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It may surprise bookworms, but apparently masterpieces such as Jane Eyre are lacking in something — sound effects. An electronic-book firm is adding background noises and music to the works of Charlotte Bronte, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Shakespeare in the hope of attracting younger readers. In one example, a description of rain lashing against a window in a Sherlock Holmes story will be “enhanced” with matching noises.
The first multimedia e-books — with sounds to accompany novels — will be available this Friday in the UK. The Booktrack releases are available to iPad users, with other tablet computer versions to follow. The concept is already in use in the U.S., where the classics come with added sound effects. Readers for example can hear the china cups chinking in Mr. Darcy’s garden as they read Pride And Prejudice.
A story by Booker Prize winner Salman Rushdie will be released later in the year with a specially crafted orchestral score. Rushdie’s story In The South will be released with a soundtrack provided by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
The Power Of Six by Pittacus Lore, a novel for young adults, is one of the first to be tested with a soundtrack which builds in suspense in keeping with the plot. It works by timing the speed of each reader and the software measures the “turning” of a page and moves the music or sounds along accordingly. It has been created by Booktrack which synchronizes (使同步) music to each novel. It is funded by Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal.
Mr. Thiel said, “It’s always exciting to witness the creation of a new form of media. The technology promises to captivate readers in a different way.”
However, they have been greeted with horror by traditionalists, who say the technology takes away the pleasure of having one’s imagination stimulated by a story. They also raise the prospect (预期) of having to ask an overly eager reader to turn their book down. David Nicholls, whose bestseller One Day was recently turned into a film starring Anne Hathaway, said, “This sounds like the opposite of reading. It would be a distraction.”
1.What’s the purpose of the electronic-book firm adding sound effects to masterpieces?
A. To add some creative factors to the e-books.
B. To arouse interest of the readers.
C. To satisfy the readers’ great need.
D. To promote the technology progress.
2.Where was the idea that sounds are added to accompany novels first put forward?
A. Britain. B. Australia.
C. New Zealand. D. America.
3. The following should be done to make a soundtrack work, EXCEPT _________.
A. measuring how long each reader spends in reading
B. increasing the volume of the music or sounds
C. making out the reading speed
D. changing the music or sounds with pages turned
4. What’s Mr. Thiel’ attitude to the future of the new form of media?
A. Doubtful. B. Indifferent.
C. Hopeful. D. Pessimistic.
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A controversial new study has claimed that men really are more intelligent than women．The study concluded that men’s IQs are almost four points higher than women’s.
British-born researcher John Philippe Ruston says the finding could explain why so few women make it to the top in the workplace.
He claims the “glass ceiling” phenomenon is probably due to inferior intelligence，rather than lack of opportunity.
The University of Western Ontario psychologist reached his conclusion after scrutinizing the results of university ability tests taken by 1 00,000 students aged 17 and 18 of both sexes.
A focus on the factors such as the ability to quickly grasp a complex concept，verbal reasoning skills and creativity― some of the key factors of intelligence ―showed the male teenagers had IQs that were an average of 3.63 points higher. The average person has an IQ around 100.The findings，which held true for all classes and levels of education, overturn 100 year opinion that men and women average the same in general mental ability. They also conflict with evidence that girls do better in school exams than boys.
But Professor Ruston argues that the faster maturing of girls leads to them outshining boy in the classroom.
1. The report is mainly about ______.
| A．a study that shows men are cleverer than women |
| B．the “glass ceiling” phenomenon |
| C．Professor Ruston’s theory on IQ |
| D．the difference between male and female |
2. The underlined word “scrutinizing” in the fourth paragraph probably means ______.
| A．making up | B．carrying out | C．examining carefully | D．looking at |
3. We can infer that the average woman has an IQ of ______.
| A．a little less than 100 | B．100 |
| C．more than 100 | D．96.37 |
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These comments are not directly________ to the inquiry about safety standards.
A. controversial B. accessible
C. appropriate D. relevant
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British men are encouraged to cry.
There are certain things British men like to believe about themselves. The first is that one day they will again win the World Cup. They also believe they do not cry. Over the centuries, Britons are believed to have a "stiff upper lip". But is this true?
Yes, it is. A recent study arranged by Kleenex on how the British express their emotions reveals that 95 percent of them still contain their emotions.
Moreover, while 72 percent think this is unhealthy, 19 percent can't remember the last time they "let it out". As a result, Kleenex is launching the "Let It Out" campaign that encourages Britons to grab a tissue and have a good cry.
These days, however, the male Briton's attitude toward crying is changing. Though the majority still struggles to open up emotionally, a 2004 study by Oxford's Social Issues Research Center found that 77 percent of British men considered crying in public increasingly acceptable. Half of London males admitted crying in front of their mothers. Scotsmen are the least emotional, although they are the most likely to cry at weddings.
Peter Marsh, director of the center, said, “Crying can now indicate sensitivity rather than weakness. Like with David Beckham, crying because you're dropping off your boy at nursery isn't seen as weak.”
Winston Churchill was said to be a frequent crier, shedding tears at seeing a survivor in an air raid shelter（防空洞）, and when he saw his wife after a long absence.
Psychologists say that while society has accepted that men can cry, there are limits. Ronald Bracey, a consulting psychologist, said, “If a man began to cry when he was having stitches（缝针）in hospital, he would be considered as a wimp（软弱的人）. Men still need to be seen as strong when it comes to physical pain. ”
1. What does the passage mainly deal with?
A. Different attitudes British men have towards crying.
B. British men's dream of the World Cup.
C. Advice on how to control emotions.
D. Impression of British men.
2.Which of the following concerning(关于) the British men is NOT true according to the passage?
A. They are supposed to easily control emotions over the centuries.
B. They are confident that they will again get successful in the World Cup.
C. Nowadays, the male Briton's attitude toward crying is changing.
D. About 50% of Britons admitted crying before their mothers.
3.The underlined word “contain” in paragraph 3 means ______.
A. store B. include
C. hold back D. possess
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根据首字母和已给出的中文，写出所缺单词的正确形式，每空填一个词。
1.Certain drugs which are safe when taken separately are lethal (致命的) in c_________ (混合)
2.The Nobel Prize winner owed his success to his parents’ e_________ (鼓励).
3.I have a big family to support, so I need a p_________ (长久的) job.
4.The man was in a hurry; unfortunately, he was caught in a t_________ (交通) jam.
5.As a proverb goes, there is no rule without e_________ (例外).
6.The students have been active p_________ (参与者) in the discussion in their classes.
7.It is o_________ (显而易见的) that students in Shenzhen Senior High School are making
great progress in their academic achievements.
8.We have to be r_________ (现实主义的) about our chances of winning.
9.The heavyweight champion is fighting an unknown c_________ (对手).
10.The history teacher gave us a lecture on a_________ (古代) Greece.
11.Tom p_________ (假装) to be asleep when his mother called him.
12.Can you name all the seven c_________ (洲) in the world?
13.The Chinese government spares no effort to get rid of p_________ (贫穷) throughout the country.
14.An unhappy home e_________ (环境) can affect a child’s behaviour.
15.The book gives s_________ (具体的) instructions on how to start a business on the Internet.
16.This bus is c________ (连接) to electric wires.
17.I’ll be very glad to accept i_________ (邀请) to your party.
18.A well-balanced student should like both intellectual things and a_________ (田径运动).
19.Nowadays more and more college graduates go to work in m_________ (多山的) areas.
20.May I have your attention please? I have an a_________ (声明) to make.
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Contrary to many people believe, highly intelligent children are not necessarily certain to achieve academic success. In fact, so-called gifted students may fail to do well because they are unusually smart. Ensuring that a gifted child reaches his or her potential requires an understanding of what can go wrong and how to satisfy the unusual learning requirements of extremely bright young people.
One common problem gifted kids face is that they, and those around them, place too much importance on being smart. Such an emphasis can encourage a belief that bright people do not have to work hard to do well. Although smart kids may not need to work hard in the lower grades, when the work is easy, they may struggle and perform poorly when the work gets harder because they do not make the effort to learn. If the academic achievement of highly intelligent children remains below average for an extended period, many teachers will fail to recognize their potential. As a result, such students may not get the encouragement they need, further depressing their desire to learn. They may fall far behind in their schoolwork and even develop behavior problems.
IQ is just one element among many in the recipe for success—Children develop well or struggle in school for a host of reasons apart from IQ. These include motivation and persistence, social competence, and the support of family, educators and friends.
Because highly gifted children solve the most varied thought problems faster and more thoroughly than those with more average talents do, they need additional intellectual stimulation while they wait for the rest of the kids to learn the basics. Two central approaches are used to satisfy the educational needs of such children: acceleration and enrichment. Acceleration means studying material that is part of the standard subjects for older students. Enrichment involves learning information that falls outside the usual subjects.
A child might skip one or more grades as a way of accelerating in school. But being with older children for the entire school day—and perhaps for grade-based extracurricular activities such as sports—can make a child feel inferior in every filed outside of academics. One very bright fourth-grader who had skipped two grades remained far ahead of his classmates intellectually, but as his classmates reached adolescence, his social and other shortcomings became painfully apparent. While acceleration is not an option, or not a good one, enrichment can be. After all, school is not a race but an adventure in learning. As such, the goal is not finishing first but absorbing as much knowledge as possible in the time assigned. Thus, providing opportunities for a child to study topics outside the regular subjects can be at least as valuable as pushing him or her through the required material faster.
1. What is the basic reason for the low academic achievement of highly intelligent children?
A. Teachers’ failure to recognize their potential.
B. Too much emphasis on being intelligent.
C. Studying topics outside the regular subjects.
D. Lack of encouragement from teachers.
2. According to the passage, which of the following belongs to enrichment activities for talented children?
A. Skipping one of more grades and studying together with older children.
B. Learning the same material in the standard subjects for older students.
C. Learning information that is not included in the regular subjects.
D. Learning how to read with fluency even in their pre-school days.
3.Which of the following statements do you think is true about the writer?
A. He is in favor of enrichment rather than acceleration.
B. He is in favor of acceleration rather than enrichment.
C. He speaks highly of both enrichment and acceleration.
D. He thinks neither enrichment nor acceleration is a good choice.
4. In this article, the writer wants to ______.
A. point out the weaknesses of acceleration for gifted children
B. compare acceleration with enrichment for gifted children
C. stress the importance of enrichment for gifted children
D. discuss how to bring out gifted children’s potential
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Most funny stories are based on comic situations. In spite of national differences, certain funny situations have a universal attraction. No matter where you live, you would find it difficult not to laugh at, say Charlie Chaplin's early films. However, a new type of humour, which starts largely from the U．S., has recently come into fashion. It is called “sick humour”．
Comedians base their jokes on tragic situations like violent death or serious accidents. The following “sick humour” will enable you to amuse yourself.
A man who had broken his right leg was taken to hospital a few weeks before Christmas. From the moment he arrived there, he kept on bothering his doctor to tell him when he would be able to go home. He was afraid of having to spend Christmas in hospital. Though the doctor did his best, the patient's recovery was slow. On Christmas Day, the man still had his right leg in plaster(石膏)．
He spent a miserable day in bed thinking of all the fun he was missing. The following day, however, the doctor consoled him by telling him that his chances of being able to leave hospital in time for New Year celebrations were good. The man took heart and, sure enough, on New Year's Eve he was able to hobble(蹒跚) along to a party. To make up for his unpleasant experiences in hospital, the man drank a little more than it was good for him. In the process, he enjoyed himself thoroughly and kept telling everybody how much he hated hospitals. He was still murmuring something about hospitals at the end of the party when he slipped on a piece of ice and broke his left leg.
1.Which is right?
A. All the humour stories are funny in spite of different nationalities.
B. One can realize the humour of the stories in his own country.
C. Charlie Chaplin made it difficult to laugh at his action.
D. Almost all the audience can be made to laugh at some famous comedians' action.
2.What does the underlined word “consoled” mean?
A. Comfort. B. Overcome.
C. Confuse. D. Disturb.
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A. No pains, no gains. B. Extreme joy begets sorrow.
C. Once a thief, always a thief. D. Good medicine tastes bitter.
4.What's the main idea of the passage?
A. A new kind of humour came into being.
B. How to cure your legs is important.
C. Christmas is more necessary than anything else.
D. Holding a party is interesting for the westerners.
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Everybody knows that colors are connected with certain feelings. For example, why do some people paint the walls of their rooms yellow and others pink? The same is true in stores. They want us to feel something when we look at their products.
Green, for example, tries to show the quality of a product: how good it is for us or for our environment. It also suggests that the product is healthier, has less fat and maybe fewer calories. Red, on the other hand is an aggressive color that is often used for packaging food. Red wants us to become hungry or thirsty. Purple is a kind of color that is often seen as royal. It indicates that it is something special. Producers use purple to show that something is of good quality. Blue is not very often found in food packaging because there are not very many foods that have a blue color.
Colors can also have different meaning in different cultures and countries. For example, while the color white is used in many Western countries to represent purity and innocence, it is seen as a symbol of mourning in many Eastern countries. The Egyptian pharaohs(法老) wore white crowns. A white sale is a sale of sheets, towels, and other bed and bath items. A white flag is the universal symbol for truce(休战). A white elephant is a rare, pale elephant sacred(神圣的) to the people of India, Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka. In these countries, something that is a white elephant is either a possession that costs more than it is worth to keep or an item that the owner doesn’t want but can’t get rid of.
Consumers are aware that certain foods must have certain colors. When Pepsi brought out a crystal clear cola in 1992, it thought that consumers would buy it because clear meant pure and healthy. After a few months Pepsi found out that a cola had to be dark-colored. Crystal Pepsi failed and the company pulled it off the market.
Advertising professionals often need to look at a product through the consumers’ eyes when choosing a color. The right packaging colors can truly improve the sales of a product but choosing a wrong color could end in failure.
1.According to the passage, blue is rarely used in food packaging because ____.
A. most consumers dislike it
B. it matches very few foods
C. it brings people low spirits
D. it doesn’t catch people’s eyes
2.According to the passage, in India if something is expensive but useless, it can be called ____.
A. a white flag B. a white elephant
C. a white sale D. a white crown
3.Pepsi’s example is used to show ____.
A. Pepsi’s success comes from failures
B. health is the main concern in drink making
C. crystal clear drinks can’t attract consumers
D. people have fixed ideas about products and colors
4.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Colors in advertising
B. Colors in food packaging
C. Our everyday life and colors
D. Foods in different colors
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Habits, whether good or bad, are gradually formed. When a person does a certain thing again, he is 1.(drive) by an unseen force to do the same thing 2.(repeat); then a habit is formed.
Once a habit is formed, it's difficult 3.(get) rid of it 4. , it's very important that we should pay attention to the forming of habits. Children often form bad habits, some of5.remain with them. Laziness, lying and stealing are all 6. (easy) formed bad habits. There are other habits formed in early life that 7.(be) of great help. Many 8.(success ) men say much of their success has something to do with certain habits in early life, like early rising, honesty, 9.(concentrate) and so on.
After 10. (know) the above , we should keep from all the bad habits and try to form good ones.
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Have you ever wondered why certain people always say they are lucky? Some people say the secret of being born lucky is probably a summer birthday. May babies are the most likely to enjoy a lifetime of good fortune, a study of 40,000 people has found. The time of year you are born has a lasting influence on optimism and whether people think they are lucky, British and Swedish scientists said. May is the luckiest month to be born in, with half of those born then considering themselves lucky. October is the least lucky month with only 43 percent claiming good fortune.
The study adds to evidence that luck is not all down to chance, but is also affected by a person’s attitude. Another research has shown that whether people think themselves lucky depends more on having a “glass half-full” (instead of “half-empty”) approach to life, than on success. Professor Richard Wiseman, who led the study, said, “Something is influencing how people feel about their luck. People create their own luck through their attitude towards life.”
Luck is a mental state and not a matter of blind chance. There could be two reasons why those born in spring and summer reported themselves luckier than those born in autumn or winter. “One theory is that the temperature at the time of birth might be helpful to the development of the brain.” He said. “People born in winter are more likely to suffer from depression”. He said another possible reason is that mothers may be in a bad mood during winter, which influences their babies. The researchers said their findings were based on statistics only, and would not be true for everyone.
What’s depression? Medical depression is when one feels so sad and hopeless that sometimes he can’t imagine being happy. The pain becomes so deep that you don’t feel like participating in life. People who are permanently depressed usually have physical problems like stomachaches, headaches, and lack of energy. As you probably know, some people experience such deep depression that they believe suicide (killing yourself) is the only way to escape their pain.
1.Why can your birthday influence your attitude towards life?
A. The time of your birthday determines how fortunate you will be.
B. Mothers may feel differently in different seasons, and their moods influence their babies.
C. How successful you will be lies in the hour of your birthday.
D. How you feel about your health is influenced by the time of your birthday.
2.Having a “half-full” approach to life is a (an) ______ attitude.
A. optimistic B. pessimistic C. lucky D. depressing
3.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. People born in summer are probably more optimistic than those born in winter.
B. A person’s luck may be affected by his attitude.
C. Depression may harm one’s physical health.
D. Luck is never a matter of chance.
4.According to the research result, one’s luck mainly depends on ______.
A. chance B. the month to be born in
C. one’s attitude to life D. health state
