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必读,大学英语阅读理解(一)(附答案)

必读,大学英语阅读理解(一)(附答案)
必读,大学英语阅读理解(一)(附答案)

Oxford University

Oxford University is the oldest university in Britain and one of the world's most famous institutions of higher learning. Oxford University was established during the 1100's. It is located in Oxford, England, about 80 kilometers northwest of London.

The university has over 16,300 students (1999-2000), almost a quarter of these students are from overseas and more than 130 nationalities are represented. It consists of 35 colleges, plus five private halls established by various religious groups. Three of the five private halls are for men only. Of the colleges, St. Hilda's and Somerville are for women, and the rest are for men and women.

At Oxford, each college is a corporate body distinct from the university and is governed by its own head and fellows. Most fellows are college instructors called tutors, and the rest are university professors and lecturers. Each college manages its own buildings and property, elects its own fellows, and selects and admits its own undergraduate students. The university provides some libraries, laboratories, and other facilities, but the colleges take primary responsibility for the teaching and well-being of their students.

Each student at Oxford is assigned to a tutor, who supervises the student's program of study, primarily through tutorials. Tutorials are weekly meetings of one or two students with their tutor. Students may see other tutors for specialized instruction. They may also attend lectures given by university teachers. Students choose which lectures to attend on the basis of their own special interests and on the advice of their tutors.

The university, not the individual colleges, grants degrees. The first degree in the arts or sciences is the Bachelor of Arts with honors. Oxford also grants higher degrees, diplomas, and certificates in a wide variety of subjects.

The Rhodes scholarship program enables students from the United States, Canada, and many other nations to study at Oxford for a minimum of two years. The British government grants Marshall scholarships to citizens of the United States for study at Oxford and other universities that are located in Britain.

The competition for scholarships and grants is, however, extremely strong and there are usually strict requirements. Students should check carefully that they are eligible to apply for a particular scholarship before making an application as most of the schemes are restricted to certain nationalities and/or programs.

The students and staff at Oxford are actively involved in over 55 initiatives (2001), including visits to more than 3,700 schools and colleges, to encourage the brightest and best students to apply to Oxford, whatever their background.

The university has been named the UK's most innovative university in the Launchit 2001 competition, which aimed to discover which British university has demonstrated the greatest achievements in innovation and enterprise across the broadest range of activity. In the national Teaching Quality Assessment exercises for 2000, Oxford was awarded top marks in six out of ten subjects assessed.

Oxford, Stanford and Yale Universities have recently become partners in a joint 'distance learning' venture, the Alliance for Lifelong Learning, which will provide online courses in the arts and sciences.

The mission of Oxford is to aim at achieving and maintaining excellence in every area of its teaching and research, maintaining and developing its historical position as a world-class university, and enriching the international, national, and regional communities through the fruits of its research and the skills of its graduates.

In support of this aim the university will provide the facilities and support for its staff to pursue innovative research by responding to developments in the intellectual environment and society at large; and promote challenging and rigorous teaching which benefits from a fruitful interaction with the research environment, facilitating the exchange of ideas through tutorials and small-group learning and exploiting the University's resources in its libraries, museums, and scientific collections, to equip its graduates to play their part at a national and international level.

(一)Answer the following questions with the information from the passage.

1. How many international students are studying at Oxford?

2.What does a tutor do?

3. Are good students often granted a scholarship? Why or why not?

4.Why did the students and staff visit more than 3 700 schools and colleges in 2001?

5. Would you like to study at Oxford University if you have an opportunity? List as many reasons as you can think of.

(二)Choose the best answer to each question based on the information you obtain from the passage.

1. The main purpose of this passage is to __________.

A) provide scholarship information for Oxford applicants

B) give an introduction to Oxford University in general

C) explain the teaching and research systems of Oxford

D) introduce the long history of Oxford

2. The admission of an undergraduate student at Oxford is decided by __________.

A) the university

B) a fellow

C) a professor

D) the college

3. __________ are eligible for Marshall scholarships.

A) Only British students

B) Only US students

C) Only Canadian Students

D) All students

4. The passage tells us that Oxford makes an effort to __________.

A) get the best students to study at Oxford

B) provide its students with financial support

C) elect the best candidates as its fellows

D) ensure that every student has a tutor

5. It can be inferred that __________.

A) Oxford has some of the best teachers in Britain

B) some teachers at Oxford are not good enough

C) Oxford and Stanford will be joined

D) Oxford is the best university in the world

译文:

牛津大学

牛津大学是英国最古老的大学,也是世界最著名的高等学府。牛津大学始建于12世纪。它位于英格兰的牛津,在伦敦西北约80公里处。

牛津大学有16,300多名学生(1999-2000),其中留学生占将近四分之一。他们来自130多个国家。牛津大学有35个学院,还有5个由不同宗教团体建立的私人学院。5个私人学院中,有3个只招男生。学院中,圣希尔达和萨默维尔学院只收女生,其他均为男女兼收。

牛津的每个学院都是独立于大学的实体,由该学院的院长和管委会成员负责管理。部分管委会成员都称为导师的学院教师,其余的是大学教授和讲师。每个学院管理自己的房产和资产,遴选自己的管委会,选择和招收自己的本科生。大学提供某些图书馆、实验室和其他设施,但教学和学生生活主要由各学院负责。

牛津大学给每个学生指定一个导师,他主要通过辅导课监督学生的学习。导师每周和1到2名学生见面一次,学生如需专业指导,还可以去约见其他的导师,也可选听大学老师讲授的课程。学生选听什么课程是根据自己的兴趣和导师的建议而定的。

学位由大学授予,而不是各个学院。最低文科或理科学位是优等文学学士。牛津还在其他众多学科领域授予最高的学位,颁发文凭和证书。

罗兹德奖学金面向美国、加拿大和很多其他国家的学生,为他们提供至少两年的牛津学习费用。英国政府为在牛津和其他英国境内的大学里求学的美国公民提供"马歇尔奖学金"。

然而,奖学金和助学金的竞争极其激烈,而且通常要求很严。学生们在申请某一项奖学金之前应仔细核查是否有资格,因为多数奖学金对学生国籍和(或)课程都有限制。

牛津师生员工积极参与主动招生的活动,2001年这种活动有55项以上,包括走访3,700所中学,以鼓励优秀学生报考牛津大学,而不管其背景如何。

在2001年度的"创新"竞赛中,牛津大学被授予英国最具创新精神的大学称号。该竞赛旨在发现哪一所英国大学在最广的领域内取得了创新和进取的最大成就。在2000年全英教学质量评估中,牛津在所评估的10个科目中有6科得分高居榜首。

牛津、斯坦福和耶鲁三所大学最近合作开发了"远程学习"项目"终生学习联盟",该项目将提供文科和理科的在线课程。

牛津的使命是在教学和研究的各个领域达到并保持领先地位,保持和加强其世界名校的历史地位,通过其研究成果和毕业生的技能促进地区、全国和全球的发展。

为了实现这个目标,学校将针对知识环境和整个社会发展的需要,为员工提供进行创新研究所需的设施和支持;提倡既富革新精神又严格认真的教学,使教学与研究环境卓有成效地互动从而推动教学;通过导师指导和小组学习加速思想的交流,通过开发学校图书馆、博物馆以及科学收藏方面

参考答案:

(一)

1、About 4 000 international students are studying at Oxford.

2、A tutor supervises the students’ course of study and meets with them every week.

3、Not necessarily. Because most of the scholarships are restricted to certain nationalities and / or courses.

4、They visited those schools in order to encourage the brightest and best students to apply to Oxford.

5、Open.

(二)1.B, 2.D, 3.B, 4.A, 5.A

Y our Dream Job: A Click Away

Less than a month from graduation day, Theresa Smith of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, had yet to find the right job. The career placement center referred the liberal-arts major to JOB-TRAK, an Internet site listing 45,000 entry-level positions.

Smith selected four keywords: Chicago, business, marketing and full-time. Immediately she found 45 jobs meeting her criteria, including one as an assistant to an administrator at the University of Chicago’s business school. Four weeks later she was hired at a starting salary of $32,000.

“I had no training,”says Smith, “but the Internet was extremely easy to use. I’d never have known about this job without it.”

Smith is one American who clicked her way into a job. Steven Tools is another.

In 1996, the Rockville, Md., resident came across an employment site named CareerBuilder. He had just been promoted to director of marketing for a company that produces tradeshow exhibits and wasn’t looking for a job. But curious, he decided to “give it a try.”

Tools filled out a profile with the keywords marketing manager and entered his electronic-mail address. Within a week his computer’s mailbox was filling up with available positions. Two interviews later he jumped to a new job. “The Internet is like hiring a personal assistant,”says Tools. “Effortlessly you can become aware of opportunities that may elevate your career.”

Even a couple of years ago, most job listings on the Internet were in high-tech fields. Today, non-technical jobs —salesclerks, bank tellers, secretaries, for example —are the fastest growing segment of Internet employment opportunities. Most major newspapers and trade publications have online versions of their classified listings, enabling job-seekers to scan for work available across town, in another state, or around the world.

Madeline Gragg and Nedzad Dozlic are still another two who clicked their luck online.

In 1996, Madeline Gragg, a 28-year-old high school teacher from St. Louis, wanted a change. When a friend mentioned teaching English in Japan, Gragg was intrigued.

She visited the popular Yahoo! website and typed teaching English in Japan for a list of employment opportunities. She then followed the procedure for the online application. A week later she received a call and set up an interview with a recruiter in Chicago and got the job.

Nedzad Dozlic, 27 years old, was scanning the Houston Chronicle’s Web site for the latest baseball trades. While online, he decided to check out the classifieds and spotted a job for a driver at a local car dealership. A refugee of the war in Bosnia, Dozlic had had a variety of jobs but was now ready for something new. He read more about the position on the dealer’s Internet site and called the number listed. Two days later he was hired. “It’s really funny,” he says, “I was just checking sports, and I ended up with a better job.”

Another valuable use of the Internet is to research potential employers. When Wendy Mello started her job search in the summer of 1997, she logged on to CareerBuilder, where she learned of a human resources opening at Arbitron’s, a media-information-services company in Columbia, Maryland. With a click of her mouse, Mello sent her résuméto the company via

e-mail and soon received an invitation for an interview.

To find out more about the company, she clicked on to Artitron’s home page and that of its parent company, Ceridian Corp., where she reviewed an annual report and the company’s financial performance.

Mello also wanted to know how much she’d have to earn to maintain her present standard of living. Using an online salary calculator, she typed in her current salary, $34,000, and Baltimore (the nearest big city to Columbia). Within seconds her computer flashed $44,000. “Because of the salary calculator, I knew what to ask for,”says Mello.

By accessing an online real estate service, she saw color photos of rental properties, including detailed floor plans. When Mello arrived in Columbia, she felt completely prepared. The interview was a success, and the next day she was offered a job at a salary of $47,800.

“The Internet is easy to use and it works,”says one job seeker, “What more could you want?”

(一).Answer the following questions with the information from the passage.

1. What is JOB-TRAK?

2.Does one need to have a lot of knowledge about the Internet before using it?

3. Why did Gragg apply to teach English in Japan?

4.What preparations did Mello make before she went for her interview?

5. Compare job-seeking on the Internet and job-seeking on newspapers or at job markets. What are the strengths and limitations of each?

(二)Choose the best answer to each question based on the information you obtain from the passage.

1. Which of the following best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

A) The Internet can help one find an overseas job.

B) The Internet can give one information about all companies.

C) One can find a better job with the help of the Internet.

D) There are many employment websites one can turn to for help.

2. "To click one's way into a job" means __________.

A) to find a job by searching the Internet

B) to get a job by clicking a mouse

C) to access the job website

D) to know the way to do one's job

3. It can be inferred that __________ .

A) originally only job vacancies in high-tech fields were listed on the Internet

B) most newspapers and publications don't have a section of classified listings

C) many companies are using the Internet as their management assistants

D) many people can get a job offer now without going through an interview

4. Dozlic found a better job __________.

A) while browsing a website for baseball trades

B) by casually checking out an online classified ad

C) because of his curiosity about the Internet

D) because of the experience he obtained from other jobs

5. Mello searched the Internet for all the following information except __________.

A) job vacancies

B) a company's financial performance

C) the minimum salary

D) rental properties

译文:

鼠标轻点,美梦成真

还有不到一个月就要毕业了,特里萨·史密斯还没找到合适的工作,她就读于位于伊利诺州埃文斯顿的西北大学。就业指导中心建议这位文科生去查查JOB-TRAK网站,该网站上列出了45,000个初级水平的职位。

史密斯选择了四个关键词:Chicago(芝加哥),business(商务),marketing(营销),full time(全职)。她马上就找到45个工作合乎她的标准,其中一个是芝加哥商业学院行政助理。四个星期以后,她得到了这份工作,底薪32,000美元。

“我没有受过任何训练,”史密斯说,“但因特网使用很简单。要是没有因特网,我根本不会知道有这份工作。”

不少美国人鼠标一点,就找到了自己的工作。史密斯是其中一个,另一个例子是斯蒂芬·图尔斯。

他住在马里兰州的罗科维尔,1996年无意中进到一个招聘网站CareerBuilder。他在一家生产商展展品的公司工作,刚被提升为营销总管,并不想换工作。但是出于好奇心,他决定“试试看”。

图尔斯填写了一份简历,关键词是market manager(行销经理),并输入了自己的电子邮箱地址。不到一个星期,他的邮箱里就塞满了可供选择的职位。他去了两家公司面试,然后就跳槽了。“有了因特网,就像雇了一个私人助理,”图尔斯说。“你可以毫不费劲地留意到一些机会,让你的事业上一个新台阶。”

仅在两年以前,因特网上提供的工作绝大部分还局限于高科技领域。现在,非技术性的工作,如售货员、银行职员、秘书等,是网上招聘机会增长最为迅速的部分。大型报纸和专业出版物的分类广告大多都有在线版,求职者能搜索到市内、国内甚至国外的一些工作机会。

马德琳·格拉格和内德扎德·多兹里克也是通过轻点鼠标,在网上碰到了好运。

1996年,圣路易斯的一名高中老师,28岁的马德琳·格拉格,想换个工作。有个朋友提到在日本教书的事,格拉格很感兴趣。

她访问了著名的yahoo!网站,输入了teaching English in Japan(在日本教英语),找到了一个招聘机会的列表,然后按照在线申请的要求提交了申请。一星期后,她接到一个电话,与芝加哥的一名招聘人员进行了面试,得到了这份工作。

27岁的内德扎德·多兹里克,当时在浏览Houston Chronicle网站,了解最新的棒球消息。在线时,他查看了分类广告,发现一家当地的汽车交易商招聘司机。多兹里克是波斯尼亚的战争难民,曾从事过多种不同的工作,但现在他想换个工作。他从该交易商的网站上了解了该职位的更多情况,然后拨通了上面提供的电话。两天后,他被雇用了。“真有意思,”他说,“我本来只是在查看体育消息,结果却找到了一份更好的工作。”

因特网的另一个好处在于你能够搜索到一些可能的雇主。1997年夏天,温蒂·梅洛开始找工作,她登录到CareerBuilder网站,发现在马里兰州哥伦比亚的Artitron媒体信息服务公司的人力资源部有一个空缺。梅洛鼠标一点,用电子邮件把简历寄到了该公司,很快就收到面试通知。

为了了解该公司的更多情况,她又点击了Artitron的主页,以及它的母公司Ceridian Corp.的主页,查看了一份该公司的年度报告及其财政状况。

梅洛还想了解,要想维持现有的生活水平,自己该赚多少钱。她使用在线薪酬计算器,把自己目前的收入$34,000输进去,再输入Baltimore(巴尔的摩,离哥伦比亚最近的大城市)。短短几秒钟后,电脑屏幕上就闪现出$44,000。“因为有了这个薪酬计算器,我才知道自己该要多少薪水,”梅洛说。

通过上网进入一家在线房地产服务公司网站,梅洛看到了可供租用的房子的彩色照片,包括很详细的楼面格局图。梅洛来到哥伦比亚时,她觉得自己完全做好了准备。面试成功了,第二天,她就得到了一份工作,薪金是47,8000美元。

“因特网很容易使用,而且确实有效,”一个求职者说道,“你还要什么呢?”

参考答案:

(一)

1、It is an Internet website that lists as many as 45 000 job opportunities.

2、Not necessarily so. According to Smith, the Internet was very easy to use. She found her job online with no training.

3、Because she wanted a change in her life.

4、She searched the Internet for information about the financial performance of the company she was interested in, the salary she should ask for, and the possible living accommodations available to her there.

5、Open.

(二)1.C, 2.A, 3.A, 4.A, 5.C

The Victim

You could call me a shop-a-holic, as most of my friends do, but I call myself a lover of fashion. Sitting in my room, I look in my closet at all my belongings and wonder what else I want to buy. Abercrombie, Guess, J Crew and Ralph Lauren are just a few of the name-brand items that clutter my room. And I want more. I've never stopped to question whether I'm getting what I'm paying for, though I've always been a "smart" shopper, a sale shopper. But, as I learn more about my future field, marketing, I realize that I am a victim of advertising. All the things I want and buy are influenced by what magazines, television, and other advertisers tell me I need to buy.

Everyone wears clothes. They can be a statement, a style, or a definition of who you are. They can also be a simple necessity. For me, clothing has meant different things. As a child, I wore what my mother gave me or the hand-me-downs from my sister. I never questioned how I looked, but I liked to dress up.

In middle school, I became more concerned with my appearance, like most girls. But as I progressed to high school, advertising became a big influence. Boys began to notice girls, and all the girls wanted to look good. The clothing in high school became something that defined you; it identified you with a certain group. Wearing Abercrombie jeans meant you were the preppy all-American girl, a Guess shirt meant you were the snobby rich girl, and anything worse or less than that was unacceptable.

In college, advertising hit me in a different way. College is a place where typically no one knows you at first, so you can be whoever you want to be. There are so many students and such a variety of people that clothing begins to define you less and less and your personality begins to

define you more and more. Everyone is growing and changing and beginning to learn who they really are. Yet my friends and I still turn to advertising, now not only to stay in fashion but more so to find our own style. In my quest for identity, the style of clothing I choose reflects me. It shows my personality and shows what type of person I am.

Despite my choice to have my clothing reflect and not define me, I remain a victim of advertising. Although I look to ads for the upcoming styles, I am still affected by the underlying images behind them. Advertising reflects society and also adds to societal definitions. Advertisers show us people around us, yet they choose only a certain look. By showing us just these people, they are defining those few as the beautiful people. Advertising feeds off human insecurities and makes us want to be like these beautiful people. Our insecurities with wanting to be popular and wanting to be loved are used against us. Society fosters the fascination that we should not be who we are, and advertisers use this to influence us to believe certain messages. If we do not look like the models, we are not beautiful. If we are not thin and curvy we are not attractive. Even if we have great personalities, most people will not like us if we are not physically beautiful.

Advertisers use our weaknesses to tell us what is new, what we should be like, what is cool, and what is hot. Because human nature makes us want to be popular and glamorous, we follow the lead ads give us. Is it the victim's fault for believing, or the fault of society for allowing advertisers to do so? These are the questions I often ask myself as I enter the field of marketing. It is very easy to use human insecurities as a means of targeting consumption, but is it right? How will we ever know unless we step back and stop reading magazines and watching television? Until then, I will remain a victim of advertising. And so will almost everyone else.

(一)Answer the following questions with the information from the passage.

1. Why do the author’s friends call her a shop-a-holic?

2.When does the author realize that she is a victim of advertising?

3. Why is clothing very important to high school girls and not that important to college students?

4.Advertisers portray beautiful models in advertising. Why do they do that?

5.Do you think there is a way for us to avoid being the target of advertising?

(二)Choose the best answer to each question based on the information you obtain from the passage.

1. It can be concluded that a victim of advertising is one __________.

A) whose choices are influenced by advertising when doing shopping

B) who never questions about the money one pays for one's shopping

C) whose room is cluttered with a lot of expensive clothes

D) who buys a lot of expensive name-brand clothes

2. What does the author mean by calling herself "a 'smart' shopper"?

A) She follows advertisements to do her shopping.

B) She doesn't buy clothes at their original prices, but when they are on sale.

C) She always asks herself if she's getting what she's paying for.

D) She usually buys expensive name-brand items.

3. When in college, the author still sticks to advertising because __________.

A) she wants to identify herself with her friends

B) she wants to find the style that portrays who she is

C) she wants to wear name-brands to show that she is a rich girl

D) she wants to make sure she is always in fashion

4. Advertising influences us in all of the following ways except that __________.

A) it presents the model for us to follow

B) it uses our own insecurities against us

C) it encourages the development of personality

D) it reveals our weaknesses to force us to change

5. We can infer that __________.

A) nobody can avoid being influenced by advertising

B) advertising will go on using our weakness to work against us

C) many people will stop reading magazines to avoid being influenced by advertising

D) knowledge about marketing enables one to see how advertising functions

译文:

广告的受害者

你可以说我是购物狂,朋友大都这样说我,不过我自认为是个时尚爱好者。坐在房间里,看着衣橱里所有的东西,我总是在想还有什么要买的。Abercrombie, Guess, J Crew, Ralph Lauren,还有其他名牌产品,充斥着我的房间,但我还想要更多。我从不考虑我买的东西是否物有所值,虽然我买东西一直都很“精明”,买的都是打折的商品。然而,我对将来要从事的营销领域了解越深入,就越明白自己原来是深受广告的左右。我想要的,我所买的,都受到杂志、电视或别的广告商的影响,它们在告诉我该买些什么。

人人都穿衣服,衣着可以展现个性,显示品味,定义性格,也可以只是为了满足基本的需求。对我而言,衣着在不同时期有不同的意义。小时候,妈妈给什么我就穿什么,要不就穿姐姐的旧衣服。我从不考虑衣着打扮,不过我喜欢穿得漂漂亮亮的。

初中时,像大多数女生一样,我开始在意自己的打扮。但从高中开始,广告对我产生了很大的影响。男生开始留意女生,每个女生都想打扮得漂漂亮亮。高中时衣着界定你的身份,并将你归入某一群体。穿Abercrombie牌的牛仔裤说明你是典型的美国女生,干净利落;穿Guess的衬衫说明你是富家千金,自命不凡,任何其他差一些的衣服都是不可接受的。

上大学后,广告又用另外的方式影响着我。大学里,最初通常没有人认识你,所以你想怎样穿戴都行。学生很多,而且什么人都有,以穿戴看人的情况越来越少,以个性判断人的情况越来越多。每个人都在成长、改变,开始为真正的自己定位。我和朋友们依然关注广告,不过现在不只是为了紧跟时尚,更多的是想找到自己的风格。在寻找个性的过程中,我所选择的衣服样式反映我,显示我的个性,表明我是哪种类型的人。

虽然我决心让衣服反映,而不是代表我本人,但广告还是在左右着我。虽然我看广告的目的是想了解最新潮流,可我还是会受到广告的潜在信息的影响。广告反映社会,也丰富了社会的含义。广告给我们看到的是我们身边的人,但他们只选择特定的类型。通过展现这一类人,广告将这极少数人定义为俊男美女。广告利用人们不甘人后的心理,怂恿我们去学这些俊男美女。我们想受人欢迎、想得到拥戴,这些心理正好被用来对付我们自己。人们向往变成别的模样,社会又推波助澜,广告就利用这些来影响我们去相信某些信息:要是穿戴与模特有差距,就不能算漂亮;要是不苗条,曲线不美,就没有吸引力;要是其貌不扬,就算性格再好,大多数人还是不会喜欢我们。

广告利用我们的弱点告诉我们什么最新潮,我们应该是什么样子,什么最酷,什么最热门。我们都想受人欢迎,魅力四射,这是人性使然,所以我们会对广告言听计从。这应该怪人们相信广告吗?还是该怪社会纵容广告误导人?我进入营销业之后,经常考虑的就是这些

问题。利用人的不甘人后的心理来促进消费固然是件轻而易举的事,但这样做对吗?要想找出答案,我们就得退一步,不再读杂志,不再看电视。不然的话,我还是摆脱不了广告的左右。别的人也是如此。

参考答案:

(一)

1、They do so because she likes shopping and keeps a lot of name-brand items in her room.

2、She realizes that she is a victim of advertising when she learns more about marketing.

3、Because high school girls are defined and identified by their clothing, but college students are defined by their personality rather than by their clothing.

4、They use those beautiful models to pass this message to us: if we want to be popular, loved, and attractive, we should follow these models.

5、Open.

(二)1. A; 2. B; 3. B; 4. C; 5. D

Death of a Dream

They boarded the plane in New York City with high hopes. The 18 members of the United States figure skating team would fly to Brussels, Belgium. Then they were to go on to Prague, Czechoslovakia, for the world ice skating championships. A photo was taken of the team members as they stood on the steps of the Sabena Airlines 707 jet. The best of America’s skaters beamed for the camera. Mostly young, they laughed and giggled, their eyes dancing with excitement. This was going to be the time of their lives.

There were three ice skating pairs on the plane. Two were brother-and-sister teams: Laurie and William Hickox and Ida and Ray Hadley. There was also the husband-and-wife team of Patricia and Robert Dineen. But the brightest star of all was a singles skater. Her name was Laurence “Laurie”Owen. Only 16 years old, she had won the North American title for women just two days earlier. Laurie had great skill, dazzling grace, and a winning smile.

Laurie came from a skating family. Her mother, Maribel, had won the U.S figure skating championship nine times. Laurie had an older sister who shared her mother’s name. Maribel Owen, age 20, was not quite as strong a skater as Laurie. Still, she had just won the U.S. senior pairs championship. All three of the Owen women were on the plane bound for Brussels.

Sabena Flight 548 took off at 7:30 P.M. on February 14, 1961. The flight across the Atlantic was pleasant. Early the next day, the plane neared the airport at Brussels. There seemed to be no cause for concern. There was no distress signal of any kind from the pilot, Captain Louis Lambrechts. There were no storms or high winds in the region. In fact, the weather was perfect. It was warm and sunny.

But something must have gone wrong in the cockpit. During the last few minutes before the scheduled landing, Captain Lambrechts did not contact the Brussels airport. Just before 10:00 A.M., he lowered the wheels of the jet and began his approach to land. But, at the last moment, he pulled the plane up. Perhaps he saw another jet taking off and feared a collision. Or perhaps he already knew that something was wrong with his plane. In any case, he circled the airport and prepared to try again.

Lambrechts came in a second time, flying about 500 feet over a farm near the village of Berg,

northeast of Brussels. Then he suddenly increased his speed and pulled the plane into a steep climb. By this time, officials in the Brussels control tower could tell that something was very wrong. “We saw the crash coming,”said one official. “They couldn’t have been faster,”the official said. “But there was nothing they could do.”

A man riding on a train saw that the plane was in trouble. “The plane appeared to be making a normal approach to land when it suddenly reared up into the sky,”he said. “Then it fell back like a great stone and we heard the explosion.”

It was 10:05 A.M. when the Sabena jet hit the ground and exploded in a ball of flames. It just missed hitting a row of houses. All 72 people on board were killed, including 49 Americans and 11 members of the crew. There was nothing anyone could do. The crash site was a scene of total destruction. Debris was scattered over 200 yards. Charred remains and body parts were strewn all over the area. Several couples on the plane were found locked in a final embrace.

The crash stunned skaters and figure skating fans around the globe. Never before had anything so tragic happened in their sport. To honor the dead, the Prague competition was canceled. The crash was particularly devastating for some families. In addition to the Owen family, with its loss of three women, nine other skating families suffered more than one death. The hopes and dreams of these athletes had ended in a flash. All that remained as rescuers combed through the wreckage were three pairs of melted skates dangling from one of the wings.

(一)Answer the following questions with the information from the passage.

1. Who was a better skater, Laurie or her sister Maribel?

2.What was the weather like that day?

3. How many times did the pilot try to land?

4.When did officials in the Brussels control tower sense that there must be something wrong with the plane?

5.What do you think was the impact of this plane crash on the sport of skating in the U.S.?

(二)Choose the best answer to each question based on the information you obtain from the passage.

1. The 1961 world ice skating competition was planned to be held __________.

A) in New York

B) in Brussels

C) in Berg

D) in Prague

2. The American skaters were excited when they boarded the plane because __________.

A) they were going to fly to Brussels and Prague

B) they were a group of young and energetic athletes

C) they were heading for a great time in their lives

D) they had a large team of eighteen members

3. We can infer from the passage that __________.

A) Laurie was selected into the team for Prague because she won the North American title for women

B) a skater in a family is likely to influence other members of the family so that they become skaters too

C) Laurie's mother taught her and her sister, Maribel, how to skate when they were little girls

D) Maribel became successful in skating in the United States earlier than her sister Laurie

4. A witness of the plane crash reported seeing all of the following except that __________.

A) the plane was about to land normally

B) the plane was circling the airport

C) the plane climbed suddenly and steeply

D) the plane crashed onto the ground

5. To show mourning for the skaters who were killed in the plane crash, __________.

A) the skating competition for that year was cancelled

B) the rescuers searched the wreckage for melted skates

C) skaters and skating fans helped to collect scattered debris

D) skating fans cried because of the death of their dreams and hopes

译文:

梦断魂萦

在纽约,美国花样滑冰队的18名成员踌躇满志地登上飞机。他们将飞往比利时的布鲁塞尔,在那儿转机,到(前)捷克斯洛伐克去参加在布拉格举办的世界花样滑冰锦标赛。站在比利时沙比那航空公司的707喷气机的舷梯上,全体成员合影留念。这批全美顶尖的滑冰运动员在照相机前笑脸盈盈,开心地笑着,眼睛里舞动着激动与兴奋。这将成为他们生命中珍贵的一刻。

机上有三对双人组合,其中两对是兄妹组合:希科克斯兄妹和哈德利兄妹,另一对是夫妻搭档,迪宁夫妇。但众星之中最耀眼的是一名单人滑选手。她叫劳伦斯·欧文,人称“劳利”。年仅16岁的她,两天前刚夺得北美花样滑冰女子冠军。劳利技巧娴熟,优雅无比,笑靥如花。

劳利出生于滑冰世家。母亲玛丽贝尔曾九次将美国花样滑冰冠军收入囊中。劳利还有一个姐姐,与母亲同名。玛丽贝尔·欧文20岁,实力不如劳利,但也刚刚获得美国双人滑大龄组的冠军。欧文家的三员女将都在飞往布鲁塞尔的航班上。

1961年2月14日下午7点30分,沙比那548号航班起飞了。飞越大西洋的航程是很惬意的。第二天一早,飞机飞临布鲁塞尔的机场,没有任何异常。驾驶飞机的路易斯·兰布莱奇机长,没有发出任何遇难信号。该地区没有暴风雨,也没有大风。事实上,天气很好,暖和而晴朗。

但驾驶员座舱肯定出了什么差错。在预定着陆的最后几分钟内,兰布莱奇机长没有与布鲁塞尔机场联系。快到上午十点时,他放下了起落架,开始着陆。但在最后一刻,他又把飞机机头拉起往上攀升。也许他看见另一架飞机正在起飞,害怕撞机。也许他已经知道他的飞机出了故障。不管怎么样,他绕着机场飞了一圈,再次尝试着陆。

兰布莱奇第二次出现了,飞过布鲁塞尔东北部的一个叫博格的村庄附近的农场,飞行了大约500英尺。突然他猛地提速,飞机急遽攀升。这时候,布鲁塞尔控制塔的官员们知道大事不妙了。“我们眼睁睁地看着惨剧发生,”有个官员说。“他们的反应够快的了,可是无能为力,”他说。

有个坐火车的人看见飞机出问题了。“飞机好像准备正常着陆,突然又攀升到天空,”他说。“然后掉了下来,像块大石头一样,接着我们就听见了爆炸声。”

10点05分,飞机撞到地面爆炸了,燃成了一团火球。还险些就撞上一排房子。机上72人全部遇难,其中包括49名美国人和11名机组人员。人们无能为力。失事现场一片狼藉。碎片散落到200码开外。烧焦的残骸以及肢体满地都是。机上的几对夫妇最后一次紧紧抱在

一起。

这场空难震惊了全球滑冰界以及热爱花样滑冰的人们。滑冰界以前从来没有发生过类似的惨剧。为了纪念遇难者,布拉格的冠军赛取消了。

这次坠机对某些家庭尤其令人悲痛欲绝。欧文家三名女性全部丧生。除此之外,还有九个家庭至少痛失两名亲人。

明星们的希望和梦想在一瞬间破灭了。救援人员仔细搜寻了遇难现场,只找到三双已经烧焦的冰鞋,在残留的机翼上摇曳。

参考答案:

(一)

1、Laurie was a better skater.

2、The weather was very good. It was warm and sunny with no storms or high winds.

3、The pilot tried to land twice but failed.

4、They sensed that something must be wrong when the pilot lost contact with the control tower during the last few minutes before the scheduled landing.

5、Open.

(二)1. D; 2. C; 3. B; 4. B; 5. A

My Advice to Students: Education Counts Hundreds of students send me e-mail each year asking for advice about education. They want to know what to study, or whether it's okay to drop out of college since that's what I did.

A smaller number of parents send messages, seeking guidance for their son or daughter. "How can we steer our child toward success?" they ask.

My basic advice is simple and heartfelt: Get the best education you can. Take advantage of high school and college. Learn how to learn.

It's true that I dropped out of college to start Microsoft, but I was at Harvard for three years before dropping out——and I'd love to have the time to go back. As I've said before, nobody should drop out of college unless they believe they face the opportunity of a lifetime. And even then they should reconsider.

Kathy Cridland, a sixth-grade teacher in Ohio, wrote to say, "Several of my students claim that you never finished high school. Since you are a success, my students perceive that as a reason not to care much about getting a good education."

I finished high school!

The computer industry has lots of people who didn't finish college, but I'm not aware of any success stories that began with somebody dropping out of high school. I actually don't know any high school dropouts, let alone any successful ones.

In my company's early years we had a bright part-time programmer who threatened to drop out of high school to work full-time. We told him no.

Quite a few of our people didn't finish college, but we discourage dropping out. Having a diploma certainly helps somebody who is looking to us for a job.

College isn't the only place where information exists. You can learn in a library. But somebody handing you a book doesn't automatically foster learning. You want to learn with other people, ask questions, try out ideas and have a way to test your ability. It usually takes more than just a book. Education should be broad, although it's fine to have deep interests, too.

In high school there were periods when I was highly focused on writing software, but for most of my high school years I had wide-ranging academic interests. My parents encouraged this, and I'm grateful that they did.

Although I attended a lot of different kinds of classes in college, I signed up for only one computer class the whole time. I read about all kinds of things.

One parent wrote me that her 15-year-old son "lost himself in the hole of the computer." He got an A in website design, but other grades were sinking, she said.

This boy is making a mistake. High school and college offer you the best chance to learn broadly —math, history, various sciences —and to do projects with other kids that teach you first-hand about group dynamics. It's fine to take a deep interest in computers, dance, language or any other discipline, but not if it jeopardizes breadth.

If you fall into an obsessive pattern in high school, you've got two problems. One is that you're unlikely to change when you go to college. The other is that if you don't get reasonably good grades, it's hard to go to a college that has the highly motivated, capable students who can really help you learn about the world.

In college it's appropriate to think about specialization. Getting real expertise in an area of interest can lead to success——unless the specialty ends up being a dead end or you're not good at. Graduate school is one way to get specialized knowledge, although extended college education isn't always a good investment from a purely economic standpoint.

Choose the best answer to each question based on the information you obtain from the passage.

1. What does Gates mean by "education counts"?

A) Education teaches us how to count numbers.

B) Education is important to everyone.

C) One learns by getting an education.

D) Education is the only way to success.

2. From the passage we know that __________.

A) many people are interested in the success story of Gates

B) Gates dropped out of college because he didn't do well

C) the smart part-time programmer dropped out of school

D) Gates is going back to Harvard to get a degree

3. Gates tells us that __________.

A) Microsoft Corp. has some successful high school dropouts

B) Microsoft Corp. doesn't care much about school education and diplomas

C) he encouraged the bright part-time programmer to drop out of school

D) it is easier to get a job with a college diploma than without one

4. According to Gates, __________.

A) one learns better in a library

B) one learns better by self-study

C) one learns better by going to school

D) it's bad to have many interests

5. It can be inferred from the passage that __________.

A) good universities usually get smart and capable students

B) one gets specialized knowledge from graduate school

C) one learns broadly at both high school and college

D) it's fine to become deeply interested in one specific area

译文:

奉告学子:教育是关键

比尔·盖茨

每年都有数以百计的学生给我发电子邮件,要我就接受教育给他们提建议。他们想知道该学些什么,或者可不可以从大学辍学,因为我就没有读完大学。

也有不少家长给我写信,为子女寻求指导。他们问:“我们怎样才能把孩子引向成功之路?”

我的基本忠告很简单,而且是发自内心的:全力获得最佳教育,充分利用高中和大学,学会如何学习。

不错,为创建微软,我未完成大学学业,不过辍学之前我已经在哈佛呆了三年,而且我真心希望有一天能重返校园。以前我也说过,谁也不应该辍学,除非他坚信自己正面临着一个一生仅有一次的机会,但就算在那个时候也还是应该深思熟虑。

在俄亥俄州教六年级的老师凯西·克里德兰写道,“我的好几个学生声称你根本没有读完高中。因为你成功了,我的学生就觉得他们也可以不必要接受良好的教育。”

我高中毕业了的!

计算机行业中确实有很多人没有读完大学,但是我从来没有见过有谁高中没读完就成功创业的。确切地说,我认识的人当中根本没有高中辍学的,更没有高中辍学后事业成功的。

我的公司创立早期,有一个相当出色的兼职程序员,声称要从高中辍学来做全职。我们叫他不要这么做。

我们公司里确实有好些人没有读完大学,但我们不希望人们辍学。谁要想在我们公司谋职,有毕业证书肯定会优先考虑。

不一定只有在大学才能获取信息,在图书馆也可以学习。但人家递给你一本书并不能自动地让你学到东西。你需要向别人学习,提问题,将设想付诸实施,设法验证自己的能力。这一切,往往不是读一两本书就可以做得到的。

接受的教育应该是广泛的,虽然对某些领域情有独钟也不失为一件好事。

读高中时,我有一段时间醉心于软件编写,但大部分时间里,我的学习兴趣相当广泛。我父母鼓励我这么做,对此我感激不尽。

大学期间,我修了很多不同的课程,但我从头至尾只选修了一门计算机课。我读书涉猎很广。

有位家长写信说,她15岁的儿子“钻进计算机无底洞里了”。他的网站设计课得了“A”,但别的科目分数都在下降,她写道。

这个孩子犯了一个错误。高中和大学给你提供了最佳机会,你可以广泛学习——数学,历史,各种学科——有机会跟着别的孩子一起做项目,亲身感受到群体的动力。你对计算机、舞蹈、语言或其他任何的科目有深入的兴趣也无可厚非,但太偏执而舍弃学习广度就不是一件好事了。

如果高中阶段兴趣过于集中,你会面临两个问题。第一个就是进了大学以后你很可能没法改变。另一个问题就是如果分数不够高,你就很难考入大学,而无法向那些积极性很高,很有才能的学生一起学习,他们可以真正帮助你了解这个世界。

大学期间可以适当考虑专业的问题。深入掌握自己感兴趣的领域的专业知识,能够引导你走向成功,除非这个专业没有发展前途,或者你并不很擅长这个方面。读研究生是获取专业知识的一个途径,虽然从纯经济角度来看,大学毕业后再接受教育不一定算是明智的投资。

参考答案:

1.B;

2. A;

3. D;

4. C;

5. A

Never Give Up

They told him to quit, that he wasn't good enough, but figure skater Paul Wylie refused to listen. When he stepped off the plane in Washington, D.C., following the 1992 Winter Games, and everyone in the terminal started clapping, Paul Wylie almost stopped in his tracks. Who's behind me? He wondered. Despite the silver medal in his pocket, he couldn't believe that the applause was for him. From that moment on, Paul recognized that his life would never be the same.

The silver medal he earned in Albertville, France, ushered the 27-year-old figure skater into a new existence. He was no longer a nobody who choked at big events, like the 1988 Calgary Olympics, where he finished an unimpressive 10th. No longer the recipient of advice from judges who, after Paul's performance in the '91 World Championships, suggested that he quit: "Make room for the younger skaters."

No longer the target of loaded questions from reporters covering the '91 Olympic Trials ("What are you doing here?"). No longer the skater incapable of finishing ahead of U.S. National Champion Todd Eldredge or three-time defending World Champion Kurt Browning of Canada. Now Paul Wylie was an Olympic hero. An athlete who kept going when doubters suggested he quit. A recent Harvard University graduate who had frequently fantasized about life without grueling hours on the ice, but who persevered anyway. A young man who had discovered and demonstrated that goals can be reached no matter how many obstacles and botched attempts lie in the way.

"A reporter who interviewed me at the Closing Ceremonies told me, 'You came here an unknown and now you go home a hero,'" Paul says. "I thought that was interesting, because I was in France and unaware of how my journey was unfolding on U.S. television. It wasn't until I stepped off the plane that I realized people considered me a hero. They were changed by my story. They were changed by the fact that I was able to persevere and win the silver medal even though almost everyone had counted me out."

At times, Paul had almost counted himself out. "Two months before the '92 Olympics, USA Today did a survey of different athletes and asked, 'How often do you contemplate retirement?' The choices were: 'yearly,' 'monthly' or 'weekly.'

"I wrote, 'daily,' because it was hard to keep going. But I just decided, I'm going to persevere and hang in there, because I have a shot."

Things definitely changed in 1992 in Albertville. "To have my story be one that brought tears to people's eyes, because of the way it turned around —that changed my life as well," Paul says. "I looked at my skating career and saw it rewritten and beautiful, as opposed to a big disappointment and many years struggling toward some goal but not reaching it."

With medal in hand, Paul was suddenly ushered into a world of lucrative endorsements and figure-skating world tours, of exclusive events and autograph seekers. Everything you might expect of a celebrity hero, but none of what Paul himself believes merits the honor of that title. "What makes a true hero is selfless service," he says. "Or someone whose life and actions inspire you to be better and to be a bigger person. I don't think that what I did was selfless service.

But God used the story of my life to inspire others."

Heroism, Paul has observed, requires daily maintenance. Just as a skater achieves perfection by practicing small parts of his larger routine day after day, a hero must look for ways to serve on a regular basis —not just in a crisis or more visible situation.

an Olympic medal loses its luster after years of storage, a hero will lose his credibility if he stops looking to the needs of others. When Paul joins the thousands of others watching the Olympics in Salt Lake City, he knows that behind the scenes of each victory, of each record-setting finish, stand countless stories of everyday heroes. Heroes who refuse to give up.

Choose the best answer to each question with the information you obtain from the passage.

1. Which of the following proverbs is most appropriate in describing Paul Wylie and his achievement?

A) All things will come round to him who will but wait.

B) A smooth sea never makes a skillful mariner.

C) Time past cannot be called back again.

D) Success belongs to the persevering.

2. Paul Wylie had no idea that the applause was for him when he stepped off the plane because __________.

A) he didn't realize that he had become a national hero

B) he thought there was a celebrity walking behind him

C) he didn't think it was a big deal to win a silver medal

D) he thought he was still the same person as before

3. Paul Wylie had experienced all of the following except that __________.

A) he was left behind by nine skaters in the 1988 Calgary Olympics

B) he was advised to quit skating and give opportunity to younger skaters

C) he didn't skate as well as Todd Eldredge and Kurt Browning in competitions

D) he had an excellent performance in the '91 Olympic Trials and won

4. Many people counted Paul Wylie out because __________.

A) they knew that he was going to retire soon

B) he decided to persevere and hang it there

C) they didn't think that he would be able to win a medal

D) he had been doing extremely well and was likely to win

5. According to Paul Wylie, a hero is one __________.

A) who only stands up in times of crisis or in more visible situations

B) who does good deeds regularly or inspires others with his own action

C) who skates to achieve perfection by practicing small parts every day

D) who is going to set a record in the Olympics to be held in Salt Lake City

译文:

永不放弃

人们劝他引退,说他天分不够,但是花样滑冰选手保罗·怀利拒绝放弃。

1992年冬奥会闭幕后,保罗·怀利抵达华盛顿。走下飞机时,欢迎的人群开始鼓掌。他差点停下了脚步。谁在后面呀?他心里嘀咕。虽说有银牌在囊中,他怎么也不敢相信这掌

声是献给他的。从那一刻起,保罗意识到自己的生活从此永远地改变了。

这位27岁的花样滑冰运动员在法国的阿尔贝维尔获得了银牌,从此走向全新的生活。1988年的卡尔加里冬奥会上,他表现平平,只得了第10名,可如今他再也不是在大型赛事中举止失措的无名小卒了;1991年的世界锦标赛上,保罗比赛完后,裁判建议他退出冰坛,“给年轻选手让位”,如今再也听不到这样的建议了。

跟踪报道1991年冬奥会选拔赛的记者们曾问他“你来这儿干什么?”,如今再也不会有这种别有用心的提问了。他再也不是美国冠军托德·埃尔德雷奇的手下败将,再也不会被三度问鼎世界冠军宝座的加拿大运动员库尔特·布朗宁甩在身后。

现在保罗·怀利成了奥运英雄。虽然有些人对他没有信心,建议他放弃,可他仍然勇往直前。虽然这个刚出校门的哈佛毕业生经常幻想,离开严酷的冰上训练生活会是怎样,但依然苦苦坚持着;这个年轻人发现:不管途中有多少障碍,要经历多少次失败,目标终能实现,而且他证明了这一点。

保罗说:“闭幕式上我接受采访,有个记者对我说,‘你来时不为人知,归时却名扬四海’。我觉得这话很有意思,因为我当时在法国,根本不知道美国电视是怎么报道这次法国之旅的。走下飞机,我才意识到人们把我当成了英雄。他们对我的看法改变了,因为我们获胜了。他们的看法改变了,因为我坚持不懈并且得了银牌,虽然没什么人看好我。”

有时,保罗也几乎不看好自己了。“92年冬奥会两个月前,《今日美国》对运动员们进行了一次调查,问道,你经常考虑退役吗?选项有:‘每年’、‘每月’、‘每周’。”

“我写的是‘每天’,因为要坚持下去实在是太难了。但我还是下定决心要坚持下去,决不放弃,我要全力拼搏。”

1992年在阿尔贝维尔,事情完全改观了。保罗说:“我的经历使人们热泪盈眶,因为结果出人意料。这同时也改变了我的生活,我看着自己的冰上生涯从此被改写,变得精彩纷呈。其实也可能会是另一种结局:多年的努力化为乌有,结果令人大失所望。”

手中拿着奖牌,保罗突然进入到一个全新的世界:财源不断的签约、花样滑冰巡回赛、独家采访、追星族要求签名。总之,凡是一个声名雀起的英雄能得到的一切他都得到了,但保罗认为这一头衔值得称道的东西远不在此。

保罗说:“无私的奉献能造就真正的英雄;用自己的经历和行为激励别人上进,变得更高尚,也算是一种英雄。我认为我没有无私地奉献,但上帝用我的生活经历去激励了别的人。”

保罗还说,英雄是需要日日维护的。要达到完美的地步,滑冰选手需苦练每个细小的动作,日复一日不能懈怠,英雄也一样,应该日日奉献,而不只是在危机关头或者在众人瞩目之时才有所作为。

收藏多年之后,奥运奖牌会退去它最初的光泽;若是不再关注别人的需要,英雄也会失去其知名度。和成千上万的人们一同观看盐湖城冬奥会时,保罗很清楚,每个胜利的背后,每次打破记录的背后,都有无数日日坚持不懈英雄的故事,那种永不放弃的英雄故事。

参考答案:

1.D,

2.A,

3.D,

4.C,

5.B

Things I Learned From Dad

Three successful people reveal how fathers shape their destiny.

Rebecca Lobo: Be Loving

I knew —even when I was very young —just how much my mom and dad loved each other. Whenever one of them went out, they kissed each other good-bye. My brother, sister and I thought

this was gross! But when I get married, I can only hope that I will have found someone who loves me as much as Dad loves Mom. Because there was always so much love in the family, I grew up with an incredible security blanket.

Mom battled breast cancer when I was in college. Despite his worry, Dad was a pillar of strength for us and especially for her. After her mastectomy, she decided against the added trauma of breast-reconstruction surgery. Mom told me that in their entire marriage Dad never suggested that she even change her hairstyle. Instead he has always told her how beautiful she is. And that’s why she thinks fighting cancer wasn’t as hard a s it could have been. She knew that no matter what, Dad and his love would be there.

Rebecca Lobo, a former College Player of the Year, plays basketball for the WNBA’s New York Liberty.

Richard Branson: Encourage

My sisters and I grew up in a little village in England. Our father was a struggling lawyer, but I always knew he was special. He never criticized, but used praise to bring out our best. He'd say, “If you pour water on flowers, they flourish. If you don’t give them water, they die.”

I remember as a child I said something unkind about somebody, and my father said, “Any time you say something unpleasant about somebody else, it’s a reflection of you.”He explained that if I looked for the best in people, I would get the best in return. I've tried to follow this principle in running my company.

Dad's also always been very understanding. At 15, I started a magazine. It was taking up a great deal of my time, and the headmaster of my school gave me a choice: stay in school or leave to work on my magazine.

I decided to leave, and Dad tried to sway me from my decision, as any good father would. When he realized I had made up my mind, he said, “Richard, when I was 23, my dad persuaded me to go into law. And I've always regretted it. I wanted to be an archeologist, but I didn’t pursue my dream. You know what you want. Go fulfill that dream.”

As it turned out, my little publication went on to become Student, a national magazine for young people in the U.K. My wife and I have two children, and I’d like to think we are bringing them up in the same way Dad raised me.

Richard Branson is chairman of the Virgin Group of Companies, which owns Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin Entertainment and Virgin Cola.

John Lewis: Have Hope

As a young boy, I used to complain about having to get up so early to work on our farm in Troy, Ala. One day my father took me aside and said, “Son, we have to do this in order to make things better. Hang in there and things will improve.”

Dad was an optimist by nature, and he instilled in me this concept of hope about the future. He also taught us that we couldn’t just be concerned about our own circumstances. We also had to be concerned about others.

I saw my father always giving and always sharing. We didn’t have that much to share or to give, but he had faith that things would work out—even under tremendously difficult conditions. There was a lot of fear back then in Alabama. Segregation was very rigid. Water fountains for us were marked “Colored,”and we could only walk on one side of the street. But somehow he survived under these circumstances without becoming bitter, angry or hateful.

My father passed away in 1977. But if he had lived to see my election to Congress he would

have been very proud and happy. I'd like to believe that he's looking down and watching me today. John Lewis represents Georgia’s 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Choose the best answer to each question based on the information you obtain from the passage.

1. Anyone who reads the stories about the three fathers will agree that ________.

A) fathers play an important role in the lives of their children

B) fathers like to design their children's future for them

C) fathers are much tougher than mothers to their children

D) fathers are usually the breadwinners in a family

2. By describing her father as "a pillar of strength", Lobo tells us that ________.

A) her father is very important to the whole family

B) her father loves her mother very much

C) her father is very tall and strong

D) her father is very supportive of her

3. What does Branson's father mean by saying "If you pour water on flowers, they flourish"?

A) Flowers depend on water to blossom.

B) One gets fresh flowers if he waters them.

C) Praising a child helps to bring out the best in him.

D) Criticizing a child helps him to make progress.

4. From the passage, we can conclude that ________.

A) Branson's father has been a successful lawyer

B) Branson's father encouraged him to quit school

C) Branson's father was confident of his success

D) Branson's father has been understanding and supportive

5. Lewis tells us that ________.

A) he enjoyed farm work very much when he was young

B) he grew up in an environment with very serious racial discrimination

C) his father taught them how to protect themselves in a hostile environment

D) his father was happy to hear that he had been elected to Congress

译文:

父亲的教诲

三位成功人士讲述父亲怎样塑造我们的人生。

瑞贝卡·洛伯:充满爱心

自小我就知道,父亲和母亲深深相爱。只要单独出门,他们总会吻别,我们兄妹几个觉得挺肉麻的,可结婚时,我却满心希望所找到的这个人,能像父亲爱母亲那样爱着我。在我家,爱无处不在,我成长的过程很有安全感,真是妙不可言。

我上大学时,母亲在与乳腺癌作斗争。父亲自己忧心忡忡,却是我们的精神支柱,对母亲而言尤其如此。做了乳房切除术之后,母亲决定不接受乳房再造术,以免再受手术之苦,母亲告诉我,在他们一起走过的日子里,父亲甚至不曾叫她改变发型。相反,他总是对她说,她是多么的美丽动人。正因为这样,与癌症作斗争,对她而言,倒也并不是多么可怕的事。她深知,不管发生什么事,父亲和他的爱总是会和她在一起。

注:瑞贝卡·洛伯曾当选全美“大学最佳球员”,曾是美国女子职业篮球协会的纽约自

大学英语四级阅读理解试题及标准答案.

大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案.

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3 大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案(四) 十六 Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and , fortunately,the number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more damage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way. First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desired shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to make the tree healthier. You may cut diseaed or dead wood, or branches that are rubbing against each other and thus cause wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air. One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but itis a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the desease as to whether the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when the tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce which has been pruned smooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hurs and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves and also it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If this does happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint them properly. 1.Pruning should be done to ______. a.make the tree grow taller

大学英语阅读训练五篇

Passage 1 There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life. Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom. But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about the rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of student. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools. You now know what open education is. Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, want some structure in their classes. They want to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to. 1.Open education allows the students to ____. A.grow as the educated B.be responsible for their future C.develop their own interests D.discover subjects outside class 2. Open education may be a good idea for the students who ____. A.enjoy learning B.worry about grades C.do well in a traditional classroom D.are responsible for what they do in life 3. Some students will do little in an open classroom because ____. A.there are too few rules B.they hate activities C.open education is similar to the traditional education D.they worry about the rules 4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?____ A.Some traditional teachers do not like it.

大学英语B 阅读理解答案

阅读理解 B 42、Martin Luther King was a black minister, who became a great leader of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. When he was young, he was strongly influenced by Thoreau and Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi's idea of non-violent resistance. Having received a Ph. D (Doctor of Philosophy) from Boston University, he became a political and religious leader of the non-violent civil relights movement in 1955. On August 28, 1963, he led over 250,000 Americans on a march in Washington D.C. to fight for the Civil Rights Law to guarantee equality for all people, and delivered his best known speech "I Have a Dream" before the Lincoln Memorial. The "dream" is a dream of brotherly love and equality for the Black and White. Thus, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1964, but he was murdered four years later. Though he died, he was greatly respected and loved by the Americans, both the white and the black. By vote of Congress in 1968, the third Monday of every January is now a federal holiday in Luther King's honor. He lives in people's hearts forever. (1)、Martin Luther King was murdered when he was 39 years old. A:T B:F 答案:A (2)、Martin Luther King was a black minister only. A:T B:F 答案:B (3)、Martin Luther King's Day has been a federal holiday for more than 40 years. A:T B:F 答案:A (4)、The underlined word "delivered" in the second paragraph could be replaced by "gave". A:T B:F 答案:A (5)、The best title for this passage is "Civil Rights Law". A:T B:F 答案:B 43、A public house which was recently bought by Mr. James is up for sale. He is going to sell it because it is haunted (闹鬼的). He told me that he could not go to sleep one night because he heard a strange noise coming from the bar. The next morning, he found that the doors had been blocked by chairs and the furniture had been moved. Though Mr. James had turned the lights off before he went to bed, they were on in the morning. He also said that he had found five empty whisky bottles which the ghost (鬼) must have drunk the night before. When I suggested that some villagers must have come in for a free drink, he shook his head. The villagers have told him that they will not accept it even if he gives it away. (1)、Mr. James was the owner of the public house. A:T B:F 答案:A (2)、Mr. James had not turned off the lights that night. A:T B:F 答案:B (3)、Mr. James built the house. A:T B:F 答案:B (4)、Mr. James found sixty empty bottles. A:T B:F 答案:B (5)、The writer of the passage believes Mr. James' story. A:T B:F 答案:B 44、Great changes have been made in family life because of science and industry. In the past, when more Americans lived on farms, the typical family had many children. In a farm family, parents and their children often lived with grandparents. Often, too, uncles and aunts lived nearby. But when industry became more important than agriculture in American life, families became smaller because industry requires workers who are ready and able to move off the land and to move again whenever necessary. And large families can not be moved from place to place as smaller families can. So, at present people tend to have smaller families. In the future, because of industrialization, a typical family will be required to move even more often than now, so families will be even smaller. The typical family may remain childless and consists only of a man and a woman. A small number of families may take child raising as their chief work. At the same time they may also raise other people's children, leaving those families free to move from job to job. (1)、The passage discusses influence of science and industry on American families. A:T B:F 答案:A (2)、Families of the past, the present and the future are described in the passage. A:T B:F 答案:A (3)、People no longer want to have children. A:T B:F 答案:B (4)、Grandparents will take the chief responsibility of raising children in the future. A:T B:F 答案:B (5)、Large families cannot fit in with a highly industrialized society. A:T B:F 答案:A 45、My husband had just bought a new washing machine for me. I decided to use it and I washed a lot of things. Everything worked well, but I found one of my husband's socks missing. I looked everywhere for it, but I couldn't find it anywhere. The next morning, I got ready for school as usual. When the bell rang, the students came in. I greeted them first and then told them what we were going to do that day. When I turned around to write on the blackboard, the class broke out a roar! They laughed and laughed. They laughed so much, in fact, that I was afraid the headmaster would be into seeing all this. I asked the class to stop, but the more I talked, the more they laughed. I decided to pay no attention to them and I continued to write on the blackboard. When I did this, they roared even more. Finally, the teacher who had the room next to mine came in to see what all the laughter was about. When he came in, he started laughing, too!

(完整版)大学英语四级阅读理解解题技巧

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大学英语B阅读理解练习题及答案

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