Every pet owner loves his pet. There is no argument here.
But when we asked our readers whether they would clone (克隆, 复制)their beloved animals, the responses(反应) were split almost down the middle. Of the 228 readers who answered it, 108 would clone, 111 would not and nine weighed each side without offering an opinion.
Clearly, from readers’ response, this is an issue that reaches deeply into both the joy and final sadness of owning a pet. It speaks, as well, to people’s widely differing expectations over the developing scientific procedure.
Most of the respondents who favored the idea strongly believed it would produce at least a close copy of the original; many felt the process would actually return an exact copy. Those on the other side, however, held little hope a clone could never truly recreate a pet, many simply didn’t wish to go against the natural law of life and death.
Both sides expressed equal love for their animals. More than a few respondents owned “the best dog/cat in the world”. They thought of their pets as their “best friend”, “a member of the family,”“the light of my life.” They told moving stories of pets’ heroism, intelligence and selfless devotion.
Then the loss is so disturbing---and the cloning so attractive. “People become very close to their animals, and the loss can be just as hard to bear as when a friend or family member dies,” says Gary Kowalski, author of Goodbye, Friend: Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet. “For me, cloning feels like an attempt to turn death away…It’s understandable. Death is always painful. It’s difficult to deal with. It’s hard to accept.”
But would cloning reduce the blow? This question seemed to be at the heart of this problem.
So far as the cloning of pets is concerned, a recent survey shows that, of all pet owners, ____.
A.a lot more of them are for it |
B.a lot more of them are against it |
C.very few of them are willing to tell their opinions |
D.about half of them are for it and the other half against it |
While talking about the respondents from the readers, the expression “final sadness of owning a pet” refers to ____.
A.the death of one’s pet |
B.the high cost of owning a pet |
C.the troubles one has to deal with in keeping a pet |
D.the dangers about the cloning of a pet |
From what Gary Kowalski says, we can know that he ____.
A.has never thought about the problem of cloning |
B.is going to write another book on pets |
C.is in favor of the idea of cloning pets |
D.is all against the cloning of pets |
What is the key question at the heart of the problem of cloning pets?
A.Can cloning make the pain one suffers less when a pet dies? |
B.Can pet owners afford the cost of cloning? |
C.Does cloning go against the law of nature? |
D.How reliably does cloning produce an exact copy of one’s pet? |
The first reality TV show in the world was called Expedition Robinson and it was shown in Sweden in 1997. Half the population of the country watched the final event and a new kind of TV program was born. Two years later in Holland , the first series of Big Brother was filmed. Again, it was a great success and the final program was watched by 15 million people. Now more than 20 countries around the world have Big Brother or Expedition Robinson on their TV screens. The ordinary people who take part in the programs are known by millions of people in their own countries and reality TV has become big, big business.
For the TV producers, reality TV is a dream which comes true because many of the
programs cost nothing to make. At some point, the television viewers are asked to telephone the program to vote or to apply to take part in the show. It is the cost of these telephone calls that pays for the shows. One of the most popular shows is Pop Idol. In the show a group of attractive young people are made into pop stars. TV viewers vote for their favorite person on the show. The winner makes a record and millions of copies of the record are sold. His or her pictures are published on the covers of magazines or on the front pages of newspapers, and then, they are quickly forgotten.
But not everyone is happy about reality TV. In Portugal, two TV channels got into trouble because they showed too much of the personal lives of the people in the shows. In France, reality TV is called “rubbish TV” and the TV studios of Big Brother were attacked three times in one week. In Greece, Big Brother was described as “ against human rights and civilization”.
Those who take part in the reality TV shows are usually _____.
A.successful people | B.pop TV stars | C.attractive people | D.famous film stars |
Who would pay for the cost of the reality TV shows according to the passage?
A.TV producers who make reality TV shows |
B.TV actors who take part in reality TV shows. |
C.TV viewers who telephone reality TV shows |
D.TV companies which broadcast reality TV shows |
It can be concluded from the passage that ______.
A.everyone is happy about reality TV. |
B.reality TV will do well in many countries. |
C.all the people in Europe are in favor of reality TV |
D.reality TV will not be broadcast in any countries. |
One of the most famous nursery rhymes(摇篮曲) in the English language is Mary Had a Little Lamb(羔羊). It has touched many children who have read it. It is about the deep love between a young girl and her pet lamb. The poem is from a true story that happened in the early part of the 19th century in the town of Sterling, Massachusetts, in the USA.
Mary Sawyer (1806-1889) lived on a farm with her family. One day, when she was about nine years old, she saw a little lamb that had just been born and left behind by its mother. It was very weak and looked as if it would die at very moment. Mary took pity on the lamb and spent the whole night looking after it. Eventually, it grew strong and became a very close friend with Mary, following her everywhere she went.
One day, the lamb even followed Mary to school. At first she wanted to turn it back but her brother suggested that it would be fun to take the lamb to school. During the class, she hid the lamb under her desk. But when she was called to go to the front of the class, to her surprise, the lamb followed her. Though the students and the teacher thought it was funny to see a lamb at school, the teacher had to ask Mary to keep the lamb outside of the school.
That very day, a young man called John Roulstone was visiting Mary’s school. He was so moved by the love between the child and her little pet lamb that he wrote a poem which he handed to Mary the next day. His poem contained twelve lines.
Later, Sara Josepha Hale added another twelve lines to the poem and published it in 1930 under the title “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. The poem has become a classic, loved by children all over the world. The appeal (吸引力) of the poem lies not only in the funny idea of a sheep going to school but also in the true love between the little girl and her pet. The town of Sterling has honoured Mary’s lamb by building a statue (雕像) of the lamb with Mr Roulstone’s poem below the statue.
What is the best title for the passage?
A.Mary Had a Little Lamb | B.The Life of Mary Sawyer |
C.The Origin of a Poem | D.An Animal Friend |
The underlined word “eventually” in the second paragraph most probably means .
A.fortunately | B.gradually | C.finally | D.kindly |
Why did the poem become a classic?
A.It had another twelve lines added. |
B.It was written by a young man. |
C.It describes the true love between a little girl and her pet lamb. |
D.A statue of lamb was built in the town of Sterling. |
Which could be the right order of the following events according to the passage?
a. The poem “Mary Had a Little Lamb”became popular.
b. Mary’s brother suggested that she take the lamb to school.
c. People built a statue to honor the lamb.
d. Mary found a little lamb.
e. A young man was moved by the story and wrote a poem.
A. d. b. e. c. a | B. d. b. e. a. c |
C. d. e. b. c. a | D. d. e. b. a. c |
Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
A.Mary’s mother was also fond of the little lamb. |
B.Mary and the little lamb developed a very close friendship. |
C.Mary wrote to John Roulstone and asked him to write the poem. |
D.All children were allowed to take their pets to school in America. |
The word “conservation” has a thrifty meaning. To conserve is to save and protect, to leave what we ourselves enjoy in such a good condition that others may also share the enjoyment. Our forefathers had no idea that human population would increase faster than the supplies of raw materials: most of them, even until very recently, had the foolish idea that the treasures were “limitless” and could “last forever”. Most of the citizens of earlier generations knew little or nothing about the complicated and delicate system that runs all through nature, and which means that, as in a living body, an unhealthy condition of one part will sooner or later be harmful to all the others.
Fifty years ago, nature study was not part of school work; scientific forestry was a new idea; wood was still cheap because it could be brought in any quantity from distant woodlands; soil destruction and river floods were not national problems; nobody had yet studied long-term climatic cycles in relation to proper land use; even the word “conservation” had nothing of the meaning that it has for us today.
For the sake of ourselves and those who will come after us, we must now set about correcting the mistakes of our forefathers. Conservation should be made part of everybody’s daily life. To know about the water table (水位) in ground is just as important to us as a knowledge of the basic math formulas(公式). We need to know why all watersheds (上游集水区) need the protection of plant life and why the running current of streams and rivers must be made to give their full benefit to the soil before they finally escape to the sea. We need to be taught the duty of planting trees as well as of cutting them. We need to know the importance of big, grown trees, because living space for most of man’s fellow creatures on this planet is figured not only in square measure of surface but also in cubic(立方体的) volume above the earth. In a word, it should be our goal to restore as much of the original beauty of nature as we can.
The author’s attitude towards the use of natural resources is_________.
A.positive | B.uninterested | C.optimistic | D.critical |
According to the author, the greatest mistake of our forefathers was that________.
A.they had no idea about scientific forestry |
B.they had little or no sense of environmental protection |
C.they were not aware of the importance of nature study |
D.they had no idea of how to make good use of raw materials |
To avoid repeating the mistakes of our forefathers, the author suggests that ________.
A.we plant more trees |
B.natural sciences be taught to everybody |
C.environmental education be given to everybody |
D.we return to nature |
How can you understand the underlined sentence in the last paragraph?
A.Our living space on the earth is getting smaller and smaller. |
B.Our living space should be measured in cubic volume. |
C.We need to take some measures to protect space. |
D.We must preserve good living condition for both birds and animals. |
People use their mouths for many things. They eat, talk, shout and sing. They smile and they kiss. In the English language, there are many expressions using the word “mouth.”
For example, if you say bad things about a person, the person might protest and say “Do not bad mouth me.” Sometimes, people say something to a friend or family member that they later regret because it hurts that person’s feelings. Or they tell the person something they were not supposed to tell. The speaker might say: “I really put my foot in my mouth this time.” If this should happen, the speaker might feel down in the mouth. In other words, he might feel sad for saying the wrong thing.
Another situation is when someone falsely claims another person said something. The other person might protest: “I did not say that. Do not put words in my mouth.”
Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very rich family. There is an expression for this, too. You might say such a person, “was born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” This rich person is the opposite of a person who lives from hand to mouth. This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most important things in life, like food.
Parents might sometimes withhold sweet food from a child as a form of punishment for saying bad things. For example, if a child says things she should not say to her parents, she might be described as a mouthy child. The parents might even tell the child to stop mouthing off.
But enough of all this talk. I have been running my mouth long enough.
In what kind of situation will a person say “Do not bad mouth me.” ?
A.When he feels down. | B.When he feels regretful. |
C.When he is spoken ill of. | D.When he feels innocent. |
If a person feels sorry for what he has said, he might say “ .”
A.Do not bad mouth me |
B.I really put my foot in my mouth this time |
C.Do not put words in my mouth |
D.Stop mouthing off |
If a person lives from hand to mouth, it implies .
A.he is badly – off | B.he is hard – working |
C.he is well – off | D.he has enough to eat |
By saying, “I have been running my mouth long enough”, the speaker means “ ”.
A.I have run a long way | B.I have been a mouthy person |
C.I have learned a lot | D.I have talked too much |
Some people think that as more and more people have televisions in their homes, fewer and fewer people will buy books and newspapers. Why read an article in the newspaper, when the TV news can bring you the information in a few minutes and with pictures? Why read the life story of a famous man, when a short television program can tell you all that you want to know?
Television has not killed reading, however. Today, newspapers sell in very large numbers. And books of every kind are sold more than ever before. Books are still a cheap way to get information and enjoyment. Although some books with hard covers are expensive, many books are printed today as paperbooks (平装本), which are quite cheap. A paperback collection of short stories, for example, is always cheaper than an evening at the cinema or the theater, and you can keep a book for ever and read it many times.
Books are a wonderful provider of knowledge and pleasure and some types of books should be in every home. Every home should have a good dictionary. A good encyclopedia (百科全书), though expensive, is useful, too, because you can find information on any subject. Besides, you can have such books as history books, science textbook, cookbooks, and collections of stories and poems. Then from time to time you can take a book of poems off your shelves and read the thoughts and feelings of your favorite poets.
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A.TV programs are a chief provider of knowledge. |
B.cinemas are the best choice in getting information. |
C.reading is a cheap way of learning and having fun. |
D.newspapers are an expensive way to enjoy oneself. |
What does the sentences “Television has not killed reading, however ” underlined in the second paragraph suggest?
A.People only need reading, though. |
B.Reading is still necessary today. |
C.Reading is more fun than television. |
D.Watching television doesn’t help reading. |
What can we learn from the passage?
A.Fewer and fewer people will buy books. |
B.A good dictionary should be kept in every home. |
C.Books with hard covers sell better than paperbooks. |
D.More people like TV programs about famous men. |
America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.
Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.
Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness (礼貌) to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite (相反) of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily activities. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.
For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A.Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families. |
B.Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break. |
C.Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy. |
D.Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives. |
From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be ______.
A.treated hospitably at his home |
B.offered a ride to his home |
C.warmly welcomed at the airport |
D.treated to dinner in a restaurant |
The underlined words “generous with our time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean ______.
A.strict with time | B.serious with time |
C.willing to spend time | D.careful with time |
A suitable title for this passage would probably be “______”.
A.Friendships between Chinese |
B.Friendships between Americans |
C.Americans’ hospitality |
D.Americans’ and Chinese’s opinions of friendships |
A few months ago I was at a bus stop in town in the evening. The bus came on time and I took the window seat. The bus was travelling by the seashore and I was enjoying the soft wind while watching the sea waves (海浪). After a few minutes the bus made its next stop. A young boy and a girl got on. They were standing on my left when the bus pulled off. I looked at them in surprise and realized that all the window seats were taken up. They could sit but not together. Suddenly a different wave passed through my body and my inner mind gave me the advice to get up. I got up and offered them my seat. The young lady smiled kindly and said thanks. I took another seat and we parted our ways. I don’t remember whether I got off the bus before them or not.
Months passed by. Suddenly one day while I was standing at the same bus stop waiting some time for the bus to arrive I heard a voice.
“Excuse me, Uncle.” I looked in the direction of the voice. It was a beautiful young lady.
Puzzled, I said, “I do not recognize you.”
She said, “Do you remember you gave us your window seat?”
Puzzled, I said, “Maybe, but what is so great in that?”
She said, “If you had not given your seat that day, perhaps I would have not sat with my
friend. By sitting together it helped us bridge a misunderstanding that had been between us forever. Do you know we are getting married next month?”
“Good! God bless both of you,” I replied.
The young lady again said thank you and went on her journey. I realized the importance of giving that day.
Why were the young boy and the girl standing on the bus?
A.Because they couldn’t sit together. |
B.Because they wanted to enjoy the sea weaves. |
C.Because there were no empty seats. |
D.Because they preferred to stand. |
The underlined sentence in the first paragraph probably means that the author had a feeling that ______.
A.the sea wave made him upset |
B.he wanted to do something special |
C.a wave from the sea passed by him |
D.he wanted to make a sea wave in his heart |
The author’s act of kindness helped the young boy and the girl ______.
A.begin to talk to each other again after a time of silence |
B.sit together and become friends very soon |
C.know each other and get married |
D.clear up a misunderstanding between them |
From the story, we can know that ______.
A.small things can create great happenings in life |
B.giving is more important than receiving |
C.offering one’s seat to others will lead to a marriage |
D.we sometimes forget what happened in the past |
Everyone knows about straight-A students.We see them frequently in TV situation comedies and in movies like Revenge(报复)of the Nerds.They get high grades, all right, but only by becoming dull laborers, their noses always stuck in a book.They are not good at social communication and look clumsy while doing sports.
How, then, do we account for Domenica Roman or Paul Melendres?
Roman is on the tennis team at Fairmont Senior High School.She also sings in the choral group, serves on the student council and is a member of the mathematics society.For two years she has maintained A’s in every subject.Melendres, a freshman at the University of New Mexico, was student-body president at Valley High School in Albuquerque.He played soccer and basketball well, exhibited at the science fair, and meanwhile worked as a reporter on a local television station.Being a speech giver at the graduation ceremony, he achieved straight A’s in his regular classes, plus bonus points for A’s in two college-level courses.
How do super-achievers like Roman and Melendres do it? Brains aren’t the only answer.“Top grades don’t always go to the brightest students, ” declares Herbert Walberg, a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who has conducted major studies on super-achieving students.“Knowing how to make the most of your innate(天生的)abilities counts for more.Much more.”
In fact, Walberg says, students with high IQ sometimes don’t do as well as classmates with lower IQ.For them, learning comes too easily and they never find out how to get down.
Hard work isn’t the whole story, either.“It’s not how long you sit there with the books open, ” said one of the many-A students we interviewed.“It’s what you do while you’re sitting.” Indeed, some of these students actually put in fewer hours of homework time than their lower-scoring classmates.
The kids at the top of the class get there by mastering a few basic techniques that others can readily learn.
The underlined word “nerds” can probably be .
A.dull bookworms lacking sports and social skills |
B.successful top students popular with their peers |
C.students with certain learning difficulties |
D.born leaders crazy about social activities |
What can we conclude from the first paragraph?
A.Most TV programs and films are about straight-A students. |
B.People have unfavorable impression on straight-A students. |
C.Everyone knows about straight-A students from TV or films. |
D.Straight-A students are well admired by people in the society. |
What will be talked about after the last paragraph?
A.The interviews with more students. |
B.The role IQ plays in learning well. |
C.The techniques to be better learners. |
D.The achievements top students make. |
What can we infer from the passage?
A.IQ is more important than hard work in study. |
B.The brightest students can never get low grades. |
C.Top students certainly achieve all-around developments. |
D.Students with average IQ can become super-achievers |
Have you ever had the strange feeling that you were being watched? You turned around and, sure enough, someone was looking right at you!
Parapsychologists (灵学家) say that humans have a natural ability to sense when someone is looking at them. To research whether such a “sixth sense” really exists, Robert Baker, a psychologist (心理学家) at the University of Kentucky, did two experiments.
In the first one, Baker sat behind unknowing people in public places and stared at the backs of their heads for 5 to 15 minutes. The subjects(受试者)were eating, drinking, reading, studying, watching TV, or working at a computer. Baker made sure that the people could not tell that he was sitting behind them during those periods. Later, when he questioned the subjects, almost all of them said they had no sense that someone was staring at them.
For the second experiment, Baker told the subjects that they would be stared at from time to time from behind in a laboratory setting. The people had to write down when they felt they were being stared at and when they weren’t. Baker found that the subjects were no better at telling when they were stared at and when they weren’t.
Baker concludes that people do not have the ability to sense when they’re being stared at. If people doubt the outcome of his two experiments, said Baker, “I suggest they repeat the experiments and see for themselves.”
The aim of the two experiments is to ________.
A.explain when people can have a sixth sense |
B.show how people act while being watched in the lab |
C.study whether humans can sense when they are stared at |
D.prove why humans have a sixth sense |
The underlined word “outcome” in the last paragraph most probably means ________.
A.value | B.result | C.performance | D.connection |
In the second experiment, the subjects _________.
A.could tell when they were stared at and when they weren’t. |
B.could tell when they were stared at but couldn’t tell when they weren’t. |
C.couldn’t tell when they were stared at but could tell when they weren’t. |
D.couldn’t tell when they were stared at or when they weren’t. |
What can be learned from the passage?
A.People are born with a sixth sense. |
B.The experiments support parapsychologists’ idea. |
C.The subjects do not have a sixth sense in the experiments. |
D.People have a sixth sense in all places. |
Most recently, it's very common in students who need a parent present for job interviews. Naturally, it's easy to blame the students in these situations, but the bigger problem is us. We—as parents—are so eager to shelter our kids that we fail to realize that this in itself is harming them.As the mother of two young sons, I have to remind myself constantly that the biggest responsibility I have as a parent is to help them develop the skills needed to live in, to live without me.So, I'll let them fail.
I'll let them fail because as long as they are safe and warm inside their comfort zones, they will never grow.And failure is along with loss, heartbreak, disappointment, etc.—will be part of growth for them.Call me the anti-tiger mom, but leaving them alone is my way of helping them become equipped to fit in this world as we know it today.From terrorism and seemingly endless natural disasters, to our national debt and beyond, if we expect the next generation to stand up to the very real problems of our time, we need to stop feeding them and start teaching them how to fish.
My children now are becoming little masters of compromise, but they try to negotiate (协商) everything now.It's a small price to help them learn a skill they'll use for the rest of their lives, including when I don't accompany them on job interviews.
Why do parents accompany their kids on job interviews?
A.Because they want to protect their kids from difficulties. |
B.Because they think they can help them on the questions. |
C.Because their kids are too shy to attend interviews. |
D.Because their kids strongly request them to do so. |
According to the author, what is beneficial to kids' development?
A.Sheltering them. B.Keeping them safe.
C.Leaving them alone. C.Blaming them.
Why does the author stress failure in kids' life?
A.To make them stronger than other kids. | B.To help them grow in this tough world. |
C.To help them develop all social skills. | D.To make them learn to compromise. |
Which of the following might be the best title for die text?
A.Never Shelter Your Kids | B.Let Your Kids Fail |
C.Be Eager to Grow Up | D.Live Without Parents |
How can you find out what is going on inside a person’s body without opening the patient’s body up? Regular X rays can show a lot. CAT scans can show even more. They can give a complete view of body organs.
What is a CAT scan? CAT stands for a kind of machine. It is a special X-ray machine that gets a 360-degree picture of a small area of a patient’s body.
Doctors use X rays to study and determine diseases and injuries within the body, X rays can find a foreign object inside the body or take pictures of some inside organs to be X-rayed.
A CAT scanner, however, uses a group of X rays to give a cross-sectional(横截面)view of a specific part of the body. A fine group of X rays is scanned across the body and around the patient from many different directions. A computer studies the information from each direction and produces a clear cross-sectional picture on a screen. This picture is then photographed for later use. Several cross sections, taken one after another, can give clear “photos” of the entire body or of any body organs. The latest CAT scanners can even give clear pictures of active, moving organs, just as a fast-action camera can “stop the action”, giving clear pictures of what appears unclear to the eye. And because of the 360-degree pictures, CAT scans show clear and complete views of organs in a manner that was once only shown during operation or examination of a dead patient.
Frequent appearance before X rays can cause skin burns, cancer or other damage to the body. Yet CAT scans actually don’t cause the patient to more radiation than regular X rays do. CAT scans can also be done without getting something harmful into the patient, so they are less risky than regular X rays.
CAT scans provide exact, detailed information. They can quickly find such a thing as bleeding inside the brain. They are helping to save lives.
What is NOT true of a CAT scan?
A.It is safer than regular X rays. |
B.It makes use of computer techniques. |
C.It can stop the action of an organ for a short time. |
D.It gives clear pictures of active, moving body parts. |
The underlined words “a foreign object”(Para 3)most probably refer to .
A.a badly injured part inside the body |
B.a new thing that is unknown to the doctor |
C.a strange organ that has grown in the body |
D.an object that gets inside the body by chance |
What is the special use of the latest CAT scanners?
A.It provides clear photos of moving organs. |
B.It can take 3-dimension(三维)pictures of inside organs. |
C.It won’t cause serious skin burns, cancer or other damage to the body. |
D.It helps to find out what is going on inside a person’s body without opening it up. |
We can infer from this passage that .
A.patients in front of CAT may suffer from a bit of radiation |
B.doctors need no opening-up of the body with CAT scanners |
C.CAT scanners are more expensive than regular X-ray machines |
D.CAT scanners can take photos of either the whole body or a part of it |
The best title of this passage might be .
A.the Newest Medical Invention |
B.New X-ray Machine to Save Lives |
C.How to Avoid the Damage of X Rays |
D.Advantages and Disadvantages of CAT Scanners |
Most people hate change, which is sad since we often go through intense changes in life. And for some of us, even the smallest changes can upset our day. So the question is: Why do most of us find making adjustments to our lives so hard?
Fear of change is nothing new. Over a century ago, the Parisians were unhappy over a particular addition to their city: the Eiffel Tower. In fact, the citizens were so angry about the plans for the tower that they protested its construction. As strange as it may seem, their anger was completely natural. They were given no choice about the huge change that was going to be made, so they became angry.
But we get upset over changes even when we do have a say in the matter and think about them carefully. Changes are brought about every day by the decisions we make: which school to attend, which job to take, whom to marry. Voluntary changes also make most of us uneasy because we don’t know how those changes will affect our future.
People have discovered that the key to overcoming the fear and anger associated with change is to be flexible. When they are flexible, people can adapt to new situations more easily. Being flexible is especially important in the 21st century as technology makes change occur faster than ever before. Those who oppose change, especially with technology in the workplace, may find themselves out of a job.
When change comes, and you have no choice but to face it, embrace it. A positive attitude helps a lot. In fact, the change may turn out to be the best thing for you. That new job you got may end up being much better than your old one. You may make the best friends of your life in the new city you moved to. Don’t merely focus on how you feel about change; instead decide to accept the change. The change is the reality, and it’s up to you whether the change will be a success or a failure. You never know – your next change may be your life’s Eiffel Tower!
Why did the building of the Eiffel Tower make the Parisians unhappy?
A.Because they didn’t like the design of the Eiffel Tower. |
B.Because they couldn’t avoid accepting the Eiffel Tower. |
C.Because it was no use building the Eiffel Tower. |
D.Because the Eiffel Tower seemed strange. |
According to the passage, it can be inferred that what won’t disturb us are _____________.
A.the changes that have agreement with one’s will |
B.the small changes we meet in our daily life |
C.the changes whose effect we can predict and control |
D.the changes that we discuss or consider thoroughly |
How should we overcome negative emotions that the changes bring?
A.We are not supposed to face the changes and let them alone. |
B.We should actively accustom ourselves to the new circumstance. |
C.We should not take the changes seriously and avoid them as much as possible. |
D.We should know that the changes merely bring us bad influence. |
What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph mean?
A.The change will probably make you fail like the Eiffel Tower. |
B.The change is like the Eiffel Tower which is not good for our future life. |
C.Your future life is never known just like the Eiffel Tower unknown to the Parisians. |
D.Your future life is likely to be a great achievement due to the change. |
What is the best title for the passage?
A.The Psychology of Change | B.The ways to Overcome the Fear |
C.Changes That Disturb Us | D.The Bad Effect of Changes |
The common cold is the world’s most widespread illness, which is plagues(疫病) that flesh receives.
The most widespread fallacy(谬误) of all is that colds caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated arctic regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from the outside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes.
During the First World War soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches(战壕), cold and wet, showed no increased tendency to catch colds.
In the Second World War prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp(集中营), naked and starving, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds. At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in Experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty room. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.
If, then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the winter?Despite the most pains-taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.
No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors(止痛片) such as aspirin, but all they do is relieve the symptoms(症状).
The writer offered _______ examples to support his argument.
A.4 | B.5 | C.6 | D.3 |
Which of the following does not agree with the chosen passage?
A.The Eskimos do not suffer from colds all the time. |
B.Colds are not caused by cold. |
C.People suffer from colds just because they like to stay indoors. |
D.A person may catch a cold by touching someone who already has one. |
Arctic explorers may catch colds when _______.
A.they are working in the isolated arctic regions |
B.they are writing reports in terribly cold weather |
C.they are free from work in the isolated arctic regions |
D.they are coming into touch again with the outside world |
Volunteers taking part in the experiments in the Common Cold Research Unit ______.
A.suffered a lot | B.never caught colds |
C.often caught colds | D.became very strong |
The passage mainly discusses _______.
A.the experiments on the common cold |
B.the cures about the common cold |
C.the reason and the way people catch colds |
D.the continued spread of common colds |
When Harvard was founded in 1636, there were no other colleges in the American colonies, and it would become the model for many of those that followed. When it began requiring applicants to take a test known as the SAT in 1935, Harvard started another trend. Two years ago, after it announced an aggressive new financial-aid policy, it helped push social class to the center of the national debate over higher education and forced two of its main competitors, Stanford and Yale, to follow its lead.
Last week. Harvard began to make another effort to affect higher education in its image, its president, Derek Bok, announced that the college would abandon its early admissions program, which for decades has allowed high school seniors to apply in October and get an answer yes, no or maybe – in December, shortly before the regular deadline for applications.
Harvard officials argue that the program is beneficial to rich students who don't need to compare financial-aid offers from various colleges. After the announcement, many people within education urged other colleges to take a similar step.
"We're thrilled," said Laurie Kobick, a college counselor (顾问) at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va. "I think it's going to make admissions better in so many different ways. It will indeed go a small way toward leveling the field among applicants. Of course, it will also have an effect on colleges, and the biggest winner will almost certainly be Harvard. a fact that may prevent many other colleges – perhaps all of them – from following Hazard this time. Because any college that does so will risk losing some of its best applicants."
From the first paragraph we can learn that Harvard ____.
A.was the first college in the American colonies |
B.was best known for the SAT |
C.was muck better than Stanford and Yale |
D.refused to offer financial-aid to applicants |
By abandoning early admissions program, Harvard wants ____.
A.to attract the public's attention |
B.to influence higher education in its own way |
C.to save money spent in attracting students |
D.to allow its competitors to admit more students |
Early admissions program is good for rich students because ____.
A.they have more chances to enter college |
B.they can enter college with a lower score |
C.they have special right to be admitted into college |
D.they have no problem in supporting their studies |
Why does Laurie Kobick think other colleges may not follow Harvard?
A.Because they think the action will harm high education. |
B.Because they are afraid that the action is not practical. |
C.Because they may attract fewer top students than he[ore, |
D.Because they are afraid the action will damage their reputation. |
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