题目内容
Don’t talk to me; I’m busy with my iPhone
Riding a London subway, a person from China will notice one major difference: in London, people do not look at each other. In fact, eye contact is avoided at all times. That’s not rudeness—people are just too busy to bother looking.
Busy doing what, you ask? Well, they’re certainly not using the time for a moment of quiet reflection, nor are they reading a book. New technology has replaced quiet habits. Today the only acceptable form of book on the London underground is an e-book.
Apple must earn a fortune from London commuters(乘车上下班的人). Since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, over 40,000—yes, that’s 40,000—“apps” (programs downloaded for the iPhone) have been designed.
Commuters love them because they are the perfect time-fillers. One “app”, called iShoot, is a game that features tanks. Another one, Tube Exits, tells passengers where to sit on the train to be closest to the exit of their destination. ISteam clouds the iPhone screen when you breathe into the microphone. You can then write in the “ steam” on your phone screen.
For those without an iPhone, another Apple product, the iPod, may be another choice. It’s not just teenagers who “plug in” to their music—iPods are a popular way to pass the time for all ages.
And if games, e-books and music aren’t enough to keep you occupied, then perhaps you would prefer a film. The development of palm DVD technology means many commuters watch their favorite TV show or film on the way to work. With all this entertainments, it’s amazing that people still remember to get off the train.
1.People in London do not make eye contact on the subway because they are busy ________.
A.playing games, reading e-books, listening to music or watching films.
B.going to work
C.reading books
D.thinking private things
2.Those who like war games can download ________ to their iPhones.
A.Tube Exits B.iShoot C.ISteam D.iPod
3.The underlined word “occupied” in the last paragraph probably means ________.
A.delighted B.busy C.controlled D.amused
4.The article tells us that ________.
A.London commuters are unfriendly to strangers
B.Apple has earned a lo of money from selling 40,000 iPhones
C.with all the new time-fillers, London commuters often forget to get off the train.
D.technology is changing the way London commuters spend their traveling time.
My name is Alice Thompson.I come from Sydney,Australia and I’m 18 years old.Recently I had my first ride on a long-distance train.And what a ride! A friend and I traveled on the famous Chan train. We got on in Sydney and______ in Alice Springs,right in the middle of Australia.
The train was wonderful and the food was great.We ate great meals cooked by experts! For the first few hundred kilometers of the journey,the scenery was very colorful.After that,It was desert.The sun shone,there was no wind and there were no clouds in the sky.Suddenly,it looked like a place from another time.
The train was comfortable and the people were nice.During the day,I sat and looked out of the window',and sometimes talked to other passengers.I read books and listened to my Chinese cassettes (I’m studying Chinese at school).One night,at about midnight,I watched the night sky for lot about an hour.The stars shone like diamonds.
Why is the train called the Chan? A long time ago,Australians needed a way to travel to the middle of the country.They tried riding horses,but the horses didn’t like the hot weather and sand.A hundred and fifty years ago,they brought some camels from Afghanistan.Chan is short for Afghanistan.Camels were much better than horses for traveling a long distance.For many years,trained camels carried food and other supplies,and returned with wool and other products.
Then the movement built a new railway line,so they didn’t need the camels any more.In 1925,they passed a law which allowed people to shoot the animals if they were a problem.I 1935,the police in a town shot 153 camels in one day.
1.What’s the best title of the passage?(Please answer within 10 words)
2.Which sentence in the passage call be replaced by the following one?
When we traveled for the first few hundred kilometers of the journey,the view was very beautiful.
3.Please fill in the blank in the first paragraph with proper words or phrases to complete the sentence.(Please answer within lo words)
4.What do you think of camels as transportation in the past?
5.Translate the underlined sentence in the passage into Chinese.
Umbrella is a “difficult” novel. But if you enjoy challenges, just read on because Umbrella, as a Booker Prize winner, is one you can’t miss.
The story itself is not difficult to follow. It concerns a woman named Audrey, a Lo ndoner who grows up during World War I, works in a military factory, and then survives an epidemic (传染病)spreading through Europe between 1915 and 1926. She is admitted to a mental hospital in 1922, and remains there, mind out of time, until 1971, when a doctor named Zach Busner awakens the sleeping beauty with a special drug. And decades later-on April 8,2010, to be exact — Busner
thinks back on all this as he visits his old hospital.
The story also involves painful facts of how the mentally ill were
mistreated, and the careers of Audrey’s two brothers, one of whom
becomes a soldier in the Great War. Fans of World War I will not want
to miss the vivid descriptions of battlefields.
What makes Will Self’s novel challenging is how he tells his story.
Is opens in the spring of 1971 but thereafter time travels back and
forth between Audrey’s Edwardian childhood and 2010, jumping
mid-sentence from one era to another with no reminders to guide the reader. It is a new style many many modernists adopted, who thought that the old ways were not enough to show the great changes at the beginning of the 20th century.
This story isn’t new: Oliver Sacks dealt with the same sleeping sickness and its treatment in Awakenings. What’s appealing about Umbrella is that Self combines from with content perfectly, using modernist techniques. The readers may feel confused about the switch of time, it’s Self’s wild style that offers other delights – richly detailed settings that bring mental hospitals alive and much more than that.
Yes, “Umbrella” is a “difficult” novel, but it amply rewards the effort.
66.The underlined phrase "mind out of time" in the second paragraph probably refers, to .
A.a way a person faces difficulties light-heartedly
B.a condition where a person is unconscious
C.a situation which makes someone embarrassed
D.an occasion where a person doesn't mind the time
67.What troubles the readers most when they are reading Umbrella?
A.The relations of the characters.
B.The abstract language.
C.The switch of time.
D.The settings of battlefields.
68.We can safely infer from Paragraph 4,______.
A.Self displays a fast-changing world to readers
B.Self created the style in which he wrote his story
C.Self avoided describing the scene of the war
D.Self’s style was followed by many other writers
69.Who else wrote a similar story besides Self?
A.Audrey. B.Zach Busner.
C.Oliver Sacks. D.Audrey's brother.
70.The novel Umbrella really attracts the readers because______.
A.the potential Self has as a modernist writer
B.the strange writing technique Self created
C.the new material Self chose for his story
D.the perfect combination of the form and content