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Kincaid looked at his watch: eight-seventeen. The truck started on the second try, and he backed out, shifted gears, and moved slowly down the alley under hazy sun. Through the streets of Bellingham he went, heading south on Washington 11, running along the coast of Puget Sound for a few miles, then following the highway as it swung east a little before meeting U.S Route 20.
Turning into the sun, he began the long, winding drive through the Cascades. He liked this country and felt impressed，stopping now and then to make notes about interesting possibilities for future expeditions or to shoot what he called “memory snapshots.” The purpose of these causal photographs was to remind him of places he might want to visit again and approach more seriously. In later afternoon he turned north at Spokane, picking up U.S Route 2, which would take him halfway across the northern United States to Duluth, Minnesota.
He wished for the thousandth time in his life that he had a dog, a golden retriever, maybe, for travels like this and to keep him company at home. But he was frequently away; overseas much of the time and it would not be fair to the animal. Still, he thought about it anyway. In a few years he would be getting too old for the hard fieldwork. “I must get a dog then.” He said to himself.
Drives like this always put him into a sentimental mood. The dog was part of it. Robert Kincaid was alone as it’s possible to be – an only child, parents both dead, distant relatives who had lost track of him and he of them, no close friends.
He thought about Marian. She had left him nine years ago after five years of marriage. He was fifty–two now, that would make her just under forty. Marian had dreams of becoming a musician, a folksinger. She knew all of the Weavers’ songs and sang them pretty well in the coffeehouse of Seattle. When he was home in the old days, he drove her to the shows and sat in the audience while she sang.
His long absences – two or three months sometimes – were hard on the marriage. He knew that. She was aware of what he did when they decided to get married, and both of them had a vague (not clear) sense that it could all be handled somehow. It couldn’t when he came from photographing a story in Iceland and, she was gone. The note read, “Robert, it didn’t work out, I left you the Harmony guitar. Stay in touch.”
He didn’t stay in touch. Neither did she. He signed the divorce papers when they arrived a year later and caught a plane for Australia the next day. She had asked for nothing except her freedom.
1.Which statement is true according to the passage?
A.Kincaid’s parents were dead and he only kept in touch with some distant relatives.
B.Kincaid would have had a dog if he hadn’t been away from home too much.
C.Kincaid used to have a golden retriever.
D.Kincaid needed a dog in doing his hard fieldwork.
2.Why did Kincaid stop to take photos while driving?
A.To write “memory snapshots”.
B.To remind himself of places he might want to visit again.
C.To avoid forgetting the way back.
D.To shoot beautiful scenery along the road.
3.What can you know about Marian?
A.She died after five years of marriage.
B.She was older than Kincaid.
C.She could sing very well and earned big money.
D.She was not a professional pop singer.
4.We can draw a conclusion from the passage that
A.Marian knew what would happen before she married Kincaid.
B.Kincaid thought his absence would be a problem when he married Marian.
C.It turned out that Marian could not stand Kincaid’s absence and left him.
D.After Marian left him, they still kept in touch with each other.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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We all, at one time or another, have pretended to be a rock star, singing and dancing along to our favorite song. Most of us have done this in the privacy of our own room when we were kids and as adults, in the privacy of our homes. Me? I love to do that when I drive! I turn on the radio, find a song that I can sing along too and pretty soon my arms are in the air and I am moving along to the rhythm. Most of the time, I do this on my way to work.
Yes, that is true. I will be in my nice work clothes, jamming while driving or stopped at a traffic light. I get weird looks from some people and others laugh. Personally, I love to get lost in the rhythm of a song which leads me to share with you the importance of being silly!
The definition for the word silly, according to the dictionary is: stupid, foolish and nonsensical. I know many people do not want to look foolish. So they walk around all serious, which in all honesty, is foolish!
No one is perfect, I repeat: no one is perfect. I don’t care how educated, how thin, how beautiful, how simple, how frugal, how rich, and so on… No one is perfect! So why pretend to be something you are not?
Life is so short… You never know when this beautiful journey will be over, so why waste a single second on being so full of rigidity(呆板)? Here is a quote by Souza, that I think says it all and is a great recipe for life:
"Dance as though no one is watching you,
Love as though you have never been hurt before,
Sing as though no one can hear you,
Live as though heaven is on earth."
When we were kids, we had no idea of what limitations were and we had no care in the world so we could do things without worrying about how we appeared to others. However, as we grew up, we lost that childlike innocence.
So don’t lose the child that still lives within you. The next time you feel down, go turn on your favorite song, and sing and dance along like there is no tomorrow. Or watch something that makes you laugh. Laughter is the best medicine to whatever ails you and nothing is better than laughing so hard that your tummy hurts. Trust me, you will feel a whole lot better, and who doesn’t want to feel good?
1.According to the passage, what does the writer usually do?
A.He pretends to be a rock star. B.He dances in his own home.
C.He sings songs while going to work. D.He gets jammed on his way to work.
2.What do other people think of the writer?
A.They think that the writer is strange. B.They look down upon the writer.
C.They believe that the writer is lonely. D.No one is interested in the writer.
3.What is the writer’s opinion about the people who look very serious?
A.They are honest. B.They are silly.
C.They are perfect. D.They are educated.
4.The writer quotes Souza to show that _______.
A.life is a beautiful journey B.life is full of rigidity
C.life is like a great recipe D.life is to be treasured
5.The underlined part “the child” in the last paragraph probably refers to _______.
A.the writer B.any child
C.the feeling of being a child D.the time of being a child
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
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Imagine your body is like the house you live in. Every day, your family creates rubbish. The rubbish builds up until it is put out for the weekly garbage collection.
Now, say you put three bags of garbage out, but because one of the collectors was away sick, only two bags are collected. You take the leftover bag inside to be put out again next week. The following week you put out another three bags, plus the leftover bag from last week. But again, only two bags are collected. Imagine this cycle is repeated over the following weeks.
This is a simple description of what happens to your body when your kidneys (肾) don’t work efficiently. Your body is not thoroughly emptied of waste products. Other areas of the body such as blood pressure and red blood cell production are affected and the insidious process that may lead to kidney failure begins.
It’s not uncommon for people to lose up to 90 percent of their kidney function before developing any symptoms. There may be no warning signs. This makes early detection(诊察) difficult.
Kidney’s main job is to remove toxins (毒素) and unwanted water from our blood. Every day our kidneys clean an average of 200 litres of blood. Kidney failure may be a gradual and silent process, going unnoticed because there is no apparent pain.
Research shows that more than 25 percent of patients found to require dialysis (透析) do not see a kidney specialist until less than 90 days before dialysis starts. Some risk factors for kidney disease such as age and genetic make-up are out of our control; however, some changes in lifestyle may help prevent kidney damage. Two major risk factors for kidney disease, diabetes and high blood pressure, have been on the rise over the last few decades. Both conditions are chiefly affected by being overweight and not getting enough exercise, which are the potential factors for the disease.
1.The author gives the example of the house we live in to indicate that ________.
A.it’s safe and harmless for our body to keep some waste
B.it doesn’t matter much if the waste in our body is not emptied in time
C.it’s important for our body to empty the waste in time every day
D.our body will not produce any waste if our kidneys work efficiently
2.The underlined word “insidious” (in Paragraph 3) means ________.
A.gradual and unnoticed B.apparent and fast
C.smooth and safe D.painful and long
3.We can infer that when we find some symptoms related to our kidneys, ________.
A.the kidney failure begins
B.the kidneys may have been seriously damaged
C.we have lost about 10 percent of kidney function
D.the kidneys can still work properly
4.How many factors of kidney disease are mentioned in the passage?
A.Three. B.Four. C.Five. D.Six.
5.Which of the following helps prevent kidney damage?
A.Go to see a kidney specialist shortly before dialysis starts.
B.Go to see a kidney specialist whenever you find any warning sign.
C.Try to keep low blood pressure and a stable lifestyle.
D.Take enough exercise and make early detection of kidney disease.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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The Diet Zone: A Dangerous Place
Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, vegetable diet… We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential（潜力）of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically and physically. Diet products significantly weaken us psychologically.
On one level, we are not allowing our brain to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption of fatty, high-calorie, unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale(秤) instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food labels.
On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without our awareness that we don’t have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.
The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients(营养成分). Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonder products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemical that go into diet products are potentially dangerous.
Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the psychological harm that comes from using them.
1.From Paragraph 1, we learn that ________.
A.diet products fail to bring out people’s potential
B.people have difficulty in choosing diet products
C.diet products are misleading people
D.people are fed up with diet products
2.In Paragraph 3, “gain comes without pain” probably means _______.
A.losing weight is effortless B.it costs a lot to lose weight
C.diet products bring no pain D.diet products are free from calories
3.Diet products indirectly harm people physically because such products .
A.are over-consumed B.lack basic nutrients
C.are short of chemicals D.provide too much energy
4.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?
Notes: CP: Central Point P: Point Sp: Sub-point (次要点) C: Conclusion
A.
B.
C.
D.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析