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Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson River must remember the Catskill Mountains. They are a branch of the great Appalachian family, and can be seen to the west rising up to a noble height and towering over the surrounding country. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their beautiful shapes on the clear evening sky, but sometimes when it is cloudless, gray steam gathers around the top of the mountains which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will shine and light up like a crown of glory(华丽的皇冠).
At the foot of these mountains, a traveler may see light smoke going up from a village. In that village, and in one of the houses (which, to tell the exact truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived many years ago, a simple, good-natured fellow by the name of Rip Van Winkle.
Rip’s great weakness was a natural dislike of all kinds of money-making labor. It could not be from lack of diligence, for he could sit all day on a wet rock and fish without saying a word, even though he was not encouraged by a single bite. He would carry a gun on his shoulder for hours, walking through woods and fields to shoot a few birds or squirrels. He would never refuse to help a neighbor, even in the roughest work. The women of the village, too, used to employ him to do such little jobs as their less helpful husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip was ready to attend to everybody’s business but his own.
If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect satisfaction; but his wife was always mad at him for his idleness(懒散). Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was endlessly going, so that he was forced to escape to the outside of the house — the only side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband.
1.Which of the following best describes the Catskill Mountains? ________
A. They are very high and beautiful in this area.
B. They are on the west of the Hudson River.
C. They can be seen from the Appalachian family.
D. They gather beautiful clouds in blue and purple.
2.The hero of the story is probably__________.
A. hard-working and likes all kinds of work
B. gentle, helpful but a little idle
C. simple, idle but very dutiful
D. idle and hates all kinds of jobs
3.The underlined words “henpecked husband” in the last paragraph probably means a man who__________.
A. likes hunting B. is afraid of hens
C. is afraid of his wife D. loves his wife
4. What would be the best title for the text? ________.
A. Catskill Mountains. B. A Mountain Village.
C. A Dutiful Husband. D. Rip Van Winkle.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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“Image is everything.” An entire industry has been built upon the assumption that image is everything, but when it comes down to it, an appealing image is not enough. If there is no substance(事实) behind the image, the product, service or person will fail eventually.
First of all, one should consider how important image is in the selling of products and services. Advertising agencies have raised the art of creating an image to a state of near perfection. Public concept of that product or service is certainly managed by the images created by the advertising agencies. But if the product or service does not live up to the image that was created, the customer will be very dissatisfied and possibly ask for their money back. For example, the Arthur Andersen accounting firm had spent decades building up an image of trustworthiness. But the recent scandal (丑闻) showed that behind that image, it cheated in business practices. Despite the previous positive image, the firm is being accused of criminal actions and it will probably not survive as a business unit. Although the image had been nearly perfect, the reality behind the image has led to the downfall of the world famous accounting firm.
Similarly, personal advisers can build up a public image for politicians and movie stars. Putting out positive news releases, making sure that only the best photographs are published, and ensuring that the person is seen in all the right places can build up a very positive image in the view of the general commons. But once again, history is filled with examples of both politicians and movie stars that fell from grace like the story of the Hollywood actor giving in to the pressures of fame and fortune. With people, just as with products and services, image is certainly important, but without positive substance behind the image, failure is close.
To summarize, it is clear that an appealing image is extremely important to success, whether that image is related to selling a product or service or to the “selling” of a person. But image is only half of the equation. What lies behind that image is every bit as important as the image itself —— the person or product must deliver on that image or there is little chance for long-term success.
1.The downfall of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm is due to ________.
A. its previous images
B. its dishonesty in business
C. its bad management
D. its poor service
2.Why did some famous people fall from grace?___________
A. Their images were not well built up
B. They felt much pressure from the public.
C. They failed to live up to their images
D. They paid little attention to fame and fortune.
3.The structure of the passage is ________.
A: Argument P: Point C: Conclusion
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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We live in a technological society where most goods are mass-produced by unskilled labor. Because of this, most people think that craft(手艺) no longer exists.
One of the ways these people wrongly support their view is by pointing to 100-year-old homes which are still solid, and arguing that it is the craftsmanship that is responsible for their durability(持久性). “Homes in those days were well-built,” they say. No doubt these homes were well-built, but what these people have done is mix up the quality of material used in the house with the quality of the craftsmanship.
Homes today could be built to last just as long as those old homes if people were willing or able to pay the price. For example, more people can no longer afford solid oak stairways, although they were once fairly common in older homes. Nor can they afford the high labor cost of employing a carpenter(木匠) to build the stairway. Yet if someone can pay the high cost, there are still plenty of carpenters around able to make those stairways. And not only would these carpenters know how to build them, they would probably do a better job than carpenters of old.
One thing the modern carpenter has which enables him to do a better job is much more advanced tools. Such tools as laser beams and power planes help them lay out a house better and make more precision cuts(精确切割)on the wood. Also, it is not uncommon any more to find carpenters with college degrees and carpenters with a solid knowledge of mathematics, which would enable them to deal with more difficult house designs.
The problem of modern quality, then, really boils down to the problem of material, for the modern carpenter is just as able to produce craftsmanship as the carpenter of fifty years ago, but only if given proper material.
1. Compared to the carpenters in the past, modern carpenters are__________.
A. more learned B. more successful
C. more imaginative D. more hardworking
2.What does the underlined word “they” (paragraph2) refer to?________
A. Carpenters who are fond of oak stairways.
B. Carpenters who have college degrees.
C. people who think that modern material is of low quality.
D. people who think highly of carpenters of old
3. What does the third paragraph mainly discuss? ________
A. People in the past preferred to use oak to build stairways.
B. It is now expensive to employ a carpenter.
C. Good carpenters still exist in modern times.
D. Modern houses last as long as the old one.
4.What would be the best title for the text? ________
A. Craft, Back to Life.
B. Is Craft Dead.
C. History of Craftsmanship
D. Carpenters Today and Yesterday
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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The values of artistic works, according to cultural relativism(相对主义), are simply reflections of local social and economic conditions. Such a view, however, fails to explain the ability of some works of art to excite the human mind across cultures and through centuries.
History has witnessed the endless productions of Shakespearean plays in every major language of the world. It is never rare to find that Mozart packs Japanese concert halls, as Japanese painter Hiroshige does Paris galleries. Unique works of this kind are different from today’s popular art, even if they began as works of popular art. They have set themselves apart in their timeless appeal and will probably be enjoyed for centuries into the future.
In a 1757 essay, the philosopher David Hume argued that because “the general principles of taste are uniform(不变的) in human nature,” the value of some works of art might be essentially permanent. He observed that Homer was still admired after two thousand years. Works of this type, he believed, spoke to deep and unvarying features of human nature and could continue to exist over centuries.
Now researchers are applying scientific methods to the study of the universality of art. For example, evolutionary psychology is being used by literary scholars to explain the long-lasting themes and plot devices in fiction. The structures of musical pieces are now open to experimental analysis as never before. Research findings seem to indicate that the creation by a great artist is as permanent an achievement as the discovery by a great scientist.
1.According to the passage, what do we know about cultural relativism? ________
A. It introduces different cultural values.
B. It relates artistic values to local conditions.
C. It explains the history of artistic works.
D. It excites the human mind throughout the world.
2.In Paragraph 2, the artists are mentioned in order to show that__________.
A. popular arts are hardly distinguishable from great arts
B. history gives art works special appeal to set them apart
C. great works of art can go beyond national boundaries
D. great artists are skilled at combining various cultures
3.According to Hume, some works of art can exist for centuries because__________.
A. they are results of scientific study
B. they appeal to unchanging features of human nature
C. they are created by the world’s greatest artists
D. they establish some general principles of art
4.Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage? ________
A. Are Popular Arts Permanent?
B. Are Artistic Values Universal?
C. Is Human Nature Uniform?
D. Is Cultural Relativism Scientific?
难度: 中等查看答案及解析