A month after Hurricane Katrina, I returned home in New Orleans. There lay my house, reduced to waist-high rains, smelly and dirty.
Before the trip, I’d had my car fixed. When the office employee of the garage was writing up the bill, she noticed my Louisiana license plate. “You from New Orleans?” she asked. I said I was, “No charge.” She said, and firmly shook her head when I reached for my wallet. The next day I went for a haircut, and the same thing happened.
As my wife was studying in Florida, we decided to move there and tried to find a rental house that we could afford while also paying off a mortgage (抵押贷款) on our ruined house. We looked at many places, but none was satisfactory. We’d begun to accept that we’d have to live in extremely reduced circumstances for a while, when I got a very curious e-mail from a James Kennedy in California. He’d read some pieces I’d written about our sufferings for Slate, the online magazine and wanted to give us (“no conditions attached”) a new house across the lake from New Orleans.
It sounded too good to be true, but I replied, thanking him for his exceptional generosity, that we had no places to go back. Then a poet at the University of Florida offered to rent his house to me while he went to England on his one-year-paid leave. The rent was rather reasonable. I mentioned the poet’s offer to James Kennedy, and the next day he sent a check covering our entire rent for eight months.
Throughout this painful experience, the kindness of strangers has done much to bring back my faith in humanity. It’s almost worth losing your worldly possessions to be reminded that people are really nice when given half a chance. The garage employee’s attitude toward the author was that of ________.
| A．unconcern | B．sympathy |
| C．doubt | D．tolerance |
What do we know about James Kennedy?
| A．He was a writer of an online magazine. |
| B．He was a poet at the University of Florida. |
| C．He learned about the author’s sufferings via e-mail. |
| D．He offered the author a new house free of charge. |
It can be inferred from the text that ________.
| A．the author’s family was in financial difficulty |
| B．rents were comparatively reasonable despite the disaster |
| C．houses were difficult to find in the hurricane-stricken area |
| D．the mortgage on the ruined house was paid off by the bank |
From Paragraph 4, we can know that the author’s new house ________.
| A．was located in the University of Florida |
| B．was offered by a poet and the rent was expensive |
| C．was sponsored by James Kennedy with its 8-month rent |
| D．was well-equipped but the rent was low |
The author learned from his experience that ________.
| A．worldly possessions can be given up when necessary |
| B．generosity should be encouraged in some cases |
| C．people benefit from their sad stories |
| D．human beings are kind after all |
Road rage is commonly seen or often happens in our daily lives. There have been countless stories about this new and scary phenomenon, considered a type of aggressive driving. While drunk driving remains a critical problem, the facts about aggressive driving are surely as disturbing. For instance, last year alone, 41, 907 people died on the highways. Of those deaths, it’s estimated that about two-thirds were caused at last in part by aggressive driving behavior.
Why is this phenomenon occurring more than ever now? Experts have several theories, and all are probably partially correct. One suggestion is sheer overcrowding. In the last decade, the number of cars on the roads has increased by more than 11 percent, and the number of miles driven has increased by 35 percent. However, the number of new road miles has only increased by 1 percent. That means more cars in the same amount of space; and the problem is magnified in urban areas.
Also, people have less time and more things to do. With people working and trying to fit extra chores and activities into the day, stress levels have never been higher. Stress creates anxiety, which leads to short tempers. These factors, when combined in certain stations, can spell Road Rage.
You may think you are the last person who would drive aggressively, but you might be surprised. For instance, have you ever yelled out loud at a lower driver, sounded the born long and hard at another car, or sped up to keep another driver from passing? If you recognize yourself in any of these situations, watch out!
Whether you are getting angry at other drivers, or another driver is visibly upset with you, there are things you can do to avoid any major conflict. If you are easily influenced by road rage, the key is to discharge your emotion in a healthy way. If you are the target of another driver’s rage, do everything possible to get away from the other driver safely, including avoiding eye contact and getting out of their way.Last year on the highways, .
| A．approximately two thirds of drivers were killed by road rages |
| B．road rage remained the No. 1 killer and took 41,907 people’s lives |
| C．more people were killed by aggressive driving than by drunk driving. |
| D．drunk driving was a problem more serious than aggressive driving. |
As a cause of aggressive driving, which of the following is not included?
| A．Drivers’ stress and anxiety. |
| B．Rush hour traffic. |
| C．Increasing number of cars. |
| D．Overcrowded roads. |
Which of the following shows the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．The bad results of road rage |
| B．How to discharge your emotion properly. |
| C．The practical ways to escape any fight on roads |
| D．People easily influenced by road rage |
In this information age, there are plenty of mindless activities to keep a child busy. Yet despite the competition, my 8-year-old daughter Alice wants to spend her leisure time writing short stories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest, a competition which she won last year.
As a writer, I know about winning contests---and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection letter from the publisher. I also know the pressure of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn’t win the contest again? That’s the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and destroyed hopes can resurface in our children.
A revelation(启示) came last week when I asked her, “Don’t you want to win again?” “No,” she replied, “I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade.”
I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously(自发地)told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly “guided” by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.
Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting my daughter’s experience.
While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.What do we know about the author’s own writing experience?
| A．She was constantly under pressure to write more. |
| B．Her road to success was full of pain and frustrations. |
| C．Most of her stories had been rejected by publishers. |
| D．She did not quite live up to her reputation as a writer. |
Why did Alice want to enter this year’s writing contest?
| A．She wanted to share her stories with readers. |
| B．She had won a prize in the previous contest. |
| C．She believed she possessed real talent for writing. |
| D．She was sure of winning with her mother’s help. |
The underlined sentence probably means that the author was .
| A．trying not to let her daughter enjoy her own life |
| B．helping her daughter develop real skills for writing |
| C．making sure that her daughter would win the contest |
| D．trying to get her daughter to do the thing as the author wished |
What does the writer mean to tell us in the last two paragraphs?
| A．Children need more room to develop. |
| B．Parents should co-opt children’s experience. |
| C．Children should be provided enough help. |
| D．Parents need to remind their children of their own choices. |
Death is natural, but do you have any idea of the process of dying? Modern scientists divide the process of dying into two phases --- clinical or temporary death and biological death. Clinical death occurs when the vital organs, such as the heart or lungs, have ceased to function, but have not suffered permanent damage. The organism can still be revived(复活). Biological death occurs when changes in the organism lead to the “breaking up” of vital cells and tissues. Death is then unchangeable and final.
Scientists have been seeking a way to prolong the period of clinical death so that the organism can remain alive before biological death occurs. The best method developed so far involves cooling of the organism, combined with narcotic sleep. By slowing down the body’s metabolism(新陈代谢), cooling delays the processes leading to biological death.
To illustrate how this works, scientists performed an experiment on a six-year-old female monkey called Keta. The scientist put Keta to sleep with a narcotic. Then they surrounded her body with ice-bags and began checking her body temperature. When it had dropped to 28 degrees the scientists began draining blood from an artery. The monkey’s blood pressure decreased and an hour later both the heart and breathing stopped: clinical death set in. For twenty minutes Keta remained in this state. Her temperature dropped to 22 degrees. At this point the scientists pumped blood into an artery in the direction of the heart and started artificial breathing. After two minutes Keta’s heart became active once more. After fifteen minutes, spontaneous(自发的)breathing began, and after four hours Keta opened her eyes and lifted her head. After six hours, when the scientists tried to give her a penicillin injection, Keta seized the syringe and ran with it around the room. Her behavior differed little from that of a healthy animal.For a person who suffers from the clinical death
| A．his most important organs are damaged. |
| B．he still has the possibility of getting back to life. |
| C．he can not avoid final death. |
| D．he is still very much alive |
Scientists try to make the time of clinical death longer in order to
| A．slow down the body’s metabolism. |
| B．bring vital cells and tissues back to active life. |
| C．cool the organism. |
| D．delay the coming of biological death. |
How did the scientists put Keta into clinical death?
| A．By putting her to sleep, lowering her temperature and draining her blood. |
| B．By surrounding her body with ice-bags and draining her blood. |
| C．By lowing her blood pressure and stopping her heart from beating. |
| D．By draining her blood, lowering her blood pressure and stopping her breathing. |
All of the following indicate that the monkey has almost restored to her original physical state except the fact that
| A．her heart beat again. |
| B．she regained her normal breath. |
| C．she rejected a penicillin injection. |
| D．she acted as lively as a healthy monkey. |
A
THIS WEEK’S TOURS of CATTY SHACK
Thursday, January 8, 2015—Daytime Tours
Hours: 1:00~4:00 PM, last admittance at 3:15 PM
Admission: Adults: $10
Children (3~11): $5
2 & Under: Free
Purchase Tickets:
Tickets may be pre-purchased up to 24 hours prior to the event by using the button below. Tickets may also be purchased at the ranch—cash, credit Visa, Mastercard & Discover are accepted forms of payment at the ranch. Tickets cannot be exchanged or money refunded. No reservations required.
Enjoy a leisurely, guided tour of our sanctuary and see all the residents (Siberian tigers, lions, cougars, black leopards, a bobcat, a coatimundi and foxes)! Tours last approximately 45 minutes.
Saturday, January 10, 2015—Night Feeding Tours
Hours: Gates open at 6:00 PM. Tours from 6:00 PM -7:00 PM. Last admittance at 7:15 PM. Feeding begins at 7:30 PM.
Admission: Adults: $15
Children (3~11): $10
2 & Under: Free
Purchase Tickets:
Tickets may be pre-purchased up to 24 hours prior to the event by using the button below. Tickets may also be purchased at the ranch — cash, credit Visa, Mastercard & Discover are accepted forms of payment at the ranch. Tickets cannot be exchanged or money refunded.No reservations required.
Enjoy a guided tour of all the residents (Siberian tigers, lions, cougars, black leopards, a bobcat, a coatimundi and foxes) at our sanctuary! Tours begin at 6:00 PM and leave approximately every 15 minutes. Tours last about 45 minutes and include a viewing of all our residents, as time allows, along with facts about the animals. To see the feeding, we suggest everyone arrive at the ranch by 7:15 PM to allow for adequate time for check-in and walking to the feeding point. At 7:30 PM, you will get to watch over 450 pounds of meat distributed throughout the sanctuary! Get ready to see their “wild” side — there’s sure to be plenty of roaring!
To learn about more upcoming tours, you can click on the calendar event listing for full details. A couple with his son aged 6 who will attend Daytime Tours on January 8 will pay ______.
| A．$10 | B．$15 | C．$ 20 | D．$25 |
From the text, we can know all EXCEPT ______.
| A．admission cost | B．event description |
| C．special comments | D．visiting hours |
Which of the following about Night Feeding Tours on January 10, 2015 is WRONG?
| A．Tickets are non-refundable. |
| B．Visitors can feed the animals in person. |
| C．Guide is available during the tours. |
| D．Visitors can’t be allowed in after 7:15 PM. |
Where can you find the text?
| A．On the website. | B．In the textbook. |
| C．In the magazine. | D．On the poster board. |
According to a survey，more Europeans go digital一changing from fixed lines to mobile phones and from narrowband to broadband Internet connections.
The survey showed that 22 percent of EU households use only mobile phones, up from I8 percent a year ago,while the percentage of households with at least one fixed line decreased by 5 percent to 72 percent, although the percentage of households with at least one mobile phone remains fairly stable at 8l per cent.
Broadband is presenting a rapid upward trend in the EU, showed the survey, which polled(对…进行民意调查)27,000 households across the union. 'Itventy-eight percent of households are now connected to the Internet via high-speed "broadband" links, up six percent from last year, while narrowband usage has dipped by three percentage points to 12 percent. More than half of households access the Internet via an ADSL line and 34 percent of broadband connections are wireless.
"Europe's digital economy is growing strongly as more and more households love to choose between fixed, mobile and Internet services," said EU Information Society and Media Commissioner wiane Reding. "The challenge of this year's reform of the EU's telecom rules will be to respond to this rapidly changing technological environment while enhancing(提高）at the same time effective competition:'
Meanwhile, nearly 20 percent of Europeans buy two or more telecom products from a single service provider, the combination of fixed telephony and.Internet access being the most common. The result may strengthen the commission's case for breaking up telecom giants, whose control over the fixed line networks～accused of hindering(妨碍）competition."Today's survey findings will feed into the ongoing public debate on the reform of the EU telecom rules, planned for summer this year," said Reding.Today, the percentage of households with at least one fixed line goes down to
A. 34%％ B, 22% C.72% D. 81%What will be covered in this year's reform of the EU's telecom hales?
| A．The quickly changing technological environment. |
| B．The plan to stop the use of the fixed lines. |
| C．Breaking up telecom giants. |
| D．The ongoing public debate on global economy. |
If a European will buy telecom products from a single service provider, what will be the result?
| A．Less than two services are provided for customers. |
| B．Competition will become fierce in the telecom field. |
| C．A plan on the reform of the telecom is breaking up. |
| D．It becomes more difficult to fight off big companies' control. |
The best title of this article is
| A．Mobile Phones Become Popular |
| B．More Europeans Go Digital |
| C．The disappearance of the fixed line |
| D．The Rules of the EU's Telecom |