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I start every summer with the best of intentions:to attack one big book from the past, a classic that I was supposed to have read when young and ambitious. Often the pairings of books and settings have been purely accidental: "Moby Dick" on a three-day cross-country train trip: “The Magic Mountain” in a New England beachside cottage with no locks on the doors, no telephones or televisions in the rooms, and little to do beyond row on the salt pond. Attempting "The Man Without Qualities" on a return to Hawaii, my native state, however, was less fruitful: I made it through one and a quarter volumes (册), then decided that I'd got the point and went swimming instead.
But this summer I find myself at a loss. I’m not quite interested in Balzac, say, or “Tristram Shandy.” There’s always War and Peace, which I've covered some distance several times, only to get bogged down in the "War" part, set it aside for a while, and realize that I have to start over from the beginning again, having forgotten everyone’s name and social rank. How appealing to simply fall back on a favorite-once more into “The Waves” or “Justine,” which feels almost like cheating, too exciting and too much fun to properly belong in serious literature.
And then there’s Stendhal’s “The Red and the Black,” which happens to be the name of my favorite cocktail (鸡尾酒) of the summer, created by Michael Cecconi at Savoy and BackForty. It is easy to drink, and knocking back three or four seems like such a delightful idea. Cecconi's theory: "I take whatever’s fresh at the green market and turn it into liquid." The result is a pure shot of afternoon in the park, making one feel cheerful and peaceful all at once, lying on uncut grass with eyes shut, sun beating through the lids...
1.What can we infer about the author from the first paragraph?
A. He has a cottage in New England. B. He shows talents for literature.
C. He enjoys reading when traveling. D. He admires a lot of great writers.
2.What do the underlined words "get bogged down" in paragraph 2 mean?
A. Get confused. B. Be carried away.
C. Be interrupted. D. Make no progress.
3.Why does the author say reading his favorite books feels like cheating?
A. He finishes them quickly. B. He should read something serious.
C. He barely understands them. D. He has read them many times before.
4.What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. The Books of Summer B. My Summer Holidays
C. To Read or Not to Read D. It’s Never Too Late to Read
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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It is quite apparent that competition surrounds every aspect of human life whether in the United States or the Amazon rainforest. Without it we would not have grown into primates (灵长类动物) . Or we would probably still be struggling to sharpen a bronze tool while crawling around on four legs in search of meat. Without competition, Columbus wouldn’t have discovered America and Edison would never have invented the light bulb.
Friendship, like all relationships between two people, involves competition. It isn’t competition in a traditional sense because there are no goals to be scored and no prize. Perhaps the ecological definition --- the simultaneous (同时) demand by two or more organisms for limited environmental resources, such as nutrinents, living space, or light --- better explains it.
As in nature, high school life is governed by a set of laws, similar to a shortened version of Darwin’s theory of evolution, overpopulation, and competition. There is an abundance of high school students and to distinguish them, ranking and categorizing (分类) take place. In high school, friendships learn to coexist with competition even though at times the relationship is rough. In fact, in some circumstance, competition is too much of a burden for a friendship to bear, causing it to fall apart. College admission is the final high school objective. Four years of hard work is to achieve good grades, and a student’s fate is determined not only by these achievements, but by the records of thousands of other seniors trying to achieve a similar recognition.
Nevertheless, by necessity, competition between students exists in all aspects of high school life. It sets and improves the standards in everything from sports to schoolwork. A healthy, friendly competition can have only benefits, but when it becomes too fierce, jealousy (妒忌) can tear friendships apart. Yet, despite all this, without competition, we would be lost.
1.What does the ecological definition mainly explain?
A.How to win the competition. B.What competition exactly is.
C.What the result of competition is. D.How friends compete with each other.
2.According to the writer, what causes the high school students to compete?
A.They know the laws of nature well. B.Friendship is a burden for them.
C.The number of them is too large. D.They are divided into different groups.
3.Which best describes the relationship of friendship and competition?
A.Friendship is always based on competition.
B.Competition is a result of lost friendship.
C.Competition is terribly harmful to friendships.
D.The degree of competition is vital to friendship.
4.What does the author think of “competition”?
A.Competition is certain to happen at school.
B.The result of competition are out of control.
C.Competition becomes fierce in high school.
D.Friendship is not as important as competition at school.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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1.How much time do you need to babysit Mary's two boys each week?
A. 5 hours. B. 10 hours.
C. 14 hours. D. 40 hours.
2.Which ad requires the job－hunters to work on Monday mornings?
A. Ad A. B. Ad B.
C. Ad C. D. Ad D.
3.What is a necessity for people to get these jobs?
A. They should look after Mary's two young boys on weekends.
B. They are supposed to work full－time just on Saturdays in the Munchies Café.
C. They should have your own bike to take this long－time newspaper delivery work.
D. They need to communicate in a certain foreign language when working for the City Museum shop.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Sally Dawly is a woman from Auburn, California. Over the last three and a half years, the anti-littering woman has spent most of her free time picking up cigarette butts (烟头) from the streets of her home city.
Called the “Butt Lady” by her local community, Dawly began her mission to rid the streets of her city of cigarette butts in October, 2014. The woman looked for cigarette butts, picked them up and threw them in the trash. To keep a count of how many butts she picks up, the Butt Lady has been using a tablet, and earlier this month, she hit a historic milestone—one million cigarette butts.
“I got tired of going on my walks and seeing cigarette butts everywhere,” Sally Dawly said. “I’m just shocked that I had to pick up so many. I’ve ever picked up 3,000 butts in one day,” she said. “Don’t throw away your butts; better yet, stop smoking.”
With so many cigarette butts littering the streets, can one person’s efforts really make a difference? Surprisingly, the answer seems to be yes. Soon after the Butt Lady of Auburn started her mission and word of her efforts spread, cigarette cans started appearing around bars and restaurants in the city. Members of the local community even came out to cheer her on as she approached her one-million-butt milestone.
Sally knows her city’s cigarette butt littering problem won’t be solved anytime soon, but she hopes her work will inspire people to at least think twice before dropping cigarette butts in the streets. She has decided to continue cleaning up after irresponsible smokers, and already has a new milestone in her sights—two million cigarette butts.
Word of the Butt Lady’s efforts to keep the streets cigarette butt-free has reached neighboring communities as well, and CBS Sacramento reports that other cities have started seeking her help as well.
1.Why does Sally Dawly carry an iPad with her while picking up the butts?
A. To entertain the crowds.
B. To monitor the smokers.
C. To attract people’s attention.
D. To record the number of butts.
2.How did Sally Dawly feel when picking up cigarette butts?
A. Excited but upset. B. Shocked and sorry
C. Frightened but content. D. Astonished and desperate.
3.From the text. what can be inferred about Sally Dawly?
A. She picks up nearly 3,000 cigarette butts every day.
B. She will work in other cities in California in the future.
C. She has set a new goal of picking up two million cigarette butts.
D. She picked up one million cigarette butts with members of her community.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A. California’s “Butt Lady”.
B. Fighting against smoking.
C. Californians health problems.
D. Smoking problems in California.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
