In my first week as a graduate student at Cambridge University in 1964 I met with a fellow student, two years ahead of me in his studies; he was unsteady on his feet and spoke with great difficulty. This was Stephen Hawking. I learned that he had a bad disease and might not live long enough even to finish his PhD degree.
But, amazingly, he has reached the age of 73. Even mere survival would have been a medical miracle, but of course, he didn’t merely survive. He has become arguably the most famous scientist in the world for his brilliant research, for his bestselling books, and, above all, for his astonishing victory over hardship.
Stephen received his “death sentence” in 1964, when I thought it was hard for him to go on with his study. Stephen went from Albans School to Oxford University. He was said to be a “lazy” undergraduate, but his brilliance earned him a first-class degree, an “entry ticket” to a research career in Cambridge and a uniquely inspiring achievement.Within a few years of the burst of his disease he was wheelchair-bound, and his speech was so unclear that it could only be understood by those who knew him well. But his scientific career went from strength to strength: he quickly came up with a series of insights into the nature of black holes (then a very new idea) and how the universe began. In 1974 he was elected to the Royal Society at the exceptionally early age of 32.
The great advances in science generally involve discovering a link between phenomena that were previously conceptually unconnected — for instance, Isaac Newton realized that the force making an apple fall to earth was the same as the force that holds the moon and planets in their orbits. Stephen’s revolutionary idea about a link between gravity and quantum(量子) theory has still not been tested. However, it has been hugely influential; indeed, one of the main achievements of string theory(弦理论)has been to confirm and build on his idea. He has undoubtedly done more than anyone else since Einstein to improve our knowledge of gravity and he is one of the top-ten living theoretical physicists.
What impressed the author most about Stephen Hawking?
| A．His brilliant research. | B．His bestselling books. |
| C．His serious disease. | D．His defeating hardship. |
What made Stephen Hawking start his research career at Cambridge?
| A．His death sentence. |
| B．His “lazy” attitude. |
| C．His above-average talent and ability. |
| D．His rich experience. |
It can be inferred that Stephen Hawking was born .
| A．in the early 1940s | B．in the late 1940s |
| C．in the early 1930s | D．in the late 1930s |
What can we learn from the text?
| A．Hawking’s theory was proved years ago. |
| B．Hawking was not as successful as Newton. |
| C．String theory built on Hawking’s idea. |
| D．Hawking’s theory has had little influence on others. |
Which of the following is Not True according the passage?
| A．He achieved one success after another in his career despite his disease. |
| B．He couldn’t walk when the author first met him at Cambridge. |
| C．He not only survived his disease but contributed greatly to science. |
| D．He is among the greatest scientists to improve the knowledge of gravity. |
As the US wakes up to China’s rising status (地位) as an economic and strategic competitor, US parents are urging their children to learn Chinese, reports Julian Borger.
The US is being swept by a rush to learn Mandarin (普通话) -- from wealthy New York mothers hiring Chinese nannies (保姆) for their small children to a defence department education project in Oregon.
The forces driving Mandarin’s momentum (势头) are parental ambition for children facing a future in which China is almost certain to be a major player, and the government is worried about that America may get left behind in that new world.
The bottleneck is the supply of teachers. Mandarin instructors are difficult to import and difficult to train. There are visa problems in bringing over teachers from China but the biggest barrier is cultural. Teaching in Asia is generally done by rote and the change to western, interactive styles of instruction can be a large leap（跳越）.
On the other hand, it requires enormous firmness for westerners to learn a language like Chinese, with its thousands of written characters. According to the Asia Society in New York, all of America’s teacher-training institutions turn out only a couple of dozen homegrown Mandarin teachers.
One way to ease the shortage is to find native Mandarin speakers and use fast-track methods to train them. However, the majority of Chinese-Americans grew up speaking Cantonese, the dialect（方言）spoken in Hong Kong, where their parents came from. Many are themselves signing on as Mandarin students at the private language schools springing up on the west coast.
Title :in the USA
You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists. But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes(撞击） through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead！Of course he isn't really dead. With any luck he isn't even hurt. Why? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars and run out of them even when they catch fire, are professionals. They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks. There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress（床垫）. Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar! But although their work depends on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman’s success depends on careful timing. For example, when he is "blown up" in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff（悬崖）a thousand feet high. His parachute（降落伞）failed to open, and he was killed. In spite of all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too. Stuntmen are those who ______.
| A．often dress up as actors |
| B．prefer to lead dangerous lives |
| C．often perform seemingly dangerous actions |
| D．often fight each other for their lives |
Stuntmen earn their living by ______.
| A．playing their dirty tricks | B．selling their special skills |
| C．jumping out of high windows | D．jumping from fast moving trains |
When a stuntman falls from a high building, ______.
| A．he needs little protection | B．he will be covered with a mattress |
| C．his life is endangered | D．his safety is generally all right |
Which of the following is the main factor of a successful performance?
| A．Strength. | B．Exactness. | C．Speed. | D．Carefulness |
What can be inferred from the author’s example of the Norwegian stuntman?
| A．Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman. |
| B．The percentage of serious accidents is high. |
| C．Parachutes must be of good quality. |
| D．The cliff is too high. |
This is a dangerous world we live in. The number of murders goes up every year, people are dying of cancer, more people contract HIV, more teens are using drugs, ect. You know this because you’ve heard all the statistics on the news and in the paper. But do you really have an accurate idea what they mean? The numbers are going up, but how do they compare to the growth in population? Are more cases of these diseases being reported because of better testing techniques, or are the diseases more common? The fact is that without knowing the background statistics mean very little.
This growing trend of reporting only part of the information is becoming dangerous. For example, several years ago a high school student reported the dangers of the chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide. This chemical, found in most cancerous tumors, is often found in the blood of people drunk on alcohol, and causes complete physical and mental dependence for those who take the chemical even once. After reading his report, more than 75% of his Advanced Placement Chemistry class voted to forbid this dangerous chemical! Every one of the above statement is true, yet this chemical is necessary to all life on earth. The students made a mistake because they voted knowing only a few statements and statistics, rather than the chemical’s full background.
The point of this article is that one should be aware of what is and is not being said. When one finds a new fact or number, one should try to consider other important information before forming an opinion with only half-truths. Always remember that the author is trying to convince you of his or her own view, and will leave our information that is different from his view. For example, look again at the statistics that suggest skiing is safe. Only 32 people die each year when skiing, while 897 die from lightening strikes, but which is really more dangerous? If you think more about it, you will realize far fewer people go skiing each year than the number of people in danger of a lightning strike. When you think about it again, skiing is more dangerous than you might at first think when looking at the statistics. If we teenagers are to be left in this world, we had better be able to think critically, and form our own views, rather than be easily persuaded by another’s. To be warned is just to be prepared.What’s the author’s attitude towards the growing trend of reporting only part of the
information?
Disapproving B. Positive C. Indifferent D. DangerousIn the first paragraph, what does the writer suggest?
| A．We are now living in a dangerous world. |
| B．We get a lot of false statistics from the media. |
| C．There are around us more and more murders diseases, ect. |
| D．Statistics alone without full background don’t give us an accurate picture of things. |
What’s the purpose of the writer’s using the two examples in the second paragraph?
| A．To argue that high school students are easily persuaded. |
| B．To prove what is necessary to us might be dangerous. |
| C．To show the danger of reporting only part of the information. |
| D．To warn us of the harmful substance around us. |
Relative information is often left out because ___________________.
| A．it is not important |
| B．the author is trying to show what he or she says is true |
| C．readers will consider other important information |
| D．readers are able to form an opinion with half-truths |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Some measures must be taken to protect our dangerous world. |
| B．The growing trend of reporting only half-truths is getting out of control. |
| C．Teenagers ought to improve their ability of telling right from wrong. |
| D．We should learn to think critically and look at problems from all sides. |
Statistically, air travel is by far the safest way to travel, and you can make flying even safer, just by following these simple rules. As your chances of being involved in an air accident are practically nil（零）, many of these tips concern what you should and shouldn't do to make your journey safer when you are airborne（升空的）.
● Fly on non-stop routes
Most accidents occur during the takeoff, climb, descent and landing phases of a flight, so flying non-stop reduces your exposure to these complex procedures.
● Choose larger aircraft.
Although small aircraft have very good safety records, those with more than 30 passenger seats are designed to comply（遵守）with much stricter regulations and are tested more regularly to make sure they still comply. Also, in the unlikely event of a serious accident, larger aircraft provide a better opportunity for passenger survival.
● Pay attention to the pre-flight safety briefing
The information may seem repetitious（重复的）, but it's worth listening to the flight attendants. And even if you’ve flown before, it doesn’t mean you know everything about the aircraft you're on, such as the location of the closest emergency exit.
● Store things safely
Never put very heavy articles in the overhead storage bins. They may fall out when someone opens the bin and cause injury. Also, the bin may not be able to hold heavier objects during turbulence（气流）.
● Keep our seat belt fastened while you are seated
Cabin crew always tell you this, but it’s important. You would be seriously injured if the plane hits unexpected turbulence. Always fasten your seat belt if you are told to. The general rule of flying is this: If you are told to do something, do it first and ask questions later.
● Let the flight attendant pour your hot drinks
Flight attendants are trained to handle hot drinks like coffee or tea in a crowded aisle on a moving aircraft, so allow them to pour the drink and hand it to you. Never ask to take a coffee pot from one of them. What is the overall reason for these air safety tips?
| A．What to do in the event of a crash. |
| B．How to avoid turbulence. |
| C．How to improve safety while you are flying. |
| D．How to avoid injury. |
The underlined word “those” in the second tip refers to ____
| A．smaller planes | B．passengers |
| C．larger aircraft | D．safety records |
The underlined phrase “The general rule” in the fifth tip refers to ____.
| A．anything the flight staff tell you to do | B．general safety advice |
| C．walking around the plane | D．pouring hot drinks |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Larger planes have more safety checks and are safer in an accident. |
| B．Take-offs are safer on non-stop flights than landings. |
| C．Every aircraft is different, so the safety procedures may be different. |
| D．Seat belts should be worn to protect against turbulence. |
The best title of the passage should be____.
| A．The Safest Way to Travel | B．Air Safety Tips |
| C．Non-stop Routes | D．How to Fly a Plane |
I needed to get some money so, after Christmas, I took a job in the clothes department at Graham's for the first fortnight of the January sale．I can't say that I enjoyed it, but it was an experience I'll never forget．
I could never understand why there were so many things in the sales, where did they all come from? Now I know the secret! Firstly, there is the special winter stock （货物） and the stock that people buy all the year round; some of these things are slightly reduced．Secondly, there are the summer clothes they couldn't sell last year; these are heavily reduced to clear them．Thirdly, there are cheap clothes bought in specially for the sales; these are put out at high prices ten days before the sale begins and then are reduced by 60% in the sale．Clever! Lastly, they buy in “seconds”（clothes not in perfect condition） for the sale and they are sold very cheaply．
When I arrived half an hour before opening on the first day of the sale, there was already a queue around three sides of the building．This made me very nervous．
When the big moment arrived to open the doors, the security guards looking less confident than usual, came up to them, keys in hand．The moment they had unlocked the doors, they hid behind the doors for protection as the noisy crowd charged in．I couldn't believe my eyes; this wasn't shopping, it was a battlefield! One poor lady couldn't keep her feet and was knocked over by people pushing from behind．
Clothes were flying in all directions as people searched for the sizes, colours and styles they wanted．Quarrels broke out．Mothers were using their small children to crawl through people's legs and get hold of things they couldn't get near themselves．
Within minutes I had half a dozen people pushing clothes under my nose; each wanting to be the first served．Where had the famous English queue gone? The whole day continued like that, but I kept my temper81 was taking money hand over fist and began to realize why twice a year, Graham's were happy to turn their expensive store into a battlefield like this．
In the sale fever; people were spending money like water without thinking whether they needed what they were buying．As long as it was a bargain it was OK．You won't believe this．But as soon as I got home I crashed out for four hours．Then I had dinner and went back to bed, fearing the sound of the alarm which would tell me to get ready for the second day of the sale. What kind of clothes is likely to be s0ld 5% cheaper?
| A．Last summer's clothes, |
| B．Clothes not in perfect condition． |
| C．Clothes bought in specially for the sales． |
| D．Clothes for winter． |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．The customers gave up the queuing, for which the English are famous． |
| B．The customers kept their temper while looking for clothes they wanted． |
| C．Small children enjoyed crawling though people's legs． |
| D．The security guards were fearless of the crowd． |
In the author's opinion, why were Gradhani's happy to make, their expensive store into a "battlefield"?
| A．There were too many clothes and they wanted to clear them in the sales． |
| B．They were eager to show that they were clever at doing business． |
| C．They could take the chance to raise the prices of all their clothes． |
| D．They wanted to make more money by having sales． |
The expression "crashed out" means _____．
| A．chatted with her friends | B．slept soundly |
| C．broke down | D．dined out |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．The Best Bargain． | B．Hunting for a Job． |
| C．Sale Fever． | D．A Pleasant Fortnight． |