Thousands of taxi drivers in Shenyang, Liaoning province, reportedly blocked streets with their vehicles on Sunday in protest against unlicensed vehicles using taxi-hiring apps (打车软件) and apps-based car rental companies providing passenger services, including high-end cars. Although the drivers also complained about the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy by the government, their main complaint was the loss of business because of the rising number of Internet-based car services companies.
On Wednesday, news reports came that Beijing transport authorities will take measures to stop the illegal “taxi business” of private cars through the newly rising Internet apps, following the footsteps of Shenyang and Nanjing.
It is not yet clear how the Shenyang city government will handle the issue and whether it will declare the services offered by market leaders such as Didi Dache, a taxi-hiring app provider backed by Tencent Holdings, and Kuaidi Dache illegal. But Shanghai transport regulators have set a rule, by banning Didi Zhuanche, or car services offered by Didi Dache in December.
Such regulations will cause a setback to the car-hiring companies and investors that are waiting to cash in on the potentially booming business. Just last month, Didi Dache got $700 million in funding from global investors, including Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings, Russian investment company DST Global and Tencent. Besides, the market is uncertain that Kuaidi Dache is about to finalize its latest round of funding after getting $800 million from global investors.
Regulatory uncertainties, however, could cast a shadow on the future of the Internet-based car-hiring services, which have become popular in most of China’s big cities. To be fair, these companies’ business model is anything but bad. For example, Didi Zhuanche works side by side with established car rental companies to provide high-end car service mainly for businesspeople through the Internet and mobile phone apps.
Every link in this business model chain has legal companies and services. Hence, it is hard to define it as illegal and ban it.Why did taxi drivers in Shenyang block the streets with their vehicles?
| A．Because they wanted the authority to increase their driving allowances. |
| B．Because they wanted to be taught how to use the taxi-hiring apps. |
| C．Because they wanted to make their main complaints known to the authority. |
| D．Because they wanted to appeal to passengers not to hire the private cars. |
The author’s attitude to banning internet car-hiring service is______.
| A．positive | B．negative |
| C．neutral | D．unclear |
Which of the following statements is false according to the passage?
| A．The problem referred to in the passage exists in all cities |
| B．App-based car rental is functional to some degree |
| C．The government should regulate the app-based car rental market |
| D．Didi Dache is a China-foreign joint company |
we can learn from the passage that _____.
| A．Shenyang forbade apps-based car rental companies |
| B．Shanghai is the second city banning Didi Zhuanche |
| C．some international investment companies have strong faith in the future of apps-based car rental companies |
| D．it is not difficult to picture the apps-based car rental companies illegal |
KFC(肯德基), one of the most famous fast-food chains, saw its reputation in China shaken because of “quick chicken”. Recent years, KFC has ever shocked us more than once because of its food safety, which made itself in severe trust crisis. Now it greatly surprised us again owing to the poultry（禽肉）incident. We could never believe it should have cheated us again and again. In fact, as a well-known restaurant chain, KFC’s business records at China’s is not very good. There’s no doubt that the very incident has made things worse and worse.
However, what surprised us is that although a series of misdeeds had reduced KFC’s reputation, its business is increasing. What’s more, KFC just made a so-called apology after what had happened, the content of which is not responsible at all for the public. As a matter of fact, this is not an ordinary chance incident. Recent years have seen so many food-safety problems in China, such as wasted oil, lean meat powder（瘦肉精）, melamine（三聚氰胺）, which has done great damage to people’s life. We don’t know what can be eaten and how much harmful food we have eaten. Now it is not wars and natural disasters but everyday food safety that has been a great risk to human health.
So what can be done to prevent our health from being damaged? To begin with, the related departments should strengthen laws to stop such illegal products from being produced. In addition, it would be a good idea to call on the media to perform its further function to monitor the businesses, factories and traders. Besides, everybody should be made aware of the risks of harmful food and only in this way can people improve their self-protection. In a word, everyone should play a role in making our food safer and better in quality. Meanwhile, the government and the related departments should take their responsibilities for people’s health.According to the text, we can learn that KFC made itself in severe trust crisis________.
| A．because it had food safety problems many times |
| B．because it is one of the most famous fast-food chains |
| C．no people went to it |
| D．many people don’t like it |
From the passage, we learn that after the “quick chicken” incident ________.
| A．KFC was closed |
| B．KFC apologized to the public though it was not sincere |
| C．no people went to KFC |
| D．there is no longer chicken in KFC |
We can learn that the author thinks that people’s health is in danger because of ________.
| A．war | B．natural disaster | C．food safety | D．disease |
The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
| A．introduce some food safety incidents | B．make people not support KFC |
| C．ask people not to eat fast food | D．appeal to people for food safety |
In a recently published book, I came across some exercises with interesting names such as fishbone diagrams, lotus flowers and clustering. As I used these exercises in my classes, I noticed that students were interested. They said more and wrote more. They enjoyed expressing their ideas and sharing them in groups. They were no longer passively waiting for the bell , but actively taking part in the lesson. I find that creativity can act as a way to increase participation and improve fluency.
Creativity has become a popular word in recent years. Scholars in arts, psychology, business, education and science are all working to get a deeper understanding of it. Robert J. Stemberg is a creativity specialist and Yale professor of psychology. He defines creativity as “the ability to produce work that is both new (original） and appropriate(applicable to the situation ） ”. This definition is useful, as we want our students to use language in a new way and to use it correctly and properly. Mot scholars say there are two types of creativity: big “C” creativity and small “c” creativity. Big “C” creativity refers to genius level thinking that results in artistic masterpieces and scientific breakthroughs. Small “c” creativity refers to everyday level thinking that can be used in any situation our emphasis is on the latter. While it goes without saying that any of our students could go on to be the next Picasso or Edison, our aim is to help students produce more ideas and use language in a new way. The underlined words “waiting for the bell ” in the first paragraph probably means______.
| A．longing for a phone call | B．hoping to have a bell |
| C．expecting the end of the class | D．waiting to speak in the class |
It can be inferred from the passage that the author thinks the exercises in the book were _____.
| A．popular | B．useful | C．scientific | D．Creative |
When you use a familiar word in a new way, you are ________.
A creative in the sense of big “C” creativity.
B. creative in the sense of small “c” creativity..
C. not creative in the sense of big “C” creativity..
D. not creative in the sense of small “c” creativity.The main purpose of the passage is to _________.
| A．show how useful the book is |
| B．explain what creativity is |
| C．discuss how one can be creative |
| D．tell what teaching aims at |
How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time? Far too many.
This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal (排演）and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.
We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life.
In America they have a saying much laughed at by the English：“Have a nice day” they speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day.
How often do we say to ourselves, "I'll take up horse-riding (or golf, or sailing） as soon as I get a higher position," only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position.
When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal (反常的） mental state. How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area？I wanted to know.
Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure. He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains.The first paragraph of the passage tells us that_______ .
| A．we always try to find some time to write a book |
| B．we always make plans but seldom fulfil them |
| C．we always enjoy many of life's best moments |
| D．we always do what we really want to do |
The underlined phrase "turn his back on" (paragraph 6） most probably means .
| A．leave for | B．return to | C．give up | D．rely on |
The man ( paragraph 6） left his first job partly because he was______.
A. in an abnormal mental state B. under too much pressure
C. not well paidnot respectedWhat is probably the best title for the passage?
| A．Provide Homes For Our Family | B．Take Up Horse-riding |
| C．Value This Very Day | D．Stay Alive |
Childhood was an illusion (错觉）and the illusion was this: everything was bigger. No, I mean everything, not just houses and shops and grown-ups, but colors and flowers and journeys, especially journeys which seemed endless. “Are we there yet, Daddy?”
Funfairs (游乐场） were huge things that spread for miles around you with noise and lights and exciting danger. Rainy days at home when you were ill seemed to last for ever. Being a grown-up yourself was an unthinkable distant possibility. Every sound was louder, every game was grander, every pain unbearable.
As I’ve grown old, life has become smaller. Tastes have dulled. Surprises have turned into shocks. Days go by unnoticed. How can I regain childhood when it was an illusion?
I have only one repeatable and wonderful way and even in this way I can regain only part of that larger world. I can play upon the stage like a child and make the crowd laugh and laugh with them, sometimes helplessly like a child, and then, even though I’m a sixty-one-year-old man, I can almost catch the colors and sounds and stillness of those bigger years when I was little.How does the author feel about his childhood?
| A．It was endless. | B．It was unpleasant. |
| C．He is glad that it is over. | D．He misses it as a grown-up |
The author thinks that everything was bigger in childhood because________
| A．children could not make proper judgments. |
| B．children were curious and eager about life |
| C．things appeared really big in children’s eyes |
| D．to grow up seemed so long for children |
The world seems to have become smaller to the author because_______.
| A．life is disappointing | B．time goes by too fast |
| C．he has had too many surprises | D．foods no longer taste delicious |
The author enjoys playing on the stage so as to_______.
| A．act like a child | B．live an unusual life |
| C．make the crowd laugh | D．regain his childhood |
Instead of hitting the beach, fourteen high school students traded swimming suits for lab coats last summer and turned their attention to scientific experiments.
The High School Research Program offers high school students guidance with researchers in Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Jennifer Funkhouser, academic adviser for the Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, directs this four-week summer program designed to increase understanding of research and its career potential.
Several considerations go into selecting students, including grades, school involvement and interest in science and agriculture. And many students come from poorer school districts, Funkhouser says, “This is their chance to learn techniques and do experiments they never would have a chance to do in high school.”
Warner Ervin of Houston is interested in animal science and learned how to tell male from female mosquitoes(蚊子）.His adviser, Craig Coates, studies the genes of mosquitoes that allow them to fight against malaria and yellow fever. Coates thought this experience would be fun and helpful to the high school students.
The agricultural research at A&M differs from stereotypes. It’s “molecular(分子）science on the cutting edge,” Funkhouser says. The program broadened students’ knowledge. Victor Garcia of Rio Grande City hopes to become a biology teacher and says he learned a lot about chemistry from the program.
At the end of the program, the students presented papers on their research. They’re also paid $600 for their work-another way this program differs from others, which often charge a fee.
Fourteen students got paid to learn that science is fun, that agriculture is a lot more than milking and plowing and that research can open many doors.The research program is chiefly designed for _______.
| A．high school advisers from Houston |
| B．college students majoring in agriculture |
| C．high school students from different places |
| D．researchers at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences |
It can be inferred from the text that the students in poorer areas ___________ .
| A．had little chance to go to college |
| B．could often take part in the program |
| C．found the program useful to their future |
| D．showed much interest in their high school experiments |
When the program was over, the students ________.
| A．entered that college | B．wrote research reports |
| C．paid for their research | D．found way to make money |
The underlined expression “on the cutting edge” in paragraph 5 means “on the most ___ position”.
| A．important | B．favorable |
| C．astonishing | D．advanced |