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Have you ever been to France before? It is not only a country of great food, fashion and art. It’s also home to the most influential painters in the world.
Edouard Manet
He was one of the first artists to paint modern life. He began to paint in his own style, but still used some of Couture’s techniques like thick lines and dark colors. He was greatly influenced by Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot, which can be seen in his use of light shades. Most of his paintings had scenes of daily life on the streets of Paris. His works include Olympia and The Absinthe Drinker.
Camille Pissarro
In his early years, Pissarro painted scenes of a river or a path from memory. After meeting Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne, who painted in a more realistic style, he changed his course to Impressionism. During his career, he experimented with various styles, and finally formed his own one. His works include Old Market at Rouen and Sunset at St. Charles.
Vincent van Gogh
He had a huge influence on art in the 20th century. His early works were most painted in somber tones. However, influenced by Monet, Pissarro, and Bernard, he adopted brighter colors in his works, and started creating his own techniques. Although he had produced more than 2,000 works of art, the artist sold only one painting during his lifetime — Red Vineyard at Arles. His works include The Potato Eaters, Starry Night and Bedroom in Arles.
Claude Monet
He was the founder of the Impressionist movement and completely changed the French painting in the 19th century. Although he first started by selling charcoal caricatures（木炭讽刺画）in Paris, he soon started painting with oil after meeting Eugene Boudin, who taught him to use oil paints and also encouraged him to paint outdoors. And then he painted with his own style. His works include Impression, Sunrise and The Water Liles.
1.What can we learn about Edouard Manet’s paintings?
A. They reflected the changes of life.
B. They were mainly about daily life.
C. They were all painted in bright colors.
D. They were painted in Morisot’s style.
2.Which painting was sold by Vincent van Gogh in person?
A. The Potato Eaters.
B. Bedroom in Arles.
C. Red Vineyard at Arles.
D. Starry Night.
3.What’s the common point of the four painters from the text?
A. All of them were given many awards in their life.
B. All of them were taught by some famous painters.
C. All of them had a good taste in delicious food.
D. All of them had their unique styles in painting.
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Finding true love can be pretty tough for a lot of people, but a lady from a fairly well-known San Francisco advertising agency seems to think money helps. She is offering $10,000 to any of her friends who can introduce her to her Mr. Right. She wants to find her future husband through this way.
The unnamed husband seeker who sent out the email had just finished reading the best-selling book named Lean In. It was 11 p. m. on a Sunday night and she realized this was the second self-help book she had read in the month. She was still single. Things were not looking fine, but there was hope for her still. If the book had taught her anything, it was that she needed to take a more positive role in finding love. After all, if she wanted to get a better job, she wouldn’t just sit outside an employer’s building and wait for someone to offer it to her, so why should finding a husband be any different? But instead of going out and meeting new people she decided to write an email to all her friends, offering to give them $10,000 on her wedding day if any of them managed to introduce her to her future husband.
“I am writing you today because I’ve decided to make an aggressive action plan on finding the man that I get to hang out with forever,” the woman writes in her email. “Introducing me to my husband is just not high on your to-do list. But I think I have an idea that might change that…” You guessed it, and this is where she offers to reward her “closest friends” with cold hard cash.
“I will personally give ten thousand dollars to the friend who introduces me to my husband.
Here is how the program works:
Step 1: You set me up on a date with a man.
Step 2: I marry that man.
Step 3: I give you $10,000 on my wedding day.
I know you’re thinking that this is nuts. Just plain crazy. ‘You can find a husband without giving $10,000.’ Well for starters, thank you! I’m happy.”
1.What does the lady offer $10,000 to any of her friends for?
A. Celebrating the fact that she has made a decision to find a husband.
B. Checking the power of money among her circle of friends.
C. Encouraging her friends to help find her Mr. Right.
D. Sharing her happiness of having found true love.
2.What does the underlined word “nuts” mean in the last paragraph?
A. delicious B. sensible
C. angry D. foolish
3.What’s the purpose of the author’s mentioning getting a better job in Paragraph 2?
A. To stress the importance of finding a good job.
B. To stress the importance of taking a positive attitude.
C. To show that waiting patiently is necessary to get a job.
D. To state that we need to be patient before a job is offered.
4.What kind of person do you think the lady is?
A. Adventurous. B. Imaginative.
C. Considerate. D. Polite.
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Taxi-booking app Uber agreed to sell its business in China to Didi Chuxing. The two firms had been fierce competitors, but Didi Chuxing had controlled the Chinese market with an 87% share.
Uber China launched in 2014, but it had failed to make any profit for a long time. Cheng Wei, founder and chief executive of Didi Chuxing, said the two companies had learned a great deal from each other over the past two years in China. He added that the deal would set the mobile transportation industry on a healthier path of growth at a higher level. As part of the deal, Mr. Cheng would join the board of Uber, while Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick would also join Didi’s board.
Uber’s China business would own its separate branding while US-based Uber Technologies would hold about 17.5% in the combined company. Didi Chuxing is backed by Chinese Internet giants Tencent and Alibaba.
Uber had been struggling to break into the Chinese market despite having Chinese search engine Baidu as an investor. Last February, the company admitted it was losing more than $1 billion a year in China. “Funding their Chinese dreams was becoming too expensive for Uber,” Duncan Clark, chairman of Beijing-based consultancy BDA, told the BBC. Travis Kalanick said, “As a businessman, I’ve learned that being successful is about listening to your head as well as following your heart.”
The fierce competition had led both companies to spend much more on their journeys. The combination is likely to see fewer such subsidies（补贴）. “One thing to watch carefully is how quickly consumers feel the impact as subsidies are withdrawn.” Mr. Clark added.
The deal with Didi Chuxing came just days after China had agreed to provide a legal framework for taxi-ordering apps. Both Uber and Didi welcomed the decision. The new rules took effect last November and could, among other things, forbid such platforms to operate below cost.
1.According the second paragraph, what can we know?
A. Being successful is about listening to your head and following your heart.
B. The deal would make the mobile transportation industry grow much faster.
C. Didi Chuxing had learnt more in China than Uber over the past two years.
D. Mr. Cheng would be working as a member of the board of Uber as planned.
2.What is the best title of the passage?
A. Uber sold Chinese business to Didi Chuxing
B. Using Didi Chuxing brings more subsidies
C. Listen to your head and follow your heart
D. The new rules look effect last November
3.What is the impact of the fierce competition between Uber and Didi?
A. Uber dominated the Chinese market with an 87% share.
B. China provided a legal framework for taxi-ordering apps.
C. Funding their Chinese dreams became expensive for Uber.
D. Chinese search engine Baidu became an investor of Uber’s.
4.The passage is probably taken from a website about ________.
A. apps B. politics
C. economy D. technology
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You get anxious if there’s no wi-fi in the hotel or mobile phone signal up the mountain. You feel upset if your phone is getting low on power, and you secretly worry things will go wrong at work if you’re not there. All these can be called “always on” stress caused by smart phone addiction.
For some people, smart phones have liberated them from the nine-to-five work. Flexible working has given them more autonomy（自主权）in their working lives and enabled them to spend more time with their friends and families. For many others though, smart phones have become tyrants（暴君）in their pockets, never allowing them to turn them off, relax and recharge their batteries.
Pittsburgh-based developer Kevin Holesh was worried about how much he was ignoring his family and friends in favour of his iPhone. So he developed an app — Moment — to monitor his usage. The app enables users to see how much time they’re spending on the device and set up warnings if the usage limits are breached（突破）. “Moment’s goal is to promote balance in your life,” his website explains. “Some time on your phone, some time off it enjoying your loving family and friends around you.”
Dr. Christine Grant, an occupational（职业的）psychologist at Coventry University, said, “The effects of this ‘always on’ culture are that your mind is never resting, and you’re not giving your body time to recover, so you’re always stressed. And the more tired and stressed we get, the more mistakes we make. Physical and mental health can suffer.”
And as the number of connected smart phones is increasing, so is the amount of data. This is leading to a sort of decision paralysis（瘫痪）and is creating more stress in the workplace because people have to receive a broader range of data and communications which are often difficult to manage. “It actually makes it more difficult to make decisions and many do less because they’re controlled by it all and fell they can never escape the office,” said Dr. Christine Grant.
1.What’s the first paragraph mainly about?
A. The popularity of smart phones. B. The progress of modern technology.
C. The signs of “always on” stress. D. The cause of smart phone addiction.
2.Kevin Holesh developed “Moment” to ________.
A. research how people use their mobile phones
B. help people control their use of mobile phones
C. make people love parents and friends around
D. increase the fun of using mobile phones
3.What’s Dr. Christine Grant’s attitude towards “always on” culture?
A. Confused. B. Positive.
C. Doubtful. D. Critical.
4.According to the last paragraph, a greater amount of data means ________.
A. we will become less productive
B. we can make a decision more quickly
C. we will be equipped with more knowledge
D. we can work more effectively
