LakeLander                                              ·2 hours ago

       Today, a man talked very loud on his phone on a train between Malvern and Reading, making

many passengers upset. I wonder how he would react if I were to read my

newspaperoutloudonthetrain, Ihave never had the courage to do it, though.

Pak50                                             ···     ·57 minutes ago

Why not give it a try? Perhaps you should take lessons on a musical instrument. The late musician Dennis Brian is said to have asked a fellow train passenger to turn off his radio. When his request was refused, he took out his French horn(号) and started to practice.

Angie O’Edema·                                         42 minutes ago

I don’ t see how musical instruments can help improve manners in public. Don’t do to others what you wouldn’t like to be done to yourself. Once, a passenger next to me talked out loud on his mobile phone. I left my seat quietly, giving him some privacy to finish his conversation. He realized this and apologised to me. When his phone rang again later, he left his seat to answer it. You see, a bit of respect and cooperation can do the job better.

Taodas                              ·29 minutes ago

I did read my newspaper out loud on a train, and it turned out well. The guy took it in good part, and we chatted happily all the way to Edinburgh.

Sophie 76                                     ·13minutes ago

I have not tried reading my newspaper out loud on a train, but ,several years ago, I read some chapters from Harry Porter to my bored and noisy children. Several passengers seemed to appreciate what I did.

1.The passenger made an apology to Angie O’Edema because____.

A. he offered his seat to someone else

B. he spoke very loudly on his phone

C. he refused to talk with Angie

D. he ignored Angie’s request

2.Who once read a newspaper out loud on a train?

A. Pak50        B. Angie O’Edema                C. Taodas                     D. Sophie76

3.What is the discussion mainly about?

A. How to react to bad behavior.                 B. How to kill time on a train.

C. How to chat with strangers.                          D. How to make a phone call.

4.Where is the passage most probably taken from?

A. A webpage.        B. A newspaper.                   C. A novel.                    D. A report.

Freedom and Responsibility

Freedom’s challenge in the Digital Age is a serious topic. We are facing today a strange new world and we are all wondering what we are going to do with it.

     Some 2,500 years ago Greece discovered freedom. Before that there was no freedom. There were great civilizations, splendid empires, but no freedom anywhere. Egypt and Babylon were both  tyrannies, one very powerful man ruling over helpless masses.

     In Greece, in Athens (雅典), a little city in a little country, there were no helpless masses. And Athenians willingly obeyed the written laws which they themselves passed, and the unwritten, which must be obeyed if free men live together.      They must show each other kindness and pity and the many qualities without which life would be very painful unless one chose to live alone in the desert.The Athenians never thought that a man was free if he could do what he wanted. A man was free if he was self-controlled. To make yourself obey what you approved was freedom. They were saved from looking at their lives as their own private affair. Each one felt responsible for the welfare of Athens, not because it was forced on him from the outside, but because the city was his pride and his safety. The essential belief of the first free government in the world was liberty for all men who could control themselves and would take responsibility for the state.

    But discovering freedom is not like discovering computers. It cannot be discovered once for all. If people do not prize it, and work for it, it will go. Constant watch is its price. Athens changed. It was a change that took place without being noticed though it was of the extreme importance, a spiritual change which affected the whole state. It had been the Athenian’ s pride and joy to give to their city. That they could get material benefits from her never entered their minds. There had to be a complete change of attitude before they could look at the city as an employer who paid her citizens for doing her work. Now instead of men giving to the state, the state was to give to them. What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them; and with this as the primary object, ideas of freedom and self-reliance and responsibility were neglected to the point of disappearing. Athens was more and more looked on as a cooperative business possessed of great wealth in which all citizens had a right to share.

    Athens reached the point when the freedom she really wanted was freedom from responsibility. There could be only one result. If men insisted on being free from the burden of self-dependence and responsibility for the common good, they would cease to be free. Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom. It is to be had on no other terms. Athens, the Athens of Ancient Greece, refused responsibility; she reached the end of freedom and was never to have it again.

    But, “the excellent becomes the permanent”, Aristotle said. Athens lost freedom forever, but freedom was not lost forever for the world. A great American, James Madison, referred to: “The capacity (能力) of mankind for self-government.” No doubt he had not an idea that he was speaking Greek. Athens was not in the farthest background of his mind, but once man has a great and good idea, it is never completely lost. The Digital Age cannot destroy it. Somehow in this or that man’s thought such an idea lives though unconsidered by the world of action. One can never be sure that it is not on the point of breaking out into action only sure that it will do so sometime.

5.What does the underlined word “tyrannies” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A. Countries where their people need help.         B. Powerful states with higher civilization.

C. Splendid empires where people enjoy freedom.   D. Governments ruled with absolute power.

6.People believing in freedom are those who________ .

A. regard their life as their own business         B. seek gains as their primary object

C. behave within the laws and value systems     D. treat others with kindness and pity

7.What change in attitude took place in Athens?

A. The Athenians refused to take their responsibility.

B. The Athenians no longer took pride in the city.

C. The Athenians benefited spiritually from the government.

D. The Athenians looked on the government as a business.

8.What does the sentence “There could be only one result.” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A. Athens would continue to be free.

B. Athens would cease to have freedom.

C. Freedom would come from responsibility.

D. Freedom would stop Athens from self-dependence.

9.Why does the author refer to Aristotle and Madison?

A. The author is hopeful about freedom.

B. The author is cautious about self-government.

C. The author is skeptical of Greek civilization.

D. The author is proud of man’s capacity.

10.What is the author’s understanding of freedom?

A. Freedom can be more popular in the digital age.

B. Freedom may come to an end in the digital age.

C. Freedom should have priority over responsibility.

D. Freedom needs to be guaranteed by responsibility.

    In 2004, when my daughter Becky was ten, she and my husband, Joe, were united in their desire for a dog. As for me, I shared none of their canine lust.

    But why, they pleaded. “Because I don’t have time to take care of a dog.” But we’ll do it. “Really? You’re going to walk the dog? Feed the dog? Bathe the dog?” Yes, yes, and yes. “I don’t believe you.” We will. We promise.

     They didn’t. From day two (everyone wanted to walk the cute puppy that first day) , neither thought to walk the dog. While I was slow to accept that I would be the one to keep track of her shots, to schedule her vet appointments, to feed and clean her, Misty knew this on day one. As she looked up at the three new humans in her life (small, medium, and large), she calculated ,”The medium one is the sucker in the pack .”

     Quickly, she and I developed something very similar to a Vulcan mind meld (心灵融合) . She’d look at me with those sad brown eyes of hers, beam her need, and then wait, trusting I would understand — which, strangely, I almost always did. In no time, she became my fifth appendage(附肢), snoring on my home-office couch as I worked, cradling against my feet as I read, and splaying across my stomach as I watched television.

     Even so, part of me continued to resent walking duty. Joe and Becky had promised. Not fair , I’d balk (不心甘情愿地做) silently as she and I walked . “Not fair, ” I’ d loudly remind anyone within earshot upon our return home.

     Then one day — January 1, 2007 , to be exact — my husband ’ s doctor uttered an unthinkable word: leukemia ( 白血病) .With that, I spent eight to ten hours a day with Joe in the hospital, doing anything and everything I could to ease his discomfort. During those six months of hospitalizations, Becky, 12 at the time, adjusted to other adults being in the house when she returned from school. My work colleagues adjusted to my taking off at a moment's notice for medical emergencies. Every part of my life changed; no part of my old routine remained.

    Save one: Misty still needed walking. At the beginning, when friends offered to take her through her paces, I declined because I knew they had their own households to deal with.

    As the months went by, I began to realize that I actually wanted to walk Misty. The walk in the morning before I headed to the hospital was a quiet, peaceful time to gather my thoughts or to just be before the day's medical drama unfolded. The evening walk was a time to shake off the day's upsets and let the worry tracks in my head go to white noise.

    When serious illness visits your household, it's not just your daily routine and your assumptions about the future that are no longer familiar. Pretty much everyone you know acts differently.

    Not Misty. Take her for a walk, and she had no interest in Joe's blood counts or bone marrow test results. On the street or in the park, she had only one thing on her mind: squirrels! She was so joyous that even on the worst days, she could make me smile. On a daily basis, she reminded me that life goes on.

After Joe died in 2009, Misty slept on his pillow.

I'm grateful一to a point. The truth is, after years of balking, I've come to enjoy my walks with Misty. As I watch her chase after a squirrel, throwing her whole being into the here-and-now of an exercise that has never once ended in victory, she reminds me, too, that no matter how harsh the present or unpredictable the future , there's almost always some measure of joy to be extracted from the moment.

11.why didn't the writer agree to raise a dog at the beginning of the story?

A. She was afraid the dog would get the family into trouble.

B. It would be her business to take care of the dog.

C. Her husband and daughter were united as one.

D. She didn't want to spoil her daughter.

12.Which of the following is the closest in meaning to "The medium one is the sucker in the pack.” (Paragraph 3)?

A. “The middle-aged person loves me most.”

B. “The medium-sized woman is the hostess.”

C. “The man in the middle is the one who has the final say.”

D. “The woman is the kind and trustworthy one in the family.”

13.It can be inferred from Paragraph 3 that_______.

A. Misty was quite clever

B. Misty could solve math problems

C. the writer was a slow learner

D. no one walked Misty the first day

14.The story came to its turning point when________.

A. Joe died in 2009

B. Joe fell ill in 2007

C. the writer began to walk the dog

D. the dog tried to please the writer

15.Why did the writer continue to walk Misty while Joe was in hospital?

    A. Misty couldn’t live without her

B. Her friends didn’t offer any help

C. The walk provided her with spiritual comfort.

D. She didn't want Misty to be others companion.

16.What is the message the writer wants to convey in the passage?

    A. One should learn to enjoy hard times.

    B .A disaster can change everything in life.

    C. Moments of joy suggest that there is still hope ahead.

    D. People will change their attitude toward you when you are in difficulty.

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was one of the most popular of modern artists. The Pompidou Centre in Paris is showing its respect and admiration for the artist and his powerful personality with an exhibition bringing together over 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings and more. Among the works and masterworks on exhibition the visitor will find the best pieces, most importantly The Persistence of Memory. There is also L’Enigme sans Fin from 1938, works on paper, objects, and projects for stage and screen and selected parts from television programmes reflecting the artist’s showman qualities.

The visitor will enter the World of Dali through an egg and is met with the beginning, the world of birth. The exhibition follows a path of time and subject with the visitor exiting through the brain.

The exhibition shows how Dali draws the viewer between two infinities (无限). “From the infinity small to the infinity large, contraction and expansion coming in and out of focus: amazing Flemish accuracy and the showy Baroque of old painting that he used in his museum-theatre in Figueras,” explains the Pompidou Centre.

The fine selection of the major works was done in close collaboration (合作)with the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain, and with contributions from other institutions like the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.

17.Which of the following best describe Dali according to Paragraph 1?

A. Optimistic.     B. Productive      C. Generous.      D. Traditional.

18.What is Dali’s The Persistence of Memory considered to be?

   A. One of his masterworks.

   B. A successful screen adaptation.

   C. An artistic creation for the stage.

   D. One of the beat TV programmes.

19.How are the exhibits arranged at the World of Dali?

A. By popularity.

B. By importance.

C. By size and shape.

D. By time and subject.

20.What does the word “contributions” in the last paragraph refer to?

   A. Artworks.    B. Projects.       C. Donations.      D. Documents.

Mary: Hello． This is Mary． _21.

Mike: Oh, Mary． This is Amy． _22.I' ve got hold of you at last．

Mary: Nice to hear from you again after all these years'． What have you been doing?

Mike: Well, I've tried many things since school． I'm now working for a food processing company in charge of sales． So I travel a lot．

Mary :   23.You must really enjoy it．

Mike: Oh, I do． Yeah, it's interesting, but it's quite tiring．   24.

Mary : I work in a law firm, practicing in business law．

Mike:   25.

Mary: Yeah, but I like my job．