“Get your hands off me, I have been stolen,” the laptop, a portable computer, shouted. That is a new solution to laptop computer theft: a program that lets owners give their property a voice when it has been taken.

 The program allows users to display alerts on the missing computer’s screen and even to set a spoken message. Tracking software for stolen laptops has been on the market for some time, but this is thought to be the first that allows owners to give the thief a piece of their mind.

 Owners must report their laptop missing by visiting a website, which sends a message to the model: a red and yellow “lost or stolen” sign appears on its screen when it is started. Under the latest version(版本)of the software, users can also send a spoken message.

 The message can be set to reappear every 30 seconds, no matter how many times the thief closes it.” One customer sent a message saying,’ You are being tracked. I am right at your door’,” said Carrie Hafeman, chief executive of the company which produces the program, Retriever.

 In the latest version, people can add a spoken message. For example, the laptop’s speakers will say: “Help, this laptop is reported lost or stolen. If you are not my owner, report me now.”

The Retriever software package, which costs $29.95 but has a free trial period, has the functions of many security software programs .Owners can remotely switch to an alternative password if they fear that the thief has also got hold of the access details.

If a thief accesses the internet with the stolen laptop, Retriever will collect information on the internet service provider in use, so that the police can be alerted to its location.

Thousands of laptops are stolen every year form homes and offices, but with the use of laptops increasing, the number stolen while their owners are out and about has been rising sharply.

Other security software allows users to erase data remotely or lock down the computer.

The expression “to give the thief a piece of their mind “can be understood as “_______”

A. to give the thief an alert mind        

B. to express the owners’ anger to the thief

C. to remind the thief of this conscience   

D. to make the thief give up his mind

Different from other security software, Retriever can_______.

A. record the stealing process          B. help recognize the lost laptop

C. lock down the computer remotely     D. send a spoken message

One function of the program is that it allows the owner to _______ at a distance.

A. change some access details for switching on the laptop

B. turn on the laptop by using the original password

C. operate the laptop by means of and alternative password

D. erase the information kept in the stolen laptop

Which of the following can best summarize the main idea of the passage?

A. With no Retriever, thousands of laptops are stolen every year.

B. A new soft ware provides a means to reduce laptop theft.

C. Retriever has helped to find thieves and lost computers.

D. A new program offers a communication platform with the thief.

I can still remember the first day when I met my best friend. I hid behind my mother and she hid behind her grandmother,   1  to look at each other. But we soon lost the  2   and started playing with each other. In the 7th grade, I first lost touch with her. She was   3   family problems and I deserted her to be with the “cooler people”.   4  of my new friends like her as much as I did  5  they knew she had “problems”. However, every summer we would   6   sit at each other’s house and watch soap operas and talk about everything we liked.

It was last year when I   7    the problem. I guessed I was just too busy to catch up in high school to realize she   8   someone there for her. Well, she made a new “best friend” and so did I. Then I didn’t know why, but she started cutting herself!

She was diagnosed with clinical depression(抑郁症). I was very  9   at first, but with the late night calls, we still stayed in   10  . I wanted to be there for her since her new best friend   11   deserted her, since people were calling her   12  , and I knew I still   13 her like a sister.

Yesterday she came   14  me and said this, “I never knew what a best friend was   15  you were the only person that would stop me from cutting; the only person that ever made me feel better about myself and my  16  . You don’t know this but I was trying to kill myself one night when you   17  me and I was crying. I   18   you so much, and you didn’t even know you were   19  me.”

We both cried. And I guess a kind of lesson from my life so far is to never   20   your friends.

1.A.pleased       B.excited     C.afraid       D.disappointed

2.A.happiness   B.kindness   C.shyness     D.sadness

3.A.working out       B.answering for C.helping with  D .going through

4.A.All            B.None   C.No   D.Every

5.A.because      B.though      C.while D.yet

6.A.sometimes  B.seldom     C.just   D.always

7.A.solved B.noticed     C.faced D.understood

8.A.asked         B.needed      C.had   D.left

9.A.mad           B.cardless    C.hopeful     D.upset

10.A.touch              B.bed   C.hospital    D.love

11.A.luckily     B.successfully      C.basically   D.calmly

12.A.selfish      B.crazy C.brave      D.lonely

13.A.believed in       B.waited for   C.cared about     D.replied to

14.A.with         B.after     C.upon   D.to

15.A.until         B.when    C.since   D.if

16.A.mistakes   B.parents        C.friends         D.problems

17.A.visited      B.encouraged    C.called      D.prevented

18.A.tell           B.owe       C.give  D.show

19.A.helping     B.reminding     C.cheating   D.praising

20.A.give up on       B.look back at   C.drop in at   D.look down on

Think of some of your favorite singers. When you listen, they can make you happy or sad, peaceful or angry. They can make you relax or want to get up and dance. Gifted singers have the power to affect us in many ways — emotionally, physically and mentally.

But becoming a great singer isn’t as easy as listening to one. It takes practice, devotion and strong lungs! Just ask the well-known American opera(歌剧)star Carol Vaness.

At the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where she often sings, Carol’s voice must be loud enough to be heard by four thousand people. It must reach every person in the theater, without a microphone, even when she’s singing softly. The reason Carol can project her voice that far is the way she breathes.

“When you breathe, it’s like a swimmer taking a deep breath before going underwater, ” Carol explains. “You have to take a lot of air into your lungs.”

According to Carol, the main difference between pop singing and opera is “how you breathe, how much air you take in, and how you control it coming out. Regular singing is more like speaking, and it’s a lot softer. When I sing for children, they’re often surprised by how the vibrations strike their ears — like waves on a beach, ” Carol says. “In opera, the air doesn’t just go out of your mouth — it vibrates in your chest, the way a guitar vibrates when it’s played.”

Ever since she started piano lessons at the age of ten, Carol has loved music. As she got older, she decided to become a music teacher. When she went to college, she took singing lessons as part of her studies. Her voice teacher discovered that nineteen-year-old Carol had an exceptionally beautiful soprano voice – the highest singing voice for women.  

Carol decided to make opera her goal, not only because she loved to sing but also because she loved the drama. Opera is a play in which the characters sing the words instead of speaking them. The stories of opera can be tragic or comical. They can be personal stories about two people falling in love or grand stories about kings and queens who lived long ago. As the characters in an opera sing, the emotions(情感) expressed by words and music come to life.

Today, Carol performs throughout the United States and Europe and she has song for almost twenty years. But she has never forgotten where she started singing in the first palace.

“Put your heart into your singing and enjoy it,” says Carol, “because singing is a great joy. That’s why I sing. In fact, that’s why everybody sings.”

According to the passage, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City _____.

A. is a five-story building                B. can seat 4,000 people

C. has no microphone in it                D. can project the singer’s voice

What is the best title for this passage?

A. Opera Singing and Pop Singing          B. The Way an Opera Star Sings

C. An Opera Star                        D. Singing without a Microphone

Which statement is true?

A. A pop singer breathes more deeply than an opera singer when he or she sings.

B. Opera singing is more like speaking.

C. A pop singer takes in much more air than an opera singer when singing.

D. An opera singer breathes differently from a pop singer when singing.

From the passage you can conclude all the following EXCEPT that _____.

A. Carol once learned to play the piano              

B. Carol worked as a music teacher

C. Carol has been singing opera for 20 years or so     

D. Carol is popular with Americans and Europeans

The sentence “Put your heart into your singing” in the last paragraph means  “_____”.

A. devoting yourself to singing         B. taking trouble to sing

C. singing happily                   D. trying your best to sing  

Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant (不相关的). A half century ago in the United States, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear.  

The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer; in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible,” is often debated. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of  time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other?  

These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years ― but unless we meet the truant officer (学监), we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working,” but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes (构成) “overtime” is a matter of legal definition. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight-saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how we organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law ― as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess.  

 

67. By saying “Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be”, the writer means that      .  

A. work time is equal to rest time  

B. many people have a day off on Monday  

C. it is hard for people to decide when to rest  

D. the line between work time and rest time is unclear  

 

68. The author raises the questions in Paragraph 2 to introduce the fact that people  

A. fail to make full use of their time                 B. enjoy working overtime for extra pay  

C. are unaware of the law of time                   D. welcome flexible working hours  

 

69. According to the passage, most children tend to believe that they go to school because they ______.  

A. need to acquire knowledge                          B. have to obey their parents  

C. need to find companions                             D. have to observe .the law  

 

70. What is the main idea of the passage?  

A. Our life is governed by the law of time.  

B. How to organize time is not worth debating.  

C. New ways of using time change our society.  

D. Our time schedule is decided by social customs.  

Anger at the practice of demanding dowries (嫁妆), which can lead to violence against brides, has prompted a takeoff of “Angry Birds” called “Angry Brides” that aims to highlight the illegal practice still prevalent in many South Asian countries.

Dowries-such as jewelry, clothes, cars and money-are traditionally given by the bride’s family to the groom and his parents to ensure she is taken care of in her new home.

The custom was outlawed more than five decades ago. But it is still widely practiced, with the groom’s family demanding even more money after marriage, leading to mental and physical annoyance that can drive the woman to suicide.

“The Angry Brides game is our way of throwing a spotlight on the nuisance(陋习)of dowry.” said Ram Bhamidi, senior vice president and head of online marketing for Shaadi.com, a matrimonial(婚姻的)website with two million members.

“According to a 2007 study, there is a dowry-related death every four hours in India, We condemn this and have consistently run campaigns on social media to help create awareness of the issue”.

The name of the app, available on the group’s home page, is a spinoff from the globally popular “Angry Birds” game, Its home page shows a red-clad, eight-armed woman resembling a powerful female Hindu goddess. Underneath, there is a caption: “A woman will give you strength, care and all the love you need … NOT dowry!”

To play the game, users have to try and hit three dodging grooms--a pilot, a builder and a doctor. There are a variety of weapons to choose from, including a frying pan, broomstick, tomato and loafer.

Each groom has a price tag, starting at 1.5 million rupees($29,165). Every time the player hits a groom, his value decreases and money is added to the player’s Anti-Dowry Fund,which is saved posted on their Facebook page.

“Since we launched the game last week, more than 270,000 people have liked the app. Both men and women seem to be playing it”, said Bhamidi.

56.What caused “Angry Brides” to appear online?

   A.Women’s rightsbeing seriously abused.B.Anger at the practice of demanding dowries.

   C.The bride’s giving a great many dowries. D.The popularity of Angry Birds online.

57.Which of the following is TRUE about “Dowries”?

 A.The custom of giving dowries has been in practice for five decades.

B.Lack of abundant dowries may lead to the bride’s being in violence.

C.The illegal practice of dowries is still popular in many African countries.

D.More dowries the bride gives mean a high social status of her family.

58.The underlined word “spinoff” probably means____.

A.relation         B.connection        C.copy         D.fake

59.Which of the following is NOT TRUE about the game “Angry Bride”?

A.There are a variety of weapons to choose from.B.Ram Bhamidi thinks highly of the game.

 C.Men players don’t find the game enjoyable.D.The game character looks like a Hindu goddess.

60.What is the text mainly about?

A.Women’s unfair treatment in the marriage.B.The popularity of the game “Angry Brides”

C.The groom’s demanding too many dowries.D.How to build an equal relation it the marriage.

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