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I began working in journalism when I was eight. It was my mother’s idea. She wanted me to “make something” of myself, and decided I had better start young if I was to have any chance of keeping up with the competition.
With my load of magazines I headed toward Belleville Avenue. The crowds were there. There were two gas stations on the corner of Belleville and Union. For several hours I made myself highly visible, making sure everyone could see me and the heavy black letters on the bag that said THE SATURDAY EVENING POST. When it was suppertime, I walked back home.
“How many did you sell, my boy?” my mother asked.
“None.”
“Where did you go?”
“The corner of Belleville and Union Avenues.”
“What did you do?”
“Stood on the corner waiting for somebody to buy a Saturday Evening Post.”
“You just stood there?”
“Didn’t sell a single one.”
“My God, Russell!”
Uncle Allen put in, “Well, I’ve decided to take the Post.” I handed him a copy and he paid me a nickel(五分镍币). It was the first nickel I earned.
Afterwards my mother taught me how to be a salesman. I would have to ring doorbells, address adults with self-confidence, and persuade them by saying that no one, no matter how poor, could afford to be without the Saturday Evening Post in the home.
One day, I told my mother I’d changed my mind. I didn’t want to make a success in the magazine business.
“If you think you can change your mind like this,” she replied, “you’ll become a good-for-nothing.” She insisted that, as soon as school was over, I should start ringing doorbells, selling magazines. Whenever I said no, she would scold me.
My mother and I had fought this battle almost as long as I could remember. My mother, dissatisfied with my father’s plain workman’s life, determined that I would not grow up like him and his people. But never did she expect that, forty years later, such a successful journalist as me would go back to her husband’s people for true life and love.
1.Why did the boy start his job young?
A.He wanted to be famous in the future.
B.The job was quite easy for him.
C.His mother had high hopes for him.
D.The competition for the job was fierce.
2.From the dialogue between the boy and his mother, we learn that the mother was _______.
A.excited
B.interested
C.ashamed
D.disappointed
3.What did the mother do when the boy wanted to give up?
A.She forced him to continue.
B.She punished him.
C.She gave him some money.
D.She changed her plan.
4.What does the underlined phrase “this battle”(last paragraph) refer to?
A.The war between the boy’s parents.
B.The arguing between the boy and his mother.
C.The quarrel between the boy and his customers.
D.The fight between the boy and his father.
5.What is the text mainly about?
A.The early life of a journalist.
B.The early success of a journalist.
C.The happy childhood of the writer.
D.The important role of the writer in his family.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Imagine looking at a view of mountaintops and wondering about the name of each peak. Suddenly, above each mountaintop, a name appears on the sky. The words are not written in smoke by skywriting planes. The words are actually not in the sky at all. They come from tiny computers in contact lenses (隐形眼镜).
Computers have become smaller and smaller over the decades. The first computers filled houses. Transistors (晶体管) and then chips allowed computers to become small enough to fit on a desktop, then a laptop, and finally a phone. When experimenting with further contraction in size, developers often have to deal with the limits of human eyesight, which control how small the computers can be and still present visible information.
One new solution employs microprojectors (微型投影机) to create a readable display (显示) for tiny computers. These machines project computer information onto any surface. Though an impressive breakthrough, there are potential problems. Such public displays can lead to privacy concerns; most people do not want their information displayed on a wall for everyone to see. Besides, these projectors are extremely expensive, and their screens give users headaches.
Babak Parviz, a researcher at the University of Washington, created another solution: inventing a screen visible only to a person wearing a contact lens. Parviz created a computer in a contact lens that uses the wearer’s field of vision as the display. To create the display, Parviz took ordinary soft contact lenses with a wirelessly controlled system. At some point, Parviz says, it will be possible to connect the lens to a remote personal computer device such as a cellphone or a laptop. By looking in a certain direction, the wearer sends the computer visual information about what he or she sees. The device then uses this information to point out the names of peaks.
These contact lenses are inserted and removed in much the same way as ordinary contact lenses. In addition, the computers in the lenses won’t block the wearer’s sight at all. Although now the computers are not on lenses treating eyesight problems, Parviz hopes that someday the technology will progress to that level.
1.The contact lenses in the text can ________.
A.treat eyesight problems B.offer beautiful views of nature
C.project information on wall surface D.show information about what wearers see
2.The underlined word “contraction” in Paragraph 2 can be replaced by________.
A.expansion B.spread
C.reduction D.revolution
3.According to Paragraph 3, the microprojectors ________.
A.put people’s privacy at risk B.save computer information
C.cause serious illnesses D.support users’ needs
4.According to the passage, these contact lenses contribute to ________.
A.saving users’ expenses B.reducing computers’ size
C.limiting the field of vision D.guarding remote computers
5.What might be the best title for the passage?
A.Tiny Computers, Amazing Sights B.Smaller Lenses, Closer Views
C.Progress towards Clearness D.Road to the Small World
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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Larks are most likely to be healthy, wealthy and wise, according to the old saying.
But those who are early to bed and early to rise do not always have the upper hand, researchers say. They have found that night owls are generally brighter and wealthier than those able to get up early in the morning.
Experts from the University of Madrid carried out tests on around 1,000 teenagers and found that those who preferred to stay up late proved the kind of intelligence associated with honored jobs and higher incomes. “Larks” or “morning people”, however, often acquired better exam results, possibly because lessons are held at the wrong time of day for night owls. The researchers examined the habits and body clocks of the youngsters to determine whether they liked to stay up late and sleep in later in the morning, or preferred to go to bed early and were at their peak in the morning. School performance and inductive（归纳的）intelligence, or problem solving, were measured and academic grades in the major subjects were also taken into account. The results showed that evening types scored higher than morning types on inductive reasoning, which has been shown to be a good estimate of general intelligence and a strong indicator of academic performance. They also had a greater capacity to think conceptually as well as analytically. Such abilities have been linked to innovative（创新的） thinking, more admired occupations and better incomes.
Famous night owls include President Trump, Obama, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Keith Richards and Elvis Presley. George W. Bush, who is regularly in bed by 10 p.m., Thomas Edison, Napoleon, Condoleezza Rice, who wakes at 4:30 a.m., and Ernest Hemingway are among those known as larks. Jim Horne, professor of psychophysiology at Lough borough University, said, “Evening types tend to be the more active and creative types, the poets, artists and inventors, while the morning types are the deducers（推断者）, as are often seen with civil servants and accountants.” A previous study of US Air Force recruits found that evening types were much better at thinking to solve problems than larks.
1.What does the word “lark” mean in the text?
A.A bird of prey that flies in the morning.
B.A bird of prey that is a symbol of wisdom.
C.A kind of person who goes to bed early and wakes up early.
D.A kind of person who has honored jobs and higher incomes.
2.What characteristics do night owls have?
A.Night owls are much healthier, wealthier and wiser.
B.Night owls are not good at inductive reasoning.
C.Night owls stay up late and wake up early in the morning.
D.Night owls are expert in analyzing and innovative thinking
3.What’s the author’s attitude towards night owls?
A.Doubtful. B.Objective.
C.Subjective. D.Negative.
4.From the passage, we can infer that ______________.
A.The early bird will catch the worm.
B.Morning types have a tendency to do some creative jobs.
C.Night owls can do better in the examinations if lessons are held in the right time.
D.President Trump, Winston Churchill and George W. Bush are models of night owls.
5.According to the writer, what kind of job is an evening type likely to do in the future?
A.A fashion designer B.A social worker
C.An accountant D.A government employee
难度: 困难查看答案及解析