In 1932 the warning of the British politician, Stanley Baldwin, that “the bomber will always get through” made a deep impression in Britain, the only state to make serious plans to evacuate civilians from large towns before the war started.
The British Government developed plans for evacuating 1 million children to the United States and Canada and other Commonwealth nations. It established the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) in May 1940. After the fall of France, many people thought the war was lost and some saw this as one way of ensuring that Britain could survive even if invaded.
The Germans eventually began bombing British cities in September. Some children were evacuated by ship to British Dominions, including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa. The CORB selections were not done on a first-come, first-served basis. CORB classified and prioritized the children. Charges soon appeared in the press that the well-to-do were being given priority. CORB arranged for the transportation. The Government paid the passages. Quite a number of children had already been evacuated. This tended to be children from rich families with money and overseas contacts. The British public eventually demanded the government pay so that less privileged children were also eligible.
World War II occurred before the beginning of trans-Atlantic air travel. Liners were used to transport the children and this proved to be dangerous because the U-boats quickly emerged as the greatest threat. And this put the evacuee children trying to cross the Atlantic to safety in danger. Two ships carrying child evacuees were torpedoed (破坏)in 1940. One was the Dutch liner Volendam with 320 children on August 30. The crew managed to get the life boats off and saved the children. They were returned to Glasgow. The other was the City of Benares, an ocean liner with 200 British and foreign civilian passengers and 93 British children with a guard of nurses, teachers, and a clergyman. It was torpedoed on September 13. The crew attempted to launch the life boats as Benares began to sink. The rough weather made this difficult, so many of the passengers in the life boats died in the extreme conditions. Only 15 children survived. Churchill, when he learned of the disaster, decided to end the overseas evacuation scheme.The whole passage is mainly about _____.
| A．bombing Britain |
| B．children evacuation |
| C．German U-boats |
| D．loss of children |
What can we learn about the British people according to the passage?
| A．They were concerned about their children. |
| B．They were threatened by Stanley Baldwin. |
| C．They were frightened by German invasion. |
| D．They longed to go to commonwealth nations. |
The underlined word “eligible” in the last sentence of Paragraph 3 probably means _____.
| A．qualified | B．accessible |
| C．hopeful | D．popular |
Churchill decided to end the evacuation scheme mainly because _____.
| A．so many people needed evacuating |
| B．the weather in the Atlantic was rough |
| C．the crew were inexperienced in saving people |
| D．liners easily became the targets of the German U-boats |
(2013·全国Ⅱ，A)
Doctors are known to be terrible pilots. They don't listen because they already know it all. I was lucky: I became a pilot in 1970, almost ten years before I graduated from medical school. I didn't realize then, but becoming a pilot makes me a better surgeon. I loved flying. As I flew bigger, faster planes, and in worse weather, I learned about crew resource management (机组资源管理), or CRM, a new idea to make flying safer. It means that crew members should listen and speak up for a good result, regardless of positions.
I first read about CRM in 1980. Not long after that, an attending doctor and I were flying in bad weather. The controller had us turn too late to get our landing ready. The attending doctor was flying; I was safety pilot. He was so busy because of the bad turn, he had forgotten to put the landing gear (起落架) down. He was a better pilot—and my boss—so it felt unusual to speak up. But I had to: Our lives were in danger. I put aside my uneasiness and said, “We need to put the landing gear down now！” That was my first real lesson in the power of CRM, and I've used it in the operating room ever since.
CRM requires that the pilot/surgeon encourage others to speak up. It further requires that when opinions are from the opposite, the doctor doesn't overreact, which might prevent fellow doctors from voicing opinions again. So when I'm in the operating room, I ask for ideas and help from others. Sometimes they're not willing to speak up. But I hope that if I continue to encourage them, someday someone will keep me from“landing_gear_up”．What dose the author say about doctors in general?
| A．They like flying by themselves. |
| B．They are unwilling to take advice. |
| C．They pretend to be good pilots. |
| D．They are quick learners of CRM. |
The author deepened his understanding of the power of CRM when ________.
| A．he saved the plane by speaking up |
| B．he was in charge of a flying task |
| C．his boss landed the plane too late |
| D．his boss operated on a patient |
In the last paragraph “landing gear up” probably means ________.
| A．following flying requirements |
| B．overreacting to different opinions |
| C．listening to what fellow doctors say |
| D．making a mistake that may cost lives |
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
| A．CRM: A New Way to Make Flying Safe. |
| B．Flying Makes Me a Better Doctor. |
| C．The Making of a Good Pilot. |
| D．A PilotTurned Doctor. |
(2013·江西，D)
One might expect that the evergrowing demands of the tourist trade would bring nothing but good for the countries that receive the holidaymakers. Indeed, a rosy picture is painted for the longterm future of the holiday industry. Every month sees the building of a new hotel somewhere. And every month another rockbound Pacific island is advertised as the ‘last paradise (天堂) on earth’.
However, the scale and speed of this growth seem set to destroy the very things tourists want to enjoy. In those countries where there was a rush to make quick money out of seaside holidays, overcrowded beaches and the concrete jungles of endless hotels have begun to lose their appeal.
Those countries with little experience of tourism can suffer most. In recent years, Nepal set out to attract foreign visitors to fund developments in health and education. Its forests, full of wildlife and rare flowers, were offered to tourists as one more untouched paradise. In fact, the nature all too soon felt the effects of thousands of holidaymakers traveling through the forest land. Ancient tracks became major routes for the walkers, with the consequent exploitation of precious trees and plants.
Not only can the environment of a country suffer from the sudden growth of tourism. The people as well rapidly feel its effects. Farmland makes way for hotels, roads and airports; the old way of life goes. The onetime farmer is now the servant of some multinational organization; he is no longer his own master. Once it was his back that bore the pain; now it is his smile that is exploited. No doubt he wonders whether he wasn't happier in his village working his own land.
Thankfully, the tourist industry is waking up to the responsibilities it has towards those countries that receive its customers. The protection of wildlife and the creation of national parks go hand in hand with tourist development and in fact obtain financial support from tourist companies. At the same time, tourists are being encouraged to respect not only the countryside they visit but also its people.
The way tourism is handled in the next ten years will decide its fate and that of the countries we all want to visit. Their needs and problems are more important than those of the tourist companies. Increased understanding in planning worldwide tourism can preserve the market for these companies. If not, in a few years' time the very things that attract tourists now may well have been destroyed.What does the author indicate in the last sentence of Paragraph 1?
| A．The Pacific island is a paradise. |
| B．The Pacific island is worth visiting. |
| C．The advertisement is not convincing. |
| D．The advertisement is not impressive. |
The example of Nepal is used to suggest ________.
| A．its natural resources are untouched |
| B．its forests are exploited for farmland |
| C．it develops well in health and education |
| D．it suffers from the heavy flow of tourists |
What can we learn about the farmers from Paragraph 4?
| A．They are happy to work their own lands. |
| B．They have to please the tourists for a living. |
| C．They have to struggle for their independence. |
| D．They are proud of working in multinational organizations. |
Which of the following determines the future of tourism?
| A．The number of tourists. |
| B．The improvement of services. |
| C．The promotion of new products. |
| D．The management of tourism. |
The author's attitude towards the development of the tourist industry is ________.
| A．optimistic | B．doubtful |
| C．objective | D．negative |
Here is an astonishing and significant fact: Mental work alone can't make us tired. It sounds absurd. But a few years ago, scientists tried to find out how long the human brain could labor without reaching a stage of fatigue(疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we took a drop of blood from a day laborer, we could find it full of fatigue toxins(霉素) and fatigue products. But if we took blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins at the end of the day.
So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly at the end of eight or even twelve hours of efforts as at the beginning. The brain is totally tireless. So what makes us tired?
Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue comes from our mental and emotional(情感的) attitudes. One of England's most outstanding scientists, J. A. Hadfield, says，“The greater part of the fatigue from which we suffer is of mental origin. In fact, fatigue of purely physical origin is rare.” Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares，“One hundred percent of the fatigue of a sitting worker in good health is due to emotional problems.”
What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired? Joy? Satisfaction? No! A feeling of being bored, anger, anxiety, tenseness, worry, a feeling of not being appreciated—those are the emotions that tire sitting workers. Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue. We get tired because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.What surprised the scientists a few years ago?
| A．Fatigue toxins could hardly be found in a laborer's blood. |
| B．Albert Einstein didn't feel worn out after a day's work. |
| C．The brain could work for many hours without fatigue. |
| D．A mental worker's blood was filled with fatigue toxins. |
According to the author, which of the following can make sitting workers tired?
| A．Challenging mental work. | B．Unpleasant emotions. |
| C．Endless tasks. | D．Physical labor. |
What's the author's attitude towards the scientists' ideas?
| A．He agrees with them. |
| B．He doubts them. |
| C．He argues against them. |
| D．He hesitates to accept them. |
We can infer from the passage that in order to stay energetic, sitting workers need to ________.
| A．have some good food |
| B．enjoy their work |
| C．exercise regularly |
| D．discover fatigue toxins |
(2013·安徽，C)
When 19yearold Sophia Giorgi said she was thinking of volunteering to help the MakeAWish Foundation (基金会)，nobody understood what she was talking about. But Sophia knew just how important MakeAWish could be because this special organization had helped to make a dream come true for one of her best friends. We were interested in finding out more, so we went along to meet Sophia and listen to what she had to say.
Sophia told us that MakeAWish is a worldwide organization that started in the United States in 1980. “It's a charity (慈善机构)that helps children who have got very serious illnesses. MakeAWish helps children feel happy even though they are sick, by making their wishes and dreams come true，” Sophia explained.
We asked Sophia how MakeAWish had first started. She said it had all begun with a very sick young boy called Chris, who had been dreaming for a long time of becoming a policeman. Sophia said lots of people had wanted to find a way to make Chris's dream come true，so with everybody's help, Chris, only seven years old at the time, had been a “policeman” for a day. “When people saw how delighted Chris was when his dream came true, they decided to try and help other sick children too, and that was the beginning of MakeAWish，”explained Sophia.
Sophia also told us the Foundation tries to give children and their families a special, happy time. A MakeAWish volunteer visits the families and asks the children whatever they would wish for if they could have anything in the world. Sophia said the volunteers were important because they were the ones who helped to make the wishes come true. They do this either by providing things that were necessary, or by raising money or helping out in what way they can.Sophia found out about MakeAWish because her best friend had ________.
| A．benefited from it | B．volunteered to help it |
| C．dreamed about it | D．told the author about it |
According to Sophia, MakeAWish ________.
| A．is an international charity |
| B．was understood by nobody at first |
| C．raises money for very poor families |
| D．started by drawing the interest of the public |
What is said about Chris in Paragraph 3?
| A．He has been a policeman since he was seven. |
| B．He gave people the idea of starting MakeAWish. |
| C．He wanted people to help make his dream come true. |
| D．He was the first child MakeAWish helped after it had been set up. |
Which of the following is true about MakeAWish volunteers?
| A．They are important for making wishes come true. |
| B．They try to help children get over their illnesses. |
| C．They visit sick children to make them feel special. |
| D．They provide what is necessary to make MakeAWish popular. |
(2013·江苏，B)
We've considered several ways of paying to cut in line: hiring line standers, buying tickets from scalpers (票贩子), or purchasing linecutting privileges directly from, say, an airline or an amusement park. Each of these deals replaces the morals of the queue (waiting your turn) with the morals of the market (paying a price for faster service)．
Markets and queues—paying and waiting—are two different ways of allocating things，and each is appropriate to different activities. The morals of the queue, “First come，first served，” have an egalitarian (平等主义的) appeal. They tell us to ignore privilege, power, and deep pockets.
The principle seems right on playgrounds and at bus stops. But the morals of the queue do not govern all occasions. If I put my house up for sale, I have no duty to accept the first offer that comes along, simply because it's the first. Selling my house and waiting for a bus are different activities, properly governed by different standards.
Sometimes standards change, and it is unclear which principle should apply. Think of the recorded message you hear, played over and over, as you wait on hold when calling your bank：“Your call will be answered in the order in which it was received.” This is essential for the morals of the queue. It's as if the company is trying to ease our impatience with fairness.
But don't take the recorded message too seriously. Today, some people's calls and answered faster than others. Call center technology enables companies to “score” incoming calls and to give faster service to those that come from rich places. You might call this telephonic queue jumping.
Of course, markets and queues are not the only ways of allocating things. Some goods we distribute by merit, others by need, still others by chance. However, the tendency of markets to replace queues, and other nonmarket ways of allocating goods is so common in modern life that we scarcely notice it anymore. It is striking that most of the paid queuejumping schemes we've considered—at airports and amusement parks, in call centers, doctors' offices, and national parks—are recent developments, scarcely imaginable three decades ago. The disappearance of the queues in these places may seem an unusual concern, but these are not the only places that markets have entered.According to the author, which of the following seems governed by the principle “First come, first served”？
| A．Taking buses. |
| B．Buying houses. |
| C．Flying with an airline. |
| D．Visiting amusement parks. |
The example of the recorded message in Paragraph 4 and 5 illustrates ________.
| A．the necessity of patience in queuing |
| B．the advantage of modern technology |
| C．the uncertainty of allocation principle |
| D．the fairness of telephonic services |
The passage is meant to ________.
| A．justify paying for faster services |
| B．discuss the morals of allocating things |
| C．analyze the reason for standing in line |
| D．criticize the behavior of queue jumping |