The private automobile has long played an important role in the US. In fact, it has become 1.___necessary and important part of the American life. In 1986, sixty-nine percent of American families owned 2.__least one car, and thirty-eight percent had 3.___than one. With the convenience of rapid transportation, workers don’t have to live near their workplace. This has encouraged the growth of the cities, 4.___it has also led to traffic problems.

For farm families the automobile is very helpful. It has made 5.___ possible for them to travel to town very often for business and for pleasure.

Family life has been affected in 6.___ways. The car helps to keep families together. However, when teenage children use the car, their parents can’t keep an eye on them. There is a great danger 7.____the driver has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs or breaking 8._____ traffic laws.

Cars mean very much to Americans.

Who’s in control of your life? Who is pulling your string? For the majority of us, it’s other people—society, colleagues, friends, family or our religious community. We learned this way of operating when we were very young, of course. We were brainwashed. We discovered that feeling important and feeling accepted was a nice experience and so we learned to do everything we could to make other people like us. As Oscar Wilde puts it, “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry(模仿), their passions a quotation.”

So when people tell us how wonderful we are, it makes us feel good. We long for this good feeling like a drug. Therefore, we are so eager for the approval of others that we live unhappy and limited lives, failing to do the things we really want to. Just as drug addicts and alcoholics live worsened lives to keep getting their fix (一剂毒品). We worsen our own existence to get our own constant fix of approval.

But, just as with any drug, there is a price to pay. The price of the approval drug is freedom—the freedom to be ourselves. The truth is that we cannot control what other people think. People have their own agenda, and they come with their own baggage and, in the end, they're more interested in themselves than in you. Furthermore, if we try to live by the opinions of others, we will build our life on sinking sand. Everyone has a different way of thinking, and people change their opinions all the time. The person who tries to please everyone will only end up getting exhausted and probably pleasing no one in the process.

So how can we take back control? I think there’s only one way—make a conscious decision to stop caring what other people think. We should guide ourselves by means of a set of values---not values imposed（强加）from the outside by others, but innate values which come from within. If we are driven by these values and not by the changing opinions and value systems of others, we will live a more authentic, effective, purposeful and happy life.

What Oscar Wilde says implies that _____________.

A. we have thoughts similar to those of others

B. most people have a variety of thoughts

C. most people’s thoughts are controlled by others

D. other people’s thoughts are more important

What does the author try to argue in the third paragraph ?

A. We may lose ourselves to please others.

B. Changing opinions may cost us our freedom.

C. We need to pay for what we want to get.

D. The price of taking drugs is freedom.

In order to live a happy, effective and purposeful life, we should _________.

A. care about others’ opinions and change opinions all the time

B. guide ourselves by means of values from the outside

C. persuade others to accept our opinions

D. stick to our own values

It can be concluded from the passage that __________.

A. we shouldn’t care what others think     B. it’s better to do what we like

C. we shouldn't change our own opinions   D. it’s important to accept others’ opinions

 Do you remember the game “Telephone”? A message gets passed from person to person, and everyone laughs at how distorted(曲解) it becomes. As a game, telephone can be fun. In real life, sending messages through third parties fouls things up. It is important for family members who have “business” with other family members to take it up directly.

When tension arises in a relationship between two people, a frequent way of dealing with this is to send messages through a third person. Family doctors refer to the process as ‘triangulation”. Following a quarrel, a mother may say to her son, “Tell your father to pass the salt”, which may be answered by, “Tell your mother to get her own salt.” In many long cases of triangulation, the middleman becomes severely disturbed.

Two years ago, Ruth and Ralph Gordon brought their 17-year-old daughter for treatment. Lucille was not doing well in school, using drugs heavily. When I began to work with her, she was uncommunicative and aggressive. After some time, however, she opened up and told me her parents rarely talked to each other, but both used her as a middleman. Mrs. Gordon was sexually unsatisfied and suggested to Lucille that she ask her father to go for marriage advice. Mr. Gordon told Lucille that he was seeing another woman, and he urged Lucille to speak to her mother about improving her behaviour. Caught in this confusing situation, Lucille became more and more troubled. It wasn’t until she refused to play middleman that she began to improve. When either parent began to send a message through her, she learned to say, “Tell him/her yourself!”

You’ll find that when family members learn to dial each other directly, there’s rarely a busy signal or wrong number. With direct dialing, a sense of freshness is created.

1.The underlined words “foul things up” in the 1st paragraph means ________.

2.“Triangulation” in the 2nd paragraph refers to _________.

3. Through the example of Lucille and her parents, the writer hopes to tell the readers that _______.

The private automobile（私家车）has long played an important role in the United States. In fact, it has become a necessary and important part of the American way of life. In 1986, sixty-nine percent of American families owned at least one car, and thirty-eight percent had more than one. By giving workers rapid transportation, the automobile has freed them from having to live near their place of work. This has encouraged the growth of the cities, but it has also led to traffic problems.

    For farm families the automobile is very helpful. It has made it possible for them to travel to town very often for business and for pleasure, and also to transport their children to distant schools.

Family life has been affected（影响）in various ways, The car helps to keep families together when it is used for picnics, outings, and other shared experiences. However, when teenage children have the use of the car, their parents can't keep an eye on them. There is a great danger if the driver has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs, or showing off by speeding or breaking down traffic laws. Mothers of victims（受害者）of such accidents have formed an organization called MADD（Mothers Against Drunk Driving. These women want to prevent further tragedies（悲剧）. They have worked to encourage the government to limit the youngest drinking age, Students have formed a similar organization, SADD（Students Against Drunk Driving）and are spreading the same message among their friends.

For many Americans the automobile is a necessity. But for some, it is also a mark of social position and for young people, a sign of becoming an adult. Altogether, cars mean very much to Americans.

1..

. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text?

    A. Cars have encouraged the growth of the cities.

B. Cars can bring families together when they go for picnics.

C. Cars have enabled people to live far from their place of work.

D. Cars help city families to transport their children to faraway schools.

2... What has been done to deal with the problem of drunk driving?

A. Patents have paid more attention to their children.

B. Some organizations have been set up against drunk driving.

 C. Mothers have tried to persuade their children not to drink alcohol.

D. University students have asked the government to solve the problem.

3.. We can infer from the text that ____________ in America.

A. it will be more difficult for people to get new cars

B. parents will not allow their children to have their own cars

C. the government will encourage people to use public transportation

D. cars will still be popular though they have caused many problems 

“I sometimes get up at three or four in the morning and I surf the net.”

　 “I often check my e?mail forty times a day.”

　 “I often spend more than three hours during one time on the net.”

　 “I spend more time in chat rooms than with my real?life friends.”

　 Do you know any people like these? They are part of a new addiction called Internet addiction.Internet addicts spend at least thirty to forty hours online every week.The use of the Internet can be an addiction like drug use.People lose control of the time they spend on the Internet.

　 For example，one college student was missing for several days.His friends were worried，and they called the police.The police found the student in the computer lab: he was surfing the net for several days straight.

　 Studies show that about 6% to 10% of Internet users become addicted.And people worry about the teens because the Internet is changing the playing field for some of them.They spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.

　 Is “surfing the net” a hobby or an addiction for you? You may have a problem if you have these symptoms：

　 ?You do not go to important family activities or you do not do school work because you like to spend hours on the Internet.

　 ?You can’t wait for your next online time.

　 ?You plan to spend a short time online，but then you spend several hours.

　 ?You go out with your friends less and less.

1.What does the beginning of the passage tell us?

　 A.How to become an Internet addict.

　 B.What an Internet addict usually does.

　 C.Where to find an Internet addict.

　 D.Why to write this passage.

2.How does the writer describe the addicts’ use of Internet?

　 A.It is something like keeping drugs.

　 B.It is a way of producing drugs.

　 C.It is like taking drugs.

　 D.It is terrible to imagine.

3.Why do people worry about the teens?

　 A.Because the teens are wasting too much money.

　 B.Because they used to work on the Internet.

　 C.Because the playing field of the teens will disappear.

　 D.Because more and more of the teens will become addicted to the Internet.

4.The example in the passage shows that 　　　　.

　 A.Internet problems are more serious among college students

　 B.Internet addicts usually stay in the computer lab without sleep

　 C.some of the Internet users have already been seriously addicted

　 D.the police often help to find those Internet addicts

5.What is the writer trying to tell us at the end of the passage?

　 A.Don’t be addicted to the Internet.

　 B.Go to family activities more often.

　 C.Do things as you have planned.

　 D.Stay with your parents as often as possible.