A job is more than a job,especially to the old. “It’s not the money that matters,but the sense of self-worth.”56-year-old Cbeng Wonlan said. So,every day Ms Cheng carries a bag of parcels,letters and documents and does her rounds in North Point. She’s a courier(快递员)
Five years ago.Ms Cheng was a nurse at a private clinic. She had worked there for 30 years but was Jobless when the doctor migrated. It was difficult for her to find another job as a nurse. “People do not trust my ability when they learn how old I am,”she said. After two years of searching, she eventually found another nursing job. But then after two years,she quit Why?
‘My colleagues were young and they didn’t understand me because of my age. They often asked me ‘You are so old what are you working for? I was very unhappy” She said. So while the rest of her family left for work,she was left to lonely boredom at home .Then her neighbours told her about Employee’s Retraining Board(ERB)offering retraining courses for older people. These courses are specifically designed to encourage the older people back to work.
“I was interested in courier work. I didn’t think my age was a barrier because I was fit.” She said .Upon graduating,Ms Cheng was offered a job by the Speeding Shuttle Courier Service Company. But then Ms Cheng was faced with a conflict:she was caught between honour and employment“I felt embarrassed about carrying and delivering letters and parcels.” she said. It took Ms Cheng 24 hours to make up her mind:there was nothing wrong or embarrassing about doing the job. So she went off to work as a courier.
Ms Cheng’s employer is delighted with her responsible attitude and said.“I hired older people because they were able and reliable .Age is not an important factor but attitude is Many old people will not run from difficulties but the young ones will”Why was it difficult for Ms Cheng to find another nursing Job?
A.Nursing clinics were hard to find |
B.She found it difficult to trust others |
C.People thought she was too old to work |
D.People didn’t think she had enough work experience |
Ms Cheng left her second nursing job because___________.
A.she was bored with change less jobs |
B.it was too difficult |
C.she was too old to do the job |
D.the other staff made her feel uncomfortable |
Employee Retraining Board is a plan for___________.
A.finding jobs for older people |
B.teaching new skills to older people |
C.training older people to be healthier |
D.providing older people with chances to earn money |
According to Anthony Chong,young people___________.
A.are more likely to give up than the older ones |
B.are less experienced than the older ores |
C.are filler and stronger than the older ones |
D.are able and reliable |
From the text, we call infer that__________.
A.the life of the old is miserable |
B.there is a generation gap between young and old |
C.job—hunting is hard for old people |
D.the old are looked down upon in society |
While I was in 9th grade, I built a circuit (电路装置) for the traffic system of our city. After getting the first prize, I got this valuable advice from my father: “Do whatever interests you, and don’t let the work challenge you, make sure you are challenging that work.”
I have always preferred the projects which are challenging and related to real life problems. I clearly remember building a shipping program several years ago. I divided the whole project into several small sections. When I understood it clearly, I used my brainstorming skill on it, and gave some basic ideas. Then I asked my professor for help before jumping into coding (编码). At first, I did not know how to ask questions correctly and always asked the question “How do I do it?” As I kept working and discussed with my professor, I became more comfortable and those “how” questions soon turned into “what if I do this and that” types of questions.
It took me four days to write the code. The desire to solve the problem kept me sleepless all nights brainstorming in even greater details. Every time I saw my program running smoothly, I exploded with joy. I still remember the last day of my work. I was getting some problem and didn’t know what to do. At that moment, a man came in to clean. He had headphones, and he was dancing while cleaning the room. Seeing this, I burst out laughing. That moment calmed me. I regained energy and interest and started to work again, and soon I fixed the problem.
My success in the project proved that breaking up a large problem into small parts could help find a possible solution. Discussing the problem with others was also very beneficial. Now I have gained the confidence to attempt any kind of project. According to the passage, the writer was interested in ______.
A.developing traffic systems | B.doing challenging projects |
C.winning great prizes | D.writing different codes |
The writer asked the question “how do I do it” at first because ______.
A.he had no clear idea about his program | B.he was to![]() |
C.he wa![]() |
D.he preferred this kind of question |
We learn from the passage that the writer’s shipping program ______.
A.would ben![]() |
B.was done together with others |
C.was difficult and needed patience | D.cost much money and energy |
What would be the best title for the passage?
A.Do It Yourself | B.No Pains, No Gains |
C.Learning with Interest | D.Practice Makes Perfect |
Good posture certainly shows good health. It also adds to a body’s energy and beauty. The body is not handsome when the back is bent and neck thrusts forward. Bad posture suggests the impression that a person is tired, lacking in energy, bored, or weak. Tiredness may sometimes be the cause of bad posture. Most often, however, it is due to careless and poor health habits. Whatever it causes, bad posture affects one physically. The muscles are stretched and pulled into unnatural positions, which can lead to poor base of the body’s various systems.
Nutrition is the study of how the body takes food and uses it. This science provides information about the kinds of food a person must eat to improve and maintain good health. Such knowledge helps him develop and form people habits to his problems of healthful living. People habits of nutrition can be developed by paying attention to: (1) the variety of food included in the diet; (2) the quality of each kind of food eaten. A diet, or the food regularly eaten, must contain all the necessary factors.
Many physicians believe that overweight is one of the greatest dangers to good health. This condition often leads to a shorter life. An overweight person is also easier to suffer disease, and various disorders of the digestive system. A person’s weight directly has something to do with the amounts of food he eats.
All foods can make a person fat if too much is eaten. In reducing, the safe weight loss is about two pounds a week. The sensible way to lose weight is to decrease the gaining starchy(含淀粉的) foods, fats and sweets in the diet. According to this passage, which of the following is suggested about the good health habits?
A.Good way of holding your body. | B.Balanced food. |
C.R![]() ![]() |
D.All of the above |
According to this passage, bad posture is most probably caused by_______.
A.tiredness, boredom and weakness | B.lack of energy |
C.carelessness and poor health habits | D.overworking and illness |
Which of the following eating habits is NOT proper in terms of maintaining good health?
A.Vegetables, meat and water only |
B.A suitable quantity of each kind of food |
C.Fats being part of diet. |
D.Various foods included in the diet |
We can infer from the statement “all foods can make a person fat if too much is eaten” that___.
A.to lose weight you had better eat properly for daily meals |
B.the most effective way to lose weight is to have no fat and sweet |
C.even vegetables can make you put on weight, so there is no need to have fat and sweet. |
D.a shorter life is a sure result of overweight |
We produce 500 billion of plastic bags in a year worldwide and they are thrown away polluting oceans, killing wildlife and getting dumped in landfills where they take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Researchers have been unsuccessfully looking for a solution.
The 16-year-old Canadian high school student, Daniel Burd, from Waterloo Collegiate Institute, has-discovered a way to make plastic bags degrade(降解) in as few as 3 months, a finding that won him first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair, a $10,000 prize, a $20,000 scholarship, and a chance to revolutionize a major environmental issue.
Burd’s strategy was simple: Since plastic does eventually degrade, it must be eaten by microorganisms (微生物). If those microorganisms could be identified, we could put them to work eating the plastic much faster than under normal conditions.
With this goal in mind, he grounded plastic bags into a powder and concocted(调制) a solution of household chemicals, yeast(酵母) and tap water to encourage microbes growth. Then he added the plastic powder and let the microbes work their magic for 3 months. Finally, he tested the resulting bacterial culture on plastic bags, exposing one plastic sample to dead bacteria as a control. Sure enough, the plastic exposed to the live bacteria was 17% lighter than the control after six weeks.
The inputs are cheap, maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because microbes produce heat as they work, and the only outputs are water and tiny levels of carbon dioxide.
“Almost every week I have to do chores and when I open the closet door, I have piles of plastic bags falling on top of me. One day, I got tired of it and I wanted to know what other people are doing with these plastic bags. The answer: not much. So I decided to do something myself.” Said Daniel Burd.Daniel Burd won first prize at the Canada Wide Science Fair because .
A.he found a new kind of microorganism |
B.he contributed much to environmental protection![]() |
C.he found a way to degrad![]() |
D.he could encourage microbe growth in an easier way |
Daniel Burd exposed one plastic sample to dead b
acteria to .
A.make the live bacteria work better | B.test how effective his method was |
C.know which bacteria worked faster | D.control the temperature in the process |
Maintaining the required temperature takes little energy because .
A.plastics can get hot easily | B.microbes can produce heat themselves |
C.much carbon dioxide is produced | D.the temperature can be controlled |
Daniel Burd got his idea from .
A.his school textbook | B.the failure of researchers |
C.his everyday work | D.the practice of other people |
In 2006, a large number of new Internet sites became popular around the world. Some of these are for communication, others for entertainment.
The blog is one form of communication that increased in popularity. Through these personal websites, people can share their lives, ideas and opinions on the Internet. People of all ages have their own blogs. For young people, they are a way to show their writing and other forms of self-expression. Blogs also connect people with other people who have the same interests. For example, teachers use blogs to share ideas with other teachers’, as well as experiences and concerns about their work.
YouTube is another Internet site that became more popular last year. This website lets anyone create, share and watch short videos. These include videos of people singing or dancing, or animals doing funny things. Three young men created YouTube almost two years ago as a personal video sharing service. They recently sold it to Google for more than one and a half billion dollars.
Games and entertainment also became a larger part of the Internet last year. One Internet social site is called Second Life. It is an online world in which computer u
sers create a new self and live a different life. They get married, build homes, operate businesses, buy and sell goods, work, play and attend school.
People also take part in fantasy sports leagues with the help of the Internet. A fantasy sport is a game in which each member of a group acts as the owner of a team. Each owner creates a team of real-life professional players to compete against other teams in the league. More than fifteen million American adults play fantasy sports. The industry earns more than one billion dollars each year from publications, memberships and other costs. The passage is mainly about __________.
A.the most popular Internet technology in 2006 |
B.some new ways for people to communicate or have fun on the Internet |
C.one online game called Second Life |
D.the high price of playing online |
Who is the owner of YouTube now?
A.Three young men. | B.Google. | C.Computer users. | D.Yahoo. |
Whom does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A.The people who are interested in blogs. |
B.The people who play games on YouTube. |
C.The people who play Second Life. |
D.The people who are created in Second Life. |
What do we know from the passage?
A.Teachers can share ideas, experiences and concerns about their work with other teachers on any website. |
B.More than fifteen millio![]() ![]() |
C.Second Life helps people get married, buy and sell goods, work, play and attend school in real life. |
D.Fantasy sports, a game in which each member of a group acts as the owner of a team, is very popular around the world. |
Ellis Island is located in New York Harbor. Ellis Island is open daily year-round from 9:30am to 5:00pm, with extended hours during summer. It is closed on December 25. There is no admission charge to Ellis Island; donations are gratefully accepted.
At Your Fingertips
Park information (212) 363- 7620
Emergencies (212 ) 363- 3260
Ferryboat information (212) 269- 5755
Lost and found (212) 344- 7620
Dining, gifts, & audio tour (212) 344- 0996
Transportation
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Ferry: Boats leave from Battery Park, Manhattan, and from Liberty State Park, New Jersey. They run about every 30 to 45 minutes beginning at 9: 15 am. (ferry schedule subject to change).
Hours: May vary; call the number below
Closed: December 25
Ferry fees (Includes Liberty and Ellis Islands): adults, $ 7; senior citizens, $6; children (age 3 to 17), $ 3. (lower group rates are available for 25 or more adults)
Ticket & schedule information: (212) 269- 5755
In summer, visitors will have ___________ to visit Ellis Island.
A.no enough money | B.a longer time | C.a shorter time | D.a wonderful time |
Which number would you call if your friends were suddenly ill?
A.(212) 344- 0996 | B.(212) 363- 7620 | C.(212 ) 363- 3260 | D.(212) 269- 5755 |
Which of the following is NOT true?
A.People can visit Ellis Island free of charge. |
B.The boats departure time from Battery Park is at 9:15 a.m. all the year round. |
C.Ferry fees for children are cheaper than for adults. |
D.Ferry fees for group visitors can be reduced. |
We may infer from the passage that _____________.
A.visitors prefer to go to Ellis Island by boat | B.there are more visitors in winter |
C. Ellis Island is open every day | D.Boat is the only transportation to Ellis Island[ |