You and your friends are settling into your seats. The new Spider-Man movie is about to start and you’ve got the snacks: soda and popcorn. Food is part of what makes the movies fun.
Just as the lights go out, you catch a slight smell of … tuna fish?! You turn your head, searching for the source. Then you spot him: A couple rows back, some guy is enjoying a tuna fish sandwich. How’d he get that in here? You wonder. Then you remember how much you paid for your snacks.
What invites the unwelcome outside food is probably the price. Why pay $ 5 for a bag of M&Ms when you can get them for a dollar at the corner store?
Earlier this year, a Michigan man decided to fight for his right to snack. Joshua Thompson is using his local theater after it banned outside food. He argues the ban breaks a Michigan law that prevents businesses from charging extremely high prices. However, most legal experts believe Thompson has little chance of winning his case, though he does have a point: 85 cents out of a dollar of treats a movie theater sells is pure profit(纯利).
The truth is that movie theaters are more in the snack business than the movie business. A huge part of the ticket income goes to the Hollywood studio. This makes sense, since the studios have to pay the costs of movie production and advertising. But that often doesn’t leave much cash for the theater, which also has its own running costs. If customers stopped buying food, owners would have to raise ticket prices even higher.
Of course, there’s another reason to think twice before bringing food into the movies: It’s against the rules. Breaking those rules can have unpleasant consequences too. Some theaters will kick you out if they catch you. Even without the threat of punishment, we should follow rules all the time------out of respect.
Here’s a good idea: Eat before the movie.What is the topic of the text?
| A．The pleasure of enjoying snacks. |
| B．A Michigan man’s fight for his right. |
| C．Movie theaters’ ban on outside food. |
| D．Bad manners in movie theaters. |
What do we know about Joshua Thompson?
| A．He broke a Michigan law. |
| B．He is likely to lose the case. |
| C．He thinks cinema tickets are too expensive. |
| D．He was forbidden to have snacks at the theaters. |
In Paragraph 5, the author mainly explains _________.
| A．how movie studios work with movie theaters |
| B．how movie theaters reduce their operating costs |
| C．why Hollywood studios must pay high costs |
| D．why snack sales are important to movie theaters |
How does the author feel about bringing outside food into the cinema?
| A．It is unacceptable. | B．It is convenient. |
| C．It is great fun. | D．It is lawful.. |
Everyone knows the smart black-and-white dog that sits on top of a red doghouse with his best friend---a bird called Woodstock.
Created by the American cartoonist Charles Schulz in 1950, the clever dog is loved by generations of kids and adults. He speaks more than 20 languages and appears daily in 26,000 newspapers around the world.
When Snoopy first appeared, he was not different form other pet dogs. But two years later, he had begun to speak with simple words and sounds. By 1957 he could walk on two legs and was going to school with his master, Charlie Brown, who failed in just about everything. Later he learned to use the typewriter.
Snoopy has done lots of jobs. He has been a bow-tie wearing lawyer, a tennis player, an Olympic figure skater, a world famous grocery checkout clerk, a pilot and even the first astronaut on the moon.
However, Snoopy has always dreamed of being a famous writer. The beginning of his story is always, “It was a dark and stormy night…” Unfortunately for him no one has ever wanted to publish the story.
In love, Snoopy is as much of a failure as Charlie Brown is at baseball. He easily falls in love but always has his heart broken. He eats to forget, but it never works.
Snoopy is an insightful, feel-good and sometimes sad dog. If you think a little about words, you might find them full of life lessons. Among his most famous lines are “To live is to dance, to dance is to live.” And “Yesterday I was a dog. Today I’m a dog. Tomorrow I’ll probably still be a dog. Sigh! There’s so little hope for advancement”. Snoopy has done all the following jobs except ____________.
| A．a lawyer | B．a player | C．a clerk | D．a writer |
From the passage, we can learn that _________.
| A．Snoopy is always a sad dog |
| B．Snoopy can not speak in the beginning |
| C．Snoopy often dreams of true love |
| D．Snoopy is a real smart pet dog |
It can be inferred that Snoopy ____________.
| A．has many bird friends and relatives |
| B．is a well-known writer and clerk |
| C．has been unfortunate since it was born |
| D．is very popular in the whole world |
The word “advancement” in the last paragraph probably means__________.
| A．success | B．progress | C．growth | D．popularity |
Since we are social beings, the quality of our lives depends in large measure on our interpersonal relationships. One strength of the human condition is our possibility to give and receive support from one another under stressful conditions. Social support makes up of the exchange of resources among people based on their interpersonal ties. Those of us with strong support systems appear better able to deal with major life changes and daily problems. People with strong social ties live longer and have better health than those without such ties. Studies over types of illnesses, from depression(沮丧) to heart disease, show that the presence of social support helps people defend themselves against illness, and the absence of such support makes poor health more likely.
Social support cushions stress in a number of ways. First, friends, relatives and co-workers may let us know that they value us. Our self-respect is strengthened when we feel accepted by others in spite of our faults and difficulties. Second, other people often provide us with informational support. They help us to define and understand our problems and find solutions to them. Third, we typically find social companionship supportive. Taking part in free-time activities with others helps us to meet our social needs while at the same time distracting (转移注意力) us from our worries and troubles. Finally, other people may give us instrumental support money aid, material resources, and needed services - that reduces stress by helping us resolve and deal with our problems. Interpersonal relationships are important because they can ________
| A．make people live more easily | B．smooth away daily problems |
| C．deal with life changes | D．cure types of illnesses |
Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined word "cushions"?
| A．takes place of | B．makes up of |
| C．lessens the effect of | D．gets rid of |
What is the subject discussed in the text?
| A．Interpersonal relationships. | B．Kinds of social support. |
| C．Ways to deal with stress. | D．Effects of stressful condition. |
What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology(生物技术). With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today's leading killers, such as heart diseases, cancer, and aging itself, will become distant memory.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells(细胞) are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, would not last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs(器官). The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on---in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic conditional human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up on the way to this wonderful future. According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by _______.
| A．diseases and aging | B．accidents and war |
| C．accidents and aging | D．heart diseases and war |
In the author's opinion, today's most important advance in technology lies in _____.
| A．medicine | B．the internet | C．brain cells | D．human organs |
Humans may live longer in the future because ______.
| A．heart disease will be far away from us |
| B．human brains can decide the final death |
| C．the basic materials of cells will last forever |
| D．human organs can be repaired by new medicine |
All of my childhood and early, adult life, my mom weighed over 220 pounds (one pound =" 0.454" kilograms). I could feel the pain that my mom experienced with her fatness.
I was never uncomfortable about my mother, but I think she was uncomfortable about herself, and that feeling was painful for all of us. And she began to lose weight.
After more than twenty years of battling obesity（肥胖）, my mother completed a forceful eighteen-month diet that left her ninety pounds lighter than before. A new woman was born! At age twenty-eight, I got a new mom! For the first time, I met the woman my mother truly was, the beautiful little lady under the fatness. It wasn’t so much her new body that was the surprise, but rather her new spirit.
To celebrate her new size and to devote herself to dancing again, my mother joined a “Mrs. Forty-Plus” competition, where she would have to model, give a speech and provide a dance performance. She told our family that she did not care if she won — she simply had always wanted to perform on stage.
She told each one of us, “I’m not doing it to win; I’m doing it to dance!”
The competition was exciting! I prayed(祈祷) that my mom would win, but while watching her on stage I was simply overjoyed just by her effort. To me, she had already won. She posed to perfection, her speech brought tears to everyone’s eyes, and her performance was wonderful.
That night, at age fifty-three, my mother was crowned (为......加冕) “Mrs. Forty-Plus”. She was the first person in our family to ever win such a title. The first two paragraphs mainly show that the author’s mom was __________.
| A．experienced | B．painful | C．comfortable | D．fat |
After the author’s mom completed a forceful eighteen-month diet, she was about ______.
| A．85 kilograms | B．41 kilograms |
| C．130 pounds | D．90 pounds |
In order to join in the “Mrs. Forty-Plus” Competition, the author’s mom has to do the following EXCEPT __________.
| A．providing a dance performance |
| B．telling a funny story about herself |
| C．giving a speech to a large number of people |
| D．wearing special clothes to show to people |
The underlined part in Paragraph 6 means that __________.
| A．the author’s mom succeeded in modeling and speaking |
| B．the author’s mom’s performance was very wonderful |
| C．the author’s mom was not successful in modeling |
| D．the author’s mom succeeded in making a speech |
The deserts of the world are not all covered with sand. Many of them have surfaces of rock or clay or small stones. They are not flat, either. They often have high hills and deep valleys. There is some plants’ life in many parts of the desert. There is little rain in the desert, but it does fall often enough for most plants.
The deserts of the world are not uninhabited(not lived by people). People also live outside oases(绿洲), but these people are not farmers. They have camels, goats, donkeys, sheep, etc. These animals can live on the desert plants and do not need much water.
The people of the desert have to move constantly from place to place, they must always look for grass or desert plants for their animals. They usually live in tents. When there is no more food for their animals, they fold up their tents, pat them on their camels and donkeys, and move to another place. In good years, when there is enough food for their animals, they trade their skins and their goats and camel hairs with the people of oases for wheat and fruit. But in bad years, when there is not enough food for their animals, the people of the desert would attack the oases people. But they are also hospitable, no man in the desert would ever refuse to give a stranger food and water.According to the passage, deserts are mostly made up of _______.
| A．clay | B．rock | C．sand | D．stones |
The underlined word “hospitable” has the meaning of being _______.
| A．brave | B．cruel | C．strange | D．kind |
In the desert _______.
| A．it rains in spring only |
| B．it rains for a short time every month |
| C．there is some rain, but far from enough |
| D．the rainfall is just enough for the plants |
People live _______.
| A．only inside the oases | B．only outside the oases |
| C．both inside and outside the oases | D．in places with regular rainfalls |
From the passage we know that life _______.
| A．is hard in deserts | B．is happy in deserts |
| C．is impossible in deserts | D．in deserts is much better now |