Perhaps you have heard a lot about the Internet,but what is it?
The Internet is many different networks around the world. A network is a group of computers put together. These networks joined together are called the Internet.
Maybe that doesn’t sound interesting. But when we’ve joined the Internet, there are lots of things we can do.We can find lots of interesting information on the World Wide Web(www).We can use the Internet instead of a library to find all kinds of information for our homework. We can find information about our favourite sports or film stars and do shopping on the Inter-net. We can also send messages to other people by e-mail. It is much cheaper and quicker than calling our friends or sending a letter.
Thanks to the Internet, the world is becoming smaller and smaller. People can now work at home with a computer in front of them, getting and sending the information they need. They can buy or sell whatever they want by the Internet. But do you know 98%of the information is in English? So what will English be like tomorrow?The passage is mainly about________.
A.the Internet | B.information |
C.computers | D.e mail |
The quickest and cheapest way for people to send messages to their friends is________.
A.by post | B.by e mail | C.by telephone | D.by TV |
The Internet cannot be used to__________.
A.find information for our homework |
B.get some information about our favourite sports stars |
C.do some shopping |
D.do our housework |
.Which of the following is NOT true?
A.The Internet is a big computer. |
B.The Internet is lots of computer networks. |
C.The Internet is very helpful. |
D.People can work at home with the help of the Internet. |
What does the writer try to tell us with the last two sentences?
A.The Internet is more and more popular. |
B.All the information is in English. |
C.English is important in using the Internet. |
D.Every computer must join the Internet. |
There are many ways to find a job. It can be as easy as walking into a neighborhood store to look at its announcement board. Local stores often have areas where people can put small signs telling what kind of service they need or can provide. Such services include caring for children or cleaning houses.
Or, job searchers can look in the newspaper. Local newspapers have employment announcements placed by companies seeking workers.
Another popular tool for finding jobs is the Internet. For example, people in four hundred and fifty cities around the world can use the Craigslist Web site to buy objects, meet people or find a job. Craigslist says that it receives two million new job listings each month.
Another useful way to find a job is through a college or university. For example, students at the University of Texas in Austin can go to the Career Exploration Center to get help in finding a job. Of course, looking for a job requires knowing what kind of work you want to do. For example, there is a book called “What Color is Your Parachute (降落伞)?” by Richard Bolles. This book has been helping people choose a career (职业) since it was first published in nineteen seventy.
Some experts also help people find jobs. Susan W. Miller owns a company called California Career Services in Los Angeles. She says her company helps people find jobs by first helping them understand their strengths, goals and interests. Then she provides them with methods and resources to help them find the right job.What is the passage mainly about?
A.Finding a job. | B.College students’ part-time jobs. |
C.Craigslist Web site. | D.The relation between study and work. |
“What Color is Your Parachute?” is a book which gives tips to those who want to _____.
A.work on the airplane | B.buy a parachute |
C.publish a book | D.find a suitable job |
It can be learned from the passage that ______.
A.companies often put job information in local shops |
B.the Internet is the most popular tool for job hunters in the USA |
C.Susan W. Miller’s company is helping people choose careers |
D.California Career Services mainly serves university students |
How many ways of finding a job are mentioned in the passage?
A.Three. | B.Four. | C.Five. | D.Six. |
Frank Woolworth was born in Rodman, New York., in 1852. His family were very poor farmers, and there was never enough to eat. Frank decided he did not want to be farmer. He took a short business course, and went to work as a salesman in a large city.
Woolworth realized he had a natural skill for showing goods to attract people’s interest, but he soon learned something more important. One day his boss told him to sell some odds and ends (小商品 ) for as much as he could get. Frank put all these things on one table with a sign which said five cents each. People fought and pushed to buy the things and the table was soon cleared.
Soon afterwards, Woolworth opened his own store., selling goods at five and ten cents. But he had another lesson to learn before he became successful. That is, if you want to make money by selling low-price goods, you have to buy them in large quantities directly from the factories. Once, for example, Woolworth went to Germany and placed an order for knives. The order was so large that the factory had to keep running 24 hours a day for a whole year. In this way, the price of the knives was cut down by half.
By 1919, Woolworth had over 1000 stores in the US and Canada, and opened his first store in London. He made many millions and his name became famous throughout the world. He always run his business according to strict rules, of which the most important was: “ The customer is always right.”Frank took a short business course in order to ____________.
A.earn more money for his family | B.learn something from a salesman |
C.get away from the farm | D.get enough to eat. |
The price of the knives was cut down by half because ______________.
A.the factory workers worked 24 hours a day. |
B.knives were ordered in large quantities directly from the factory. |
C.the knives were made in Germany, where labour (劳动力) was cheap. |
D.the knives were produced in one factory. |
_____________ make Woolworth a world-famous man.
A.His business skills and his wealth. |
B.The low price of the goods he sold. |
C.His trip to Germany and his huge order of knives. |
D.His natural skill for showing things. |
The belief that : “ The customer is always right” suggests that _______________.
A.whenever there is a quarrel between the customer and shop assistant, the customers are always right. |
B.If you want to succeed, the rule is the only way. |
C.stores must always follow the customer’s orders if they want to make more money. |
D.stores should do their best to meet the customer’s needs if they want to be successful. |
Wilderness
“In wilderness(荒野) is the preservation of the world.” This is a famous saying from a writer regarded as one of the fathers of environmentalism. The frequency with which it is borrowed mirrors a heated debate on environmental protection: whether to place wilderness at the heart of what is to be preserved.
As John Sauven of Greenpeace UK points out, there is a strong appeal in images of the wild, the untouched; more than anything else, they speak of the nature that many people value most dearly. The urge to leave the subject of such images untouched is strong, and the danger exploitation(开发) brings to such landscapes(景观) is real. Some of these wildernesses also perform functions that humans need—the rainforests, for example, store carbon in vast quantities. To Mr.Sauven, these ”ecosystem services” far outweigh the gains from exploitation.
Lee Lane, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, takes the opposing view. He acknowledges that wildernesses do provide useful services, such as water conservation. But that is not, he argues, a reason to avoid all human presence, or indeed commercial and industrial exploitation. There are ever more people on the Earth, and they reasonably and rightfully want to have better lives, rather than merely struggle for survival. While the ways of using resources have improved, there is still a growing need for raw materials, and some wildernesses contain them in abundance. If they can be tapped without reducing the services those wildernesses provide, the argument goes, there is no further reason not to do so. Being untouched is not, in itself, a characteristic worth valuing above all others.
I look forwards to seeing these views taken further, and to their being challenged by the other participants. One challenge that suggests itself to me is that both cases need to take on the question of spiritual value a little more directly. And there is a practical question as to whether wildernesses can be exploited without harm.
This is a topic that calls for not only free expression of feelings, but also the guidance of reason. What position wilderness should enjoy in the preservation of the world obviously deserves much more serious thinking.John Sauven holds that_____.
A.many people value nature too much |
B.exploitation of wildernesses is harmful |
C.wildernesses provide humans with necessities |
D.the urge to develop the ecosystem services is strong |
What is the main idea of Para. 3?
A.The exploitation is necessary for the poor people. |
B.Wildernesses cannot guarantee better use of raw materials. |
C.Useful services of wildernesses are not the reason for no exploitation. |
D.All the characteristics concerning the exploitation should be treated equally. |
What is the author’s attitude towards this debate?
A.Objective. | B.Disapproving. | C.Sceptical. | D.Optimistic. |
Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
A.![]() |
B.![]() |
C.![]() |
D.![]() |
CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点) : Conclusion
Decision-making under Stress
A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative (负面的) consequences of a decision.
The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways.
“Stress affects how people learn,” says Professor Mara Mather. “People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress.”
For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images(影像) with either rewards or punishments. In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water. In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn’t gone through the stress.
This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress –at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind. But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect. Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also easily recalled.
The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women. While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different.
Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.
This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men: they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction.We can learn from the passage that people under pressure tend to ______.
A.keep rewards better in their memory |
B.recall consequences more effortlessly |
C.make risky decisions more frequently |
D.learn a subject more effectively |
According to the research, stress affects people most probably in their ______.
A.ways of making choices | B.preference for pleasure |
C.tolerance of punishments | D.responses to suggestions |
The research has proved that in a stressful situation, ______.
A.women find it easier to fall into certain habits |
B.men have a greater tendency to slow down |
C.women focus more on outcomes |
D.men are more likely to take risks |
Peanuts to This
Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Confused, I glanced toward my stone-faced teacher. Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had slaved over, hoping to hide myself. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”
Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task. This was the first real talk I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before. As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; flip (掷) a coin. Heads—the commander, and tails—the peanuts guy. Ah! Tails, my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.
Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly mass, I was totally lost. Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution.” The whole world became quite! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?
Obviously, my grade was awful. Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted: No re-dos; no new grade. I felt that the punishment was not justified, and I believed I deserved a second chance. Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster’s office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my option to skip the sixth grade. Justice is sweet!What did the author’s classmates think about his report?
A.Controversial. | B.Ridiculous. |
C.Boring. | D.Puzzling. |
Why was the author confused about the task?
A.He was unfamiliar with American history. |
B.He followed the advice and flipped a coin. |
C.He forgot his teacher’s instruction. |
D.He was new at the school. |
The underlined word “burning” in Para. 3 probably means _______.
A.annoyed | B.ashamed |
C.ready | D.eager |
In the end, the author turned things around _______.
A.by redoing his task |
B.through his own efforts |
C.with the help of his grandfather |
D.under the guidance of his headmaster |