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Summer Rain
The worst days of any summer are the rainy ones. We spend all year looking forward to nice weather and long, hot days. All of winter, with its cloudy days and bitter cold, we dream of those endless days at the beach, lying on the sand and enjoying the bright and burning sun. And then, summer comes, and it rains.
As a child, I would wake up to rainy summer days and come close to crying. It wasn’t fair. We suffered through months of school and experienced bad weather for those short ten weeks of freedom and pleasant weather.
On those rainy summer days, I had nothing fun to do and could only sit inside, staring out at the rain like a bird in a cage. I was an only child, so there was no one else to play with. My father worked from home, so I was not truly alone, but he could not actively play with me since he was at work. It was those days that I would watch whatever was on television or read any books that I could find lying around. I’d drag through the day and pray each night that the rain would not be there the next day.
As an adult, though, my opinion of summer rain has changed. When you have to work every day, summer is not as exciting. Everything seems dull. Such a mindset makes you cheer for anything new or different. I spend the winter dreaming of summer and the summer dreaming of winter. When summer comes, I hate how hot it is. And then I look forward to the rain, because the rain brings with it a cold front, which makes me comfortable. Rainy days are still the worst days of the summer, but summer rain today means positively beautiful — and considerably cooler — weather tomorrow.
1.When the author was a child, he ______.
A. hated rainy days
B. liked staying indoors
C. preferred cooler weather
D. dreamed on summer days
2.We can learn from the passage that the author ______.
A. was often left alone at home
B. had no brothers or sisters
C. preferred reading to playing outside
D. could enjoy the brilliant sun in winter
3.As an adult, the author views summer rain differently because ______.
A. he knows it won’t last long
B. his summer holiday is very short
C. rain makes the weather cooler
D. he can better deal with his holiday
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When my daughter Sally was five, I bought Grimm’s Fairy Tales and read Snow White to her one night. At the end of the original Grimm tale, Snow White’s stepmother is made to put on red-hot iron shoes and dance until she falls down dead.
This came as something of a shock. I always thought fairytales had happy endings. And I didn’t want my five-year-old daughter going to sleep thinking: “Thank goodness they tortured (折磨) that old woman to death.” That’s when I decided to write fairy tales.
In the years that followed, I wrote tales non-stop and read them to Sally at bedtime. The Corn Dolly was based on a child who was always complaining; The Silly King was just a silly story Sally loved; I wrote The Witch and the Rainbow Cat for Sally because of her enormous appetite for stories about witches while Dr Bonocolus’s Devil is a new version of the Faust legend．
Nifobobinus, however, was different. I wrote this book when Sally was older and took up all things girls have to do — who’s friends with who, who stuck a sticker on the back of whose boyfriend, or whatever thing she felt funny.
Nicobobinus, the boy who could do anything, came out of my desire for a more innocent world. He lived a 1ong time ago, in a city called Venice. Only his best friend, Rosie, knew he could, and nobody took any notice of anything Rosie said, because she was always having wild ideas anyway.
Nicobobinus was so different that it turned out to be an instant hit. The Times called me “an author setting out to rival the classic fairytales”. I asked Sally what she thought of Nicobobinus. She said it was her favourite.
1.What led the writer to start writing fairy tales for her daughter?
A. The frightening ends of past fairy tales.
B. His daughter’s strong interest in fairy tales.
C. His desire to let his daughter know more stories.
D. His attempt to fill his daughter’s bedtime with something.
2.We can infer from the third paragraph that the writer _____.
A. was a very productive fairy tale writer
B. based all his stories on some old legends
C. never described witches in his fairy tales
D. created his stories out of his own interest
3.When creating Nicobobinus, the first thing the writer considered was _____.
A. the changes of his daughter’s interests
B. what story the publisher wanted to get
C. ways to keep his daughter Sally innocent
D. the difference of the story from other stories
4.The underlined word “rival” in the last paragraph can be replaced by _____.
A. follow B. explore C. challenge D. recommend
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Your car is a necessary part of your life. You use it every day. Of course, you want to hold on to it so you make sure it has the latest alarm and immobilizer. But despite all these, cars like yours are still stolen every day. In fact, in this country, one car is stolen almost every minute! And if your car is stolen, you only have a 50:50 chance of seeing it again.
Each year, car crime costs nearly £3 billion. Of course, if you’re insured, you won’t lose out, or will you? Firstly, you will have to pay extra insurance later on, and then you may not be offered the full amount by the agent. You will probably have to hire a car and you will also lose the value of the contents and accessories (配件) in the car.
Now comes the solution. An RAC Trackstar system, hidden in one of 47 possible secret locations in your car, is the key of our system. If your car is stolen, radio signals are sent at twenty-second intervals from the car to the RAC Trackstar National Control Center via a satellite network. Then a computer gives the vehicle’s exact location, speed and direction.
The RAC Trackstar National Control Center, which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, will immediately inform the police in the area where the car is located. Because the police receive information every twenty seconds, they will always know the vehicle’s location. Once the thief has been arrested, your car will be returned to you.
RAC Trackstar is unique in being able to provide the National Control Center with details of the exact location of your car, its speed and direction. And speed is the key to successful recovery of a stolen vehicle. RAC Trackstar Control will immediately tell the police if you report your car stolen and under the 24-hour Guardian Option. It will also tell you if your car has been stolen. RAC Trackstar’s constant updates mean the police are kept informed of the car’s location. All these greatly improve your chances of seeing your car again.
1. If your car is stolen, you will have to ______.
A. hire a new car
B. pay more insurance
C. buy a RAC Trackstar system
D. inform the National Control Center
2.The Trackstar system can tell the police ______.
A. how the car is stolen B. who the thief is
C. what brand the car is D. where the car is
3.The underlined word “It” in the last paragraph refers to ______.
A. the local police station B. the Guardian Option
C. the insurance company D. the RAC Trackstar Control
4.According to the passage, people with RAC Trackstar ______.
A. automatically find directions
B. seldom get their vehicles damaged
C. have less chance of being in an accident
D. are more likely to get the stolen cars back
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Ever walked to the shops only to find, once there, you’ve completely forgotten what you went for? Or struggled to remember the name of an old friend? For years we’ve accepted that a forgetful brain is as much a part of aging as wrinkles and gray hair. But now a new book suggests that we’ve got it all wrong.
According to The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, by science writer Barbara Strauch, when it comes to the important things, our brains actually get better with age. In fact, she argues that some studies have found that our brain hits its peak between our 40s and 60s — much later than previously thought.
Furthermore, rather than losing many brain cells as we age, we keep them, and even produce new ones well into middle age. For years it’s been assumed that brain, much like the body, declines with age. But the longest, largest study into what happens to people as they age suggests otherwise.
This continuing research has followed 6,000 people since 1956, testing them every seven years. It has found that on average, participants performed better on cognitive (认知的) tests in their 40s and 50s than they had done in their 20s. Specifically, older people did better on tests of vocabulary, verbal memory (how many words you can remember) and problem solving. Where they performed less well was number ability and perceptual speed — how fast you can push a button when ordered. However, with more complex tasks such as problem-solving and language, we are at our best at middle age and beyond. In short, researchers are now coming up with scientific proof that we do get wiser with age.
Neuroscientists are also finding that we are happier with aging. A recent US study found older people were much better at controlling and balancing their emotions. It is thought that when we’re younger we need to focus more on the negative aspects of life in order to learn about the possible dangers in the world, but as we get older we’ve learned our lessons and are aware that we have less time left in life: therefore, it becomes more important for us to be happy.
1.Barbara Strauch probably agrees that ______.
A. the young are better at handling important things
B. people’s brains work best between their 40s and 60s
C. aging leads to the decline of the function of the brain
D. wrinkles and gray hair are the only symbols of aging
2.The continuing research has found older people perform better on ______.
A. perceptual speed B. number ability
C. vocabulary tests D. body balance
3.People are happier with aging because ______.
A. they learn to value the time left
B. they know how to share feelings
C. they cannot focus on negative aspects
D. they do not realize the possible dangers
4.What is the main idea of the passage?
A. People get happier with age.
B. People get wiser with age.
C. People get more forgetful with age.
D. People get more self-aware with age.
