题目内容
Turning on the TV, a wonderful scene comes to your eyes — a group of men, tall, strong and handsome, and women, young, beautiful and attractive, too. Together they eat in the finest restaurants, traveling everywhere around the world by luxurious planes and pleasure ships. They are models.
Do you envy them? What sort of life are models leading? Is it a wonderful life for a young lady or a young man?
A few models are well-known actors or actresses who can make a lot of money only by showing themselves off in commercials. But the majority of them are just curious to see what it is like. They’d like to be models just because they are attracted by what they imagine — models earn a lot of money and lead a glorious life. This is true for those who are very successful. However, most models find it difficult to get work. Very few can earn enough to live on, and for all models their expenses are high. Their agents claim about 20% of the earnings, and no model will get very far without a clever agent. Besides, they have to buy good clothing. They also have to pay to travel to interviews and reach the places where the work is to be done.
Interviews for a model job are known as cattle-markets in the modeling world, and not without a good reason. A top model can choose his or her work, demand and receive high fees and has his or her expenses paid. But for most models, the situation is quite different. And agent or employer inspects each model much as a farmer inspects cattle at a market. Intelligence, qualifications and personal characteristics count for little against good looks and tight figures. For all except the very few lucky ones, the life of a model is a continual search for work, trying to sell himself or herself in the face of fierce competition and, sometimes, not particularly moral standards on the part of some employers.
Immigration officials at airport look suspiciously at a girl whose passport shows her occupation as “Model”, and these are men and women of considerable experience of the world. It comes no surprise to find that some models prefer to put “Secretary” or “Businessman” as their jobs in their passports.
Modeling is a changeable world with great rewards for a tiny minority but not for the majority.
46. For models, their good looks and tight figures are _____________, compared with their intelligence and qualifications.
A. more important B. less needed
C. less essential D. more looked down upon
47. Which of the following can lead you to believe according to the passage?
A. A model’s traveling expenses are usually paid by his employer.
B. To be a model, good looks are the most important qualification.
C. Most models have a fairly easy way of life with high pay.
D. A model can hardly be successful without a good agent.
48. Models often put “Secretary” or “Businessman” instead of “Model” in their passports because __________________.
A. they want to avoid being stopped to sign their names by fans
B. a person with the occupation of a model is easily attacked by black societies
C. models are sometimes looked down upon
D. secretaries and businessmen are free of custom duty
49. What may be the author’s attitude towards modeling?
A. It is a worthwhile life for a young lady or a young man.
B. He is in favor of young people to try modeling.
C. Before being crazy about a model job, young people should be aware of the difficulties.
D. It is a field in which everyone has a great chance to succeed.
50. The underlined word “suspiciously” can most probably be replaced by _________________.
A. doubtfully B. excitedly C. proudly D. sadly
【小题1】A
【小题2】D
【小题3】C
【小题4】C
【小题5】A
"Yes, but what did we use to do before there was television?" How often we hear statements like this! Television hasn't been with us all that long, but we are already beginning to forget what the world was like without it. Before we admit the one-eyed monster into our homes, we never found it difficult to occupy our spare time. We used to enjoy civilized pleasures. For instance, we used to have hobbies, we used to entertain our friends and be entertained by them, we used to go outside for our amusements to theaters, cinemas, restaurants and sporting events. We even used to read books and listen to music and broadcast talk occasionally. All that belongs to the past. Now all our free time is regulated by the "goggle-box". We rush home or gulp down（吞咽）our meals to be in time for this or that program. We have even given up sitting at table and having a leisurely evening meal, exchanging the news of the day. A sandwich and a glass of beer will do-anything providing it doesn't interfere with the program. The monster demands and obtains absolute silence and attention. If any member of the family dares to open his mouth during a program, he is quickly silenced.
The whole generations are growing up addicted to the telly (television). Food is left uneaten, homework undone and sleep is lost. The telly is universal pacifier（抚慰者）．It is now standard practice for mother to keep the children quiet by putting them in the living-room and turning on the set.It doesn’t matter that the children will watch rubbishy commercials or violence－so long as they are quiet.
There is little limit to the amount of creative talent available in the world. Television consumes vast quantities of creative work. That is why most of programs are bad: it is impossible to keep pace with the demand and maintain high standards as well. When millions watch the same programs, the whole world becomes a village, and society is reduced to the conditions which obtain in preliterate（无文字的）communities. We become completely dependent on the two most primitive media of communication: pictures and the spoken word.
Television encourages passive enjoyment. We become content with secondhand experiences. It is so easy to sit in our armchairs watching others working. Little by little, television cuts us off from the real world. We got so lazy; we choose to spend a fine day in semi-darkness, glued to our sets, rather than go out into the world itself. Television may be a splendid medium of communication, but it prevents us from communicating with each other. We only become aware how totally irrelevant television is to real living when we spend a holiday by the sea or in the mountain, far away from civilization. In quiet, natural surroundings, we quickly discover how little we miss the repetitive oppression of King Telly.
【小题1】According to this passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．We used to have hobbies and go to theaters and sporting events. |
| B．We have a leisurely evening meal and exchange the news when we watch TV. |
| C．We quickly finish our meals so as to be in time for TV programs. |
| D．We are usually silent and attentive in front of TV. |
| A．children are very noisy |
| B．TV is full of rubbishy commercials or violence |
| C．television disturbs our sleep |
| D．the whole generations are fascinated with TV |
| A．Television Encourages Passive Enjoyment |
| B．Television Is Doing Irreparable（不能挽回的）harm |
| C．Television Is a Universal Pacifier |
| D．We Can't Live Without TV |
| A．narration | B．description |
| C．criticism | D．argumentation |
Many parents who welcome the idea of turning off the TV and spending more time with the family are still worried that without TV they would constantly be on call as entertainers for their children. They remember thinking up all sorts of things to do when they were kids. But their own kids seem different, less resourceful, somehow. When there’s nothing to do, these parents observe regretfully, their kids seem unable to come up with anything to do besides turning on the TV.
One father, for example, says, “When I was a kid, we were always thinking up things to do, projects and games. We certainly never complained in an annoying way to our parents. ‘I have nothing to do’.” He compares this with his own children today: “They’re simply lazy. If someone doesn’t entertain them, they’ll happily sit there watching TV all day.”
There is one word for this father’s disappointment: unfair. It is as if he were disappointed in them for not reading Greek though they have never studied the language. He deplores (哀叹) his children’s lack of inventiveness, as if the ability to play were something born that his children are missing. In fact, while the tendency to play is built into the human species, the actual ability to play – to imagine, to invent, to elaborate on reality in a playful way –and the ability to gain fulfillment from it, these are skills that have to be learned and developed.
Such disappointment, however, is not only unjust, it is also destructive. Sensing their parents’ disappointment, children come to believe that they are, indeed, lacking something, and that this makes them less worthy of admiration and respect. Giving children the opportunity to develop new resources, to enlarge their horizons and discover the pleasure of doing things on their own is, on the other hand, a way to help children develop a confident feeling about themselves as capable and interesting people.
【小题1】 According to many parents, if there’s nothing to do, the children would .
| A．turn on the TV | B．complain to their parents |
| C．ask their parents to play with them | D．do all of the above |
| A．sit silently studying Greek | B．think up things to entertain themselves |
| C．find chances to talk with parents | D．enjoy themselves outdoors |
| A．the children are not really lazy, but there’s nothing for them to do |
| B．they do not lack the ability to play |
| C．they have to learn and develop their playing ability gradually |
| D．the father have done nothing to help the children |
| A．lose their confidence and respectability |
| B．be much more disappointed |
| C．refuse to learn new things |
| D．discover the pleasures of doing things on their own |
| A．Today’s children are becoming less capable and independent than before. |
| B．Parents should give children more help on how to be creative. |
| C．Turning off the TV will help us solve a lot of family problems. |
| D．It’s not just for parents and children to complain each other. |