What is freedom? It seems like such a simple question. Freedom is being able to do what you want to do. Allow me to explain it.
I’m tired of working for a living. I’d rather collect taxes. So that’s what I’m going to do: collect a kind of tax. You are ordered to estimate your income from the past 12 months, and write me a check for 1%. I have provided a mailing address for this purpose on my contact page …
What? You have a problem with my plan? Oh, I see. If you have to send me a check for the tax, then I have hurt your freedom to spend that money as you see fit. We have a conflict! And our basic problem is: we cannot enjoy freedom at the same time; we must settle for a limit. But what limit?
Libertarians (自由论者) believe freedom should be based on self-control. They describe freedom as being able to do what you want to do as long as it doesn’t influence the equal right of others to do what they want to do. That is, freedom is being able to do what you like as long as you do not harm another person’s life, liberty or property.
You can build a set of legal and ethical (道德的) rules on the principle of self-control, and libertarians do. Their request for self-control often becomes more important than common sense, or even freedom itself.
The definition rules out the freedom to steal, murder, and so on. Otherwise, you can do whatever you want. There is no problem until you realize that taxation is theft, that war is murder, and that national service is a form of slavery. Since only the government has a legal right to use force, libertarians focus on making the government smaller, or even going without it. The libertarians’ definition of freedom is thus freedom from the government. Isn’t it ridiculous?

1. 1.

   According to the first three paragraphs, the author’s idea of collecting taxes is _________.

   1. A.
      reasonable
   2. B.
      responsible
   3. C.
      unacceptable
   4. D.
      understandable
2. 2.

   The author takes tax-collecting as an example in the passage to prove that freedom is _________.

   1. A.
      unreal
   2. B.
      unbelievable
   3. C.
      achievable
   4. D.
      limited
3. 3.

   In the opinion of libertarians, freedom is realized mainly by _________.

   1. A.
      the law
   2. B.
      self-control
   3. C.
      ethical rules
   4. D.
      common sense
4. 4.

   Which of the following statements is supported by libertarians according to the passage?

   1. A.
      National service should be canceled.
   2. B.
      People can do whatever they want.
   3. C.
      The government should have more power.
   4. D.
      They should be governed by the government.

A mum saved her daughter’s life with her newly learned first aid skills. Sonya Hall, 33, of Denny Avenue, Lancaster, had only just attended one first aid class the day before when she found herself needing to use the skills on her three year old daughter Tilly.
Sonya, who also has son Emmen, six, attended the first aid course at Lune Park Children’s Centre in Lancaster. Then she was faced with every parent’s worst nightmare when Tilly went blue in the face and stopped breathing. But thanks to her newly acquired skills, Sonya saved Tilly’s life.
Sonya said: “Tilly was playing with her brother and they were fighting over a toy. Emmen won the fight. Tilly fell backwards and her head was hit. She was face down and shaking and at first I thought she was upset. But then I saw she was blue in the face and had stopped breathing. I reacted without thinking and immediately started using the first aid skills I had learned the day before which were so fresh in my mind. I began doing mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions (胸外按压). It probably took about a minute before Tilly started breathing again, but to me it felt like a lifetime.”
After getting Tilly breathing again, Sonya called an ambulance and the doctors came. Since then, Tilly has been diagnosed (诊断) with Reflex Anoxic Seizure (反射缺氧发作). Sonya said: “The seizure can happen when there’s any unexpected pain, fear or fright. It is just so lucky that the day before it happened, I had been practising first aid.”
The Empowering Parents First Aid course is run by Lancashire Adult Learning. Sonya said: “I am just so glad I did the course and learnt the first aid skills. I always feared I would not know what to do in a crisis situation, but luckily I had the knowledge and skills to deal with it.” 

1. 1.

   What happened to Tilly?

   1. A.
      She was knocked down by her brother.
   2. B.
      She fell on the floor and hit her head.
   3. C.
      She was hit by a toy on the head and felt upset.
   4. D.
      She was hit by her brother and stopped breathing.
2. 2.

   When Sonya found Tilly’s shaking, she thought her daughter must ______.

   1. A.
      be crying
   2. B.
      be very angry
   3. C.
      pretend to be hurt
   4. D.
      recognize her failure
3. 3.

   When Sonya goes to the first aid class next time, she will feel ______.

   1. A.
      enjoyable
   2. B.
      excited
   3. C.
      grateful
   4. D.
      confident
4. 4.

   What would be the best title for the text?  

   1. A.
      The importance of first aid
   2. B.
      How to practise first aid
   3. C.
      Mum saves girl with first aid
   4. D.
      Mums should attend first aid courses

A new weapon is on the way in the fight against smoking in Europe.

Soon when smokers buy cigarettes, they might see a shocking photo of

a blackened lung or a cancer patient staring back at them from the packet.

       Some boys may think of smoking as cool and sexy. Their friends won’t

agree when they see their packets of cigarettes lying on the table.

The European Union announced on October 22, that it had chosen 42 photos that showed the damage cigarettes could do to the body. It called on member nations to put these pictures on packets to discourage young smokers.

To catch the attention of teenagers, the special packets warn of long-term medical dangers, like cancer. Short-term effects, like bad skin, are also on the list.

“The true fact of smoking is disease, death and horror. That is the message we should send to the young,” said David Byrne, an EU health official. “Hopefully these pictures will shock students out of their love for cigarettes.”

The EU head office hoped the pictures would work better than current written warnings on packs of cigarettes. The warning included “smoking kills” and “smoking can lead to a slow and painful death.”

So far, Ireland and Belgium have shown interest in the photos. Canada has used similar pictures and warnings on cigarette packs since 2000．The country has recently seen a fall in the number of smokers.

According to studies, smoking is the single biggest cause of avoidable death in EU. Every year more than 650,000 smokers die, more than one person a minute.

68．What would be the best title for the text?    

       A．New Ways to Stop Smoking.  B．Pictures to Shock Smokers.

       C．New Packers of Cigarettes.     D．Dangers of Smoking.

69．We can learn from the test that _______.

       A．The EU countries have put the new warning method into practice

       B．only a small number of the EU countries have used the new warning method

       C．the new warning method has worked in some EU countries

       D．countries in the EU still use the old warning method

70．Which country is most successful in stopping smoking?

       A．Ireland.    B．Belgium.  C．Canada.   D．EU

71．The underlined sentence in the last paragraph suggests that ________.

       A．It’s hard to stop smoking in EU

       B．deaths caused by smoking could have been avoided

       C．smoking is the biggest cause of deaths in EU

       D．EU has the largest number of deaths caused by smoking

A study of art history might be a good way to learn more about a culture than is possible to learn in general history classes. Most typical history courses concentrate on politics, economics and war. But art history focuses on much more than this because art reflects not only the political values of a people, but also religious beliefs, emotions and psychology. In addition, information about the daily activities of our ancestors can be provided by art. In short, art expresses the essential qualities of a time and a place, and a study of it clearly offers us a deeper understanding than can be found in most history books.

In history books, objective (客观的) information about the political life of a country is presented; that is, facts about politics are given, but opinions are not expressed. Art, on the other hand, is subjective: it reflects emotions and opinions. The great Spanish painter Francisco Goya was perhaps the first truly “political” artist. In his well-known painting The Third of May, 1808, he criticized the Spanish government for its abuse of power over people.

In the same way, art can reflect a culture’s religious beliefs. For hundreds of years in Europe, religious art had been almost the only type of art that existed. Churches and other religious buildings were filled with paintings that described people and stories from the Bible. Although most people couldn’t read, they could still understand the Bible stories in the pictures on church walls. By contrast (对比), one of the main characteristics of art in the Middle East was (and still is) its absence of human and animal images. This reflects the Islamic belief that statues are not holy.

Which of the following statements has the closest meaning to the underlined sentence?

A. General history only focuses on politics.

B. Art history shows us nothing but the political values.

C. General history concerns only religious beliefs, emotions and psychology.

D. Art history gives us an insight (洞察力) into the essential qualities of a time and a place.

Art is subjective in that __________. 

A. it can easily arouse people’s anger about their government

B. it only reflects people’s anger or sadness about social problems.

C. a personal and emotional view of history is presented through it.

D. artists were or are religious, who reflect only the religious aspect of the society.

Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage? 

A. Francisco Goya expressed his religious belief in his painting.

B. In history books political views of people are entirely presented.

C. For centuries in Europe, painters had only painted on walls of churches.

D. In the Middle East, you can hardly find animal or human figures on church walls.

What’s the main topic of the passage?   

A. The development of art history.   

B. What we can learn from art.

C. The influence of artists on art history.

D. The difference between general history and art history.

  What time is it? Most people are pretty accurate in their answer. And if you don’t know for sure, it’s very likely that you can find out. There may be a watch on your wrist; there may be a clock on the wall, desk, or computer screen; or maybe you’re riding in a car that has a clock in the dashboard(仪表板).

   Even if you don’t have a timepiece of some sort nearby, your body keeps its own beat. Humans have an internal clock that regulates(调节) the beating of our heart, the pace of our breathing, the discharge(排出) of chemicals within our bloodstream, and many other bodily functions.

  Time is something from which we can’t escape. Even if we ignore it, it’s still going by, ticking away, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour. So the main issue in using your time well is, “Who’s in charge?” We can allow time to slip by and let it be our enemy. Or we can take control of it and make it our ally. 

   By taking control of how you spend your time, you’ll increase your chances of becoming a more successful student. Perhaps more importantly, the better you are at managing the time you devote to your studies, the more time you will have to spend on your outside interests.

   The aim of time management is not to schedule every moment so we become slaves of a timetable that governs every waking moment of the day. Instead, the aim is to permit us to make informed choices as to how we use our time. Rather than letting the day go by, largely without our awareness, what we are going to discuss next can make us better able to control time for our own purposes.

The underlined word “ally” in Para.3 most likely means somebody or something that is ___.

A. your supporter and helps you          B. under your control and obeys you

C. under your influence and follows you   D. your slave and serves you

The author intends to tell you that time __________.

A. could be managed by the internal clock of human bodies

B. should be well managed for our own interest

C. should be saved for outside interests

D. could be regulated by a timepiece such as a clock or a watch

In the next part, the author would most probably discuss with you _________.

A. how to make up for lost time      B. how to have a good time

C. how to make good use of time     D. how to keep up with the times