Leonardo da Vinci(达芬奇)began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503.He was working on a special painting for a church at the time, but the church painting was not going well. An Italian businessman asked da Vinci to paint a picture of the businessman’s second wife. This is the woman who can be seen in the Mona Lisa.

All in all, the Mona Lisa is a very good example of da Vinci’s work. Da Vinci uses darkness and light in a clever way in the painting.

Da Vinci loved science and maths. Right away a person can see that there is a lot of geometry(几何学)in the Mona Lisa. The face of the Mona Lisa is made of many circles and round shapes like balls. Even her smile can be seen as a small part of a large circle.

The woman in the painting is sitting on a balcony(露台), and mountains can be seen behind her. Da Vinci loved to study rocks and mountains, so these can be seen over and over in his other paintings.

The woman is sitting with her knees to the side. Her head is turned to look out of the painting. Her hands are held together in front of her. This way of sitting is now used by many artists when they are painting a picture of a man or woman today.

1.Who painted the Mona Lisa?

A businessman. B. His second wife.

C. Leonardo da Vinci. D. The businessman’s wife.

2.The woman in the painting is______.

A. an Italian businesswoman

B. Leonardo da Vinci’s wife

C. the wife of a businessman

D.a woman from the church

3.Where is the woman in the painting?

A. On a balcony. B. On a knee.

C. On a mountain. D. On a rock.

4.What can a person see in the painting?

A. A lot of geometry.

B. Clever use of light and darkness.

C. Mountains.

D. All of the above.

When my friend went to Europe last summer, instead of snapping photographs of the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower or Stonehenge, she brought back 32 rolls of ... Cathedral(大教堂的) ceilings. Ceilings. For the 10 years I’ve known her I had never suspected that she was this passionate about stained glass.

Still one of the best things about such pictures — despite their obvious narrow appeal — is that they can’t help but tell us a great deal about the people who took them.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I got the roll of film back from my 5-year-old son’s first camping trip. I opened the envelope, naively expecting to see pictures of the nightly campfire, the sun setting over the forest, and possibly even a deer or two.

Instead, I saw an off-center picture of tennis shoes. Not even his tennis shoes, mind you, but a pair someone had lost and left in the cabin. Mystery shoes. And that’s not all.

As I went through the stack, I found that my son had also taken a picture of his sleeping bag, a penny he found in the gravel next to the car, a leaf, an orange sock, a close-up of his father’s ear, a burned hot dog, his thumb, a piece of gum, and many other similar things.

There was barely one sign of nature in the whole stack. I couldn’t help thinking that if he’d wanted pictures of assorted junk, it would’ve been cheaper had he spent the weekend in our back-yard.

AT LEAST that is what I thought until I showed the photographs to my ceiling-snapping friend, the mother of three teenagers, who said simply, “There’s nothing wrong with these.”

But of course, this is just the type of answer you’d expect from someone who photographs ceiling.

Then she told me about the time her daughter went to Yosemite Valley and returned with rolls of photographs of the hotel, restaurant, and gift shop. She also told me about the time her son took his camera to a Major League Baseball game and returned with 24 pictures of cloud formations.

I had a feeling she was just trying to make me feel better.

Then again, to a 5-year-old boy, finding a penny is more exciting than seeing a squirrel. And why would he waste good film on something like, say, some endangered water buffaloes, when he could take a picture of cool tennis shoes? Or his shiny new green sleeping bag?

Face it: Things like beautiful sunsets and campfires can’t compare to a bag of extra-large marshmallow.

So I did what any good mother would do: I marked the date on the back of the pictures and slid them into our family vacation photo album — right after the five pages of ice sculptures I took last year on our cruise to the Bahamas.

1.Who might have taken a picture of the back seat of the family car in his or her trip mentioned in this passage?

A. The author’s friend.

B. The author’s son.

C. The author.

D. The author’s friend’s daughter.

2.The author changed her mind on her son’s picture taking because______ .

A. her friend persuaded her to do so

B. her son’s pictures finally struck her

C. she realized the truth by herself inspired by the surrounding examples

D. it suddenly occurred to her that she herself had also taken unique pictures before

3.What can we infer from this passage?

A. Different people perceive the world from different angles, which may vary according to their age, gender, life experiences and so on.

B. The author’s friend is a better mum in terms of educating children.

C. The author will educate her son to take pictures of nature instead of some boring things.

D. The author will take vacation pictures of different kind from her past ones.

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1.If you are an English beginner, you’d better choose .

A.General English B.High School ESL

C.Night Classes D.Academic English

2.Which course would be helpful for students who want to take the IELTS exam?

A.Course 1. B.Course 2.

C.Course 3. D.Course 4.

3.How much will you pay if you spend two weeks taking the High School ESL course?

A.$ 200. B.$ 300.

C.$ 500. D.$ 600.

4.What can we learn from One on One according to the passage?

A.Its lessons are given in the morning.

B.It’s especially designed for English beginners.

C.It’s more expensive than the other courses.

D.Its lessons are designed to only improve writing skills.

We Chinese are not big huggers. A handshake or a pat on the shoulder is enough to express our friendship or affection (love) to one another. So when our newly-acquainted Western friends reach out in preparation for a hug, some of us feel awkward. Many questions go through our head. Where should I put my arms? Under their armpits or around their neck? What distance should I keep? Should our chests touch?

It’s even more difficult with friends from some European countries. Should I kiss them on the cheek while hugging? Which side? Or is it both cheeks? Which side should I start on?

But it isn’t just people from cultures that are conservative(保守的) in expressing physical contact who find hugging confusing.Hugs can cause discomfort or even distress(pain) in people who value their personal space.

In a recent article for The Wall Street Journal, US psychologist Peggy Drexler said that although the US remains a “medium touch” culture, Americans do seem to be hugging more. From politicians to celebrities(famous people), hugs are given to friends, strangers and enemies alike; whether they are willing or not; and the public has been quick to pick up the practice.

Public figures know that nothing expresses likeability(亲和力)like a good hug. US First Lady Michelle Obama has put her arms around icy foreign leaders like Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the Queen of England on the latter occasion actually breaking the rule of royal manners.

But not all are grateful to be embraced(hugged), even by the most influential and famous. To them, any hug is offensive(冒犯的) if it’s not sincere.

Amanda Hess, writing for US magazine Slate, says public figures should stop imposing(强加) hugs on everyone they meet. For them, a hug is rarely a gesture of sincere fellowship, compassion or affection. It’s all part of a show. Hugs are falsely intimate power plays used by public figures to establish their social dominance(主导) over those in their grasp.

Cecilia Walden, a British journalist writing for The Telegraph who lives in New York, holds the same opinion. “Power-hugging”, as she calls it, is “an offender dressed up as kindness”. It has become a fashion in the US where “bosses are already embracing their staff (either shortly before or after firing them), men and women ,their friends or enemies, in a thousand cheating displays of unity”.

1.From the first third paragraphs, we can see that ___________.

A. we Chinese people don’t know how to hug

B hugs can bring pressure to people when used improperly

C. people from European countries often get puzzled about hugging

D. people in Western countries seldom use hugs to express their physical closeness

2.The example of US first lady Michelle Obama is given to show that __________.

A. hugs are forbidden in England

B. she is much liked by American people

C. Americans hold a “medium touch ”culture

D. public figures know hugging functions well in public

3.Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined phrase “pick up the practice”?

A.Follow the trend.

B.Enjoy the medium touch culture.

C.Give hugs to enemies.

D.Resist physical touch.

4.What can be the best title of this passage?

A. Hugs, tricky affair? B. Hugs, vital or not?

C. Hugs and public figures D. Hugs and power

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