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The Pentagon

五角大楼

    美国号称世界头号军事大国,其武力干涉几乎渗透到全球,有人开玩笑说:只要五角大楼打个喷嚏,整个地球都会震动。五角大楼是什么? 让我们揭开它神秘的面纱,好好地认识一下这座建筑的运作职能吧。

    The Pentagonor the headquarters of the US Department of Defenseis one of the largest office buildings in the worldtaking up a total land of 583 acresThe five-sided structure itself occupies an area of 29 acresEach of its five outside wails is 921 feet longIt has three times the floor space as the Empire State Building or half again as much space as either of the New York's World Trade Center towers

    Working inside this huge building are over 25 000 employeesone half of them being civilians and the other half members of the US armed forcesDuring the last year of the Second World War there were 37 000 peopleboth military and civilianworking inside the PentagonIn the Korean and Vietnam War periods31 000The employees are scattered among hundreds of offices that occupy a floor space of 3705793 square feet

While inside the building they tell time by 4 200 clocksdrink from 685 water fountainsutilize 280 rest roomsconsume 30 000 cups of coffee6 000 tins of milk and 5 000 bottles of soft drinks of various kinds every daywith a total staff of 600 persons preparing and serving food and drinks to the Pentagon employeesdaily

    Notes

    Pentagon n.五边形;五角大楼    civilian n.平民

    military n.军人          scatter v.分散

    utilize v.利用;应用       consume v期待的

complacent  adj. 自满的        idly  adv. 无效地;懒洋洋地

stout  n. 烈性黑啤酒          gratuity  n. 小费

egalitarian   n. & adj. 平等;平均主义(的)

Which statement is true?

A. The British bar staffs dislike people who make up their minds immediately.

B. They like people who can wait in line.

C. They hope people who want to have another drink ring the bell hanging behind the counter.

D. If you offer them a drink to express your tips, they will feel happy.

 

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    Comprehension question

The building is called “the Pentagon ”because________

Ait is the largest building in the world

Bit lies in the USA

Cit has five sides

  Dit is a secret place

 

People appear to be born to compute. The numerical skills of children develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity guiding their growth. Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impressive accuracy—one plate, one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs.  Soon they are capable of noting that they have placed five knives, spoons and forks on the table and, a bit later, which this amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a desert island at birth and received seven years later, he or she could enter a second grade mathematics class without any serious problems of intellectual adjustment.

Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive psychologists has illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on which intellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowly grasped or, as the case might be bumped into concepts that adults take for granted, as they refused, for instance, to concede that quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short stout glass into a tall thin one.

Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, asked to count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or red pencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total. Such studies have suggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and with effort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract numbers--the idea of aloneness, a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically demanding than setting a table—is itself far from innate.

   1. What's the main idea about this passage?

     A. The use of mathematics in child psychology.

     B. Trends in teaching mathematics to children.

     C. The development of mathematical ability in children.

     D. The fundamental concepts of mathematics that children must learn.

   2. It can be inferred from the passage that children normally learn simple counting——.

     A. soon after they learn to talk 

B. after they reach second grade in school

     C. by looking at the clock

     D. when they begin to be mathematically mature

   3. According to the passage, when small children were asked to count a pile of red and blue pencils they——.

     A. counted the number of pencils of each color

     B. counted only the pencils of their favorite color

     C. guessed at the total number of pencils

     D. subtracted the number of red pencils from the number of blue pencils

   4. What does the word “They” (Para. 3, Line 5) refer?

     A. Children      B. Pencils      C. Mathematicians     D. Studies

 

阅读理解

Pub Etiquette in Britain

英国的酒吧礼仪

在公共场所,英国人讲究先来后到,但在生意兴隆的酒吧里看不到排队的现象,整个酒吧井然有序。如果有一天你到英国酒吧消遣,你应该注意些什么呢?

Amazingly for British, who love queues, there is no formal line-upthe bar staff are skilled at knowing whose turn it is. You are permitted to try to attention, but there are rules about how to do this. Do not call out, tap coins on the counter, snap your finger or wave like a drowning swimmer. Do not scowl or sign or roll your eyes. And whatever you do, do not ring the bell hanging behind the counterthis is used by the landlord to signal closing time. The key thing is to catch the bar worker’s eyes. You could also hold an empty glass or some money, but do not wave them about. Do adopt an expectant, hopeful, even slightly anxious facial expression. If you look too contented and complacent, the bar staff may assume you are already being served.

Always say“please”and try to remember some of the British bar staffs hates. They do not like people to keep others waiting while they make up their minds. They don’t like people standing idly against the bar when there are a lot of customers waiting for service. And they do not like people who wait until the end of the order before asking for such drinks as Guinness stout which take considerably longer to pour than other drinks. If you follow these tips you should be able to buy yourself a drink. Speaking of tips, you should never offer the bar staff a cash gratuity. The correct behavior is to offer them a drink. Pubs pride themselves on their egalitarian. A tip in cash would be a reminder of their service role, whereas the offer of a drink is a friendly gesture.

Notes

scowl v. 怒容;皱眉         expectant  adj.  期待的

complacent  adj. 自满的        idly  adv. 无效地;懒洋洋地

stout  n. 烈性黑啤酒          gratuity  n. 小费

egalitarian   n. & adj. 平等;平均主义(的)

Which statement is true?

A. The British bar staffs dislike people who make up their minds immediately.

B. They like people who can wait in line.

C. They hope people who want to have another drink ring the bell hanging behind the counter.

D. If you offer them a drink to express your tips, they will feel happy.

 

People appear to be born to compute. The numerical skills of children develop so early and so inexorably that it is easy to imagine an internal clock of mathematical maturity guiding their growth. Not long after learning to walk and talk, they can set the table with impressive accuracy—one plate, one knife, one spoon, one fork, for each of the five chairs.  Soon they are capable of noting that they have placed five knives, spoons and forks on the table and, a bit later, which this amounts to fifteen pieces of silverware. Having thus mastered addition, they move on to subtraction. It seems almost reasonable to expect that if a child were secluded on a desert island at birth and received seven years later, he or she could enter a second grade mathematics class without any serious problems of intellectual adjustment.

Of course, the truth is not so simple. This century, the work of cognitive psychologists has illuminated the subtle forms of daily learning on which intellectual progress depends. Children were observed as they slowly grasped or, as the case might be bumped into concepts that adults take for granted, as they refused, for instance, to concede that quantity is unchanged as water pours from a short stout glass into a tall thin one.

Psychologists have since demonstrated that young children, asked to count the pencils in a pile, readily report the number of blue or red pencils, but must be coaxed into finding the total. Such studies have suggested that the rudiments of mathematics are mastered gradually, and with effort. They have also suggested that the very concept of abstract numbers--the idea of aloneness, a prerequisite for doing anything more mathematically demanding than setting a table—is itself far from innate.

   1. What's the main idea about this passage?

     A. The use of mathematics in child psychology.

     B. Trends in teaching mathematics to children.

     C. The development of mathematical ability in children.

     D. The fundamental concepts of mathematics that children must learn.

   2. It can be inferred from the passage that children normally learn simple counting——.

     A. soon after they learn to talk 

B. after they reach second grade in school

     C. by looking at the clock

     D. when they begin to be mathematically mature

   3. According to the passage, when small children were asked to count a pile of red and blue pencils they——.

     A. counted the number of pencils of each color

     B. counted only the pencils of their favorite color

     C. guessed at the total number of pencils

     D. subtracted the number of red pencils from the number of blue pencils

   4. What does the word “They” (Para. 3, Line 5) refer?

     A. Children      B. Pencils      C. Mathematicians     D. Studies

 

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