We all know what it is like to be unable to turn your head because of a cold in the muscles of your neck, or because an unexpected twist has made your neck ache and stiff. Your whole body feels tight. The slightest move makes you jump with pain. Nothing could be worse than a pain in the neck. That is why we use phrase to describe some people who give you the same feeling. We have all met such people.
One is the man who always seems to be clapping his hands—often at the wrong time—during a performance in the theater. He keeps you from hearing the actors.
Even worse are those who can never arrive before the curtain goes up and play begins. They come hurrying down to your row of seats. You are comfortably settled down, with your hat and heavy coat in your lap. You must stand up to let them pass. You are proud of your self-control after they have settled into their seats…Well, what now…Good God, one of them is up again. He forgot to go to the men’s room, and once more you have to stand up, hanging on to your hat and coat to let him pass. Now, that is “a pain in the neck.”
Another, well-known to us all, is the person sitting behind you in the movies. His mouth is full of popcorn; he is chewing loudly, or talking between bites to friends next to him. None of them remain still. Up and down, back and forth, they go for another bag of popcorn, or something to drink.
Then, there is the main sitting next to you at a lunch counter smoking a smelly cigar. He wants you to enjoy it too, and blows smoke across your food into your mouth.
We must not forget the man who comes into a bus or subway car and sits down next to you, just as close as you will let him. You are reading the newspaper and he leans over and stretches his neck so that he can read the paper with you. He may even turn the paper to the next page before you are ready for it.
We also call such a person a “rubberneck”, always putting out his neck to where it does not belong, like neighbors who watch all your visitors. They enjoy invading your privacy. People have a strong dislike for rubbernecks. They hate being spied upon.Where can you find this passage?
A.Medicine dictionaries. | B.A travel guide. |
C.Social science books. | D.Students text books. |
How do you feel when late comers walk back and forth in front of you in a cinema?
A.Disturbed. | B.Ignored. | C.Bored. | D.Relaxed. |
A “rubberneck” often .
A.says bad words behind people |
B.quarrels face to face with neighbors |
C.bargains the price with sales women |
D.asks about other people’s business |
Which of the follow is “a pain in the neck”?
A.Someone who helps you find your seat in a movie theatre. |
B.Someone who smokes in a smoking section on a train. |
C.Someone who throws trash out of his car window on the highway. |
D.Someone who goes to the doctor for his severe pain on the neck. |
Last week my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home in Tucson, Arizona. He moved there a few years ago, and I was eager to see his new place and meet his friends.
My earliest memories of my father are a tall, handsome, successful man devoted to his work and his family, but uncomfortable with his children. As a child I loved him; as a school girl and young adult I feared him and felt bitter(痛苦的) about him. He seemed unhappy with me unless I got straight A’s and unhappy with my boyfriends if their fathers were not as “successful” as he was. Whenever I went out with him on weekends, I used to struggle to think up things to say, feeling on guard.
On the first day of my visit, we went out with one of my father’s friends for lunch at an outdoor café. We talked along that afternoon, did some shopping, ate on the street table, and laughed over my son’s funny facial expressions. Gone was my father’s critical (挑剔的) air and strict rules. Who was this person I knew as my father, who seemed so friendly and interesting to be around? What had held him back before?
The next day dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closer to him at that moment. After so many years, I’m at last seeing another side of my father. And in so doing, I’m delighted with my new friend. My dad, in his new home in Arizona, is back to me from where he was. Why did the author feel bitter about her father as a young adult?
A.He was silent most of the time. | B.He was too proud of himself. |
C.He did not love his children. | D.He expected too much of her. |
When the author went out with her father on weekend, she would feel .
A.nervous | B.sorry | C.tired | D.safe |
What does the author think of her father after her visit to Tucson?
A.More critical. | B.More talkative |
C.Gentle and friendly. | D.Strict and hard-working. |
The underlined words “my new friend” in the last paragraph refer to.
A.the author’s son | B.the author’s father |
C.the friend of the author’s father | D.the café owner |
“I sometimes get up at three or four in the morning and I surf the net.”
“I often check my e-mail forty times a day. ”
“I often spend more than three hours during one time on the net.”
“I spend more time in chat rooms than with my ‘real-life’ friends.”
Do you know any people like these? They are part of a new addiction(上瘾)called Internet addiction. Internet addicts spend at least thirty to forty hours online every week. The use of the Internet can be an addiction like drug(毒品)use. People lose control(控制)of the time they spend on the Internet.
For example, one college student was missing for several days. His friends were worried, and they called the police. The police found the student in the computer lab: he was surfing the net for several days straight.
Studies show that about 6% to 10% of Internet users become addicted. And people worry about the teens because the Internet is changing the playing field for some of them. They spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.
Is “surfing the net” a hobby or an addiction for you? You may have a problem if you have these symptoms(症状): ①You do not go to important family activities or you do not do school work because you like to spend hours on the Internet. ②You can’t wait for your next online time. ③You go out with your friends less and less. ④You plan to spend a short time online, but then you spend several hours.How does the writer describe the addicts’ use of Internet?
A.It is something like keeping drugs. | B.It is like taking drugs. |
C.It is a way of producing drugs. | D.It is terrible to imagine. |
Why do people worry about the teens?
A.The teens are wasting too much money. |
B.They used to work on the Internet. |
C.The playing field of the teens will disappear. |
D.More and more of the teens will become addicted to the Internet. |
The example in the passage shows that.
A.some of the Internet users have already been seriously addicted |
B.Internet addicts usually stay in the computer lab without sleep |
C.Internet problems are more serious among college students |
D.the police often help to find those Internet addicts |
What is the writer trying to tell us at the end of the passage?
A.Do things as you have planned. | B.Go to family activities more often. |
C.Don’t be addicted to the Internet. | D.Stay with your parents as often as possible. |
There is a wonderful story about a young girl who had no family and no one to love her.
One day, feeling very sad and lonely, she was walking through a grassland when she noticed a small butterfly(蝴蝶) caught in a thorn(荆棘)bush. The young girl carefully released the butterfly. Instead of flying away, the little butterfly changed into a beautiful fairy(仙女). The young girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
“For your wonderful kindness,” the good fairy said to the girl, “I will give you any wish you would like.” The little girl thought for a moment and then replied, “I want to be happy.”
The fairy leaned(倾斜) toward her and whispered(耳语)in her ear. Then the fairy disappeared.
As the little girl grew up, there was no one in the land as happy as she. Everyone asked her secret of happiness. She would only smile and answer, “The secret of my happiness is that I listened to a good fairy when I was a little girl.”
When she was very old and on her deathbed, the neighbors all gathered around her, afraid that her unbelievable secret of happiness would die with her. “Tell us, please,” they begged, “Tell us what the good fairy said.” The lovely old woman simply smiled and said, “She told me that everyone, no matter how secure(安全的)they seemed, no matter how old or young, how rich or poor, had need of me.”Noticing the butterfly was caught by the thorn, the orphan(孤儿) girl.
A.felt sorrow, but she didn’t help it | B.failed to help it release from the thorn |
C.fell down on it too | D.helped the butterfly escape from the thorn |
The butterflyafter being saved by the little girl.
A.flied away | B.was more beautiful than before |
C.changed into a fairy | D.still died |
The only thing that the little girl wanted was .
A.wealth | B.parents | C.happiness | D.friends |
The neighbors all gathered around the old happy woman when she was dying, because.
A.they loved this woman deeply and they didn’t want her to die |
B.the woman had lots of money to be shared as soon as she died |
C.they wanted to pray for her after her death |
D.they wanted to know the secret of her lifetime happiness |
Besides giving off gases and dusts into the air, humans produce waste that is poured on the environment. Often, this waste produced by major industries and people is harmful to both nature and human life.
One of the main causes of the large amount of dangerous waste is that people do not realize how large a problem it is. Because it can be simply removed and sent to a landfill(废渣填埋场),the problem is often believed to end there. In addition, industries have often shown an unwillingness to find ways to deal with dangerous waste because of the related expenses. Many industries and governments build simple landfills to store waste, and often just pour waste chemicals into nearby bodies of water. Often, chemicals used for industrial production cause dangerous forms of waste. The amount of these chemicals has increased greatly in the past, but it is often difficult and expensive to get rid of these chemicals or to store them in a way safe to human life and the environment.
Every year, major health problems result from dangerous waste. Sadly, it is often only after someone has died or become seriously ill that governments will take measures to reduce levels of harmful waste.
Some governments have realized how serious the dangerous waste problem is and are now trying to settle this problem. They are also trying to limit the amount of waste industries are allowed to produce.
Notonly governments but ordinary people as well must work together to solve the problem. They can choose not to buy those products which require the production of dangerous waste, and produce less harmful waste themselves. Many scientists think that waste production can be cut. The waste can be reduced by at least one third using existing technologies and methods. What would be the best title for the text?
A.Measures of Reducing Dangerous Waste |
B.Danger of Harmful Waste to Mankind |
C.Dangerous Waste and Water pollution |
D.Environmental Protection |
According to the text, people ___________.
A.do not produce harmful waste in their daily life |
B.do not know where to place the dangerous waste |
C.are not clear about how serious the dangerouswaste problem is |
D.are not sure about where harmful waste ends |
What troubles industries most in dealing with the dangerous waste problem?
A.How to get government support. |
B.How to increase their production. |
C.How to store harmful waste. |
D.How to cut down the related costs. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
A.The polluting industries are not allowed to sell their products. |
B.Present technologies have settled the harmful waste problem. |
C.Everyone should obey the government rules for the problem. |
D.To solve the problem requires the efforts of the whole society. |
A growing number of college students are applying to take entry tests for medical and dental (牙科的) schools among increasing graduate unemployment in Korea.
“I’ve decided to apply for the test to enter a medical college to become a doctor, changing from my original plan to prepare for a lawyer qualification exam in order to get a more stable job in the future,” said a 24-year-old college graduate, Lee, who majored in business administration during his undergraduate schooling.
The new medical and dental school system is getting popularity, attracting an increasing number of students every year since its appearance in 2004, as it is open to all college graduates regardless of their previous majors.
The Education Development introduced the new medical and dental education system, in which college students with bachelor’s degrees are allowed to study medicine or dentistry by taking the Medical Education Test (MET) and Dental Education Test (DET).
Ten medical schools and six dental colleges that have used the new system have received 4,377 applications (申请) for the entrance exams.
Applicants are getting younger compared with those in their 20s representing 76.9 percent of the total. The tests might be easier for students with biology and chemistry majors, but graduates from other majors are also applying for the tests.
Under the existing medical and dental education system, students should take a two-year premedical course followed by a four-year medical course.
Students graduating under the new medical or dental education system are given master’s degrees, while those graduates who studied under the previous system have bachelor’s degrees. Why do more and more Korean students apply for medical schools?
A.Because doctors are highly respected in Korea. |
B.Because they want to get a more stable job. |
C.Because medicine is easier to learn than other subjects. |
D.Because the medical education system is reasonable. |
Students in the old system may spend _______ years at college to get bachelor’s degrees.
A.two | B.four | C.six | D.seven |
We can learn from the passage that _______.
A.it takes a longer time to get the master’s degree in the old system |
B.students may find it a lot easier to get a bachelor’s degree in medicine |
C.graduates from other majors like history are not allowed to apply for those schools |
D.the new system are not so popular as expected because of its high unemployment |
What would be the best title for the passage?
A.New Medical and Dental School System Is Carried Out in Korea |
B.Korean College Students Have a New Job Choice |
C.Korean College Students Rush to Medical and Dental Schools |
D.Doctors Are Becoming Popular in Korea |