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That summer I drank every day, everywhere I went. I had a bottle in my drawer next to me and a bottle next to my bed. I never did another drug, but I drank so much that my family finally asked a priest for help. My father gave me a bottle of medicine for alcoholism that produces unpleasant symptoms when users drink alcohol. I drank while taking it, which made me very sick. And I still drank.
When the priest came, he said, "Jimmy, doctors said that with your diseases and the amount of drinking you’re doing, you’d be lucky to live another six months. So your choice is either to stop drinking and live or to continue drinking and die within six months.”
I said, "I know I can't stop, so guess I'll have to die." The priest told my family what I said. My little brother–who is like my soul mate, looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "But we don't want you to die." All I could think of was how desperately I had to get out of that room at that moment and have a drink.
But I finally stopped drinking. I was on the care team of my dentist Russell. A lot of people in New York knew him. At the time he was the most famous dentist in the city. He drank heavily and was also with AIDS, so I was selected to be on his care team. Everybody on the team was sober (清醒) but me. He went through dementia (痴呆) and died so quickly before my eyes. I stopped drinking and I’ve been with the disease for 35 years now.
1. Why did the author’s father give him the bottle of medicine?
A．He wanted him to cure his illness.
B．He was trying to keep him dying.
C．He thought the medicine could make him sick.
D．He believed it could prevent him drinking.
2. What did the priest mean by saying to the author “…you’d be lucky to live another six months” in the second paragraph?
A．The author would die after six weeks.
B．The author was too lucky to live for six months.
C．The author could hardly live for six months.
D．The author’s luck was only six months.
3. How did the author stop drinking?
A．The dentist Russell helped him to stop it.
B．He was persuaded by the dentist Russell’s death.
C．His care team managed to inspire him.
D．His little brother’s soul saved him.
4. What can we learn from the above story?
A．Drinking heavily increases AIDS patients’ illness.
B．Priests can cure many AIDS patients’ illnesses.
C．Drug taking and heavily drinking can cure AIDS patients.
D．Team work and patience can cure AIDS patients.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Aggie Bonfire (篝火) was a long-standing tradition at Texas A&M University as part of the college rivalry (竞争) with the University of Texas at Austin. For 90 years, Texas A&M students—known as Aggies—built and burned a bonfire on campus each autumn. Known to the Aggie community simply as "Bonfire", the annual autumn event symbolized Aggie students' "burning desires”. The bonfire was traditionally lit around Thanksgiving in connection with festivities surrounding the annual college football game.
Although early Bonfires were little more than piles of trash, as time passed, the annual event became more organized. Over the years the bonfire grew bigger, setting the world record in 1969. Bonfire remained a university tradition for decades until, in 1999, a collapse during construction killed twelve people—eleven students and one former student—and injured twenty-seven others.
The accident led Texas A&M to declare a pause on an official Bonfire. However, in 2002, a student-sponsored-and-off-campus "Student Bonfire" came up.
In 2003, the event became known as Student Bonfire. In a design approved by a professional engineer, Student Bonfire uses a wedding cake design, but, in a departure from tradition, every log in the stack (堆) touches the ground. For added support, four 24 feet poles are spaced evenly around the stack and then bolted to the 45 feet center pole with a steel pipe. Since the group does not receive funding, Student Bonfire charges a fee to each attendee to cover expenses. Attendance for Student Bonfire ranges from 8,000–15,000 people and the event is held in Brazos County or one of the surrounding counties.
1.When did Aggie Bonfire come into being?
A．In 2003. B．1999.
C．1909. D．2002.
2. Which of the following statements is true according to the above passage?
A．Texas A&M University started Aggie Bonfire.
B．The University of Texas at Austin started Students Bonfire.
C．Texas A&M University and The University of Texas started Students Bonfire.
D．Texas A&M University and The University of Texas started Aggie Bonfire.
3.Why did Aggie Bonfire once stop?
A．Too many people wanted to join in it.
B．Some serious accidents occurred during the activity.
C．It ran out of fund and then stopped.
D．There were no official supports.
4. Which of the following might serve as the best title of the whole passage?
A．From Aggie Bonfire to Student Bonfire.
B．A brief history of American Bonfire.
C．Why not join Bonfire?
D．Bonfire in Texas of the United States.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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The Danish (丹麦) architect of the iconic Sydney Opera House, Jorn Utzon, has died at the age of 90, after suffering a heart attack.
Mr. Utzon, an award-winning architect, put "Denmark on the world map with his great talent," said Danish Culture Minister Carina Christensen. Having won a competition in 1957 to design the building, he left the project before it opened in 1973. Mr. Utzon never visited the completed landmark, after disputes about costs. He had quarreled with the Australian client and the costs overran by 1,000%. Even decades later, he declined invitations to return to Australia, but did design, with his son, a new wing which opened in 2006. In 1998 he said, "It's part of education–I can't be bitter about anything in life."
Most of the interior（内部）of the opera house was not completed according to his plans after government-appointed architects took over the job.
The Sydney Opera House planned to dim the lights on the sail-shaped roof on Sunday to mark Mr. Utzon's death.
The chairman of Sydney Opera House Trust, Kim Williams, said, "Jorn Utzon was an architectural and creative genius who gave Australia and the world a great gift. Sydney Opera House is core to our national cultural identity and a source of great pride to all Australians. It has become the most globally recognized symbol of our country."
Mr. Utzon also designed the National Assembly of Kuwait and several prominent buildings in Denmark.
Danish Minister of Culture Carina Christensen paid tribute to him, saying, "Jorn Utzon will be remembered as one of the Danes who in the 20th century put Denmark on the world map with his great talent."
Mr. Utzon won several international awards, including the Alvar Aalto Medal for architecture and France's Legion of Honour.
In 2003 he won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize for his design of the opera house.
1. Which of the following is true about Mr. Jorn Utzon?
A．He was born in Demark and worked in Australia.
B．He left Australia before his design was completed.
C．He refused to go back to visit the Opera House all his life.
D．He disagreed with the government client on the building materials.
2.From the above passage we may NOT know ______.
A．what Mr. Utzon has contributed to the world
B．the exact time of Mr. Utzon’s birth and death
C．whether he had a family or not
D．when Opera House was completed
3. What did the Opera House plan to do to mark its designer’s death?
A．A memorial party would be held on Sunday.
B．Another award would be given out to Mr. Utzon’s son.
C．The lights on the roof of Opera House would become less bright.
D．Another wing would be designed to remember Mr. Utzon.
4. The most proper title of the above passage might be ______.
A．Sydney Opera House architect dies
B．Life of Mr. Utzon, a Great architect
C．Designer and builder of Opera House
D．Awards of the Opera House Architect
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Earlier this year, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a stricter nationwide health standard for smog-causing pollutants that would bring substantial benefits to millions of Americans. With a final rule expected by the end of this month, some opponents, mainly from industrial and oil-producing states, are pushing back. They say investments required to produce cleaner air are too expensive and not scientifically justified.
Lisa Jackson, the E.P.A. administrator, needs to stick to her guns. This is only the first of several political tests to come this fall, as she also seeks to tighten rules governing individual pollutants like mercury and global warming gases like carbon dioxide.
The health standard she is proposing covers ground-level ozone, commonly known as smog, which is formed when sunlight mixes with pollutants from factories, refineries, power plants and automobiles. Ozone is a major health threat, contributing to heart disease and various respiratory (呼吸道的) problems.
Ms. Jackson’s proposal—to reduce the permitted level of smog in the air from the current 75 parts per billion to between 60 parts per billion and 70 parts per billion—is sensible, no matter what industry’s defenders may claim. It had been recommended by the agency’s independent scientific panel but rejected by the Bush administration, which proposed a weaker standard.
Industry will have to make investments in cleaner power plants, and new technologies may be required. As it is, about half the counties that monitor ozone levels are not yet in compliance with current standards, let alone the proposed standard.
Fears about burdening industry raised by critics like George Voinovich, a Republican of Ohio, and Mary Landrieu, a Democrat of Louisiana, cannot be dismissed out of hand, especially in the middle of a recession (萧条). But the health benefits, E.P.A. says, far outweigh the costs, and the time frame for compliance (服从) is generous.
1.Why are some people strongly against a stricter limitation of smog-caused pollutants?
A．Because they have to live a poorer life.
B．Because they think they have to spend more money.
C．Because they hold different political view.
D．Because they want to make more money.
2. What does Ms Jackson propose to do?
A．To reduce the permitted smog level as much as possible.
B．To raise the permitted smog level as much as possible.
C．To keep the permitted smog level from 60 to 70 to 75 parts per billion.
D．To lower the permitted smog level from 75 to 60 to 70 parts per billion.
3.What is the attitude of the author to the smog-controlling issue?
A．Objective. B．Subjective. C．Critical. D．Unknown.
4.Which of the following can serve as the best title of the whole passage?
A．Cleaner power plant on the way.
B．Say no to smog pollutants.
C．Lower smog pollutant, better our life.
D．Debate on smog pollutants.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Never argue with one's own understanding.
The whisper of intelligence is always there, whatever you do.
If you create a time lag (隔绝层) between the whisper of intelligence and understanding in you and your action, then you are preventing the brain from growing into a new size. When you argue with intelligence, when you postpone acting according to understanding then there is confusion, the brain gets confused.
The voice of understanding, the voice of intelligence has insecurity about it. How do you know that it is the right thing?
So we tend to ignore it. Instead we accept authority. We obey.
But the brain cannot be orderly, competent, accurate and precise if you do not listen to it, if you have no respect. We are so busy with the outside world and its force that the world that is inside us does not command that respect and reverence (敬重), that care and concern from us.
So one has to be a disciple (信徒) of one's own understanding, and look upon that understanding as the master.
Sometimes one may commit a mistake, it might be the whim (念头) of the ego and we might mistake the whim, the wish of the ego for the voice of silence and intelligence, but that we have to discover. Unless you commit mistakes, how do you learn to discriminate between the false and the true? In learning there is bound to be a little insecurity, a possibility of committing mistakes. Why should one be terribly afraid of committing mistakes?
So instead of accepting the authority of habits and conditionings, while one is moving one watches, and when there is a suggestion, do not neglect, ignore, or insult the whisper from within and from one's own intelligence.
1.What will happen if you refuse to follow your own understanding according to the above passage?
A．Your brain will become smaller.
B．You will never get help from authority.
C．You will hardly know the world.
D．Your own intelligence will stop growing.
2.What is the function of committing mistakes from the view of the author?
A．Mistakes can make one practical.
B．Mistakes can make one know the facts.
C．Mistakes can allow one more time to develop.
D．Mistakes can improve one’s judgment.
3. The whole passage is developed by ______.
A．facts and ideas B．reasoning and explaining
C．scientific experiments D．arguing and debating
4.The best title of the passage might be ______.
A．Never argue with your own understanding
B．Never believe any authority while arguing
C．Never neglect whispers from around you
D．Never stop training yourself.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
