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.
【小题1】We can learn from paragraph 3 and paragraph 4 that the writer wants to say ________.

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.

Directions： Read the following passage. Complete the diagram by using the information for the passage.

Write NO MORE THAN 3 WORDS for each answer.

The contemporary environmental movement is often said to have begun with the publication of Silent Spring by the zoologist and biologist Rachel Carson (1907–1964). This landmark work, which took Carson 4 years to complete, diligently detailed the relationship between animal death  and the use— now understood as the abuse—of man-made chemicals used as pesticides, especially DDT. One of the claims of the book that she tried to demonstrate was that DDT had the effect of softening the eggshells of birds as well as interfering with their reproduction, and that such effects would lead to their extinction if use of DDT were to continue. It would eventually create a springtime of silence when the songs of birds would not be heard. Her studies also found DDT to be a cause of human cancers.

Born in Springdale, Pennsylvania, Carson graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women in Pittsburgh (now Chatham College), where she majored in English until her junior year, when a course in biology inspired her to switch to zoology as her field of concentration. She earned a master’s degree in this area from Johns Hopkins University and became a biologist at the Bureau of Fisheries in 1936. During this time, she wrote for various national magazines, and her first book, Under the Sea-Wind, was published. Carson had concerns as early as 1945 about pesticides being used more and more by the government. But her cautionary claims in Silent Spring were met with anger by the pesticide and chemical industries. Her authority as a scientist were challenged, and it was held that her findings were just the roars of a hysterical(歇斯底里的) woman. She was even accused of being a member of the Communist Party. Some go so far as to say that she told a lie .

But She is often celebrated as the founder of the contemporary U.S. environmental movement. Yet her work in Silent Spring, warning about the misuse of pesticides and other chemicals, has not as yet taken firm hold. Americans likely use twice as much the volume of pesticides that they did at the time she published her seminal work, and globally, their use is ever increasing. Powerful pesticides are sold over the counter, and their use is so widespread that many environmentalists are fearful that chemical runoff into streams and rivers is still popullting the animals that humans eat and the water that they drink.

In short, while the main purpose of Silent Spring was to warn the public of the dangers of the overuse of pesticides and chemicals, nonetheless the public hasn’t refused such use. Isn't it time that we firmly said no to pesticides?

s I crammed myself onto a crowded train this morning, I noticed there was a very pregnant(怀孕的) woman standing near me, jammed in tightly and hanging on for dear life．I looked at the passengers sitting in the seats that are supposed to be surrendered to the elderly, physically challenged, and other people who need to sit, Not one of them even looked up; everyone was too absorbed in what they were listening to, reading, or watching to even notice the pregnant passenger．

Over the past few years, there have been countless discussions on minding our manners within our new modes of communication．But while we’ve been debating the dos and don’ts of technology etiquette（礼节）, it appears that many of us have forgotten some of the old school manners that have nothing to do with a keyboard or a monitor, but have everything to do with the long-forgotten Golden Rule．Maybe technology has eroded our brains so much that we can never go back to those golden days．

“Giving up your seat to someone is so easy．Even when people don’t accept your offer, I think it’s nice to get up and stay standing so they know you’re sincere． The more that we become the good example, the more it will catch on．” Lizzie Post, says great-great granddaughter of Emily Post ．

Sophisticated technology doesn’t mean that good manners have to be a thing of the past． In fact, Post says she defines good manners using three simple, everyday principles: consideration, respect, and honesty． “Apply those to any situation and toward all the people involved including yourself and the solution will make sense．”

66．No one gave up his seat to the pregnant women because______．

A．The woman doesn’t need a seat at all．

B．It’s not common to give up his seat to others who need it

C．No one noticed her on the such crowed train

D．Everyone is so tired that all want to have a rest．

67．Paragraph 2 suggests that________．

A．We are always having discussions on minding our manners

B．Many of us have forgotten some of the old school manners

C．It’s technology that has eroded our brains so much

D．Students always care about their own business instead of school manners

68．The underlined phrase “ catch on ” in the third paragraph refers to____．

A．being understood     B．being popular     C．being taken     D．being caught

69．What did Lizzie Post say shows that she was ______?

A．honest             B．polite            C．respectable             D．friendly

70． What’s the best title of the passage?

A．Where Are Our Manners     B．The Long-forgotten Golden Rule

C．Give up your Seat          D．Sophisticated Technology

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

The Platform Shoe

     James was a curious young man. Everywhere he went, he liked to observe things and to ___36___ people, what they did, and what they wore. ___37___ he was making sudden ___38___ all the time. He couldn’t really help it, and it just happened.

     For example, he saw a man whose __39__was covered in tattoos（纹身）.That man was __40___ and walked with pride. James imagined him __41___ people up, sometimes with poles and sometimes with his hands, speaking __42__ words each time he opened his mouth. Many gang members with tattooed body perhaps, James thought to himself.

     Sometimes James felt guilty for __43___ others this way, but that feeling was __44__ and never really lasted.

     Then, one time, he saw a woman ___45__ alone in a bar. The woman was middle-aged, quite fat, and although she was not ___46___， James could tell she was a short lady. As usual, James glanced across at her. As his eyes reached her ___47___, he got a shock.

     There she was, on her left foot, wearing a ___48___ shoe that was at least 3 inches high. How could such a little middle-aged lady who was ___49__ be so vain as to wear such high platforms? Look ___50___? In that short moment of time, __51__ thoughts flowed through James’ mind.

     A second later, James’ eyes __52___ moved across to the lady’s right foot. And there, he got an even bigger __53___-----it was a flat shoe. She was not vain; she was just a disabled woman. If anything, she deserved __54___, certainly not blame, not even mental blame.

     James was struck with great __55___.It was a cruel lesson he had to learn about not jumping to conclusions, about not judging people, especially so quickly.