I HEAR America beeping(嘟嘟响).

 Beep,says my cellophane when it gets a text message.

  Beep,says my microwave oven when my sandwich  is warmed up. 

 Sometimes  I long for a natural sound:a bird singing,dog barking,children laughing, anything to drown out  the maddening beeps that have become the soundtrack(配乐)to modern life.

  My cellophane? It isn’t enough that its ring tone offerings seem to stretch from  “annoymg” toextremely “annoying”. It also has to beep whenever someone texts messages me. 

The microwave? A bell rings when it's finished heating my food.But is that enough? No.If I don’t rush to it right away, it starts beeping,like an impatient child tugging(用力拉) at my sleeve(袖子).

 The smoke detector(探测器) is the worst offender.When its batteries are in need of replacement,it 1ets out a series of chirps.The things that don’t beep buzz(嗡嗡响).And for some reason,beeping and buzzing is beneath them,they clear their throats and perform a symphony. Like my TV, each time I turn it on, it performs an aria(咏叹调):La di da di dum.Salutions! Here I am! Same thing when I turn it off: La di da di dum.Good bye, kind sir! Until the next time

But at 1east I know where each of these sounds is coming from.That isn’t always the case.For weeks, my wife and I were awoken in the night by a beeping.There,in the stillness, we went through the possible suspects.Could we have a text message? Could it be any of the devices(装置)able to make a sound? Curling iron, rice cooker, smoke detector, TV set,clock radio...

The only way to tell was to chase the sound down ,but no sooner  would we pull on our bathrobes than the beeping would stop. We didn’t hear it every night but often enough that we would climb into bed wondering whether our sleep  would be interrupted by that maddening sound,that beep.

  Finally,early one morning,my wife found it:in the study,under a desk,a big plastic cube that was plugged into the wall.It was an uninterruptible power supply that we’d inherited(继承)from my wife’s mother.We’d never known it was capable of speech. 

I think it just wanted someone to talk to.

14.What does the writer truly mean by saying“I hear America beeping”?

A.American people like devices that beep.

B.Americans are crazy about sending text messages.

C.In modern society people are dependant on technology.

D.The soundtrack to modern life is no longer natural.

15.Why couldn’t the author and his wife find the source of the noise in their house in the beginning?

A.There were too many devices for them to check.

B.They were unwilling to get up at midnight.

C.They had never known that thing could beep too.

D.The noise didn’t come every day.

16.After reading this passage,we can probably tell the author    

   A.enjoys being surrounded by beeps  B.has a touch of humor in his writing

C.tries to avoid using anything that beeps

D.understands the beeping is designed to be user-friendly


D
A child who has once been pleased with a tale likes, as a rule, to have it retold in almost the same words, but this should not lead parents to treat printed fairy stories as formal texts. It is always much better to tell a story than read it out of a book, and, if a parent can produce what, in the actual situation of the time and the child, is an improvement on the printed text, so much the better.
A charge made against fairy tales is that they harm the child by frightening him or making him sad thinking. To prove the latter, one would have to show in a controlled experiment that children who have read fairy stories were more often sorry for cruelty than those who had not. As to fears, there are, I think, some cases of children being dangerously terrified by some fairy story. Often, however, this arises from the child having heard the story once. Familiarity with the story by repetition turns the pain of fear into the pleasure of a fear faced and mastered.
There are also people who object to fairy stories on the grounds that they are not objectively true, that giants, witches, two-headed dragons, magic carpets, etc. do not exist; and that, instead of being fond of the strange side in fairy tales, the child should be taught to learn the reality by studying history. I find such people, I must say so peculiar(奇怪的) that I do not know how to argue with them. If their case were sound, the world should be full of mad men attempting to fly from New York to Philadelphia on a stick or covering a telephone with kisses in the belief that it was their beloved girl-friend.
No fairy story ever declared to be a description of the real world and no clever child has ever believed that it was.
68. The author considers that a fairy story is more effective when it is _______.
A. repeated without any change              B. treated as a joke
C. made some changes by the parent            D. set in the present
69. The advantage claimed for repeating fairy stories to young children is that it _______.
A. makes them less fearful                       
B. develops their power of memory
C. makes them believe there is nothing to be afraid of   
D. encourages them not to have strange beliefs
70. The author’s mention of sticks and telephones is meant to suggest that _______.
A. fairy stories are still being made up
B. there is some misunderstanding about fairy tales
C. people try to modernize old fairy stories
D. there is more concern for children's fears nowadays
71. One of the reasons why some people are not in favor of fairy tales is that _______.
A. they are full of imagination
B. they just make up the stories which are far from the truth
C. they are not interesting
D. they make teachers of history difficult to teach


The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help prove hospitals who are accused of wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients ease discomfort and pain.
A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to look at either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped(照射) a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been stuck by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when looking at the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.
While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part.
The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process.
"Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their artistic aspects should be taken into account too," said the neurologist. "Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. " "I think these results show that more research is needed into the field how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering."
Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonio Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero. "These people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world," said Prof de Tommaso.
1.The underlined word “alleviate” in the fifth paragraph probably means “_________”.
A. cure            B. ease             C. improve           D. kill
2.How many artists have been mentioned in the passage?
A. 4.                      B. 5.                      C. 6.                             D. 7.
3.Which of the following is TURE about the view of Prof de Tommaso’s?
A. Beautiful surroundings could help to heal sufferings completely .
B. Hospitals must take their artistic aspects into consideration first.
C. Ugly surroundings will surely make the pain worse.
D. Both music and beauty can reduce pain in hospital patients.
4.Which of the following is the suitable title for the passage?
A. Beautiful surroundings can ease pain.          
B. Ugly paintings could be masterpieces.
C. More research should be done in the field.      
D. Latest environmental research.  

The research carried out by the University of Bad in Italy could help prove hospitals who are accused of wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients ease discomfort and pain.

     A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology

Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered

most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as

Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to look at either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped(????) a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been stuck by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were

viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when looking at the ugly paintings

or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced resoonse to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.

      While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients,Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part.

      The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that

beaufiful surroundings could aid the healing process.

      "Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their artistic aspects should be taken into account too," said the neurologist."Beauty boyiously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. I think these results show that more research is needed into the field how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering."

      Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticellis Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonio Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero." These people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world," said Prof de Tommaso.

1.The underlined word "alleviate" in the fifth paragraph probably means"______".

    A.cure                 B.ease             C.improve             D.kill

2.How many artists have been mentioned in the passage?                     

    A. 4.                  B. 5.              C. 6.                 D. 7.

3. Which of the following is TURE about the view of Prof de Tommaso's?

   A. Beautiful surroundings could help to heal sufferings completely.

   B. Hospitals must take their artistic aspects into consideration first.

   C. Ugly surroundings will surely make the pain worse.

   D. Both music and beauty can reduce pain in hospital patients.

4.From the last paragraph, we know that_______.

   A. some artists' paintings were beautiful, so they were masterpieces

   B. only art experts could judge they were masterpieces or not, though ugly

   C. the artists mentioned above were not really art masters.          

   D. some of them were art masters, while others were not.

5.Which of the following is the suitable title for the passage?

   A. Beautiful surroundings can ease pain.              

   B. Ugly paintings could be masterpieces.

   C. More research should be done in he field.             

   D. Latest environmental research.

 

People who put a smiley face at the end of a message, in an attempt to show feeling, show no feeling. I wish there was a symbol for two fingers in the air.
I had some bad news this week. My manager informed me of this news via email. It was like hearing about the death of a loved one via pigeon. Bad news should only ever be delivered face to face or voice to voice.
We seem to celebrate our numerous methods of communication, but really there is no communication at all. I talk to my plants more than I talk to my neighbors, I get text messages that take me three hours to read because they’re written like this: “Hi, I ope you av a gr8 day. Call me La8tr.” I had an email from someone this week that read, “Da ut ov 2day are really annoying me!” Ut? I had to say this 20 times before I understood it. Youth has now become ut. Haven’t we taken enough from them—now we have to take their letters?
I had an email recently from a girl who used to live over the road from me as a child. She wrote, “Hi Shazia, howz u? Im sure u used 2 live across the road from me. We sumtimes played tennis 2 gever at the park and you was in your eliment. I am married now wif 3 daughters.” Then, to my horror, she ended the email with: “Im now teachin in Leeds. Luv Clare.”
Teaching? With English like this. It’s like saying you’re a train driver when you’ve never seen a train. It was like reading modern Morse code.
Getting bad news via email makes it seem so much worse than it actually is. Just a few lines, no emotion, no comfort, not really an explanation. Just a few cold hard words. It’s an excuse. Just write a few words and the problem of delivering it is no longer yours. A close friend recently told me she was very happy to announce she was getting married—and made the announcement by email. I don’t know how she didn’t fall off her chair with excitement while writing it. If you are really happy or really sad to announce something important, wouldn’t you like a human reaction? Some euphoria, elation, tears, a punch in the face?
I receive long text messages every day with information and explanations that I don’t bother reading. They’re boring, and annoy me. In the time it took someone to write me three laborious texts, they could have called, spoken to me, made some tea. People who put a smiley face at the end of a sentence, in an attempt to show feeling, show no feeling. I wish there was a symbol for two fingers in the air, because that’s the one I’d send back.
The telegram has been responsible for reporting world-shattering events when there were very few other options(选择权). Now we have options, and people opt for the least humane one. My mum, in an attempt to get down with the ut of today, asked me to teach her to text. Now she constantly texts me in block capitals, so it looks as if she is still angry and annoyed with me after all these years.
People don’t even write by hand any more. My doctor prints out prescriptions from his computer; even my mechanic prints out a receipt. I get typed Christmas cards and my friends send me emails. I get very excited when hand-written letters come through my door, only because they rarely do.
When I was at school, the girls used to write letters to each other, even though we sat side by side and spoke to one another all day. I think it was a way of expressing private things we were afraid to say when we were 14 and too shy. We used to write things like, “You are my best friend, can’t wait to sit next to you in math.”
I miss the personal method of communication. Once the pen was mightier than the sword, now it seems the keyboard is mightier than the pen.

  1. 1.

    We can learn from paragraph 3 and paragraph 4 that the writer wants to say ________.

    1. A.
      the spelling mistakes in the messages make her very annoyed
    2. B.
      only writing letters will bring friends and neighbors much closer
    3. C.
      she talks to plants more because no one shares her joys and sorrows
    4. D.
      gestures and the pen can express a lot more than the cold keyboard
  2. 2.

    According to the writer, which of the following can support her opinion?

    1. A.
      She has been separated from all his classmates many years.
    2. B.
      No doctors write prescriptions by hand because of computers.
    3. C.
      In communication, we should write more letters than send messages.
    4. D.
      Less shy than school girls, boys rarely write letters to their friends.
  3. 3.

    According to the passage, we can conclude that ________.

    1. A.
      the writer is a person full of emotions and treasures friendship and affections
    2. B.
      the writer becomes excited when she gets priceless gifts from other people
    3. C.
      her classmates would write to each other because they couldn’t send messages
    4. D.
      people put a smiley face at the end of a message just to show they are happy
  4. 4.

    What message is conveyed in the passage?

    1. A.
      The writer wastes much time in reading many rubbish text messages every day.
    2. B.
      Few people can write letters well in modern society owing to texting messages.
    3. C.
      Now people are too busy to communicate with each other face to face often.
    4. D.
      The writer prefers personal communication rather than electronic equipment.
  5. 5.

    Why does the writer mention the telegram?

    1. A.
      Because she thinks the annoyance of reading text messages is originated from it.
    2. B.
      Because we have more options to keep in touch with each other than ever before.
    3. C.
      Because advanced technology partly takes the blame for lacking the human touch.
    4. D.
      Because she thinks humans today become colder with the development of society.
  6. 6.

    Which of the following best describe the tone of this passage?

    1. A.
      Optimistic.
    2. B.
      Critic.
    3. C.
      Sympathetic.
    4. D.
      Pessimistic.

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