Pride and Prejudice for the Modern Woman
Let us imagine how Pride and Prejudice，Jane Austen’s most
famous work，might be updated，200 years on.
Austen’s popularity is rooted in her intelligence.But today she would certainly have had a very different life，as would her characters.Here’s my own suggestion...
It is a truth finally and universally acknowledged that a single woman with brains deserves to have equal opportunities to men，however disadvantaged she may feel by sexism.
“My dear husband，”said his hopeful wife one day，“have you heard that the local store，standing empty for so long，is taken over by a bright young businesswoman？”
Her dull and indifferent (漠不关心的) husband replied that he had not.
“But it is，it is，”she replied excitedly.
Mr DullHusband made no reply.
“Don’t you want to know her plans？”she cried with some impatience.
“Well，clearly you think it matters to your silly little head...so I’d better listen.”
“Well，my dear，the rumour (传言) is that she has already set up a string of successful businesses in northern England，though how_a_woman_can_know_anything_about_that_is_beyond_me.She will move in herself next month.”
“What is her name？”
“Bingley.”
“Is she married or single？”
“What a question! And none of your business.But her coming will be a fine thing for our five boys.”
“How so? How can it possibly affect them? ”
“My dear love：those lazy boys need something to wake them up.There are bound to be jobs going.”
“Is that her point in settling here? Surely as a woman she has simply taken a fancy to the place.”
“Nonsense，my love，how little you’ve noticed the world has changed.She’s got a firstrate degree and some sort of business qualification，I’m told.She surely needs one of our boys! Perhaps you might give her a call.”
“Me? No.Perhaps you can take an interest.You still have your looks，after all.She may even offer you a job.”
“Oh，that’s not likely.These new chances belong to the younger generation.But now you mention it，I think I’ll go along all the same.”
And Mrs Bennet went along.That was 10 years ago.She is now managing director of a FTSElisted company.
...It would remain the case，of course，that Mrs Bennet would be one of very few women on the company board，that her salary would be lower than her male colleagues，her bonus of a more“female”dimension and her lifespan (年限) among the city’s business leaders shorter than theirs.Still，she’d no doubt have enjoyed Davos—and might even have hobnobbed (攀谈) with influential figures.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Austen was born 200 years ago. |
| B．Austen rewrote Pride and Prejudice. |
| C．Austen’s success lies in her wisdom. |
| D．Austen’s updated work gains popularity. |
The underlined part in the passage suggests that Mrs Bennet ________.
| A．had mixed feelings of admiration and surprise about Bingley |
| B．felt kind of worried and doubtful about Bingley |
| C．was extremely anxious to meet Bingley |
| D．had a great curiosity about Bingley |
In the eyes of Mrs Bennet，Bingley surely needed one of their boys to ________.
| A．get married to |
| B．work for her |
| C．help her move in |
| D．take over her store |
What does the writer intend to tell us?
| A．Women with brains can also be as successful as men. |
| B．Women have to pay a high price for success. |
| C．A judgment must be made free from prejudice. |
| D．Sex discrimination still exists nowadays. |
Parents often believe that they have a good relationship with their teenagers. But last summer, Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son: suddenly he seemed to be talking far more to his friends than to his parents. “The door to his room is always shut.” Joanna noted.
Tina and Mark noticed similar changes in their 14-year-old daughter. “She used to cuddle up (蜷伏)with me on the sofa and talk,” said Mark. “Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something. Sometimes she wants to be treated like a little girl and sometimes like a young lady. The problem is figuring out which time is which.”
Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what’s on their minds. “In fact, parents are first on the list.” said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers. “This completely changes during the teen years.” Riera explained. “They talk to their friends first, then maybe their teachers, and their parents last.”
Parents who know what’s going on in their teenagers’ lives are in the best position to help them. To break down the wall of silence, parents should create chances to understand what their children want to say, and try to find ways to talk and write to them. And they must give their children a mental break, for children also need freedom, though young. Another thing parents should remember is that to be a friend, not a manager, with their children is a better way to know them. “The door to his room is always shut” suggests that the son.
| A．keeps himself away from his parents |
| B．doesn’t want to be disturbed |
| C．is always busy with his studies |
| D．begins to dislike his parents |
What troubles Tina and Mark most is that.
| A．their daughter isn’t as lovely as before |
| B．they don’t know what to say to their daughter |
| C．they can’t read their daughter’s mind exactly |
| D．their daughter talks with them only when she needs help |
Which of the following best explains “the wall of silence” in the last paragraph?
| A．Teenagers do not talk much with their parents. |
| B．Teenagers do not want to understand their parents. |
| C．Teenagers talk a lot with their friends. |
| D．Teenagers talk little about their own lives. |
．What can be learned from the passage?
| A．Parents are unhappy with their growing children. |
| B．Parents have suitable ways to talk with their teenagers. |
| C．Parents should try to understand their teenagers. |
| D．Parents should be patients with their silent teenagers. |
A new generation addiction is quickly spreading all over the world. Weboholism, a twentieth century disease, affects people from different ages.They surf the net, use e-mail and speak in chat reoms. They spend many hours on the computer, and it becomes a compulsive habit. They cannot stop, and it affects their lives.
Ten years ago, no one thought that using computers could become Compulsive
behavior that could affect the social and physical life of computer users. This obsessive behavior has affected teenagers and college students. They are likely to log on computers and spend long hours at different websites.
They become hooked on computers and gradually their social and school life is
affected by this situation. They spend all free time surfing and don't concentrate on homework, so this addiction influences their grades, and success at schools. Because they can find everything on the websites, they hang out there. Moreover, this addiction to websites influences their soeial life.
They spend more time in front of computers than with their friends. The relation with their friends changes. The virtual life becomes more important than their real life. They have a new language that they speak in the chat rooms and it causes cultural changes in society,
Because of the change in their behavior, they begin to isolate themselves from the society and live with their virtual friends. They share their emotions and feelings with friends Who they have never met in their life.Although they feel confident on the computer, they are not confident with real life friends they have known all their fife. lt is a problem for the future. This addictive behavior is beginning to affect the whole world. The passage is about
| A．the cause of weboholism | B．the advantage of weboholism |
| C．the popularity of weboholism | D．the influence of weboholism |
The underlined word"obsessive" in the second paragraph most probably means
| A．attractive | B．addictive | C．professional | D．potential |
We can learn from the passage that.
| A．weboholism has the greatest effect on teenagers |
| B．teeangers can hardly balance real and virtual life |
| C．people are addicted to games on the lnternet |
| D．virtual life is more vivid and attractive anyway |
Which of the following is NOT true of weboholism?
| A．It contributes to the development of the web. |
| B．The chat room language may change social culture. |
| C．The problem will have a negative influence on our future. |
| D．People addicted to the web often become inactive in real life. |
The author's attitude towards weboholism is that of being
| A．objective | B．positive | C．opposed | D．acceptable |
Dear Michelle:
Why can't my daughter manage her life better? She is 17 and an honor student, but she seems to be wasting her life away with a boyfriend who is holding her back.
He consumes every waking, minute of her precious time and smooth-talks her as well.
His goal is to get her to agree to go to the college of his choice, not her choice, and because his grades are lower, his choice will be limited.
I feel like I want to rescue her, but she pushes me away and shuts me out. She has only brought us pride and joy; and now this! Help!
A worried mother
Dear Mother of a 17-year-old Girl:
Hmmmmm. What's the matter with kids today? Remember that song from "Bye Bye
Birdie"?
Well if you do not, let me fill you in about teenagers and their life-management skills.Do not expect too much too soon because at the ripe age of 17, life-management is not within their reach, not should it be.
Life experience creates both the conditions and the skills for management, and if management went before experiene, there would be tittle of it.
Your daughter is an honor student for good reasons. She is smart, studies with
intelligence and you have given her good Values.
When the time comes for her to apply for college, and she visit the ones that were specifically desigened for student the top of their grade, she will most likely break away from her boyfriend's influenee.
It is rare for an honor student to change the path of their academic career for puppy love. That being said, them might be some adoldscent wisdom in her behavior after all.
Perhaps she is choosing to worry you, her parents, for unconscious reasons. Being such a good girl and being a steady source of joy might have become a bit too much for her.
Let your daughter have her own private moment of 11th grade rebellion. She deserves a break from perfection.
MichelleFrom the mother's letter we can learn that her daughter
| A．is being fooled by the boy | B．has fallen behind in her studies |
| C．doesn't talk much with her mother | D．has chosen which college to attend |
According to Michelle; 17-year-teenagers.
| A．are too young to manage their life |
| B．are old enough to live their own life |
| C．should have managemnent before experience |
| D．have reached the age of an adult |
The underlined word"puppy-love"refer to
| A．false love | B．foolish love | C．pure love | D．adolescent love |
Michelle seems to believe that the daughter will finally
| A．come up with the right decision |
| B．follow her boyfriend's advice |
| C．worry her parents for unconscious reasons |
| D．influence her boyfriend's behavior |
The best title for the passage would be
| A．College of kids' own choice |
| B．How can I help my girl? |
| C．How to manage teenagers' life? |
| D．A 17-year-old girl and her mother |
Electric ears are dirty.In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.
People in California love to talk about "zero-emissions vehicles", but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants mostly use fire to make it. Aside from the new folks who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators. Generators are fueled by something---usually coal, oil,but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.
In other words, those "zero-emissions" cars are likely coal-burning cars. It's just because the coal is burned somewhere else that it looks clean. It is not. It's as if the California Greens are. covering their eyes---"If I can't see it, it's not happening." Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it.But when you take that gas (or another fuel) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat---at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.
A gallon of gas may propel your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far---so electric cars bum more fuel than gas-powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from nukes; or geothermal,or hydro, or solar, or wind,then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical,and economic reasons,we don't use much of those energy sources.
In addition,electric cars' batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill.And finally, When cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it's a power plant, though, all the junk is in one place. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot. What does "clueless" mean in paragraph 2?
| A．People are seeing the California Greens everywhere. |
| B．People in California love to talk about zero-emissions vehicles. |
| C．People in California love to have their roofs covered with solar cells. |
| D．People there have no idea that so far electricity mainly comes from burning |
coal, oil,etc. What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Electric cars are not clean at all |
| B．Electric cars are better than gasoline-powered ones. |
| C．People cast doubts on electric cars' batteries. |
| D．Gasoline is an efficient way to powera vehicle. |
The electricity we get from a gallon of gas may make our ear run
| A．not less than 25 miles | B．more than 25 miles |
| C．no more than 25 miles | D．not more than 25 miles |
According to the passage, electric cars.
| A．do not burn fuel and more environmentally-friendly |
| B．are toxic because it is difficult for nature to clean it up when their batteries are buried in one spot. |
| C．are very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated |
| D．are poisonous for a long time and will eventually end up in a landfill |
It can be inferred from the passage that
| A．being green is good and should be encouraged in communication |
| B．electric cars are not clean in that we get electricity mainly by burning something |
| C．zero-emissions vehicles should be chosen to protect our environment |
| D．electric cars are now the dominant vehicle compared with gasoline-powered |
cousins
After our early morning wake-up, we are still a couple of
hours away from the overlooks.It is pitch black.I can feel the
heavy humid fog left behind my last night's rain. This is why
the tour memo listed "flashlight". Unfortunately; the majority
of our hiking party of nine must have missed the memo, so we
have only four flashlights between us.
An hoar later,we are on the trail. It is dark, foggy, wet and the rocks are alippery.We alternate places between the flashlights "haves" and "have-nots". As we march, the only voices heard are from the "haves": "Step up, step down, watch out for the rock on your left."
We reach Intipunku with only 15 minutes to spare. The view at sunrise is not what we were told in the travel brochures. Three feet in front of our faces is a white substance called "fog".
As we walk towards the Machu Picchu ruins, my anticipation is mounting. When will the fog lift? Slowly, as if someone is cranking up a curtain, Huayna Picchu begins to appear,overlooking Machu Picchu. First there are fleeting glimpses, and then finally, there is, in its full splendor.
When I envisioned going to Machu Picchu, I always thought of mysterious ruins and the famous postcard picture looking toward Huayna Picchu. But there is more to this man-made / natural wonder of the World. It is the adventure of getting there. I knew I wanted to experience the feel of the Inca culture and the energy of this sacred valley, I also knew I didn't want to take the train, but needed to hike. Depending on your starting point,the Inca Trail is 25 to 33miles of semi-arid desert, breathless mountain passes and stunning tropical cloud forest. Our hike took us four nights and 25 miles to finish.
Our local guide MaurO keeps telling us "no worries, the hike is 90 percent mental and only 10 percent physical. "I am not convinced that the physical percentage is correct, but I definitely become more and more excited as we are now getting closer to Machu Picchu.By getting myself into good shape, running 20 miles and hiking a 500-foot-high hill five to seven times per week before I left for Peru, I was able to enjoy the beauty of the hike and not worry much about aching muscles and lungs. About flashlights, which of the following statements is true?
| A．The local guide had asked them to take flashlights for the hike. |
| B．They had taken enough flashlights for the hike. |
| C．Before they got to Intipunku, they depended a lot on their flashlights. |
| D．They used flashlights all the time. |
Put the following events into the right order.
a. They reached Intipunku,
b. They read the travel brochures.
c. They walked on the trail in the dark.
d. They advanced to get closer to Maehu Picchu.
e. They enjoyed the splendor of Huayna Picchu.
| A．ebade | B．bacde | C．abced | D．bcaed |
What does the underlined word "anticipation" in Paragraph Four mean?
| A．expectation | B．excitement | C．disappointment | D．enthusiasm |
What can NOT be inferred from the text?
| A．The writer made good preparation for the tour. |
| B．The Inca Trail took them four nights. |
| C．Machu Picchu is in the country of Peru. |
| D．They reached Intipunku ahead of time. |
According to the writer, what attracted him most in the tour?
| A．Mysterious ruins. | B．The famous post-card picture. |
| C．The hiking. | D．The Inca culture. |