Some people bring out the best in you in a way that you might never have fully realized on your own. My mom was one of those people.
My father died when I was nine months old, making my mom a single mother at the age of eighteen. While I was growing up, we lived a very hard life. We had little money, but my mom gave me a lot of love. Each night, she sat me on her lap and spoke the words that would change my life, “Kemmons, you are certain to be a great man and you can do anything in life if you work hard enough to get it.”
At fourteen, I was hit by a car and the doctors said I would never walk again. Every day, my mother spoke to me in her gentle, loving voice, telling me that no matter what those doctors said, I could walk again if I wanted to badly enough. She drove that message so deep into my heart that I finally believed her. A year later, I returned to school — walking on my own!
When the Great Depression (大萧条) hit, my mom lost her job. Then I left school to support the both of us. At that moment, I was determined never to be poor again.
Over the years, I experienced various levels of business success. But the real turning point occurred on a vacation I took with my wife and five kids in 1951. I was dissatisfied with the second-class hotels available for families and was angry that they charged an extra $2 for each child. That was too expensive for the average American family. I told my wife that I was going to open a motel (汽车旅馆) for families that would never charge extra for children. There were plenty of doubters at that time.
Not surprisingly, mom was one of my strongest supporters. She worked behind the desk and even designed the room style. As in any business, we experienced a lot of challenges. But with my mother’s words deeply rooted in my soul, I never doubted we would succeed. Fifteen years later, we had the largest hotel system in the world — Holiday Inn. In 1979 my company had 1, 759 inns in more than fifty countries with an income of $ 1 billion a year.
You may not have started out life in the best situation. But if you can find a task in life worth working for and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you. What Kemmons’ mom often told him during his childhood was ______.
A.caring | B.moving |
C.encouraging | D.interesting |
According to the author, who played the most important role in making him walk back to school again?
A.Doctors. | B.Nurses. | C.Friends. | D.Mom. |
What caused Kemmons to start a motel by himself?
A.His terrible experience in the hotel. |
B.His previous business success of various levels. |
C.His mom’s support. |
D.His wife’s suggestion. |
Which of the following best describes Kemmons’ mother?
A.Modest, helpful, and hard-working. |
B.Loving, supportive and strong-willed. |
C.Careful, helpful and beautiful. |
D.Strict, sensitive and supportive. |
Which of the following led to Kemmons’ success according to the passage?
A.Self-confidence, hard work, higher education and a poor family. |
B.Mom’s encouragement, clear goals, self-confidence and hard work. |
C.Clear goals, mom’s encouragement, a poor family and higher education. |
D.Mom’s encouragement, a poor family, higher education and opportunities. |
A story from the Bible tells of old Babylon, where the men decided to build a tower that would touch the sky.But God was unhappy, and he made them speak different languages.They couldn’t understand each other, so their dream never came true.
Yet the dream remains alive: if all men speak the same language, they can do anything.L.L.Zamenhof from Poland was among the men who pursue this dream.He developed Esperanto(世界语)between 1877 and 1885.
As the most successful man-made world language, it is spoken by over two million people around the world.Last month, the World Esperanto Congress(大会), dealing with language rights, ended in Sweden.The 2004 conference will be held in Beijing.Most Esperanto speakers are in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, particularly Chinese mainland.
Esperanto has two advantages.First, it’s easy.Each letter has exactly one sound and there are just 16 basic grammar rules.The second advantage is that it belongs to no one country.But Esperanto has only reached a small number of people compared with natural languages widely used around the world-such as English or Chinese.While these languages are deeply connected with their nations and cultures, Esperanto doesn’t have this background.
Will Esperanto really become a global language? It remains a question.The writer tells us a story at the beginning to.
A.explain why men have been making the effort to create a language shared by all |
B.explain why men now speak different languages |
C.show the relationship between man and God |
D.prove that language is very important |
What does the underlined word “pursue” in the second paragraph mean?
A.“Realize”. | B.“Work for”. | C.“Be against”. | D.“Follow”. |
What is the basic difference between Esperanto and English?
A.More people speak English than Esperanto. |
B.Esperanto words are easier to spell. |
C.Esperanto has fewer grammar rules. |
D.Esperanto is not supported by any country or culture. |
What does the story mainly talk about?
A.Advantages and disadvantages of Esperanto. |
B.Men’s dream of sharing the same language. |
C.The most successful planned language-Esperanto. |
D.Comparison of Esperanto and other languages like English and Chinese. |
When I asked my daughter which item she would keep; the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said “the phone”.Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual, because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.
Point 1 The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic.My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day.If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?
Point 2 The mobile phone means that we are never alone.“The mobile saved my life,” says Crystal Johnstone.She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton.Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance(救护车)to her rescue.
Point 3 The mobile removes our secret.It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went.
Point 4 The telephone separates us.Antonella Bramante in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window.It was easy to get his number.We were so near—but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!”
Point 5 The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives.Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously(同时地)on chat lines(at least my daughter does.I wouldn’t know what to talk about).We can talk across the world.We can even talk to astronauts(if you know any)while they’re space-walking.And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on Earth.
How do you understand ‘Point 1 —The telephone creates the need to communicate,…’?
A.People don’t communicate without telephone. |
B.People communicate because of the creating of the telephone. |
C.People communicate more since telephone has been created. |
D.People communicate more because of more traffic. |
Which points do you think support the idea that phones improve people’s life?
a.Point 1. b.Point2. c.Point3. d.Point 4.e.Point 5.
A.c, d | B.a, e | C.a, c | D.b, e |
It is possible to talk to several complete strangers simultaneously through.
A.the TV screen |
B.a fax machine |
C.the phone line hooked up to the computer |
D.a microphone |
The best heading for the passage is .
A.Phone Power | B.Kinds of Phone |
C.How to Use Phones | D.Advantage of Phones |
According to a report by the China News Weekly, Chinese white collars are becoming fully occupied in the office.They pursue many of their activities in the office building, eating, doing exercise, resting, playing games or even dating.
In large cities such as Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing, where economy is developing at a fast speed, office workers face an increasing work pressure day by day and many of them have begun to make office their home.
As the young generation in society, most of them are aged between 25 and 45.In the eyes of outsiders, they enjoy a comfortable life: they lead the fashion trend in the city and earn a high salary; they enjoy a flexible working schedule and a very good working environment; having a good education background, they don’t have to worry that one day they will lose their jobs.
However, only the white collars themselves know what others see as a good life is in fact a boring life.They often work for extra hours, suffer from loss of creative ability and have little time to make friends.When they go off from work late at night, sometimes they might think of asking for a leave the next day and having a holiday somewhere.However, when a new day begins, they find everything back to normal and themselves pushed by new tasks.
In fact, even if they don’t work for extra hours in the office, they have no place to go.Many of the young people are fresh from college, or have come to work in large cities from their hometowns.As newcomers, they haven’t established(建立)a social network.They have few friends to go dating.Meanwhile, many of them face a great pressure for earning money to buy a house or a car.If they cannot afford to buy these, they still have to work to pay for high apartment rents and communication fares.The underlined sentence(in paragraph 1)probably means _____.
A.Chinese white collars are not allowed to get out of the office. |
B.The office is crowded with Chinese white collars. |
C.Chinese white collars make the office filled with odds and ends. |
D.Chinese white collars spend most of their time in the office. |
The following are all reasons why white collars want to have a rest Except that_____.
A.they have to continue to stay at office after work |
B.they feel more and more difficult to think up a good idea |
C.they have no interest in anything |
D.they have little time to make friends |
The main idea of the third paragraph is that _____.
A.white collars are admired by other people |
B.white collars needn’t worry about losing jobs |
C.white collars can earn high salary and work freely |
D.white collars are in the lead in the way of behaving |
From the passage, we can infer that _____.
A.white collars are all workaholics who regard the office as home |
B.white collars suffer from material and mental pressure in life |
C.white collars are the models of young people in society |
D.people have a good understanding of what white collars’ life is |
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Email: hireabus@lonutd.co.ukAll the following are the advantages of a Route master EXCEPT ____.
A.being newly produced | B.a fully trained driver |
C.a PA system | D.carrying up to 70 guests |
If you are having a birthday party with 71 guests, what kind of vehicle will you hire?
A.A Route master. | B.A Double Decker bus. |
C.A Single Decker bus. | D.A horse-tram. |
We can learn from the passage that ____.
A.the buses can only be hired through the Internet |
B.London United Bus ways has a history of more than 200 years |
C.all the passengers on the Private Hire vehicles should be seated |
D.London United Bus ways provides matches and concerts throughout the year |
Where is the text most likely to be found?
A.In a local newspaper. | B.In a traffic handbook |
C.In a magazine.![]() |
D.On a website. |
The sea has always interested man. From it he can get food, minerals, and treasure. But he could not go far beneath its surface.
However, he is not a fish. He must breathe air, so he can’t stay under the water’s surface for any length of time. To explore deep water, man faces even more dangers and problems.
A diver who wants to stay under water for more than a few minutes must breathe air or a special mixture of gases. He can carry a tank of air on his back and breathe through a nose and a mouthpiece. Water weighs 800 times as much as air. Tons of water pushes against a diver deep in the sea.
When a diver is under great pressure, his blood takes in some of the gases he breathes. As he rises to surface, the water pressure becomes less. If the diver rises too quickly, the gases in his blood form bubbles(气泡). The diver is then suffering from the bends(潜水夫病). The bends can cause a diver to double up in pain.
A.His body is under great pressure. |
B.Scientists are trying to find more about the sea. |
C.For thousands of years, he could sail on it. |
D.They can even kill him. |
E. He can wear a diving suit and have air pumped to him from above.
F. The water pressure can cause a diver to breathe with difficulty.
G. Man wants to explore deep into the sea.