My name is Amy. I’m a 25-year-old graduate student who likes yoga, home-decorating shows and eating spoonfuls of peanut butter straight from the jar. Oh yeah, and I’m an iPhone addict.
I wasn’t always an addict. In fact, for many years I told myself I didn’t want a fancy cellphone. They seemed like too much work, always ringing and demanding attention. I was perfectly content with my simple cellphone, and I didn’t feel like changing my mind any time.
However, about a year ago, I found myself envious of all those proud iPhone owners, holding their shiny new phones and showing them off to all their friends. I started to eavesdrop on conversations about “iPhone apps”, feeling like a tourist listening to a language I couldn’t speak.
Eventually I couldn’t ignore my iPhone instinct (本能) any longer, and I welcomed my new iPhone into my life. I instantly fell in love with the little bundle of joy, and could no longer imagine a life without it.
To my surprise, I suddenly found myself with a whole new circle of friends—other iPhone owners I could go to for advice and support as I learned the various functions of my new device. They responded to my iPhone-related queries when my other friends couldn’t, and didn’t roll their eyes when I bragged（吹牛）about all the things little Eloise (yes, I named her) could do.
For a couple months I built my new life with Eloise. However, I realized I had a problem when one day I found myself Google-mapping my way to my mailbox, which happens to be right outside my front door.
When I reflected upon the past few months, I couldn’t believe I didn’t see this coming. All the warning signs were there. Eloise slept right beside me and was the first thing I reached for in the morning. I checked my e-mail about 20 times a day. I also experienced attachment anxiety when I left poor Eloise in the changing room at the gym. What if she rang and needed my response? Or, even worse, what if a careless gym-goer knocked her out of my bag and caused her screen to crack?
Once I admitted I had a problem, things started to change. What used to feel like friendly messages now felt like constant complaining to respond. I hated that I could no longer leave the house without Eloise in my hand. Eventually, I felt angry with Eloise so much that I wanted to throw her at the wall.
I decided something had to be done. But, as I quickly realized, iPhones are like cigarettes and not easy to quit.
Then, while taking the bus to work one day, I was unexpectedly forced to quit—at least temporarily. When I reached into my purse to grab Eloise, I found her overcome by fever. My head swam with panic as I attempted to solve the problem, but without result. I couldn’t call anyone for advice. I couldn’t Google whether this had happened to any fellow iPhone owners. The Apple Store was closed by the time I finished work, so I headed home with fear into an Eloise-less night. But, after a couple hours without any text alerts, push notifications, or even good old-fashioned phone calls, I felt ... calmer. Without my electronic bed partner, I drifted off into the deepest sleep I’d had in months. The next morning, I read the news from the simplicity of the newspaper, instead of from my iPhone. I even noticed the cherry blossoms blooming.
My goodness, what had I been missing? The passage is mainly about ___________.
| A．how I changed my attitude towards iPhone |
| B．why I was content with my iPhone |
| C．how my simple cellphone changed my lifestyle |
| D．why I preferred to use iPhone eventually |
The phrase “ eavesdrop on” ( Paragraph 3) is closer in meaning to __________.
| A．adapt suddenly to | B．join unwillingly in |
| C．listen secretly to | D．argue fiercely in |
IPhones’__________ can not be listed among the reasons why the writer was addicted to it.
| A．diverse application | B．excellent service |
| C．bundle of joy | D．good company |
When did the writer get to know that she had to tear herself away from her iPhone?
| A．She needed her iPhone to lead her to the mailbox. |
| B．She slept with her iPhone beside her every night. |
| C．She checked and read her e-mails too frequently. |
| D．She dared not leave her iPhone alone at the gym. |
What message does the writer pass on at the end of the passage?
| A．She considered throwing away her iPhone regretful. |
| B．She looked forward to starting her new life with Eloise. |
| C．She thought it of little benefit to have a simple cellphone. |
| D．She was aware that she had to kick the habit of being addicted to her iPhone. |
Getting paid to talk about the World Cup is a great job. I’m not a football commentator(评论员), though-just an English teacher in Japan.
I come to Japan two years ago, and didn’t think I would stay, but Japan has that effect on you. People often end up living here longer than they planned. I think it’s best to teach in a bigger city where there are other foreigners to mix with, rather than a small town where English teachers often complain of feeling like a goldfish in a bowl. Many people choose to live in Tokyo, of course, which is good for the nightlife factor. But I’d say that for general quality of living, cities of neither too large nor too small, like Sapporo where I live, are better choices.
I teach English privately, which means I’m my own boss. If you want to devote yourself to private teaching, it’s well worth doing a TEFL course first, because your lessons will be much better for it. The problem with private teaching is finding students; it took me a year to build up a full schedule(日程表) of private lessons, so I started out teaching in schools part-time.
Most of my foreign friends here work full-time for big English conversation schools. The salary is fine to live on, but whether you can save money depends on how much going out and traveling you do here.
The schools are unwilling to take time off –even teachers with tickets for the England-Argentina game had trouble getting the day off. From the passage we know in Japan the writer likes to live in ________.
| A．Tokyo | B．a small town |
| C．a city of middle size | D．a big city |
According to the writer, one had better _______ first to do private teaching better.
| A．give a TEFL course | B．decide his or her own lessons |
| C．find students | D．build up a full schedule |
The underlined sentence in the second paragraph implies that _______.
| A．there are many foreigners in Japan |
| B．Japan is good for nightlife |
| C．they can teach English privately in Japan |
| D．Japan has something more attractive than expected |
After reading the passage, we can see _________.
| A．the writer travelled a lot and saved much money in Japan. |
| B．the writer teaches English in more than one school as a part-time job. |
| C．the writer enjoys watching football games |
| D．the writer spent one year in finding students for his private teaching. |
My teenage son Karl became withdrawn after his father died. As a single parent, I tried to do my best to talk to him, but the more I tried, the more he pulled away. When his report card （成绩报告单）arrived during his junior year, it said that he had been absent 95 times from classes and had six failing grades for the year. At this rate he would never graduate. I sent him to the school adviser, and I even begged him. Nothing worked.
One night I felt so powerless that I got down on my knees and pleaded for help. “Please God, I can’t do anything more for my son. I’m at the end of my rope. I'm giving the whole thing up to you.” Just then, I got a phone call. A man introduced himself as the headmaster, “I want to talk to you about Karl’s absences.” Before he could say another word, all my disappointment and sadness over Karl came pouring out into the ears of this stranger. “I love my son but I just don’t know what to do. I’ve tried everything to get Karl to go back to school and nothing has worked. It’s out of my hands.” For a moment there was silence on the other end of the line. The headmaster seriously said, “Thank you for your time” and hung up.
Karl’s next report card showed a great improvement in his grades. Finally, he even made the honor roll（光荣榜）. In his fourth year, I attended a parent-teacher meeting with Karl. I noticed that his teachers were astonished at the way he had turned himself around. On our way home，he said, “Mum，remember that call from the headmaster last year?” I nodded. “That was me. I thought I’d play a joke but when I heard what you said, it really hit me how much I was hurting you. That’s when I knew I had to make you proud.”By saying “Karl became withdrawn” the author means that the boy changed entirely and ________.
| A．he preferred to stay at school |
| B．he stayed at home all day |
| C．he refused to talk to his mother |
| D．he began to like his life |
There was silence on the other end of the line because ________.
| A．the speaker was too moved to say anything to his mother |
| B．the speaker waited for the mother to finish speaking |
| C．the speaker didn't want the mother to recognize his voice |
| D．the speaker didn’t want to interrupt the mother |
What is the main idea of this passage?
| A．Children in single-parent families often have mental problems. |
| B．Mother’s love plays an important role in teenagers’ life. |
| C．Being understood by parents is not necessary to teenagers. |
| D．School education is a failure. |
Which is not true according to the article?
| A．Karl changed a lot after his father died. |
| B．What Karl did at school showed that he didn’t love his mother. |
| C．Karl’s mother tried many ways to help him. |
| D．Karl’s teachers were surprised at his change. |
No one can change the weather. Nobody can control the weather. But if we read correctly the signs around us, we can tell what the more important changes in the weather will be. This way of telling what the weather will be like on the following day or two is called weather forecasting.
For many centuries and in all countries, people have studied the weather and tried to make weather forecasting. Rings around the sun are a sign of coming rain. That many people feel their joints(关节) hurt is a sign of wet weather. Some birds fly high if the weather is fine, but they fly near the ground if rainy or stormy weather is on the way. If you see a rainbow during rainy weather, this is a sign that the weather will become clear and fine. Such rainbows come in the evening. If the stars twinkle clearly at night, then fine weather will continue. If a fog appears in the morning just above a river, then the day will be warm. If the sunset is mostly red in colour, then the following day will be fine. If a rainbow appears in the morning, rainy weather will probably come.
Most of the above sayings have been made by the people who have used their eyes and brains to make weather forecasting.Which is true about weather forecasting?
| A．Weather forecasting is a way of telling what the weather will be like. |
| B．Weather forecasting is a report about the weather. |
| C．Weather forecasting is a sign of coming rain. |
| D．People can change the weather forecasting. |
Which of the following can be used here to replace the underlined phrase “on the way”?
| A．continuing | B．reducing. | C．coming. | D．disappearing. |
Which of the following signs can tell the weather will probably be rainy?
| A．Some birds fly high. |
| B．A rainbow appears in the morning. |
| C．The sunset is mostly red in colour. |
| D．Fogs appear in the morning just above a river. |
The best title of the passage is _______.
| A．Weather forecasting plays an important role in our life |
| B．Weather forecasting can bring people some signs of weather |
| C．Weather is forecasted only by eyes and brains. |
| D．People can predict weather by experience in daily life |
My husband had just bought a new washing machine for me . I decided to use it the very day and I washed a lot of things .
Everything worked well , but I found one of my husband’s socks(短袜) missing . I looked everywhere for it , but I couldn’t find it anywhere .
The next morning , I got ready for school as usual . When the bell rang , the students came in . I greeted them and told them what we were going to do that day .
When I turned around to write on the blackboard , the class burst into a roar (大笑声)! They laughed and laughed . They laughed so much , in fact ,that I was afraid the headmaster would come in to see all this .
I asked the class to stop , but the more I talked , the more they laughed . I decided to pay no attention to them and I continued to write on the blackboard . when I did this , they roared even more .
Finally , the teacher who had the room next to mine came in to see what all the laughter was about .
“Good heavens ,” I said , “Will someone please tell me what is so funny?”
“Oh , God,” said the teacher , “You have a brown sock to the back of your skirt !”
So that’s how I found my husband’s missing sock .
“Oh , well ,” I said to the class , “Let’s just say you have had an unforgettable lesson on static electricity(静电)。”What was the writer ?
| A．A washer | B．A student | C． A headmaster | D． A teacher |
What happened when the writer turned around to write on the blackboard ?
| A．The class roared with anger . |
| B．The class began to laugh loudly . |
| C．Another teacher came in |
| D．There was a loud noise outside the room |
Why couldn’t she find one of her husband’s socks?
| A．Because some students had hidden it . |
| B．Because her husband had taken it away . |
| C．Because she had left it in the classroom . |
| D．Because she never expected that it would stick to her skirt . |
What did the writer do when she got to know why her students laughed?
| A．She did nothing but laugh. |
| B．She got angry with the class . |
| C．She did nothing |
| D．She explained the matter in a clever way . |
Several years ago, a student working on a research project in my laboratory approached me with concern.“I’m doing something wrong,”she exclaimed. I had seen her research results and knew she was making good progress, so I was surprised to hear that she was having a problem. Over the next several days we went through her experiment; yet I could not find a problem. Finally, I asked her,“Why do you think you’re doing something wrong?” “Because I’m not getting what you said I should get,”she replied with some confusion.
Her response shocked me. I had not told her what she“should get”, but we had discussed some published hypotheses(假说) several weeks earlier. On seeing the research data that did not fit these predictions, I recognized that she had a new finding and came to change my hypotheses. But she was interpreting her results as a mistake. With almost four years of a college science major behind her, this student still had the common misunderstanding that science is a boring exercise in proving something we already know to be true.
But how can this happen? Throughout school, science is often described in textbooks as a series of“known”facts and figures; for example, DNA is a double helix; earthquakes occur at plate boundaries, etc. Unfortunately, the process by which these discoveries were made and how they fit into scientific progress are often ignored in the classroom. These details help show the nature of scientific discoveries and the tails help show the nature of scientific discoveries and the skepticism(质疑) that goes with new discoveries before they are accepted.
Understanding science is more than memorizing that DNA is a double helix. It is to have the ability to take in new information on diet, exercise, or disease and apply it to our own lives. Understanding the process of science and scientific problem-solving can help us make better decisions every day.The student thought her research project had gone wrong because.
| A．she was not making progress |
| B．her teacher told her so |
| C．she couldn’t get enough data |
| D．she had some unexpected findings |
How did the writer feel when he found out the reason for the student’s confusion?
| A．Confused. | B．Surprised. | C．Excited. | D．Pleased. |
What is to blame for the student’s misunderstanding about science?
| A．Her own carelessness. |
| B．Her teacher’s lack of experience. |
| C．The method of science education. |
| D．The publication of some wrong hypotheses. |
What is the last paragraph mainly about?
| A．The meaning of understanding science. |
| B．How to use known facts. |
| C．The best way to make scientific discoveries. |
| D．How to use scientific knowledge in daily life. |