People have always been wondering about what our future will look like. Go on reading this text, and you will know what will happen in the next fifty years.
How can we know what the future will look like? To be able to understand the future, you must know the past. What has taken us to where we are today and what has changed along the way? The world has changed a lot in the last 150 years, but we humans are driven by the same basic needs as we were 150 years ago. Will this change in the next 150 years? No.
What inventions have really made a difference in the last 150 years? In the past years, the inventions that have affected most people around the world for everyday living are the telephone, electricity, radio, television, computer, the car and the ability to communicate through the Internet. Then we of course have a lot of inventions that have made life easier, like new medicine, faster transports etc. In general, human beings have been working hard in the last 150 years to make the inventions so that they will be able to get control of the time and the world. Since there is still much to do in this area, this will be the focus at least for the next 150 years.
Why do we need to predict the future? Predicting the future is important for two reasons: first we need to start to think about what kind of future we would like for ourselves and to pass on to the next generation, and then we need to know what decisions we need to make today that will give the best result in the future.What does the author try to tell us in the second paragraph?
| A．Our basic needs will not change in the future. |
| B．The world is quite different from what it was. |
| C．Humans will no longer enjoy food in the future. |
| D．The world will be completely changed tomorrow. |
Our past inventions have made .
| A．our daily life more stressful |
| B．it easy for us to live |
| C．our work easily done |
| D．us work less time |
What will humans do in order to keep the world under control?
| A．To produce more cars for transportation. |
| B．To spend more time working on the Internet. |
| C．To work much harder to achieve their goals. |
| D．To focus on making more inventions. |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．What result we’ll receive in the future. |
| B．The two reasons of predicting the future. |
| C．The importance of predicting the future. |
| D．The decisions we make for our future. |
“When an American asks me this question, it’s like a wall of ice crashing down between us.” my Moscow-born friend Galina said. The question is “How are you?”.
The answer Americans give, of course is, “Fine.” But when Russians hear this they think one of two things: you are experiencing a rare moment of fineness or you are lying.
Ask a Russian, “How are you?” and you will hear, for better or worse, the truth. I have experienced many painful minutes of silence after my grandmother made her stock response: “Terrible,” to which she might add, “Why? Because being old is terrible and I am very old.”
“‘Fine’ makes Russians think that Americans have no soul,” I explained recently to an American-born friend. “That they just want to go home, eat a frozen dinner in front of the TV, and wait out the hours before going to work to make money again.” He laughed, “You know, there’s something to that.”
The thing most Russians don’t realize is that, in English, “How are you?” isn’t a question at all, but a form of “hi”, like the Russian “privyet!”
Psychologists at the University of Michigan have shown that, while Russians are, indeed, easier to be depressed than Americans, their open acceptance of bad experiences might be healthier.
Recently, when I looked through a few American guides on traveling to Russia, I was disappointed to find that they all suggested that tourists adopt the American approach to “How are you”.When you ask a Russian “how are you” the Russian will ________.
| A．answer “fine” |
| B．tell you the truth |
| C．make no answer |
| D．get angry and walk away |
If an American answers “fine” to the question “how are you”, the Russian will think ______.
| A．he is not honest | B．he will go home |
| C．he likes watching TV | D．he is living a bad life |
We can infer Russians’ answer to “how are you” can make Americans feel ________.
| A．happy | B．angry |
| C．puzzled | D．touched |
About ten men in every hundred suffer from color blindness in some way. Women are luckier; only about one in two hundred is affected (影响) in this matter. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to be driven by a woman!
There are different forms of color blindness. In some cases a man may not be able to see deep red. He may think that red, orange and yellow are all shadows(阴影) of green. Sometimes a person cannot tell the difference between blue and green. In few cases an unlucky man may see everything in shades of green--a strange world indeed.
Color blindness in human beings is a strange thing to explain. In a single eye there are millions of very small things called “cones”. These help us to see in a bright light and to tell difference between colors. There are also millions of “rods”, but these are used for seeing when it is near dark. They show us shape but no color.
Some insects (昆虫) have favorite colors. Mosquitoes (蚊子) prefer blue to yellow. A red light will not attract (吸引) insects, but a blue lamp will. In a similar way human also have favorite colors. Yet we are lucky. With the help of the cones in our eyes we can see many beautiful colors by day, and with the help of the rods we can see shapes at night. One day we may even learn more about the hidden colors around us.The passage is mainly about .
| A．color blindness |
| B．color and its surprising effects. |
| C．women being luckier than men |
| D．danger caused by color blindness |
According to the passage, with the help of the “cones”, we can .
| A．tell different shapes |
| B．see in a weak light |
| C．kill mosquitoes |
| D．tell orange from yellow |
Which of the statements (陈述) about the color-blind is TRUE?
| A．None of them can see deep red |
| B．All of them see everything in shades of green. |
| C．None of them can tell the difference between blue and green. |
| D．Not all of them have the same problem in recognizing color. |
We can attract and kill mosquitoes by using a .
| A．red light | B．yellow light |
| C．blue light | D．green light |
I receive many letters from children and can’t answer them all--there wouldn't be enough time in a day. I’ll try to answer some of the questions that are mostly asked. Where did I get the idea for Stuart Little and for Charlotte's Web? Well, many years ago, I went to bed one night in a railway sleeping car, and during the night I dreamed about a tiny boy who acted rather like a mouse. That's how the story of Stuart Little got started.
As for Charlotte's Web, I like animals and my farm is a very pleasant place to be--at all hours. One day, when I was on my way to feed the pig, I began feeling sorry for the pig because, like most pigs, he was going to die. This made me sad. So I started thinking of ways to save his life. Three years after I started writing it; it was published(出版). ( I am not a fast writer, as you can see.)
Sometimes I'm asked when I started to write, and what made me want to write. I started early -as soon as I could spell. Children often find pleasure through trying to set their thoughts down on paper, either in words or in pictures. I was not good at drawing, so I used words instead. As I grew older, I found that writing could be a way of making a living.
Well, here is the answer to the last question. No, they are imaginary (虚构的) stories. In real life, a family doesn't have a child who looks like a mouse and a spider doesn't write words in her web. Although my stories are imaginary, I like to think that there is some truth in them, too--truth about the way people and animals feel, think and act.The writer wrote this passage to.
| A．introduce his new books. |
| B．introduce two funny stories |
| C．explain why he enjoys writing |
| D．answer some readers’ questions |
We can know from the passage that the writer is a person who.
| A．writes imaginary stories for children |
| B．writes very fast. |
| C．mainly writes stories for adults |
| D．works on a friend’s farm |
The writer started to write because he wanted to.
| A．improve his spelling |
| B．express his thoughts |
| C．show his sadness |
| D．make a good living |
What is probably the last question?
| A．Are your stories true? |
| B．What is the truth in your stories? |
| C．Will you write more imaginary stories? |
| D．Do you know a child looking like a mouse? |
When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out (指出) my shortcomings. Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much, I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. At last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.
He listened to me quietly, then he asked. “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well, you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”
I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could-and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I go to very clear picture of myself.
I brought the list back to Daddy. He refused to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said. “You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears in anger and feeling hurt. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”
Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.What did the father do after he had heard his daughter’s complaint (抱怨)?
| A．He refused to take the list and have a look at it. |
| B．He told her to pay attention only to the things that were true. |
| C．He told her not to pay any attention to what her ‘enemy’ had said. |
| D．He criticized (批评) her and told her to overcome her shortcomings. |
What does “Week by week her list grew” mean?
| A．Week by week, my shortcomings grew more serious. |
| B．I was having more and more shortcomings as time went on. |
| C．Week by week she discovered more shortcomings and pointed them out to me. |
| D．She kept on adding new shortcomings to the list so that it was growing longer and longer. |
Why did her father listen to her quietly?
| A．Because he wasn’t quite sure which girl was telling the truth. |
| B．Because he wanted to show his anger by keeping silent for a while. |
| C．Because he knew that his daughter was telling the truth. |
| D．Because he believed that what her daughter’s “enemy” said was mostly true. |
Which do you think would be the best title for this passage?
A. My Father
B. The Best Advice I’ve Ever Had
B. My Childhood
D. Not an Enemy, but the Best Friend
Our surrounding(周围) is being polluted faster than nature and man’s present efforts can’t prevent it. Time is bringing us more people, an more people will bring us more industry, more cars, larger cities, and the growing use of man-made materials.
What can explain and solve this problem? The fact is that pollution is caused by man—by his desire for a modern way of life. We make “increasing industrialization” our chief aim. So we are always ready to offer everything: clean air, pure water, good food, our health and the future of our children. There is a constant flow of people from countryside to cities, eager for the benefit of our modern society. But as our technological achievements have grown in the last twenty years, pollution has become a serious problem.
Isn’t it time we stopped to ask ourselves where we are going—and why? It makes one think of the story about the airline pilot who told his passengers over the loudspeaker, “I’ve some good news and some bad news. The good news is that we’re making rapid progress at 530 miles per hour. The bad news is that we’re lost and don’t know where we’re going.” The sad fact is that this becomes a true story when spoken of our modern society.Man can’t prevent the world from being polluted mainly because .
| A．many man-made materials |
| B．more cars, trucks and buses |
| C．more people and more industry |
| D．more cities |
People crowd into the cities because_________.
| A．they want very much to find well-paid jobs |
| B．they eager for the achievement of our modern society |
| C．they have become tired of their homeland |
| D．they have a strong wish to become industrial workers |
The story about the airline pilot tells us that_________.
| A．man knows where the society is going |
| B．people do not welcome the rapid development of modern society |
| C．man can do little about the problem of pollution |
| D．the writer is worried about the future of our society |
What does the writer really want to say in this passage?
| A．With the development of technology, pollution has become a serious problem. |
| B．Lower the speed of development to stop pollution. |
| C．It’s time we did something to reduce pollution. |
| D．As industry is growing fast, pollution is the natural result. |