Taylor sings with heart

The music industry is never short of teen pop stars with wonderful looks, but it doesn’t often find one like US singer Taylor Swift. “Beneath Taylor Swift’s not-a-girl, not-yet-a-woman sweetness hides a very skillful songwriting technique (技巧),” writes Leah Greenblatt with Entertainment Weekly.

Songwriting, the country singer explains, is “how I deal with problems. I am used to writing about things that really influences me most.” So in her songs, there is always something true and honest. They seem like stories from a diary. And that certainly helps Swift attract her audience.

She’s sold more than 13 million copies worldwide of her first two albums, 2006’s self-titled debut (首张专辑) and 2008’s Fearless. She’s the youngest artist ever to be named Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards. Not surprisingly, there were great expectations for her third album, Speak Now, which came out late last month, where she again returned to her own life for material. The 14 songs “are all about the last two years... when life was a little bit bigger and crazier,” says Swift. “So I’ve written about the lessons and confusion and heartbreak and all the different things that go along with being 18, 19 and 20.”

What led to Taylor’s fame?

A. Her wonderful looks.                     B. Her songwriting skills together with her looks.

C. Her beautiful voice.                 D. Her special life experience in her teenage years.

Which of the following is true?

A. Taylor is now in her twenties.

B. Taylor’s the youngest Artist of the Year at the Academy Awards

C. Taylor has produced three albums up till now.

D. Taylor has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide.

What may be written in the album, Speak Now?

A. Her unhappy experience with her boyfriend.

B. Her concern for her popularity.

C. Her happy childhood.

D. Her worries for environmental pollution.

Twenty-first century humanity has mapped oceans and mountains, visited the moon, and surveyed the planets. But for all the progress, people still don’t know one another very well.

That brings about Theodore Zeldin’s “feast of conversation”-events where individuals pair with persons they don’t know for three hours of guided talk designed to get the past “Where are you from?”

Mr.Zeldin, an Oxford University professor, heads Oxford Muse, a 10-year-old foundation based on the idea that what people need is not more information, but more inspiration and encouragement.

The “feast” in London looks not at politics or events, but at how people have felt about work, relations among the sexes, hopes and fears, enemies and authority, the shape of their lives. The “menu of conversation” includes topics like “How have your priorities changed over the years?” Or, “What have you rebelled against the past?”

As participants gathered, Zeldin opened with a speech: that despite instant communications in a globalized age, issues of human heart remain. Many people are lonely, or in routines that discourage knowing the depth of one another. “We are trapped in shallow conversations and the whole point now is to think, which is sometimes painful,” he says. “But thinking interaction is what separates us from other species, except maybe dogs…who do have generations of human interactions.”

The main rules of the “feast”: Don’t pair with someone you know or ask questions you would not answer. The only awkward moment came when the multi-racial crowd of young adults to seniors, in sun hats, ties and dresses, looked to see whom with for hours. But 15 minutes later, everyone was seated and talking, continuing full force until organizers interrupted them 180 minutes later.

“It’s encouraging to see the world is not just a place of oppression and distance from each other,” Zeldin summed up. “What we did is not ordinary, but it can’t be madder than the world already is.”

Some said they felt “liberated” to talk on sensitive topics. Thirty-something Peter, from East London, said that “it might take weeks or months to get to the level of interaction we suddenly opened up.”

What can the “conversations” be best described as?

    A. Deep and one-on-one. B. Sensitive and mad.

    C. Instant and inspiring.   D. Ordinary and encouraging.

In a “feast of conversations”, participants ______.

    A. pair freely with anyone they like

    B. have a guided talk for a set of period of time

    C. ask questions they themselves would not answer

    D. wear clothes reflecting multi-racial features.

From the passage, we can conclude that what Zeldin does is ______.

    A. an attempt to promote thinking interaction

    B. one of the maddest activities ever conducted

    C. a try to liberate people from old-fashioned ideas

    D. an effort to give people a chance of talking freely

In today's world of cell phones, mini laptops and MP3 players, most people have at least one time-telling tool with them. Since these devices are so common, is time running out for the 500-year-old watch? According to some consumers, yes. New Jersey teenager Charlie Wollman says a watch is "an extra piece of equipment with no necessary function." Many young adults agree ─ and use their cell phones to tell time. Louis Galie, a senior vice president at Timex, said that fewer young people wear watches today than five years ago. As a result, some people claim that the watch industry is at a crossroads.
However, watchmakers optimistically say that watches regain popularity when consumers reach their 20s and 30s. By then, they are willing to spend money on a quality timepiece that doesn't just keep good time. Fifty years ago, watchmakers boasted(自夸) about their products' accuracy. But in recent years, the watch industry has transformed itself into an accessory(附件,配件) business. And for many today, the image(外形) a watch communicates has become more important than the time it tells.
"Complications" ─ features that go beyond simple timekeeping ─ are an important part of a watch's image. Today's watches offer a host of features that suit almost any personality. These features include altitude trackers(追踪器), compasses(指南针), lunar calendars, USB drives, and even devices that measure the effectiveness of golf swings!
Creativity is also a key element in today's watches. For example, Japanese watchmaker Tokyoflash makes watches that don't even look like watches. The company's popular Shinshoku model uses different color lights to tell the time. It looks more like a futuristic bracelet(手镯) than a watch. Another Japanese watchmaker, EleeNo, makes a "handless" watch. Using a ring of circles to keep time, this watch makes an excellent conversation piece.
Whether a watch communicates fashion sense, creative flair or a love of sports, consumers want their timepieces to stand out. Nowadays, everyone has the same kind of gadget in their bags, so people want to make a statement with what's on their wrists(手腕). Will this interest in wrist fashion last? Only time will tell!
【小题1】Why aren’t watches popular with young people as before?

A.Because watches cannot keep good time as cell phones, mini laptops and MP3 players.
B.Because watches are featured by the disadvantages of simple function
C.Because watches are too expensive to afford.
D.Because watches don’t have beautiful appearance as other modern time telling tools.
【小题2】 What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean?
A.Watching-making is facing a survival crisis challenge.
B.Watching-making is faced with the developing opportunity.
C.Watching-making becomes the sun rising industry.
D.Watching-making has a specific development target.
【小题3】 It can be implied that ____________________.
A.people will gradually lose interest in watches as they grow older
B.watchmakers hardly change the development strategy for watches
C.today’s watches are better than those in the past in quality
D.customers used to be more concerned with the quality of a watch than with its image.
【小题4】The following qualities can make a watch popular EXCEPT _________.
A.multifunctionB.accuracyC.nice designD.low price
【小题5】What’s the best title of the passage?
A.Watches and TeenagersB.The History of Watches
C.The Accuracy of WatchesD.Watches Tell More Than Time

Electric cars are dirty. In fact, not only are they dirty, they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.

People in California love to talk about “zero-emissions(排放)vehicles”, but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants most all use fire to make it. Apart from the few people who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators(发电机). Generators are fueled by something--usually coal, oil, but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal(地热) plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.

In other words, those "zero-emissions" cars are likely coal-burning cars. Because the coal is burned somewhere else, it looks clean. It is not true. It's as if the California Greens are covering their eyes—“If I can't see it, it's not happening.”  Gasoline is an incredibly efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it. But when you take that gas(or another fuel)and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat--at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.

A gallon of gas may drive your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far -- so electric cars burn more fuel than gasoline-powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from wind or geothermal, or solar, then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical, and economic reasons, we don't use much of those energy sources.

  In addition, electric cars' batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill. And finally, when cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it's a power plant, though,all the junk is in one place. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot.

1.What’s the main idea of the passages?

A.Electric cars aren’t actually clean.

B.Electric cars are zero-emissions vehicles.

C.Zero-emissions vehicles are popular.

D.Gasoline-powered cars are more efficient.

2.Which of the following words can replace “be clueless about” in Paragraph 2?

A.Be familiar with.

B.Be curious about.

C.Fail to understand.

D.Show their interest in.

3.The electricity we get from a gallon of gas may make our car run _________.

A.at least 25 miles

B.more than 25 miles

C.as far as 25 miles

D.less than 25 miles

4.In the author’s opinion, compared with cars using gas, electric cars are more __________.

A.environmentally-friendly

B.expensive

C.efficient

D.harmful

5.It can be inferred from the passage that __________.

A.electric cars' batteries are poisonous for a long time

B.now electric cars are used more than their gasoline-powered cousins

C.zero-emissions vehicles should be chosen to protect our environment

D.electric cars are not clean in that we get electricity mainly by burning something

 

A sunflower is a sunflower. A mobile phone is a mobile phone. But can you combine the two to do something for your local environment? As early as next year it may well be possible. When you have finished with your mobile phone you will be able to bury it in the garden or a plant pot and wait for it to flower.

A biodegradable (生物可降解的) mobile phone was, this month, introduced by scientists. It is hoped that the new type of phone will encourage consumers to recycle (再利用). Scientists have come up with a new material over the last five years. It looks like any other plastic, but overtime it can break down into the soil without giving out any poisonous chemicals. British researchers used the new material to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed. When this cover turns into waste, it forms nitrates (硝酸盐). These feed the seed and help the flower grow. “We’ve only put sunflower seeds into the cover so far. But we are working with plant experts to find out which flowers will perform best. Maybe we could put roses in next time.” said one scientist.

As phone technology is developing so quickly people are constantly throwing their mobiles away. This means producers are under pressure to find ways of recycling them. Some 650 million mobile phones have been sold this year. Most of them will be thrown away within two years, adding plastic, heavy metal and chemical waste to the environment. A biodegradable cover can offer some relief for nature, according to the scientists. “The seed is released and the flower grows in the pot so you don’t have to concern yourself with the phone when you have finished using it,” said Kerry Kirwan, the leader of the research team.

 

1.After you have finished using the new type of mobile phone, _______.

A. the sunflower seed will come out and flower in the pot

B. the phone cover will break down very soon in the soil

C. it will be recycled by the producers

D. it can charge itself with electricity in a green way

2.This type of research is done because ________.

A. the technology of making phones is changing rapidly

B. too many waste mobile phones may lead to environmental problems

C. nobody has ever thought of recycling mobile phones

D. producing mobile phones uses a lot of energy

3.We can infer from the story ________.

A. the new type of mobile phones is already on the market

B. the new type of mobile phones will sell extremely well

C. the material of the new type of phones is harmful

D. other flowers may be used in the new type of mobile phones

 

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