题目内容
I once knew an old man whose bad memory made him famous. John Smith was so forgetful that he sometimes forgot what he was talking about in the middle of a sentence. His wife had to constantly remind him about his meetings, his classes — even his meals. Once he forgot he ate breakfast twice, at home and at school. His wife liked to remind her neighbors, “If John didn’t have his head tied on, he would forget that too!” Since Smith was a professor at a well-known university, his forgetfulness was often an embarrassment. It wasn’t that he was not clever, as some critical people tended to say, just very, very absent minded. One hot summer day, Professor Smith decided to take his children to a seaside town about a three-hour train ride away. To make the trip more interesting for his young children, he kept the name of the town a secret. However, by the time they arrived at the station, Smith forgot the name of the town he was planning to visit. Luckily, a friend of his happened to be in the station. He offered to take care of the children while Smith hurried back home to find out where he was going.
The professor’s wife was surprised to see him again so soon. “Oh, my dear, I forgot the name of the town.” “What? You forgot the name? May be one day you will forget my name! Now I’ll write the name of that town on a piece of paper, and you put it in your pocket and please, please don’t forget where you put it.”
Satisfied that she had solved the problem, she sent her husband off again. Ten minutes later she was astonished to see him outside the house for the third time.
“What is the matter now?”
“As you told me, I didn’t forget where I put the name of that town, but I forgot where I left our children!”
1. In the opinion of the writer of this passage, the professor is ________.
A. forgetful B. critical C. foolish D. careless
2. The underlined word “embarrassment” in the first paragraph may mean ________.
A. amusement B. satisfaction C. fun D. discomfort
3. From the end of the story, we know Mrs Smith would probably be very_______.
A. satisfied B. angry C. sorry D. funny
4. He kept the name of the town a secret because _______.
A. he wanted to give the children a surprise.
B. he forgot it.
C. he didn’t know where to go.
D. his wife didn’t put the address in his pocket.
ADBA
The Internet will open up new vistas (前景), create the global village——you can make new friends all around the world. That, at least, is what it promised us. The difficulty is that it did not take the human mind into account. The reality is that we cannot keep relationsh
ips with more than a limited number of people. No matter how hard the Internet tries to put you in communication, its best efforts will be defeated by your mind.
The problem is twofold（双重的）. First, there is a limit on the number of people we can hold in mind and have a meaningful relationship with. That number is about 150 and is set by the size of our brain. Second, the quality of your relationships depends on the amount of time you invest in then. We invest a lot in a small number of people and then distribute what’s left among as many others as we can. The problem is that if we invest little time in a person, our engagement with that person will decline until eventually it dies into “someone I once knew”.
This is not, of course, to say that the Internet doesn’t serve a socially valuable function. Of course it does. But the question is not that it allows you to increase the size of your social circle to include the rest of the world, but that you can keep your relationships with your existing friends going even though you have to move to the other side of the world.
In one sense, that’s a good thing. But it also has a disadvantage. If you continue to invest in your old friends even though you can no longer see them, then certainly you aren’t using your time to make new friends where you now live. And I suspect that probably isn’t the best use of your time. Meaningful relationships are about being able to communicate with each other, face to face. The Internet will slow down the rate with which relationships end, but it won’t stop that happening eventually.
【小题1】The number of friends we can keep relationships with is decided by__________.
| A．the Internet | B．the time we have | C．the place we live | D．the mind |
nd paragraph probably means “__________”.| A．appointment | B．connection | C．interview | D．agreement |
| A．the Internet helps to keep in touch with friends far away |
| B．the Internet determines the quality of social relationships |
C．the Internet greatly increases the size of social circles |
| D．the Internet is of no value in social communication |
| A．To keep in touch with old friends when we have moved away. |
| B．To chat with friends often on the Internet. |
| C．To make more new friends face to face. |
| D．To stop using the Internet to make new friends. |
| A．He thinks it useless | B．He is hopeful of it. |
| C．He approves of it. | D．He doubts it. |
The Internet will open up new vistas (前景), create the global village——you can make new friends all around the world. That, at least, is what it promised us. The difficulty is that it did not take the human mind into account. The reality is that we cannot keep relationships with more than a limited number of people. No matter how hard the Internet tries to put you in communication, its best efforts will be defeated by your mind.
The problem is twofold（双重的）. First, there is a limit on the number of people we can hold in mind and have a meaningful relationship with. That number is about 150 and is set by the size of our brain. Second, the quality of your relationships depends on the amount of time you invest in then. We invest a lot in a small number of people and then distribute what’s left among as many others as we can. The problem is that if we invest little time in a person, our engagement with that person will decline until eventually it dies into “someone I once knew”.
This is not, of course, to say that the Internet doesn’t serve a socially valuable function. Of course it does. But the question is not that it allows you to increase the size of your social circle to include the rest of the world, but that you can keep your relationships with your existing friends going even though you have to move to the other side of the world.
In one sense, that’s a good thing. But it also has a disadvantage. If you continue to invest in your old friends even though you can no longer see them, then certainly you aren’t using your time to make new friends where you now live. And I suspect that probably isn’t the best use of your time. Meaningful relationships are about being able to communicate with each other, face to face. The Internet will slow down the rate with which relationships end, but it won’t stop that happening eventually.
【小题1】The number of friends we can keep relationships with is decided by______.
| A．the Internet | B．the time we have | C．the place we live | D．the mind |
| A．appointment | B．connection | C．interview | D．agreement |
| A．the Internet helps to keep in touch with friends far away |
| B．the Internet determines the quality of social relationships |
| C．the Internet greatly increases the size of social circles |
| D．the Internet is of no value in social communication |
| A．To keep in touch with old friends when we have moved away. |
| B．To chat with friends often on the Internet. |
| C．To make more new friends face to face. |
| D．To stop using the Internet to make new friends. |
| A．He thinks it useless | B．He is hopeful of it. |
| C．He approves of it. | D．He doubts it. |