Nothing is as precious as one's freedom. Dreams, aspirations and ideals mean nothing if one does not have the freedom to pursue them.
A lot has been done in the name of freedom. A lot has been said and written about freedom. In the past six months, the world witnessed Tunisian uprising, Egyptian revolution and Libyan civil war. Thousands of people fought for freedom; hundreds of people lost their lives (for freedom); people are craving for freedom. But, what exactly is freedom? We are fighting for it, we are ready to die for it, we are craving for it, but, can we really define it?
Albert Camus thinks freedom is a chance to be better. Abraham Lincoln calls it best hope of Earth. Epictetus says it's the right to live as we wish. For Moshe Dayan it's oxygen for soul. According to Urban Dictionary it's everything. And going by Oxford Dictionaries, it's power of self determination attributed to the will.
Everyone has different views about freedom. But somehow I am still not convinced because we can't really be fighting for a chance or hope. And the concept of everything is full of uncertainties. I don't think we are fighting for power of self-determination either. And as for the right to live as we wish, if we have the right to fight, then, how can we be denied the right to live as per our wish?
But the question still remains unanswered, what is freedom?
For me, freedom has a deeper and greater meaning. I think freedom is much more than just a right. It's a responsibility of doing what you think is good, not only for you but even for society. It is a state when one realizes their duties and starts respecting others' freedom.
Freedom is when we realize that we can do absolutely anything except force another person to follow us in our madness or our desire for life. Freedom is when we are no longer slaves to our desires, society, its expectations, luxury or slaves to a life we did not choose.
Freedom is when we have the courage to speak out what we know is true, do what we feel is right, and fight for what we think is unfair. One shouldn't really fight for freedom; rather, they should try to achieve it.How many famous people’s definitions of freedom are mentioned in the passage?
| A．4 | B．5 | C．6 | D．7 |
Paragraph 3 mainly tells us that _____________.
| A．Everyone longs for freedom |
| B．Everyone is fighting for freedom |
| C．People have different views about freedom |
| D．Famous people have a deeper understanding of freedom |
Which of the following will the author agree with?
| A．Freedom is a chance to live better. |
| B．Freedom is our best hope in the world. |
| C．Freedom is the right to live as we wish. |
| D．Freedom is a responsibility of doing what is good. |
What is the author’s purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To show different views about freedom. |
| B．To express his understanding of freedom. |
| C．To encourage us to pursue our dreams and aspirations. |
| D．To argue against some famous people’s understanding of freedom. |
Most recently, it’s very common in students who need a parent present for job interviews.
Naturally, it’s easy to blame the students in these situations, but the bigger problem is us. We—as parents—are so eager to protect our kids that we fail to realize that this in itself is harming them. As the mother of two young sons, I have to remind myself all the time that the biggest responsibility I have as a parent is to help them develop the skills needed to live in, to live without me. So, I’ll let them fail.
I’ll let them fail because as long as they are safe and warm inside their comfort zones, they will never grow. And failure—along with loss, heartbreak, disappointment, etc.—will be part of growth for them. Call me the anti-tiger mom, but leaving them alone is my way of helping them become equipped to fit in this world as we know it today. From terrorism (恐怖主义) and seemingly endless natural disasters, to our national debt and beyond, if we expect the next generation to stand up to the very real problems of our time, we need to stop feeding them and start teaching them how to fish.
My children are faced with hard situations in their own life almost each day, but they try to negotiate (协商) everything now. It’s a small price to help them learn a skill they’ll use for the rest of their lives, including when I don’t come with them on job interviews.Why do parents go along with their kids on job interviews?
| A．Because they want to protect their kids from difficulties. |
| B．Because they think they can protect them from being hurt. |
| C．Because their kids are too shy to attend interviews. |
| D．Because their kids strongly request them to do so. |
According to the author, what is helpful to kids’ development?
| A．Protecting them. | B．Keeping them safe. |
| C．Leaving them alone. | D．Blaming them. |
The author believes experiencing failure in life can make kids ___________.
| A．become healthier than other kids |
| B．grow in this challenging world |
| C．develop all social skills |
| D．escape from natural disasters |
If the writer’s boy goes to a job interview, she probably will ___________.
| A．go with him to protect her kid from difficulty |
| B．stay home but give him directions over telephone |
| C．wait outside and talk with other parents |
| D．let him go to the interview by himself |
Which of the following might be the best title of the text?
| A．Never help your kids | B．Let your kids fail |
| C．Go to the interview with your kids | D．Live without parents |
The possibility that pleasant smells might reduce pain has recently been suggested by new research. In a scientific study, doctors asked 20 men and 20 women to keep their hands in very hot water for as long as possible while breathing in different smells.
As people believe that strong smells can affect the senses, volunteers were asked not to eat or drink for eight hours before the experiment began. During the experiment, volunteers were asked to take in pleasant smells such as vanilla (香草), and unpleasant smells such as durians (榴莲). The volunteers kept their hands in the water until it became too hot for them. When they could not bear the pain any more, they took their hands out of the water.
Scientists are interested in whether the senses or smell is related to pain and whether men and women have the same senses. Now, the study has proved that for women, pleasant smells reduce pain. For men, there is no change.
Dr Finkelstein has been studying smells since 1999. He says that scientists already have data from 40 volunteers. He adds that this year, scientists will test another 60 volunteers and will be in a better position to explain the results.
One explanation is that women’s sense of smell developed long ago, and is linked to recognizing the smell of babies. Scientists used to believe that mothers recognized their children by sight only. Now, they have started to believe that the sense of smell also helps, but why pleasant smells do not reduce pain in men is a question still to be answered by scientists.Before the experiment, volunteers ______.
| A．are gathered and take a training |
| B．cannot eat or drink for several hours |
| C．must wash their hands carefully |
| D．will be interviewed by Dr Finkelstein |
If both men and women are asked to keep their hands in hot water while taking in some pleasant smells, ______.
| A．women may stand the pain of the hot water longer |
| B．men may keep their hands in the hot water longer |
| C．they will probably take their hands out at the same time |
| D．we are not quite sure who will take their hands out earlier |
From the passage we learn that _________.
| A．the reason why women are sensitive to smells is clear |
| B．the experiment for the sense of smell has come to an end |
| C．unpleasant smells affect men’s senses more than women’s |
| D．scientists have not totally explained the result of the study |
Now scientists believe that _______.
| A．mothers recognize their children only by sight |
| B．men’s sense of smell developed a long time ago |
| C．strong smells have a great influence on people’s senses |
| D．smells are helpful for mothers to spot their children |
The writer wrote the passage in order to ________.
| A．supply some entertainment to us |
| B．show women’s sharper senses than men’s |
| C．inform the readers of some knowledge |
| D．call for volunteers for the experiment |
A nine-year-old kid was sitting at his desk when suddenly there was a puddle (水坑) between his feet and the front of his trousers was wet. He thought his heart was going to stop because he couldn’t possibly imagine how this had happened. It had never happened before, and he knew that when the boys found out, especially Jack, he would never hear the end of it. When the girls found out, especially Martha and Jackie, they would never speak to him again as long as he lived.
He prayed this prayer, “Dear God, I need help now! Five minutes from now I’m dead meat!” He looked up from his prayer and here came the teacher with a look in her eyes that said he had been discovered. As the teacher was walking toward him, a classmate named Susie was carrying a goldfish bowl full of water. Susie lost her balance in front of the teacher and dumped (倒) the bowl of water in the boy’s lap. The boy pretended to be angry, but all the while was saying to himself, “Thank you, Lord!”
Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule (嘲笑), the boy was the object of sympathy (同情). The teacher rushed him downstairs and gave him gym shorts to put on while his trousers dried out. All the other children were on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. Martha even gave him her own candy. The sympathy was wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his had been turned to someone else—Susie. She tried to help, but they told her to get out.
When school was over, the boy walked over to Susie and whispered, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Susie whispered back, “I wet my trousers once, too!”The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 means _______.
| A．the boys would never play with him |
| B．the boys would treat him as usual |
| C．he would hardly hear any praise from the boys |
| D．he would be laughed at by the boys endlessly |
After Susie dumped water in his lap, the boy was in a state of _______.
| A．disappointment | B．relief | C．anxiety | D．anger |
What did the other kids do after the incident?
| A．They offered him dry clothes. |
| B．They laughed at the boy rudely. |
| C．They helped the boy do the cleaning. |
| D．They urged the boy to get out angrily. |
Why did Susie dump water in the boy’s lap?
| A．The boy asked her to do so. | B．She just did it by accident. |
| C．The teacher told her to do so. | D．She knew the boy’s trouble. |
Besides Susie, _______ also knows what had really happened to the boy.
| A．Martha | B．Jack | C．the teacher | D．the boys |
Photos that you might have found down the back of your sofa are now big business!
In 2005, the American artist Richard Prince’s photograph of a photograph, Untitled (Cowboy）, was sold for $ 1, 248, 000.
Prince is certainly not the only contemporary artist to have worked with so-called “found photographs”—a loose term given to everything from discarded(丢弃的） prints discovered in a junk shop to old advertisements or amateur photographs from a stranger’s family album. The German artist Joachim Schmid, who believes “basically everything is worth looking at”, has gathered discarded photographs, postcards and newspaper images since 1982. In his on-going project, Archiv, he groups photographs of family life according to themes: people with dogs; teams; new cars; dinner with the family; and so on.
Like Schmid, the editors of several self-published art magazines also champion (捍卫) found photographs. One of them, called simply Found, was born one snowy night in Chicago, when Davy Rothbard returned to his car to find under his wiper(雨刷） an angry note intended for some else: “Why’s your car HERE at HER place?” The note became the starting point for Rothbard’s addictive publication, which features found photographs sent in by readers, such a poster discovered in our drawer.
The whole found-photograph phenomenon has raised some questions. Perhaps one of the most difficult is: can these images really be considered as art? And if so, whose art? Yet found photographs produced by artists, such Richard Prince, may riding his horse hurriedly to meet someone? Or how did Prince create this photograph? It's anyone's guess. In addition, as we imagine the back-story to the people in the found photographs artists, like Schmid, have collated (整理）, we also turn toward our own photographic albums. Why is memory so important to us? Why do we all seek to freeze in time the faces of our children, our parents, our lovers, and ourselves? Will they mean anything to anyone after we've gone?
In the absence of established facts, the vast collections of found photographs give our minds an opportunity to wander freely. That, above all, is why they are so fascinating.The first paragraph of the passage is used to _________.
| A．remind readers of found photographs |
| B．advise reader to start a new kind of business |
| C．ask readers to find photographs behind sofa |
| D．show readers the value of found photographs |
According to the passage, Joachim Schmid _________.
| A．is fond of collecting family life photographs |
| B．found a complaining not under his car wiper |
| C．is working for several self-published magazines |
| D．wondered at the artistic nature of found photographs |
The underlined word "them" in Para 4 refers to __________.
| A．the readers | B．the editors |
| C．the found photographs | D．the self-published magazines |
By asking a series of questions in Para 5, the author mainly intends to indicate that ________.
| A．memory of the past is very important to people |
| B．found photographs allow people to think freely |
| C．the back-story of found photographs is puzzling |
| D．the real value of found photographs is questionable |
The author’s attitude towards found photographs can be described as _________.
| A．critical | B．doubtful | C．optimistic | D．satisfied |
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity. Others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied（依赖）on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit（追求）of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “ I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve(缓解） can we discover a new meaning in competition.What does this passage mainly talk about?
| A．Competition helps to set up self-respect. |
| B．Opinions about competition are different among people. |
| C．Competition is harmful to personal quality development. |
| D．Failures are necessary experience in competition. |
Why do some people favor competition according to the passage?
| A．It pushes society forward. |
| B．It builds up a sense of duty. |
| C．It improves personal abilities. |
| D．It encourages individual efforts. |
The underlined phrase "the most vocal" in Paragraph 3 means __________.
| A．those who try their best to win |
| B．those who value competition most highly |
| C．those who are against competition most strongly |
| D．those who rely on others most for success |
What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a "desire to fail"?
| A．One's worth lies in his performance compared with others. |
| B．One's success in competition needs great efforts. |
| C．One's achievement is determined by his particular skills. |
| D．One's success is based on how hard he has tried. |
Which point of view may the author agree to?
| A．Every effort should be paid back. |
| B．Competition should be encouraged. |
| C．Winning should be a life-and-death matter. |
| D．Fear of failure should be removed in competition. |