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Two men, Alan and Henry, both seriously ill, shared a hospital room. Alan was allowed to sit up in his bed and his bed was next to the room’s only window. Henry had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours, of their wives, families, their homes and their jobs. And every afternoon when Alan, in the bed next to the window, could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm among flowers. Trees and skyline could be seen in the distance. As he described all this, Henry, on the other side of the room, would close his eyes and imagine the scene.
One warm afternoon Alan described a parade (游行) passing by. Although Henry could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind. Unexpectedly, an alien thought entered his head: why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never got to see anything? It doesn’t seem fair. Henry felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sight, his envy grew and soon let him down. He began to find himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window—and that thought now controlled his life.
Late one night, as he lay staring at the ceiling. Alan began to cough. He was choking. Henry watched in the dim room as the struggling man tried hard to reach for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room, he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have brought the nurse running. In less than five minutes, the coughing and choking stopped, along with the sound of breathing. Now, there was only silence—deathly silence.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, Henry asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he struggled to take his first look. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He looked out, but faced a black wall.
1.Judging from the passage, the meaning of the underlined word “alien” is ______.
A．disappointing B．sudden C．new D．strange
2.What finally happened to Alan?
A．He was moved to another room. B．He died.
C．He switched his bed with Henry. D．He was very sick.
3.Henry, who had his bed switched, had expected _____.
A．to see the black wall B．to feel the joy of seeing the outside world
C．to feel the joy of breathing fresh air D．to see more than Alan
4.Which of the following words could be used to describe Alan?
A．Kind-hearted and imaginative B．Well-informed and humorous
C．Talkative and funny D．Cold-hearted and indifferent
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is. The laws of physics or the proper way to break an egg —the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something — and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress.
1.Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?
A．Both can continue for generations. B．Both are about where to draw the line
C．Neither has any clear winner D．Neither can be put to an end
2.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict.
B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict
C．The teens cause their parents to mislead them
D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents
3.Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ________.
A．give orders to the other B．know more than the other
C．gain respect from the other D．get the other to behave properly
4.What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
A．Causes for the parent –teen conflicts B．Examples of the parent –teen war.
C．Solutions for the parent –teen problems D．Future of the parent-teen relationship
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Human wants seem endless. When a starving man gets a meal, he begins to think about an overcoat; when a manager gets a new sports car, he dreams of country clubs and pleasure boats dance into view.
The many wants of mankind might be regarded as making up several levels. When there is money enough to satisfy one level of wants, another level appears.
The first and most basic level of wants is food. Once this want is satisfied, a second level of wants appears: clothing and some sort of shelter. By the end of World War II these wants were satisfied for a great majority of Americans. Then a third level appeared. It included such items as cars and new houses.
By 1957 or 1958 this third level of wants was fairly well satisfied. Then in the late 1950s a fourth level of wants appeared: the “life-enriching” level. While the other levels mean physical satisfaction—the feeding, comfort, safety and transportation of the human body—this level means mental needs for recognition, achievement and happiness. It includes a variety of goods and services many of which could be called “luxury” items. Among them are vacation trips, the best medical care and entertainment. Also included here are fancy foods and the latest styles in clothing.
On the fourth level, a greater percentage of consumers spending goes to services, while on the first three levels more is spent on goods. Will consumers raise their sights to a fifth level of wants as their income increases, or will they continue to demand luxuries and personal services on the fourth level?
A fifth level probably would be wants that can be achieved by community action. Consumers may be spending more on taxes and crime. After filling our stomachs, our garages, and our minds, we now may seek to ensure the health and safety to enjoy more fully the good things on the first three levels.
1.According to the passage, man will begin to think about such needs as housing and clothing only when _______
A．he has saved up enough money
B．he has grown dissatisfied with his simple shelter
C．he has satisfied his hunger
D．he has learned to build houses
2.It can be inferred from the passage that by the end of World War II most Americans ______
A．were very rich
B．were very poor
C．Had the good things on the first three levels
D．didn’t own cars
3.Which of the following is NOT related to “physical satisfaction”?
A．A successful career B．A comfortable house
C．A good service D．A family car
4.The author thinks that a fifth level______
A．would be a little better than the fourth level
B．may be a lot more desirable than the first four
C．can be the last and most satisfying level
D．will come true if the government takes actions
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Global Positioning Systems are now a part of everyday driving in many countries. These satellite-based systems provide turn-by-turn directions to help people get to where they want to go. But, they can also cause a lot of problems, send you to the wrong place or leave you completely lost. Many times, the driver is to blame. Sometimes a GPS error is responsible. Most often, says Barry Brown, it is a combination of the two.
We spoke to Mr. Brown by Skype. He told us about an incident involving a friend who had flown to an airport in the eastern United States. There he borrowed a GPS-equipped car to use during his stay. Barry Brown: “And they just plugged in an address and then set off to their destination. And, then it wasn’t until they were driving for thirty minutes that they realized they actually put in a destination back on the West Coast where they lived. They actually put their home address in. So again, the GPS is kind of 'garbage in garbage out'.”
Mister Brown says this is a common human error. But, he says, what makes the problem worse has to do with some of the shortcomings, or failures, of GPS equipment. Barry Brown: “One problem with a lot of the GPS units is they have a very small screen and they just tell you the next turn. Because they just give you the next turn, sometimes that means that it is not really giving you the overview that you would need to know that it’s going to the wrong place.”
Barry Brown formerly served as a professor with the University of California, San Diego. While there, he worked on a project with Eric Laurier from the University of Edinburgh. The two men studied the effects of GPS devices on driving by placing cameras in people’s cars. They wrote a paper based on their research. It is called “The Normal, Natural Troubles of Driving with GPS.” It lists several areas where GPS systems can cause confusion for drivers. These include maps that are outdated, incorrect or difficult to understand. They also include timing issues related to when GPS commands are given.
Barry Brown says to make GPS systems better we need a better understanding of how drivers, passengers and GPS systems work together.
1.In Paragraph 2, Mr. Brown mentioned his friend in the conversation to _____________.
A．build up his own reputation
B．laugh at his stupid friend
C．prove the GPS system is only garbage
D．describe an example of human error
2.With which of the following statement would Barry Brown most likely agree?
A．GPS units are to blame for the most GPS service failures.
B．We should introduce higher standard for the driving license.
C．Cameras are urgently needed to help improve GPS systems.
D．Drivers, GPS systems and passengers should unite to improve GPS systems.
3.What is Mr. Brown’s attitude towards GPS?
A．Unconcerned B．Prejudiced C．Objective D．Critical
4.What would be the best title for the text?
A．driving with GPS can be difficult
B．driving confusions can be caused by small screen
C．driving without GPS should be much more convenient
D．GPS equipment in driving: to be deserted or improved?
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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“In wilderness(荒野) is the preservation of the world.” This is a famous saying from a writer regarded as one of the fathers of environmentalism. The frequency with which it is borrowed mirrors a heated debate on environmental protection: whether to place wilderness at the heart of what is to be preserved.
As John Sauven of Greenpeace UK points out, there is a strong appeal in images of the wild, the untouched; more than anything else, they speak of the nature that many people value most dearly. The urge to leave the subject of such images untouched is strong, and the danger exploitation(开发) brings to such landscapes(景观) is real. Some of these wildernesses also perform functions that humans need—the rainforests, for example, store carbon in vast quantities. To Mr. Sauven, these “ecosystem services” far outweigh the gains from exploitation.
Lee Lane, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, takes the opposing view. He acknowledges that wildernesses do provide useful services, such as water conservation. But that is not, he argues, a reason to avoid all human presence, or indeed commercial and industrial exploitation. There are ever more people on the Earth, and they reasonably and rightfully want to have better lives, rather than merely struggle for survival. While the ways of using resources have improved, there is still a growing need for raw materials, and some wildernesses contain them in abundance. If they can be tapped without reducing the services those wildernesses provide, the argument goes, there is no further reason not to do so. Being untouched is not, in itself, a characteristic worth valuing above all others.
I look forward to seeing these views taken further, and to their being challenged by the other participants. One challenge that suggests itself to me is that both cases need to take on the question of spiritual value a little more directly. And there is a practical question as to whether wildernesses can be exploited without harm.
This is a topic that calls for not only free expression of feelings, but also the guidance of reason. What position wilderness should enjoy in the preservation of the world obviously deserves much more serious thinking.
1.John Sauven holds that________________.
A．many people value nature too much
B．exploitation of wildernesses is harmful
C．wildernesses provide humans with necessities
D．the urge to develop the ecosystem services is strong
2.What is the main idea of Para. 3?
A．The exploitation is necessary for the poor people.
B．Wildernesses cannot guarantee better use of raw materials.
C．Useful services of wildernesses are not the reason for no exploitation.
D．All the characteristics concerning the exploitation should be treated equally.
3.What is the author’s attitude towards this debate?
A．Objective. B．Disapproving. C．Sceptical. D．Optimistic.
4.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
A．
B．
C．
D．
CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point(次要点) C: Conclusion
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
B．
C．
D．