The easy way out isn't always easiest．I learned that lesson when I decided to treat Doug, my husband of one month, to a special meal．I glanced through my cookbook and chose a menu which included homemade bread．Knowing the bread would take time, I started on it as soon as Doug left for work．As I was not experienced in cooking, I thought if a dozen was good, two dozen would be better, so I doubled everything．As Doug loved oranges, I also opened a can of orange and poured it all into the bowl．Soon there was a sticky dough （面团） covered with ugly yellowish marks．Realizing I had been defeated, I put the dough in the rubbish bin outside so I wouldn't have to face Doug laughing at my work．I went on preparing the rest of the meal and, when Doug got home, we sat down to Cornish chicken with rice．He tried to enjoy the meal but seemed disturbed．Twice he got up and went outside, saying he thought he heard a noise．The third time he left, I went to the windows to see what he was doing．Looking out, I saw Doug standing about three feet from the rubbish bin, holding the lid up with a stick and looking into the container．When I came out of the house, he dropped the stick and explained that there was something alive in our rubbish bin．Picking up the stick again, he held the lid up enough for me to see．I felt cold．But I stepped closer and looked harder．Without doubt it was my work．The hot sun had caused the dough to double in size and the fermenting yeast （酵母） made the surface shake and sigh as though it were breathing．I had to admit what the "living thing" was and why it was there．I don't know who was more embarrassed by the whole thing--- Doug or me．The writer's purpose in writing this story is ________．
| A．to tell an interesting experience |
| B．to show the easiest way out of a difficulty |
| C．to describe the trouble facing a newly married woman |
| D．to explain the difficulty of learning to cook from books |
Why did the woman's attempt at making the bread turn out to be unsuccessful?
| A．The canned orange had gone bad． |
| B．She didn't use the right kind of flour． |
| C．The cookbook was hard to understand． |
| D．She did not follow the directions closely． |
Why did the woman put the dough in the rubbish bin?
| A．She didn't see the use of keeping it |
| B．She meant to joke with her husband． |
| C．She didn't want her husband to see it． |
| D．She hoped it would soon dry in the sun． |
What made the dough in the bin look frightening?
| A．The rising and falling movement． |
| B．The strange-looking marks． |
| C．Its shape． |
| D．Its size． |
When Doug went out the third time, the woman looked out of the window because she was_____．
| A．surprised at his being interested in the bin |
| B．afraid that he would discover her secret |
| C．unhappy that he didn't enjoy the meal |
| D．curious to know what disturbed him |
Now hiring music teachers in Tarrytown
| Location: |
Tarrytown, NY |
| Company: |
Musika LLC |
| Posted: |
Auput3U 2013 |
Company:
Musika-Muaic Teacher Organization has distinguished itself as the "go to" company for teachers looking for students. Founded in 2001, Musika has thousands of students already in the program and hundreds of calls are received daily.
Job description:
Musika is always seeking enthusiastic and friendly instructors. Teachers are independently required to instruct one-on-one lessons in the students' homes, as well as at their own teaching studios. Each teacher is able lo select which students fit their locations, schedules, and leaching levels.
Job requirements:
Applicants MUST be able to sign a contract and agree to teach for one year, provide at least three professional references, show a love of teaching!
Qualifications:
Applicants should have a Bachelor degree in music, 5 to 10 years private music lessons teaching experience, and a car lo travel to students' homes.
Pay:
Pay is to be decided depending on experience and other factors.
IMPORTANT: Musika conducts thorough criminal background checks and has a zero tolerance policy for any type of criminal activities.According to the passage, Musika is______.
| A．an organization training teachers |
| B．an organization providing musical tutoring jobs |
| C．a school in which students can get regular musical education. |
| D．a private school that provides professional musical education |
Any applicant must satisfy the following qualifications EXCEPT ______to get a job.
| A．a Master degree in music |
| B．no records about criminal activities |
| C．a car to travel to students’ homes |
| D．at least 5 years private music lessons teaching experience |
From the passage, we can infer that______.
| A．teachers often divide students into several groups in class |
| B．different teachers for the same job may have different pay |
| C．students can choose their teachers according to their levels |
| D．teachers oust agree to teach for one year. |
Some people succeed in unbelievable ways.
Roussel was orphaned at the age of eight and went to live with his grandfather. He built on the music he had learned from his mother, entertaining himself by reading through the family music collection and playing his favorite songs on the piano.
Three years later, Roussel’s grandfather died, and his aunt adopted him. Her husband arranged for young Albert to take regular piano lessons. Summer vacations at a Belgian seaside resort added a second love to his life -- the sea. He studied to be a naval cadet (海军学员), but still made time to study music.
In the French Navy, while he served on a warship based at Cherbourg, he and two friends found the time to play the music of Beethoven and other composes (作曲家). Roussel also began composing. At the Church of the Trinity in Cherbourg on Christmas Day 1892, he had his first performance as a composer.
That success encouraged Roussel to write a wedding march, and one of his fellow offices offered to show it to a well-known conductor (指挥家), Edouard Colonne. When Roussel’s friend returned with the manuscript (手稿), he reported that Colonne had advised Roussel to give up his naval career and devote his life to music.
Not long afterwards, at the age of 25, Roussel did just that. He applied characters that he had developed in the navy to his composing and became a major force in twentieth century French music. As for Eduoard Colonne’s inspiring advice that Roussel devote his life to music, Roussel's navy friend later admitted that he had made it up and that he had never even shown Roussel's manuscript to the conductor.Which of the following shows the right order of the story?
a. Roussel gave up his naval career.
b. Roussel was adopted by his aunt.
c. Roussel read through the family music collection.
d. Roussel had his first performance as a composer in Cherbourg.
| A．c, b, d, a | B．b. c, d, a | C．b, c, a. d | D．c, b, a, d |
What ______ did played the most important part in Roussel's final success.
| A．his mother | B．the husband of his aunt |
| C．his navy friend | D．Edouard Colonne |
We can infer from the article that______.
| A．Roussel's aunt adopted him after his grandfather died. |
| B．Roussel read through the family music collection in his grandfather's. |
| C．Colonne advised Roussel to give up his naval career and devote his life to music. |
| D．If Roussel hadn't joined the navy, he might not have achieved so much. |
Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
| A．A clever musician | B．A white lie |
| C．A helpful conductor | D．A great manuscript |
A smart phone (智能手机) is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced computing abilities than a common phone. The first smart phones enabled the users to send and receive emails. Later models added the function of portable media players, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation (导航) units to form one multi-use device. Many modern smart phones also include touchscreens and web browsers (浏览器) that display web pages.
A recent report says we spend an average of two hours and 40 minutes each day looking at a smart phone. That doesn’t mean making calls, but playing phone games and browsing the Web.
Nowadays we always find people checking emails in a restaurant, taking a picture of the food when it arrives, or checking a message during a conversation instead of traditional communication. It’s no secret that our lives are being affected by our smart phones obsession.
However, this phenomenon has never been presented so vividly as in the short YouTube film I Forgot My Phone. Despite only being online for a few days, it's already been viewed more than 10.5 million times. Whether it will be screened in the cinema remains to be seen.
Ironically, YouTube’s data show that the site gets a billion views per day from mobile devices, so a lot of those people watched it on their phones.
The short film, written by and starring actress Charlene Deguzman, shows groups of people in various social situations, the majority of whom are absorbed in their phones instead of the world around them. To a certain extent, we all do it.People prefer a smart phone to a common one, because the latter only can help us ______.
| A．check emails | B．send messages | C．find the destination | D．watch a video |
The underlined word “obsession” in the third paragraph most probably means “______”.
| A．devotion | B．contribution | C．addiction | D．emotion |
Which of the following is right?
| A．People spend as average of two hours and 40 minutes each day using smart phones. |
| B．The film hasn’t been put on in the cinema. |
| C．The film is written by an actor named Charlene Deguzman. |
| D．The film has already been viewed more than 105 million times in the first few days. |
When the writer mentions the number of people watching the film from mobile devices in the fifth paragraph, he mainly feels ______.
| A．encouraged | B．depressed | C．proud | D．satisfied |
Laws that would have ensured pupils from five to 16 received a full financial education got lost in the ‘wash up’. An application is calling on the next government to bring it back.
At school the children are taught to add up and subtract(减法) but, extraordinarily, are not routinely shown how to open a bank account — let alone how to manage their finances in an increasingly complex and demanding world.
Today the parenting website Mumsnet and the consumer campaigner Martin Lewis have joined forces to launch an online application to make financial education a compulsory element of the school curriculum in England. Children from five to 16 should be taught about everything from pocket money to pensions, they say. And that was exactly the plan preserved in the Children, Schools and Families bill that was shelved by the government in the so-called “wash-up” earlier this month — the rush to legislation before parliament was dismissed. Consumer and parent groups believe financial education has always been one of the most frustrating omissions of the curriculum.
As the Personal Finance Education Group (Pfeg) points out, the good habits of young children do not last long. Over 75% of seven- to 11-year-olds are savers but by the time they get to 17, over half of them are in debt to family and friends. By this age, 26% see a credit card or overdraft(透支) as a way of extending their spending power. Pfeg predicts that these young people will “find it much harder to avoid the serious unexpected dangers that have befallen many of their parents' generation unless they receive good quality financial education while at school.”
The UK has been in the worst financial recession(衰退)for generations. It does seem odd that — unless parents step in — young people are left in the dark until they are cruelly introduced to the world of debt when they turn up at university. In a recent poll of over 8,000 people, 97% supported financial education in schools, while 3% said it was a job for parents.The passage is mainly about _____________.
| A．how to manage school lessons |
| B．how to deal with the financial crisis |
| C．teaching young people about money |
| D．teaching students how to study effectively |
It can be inferred from the first two paragraphs that __________.
| A．the author complains about the school education |
| B．pupils should not be taught to add up and subtract |
| C．students have been taught to manage their finances |
| D．laws on financial education have been effectively carried out |
The website and the consumer campaigner joined to _________.
| A．instruct the pupils to donate their pocket money |
| B．promote the connection of schools and families |
| C．ask the government to dismiss the parliament |
| D．appeal for the curriculum of financial education |
According to Pfeg, ___________.
| A．it is easy to keep good habits long |
| B．teenagers spend their money as planned |
| C．parents are willing to pay the debt for their kids |
| D．it will be in trouble if the teenagers are left alone |
A poll is mentioned to ___________.
| A．stress the necessity of the curriculum reform |
| B．show the seriousness of the financial recession |
| C．make the readers aware of burden of the parents |
| D．illustrate some people are strongly against the proposal |
Is early childhood education really necessary? Early childhood education primarily focuses on learning through playing to develop the child’s physical, sensory, communicational and social development．Early childhood education has become a concern of the government, who pushes poor children to be formally trained before they are old enough for Kindergarten．
There are good reasons for the government to push early childhood education．Studies have shown that orphaned children who did not receive good care and education become developmentally delayed causing failure in school, and even in life．Further studies show that poor children who take part in Head Start programs are more prepared for school, less likely to end up in Special Education classes, and are less likely to receive public help or go to jail．
There are also negative parts to putting a child in formal education programs too early．Time Magazine online explains that “the younger the child the less his chances of catching up with first-grade work．” I have personally witnessed many children of my generation who went to Head Start programs become frustrated and bored with school before they finished high school．Yet parents have been sure that the earlier the child starts school, the better off he or she is, so they push to start children earlier．
Actually while early formal education of poor children does show great gains in the early elementary years, studies also show that this head start is really a “false start”, as the gains are lost in middle and high school years．It seems that environment is a bigger factor on life’s success than early education．Head Start programs have not achieved its original goal in closing the achievement gap in poor and middle school children．Perhaps it is time to find other ways to close that gap．The purpose of the government valuing the early childhood education is ________．
| A．to develop the children’s communication |
| B．to give orphaned children good care and education |
| C．to get the children prepared for the kindergarten |
| D．to train the children formally and regularly |
According to the studies, which of the following is True?
| A．Children with good early education may have a rich life． |
| B．The orphaned children are usually unhappy in their life． |
| C．Children without early education can do well at school． |
| D．Head Start programs are helpful to the poor children． |
“the younger the child the less his chances of catching up with first-grade work．” suggests that _________．
| A．the early childhood education is helpless to the child’s grade |
| B．it is good for the young children to receive early education |
| C．the early education can help the children follow the grade |
| D．the younger the children are, the cleverer they will be |
The author’s attitude toward the early childhood education is _________．
| A．puzzling | B．objective | C．indifferent | D．approving |
The main idea of the last passage is that __________．
| A．the early childhood education is very necessary |
| B．Head Start programs have helped the children a lot |
| C．environment is the most important to life’s success |
| D．better ways should be found to help the poor children |