-
It was a cold morning at a metro station in Washington DC, a man started to play the violin. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the tin without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most beautiful pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars.
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment.
The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we enjoy beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected situation?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”
1.Few people stopped to listen to Joshua Bell playing because____________.
A. it was too cold in the subway
B. they were not interested in music
C. people were in a hurry
D. the performance was not good enough
2.Which of the following is true about Joshua Bell’s performance?
A. Nobody gave him money
B. Nobody recognized him.
C. Nobody appreciated it
D. Nobody organized it
3.Joshua Bell played in the metro station in order to ____________.
A. make more money on the street
B. practice his skills in playing music
C. made an advertisement for his concert
D. find out people’s reaction under such a circumstance
4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?.
A. The Importance of Music B. A Talented Violinist
C. A Subway Violin Performance D. The Things We Miss
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
-
The English test will be removed from China’s college entrance exam by 2020, according to the Ministry of Education. The national college entrance exam, known as the “Gaokao” has been used to evaluate Chinese students for three decades. The Ministry of Education has worked out a plan for reforming exams and enrollment. Tests will be held several times a year to allow students to choose when and how often they sit the exam so as to reduce study pressure and change China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system.
The decision has aroused a heated discussion among Shanghai educators and parents who doubted the reform would reduce the burden of learning English or if the substitute test could reflect a student’s English skills and help students learn English better. Cai Jigang, a professor from Fudan University said, “The reform shows China is to give students more test-taking chances. But more chances might become more of a burden since Chinese students are likely to repeat the test until they get the highest score.”
“In my opinion, the reform doesn’t mean English is no longer important for Chinese students after it will be excluded from the unified college entrance exam,” said Yu Lizhong, chancellor of New York University Shanghai, “In a way, English is even more important than before since the test would only serve as reference, while every college and university, even every major, canhave different requirements of a student’s English skills under a diverse evaluation system.”
Yu said some students will have their study pressure reduced if the major they choose doesn’t need excellent English while others still need to study hard if they want to be among the best students.
The education ministry said the reform would not affect students attending the college entrance exam over the next three years. But parents with younger children are concerned. Zhang Hui, the mother of a fourth-grade girl at Pudong Zhuyuan Primary School, said English was her daughter’s strength, so canceling the English test would not favor her child.
1.What can we learn from the first paragraph?
A. English will become less and less important in the stage of compulsory education.
B. It has been 30 years since English became one subject of Chinese “Gaokao”.
C. China’s once-in-a-lifetime exam system is unacceptable at all.
D. The system that tests are held several times does more good than once-in-a-lifetime
2.According to the passage, some Shanghai educators and parents argue that _____.
A. the new exam and admission system will make no difference
B. English shouldn’t be removed from China’s college entrance exam
C. the reform may accomplish the very opposite
D. Western educational system does not apply to China
3.According to Yu Lizhong, _______________.
A. Students needn’t lay a good foundation during the period of high school.
B. Whether students should study English hard may depend on their major.
C. Students can constantly strive for perfection only in their major.
D. English must be close to full mark.
4.What’s the purpose of writing the passage?
A. To advise students not to devote themselves to learning English.
B. To call on Education Department to remove English from “Gaokao”.
C. To support Education Department’s act of removing English from “Gaokao”
D. To report people’s opinions on English being removed from “Gaokao”
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
-
You may not pay much attention to your daily elevator ride. Many of us use a lift several times during the day without really thinking about it .But Lee Gray, PhD, of the University of North Carolina, US, has made it his business to examine this overlooked form of public transport. He is known as the “Elevator Guy”.
“The lift becomes this interesting social space where etiquette is sort of odd,” Gray told the BBC, “They [elevators] are socially very interesting but often very awkward places”.
We walk in and usually turn around to face the door. If someone else comes in, we may have to move. And here, according to Gray, lift users unthinkingly go through a set pattern of movements. He told the BBC what he had observed.
He explained that when you are the only one inside a lift, you can do whatever you want – it’s your own little box.
If there are two of you, you go into different corners, standing diagonally(对角地) across from each other to create distance.
When a third person enters, you will unconsciously form a triangle. And when there is a fourth person it becomes a square, with someone in every corner. A fifth person is probably going to have to stand in the middle.
New entrants to the lift will need to size up the situation when the doors slide open and then act decisively. Once in, for most people the rule is simple – look down, or look at your phone.
Why are we so awkward in lifts?
“You don’t have enough space,” Professor Babette Renneberg, a clinical psychologist at the Free University of Berlin, told the BBC. “Usually when we meet other people we have about an arm’s length of distance between us. And that’s not possible in most elevators.”
In such a small, enclosed space it becomes very important to act in a way that cannot be construed as threatening or odd. “The easiest way to do this is to avoid eye contact,” she said.
1.According to Gray, when people enter an elevator, they usually _____.
A. turn around and greet one another
B. look around or examine their phone
C. make eye contact with those in the elevator
D. try to keep a distance from other people
2.Which of the following describes how people usually stand when there are at least two people in an elevator?
3.The underlined phrase “size up” in Paragraph 7 is closest in meaning to _____.
A. judge B. ignore
C. put up with D. make the best of
4.According to the article, people feel awkward in lifts because of _____.
A. someone’s odd behaviors
B. the lack of space
C. their unfamiliarity with one another
D. their eye contact with one another
难度: 中等查看答案及解析