They once seemed more at home on the busy streets of Asia like Delhi, Calcutta and Bangkok but cycle powered rickshaws (人力车) can now be seen taking people across town in many European cities. Many people believe that rickshaws are a good way of experiencing a city close-up, while also cutting down on traffic jams and pollution. In Berlin, one of the first cities to introduce this new model of transport, more than 200 bike-taxis go along at 15km per hour, past many tourist attractions and city parks.

    “It is completely environmentally friendly; we have new models with an engine to help the driver up the hills but they use renewable energy.” said a spokesman for VELOTAXI, the leading rickshaw company which has carried a quarter of a million people this year.

    While the city still has 7,000 motor-taxis, rickshaw company officials say their taxis’ green ideas, speed and safety make them more than just a tourist attraction. While now increasingly out of fashion in Delhi, Berlin people have eagerly accepted the new fleet since their launch in 1997.

“It’s better than a taxi, better than a bus, better than the train,” said ULF Lehman, 36, as he leapt out of a rickshaw near the world famous Brandenburg gate. “ It feels so free.”

    “ This is something out of the ordinary, you feel you are on holiday in Bangkok instead of Berlin,” said another traveler.

    In Amsterdam, driver Peter Jancso said people like to be driven around in his bright yellow rickshaw and pretend to be a queen in a golden carriage. "I like my passengers to feel important," he said as he dropped off another passenger. Another visitor noted how cheap it was compared with a normal taxi.

    Although increasingly popular in Europe, it is the opposite in India, where hand-pulled rickshaws are considered inhuman and a symbol of India's backward past.

    Nearly 500 bike-rickshaws are running in London and are not required to pay the city's road tax but things may change as other taxi drivers complain of unfair treatment.

1.Where are rickshaws becoming more popular?

A. Delhi, Berlin, Paris.                            B. Amsterdam, Bangkok, Delhi.

C. Athens, London, Berlin.                          D. Berlin, Amsterdam, London.

2.Why are rickshaws no longer as widely used in India as in the past?

A. They are a reminder of a bad period in India's history.

B. They have been banned because they are inefficient.

C. The streets of India are too crowded for them to move through easily.

D. Indians now prefer to travel by car because they are richer.

3.What does the underlined sentence "This is something out of the ordinary, you feel you are on holiday in

Bangkok instead of Berlin" suggest?

A. The passenger didn't like taking a rickshaw as it reminded him of Bangkok.

B. The passenger enjoyed being on holiday in Berlin more than in Bangkok.

C. The passenger was impressed when taking a rickshaw and considered it unusual.

D. The passenger disapproved of rickshaws because they were not original to Berlin.

4.What is the author's attitude towards rickshaws?

A. He gives no personal opinion.          

B. He believes they will be of no use.

C. He thinks they will reduce pollution.       

D. He thinks they are old-fashioned.

It’s easy to see how to help some people, but what about those whose needs are not so clear? This story may have happened not long ago--- but it was a lesson which has stayed with me and helped me ever since.

It was Thanksgiving and I was volunteering with my parents at a shelter for the needy. We served hot food to whoever came in. Most of our dinners looked like they had been having hard times; their clothes were worn out and dirty. Then, a man came in, who looked anything but needy. He was well dressed. I wondered what he was doing there and my jaw (下巴) dropped in amazement when he joined the line for food. The closer he came to my service station , the more I muttered (小声抱怨). What was this man doing? Surely he wasn’t going to take food which was meant for those who were really in need!

Then my mother quietly took me to one side. She said, “You have thought that the needs of the people who come here must be purely physical, hunger, etc. And this gentleman doesn’t seem to have any of those problems. But what if his needs are emotional（情感的）? What if he needs comfort, friends, or just to be among other human beings? Her words hit me like a ton of bricks! I felt like I should apologize to the man--- but I didn’t.

About a week later the shelter received a large donation from an anonymous source. I can’t help but wonder if it came from that man.

Now, whenever I meet someone I remember my mother’s lesson and try to send kindness their way, no matter how they look. Needs aren’t always seen. But kindness always makes a difference.

1.How did the author feel as the well-dressed man joined the line for food?

2.The author’s mother mainly wanted to tell the author that we ______.

3.What does the underlined word “anonymous” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?

4.From the last paragraph, we learn that ______.

5.What would be the best title for the text?

The earliest controversies about the relationship between photography and art centered on whether photograph’s fidelity to appearances and dependence on a machine allowed it to be a fine art as distinct from merely a practical art. Throughout the nineteenth century, the defence of photography was identical with the struggle to establish it as a fine art. Against the charge that photography was a soulless, mechanical copying of reality, photographers asserted that it was instead a privileged way of seeing, a revolt against commonplace vision, and no less worthy an art than painting.

Ironically, now that photography is securely established as a fine art, many photographers find it pretentious or irrelevant to label it as such. Serious photographers variously claim to be finding, recording, impartially observing, witnessing events, exploring themselves—anything but making works of art. They are no longer willing to debate whether photography is or is not a fine art, except to proclaim that their own work is not involved with art. It shows the extent to which they simply take for granted the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism: the better the art, the more subversive it is of the traditional aims of art.

Photographers’ disclaimers of any interest in making art tell us more about the harried status of the contemporary notion of art than about whether photography is or is not art. For example, those photographers who suppose that, by taking pictures, they are getting away from the pretensions of art as exemplified by painting remind us of those Abstract Expressionist painters who imagined they were getting away from the intellectual austerity of classical Modernist painting by concentrating on the physical act of painting. Much of photography’s prestige today derives from the convergence of its aims with those of recent art, particularly with the dismissal of abstract art implicit in the phenomenon of Pop painting during the 1960’s. Appreciating photographs is a relief to sensibilities tired of the mental exertions demanded by abstract art. Classical Modernist painting—that is, abstract art as developed in different ways by Picasso, Kandinsky, and Matisse—presupposes highly developed skills of looking and a familiarity with other paintings and the history of art. Photography, like Pop painting, reassures viewers that art is not hard; photography seems to be more about its subjects than about art.

Photography, however, has developed all the anxieties and self-consciousness of a classic Modernist art. Many professionals privately have begun to worry that the promotion of photography as an activity subversive of the traditional pretensions of art has gone so far that the public will forget that photography is a distinctive and exalted activity—in short, an art.

What is the author mainly concerned with? The author is concerned with

[A]. defining the Modernist attitude toward art.

[B]. explaining how photography emerged as a fine art.

[C]. explaining the attitude of serious contemporary photographers toward photography as art and placing those attitudes in their historical context.

[D]. defining the various approaches that serious contemporary photographers take toward their art and assessing the value of each of those approaches.

Which of the following adjectives best describes “the concept of art imposed by the triumph of Modernism” as the author represents it in lines 12—13?

[A]. Objective [B]. Mechanical. [C]. Superficial. [D]. Paradoxical.

Why does the author introduce Abstract Expressionist painter?

[A]. He wants to provide an example of artists who, like serious contemporary photographers, disavowed traditionally accepted aims of modern art.

[B]. He wants to set forth an analogy between the Abstract Expressionist painters and classical Modernist painters.

[C]. He wants to provide a contrast to Pop artist and others.

[D]. He wants to provide an explanation of why serious photography, like other contemporary visual forms, is not and should not pretend to be an art.

How did the nineteenth-century defenders of photography stress the photography?

[A]. They stressed photography was a means of making people happy.

[B]. It was art for recording the world.

[C]. It was a device for observing the world impartially.

[D]. It was an art comparable to painting.

They once seemed more at home on the busy streets of Asia like Delhi, Calcutta and Bangkok but cycle powered rickshaws (人力车) can now be seen taking people across town in many European cities. Many people believe that rickshaws are a good way of experiencing a city close-up, while also cutting down on traffic jams and pollution. In Berlin, one of the first cities to introduce this new model of transport, more than 200 bike-taxis go along at 15km per hour, past many tourist attractions and city parks.
“It is completely environmentally friendly; we have new models with an engine to help the driver up the hills but they use renewable energy.” said a spokesman for VELOTAXI, the leading rickshaw company which has carried a quarter of a million people this year.
While the city still has 7,000 motor-taxis, rickshaw company officials say their taxis’ green ideas, speed and safety make them more than just a tourist attraction. While now increasingly out of fashion in Delhi, Berlin people have eagerly accepted the new fleet since their launch in 1997.
“It’s better than a taxi, better than a bus, better than the train,” said ULF Lehman, 36, as he leapt out of a rickshaw near the world famous Brandenburg gate. “ It feels so free.”
“This is something out of the ordinary, you feel you are on holiday in Bangkok instead of Berlin,” said another traveler.
In Amsterdam, driver Peter Jancso said people like to be driven around in his bright yellow rickshaw and pretend to be a queen in a golden carriage. "I like my passengers to feel important," he said as he dropped off another passenger. Another visitor noted how cheap it was compared with a normal taxi.
Although increasingly popular in Europe, it is the opposite in India, where hand-pulled rickshaws are considered inhuman and a symbol of India's backward past.
Nearly 500 bike-rickshaws are running in London and are not required to pay the city's road tax but things may change as other taxi drivers complain of unfair treatment.
【小题1】Where are rickshaws becoming more popular?

Kalle Lasn was in a supermarket parking lot one afternoon when he had an experience that changed his life．In order to shop at the store, he needed to put money into the shopping cart to use it．Annoyed that he had to "pay to shop," Lasn jammed the coin into the cart so that it wouldn't work．It was an act of rebellion—the first of many—for Lasn．

Born in Estonia, Kalle Lasn moved to Australia as a young man and then later to Japan, where he founded a marketing research firm in Tokyo．Eventually, Lasn moved to Canada and for several years produced documentaries （纪录片） for public television．In the late 1980s, Lasn made an advertisement that spoke out against the logging industry and the deforestation going on in the Pacific Northwest．When he tried to show his ad on TV, though, no station in this area would give him airtime．In response, Lasn and a colleague founded Adbusters Media Foundation, a company for the "Human right to communicate．

Adbusters produces magazine, newspaper, and TV ads with a social message．Many use humor and irony to make their points: In one, for example, a man chain smokes a brand of cigarettes called "Hope"．In another, a child is dressed in an outfit used in fast-food ads．Next to the child is a note from its mother telling the restaurant to leave her child alone．

Adbusters also has a magazine and a web site, the Culture Jammers Network, whose members include students, artists, and activists as well as educators and businesspeople interested in social change．Many of these "culture jammers" are working to raise awareness about different social issues by hosting events like "Buy Nothing Day" , " No Car Day" and "TV Turnoff Week" ．Lasn and his partners hope these events will encourage people to think about questions such as;

·What kinds of things are we being encouraged to buy by the media?

·Should cars be our primary means of transportation?

·How are television and radio being used now? How could we be using them?

Some culture jammers are using other methods to challenge how people think．Some pretend to be shoppers．They move items in stores from one shelf to another making it difficult for people to find things easily．Other culture jammers break into large company well sites and jam them so that they become unusable．The goal in both cases ia to prevent "Business as usual" and to gel people to ask themselves questions such as "Why am I shopping here?" or "Why should I buy this product?"

Lasn and members of the Culture Jammers Network want to make people aware of social issues, but they also believe it's important to think of solutions, too．"A lot of people tell you everything that's wrong but they never say much about how to fix these problems," says Lasn．"But there is plenty we can do．If you start despairing, you have lost everything．"

Though many TV stations still won't show Adbusters' " uncommercials" , some cable TV stations have started to．People all over the world have joined the Culture Jammers Network and are doing their part to promote social change．

1.What does the underlined word "rebellion" in Paragraph 1 most probably mean?

2.What's the main point of the ad for "Hope" cigarettes?

3.Some culture jammers break into websites in order to ________．

4.It can be inferred from the passage ________．

5.Which of the following best describes what Lasn has done?