Many of us feel uneasy when someone stands too close to us, talks to us too loudly or makes eye contact (接触) with us for too long. But have you ever wondered why those things make you uncomfortable?
It’s all about personal peace, which means not only an imaginary space around the body, but also the space around all the senses. People feel that their space is being violated (侵犯) when they meet with an unwelcome sound, smell or look. This is probably why a man on a crowded bus shouting into his mobile phone or a woman next to you putting on strong perfume (香水) makes you feel angry.
Whether people have had a stronger wish to protect their personal space in recent times is hard to say. Yet studies of airlines show that people have a strong desire (渴望) to have space to themselves. In a survey(调查) by Trip Advisor, a travel website, people said that if they had to pay more for some extra service, they would rather have larger seats than extra food.
Although people may need their personal space, some hardly realize it. For example, people on a bus who hold newspapers in front of their faces to read in fact keep a distance from strangers.
Go and watch a library table. You will notice that one of the corner seats will usually be taken first, because they are the farthest way. What if someone sits opposite to you? Maybe you will pile up books as if to make a wall.
Preference(偏好) for personal space are different from culture to culture. Scientists have found that Americans generally prefer more personal space than people from other cultures. In Latin(拉丁人的) cultures, however, people are more comfortable standing close to each other.The writer mainly _________ in this article.
| A．tells us how to achieve personal space |
| B．explains what personal space people need is |
| C．introduces some knowledge about personal space |
| D．argues for the importance of keeping personal space |
Who might feel his personal space is safe according to the passage?
| A．A person who has to sit next to a lady putting on strong perfume. |
| B．A person who has been watched by a stranger for a long time. |
| C．A person who hears strange noises when reading at home. |
| D．A Latin boy who is chatting with a friend sitting close to him. |
What can we know from the survey by TripAdvisor?
| A．People need a smaller personal space in recent times than before. |
| B．People have a strong desire for personal space in recent times. |
| C．There are not enough seats on the plane to meet people’s needs. |
| D．Food service is better provided than seats on the plane. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The space around the body is more needed than that around all the senses. |
| B．If you hold newspapers on the bus, your personal space won’t be violated. |
| C．People usually choose the corner seats first in a library for personal space. |
| D．Different cultures share the same preferences for personal space. |
There is one language that is used in every country in the world. The people who use it are young and old, short and tall, thin and fat. It is everybody’s second language. It is easy to understand, although you can’t hear it. It is sign(手势) language.
When you wave to a friend who is across the street, you are using sign language. When you smile at someone, you are saying, “I want to be friendly”, but you are not using speech. You are using body language. When you raise your hand in class, you are saying, “Please ask me. I think I know the correct answer.”
Babies who can’t talk can point at things. They are using sign language. A policeman who wants to stop traffic holds up his hands. He is using sign language.
Many years ago, a French priest, Charles Michel de Epee, became interested in education for deaf people. He invented a finger alphabet (字母表). It is still in use. People can make the sign(手势) for letters and spell words with their hands, and deaf people can read and understand them. Soon there were schools for the deaf in many countries. The only university for the deaf is Gallaudet College in Washington, D.C.
Today, in the United States, there are special TV news programs for deaf people. The newsreader tells the news in sign language. At the same time, the words appear on the TV screen.
The actors in the Theatre of Deaf don’t spell every word. Sometimes they use hand signs. When they put two hands together, it means sandwich. They can make a roof with their hands when they want to show a house. One finger in front of an actor’s mouth can mean quiet. You can talk to people who are behind windows that are closed. And when you go swimming with your friends, you can have conversations under water.
How many hand signs do you use every day?Which of the following about sign language is TRUE?
| A．It is a special language used in a few countries in the world. |
| B．It is a way to express one’s ideas without words. |
| C．It is only used by the deaf. |
| D．It can be heard. |
If you want to express the idea that “I am very friendly” to someone, you will ______.
| A．raise your hand |
| B．put one hand onto the other |
| C．smile to the person |
| D．make a roof with your hands |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Hand signs instead of finger signs are used every day.
B. There are schools, colleges and universities for the deaf in the USA.
C. The French priest Charles invented sign language.
D. Even babies are using sign language.The passage is mainly about ______.
| A．an introduction to sign language |
| B．the importance of sign language |
| C．a famous priest in France |
| D．how to use sign language |
About the year 1990, a small dark-haired boy named Charles Chaplin was often seen waiting outside the back entrances of theatres. He looked thin and hungry. He was hoping to get work in show business. He could sing and dance, and above all, he knew how to make people laugh. But he couldn’t get work and therefore wandered about the city streets. Sometimes he was sent away to a home for children who had no parents.
But twenty years later this same Chaplin became the greatest, best known, and best loved comedian in the world. Nearly all visitors to cinema must have seen some of Chaplin’s films. People everywhere had sat and laughed at them until the tears ran down their faces. Even people who don’t understand English can enjoy Chaplin’s films because they are almost silent. It isn’t what he says that makes people laugh. His comedy doesn’t depend on words or languages. It depends on little actions which mean the same thing to people all over the world. Acting out, without words, of common human situations plays an important part in the dances and plays of many countries. It’s a kind of world language.
Chapin lived most of his life inAmericaand died inSwitzerlandon Christmas 1977, at the age of eighty-eight. There was sadness all over the world at the news of his death.Why was young Chaplin waiting outside the back of the theatres?
| A．He wanted to enjoy a play in the theatre. |
| B．He was hungry and wanted some food. |
| C．He liked to play a part in play and thus made a living. |
| D．He wished to become a man of business. |
People all over the world can enjoy Chaplin’s films without translation because ____ .
| A．English is widely known in the world |
| B．they can enjoy the film silently |
| C．they are mostly comedies |
| D．most of them are silent |
Chaplin is regarded as king of comedy mainly because______.
| A．he acted out the common situations best in his comedy |
| B．he could sing and dance well |
| C．he knew how to make people laugh |
| D．lots of people have seen his film |
In high school, “cool” is the rule, so teenagers will do anything to avoid possibly embarrassing situations.
But not Samantha Elton, 15. She seeks them out. And if she can make a fool of herself as in the process, well, that’s even better.
For the past two years, Elton, has been a practitioner of improvisation, doing things that others would be embarrassed to consider.
Elton is a member of High School Jesters, a group that teaches improvisation techniques to students. The group was founded two years ago by Nicholas Kopatich, himself a keen improviser.
“I was sitting in my dorm room and some friends were having chats about comedy and improvisation,” Kopatich recalls. They asked for lessons after Kopatich told them he had improvisation experience. The small group turned out to be pretty good at it, so they did a show for the dorm. And things snowballed.
While even her mother marvels at Elton’s ability to get up in front of audience without a script to fall back on, the teen enjoys such opportunities. Performing improvisation comes with a certain freedom that theater doesn’t provide.
“What I like about it the most is that I don’t have to be a certain character or a certain way, and because of that I can’t get anything wrong,” Elton says, “I get to write the story while I’m doing it.”
Monica Elton, Samantha’s mom, thinks the workshops are a valuable outlet that a lot of students may not get in their schools. High school kids don’t usually like to act silly or look uncool, she says, but improvisation teaches them that it’s OK to have flaws.
“I like to think we give kids positively that allows them to gain confidence,” says Brent Mukai, a High School Jesters instructor. The great thing about improvisation is that it is an art form that is open to anyone. But there’s more to it than getting up in front of audience and telling jokes or acting silly.
“You don’t need to be the most amazing actress to be an improviser,” Samantha Elton says, “It’s really a place where I can show people my creativity. I can paint pictures for people and entertain others.”
It’s really free.What do we know about improvisation?
| A．Performers act as a certain character. |
| B．Performers need a script to act on. |
| C．Performers intend to make audience embarrassed. |
| D．Performers develop the story as they are playing. |
According to Monica, practicing improvisation made Elton _______.
| A．treat flaws as normal things |
| B．accept cool as the rule |
| C．avoid doing embarrassing things |
| D．care about what others comment on her |
It can be inferred that Kopatich formed High School Jesters _______.
| A．on purpose | B．by accident |
| C．for business | D．out of curiosity |
The passage mainly tells us that ________.
| A．teens make a fool of themselves |
| B．teens perform improvisation to be cool |
| C．teens express creativity through arts |
| D．teens gain confidence in the improvisation |
Every day it seems that people are coming up with new and innovative ways to use mobile devices like cellphones and smart phones. Researchers at Princeton University are looking for new ways to measure a person’s sense of wellbeing with mobile devices.
To gain a better understanding of how cellphones and other mobile devices can measure our sense of happiness, the research team conducted a study that was published recently in the journal Demography. To gather data for their study, the team created an application for mobile devices using the Android operating system.
Once the app was developed, the researchers invited people to download it and take part in their study. Over a three-week period, the research team was able to collect data from some 270 participants living in 13 countries.
Participants came not only from the United States, but also from other nations like Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Over the course of the study, participants received occasional text questions from the researchers that asked “How happy are you?”. Along with recording their response, the app used the mobile device’s built-in GPS to keep track of the participant’s location.
The study participants were asked to rate their current state of happiness on a scale of zero to five. As they gathered data from the information collected through the application, the researchers then were able to create new methods that could help provide a better understanding of how our surroundings can influence our emotional well-being.
The researchers learned that mobile devices can provide an effective way to quickly grab information that, because of today’s active lifestyle, can be difficult to record. Being able to quickly grab this information was something the researchers felt was important. They said feelings and emotions that were recorded as they were happening were most likely to be more honest and precise than using other methods like writing down how they felt on a piece of paper after the fact.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．The study the team conducted has not been published yet. |
| B．About 270 people from 13 countries participated in the study. |
| C．The participants didn’t need to download the app to participate. |
| D．None of the participants came from the United Kingdom. |
What did the researchers find vital as to rate people’s sense of happiness from the passage?
| A．Recording people’s feelings and emotions quickly. |
| B．Writing down how they felt on a piece of paper. |
| C．Answering the text question “How happy are you?” |
| D．Knowing how the surroundings affect people’s happiness. |
The underlined word in the first paragraph probably refers to ______.
| A．emotion | B．wealth |
| C．happiness | D．technology |
The best title of the passage is most likely to be “_______”.
| A．People’s Sense of Happiness Related to Mobile Phones |
| B．Scientists Track Happiness with Cellphones |
| C．Methods to Rate People’s Happiness |
| D．A Better Understanding of People’s Sense of Happiness |
A mother’s ad calling for her son to come home for Chinese New Year ran on the front page of the Chinese Melbourne Daily newspaper on January 14.
It placed a full page ad, saying “Dear Peng, I’ve called you many times but you don’t pick up, maybe you will see this. Dad and mom won’t ever force you to get married anymore, come home for Chinese New Year! From your mom who loves you.”
The ad, which appeared on the front page of the Chinese Melbourne Daily on Tuesday, would cost $2,796.80 Australian dollars ($2465). The newspaper serves the city’s Chinese community. The mother, who lives in Guangzhou had placed the ad after losing contact with her son.
Every year around this time, many Chinese prepare to head home for China’s most important festival. But many of the younger generation are afraid of facing family confrontations about their love life.
On the online Chinese forum Tianya. cn, a single man asked for advice on facing his family. “It’s almost that time of the year. How should I explain to my family and relatives that I am single?” a user in Guangzhou “1979xiaozhu” posted. Many of the replies were telling him not to go home instead.
User “qianlidaiwanwoduxing” wrote: “Going home means they will either arrange blind dates for you or you get scolded.”
“This year my mom gave me an ultimatum. One, bring 50,000 yuan; second, bring a wife home. If I don’t have both then she said I don’t need to come home. What a tragedy!” said user “fghjkh84”.
Those girls who can’t handle the pressure of parents can rent a boyfriend for the day through China’s online shopping giant, Taobao.com. Rental boyfriends come with services such as meeting the parents, shopping and watching movies.The mother placed a full page ad in order to _______.
| A．ask her son to come back to China for the festival |
| B．beg her son to answer her telephone more times |
| C．force her son to come home and get married |
| D．make her son become famous in Melbourne |
Why did the mother place the ad in the Chinese Melbourne Daily?
| A．Because her son didn’t want to get married in China. |
| B．Because she couldn’t get in touch with her son any more. |
| C．Because her son wanted to live alone in Australia. |
| D．Because she wanted her son to come back to work. |
What leads many Chinese young people not to go home for New Year?
| A．Their busy work. | B．The long distance. |
| C．Their low pay. | D．Their love life. |
From the passage we can infer ______.
| A．the user “1979xiaozhu” is a married young man |
| B．the user “qianlidaiwanwoduxing” will go home |
| C．the user “fghjkh84” will bring a wife home |
| D．some single girls have to bring an untrue boyfriend home |