“My work is done.” Those words were some of the last penned by George Eastman. He included them in his suicide note. They mark an ignoble end to a noble life, the leave taking of a truly great man. The same words could now be said for the company he left behind. Actually, the Eastman Kodak Company is through. It has been mismanaged financially, technologically and competitively. For 20 years, its leaders have foolishly spent down the patrimony of a century’s prosperity. One of America’s bedrock brands is about to disappear, the Kodak moment has passed.

But George Eastman is not how he died, and the Eastman Kodak Company is not how it is being killed. Though the ends be needless and premature, they must not be allowed to overshadow the greatness that came before. Few companies have done so much good for so many people, or defined and lifted so profoundly the spirit of a nation and perhaps the world. It is impossible to understand the 20th Century without recognizing the role of the Eastman Kodak Company.

Kodak served mankind through entertainment, science, national defense and the stockpiling of family memories. Kodak took us to the top of Mount Suribachi and to the Sea of Tranquility. It introduced us to the merry old Land of Oz and to stars from Charlie Chaplin to John Wayne, and Elizabeth Taylor to Tom Hanks. It showed us the shot that killed President Kennedy, and his brother bleeding out on a kitchen floor, and a fallen Martin Luther King Jr. on the hard balcony of a Memphis motel. When that sailor kissed the nurse, and when the spy planes saw missiles in Cuba, Kodak was the eyes of a nation. From the deck of the Missouri to the grandeur of Monument Valley, Kodak took us there. Virtually every significant image of the 20th Century is a gift to posterity(繁荣) from the Eastman Kodak Company.

In an era of easy digital photography, when we can take a picture of anything at any time, we cannot imagine what life was like before George Eastman brought photography to people. Yes, there were photographers, and for ly large sums of money they would take stilted(不自然的) pictures in studios and formal settings. But most people couldn’t afford photographs, and so all they had to remember distant loved ones, or earlier times of their lives, was memory. Children could not know what their parents had looked like as young people, grandparents far away might never learn what their grandchildren looked like. Eastman Kodak allowed memory to move from the uncertainty of recollection, to the permanence of a photograph. But it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the sacred and precious times that families cherish. The Kodak moment, was humanity’s moment.

And it wasn’t just people whose features were savable; it was events, the precious times that families cherish. Kodak let the fleeting moments of birthdays and weddings, picnics and parties, be preserved and saved. It allowed for the creation of the most egalitarian art form. Lovers could take one another’s pictures, children were photographed walking out the door on the first day of school, the person releasing the shutter decided what was worth recording, and hundreds of millions of such decisions were made. And for centuries to come, those long dead will smile and dance and communicate to their unborn progeny(子孙). Family history will be not only names on paper, but smiles on faces.

The cash flow not just provided thousands of people with job, but also allowed the company’s founder to engage in some of the most generous charity in America’s history. Not just in Kodak’s home city of Rochester, New York, but in Tuskegee and London, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He bankrolled(资助) two historically black colleges, fixed the teeth of Europe’s poor, and quietly did good wherever he could. While doing good, Kodak did very well. Over all the years, all the Kodakers over all the years are essential parts of that monumental legacy. They prospered a great company, but they – with that company – blessed the world.That is what we should remember about the Eastman Kodak Company. Like its founder, we should remember how it lived, not how it died. History will forget the small men who have scuttled this company. But history will never forget Kodak.

1.According to the passage, which of the following is to blame for the fall of Kodak?

A. The invention of easy digital photography

B. The poor management of the company

C. The early death of George Eastman

D. The quick rise of its business competitors

2.It can be learnt from the passage that George Eastman .

A. died a natural death of old age.

B. happened to be on the spot when President Kennedy was shot dead.

C. set up his company in the capital of the US before setting up its branches all over the world.

D. was not only interested in commercial profits, but also in the improvement of other people’s lives.

3.Before George Eastman brought photography to people, .

A. no photos has ever been taken of people or events

B. photos were very expensive and mostly taken indoors

C. painting was the only way for people to keep a record of their ancestors.

D. grandparents never knew what their grandchildren looked like.

Recently I had a conversation in Beijing with an adult Chinese friend who was complaining how difficult it was to study English. No surprises there. It is a difficult language to master, just like Chinese. I made a few suggestions based on my experience. One involved a very valuable fact which I learned from my high school Latin and Greek teacher, Dr. Smith.He is a gifted linguist (语言学家),and has an amazing ability to remember things, like poetry, essays, speeches, etc.His advice to us students is that for memorization purposes, there is forty minutes each day in which our memory is more acceptable than it is during the other 23 hours and 20 minutes.

This 40-minute "super memory" period is divided into two parts: the 20 minutes before we sleep, and the 20 minutes after we first awake. The theory supporting this is pretty simple. First, the last information we input into our brain before bed has a better chance of taking root than information gained during the noisy daytime; and second, our mind is free of disturbance(干扰) when we first awake in the morning一so more receptive to inputs, like a blank slate(石板).

I took the advice to heart and it served me well in my school years. In my university days, our Chinese teacher would assign us 200 new vocabulary words each day, on which we would be quizzed(测试)the following day. Without the "magic" 40-minute technique, there's no way I would have passed those daily quizzes.

As far as language study goes, it's not only useful for memorizing vocabulary. It's also a very useful window of time to listen to the language we're studying even with background noise, and even if it's at a level we find difficult to understand. It might be audio(声音的)language study, aids, or just radio, TV or whatever.

Beyond our years of formal(正式的) education, memory skills are hugely important in any career. How many times have we heard a speaker read their speech from a prepared text, or read the word-by-word content of a PowerPoint presentation as they present each slide(投影片)? These are annoying, boring, and less effective ways of communicating. They are almost guaranteed(保证) to lose the audience's close attention and interest, let alone persuade or inspire anyone to do anything. And yet lots of people still make this mistake.

If we use the 40-minute technique, we may not succeed in memorizing our presentation content on a 100% word-by-word basis, but we'll be familiar enough so that we can spend much more time making eye contact with our audience. We will get them in the process, while looking at our text instead of staring at it. This will also free up our hands and arms to convey some extra messages through gesture.

As you see, the technique really works, but like many things, it takes practice to perfect it. Therefore, we'd better find ways to use the language outside of the classroom, as regularly and frequently as possible. One basic rule of language learning is, "Use it, or lose it·”

Seize the forty-minute learning window and we'll bring in a rich harvest of language learning.

1.Which of the following is TRUE according to Paragraph 1?

A. Dr. Smith is born with the great ability to memorize things.

B. It is surprising that English is as difficult to master as Chinese.

C. The author's high school Latin and Greek teacher has a positive influence on him.

D. The author made a few suggestions on learning English based on his teacher's experience.

2.The author's teacher suggested the 40-minute“super memory” period partly because_______.

A. it is less noisy in the forty minutes than in the daytime

B. we are always more peaceful when we awake in the morning

C. our brain is more active in the forty minutes than the other time

D. the last information gained before bed is more likely to remain

3.We can learn from the passage that the 40-minute technique

A. ensures that we understand the difficult language

B. helps a speaker in reading his speech from a prepared text

C. helps the author pass those daily quizzes in his university days

D. makes a speaker remember the presentation content completely

4.Which of the following is the best title for this passage?

A. The Best Way to Learn English

B. The Importance of Memory Skills

C. The “Magic” 40-Minute Technique

D. My Advice on Learning English

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填人空白处的最佳选项,选项中有两项为多余选项。

Everyone can benefit from making an effort to practice gratitude(感激)every day. The following three steps can help you start feeling more grateful, and appreciative of the good things in your life:

Notice the Good Things in Your Life

1. Pay attention to the small everyday details of your life-nature, people, community, shelter, creature comforts like a warm bed or a good meal. And then start a gratitude journal. Making a commitment to writing down good things each day makes it more likely that we will notice good things as they happen.

Enjoy the Feeling of Gratitude

There are moments when you naturally, right then and there, feel filled with gratitude. These are moments when you say to yourself, "Oh, wow, this is amazing! "or "How great is this!"Pause. 2. Let it sink in . Enjoy your blessings in the moment they happen.

Express Gratitude

Expressing gratitude is more than being polite. 3. Show your appreciation to someone who really did something nice. Say: "It was really kind of you to…,” "You did me a big favor when...," or "Thank you for being there when...". 4. Hold the door open for the person behind you, even if it means waiting a little longer than you normally would.

True gratitude doesn't leave you feeling like you owe other people something-after all, if you've done someone a favor, you probably don't want the person to feel like you expect something back in return. 5.

A. It's about showing your heartfelt appreciation.

B. Notice and absorb that feeling of true gratitude.

C. You can also express gratitude by doing a kindness.

D. It's all about feeling good and creating a cycle of good.

E. Start to notice and identify the things you are grateful for.

F. Help someone without letting the person find out it was you.

G. It's amazing what you notice when you focus on feeling grateful.

完形填空

阅读下面短文,从短文后各题所给的四个选项(A,B,C,D)中,选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

“Ring ! Ring! Ring!” The telephone rang for a long time in Bill Hewlett’s house.Bill was the director of a large ________ company called Hewlett-Packard.At that time,computers had already ________ but they were huge machines that cost a lot of money.

Bill answered the telephone ________ .He did not like being disturbed while he was reading his newspaper.A young-sounding ________ on the other line said,”My name is Steve Jobs.I in a________ of the Hewlett-Packard Explorers’Club.I went on a fieldtrip to one of your company’s laboratories and was ________ by the 9100A computer.I’ve never seen anything so splendid!”He ________ for a while and continued.”I in looking for some computer ________to build a frequency counter.Well.I thought you might be able to________ me.”

There was________ .Then,Bill asked the young boy for his ________.Steve revealed that he was twelve.There was another silence. ________ by the boy’s enthusiasm,Bill invited Steve to his office.

A few days later,Bill Hewlett gave Steve what he needed.Steve was also offered a ________ job in one of his laboratories.

Eight years later,Steve Jobs set up a ________ with his close friend,Steve Wozniak.Their first step was to find a ________ for the company.Steve Jobs loved apples and had worked off an apple ________ before.Although there was no ________ between apples and computers, ________ thought‘Apple’would be a catchy name.”I like the name.We’11 be in a great ________ in the telephone directory,”Steve Wozniak said confidently.That was how Apple was ________ in 1976.

1.A.computer B.machine C. fruit D. telephone

2.A.arrived B.gone C. 1eft D. existed

3.A.quickly B.sadly C. angrily D. happily

4.A.scientist B. voice C. girl D. man

5.A.member B.adviser C. teacher D. technician

6.A.met B.delighted C. hurt D. amazed

7.A.thought B.1ooked C. paused D. talked

8.A.parts B.experts C. games D. programs

9.A.show B.help C. teach D. 1ead

10.A.1aughter B.sound C. excitement D. silence

11.A.address B.number C. age D. money

12.A.Impressed B.Woken C. Troubled D. Puzzled

13.A.permanent B.night-time C.full-time D. vacation

14.A.factory B.company C. 1aboratory D. club

15.A.name B.manager C. place D.designer

16.A.farm B.tree C.factory D. store

17.A.business B.dialogue C. friendship D. connection

18.A.each B.both C. some D. all

19.A.position B.relation C. field D. moment

20.A.managed B.saved C. created D. bought

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