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Ai-Petri Bridges, Crimea
The views of the Crimean coast from the top of 1,234-metre high Ai-Petri Mount are amazing. The hanging bridges built in recent years can reach the top of the mount. If just walking across the bridges is not dangerous enough, it also happens to be one of the windiest places in the world. It is said that the bridges blow from side to side as wind speeds reach 170 kilometres per hour for 125 days of the year. It’s also very foggy, so you may not be able to see clearly!
U Bein Bridge, Myanmar
This five-metre-high, 1.2-kilometre wooden footbridge does not look as dangerous as the others, but do not be fooled. It was built in the 1850s and it’s certainly feeling its age! Some of the old wood is not as strong as it used to be. It is easy to lose your footing. Although there is no handrail (栏杆), large numbers of tourists cross it every day. When the tourists arrive in the evening to watch the beautiful sunset, this bridge could become the most dangerous of them all!
The Trift Bridge, Switzerland
At 100 metres high and 170 metres long, this is one of the highest bridges in the world. Built in 2004, the bridge is hidden among the high Swiss Alps. You wouldn’t have wanted to walk across the bridge before its repair in 2009. But if you have the courage to cross this bridge, you’d better do it quickly!
The Hussaini Hanging Bridge, Pakistan
In the mountainous area of Northern Pakistan, the Hussaini Hanging Bridge helps travelers cross the Borit Lake. However, you will not feel too confident when you get close to this bridge. It’s one of the oldest bridges in Pakistan and many locals use it every day to travel to work and school — imagine losing your homework over the side of this bridge! It’s made from rope, with a few pieces of wood that have large gaps (空隙) between them. Step carefully!
1.What can we learn about U Bein Bridge?
A.It’s very popular at sunset.
B.It’s safest for people to cross.
C.It’s the oldest bridge in the world.
D.It’s made from rope without handrails.
2.One may not enjoy the views clearly on ________.
A.U Bein Bridge B.Ai-Petri Bridges
C.The Trift Bridge D.The Hussaini Hanging Bridge
3.What do the bridges mentioned in the text have in common?
A.All require serious repair.
B.All top highest in their country.
C.All have a history of one century.
D.All require plenty of courage to cross.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析
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James Dyson, the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner, is now the wealthiest person in Briton after his company posted a record profit for 2018. But how did he make his fortune?
My father died when I was nine, and I remember doing the household chores to help my mother. I hated changing the vacuum cleaner bag and picking up things the machine did not suck up.
Thirty years later, in 1979, I was doing chores at home alongside my wife. One day the vacuum cleaner was screaming away, and I had to empty the bag because I could not find a replacement for it. With this lifelong hatred of the way the machine worked, I decided to make a bagless vacuum cleaner.
Easier said than done, of course. I didn’t realize that I would spent the next 15 years perfecting my design, a process that resulted in 5,127 different prototypes (设计原型). By the time I made my 15th prototype, my third child was born. By 2,627, my wife and I were really counting our pennies. By 3,727, my wife was giving art lessons for some extra cash, and we were getting further and further into debt. These were tough times, but each failure brought me closer to solving the problem.
I just had a passion for the vacuum cleaner as a product, but I never thought of going into a business with it. In the early 1980s, I started trying to get licensing agreements (许可协议) for my technology. The reality was very different, however. The major vacuum makers had built a business model based on the profits from bags and filters (过滤器). No one would license my idea, not because it was a bad one, but because it was bad for business.
That gave me the courage to keep going, but soon after, the companies that I had talked with started making machines like mine. I had to fight legal battles on both sides of the Atlantic to protect the patents (专利) on my vacuum cleaner. However, I was still in financial difficulties until 1993, when my bank manager personally persuaded Lloyds Bank to lend me $1 million. Then I was able to go into production. Within two years, the Dyson vacuum cleaner became a best-seller in Britain.
Today, I still view risk and the potential for failure as part of the process. Nothing beats the excitement of invention. Go out and brainstorm your ideas. You are not limited by any rules — in fact, the stranger and riskier your idea, the better.
1.Which of the following provided inspiration for Dyson’s invention?
A.The death of his father B.The scream of his wife
C.The hatred of homework chores D.The trouble the cleaner bag brings
2.Why was Dyson’s vacuum cleaner not accepted at first?
A.Because the vacuum makers profited from bags and filters.
B.Because Dyson’s vacuum cleaner still needed to be improved.
C.Because the major vacuum makers had updated their products.
D.Because Dyson’s vacuum cleaner didn’t get licensing agreements.
3.Dyson’s machine got into production _____________.
A.before the legal battles B.after becoming famous
C.upon applying for the patent D.in spite of financial difficulties
4.The author’s real purpose of writing the passage is to _______.
A.emphasize the necessity of brainstorming our ideas
B.explain the development of the vacuum cleaner
C.introduce Dyson and his vacuum cleaner
D.urge people to accept risks and failure
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Lin Hanxing is a 30-year-old who lives in Beijing. She owns just five shirts, two pairs of pants, four pairs of shoes and a few other things. It's hard to believe that only five years ago, Lin was one of those people who couldn't stop buying stuff. Back then, she had more than 400 pieces of clothing and handbags
But that was before she saw an online challenge in 2014, introduced by Joshua Becker, a blogger in the United States who was promoting(推广) a minimalist lifestyle(极简生活方式). He encouraged people to reduce the number of their belongings to fewer than 100. Lin wasn’t strongly against it, so she got rid of 90 percent of her stuff. She also deleted(删除) 120 contacts she never spoke to from her social networking account. After doing all that, Lin said she felt “lighter”.
We used to think owning more was the way to lead a rich life. But now many people tend to believe that the opposite is also true--and perhaps truer.
According to US sociologist Joel Stillerman, people who are educated and well-off are more likely to have a minimalist lifestyle. “These people are making the statement: ‘I can afford to have less.’,”he said.
But leading a minimalist lifestyle doesn't mean spending less. A report by UK market research company Euromonitor found young Chinese people spend less on possessions, but more on short holidays and visits to the movies.
“They are looking for a life that is all about culture,” Alison Angus, head of lifestyles at Euromonitor, said about Chinese youth.
So perhaps it all comes down to how we define(定义) “rich”. Is wealth in life about buying more and owning more, or is it about having a more colorful life?
1.The author mentioned the change of Lin Hanxing to _______.
A.introduce the minimalist lifestyle
B.encourage us readers to buy less
C.explain the popularity of owning less
D.explain the importance of a new lifestyle
2.What’s Lin Hanxing’s attitude towards the online challenge in the beginning?
A.She was very fond of it.
B.She thought it worth a try.
C.She was strongly against it.
D.She thought it must be painful.
3.According to the passage, young Chinese people care more about _______.
A.possessions B.culture
C.education D.clothes
4.If one is rich, he is more likely to _______.
A.spend less B.buy more
C.own less D.experience more
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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You have probably heard that Japan has among the highest life expectancy(预期寿命) in the world and that the island of Okinawa(冲绳) has the greatest concentration(浓度) of centenarians(百岁老人). But do you know that two-thirds of the centenarians are still functioning independently? That means they are in their own homes, cooking their own meals and living their lives fully - at about 100 years old!
The elders there are less likely than their counterparts in the United States to have heart disease, dementia(痴呆) or certain cancers. Their bones are stronger than those of similarly aged people around the world. Many of these residents are the subjects of one of the largest studies of centenarians ever conducted. Since 1976, nearly a thousand centenarians on the islands have been studied.
More than anything, the Okinawa diet has long captured the headlines. Before knowing what the Okinawans eat, there is a valuable lesson in how they eat.
Remember this term: hara hachi bu. It is translated into English as “Stop eating when you are 80% full.” With hara hachi bu, the philosophy is that you should still be a little hungry when you push the plate away. You are also advised to reduce your portion(食物的分量) sizes, use smaller plates and eat more slowly.
There is a basic biological (生物学的) reason this works. It takes about 20 minutes for the stomach to send signals to the brain that it is full. Unfortunately, most people can shovel down another several hundred calories in that short time. Instead, if you push the plate away and just wait, you will have eaten less and still feel satisfied.
Eating less is associated with longevity, but of course, that also depends on what you eat. Okinawans typically eat seven different fruits and vegetables and 18 different foods a day, and more than 200 different foods and spices regularly in their overall diet.
However, the younger generations are eating more meat and fast food instead of fish and soy. The elderly there are still widely revered(崇敬), but there are fewer of them, and they are less often living to 100 than in decades past.
1.What is the key to the high life expectancy in Okinawa?
A.What they eat B.How they eat
C.Where they live D.When they exercise
2.Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined part “shovel down” in Paragraph 5?
A.fill in B.put down
C.fill out D.push away
3.Which of the following statements about Okinawa is true?
A.The elderly are in bad need of mutual respect.
B.There are an increasing number of the elderly.
C.The younger generations have a varied diet.
D.Things are starting to change for the worse.
4.Which could be the best title for the passage?
A.Eat less to live longer.
B.Healthy diets build longevity.
C.The Okinawa: a place of longevity.
D.Improve life expectancy? Slow down.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
单词或括号内单词的正确形式。