The famous director of a big and expensive movie planned to film a beautiful sunset over the ocean，so that the audiences could see his hero and heroine in front of it at the end of the film as they said goodbye to each other forever．He sent his camera crew out one evening to film the sunset for him．
The next morning he said to the men，“Have you provided me with that sunset?”
“No，sir，” the men answereD．
The director was angry．“Why not?” he askeD．
“Well，sir，” one of the men answered，“we’re on the east coast here，and the sun sets in the west．We can get you a sunrise over the sea，if necessary，but not a sunset.”
“But I want a sunset!” the director shouteD． “Go to the airport，take the next flight to the west coast，and get one.”
But then a young secretary had an ideA． “Why don’t you photograph a sunrise，” she suggested，“and then play it backwards? Then it’ll look like a sunset.”
“That’s a very good idea!” the director saiD． Then he turned to the camera crew and said，“Tomorrow morning I want you to get me a beautiful sunrise over the sea.”
The camera crew went out early the next morning and filmed a bright sunrise over the beach in the middle of a beautiful bay. Then at nine o’clock they took it to the director．“Here it is，sir，” they said，and gave it to him．He was very pleaseD．
They all went into the studio．“All right，” the director explained，“now our hero and heroine are going to say goodbye．Run the film backwards so that we can see the ‘sunset’ behind them.”
The “sunset” began，but after a quarter of a minute，the director suddenly put his face in his hands and shouted to the camera crew to stop.
The birds in the film were flying backwards，and the waves on the sea were going away from the beach.
One evening，the director sent his camera crew out ________.
| A．to film a scene on the sea |
| B．to find an actor and an actress |
| C．to watch a beautiful sunset |
| D．to meet the audience |
Why did the director want to send his crew to the west coast?
| A．Because he changed his mind about getting a sunset. |
| B．Because he was angry with his crew. |
| C．Because he wanted to get a scene of sunset. |
| D．Because it was his secretary’s suggestion. |
The director wanted to film a sunset over the ocean because ________.
| A．it went well with the separation of the hero and heroine |
| B．when they arrived at the beach it was already in the evening |
| C．it was more moving than a sunrise |
| D．the ocean looked more beautiful at sunset |
After the “sunset” began，the director suddenly put his face in his hands ________.
| A．because he was moved to tears |
| B．as he saw everything in the film moving backwards |
| C．as the sunrise did not look as beautiful as he had imagined |
| D．because he was disappointed with the performance of the hero and heroine |
The flag, the most common symbol of a nation in the modern world, is also one of the most ancient. With a clear symbolic meaning, the flag in the traditional form is still used today to mark buildings, ships and other vehicles related to a country.
The national flag as we know it today is in no way a primitive artifact. It is, rather, the product of thousands of years’ development. Historians believe that it had two major ancestors, of which the earlier served to show wind direction.
Early human beings used very fragile houses and boats. Often strong winds would tear roofs from houses or cause high waves that endangered travelers. People’s food supplies were similarly vulnerable. Even after they had learned how to plant grains, they still needed help from nature to ensure good harvests. Therefore they feared and depended on the power of the wind, which could bring warmth from one direction and cold from another.
Using a simple piece of cloth tied to the top of a post to tell the direction of the wind was more dependable than earlier methods, such as watching the rising of smoke from a fire. The connection of the flag with heavenly power was therefore reasonable. Early human societies began to fix long pieces of cloth to the tops of totems (图腾) before carrying them into battle. They believed that the power of the wind would be added to the good wishes of the gods and ancestors represented by the totems themselves.
These flags developed very slowly into modern flags. The first known flag of a nation or a ruler was unmarked: The king of China around 1,000 B.C. was known to have a white flag carried ahead of him. This practice might have been learned from Egyptians even further in the past, but it was from China that it spread over trade routes through India, then across Arab lands, and finally to Europe, where it met up with the other ancestor of the national flag. The underlined word “ vulnerable” in paragraph 3 means _______.
| A．easy to damage | B．likely to be protected |
| C．impossible to make sure of | D．difficult to find |
The earliest flags were connected with heavenly power because they _______.
| A．could tell wind direction | B．could bring good luck to fighters |
| C．were believed to stand for natural forces | D．were handed down by the ancestors |
What does the author know of the first national flag?
| A．He knows when it was sent to Europe. | B．He doubts where it started. |
| C．He thinks it came from China. | D．He believes it was made in Egypt. |
What will the author most probably talk about next?
| A．The role of China in the spread of the national flag. |
| B．The importance of modern flags. |
| C．The use of modern flags in Europe. |
| D．The second ancestor of the national flag. |
Department stores sell ready- to-wear clothing, which is also called ready-made clothing. Such clothing is made in fixed sizes. Those people who find that ready-made clothing fits them well can save money by buying it. Most often, people do not fit exactly into a producer’s size. Their clothing must be altered to make it fit better. However, most alterations are not very expensive. The small cost of most alterations means that ready-made clothing can meet the needs of most customers.
Those who can afford it often get someone to design and make their clothing. Such clothing is called custom-made. The person who makes it measures the customer, and then sews it so that it fits perfectly. Alterations are not needed. Custom-made clothing is largely sewn by hand, has better quality, better material, and is of the style you have chosen. Of course, it costs much more than ready-to-wear clothing. You need to pay the difference for the special fitting and better skill that you are receiving. This often means that you spend double or more than you would for a ready-made garment.
Custom-made clothing is not always that much better than ready-made clothing. It costs more partly because only one garment has been made, just for you. Companies that produce ready-made products make thousands of garments at a time. This means they can buy large quantities of material. Workers cut each size by the hundreds. Companies work out ways to make the garments quickly by machine and pay workers according to their skill. Thus they can sell the finished products at a low price while still making money. Most of the clothing sold in the United States is made in this way. Customers gain from the lower prices which are made possible by mass production. It may or may not give them high quality. According to the passage, people who buy ready-made clothing ______.
| A．wish to make alternations | B．will spend less money |
| C．want to make it better | D．can fit into the sizes |
We can learn from the passage that custom-made clothing is_______.
| A．specially made | B．fashionably designed |
| C．chosen by few people | D．made with difficulties |
Which of the following is true about ready-made clothing?
| A．It is of poor quality. | B．It suits all people. |
| C．It is labor-saving to make it. | D．It takes more time to make it |
The purpose of the writer is _______.
| A．to explain why custom-made clothing costs more |
| B．to show the advantages of mass production |
| C．to tell readers how to make money from ready-made clothing |
| D．to provide information about different kinds of clothing |
Intellectual property (IP) is a product of the mind that has commercial value. The concept dates back to 1623, when the first patent law to protect IP rights was passed. IP rights protect an artist from having his/her creative ideas copied by another. For example, if somebody generated an idea for a novel, that idea is protected by IP rights. If someone else wishes to represent the idea or develop it further, he/she must consult the original artists, who will normally be rewarded financially for its use. Back in the 17th century, IP rights were primarily carried out to protect newly developed manufacturing processes against stealing, but today intellectual property rights are also enjoyed by those who create music, art and literature.
In recent years, IP rights have been the focus of a great deal of discussion because of a technology which looks set to weaken them altogether: the Internet. Many years ago, if you wanted a recoding of a song, you would have to purchase it from a music store; if a novel, from a book store. In those days, IP rights were easily protected since it was very difficult to obtain intellectual property without paying for it. However, a lot of IP, including songs, films, books and artwork, can be downloaded today free of charge using the internet. This practice has now taken the world by storm, dramatically affecting the way in which we view IP rights.According to the writer, in the beginning, IP rights were mainly of use to _______.
| A．those creating music, art and literature |
| B．novelists |
| C．those not receiving financial reward for their work |
| D．engineers and inventors |
What do we know about the Internet according to the passage?
| A．It does not affect the way we understand IP rights. |
| B．It sells songs and films. |
| C．It makes IP rights harder to protect. |
| D．It prevents the production of artwork. |
According to paragraph 2, what has “taken the world by storm”?
| A．Intellectual property rights. | B．Free downloading. |
| C．The Internet. | D．The large number of songs, films and books. |
A possible title for this passage could be _______.
| A．IP Rights and Our Attitudes | B．Ways to Protect Your IP Rights |
| C．The Present and the Future of IP rights | D．A History of IP Rights |
Every culture in the world has marriage and wedding ceremonies . Usually marriages are between one woman(the bride) and one man ( the groom). However, in other parts of the world a man may have several wives, or, as in some areas of India, a wife may have more than one husband..
There are also many different kinds of wedding ceremonies practiced around the world. These ceremonies can be very short and simple, or very long and complicated.
One of the largest and most expensive wedding ceremonies in recent times was held in Dubai in 1981. The couple tying the knot at this wedding were the son of Sheik ( a male Arab ruler) Rashid Bin Saeed Al Maktoum and Princess Salama. The wedding ceremony took seven days and cost $44 million. It was held in a large building which was specially built for the ceremony and looked like a stadium. The bride and groom needed a large place for their wedding because more than 20,000 guests were invited.
The reasons why a man and woman get married also vary. Sometimes they marry because they are in love, sometimes they marry because someone they meet through a matchmaker, and sometimes they marry because their parents tell them that they must marry.
One unusual example of an arranged marrige took place in Bangladesh in 1986. The groom was an eleven-month-old boy and the bride was a three-month-old girl. They were the youngest married couple ever.
The parents of the bride and groom arranged the marriage as a way of ending a fight between the two families who had been arguing over a farm for twenty years. Both families thought they owned the farm, but no one knew exactly . The fight ended for good when the young boy married the young girl. By arranging this marriage, neither famlily was forced to lose face. The two families agreed to give the farm to the young people.What is the best title for this passage?
| A．An Unusual Wedding Tradition | B．A Short History of Marriage |
| C．Common Western Wedding Trations. | D．Interesting Wedding Around the World |
Who got married in the large Wedding Ceremony described in the passage?
A. a farmer and a neighbor B. the son of a sheik and a princess
B. a king and a queen D. two babies.Why was the wedding ceremony in Dubai held in a building like a stadium?
A. The ceremony was very long
B. The groom loved to play sports.
C, Many people came to the wedding.
D. People in Dubai usually get married in stadium.Why did the families in Bangladesh make their children get married?
| A．The children were in love |
| B．The families wanted to end the fight |
| C．The families wanted to buy a farm. |
| D．The bride’s family wanted to sell their farm. |
What was strange about the wedding in Bangladesh ?
| A．The bride and groom were young. | B．The wedding was on a farm |
| C． It was an arranged marriage. | D．More than 20,000 guests came to the wedding |
The first Starbucks coffee shop opened in 1971 in downtown Seattle, Washington, in the United States. It was a small coffee shop that roasted its own coffee beans. The coffee shop’s business did well, and by 1981 there were three more Starbucks stores in Seattle.
Things really began to change for the company in 1981. That year, Howard Schultz met the three men who ran Starbucks. Schultz worked in New York for a company that made kitchen equipment. He noticed that Starbucks ordered a large number of special coffee makers, and he was curious about the company. Schultz went to Seattle to see what Starbucks did , and he liked what he saw. He wanted to become part of the company. In 1982, the original Starbucks owners hired Schultz as the company’s head of marketing.
In 1983, Schultz traveled to Italy. The unique atmosphere of the espresso(浓咖啡) bars there caught his eye. To Schultz it seemed that Italians spent their daily lives in three places: home, work , and coffee bars . His experience in Italy gave Schultz a new idea for Starbucks back in Seattle.
Schultz created an atmosphere for Starbucks coffee shops that was comfortable and casual, and customers everywhere seemed to like it. Between 1987 and 1992, Starbucks opened 150 new stores---and that was only the beginning. As a matter of fact, by the year 2000, three new Starbucks stores opened somewhere around the world every day!
Today, Starbucks has thousands of stores, including stores in twenty-six countries. One thing that helps make Starbucks succeed in cities outside the United Stateds is the way Starbucks works with local stores and restaurants. By working together with a store already in the city, Starbucks gains an understanding of customers in the city. This understanding helps Starbucks open stores in the right locations for their customers.What is the main topic of the reading?
| A．how Starbucks has grown | B．Starbucks’ customers |
| C．what Starbucks makes | D．how Starbucks makes its coffee |
Which is true about Starbucks’ first ten years of business?
| A．It grew very quickly | B．It was run by Howard Schultz |
| C．It was a small company | D．It made special coffee makers |
Who is Howard Schultz?
| A．a coffee seller from New York | B．the man who changed the company |
| C．an Italian coffee maker | D．one of the original owners of the company |
About how many new Starbucks opened in 1999?
| A．3 | B．150 | C．300 | D．more than 1000 |
What helps Starbucks succeed in places outside the United States?
| A．opening restaurants in just a few locations each year. |
| B．only selling locally produced coffee beans |
| C．working with other major coffee-making companies |
| D．learning about local customers. |