Crash. Shatter. Boom. Crash. Shatter. Boom. Smattering of silly dialogue. Pretty girl screams: “Dad!” Crash. Shatter. Boom. Crash. Shatter. Boom. Silly dialogue. “Dad!!!” Crash. Shatter. Boom.
What? Oh, sorry. We were falling into a trance there.
Which is, dear moviegoer, what may happen to you during Michael Bay’s Transformers: Age of Extinction, the fourth Transformers film and lasts 165 minutes, which is precariously (危险地) close to the three-hour mark that Bay undoubtedly will reach—by our sophisticated calculations, and at the current growth rate, with his sixth installment(集).
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Despite what you’ve just read, this film will likely be a massive hit because by now, if you’re buying a Transformers ticket, you surely know what you’re getting into, and you want more, more, more. And Bay is the Master of More.
Or just take it from the 11-year-old sitting next to me, who reserved any audible judgment—he, too was in a trance, though maybe from sugar intake—until the moment he saw a Transformer become a dinosaur. Overwhelmed by the pairing, he proclaimed, “That’s the sickest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.” It was as if peanut butter and jelly had been tasted together for the first time.
This time, there’s a whole new human cast. Most important, Mark Wahlberg has replaced Shia LaBeouf as well, Main Human Guy.
A significant part of the movie also takes place in China—clearly a nod to the franchise’s huge market in the country.
In any case, we begin in Paris, Texas, where Cade Yeager (Wahlberg), a struggling inventor, is desperatlely seeking a big discovery. He’s also a widowed dad, and super-protective (as the movie constantly reminds us) of his high-school daughter, Tessa (Nicola Peltz, blond and pretty and ineffective, though the one-note script does her no favors).
One day, Cade buys a rusty old truck. Examining it back home, he soon discovers it’s none other than Optimus Prime, the Autobot hero, seriously damaged.
As Cade works on fixing him up, his assistant, witty surfer-dude Lucas, has the dumb idea of calling the authorities. What he doesn’t know is that the government is plotting to destroy all remaining Autobots in favor of a man-made army of Transformers.
So now, it’s evil humans that pitted against the trustworthy Autobots. So much for gratitude. There’s also a subplot involving Tessa and her secret boyfriend, Shane (Jack Reynor, underused), whose Irish accent leads Cade to dismissively call him “Lucky Charms”—at least until the two bond in battle.
The obvious question: Is it too much for its own good? Bay is vey talented at all things visual. The 3-D works well and the robots look great. But the final confrontation (冲突) alone lasts close to an hour. At some point, you may find yourself simply in a daze, unable to absorb any further action into your brain.
What can be inferred from the first paragraph?
| A．The girl can’t understand the movie she was seeing. |
| B．The girl felt scared about the movie she was seeing. |
| C．The movie the girl was seeing was very thrilling. |
| D．The girl couldn’t find her father. |
What did the author mean by saying “… and you want more, more, more. And Bay is the Master of More.” in paragraph 4?
| A．The audiences are hard to satisfy. |
| B．Bay is good at bring audience massive hit. |
| C．Only Bay knows how to produce massive hit. |
| D．By knows about the audience’s mind. |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．The audiences don’t like the final confrontation. |
| B．The disadvantages of Transformers 4 are more obvious than advantages. |
| C．Putting into too much what the director is skilled at causes negative effect. |
| D．The director Bay only focuses on the 3-D works. |
The tone of the passage as a whole can be described as ________?
| A．serious | B．ironic | C．scholarly | D．light-hearted |
For centuries,the only form of written correspondence (通信)was the letters, letters were, and are, sent by some form of postal service, the history of which goes back a long way .Indeed, the Egyptians began sending letters from about 2000 BC,as did the Chinese a thousand years later.
Of course, modern postal service now are much more developed and faster, depending as they do on cars and planes for delivery. Yet they are still too slow for some people to send urgent documents (紧急文件)and letters.
The invention of the fax (传真) machine increased the speed of delivering documents even more. When you send a fax，you are sending a copy of a piece of correspondence to someone by telephone service. It was not until the early 1980s that such a service was developed enough for businesses to be able to fax documents to each other.
The fax service is still very much in use when copies of documents require to be sent ,but, as a way of fast correspondence, it has been largely taken the place of by email ,Email is used to describe messages sent form one computer user to another.
There are advantages and disadvantages with emails. If you send some one an email , then he will receive it extremely quickly .Normal postal services are rather slow as far as speed of delivery is concerned.
However, if you write something by email, which you might later regret ,and send it immediately, there is no chance for second thoughts. At least, if you are posting a letter you have to address and seal(封)the envelope and take it to the post box.There is plenty of time to change your mind .The message is think before you email!
41.We can learn from the text that__________.
A.email is less popular than the fax service
B.the postal service has over the years become faster
C.the postal service has over the years become slower
D. the fax service has a history as long as the postal service does
42.It can be inferred from the text that_________.
A.the fax service had been fully developed by the 1980s
B.letters have been used in China for about 1,000 years
C.the fax machine was invented after the 1980s
D.letters have been used in Egypt for about 2,000 years
43.In the last paragraph, the writer mentions "think before you email" to show that________.
A. you may regret if you don’t your envelope B. you may regret before you send something by email
C. you’d better not send your email in a hurry D. you need plenty of time to send an email
44.The text mainly deal with_________.
A. the progress in correspondence B. the advantage of fax machines
C .the advantage of emails D. the invention of fax machines
Being a good parent is harder now than it has ever been before. In pressurized modern lives, demands to be a fulfilled individual, a good partner and a good worker, take no account of being a good parent. We haven’t left space for the nurturing parents who are expected to provide what children need. As a result, many families in the western world just don’t work.
Something will have to change. With luck, people in the future will only have children if they really want them. That should mean parenthood is seen as a much more positive promise than it is now, that parents are socially supported, and are admired for doing a good job.
The problem is that in the last generation or so we’ve come to assume that women should want and be able to everything that by tradition men have done at the same time as pretty well everything that by tradition women have done. And it’s just not possible. Since adopting a male life style is demonstrably only another form of submission（顺从）, quite a number of highly educated and economically privileged（优越的）women are now choosing to take career breaks so as to be at home with their children for longer than that poor 18 weeks.
The most welcoming trend in parenting is that men are participating more and more, even that is not free of conflict, however. Intellectually（理智上）, women want men to be equal parents and do their share. But there’s often a contradictory（矛盾的）emotion because children are the last fort of the female power in the family. “I want him to help me but this is my region and being better at it is one of the new things I’ve got as a female.” In truth, although they haven’t had generations of practice, there’s no reason why men can’t raise children as well as women. Men left to cope after bereavement or divorce, as well as some who take on the role of principal career within a partnership, are already doing it.
16.Why is it more difficult today to be good parents?
A. Because parents don’t want to face the pressure of rearing children.
B. Because children are in dependent and don’t need to be taken care of.
C. Because husbands and wives have little time to talk to each other.
D. Because people want to fulfill their own dreams, leaving no time to look after children.
17. We can learn from the passage that _______.
A. people in future will not be as interested in children as people at present
B. parenthood will be considered as a positive commitment as it is now
C. women do better in rearing children than men
D. parents will receive admiration for taking good care of children
18. Nowadays, a lot of highly educated and economically privileged women ________.
A. tend to stay at home for more than 18 weeks
B. tend to adopt a male life style
C. tend to quit their jobs and stay at home
D. tend to be submissive wives
19. It seems that in parenting , women ________.
A. are contradictory in their thoughts. B.demand equality between sexes
C. tend to leave children to their husbands. D. often quarrel with their husbands
20. The underlined word “bereavement” in the para 4 probably means _________.
A. departure of his wife. B. death of his wife
C. return of his wife D. annoyance of his wife
Most of us lead unhealthy lives; we spend far too much sitting down. If in addition we are careless about our diets, our bodies soon become loose and fatty and our systems slowmoving. There are some aspects(方面) of our unhealthy lives that we cannot avoid. I am thinking of such features of modern city life as pollution, noise, rushed meals and stress. But keeping fit is a way to reduce the effects of these evils. The usual suggestion to a person who is looking for a way to keep fit is to take up some sport or other. While it is true that every weekend you will find people playing football and hockey in the local park, they are outnumbered a hundred to one by the people who are simply watching them.
For those who do not particularly enjoy competitive sports — and it is especially difficult to do so if you are not good at them — there are such separate activities as cycling, walking, jogging and swimming. What often happens though is that you do them in such a leisurely way, so slowly, that it is doubtful if you are doing yourself much good, except for the fact that you have at least managed to get up out of your armchair.
Even after you have found a way for keeping in shape, through sport or gymnastics, you are still only half way to good health, because, according to the experts, you must also master the art of complete mental and physical relaxation(放松). It has to do with deep breathing, emptying your mind of all thoughts, meditation, and so on. Yoga, as practiced in the West, is the most widely known and popular of the systems for achieving the necessary state of relaxation. It seems ironical (讽刺性的), though, that as our lives have improved in a material sense we have found it increasingly necessary to go back to forms of activityphysical effort on the one hand and relaxation on the other — which were the natural way of life of our forefathers.
12. Pollution, noise and stress are examples of _____.
A. causes of unfitness
B. bad features of living in towns
C. the things we can completely do away with
D. unavoidable things in town
13. We don’t get much out of separate sports because we _____.
A. don’t do them very often
B. don’t do them actively enough
C. find it hard to get out of our armchairs
D. don’t find them interesting
14. To be healthy we must _____.
A. keep fit and active B. keep fit and learn to relax
C. be active and practise Yoga D. have a sound mind
15. Our forefathers were healthy because______.
A. their way of life closely connected with both exercise and relaxation
B. they were careful to get plenty of fresh air
C. they spent most of the time out of doors
D. their environment was not polluted
BTB BUS COMPANY
The BTB BUS Company serves all parts of the city, and also provides an extensive service to nearby towns and villages.
BTB CITY BUSES are usually orange, and operate from 06∶30. There are four kinds of tickets you can use:
Tourist Ranger is the ideal(理想的) ticket for tourists and visitors to the city. The tickets are valid(有效的) for 2, 3 or 5 days, and can be used on all city buses. They cost ￡4, ￡5.5 and ￡7.50.
Monthly Season — Going to work by bus? This is the one for you! For only ￡26.5 you have the freedom of the city for a whole calendar month.
Bus Card — lasts for one day. For ￡2.50 you can travel anywhere on the bus system for one day — but you must clip your card in the machine every time you board a bus.
Single Journey — 50p, valid for just one journey. Clip the ticket when you get on the bus. Books of ten tickets also available(可获得的).
These tickets are only valid on BTB City Buses. They are available from post offices, tobacconists and BTB offices. TICKETS CANNOT BE PURCHASED ON THE BUSES.
BTB COUNTRY BUSES (which are usually blue) serve the towns of Conby, Rashville and Grill as well as numerous villages in the area. Services run from 07∶00 to 21∶30.
Tickets are bought on the bus. The minimum fare is 75p, increasing with distance. Buses depart from the main railway station and Coshley Square.
A MAP of the routes for both City and Country buses can be obtained (price 20p) from the BTB offices at the main railway station or 27 Part Square. Timetables for both services can be found at the bus stop.
9. If you are staying in the city for two days and want to see the city as much as possible, which ticket is the best for you?
A. Tourist Ranger. B. Monthly Season.
C. Bus Card. D. Single Journey.
10.Which of the following statements is not true?
A. Bus Card is the best ticket if you want to show your friend around on a Saturday.
B. Tickets for the BTB blue buses can be purchased on the buses.
C. You can buy tickets for the orange BTB buses from post offices, tobacconists, BTB offices or on the buses.
D. The four kinds of tickets are valid on BTB orange buses.
11.To catch a bus to Rashville, you should probably go to______.
A. the towns of Conby B. Coshley Square C. Grill D. BTB offices
The plan: turn Mars into a blue world with streams and green fields, and then fill it with creatures (生物) from the earth. This idea may sound like something from a science fiction (科幻小说), but it is actually being taken seriously by many researchers.
This suggested future for the “red planet” will be the main topic for discussion at an international conference hosted by NASA (美国宇航局) this week. Leading researchers as well as science fiction writers will attend the event. It comes as NASA is preparing a multibilliondollar Mars research programme. “Turning Mars into a little earth has long been a topic in science fiction,”said Dr Michael Meyer, NASA’s senior scientist for astrobiology (太空生物学). “Now, with scientists exploring the reality, we can ask what are the real possibilities of changing Mars.”
Most scientists agree that Mars could be turned into a little earth, although much time and money would be needed to achieve this goal.
But many experts are shocked by the idea. “We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed and now we are talking about ruining another planet,” said Paul Murdin, of the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, UK. Over the past months, scientists have become increasingly confident they will find Martian life forms. Europe and America’s robot explorers have found proof that water, mixed with soil, exists in large amounts on the planet.
In addition, two different groups of scientists announced on March 28 that they had found signs of methane (甲烷) in the Martian atmosphere (大气). The gas is a waste product of living creatures and could be produced by microbes (微生物) living in the red planet’s soil.
But scientists such as Dr Lisa Pratt, a biologist at Indiana University, say that these microbes will be put in danger by the little earth project. “Before we have even discovered if there is life on Mars, we are talking about carrying out projects that would destroy all these native lifeforms, all the strange microbes that we hope to find buried in the soil,” said Dr Pratt. This view is shared by Monica Grady, a planetary scientist at the Natural History Museum, London. “We cannot risk starting a global experiment that would wipe out the precious information we are looking for.” she said， “This is just wrong.”
5. The passage is about________.
A. a plan turning Mars into a little earth
B. the necessity of changing Mars
C. Mars supporting life
D. finding water in the Mars
6. Which of the following is NOT the reason why some scientists are against the plan?
A. The project would wipe out all the native lifeforms on the Mars.
B. The project will cost too much money and work.
C. We would ruin Mars.
D. We are destroying our own world at an unbelievable speed.
7. We can infer from the passage that________.
A. water is a crucial factor for life
B. the project will have little effect on the native lifeforms supposed to live on the Mars
C. Monica Grady is in favour of carrying out the little earth project
D. the idea turning Mars into a little earth is nothing but a science fiction
8. Which of the following supports the conclusion of microbes living in the Mars’s soil?
A. Scientists found liquid water in the Mars.
B. Scientists found signs of methane in the Martian atmosphere.
C. Scientists found a lot of good soil on the Mars.
D. Scientists found some creatures living on the Mars.