For many people, the name Baskin-Robbins is connected to sweet memories of eating ice cream. Irvine Robbins, who helped create this famous company, died in May at the age of ninety. His career of making fun and exciting ice cream flavors (口味) changed the way Americans enjoy this food.
Irvine Robbins opened his first ice cream store in 1945 in California. At the time, there were no stores that sold only ice cream. His sister’s husband, Burton Baskin, also opened his own ice cream stores.
In 1948 they combined their six stores into one business. Baskin and Robbins realized that they were too busy to operate each store well. So, they decided to sell part of each operation to the manager of that store. This permitted the company to grow quickly.
By 1953, they renamed their company Baskin-Robbins. They advertised that they sold 31 kinds of ice cream to show the many choices buyers had. There was one flavor for every day of the month.
Robbins and Baskin sold “Lunar Cheesecake (月亮奶酪)” the day after astronauts landed on the moon in 1969. Other flavors included “ChaChaCha”, for cherry chocolate chip, and Robbins’ personal favorite “Jamoca Almond Fudge”. They said, “We sell fun, not just ice cream.”
By 1967, there were 500 Baskin-Robbins stores in the United States. The business partners sold their company that year. Today, there are more than 5,800 Baskin-Robbins stores around the world.It can most deeply remain in Americans’ good memories that Baskin-Robbins ___.
| A．launched joyful varieties of ice cream |
| B．purchased much more than ice cream |
| C．combined many stores into a company |
| D．advertised their varieties of ice cream |
Which is the correct order of the events?
| a. Lunar Cheesecake went on the market b. The company got its new name Baskin-Robbins c. Baskin-Robbins sold its company d. Six ice cream stores belonged together |
A. d-b-c-a B. a-b-c-d
C. d-b-a-c D. a-d-c-bAccording to the 5th paragraph, one particular of Baskin-Robbins is that ______.
| A．it struggled for a large size of the company |
| B．its brands actually depended on top quality |
| C．it attempted to develop more chain stores |
| D．its brands closely followed the hot events |
Baskin-Robbins enjoyed its good business essentially due to ______.
| A．the friendly manners | B．the creative ideas |
| C．the unusual efforts | D．the powerful ads |
By the story, the author seems to be suggesting readers: “______”
| A．Explore your new ways! | B．Double your efforts! |
| C．Depend on yourself! | D．Trust your partner! |
I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn’t understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.
Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed（解散）. As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible (负责任) for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized（强调） the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.
Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated on the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl’s test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very very strange to her that I hadn’t talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued to believe that I had cheated on the test.The story took place（发生）exactly ____________ .
| A．in the teacher’s office | B．in an exam room |
| C．in the school | D．in the language lab |
The girl wanted to borrow a pen, because ____________ .
| A．she had not brought a pen with her |
| B．she had lost her own on her way to school |
| C．there was something wrong with her own |
| D．her own had been taken away by someone |
The teacher saw all this, so she asked the boy ____________ .
| A．to go on writing his paper |
| B．to stop whispering |
| C．to leave the room immediately |
| D．to stay behind after the exam |
The boy knew everything ____________ .
| A．the moment he was asked to stay behind |
| B．when the teacher started talking about honesty |
| C．only some time later |
| D．when he was walking out of the room |
Energy independence. It has a nice ring to it. Doesn’t it? If you think so, you’re not alone, because energy independence has been the dream of American president for decades, and never more so than in the past few years, when the most recent oil price shock has been partly responsible for kicking off the great recession(经济衰退).
“Energy independence” and its rhetorical (修辞的) companion “energy security” are, however, unreliable concepts that are rarely thought through. What is it we want independence from exactly?
Most people would probably say that they want to be independent from imported oil. But there are reasons that we buy all that oil from elsewhere.
The first reason is that we need it to keep our economy running. Yes, there is a trickle(涓涓细流) of bio-fuel(生物燃料) available, and more may become available, but most biofuels cause economic waste and environmental destruction.
Second, Americans have basically decided that they don’t really want to produce all their own oil. They value the environmental quality they preserve over their oil imports from abroad. Vast areas of the United States are off-limits to oil exploration and production in the name of environmental protection. To what extent are Americans really willing to tolerate the environmental impacts of domestic(国内的) energy production in order to cut back imports?
Third, there are benefits to trade. It allows for economic efficiency, and when we buy things from places that have lower production costs than we do, we benefit. And although you don’t read about this much, the United States is also a large exporter of oil products, selling about 2 million barrels of petroleum products per day to about 90 countries.
There is no question that the United States imports a great deal of energy and, in fact, relies on that steady flow to maintain its economy. When that flow is interrupted, we feel the pain in short supplies and higher prices. At the same time, we get massive economic benefits when we buy the most affordable energy on the world market and when we engage in energy trade around the world.What does the author say about energy independence for America?
| A．It sounds very attractive. |
| B．It will bring oil prices down. |
| C．It ensures national security. |
| D．It has long been everyone’s dream. |
What does the author think of bio-fuels?
| A．They keep America’s economy running healthily. |
| B．They cause serious damage to the environment. |
| C．They prove to be a good alternative(substitute) to petroleum. |
| D．They do not provide a sustainable energy supply. |
Why does America rely heavily on oil imports?
| A．It wants to expand its storage of raw oil. |
| B．Its own oil reserves are quickly running out. |
| C．Its own oil production falls short of demand. |
| D．It wants to keep its own environment untouched. |
What does the author say about oil trade?
| A．It makes for economic recession． |
| B．It brings benefit only to the sellers． |
| C．It improves economic efficiency． |
| D．It saves the cost of oil exploration． |
What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
| A．To explain the increase of international oil trade. |
| B．To raise Americans’ awareness of the energy crisis. |
| C．To argue for America’s dependence on oil imports. |
| D．To stress the importance of energy protection. |
If you saw another kid ride her bike too fast around a corner and fall down, you might ride your bike more slowly on that turn. Yes, we humans are very sensitive to others’ mistakes. And the same is true for other animals. Animals mess up all the time. They might eat poisonous leaves, fall off a tree or let their prey(猎物) slip away. By watching others fail, an animal can avoid making the same mistakes, thus improving its chance of survival.
Scientists suspected that one part of the brain helps animals process information about others’ errors. Cells in that part appear to become more active when a person sees someone else making a mistake. But researchers didn’t know whether individual cells in this part of the brain play different roles in detecting errors.
To investigate the brain’s response to errors in more detail, the researchers taught a game to two macaques, a type of monkey. One monkey could press a yellow or green button while the other watched. If the first monkey pressed the right button, the team gave both animals a treat. Every couple of rounds, the two monkeys switched roles. Meanwhile, the scientists monitored individual cells in the animal’s brains.
When the first monkey messed up the game by pressing the wrong button, a group of cells in the second monkey’s brain fired. But if the second monkey also made the wrong choice during its turn, some of the cells in that group didn’t respond. Those unresponsive cells reacted specifically to mistakes made by others, not to the monkey’s own mistakes.
Scientists believe other parts of the brain also might help people process information about another’s errors. “You start to think about this other person and see things from his angle.” Ellen de Bruijn told Science News. She studies the brain at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.According to Paragraph l, animals’ ability to learn from others’ mistakes .
| A．used to be ignored by humans |
| B．helps them to survive better |
| C．is being lost because of humans |
| D．ensures that they will never fail |
The underlined word “detecting” in Paragraph 2 probably means “”.
| A．correcting | B．making | C．drawing | D．sensing |
From the game the scientists taught to two macaques, we can see.
| A．animals can avoid the same mistakes |
| B．which part of the brain is more active |
| C．how the brain responds to mistakes |
| D．how the brain processes information |
In the experiment mentioned, those unresponsive cells are only sensitive to .
| A．others’ mistakes | B．the same buttons |
| C．one’s own mistakes | D．the monkey’s brain |
What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Animals can learn from mistakes like human beings. |
| B．An interesting experiment by scientists surprised us. |
| C．Monkeys can avoid making mistakes by learning from us. |
| D．The brain cells are always sensitive to others’ information. |
Have you ever wanted to achieve a goal and ended up doing tons of research on how to achieve the goal? As you learn more and more, it feels like you know less and less because when you learn something new, you find that there is a lot to know about those things.
Sometimes, people will get stuck in this needing to gather more and more information. There’s nothing wrong with learning a lot, but when you let learning get in the way of doing, you will never get going. When you never get going, you still never start having the things you want. Too much learning can paralyze you in terms of taking action.
A better way to go about achieving a goal is to gather some information and immediately start taking action on the information you have gathered. Many times you will feel unprepared, and that’s OK. The best way to learn is to take action and learn from the results you get from those actions.
When you are able to get past the fear of not being perfect and just take the first step, you will be further ahead than the majority of people who are still in the preparation stage. It’s good to be prepared especially in situations such as a pilot and crew making sure the plane is ready to take off, but over-preparation in trying to reach a goal won’t give you any results. The knowledge and skills you will need will be picked up along the way.
If a baby wants to learn how to walk, it will never be able to do it by sitting there and analyzing how to walk. The best way for a baby to walk is to actually stand up and start walking. Sure it may fall, but with every fall, it will learn what is working and what is not and adjust to it. By doing this over and over again, it will eventually learn to walk. This is the approach you need to take when you want to achieve your goals as well. It works. Learning more is great but if all you’re doing is learning and not taking action, it’s time to change. Just take the first step! The author thinks that learning __________.
| A．stops us from doing things |
| B．prevents us from achieving a goal |
| C．should be combined with practice |
| D．means gathering more and more information |
According to the passage, we'd better learn from_____.
| A．our experiences |
| B．adequate preparations |
| C．other people who have succeeded |
| D．the information we have gathered |
The passage implies that the more we learn,_____.
| A．the less we will know |
| B．the more we want to explore |
| C．the more likely we are to succeed |
| D．the better preparations we will make |
What does the underlined word “it” (in the last paragraph) refer to?
| A．Walking | B．Falling | C．Learning | D．Analyzing |
Why does the author mention how a baby learns to walk?
| A．To prove another point is wrong. |
| B．To encourage readers to change. |
| C．To introduce a learning approach. |
| D．To support a conclusion. |
About ten years ago, a young and very successful businessman named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street. He was going a bit too fast in his shiny, black, 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old.
He was watching for kids rushing out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child came out, but a brick sailed out and—WHUMP! —it hit the Jag’s shiny black side door! Immediately Josh stopped the car, jumped out, seized the kid and pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, “What was that all about and who are you? That’s my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money. Why did you throw it? ”
“Please, mister, please. . . I’m sorry! I didn’t know what else to do! ” begged the youngster. “I threw the brick because no one else would stop! ” Tears were streaming down the boy’s face as he pointed around the parked car. “It’s my brother, mister, ” he said. “He rolled of the curb (路沿) and fell out of his wheelchair and I can’t lift him up. ”Sobbing, the boy asked the businessman, “ Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy for me. ”
Moved beyond words, the young businessman tried hard to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapers and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home.
It was a long walk back to the black, shining 12 cylinder Jaguar XKE—a long and slow walk. Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. He kept the dent (凹痕) to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention. Feel for the bricks of life coming at you.How did the driver reflect firstly when he found the boy throwing a brick on his car?
| A．Surprised | B．Angry | C．Strange | D．Sad |
The boy threw a brick at the businessman’s car because _________.
| A．the businessman drove at a high speed |
| B．he envied the brand-new car very much |
| C．he wanted to ask for some money |
| D．he wanted to get help from the driver |
Which of the following is the right order of the story?
a. The younger brother threw a brick at Josh’s car.
b. The elder brother fell out of his wheelchair.
c. The younger brother begged Josh for help.
d. Josh lifted the elder brother back into his wheelchair.
e. Josh shouted at the younger brother.
| A．b, a, e, c, d | B．a, c, d, b, e |
| C．b, a, c, e, d | D．a, c, b, e, d |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Josh would accept the money from the kids. |
| B．The two kids were Josh’s neighbors. |
| C．Josh was a kind-hearted man. |
| D．Josh’s new car broke down easily. |
According to the passage, the last sentence means ________.
| A．trying to get ready for the trouble in your future life |
| B．driving fast in a neighborhood street is dangerous |
| C．trying to be more understanding seeing others in trouble |
| D．protecting oneself from being hurt |