The people below are looking for someplace to enjoy some entertainments in Beijing. After the description of these people, there is information about places A — F. Decide which place would be the most suitable for the person mentioned in1---5and write down the correct letter ( A — F ) on your answer sheet. One place is not suitable for all.

_____Stephen studies art in Beijing University. He shows great interest in paintings and he is especially interested in those oil paintings that reflect the variety of life.

____ Mark has just come to China and he is very interested in Chinese culture. He has been waiting for a long time to have a chance to see a wonderful Chinese acrobatic (杂技的) performance in China.

____ Oscar is a student from Yangzhou University, visiting his friends who share the same interest in music. They are planning to find someplace to enjoy rock and roll and pop songs.

___ Charles works in Philips Company, Shanghai Branch. He is going to Beijing on business in middle September. He will be free in the evening, so he wants to go to someplace to enjoy some music performed by foreign bands.

____ Carol studies Chinese in Beijing. She is free recently during the day time, so she would like to find someplace where she can attend some kind of activity so that she can learn some details about Chinese modern literature.

A. Capital Theatre: To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the China Acrobatic Troupe will present “The Soul of China”, where the seemingly impossible is made real. Chills (寒战) will run down your spine (脊柱) as you watch breathlessly as performers take their art and their bodies to the edge.  Time: 7:30 p.m., September 13 — 19.

B. Huangshicheng Gallery: A group ink pain ting exhibition is running. About 50 works by 25 young artists including Ge Yun and Yu Yang are on display. 

Time:9 a.m.— 5 p.m. until September 10.

C. The Wangfung Art Gallery: A joint show of oil paintings by 10 young and middle-aged artists will be hosted by the gallery. On display are more than 30 of their latest works, which capture the wonderous variety of life in unique styles. 

Time: 9 :30 a.m. — 4:30 p.m., daily.

D. Anyuan Museum: The National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature offers an indepth study of the development of Chinese contemporary literature from 1919 to 1949. 

Time: 9 a.m. — 4 p.m., daily.

E. The Olympic Center: "The Fashionow Night of Chinese Rock" is set to bring back fans out by the thousands next month. Nine Chinese rock bands will perform at the concert, including older generation bands, middle generation bands, middle generation and some recent arrivals.

Time: September 16.

F. Grand Theater of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities: La Petite Band, the Baroque Orchestra of Belgium, will perform as part of activities across the world to commemorate (纪念) the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death. 

Time: 7:30 p.m. September 11 — 14.

Count Me Out

Call me old-fashioned. Call me old. Call me what you want, but I refuse to become part of this new Internet world.

I do not possess a computer at home or at the office. Actually, I stopped going to an office 35 years ago, when all communications were done with a pen, a typewriter, or, if the matter was of world-shaking importance, over the telephone. Likewise, if you like something advertised in a newspaper or magazine, you visited the shop selling it at the given address, or you phoned the number shown. Then you spoke to the fellow and asked for further details.

Tell me what you think of the following ad that appeared the other day in the newspaper. It was for a cure for cancer and this is what it said: “Awareness is the key. Visit spfulford. com at the awareness site.” There was no address or telephone number for the site. So what do unfortunate people without a computer do if they are seeking a cure for their illness?

There are, I am told, certain advantages in having access to the Internet. You can, for example, send love messages across the world or even get married to someone that you meet online. This bit doesn’t interest me; I have been happily married for 60 years. There are, of course, other activities for Internet users besides finding love. They can pay bills, order groceries, or discuss with their doctors.

And this is by no means all. More amazing things are yet to come in the near future. I read a newspaper report recently that quoted Stephen Hawking, an important British scientist. “The complexity of a computer as it exists today is probably less than the brain of an earthworm,” he said. “But, as technology advances, computers will become more complex, and a time may come when the Internet may develop ‘consciousness.’ In other words, the Internet will be able to think, have feelings, and may well be able to act on its own.”

If Professor Hawking is right, I may change my attitude to computers. As I grow older each day, I would like one of those that not only thinks for me but also accepts responsibilities for all my mistakes.

1.

What’s the meaning of the title “Count Me Out”?

2.

According to Paragraph 2, the author thinks computers are         .

3.

What might the author like about the future computer?

It is not unusual for people to speak two or three languages; they’re known as bilinguals or trilinguals. Speakers of more than three languages are known as polyglots. And when we refer to people who speak many languages, perhaps a dozen or more, we use the term hyper-polyglot.

The most famous hyper-polyglot was Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th century Italian cardinal, who was said to speak 72 languages. This claim sounds absurd. If you assume each language had 20,000 words, Mezzofanti would have to learn a word a minute, six hours a day, for eleven years—an impossible task. But Mezzofanti was tested by critics, and they were all impressed.

Did Mezzofanti have an extraordinary brain? Or are hyper-polyglots just ordinary people with ordinary brains who manage to do something extraordinary through hard work?

U.S. linguist Stephen Drashen believes that outstanding language learners just work harder at it and then they acquire unusually strong language ability. As an example, he mentions a Hungarian woman who worked as an interpreter during the 20th century. When she was 86, she could speak 16 languages and was still working on learning new languages. She said she learned them mostly on her own, reading fiction or working through dictionaries or textbooks.

Some researchers argue to the contrary. They believe that there is such a thing as a talent for learning languages. In the 1930s, a German scientist examined parts of the preserved brain of a hyper-polyglot named Emil Krebs, who could speak 60 languages fluently. The scientist found that the area of Krebs’s brain called Broca’s area, which is associated with language, looked different from the Broca’s area in the brains of men who speak only one language. However, we still don’t know if Krebs was born with a brain ready to learn dozens of languages or if his brain adapted to the demands he put on it.

Although it is still not clear whether the ability to learn many languages is in born, there’s no doubt that just about all of us can acquire skills in a second, third, or even fourth language by putting our mind to it.

1.What does the underlined sentence imply?

A. Mezzofanti could remember 360 words a day.

B. Mezzofanti had a special way to learn languages.

C. Mezzofanti’s achievement was ridiculous.

D. Mezzofanti language ability was astonishing.

2.The Hungarian woman became a hyper-polyglot mainly because of her __.

A. good memory       B. unique brain      C. hard work      D. learning methods

3.The German scientist’s findings showed that Krebs ___.

A. had an unusual brain

B. was born with great talent

C. had worked hard at languages

D. expected too much of himself

4.The author seems to agree that ___.

A. it is not hard to learn foreign languages

B. hard work plays a part in language learning

C. there is no such thing as a talent for languages

D. hyper-polyglots have an inborn talent for language

—It’s clear that Stephen Hawking is the greatest scientist in our time.What’s your idea??

—___________ He is really excellent and brave.?

A.It’s hard to say.          B.I doubt so.　

C.That’s correct.            D.Sounds good!