Recently I spoke to some of my students about what they wanted to do after they graduated, and what kind of job prospects they thought they had.

Given that I teach students who are training to be doctors, I was surprised to find that most thought that they would not be able to get the jobs they wanted without “outside help”. “What kind of help is that?” I asked, expecting them to tell me that they would need a relative or family friend to help them out.

“Surgery(外科手术)”, one replied. I was pretty alarmed by that response. It seems that the graduates of today are increasingly willing to go under the knife to get ahead of others when it comes to getting a job. One girl told me that she was considering surgery to increase her height. “They break your legs, put in special extending screws, and slowly expand the gap between the two ends of the bone as it regrows, you can get at least 5cm taller!”

At that point, I was shocked. I am short, I can’t deny that, but I don’t think I would put myself through months of agony(痛苦) just to be a few centimeters taller. I don’t even bother to wear shoes with thick soles, as I’m not trying to hide the fact that I am just not tall! It seems to me that there is a trend toward wanting “perfection”, and that is an ideal that just does not exist in reality.

No one is born perfect, yet magazines, TV shows and movies present images of thin, tall, beautiful people as being the norm. Advertisements for slimming aids, beauty treatments and cosmetic surgery clinics fill the pages of newspapers, further creating an idea that “perfection” is a requirement, and that it must be purchased, no matter what the cost. In my opinion, skills, rather than appearance, should determine how successful a person is in his chosen career.

1.We can know from the passage that the author works as ______.

A. a doctor              B. a model              C. a teacher             D. a reporter

2.Many graduates today turn to cosmetic surgery to______.

A. marry a better man\woman

B. become a model

C. get an advantage over others in job-hunt

D. attract more admirers

3.According to the passage, the author believes that ______.

A. everyone should purchase perfection, whatever the cost

B. it’s right for graduates to ask for others to help them out in hunting for jobs

C. media are to blame for misleading young people in their seeking for surgery

D. it is one’s appearance instead of skills that really matters in one’s career

4. What does the author think of his height?

A. He hates to be called a short man.

B. He tries to increase his height through surgery.

C. He always wears shoes with thick soles to hide the fact.

D. He just accepts it as it is

 

“Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move,” said David Belle, the founder of parkour(跑酷).

Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond’s wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.

Yes, that’s parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.

Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.

Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy(理念) behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back from them in your life, to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, “I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.”

Another philosophy we’ve learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself that you earn energy and confidence.

Parkour has become popular throughout the world because of     .

A. its founder, David Belle                  B. the film, Casino Royale

C. its risks and tricks                          D. the varieties of participants

The underlined word “obstacles” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “    ”.

A. streets                                           B. objects

C. barriers                                         D. roofs

Which of the following is true of parkour?

A. It challenges human abilities.          B. It is a good but boring sport.

C. It needs special training.                 D. It is a team sport.

As its participants move around a city,     .

A. they can ask for help                      B. they may choose to escape

C. they should run to extremes             D. they must learn to survive

Which of the following is the philosophy of parkour?

A. Sports and extremes.                      B. Excitement and popularity.

C. Dreams and success.                       D. Determination and freedom.

根据对话内容，从对话后的选项中选出能填人空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

A：Hello! This is Li Mei Calling from Jilin．May I speak to Carla?

C：Just a moment，please． ___1___

B：Hello?

A：Hi，Carla! This is Li Mei calling from Jilin．How are you?

Bt Oh，hi，Li Mei! How nice to hear your voice! I’m fine，thank you．

A：Thank you so much for giving me such a lovely time in Trindad．

B： ___2___  I hope you can come again some day!

A：I’d love to ! I wonder，though，if you are interested in visiting me during the Spring Festival this year． __3___.

B：Oh．I’d love to, but I don’t know if I will be free then. What time of year is it?

A： ___4___ but this year it’s at the beginning of February．

B：I’d love to come.  I’ll try to find out if I can take off work then．It’s very kind of you to invite me!

A：Oh，don’t mention it! I hope you can come! Say hello to Hari for me! I hope he can come to

China with you．

B：That would be fun! Thanks a lot for calling !__ 5___

A：OK, great! Have a good day!

B：Thanks，you too，bye!

A：Bye!

A .Oh．sorry．he isn’t here at the moment

    B. I’ll get her for you

    C. It was a pleasure having you here．

D. It is always the same each other．

E. I’d love to show you one of our Chinese festivals．

F. I’ll let Hari know you called．

G. It’s different every year．

温馨提示:

请将补全对话答案涂在机读卡上   E=AB        F=AC      G=AD

Some say the Internet will kill off papers. Others say not so fast.

Are newspapers dying?

That’s the heated debate these days. Many say the disappearance of the daily paper is just a matter of time. The future of journalism is in news websites, not newsprint.

However, others say, newspapers have been with us for hundreds of years, and while all news may be online some day, papers can exist for some time.

So who’s right? I’ll outline the arguments on both sides, and then you can decide.

Newspapers Are Dead

Newspapers are in trouble. Circulation is dropping, display and classified ad income is drying up, and the industry has experienced a hard time. Big metro papers like the Rocky Mountain News have stopped operating, and even bigger newspaper companies like the Tribune Co. go bankrupt（破产）.

And where are newspaper readers going? To the Web. A recent study has found that Internet users read online newspapers for an average of 53 minutes per week in 2008. That’s highest level recorded in the eight years when the study has been done.

The study found that 22 percent of users said they stopped their subscription（订阅）to a printed paper or magazine because they could access the same content online.

Some people say the Internet is just a better place to get the news. “On the Web, newspapers are live, and they can supplement（增补）their coverage with audio, video, and the valuable resources of their vast contents,” says Geffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future.

1.How does the author present the topic to be discussed?

A. By presenting others’ prediction

B. By asking a question

C. By providing opposite opinions

D. By talking about the background

2.The purpose of writing the text is to _____.

A. try to draw a general conclusion

B. encourage readers to use their judgment

C. compare the advantages of two media    

D. invite readers to express their opinions freely

3.Some readers no longer buy printed newspapers because they _____.

A. want to save money

B. hope to protect the environment

C. don’t care about news

D. can read online newspapers

4.What’s the advantage of the news website compared with printed newspapers?

A. it provides news vividly      B. the news is more reliable

C. it can reach more readers      D. it is much cheaper in price

 

Cast your mind back to the past twenty years and hardly did anyone have their own email account. The Internet had just taken off in 1991 and people were only using office and PC­based email exchanges.

In the mid 1990s external email providers appeared. The most famous of these was Hotmail, the first free email provider and web­based email service. Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith launched Hotmail on July 4, 1996. And Microsoft took note of and bought Hotmail for $400 million on December 30, 1997, a nice birthday present for Bhatia who turned 29 that day. It was relaunched as MSN Hotmail and in 2007 was relaunched again as Windows Live Hotmail.

Fast forward the present day and most of us have at least a personal web­based email account. It seems impossible to live without them. One of the biggest advantages of email is the fact that communication has become so much easier, especially with those across different time zones. Email takes seconds to send a message whereas letters, as we used to communicate by, could take weeks. Of course there was the fax, that beeping invention from the 1980s, but it wasn’t as secure as email and you never knew if the person on the other end had picked up your fax or if it had got lost somewhere in the office.

In conclusion, one of the best inventions from the 1990s has to be email. But sometimes people are too closely connected to their email and have a compulsion to check it several times a day. At work, people have become lazy and instead of going to speak to the person sitting next to them, they send an email，causing an in box to pile up with more time spent reading email and responding rather than working. Clearly, an invention that saved time because of its quick and speedy connection can now also cause us to waste a lot of time.

1.The earliest web-based email came into being probably _______.

A. in 1991                            B. in 1996                   C. in 1997                   D. in 2007

2.The author mentions “fax” in the third paragraph in order to tell us that _______.

A. it is exactly as good as email

B. it is much better than email

C. it is less convenient than email

D. it is easier and faster than email

3.The underlined word “compulsion” in Paragraph 4 probably means “_______”.

A. strong desire                  B. common sense               C. special curiosity          D. general idea

4.Which is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A. We should check email boxes frequently.

B. Lazy people like sending an email.

C. Email brings us great convenience.

D. Good inventions also cause problems.