Why People Get Tattoos

Jack lay, quiet and unmoving for thirty minutes while a stranger repeatedly stabbed (刺) him with sharp needles, causing blood to pour steadily out of his leg. Jack was getting a tattoo. His friend Tony had recently gotten a tattoo, and Jack was so impressed by it that he decided to get one too. Peer pressure, media influence, and personal expression are some of the common reasons for wearing tattoos today.

The desire to be accepted by one’s friends or peers can have a great influence on what a person does. Sometimes, wearing a tattoo can be a sign that you belong to a certain group. Gangs often use special clothes and tattoos to identify their particular group. Some of these groups wear only brand – name clothes. Others wear tattoos. When a person’s friends are all doing something, that person is more likely to do the same thing.

The media is another big influence behind the popularity of tattoos in North America. A wide variety of media images(人物，图像) show tattoos－people appearing in commercials selling expensive cars, famous sports heroes with tattoos in magazines, fashion models wearing designer clothes that show their bodies tattooed with detailed and colourful patterns. These media images link tattoos to ideas of wealth, success, and status. As a result, many people decide to get a tattoo for its fashion and status value.

Many people decide to wear tattoos in order to express their artistic nature, their beliefs, or their feelings－in other words, to show their individuality(个性). A musician in a rock band may get a tattoo of a guitar on the arm. Some environmentalists may tattoo pictures of endangered animals on their shoulders. A tattoo can be a public sign to show what is important in a person's life.

As you can see, there are many reasons why young North Americans get tattoos. A tattoo can be part of a group's uniform, a sign of fashion or an expression of individuality. The decision to get a tattoo is most often a result of the influence of friends or media or the desire to express oneself. For Jack, it was a mixture of all three.

72. Jack has got tattoos in order to           .

      A. show his great bravery      B. gain a special experience

       C. make himself more healthy      D. be different from others

73. According to the passage, media images are linked to         .

       A. traditional lifestyle                   B. social position

       C. cultural background   D. public interest 

74. We can infer from the passage that          .

       A. some people get tattoos out of pressure   

       B. tattoo is related to religious belief

       C. getting tattoos costs a lot of money 

       D. most people with tattoos are artists

75. Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

CP: Central Point     P: Point     Sp: Sub – point (次要点)   C: Conclusion

It is time for students to sell such things as chocolate bars and greeting cards to raise money for their school, class or club. It is inevitable that they will knock on your door and you will easily hand over your cash for overpriced items that you really do not want. That is okay, though, because there are many reasons why children should be allowed to raise money for their schools and clubs.
Fundraising（募集资金） is a great way to help children learn social skills. It is not easy to go up to a complete stranger and ask him for his money. They have to nicely ask for help, show the interested buyer what they have to offer and explain how it will help them in school. If someone refuses to buy an item, that child has to take the failure in stride(不特别费力地), and that is a learning lesson as well.
Students can learn how to deal with money by fundraising. Of course, it might seem safer for us to take charge of our children’s earnings from their fundraising before it is turned into the school. However, by making them keep track of it, count it, and make sure everyone pays the right amount, they are learning an important lesson. Dealing with money is important to know about when they are older.
Fundraising helps improve their schools. It is the children’s school. They have to learn there and grow there. Why not let them help in making it a better place?
Fundraising allows for more life experiences for the child. The raised money is used towards things like parties, trips, or for the music club to go to see a Broadway play. The children receive the rewards for their hard work at raising the money. Without fundraising, these field trips and special school memories would be missed.
In a word, fundraising helps children a lot in many ways.
【小题1】The underlined word “inevitable” in the first paragraph means “_______”.

1.

As awareness of the cenefits of humour increases, most of us want to get all the langhs we can. It seems that almost every day there is another new discovery about the power of humour to help us physically, mentally, cmotionally, and sp[iritually. Every system of the body responds to langhter in some important or positive way .

2.Many pcople mistakenly believe that we are born with a sense of humour. They think that when it comes to a sense of humour. “either you have got it or you don't .” This is

false! What is true, however, is that the ability to laugh and smile is actually something we are born with. For example, we laugh when we are tickled under the arm, even without thinking about how to react.

3.

The parts of the brain and central nervous system that control laughing and smiling are mature at birth in human infants, but that is not the same thing as having a sense of humour. (After all, when a baby laughs in his small bed we don’t rush over and say, “That kid has a great sense of humour!”) Your sense of humour is something you can develop over a lifetime. Don’t be nervous before others and try to laugh at yourself-then you will make them laugh too.

4.

Humour includes a lot more than laughing and joke telling. Many people worry needlessly that they do not have a good sense of humour because they are not good joke tellers. More than jokes, a sense of humour requires being willing and able to see the funny side of life’s situations as they happen. In fact, one of the best definitions（定义）of a sense of humour is “the ability to see the nonserious element in a situation.”

5.

There may be a thousand different ways to express your sense of humour, but joke telling is only one of those ways. As more is discovered about how humour benefits our life, more people will be able to see and enjoy the humour when they are in a difficult situation. Life depends on air, food and water, but it is made easier to live with a good sense of humour.

Dear College Dean
It is my understanding that this college has received a large donation to be used to enhance (improve) the quality of life for students: expand the bookstore or add computers to the computer lab. It is the tradition of this school to promote education and to be in the vanguard of new technology. That is why I strongly argue in favor of the addition of more computers to the computer lab.
Although expanding the campus bookstore to include CDs, gifts, and a snack bar will give a nicer look to the college, we have to think about a greater goal and a more practical way to enhance the quality of life for students. What do we want for our students and our college? Do we want our college to be known as a place with a great bookstore where you can find CDs and gifts, or as a place where the students can explore and research in their field using the best tools provided by technology? In addition, there are already several snack bars on campus, and there are music stores nearby, so students do not depend on the college bookstore for these things.
We live in a highly technological world and computers play an increasingly important role in how we live. As a learning institution, this college has the responsibility to offer its students the best technology to help them prepare for their future. Many students will be expected to be familiar with the latest software and other tools when they go on to work or to graduate school.
While they are in college, students find they are expected to use computers. Many professors expect students to use computers to do homework or to complete projects. Students are asked to create PowerPoint presentations and use spreadsheets and database programs, as well as to research many topics on the Internet. Since students are competing for good grades, those who have limited access to computers are at a great disadvantage. Furthermore, being able to do projects using the computer enhances the process of learning, giving students the opportunity to find information that without a computer would be much more difficult to find.
If there are more computers, students will also be able to complete their work more efficiently. No more will they have to wait in line, paper and disk in hand, while scanning the room for an empty chair and computer. No longer will they have to sit and wait while an outdated computer struggles to follow their commands. Having more new and faster computers available will enable students to finish their work more quickly.
The more computers are used in society the more colleges will depend on them as a tool of teaching and learning. Making computers more available to students facilitates their learning process by making the process easier, more interesting, more engaging, and in the process enhancing their quality of life
68．The purpose of the author in writing the passage is__________
A．to describe the problems caused by lack of computers
B．to explain why students are in great need of computers
C．to tell us what benefits students can gain from computers
D．to persuade the Dean to purchase more advanced computers
69．From the passage we can infer that______
A．present computers in the college cannot meet the demands of the students
B．computers in the college will be updated to meet the student’s demands soon
C．the college has the responsibility to help the students to prepare for their future
D．it is also necessary to expand the college bookstore by using part of the donation
70．In paragraph 4, the author mainly wants to tell us that_______
A．computers are beneficial to students’ academic success
B．computers are helpful to student’s competition for success
C．students find it convenient to do assignments by using computers
D．students wish to use the money to buy more advanced computers
71．Which of the following shows the organization of the passage?
CP: Central Point     P: Point    SP: Sub-point（次要点）    C: Conclusion