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Dogs Don't Tell Jokes - By Louis Sachar
Twelve-year-old Gary Boone knows he was born to be a comedian. He never stops joking, regardless of the fact that nobody laughs much and his classmates think he is stupid. Therefore he had no real friends at school. Due to being laughed at by his classmates, Gary Boone thought winning the school talent show would be his dream of proving himself to be a real comedian, but on the big night his dream went wrong with funny results.
Winners Never Quit - By Mia Hamm
Mia Hamm, American soccer champion, tells a true-to-life inspiring story of learning that winning and losing aren't as important as being part of a team. More than anyone, soccer superstar Mia Hamm knows the value of teamwork. She shares this lesson, paired with energetic pictures by Carol Thompson, and this story is perfect for soccer kids and their soccer moms.
Shack let on s Incredible Voyage - By Alfred Lansing
The astonishing adventure of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's survival for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as Time t magazine put it, "defined heroism". To write the authoritative story, Lansing consulted with ten of the surviving members and gained access to diaries and personal accounts by eight others. The book has a first-hand account, expanded with maps and illustrations especially for this edition.
The Alchemist - By Paulo Coelho
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho, continues to change the lives of its readers forever. It tells the magical story of Santiago, an Andulusian shepherd-boy (牧童) who desires to travel in search of treasure. The story of the treasures Santiago finds along the way teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts and above all, following our dreams.
1.Why did Gary Boone want to win the school talent show?
A. To develop his comedy skills.
B. To please his classmates.
C. To make more friends.
D. To realize his dream.
2.From Shackletoris Incredible Voyage, we know the main character ______.
A. is a writer for Time magazine
B. is a survival of one polar exploration
C. has left a lot of diaries and accounts
D. has formed a close friendship with Alfred Lansing
3. If you want to know more about teamwork, you can read ______.
A. Dogs Don't Tell Jokes
B. Shackletoris Incredible Voyage
C. Winners Never Quit
D. The Alchemist
4.What do we know about The Alchemist?
A. It has an everlasting influence on its readers.
B. It gives people magical power over their dreams.
C. It tells a story of how to find treasures.
D. It is mainly about the wisdom of listening to others.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Severely disabled people may soon be able to use their noses to write, drive a wheelchair or surf the Internet, thanks to a device (装置) developed by doctors in Israel.
The device will be used by breathing in and out through the nose, according to a study. Healthy people who tested the device quickly learned to play computer games and write sentences by sniffing. Encouraged by the results, the researchers decided to test their device on people who are paralyzed (瘫痪) but whose intelligence remains normal. Ten paralyzed who tested the device quickly learned to use their noses to write words, open a webpage, copy words and put them into a search engine.
With their success in helping severely disabled people to communicate * the researchers decided to make use of the new technology to design an electric wheelchair to be driven by sniffs.
Ten healthy people easily mastered sniff—driving a wheelchair through a maze (迷宫), and a 30-year-old man who had been paralyzed from the neck down for six years was as good a sniff-driver as the healthy participants at his second attempt. In other words, a paralyzed person could use the sniff controller to drive an electric wheelchair.
At the moment, sniff-controlled technology is still in the stage of development, and the Weizmann Institute has already applied for a patent on the device. "Ill be very happy if it can help us to make money, but the real problem is that I hope someone will develop it, because this would help a lot of people," said Sobel, one of the lead researchers of the study.
1.What’s the purpose of the passage?
A. To introduce a new invention.
B. To equip the disabled with life skills.
C. To show the nose's special functions.
D. To instruct doctors to apply for a patent.
2.In the test, the paralyzed people with normal intelligence can use their nose to ______.
A. type long sentences quickly
B. play computer games easily
C. enter a website without much difficulty
D. communicate with others successfully
3.With the help of the sniffing device, a 30-year-old disabled man ______.
A. spent six years learning how to drive a wheelchair
B. failed to drive through the maze at his first attempt
C. took the wheelchair controlled by healthy participants
D. managed to drive an electric wheelchair by sniffing
4.From the last paragraph, we can infer that the sniff-controlled technology ______.
A. will be applied to other fields of research
B. needs further developing to serve more people
C. has become an important patented invention
D. shows the wisdom and talents of Israel doctors
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Whenever someone begins to talk to me about how horrible it is to eat meat and suggests that a nice piece of tofu would be just as good, I just smile and show them those nice pointy teeth we all have in the corners of our mouths. They are called canines (犬牙), and they are there only for the purpose of eating meat.
When it comes to satisfying this kind of desire, soy (豆类) food can never match a well-prepared tri-tip (also know as triangle beef steak ). Just the thought of the beef, burning on the grill (烤架) with the smell of wood smoke gets the mouth watering and brings back memories of summer barbecues. When the knife cuts through the tri- tip, exposing the red meat bursting with juices, it's more than just cooking. It's a cultural event, showing we are at the top of the food chain, like no other food can.
Nutritionally speaking, the tri-tip is one of the better cuts of beef. It is lower in fat than many other cuts, and the proteins (蛋白质) you get from eating meat are more complete than those that come from vegetables, making meat a better choice for building and keeping up your muscle tissue healthy.
According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, one thing to be aware of with soy products in general is that while they are high in iron, a necessary mineral for the body, they also contain something that blocks the body's absorption of iron. We can cook them in various ways to make them tasty. Anyway, the tri-tip goes a lot better with ice-cold beer than a large piece of bean-curd cheese would, no matter how you cook it.
I guess I should say at least
e good thing about tofu. If you cook it just right, you can make it taste a little like the tri-tip, but only a little.
1.What's the author's attitude towards eating meat?
A. Uncaring. B. Approving.
C. Ambiguous. D. Cautious.
2.From the second paragraph, we learn that a well-prepared tri-tip ______.
A. can be delicious and unforgettable
B. can be served only for barbecues
C. should be eaten with soy food
D. should be cooked longer on the grill
3. Compared with tofu, the tri-tip is ______.
A. more nutritious but poorer in proteins
B. higher in iron and other useful minerals
C. more beneficial for muscle development
D. harder for eaters to take in its iron
4.The best title of the passage is ______.
A. The tri-tip, your right choice
B. Differences between tri-tip and tofu
C. Tofu, a nutritious soy food
D. Best food partner — Tri-tip and tofu
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Personal money-management website Mint.com suggests recently that responsible parents should give their kids credit cards—possibly starting as young as middle school. The website says a credit card will help children master responsible spending habits and give parents the chance to teach them some valuable lessons.
It’s absolutely true that kids should learn about how a credit card works and how to use it responsibly. But the idea that they need a card of their own to practise this is questionable.
Yes, credit cards are a teaching tool, but it’s the time you spend educating them about money management that does the teaching, not the piece of plastic. Sit down with your child—here we are referring to teens and walk them through your credit card statements. Point out important things like the due date, late fee warning, and APR (年贷款利率).
If you have good credit, adding a child as an authorized user onto one of your credit cards also provides teachable moments. Allow kids to use the card to make specific purchases and require their participation in payment.
Since the card is still in your name, you can take them off it at any point and cut off their access if they're not able to handle the responsibility.
Another option is to set them up with an account at a local bank that offers free use of a debit card (借记卡). Unlike credit card, the debit card has no overdraft (透支) function.
Children can only use the card to pay for things and the money is taken directly from their bank account. If the account is empty, the worst that will happen is the card being declined at a cash register.
1.Why does Mint.com advise parents to give middle school kids credit cards?
A. To leave their kids financially independent.
B. To help their kids form good spending habits.
C. To teach their kids' how to save pocket money.
D. To strengthen the relationship with their kids.
2.The author considers a credit card as a teaching tool because ______.
A. it motivates teens to ask their parents for less financial support
B. it helps teenagers to know some basic knowledge of credit cards
C. it contains detailed financial information on the card surface
D. it offers parents the chance to teach kids to manage money
3.What is the purpose of adding kids as credit card authorized users?
A. To avoid extremely high overdraft fees.
B. To encourage them to share household expenses.
C. To teach them to be responsible credit card users.
D. To help them pay close attention to their bank account.
4.What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?
A. Further information about the debit card.
B. The overdraft functions of a debit card.
C. More disadvantages of credit cards.
D. The kids' attitude towards a credit card.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Why do people feel so rushed? Part of this is a perception (认知) problem. Generally, people in rich countries have more free time than they used to. This is particularly true in Europe, but even in America free time has been inching up. Women's paid work has risen a lot over this period，but their time in unpaid work，like cooking and cleaning, has fallen even more significantly, thanks in part to dishwashers, washing machines and microwaves, and also to the fact that men shift themselves a little more around the house than they used to.
The problem, then, is less how much time people have than how they see it. Ever since a clock was first used at a workplace to record labor hours in the 18th century, time has been understood in relation to money. Once hours are financially quantified (量化), people worry more about wasting, but tend to save or use them more profitably. When economies grow and incomes rise, everyone's time becomes more valuable. And the more valuable something becomes, the rarer it seems.
Once seeing their time in terms of money, people often grow stingy with the former to maximize the latter. Workers who are paid by the hour volunteer less of their time and tend to feel more upset when they are not working.
The relationship between time, money and anxiety is something Gary Becker noticed in America's post-war boom years. "If anything, time is used more carefully today than a century ago," he noted in 1965. He found that when people are paid more to work, they tend to work longer hours, because working becomes a more profitable use of time. So the rising value of work time puts pressure on all time. Leisure time starts to seem more stressful, as people are forced to use it wisely or not at all.
1. Women's time in unpaid work has fallen partly because ______.
A. men's ability to support a family has been improved
B. men's involvement in housework has increased
C. women's leisure time was taken up by heavy housework
D. women become more skilled at household equipment
2. From the second paragraph, we learn that ______.
A. labor hours were recorded with a clock
B. people haven't realized the value of time
C. more work hours bring in more money
D. The rise of incomes makes time less valuable
3.The underlined phrase grow stingy with can probably be replaced by "______".
A. refuses to delay B. intend to kill
C. try to accumulate D. hesitate to spend
4.According to Gary Becker, what causes people feel anxious about time?
A. The wrong way of time being spent.
B. People's willingness to work hard.
C. The increasing value of work time.
D. More and more leisure time.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析