen in eco-hotels |
According to the passage, which of the following can match the idea of eco-hotel?
| A．It uses renewable energy. |
| B．It is comfortable and fashionable. |
| C．It has walls of glass. |
| D．It is home to endangered species. |
From the passage, we know the Rosario Resort & Spa is a kind of hotel that _______.
| A．protects important habitats |
| B．harvests food from its own garden |
| C．has courses on the environment for its guests |
| D．encourages its guests to participate in its greening activities |
From the last paragraph, we can learn that _______.
| A．money is the driving force behind eco-hotels |
| B．eco-hotels have no advantages in competing for guests |
| C．eco-hotels teach their guests the philosophy of eco-hotels |
| D．the hotel industry cares more about money than the environment |
People who choose to stay at eco-hotels _______.
| A．love to take a hike |
| B．have environmental awareness |
| C．want to live comfortably |
| D．enjoy the green atmosphere |
A new study has found that it may be possible to train people to be more intelligent, increasing the brainpower they had at birth．
Until now，it has been widely assumed that the kind of mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previous experience—what psychologists call fluid intelligence—is innate and cannot be taught（though people can raise their grades on tests of it by practicing）．
But in the new study，researchers describe a method for improving this skill，along with experiments to prove it works．
The key, researchers found, was carefully structured training in working memory—the kind that allows memorization of a telephone number just long enough to dial it．This type of memory is closely related to fluid intelligence，so the researchers reasoned that improving it might lead to improvements in fluid intelligence．
First they measured fluid intelligence of volunteers using standard tests．Then they trained each in a complicated memory task—the child’s card game，in which they had to recall a card they saw and heard．During the course, they needed to ignore irrelevant items, monitor ongoing performance，manage two tasks at the same time and connect related items to one another in space and time．
The four groups experienced a half-hour of training daily for 8, 12, 17 and 19 days, respectively．To make sure they were not just improving their test-taking skills，the researchers compared them with control groups that took the tests without the training．
The results, published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences，were striking．Improvement in the trained groups was a lot greater．Moreover，the longer they trained, the higher their scores were．All performers，from the weakest to the strongest，showed significant improvement．
“Our results show you can increase your intelligence with proper training．” said Dr Jaeggi, a co-author of the paper．“No one knows how long the gains will last after training stops,” he added, “and the experiment’s design did not allow the researchers to determine whether more training would continue to produce further gains．”.The researchers thought the key to improving the intelligence was ______________．
| A．memorizing telephone numbers | B．improving working memory |
| C．training in concentration | D．recalling a card |
.The following aspects of the training help increase intelligence EXCEPT___________．
| A．ignoring irrelevant items | B．monitoring ongoing performance |
| C．managing two tasks at the same time | D．using previous experience |
.When the experiment was conducted, the researchers______________．
| A．trained the four groups for the same period of time |
| B．only made comparisons between the four groups |
| C．compared the four groups with control groups |
| D．trained the four groups together |
.By writing the article，the writer intends to ______________．
| A．inform the readers of a new study |
| B．call on people to be trained to increase intelligence |
| C．prove one’s born brainpower can be improved |
| D．tell people the improved intelligence will last forever |
At about 4 am, after hours of being unable to sleep, of shivering in the cold mountain air and trying to silence my crying kids who kept waking up, of attempting to find a comfortable sleeping position, of listening to whether there might have been a bear outside our tent, I finally couldn’t stand it any more. I complained, “Everything has gone wrong.”
My wife and I were in one tent with our two young kids. A hundred yards east away was Summit Lake, where the glorious early morning mist was shimmering（闪烁）off the water. A couple miles to the southwest was the base of the Lassen Peak Trail. The base was 8,000 feet above sea level, and huge snow dotted the scenery even in mid August. Further west still was Bumpass Hell, with steam rising up.
As the sun crept up over the edge of the Lassen peak, we fired up the camp stove and had breakfast. Half an hour later, my six-year-old daughter and I were in the parking lot of the Lassen peak trail, getting ready to go up the mountainside. We wouldn’t make it all the way, but it didn’t matter. We would see nature at its extremes: the volcanic ash that layered on the earth turning the melting snow a mysterious pink as the sun struck it; the blues of the sky shading into the blues of distant lakes, which in turn shaded into the whites and grays of the snow.
My daughter grabbed my camera. She wanted to take a photo of “the composite（混合物）”of colors. Looking out over that scenery, and seeing my daughter fascinated by nature, I felt stupid about my morning complaints.
Yes, camping is uncomfortable. And yes, there’s a lot to be said for getting out a credit card,reserving a room in a nice hotel, and going out for a fancy meal. But there’s also something wonderful about being so close to raw nature. And , as important, there’s something vital about getting young children out of their increasingly modern comfort zones and forcing them to meet the world around them..According to the passage, what contributed to the author’s sleeplessness ?
①the cold weather②his crying children③fear of bears
④sounds of bears⑤the aches of his lower back⑥his own complaints
| A．①④⑥ | B．①②③ | C．②④⑤ | D．②③⑤ |
.Which of the following maps correctly shows the places ?
.The underlined word “colors” in Paragraph 4 refers to ______ .
| A．blue, white, gray and pink | B．white, yellow, gray and pink |
| C．white, green ,gray and pink | D．blue, green,white and gray |
.How did the author’s feeling change from the beginning to the end ?
| A．Calm→Satisfied. | B．Excited→Frustrated. |
| C．Sad→Calm. | D．Regretful→Satisfied. |
.Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage ?
| A．Nature is the glass reflecting truth. |
| B．Nature is the best scenery designer. |
| C．The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step. |
| D．A bad beginning makes a bad ending. |
In bringing up children, every parent watches eagerly the child’s acquisition of each new skill-the first spoken words, the first independent steps, or the beginning of reading and writing．It is often tempting to hurry the child beyond his natural learning rate, but this can set up dangerous feelings of failure and states of worry in the child: This might happen at any stage．A baby might be forced to use a toilet too early, a young child might be encouraged to learn to read before he knows the meaning of the words he reads．On the other hand, though, if a child is left alone too much, or without any learning opportunities, he loses his natural enthusiasm for life and his desire to find out new things for himself．
Patents vary greatly in their degree of strictness towards their children．Some may be especially strict in money matters．Others are severe over times of coming home at night or punctuality for meals．In general, the controls imposed represent the needs of the parents and the values of the community as much as the child’s own happiness．
As regards the development of moral standards in the growing child, consistency is very important in parental teaching．To forbid a thing one day and excuse it the next is no foundation for morality．Also, parents should realize that “example is better than precept”．If they are not sincere and do not practice what they teach, their children may grow confused, and emotionally insecure when they grow old enough to think for themselves, and realize they have been to some extent fooled．
A sudden awareness of a marked difference between their parents’ principles and their morals can be a dangerous disappointment．.Eagerly watching the child’s acquisition of new skills _________．
| A．should be avoided |
| B．is universal among parents |
| C．sets up dangerous states of worry in the child |
| D．will make him lose interest in learning new things |
.In the process of children’s learning new skills, parents ______．
| A．should encourage them to read before they know the meaning of the words they read |
| B．should not expect too much of them |
| C．should achieve a balance between pushing them too hard and leaving them on their own |
| D．should create as many learning opportunities as possible |
.The second paragraph mainly tells us that __________．
| A．parents should be strict with their children |
| B．parental controls reflect only the needs of the parents and the values of the community |
| C．parental restrictions vary, and are not always intended for the benefit of the children alone |
| D．parents vary in their strictness towards their children according to the situation |
.In moral matters, parents should __________．
| A．observe the rules themselves |
| B．be aware of the marked difference between adults and children |
| C．forbid things which have no foundation in morality |
| D．consistently ensure the security of their children |