Despite the anxiety that Jones’ Host—said by some to be the first digital novel—caused in 1993, publishers weren’t too concerned that e-books would one day replace printed books. However, that attitude was changed suddenly in 2007 when Amazon’s Kindle came onto the market, which led to e-book sales jumping up to 1,260%. Since then, e-books’ popularity has continued to steadily rise. The publishing industry seemed to have lost all possible ability to regain its position. Will printed books eventually become a thing of the past?
According to Mike Shatzkin, founder and CEO of the Idea Logical Company, printed books just for plain old reading will, in 10 years from now, be unusual. “Not so unusual that a kid will say, ‘Mommy, what’s that?’ but unusual enough that on the train you’ll see one or two people reading something printed, while everyone else is reading off of a tablet.” And Shatzkin believes that the demise of print is sure to happen, though such a day won’t arrive for perhaps 50 to 100 or more years.
Robert Stein, founder of the Institute for the Future of the Book, however, believes that books won’t disappear entirely, at least not anytime soon. “Print will exist, but it will be in a different field and will appeal to a very limited audience, as poetry does today. Like woodblock printing, hand-processed film and folk weaving (编织), printed pages may assume an artistic value,” he says. He imagines that future forms of books might be developed not by conventional publishers but by the gaming industry. He also predicts that the distinction between writer and reader will be made less obvious by a social reading experience in which authors and consumers can digitally interact with each other to discuss any passage, sentence or line.
Is there anything we risk sacrificing, should print really disappear entirely? According to Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University, electronic reading can negatively affect the way the brain responds to text, including reading comprehension, focus and the ability to maintain attention to details like plot and order of events. “My worry is that we’ll have a short-circuited reading brain, excellent for gathering information but not necessarily for forming critical, analytical deep reading skills,” Wolf says.
The field, however, is in an early stage, and findings about the negative effects of e-reading are far from certain. In light of this, Wolf hopes that we continue to maintain a “bi-literate” society—one that values both the digital and printed word. “A full reading brain circuit is a huge contribution to the intellectual development of our species. Anything that threatens that deserves our attention.”
1.How did publishers feel about the rising e-book sales inspired by the Kindle?
A. Worried. B. Excited. C. Curious. D. Skeptical.
2.The underlined word “demise” in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A. rise B. death C. growth D. decline
3.According to Robert Stein, paper books will exist because of ______.
A. the artistic value
B. the digital interaction
C. the growing popularity
D.the conventional design
4.It can be concluded from the last two paragraphs that Wolf holds that _______.
A. e-reading will weaken the power of our brain
B. digital books and paper books should not co-exist
C. e-reading will make us more critical and thoughtful
D. we should not risk losing a full reading brain circuit
In colleges around the country, most students are also workers.
The reality of college can be pretty different from the images presented in movies and television. Instead of the students who wake up late, party all the time, and study only before exams, many colleges are full of students with pressing schedules of not just classes and activities, but real jobs, too.
This isn’t a temporary phenomenon.The share of working students has been on the rise since the 1970s, and one-fifth of students work yearround. About one-quarter of those who work while attending school have both a full-courseload and a full-time job. The arrangement can help pay for tuition (学费) and living costs, obviously. And there’s value in it beyond the direct cause: such jobs can also be critical for developing important professional and social skills that make it easier to land a job after graduation. With many employers looking for students with already-developed skill sets, on-the-job training while in college can be the best way to ensure a job later on.
But it’s not all upside. Even full-time work may not completely cover the cost of tuition and living expenses. The study notes that if a student worked a full-time job at the federal minimum wage, they would earn just over $15,000 each year, certainly not enough to pay for tuition, room, and board at many colleges without some serious financial aid. That means that though they’re sacrificing time away from the classroom, many working students will still graduate with at least some debt. And working fulltime can reduce the chance that students will graduate at all, by cutting into the time available for studying and attending classes.
There is little reward for attending but not finishing college. Students who wind up leaving school because of difficulty in managing work and class are likely to find themselves stuck in some of the same jobs they might have gotten if they hadn’t gone at all. The difficulty of working too much while in school can create a cycle that pushes students further into debt without receiving any of the financial or career benefits.
1.According to the passage, the reality of college students is that ______.
A. they throw parties a lot
B. they stay up late every night
C. they pay no attention to exams
D. they work besides attending classes
2.What is the indirect cause of an increasing number of working students?
A.The need of developing social networks.
B.The lack of summer jobs for young adults.
C.The chance of finding a job after graduation.
D.The expenses of high tuition and living costs.
3.We can learn from the passage that ______.
A. working students are more likely to finish college
B. students can cover their college expenses through working
C. students receive a huge reward for managing work and class
D. dropping out of college may not help students get career benefits
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A. The Difficulties of Landing a Job
B. The Struggle of Work-School Balance
C. The Reward of Working While Studying
D. The Images of Working College Students
I was desperately nervous about becoming car-free. But eight months ago our car was hit by a passing vehicle and it was destroyed. No problem, I thought: we’ll buy another. But the insurance payout didn’t even begin to cover the costs of buying a new car—I worked out that, with the loan (贷款) we’d need plus petrol, insurance, parking permits and tax, we would make a payment as much as £600 a month.
And that’s when I had my fancy idea. Why not just give up having a car at all? I live in London. We have a railway station behind our house, a tube station 10 minutes’ walk away, and a bus stop at the end of the street. A new car club had just opened in our area, and one of its shiny little red Peugeots was parked nearby. If any family in Britain could live without a car, I reasoned, then surely we were that family.
But my new car-free idea, sadly, wasn’t shared by my family. My teenage daughters were horrified. What would their friends think about our family being “too poor to afford a car”? (I wasn’t that bothered what they thought, and I suggested the girls should take the same approach.)
My friends, too, were astonished at our plan. What would happen if someone got seriously ill overnight and needed to go to hospital? (an ambulance) How would the children get to and from their many events? (buses and trains) People smiled as though this was another of my mad ideas, before saying they were sure I’d soon realize that a car was a necessity.
Eight months on, I wonder whether we’ll ever own a car again. The idea that you “have to” own a car, especially if you live in a city, is all in the mind. I live—and many other citizens do too—in a place that has never been better served by public transport, and yet car ownership has never been higher. We worry about rising car costs, but we’d be better off asking something much more basic: do I really need a car? Certainly the answer is no, and I’m a lot richer because I dared to ask the question.
1.The author decided to live a car-free life partly because ______.
A. most families chose to go car-free
B. he was hurt in a terrible car accident
C. the cost of a new car was too much
D. the traffic jam was unbearable for him
2.What is the attitude of the author’s family toward his plan?
A. Supportive. B. Disapproving.
C.Optimistic. D. Unconcerned.
3.What did the author suggest his daughters do about their friends’ opinion?
A.Argue against it. B. Take their advice.
C. Think it over. D. Leave it alone.
4.What conclusion did the author draw after the eight-month car-free life?
A. Life cannot go without a car.
B. Life without a car is a little bit hard.
C. His life gets improved without a car.
D. A car-free life does not suit everyone.
Dear Ms. Wang,
I am writing to inform you of some arrangements about my composition course and Latin course next year.
I’ve decided to re-establish the 5-paragraph essay as the goal for the composition course. I interviewed some of my former students and they all agreed that being able to write critically and continuouslywas important to them.
So next academic year, Term 1 will be like always: sentences to paragraphing. And Term 2 will work toward the 5-paragraph essay. The final 3 weeks of Term 2 will be reserved tointroduce writing for TOEFL and CEE. By that time, if the students have done their job correctly, then they should be able to write quite well.
As for the Latin course, I will post notices around campus next week so that the students will understand what’s on offer before I actually introduce the course. A number of students already emailed me about the course.
I am sure you don’t understand what a big deal our opening this program at our school is. People around the world are interested in what we plan to do. There are many rewards available to the students who succeed in the course. Please share what I have said with the administration. I want them to understand the importance of this course. The reason I have contacted these colleagues (actually Oxford contacted me) isthatI have confidence in our students and in myself. I know that when those professors meet our students and hear them speaking and reading Latin, they are going to be amazed. It will open all sorts of doors for students that they never even thought of knocking on.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll see you soon.
Yours,
Edward Johnson
1.According to the letter, what will Edward teach about writing in Term 1?
A. Critical thinking.
B. 5-paragraph essay.
C. Sentences to paragraphing.
D. Writing for TOEFL and CEE.
2.We can learn from the letter that Edward’s Latin course______.
A. has aroused students’ interest
B. enjoys a nationwide reputation
C. has won a number of awards
D. benefitsanyone who takes it
3.Why does Edward write this letter?
A. To seek assistance from the administration.
B. To inform the school of his course plans.
C. To show his achievements in Latin.
D. To apply for the teaching position.
完形填空
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
As a teenager, I was pretty lazy when it came to doing thingsfor my family. I worked hard at school, and sometimeslooked after my younger sister. Still, I found myself regularly resisting the urge to ______ out at home with even the simplest things.
Every Wednesday afternoon, for example, my mother ______ me to another town for a piano lesson. During my two-hour lesson, she’d rush to the nearby store and buy a week’s worth of ______. Given the fact that my mom had driven me twelve miles there, twelve miles back, ______ for my lesson, and bought me a candy bar, you’d think I’d be very ______ to help her bring the groceries into the house. ______ I wasn’t. I generally just brought in an armload and left the ______ for Mom as I ran to my room, shut the door, and started studying.
Don’t get me wrong: even back in my room, I felt ______ about not helping my mother more. Deep inside, I wanted to change my ______ . But I also realized that once I did change, there’d be no going back. ______ I took on more responsibility, my parents would start______ more of me. At age fifteen, I sensed that this one small change would ______ something much bigger: my personal change from a cared-for, spoiled (被宠坏的) childto a more ______ , caring and giving young man.
I’ll never forget the Wednesday when I made a(n) ______to jump in and see what happened. Returning home from the ______ , I disappeared into my room, as usual. But once inside, I felt that deep and burning ______. Throwing my school books on the bed, I suddenly opened my door and ______ back to the garage to help my mother. How happy I felt that day!
Surely, over time, I continued to help out with more housework. The neat thing was, the more I helped out, the ______ I felt about myself and my place in my family. As Mom and Dad realized they could ______ on me more, our trips became far less stressful, too. In short, it was a win-win situation for everyone.
Sometimes the little things we put off doing the longest ______ out to be the simplest things to complete. And feeling happy beats feeling guilty any day.
1.A. help B. cry C. start D. work
2.A.sent B. drove C. walked D. guided
3.A. fruitsB. flowers C. groceriesD. vegetables
4.A. paidB.fought C. applied D. planned
5.A. nervous B. gratefulC. confident D. unwilling
6.A. So B. And C. Thus D. But
7.A. one B. other C. next D. rest
8.A. excited B. curiousC. guiltyD. doubtful
9.A. wayB. world C. career D. shape
10.A. Since B. Though C. UnlessD. Once
11.A. warning B. remindingC. expectingD. informing
12.A. tell B. mark C. express D. describe
13.A. energeticB. ambitiousC. outgoing D. responsible
14.A. excuse B. decision C. statementD. appointment
15.A.duty B.store C. lesson D. holiday
16. A. anger B. shame C. delight D. pleasure
17.A. called B. looked C. headed D. handed
18.A. betterB. smarter C. warmer D. stronger
19.A. live B. press C. focus D. count
20.A. turn B. make C. point D. Bring
Experts advised that parents ______ children from doing homework by using electronic equipment too much.
A. discouraged B. discourage
C. would discourage D. have discouraged
