I arrived late one night on a business trip, so I decided to have dinner in the hotel I stayed in. As I was finishing my meal, an elderly couple came in. They were holding hands and had lovely smiles on their faces. They sat three tables from me. I was amazed at the love they showed for each other. It stuck me because it was shortly after ending a 20-year marriage and I still had pain in my heart.
My waiter was also their waiter. As I paid my bill, I asked what their bill was. He told me, and I gave him $40 to pay their bill. He asked if I knew them and I told him “No, I just wanted to repay them for the love that they were showing to each other,” and then I left.
The next day I entered the restaurant again. After I had been seated, the waiter who served me the night before told me that the strangest thing happened after I left the restaurant. When the elderly couple went to pay for their meal, they were told that it had been paid. The waiter just told them what I said. They were amazed. They looked around, asked for the bill of two young couples who were seated together, paid their bill and left.
I smiled and ordered my meal. About 45 minutes later, I finished my meal and was about to head out, but my waiter was nowhere to be found. I explained to the hostess that I needed to pay for my meal and hurry to the airport. She smiled and explained that I would not have to pay, because she felt she should pay for my bill because of the joy brought to the faces of the elderly couple and the amazement of the young couples.
When I told her that they didn’t have to do that, she said with a smile “Love creates Love.”From the first paragraph we know the writer must feel __________.
| A．pleased | B．worried | C．sad | D．nervous |
The elderly couple paid the bill of the two young couples because they __________.
| A．knew the two young couples |
| B．were happy to pass the love they got |
| C．were always ready to help poor people |
| D．wanted to invite the young people to the meal |
The writer’s purpose of writing the passage is to __________.
| A．suggest true love never dies |
| B．share an interesting experience |
| C．encourage us to help people in need |
| D．prove a show of love really makes a difference |
There are many places around the city and online to buy Las Vegas show tickets. With dozens of websites you can find at home, ticket box offices, Tix 4 Tonight (one of the two half-price ticket sellers) locations, and ticket sellers along the Las Vegas trip, you might wonder where you could find your best deal.
Major Shows
If you want to see one of the top shows in Las Vegas, you could buy your tickets online before your trip. Many of these shows sell out months ahead of time, so make sure you do your research.
Best Place to Buy Discounted (打折的) Tickets
If you want discounted tickets for Las Vegas shows, you should go to one of the four Tix 4 Tonight locations. These locations get tickets early in the morning or throughout the day if shows are not sold out. Do not expect to find discounted tickets here for the hottest shows in town such as one-night concerts or shows like Celine Dion’s. These seldom make their way to Tix 4 Tonight.
Coupon books (代金劵)
As you walk along the Las Vegas Strip, you are going to come across people handing out the Vegas Values coupon books or other coupons. These may help you find discounted coupons for various shows around town. Tickets bought with coupons have to be bought at the box office for the show. These are usually located near the theater used for the show.
On-Strip Sellers
If you see people standing on the Strip selling show tickets, make sure you avoid them. While a few of these sellers might be legitimate (合法的)，they often cheat people by selling counterfeit (伪造的) tickets.
Catching a show in Las Vegas is one of the various activities people take part in every single day. While there is not one set place to be the best to buy tickets, make sure you get to see the show you want.If you want to see Celine Dion’s performance, you should buy the tickets __ _____.
| A．from the tickets sellers along the Strip |
| B．through online shopping |
| C．at the Tix 4 Tonight locations |
| D．on the day of the performance |
What’s the author’s purpose in writing this text?
| A．To introduce various Las Vegas shows. |
| B．To introduce the interesting places in Las Vegas. |
| C．To tell people the ways of getting Las Vegas show tickets. |
| D．To tell people the advantage of getting tickets online. |
In which part of a newspaper could we find the text?
| A．Business. | B．News. | C．Travel. | D．Sports. |
A sandstorm, also known as a dust storm, is exactly what it sounds like. A very strong windstorm especially in the desert carries clouds of sand or dust that greatly reduces visibility. This wind is usually caused by convection currents (对流气流), which are created by intense heating of the ground, and is usually strong enough to move entire sand dunes. Air is unstable when heated, and this instability in the air will cause higher winds to mix with winds in the lower atmosphere, producing strong surface winds.
Sandstorms can disturb people’s travel, and can sometimes destroy whole roads, and dry flat areas. Similar dust storms can be found on the planet Mars, and are thought to be seasonal. Today, the destruction of forests and too much farming of farmland can lead to sandstorms. Too much use of water resources can also cause sandstorms.
In the United States of America, sandstorms are rare because of the lack of large deserts and more importantly the development of proper agricultural techniques. The last recorded destructive sandstorm in American history was the Dust Bowl, which occurred on July 16, 1971 and was widely recorded by meteorologists (气象学家).
To protect themselves from sandstorms, some people wear protective suits. Special equipment can be fixed in some cars to prevent sand from getting into the engine. Sandstorms can cause coughs, and the sand and dust has also been known to carry “infectious diseases”. Sand particles, unlike dust ones, will block air passages, and cause a person who breathes them in to choke. Dust particles may cause an allergic (过敏的) reaction.Which of the following plays the first part in forming sandstorms?
| A．The instability of the sand. |
| B．The instability of the wind. |
| C．The intense heating of the ground. |
| D．The speed of the wind. |
From the second paragraph, we can learn that at present _______.
| A．sandstorms are more often seen on Mars than on Earth |
| B．sandstorms have led to the lack of clean water resources |
| C．farming brings more harm than benefits to humans |
| D．human activities are a major cause of sandstorms |
The author will most probably agree that ________.
| A．there will soon be no sandstorms in the USA |
| B．humans haven’t thought of any way to deal with sandstorms |
| C．death caused by sandstorms is increasing all the time |
| D．humans should make more efforts to stop soil turning into desert |
Let’s say you have a piece of wood, a nail, and a hammer. Pretend the wood is a person, and the nail is a mean rumor(谣言) about that person. If you hammer in the nail, you’re obviously hurting him or her. If you then pull out the nail, there’s still a hole in the wood, and the damage has been done.
There are many reasons why that nail of a rumor can be so harmful. Rumors are, quite simply, a form of bullying(欺侮). When a person or a group makes up a rumor about someone or decides to spread gossip, it’s usually to hurt someone, break up a friendship, or make someone less popular. It’s the same thing as teasing, only it’s done behind someone’s back instead of to his or her face.
When you spread a rumor about someone, you’re sending a signal that the person is outside of the group, and somehow less worthy of friendship than others. You’re making fun of that person or pointing out negative things about him or her. This can let others think that it’s okay to make the person feel bad, and make him or her an outsider.
We need to be able to trust our friends, and gossip and rumors can break this trust. If you tell a personal secret to a friend, and he turns around and tells it to someone else, you might feel like you will get burned if you ever get close to him again.
Letting a rumor influence your behavior is like letting someone else make a big decision for you. Let’s say you hear that the teacher plans to call a Snow Day tomorrow because a blizzard (暴风雪) is coming. Expecting a day off, you don’t do your homework. The next morning, the blizzard turns out to be nothing more than a drizzle(毛毛雨), and school isn’t off after all. You get zeroes on your work. To tell a rumor and a tease apart, you depend on ______.
| A．whether it is done behind someone |
| B．whether it is painful or not |
| C．whether it is a kind of bullying |
| D．whether it is spread fast. |
If a rumor is spread about someone, others may_______.
| A．point out his or her advantages |
| B．keep away from him or her |
| C．not feel he or she is an outsider |
| D．be hurt if getting close to him or her again. |
The purpose of this passage is to _______.
| A．advise on how to deal with rumors |
| B．teach us how to judge a rumor |
| C．find out why rumors spread fast |
| D．explain why rumors hurt |
Last spring, members of Alaska’s Troop 34, based in Fairbanks, trudged (跋涉) out into the snowy wilderness to take part in their state’s Take a Kid Trapping program. In many parts of the state, beavers （海狸）are pests and need to be controlled.
The 10－to－12－year－old girls found out where beavers lived, set traps, and skinned the two animals they caught. The girls hope to catch ten more beavers so that the entire troop can make mittens and hats with the fur. They also want to cook beaver meat.
Troop leaders and members say the Scouts are doing a good deed by helping control the state’s beaver population. But animal－rights activists say trapping is cruel. They want the Girl Scouts to stop in their tracks.
Beavers aren’t only causing a problem in Alaska. Residents in Sampson County, N.C., have turned to a local committee to help them battle the growing beaver population there.
County landowners are frustrated after the county spent more than $ 50,000 in eight years trying to reduce the beaver population through a government program. The joint state and federal program included paying money to trappers for every beaver carcass they trapped.
Many local residents say that the program didn’t work because there were too few trappers. That’s why the county set up its own committee to investigate other ways to control the area’s beaver population.
The county will rely on its own beaver－trapping program. It has hired a trapper to set traps in various areas. The county will pay $10 for every beaver carcass.
Why do many people say that beavers are a nuisance? For beavers to survive, they need lots of water. Water provides the large rodent （啮齿动物）with a place to hide from meat – eating animals. Beavers also store food underwater for the winter. When there’s not enough water in a particular area, beavers get busy building dams.
Beaver dams can cause major flooding and damage to the surrounding countryside as the animals cut down trees to use in their construction projects. Beavers build canals to transport heavy objects.What is Alaska’s Troop 34?
| A．A team of the Boy Scouts. | B．An army. |
| C．A team of the Girl Scouts. | D．A sports team. |
Why does the troop hope to catch ten more beavers?
| A．To fulfill their task. |
| B．To sell them for money. |
| C．To get enough fur. |
| D．To exchange them for mittens and hats. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Sampson County has to find a new way to control the beaver population there. |
| B．The government program in Sampson County has proved to be a success. |
| C．The local government has controlled the number of beavers in the County. |
| D．More and more trappers now start to set traps in Sampson County. |
Local residents hate beavers because they can ___________.
| A．cause damage to dams |
| B．block up canals with heavy objects. |
| C．do great harm to construction projects. |
| D．badly damage the environment and cause floods. |
What is your body language saying to your children? What is their body language telling you? I had the honor of hearing Jan Hargrave speak the other day. She is one of four body language experts in the US. Jan Hargrave says we lie with the right side of our brains, so it is our left hand that gives us away. A person touching his nose, pulling at his ear or rubbing his eye with his left hand might be lying to you. Also, a person who, in any way, crosses any fingers might just be lying. That, she says, is a holdover(遗留物) from childhood, when we crossed our fingers to signal that we didn’t mean what we were saying. When children squint(眨) their eyes, move their body away from you, or can’t seem to make good eye contact, you may need to ask for a little more clarification.
But just as important, children learn early how to read our body language when they are conversing(交谈) with us. Here are some acceptance signals to let them know you are interested when they are talking to you. Lean(倾斜) towards them. Make good eye contact and smile. Open your arms. Let your hands relax with the palms(手掌) showing: an open, upward palm always show acceptance. If your legs are crossed, make sure you are not crossing them away from your child. These are important because they signal to your child that you are focused on them and are accepting and welcoming them into your world.
By paying attention, we can open those lines of important communication with our children and we can see the truth more clearly. I think it would be a mistake to use these tools to lie, but we need to be aware of the signals we are giving so we can show people that they really do matter to us. According to Jan Hargrave, we can tell whether a person is lying by _______.
| A．observing his/her left hand’s movements. |
| B．looking at how he/ she crosses his/ her fingers |
| C．observing whether he/ she uses body language |
| D．making good eye contact with him/ her |
We can learn from the passage that body language _______.
| A．is hard to master for children |
| B．can be understood in different ways |
| C．may help improve communication |
| D．is more likely to hide the truth |
Which of the following does NOT show acceptance to people?
| A．Smile while making eye contact. |
| B．Open your arms to them. |
| C．Relax your hands with the palms showing. |
| D．Cross your leg away from them. |
In the last paragraph, the author seems to suggest that parents_______.
| A．spend more time with their children |
| B．learn to read and use body language |
| C．pay attention to family communication |
| D．try to prevent their children from lying |