Some years ago when I was in my first year in college, I heard Salome Bey sing for the first time. The moment was exciting. Salome’s filled the room and brought the theater to life. I was so that I decided to write an article about her.

I ___ Salome Bey, telling her I was from Essence magazine, and that I wanted to meet her to talk about her career. She and told me to come to her studio next Tuesday. When I hung up, I was scared out of my mind. I I was lying. I was not a writer at all and hadn’t even written a grocery list.

I interviewed Salome Bey the next Tuesday. I sat there , taking notes and asking questions that all began with, “Can you tell me…” I soon realized that Salome Bey was one thing, but writing a story for a national magazine was just impossible. The was almost unbearable. I struggled for days draft(草稿) after draft. Finally I put my manuscript (手稿) into a large envelope and dropped it into a mailbox.

It didn’t take long. My manuscript . How stupid of me! I thought. How could I in a world of professional writers? Knowing I couldn’t the rejection letter, I threw the unopened envelope into a drawer.

Five years later, I was moving to California. While my apartment, I came across the unopened envelope. This time I opened it and read the editor’s letter in _ .

Ms Profit,

Your story on Salome Bey is fantastic. Yet we need some materials. Please add those and return the article immediately. We would like to your story soon.

Shocked, it took me a long time to . Fear of rejection cost me greatly. I lost at least five hundred dollars and having my article appear in a major magazine. More importantly, I lost years of writing. Today, I have become a full – time writer. Looking back on this , I learned a very important lesson: You can’t to doubt yourself.

1.A. joy B. voice C. speech D. smile

2.A. proud B. active C. satisfied D. moved

3.A. visited B. emailed C. phoned D. interviewed

4.A. agreed B. refused C. hesitated D. paused

5.A. replied B. discovered C. explained D. knew

6.A. seriously B. patiently C. nervously D. quietly

7.A. blaming B. fooling C. inviting D. urging

8.A. hardship B. failure C. comment D. pressure

9.A. with B. by C. on D. in

10.A. disappeared B. returned C. spread D. improved

11.A. compare B. struggle C. live D. compete

12.A. ignore B. deliver C. face D. receive

13.A. decorating B. repairing C. cleaning D. leaving

14.A. disbelief B. anxiety C. horror D. trouble

15.A. subjective B. relevant C. private D. reliable

16.A. broadcast B. create C. publish D. assess

17.A. recover B. prepare C. escape D. concentrate

18.A. energetic B. endless C. typical D. enjoyable

19.A. experience B. success C. benefit D. accident

20.A. attempt B. afford C. expect D. pretend

Children's lives have changed greatly over the last 50 years.But do they have a happier childhood than you or I did?

It's difficult to look back on one's own childhood without some element of nostalgia(怀旧的). I have four brothers and sisters, and my memories are all about being with them.Playing board games on the living room floor, or spending days in the street with the other neighborhood children, racing up and down on our bikes, or exploring the nearby woods.My parents scarcely appear in these memories, except as providers either of meals or of severe blame after some particularly risky adventure.

These days, in the UK at least, the nature of childhood has changed dramatically.Firstly, families are smaller, and there are far more only children.It is common for both parents to work outside the home and there is the feeling that there just isn't time to bring up a large family, or that no one could possibly afford to have more than one child.As a result, today's boys and girls spend much of their time alone.Another major change is that youngsters today tend to spend a huge amount of their free time at home, inside.More than anything this is due to the fact that parents worry far more than they used to about real or imagined dangers, so they wouldn't dream of letting their children play outside by themselves.

Finally, the kind of toys children have and the way they play is totally different.Computer and video games have replaced the board games and more interesting activities of my childhood.The irony(令人啼笑皆非的事情) is that so many ways of playing games are called "interactive”. The fact that you can play electronic games on your own further increases the sense of loneliness felt by many young people today.

Do these changes mean that children today have a less relaxing childhood than I had? I personally believe that they do, but perhaps every generation feels exactly the same.

1.What is the purpose of the direct question given in the first paragraph?

A. To show who the passage is written for.

B. To gather people's opinions on childhood.

C. To compare the childhood lives of two generations.

D. To get people's attention and lead in the topic.

2.Which is NOT a reason for the changes?

A. Families are smaller today.

B. Toys can be played by children alone at home.

C. It's too dangerous to play outside.

D. Parents worried too much about their children.

3.What has the writer focused on in the fourth paragraph?

A. Some games that young people play today aren't really good.

B. Computer and video games have replaced the board games.

C. Young people today shouldn't play electronic games.

D. Board games are much more interesting than computer games.

When you get in your car, you reach for it.When you’re at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it.When you get into a lift, you play with it.

Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it’s the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone.And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their longing to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.

With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, its air of complexity, the cell phone connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away.In just the past couple of years, the cell phone has challenged individuals, employers, phone makers and counselors(顾问)in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined.

The costs are becoming even more evident, and I don’t mean just the monthly bill.Dr.Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality.

It sounds extreme, but we’ve all witnessed the evidence: The person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him.

Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?

Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell-phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation.He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with.Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don’t have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says.

If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it’s because it has become very widespread.Consider that in 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use.Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them.They far outnumber wired phones in the United States.

1.Which of the following best explains the title of the passage?

A. Cell phone users smoke less than they used to.

B. Cell phones have become as popular as cigarettes.

C. More people use cell phones than smoke cigarettes.

D. Cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes.

2.The underlined word “curb” in Paragraph 2 means ____.

A. ignore B. control

C. develop D. rescue

3.The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that .

A. cell phones do not necessarily bring people together

B. talking on the phone while driving is dangerous

C. women use cell phones more often than men

D. cell phones make one-on-one personal contact easy

 0  130225  130233  130239  130243  130249  130251  130255  130261  130263  130269  130275  130279  130281  130285  130291  130293  130299  130303  130305  130309  130311  130315  130317  130319  130320  130321  130323  130324  130325  130327  130329  130333  130335  130339  130341  130345  130351  130353  130359  130363  130365  130369  130375  130381  130383  130389  130393  130395  130401  130405  130411  130419  151629 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网