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Why don’t so many Americans accept the theory of evolution? A 2001 Gallup Poll found that 45 percent of Americans agree with the statement “God created the human being pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so ”, while 37 percent preferred a mixed belief that “Human beings have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God guided this process”, and only 12percent accepted the standard scientific theory that “Human being have developed over millions of years from less advanced forms of life, but God had no part in this process”.
There are at least four reasons to make people resistant to accepting evolution.
1. The warfare model of science and religion. The belief that there is a war between science and religion where one is right and the other is wrong, and that one must choose one over the other.
2. The belief that evolution is a threat to specific religious tenets(信条). Many people attempt to use science to prove certain religious tenets, but when they do not appear to fit, the science is rejected.
3. Misunderstanding of evolutionary theory. A significant problem is that most people know so little about the theory. In the 2001 Gallup Poll, for example, a quarter of the people surveyed said they didn’t know enough to say whether they accepted evolution or not, and only 34 percent considered themselves to be “very informed ” about the theory.
4. The fear that evolution degrades our humanity. Darwin revealed us to be “mere animals”, subject to the same natural laws and historical forces as all other animals.
Believers should embrace science, especially evolutionary theory, for what it has done to uncover the magnificence of the divinity(神学) in a depth never dreamed by our ancient ancestors. We have learned a lot in 4,000 years, and that knowledge should never be denied. Instead, science should be welcomed by all who cherish human understanding and wisdom.
1.According to the Poll, most people in America believe_____________.
A. human beings have developed from less advanced forms of life
B. God contributed to the present form of human beings
C. God created human beings in the present form
D. God guided the process of human beings’ development
2.Which of the following is NOT the reason why people don’t accept evolution?
A. There is always a war between evolution and religion.
B. Some religious tenets can’t be proved by science.
C. Many people don’t know enough about evolution.
D. They fear that we will become “mere animals”.
3.What can we learn form the passage about evolutionary theory?
A. Whether evolutionary theory is science is a question.
B. It has explained the brilliance of the divinity better than before.
C. It must make religion disappear and they can’t exist at the same time.
D. Darwin made little contribution to the theory.
4.What is the writer’s view on the evolutionary theory?
A. It is not science and should be resisted.
B. It is science but should be resisted.
C. It is not science but should be accepted.
D. It is science and should be accepted.
5.The author wrote the passage to_________________.
A. tell the readers that many Americans refuse evolution theory.
B. tell the readers why so many Americans refuse evolution theory.
C. advise the readers to value science, including evolution theory.
D. tell the difference between science and religion.
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Alibaba started taking the lead in China, simply enough, by connecting big Chinese manufacturers(制造商)with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba’s advantage wasn’t hard to identify: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its marketplaces attract 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year—and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets—not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing almost a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings, and anything else my wife wanted. “You’re looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.
Alibaba’s original business-to-business model now is secondary to consumer buying. Chinese retail（零售）buying makes up 80% of Alibaba’s profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you’ll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba’s other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping—big-box retailers especially —in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how extensive the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I’m not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher’s iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.
1.Alibaba’s advantage mainly lies in ___________.
A. its big size
B. its business-to-business service
C. its not charging small sellers
D. its low price
2.What can we learn from the underlined sentence in the passage?
A. Alibaba is of middle size among all the online sites
B. Alibaba will continue to develop.
C. Alibaba stands out as the best online site.
D. Alibaba acts as a bridge between the buyers and sellers.
3.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. a new store B. Alibaba
C. a business D. a foreign website
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. The author’s Chinese teacher is also an online purchase lover.
B. Taobao has no obvious advantage over other similar online sites.
C. Alibaba’s business-to-business service earns more money than retail now.
D. TMall.com provides more profit than Taobao.
5.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Shopping online is TaoBao.
B. The influence of shopping online goes beyond traditional shopping.
C. Alibaba greatly influences people’s daily purchase in China.
D. How the author purchases online in China.
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I wished I had known earlier the fact that I was a low achiever because there was a reason beyond my control. Then I needn’t have worked so hard in my late twenties and early thirties. But I just didn’t know that. I was writing and writing. I was working for no other reason than to hear people praise me.
Most people who go through university read at least twice as fast as I do. I can never tell my left from my right. I avoid dialing a telephone if I can help it, because I sometimes have to try three times before getting the number right. I hear that recording “The number you have reached is not in service” more than any man on earth.
Despite my weaknesses I view my dyslexia(difficulty in reading) as a gift, not a curse(诅咒). Many dyslexics are good at right brain, namely abstract thought, and that is what my king of creative writing is. I’m starting with nothing and coming up with something that didn’t exist before. That’s my strong point. I owe my career to Ralph, Salisbury, my writing instructor at the University of Oregon, who looked past my misspellings and gave me encouragement and hope. I just carried on and never looked back. I’m also very “visual”. This means nothing in school, but when I write books or scripts, I’m seeing everything in my imagination. I write quickly. I go like the wind and can get up to 15 pages a day. Writing is not the problem. I have no problem downloading; it is inputting where things get messed up.
The real fear I have for dyslexics is not that they have to struggle with messy input, but that they will quit on themselves before they finish school. Parents have to create victories whenever they can, whether it is music, sports or the arts. You want your dyslexic child to be able to say, “Yeah, reading is hard. But I have these other things I can do.”
1.According to the passage we know that________.
A. The author had known he was a low achiever since he was a little child
B. The author didn’t work very hard on writing in his late twenties
C. The author owed his dyslexia to his laziness in the childhood
D. The author worked hard for people’s praise
2.From Paragraph 3 we can know that ______
A. The author was grateful to his writing instructor
B. The author often complained about his dyslexia
C. The author had trouble with both inputting and outputting.
D. Having problem in inputting, the author wrote slowly.
3.For dyslexics, the author thinks that_________.
A. they should work as hard as himself
B. they had better choose to drop out of school
C. they should be constantly encouraged
D. they should put their hearts into reading
4.Which of the following proverbs can best summarize the main idea of the passage?
A. He who laughs last laughs best.
B. Where there is a will, there is a way.
C. Reading enriches the mind.
D. When God closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.
5.What kind of man is the writer?
A. Open-minded and optimistic
B. diligent and generous
C. clever but selfish
D. kind but useless
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Suzanne Clement first met Xavier Dolan when he was 17 — an "ambitious, intelligent, hyperactive" young director who wanted to make a film called "J'ai tue ma mere" ("I Killed My Mother").
The Quebecois actress never doubted his talents. Now eight years later, she stars in his acclaimed film "Mommy," which has been selected as Canada's foreign-language entry to the Oscars.
"I think 'Mommy' is like a continuation of this amazing authenticity（真实性）that he puts into his work," said Clement in a recent telephone interview. "He's saying something very deep. And he started to say those deep things about his life when he was doing his first movie."
The film focuses on a trio of troubled characters: widowed mother Diane (Anne Dorval), her violent son Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), and Kyla, a shy, mysterious neighbour with a terrible stammer（口吃）who offers to help (Clement).
While the dynamic between Diane and Steve is perhaps the most important, Kyla's character is equally compelling. The viewer knows she is on leave from her teaching job and she recently stammered, but the reasons are left somewhat vague.
She said Dolan contacted her last summer, shortly before "Mommy" began filming, and sought help in fleshing out Kyla's story. "He told me, 'I have this third character and I'd love you to play her, but she's not very, very definite now. If you want to talk about her and give your input, I'd like to build her.'" she recalled.
"Mommy" opens in Toronto on Friday before screening in other Canadian cities. It premiered（首映）at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where audiences gave it a lengthy standing applause before it was awarded with the prestigious Jury Prize.
After appearing in Dolan's "J'ai tue ma mere" in 2009, Clement went on to star in his film "Laurence Anyways," for which she won the Cannes Un Certain Regard award for Best Actress in 2012.
1.Which statement is True according to the passage?
A. Xavier Dolan made a film called “J’ai tue ma mere” when he’s 17.
B. When Suzanne Clement first met Dolan, she doubted his talents.
C. Dolan made the film “Mommy” at the age of 25.
D. Dolan’s film “Mommy” has received the Oscars.
2.The underlined word “compelling” in Para.5 can be replaced by ________.
A. attractive B. boring
C. pessimistic D. active
3.How many films did Clement star in Dolan’s films?
A. Four B. Three C. Two D. One
4.When the film “Mommy” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, _________.
A. it received many criticisms.
B. it attracted no attention at all.
C. it turned out a success.
D. it had already been awarded with the Jury Prize.
5.What’s the passage mainly about?
A. Suzanne Clement and Xavier Dolan
B. Their successful film “Mommy”
C. All their successful films.
D. How to make a film.
