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In this age of Internet chat, videogames and reality television, there is no shortage of mindless activities to keep a child occupied. Yet despite the competition, my 8-year-old daughter Rebecca wants to spend her leisure time writing short stories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest, a competition which she won last year.
As a writer, I know about winning contests – and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection letter from the publisher. I also know the pressure of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn’t win the contest again? That’s the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and destroyed hopes can resurface in our children.
A revelation (启示) came last week when I asked her, “Don’t you want to win again?” “No,” she replied, “I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade.”
I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously (自发地) told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly “guided” by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.
Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting my daughter’s experience.
While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.
1.What do we learn from the first paragraph?
A．A lot of amusements compete for children’s time nowadays.
B．Children have lots of fun doing mindless activities.
C．Rebecca is much too busy to enjoy her leisure time.
D．Rebecca draws on a lot of online materials for her writing.
2.What did the author say about her own writing experience?
A．She was constantly under pressure to write more.
B．Most of her stories had been rejected by publishers.
C．She did not quite live up to her reputation as a writer.
D．Her road to success was full of pain and frustrations.
3.Why did Rebecca want to enter this year’s writing contest?
A．She believed she possessed real talent for writing.
B．She was sure of winning with her mother’s help.
C．She wanted to share her stories with readers.
D．She had won a prize in the previous contest.
4.The underlined sentence probably means that the author was _______.
A．trying not to let her daughter enjoy her own life
B．trying to get her daughter to do the thing as the author wished
C．making sure that her daughter would win the contest
D．helping her daughter develop real skills for writing
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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At Blossom End Railroad Station, 22-year-old Stanley Vine sat, waiting for his new employer. The surrounding green fields were so unlike the muddy landscape of war-torn France. After four horrible years as an army private fighting in Europe, Stanley had returned to England in February 1946. Armed now with some savings and with no prospects for a job in England, he answered a newspaper ad for farm help in Canada. Two months later he was on his way.
When the old car rumbled (发着辘辘声) toward the tiny station, Stanley rose to his feet, trying to make the most of his five foot and four inches frame. The farmer, Alphonse Lapine, shook his head and complained, “You’re a skinny thing.” On the way to his dairy farm, Alphonse explained that he had a wife and seven kids. “Money is tight. You’ll get room and board. You’ll get up at dawn for milking, and then help me around the farm until evening milking time again. Ten dollars a week. Sundays off.” Stanley nodded. He had never been on a farm before, but he took the job.
From the beginning Stanley was treated horribly by the whole family. They made fun of the way he dressed and talked. He could do nothing right. The humourless farmer frequently lost his temper, criticizing Stanley for the slightest mistake. The oldest son, 13-year-old Armand, constantly played tricks on him. But the kind-hearted Stanley never responded.
Stanley never became part of the Lapine family. After work, they ignored him. He spend his nights alone in a tiny bedroom. However, each evening before retiring, he lovingly cared for the farmer’s horses, eagerly awaiting him at the field gate. He called them his gentle giants. On Saturday nights he hitch-hiked into the nearest town and wandered the streets or enjoyed a restaurant meal before returning to the farm.
Early one November morning Alphonse Lapine discovered that Stanley had disappeared, after only six months as his farmhand. The railway station master, when questioned later that week, said he had not seen him. In fact no one in the community ever heard of him again. That is, until one evening, almost 20 years later, when Armand, opened an American sports magazine and came across a shocking headline, “Millionaire jockey (赛马骑师), Stanley Vine, ex-British soldier and 5-time horse riding champion, began life in North America as a farmhand in Canada.”
1.Stanley Vine decided to go to Canada because ___________.
A．he wanted to escape from war-torn France
B．he wanted to serve in the Canadian army
C．he couldn’t find a job in England
D．he loved working as a farmhand
2.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．Stanley joined the French army when he was 18 years old.
B．On the farm Stanley had to milk the cows 14 times a week.
C．The Lapine family were very rich but cruel to Stanley.
D．Stanely read about the job offer in a newspaper.
3.What did Stanley like doing after work each day?
A．Hitch-hiking to different towns.
B．Caring for the farmer’s horses.
C．Wandering around the farm alone.
D．Preparing meals on the farm.
4.Why was Armand so astonished when he read about Stanley in the magazine?
A．He didn’t know Stanley had been a British soldier.
B．He had no idea Stanley had always been a wealthy man.
C．He didn’t know his father paid Stanley so little money.
D．He didn’t expect Stanley to become such a success.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Barcodes (条形码) aren’t given much thought by the majority of consumers, but these codes were fairly recently applied in a working fashion in 1970.
A small food store owner decided one day that keeping records of the inventory (存货) of his stock and the associated prices were an extremely laborious process, and so, in 1948, he contacted the The Drexel Institute of Technology in a bid to work towards a solution. Bernard Sliver rose to the challenge and set out to study the problem, and began working on a solution involving an automatic way of keeping track of items that had been sold. Silver and a group of students from the institute realized their answer in the form of ultraviolet light (紫外线), ink and a scanner.
The system worked initially, but possessed some negatives. It was incredibly costly to carry out on a large scale and the system was also unstable. If the invention was to become commonplace (寻常的事) in grocery stores, these two problems had to be solved.
The patent (专利)for the bar code system was filed by Sliver and one of his students, Woodland. The patent was not granted immediately; in fact it took three years for the patent agency to grand their invention patent for the barcode, occurring on 7th October, 1952.
Despite the patent being issued, the system was still not welcomed by the majority of store owners. It was not until 1966 that the system began moving its way into more and more grocery stores. This system was soon criticised, as there was no central mechanism for controlling uniformly coded items. In 1970, Logicorn developed the Universal Grocery Products Identification code (UGOIC), soon shortened to Universal Identification Number (UPC). It was Marsh’s superstore, in Troy, which was the very first store to install this complex barcode reading system, and its popularity has soared (升温) ever since, and is obviously now commonplace in all types of stores worldwide.
1.What is stressed in the second paragraph?
A．The heavy work of store owners.
B．The function of ultraviolet light, ink and a scanner.
C．The origination of barcodes
D．Bernard Silver’s education background.
2.Which of the following was NOT a drawback of Silver’s system?
A．It was expensive to be applied on a large scale.
B．It was a laborious process.
C．The system was not stable.
D．It lacked a central mechanism.
3.What is the purpose of the text?
A．To tell people that failure is the mother of success.
B．To praise scientists’ efforts in making people’s lives easier.
C．To describe shop owners’ opinions of barcodes.
D．To provide information about the development of barcodes.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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The smell of fresh air is becoming something of a distant memory, thanks to our increasing use of fragrance (香气). From air fresheners to scented (有香味的) candles, we live in a world of scent.
Recent figures show seven in ten people use air fresheners or scented candles to keep our homes smelling sweet. Yet recent records suggest that perfumed products could affect our health, causing problems including allergies (过敏), headaches and asthma (哮喘) .
One leading expert believes nearly a third of people suffer health effects from being exposed to scents. A major problem is so-called “contact” allergy—where perfumes and scented products cause eczema (湿疹) when they come into contact with the skin. About one in 20 is thought to be affected by fragrance allergy.
“Often it may not be immediately obvious that you have developed a fragrance allergy,” says Dr. Baron. “You don’t react immediately. Gradually, as you are exposed more and more, the body increases its reaction, until it becomes noticeable to you.”
People with pre-existing eczema are particularly vulnerable (易受影响). “The eczema worsens in areas in contact with perfumes,” says Dr. Baron. “But even those without allergies can be at risk of fragrance allergy.” You can become suddenly allergic to perfumes and personal care products that you have been using for years. “Even if you know which fragrance causes a problem, it can be difficult to avoid, as most personal care products –soap, shampoo, sun cream and washing powder—contain fragrances,” says Dr. Baron.
And strong scents can also cause headaches. Fragrances activate the nose’s nerve cells, stimulating the nerve system associated with head pain. To minimize risk, sufferers are advised to minimize the contact.
“Fragrance suggest cleanliness – yet people are smelling a potentially dangerous chemical mixture,” says Anne Steinemann, professor of the University of Washington. “We often use them to mask one problem – as with air fresheners – but create a greater one – adding poisonous chemicals to the air.”
1.What is the text mainly about?
A．The world trend of using fragrance.
B．The benefits of using non-fragranced products.
C．The health problems caused by fragrance
D．The ways of removing allergy.
2.According to Dr. Baron, ________.
A．our bodies have an immediate reaction to fragrance.
B．seven in ten have suffered fragrance allergy.
C．fragrance can affect people who don’t have allergy
D．people can avoid contacting with fragrance easily
3.Which of the following questions does the text NOT answer?
A．Which products contain fragrance?
B．What’s the influence of fragrance in the air?
C．What are the air fresheners made up of?
D．How are headaches caused by fragrance?
4.The following paragraph might discuss ________.
A．the asthma caused by strong scents.
B．people’s efforts to protect fresh air.
C．the methods of curing eczema
D．the bad effects of air fresheners.
难度: 简单查看答案及解析