Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy – five, he gave $ 60,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children’s ground.
As a result of his kindness, he became famous. Many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy-five. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky and drank some each day. “I have an injection (注射) in my neck each evening,” he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.
The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy-five and had daily injection in his neck.Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.Johnson became a rich man through _______.
A.doing business | B.making whisky |
C.cheating | D.buying and selling land |
The gift of money to the school suggests that Johnson _______.
A.had many children in the school | B.was a strange old man |
C.was very fond of children | D.was very kind |
Many people wrote to Johnson to find out _______.
A.what kind of whisky he had |
B.how to live longer |
C.how to become wealthy |
D.where to have an injection |
When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening, he really meant that _______.
A.he needn’t an injection in the neck |
B.there was something wrong with his neck |
C.he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening |
D.a daily injection in the evening would make him sleep well |
It's not a new phenomenon, but have you noticed how many nouns are being used as verbs? We all use them, often without noticing what we're doing.
I was arranging to meet someone for dinner last week, and I said “I’ll pencil it in my diary”, and my friend said “You can ink it in”, meaning that it was a firm arrangement not a tentative one!
Many of these new verbs are linked to new technology. An obvious example is the word fax, which is a shortening of facsimile originally, an exact copy of a book or document. We all got used to sending and receiving faxes, and then soon started talking about faxing something and promising we'd fax it immediately. So, nouns turn into verbs in two easy stages. Then along came email, and we were soon all emailing each other madly. How did we do without it? I can hardly imagine life without my daily emails.
Email reminds me, of course, of my computer and its software, which has produced another couple of new verbs. On my computer I can bookmark those pages from the World Wide Web that I think I'll want to look at again, thus saving all the effort of remembering their addresses and calling them up from scratch. I can do the same thing on my PC, but there I don't bookmark; I favorite—coming from “favorite pages”, so the verb is derived from an adjective not a noun. I wasn’t really sure whether people said this,but someone told me recently that they had favorited a site I was looking for and so they could easily give me its address.
In the late 1980s I noticed that lots of my friends had acquired pagers, and kept saying things like “I’ll page you as soon as I know what time we’re meeting”. They couldn't say it to me, though; 1 refused to have one. So my children bought me a mobile phone, now known simply as a mobile and I had to learn yet more new verbs. I can message someone, that is, I can leave a message (either spoken or written)for them on their phone.Or I can text them, write a few words suggesting when and where to meet, for example. How long will it be before I can mobile them, that is, phone them using my mobile? I haven’t heard that verb yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Perhaps I’ll start using it myself! “I’ll pencil it in my diary” in the second paragraph probably means .
A.it was a firm arrangement | B.it was an uncertain arrangement |
C.the arrangement should be written as a diary | D.he prefers a pencil to a pen |
A website address can be easily found if it has been_____.
A.emailed | B.messaged | C.favorited | D.texted |
Which of the following has not been used as a verb, yet?
A.message | B.page | C.email | D.mobile |
The best title for this passage is____.
A.New Verbs from Old Nouns | B.The Development of the English language |
C.New Technology and New words | D.Technology and Language. |
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A.diseases | B.side effects | C.medicines | D.cholesterol |
Where can you most probably read this passage?
A.In a travel guide book. | B.On a university bulletin board. |
C.In a health magazine. | D.In a doctor's prescription. |
Erik Weihenmayer was born with an eye disorder. As a child his eyesight became worse and then, at the age of 13, he lost his sight completely. However, he did not lose his determination to lead a full and active life.
Erik became an adventurer. He took up parachuting, wrestling and scuba diving. He competed in long-distance biking, marathons and skiing. His favorite sport, thought, is mountaineering.
As a young man, Erik started to climb mountains. He reached the summit of Mount McKinley in 1995 and then climbed the dangerous 1000-metre rock wall of EI Capitan. Two years later, while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Kenya with his girlfriend, they stopped for a time at 13,000 feet above sea level-in order to get married. In 1999, he climbed Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America. And then , on May 25, 2001, at the age of 33, Erik successfully completed the greatest mountaineering challenge of all. He climbed Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world.
Erik invented his own method for climbing mountains. He carries two long poles: one to lean on and the other to test the way ahead of him. The climber in front of him wears a bell to guide him. Erik is a good team member. He does his share of the job, such as setting up tents and building snow walls.
Although he could not enjoy the view, Erik felt the excitement of being on the summit of Everest. He hopes that his success will change how people think about the blind. “When people think about a blind person or blindness, now they will think about a person standing on top of the world.” When was Erik born?
A.In 1968. | B.In 1995. | C.In 1967. | D.In 1969. |
What was unusual about his wedding?
A.He got married on the summit of Mount McKinley. |
B.He got married when climbing Mount Everest. |
C..His wedding was held after he prepared a lot. |
D.His wedding was held at 13,000 feet above sea level. |
What is Erik’s special method for climbing a mountain?
A.He takes his girlfriend with him. | B.He does his share of the jobs. |
C.He uses two long poles to help himself. | D.He keeps a good team around him. |
Which of the following shows the right order of what happened?
a. He topped Mount McKinley.
b. He became blind.
c. He challenged Mount Everest.
d. He reached the peak of Kilimanjaro.
e. He climbed the rock wall of EI Capitan.
A.b, e, d, c, a | B.b, a, e, d, c | C.a, b, e, d, c | D.b, d, a, c, d |
Every year, whenever Spring Festival arrives, a lot of Chinese people cannot wait to go home. They queue for long hours in front of the ticket offices in railway stations, or do whatever they can in order to get a ticket. They tolerate the long journey on the train only to want to ______ with their near and dear ones.
According to The Beijing Youth Daily, most Chinese celebrate the Spring Festival not only because they want to follow tradition, there are also some practical reasons to explain Chinese people's fever for the holiday. Compared with one's workplace, home provides a more humane environment for one to relax oneself.
Society may do with or without you, but at home, you become unique and indispensable. You may be the father or mother, daughter or son, grandfather or grandmother in the family and the family will be incomplete if anyone is absent, because every member in the family is bound together, and everyone in the family is pleased with the feeling that he or she is unique and irreplaceable.
In addition, family provides an ideal environment for one to fully relax oneself. At home, one can take one's time do whatever he or she wants, and one can spend money whenever one likes. In society, however, one needs to do everything fast and with high efficiency, because society always reqiores efficiency and maximum profits. Such company principles make people merely a tool in modern society.
Chinese people's strong desire for Spring Festival shows that they feel oppressed and have a sense of predicament(困境) of existence in modern society. The Spring Festival provides a chance for them to escape from such anxiety and treasure the long-lost tradition of community spirit. With the Spring Festival, people can find back the warm, family atmosphere often seen in days gone by.
1. What's the passage mainly talking about? (Please answer within 10 words. )
2. Fill in the blanks with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence. (Please answer within 10 words. )
3. Which sentence in the passage can be replaced by the following one?You may not be a necessary part in society, but in your family, you are very important and no one else can take the place of you.
4. Do you think home is important for Chinese to celebrate the Spring Festival?Why or why not? (Please answer within 30 words. )
5. Translate the underlined sentence in the last paragraph into Chinese.
There are many theories about the beginning of drama in ancient Greece. The one most widely accepted today is based on the assumption that drama evolved (演化) from ceremony. The argument for this view goes as follows.
In the beginning, human beings viewed the natural forces of the world -even the seasonal changes - as unpredictable, and they sought through various means to control these unknown and feared powers. Those measures which appeared to bring the desired results were then kept and repeated until they hardened into fixed ceremonies. Eventually stories arose which explained the mysteries of the ceremonies. As time passed some ceremonies were abandoned, but the stories, later called myths, remained and provided material for art and drama.
Those who believe that drama evolved out of ceremony also argue that those ceremonies contained the seed of theater because music, dance, masks, and costumes were almost always used. Furthermore, a suitable site had to be provided for performances and when the entire community did not participate, a clear division was usually made between the "acting area" and the "auditorium " . In addition, there were performers, and, since considerable importance was attached to avoiding mistakes in the performing of ceremonies, religious leaders usually took that task.. Wearing masks and costumes, they often acted other people, animals, or supernatural beings, and imitated the desired effect -- success in hunt or battle, the coming rain, etc. as an actor might. Eventually such dramatic representations were separated from religious activities.
Another theory traces(追溯) the theater's origin from the human interest in storytelling. According to this view, tales (about the hunt, war, etc) are gradually developed, at first through the use of action and dialogue, and then through the assumption of each of the roles by a different person. A closely related theory traces theater to those dances that are primarily rhythmical and gymnastic or that are imitations of animal movements and sounds.Which is the best title of the passage?
A.Religious activities in ancient Greece. | B.The ceremonies in ancient Greece. |
C.Drama theories. | D.The origin of Greek Drama. |
According to the passage, drama_______________.
A.was played in memory of ancient Greek ceremonies |
B.was a form of ceremony played by ancient Greeks to control unknown powers |
C.evolved out of ancient Greek ceremonies with time passing by |
D.is one of the measures Ancient Greeks took to view natural forces |
What do drama and ancient ceremonies have in common according to the passage?
A.Both of them were performed in theaters. |
B.Music, dance, masks, costumes and so on were contained in both of them. |
C.Religious leaders were in charge of both of them. |
D.Both of them were concerned about natural power. |
In tracing the beginning of drama, which of the following is not mentioned?
A.Planting. | B.Religious ceremonies. |
C.Gymnastic. | D.Storytelling. |
It can be inferred from the passage that____________________.
A.human beings loved to tell stories |
B.people could do nothing about nature |
C.religious leaders tried to develop the effective form of drama |
D.religious activities played a very important role in the evolvement of drama |