Three engineers and three accountants (会计) are traveling by train to a conference.At the station,the three accountants each buy tickets and watch as the three engineers buy only a single ticket.
“How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?” asks an accountant.“Watch and you’ll see,” answers an engineer.They all board the train.The accountants take their respective seats but all three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them.
Shortly after the train has departed,the conductor comes around collecting tickets.He knocks on the restroom door and says,“Ticket,please.” The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand.The conductor takes it and moves on.
The accountants see this and agree it is quite a clever idea.So after the conference,the accountants decide to copy the engineers on the return trip and save some money.When they get to the station they buy a single ticket for the return trip.
To their astonishment,the engineers don’t buy a ticket at all.“How are you going to travel without a ticket?”asks one puzzled accountant.“Watch and you’ll see,” answers an engineer.When they board the train the three accountants cram into a restroom and the three engineers cram into another one nearby.The train departs.
Shortly afterward,one of the engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the accountants are hiding.He knocks on the door and says,“Ticket,please.”The three engineers buy only a single ticket because________.
| A.only one of them need buy a ticket |
| B.the three accountants buy tickets for them |
| C.they just want to save money |
| D.they are too poor to buy more tickets |
The underlined word departed in the third paragraph means________.
| A.started out | B.separated |
| C.stopped | D.arrived |
We can infer from the passage that________.
| A.the accountants are not as clever as the engineers |
| B.the accountants are cleverer than the engineers |
| C.the engineers are not as clever as the accountants |
| D.the engineers are as clever as the accountants |
Which one of the following is TRUE according to this passage?
| A.Only one engineer is in the restroom when the conductor collects the ticket. |
| B.At first the three accountants know why the three engineers buy one ticket. |
| C.On the return trip the three accountants buy three tickets again. |
| D.On the return trip the three engineers don’t buy any ticket. |
CONCORD, N.H.—Torrential rain forced hundreds of people from their homes in parts of New England on Sunday, as water flowed over dams an
d washed out roads.
The governors of New Hampshire and Massachusetts declared states of emergency. Maine’s governor also declared a state of emergency for one county. “It’s a very serious situation,” said New Hampshire Governor John Lynch, adding that forecasters were predicting 12 to 15 inches of rain by the end of the storm in parts of southern New Hampshire. “It continues to change and the situation continues to worsen.”
In some towns, police and fire crews used boats to get people out of their homes and stranded cars after hundreds of roads were damaged. Others got around in kayaks(皮船). Some towns shut down, not letting anyone pass except emergency vehicles. “The town is cut right in half,” said Glenn Laramie, police chief in Andover, N.H.
A dam in Milton, N.H., was in danger of failing, which could send a 10-foot wall of water downstream, the National Weather Service said in a bulletin. People downstream were being evacuated from the town.
In Massachusetts, cars were pulled from flooded streets in downtown Peabody, about 20 miles north of Boston, and about 300 people were evacuated from an apartment complex for seniors. Businesses stacked sandbags at their doors, trying to prevent damage from water that at one point rose to waist-deep.
Some parts of New Hampshire had seen 7 inches of rain by midday Sunday and forecasters said up to 5 more inches might come during the day. About 100 residents were evacuated from their homes in Wakefield, N.H., because of concerns about two dams in the area.
Flooding in New Hampshire in October killed seven people, carried off homes and washed away miles of roads down to bedrock.
In Maine, flooding was reported on 60 roads in the southern part of the state, said governor’s spokeswoman Crystal Canney. More than 50 homes in Sanford and several in Kennebunk also were evacuated, state officials said.Which is NOT true according to the article?
| A.The situation in N. H. is very serious. |
| B.New England is a region of the U.S. |
| C.A state of emergency was declared in three whole states. |
| D.Seven people lost their lives in New Hampshire in October. |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A.Two dams failed in New Hampshire. |
| B.Flood in New Hampshire. |
| C.State of emergency in New England. |
| D.Severe floods in three U.S. states. |
In paragraph 4, the underlined word “evacuate” most probably means“ ”.
| A.rescue | B.trapped | C.send away | D.wash away |
Which is NOT a part of New Hampshire?
| A.Peabody | B.Concord | C.Milton | D.Andover |
What was mentioned to cope with the situation?
| A.Some towns shut down. | B.Some dams were open. |
| C.People all left their homes. | D.Some temporary houses were built. |
A 26-year-old Montreal man appears to have succeeded in his quest to barter a single, red paper clip(夹子) all the way up to a house. It took almost a year and 14 trades, but Kyle MacDonald has been offered a two-storey farmhouse in Kipling, Sask., for a paid role in a movie.
MacDonald began his quest last summer when he decided he wanted to live in a house. He didn’t have a job, so instead of posting a resumé, he looked at a red paper clip on his desk and decided to trade it on an Internet website. The response was immediate —a fish pen was offered for exchange. MacDonald then bartered the fish pen for a handmade doorknob from a potter in Seattle.
In Massachusetts, MacDonald traded the doorknob for a camp stove. He traded the stove to a U.S. soldier in California for a generator. Then he exchanged the generator for an “instant party kit” — an empty keg(小桶) and an illuminated Budweiser beer sign. MacDonald then traded the keg and sign for a snowmobile. He bartered all the way up to an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper, a KISS snow globe and finally a paid role in a Corbin Bernsen movie.
“Now, I’m sure the first question on your mind is, ‘Why would Corbin Bernsen trade a role in a film for a snow globe? A KISS snow globe,’ MacDonald said on his website.”Well, Corbin happens to be arguably one of the biggest snow globe collectors on the planet.
Now, the town of Kipling, Sask., Canada, with a population of 1,100,has offered MacDonald a farmhouse in exchange for the role in the movie. The town is going to hold a competition for the movie role.
MacDonald said: “There’re people all over the world that are saying that they have paper clips clipped to the top of their computer, or on their desk or on their shirt, and it proves that anything is possible and I think to a certain degree it’s true.”
MacDonald, who has attracted international media attention in his quest, said the journey has turned out to be more exciting than the goal. “This is not the end. This may be the end of this part of the story, but this story will go on.”The best title for this passage is “ ”.
| A.A lucky paper clip | B.From poor to rich |
| C.A lucky young man | D.From paper clip to house |
The underlined word in line 1 means .
| A.to get something for free | B.to sell something at a price |
| C.to sell goods on the Internet | D.to exchange goods for other goods |
Which shows the correct order of the trades?
| A.Paper clipsnow globesnowmobilehouse |
| B.Paper clipkeg of beerdoorknobsnowmobile |
| C.Paper clipcamp stovesnowmobilemovie role |
| D.Paper clipkeg of beercamp stovesnowmobile |
Which statement about MacDonald’s trades is TRUE?
| A.All of his trades were done in his country. |
| B.A film role was offered due to Bernsen’s hobby. |
| C.They took over a year and some of them were really unbelievable. |
| D.The house in Kipling has been offered to MacDonald to attract media. |
What can we learn about MacDonald?
| A.He wanted to gain fame through his quest. |
| B.His success largely depended on the Internet. |
| C.He never expected his aim could be achieved. |
| D.He intends to begin another quest on the Web. |
Tokyo is one of those places that you can love and hate at the same time.
In Tokyo there are always too many people in the places where I want to be. Of course there are too many cars. The Japanese drive very fast, but in Tokyo they often spend a long time in traffic jams. Tokyo is not different from London, Paris and New York in that. It is different when one wants to walk.
At certain times of the day there are a lot of people on foot in London’s Oxford Street. But the streets near the Ginze in Tokyo always have a lot of people on foot, and sometimes it is really difficult to walk. People are very polite; there are just too many of them.
The worst time to be in the street is at 11:30 at night. That is when the nightclubs are closing and everybody wants to go home. There are 35,000 nightclubs in Tokyo, and you do not often see one that is empty.
During the day, most people travel to and from work by train. Tokyo people buy six million train tickets every day. At most stations, trains arrive every two or three minutes, but at certain hours there do not seem to be enough trains. Although they are usually crowded, Japanese trains are very good. They always leave and arrive on time. On a London train you would see everybody reading a newspaper. In Tokyo trains everybody in a seat seems to be asleep, whether his journey is long or short.
In Tokyo, I stood outside the station for five minutes. Three fire-engines raced past on the way to one of the many fires that Tokyo has every day. Tokyo has so many surprises that none of them can really surprise me now.Tokyo is different from London in that .
| A.there are many traffic jams |
| B.nightclubs are sometimes empty |
| C.wherever I want to be, it’s too crowded |
| D.it is more difficult to go somewhere on foot |
According to the passage, Japanese trains .
| A.are always punctual |
| B.often delay at most situations |
| C.are crowded because they are often late |
| D.are the last means people use to travel to and from work |
What is the story mainly about?
| A.The writer’s impression of Tokyo. |
| B.The reasons why the writer loves Tokyo. |
| C.Different means of transportation in Tokyo. |
| D.Many surprises that Tokyo has brought to the writer. |
Fires break out in Tokyo according to the writer.
| A.very seldom | B.quite frequently |
| C.three times a day | D.the most often in the world |
Which of the following is NOT true about Tokyo?
| A.Tokyo people are friendly. |
| B.There are more trains than cars. |
| C.Fire-engines are very busy in the city. |
| D.The streets become more crowded at 11:30 at night. |
The Best of Friends
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image(印象)of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past.” We were surprised by jus
t how positive today’s young people seen to be about their families,” said one member of the research team.” They’re expected to b
e rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends.” My parents are happy
to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. ”I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21,agrees.”Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenagers rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments,” Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”What is the popular images of teenagers today?
A.They worry about school |
| B.They dislike living with their parents |
| C.They have to be locked in to avoid troubles |
| D.They quarrel a lot with other family members |
The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ___
| A.share family responsibility | B.cause trouble in their families |
| C.go boating with their family | D.make family decisions |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents___.
| A.go to clubs more often with their children |
| B.are much stricter with their children |
| C.care less about their children’s life |
| D.give their children more freedom |
According to the authour,teenage rebellion____.
| A.may be a false belief | B.is common nowadays |
| C.existed only in the 1960s | D.resulted from changes in families |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A.Negotiation in family | B.Education in family |
| C.Harmony in family | D.Teenage trouble in family |
As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through lift, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.
Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health.
The amount of stress a person can withstand(抵抗)depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities. Others lose heart at the first signs of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between "fight" or
"flight" and in more primitive days the choice made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress is, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease have established links with stress. Since we cannot remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it.People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because_____.
| A.they do not know how to enjoy themselves |
B.they do not believe that relaxation is important for health![]() |
| C.they are travelling fast all the time |
| D.they are becoming busier with their work |
According to the writer, the most important character for a good manager is his ________.
| A.not fearing stress | B.knowing the art of relaxation |
| C.high sense of responsibility | D.having control over performance |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A.We can find some ways to avoid stress. |
| B.Stress is always harmful to people. |
| C.It is easy to change the habit of keeping oneself busy with work. |
D.Different people can withstand different amounts of stress. |
In Paragraph 3, "such a reaction" refers back to_______.
| A."making a choice between 'flight' or 'fight'" |
| B."reaction to stress both chemically and physically" |
| C."responding to crises quickly" |
| D."losing heart at the signs difficulties" |
In the last sentence of the passage, "do so " refers to ______.
| A."expose ourselves to stress" |
| B."find ways to deal with stress" |
| C."remove stress from our lives" |
| D."established links between diseases and stress" |