Sitting is art that isn"t getting passed along People these days feel as though they have to be doing
something If they are not working, they are jogging, or playing tennis or golf, or taking Courses to
improve their minds or bodies -or they are parked in front of the TV. Sitting in front of the TV isn"t
sitting-it"s watching.
People used to sit a whole lot. You would walk down the street or drive down the road, and there
they would be, out on the doorsteps, sitting. You could go down to the store and sit on the bench out
front in the Summer or around the fire in the winter. There were sitting benches out in the town square.
At the garage, there were straight-backed chairs. There among the oilcans and tries and spare parts, you
could kick back and sit.
Houses used to have sitting rooms, where the grown ups would go after Sunday dinner. Mom and
Dad, Grandpa and Aunt Ruby would sit and digest (消化) the fried chicken and talk about Aunt Ethel"s
illness, and how well the minister did today. Outside, the children would play, and the afternoon would
pass by in a comfortable haze (悠闲的氛围).
That sort of thing looks like doing nothing. A recharging battery (正充电的电池) doesn"t look as if
it"s doing anything either. Sitting restores your soul. if you want to enjoy a truly full life, don"t just do
something-sit there.
B. People should spend less time watching TV.
C. People should pass down their good habits.
D. People should take things easy for their own good.
A. people lived a more restful life in the past
B. towns were built to make living convenient
C. small town garages had a lot to offer 、
D. people enjoyed going out for a drive
B. watching TV
C. gathering together
D. playing with children
B. sitting helps people remember the past
C. sitting room may have different purposes
D. a sitting room is important for the old
1997. Half the population of the country watched the final event and a new kind of TV program was born.
Two years later in Holland, the first series of Big Brother was filmed. Again, it was a great success and the
final program was watched by 15 million people. Now more than 20 countries around the world have Big
Brother or Expedition Robinson on their TV screens. The ordinary people who take part in the programs
are known by millions of people in their own countries and reality TV has become big, big business.
For the TV producers, reality TV is a dream which come true because many of the programs cost nothing
to make. At some point, the television viewers (观众) are asked to telephone the program to vote or to apply
to take part in the show. It is the cost of these telephone calls that pays for the shows. One of the most
popular shows is Pop Idol. In the show, a group of attractive young people are made into pop stars. TV
viewers vote for their favorite person on the show. The winner makes a record and millions of copies of the
record are sold. His or her pictures are published on the covers of magazines or on the front pages of
newspapers, and then, they are quickly forgotten.
But not everyone is happy about reality TV. In Portugal, two TV channels got into trouble because they
showed too much of the personal lives of the people in the shows. In France, reality TV is called "rubbish
TV" and the TV studios of Big Brother were attacked three times in one week. In Greece, Big Brother was
described as "against human rights and civilization".
B. pop TV Stars
C. attractive people
D. famous film stars
B. TV actors who take part in reality TV shows.
C. TV viewers who telephone reality TV shows.
D. TV companies which broadcast reality TV shows.
B. Big Brother was one of the first reality TV shows in the world.
C. Rubbish TV is one of the personal reality TV shows in the world.
D. Expedition Robinson was the first reality TV show in the world.
B. reality TV will do well in many countries
C. all the people in Europe are in favor of reality TV
D. reality TV will not be broadcast in any countries
be able to make a living out of a bookshop. It is not a difficult trade to learn and the large chain-stores
can never force the small bookseller out of existence as they have done to the corner shop. But the hours
of work are very long-I was only doing a part-time job, but my boss put in a seventy-hour week,besides
regular journeys out of shopping hours to buy books.
The real reason why I should not like to be back in the book trade for life, however, is that while I was
in it I lost my love of books. A bookseller cannot always tell the truth about his books, and that gives him
a dislike for them. There was a time when I really did love books-loved the sight and smell and feel of
them-if they were fifty or more years old, that is. Nothing pleased me quite so much as to buy a bargain lot
of them on sale for several pounds. There is a peculiar flavour (独特的味道) about the unexpected books
you pick up in that kind of collection: little-known eighteenth-century poets, or out-of-date geography
books. For occasional (偶尔的) reading-in your bath, for example, or late at night when you are too tired
to go to bed-there is nothing as good as a very old picture story-book.
But as soon as I went to work in the bookshop I stopped buying books. Seen in a mass. five or ten
thousand at a time, books were dull and even a little tiresome. Nowadays I do buy one occasionally, but
only if it is a book that I want to read and can"t borrow, and I never buy rubbish.
B. a good position at a street corner
C. a regular journey out of the shop
D. the force of large chain-stores
B. selling books was only a part-time job
C. the books in the shop gave him a dislike
D. he was unable to be honest about the books he sold
B. valuable ones bought on sale
C. peculiar ones with great expectation
D. geography ones from the eighteenth century
B. after he gives up his job as a bookseller
C. which are interesting but hard to borrow
D. when he throws away old ones
Bill.
Liz and Bill, two college graduates in their early 20s, have spent a whole year trying to have thousandsd
people talk to them in subway stations and on busy street comers. Just talk.
Using a 2-foot-tall sign that says, "Talk to Me," they attract conversationalists, who one evening included
a mental patient, and men in business suits.
They don"t collect money. They don"t push religion (宗教). So what"s the point?
"To see what happens," said Liz. "We simply enjoy life with open communication (交流)."
Shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, they decided to walk from New York City to Washington,
a 270-mile trip. They found they loved talking to people along the way and wanted to continue talking with
strangers after their return.
"It started as a crazy idea," Liz said. "We were so curious about all the strangers walking by with their life
stories. People will talk to us about anything: their jobs, their clothes, their childhood experiences, anything?"
Denise wanted to talk about an exam she was about to take. She had stopped by for the second time in
two days, to let the two listeners know how it went.
Marcia had left her husband to a serious disease. "That was very heavy on my mind," Marcia said. "To
be able to talk about it to total strangers was very good," she explained.
To celebrate a year of talking, the two held a get-together in a city park for all the people they had met
over the past year. A few hundred people showed up, as well as some television cameramen and reporters.
They may plan more parties or try to attract mare people to join their informal talks. Some publishers have
expressed interest in a book, something they say they"ll consider.
B. Setting up street signs.
C. Telling stories to strangers.
D. Organizing a speaker"s comer.
B. normal
C. crazy
D. successful
A. They knew Liz and Bill very well.
B. They happened to meet the writer of the text.
C. They organized the get-together in the city park.
D. They are examples of those who talked to Liz and Bill.
B. Do more television programs.
C. Continue what they am doing.
D. Spend more time reading books.
B. They will think about it carefully.
C. They agreed immediately.
D. They find it hard to do that.
With a checklist of criteria in hand, the Dallas family looked around the country visiting half a dozen schools.
They sought a university that offered the teenager"s intended major, one located neat a large city, and a
campus where their daughter would be safe. "The safety issue is a big one," says Joe Mahoney, who quickly
discovered he wasn"t alone in his worries. On campus tours other parents voiced similar concerns, and the
same question was always asked: what about crime? But when college officials always gave the same
answer- "That"s not a problem here," --Mahoney began to feel uneasy.
"No crime whatsoever?" comments Mahoney today." I just don"t buy it." Nor should he: in 1999 the U.S.
Department of education had reports of nearly 400,000 serious crimes on or around our campuses."Parents
need to understand that times have changed since they went to college," says David Nichols, author of Creating
a Safe Campus. "Campus crime mirrors the rest of the nation."
But getting accurate information isn"t easy. Colleges must report crime statistics (统计数字) by law, but
some hold back for fear of bad publicity, leaving the honest ones looking dangerous. "The truth may not
always be serious," warms S. Daniel Carter of Security on Campus, Inc., the nation"s leading campus
safety watchdog group.
To help concerned parents, Carter promised to visit campuses and talk to experts around the country to find
out major crime issues and effective solutions.
B. to choose a right one four their daughter
C. to check the cost of college education
D. to find a tight one near a large city
B. mirror the rest of the nation
C. hide the truth of campus crime
D. have too many watchdog groups
B. admit
C. believe
D. expect
B. that report campus crimes by law
C. that are free from campus crime
D. that enjoy very good publicity
B. Crimes on or around campuses
C. Effective solutions to campus crime
D. Concerns about kids" campus safety
of Transport laboratories and could go on sale within 12 months. The system, called driver Alert, aims to
reduce deadly road accidents by 20%-40% that are caused by tiredness. Airline pilots can also use it to
reduce the 30% of all pilot-error accidents that are related to fatigue.
Driver Alert is based on a computerized wristband. The device, worn by drivers or pilots gives out a
sound about every four minutes during a car journey. After each sound the driver must respond by squeezing
the steering wheel (方向盘). A sensor in the wristband detects this pressing action and measures the time
between the sound and the driver"s response.
Tiredness is directly related to a driver"s response time. Usually, a watchful driver would take about 400
milliseconds to respond, but once that falls to more than 500 milliseconds, it suggests that the driver is getting
sleepy.
In such cases the device gives out more regular and louder sounds, showing that the driver should open a
window or stop for a rest. If the driver"s response continues to slow down, the sounds become more frequent
until a nonstop alarm warms that the driver must stop as soon as possible.
The device has been delivered to the department"s laboratories for testing. If these tests, scheduled for six
months" time, are successful, the markers will bring the product to market within about a year.
B. has gone through testing at laboratories
C. aims to prevent drivers from sleeping
D. has been on sale for 12 months
B. By touching the wristband
C. By checking the driving time
D. By pressing the steering wheel
B. below 500 milliseconds
C. over 500 milliseconds
D. about 400 minutes
B. stops working properly
C. opens the window for the driver
D. sounds more frequently and loudly
- 1下面是有关四大高原主要特征的“顺口溜” 请将字母对号入座。A、巍巍苍苍,冰峰千丈;百里悬河,山川相间 B、秃山荒丘,川梁
- 2下图中,∠1和∠2是同位角的是( ).
- 3维新运动留下的诸多遗产成为中华文明发展史上的宝贵财富,主要包括( )①解放思想 ②建立社团 ③兴办学堂 ④创办报刊 ⑤
- 4下列例子中,能够证明遗传多样性的是( )A.人身上有许多细胞B.蚕豆种子生长成蚕豆C.同窝小猪的体色有白有花有黑D.生
- 5下列说法中,正确的是A.气象环境报告中新增的“PM2.5”是对一种新分子的描述B.“光化学烟雾”“硝酸型酸雨”的形成都与
- 6关于细胞全能性的理解,不确切的是[ ]A.大量的科学事实证明,高度分化的植物细胞仍具有全能性B.细胞内含有个体发
- 7如图,一个小球由地面沿着坡度i=1:3的坡面向上前进了10m,此时小球距离地面的高度为_________m.
- 8第五次全国人口普查,据统计,我国的总人口已达1 300 000 000人.用科学记数法表示为( )人.
- 9当x>0时,函数f(x)=(a2-1)x的值总大于1,则实数a的取值范围是______.
- 10进入初中后,有很多新鲜的事物,让我们好奇,令我们欣喜。班主任告诉我们:走进中学,也就是走进了青春期,你会发现自己每天都在
- 1如果一个棱往是由12个面围成的,那么这个棱柱是______棱柱.
- 2对黑体辐射电磁波的波长分布有影响的是
- 3溴主要以Br-形式存在于海水中,海水呈弱碱性。工业上制备的Br2的操作步骤为:①一定条件下,将Cl2通入浓缩的海水中,生
- 4声音是由发声体的______而产生,人类是靠______振动发声的.人耳听到的鼓声,是由______的振动而产生.水中的
- 5日本核辐射造成巨大环境污染,人们谈“核”色变。我国有极少数人利用人们的恐慌心理掀起“抢盐”风波。你知道碘盐中的碘有什么作
- 6将8.8g FeS固体置于200mL 2.0mol•L-1的盐酸中,以制备H2S气体.反应完全后,若溶液中H2S的浓度为
- 7如图,梯形ABCD中AD∥BC,对角线AC、BD交于0点,△AOD与△DOC的面积之比为3:7,则AD:BC=_____
- 8某地区居民得“结石”病患者比例明显多于其它地区,你认为这可能与他们生活的地区A.土壤土质有关B.空气污染有关C.水源水质
- 9若=1.414 ,=4.4722,则 -=( )。
- 10如图所示,一个质量为500g,面积100cm2,高为15cm的圆柱体容器(容器壁的厚度忽略不计)放在水平桌面的中央,容器