Nathan Sawaya's childhood was a lot of fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories, and played with plastic toy bricks (积木). His grandparents bought his first set of toy bricks when he was five years old and he's been building with toy bricks ever since. He even took his building bricks to college with him! Instead of books and a computer, he had a model of Greenwich Village made of bricks on his desk.

Nathan started as a lawyer but gave up His highly-paid (高薪的) job to become an artist that uses toys in his art. He uses toy bricks to build everything from the Statue of Liberty(自由女神像) to Superman! He has more than 1.5 million colored bricks in his working room in New York which he uses to make pieces of art. He started by building small models but then decided to do something big and created a self-portrait (自画像). It took him two days just to build the eyes.

Nathan's work has appeared in museums around the world. Children love his art because it is made out of the same toys that they play with at home and adults love his work because it is fascinating. Since it began in2007, Nathan's exhibition "The Art of the Brick" has been very popular with museum visitors everywhere.

"I'm proud that I took a dream I had as a child, to become an artist, and I have actually made a job out of it," says Nathan. "To do what you love in life is the most important thing."

1.What did Nathan put on his desk at college?

A.The Statue of Liberty.                    B.Superman.

C.His serf-portrait.                        D.A Greenwich Village modal.

2.Why did Nathan give up his job as a lawyer?

A.Because he made little money out of a lawyer.

B.Because he wanted to make toys for the children.

C.Because he decided to become an artist of toy bricks.

D.Because he was going to work in the museum instead.

3.What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 3 refer to?

A.Nathan's work.                         B.Nathan's exhibition.

C.Nathan's art.                           D.Nathan's self-portrait

4.What would be the best title for the passage?

A.The Brick Artist                         B.The Brick Exhibition

C.Toy Bricks for Adults                     D.The Artist's Childhood

 

“How many common English words were invented by Shakespeare?”

How long did it take people to find the answer to this question 15 years ago? And now! You can google it and find the answer immediately!

Google is the most popular Internet search engine(搜索引擎)in the world. It was invented by two students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They met in 1993, when they were studying computer science at Stanford University, USA. They dreamed of producing something that could also answer any question in seconds.

Internet search engines at that time were slow and gave many websites that weren’t useful. In January 1996, Page and Brin decided to make a better and faster search engine. They thought the results should be based on the most popular websites.

Nobody would give them money for their project, so they used their own money. They also borrowed money from family and friends. Then, in 1998, they were given a cheque for $100,000, and they started their own company(公司). Their first office was in a friend’s garage(车库).The company name is Google, a word which comes from mathematics. A “google” is a very high number — 1 followed by a hundred zeros.

The Google search engine was soon used by thousands of people worldwide because it was fast, easy and correct. By 2002 it was the biggest search engine on the Internet. Now, more questions have been answered by Google than any other Internet service, from sport to science, and from music to medicine. Google hopes that in the future all the world’s information will be put on the Internet, so that everybody can find everything.

1.Why did the writer begin this passage by asking you a question?

A.Because he or she liked to begin this passage by asking readers a question.

B.Because he or she was afraid that the readers didn’t know this question.

C.Because he or she wanted to make the readers interested in this passage.

D.Because Shakespeare is one of the most famous people in the world.

2.The underlined word “cheque” in the fifth paragraph means _______.

A.楼房             B.账单             C.订单             D.支票

3.From the passage we know that at the beginning of their project, _______.

A.there was not any search engine on the Internet

B.nobody supported them except their family and friends

C.Larry Page and Sergey Brin dreamed to answer any question

D.one of the most popular websites gave them a cheque for $100,000

4.Which statement is NOT true according to the passage?

A.Now the Google search engine is widely used in the world.

B.The Google search engine was not the biggest one before 2002.

C.Larry Page and Sergey Brin named google after a hundred zeros.

D.The service of the Google search engine is very popular.

5.The passage mainly tells us _______.

A.the development of the Google search engine

B.about Larry Page and Sergey Brin

C.how to find information on the Internet

D.how to use the Google search engine

 

Many cultures have different ideas about why people catch colds. For example in the United States, some people think that you can catch a cold if your feet get cold. So, mothers tell small children to wear warm boots in the winter. In other places, including parts of the Middle East, some people believe that strong winds cause colds. So, on trains and buses, people usually don’t like to sit next to open windows. In parts of Europe, some people think that wearing wet clothes will give you a cold. They say that after you go swimming, you should quickly put on dry clothes. Today, scientists know that colds are caused by a virus(病毒). But the old ideas are still very strong, and many people still follow them to avoid(避免)getting ill.

1.What is the main idea of this reading?

A.People still believe old ideas about why they catch colds.

B.Colds are the biggest health problem in the world.

C.Some people think that strong winds cause colds.

D.You should take good care of your health in winter.

2.Which is NOT a cause(成因)of colds in the reading?

A.bad food    B.wet clothes        C.a virus        D.strong winds

3.In "people still follow them to avoid getting ill", what does "them" mean?

A.scientists   B.old ideas    C.colds  D.dry clothes

4.According to the reading, which of the following is NOT true?

A.There are many different ideas about how people catch colds.

B.Scientists don’t know how people catch colds.

C.Some people think that wearing wet clothes gives you a cold.

D.In the U.S., many small children wear boots in winter.

5.Many people in different countries have ________ ideas about why people catch colds.

A.no       B.one    C.the same   D.different

 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网