American businesswoman. She and her husband Elliott along with Harold Matt Matson started the toy
company Mattel. She based the design of the new doll on a German doll named Bild Lilli and named her
after their daughter Barbara.
The first Barbie wore a black and white swimsuit and had her hair in a ponytail (马尾辫). She looked
very grown-up. But any concerns that parents would not want to buy it for little girls were soon proved
wrong.
Mattel sold 300,000 Barbie dolls in the first year at a price of three dollars. Today, a fifty-year-old
Barbie in good condition might cost more than 27,000 dollars. Barbie dolls have represented 50 different
nationalities and are sold in 150 countries. Mattel says 90% of girls in the United States between the ages
of three and ten own at least one Barbie doll. It says girls between the ages of three and six own an average
of about 12.
Barbie also faced her share of critics. A well-known example was when women"s education groups
objected to a talking Barbie doll that declared, among other things, “Math class is tough!” Mattel agreed to
change it. Saudi Arabia has banned Barbie dolls. And a lawmaker in the American state of West Virginia
would like to do the same. Last month, he proposed banning sales of Barbie and other dolls that influence
girls to put too much importance on physical beauty.
Some people say Barbie is an unhealthy role model for young girls. Robin Gerber disagrees. She wrote
a book about Barbie. She points out dolls like scientist Barbie and race car driver Barbie. She says people
who criticize Barbie should tell girls the story of the businesswoman who created her. She says Ruth
Handler wanted the dolls to help girls think about what they wanted to do with their lives.
B. her appearance looked much too mature
C. her way of dressing was against the tradition
D. physical beauty wasn"t thought to be important
B. is the director of an American toy company
C. was the woman who originally created Barbie
D. was a salesman who was good at selling Barbie dolls
B. neglect their schoolwork and inner beauty
C. prefer physical beauty to inner beauty
D. waste too much time and money on clothes
B. praises a successful person who sells Barbie dolls
C. expresses her own favorable opinion about Barbie
D. argues for banning the sales of Barbie dolls
Given Australia"s size and the fact that early settlements were far apart, Australian society is remarkably
homogeneous (同种的). Its citizens are fundamentally prosperous and the way of life in the major cities and
towns is much the same however many miles divide them. It takes a sharp ear to identify regional accents.
However, there is some difference in lifestyle between city dwellers and the country people. Almost 90
per cent of the population lives in the fast-paced cities along the coast and has little more than a passing
familiarity with the desert. The major cities preserve pockets of colonial heritage, but the overall impression
is modern, with new buildings reflecting the country"s youth. In contrast, the rural communities tend to be
slow-moving and conservative. For many years, Australia was said to have"ridden on the sheep"s back", a
reference to wool being the country"s main money earner. However, the wool industry is no longer dominant.
Much of Australia"s relatively sound economy is now achieved from natural coal and wheat, and by being the
largest diamond producer in the world. Newer industries such as tourism and wine making are also
increasingly important. Australians are generally friendly and relaxed, with a self-deprecating sense of humor.
On the whole, Australia is a society without hierarchies (等级制度), an attitude generally held to stem from
its prisoner beginnings.
Yet, contrary to widespread belief, very few Australians have true prisoner origins. Within only one
generation of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, Australia had become a nation of immigrants. Originally
coming almost entirely from the British Isles, today one in three Australians comes from elsewhere.
Australia"s liberal postwar immigration policies led to an influx of survivors from war-torn Europe, most
notably Greeks, Italians, Poles and Germans.
The emphasis has shifted in recent years and today the majority of new immigrants are from Southeast
Asia. Today Australia is a "blend of nations" and although some racism exists, it has generally been a
successful experiment and the country is justifiably proud to have one of the most harmonious multicultural
communities in the world.
the first paragraph?
B. You have to practice a lot to learn to understand the different accents.
C. The Australian regional accents are very difficult to understand indeed.
D. There is not much difference between the accents in different areas of Australia.
B. The Australian economy is dependent on sheep exports.
C. The majority of people living in Australia come from Europe.
D. The pace of life is different in the city and in the country.
B. Australia"s recent immigration policy encourages immigrants from Southeast Asia
C. immigrants from Southeast Asia have brought racial problems
D."riding on sheep"s back" resulted in slow development in rural communities
remarkable pictures. Under the sea, deep in the woods and high in the sky, furry, feathery and leathery-skinned
creatures are opening up vistas (远景) by taking cameras where no human can go.
This is the world of animal-borne imagine celebrated last month at a conference sponsored(supported) by
the National Geographic Society for the 20th anniversary of its Crittercam, the device that started it all.
Since its debut (首次公开露面) in 1987 on the back of a turtle, the Crittercam and similar devices
developed by others have grown smaller and more powerful.
"It"s more than just a camera now," said Greg Marshall, the marine biologist and now filmmaker who
invented the Crittercam."We are now including more instruments to gather more data while at the same time
The idea of attaching video cameras to animals came to Mr. Marshall in 1986 on a dive off Belize when a shark
apporoached him. When the animal quickly turned away, he noticed a shark with a sucker fish on its belly. He
came up with the idea that putting a camera in place of the sucker fish would allow people to witness the
shark"s behavior without disturbing it.
Crittercams have been attached to sharks, sea lions and other marine animals, and, more recently, to land
animals.
Birds are a new addition, Mr.Marshall said. Dr. Christian Rutz of Oxford recently reported on tiny cameras
called feathercams that monitor the crows in the South Pacific. It has discovered that crows are smarter than
anyone knew they not only use twigs (嫩枝) and grass stems as tools to root out food, but they also save their
favorite tools to use again.
Tracey L.Rogers, director of the Australian Marine Mammal Research Center in Sydney, said crittercam
was a powerful tool in her work with leopard seals (豹斑海豹) in Antarctica. "In studying animals," Dr.
Rogers said at the meeting,"you want to see how our animal models align (与……一致) with reality. With a
camera, you actually see what they do. You don"t have to guess."
A. The advantages of crittercam.
B. The development of Crittercams in the past 20 years.
C. How crittercam was invented.
D. How crittercam works.
B. The thought of how to photograph animals better.
C. Noticing a shark eating a sucker fish on a dive.
D. Seeing a shark with a camera on its belly on a dive.
B. is the most powerful tool in studying animals
C. enabled her to observe the crows in the South Pacific closely
D. helped a lot with her research on leopard seals in Antarctica
B. more instruments are involved to gather more data
C. they allow researchers to see where and how animals live
D. they are able to be applied to smaller animals such as birds
根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
1 The only way that they can preserve their history is to recount it as sagas- 2 These legends are useful
because they can tell us something about migrations of people who lived long ago, but none could write down
what they did. Anthropologists(人类学家) wondered where the remote ancestors of the Polynesian peoples
now living in the Pacific Islands came from. 3
But the first people who were like ourselves lived so long ago that even their sagas, if they had any, are
forgotten. 4
Fortunately, however, ancient men made tools of stone, because this is easier to shape than other kinds.
5 Stone does not decay, and so the tools of long ago have remained when even the bones of the men who
made them have disappeared without trace.
B. descriptions of what important events happened in ancient times.
C. But there are some parts of the world where even now people can"t write.
D. legends handed down from one generation of story-tellers to another.
E. So scientists have neither history nor legends to help them to find out where the first "modern men"
came from.
F. But there is some doubt who began to write.
G. The sagas of these people explain that some of them came from Indonesia about 2,000 years ago.
阅读下面文章并根据题目要求回答问题。
to reduce traffic problems. The poor areas of the city were so crowded with people. So the officials decided
to make it possible for workers to live outside of London and travel easily to work each day. If people had a
convenient way to get to and from work, they would live outside of the city and this would help reduce the
pressure. From these problems, the idea of the London Underground was born.
The plans for building the Underground met with several problems, but the first track was finally opened in
January,1863. A steam train pulled the cars along the first underground track which was six kilometers long.
About 30,000 people got on the subway the first day. They were treated to comfortable seats and pleasant
decorations inside the cars. However, the smoke from the engine soon filled the air in the tunnels. Fans had to
be put in the tunnel later to keep the air clean enough for people to breathe. Even with its problems, riding the
Underground did become popular. It carried nine million riders in its first year.
Modem subways have come a long way since the early days of the London Underground.
Today there are more than one hundred underground systems around the world. Shopping malls built in
traffic stations have helped the popularity of subways. Nowadays many stations include underground
department stores, supermarkets and restaurants. Shoppers never have to go above ground!
_____________________________________________________________________
2. What does "Shoppers never have to go above ground!"(in Para 3) mean? (within 10 words)
______________________________________________________________________
3. Which sentence can be replaced by the following one: "Although there were such prolems,
people loved to take subways."
______________________________________________________________________
4. What problems led the British government to build the London Underground? (within 10 words)
______________________________________________________________________
5. Translate the underlined sentence into Chinese.
_______________________________________________________________________
English.
BBC is the abbreviation of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It is an organization maintained by the
government, providing British people with broadcasting and TV service. At first, BBC was established as a
private business. It began to broadcast on February 14, 1922. In 1927, it was reorganized and replaced by
the British Broadcasting Corporation. In November, 1936, it became the first TV broadcasting corporation
in the world with TV programmes broadcast. BBC provides people with the latest news, entertainment and
education. These programmes are not under the control of the government. Nor are they affected by other
organizations. In the meantime, BBC does not express its own opinion on international affairs or public
policy. BBC has two TV channels, covering the whole country, that is BBC-1 and BBC-2 and three radio
broadcast webs, one for family service, another for entertaining programmes, the third for special interesting
programmes. The third web broadcasts four programmes. They are classical music, teaching programmes,
sports and famous arts and common knowledge. BBC programmes include foreign language programmes,
broadcast in 35 foreign languages.
The BBC World Service sends radio programmes around the world in 42 languages. With a regular
audience of about 140 million listeners, it reaches more people than any other ternational broadcaster. The
World Service also prepares news programmes for its sister television organization and is responsible for
a major new gathering service getting information form the world"s media. The World Service receives a
direct grant from the British Parliament for operating international broadcasting.
BBC English is part of the BBC World Service. BBC English is for people who want to improve their
English. It broadcasts all kind of programmes, which change from month to month. There is a special
grammar programme for explaining difficult grammar points. There are programmes about life in Britian.
There is also a programme about the differences between written and spoken English. English lessons are
broadcast every day on the radio with explanations in English and other languages. They are the easiest to
follow. For example, BBC English broadcasts programmes for China with explanations in Chinese.
It is not difficult to find out information about the programmes. You can write to BBC English and ask
for any information you need.
It is necessary to use a short-wave radio to pick up the programmes. Sometimes it is difficult to receive
them clearly. If you do have difficulties, it is better to try once again another day.
B. which change regularly
C. in special grammar rules
D. by explaining different grammar points
B. get it easily by paying something
C. hardly get it without paying anything
D. seldom get it just by writing a letter
B. BBC English has many great useful programmes
C. You can use all the programmes from BBC English
D. All programmes from BBC English are very useful for me
- 1—Thank goodness, you are here! What _____ you?—Traffic jam..
- 2下列词语中,没有错别字的一组是( )A.风靡描摹始作俑者见风驶舵B.装祯蛊惑随声附和层峦叠嶂C.部署辍学伶牙俐齿和
- 3从下图可以读取的信息有①人类交通运输业发生了质的变革②人类生活方式正发生着变化③有利于各地经济文化交流④人类的生存环境正
- 4下列体现了北京高新技术产业发展的是[ ]A.王府井大街B.清华园C.奥体中心D.中关村
- 5阅读下面这首诗,完成下列试题。(8分)旅宿杜牧旅馆无良伴,凝情自悄然。寒灯思旧事,断雁警愁眠。远梦归侵晓,家书到隔年。沧
- 6我国古代数学家赵爽的“勾股圆方图”是由四个全等的直角三角形与中间的一个小正方形拼成一个大正方形(如图所示).如果大正方形
- 7使lg(cosθ•tanθ)有意义的角θ是( )A.第一象限的角B.第二象限的角C.第一、二象限的角D.第一、二象限或
- 8PM2.5是造成雾霾天气的“元凶”之一。下列做法不利于改善空气中PM2.5污染的是( )A.提高市民的环保意识B.发
- 9两相同金属小球所带电荷量分别为+3Q和-Q,将两小球接触后分开,它们所带的电荷量各为( )A.+3QB.+2QC.+Q
- 10用方框中所给单词的适当形式填空,每词仅用一次。success, possible, unless, inclu
- 1最近,科学家研制得到一种新的分子,它具有空心的类似足球状结构,化学式为C60。下列说法中正确的是( )A.C6
- 2材料一:据统计,在全球最大的300家传媒企业中,144家是美国企业,80家是欧洲企业,49家是日本企业,美国及其他西方发
- 3材料一:从两次亚太经合组织***非正式会议到三次二十国***金融峰会,从上海合作组织峰会到“金砖四国”***会晤,一年多
- 4Though in fact he got ,there was no doubt that he had mean
- 5李东家的电能表上标有“2400R/kwh”的字样,这说明每当表盘转______圈时,消耗的电能是1KWh.若表盘转了60
- 6随着我国生产力的飞速发展,短缺经济时代结束,商品市场由卖方市场转变为买方市场,企业之间的竞争已经从简单的价格或质量竞争,
- 7西双版纳所属省级行政区是( )A.广东B.广西C.云南D.贵州
- 8已知∠1=20°,∠2=30°,∠3=60°,∠4=150°,则∠2是____的余角,_____是∠4的补角.
- 9请你结合你所在市的生态环境、生产或生活实际状况作答:(1)列举一个人类活动破坏生态环境的实例。(2)针对该实例提出一个探
- 10 设若你的幻想中有个中古的老城,有睡着了的大红楼,有狭窄的古石路,有宽厚的石城墙,环城流着一道清溪,倒映着山