题目内容

A young boy recently received an unexpected message in the mail from his father Joseph, who died two years ago.

Rowan's dad was a hardworking man who wanted to give his son the best life he could. It was why Rowan's mother, Julie Van Stone, said Joseph joined the Navy and went to MIT to get two masters degrees.

While at school in Boston, he would often write to Rowan. Even when he left school and was driving back to Colorado, he would send postcards from each state he stopped in. Those postcards were sent in 2007. "I remember him saying he had sent 5 or 6, and I only got 3 or 4 in the mail. But I never thought anything of it," Van Stone said.

Those postcards and pictures are priceless memories for Van Stone and her son, especially after Joseph passed away from a rare brain disease. Rowan never had a chance to say goodbye. But, on Saturday, just days before the two-year anniversary of Joseph's death, a postcard arrived in the mail. It arrived March 11, 2015. The message read: "Hello from Pennsylvania. I love you, and I miss you so much. See you soon. Love, Daddy."

Neither he nor his mother knows how it happened, and they may never know. But, they have their own ideas why. "I feel like that was the final goodbye that he didn't get to say," Van Stone said. Van Stone says Joseph's last words to her before he died were: "Everything is a circle. We will see each other again. All that matters is love."

1.What did Rowan’s dad do to give his son the best life?

A. He bought many for Julie.

B. He became a soldier in Navy.

C. He kept writing to his son.

D. He got many masters degrees.

2. How long did it take for the postcard to reach Rowan?

A. 2 years. B. 5 years. C. 6 years. D. 8 years.

3. Where did Rowan’s dad send the postcard?

A. In Boston. B. In Colorada

B. In Pennsylvania D. In New York

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It appears that the police now have a device that can read license plates and check if a car is unregistered, uninsured or stolen. We already know that National Security Agency can dip into your Facebook page and Google searches. And it seems that almost every store we go into these days wants your home phone number and ZIP code as part of any deal.

So when Edward Snowden — now cooling his heels in Russia — revealed the extent to which the NSA is spying on Americans, collecting data on phone calls we make, it's not as if we should have been surprised. We live in a world that George Orwell predicted in 1984. And that realization has caused sales of the 1949, dystopian (反乌托邦)novel to spike dramatically upward recently — a 9,000% increase at one point on Amazon. com.

Comparisons between Orwell’s novel about a tightly controlled totalitarian (极权主义的)future ruled by the everywhere-present Big Brother and today are, in fact, quite similar. Here are a few of the most obvious ones.

Telescreens — in the novel, nearly all public and private places have large TV screens that broadcast government propaganda (宣传), news and approved entertainment. But they are also two-way monitors that spy on citizens, private lives. Today websites like Facebook track our likes and dislikes, and governments and private individuals hack into our computers and find out what they want to know. Then there are the ever-present monitoring cameras that spy on the ordinary people as they go about their daily routine.

The endless war — In Orwell’s book, there's global war that has been going on seemingly forever, and as the book's hero, Winston Smith, realizes the enemy keeps changing. One week we’re at war with Eastasia and friends with Eurasia. The next week, it's just the opposite. There seems little to distinguish the two opponents, and they are used primarily to keep the people of Oceania, where Smith lives, in a constant state of fear, thereby making disagreement unthinkable — or punishable. Today we have the so-called war on terror, with no end in sight, a generalized societal fear, suspension of certain civil liberties, and an ill-defined enemy who could be anywhere, and anything.

Newspeak — the fictional, stripped-down English language, used to limit free thought. OMG (Oh my God), RU (Are you) serious? That's so FUBAR (Fucked Beyond Ail Recognition). LMAO (Laugh My Ass Off).

Memory hole — this is the machine used in the book to change or disappear embarrassing documents. Paper shredders (碎纸机) had been invented, but were hardly used when Orwell wrote his book, and the concept of wiping out a hard drive was years in the future. But the memory hole foretold both technologies.

So what’s it all meant? In 1984, Winston Smith, after an intense round of “behavioral modification” — read: torture— learns to love Big Brother, and the difficult world he was born into. Jump forward to today, it seems we’ve willingly given up all sorts of freedoms, and much of our right to privacy. Fears of terrorism have a lot to do with this, but dizzying advances in technology, and the ubiquity of social media, play a big part.

There are those who say that if you don't have anything to hide, you have nothing to be afraid of. But the fact is, when a government agency can monitor everyone’s phone calls, we have all become suspects. This is one of the most frightening aspects of our modem society. And even more frightening is the fact that we have gone so far down the street, there is probably no turning back. Unless you spend your life in a wilderness cabin, totally off the grid, there is simply no way the government won’t have information about you stored away somewhere.

What this means, unfortunately, is that we are all Winston Smith. And Big Brother is the modem surveillance state.

1.What caused 1984 to sell well on Amazon.com?

A. The similarities between the world we live in and that of 1984.

B. The surprise at how Americans are spied on by the government.

C. The fact that authorities have access to our personal information.

D. The worry that our government agencies can monitor our phones.

2.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A. When Orwell wrote 1984, paper shredders didn't exist.

B. The war with Eastasia makes people in Oceania fearful.

C. Telescreens are used to broadcast and spy on citizens’ privacy.

D. Winston Smith loves Big Brother due to the fears of terrorism.

3. What does the underlined word “this” in Paragraph 8 refer to?

A. Addiction to social media.

B. The phone calls being monitored.

C. A round of “behavioral modification”.

D. Willingness to abandon freedom and privacy.

4.The underlined part in the passage replies that _______.

A. it is impossible for us to return to our initial path

B. it’s very difficult for us to change the current situation

C. we are walking along the street too far to go back home

D. the government can find out which street we are going down

5. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A. We are all Winston Smith.

B. Big Brother is watching you.

C. We’re living “1984” today.

D. The NSA is spying on Americans.

6.What is the writer's attitude towards the phenomenon?

A. Optimistic. B. Concerned. C. Angry. D. Indifferent.

阅读理解。

阅读下列四篇短文,从每小题后所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。

People think being an artist must be a wonderful way to earn one’s living. And of course, there are lots of great things about working for oneself, at home alone, even in a cold studio like mine. What I really like is that nobody tells me what time to start in the morning. I like to paint as soon as I wake up, which is always early, but isn’t the same time every day. And nobody tells me what to wear or whether I can take the afternoon off and go to a football match.

But then, I have no one to chat with when I’m bored, no one to discuss last night’s match with during the office lunch hour. Sure, I can spend the afternoon doing something I enjoy like cycling or gardening if I choose. But the work will still be there when I do finally get back home.

Unfortunately, working at home means that people can always find me, whether I’m bored or not, and once I’ve answered the doorbell, it’s too late — my thoughts have been interrupted. No one would dream of calling in if I worked in an office, but I find myself listening to friends’ troubles. As they talk, my ideas disappear and I feel increasingly stressed thinking of my work waiting to be done.

However, when I hear the traffic news on the radio, and imagine my friends sitting miserably in their cars in a jam, feeling bored, or waiting unhappily for an overcrowded train in the rain, I realize that I really haven’t got much to complain about. I find a CD which will start me thinking, turn it up really loudly and begin another picture.

1. In the passage the writer is trying to ________.

A. encourage readers to work at home

B. explain why he decides to be an artist

C. describe his working life

D. show how he begins a picture

2.What does the writer like about his working life?

A. He has plenty of opportunities for sport.

B. He can do things without being told by others.

C. He needn’t work in the morning.

D. He has a comfortable place to work in.

3.The writer plays loud music because ________.

A. the traffic outside is noisy

B. it helps him to have ideas

C. it prevents him from feeling bored

D. he doesn’t want to hear the doorbell

4.Which of these notices would be the most useful for the writer to put on his door?

A. I’m working — please don’t disturb.

B. Please knock before entering.

C. I’m listening to music — join me.

D. Come in and have a chat.

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