I finished my last evening shift of the week and could hardly wait to get home. I took off my nursing shoes, relaxed and then said goodnight to the rest of the girls and headed out of the door.
It was so cold and I could see the ice crystals in the air. As I approached my car, I saw one of my coworkers standing by the bus stop. I thought it would only take a couple of extra minutes to give her a ride home, and besides, it was too cold to be standing outside on the coldest night in January.
We chatted as I drove and before we knew it, we arrived at her house. As she headed up the steps to her door she turned around. “Do you know how to get to your house from here?” “How hard can it be? I’ll just backtrack the way I came.”
I started driving. Nothing looked familiar, but at first that didn’t bother me since I’d never been to this neighborhood before. I kept driving, and soon I sensed that something was wrong. I recognized nothing, not the neighborhoods, not even the street names. My husband would be worried about me. I looked down at my watch. It was now 2:30. I’d left work at 11:30 pm.
I stopped my car. I thought I’d better take stock of my situation. My gas gauge (汽油表) was slowly going down. In total defeat I put my head down on the steering wheel and asked for help. I lifted my head. I saw a shadow down the road in front of me. It was a car. What was a car doing in the middle of nowhere at 2:30 in the morning?
Hesitantly, I got out of my car and knocked on the window of the other car. An elderly man slowly rolled his window down.
I said, “I’m lost and don’t know how to get back into town.”
In silence, he started driving. I drove behind him.
Finally I recognized a familiar street. As I turned to head home, I lost sight of my guiding angel. When I pulled into my driveway the warning light for my gas tank turned on.Why did the writer stop her car?
| A．To consider and judge the situation. |
| B．To check whether there was gas. |
| C．To prevent the car breaking down. |
| D．To turn to somebody for help. |
When the writer got home, _______.
| A．she thanked the old man very much |
| B．her husband was waiting for her anxiously |
| C．the oil in her car was just going to run out |
| D．she was totally frozen on the cold night |
What might be the suitable title for the passage?
| A．Keep up and you will succeed at last. |
| B．Meeting a friendly old man in trouble. |
| C．Giving a ride to my coworker at night. |
| D．Losing my way on a cold winter night. |
My transportation was unexpectedly smooth and I arrived at the meeting half an hour earlier. I kept my eyes on the restaurant door. Several customers entered, but not my friend. At 6:00 pm, she sent me a text message: “Urgent work to finish. Will be 20 minutes late.”
I had left my book in the office, so I spent the time thinking of my experiences of being late in China. On my first visit in 1985, punctuality was deeply rooted in the Chinese hearts. There were no traffic jams then.
As a teacher in Canada, I always insisted on punctuality. I would open the classroom door to a late student for the first time and the second, but not the third. During the six years I worked for CCTV, I had a Chinese friend whom I often saw at lunch time, or after work. We used to meet at the subway station nearby. He was always late by 10-20 minutes. To my question, “You were busy?” he would surprisingly answer, “ No.” Once I asked him to check the clock in his office, he smiled.
In March 2015, I got permanent residence (居住权) in China. The ceremony was scheduled for 9:00 am at the Public Security Bureau on the Second Ring Road. I told my driver I had to get there by 8:40 am. “No problem,” he replied. But he thought he had time to drop someone off at the airport before picking me up. I desperately waited for him. Then, to rub salt into my wound, he had to stop at the exit of a gas station. Finally, I entered the room at 9:07 am ── the last guest to arrive!What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The author is always late for work or any activities. |
| B．The author dislikes making friends with unpunctual persons. |
| C．The author hates being late from the bottom of heart. |
| D．The author can do something to deal with unpunctuality. |
If the author’s student comes late for the third time, _______.
| A．he will let him/her remain outside |
| B．he will open the door for him/her again |
| C．he will shout at him/her loudly |
| D．he will tell him/her to take care next time |
How did the Chinese friend feel when the author asked him to check the clock?
| A．Excited. | B．Embarrassed. |
| C．Satisfied. | D．Shocked. |
Why didn’t the author arrive at the ceremony on time?
| A．Because the gas was running out. |
| B．Because his driver met a guest at the airport. |
| C．Because there was a big traffic jam on the road. |
| D．Because the driver estimated the time wrongly. |
Lego Bricks & More 10664 Creative Tower
List Price: $119.99
Price: $101.35 & FREE Shipping
Featuring 160 colorful Lego bricks to create anything your young kids can imagine, this item is designed to allow children complete flexibility. If you are looking for instruction sheets, many are found on the Lego site.
If you buy it together with the LEGO IDEAS BOOK, the price for both will be $115.44.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews:
★Spectacular value!
By Marissa McRoberts on November 29
The typical price per piece of Lego has been slightly more than $10 since 2005. At $101 for 160 pieces, this set is about $ 0.6 per piece. It is a great deal.
But there are some downsides: no wheels, bushes, trees, grass, technic elements and that sort of thing. This is otherwise a fantastic starter set.
★A great deal!
By Shawn Bosworth on December 6
I got this set as a Black Friday deal for an amazing $30! I wanted 2 sets but they were gone before I could even get my hands on one. A very nice man gave me a spare that he grabbed. It’s huge, strong and well-made. The box is about 2 feet tall and is strong enough for a storage option. I will absolutely be looking to get another set one day! According to Marissa McRoberts, this set of Lego Bricks ______.
| A．is a perfect starter set |
| B．costs too much money |
| C．should contain more pieces of bricks |
| D．is much cheaper compared with similar products |
The Lego Bricks & More 10664 Creative Tower includes ______.
| A．a few wheels | B．a strong container |
| C．technic elements | D．The LEGO IDEAS BOOK |
How did Shawn Bosworth get a set of Lego Bricks for $30?
| A．He got the chance from a man who had an additional set. |
| B．He ordered two sets and was then offered a discount. |
| C．He grabbed the bargain when it was first served. |
| D．He made a deal with the seller for a lower price. |
Cars!!! Holidays! Thousands of prizes! Hurry! Free with every packet of splash! Your personal lucky number! Will be among the 500,000 winners! Use splash for the softest…quickest… whitest wash! Don’t delay… buy a packet today!Those who bought a packet of splash________.
| A．are sure to win a prize. |
| B．are sure to be among the 500,000 winners. |
| C．could get $500,000. |
| D．could get the personal lucky number. |
Splash is________.
| A．a certain kind of material used for washing in high quality. |
| B．something like a machine used to wash clothes. |
| C．the softest, quickest, and whitest car to drive. |
| D．one of thousands of prizes for players to win. |
Which of the following diagrams(图解) shows the correct relation?
●：prize：personal lucky number ★：splash ■：cars
| A．■→→★→● | B．★→→●→■ |
| C．●→★→■→ | D．■→★→→● |
If you want to get prize,________.
| A．don’t delay joining us in playing. |
| B．you should buy 500,000 packets of splash. |
| C．please buy a packet of splash. |
| D．please drive a car as quickly as possible. |
What does it mean to say that we live in a world of persuasion? It means that we live among competing interests. Your roommate’s need to study for an exam may take priority（优先）over pizza. Your instructor may have good reasons not to change your grade. And the object of your romantic interest may have other choices.
In such a world, persuasion is the art of getting others to give fair and favorable consideration to our point of view. When we persuade, we want to influence how others believe and behave. We may not always prevail — other points of view may be more persuasive, depending on the listener, the situation, and the merits of the case. But when we practice the art of persuasion, we try to ensure that our position receives the attention it deserves.
Some people, however, object to the very idea of persuasion. They may regard it as an unwelcome interruption into their lives. Just the opposite, we believe that persuasion is unavoidable — to live is to persuade. Persuasion may be ethical（合乎道义的）or unethical, selfless or selfish, inspiring or degrading. Persuaders may enlighten our minds or catch our vulnerability(弱点). Ethical persuasion, however, calls on sound reasoning and is sensitive to the feelings and needs of listeners. Such persuasion can help us apply the wisdom of the past to the decisions we now must make. Therefore, the most basic part of education is learning to resist the one kind of persuasion and to encourage and practice the other.
Beyond its personal importance to us, persuasion is necessary to society. The right to persuade and be persuaded is the bedrock of the American political system, guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution（美国宪法）.According to the passage, persuasion means ________.
| A．changing others’ point of view |
| B．exercising power over other people |
| C．getting other people to consider your point of view |
| D．getting people to agree with you and do what you want |
The underlined word in the second paragraph “prevail” means“________”.
| A．fail | B．win | C．speak | D．listen |
The passage states that some people object to persuasion because they think it is ________.
| A．unwelcome behavior | B．difficult to do well |
| C．a danger to society | D．never successful |
The passage mainly discusses ________.
| A．people’s different opinions towards persuasion |
| B．the reasons why people persuade |
| C．that persuasion is both good and bad |
| D．that persuasion is important and it is all around us |
Can you believe your eyes? A recent experiment suggests that the answer to that question may depend on your age.
Martin Doherty, a psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland, led the team of scientists. In this experiment, Doherty and his team tested the perception(观察力) of some people, using pictures of some orange circles. The researchers showed the same pictures to two groups of people. The first group included 151 children aged 4 to 10, and the second group included 24 adults aged 18 to 25.
The first group of pictures showed two circles alone on a white background. One of the circles was larger than the other, and these people were asked to identify the larger one. Four-year-olds identified the correct circle 79 percent of the time. Adults identified the correct circle 95 percent of the time.
Next, both groups were shown a picture where the orange circles, again of different sizes, were surrounded by gray circles. Here's where the trick lies in. In some of the pictures, the smaller orange circle was surrounded by even smaller gray circles —making the orange circle appear larger than the other orange circle, which was the real larger one. And the larger orange circle was surrounded by even bigger gray circles—so it appeared to be smaller than the real smaller orange circle.
When young children aged 4 to 6 looked at these tricky pictures, they weren't fooled—they were still able to find the bigger circle with roughly the same accuracy as before. Older children and adults, on the other hand, did not do as well. Older children often identified the smaller circle as the larger one, and adults got it wrong most of the time.
As children get older, Doherty said, their brains may develop the ability to identify visual context. In other words, they will begin to process the whole picture at once: the tricky gray circles, as well as the orange circle in the middle. As a result, they're more likely to fall for this kind of visual trick.Why are younger children not fooled?_____________.
| A．Because their brain can hardly notice related things together. |
| B．Because older people are influenced by their experience. |
| C．Because people's eyes become weaker as they grow older. |
| D．Because they are smarter than older children and adults. |
Doherty and his team of scientists did an experiment to evaluate_____________.
| A．children's and adults' eye-sight |
| B．people's ability to see accurately |
| C．children's and adults' brains |
| D．the influence of people's age |
When asked to find the larger circle,_____________.
| A．children at 6 got it wrong 79 % of the time with no gray ones around |
| B．only adults over 18 got it right 95% of the time with gray ones around |
| C．children at 4 got it right about 79 % of the time with gray ones around |
| D．adults got it right most of the time with gray ones around |
According to the passage, we can know that_____________.
| A．a smaller orange circle appears bigger on a white background |
| B．an orange circle appears bigger than a gray one of the same size |
| C．a circle surrounded by other circles looks bigger than its real size |
| D．a circle surrounded by bigger ones looks smaller than its real size |