Text messaging, or simply “texting”, which allows people to send and receive messages on mobile phones, becomes very popular today.
The advantages of texting are obvious. Texting helps to save money. If you have a few words to greet your families and friends on their birthdays or on some important festivals, sending messages can be cheaper than phone calling. Texting helps to save time. Even if you want to send a message to 100 people, you can do it one second. Texting helps you to “talk” to someone when he is too busy to answer the phone. Texting can also help you to “talk” to someone secretly if you don’t want others to hear what you are talking on the phone. These advantages are so amazing that many people are crazy about it. They hold mobile phones in hands all day long, send dozens of messages each day, and even text while driving or walking.
However, texting has its disadvantages. Junk(垃圾)messages may come into your mobile phone box now and then. When your phone box gets too full, you can’t receive any more messages. You may therefore miss some important information.
What’s more, if you don’t do texting properly, for example texting while driving or walking, it can be dangerous. It can cause injuries and even death. It is reported that about 6,000 people are killed and half a million were injured for this reason each year. In Fort Lee, a small town in New Jersey, USA, three people died because they walked into traffic while texting in 2011. Two researchers at Stony Brook University, New York found that texters are 60% more probably to have an accident than others. When people are texting, they don’t notice other people or things around them. To reduce traffic accidents, no drivers of the USA are now allowed to text while driving. About 32 countries have passed laws forbidding the use of mobile phones while driving.
Texting is a wonderful way of communication. However, only when we use it properly, can we fully enjoy the fun it brings.
How many advantages of texting are mentioned in the passage?
| A.Three. | B.Four. | C.Five. | D.Six. |
When your phone box gets full because of junk messages, what will happen?
| A.Your phone will break down. |
| B.Your phone can’t get through. |
| C.Your phone can’t get messages any more. |
| D.You lose contact with others. |
What did the researchers at Stony Brook University find?
| A.Texting can cause accidents more easily. |
| B.Texting while walking can cause death. |
| C.Calling while driving is easier to have accidents. |
| D.Many people were killed and injured. |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
A. Drivers are allowed to text in the USA.
B. Text while walking is dangerous.
C. Junk texting cannot prevent you receiving messages.
D. The advantages of texting are not obvious.This passage is written to tell us that _______.
| A.we should do less texting |
| B.texting has many advantages |
| C.texting has many disadvantages |
| D.we should do texting properly |
Do you sometimes argue about what seems to you to be simple fact? Do you argue whether it’s cold outdoors or whether the car in front of you is going faster than the speed limit?
If you get into such arguments, try to think about the story about the six blind men and the elephant. The first blind man who felt the elephant’s trunk said it was like a snake. The second who felt the elephant’s side said it was like a wall, while the third said it was like a spear as he touched the animal’s tusk. The fourth, who got hold of the elephant’s tail insisted that it was like a rope. The fifth man said it looked like a tree as he put his arms around one of the elephant’s legs. The sixth, who was tall and got hold of the elephant’s ears, said it was like a huge fan.
Each man’s idea of the animal came from his own experience. So if someone disagrees with you about a “simple fact”, it’s often because his experience in the matter is different from yours.
To see how hard it is for even one person to make up his mind about a “simple fact”, try this simple experiment. Get three large bowls. Put ice water in one. Put hot water in the second. Put lukewarm water in the third. Now put your left hand in the ice water. Put your right hand in the hot water. After thirty seconds, put both hands in the lukewarm water. Your right hand will tell you the water is cold. Your left hand will tell you it’s hot! What makes people think about simple facts differently?
| A.The fact that simple facts differ from one another. |
| B.The fact that people have different experience in the same simple fact. |
| C.The fact that people often disagree with one another. |
| D.The fact that it’s hard to make up one’s mind about simple facts. |
Which of the following temperatures can the word “lukewarm” be applied to?
| A.Around 1℃ | B.Above 60℃ | C.Around 25℃ | D.Below 0℃ |
After reading the last paragraph, we may think of .
| A.Newton’s law | B.Gallileo’s theory of falling objects |
| C.Einstein’s theory of relativity | D.Marx’s On Capital |
The main idea of this passage is .
| A.people often judge something according to his own experience |
| B.people often agree about simple facts |
| C.it’s hard for a person to make up his mind about a simple fact |
| D.don’t care too much about simple facts |
Five years ago, David Smith wore an expensive suit to work every day. “I was a clothes addict,” he jokes.
“I used to carry a fresh suit to work with me so I could change if my clothes got wrinkled.” Today David wears casual clothes—khaki pants and sports shirt—to the office. He hardly ever wears necktie. “I’m working harder than ever,” David says, “and I need to feel comfortable.”
More and more companies are allowing their office workers to wear casual clothes to work in the United States. The change from formal to casual office wear has been gradual. In the early 1990s, many companies allowed their employee
s to wear casual clothes on Friday(but only on Friday). This became known as “dress-down Friday” or “casual Friday.” “What started out as an extra one-day-a-week benefit for employees has really become an everyday thing,” said business consultant Maisly Jones.
Why have so many companies started allowing their employees to wear casual clothes? One reason is that it’s easier for a company to attract new employees if it has a casual dress code. “A lot of young people don’t want to dress up for work,
” says the owner of a software company, “so it’s hard to hire people if you have a conservative dress code.” Another reason is that people seem happier and more productive when they are wearing comfortable clothes. In a study conducted by Levi Strauss and Company, 85 percent of employers said that they believe that casual dress improves employee morale(士气). Only 4 percent of employers said that casual dress has a negative impact on productive. Supporters of casual office wear also argue that a casual dress code helps them save money. “Suits are expensive, if you have to wear one every day,” one person said. “For the same amount of money, you can buy a lot more casual clothes.” David Smith refers to himself as having been “a clothes addict” because.
| A.he often wore khaki pants and a sports shirt |
| B.he couldn’t stand a clean appearance |
| C.he wanted his clothes to look neat all the time |
| D.he didn’t want to spend much money on clothes |
David Smith wears casual clothes now, because.
| A.they make him feel at ease when working |
| B.he cannot afford to buy expensive clothes |
| C.he looks handsome in casual clothes |
| D.he no longer works for any company |
According to this passage, which of the following statements is FALSE?
| A.Many employees don’t like a conservative dress code. |
| B.Comfortable clothes make employees more productive. |
| C.A casual clothes code is welcomed by young employees. |
| D.All the employers in the US are for casual office wear. |
In this passage, the following advantages of casual office wear are mentioned EXCEPT.
| A.saving employees’ money |
| B.making employees more attractive |
| C.improving employees’ motivation |
| D.making employees happier |
阅读下面的短文, 并根据短文后的要求答题。
Years ago, when I started looking for my first job, wise advisers told me, “Barbara, be enthusiastic! Enthusiasm will take you further than any amount of experience.”
How right they were! Enthusiastic people can turn a boring drive into an adventure, extra work into opportunity and str
angers into friends.
“Nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson.①.It is the inner voice that whispers, “I can do it!” When others shout, “No, you can’t!”
It took years and years for the early work of Barbara Mclintock, a geneticist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize in medicine, to be generally accepted. Yet she didn’t stop working on her experiments. ②
We are all born with wide-eyed, enthusiastic wonder and it is this childlike wonder that gives enthusiastic people such a youthful air, whatever their age.
At 90, cellist Pablo Casals would start his day by playing Bach. As the music flowed through his fingers, his stooped shoulders would straighten and joy would reappear in his eyes. ③As author and poet Samuel Ullman once wrote, “Years wrinkle(起皱纹) the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
How do you rediscover the enthusiasm of your childhood? The answer, I believe, lies in the word itself. “Enthusiasm” comes from the Greek and means “God within”. And what is God within is but a sense of love---proper love of self(self-acceptance) and, from that, love of others.
④If we can’t do what we love as a full-time career, we can as a hobby. Elizabeth Layton of Wellsville, Kan, was 68 before she began to draw. This activity ended periods of depression that had troubled her for at least 30years, and the quality of her work led one critic to say, “ I am tempted to call Layton as a genius.”
We can’t afford to waste tears on “might-have-been”. We need to turn the tears into sweat as we go after “what-can-be”.
We need to live each moment wholeheartedly, with all our senses---finding pleasure in the backyard garden, the simple picture of a six-year-old, the charming beauty of a rainbow.
第一节:根据短文内容, 从A、B、C、D、E中选出最合适放入短文空缺处的选项,并将序号及相应答案写在答题纸上。选项中有一项是多余选项。
A. A. Work was such a deep pleasure for her that she never thought of stopping.
B. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years.
C. It can certainly help you hang in there when the going gets tough.
D. Music, for Casals, was a hobby that made life a never ending adventure.
E. Enthusiastic people also love what they do, regardless of money or title or power.
根据短文所给的信息,用一个完整的句子回答下列问题,并将序号及答案写在答题纸上。
⑤What does the author mean by the underlined sentence in paragraph 6?
阅读下列材料, 并从所给的六个选项(A、B、C、D、E、F)中选出符合各小题要求的最佳选项并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。选项中有一项是多余选项。
The people below traveled abroad. Read the following stories and decide what problem each traveler experienced while traveling. _______ David got lost in an isolated place. To make matter worse, he had an accident and couldn’t walk freely. So he was in great need of timely help.
______ Paul had to buy a hamburger and ate it in the park instead of eating his mother’s delicious chicken, with which he couldn’t go through the customs(海关).
_____ Ann was stopped at the customs because she was carrying drugs without a doctor’s prescription. How regretted she was not to have done that!
_____ Sally offended some of the people in the town she was visiting by wearing inappropriate clothes. She should have found out about local customs and followed them.
______ Jack didn’t obtain a transit card when he changed planes at an airport, which made him very worried. There was no doubt that he was not allowed to get on board.
A My mother was worried about me. She cooked me all my favorite dishes and put them into a box to take with me on my journey. But the customs officer inspected all the plant and animal products at the airport. Unfortunately it was illegal for me to bring into the country the kind of food my mother had given me and so it all had to be thrown away.
B It was very hot so I put on some shorts and a T-shirt to go sightseeing. I hadn’t gone very far when I found everyone was looking at me, and they didn’t seem friendly to me. One woman even spat on me as I walked past. I decided to get off the crowded streets and so I turned down a small, quiet street.
C During the four-day walking tour, I was amazed by mountain scenery and the ancient ruins we passed on our hike. On the last day, we arrived at the ruins of Machu Picchu in time to see the sunrise over the Andes. I spent the day visiting the ruins of that ancient Inca city before catching the train back to the capital city of the country.
D When I got off the plane at the first airport, I saw someone handing out cards to some of the passengers, but I didn’t know what they were for, so I didn’t take one. When I tried to board the second plane they asked for my transit card, which I didn’t have. I was worried they were going to send me back to London.
E I had been walking for about an hour when suddenly I slipped and fell down a riverbank. I hurt my ankle and couldn’t stand up. I didn’t know how I could get back to the village. I hadn’t told anyone where I was going, so no one would know where to look for me when they realized I was missing.
F When I arrived at my destination, a customs officer at the airport looked in my bag and found the pills in a small box. He wanted to know what the pills were for and why they weren’t in their proper bottle with my name and the doctor’s name on it. I explained that the bottle had been too big and heavy. Then he wanted to know if I had a letter from my doctor explaining about the pills.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a report, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said 47 percent of U.S. adult Internet users have looked for information about themselves through Google or another search engine.
That is more than twice the 22 percent of users who did in 2002, but Pew senior research specialist Mary Madden was surprised that the growth wasn’t higher than it had been expected.
“Yes it’s doubled, but it’s still the case that there’s a big chunk of Internet users who have never done this simple act of connecting their names with search engines,” she said. “Certainly more and more people have become aware of this, but I don’t know it’s necessarily kept pace with the amount of content we post about ourselves or what others post about us.”
About 60 percent of Internet users said they aren’t worried about the extent of information about themselves online, although they are increasingly concerned over how that data can be used.
Americans under 50 and those with more education and income were more likely to self-Google---in some cases because their jobs demand a certain online persona(形象).
Meanwhile, Pew found that 53 percent of adult Internet users admit to looking up information about someone else, famous people not included.
Often, it’s to find someone they’ve lost touch with. But looking up information about friends, relatives, colleagues and neighbors also was common.
Although men and women equally searched for online information about themselves, women were slightly more likely to look up information about someone they are dating.
In many cases, the search is not harmful, done to find someone’s contact information. But a third of those who have conducted searches on others have looked for public records, such as bankruptcies(破产) and divorce proceedings. A similar number have searched for someone else’s photo.
Pew also found that teens were more likely than adults to limit the range of people who can see their information at an online hangout like Facebook or News Corp.’s MySpace, contrary to conventional wisdom.
“Teens are more comfortable with the applications in some ways, (but) I also think they have their parents and teachers telling them to be very careful about what they post and who they share it with,” Madden said. Mary Madden was surprised at the result that ______.
| A.fewer and fewer adult Internet users are looking for information about themselves |
| B.the number of adult Internet users looking for information about themselves has doubled |
| C.more adult Internet users should have looked for information about themselves |
| D.so many people don’t know how to connect their names with search engines |
According to the report some people haven’t looked for information about themselves because ______.
| A.they are not rich enough to get a computer |
| B.they are not well educated |
| C.they don’t know they can look for their own information on the Internet |
| D.they think it unnecessary to look for their own information on the Internet |
Which group of people are more likely to look for their own information on the Internet?

| A.Teens. | B.Women. | C.The old. | D.The educated. |
People look for others’ information on the Internet mainly to ______.
| A.see what they are doing | B.find someone they have lost touch with |
| C.have a look at their photos | D.know their perso nal affairs |