February 28th, 2009 2:54 am GMT

I have to say that am shocked at just how bad the new music is. This cannot be the same band that produced great albums such as HTDAAB and ATYCLB! This is awful! They either do not care anymore, or have completely lost it. I never thought U2 would become irrelevant, but they have officially become one of those bands that you will now say, “Remember when they were great?”

----- Posted by Ronald Harris

February 28th, 2009 8:29 pm GMT

Total drivel, Mr Harris. The new album is great, far better than the safe, cynical HTDAAB and ATYCLB. U2 have become inventive again, like they were in the 1990s. thank goodness!

----- Posted by Dan

March 3rd, 2009 12:09 pm GMT

Agree, Dan. The new album is the best since Actung Baby. Magnificent is an anthem in the waiting, Breathe is unbelievable, and Stand Up Comedy is absolutely outstanding----- to name just three! Loving the new sound, pure class as usual.

----- Posted by Martin

March 4th, 2009 7:43 pm GMT

Totally agree with you guys. This album is unbelievable. Breathe is definitely a great song, same with Moment of Surrender. I bet their upcoming tour will be amazing. If you haven’t bought the CD yet, you should. I bought mine on Amozon.com for $3.99. I couldn’t believe it.

----- Posted by Josh Briggs

1.According to Ronald Harris, U2’s new album is _________.

A.pretty good

B.so bad

C.the same as before

D.completely fresh

2. whose comment is contrary to the others?

A.Martin’s

B.Dan’s

C.Josh Briggs’

D.Ronald Harris’

3.Martin and Josh Briggs both like the song _________.

A.Magnificent

B.Moment of Surrender

C.Breathe

D.Stand Up Comedy

4. Which of the following statements is not true according to the passage?

A.Most fans felt disappointed at the new album.

B.The new album is available on the Internet.

C.The people who made comments are fans of U2.

D.U2’s upcoming tour may be a great success.

5.The passage is most probably from ________.

A.a concert poster

B.a TV review

C.a newspaper

D.the Internet

 

完形填空(共20小题,每小题1.5分, 满分30分)

I’ll never forget May 12, 2008, we were having classes at Beichuan Middle School , Sichuan Province, when a huge  36  hit the area.

At about 2:28 p.m, our  37  , Mr.Wang, was teaching us singing on the fourth floor on the teaching building.  38   we felt the building shaking violently. It was an earthquake! Our building starting to  39  . It was too late to rush out to the  40  . We were told to hide under the desks.  41  later, the whole building fell down. We were  42  in ruins. We couldn’t move at all. No one could really imagine at that split second, how much pain we had  43 or how desperate(绝望的) we felt as we waited to be  44 . I heard Mr. Wang calling our names again and again… .

Hours later, some people came to rescue and  45 of us were saved.

Later, I  46 this huge earthquake scaled 8.0 magnitude. It hit several provinces, including Sichuan, Gansu and Shanxi. So far it has  47 more than 80,000 and injured 360,000. My hometown ----Beichuan was  48  the worst-hit areas. Our school , which was  49  filled with vigor(活力) and laughter, was a dead valley.

Words after such a  50 could appear nothing but empty and pointless. So many people’s lives were taken away, so much  51  was done and the whole city was  52  . Beichuan has become a history.

Now , some of my classmates and I were  53  to study in a middle school in Jiangsu Province. I still  54  dreaming and still strive for a better future: to make our homes beautiful yet  55  .

May victims rest in peace. May survivors live to be stronger.

1.

A.rain

B.earthquake

C.snow

D.rock

 

2.

A.classmate

B.parent

C.friend

D.teacher

 

3.

A.Finally

B.Luckily

C.Suddenly

D.Actually

 

4.

A.fall

B.stand

C.run

D.walk

 

5.

A.home

B.desks

C.classroom

D.outdoors

 

6.

A.Minutes

B.Weeks

C.Hours

D.Days

 

7.

A.trapped

B.stayed

C.played

D.packed

 

8.

A.lived

B.escaped

C.enjoyed

D.suffered

 

9.

A.ignored

B.recovered

C.rescued

D.remembered

 

10.

A.all

B.some

C.none

D.each

 

11.

A.found out

B.added up

C.came up

D.set down

 

12.

A.devoted

B.helped

C.killed

D.concerned

 

13.

A.outside

B.without

C.far from

D.among

 

14.

A.now

B.once

C.then

D.never

 

15.

A.attitude

B.trouble

C.disaster

D.insurance

 

16.

A.lives

B.damage

C.highway

D.news

 

17.

A.in ruins

B.dug out

C.as usual

D.set up

 

18.

A.judged

B.persuaded

C.joined

D.organized

 

19.

A.care about

B.give in

C.keep on

D.go through

 

20.

A.peaceful

B.safe

C.grateful

D.active

 

Robert Altman’s films were different from the usual methods of Hollywood movie storytelling. In the 1940s, he started his film career directing industrial movies in his hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. Later, he moved to Hollywood, California, to make television shows.

His first major film, MASH, was released in 1970. It tells about a group of American medical workers in an army hospital in Korea during the Korean War in the 1950s. The movie was a great success. It questioned the rules of the military in a way that was sharply funny and clever.

Robert Altman continued to make movies with strong political and social points. His next major movie, Nashville, came out in 1975. This movie provides a complex (not simple) look at changes in the country music industry.

Robert Altman’s movies have a very special style. Often, his actors speak so naturally that it is hard to believe they are performing. Altman liked his actors to be free to make up their own lines. Altman wanted to copy the way people talked and acted in real life. And he was willing to fight with movie studio businessmen to make sure that he had total creative (有创造力的) control over his work.

Even as an old man, Robert Altman continued to make movies. Many of his 33 films were nominated (提名) for Academy Awards, including The Player and Gosford Park. Robert Altman died in November in Los Angeles, California. He was 81 years old.

1.According to the passage, Altman was ______.

A. a writer              B. an actor         C. a director          D. a soldier

2.Robert Altman began to make films ______.

A. in the 1940s           B. in the 1950s      C. in 1970   D. in 1975

3.What is special about Altman’s films is that ______.

A. they were all industrial films

B. they were true to life

C. they were films with strong political points

D. many of them were nominated for Academy Awards

4.The passage mainly tells us that ______.

A. the Korean War took place in the 1950s

B. Robert Altman made his first major film in 1970

C. Robert Altman’s films have a different style

D. Robert Altman received many Academy Awards

5.The best title for this passage should be ______.

A. Robert Altman - Director of Special Style Movie

B. Some Famous Films from Hollywood

C. How Robert Altman Directed His Films

D. Actors in the Films of Robert Altman

 

We have known for a long time that flowers of different plants open and close at different times of day. This is so    1    that there seems to be no need to ask the reason for it. Yet no one    2    understands why flowers open and close like this at particular times. The process is not as    3    as we might think, as recent experiments have shown. In one study, flowers were kept in constant    4   . We might expect that the flowers, without any information about the time of day, did not open as they    5    do. As a matter of fact, they    6    to open at their usual time. This suggests that they have some mysterious(神秘的) way of knowing the    7   . Their sense of time does not    8    information from the outside world; it is, so to speak, inside them, a kind of “inner clock”.

This    9    may not seem to be very important. However, it was later found that not just plants but also    10   , including man, have this “inner clock” which    11    the working of their bodies and influences their activities. Men, then, are also influenced by this mysterious    12   . Whether we wish it or not, it affects such things in our life as our need for sleep, our need for food.

In the past, this did not really    13    because people lived in natural condition. In the    14    world, things are different; now there are spacemen, airplane pilots and, in ordinary life, a lot of people who have to work at night. It would be very   15  , then, to know more about the “inner clock”. Such things as flowers might help us understand more about ourselves.

1.A. familiar       B. strange      C. similar          D. special

2.A. partly     B. personally       C. really           D. willingly

3.A. complex        B. simple           C. mature           D. meaningful

4.A. quietness      B. darkness     C. loneliness       D. sadness

5.A. finally        B. completely       C. physically       D. normally

6. A. refused       B. decided      C. continued        D. failed

7.A. time           B. secret           C. process      D. study

8.A. deal with      B. add to           C. give away        D. depend on

9.A. discovery  B. activity     C. invention        D. method

10.A. beasts        B. animals      C. strangers        D. humans

11.A. controls      B. studies          C. measures     D. destroys

12. A. world        B. flower           C. power            D. experiment

13.A. happen        B. exist            C. matter           D. work

14.A. ancient       B. modern       C. wonderful        D. peaceful

15.A. hard      B. expensive        C. convenient       D. important

 

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