Sometimes it is difficult to talk to taxi drivers. They must give all their attention to the road as they work out the shortest way to the place where you are going. However, passengers from Wangfujing were in surprise when they took a taxi. The driver just would not stop talking - in English.
Organized by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy, “Dare to Speak” examines if Chinese people will speak English in “real-life” situations.
Matthew Knowles, an acting student from South Carolina at Beijing Film Academy, acted the part as the “driver”. He collected six passengers on Saturday morning, most of whom were female white-collar （白领）workers.
“Of course they were surprised at first, wondering why I’m driving a taxi, and wondering whether this is a real taxi, but then most of them were pretty willing to speak,” he said. Knowles said he was also surprised by his “passengers”. “Apart from my first ‘passenger’, who could speak very little English, all the rest spoke English very well, and it was fun to communicate with them,” he said, adding that some “passengers” were quite talkative.
The “foreign taxi driver” project was just one of the “Dare to Speak” activities, which have been going on since the end of October. Other projects included a foreign store owner near a high school in Beijing, a cook in a Shanghai university canteen. They were testing the willingness of Chinese people, especially students and white-collar workers, to speak to foreigners in English.
Rong Xin, senior manager of IELTS （雅思） with the British Embassy, said they hoped to let IELTS takers in China know that communication is the ultimate goal of IELTS.
“We hope that more and more IELTS takers in China can realize the importance of communicating in English in real life, instead of just getting high test scores,” she said.Why did Matthew Knowles drive a taxi?
| A．He took part in the project “Dear to speak” |
| B．He played the role of a taxi driver in a film. |
| C．He enjoyed chatting with people in English. |
| D．He wanted to improve his Chinese while driving. |
The Chinese may meet and talk to _______ in “Dear to speak” projects.
| A．a white-collar worker | B．a foreign store owner |
| C．a restaurant manager | D．a high school student |
The underlined word ultimate is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．most difficult | B．most common |
| C．most famous | D．most important |
The purpose of the project “Dear to Speak” is to _______ .
| A．attract more foreigners to start business in China |
| B．draw Chinese people’s attention to IELT |
| C．remind language learners of the goal of learning |
| D．give more chances for English learners in China |
Most children now chat daily either online or through their mobile phones. They are connecting to a huge number of other children all over the world. Some are shy “in real life” but are confident to communicate with others online; others find support from people of their own age on relationship issues, or problems at home.
Sometimes the online world, just like the real world, can introduce problems, such as arguments. Going online is great fun, but there are also a few people who use the Internet for offensive (冒犯性的) or illegal aims. Children must be made aware of both the good things and the dangers.
To keep children safe your management must cover the family computer. Just as you decide which TV pro-grams are suitable, you need to do the same for the websites and chat rooms your children visit. Remind your children that online friends are still strangers. Re-minding them of the risks will keep them alert (警惕).
Computer studies are part of schoolwork now, so it’s likely that your children may know more than you do. We get left behind when it comes to the latest gad-gets and the interactive areas of websites, like chat rooms and message boards, which are especially strange. The language of chat is strange to many parents, too. Chatters love to use abbreviations (缩写) such as: atb — all the best, bbfn — bye bye for now, cul8er — see you later, gr8 — great, Idk — I don’t know, imbl — it must be love, kit — keep in touch, paw — parents are watching, lol — laugh out loud, xlnt — excellent!The passage is meant for ______.
| A．children | B．parents | C．teachers | D．net bar owners |
Which of the following will the author probably agree with?
| A．The Internet is no good for children. |
| B．The chat language is strange to adults. |
| C．Children shouldn’t chat so much online. |
| D．The Internet is a good place for children. |
In order to keep children safe online, you’d better ______.
| A．choose suitable websites and chat rooms for them |
| B．teach them to use correct net words |
| C．surf the Internet together with them |
| D．forbid them to use the Internet |
If you stand beside him when your son is chatting about something secret online, he may use ______.
| A．bbfn | B．lol | C．paw | D．cul8er |
Most people think their time problems are outer, and that they are caused by the telephone, meetings, visitors, and delayed information or decisions. Although these problems often have a bad effete on them, as when people call or drop in, we usually contribute to them. We fail to have calls screened by a skillful secretary or assistant, or we leave our door open, actually assuring constant interruptions.
In almost all cases, it is possible to influence, if not control, it usually can cause problems, such as, slowness and indecision, lack of self-discipline, the inability to delegate, or the tendency to fight fires, to act without thinking, and to jump from task to task without finishing any of them.
Time is constant that cannot be changed. The clock cannot be slowed down or speeded up. Thus we cannot manage time itself. We can only manage our activities with respect to time.
The same skills are needed as those used in managing others—the abilities to plan, organize, delegate, direct, and control. Time management is simply self-management. It is impossible to be effective in any position without controlling one’s time effectively.
Successful time management does not mean working harder, but working smarter. All kinds of management skills must be used in the home and office to get most value from time. You must think ahead about what to do, and timely than others, making it get maximum results in the shortest possible period.According to the writer, time problems .
| A．are caused by the telephone, meetings and visitors |
| B．are caused by delayed information or decisions |
| C．can be solved by self-management |
| D．can’t be controlled |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned as tile internally generated time wasters?
| A．slowness and indecision. |
| B．Lack of self-discipline. |
| C．Jumping from task to task without finishing any of them. |
| D．Working hard. |
It can be concluded from the passage that the abilities to plan, organize, delegate, direct and control should .
| A．be used in managing others’ activities |
| B．be used in managing one’s own activities |
| C．not be used in time management |
| D．be used in managing both others’ and one’s activities |
We can also draw a conclusion that the key to successful time management is .
| A．working harder and harder |
| B．clever self-management |
| C．thinking of what to do, and how and when to do it |
| D．employing a skillful secretary |
In the early part of the twentieth century, racism was widespread in the United States. Many African Americans were not given equal opportunities in education or employment. Marian Anderson (1897-1993) was an African American woman who gained fame as a concert singer in this climate of racism. She was born in Philadelphia and sang in church choirs during her childhood. When she applied for admission to a local music school in 1917, she was turned down because she was black. Unable to attend music school, she began her career as a singer for church gatherings. In 1929, she went to Europe to study voice and spent several years performing there. Her voice was widely praised throughout Europe. Then she returned to the US in 1935 and became a top concert singer after performing at Town Hall in New York City.
Racism again affected Anderson in 1939. When it was arranged for her to sing at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution opposed it because of her color. She sang instead at the Lincoln Memorial for over 75 000 people. In 1955, Anderson became the first black soloist to sing win the Metropolitan Opera of New York City. The famous conductor Toscanini praised her voice as “heard only once in a hundred years”. She was a US delegate to the United Nations in 1958 and won the UN peace prize in 1977. Anderson eventually triumphed over racism. According to this passage, what did Marian Anderson do between 1917 and 1929?
| A．She studied at a music school. | B．She sang for religious activities. |
| C．She sang at Town Hall in New York. | D．She studied voice in Europe. |
Toscanini thought that Marian Anderson .
| A．had a very rare voice | B．sang occasionally in public |
| C．sang only once in many years | D．was seldom heard by people |
Anderson’s beautiful voice was first recognized .
A. at the Lincoln Memorial B. in Washington, DC.
C. in Europe D. at the United NationsThis passage shows that Anderson finally defeated racism in the US by .
| A．protesting to the government | B．appealing to the United Nations |
| C．demonstrating in the streets | D．working hard to perfect her art |
Chinese people are now spending more time surfing the net than watching TV, according to results of a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) published Thursday.
The survey, of citizens of five Chinese cities, found that 79 percent of interviewees use the internet for information, and 55.1 percent to read news on the internet. About 63 percent of the interviewees use e-mail. The average times spent surfing the net and watching TV were 2.73 hours and 1.29hours, respectively.
Only 10.4 percent reported use the internet primarily to send and receive email; 65.9 percent read online news; 62.2 quite often play games on-line. More and more people have taken an interest in the entertainment opportunities online. Up to 56.5 percent of interviewees quite often download music, and 53.5 percent get entertainment messages from the internet.
Yet the survey found that television is still the dominant mass medium. Seventy-nine percent of interviewees choose to watch TV to get information, and another 75 percent take newspapers as important as TV.
Five major web sites in the Chinese language, namely Sina, Sohu, Netease, Baidu and Yahoo are still ranked top ones by web users, and those that voted for Sina as the best among them were 30.9 percent.
Authorized statistics showed that web users in China have already exceeded 100 million, second to that of the United States.Which of the following is not true?
| A．Chinese people are now spending more time surfing the net than watching TV. |
| B．There are more Chinese people using the internet for information compared with those reading news on the internet. |
| C．There are more people using e-mail compared with those searching information on the internet. |
| D．There are more people using e-mail compared with those reading news on the internet. |
The survey shows that .
| A．Only 10.4% reported use the internet to send and receive email. |
| B．Less than half of the people use the internet for enter fain-ment. |
| C．All of the people reported like to play games on-line. |
| D．Most of the people reported read online news. |
Which will you choose if you want to chat with your friends on the internet?
| A．TV | B．Sina | C．telephone | D．QQ |
The underlined word “exceeded” means .
| A．increased to | B．increased by | C．risen | D．decreased |
All over the world, and for many different reasons, there are millions of people who rarely or never eat meat. These people are called vegetarians. To people who eat meat, being a vegetarian may seem like a very strange thing, diets for several different reasons.
First, vegetarians have an enormous health advantage. One of the major health problems in modern societies is not too much protein but too much fat, especially in the form of animal fats. Medical evidence suggests that animal fats, including butter, contribute to the development of cholesterol in the human body. High amount of cholesterol seem to be part of the cause of heart disease. Most vegetarians have low level of cholesterol. High amounts of animal fats also seem to lead to certain kinds of cancer, and vegetarians are typically less vulnerable to these cancers than people who eat a lot of meat. Overall, studies comparing the health of vegetarians and meat-eaters show that the meat-eaters are twice as likely to die of heart disease as vegetarians are.
Better health is one reason that people choose to become vegetarians. Another reason is religion. Some religions forbid the eating of meat. The largest of these is the Hindu religion, which has about 600 million believers in the world. Although not all Hindus are vegetarian, many are, and there are many believers of other religions such Buddhism and even some Christian religions that also do not eat meat.
Many vegetarians do not eat meat simply because they do not like the taste of it. They have no religious or philosophical reasons; they just do not like meat. Another important reason that vegetarians give for not eating meat is the health advantages that were given above. Lastly, there are many people who do not eat meat because they just do not like the idea of killing animals for food. They believe that life, all life, is valuable , and that we do not have to destroy life to feed ourselves when there are other good sources of food.According to the passage, people choose to be vegetarians for the following reasons EXCEPT________.
| A．they want to stay healthy |
| B．they are too kind to put the idea of killing animals |
| C．they live in areas where meat supply is not adequate |
| D．they should not eat meat due to their religious belief |
Which of the following is true according to Paragraph 2 ?
| A．Vegetarians enjoy a more healthy life than the meat eaters. |
| B．Heart disease and cancer are caused by large amounts of protein. |
| C．There are twice as many meat-eaters as vegetarians who die of cancer. |
| D．There are less health problems in modern society due to advanced medical care. |
What does “vulnerable” mean in Paragraph 2?
| A．Having low level of cholesterol. |
| B．Having high level of cholesterol. |
| C．Having weak ability to resist diseases and harms. |
| D．Having strong ability to resist disease and harms. |
It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
| A．being a vegetarian may be a very strange thing |
| B．vegetarians eat meat on some special occasions |
| C．all vegetarians have reasons for their not eating meat |
| D．most vegetarians believe that life without meat is happy. |