Everyone needs friends. We all like to feel close to someone. It is nice to have a friend to talk, laugh, and do things with. Surely, there are times when we need to be alone. We don’t always want people around. But we will feel lonely if we never have a friend.
No two people are just the same. Sometimes friends don’t get along well. That doesn’t mean that they no longer like each other. Most of the time they will make up and go on being friends. Sometimes friends move away. Then we feel very sad. We miss them very much. But we call them and write to them. It could be that we would even see them again. And we can make new friends. It is surprising to find out how much we like new people when we get to know them.
Families sometimes name their children after a close friend. Many places are named after men or women who have been friendly to people in a town. Some libraries are named this way. So are some schools. We think of these people when we go to these places.
There’s more good news for people who have friends. They live longer than people who don’t. Why? It could be that they are happier. Being happy helps you stay well. If someone cares about you, you will feel good.The first paragraph tells us .
| A．what the feeling of having no friends is |
| B．we always need friends around us |
| C．making friends is a need in people’s life |
| D．we need to be alone in our life |
Which of the following places people name after their friendly people is NOT mentioned (提到) in the passage?
| A．A town. | B．A room. |
| C．A school. | D．A library. |
Why do people who have friends live longer?
| A．They know more about friendship. |
| B．They feel happier and healthier. |
| C．They take less care of themselves. |
| D．They care more about their friends. |
Taylor Swift has been named Billboard’s Woman of the Year 2014, making her the first artist to receive the award twice.
The award goes to the female artist who “has shaped and inspired the music industry with her success, leadership and innovation” over the last year. Previous winners include Pink, Beyonce and Katy Perry.
Swift will receive the prize at the Billboard Women in Music award ceremony on 12 December in New York.
“As one of the most influential artists of her generation, Taylor Swift has seen incredible success on the Billboard charts,” said Janice Min, co-president and chief creative officer of Guggenheim Media’s Entertainment Group, which includes Billboard.
“Over the course of her career, she’s charted 60 entries on the Billboard Hot 100 - the most of any female artist since her debut in 2006. We are tremendously excited to be honouring her as the 2014 Billboard Woman of the Year for the second time.”
Taylor Swift is a seven-time Grammy winner and the best-selling digital music artist of all time. Earlier this week it was announced she would be performing on The X Factor results show this weekend.
On Thursday she appeared in the performed in the Radio 1 Live Lounge, where she sang her current hit Shake It Off and covered Vance Joy’s Riptide.
Swift has just featured on the cover of British Vogue and explained what it was like to do high profile interviews.
“I don’t really have anything to hide at this point,” she told Fearne Cotton. “It’s sort of understood that anything I do is going to be discussed and dissected and debated and I’m used to that dynamic now.” She added: “I’m very proud of the way my life is. I’m 24, I’m single, feeling very independent. A lot of fun things have happened in my life.”What can be inferred from the first two paragraphs?
| A．Taylor Swift is the first artist to receive the award twice. |
| B．Taylor Swift is one of the four winners. |
| C．Taylor Swift has shaped and inspired the music industry with her success, leadership and innovation |
| D．The award goes to the female artists. |
The Award Ceremony will be held on __________.
| A．on 12 November in New York |
| B．on 12 December in Washington |
| C．on 12 November in Washington |
| D．on 12 December in New York |
According to Janice Min, _____________________.
| A．Taylor Swift is a seven-time Grammy winner and the best-selling digital music artist of all time |
| B．Taylor Swift appeared in the performed in the Radio 1 Live Lounge |
| C．Taylor Swift is worthwhile to be given the award a second time |
| D．Taylor Swift would be performing on The X Factor results show this weekend. |
From the last paragraph, we can see Taylor Swift was ____________.
| A．sad | B．unhappy |
| C．delighted | D．indifferent |
I entered college in China in 1981. Many things seemed to remain the same. For many things are dominated by one thing: the national entrance examination to get into college. In my year, about 4% high school students went to college. Now the number is 22%, as compared to 40% in the US.
The significant increase in the entrance rate doesn't seem to have relieved the anxiety. As a parent to a freshman college student, I can prove that junior and senior years in high school are not much fun even for students in the US. Once a country has vastly increased the rate of college entrance, students will still want to get into "better" colleges. The rat race is on if you are a rat, no matter where you are.
The NYT Magazine article also mentioned the Soviet-style（苏联模式的） over-specialized（过于专业化的） education in Chinese colleges. My class in college had maybe 60 students specialized in compressors, another 60 students specialized in refrigeration, and yet another 60 students specialized in welding（焊接）. I was among the 60 specialized in mechanics. I cannot recall the numbers exactly, but you get the picture.
It really wasn't as terrible as it sounds. In order to specialize in mechanics, we had to study math, physics and chemistry. We studied electrical circuits, alloy treatment, mechanical drawing, Fortran. We even had a continuous stream of humanity courses: history of communist party, political economics... I'm not sure I enjoyed all the courses, but I cannot claim that these courses damaged my brain, either. I remember some of the humanity courses required writing, which turned out to be a useful skill.
As a consequence of specialization, we did learn a lot of mechanics. By the end of college, we had courses on analytical mechanics, strength of materials.
I often feel sorry for American students in my undergraduate class, knowing that strength of materials will be their first and last course in the mechanics of materials. So many beautiful sights unseen! But they also seem to turn out to be OK. A liberal and superficial eduction doesn't damage their brains, either.
All this high level debate about education makes me dizzy, and turns me off. So far as I can tell, both systems of eduction work fine, and have their own limitations. The bottom line is that the quantity of knowledge is too large to be crammed into 4 years, and you'd have to make choices, making it either narrow or shallow or perhaps both. You'll just have to be prepared to engage yourself in life-long learning.why doesn’t the rising entrance rate seem to have relieved people’s anxiety?
| A．The rate of college entrance is still not high in China. |
| B．There not enough colleges for students. |
| C．Students are not contented with “common”college. |
| D．Students want to receive further education after college. |
What’s the meaning of the sentence “the rat race is on if you are a rat”?
| A．You cannot conquer your rivals forever. |
| B．There are too many people with the same ideas as yours. |
| C．You cannot avoid competition as long as you are in the society. |
| D．You should take yourself as a rat and run on for an established goal. |
What does the author intend to show by listing the specific majors his class specialized in?
| A．To show how specific the education was classified. |
| B．To show he had more major choices in his year. |
| C．To show what is Soviet-style education. |
| D．To show how terrible his college life was. |
What is the author’s attitude towards his courses?
| A．He doesn’t like them at all. |
| B．He doesn’t think that all of them are necessary. |
| C．He is sick of the humanity courses. |
| D．He likes humanity courses just for the future writing. |
A pioneer who made poor lands bloom is the winner of this year's World Food Prize. Daniel Hillel developed drip irrigation（滴灌） techniques that squeeze the most crop out of a drop of water, making farming possible in places where water is scarce（缺少）.
Farmers now rely on it in water-scarce regions from Spanish vineyards, to African onion fields, to America’s fruit and salad bowl. “We in California grow about 50 percent of the fruits and vegetables of the continental United States," says University of California at Davis hydrologist Jan Hopmans. "And the reason that is possible is because of, indeed, these drip and micro-irrigation techniques.”
Hillel got his start in dryland farming as a pioneer in Israel’s Negev Desert in the 1950s."The issue was efficient use of water," he says, "because land is available. It’s extensive. Water is limited.”These desert farmers did not have the luxury of running irrigation water through channels to their crops, the way farmers have since ancient times.So Hillel and others gave plants just what they needed, just where they needed it.
“The idea was to apply the water little by little, the way you spoon-feed a baby,” Hillel says.It worked so well that Hillel was soon traveling the world, showing others how to do it.Experts say drip irrigation is an innovation whose importance is growing, as climate change and rising population strain（使……紧张） water supplies in many parts of the world.
“This is where water use, water availability, water-use efficiency and climate change and crop production all converge," Hillel says. "And this has been really the essence of my career.”
A career whose legacy（遗产） can be measured drop by drop.What’s the main idea of Paragraph 2?
| A．Drip irrigation has made a difference to agriculture. |
| B．Daniel Hillel is becoming more popular worldwide. |
| C．Jan Hopmans takes pride in the American agriculture. |
| D．Drip irrigation plays an important role in American agriculture. |
Drip irrigation is popular because________.
| A．it can collect rainwater and show |
| B．it is more advanced than channel irrigation |
| C．it is water-saving and satisfactory |
| D．it can provide plants with what is need |
What makes drip irrigation seem increasingly important?
| A．Dryland farming. |
| B．Water shortages. |
| C．Food shortages. |
| D．Environmental pollution. |
The author considers Daniel Hillel’s career as _______.
| A．a bit undesirable | B．worthy of respect |
| C．very profitable | D．successful |
Ever feel like there aren't enough hours in the day? A group of timechallenged Canadian women are wishing for a 25hour clock.
Jessie Behan, president of the 25th Hour Coalition (联盟)which is a group of Canadian women who have changed to a longer day, said the struggle for women to maintain worklife balance motivated (激励) her to research the body's natural clock.“Many of my girlfriends are having kids，getting married, and I see the sufferings of dealing all that when you're a working woman，”she said.“Women like myself are sick of living their lives by a 24hour clock.”
A 2007 study by Charles Czeisler found a switch to longer days could be beneficial, especially for frequent travelers, shift workers, astronauts and those who experience trouble sleeping or waking.
In a similar study, Czeisler showed the body's natural clock averages 24 hours and 11 minutes in both young and older people.The current 360degree clock has 720 minutes, giving each minute 0.5 degree.With the new 25hour day, 30 minutes is added to each 12hour period making each minute 0.48 degree.
While still a relatively small movement－the 25th Hour Coalition has 160 Facebook members, Behan is hoping for large changes.“The goal is to get as many women on board; there's no harm in just trying it out and seeing.If it gets big, maybe the government will decide to standardize it.”
A recent online survey by Reader's Digest, which included 150 people in each of the 13 countries, suggests it's not just Canadians looking for longer days.Readers were asked“what would you do with an extra hour”if given a choice between sleep, work, exercise and family time.In Spain, half of respondents （被访者）said they'd like an extra hour in the day to devote to family time.The same was found for respondents in Brazil, the US and Britain, who chose family time over sleep, which came in at a close second.Only in India did work top the list with 50 percent of respondents claiming they could use an extra hour at the office.Some Canadian working women are campaigning for the 25hour day in order to ________.
| A．have more chances at work |
| B．keep a balance between life and work |
| C．experience something new |
| D．have a better sleep |
Charles Czeisler tends to think that ________.
| A．it's easy to adopt the 25hour clock |
| B．it's hard to abandon the 24hour clock |
| C．the 25hour clock fits the body's natural clock more |
| D．different people have different natural clocks |
Why does Jessie Behan want more women to join the 25th Hour Coalition?
| A．Because she intends to make more Facebook friends. |
| B．Because she hopes to get benefits from more people. |
| C．Because she considers it is harmless to form such an organization. |
| D．Because she thinks more women may allow the dream to come true. |
What is implied in the last paragraph?
| A．Respondents from most nations want more family time. |
| B．Respondents from developed countries experience more stress. |
| C．Most Canadian respondents claim that they need more family time. |
| D．Respondents from India are the most hardworking of the 13 nations. |
Ocean Park
If you love the sea, Ocean Park is the place for you! Situated on the south side of Hong Kong Island, this 870,000 square metre educational theme park provides many opportunities to learn about marine life.
To start with, the park boasts the Atoll Reef, one of the world’s largest aquariums, with about 2,500 fish from nearly 300 different species. What makes this aquarium special, however, is not just its size, but also its design. The Atoll Reef is built with an observation passageway that circles the aquarium on four different levels. This lets visitors view sea life from a variety of depths and angles.
Then there’s the Shark Aquarium, a tank with more than 200 sharks from more than 30 species. Like the Atoll Reef, this unique aquarium is designed to make sure guests get the most out of their visit. Shaped like an underwater tunnel, guests can watch as sharks swim overhead and dive at them from every side.
There’s also the Sea Jelly Spectacular, an aquarium that houses more than 1,000 jellyfish of all shapes, colours and sizes. And at the park’s Dolphin University, visitors can go on educational tours and watch the training of dolphins up close.
The park’s most popular attraction is the Ocean Theatre, a huge outdoor pool where dolphins and sea lions entertain the visitors. Sometimes a killer whale even takes part in the performance!
Although Ocean Parks focus is on the water, the theme park has plenty of other activities, too. For people seeking excitement, there are rides like the Abyss Turbo Drop, a roller coaster ride that takes passengers on a 20-storey drop straight down. There are also exhibits like the Dinosaur Discovery Trail and Bird Paradise. Finally, no trip to Ocean Park would be complete without visiting the park’s most popular animals--four giant pandas that were given as a gift from China’s central government.Hong Kong Ocean Park is called an educational theme Park because____________.
| A．it offers chances for visitors to enlarge their knowledge of sea life. |
| B．it provides chances for people to broaden their knowledge of science. |
| C．it is specially designed to attract the young who are interested in the sea. |
| D．it has a lot of activities for people to have fun. |
What makes the Atoll Reef so special?
| A．It is one of the symbols of Hong Kong Ocean Park. |
| B．It has thousands of fish from various species. |
| C．It allows visitors to watch sea life from all angles. |
| D．It is the largest aquarium in the world. |
Which of the following activities is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Enjoying the show of dolphins and sea lions. |
| B．Visiting exhibitions about dinosaurs and birds. |
| C．Taking a roller coaster ride on a 20-storey drop. |
| D．Interacting with sea life in the huge outdoor pool. |