There is no doubt that for a long time college education has been accepted. All high school graduates ought to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become “better” people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don’t go.
But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don’t fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis; college students interfere with each other’s experiments and write false letters of recommendation in the fierce competition so as to get admitted into graduate schools. Others find no stimulation (激励) in their studies, and consequently have to drop out, which is often encouraged by college administrators.
Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves--they are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that’s a condemnation of the students as a whole, and doesn’t explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We have been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can’t absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either.
Some campus watchers have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. We may have been looking at all those surveys and statistics upside down, it seems, and through the rosy(玫瑰般的) glow of our own remembered college experiences. Perhaps college doesn’t make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things—maybe it is just the other way around, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is heresy (异端邪说) to those of us who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to come up.What’s the main idea of the first paragraph, ___________________.
| A．people have great expectations for college education. |
| B．people still have a low opinion of college education. |
| C．the author thinks youngsters should all go to college. |
| D．people now no longer challenge college education. |
The reason why more young people drop out of college is that _________.
| A．they can start selling shoes and driving taxis. |
| B．they are no longer motivated in their studies. |
| C．they compete for admission to graduate schools. |
| D．college administrators encourage them to do so. |
Who contributes to campus unhappiness?
| A．young students who are all spoiled and expecting too much. |
| B．our society that can’t offer enough jobs to college graduates. |
| C．young people as well as our society are to blame for all this. |
| D．our society that has not enough jobs for high school graduates. |
What is the meaning of the underlined word “condemnation” in Paragragh 3?
| A．同意 | B．谴责 | C．承诺 | D．热爱 |
Which of the following sentences is TRUE?
| A．The surveys and statistics proved wrong as being contradictory to our college experiences. |
| B．The surveys and statistics are so convincing that we think of our rosy college experiences. |
| C．The surveys and statistics may have been misread because of our rosy college experiences. |
| D．The surveys and statistics prove high school graduates are smarter than college graduates. |
The Internet has led to a huge increase in credit-card(信用卡) fraud. Your card information could even be for sale in an illegal Web site(网站).Web sites offering cheap goods and services should be regarded with care. On-line shoppers who enter their credit-card information may never receive the goods they bought. The thieves then go shopping with your card number—or sell the information over the Internet.
Computers hackers(黑客) have broken down security(安全) systems, raising questions about the safety of cardholder information. Several months ago,25 000 customers of CD Universe, an on-line music retailer(批发商),were not lucky. Their names,addresses and credit-card numbers were posted on a Web site after the retailer refused to pay US $157 828 to get back the information.
Credit-card firms are now fighting against on-line fraud. MasterCard is working on plans for Web-only credit card, with a lower credit limit. The card could be used only for shopping on-line.
However, there are a few simple steps you can take to keep from being cheated.
Ask about your credit-card firm's on-line rules: Under British law, cardholders are responsible(对……负有责任的) for the first US $78 of any fraudulent spending.
And shop only at secure sites: Send your credit-card information only if the Web site offers-advanced secure system.
If the security is in place, a letter will appear in the bottom right-hand corner of your screen. The Web site address may also start with https://—the extra “s” stands for secure. If in doubt, give your credit-card information over the telephone.
Keep your password safe: Most online sites require a user name and password before placing an order. Treat your passwords with care.What do most people worry about the Internet according to this passage?
| A．A lot of stolen credit-cards were sold on the Internet. |
| B．Fraud on the Internet. |
| C．Many Web sites are destroyed. |
| D．Many illegal Web sites are on the Internet. |
What is the meaning of “fraud”?
| A．cheating | B．sale | C．payment | D．safety |
How can the thieves get the information of the credit-card?
A. The customers give them the information.
B. The thieves steal the information from Web sites.
C. The customers sell the information to them.
D. Both A and B. How many pieces of advice does the passage give to you?
| A．Four. | B．Three. | C．Five. | D．Six. |
We can make mistakes at any age. Some mistakes we make are about money, but most mistakes are about people. “Did Jerry really care when I broke up with Helen?” “When I got that great job, did Jim, as a friend, really feel good about it? Or did he envy my luck?” “And was Paul friendly just because I had a car?” When we look back, doubts like these can make us feel bad.
But when we look back, it is too late.
Why do we go wrong about our friends, or our enemies? Sometimes what people say hides their real meanings. And if we do not really listen, we miss the feeling behind the words. Suppose someone tells you, “You're a lucky dog!”(你真幸运!) Is he really on your side? If he says, “You're a lucky guy(人,家伙)!”,that is being friendly. But “a lucky dog”, there is a bit of envy in those words. What he may be saying is that he does not think you deserve your luck.
“Just think of all the things you have to be thankful for” is another phrase that says one thing means another. It could mean that the speaker is trying to get you to see your problem. But this phrase contains the thought that your problem is not at all important.
How can you tell the real meaning behind someone's words? One way is to take a good look at the person talking. Do his words fit the way he looks? Is what he says shown by the tone of voice? The look in his eyes? Stop and think. The minute you spend thinking about the real meaning of what people say to you may save your another mistake.When the writer recalls(回想) some of the things that happened between him and his friends, he _______.
| A．feels happy, thinking how nice his friends were to him |
| B．feels he might not have understood his friends' true feelings |
| C．think it a mistake to have broken up with his girl friend |
| D．is sorry that his friends let him down |
When the writer talks about someone saying, “You're a lucky dog!”, he is saying that _______.
| A．the speaker is just friendly |
| B．this sentence suggests the same as “You're a lucky guy!” |
| C．the word “dog” should not be used to apply to people |
| D．sometimes the words show that the speaker is a bit envious |
This passage tries to tell you how to _______.
| A．avoid(避免) mistakes about money and friends |
| B．get an idea of friendly people |
| C．avoid mistakes in understanding what people tell you |
| D．keep people friendly without trusting them |
PALO ALTO, California—“Switching off the television may help prevent children from getting fatter—even if they do not change their diet or increase the amount they exercise, ”US researchers said last week.
A study of 192 third and fourth graders, generally aged eight and nine, found that children who cut the number of hours spent watching television gained nearly two pounds(0.9 kg) less over a one-year period than those who did not change their television diet.
“The findings are important because they show that weight loss can only be the result of a reduction in television viewing and not any other activity,” said Thomas Robinson, a pediatrician(儿科专家) at Stanford University.
“American children spend an average of more than four hours per day watching television and videos or playing video games, and rates of childhood being very fat have doubled over the past 20 years,” Robinson said.
In the study, presented this week to the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting in San Francisco, the researchers persuaded about 100 of the students to reduce their television viewing by one-quarter to one-third.
Children watching fewer hours of television showed a significantly smaller increase in waist size and had less body fat than other students who continued their normal television viewing, even though neither group ate a special diet or took part in any extra exercise.
“One explanation for the weight loss could be that the children unstuck to the television may simply have been moving around more and burning off calories,” Robinson said.
“Another reason might be due to eating fewer meals in front of the television. Some studies have suggested that eating in front of the TV encourages people to eat more,” Robinson said.The author tries to tell us in the first two paragraphs that _______.
| A．children will get fatter if they eat too much |
| B．children will get thinner if they eat less |
| C．children will get fatter if they spend less time watching TV |
| D．children will get fatter if they spend more time watching TV |
According to the passage, the time American children usually spend on watching TV_______.
| A．is more than four hours a day | B．is less than four hours a day |
| C．doubled in the last twenty years | D．is more than on any other activities |
The time children spend on TV viewing every day is suggested to be about _______.
| A．six hours | B．eight hours | C．three hours | D．one hour |
Which one of the followings is right?
| A．Children usually eat fewer while watching TV. |
| B．Children usually eat more while watching TV. |
| C．Children eat the same amount of meals while watching TV. |
| D．Children usually eat nothing while watching TV. |
Jane Austen, a famous English writer, was born at Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16,1775,and died on July 18,1817.She began writing early in life, although the prejudices of her times forced her to have her books published anonymously(匿名).
But Jane Austen is perhaps the best known and best loved of Bath's many famous local people and visitors. She paid two long visits here during the last five years of the eighteenth century and from 1801 to 1806,Bath was her home. Her deep knowledge of the city is fully seen in two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, which are largely set in Bath. The city is still very much as Jane Austen knew it, keeping in its streets and public buildings the well-ordered world that she described so well in her novels. Now the pleasure of learning Jane Austen's Bath can be enhanced (增强)by visiting the Jane Austen Centre in Gay Street. Here, in a Georgian town house in the heart of the city, you can find out more about Bath in Jane Austen's time and the importance of Bath in her life and work.
The Centre has been set up with the help and guidance of members of the Jane Austen Society. After your visit to the Centre, you can look round the attractive shop, which offers a huge collection of Jane Austen related books, cards and many specially designed gifts. Jane Austen quizzes are offered to keep the children busy.
You can also have walking tours of Jane Austen's Bath, which is a great way to find out more about Jane Austen and discover the wonderful Georgian city of Bath. The tour lasts about one and a half hours. The experienced guides will take you to the places where Jane lived, walked and shopped.Jane Austen paid two long visits to Bath _______.
| A．in her early twenties | B．in her early teens |
| C．in her late twenties | D．in her late teens |
What can we learn about Bath from the passage?
| A．Bath has greatly changed since Jane Austen's death. |
| B．The city has changed as much as Jane Austen knew it. |
| C．Bath remains almost the same as in Jane Austen's time. |
| D．No changes have taken place in Bath since Jane Austen's time. |
The author writes this passage in order to_______.
| A．attract readers to visit the city of Bath |
| B．ask readers to buy Austen's books |
| C．tell readers about Jane Austen's experience |
| D．give a brief introduction to the Jane Austen Society |
It takes you about one and a half hours_______.
| A．to get to the Jane Austen Centre in Gay Street |
| B．to buy Jane Austen related books, cards and gifts |
| C．to find a guide to take you to the Centre |
| D．to look around the city of Bath on foot |
Ever since news of widespread food recalls caused by a carcinogenic dye broke, there has been confusion(混淆) over possible links to the country of the same name, but Sudan officials say there is no connection whatever.
Sudan1 is a red industrial dye that has been found in some chilli powder, but was banned in food products across the European Union (EU) in July 2003.
Since the ban was put in place, EU officials have been striving to remove some food products from the shelves. So far 580 products have been recalled.
Last week Sudan's Embassy in the United Kingdom asked the Food Standards Agency (FSA) for clarification of the origin of the dye's name.
Omaima Mahmoud Al Sharief, a press official at Sudan's Embassy in China, explained the purpose of the inquiry was to clear up any misunderstanding over links between the country and the poisonous dye.
“We want to keep an eye on every detail and avoid any misunderstanding there,” she said. “Our embassy to Britain asked them how the dye got that name and whether the dye had something to do with our country. But they told us there was no relationship.”
The FSA, an independent food security watchdog in Britain, received a letter from the Sudanese embassy last week.
“They asked us why the dye is named Sudan, however, we also do not know how it got the name,” she said. “People found the dye in 1883 and gave it the name. Nobody knows the reason, and we cannot give any explanation before we find out.”
Sudan dyes, which include Sudan1 to 4,are red dyes used for colouring solvents(溶剂),oils, waxes, petrol, shoe and floor polishes. They are classified as carcinogens by the International Agency for Research on Cancer.What does the underlined word mean in Paragraph One?
| A．Causing cancer. | B．Having side effect. |
| C．Containing poison. | D．Poisonous. |
How did the Sudan1 get its name?
| A．The dye is often produced in Sudan. |
| B．The dye has something to do with the country named Sudan. |
| C．Nobody is sure of the origin of the name. |
| D．Many foods produced in Sudan contain the dye. |
We can infer from the passage that _______.
| A．the Sudan government is paying much attention to the food safety |
| B．Sudan1 is often used to be added to the food |
| C．people didn't realize the danger of Sudan1 until 2003 |
| D．many food shops will be closed down |
Which of the following is the best title?
| A．Keep away from Sudan1 |
| B．No Sudan1 dye links to the country |
| C．How Sudan1 dye got its name |
| D．Pay attention to the food safety |