Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine, who rose to fame during Hollywood's golden age as the star of several Alfred Hitch．cock classics, died from natural causes at her home in Carmel, northern California on December 16, 2013 aged 96, US media reports said．
Born in Japan to British parents, Fontaine moved in 1919 to California, where she and her elder sister －screen idol Olivia de Havilland－were to shape successful movie careers．Fontaine and de Havilland remain the only sisters to have won lead actress honours at the Academy Awards．Yet the two sisters also had an uneasy relationship, with Fontaine recording a bitter competition in her own account "No Bed of Roses "．
Fontaine began her acting career in her late teens with Largely less important roles on the stage and later in mostly B-movies in the 1930s． It was not before famous British film director Hitchcock spotted her a decade later that her career took off．
Greatly surprised by her expressive looks, the suspense (悬念） master cast Fontaine in his first US film, a 1940 adaptation of the Daphne du Maurier novel "Rebecca"． She received an Academy Award nomination（提名） for her performance as a troubled wife． A year later, Fontaine finally won the long-sought golden figure, for her role as leading lady in "Suspicion" opposite Cary Grant, becoming the first and only actress to earn the title for a Hitchock film．
Although her sister, Olivia de Havilland, preceded her in gaining Hollywood fame, Fontaine was the first of the sisters to win an Oscar, beating Olivia's nomination as best actress in Mitchell Leisen's "Hold Back the Dawn"．
The dislike ,between the sisters was felt at the Oscars ceremony．"I froze． I stared across the table, where Olivia was sitting．'Get up there!' she whispered commandingly," Fontaine said．"All the dislike we'd felt toward each other as children…all came rushing back in quickly changing pictures…I felt Olivia would spring across the table and seize me by the hair．"
Olivia did not win her first Oscar until 1946, for her role as the lover of a World War I pilot in Leisen's " To Each His Own"． Fontaine later made it known that her． sister had slighted her as she attempted to offer congratulations．“She took one look at me, ignored my hand, seized her Oscar and wheeled away,” she said．
The sisters were also reportedly competitors in love． Howard Hughes, a strange businessman who dated the elder de Havilland for a time, offered marriage to Fontaine several times．"I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia did, and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be extremely angry because I beat her to it!" Fontaine once joked．
As her film career fruited in the 1950s, Fontaine turned to television and dinner theatre, and also appeared in several Broadway productions, including the Lion in Winter"． Anything but the ordinary lady, Fontaine was also a licensed pilot, a champion balloonist, an accomplished golfer, a licensed .decoration designer and a first-class cook．When she moved to California, Joan Fontaine was years old．
| A．two | B．twelve | C．twenty | D．twenty -two |
Fontaine did not become successful or popular until the _ ．
| A．1930s | B．1940s | C．1950s | D．1960s |
Fontaine won her Oscar for her role in the film of “ ”．
| A．Rebecca ' | B．Suspicion |
| C．To Each His Own | D．Hold Back the Dawn |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．Olivia preceded Fontaine in getting married． |
| B．Olivia gamed Hollywood fame after Fontaine． |
| C．Fontaine won an Oscar before her sister Olivia, |
| D．Fontaine wanted to meet her death before Olivia． |
The dislike between Fontaine and Olivia began when they ．
| A．competed for an Oscar | B．competed for a husband |
| C．were small children | D．were successful actresses |
As can- be seen from the passage, Fontaine was a person who was ．
| A．disliked by her family | B．always a troubled wife |
| C．able to do few jobs | D．gifted in many ways |
When my mother was alive, she used to tell me again and again about the value of just being nice. “Never underestimate（低估）the power of a smile,” she would say. I fear she would be very disappointed looking at the world today. A lot of people don’t smile and when it comes to service today, they’re just not nice. Now don’t give me wrong, not all service workers but a good many.
I was on the phone the other day with a computer help desk. First a man, then later a woman, who couldn’t have been ruder. And this to a customer, who didn’t know his way around a PC. But no matter, I could tell they thought I was a bother, The woman, in fact, seemed to be chewing gum as she unemotionally clicked off a series of commands for me to perform.
The next day I heard from a friend of mine who got a performance review without his boss once looking up at him. Not once.
You see it everywhere. Gone are the days when people cared about you. It’s a sign of the time, I suspect. But that makes me sad — for them and for us all. People who aren’t happy, who don’t smile, who don’t kid, who don’t joke or make light of even bad situations, make for an even worse situation.
And it spreads like a cancer. Someone’s rude to you, you’re rude to them and to the next fellow you meet, and on and on. Smiles are contagious（易感染的）but so annoyances. The boss who can’t be bothered with his workers. The celebrity who can’t be bothered with her annoying fans.
You know, my mom used to judge presidential candidates by how they smiled. I would say, “But mom, you don’t know if that smile is real.”
“Oh, yes I do,” she would tell me. “I can feel it.”
It’s in their eyes, she would say. And it’s in their smile. The rest just kind of falls into place.Why did the writer mention his phone call?
| A．To prove his mother is wrong. |
| B．To show many people aren’t nice. |
| C．To tell us he knows little about computer. |
| D．To share his funny experience with us. |
What is the author’s attitude towards the boss of his friend?
| A．Opposed. | B．Doubtful. |
| C．Respectful. | D．Supportive. |
When someone is rude to you, you’re advised to ________.
| A．be rude to the next person |
| B．be nice to the people you meet |
| C．become one just like him or her |
| D．make for a worse situation |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．The power of a smile |
| B．Don’t judge a person by his look |
| C．The effect of rudeness |
| D．Feel a person in his eyes |
As temperatures go up, bison（北美野牛）get smaller. Joseph Craine, research assistant professor in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University, examined how climate change during the next 50 years will affect grazing（放牧）animals such as bison and cattle in the Great Plains.
“Bison are one of our most important conservation animals and hold a unique role in grasslands in North America,” Craine said. “In addition to their cultural and ecological significance, they’re economically important. There are about half a million bison in the world.” Craine analyzed a data set of 290,000 weights, ages and sexes collected from 22 bison herds（兽群）throughout the U. S. The organizations kept annual records of each animal in the herd and matched the data with the climates of the sites.
Based on differences in sizes of bison across herds, Craine found that during the next 50 years, future generations of bison will be smaller in size and weigh less. Climate is likely to reduce the nutritional quality of grasses, causing the animals to grow more slowly.
“We know that temperatures are going to go up,” Craine said. “We also know that warmer grasslands have grasses with less protein（蛋白质）, and we now know that warmer grasslands have smaller grazers. It all lines up to suggest that climate change will cause grasses to have less protein and cause grazers to gain less weight in the future.”
Craine said the results of climate change in coming decades can already be seen by comparing bison in cooler, wetter places with those in warmer, drier places. For example, the average 7-year-old male bison in South Dakota weighed 1, 900 pounds, while an average 7- year-old male bison in Oklahoma — a warmer place — weighed 1, 300 pounds.
“The difference in temperature between those two states is around 20 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about three times the projected increase in temperatures over the next 75 years,” Craine said. “It is a clear indicator that long-term warming will affect bison and is something that will happen across the U.S. over the next 50-75 years.”In the next fifty years, researchers Say, bison will ________.
| A．become smaller and lighter |
| B．disappear in the Great Plains |
| C．play a less important part |
| D．adapt to different climate changes |
The underlined word “grazers” probably refers to ________.
| A．the researchers | B．the grasses |
| C．the bison | D．the protein |
What is the main reason for the bison to become smaller?
| A．The deceasing amount of grass. |
| B．The rising temperature. |
| C．The rising number of bison. |
| D．The loss of weight. |
Paragraph 5 is written as an example to show ________.
| A．Craine’s prediction will come true in 50 years |
| B．bison are smaller than in the past |
| C．the nature balance is being destroyed |
| D．bison’s size is linked with different climate |
To begin your expedition of wonder, get yourself a driver’s license at your local department of motor vehicles, then rent a car and take off for New Hampshire’s Crawford Notch State Park. This beautiful park is abundant in wildlife, natural vegetation and running rivers falling from high cliffs. It is a place of spectacular mountain views, hiking trails, waterfalls and fishing locations. All you need to do is jump in your rented car or SUV and head for the sunset!
Okay, so you’ve just finished those crazy summer final exams and you’re exhausted from all of the stress. That’s okay because New Hampshire’s State Park also offers a perfect way to recover at Coney’s Flume Park where visitors can ride all the rapids in a hollowed out log, eat hotdogs and play on the amusement tides. Good times will be had no matter what your preference at Dry River Campground, which offers wood cabins, showers, electricity, flush toilets, laundry and fire rings. It’s like a home away from home, so gather your camping gear and head for the journey!
Lake Winnipesaukee
If you’re stuck on figuring out how to access your own wheels, how about finding a bus to take you to Weirs Beach? There are fall leaves tours running in the fall through the end of October. Let the captain do the driving while you enjoy the colors along the shoreline and the mountainsides.
If you can’t find some peace of mind from those nasty final exams while relaxing in your lakeside cottage, take a cruise and go fishing, go bird sightseeing, or just kick back in a rented boat and let the coo of the birds wash your troubles away.
No matter where you go in New Hampshire, you’ll meet the most friendly people you can imagine. Do dive into that rental car or SUV, take off for a vacation to New Hampshire and treat yourself to one of America’s most beautiful states. Enjoy!Who is this passage mainly intended for?
| A．School students. | B．Bird lovers. |
| C．Driving learners. | D．Trouble makers. |
Where can you enjoy riding on logs?
| A．At Weirs Beach. | B．In your lakeside cottage. |
| C．At Coney’s Flume Park. | D．At Dry River Campground. |
What type of writing is this text?
| A．A tour introduction. | B．A travel diary. |
| C．An announcement. | D．An official report. |
Speaking from my past experience, it is very difficult to find good friends that you can trust but once you have found them, they are worth keeping forever! Therefore, I think friendship is the most important relationship that anybody could have.
The qualities I look for in a friend are a good sense of humor but sensitivity when it matters. Also that friend would have to be strong-minded and highly spirited. I think that these qualities are the key qualities to look for in a good friend.
Even the strongest friends can still have arguments, although usually about more serious topics, rather than the usual teenage childish arguments. Some matters can seriously affect a friendship. If one of your friends started experimenting with harmful and dangerous drugs, what would you do ? A good friend would try to help as much as possible, whereas a bad example of a friend would simply shrug(耸肩) and turn a blind eye.
Not only the bad things affect friendship ---- good activities do too. Such as bonding with one another, not just by going out on a night with them but by spending quality time with them and talking to each other, which indicates a good ability to communicate. This is a key aspect of a good friendship.
Good friends do not always have to be in the same age group as you. I have a good friend and she is 47 years old and I am 16.
Unfortunately, some people lose contact with their friends as they grow older, which is a sad way to lose a good friend.
I think friendship is one of the most important things in life because if you have no friends you will have no happiness.
| A．is easy to get | B．deepens with time |
| C．needs management | D．affects one’s happiness |
| A．why drugs are bad for teenagers |
| B．problems that will test friendship |
| C．ways that help avoid arguments |
| D．whether a friend is trustworthy |
| A．Age. | B．Sensitivity. |
| C．Sense of humor. | D．Communication ability. |
| A．Old friends and old wines are best. |
| B．A friend without faults will never be found. |
| C．A life without a friend is a life without the sun. |
| D．a friend to everybody is a friend to nobody. |
A new generation addiction is quickly spreading all over the world. Weboholism（网瘾）, a twentieth century disease, affects people from different ages. They surf the net, use e-mail and speak in chat rooms. 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. Such behavior has seriously affected teenagers and college students. They are likely to log(写日志) on computers and spend long hours at different websites.
They become hooked（着迷） 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 school. Because they can find everything on the websites, they hang out there. Moreover, this addiction to websites influences their social 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 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 live friends they have known all their life. It is a problem for the future. This addictive behavior is beginning to affect all the world.
| A．the cause of weboholism |
| B．the advantage of weboholism |
| C．the popularity of weboholism |
| D．the effect of weboholism |
| A．weboholism has the greatest effect on teenagers |
| B．students can hardly balance real and virtual life |
| C．people are addicted to games on the Internet |
| D．virtual life is more vivid and attractive than real life. |
| A．It contributes to the development of the web. |
| B．The chat room language may change social culture. |
| C．The problem will be getting more and more serious later. |
| D．People addicted to the web often become inactive in real life. |