One afternoon，as I was driving back home, I stopped at a busy intersection as the traffic light turned red. I waited ____ for the light to turn green，so that I could ____ my journey.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, an old woman ____ and started asking for ___. That day, I had unknowingly ____ off the air conditioner in the car and my window was down. The old woman was standing very close to my car. As she begged for alms(施舍物), I closely ____ her weather-beaten face, which had lots of wrinkles on it. Her eyes ____ lots of sadness and her whole body was ____. I sensed that this elderly lady had ____ some incredibly hard times in her life and at this time there was no one to look after her, ____ forced her to beg on the streets.
Seeing her condition, I immediately felt from ____ my being a huge surge (汹涌)of ____ for her. It was coming deep from within my heart. I normally gave loose ____ to beggars, however, that day my inner self strongly ____ me that I give her something substantial(大量的)so that she ____ have a decent meal.
Without any ____ I took out a substantial amount from my wallet and ____ it in her hand. Her weather-beaten face lit up with a toothless smile and she ____ me and went on her way. In the ____ the traffic light had turned green, and it was time to move on.
As I drove back home I felt within myself a sense of joy and ____ surging through me because I was able to do something for at least one person on this planet.
1.A. carefully B. worriedly C. patiently D. narrowly
2.A. continue B. stop C. take D. start
3.A. escaped B. disappeared C. appeared D. fled
4.A. food B. note C. direction D. money
5.A. carried B. switched C. put D. broke
6.A. observed B. noticed C. stared D. found
7.A. presented B. suggested C. showed D. possessed
8.A. moving B. turning C. falling D. shaking
9.A. heard B. gone through C. met D. look through
10.A. that B. who C. what D. which[
11.A. in B. beyond C. within D. across
12.A. passion B. pity C. emotion D. sympathy
13.A. pound B. change C. dollar D. allowance
14.A. urged B. suggested C. ordered D. requested
15.A. will B. might C. could D. must
16.A. permission B. hesitation C. discussion D. decision
17.A. placed B. lied C. existed D. pushed
18.A. blessed B. called C. forced D. required
19.A. daytime B. meantime C. trap D. world
20.A. sadness B. sorrow C. happiness D. mixture
No matter what type of business you run, it has to deal with things that go wrong from your customer’s point of view. Complaints can be a great source of information for organizations to make corrections as well as further improvements. 1.
1.You should listen actively to what the customer has to say by maintaining comfortable eye contact. 2.
2. 3. It’s important for you to know that your apology must appear sincere to the customer, and not an empty excuse. And also you should show the customer you’ve accepted the responsibility and provide him with choices or you’ll do something about his complaint.
3.Talk with the client and discover the best means to resolve his problem. 4. In this case it’s important to let your customer know an estimation(估计)of how long it will take to take action on his complaint.
4.A simple “thank you” is one way to let the customer know you appreciate the time and effort they’ve taken to inform you about a problem with your company’s service or product that you need to know about.
5.Create a procedure for recording different types of customer complaints. 5.
A. They are a valuable source of information to determine various root causes that need to be addressed within your company.
B. You should also show your customer that you do understand him by giving full attention.
C. When you have received a complaint, you should apologize for the failure the customer has identified.
D. Listen to your customer’s complaints and you can improve your service.
E. So it’s important to learn to deal with customer complaints efficiently.
F. Don’t feel ashamed of the failure in your service or products.
G. There will be times when you’ll be unable to resolve the issue immediately.
Ever wonder how much a cloud weighs? What about a hurricane? A meteorologist（气象学家） has done some estimates and the results might surprise you.
Let’s start with a very simple white puffy cloud—a cumulus cloud(积云). How much does the water in a cumulus cloud weigh? Peggy LeMone, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, did the numbers. “The water in the little cloud weighs about 550 tons,” she calculates. “Or if you want to convert it to something that might be a little more meaningful...think of elephants.” Assume（假设） an elephant weighs about six tons, she says, that would mean the water inside a typical cumulus cloud would weigh about one hundred elephants.
The thought of a hundred elephants’ worth of water floating in the sky begs another question—what keeps it up there?
“First of all, the water isn’t in elephant-sized particles(微粒); it’s in tiny tiny tiny particles,” explains LeMone. And those particles float on the warmer air that’s rising below. But still, the concept of so much water floating in the sky was surprising even to a meteorologist like LeMone. “I had no idea how much a cloud would weigh, actually, when I started the calculations（计算）,” she says.
So how many elephant units of water are inside a big storm cloud—10 times bigger all the way around than the “puffy” cumulus cloud? Again, LeMone did the numbers: About 200,000 elephants.
Now, come to the calculations for a hurricane about the size of Missouri and the figures get really massive. “What we’re doing is weighing the water in one cubic meter theoretically pulled from a cloud and then multiplying by the number of meters in a whole hurricane,” she explains.
The result? Forty million elephants. That means the water in one hurricane weighs more than all the elephants on the planet. Perhaps even more than all the elephants that have ever lived on the planet.
1.The weight of ________ is NOT mentioned in the passage.
A. a cumulus cloudB. a storm cloud
C. a hurricaneD. a tornado
2.How did Peggy LeMone feel about the result of her calculations?
A. She found it not convincing.
B. She thought it needed further calculations.
C. She considered the calculations inaccurate.
D. She was quite surprised at it.
3.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. A storm cloud weights about 200,000 elephants.
B. The water in the cloud is in very tiny particles.
C. There are less than forty million elephants living on the earth.
D. The water in a hurricane weights more than that in any other kind of cloud.
4.What is the best title for the passage?
A. Surprising Results
B. Elephants in the Sky
C. How Much a Cloud Weighs
D. How Much a Hurricane Weighs
In the English language there are striking similarities to many of the characteristics present in Spanish, French, and German. So what are the things that make English so difficult for foreign people to learn?
English doesn’t necessarily have more regular consonant(辅音) or vowel(元音) sounds than other languages, but how the stress is placed on some of those consonants or vowels makes it such a difficult language for learners. There are hard and soft consonants like “c” taking on a “k” sound or an “s” sound depending upon the situation. There are silent letters in some words and then some consonants that take on an entirely different sound ( like “th” ) when combined. The changes in the pronunciation of words make English much more difficult to learn.
Another thing that makes English difficult to learn has to do with verb tense. Some languages have very limited changes in verb tense, sometimes just present and past, which makes it relatively simple to grasp. English, on the other hand, is a bit more difficult in this area. For example, in different situations it may be proper to use any of the following tenses: present, past, future, past perfect or present perfect. The verb “choose” can be used in the following forms depending on tense: choose, chose or chosen. This can be very difficult for a foreigner to grasp.
Slang(俚语) is more widely used in American English than proper grammar. In the US just knowing the language as it’s generally taught isn’t enough. In every single region or even close neighborhoods, the same slang terms make an almost entirely different language. In some areas there are repeatedly used terms that wouldn’t even be found in the Webster’s Dictionary. They are created by locals and only locals understand them. This can make it very difficult for someone not familiar with the language to get used to it, especially if they don’t remain in one area for a very long period.
1.The purpose of this passage is to ________.
A. tell us how to deal with slang terms in English
B. encourage us to speak formal English
C. tell us why English is very difficult to learn
D. give advice on how to learn English well
2.According to the passage, the letter “c” in English ________.
A. is often silent
B. has at least two sounds
C. never takes on an “s” sound
D. is always stressed
3.Compared with other languages, ________.
A. English has very limited changes in verb tense
B. English has relatively simple verb tense to grasp
C. English has more forms of verbs according to the tense
D. English has three more verb tenses
4.It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A. pronunciation is the most difficult thing in English learning
B. all the slang terms should be added to the Webster’s Dictionary
C. if you want to learn English well you first should learn some slang terms
D. people may understand the local language after living in a place for years
Argentina in the late nineteenth century was an exciting place. Around 1870, it was experiencing an economic boom（繁荣）, and the capital, Buenos Aires, attracted many people. Farmers, as well as a flood of foreigners from Spain and Italy, came to Buenos Aires seeking jobs. These jobs didn’t pay well, and the people felt lonely and disappointed with their new life in the city. As the unhappy newcomers mixed together in the poor parts of the city, the dance known as the tango(探戈舞) came into being.
At the beginning the tango was a dance of the lower classes. It was danced in the bars and streets. At that time there were many fewer women than men, so if a man didn’t want to be left out, his only choice was to dance with another man so that he could attract the attention of the few available women. Gradually, the dance spread into the upper classes of Argentinean society and became more respectable.
In Europe at this time, strong interest in dance from around the world was beginning. This interest in international dance was especially evident in Paris. Every kind of dance from ballet(芭蕾舞) to belly dancing could be found on the stages of the Paris theaters. After tango dancers from Argentina arrived in Europe, they began to draw the interest of the public as they performed their exciting dance in cafes. Though not everyone approved of the new dance, saying it was a little too shocking, the dance did find enough supporters to make it popular.
The popularity of the tango continued to grow in many other parts of the world. Soldiers who returned to the United States from World War I brought the tango to North America. It reached Japan in 1926, and in 2003 the Argentinean embassy(大使馆) in Seoul hired a local tango dancer to act as a kind of dance ambassador, and promote tango dancing throughout South Korea.
1.The origin of the tango is associated with ________.
A. the capital of Argentina
B. a Spanish city
C. American soldiers
D. belly dancers
2.Which of the following is true about the tango?
A. A dancer in Seoul became the Argentinean ambassador.
B. People of the upper classes loved the tango most.
C. It was often danced by two males in the beginning.
D. It was created by foreigners from Spain and Italy.
3.Before World War I, the tango spread to ________.
A. South KoreaB. JapanC. FranceD. America
4.What can be the best title for the text?
A. The Modern Tango BoomB. The History of the Tango
C. How to Promote the TangoD. How to Dance the Tango
When I was eight, I saw a movie about an island that had an erupting volcano and jungles filled with wild animals. The island was ruled by a beautiful woman called Tondalaya, the Fire Goddess of the Volcano. It was a low-budget(小成本) movie, but to me, it represented the perfect life. But through the years, Tondalaya was forgotten.
The week I turned 50, my marriage came to a sudden end. My house, furniture and everything I’d owned was sold to pay debts that I didn’t even know existed. In a week I had lost my husband, my home and my parents who had refused to accept a divorce (离婚) in the family. I’d lost everything except my four teenage children. I used every penny I had to buy five plane tickets from Missouri to Hawaii. Everyone said I was crazy to think I could just run off to an island and survive. I was afraid they were right.
I worked 18 hours a day and lost 30 pounds because I lived on one meal a day. One night as I walked alone on the beach, I saw the red orange lava (火山岩) pouring out of Kilauea Volcano in the distance. It was time to live my imagination!
The next day, I quit my job, bought some art supplies and began doing what I loved. I hadn’t painted a picture in 15 years. I wondered if I could still paint. My hands trembled the first time I picked up a brush. But before an hour had passed, I was lost in the colors spreading across the canvas (画布) in front of me. And as soon as I started believing in myself, other people started believing in me, too. The first painting sold for $1,500.
The past six years have been filled with adventures. My children and I have gone swimming with dolphins, watched whales and hiked around the crater rim (火山口边缘) of the volcano. We wake up every morning with the ocean in front of us and the volcano behind us. The dream I had more than 40 years is now reality. I’m living freely and happily ever after.
1.Why did the writer go to Hawaii?
A. To realize her childhood dream.
B. To free herself from trouble.
C. To spend her holiday.
D. To make a living.
2.Which of the following is the writer’s dream?
A. Living in nature with animals.
B. Becoming a successful painter.
C. Getting close to wildlife.
D. Living a free and happy life.
3.We can infer from the passage that ________.
A. the writer’s husband took away most of her money
B. the writer wasn’t sure whether she could survive in Hawaii at first
C. the writer had never done painting before
D. the writer’s parents encouraged her to divorce
