To Chinese immigrants, in the mid-1800s, California was “The Land of the Golden Mountain.” In their homeland they had heard the words, “There’s gold in California.” They sailed 7,000miles to join the gold rush and strike it rich. Between 1849 and 1882, more than 30,000 Chinese came to California. Most were men. They had been farmers in China. They came here to be miners and laborers. They ended up doing many other jobs, too.

Like many other immigrants, they did not plan to stay in America. They came because of their ties to their homeland and their families. They planned to return to China with their fortunes and help their families.

Only a few Chinese gold miners struck it rich. Most picked over the areas that had been mined already. But still, white miners resented the Chinese. Slowly, they drove the “yellow peril” from the mining camps.

By the end of the 1850s, many Chinese returned home. Those who stayed found other jobs.

Few women had come west in the gold rush. The Chinese saw a good business opportunity. They began doing the jobs women would have done. Many became house servants. Many more opened  laundries.

The Chinese opened restaurants. Chop suey and show mein are popular Chinese-American dishes. The Chinese probably created these dishes to serve to the white miners.

Other Chinese became fishermen, farmers, and even cigar makers.

1. Why did Chinese go to America in the mid-1800s?

A. Because they could find good jobs there.   B. Because they had found gold there.

C. Because they could open laundries and restaurants there.

2. The underlined word “resented” mean “________”.  

A. liked                        B. helped                C. hated                    D. served

3. Which should be the title of the passage?

A. Early Chinese immigrants in America     B. Dream to strike it rich

C. The difference between men and women   D. Gold miners in America

A punctual person is in the habit of doing a thing at the proper time and is never late in keeping an appointment.

The unpunctual man, on the other hand, never does what he has to do at the proper time. He is always in a hurry and in the end loses both time and his good name. A lost thing may be found again, but lost time can never be regained. Time is more valuable than material things. In fact, time is life itself. The unpunctual man is for ever wasting and mismanaging his most valuable asset as well as others’. The unpunctual person is always complaining that he finds no time to answer letters, or return calls or keep appointments promptly. But the man who really has a great deal to do is very careful of his time and seldom complains of want of it. He knows that he can not get through huge amount of work unless he faithfully keeps every piece of work when it has to be attended to.

Failure to be punctual in keeping one’s appointments is a sign of disrespect towards others. If a person is invited to dinner and arrives later than the appointed time, he keeps all the other guests waiting for him. Usually this will be regarded as a great disrespect to the host and all other guests present.

Unpunctuality, moreover, is very harmful when it comes to doing one’s duty, whether public or private. Imagine how it would be if those who are put in charge of important tasks failed to be at their proper place at the appointed time. A man who is known to be habitually unpunctual is never trusted by his friends or fellow men. 

12. What is an unpunctual person like?

A. He always does a thing when it should be done.  B. He is always very busy.

C. He always does a thing at the wrong time.    D. He always keeps the appointments.

13. Why is unpunctuality very harmful?  

A. Because it makes a man lose many chances of doing important affairs.

B. Because it makes a man lose friends.

C. Because it makes a man work quickly.

D. Because it makes a man be more respected by others.

14. According to the passage, which is right?

A. The punctual person has no much work to do.

B. The unpunctual person is very rich

C. The unpunctual person is often respected by his friends.

D. The unpunctual person loses what can’t be regained again.

15. According to the passage, what are good manners when you are invited to a party?

A. Arriving at the appointed time.   B. Arriving before all other guests.

C. Arriving after all other guests.    D. Keeping all other guests waiting.

16. Why is a person always unpunctual?

A. He is too busy.                      B. He has too much work to do.

C. He does care much about time.         D. He doesn’t manage his time properly.

Intellectual property (IP) is a product of the mind that has commercial value. The concept dates back to 1623 when the first patent law to protect IP sights was passed. IP rights protect the artist from having his/her creative ideas copied by another. For example, if somebody generated an idea for a novel, that idea is protected by IP rights. If someone else wishes to represent the idea or develop it further, he/ she must consult the original artists, who will normally be rewarded financially for its use. Back in the 17th century, IP rights were primarily carried out to protect newly developed manufacturing processes against stealing. But today, intellectual property rights, are also enjoyed by those who creative music, art and literature.

In recent years, IP rights have been the focus of a great deal of discussion because of a technology which looks set to weaken them altogether; the Internet. Many years ago, if you wanted a recording of a song, you would have to purchase it from a music store; if a novel, form a book store. In those days, IP rights were easily protected since it was very difficult to obtain intellectual property without paying for it. However, a lot of IP, including songs, films, books and artwork, can be downloaded today free of charge using the Internet. This practice has now taken the world by storm, dramatically affecting the way in which we view IP rights.

According to the writer, in the beginning, If rights were mainly of use to ______.

A. those creating music, art and literature     B . novelists

C. engineers and inventors         D. those not receiving financial reward for their work

What do we know about the internet according to the passage?

A. It makes IP rights harder to protect.             B. It sells songs and films.

C. It does not affect the way we understand IP rights. D. It prevents the production of artwork.

According to paragraph 2, what has “taken the world by storm”?

A. Intellectual property rights.      B. The Internet.

C. Free downloading             D. The large number of songs, films and books.

A possible title for this passage could be ______.

A. A History of IP Rights                 B. Ways to Protect Your IP Rights.

C. The Present and the Future Of IP        D. IP Rights and Our Attitudes

WASHINGTON?Laura Straub is a very worried woman.  Her job is to find families for French teenagers who expect to live with American families in the summer.

It’s not easy, even desperate.

    “We have many children left to place: 40 out of 75,” said Straub, who works for a Paris based foreign exchange programme called LEC.

    When exchange programmes started 50 years ago, more families were willing to help others. For one thing, more mothers stayed home.

    But now, increasing numbers of women work outside the home. Exchange student programmes have struggled in recent years to sign up host families for the 30,000 teenagers who come from abroad every year to have some courses for one year in the United States. as well as the thousands more who take part in summer programmes.

School systems in many parts of the US,unhappy about accepting non?taxpaying students, have also strictly limited the number of exchange students they accept. At the same time, the idea of hosting foreign students is becoming less exotic (异国情调的).

In searching for host families, who usually receive no pay, exchange programmes are increasingly broadening their requests to include everyone from young couples to the retired.

“We are open to many different types of families.” said Vickie Weiner, eastern regional director for ASSE, a 25-year-old programme that sends about 30,000 teenagers

on one-year exchange programmes worldwide.

For elderly people,exchange students “keep up young——they really do,” said Jean Foster,who is hosting 16-year-old Nina Porst from Denmark.

5.Foreign teenagers come to American families wilh the purpose of .

  A.finding thier parents in America         B.finding good jobs in America

C.learning the culture of America          D.enjoying the life of America

6.In the past, Straub’s job was easy, because American families .

  A.needed more money to live              B.had fewer children to support

 C.had spare rooms to rent                 D.were not as busy as now

7.To deal with the problem in recent years, Straub and her workmates have to .

A.ask different kinds of families for help    B.limit the number of the exchange students

C.borrow much money to pay for the costs  D.force some families to accept students

8.From the last paragraph we can conclude that __________.

A.exchange students are welcome in America

B.exchange students must pay much money to the host families

C.American students don’t want to join the exchange programmes

D.old Americans can benefit from hosting exchange students

Brazil has become one. of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint ef??forts to reduce birth rates, Brazil had better results without re??ally trying, says George Martine at Harvard.

Brazil’s population growth rate dropped from 2. 99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1. 93% a year between 198 land 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2. 7 chil??dren on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.

Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas (肥皂剧) and installment (分期付款) plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in low??ering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest produc??ers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television net??work, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.

Although they have never really tried to work in a mes??sage towards the problems of reproduction, they describe mid??dle and upper class values: not many children, women work??ing, says Martine. They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious (有意识的) of other patterns of behaviour and other values, which were put into a very attrac??tive package.

Meanwhile, the installment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. " This led to an enormous change in consumption (消费) patterns and consumption was incom??patible (不相容的) with unlimited reproduction," says Mar??tine.

9. According to the passage, Brazil has lowered its population growth ________.

A. by educating its citizens                B. by careful family planning

C. by developing TV programmes                     D. by chance

10. According to the passage, many Third World countries

A. haven’t given much attention to birth control

B. would soon join Brazil in controlling their birth rate

C. haven’t yet found an effective measure to control their population

D. haven’t realized the importance of TV plays in family planning

11. Soap operas have helped in lowering Brazil’s birth rate be??cause ________.

A. they keep people sitting long hours watching TV

B. they have gradually changed people’s way of life

C. people are drawn to their attractive package

D. they popularize birth control measures

12. What is Martine’s conclusion about Brazil’s population growth?

A. The increase in birth rate will increase consumption.

B. The desire for consumption helps to reduce birth rate.

C. Consumption goes with reproduction.

D. A country ‘s production is limited by its population growth.

The lower East Side is neither rich nor beautiful, but it can be a good place to shop.

On Sundays, its streets are crowded with visitors and shoppers like these. They are trying to find a coat or a pair of shoes at a good price.

Most people prefer to shop in the big department stores like Macy’s, Gimbel’s, or Bloomingdale’s because there they can find clothing, furniture, toys, and food in one store.

Some people like the smaller stores of Greenwich Village or other areas when they are looking for an unusual present.

Some streets have only one kind of stores. Bracelets (手镯) and rings shine in the windows of Canal Street, and wedding dresses fill the stores of Grant Street. There are streets for furs(皮大衣), and, in one.comarea, there are 600 shops for antiques (古玩)! Fifth Avenue is the most famous place to shop, and it is usually the most expensive. There you can find the latest styles from Paris, Italy, or New York. You can spend thousands of dollars on Fifth Avenue, or you can just window shop and admire the sights for free.

1. How many kinds of shops or stores on the lower East Side are mentioned in the passage?

  A. Four.         B. Five.     C. Six.          D. Seven.

2. If you want to buy something fashionable to wear, you’d better go to       .

  A. Grant Street      B. the big department stores

  C. Fifth Avenue     D. the smaller stores of Greenwich Village

3. Why does the writer say that the lower East Side can be a good place to shop?

  A. Because its streets are crowded with visitors.

  B. Because there are latest style from Paris, Italy, or New York.

  C. Because there are different goods in different stores they can meet the needs of the visitors and shoppers.

  D. Because women want very much to go there and buy bracelets and rings.

4. The underlined words window shop in the sentence means “      ”.

A. put all one’s goods in the shop-window

B. look at goods displayed in shop-windows

C. not only look at goods displayed in shop-window but also want to buy something

D. take much interest in the goods and have the idea of buying something

5. The last five words “admire the sights for free” of the passage means “      ”.

  A. get pleasure from the sight at no cost

  B. buy and sell goods freely

  C. look at the sights as much as you like

  D. look at the sight with pleasure and buy something as you like

In parts of Africa, the sky is filled with a dark cloud. But this is no rain cloud. It is a living cloud made of billions of locusts that are traveling across the continent eating everything in their path.

And in the battle to stop this disaster, a radio station in Senegal, West Africa, is offering listeners 50 kilograms of rice if www..comthey can catch and kill 50 kilograms of locusts. The radio station is in one of Senegal’s worst affected regions.

This is West Africa’s biggest locust disaster in 15 years, and it is moving east, causing huge damage to crops. As they move, they breed, and increase their number and will soon threaten Sudan in the northeast of Africa. Some say it could reach Asia.

Experts say the great damage to crops in areas already suffering from food shortages and war could cause many people to go hungry. Governments in the region are not well equipped to fight the pest.

Although leaders of 12 countries have agreed on a plan, it is not expected to be enough. “We are now treating 6,000 hectares per day with pesticide, but we need to treat 20,000 hectares per day in order to have any hope of controlling this disaster,” said Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Babah, director of locust control in Mauritania.

Requests are being made for international aid, which is the only way to limit the crisis, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization warned.

1. The purpose of offering people rice for catching locusts in Senegal is ________.

A. to get more people to eat rice so as to leave less for locusts

B. to get more people involved in the war on the locusts

C. to prevent more people from starvation

D. to get more people to listen to the radio report on locusts

2. Which of the following is not the reason for West Africans going hungry?

A. Locust disaster causes the great damage to crops.

B. Food supply is far from the need of the people.

C. These regions are affected by the war.

D. Governments are unwilling to fight the pest.

3. It can be concluded that, in order to end the locust disaster, ________.

A. leaders of 12 countries in West Africa should call on their people to take action

B. insects experts should be sent to these regions

C. other countries outside Africa should keep close watch on their own lands

D. Help from all over the world is in urgent demand

4. What does the passage mainly talk about?

A. Food shortage in Africa.              B. International aid to Africa.

C. The insects attack on Africa.          D. Terrible storm in Africa.

 0  17635  17643  17649  17653  17659  17661  17665  17671  17673  17679  17685  17689  17691  17695  17701  17703  17709  17713  17715  17719  17721  17725  17727  17729  17730  17731  17733  17734  17735  17737  17739  17743  17745  17749  17751  17755  17761  17763  17769  17773  17775  17779  17785  17791  17793  17799  17803  17805  17811  17815  17821  17829  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