A mouse looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package: What food might it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!
Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse declared the warning, “There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house.”
The chicken clucked ( 咯咯叫 ), raised her head and said, “Mr Mouse, I can tell you this is a great concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me, I cannot be bothered by it.”
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mouse trap in the house.” “I am so sorry, Mr Mouse,” sympathized the pig, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; be assured that you are in my prayers.”
The mouse turned to the cow, who replied, “A mouse trap, am I in great danger, huh?”
So the mouse returned to the house, head down and depressed to face the farmer’s mouse trap alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house, like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey( 猎物 ). The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see that it was an evil snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. Now everyone knew to treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his knife to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. His wife’s sickness continued so that friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer killed the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide meat for all of them to eat.
So the next time you hear that someone is facing a problem and think that it does not concern you, remember that when the least of us is threatened, we are all at risk.We may infer that the passage is most probably a ______.
A.an advertisement | B.fable |
C.science fiction | D.news report |
We could see from the passage that the mouse was ______.
A.kind and warm-hearted |
B.well-informed |
C.good at cheating others |
D.foolish and rude |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A.The pig was comparatively less friendly than the others in the farmyard. |
B.The mouse trap that the mouse discovered was not a practical one. |
C.The farmer and his wife trapped an evil snake that night. |
D.The farmer’s family was in fact poor and they had no friends. |
How many animals are mentioned in this passage?
A.five | B.three | C.four | D.six |
What can we learn from the story?
A.Better safe than sorry. |
B.Traps are usually well disguised. |
C.To help others is just to save you. |
D.To keep the balance of nature is the duty of us all. |
Alex London Research Laboratory (ALRL) is part of Alex Co., Ltd., a major Australian medicine-making company. Opened in 1992, ALRL specializes in the development of new medicines for the treatment of heart diseases.
A position is now open for a Research Operations Manager(ROM) to support our growing research team at the new laboratories in Hatfield,due to open in the autumn of 2010.
Reporting to the Director,you will help set up and run the technical and scientific support services of our new laboratories now under construction.You will be expected to provide expert knowledge about and be in charge of all areas of ALRL’S Health and Safety,and to communicate (沟通)with support employees at ALRL’S laboratories based at University College London.Working closely with scientists and other operations and technical employees,you will manage a small number of research support employees providing services to help with the research activities to be carried out at the new laboratories.
Candidates(申请人) will have experience of both management and research support/technical services.Knowledge of research operations and excellent communication skills are necessary. Education to degree level is also desirable.
If you are interested in this position,please send your CV(简历)to Alex London Research
Laboratory,University College London,Hatfield,London,W1E 6B7 or by email to ALRL@alex.co.uk.
For more Information.please visit www.alex.co.uk. What can be learnt about the new laboratories from the text?
A.They have not yet been set up. |
B.They are in Hatfield,Australia. |
C.They belong to University College London. |
D.They are new workplaces for Australian researchers only. |
What are the duties of a ROM,according to the text?
|
A.The technical skills of a would—be ROM. |
B.The practical experience of a would—be ROM. |
C.The personal information of a would—be ROM. |
D.The necessary requirements for a would—be ROM. |
What is the purpose of the text?
A.To describe the job of a ROM. |
B.To provide information about ALRL. |
C.To announce an open position at ALRL. |
D.To make known the opening of the new laboratories. |
His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar system.
“You appear to be astonished, ” Holmes said, smiling at my expression. “Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it. You see, I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose: A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has difficulty in laying his hand upon it. It is a mistake to think that the little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it, there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you know before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
“But the Solar System! ” I protested.
“What the deuce is it to me?” he interrupted impatiently.
One morning, I picked up a magazine from the table and attempted to while away the time with it, while my companion munched silently at his toast. One of the articles had a pencil mark at the heading, and I naturally began to run my eye through it.
Its somewhat ambitious title was “The Book of Life, ” and it attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and systematic examination of all that came in his way. It struck me as being a remarkable mixture of shrewdness and of absurdity. The reasoning was close and intense, but the deduction appeared to me to be far-fetched and exaggerated. The writer claimed by a momentary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance of an eye, to fathom a man’s inmost thought. Deceit, according to him, was impossibility in the case of one trained to observation and analysis. His conclusions were as infallible as so many propositions of Euclid. So startling would his results appear to the uninitiated that until they learned the processes by which he had arrived at them they might well consider him as a necromancer.
“From a drop of water, ”said the writer, “a logician could infer the possibility of an Atlantic. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it. Like all other arts, the science of Deduction and Analysis is one which can be acquired by long and patient study, nor is life long enough to allow any mortal to attain the highest possible perfection in it. ”
This smartly written piece of theory I could not accept until a succession of evidences justified it. What is the author’s attitude toward Holmes?
[A]Praising.
[B]Critical.
[C]Ironical.
[D]Distaste. What way did the author take to stick out Holmes’ uniqueness?
[A]By deduction.
[B]By explanation.
[C]By contrast.
[D]By analysis. What was the Holmes’ idea about knowledge-learning?
[A]Learning what every body learned.
[B]Learning what was useful to you.
[C]Learning whatever you came across.
[D]Learning what was different to you. What did the article mentioned in the passage talk about?
[A]One may master the way of reasoning through observation.
[B]One may become rather critical through observation and analysis.
[C]One may become rather sharp through observation and analysis.
[D]One may become practical through observation and analysis.
Vocabulary
1.Thomas Carlyle 托马斯•卡莱尔 1795-1881美国作家、历史家、哲学家
2.jumble (up) 搞乱,使混乱
3.lay hand on (upon) sth. 抓住,找到
4.at best 最好的情况下
5.elbow out (off) 用胳膊肘挤出,推出
6.deuce =" devil" what the deuce is it to me?
这里表示福尔摩斯的厌恶心理。
义:这倒霉的词儿与我有什么关系?
7.while away the time 消磨/打发时间
8.shrewdness 机敏,敏锐,犀利
9.far-fetched 牵强附会,不自然
10.fathom 看穿/透,推测,探索
11.infallible 一贯正确
12.uninitiated 对某事无知的
13.Euclid 欧几里德(古希腊数学家)
14.necromancer 巫师
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is likely to visit China at an “appropriate” time this year, a senior Chinese military official said on Monday. Colonel Tu Qiming, director of the American and Oceania Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Affairs Office at the National Defense Ministry, made the remark during Sino-US defense talks this week. This is the first ever “special defense policy dialogue” between the two defense ministries, according to the Chinese military.
●●●
FRANCES Agriculture Ministry has confirmed(证实)the first case of mad cow disease detected in a goat last Friday. The goat killed in 2002 tested positive for mad cow disease. It is the first case in the world of the fatal disease being found in an animal other than a bovine. The human form of mad cow disease causes brain-wasting, personality change, loss of body function, and ends in death. The European Commission has not advised any change in farming and consuming goats, said the French Ministry in a statement published last Friday.
●●●
MOBILE phone sales hit a new record in 2010, with some 684 million units sold around the world, the US research institute Strategy Analytics said on Thursday. The number represents an increase of 32 per cent over 2003, when 571 million units were sold. Strategy Analytics predicts a more modest rise of 8 per cent for this year, to 735 million. Finnish cell phone provider Nokia stayed out in front in 2010, with sales of 207.6 million units, giving it a market share of 30.4 per cent. Motorola moved to No 2, just ahead of the South Korean company Samsung.
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SIX male penguins(雄企鹅)at a German zoo are proving stubbornly resistant to females brought in from Sweden to make them into breeding(繁殖).Of the ten male penguins at the zoo, six have formed into “homosexual” couples and have shown no interest in the females, making breeding an impossibility. So the zoo imported the four female penguins from Sweden last month, full of hope that the new arrivals could “turn” the males. But so far, the boys are remaining strictly with the boys. How many countries are mentioned in the pieces of news?
A.Six. | B.Five. | C.Three. | D.Seven. |
Which will probably reach the sales of 735 million units in 2010?
A.Nokia. | B.Motorola. | C.Samsung. | D.Cell phones. |
From the fourth piece of news we know that_________.
A.the scientists haven’t succeeded in doing their experiment |
B.the scientists have successfully got six female penguins into breeding. |
C.the Sweden girls made the boys show interest in them |
D.German boys don’t like Sweden boys |
Which of the following are the suitable headlines for the pieces of news?
A.a. US Defense Secretary Visit Likely b. France Confirms “Mad Goat Case” c. Mobile Phone Sales d. Male Penguins and Female Penguins |
B.a. US Defense Secretary Visit Likely b. France Confirms “Mad Goat Case” c. Nokia Stays on Top d. Birds of a Feather |
C.a. Defense Policy Dialogue b. Mad Goat Disease c. Mobile Phone Sales d. Importing Female Penguins |
D.a. Sino-US Talks b. Mad Goat Case |
c. Motorola’s Sales Reducedd. Boys and Girls
In the US, people prefer waiting for a table to sitting with people they don’t know. If you are sitting at a table with people you don’t know, it is impolite to light up a cigarette without asking if it will trouble them.
At American restaurant and coffee shops you are usually served cold water before you order. You may find the bread and butter is free, and if you order coffee, you may get a free refill(再装满).
Most cities and towns have no rules about opening and closing time for stores or restaurants, though they usually do make rules for bars. Especially in large cities, stores may be open 24 hours a day.
Serving in restaurant is often large, too large for many people. If you can’t finish your meal but would like to enjoy the food later, ask your waitress or waiter for a “doggie bag”. It may have a picture of a dog on it, but everyone knows you’re taking the food for yourself. Supper and dinner are both words for the evening meal. Some people have “Sunday dinner”. This is an especially big noon meal.
Tips are not usually added to the check. They are not included in the price of the meal, either. A tip of about 15% of the price of a meal is expected and you should leave it on the table when you leave. In some restaurants, a check is brought on a plate and you put your money there. Then the waiter or waitress brings you your change.If you are walking in New York, you will find that _____.
A.you can go to the bars any time you like |
B.stores may be open for the customers a day |
C.restaurants have some rules about foreigners |
D.closing time is often decided by the managers |
When you are taking a “doggie bag” on the street, we know that _____.
A.you have bought some food for your dogs |
B.you are taking the rest of food for your dogs |
C.you will take the food home and enjoy it later |
D.you have put a dog in the bag and take it home |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A.Tips belong to a part of the price of the meal. |
B.Tips have become an essential part of the life. |
C.Tips are important in the US for the restaurant. |
D.You can provide the tips for the manager directly. |
One morning more than thirty years ago, I entered the Track Kitchen, a restaurant where everyone from the humblest(卑微的) to the most powerful came for breakfast. I notice an empty chair next to an elderly, unshaven man, who looked somewhat disheveled. He was wearing a worn-out hat and was alone. I asked if I might join him. He agreed quietly and I sat down to have my breakfast.
We cautiously began a conversation and spoke about a wide range of things. We never introduced ourselves. I was concerned that he might have no money and not be able to afford something to eat. So as I rose to go back to the counter and buy a second cup of coffee, I asked.
“May I get you something?” “A coffee would be nice.”
Then I bought him a cup of coffee. We talked more, and he accepted another cup of coffee. Finally, I rose to leave, wished him well, and headed for the exit. At the door I met one of my friends. He asked, “How did you get to know Mr. Galbreath?”
“Who?”“The man you were sitting with. He is chairman of the Board of Churchchill Downs. ”
I could hardly believe it. I was buying, offering a free breakfast, and feeling pity for one of the world’s richest and most powerful men!
My few minutes with Mr. Galbreath changed my life. Now I try to treat everyone with respect, no matter who I think they are, and to meet another human being with kindness and sincerity.What does the underlined word “disheveled” mean?
A.Unfriendly. | B.Untidy. | C.Gentle. | D.Kind. |
The author bought coffee for the old man because ______.
A.he thought the old man was poor |
B.he wanted to start a conversation |
C.he intended to show his politeness |
D.he would like to thank the old man. |
How did the author probably feel after he talked with his friend?
A.Proud. | B.Pitiful. | C.Surprised. | D.Regretful. |
What is the passage mainly expressed in the story?
A.We should learn to be generous. |
B.It is honorable to help those in need. |
C.People in high positions are not like what we expect. |
D.We should avoid judging people by their appearances. |