When Barbra Streisand discovered in 2003 that a photograph of her California beach house was among 12,000 photos on theInternetas part of a collection by photographer Kenneth Adelman, she did what any famous person would do:hit him with a $50 million lawsuit. But in trying to hold back the images, she caused a different outcome. Her legal actions led to almost half a million people visiting the website, viewing and copying the photos within a month.
Ever since then, the effect of letting public know something you are trying to keep secret has been called the“Streisand effect”. The problem for anyone trying to suppress information is that the Internet is the world’s biggest and most efficient copying machine. Put a document on to a connected machine and it will spread. So when you want to be famous, you can’t, but if you find yourself in the spotlight and want to erase yourself, you cannot.
There is no shortage of examples of the Streisand effect. Nine-year-old Martha Payne created a simple blog, posting the meals her school served. She took a photo of what was barely a filling meal by anyone’s standards. With the photo, she filled a comment, “Now Dad understands why I am hungry when I get home.” The thing did not go too far, until the local authority banned little Martha from doing that again. Martha posted a supposedly final post called “Goodbye”, explaining everything. Once the media found this out, things went from bad to worse for the authority. Now the blog has more than 9.5 million page views. Martha has even expanded her blog by including pictures of school meals taken by other kids from all over the world, like Germany and Japan.
We can find similar examples throughout history, to be frank. Man has experienced the Streisand effect ever since the birth of mass communication. Why does it exist? Every time you are told not to see what’s in the secret shiny box wrapped in gift paper, you’re going to do everything in your power todo exactly that! Just realizing that knowing something about someone is harmful to their status, we will want to know that piece of information. This is exactly the human nature. This is what lawyers and authorities should be familiar with. Unfortunately, a few of them fail to grasp it.The underlined word “suppress” in Paragraph 2 probably means________.
| A．give away | B．look into |
| C．cover up | D．search for |
What speeded up the spread of Martha’s story?
| A．Parents’ complaints. |
| B．The authority’s order. |
| C．The photos of other kids. |
| D．Supporting from the school. |
What is the last paragraph mainly about?
| A．The root of Streisand effect. |
| B．The influence of Streisand effect. |
| C．People’s reaction to Streisand effect. |
| D．Historical examples of Streisand effect. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Streisand effect benefits most famous people. |
| B．It’s not a good idea to argue against authorities. |
| C．The ban on something may have opposite effect. |
| D．Turning to the law is a perfect way to get one out of trouble. |
People nowadays buy a second home for different purposes. If you want to enjoy your vacation in a second home, then you should buy a second home where your family wants to stay during their vacation. And a second home is becoming very important from the real estate (房地产) point of view. It is one of the largest parts of the real estate business. If you want to invest (投资) in a second home, then you should buy one in a great location. When buying a second home, you should select a location where there are great attractions for tourists.
Investing in a second home is becoming very popular now that people have realized the great profit (利润) that can come from second homes. Also you can use your second home as your vacation home until you feel like selling it for a great profit. The price of the second home will always increase as the demand for second homes keeps increasing. Also you can use the second home for rent by buying a second home at a location where there are many attractions for tourists.
If you want to buy or sell second homes, you should contact GMAC Real Estate as it is offering different types of real estate services that will help you to buy and sell your second homes.
1.How many reasons for buying a second home are mentioned in Paragragh1?
A.One B.Two C.Three D.Four
2. According to the author, the price of second homes will always go up because _________.
A.the number of second homes is going down
B.more people use the second homes for rent
C.most second homes are near great attracions
D.the demand for second homes is increasing
3. The passage is most probably taken from ______.
A.an advertisement B.a news report
C.a survey report D.a government report
What will people die of 100 years from now? If you think that is a simple question, you have not been paying attention to the revolution that is taking place in bio-technology. With the help of new medicine, the human body will last a very long time. Death will come mainly from accidents, murder and war. Today’s leading killers, such as heart disease, cancer, and different colors t(遥远的) memories.
In discussion of technological changes, the Internet gets most of the attention these days. But the change in medicine can be the real technological event of our times. How long can humans live? Human brains were known to decide the final death. Cells are the basic units of all living things, and until recently, scientists were sure that the life of cells could not go much beyond 120 years because the basic materials of cells, such as those of brain cells, wouldn’t last forever. But the upper limits will be broken by new medicine. Sometime between 2050 and 2100, medicine will have advanced to the point at which every 10 years or so, people will be able to take medicine to repair their organs(器官).The medicine, made up of the basic building materials of life, will build new brain cells, heart cells, and so on—in much the same way our bodies make new skin cells to take the place of old ones.
It is exciting to imagine that the advance in technology may be changing the most basic condition of human existence, but many technical problems still must be cleared up (澄清) on the way to this wonderful future.
1.According to the passage, human death is now mainly caused by _______.
A.diseases and aging B.accidents and war
C.accidents and aging D.heart disease and war
2.In the author’s opinion, today’s most important advance in technology lies in ______.
A.medicine B.the Internet C.brain cells D.human organ
3.Humans may live longer in the future because ________.
A.heart disease will be far away from us
B.human brain can decide the final death
C.the basic materials of cells will last forever
D.human organs can be repaired by new medicine
4. We can learn from the passage that ______.
A.human life will not last more than 120 years in the future
B.humans have to take medicine to build new skin cells now
C.much need to be done before humans can have a longer life
D.we have already solved the technical problems in building new cells
The Mona Lisa, one of the world’s most famous paintings, has been recreated with 3,604 cups of coffee—and 564 pints of milk. The different colors were created by adding no, little or lots of milk to each cup of black coffee.
The recreated Mona Lisa measured 20 feet long and 13 feet wide. It took a team of eight people three hours to complete the work. It was created for The Rocks Aroma Festival in Sydney, Australia, and seen by 130,000 people who attended the one-day coffee-lovers event.
Elaine Kelly, one of the organizers from the Sydney Harbor Foreshore Authority, was delighted with the result. She said, “Each coffee cup was filled with varying amounts of milk to create the different shades(色度) of the painting. We wanted to create an element of surprise and a sense of fun in the way we communicated with the public.”
“Once we had the idea of creating an image(像) out of coffee cups we searched for something iconic（有代表性的）to reproduce(复制).And after some time we chose the most iconic painting in history. The Mona Lisa has been reproduced so many times in so many different mediums but, as far as we know, never out of coffee,” Kelly continued. “Besides, the idea is practical.”
“It was fantastic. It really looked like the famous painting—the Mona Lisa. It was wonderful,” said one visitor.
After much planning it was great to see it coming together so well and the 130,000 people who attended the event certainly enjoyed it and were deeply attracted by it,” said Kelly.
1.How were the different colors of the recreated Moma Lisa created?
A.By adding different amounts of black coffee to each cup of milk.
B.By adding different amounts of milk to each cup of black coffee.
C.By using paints of different colors
D.By using different kinds of coffee
2.How large is the recreated Mona Lisa?
A. 20 square feet B. 260 square feet
C. 564 square feet D. 3,604 square feet
3.The people who saw the recreated Mona Lisa are all_______ lovers.
A.Mona Lisa B.milk C.coffee D.painting
4.The event organizers chose to recreate the Mona Lisa for the following reasons EXCEPT that _________ .
A. the Mona Lisa is a very iconic painting in history
B. the Mona Lisa has never been reproduced out of coffee
C. the idea can be actually carried out
D. it is very easy to do so
第二部分阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
This weekly four-day physical activity schedule will get your kids excited about being active.
Tuesday
When the kids get home from school, don’t let them go straight to the TV and get settled in. Encourage them to get moving and get off the couch(长椅) by giving them a pedometer(计步器). Pedometers are the most fun when parents also use one because that turns stepping, walking and running into a game to see who can get the most steps.
Thursday
The kids have done a great job so far this week, but now they are aching for （渴望） a little more TV time. Instead of turning on cartoons, let them watch fitness movies made just for kids. These movies encourage watchers to get up and dance along to kid-friendly music.
Saturday
Get the whole family out of the house together and over to a park. Bring lots of sports equipment, pack a healthy picnic and have a family competitive sports day. Kids and adults get into groups and play against each other in tennis, basketball or soccer. After everyone has played hard for a couple of hours, stop for a picnic and then if your family isn’t too tired, go back and play some more.
Sunday
Every child loves to play video games and there is no better time to allow kids to play them than on Sunday when no homework is due（应交的）.But don’t let them play a game that forces them to sit down for hours. Dance games with a floor mat(垫子) to help kids follow the dance moves are popular to kids.
1.What can be the best title for this text?
A.How to make children like activities.
B.A weekly four-day physical activity plan for kids.
C.Physical activities are important to kids.
D.A plan that will do much good to kids.
2.Parents are advised to use a pedometer together with their kids because _______.
A.they can give their kids some advice about walking
B.it can prevent them from watching TV too much
C.this will allow them and their kids to have a fun competition
D.their kids will not use it if they don’t
3.On Thursday when a kid wants to watch TV, his parents should ______.
A.let him watch it for a short time
B.watch cartoons with him
C.take him out for a walk instead
D.show fitness movies to him
4.The author advises a family to have a meal on Saturday ______.
A. in a park B. in a mountain C. in a restaurant D. at home
Juanito Estrella has been a housekeeping manager on the US-based large passenger ship Carnival Spirit for 18 months and feels he has found the suitable position in his career(职业).He has always wanted to travel.“ I guess I am a really restless spirit. I Iike traveling, so when the chance came, I jumped at it,” he says.
The chance came in the form of a newspaper advertisement for work on cruise ships（游船）. At the time Estrella was the housekeeping manager at a Melbourne hotel. He applied and, after two interviews, a medical check and police clearance, the job was his.
Estrella is responsible(负责的)for the cleanliness of the ship, making sure that 160 crew work properly. “I enjoy it because there is no other work-you wake up each day in a different place and a different culture. It’s exciting when you go to the next country and you don’t understand the language, ”he says.
Estrella likes being busy and getting to know people from all over the world. The 1,000 crew come from 94 countries, and Estrella has learnt Spanish and a little Croatian.
But there is a downside .“You cannot get really drunk...because you have safety responsibilities to yourself and others, ”he says.“ You don’t really think about home. You start to think about home only when you get closer to your vacation and wonder what you’ll be doing.”
Life on the ship is anything but cruising. Estrella and his fellows work at least 10 hours a day, seven days a week. He warns the job is not for everybody. “You have to love being busy and be prepared to work every day-and to give up drinking too much alcohol. ”In his spare time, if the ship sails into a port, Estrella explores it, otherwise he works out in the crew’s gym, goes on the internet or calls home.
1.What do we know about Estrella?
A. He is very fond of traveling.
B. He doesn’t drink wine now.
C. He cannot speak a foreign language.
D. He used to be a housekeeping manager in a ship.
3.The underlined word “downside” in paragraph 5 probably means____________.
A. disappointment B. disadvantage C. failure D. loss
3.Which of the following is true?
A. Estrella doesn’t often feel homesick because of his work.
B. The work on the ship is not suitable for a married person.
C. Estrella can find no other job except the one on the ship.
D. The people on the ship are from 94 countries.
4. In the last paragraph the writer thinks that life on the ship is____________.
A. not a tiring journey at allB. just an interesting voyage
C. far from a voyage for pleasure D. more than a pleasant travel by sea