life comes in a package. this package includes happiness and sorrow, failure and success, hope and despair. life is a learning process. experiences in life teach us new lessons and make us a better person. with each passing day we learn to handle various situations.
love
love plays a pivotal role on out life. love makes you feel wanted. without love a person could go hayward and also become cruel and ferocious. in the early stage of our life, our parents are the ones who shower us with unconditional love and care, they teach us about what is right and wrong, good and bad. but we always tend to take this for granted. it is only after marriage and having kids that a person understands and becomes sensitive to others feelings. kids make a person responsible and mature and help us to understand life better.
happiness and sorrow
materialistic happiness is short-lived, but happiness achieved by bringing a smile on others face gives a certain level of fulfillment. peace of mind is the main link to happiness. no mind is happy without peace. we realize the true worth of happiness when we are in sorrow. sorrow is basically due to death of a loved one, failure and despair. but these things are temporary and pass away.
failure and success
failure is the path to success. it helps us to touch the sky, teaches us to survive and shows us a specific way. success brings in money, fame, pride and self-respect. here it becomes very important to keep our head on out shoulder. the only way to show our gratitude to god for bestowing success on us is by being humble, modest, courteous and respectful to the less fortunate ones.
hope and despair
hope is what keeps life going. parents always hope their children will do well. hope makes us dream. hope builds in patience. life teaches us not to despair even in the darkest hour, because after every night there is a day. nothing remains the same we have only one choice keep moving on in life and be hopeful.
life teaches us not to regret over yesterday, for it has passed and is beyond our control. tomorrow is unknown, for it could either be bright or dull. so the only alternative is work hard today, so that we will enjoy a better tomorrow.In the passage, the author compares life to ________.
| A.a package |
| B.joy and sorrow |
| C.failure and success |
| D.hope and despair |
In which section can readers probably read the passage?
| A.Opinions. |
| B.Politics. |
| C.Educatuon. |
| D.Lifestyles. |
How is the passage organized?
| A.In order of rules. |
| B.In order of frequency. |
| C.By making comparision. |
| D.In order of importance. |
What’s the general meaning of the last sentence of the whole passage?
| A.If you work hard, you’ll have a better life in the future. |
| B.When choosing between “today”and“tomorrow”,you’d better enjoy tomorrow. |
| C.What you only can choose is to work hard today rather than tomorrow. |
| D.Enjoying a better tomorrow is your only choice. |
What’s the purpose of the passage?
| A.To encourage people to love each other. |
| B.To tell people how to deal with happiness and sorrow. |
| C.To remind people of keeping having a beautiful dream. |
| D.To give readers some information about life. |
They were going to Fort Lauderdale — three boys and three girls — and when they boarded the bus, they were carrying sandwiches and wine in paper bags, dreaming of golden beaches and sea tides as the gray, cold spring of New York went behind them.
As the bus passed through New Jersey, they began to notice Vingo. He sat in front of them, completely in silence.
Deep into the night, outside Washington, the bus pulled into Howard Johnson’s, and everybody got off except Vingo. The young people began to wonder about him. When they went back to the bus, one of the girls sat beside him and introduced herself.
“Want some wine?” she said. He smiled and took a swig from the bottle. He thanked her and became silent again. After a while, she went back to the others, and Vingo nodded in sleep.
In the morning, they awoke outside another Howard Johnson’s, and this time Vingo went in. The girl insisted that he join them. He ordered black coffee and some cookies as the young people talked about sleeping on beaches. When they returned to the bus, the girl sat with Vingo again, and after a while, slowly and painfully, he began to tell his story. He had been in prison in New York for the past four years, and now he was going home.
“Are you married?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” she said.
“Well, when I was in prison I wrote to my wife,” he said, “I told her that I was going to be away for a long time, and that if she couldn’t stand it, if the kids kept asking questions, and if it hurt her too much, well, she could just forget me. I’d understand. Get a new man, I said — she’s a wonderful woman. I told her she didn’t have to write me. And she didn’t. Not for three and a half years.”
“And you’re going home now, not knowing?”
“Yeah. Well, last week, when I was sure the parole (假释) was coming through, I wrote her again. We used to live in Brunswick, just before Jacksonville, and there’s a big oak (橡树) just as you come into town. I told her that if she didn’t have a new man and if she’d take me back, she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree, and I’d get off and come home. If she didn’t want me, forget it — no handkerchief and I’d go on through.”
“Wow,” the girl exclaimed, “Wow.”
She told the others, and soon all of them were in it, looking at the pictures Vingo showed them of his wife and three children.
Now they were 20 miles from Brunswick, and the young people took over window seats on the right side, waiting for the approach of the great oak. Vingo stopped looking, tightening his face, as if protecting himself against still another disappointment.
Then Brunswick was ten miles, and then five. Then, suddenly, all of the young people were up out of their seats, shouting and crying.
Vingo sat there astonished, looking at the oak. It was covered with yellow handkerchiefs — 20 of them, 30 of them, maybe hundreds, flying in the wind. As the young people shouted, Vingo slowly rose from his seat and made his way to the front of the bus to go home.At the beginning of the story, the young boys and girls ______.
| A.showed a great interest in Vingo | B.didn’t notice Vingo at all |
| C.wanted to offer help to Vingo | D.didn’t like Vingo at all |
The underlined part “Howard Johnson’s” is most probably a(n) ______.
| A.bus station | B.apartment | C.hospital | D.restaurant |
How did Vingo feel on the way home?
| A.Ashamed. | B.Relaxed. | C.Nervous. | D.Disappointed. |
The paragraphs following this passage would most probably talk about ______.
| A.Vingo’s experience in prison |
| B.the young people’s travel to Fort Lauderdale |
| C.Vingo’s three lovely children |
| D.the dialogue between Vingo and his family |
Twenty-first century humanity has mapped oceans and mountains, visited the moon, and surveyed the planets. But for all the progress, people still don’t know one another very well.
That brings about Theodore Zeldin’s “feast of conversation”-events where individuals pair with persons they don’t know for three hours of guided talk designed to forget the past “Where are you from?”
Mr. Zeldin, an Oxford University professor, heads Oxford Muse, a 10-year-old foundation based on the idea that what people need is not more information, but more inspiration and encouragement.
The “feast” in London looks not at politics or events, but at how people have felt about work, relations among the sexes, hopes and fears, enemies and authority, the shape of their lives. The “menu of conversation” includes topics like “How have your priorities changed over the years?” Or, “What have you rebelled against the past?”
As participants gathered, Zeldin opened with a speech: that despite instant communications in a globalized age, issues of human heart remain. Many people are lonely, or in routines that discourage knowing the depth of one another. “We are trapped in shallow conversations and the whole point now is to think, which is sometimes painful,” he says. “But thinking interaction is what separates us from other species, except maybe dogs…who do have generations of human interactions.”
The main rules of the “feast”: Don’t pair with someone you know or ask questions you would not answer. The only awkward moment came when the multi-racial crowd of young adults to seniors, in sun hats, ties and dresses, looked to see whom with for hours. But 15 minutes later, everyone was seated and talking, continuing full force until organizers interrupted them 180 minutes later.
“It’s encouraging to see the world is not just a place of oppression and distance from each other,” Zeldin summed up. “What we did is not ordinary, but it can’t be madder than the world already is.”
Some said they felt “liberated” to talk on sensitive topics. Thirty-something Peter, from East London, said that “it might take weeks or months to get to the level of interaction we suddenly opened up.”What can the “conversations” be best described as?
| A.Deep and one-on-one. | B.Sensitive and mad. |
| C.Instant and inspiring. | D.Ordinary and encouraging. |
In a “feast of conversations”, participants ______.
| A.pair freely with anyone they like |
| B.have a guided talk for a set of period of time |
| C.ask questions they themselves would not answer |
| D.wear clothes reflecting multi-racial features. |
From the passage, we can conclude that what Zeldin does is ______.
| A.an attempt to promote thinking interaction |
| B.one of the maddest activities ever conducted |
| C.a try to liberate people from old-fashioned ideas |
| D.an effort to give people a chance of talking freely |
They like using the Internet. They have lots of pocket money to spend. And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us. Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy-games, CDs and clothing-are easily sold on the Web.
But paying online is a troublesome business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards. Most have to use a parent’s card. They want a facility that allows them to spend money.
That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber (网络的) space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. If successful, these products can stimulate online sales.
In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153bn (billion) in the US last year and £20bn annually in the UK. Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school-88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK. According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online-mainly CDs and books.
In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children. Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing them to spend on the high street. They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online.
One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as InternetCash in the US and Smart cards in the UK. Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as£20 or $50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account.What does the word “They” in paragraph 1 refer to?
| A.Sellers. | B.Buyers. | C.Teenagers. | D.Parents. |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A.More than half of the teenagers in the US and the UK have Internet access. |
| B.Teenagers pay for goods online with their own credit cards. |
| C.Most teenagers in the US and the UK have bought something online. |
| D.Teenagers found it easier to persuade parents to buy online than in a shop. |
New way to help teenagers shop online is to use ______.
| A.a new machine | B.special coins and notes |
| C.prepaid cards | D.pay-as-you-go mobile phones |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A.Online shopping traps. |
| B.Internet users in the US and the UK. |
| C.New credit cards for parents. |
| D.The arrival of cyber pocket money. |
Student Membership-----Cambridge Arts Cinema
Cambridge Arts Cinema is one of the art houses in Britain and home of the internationally celebrated Cambridge Film Festival. Since 1947 generations of students have discovered the wealth of world cinema. Now you too can make most of it and save money.
Which of the following is the most famous event held at Cambridge Arts Cinema?
| A.The Cambridge Film Festival. | B.Meetings with filmmakers. |
| C.The preview screening. | D.Monthly premieres. |
If you're a member of Cambridge Arts Cinema, you will enjoy free_
| A.Darkroom Gallery shows | B.mailed programmes |
| C.special film events | D.film shows |
How long will the membership for Cambridge Arts Cinema last?
| A.Four months. | B.Eight months. |
| C.Nine months. | D.One year. |
For what purpose is the text written?
| A.Offering students cheaper tickets. |
| B.Announcing the opening of a premiere. |
| C.Telling the public of the cinema's address. |
| D.Increasing the cinema's membership. |
Twice in the past few days, I've witnessed families arguing to the point of having major 'falling outs' (when you get so angry with each other that there is threat of withdrawing love from a family member and/or abandoning the relationship). Last night, one of those situations occurred and a friend contacted me on QQ and asked my advice.
Their situation arose where a son-in-law had disagreements with his wife and then got into a quarrel with his mother-in-law and father-in-law. In the end, the son-in-law threatened to cut off all relationship with his in laws and also to deny his in laws a relationship with his own daughter, their granddaughter.
Not only did the son-in-law threaten his wife's parents, but he has followed through with his threat and hasn't allowed his wife or his child to have any contact with his wife's parents in almost a year.
The first question my friend asked me was, "Michael, what do you do when you get into a quarrel with your family?" I said, "I don't know." They said, "Well what about when you quarrel with your mother or one of your siblings (brother or sister)?" I said, "I don't know." He said, "Well, what would you do if you got into an argument with your in laws when you were married?" I said, "I don't know." He said, "What do you mean that you don't know?" I said, "Well, I never got into a quarrel with my in-laws, my mother or my siblings." He said, "Be serious, Michael. I need some help with this situation." I said, "I am serious. I never quarreled with mother, brother, sister, father-in-law, mother-in-law or brother-in-law. At least not in my adult life (since I turned 18 years old)." My friend found it hard to believe that I never did any of these things. I suppose (I really don't know; Ha!) that many people wouldn't believe that an entire family could maintain a such a level of peace, harmony, respect and love. The truth is, my family doesn't do those things.
You may wonder 'why' we don't do that. Well, I never really thought about 'why' we don't do that. But I do know, we don't. So, I did the most logical thing I could think of. I asked my mother 'why' we don't quarrel, argue, fight and have such situations. Some people believe that if you don't argue, quarrel and fight, then, you don't care enough. I would say that my family cares very deeply for each other and love each other and express our love to each other, very often. We don't believe that you have to quarrel, argue and fight in order to show that you care and that you love the other. Instead, we show that we love, care and respect each other by, well, loving, caring and respecting each other. What can we infer from the passage?
| A.The writer doesn’t care his family. |
| B.The writer has cultural differences with his friends. |
| C.The writer often quarrels with his family member. |
| D.The writer knows why their family don’t quarrel. |
How did the quarrel mentioned in the passage happen?
A.The son-in-law had disagreements with his wife.
BThe son-in-law had disagreements with his in laws.
C.The son-in-law had disagreements with his daughter.
D.The son-in-law threatened to cut off relationships with his in laws.How many questions did the friend ask the writer?
| A.2 | B.3 | C.4 | D.5 |
How do the members in the writer’s family live in harmonious?
| A.by quarrelling with each other. |
| B.by showing love, care and respect to each other. |
| C.by living together with each other. |
| D.by giving gifts to each other. |