As prices and building costs keep rising, the“do-it-yourself”(DIY)trend(趋势)in the U.S. continues to grow.
“We needed furniture(家具)for our living room,” says John Ross,“and we just didn’t have enough money to buy it. So we decided to try making a few tables and chairs.” John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high. The Rosses took a 2-week course for $280 at a night school. Now they build all their furniture and make repairs around the house.
Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died. He has a full time job at home as well as in a shoe making factory. Last month, he received a car repair bill for $420.“I was deeply upset about it. Now I’ve finished a car repair course, I should be able to fix the car by myself.”
John and Jim are not unusual people. Most families in the country are doing everything they can to save money so they can fight the high cost of living. If you
want to become a “do-it-yourselfer”, you can go to DIY classes. And for those who don’t have time to take a course, there are books that tell you how you can do things yourself.
小题1:We can learn from the text that many married people_________.| A．find it hard to pay for what they need | | B．have to learn to make their own furniture | | C．take DIY courses run by the government | | D．seldom go to a department store to buy things |
小题2:When the writer says that Jim has a full-time job at home, he means Jim_________.| A．makes shoes in his home | | B．does extra work at night | | C．does his own car and home repairs | | D．keeps house and looks after his children |
小题3:Jim Hatfield decided to become a do-it-yourself when__________.| A．his car repairs cost too much | | B．the car repair class was not helpful | | C．he could not possibly do two jobs | | D．he had to raise the children all by himself |
小题4:What would be the best title for the text?| A．The Joy of DIY | B．You Can Do It Too! | | C．Welcome to Our DIY Course | D．Ross and Hatfield Believers in DIY |
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小题1:A
小题2:D
小题3:A
小题4:B |
试题分析：本文叙述了随着物价和房价的上涨，在美国“自己动手”(DIY)的趋势也在继续增长。“文中罗斯夫妇交了280美元参加了一个为期两周的夜校学习。现在他们不光自己制作了全部的家具，还亲自动手进行家中所有的维修工作。如果你想成为一个“自己动手的人”，你可以参加一些DIY课程。对于那些没有时间听课的人来说，还有一些书会告诉你如何自己动手。
小题1:细节理解题。根据John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high.因为生活费用高他们很难支付他们所需的东西，故选A。
小题2:推理判断题。根据Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died.吉姆在家照顾孩子料理家务，故选D。
小题3:细节理解题。根据Last month, he received a car repair bill for $420.“I was deeply upset about it.故选A。
小题4:标题归纳题。因为整篇短文主要叙述的是要自己动手做一些力所能及的事情以减少自己的生活开支，故选B。
点评：做标题归纳题时还要遵循三个原则，即注意题的醒目性、概括性和针对性。醒目性——我们所判断的标题如果放在文章的最前面，应该能使读者一看到标题就对其内容发生兴趣，即，吸引读者的眼球；概括性——指标题应最大限度地覆盖全文，囊括文章的主要内容，体现文章的主题；针对性——我们所选的标题不能偏题，必须指向具体文意，因此也应具备强烈的针对性。 |
核心考点
试题【As prices and building costs keep rising, the“do-it-yourself”(DIY)trend(趋势)in th】；主要考察你对
题材分类等知识点的理解。
[详细]举一反三
A serious problem for today"s society is who should be responsible for our elderly and how to improve their lives. It is not only a financial problem but also a question of the system we want for our society. I would like to suggest several possible solutions to this problem.
First, employers should take the responsibility for their retired employees. To make this possible, a percentage of profits should be set aside for this purpose. But when a company must take life-long responsibility for its employees, it may suffer from a commercial disadvantage due to higher employee costs.
Another way of solving the problem is to return the responsibility to the individual. This means each person must save during his working years to pay for his years of retirement. This does not seem a very fair model since some people have enough trouble paying for their daily life without trying to earn extra to cover their retirement years. This means the government might have to step in to care for the poor.
In addition, the government could take responsibility for the care of the elderly. This could be financed through government taxes to increase the level of pensions. Furthermore, some institutions should be created for senior citizens, which can help provide a comfortable life for them. Unfortunately, as the present situation in our country shows, this is not a truly viable answer. The government can seldom afford to care for the elderly, particularly when it is busy trying to care for the young.
One further solution is that the government or social organizations establish some working places especially for the elderly where they are independent.
To sum up, all these options have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some combination of these options may be needed to provide the care we hope to give to our elderly generations.
小题1:What is the passage mainly about?| A．The problems faced by the old in society. | | B．Why we should take responsibility for the old. | | C．How we can improve the lives of the old. | | D．Where the old can go to get their pensions. |
小题2: The underlined word "viable" most probably means" ".| A．impossible | B．practical | C．useful | D．important |
小题3:What is the writer"s main purpose in writing this article?| A．To point out the need for government support for old people. | | B．To make general readers aware of the problems of retired people. | | C．To discuss some possible solutions to an important social problem. | | D．To instruct retired people on how they can have a happier life. |
小题4:The text is most likely to be found in a book about____. | A．social science | B．historical events | | C．political problem | D．political systems |
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Chinese people are now spending more time surfing the net than watching TV, according to results of a survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) published Thursday.
The survey, of citizens of five Chinese cities, found that 79 percent of interviewees use the internet for information, and 55.1 percent to read news on the internet. About 63 percent of the interviewees use e-mail. The average times spent surfing the net and watching TV were 2.73 hours and 1.29hours, respectively.
Only 10.4 percent reported use the internet primarily to send and receive email; 65.9 percent read online news; 62.2 quite often play games on-line. More and more people have taken an interest in the entertainment opportunities online. Up to 56.5 percent of interviewees quite often download music, and 53.5 percent get entertainment messages from the internet.
Yet the survey found that television is still the dominant mass medium. Seventy-nine percent of interviewees choose to watch TV to get information, and another 75 percent take newspapers as important as TV.
Five major web sites in the Chinese language, namely Sina, Sohu, Netease, Baidu and Yahoo are still ranked top ones by web users, and those that voted for Sina as the best among them were 30.9 percent.
Authorized statistics showed that web users in China have already exceeded 100 million, second to that of the United States.
小题1:Which of the following is not true?| A．Chinese people are now spending more time surfing the net than watching TV. | | B．There are more Chinese people using the internet for information compared with those reading news on the internet. | | C．There are more people using e-mail compared with those searching information on the internet. | | D．There are more people using e-mail compared with those reading news on the internet. |
小题2:The survey shows that .| A．Only 10.4% reported use the internet to send and receive email. | | B．Less than half of the people use the internet for enter fain-ment. | | C．All of the people reported like to play games on-line. | | D．Most of the people reported read online news. |
小题3:Which will you choose if you want to chat with your friends on the internet?| A．TV | B．Sina | C．telephone | D．QQ |
小题4:The underlined word “exceeded” means .| A．increased to | B．increased by | C．risen | D．decreased |
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When it comes to human resources, hiring highly-skilled staff is not usually enough for a company to function successfully. Besides the knowledge in their particular fields, employees must always have additional skills-----those of co-operation. In the case that work tasks can only be carried out by communicating with people, accepting common decisions, solving problems, sharing information and helping one another, teamwork skills are important.
While some jobs may require talent, the ability to work as a team is learned. There are no complicated formulas(规则); you don"t need to have any special qualities or exceptional mental abilities. Individuals can be effective as a team if they have developed certain behaviors or habits of communication. Many companies, clubs and organizations use team building activities. Team building activities may include a number of teamwork elements. They are aimed at encouraging active participation in task accomplishment while all members have their roles as individuals and are able to co-operate towards a common goal as a team.
Many team building activities focus on problem solving and discussing team issues; thus argument as a way to common consensus (共识) is encouraged. Team building activities often involve recognition and identification of team member skills, talents, knowledge, and experiences which allow the team members to learn more about each other and fully utilize (利用) those skills where appropriate（合适的）. Many team activities are focused on developing keys to trust during challenging times.
小题1:In the author"s opinion, which of the following is important for a company to be successful?| A．Specialized knowledge. | B．Highly-skilled staff. | | C．Exceptional talent. | D．Teamwork skills. |
小题2:According to the second paragraph, co-operation skills______.| A．require special qualities and abilities | | B．are learned while working in a team | | C．need exceptional mental abilities | | D．are quite complicated to learn |
小题3:Team building activities are good for______.| A．hiring employees with special talent | | B．encouraging employees to co-operate | | C．helping employees work independently | | D．training employees in their special fields |
小题4:What is the best title of the passage?| A．Team Building | B．Problem Solving | | C．Communication Skills | D．Company Management |
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完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）
It’s 10:30 p.m., and 11-year-old Brandon Blanco is sound asleep at home. Suddenly, a loud noise (1)____ him up. Naturally, Brandon (2) ____ his cell phone. He blinks twice, and the message on the screen becomes clear: “R U awake?”
The (3) ____ text does not annoy Brandon since he gets frequent (4) ____ and calls, even after bedtime. And he can’t imagine life without them. “If I didn’t have a cell phone, I wouldn’t be able to talk to my friends or family as often,” he told the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Brandon’s use of (5) ____ doesn’t stop there. He also has a computer, a TV and three video-game consoles（控制台）in his room. With so many (6) ____, it is no surprise that when he is not at school, he spends nearly every (7) ____ minute using one or more of these devices. Brandon is hardly (8) ____. According to a recent study by TFK, kids aged 8 to 18 are spending more time than ever before using (9) ____ devices. How much time? More than seven and a half hours a day (10) ____, the study found. That’s about an hour more than just five years ago.
The jump is the result of a huge explosion in mobile devices, says Victoria Rideout, the lead author of the study. “These devices have opened up many more (11) ____ for young people to use media, whether it’s on the bus, on the way to school or waiting in line before the cashier,” says Rideout.
Often, kids (12) ____, or use more than one device at a time. “If you’ve got a chance to do something on your (13) ____ and take a phone call and have the TV on at the same time, why not?” Media expert Cheryl Olson says. Most experts agree technology has much to (34) ____ kids. But some worry the kids could be (15) ____ other (16) ____ like playing outside or (17) ____ with friends. “It’s a matter of balance,” says Olson.
Multitasking while (18) ____ is another concern. Some kids listen to music, watch TV or use the phone while doing their homework. “It’s important to make sure that you should (19) ____ one thing deeply,” says Rideout.
With new and exciting devices hitting stores every year, keeping technology use (20) ____ is more important than ever. “Kids should try,” adds Rideout. “But parents might have to step in sometimes.”
| 小题1: | | A．wakes | B．takes | C．makes | D．gets |
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| 小题2: | | A．reaches for | B．takes out | C．puts out | D．turn off |
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| 小题3: | | A．early | B．afternoon | C．morning | D．night |
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| 小题4: | | A．books | B．messages | C．letters | D．passages |
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| 小题5: | | A．cell phones | B．papers | C．technology | D．words |
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| 小题6: | | A．friends | B．assignments | C．devices | D．interrupts |
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| 小题7: | | A．working | B．speaking | C．sleeping | D．waking |
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| 小题8: | | A．happy | B．alone | C．tired | D．worried |
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| 小题9: | | A．electric | B．useful | C．electronic | D．fashionable |
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| 小题10: | | A．on average | B．in total | C．for fun | D．without stop |
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| 小题11: | | A．jobs | B．machines | C．rooms | D．opportunities |
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| 小题12: | | A．like | B．enjoy | C．hate | D．multitask |
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| 小题13: | | A．computer | B．desk | C．own | D．time |
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| 小题14: | | A．employ | B．offer | C．attract | D．tell |
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| 小题15: | | A．setting up | B．missing out | C．working with | D．relying on |
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| 小题16: | | A．methods | B．ways | C．chances | D．activities |
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| 小题17: | | A．helping out | B．fighting with | | C．hanging out | D．looking after |
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| 小题18: | | A．listening to music | B．watching TV | | C．using phone call | D．doing homework |
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| 小题19: | | A．looking for | B．concentrate on | | C．staring at | D．writing down |
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| 小题20: | | A．in check | B．at the same time | C．more often | D．less often |
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Long after the 1998 World Cup was won, disappointed fans were still cursing the disputed refereeing decisions that denied victory to their team. A researcher was appointed to study the performance of some top referees.
The researcher organized an experimental tournament involving four youth teams. Each match lasted an hour, divided into three periods of 20 minutes during which different referees were in charge.
Observers noted down the referees’ errors, of which there were 61 over the tournament. Converted to a standard match of 90 minutes, each referee made almost 23 mistakes, a remarkably high number.
The researcher then studied the videotapes to analyse the matches in detail. Surprisingly, he found that errors were more likely when the referees were close to the incident. When the officials got it right, they were, on average, 17 meters away from the action. The average distance in the case of errors was 12 meters. The research shows the optimum (最佳的) distance is about 20 meters.
There also seemed to be an optimum speed. Correct decisions came when the referees were moving at a speed of about 2 meters per second. The average speed for errors was 4 meters per second.
If FIFA, football’s international ruling body, wants to improve the standard of refereeing at the next World Cup, it should encourage referees to keep their eyes on the action from a distance, rather than rushing to keep up with the ball, the researcher argues.
He also says that FIFA’s insistence that referees should retire at age 45 may be misguided. If keeping up with the action is not so important, their physical condition is less critical.
小题1:The experiment conducted by the researcher was meant to ________.| A．review the decisions of referees at the 1998 World Cup | | B．analyse the causes of errors made by football referees | | C．set a standard for football refereeing | | D．reexamine the rules for football refereeing |
小题2:The number of refereeing errors in the experimental matches was ________.| A．slightly above average | B．higher than in the 1998 World Cup | | C．quite unexpected | D．as high as in a standard match |
小题3:The findings of the experiment show that ________.| A．errors are more likely when a referee keeps close to the ball | | B．the farther the referee is from the incident, the fewer the errors | | C．the more slowly the referee runs, the more likely errors will occur | | D．errors are less likely when a referee stays in one spot |
小题4:The word “officials” (Para. 4) most probably refers to ________.| A．the researchers involved in the experiment | | B．the inspectors of the football tournament | | C．the referees of the football tournament | | D．the observers at the site of the experiment |
小题5:What is one of the possible conclusions of the experiment?| A．The ideal retirement age for an experienced football referee is 45. | | B．Age should not be the chief consideration in choosing a football referee. | | C．A football referee should be as young and energetic as possible. | | D．An experienced football referee can do well even when in poor physical condition. |
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