There is a boy called Bill in my gym class who has unbearably yellow teeth that almost make everyone feel unpleasant.Recently another boy told Bill that he should "go Ajax" his teeth.Bill was crushed.If the other boy had been thinking, he would have realized that there is a better way to handle such a situation.He could have dealt with it with tact.He could have showed this hurtful truth in a more careful, sensitive way—that's "tact".

    If a person isn't sensitive to another's feelings, there is no way he or she can be tactful.Yesterday, my 5-year-old brother proudly announced that he had cleaned the screen on our television set.Unfortunately, he used furniture polish, which produced an oily film on the television screen.My mother smiled arid thanked him for his efforts—and then showed how to clean the screen properly.Her sensitivity enables my brother to keep his self-respect.Yet, sensitivity alone does not make tact.

    "Tactfulness" also requires "truthfulness".Doctors, for example must be truthful.If a patient has just been disabled in an accident, a tactful doctor will tell the truth—but express it with sensitivity.The doctor may try to give the patient hope by telling them curing techniques under study or about advanced equipment now available.Doctors must use tact with patients' relatives as well.Instead of bluntly saying, "Your husband is disabled," a doctor might say, "I'm sorry, but your husband has lost feeling in his legs and..."

    Tact should not be confused with trickery.Trickery occurs when a nurse is about to give a patient an injection(注射) and says, "This won't hurt a bit." Instead of trickery, the nurse might guarantee the patient that the discomfort of the injection is a small thing compared to the benefits of it.It would also be thoughtful for the nurse to tell the patients about some of these benefits.

    Tact is a wonderful skill to have, and tactful people are usually admired and respected.Without tact our society would become an intolerable place to live in.

The underlined word "crushed" in the first paragraph probably means____.

    A.surprised            B.cheated         C.regretful        D.painful

According to the author, his mother's praise for the brother is ____.

    A.sensitive and tactful                   B.sensitive but not tactful enough

    C.truthful but not tactful enough         D.sensitive but trickish

Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

(The numbers stand for the paragraphs)

"We do look very different; we're older. Leo's 38, I'm 37. We were 21 and 22 when we made that film. You know, he's fatter now -- I'm thinner.". So says Kate Winslet, who is thrilled at the 3-D re-release of Titanic to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ship's demise. “ It happens every time I get on any boat of any kind." She recalls. There are all the people who want her to walk to the front of the ship and re-create her famous pose, arms flung wide. Most people remember the tragedy: The British passenger ship -- said to be unsinkable -- hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, during its maiden voyage from England to New York City. More than 1,500 people died. But little known is what the world learned from the sinking to prevent future incidents.
Probably the greatest deficiency (不足)of the Titanic was that she was built 40 years before the widespread use of the wonderful invention radar(雷达). Her only defense against icebergs and hidden obstacles was to rely on manned lookouts. On that fateful night the eyesight of trained lookouts only provided 37 seconds of warning before the collision.
Traveling at nearly 30 miles an hour the Titanic was moving far too fast to avoid the huge iceberg. The warning did prevent a head-on collision as the officer on the bridge managed to turn the ship slightly.
The last ship to send a warning was the California. She was within ten miles of the Titanic during the disaster, but her radio operator went to bed at midnight and never received any of the SOS messages from the Titanic. That was one of the important lessons learned from the catastrophe, the need for 24-hour radio operators on all passenger liners.
Another lesson learned was the need for more lifeboats. The Titanic remained afloat(漂浮) for almost three hours and most of the passengers could have been saved with enough lifeboats.
1,500 passengers and workers died in the 28 degree waters of the Atlantic. Out of the tragedy, the sinking did produce some important maritime reforms. The winter travel routes were changed to the south and the Coast Guard began to keep an eye on the location of all icebergs. The new rules for lifeboats were obvious to all. There must be enough lifeboats for everybody on board.
The most important lesson learned was that no one would ever again consider a ship unsinkable- no matter how large or how well constructed. Never again would sailors place their faith in a ship above the power of the sea.
【小题1】The text mainly tells us ______.

A.the reason why the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean
B.how the unsinkable ship of Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean
C.the lessons that we could learn from the accident of theTitanic
D.the things we should do to protect the lives on the ship
【小题2】According to the passage, which of the following could we infer?
A.If the captain had been more careful, he could have had the chance to save the Titanic.
B.If radar had existed 40 years ago, the Titanic would have never disappeared from the world.
C.If the lookout had had much more experience, he could have had the time to save the Titanic.
D.If there had been enough lifeboats on the Titanic, the Titanic would not have sunk in the Atlantic.
【小题3】What would be the best title for the passage?
A.Lessons from the TitanicB.Technology is Important
C.Demands of PassengersD.Power of Sea
【小题4】What’s the sailors’ attitude towards the ships after the tragedy?
A.They think there really exists the unsinkable ship.
B.They think ships could eventually defeat the sea.
C.They think there is no power that could control the sea.
D.They think the bigger the ship is, the safer it is.

Margaret, married with two small children, has been working for the last seven years as a night cleaner, cleaning offices in a big building.
She trained as a nurse, but had to give it up when her elder child became seriously ill. “I would have liked to go back to it, but the shifts(工作班次) are all wrong for me, as I have to be home to get the children up and off to school.”
So she works as a cleaner instead, from 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. five nights a week for just £90, before tax and insurance. “It’s better than it was last year, but I still think that people who work ‘unsocial hours’ should get a bit extra.”
The hours she’s chosen to work meant that she sees plenty of the children, but very little of her husband. However, she doesn’t think that puts any pressure on their relationship.
Her work isn’t physically very hard, but it’s not exactly pleasant, either. “I do get angry with people who leave their offices like a place for raising pigs. If they realized people like me have to do it, perhaps they’d be a bit more careful.”
The fact that she’s working all night doesn’t worry Margaret at all. Unlike some dark buildings at night, the building where she works is fully lit, and the women work in groups of three. “Since I’ve got to be here, I try to enjoy myself——and I usually do, because of the other girls. We all have a good laugh, so the time never drags.”
Another challenge Margaret has to face is the reaction of other people when she tells them what she does for a living. “They think you’re a cleaner because you don’t know how to read and write,” said Margaret. “I used to think what my parents would say if they knew what I’d been doing, but I don’t think that way any more. I don’t dislike the work though I can’t say I’m mad about it.”
41. Margaret quit her job as a nurse because _______
A. she wanted to earn more money to support her family
B. she had suffered a lot of mental pressure
C. she needed the right time to look after her children
D. she felt tired of taking care of patients
42. Margaret gets angry with people who work in the office because _______.
A. they never clean their offices              B. they look down upon cleaners
C. they never do their work carefully          D. they always make a mess in their offices
43. When at work, Margaret feels _______.
A. light-hearted because of her fellow workers     B. happy because the building is fully lit
C. tired because of the heavy workload           D. bored because time passed slowly
44. The underlined part in the last paragraph implies that Margaret’s parents would _______.
A. help care for her children             B. regret what they had said
C. show sympathy for her               D. feel disappointed in her

Whatever we may need to buy,we can use our credit cards.This is a change from the older days when we had to first check whether cards were accepted.Today,everybody, from retailers(零售商) to lenders,accepts credit cards.Attitudes towards credit cards have also changed a lot.People used to be
very careful of using their cards;but this is no longer the case. People today prefer to take out their cards as soon as they get to the cash counter.A swipe (刷卡) and a sign are all it takes,and you can walk home with the bill and all the things you buy.
The credit card is much easier to carry than cash and it is not at all surprising that the former becomes the most preferred way of payment.A credit card takes up very little space in our wallets,and yet,it holds the power of a large sum of cash.Paying by credit cards is also a good way of keeping bills on where all of our money goes.  
Moreover,it has become much easier to get credit cards these days.I constantly have cold callers calling up to offer me “great new credit card deals”.Salesmen occasionally walk into our office offering discounts if a group of people decide to sign up a certain kind of credit card plan at the same time.However,this can also cause a problem.Nowadays,we always run the
risk of getting some kinds of wastes.When the terms seem too good to be true,we should make sure that we always read the printed items carefully.Before signing for a creditcard,it is necessary to know its advantages and disadvantages.The only way to deal with this is to do our homework, before we go credit card hunting.   
【小题1】We learn from Paragraph 1 that      .   

A.people can use credit cards anytime,anywhere
B.people used to have to check up on credit cards
C.people are more careful using credit cards nowadays
D.people can take their goods home just by swiping their cards
【小题2】One of the main advantages of credit cards is that   
A.they occupy less space compared with other modes of payment
B.they are more powerful than cash
C.they are easy to get,and save money
D.they help users keep track of what they spend on
【小题3】When signing for a credit card,people should     .
A.ask for a discount
B.understand the dangers
C.read every word of the contract carefully
D.understand that the salesman is most likely to offer false information
【小题4】In the last sentence the writer tells us that      .  
A.we should know the advantages and disadvantages of credit cards before using them
B.we should finish work before going shopping with a credit card
C.we should check which credit cards are accepted before using them
D.we should make sure that our credit cards are real before using them

Margaret, married with two small children, has been working for the last seven years as a night cleaner, cleaning offices in a big building.

She trained as a nurse, but had to give it up when her elder child became seriously ill. “I would have liked to go back to it, but the shifts(工作班次) are all wrong for me, as I have to be home to get the children up and off to school.”

So she works as a cleaner instead, from 9 p.m. till 6 a.m. five nights a week for just £90, before tax and insurance. “It’s better than it was last year, but I still think that people who work ‘unsocial hours’ should get a bit extra.”

The hours she's chosen to work meant that she sees plenty of the children, but very little of her husband. However, she doesn't think that puts any pressure on their relationship.

Her work isn't physically very hard, but it's not exactly pleasant, either. “I do get angry with people who leave their offices like a place for raising pigs. If they realized people like me have to do it, perhaps they'd be a bit more careful.”

The fact that she's working all night doesn't worry Margaret at all. Unlike some dark buildings at night, the building where she works is fully lit, and the women work in groups of three. “Since I've got to be here, I try to enjoy myself——and I usually do, because of the other girls. We all have a good laugh, so the time never drags.”

Another challenge Margaret has to face is the reaction of other people when she tells them what she does for a living. “They think you're a cleaner because you don't know how to read and write,” said Margaret. “I used to think what_my_parents_would_say_if_they_knew_what_I'd_been_doing,_but I don't think that way any more. I don't dislike the work though I can't say I'm mad about it.”

1.Margaret quit her job as a nurse because________

A.she wanted to earn more money to support her family

B.she had suffered a lot of mental pressure

C.she felt tired of taking care of patients

D.she needed the right time to look after her children

2.Margaret gets angry with people who work in the office because________.

A.they never clean their offices

B.they look down upon cleaners

C.they always make a mess in their offices

D.they never do their work carefully

3.When at work, Margaret feels________.

A.Light­hearted because of her fellow workers

B.happy because the building is fully lit

C.tired because of the heavy workload

D.bored because time passed slowly

4.The underlined part in the last paragraph implies that Margaret's parents would________.

A.help care for her children

B.regret what they had said

C.show sympathy for her

D.feel disappointed in her

 

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