The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”
“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”
“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”
I noticed every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I looked down on the computer and asked her, “What do all you people do?”
“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”
“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”
“That’s good, sir.”
“How long will the computer be down? I wanted to know.”
“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”
After the girl told me they had no backup computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer—What about your planes? They are still flying, aren’t they?”
“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”
“Maybe I could, just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he is flying to Washington,” I suggested.
“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t take you if you didn’t have a ticket.”
“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”
“I wouldn’t know,” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. It can’t tell me.”
By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The words soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.Where do you often hear the frightening words “Our computer is down”?
| A．at the airport. | B．At the gate. |
| C．On business | D．In the ticket office |
What could the girl in the ticket office do without asking the computer?
| A．She could do nothing. |
| B．She could write out a ticket. |
| C．She could still sell a ticket. |
| D．She could answer passengers’ questions. |
What does the underlined word “down” in Paragraph 1 mean?
| A．White | B．Broken | C．Black | D．Dark |
We can learn from the last paragraph that .
| A．a modern computer won’t be down |
| B．computers can take the place of human |
| C．there will be great changes in computers |
| D．sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people |
One warm September night, Mira had come down to the beach to enjoy the night air. She closed her eyes and listened to the waves. Suddenly, she could hear another sound, so she opened her eyes and looked down at the sand. It was moving! All of a sudden she could see a tiny head coming out. Then a turtle(龟) appeared! One by one they struggled out of their underground nests. Mira looked in surprise at the baby turtles.
Mira knew the turtles should head towards the waves and swim away, so she was puzzled when they began to pull themselves towards the dunes(沙丘). Suddenly, she remembered something her grandmother had told her.
“Sea turtles bury their eggs on the beach every year in April and in September. Those baby turtles hatch(孵出) and head back down to the sea. But some of them never make it. Sometimes they die going across the dunes, trying to find those bright lights on the houses. Every day there are more houses being built on the dunes. That means more and more lights to confuse the sea turtles.”
Mira looked out across the dunes at her house. Mira saw her mother and father, sitting on the porch(门廊). She could see them because her house had two bright lights that lit up the porch.
Mira began to run to her house and shouted, “The turtles are hatching! We have to help the turtles!” With these words, Mira ran into the house and turned off the bright porch lights.
In a rush she was off running down the dunes with her whole family following her. They reached the beach just in time to see the tiny turtles slipping silently into the waves. Mira watched as the last turtle entered the water. As the turtle swam away, it looked back at Mira. In the moonlight, Mira thought she saw it smile.Where did the story happen?
| A．On a beach at night | B．In a house near the dunes. |
| C．On a front porch in the evening. | D．In the shallow water of the ocean. |
How did Mira feel when she saw the baby turtles appear?
| A．Proud. | B．Sad. | C．Confused. | D．Surprised. |
How did Mira know the lights confused the turtles?
| A．She read it in a book. | B．Her grandmother told her. |
| C．She learned about the turtles at school. | D．Her parents taught her about the turtles. |
Why did Mira run to her house?
| A．To get a flashlight | B．To turn off the porch light. |
| C．To communicate with her parents. | D．To ask her grandmother about the lights. |
This story is mainly about a girl ________.
| A．enjoying the ocean | B．turning lights off at night |
| C．saving the baby turtles | D．learning from her grandparents |
请阅读下列学位申请者的信息，从A、B、C、D、E和F 6个国家中为每位中请者选出最合适的留学国家，选项中有一项是多余选项。（注意：请将答案涂于答题卡上）
阅读下列应用文及相关信息，并按照要求匹配信息。请在答题卡上将对应题号的相应选项字母涂黑。首先请阅读下列警方通报查找人员的信息：
| A. Name: Ziggy Nizott Height: 1.82 m Weight: 90kg Age: 35 Details:Long history of violent crime including robbery, assault and car theft.  |
B. Name: Dennis Tsokas Height: 1.95 m Weight: 70 kg Age: 28 Details: Well known to local police having been arrested several times for pick-pocketing.  |
| C. Name: Michael Clarke Height: 1.7 m Weight: 65 kg Age: 20 Details: Arrested as a youth for car theft and the selling of stolen goods  |
D. Name: Mark Hughes Height: 1.6 m Weight: 60kg Age: 29 Details: Is wanted by police for several armed robbery of grocery stores, banks and post offices.  |
| E. Name: Herb Elliot Height: 1.6 m Weight: 90kg Age: 22 Details: Recently released from prison where he served 2 years for selling stolen goods.  |
F. Name: William Daniels Height: 1.6 m Weight: 90kg Age: 32 Details: Arrested 4 times for the selling of drugs and car theft.  |
以下是相关事件及人物的描述，请把描述与相关插图及提示性文字匹配起来。A valuable dog was taken while being walked by its owner in City Park yesterday afternoon. Police wish to talk to a man seen nearby at the time, described by witnesses as short and fat with short light hair and clear glasses.
Yesterday morning at 9.30a.m. a man armed with a gun entered the National Bank and demanded money from the staff, before fleeing when confronted by bank security staff. Security cameras show the man as being short and thin with shoulder length blonde hair.
A tall, strong built man with blonde hair, a thick black moustache and wearing dark glasses knocked a woman to the ground and stole her purse on Main Street last Saturday afternoon. If you see this man, do not approach as he is considered extremely dangerous.
At the football match between Manchester United and Liverpool, several people had their wallets stolen while waiting in line to buy food. The victims did not see or notice the thief but bystanders describe him as very tall and thin, clean shaven with short light hair.
A car was stolen from the supermarket car park on Friday, June 23 this year by a man described as very young, 1.7 meters tall with thin dark hair and carrying a blue backpack. A reward of $500 is offered for the car’s recovery.
ROME: The legend of Leonardo da Vinci is covered in mystery: How did he die? Are the remains buried in a French castle really those of the master? Was the "Mona Lisa" a self-portrait in disguise (伪装)?
A group of Italian scientists believe the key to solving those puzzles lies with the remains, and they say they are seeking permission to dig up the body to conduct carbon and DNA testing.
If the skull is undamaged, the scientists can go to the heart of a question that has fascinated scholars and the public for centuries: the identity of the "Mona Lisa." Recreating a virtual and then physical reconstruction of Leonardo's face, they can compare it with the smiling face in the painting.
"We don't know what we'll find if the tomb is opened. We could even just find grains and dust," says Giorgio Gruppioni, an anthropologist who is participating in the project. "But if the remains are well kept, they are a biological record of events in a person's life, and sometimes in their death." Silvano Vinceti, the leader of the group, said that he plans to press his case with the French officials in charge of the said burial site at Amboise Castle early next week.
Leonardo moved to France at the invitation of King Francis I, who named him "first painter to the king." He spent the last three years of his life there, and died in 1519 at age 67. The artist's original burial place, the palace church of Saint Florentine, was destroyed during the French Revolution and remains that are believed to be his were eventually reburied in the Saint-Hubert Chapel near the castle.
"The Amboise tomb is a symbolic tomb; it's a big question mark," said Alessandro Vezzosi, the director of a museum dedicated to Leonardo in his hometown of Vinci. Vezzosi said that investigating the tomb could help identify the artist's bones with certainty and solve other questions, such as the cause of his death. He said he asked to open the tomb in 2004 to study the remains, but the Amboise Castle turned him down.
The group of 100 experts involved in the project, called the National Committee for Historical and Artistic Heritage, was created in 2003 with the aim of "solving the great mysteries of the past," said Vinceti, who has written books on art and literature.
Arguably the world's most famous painting, the "Mona Lisa" hangs in the Louvre in Paris, where it drew some 8.5 million visitors last year. Mystery has surrounded the identity of the painting's subject for centuries, with opinions ranging from the wife of a Florentine merchant to Leonardo's own mother.
That Leonardo intended the "Mona Lisa" as a self-portrait in disguise is a possibility that has interested and divided scholars. Theories have existed: Some think that Leonardo's taste for tricks and riddles might have led him to hide his own identity behind that puzzling smile; others have guessed that the painting hid an androgynous lover.
If granted access to the grave site, the Italian experts plan to use a tiny camera and radar to confirm the presence of bones. The scientists would then exhume (挖掘) the remains and attempt to date the bones with carbon testing.
At the heart of the proposed study is the effort to discover whether the remains are actually Leonardo's, including with DNA testing.
Vezzosi questions the DNA comparison, saying he is unaware of any direct descendants (后代) of Leonardo or of tombs that could be attributed with certainty to the artist's close relatives.
Gruppioni said that DNA from the bones could also eventually be compared to DNA found elsewhere. For example, Leonardo is thought to have rubbed colors on the canvas with his thumb, possibly using saliva (唾液), meaning DNA might be found on his paintings.
Even in the absence of DNA testing, other tests could provide useful information, including whether the bones belonged to a man or a woman, and whether the person died young or old.
Even within the committee, experts are divided over the identity of the "Mona Lisa."
Vinceti believes that a tradition of considering the self-portrait to be not just a faithful imitation of one's features but a representation of one's spiritual identity may have resonated (共鸣) with Leonardo.
Vezzosi, the museum director, dismissed as "baseless and senseless" the idea that the "Mona Lisa" could be a self-portrait of Leonardo. He said most researchers believe the woman may have been either a wife of the artist's sponsor, the Florentine nobleman Giuliano de Medici, or Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a rich silk merchant, Francesco del Giocondo. The traditional view is that the name "Mona Lisa" comes from the silk merchant's wife, as well as its Italian name: "La Gioconda."Why does the author ask a couple of questions in the beginning?
| A．To arouse the interest of readers | B．To puzzle Italian scientists |
| C．To answer the questions himself | D．To make fun of French officials |
The best title of this story might be “_____”
| A．What Is the Purpose of an Investigation? |
| B．How Did Leonardo da Vinci Die in France? |
| C．Are the Remains Really Those of the Master? |
| D．Did Leonardo Paint Himself as 'Mona Lisa'? |
The sentence “he plans to press his case with the French officials” (underlined in Paragraph 4) suggests that Vinceti intends to _____
| A．press the French officials to participate in their project |
| B．urge the French officials to open the tomb early next week |
| C．persuade the French officials to allow opening the tomb |
| D．record events in a person’s life with the French officials |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．Scholars have the same opinion on DNA testing |
| B．Scientists doubt if the remains are those of da Vinci |
| C．The identity of “Mona Lisa” has already been proved |
| D．Alessandro Vezzosi got permission to open the tomb |
We can infer from the last two paragraphs that _____?
| A．“Mona Lisa” is the name of the wife of a silk merchant |
| B．the “Mona Lisa” is a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci |
| C．experts divided the committee into several groups |
| D．opinions differ of the identity of the “Mona Lisa” |
I live in the land of Disney, Hollywood and year-round sun. You may think people in such a splendid, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still equate happiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more lasting emotion.
Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.
I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells“happiness”. But in memoir（回忆录）after memoir, they reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism ,drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children and profound loneliness.
Ask a bachelor why he resists marriage, if he’s honest, and he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment, for commitment is in fact quite painful. The single life is filled with fun, adventure and excitement. Marriage has such moments, but they are not its most distinguishing features.
Similarly, couples that choose not to have children are deciding in favor of painless fun over painful happiness. They can dine out whenever they want and sleep as late as they can. Couples with infant children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three-day vacation. I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children.
Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating（解放性的）realizations. It liberates time: now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness. It liberates money: buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless. And it liberates us from envy: we now understand that all those rich and glamorous people we were so sure are happy because they are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.We can learn from the passage that ________.
| A．fun creates long-lasting satisfaction |
| B．fun provides enjoyment while pain leads to happiness |
| C．happiness is lasting whereas fun is short-lived |
| D．fun that is long-standing may lead to happiness |
To the author, the role Hollywood stars play is to ________.
| A．write memoir after memoir about their happiness |
| B．tell the public that happiness has nothing to do with fun |
| C．teach people how to enjoy their lives |
| D．bring happiness to the public instead of going to parties |
In the author’s opinion, marriage ________ .
| A．affords greater fun | B．leads to raising children |
| C．indicates duty and devotion | D．usually ends up in pain |
Which of the following is the best example of“painful happiness”?
| A．Winning lottery by accident |
| B．A bachelor resisting marriage |
| C．Raising children |
| D．Buying some fancy clothes |
If one gets the true sense of happiness, he will ________.
| A．stop playing games and joking with others | B．keep himself with his family |
| C．give a free hand to money | D．use his time to increase happiness |
When a tornado touched down in a small town nearby, many families were left completely destroyed. Afterward all the local newspapers carried many human-interest stories featuring some of the families who suffered the hardest.
One Sunday, a particular picture especially touched me. A young woman stood in front of an entirely shattered mobile home, a depressed expression twisting her features. A young boy, seven or eight years old, stood at her side, eyes downcast. Clutching (紧握) at her skirt was a tiny girl who stared into the camera, eyes wide with confusion and fear.
The article that went with the picture gave the clothing sizes of each family member. With growing interest, I noticed that their sizes closely matched ours. This would be a good opportunity to teach my children to help those less fortunate than themselves. I taped the picture of the young family to our refrigerator, explaining their difficulty to my seven-year-old twins, Brad and Brett, and to three- year-old Meghan.
“ We have so much. And these poor people now have nothing,” I said.“We’ll share what we have with them.”
I brought three large boxes down from the room upstairs and placed them on the living room floor. Meghan watched seriously, as the boys and I filled one of the boxes with canned goods and foods.
While I sorted through our clothes, I encouraged the boys to go through their toys and donate some of their less favorite things. Meghan watched quietly as the boys piled up discarded toys and games.
“I’ll help you find something for the little girl when I’m done with this,” I said.
The boys placed the toys they had chosen to donate into one of the boxes while I filled the third box with clothes. Meghan walked up with Lucy, her worn, faded, much-loved rag doll hugged tightly to her chest. She paused in front of the box that held the toys, pressed her round little face into Lucy’s flat, painted-on-face, gave her a final kiss, then laid her gently on top of the other toys.
“Oh, Honey,” I said.“You don’t have to give Lucy. You love her so much.”
Meghan nodded seriously, eyes glistening with held-back tears. ‘”Lucy makes me happy, Mommy. Maybe she’ll make that other little girl happy, too．”
Swallowing hard, I stared at Meghan for a long moment, wondering how I could teach the boys the lesson she had just taught me. For I suddenly realized that anyone can give their cast-offs away. True generosity is giving that which you value most.
Honest benevolence (善行) is a three-year-old offering a valuable, though shabby, doll to a little girl she doesn’t know with the hope that it will bring this child as much pleasure as it brought her. I, who had wanted to teach, had been taught.
The boys had watched, open-mouthed, as their baby sister placed her favorite doll in the box. Without a word, Brad rose and went to his room. He came back carrying one of his favorite action figures. He hesitated briefly, clutching the toy, then looked over at Meghan and placed it in the box next to Lucy.
A slow smile spread across Brett’s face. Then he jumped up, eyes twinkling as he ran to fetch some of his prized Matchbox cars.
Astonished, I realized that the boys had also recognized what little Meghan’s gesture meant. Swallowing back tears, I pulled all three of them into my arms.
Taking the cue from my little one, I removed my old jacket from the box of clothes. I replaced it with the new hunter green jacket that I had found on sale last week. I hoped the young woman in the picture would love it as much as I did.
It’s easy to give that which we don’t want any more, but harder to let go of things we cherish, isn’t it? However, the true spirit of giving is to give with your heart..Why does the author give a detailed description of a particular picture in the Sunday newspaper?
| A．To create an atmosphere of fear and depression brought by the tornado. |
| B．To appeal to unconcerned people to donate for the poor families. |
| C．To show the helplessness and hopelessness of the family mentioned in the paper. |
| D．To stress what touched her and made her decide to help the hopeless family. |
Why did Brad and Brett also donate their favorite things finally?
| A．They were encouraged to donate some valuable things by the mother. |
| B．Meghan’s decision inspired them to donate their favorite things. |
| C．They also wanted to show generosity by giving away their valuable things. |
| D．Meghan’s gesture reminded them to replace their favorite things with new ones. |
By “ swallowing hard”, the writer means that _ _ .
| A．she was deeply puzzled by what the little girl did |
| B．she had trouble persuading Meghan not to give away Lucy |
| C．she was greatly moved by Meghan’s unexpected decision |
| D．she was uncertain what consequences Meghan’s action would bring about |
It is suggested in the sentence “the true spirit of giving is to give with your heart” that ______.
| A．sincere donation means offering help to others whole-heartedly |
| B．true giving means giving others what you treasure most |
| C．true generosity means helping others at the cost of your own benefit |
| D．honest benevolence means devoting yourself to the career of donation |
What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．The Greatest Love | B．A Beautiful Heart |
| C．True Generosity | D．A Precious Gift |