For the past two years, 8-year-old Harli Jordean from Stoke Newington, London, h
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For the past two years, 8-year-old Harli Jordean from Stoke Newington, London, has been selling marbles(弹珠). His successful marble company, Marble King, sells all things marble-related － from affordable tubs of the glass playthings to significantly expensive items like Duke of York solitaire tables － sourced, purchased and processed by the mini-CEO himself.
“I like having my own company. I like being the boss,” Harli told the Mirror.
With profits now in the thousands, “the world’s youngest CEO” has had to get his mother and older brothers to help him meet the growing demand.
Harli launched Marble King after swapping marbles at school led to schoolchildren consuming his marble collection. Yes, he literally “lost his marbles.” Harli and his mother, Tina, turned to the Internet to find replacements.
Harli saw an empty space online: the marbles he wanted were hard to find. Within months, Harli had his own marble-selling website － and orders started pouring in.
Tina says her son"s attachment to marbles started when he was just 6.
“His attachment became so passionate that we started calling him the Marble King — so when he wanted to set up a website it was the natural name for it,” she told The Sun.
“I never thought it would become so popular － we are struggling to cope with the number of orders at times.”
The 8-year-old boy has his sights set on expanding his business and launching his own brand of marbles.
“Sometimes his ideas are so grand we have to scale them back a bit. But his dream is still to own Britain"s biggest marble shop and open stores around the world,” Tina told The Daily Mail.
“At the moment he is annoying me by creating his own Marble King marbles － so that could well be the next step for him.”
小题1:Harli’s Marble Company became popular as soon as he launched it because ______.| A．it was run by “the world’s youngest CEO” | | B．it filled the gap of online marble trade | | C．Harli was fascinated with marble collection | | D．Harli met the growing demand of the customers |
小题2:How many mass media are mentioned in the passage?| A．One | B．Two | C．Three | D．Four |
小题3:The underlined expression “scale them back” is closest in meaning to ______.| A．hold them down | B．carry them out | | C．set them aside | D．clear them away |
小题4:What message do the last two paragraphs carry?| A．Conflicts often occur between Harli Jordean and his family. | | B．Harli’s mother and brothers are worried about Marble King’s future. | | C．Marble King marbles will surely attract more fans around the world. | | D．The “Marble King” has great ambition for his Marble King company. |
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答案
小题1:B
小题2:C
小题3:A
小题4:D |
解析
文章解释了Harli和他的弹珠王国。
小题1:推断题。第五段第一行Harli saw an empty space online: the marbles he wanted were hard to find.可知网上很难找到弹珠，所以他的店弥补了这一空白。
小题2:细节题。第二段the Mirror.倒数第五段The Sun；倒数第二段The Daily Mail.
小题3:猜测词义题。由前面的grand盛大的，可知Harli的想法有时候过于大胆，他们不得不减小一点。所填的词与grand是反义词。
小题4:主旨大意题。由最后两段的内容可知。 |
举一反三
Disease, poverty, hate, love－Charles Dickens’ stories opened his readers eyes to the most important themes of his age. Two hundred years on, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens’ legacy（遗产） was far greater that just “great-literature”.
February 7 marks the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birthday. To mark this date, BBC writer Alex Hudson listed six things Dickens gave the modern world. Let’s take a look at two of them.
A White Christmas
Dickens is described as “the man who invented Christmas” － not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today.
In the early 19th century, Christmas was barely worth mentioning, according to critic and writer Leigh Hunt. The committee which ran the Conservative Party even held ordinary business meetings on Christmas Day－unthinkable in the West nowadays, when everyone but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off.
Many people believe that Dickens’ popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come. In his classic novel, A Christmas Carol, he not only put forward the idea of snow at Christmas, but also painted a picture of glowing warmth－“home enjoyments, affections and hopes”.
In his biography of Dickens, Peter Ackroyd wrote: “Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas.”
“Dickens” poverty
Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian London.
He helped popularize the term “red tape” to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy(官僚作风) in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society.
“Dickensian” has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty. In 2009, when the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK wanted to talk about poverty in some areas of Britain, she did not use words like “terrible” or “horrific”, but rather described it as “life mirroring the times of Dickens”.
小题1:The article is mainly about .| A．a brief introduction to Charles Dickens’ | | B．Charles Dickens’ impact on the world | | C．the characters in Charles Dickens’ stories | | D．Charles Dickens’ achievements in literature |
小题2:Why is Dickens’ called “the man who invented Christmas”?| A．Because he created both religious and culture festival. | | B．Because his novels have something to do with Christmas. | | C．Because one of his novels helped to shape Christmas celebrations. | | D．Because he was the first man to have proposed celebrating Christmas. |
小题3:We can learn from the passage that .| A．Charles Dickens’ novels reflect the true life at his age | | B．Dickensian is widely used to describe the Christmas | | C．Every person can take three days off for Christmas | | D．The theme of Charles Dickens’ stories is about poverty |
小题4:According to the passage the phrase “red tape” refers to .| A．regulations that are required to finish a task | | B．a situation where poor members of society are hurt | | C．conflict between people in power and weaker people | | D．agreements made by the underclass of society |
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Obama Still Smokes in Secret
US President Barack Obama has just made life more difficult for cigarette makers. He has just signed a law that will set tough new rules for the tobacco industry. The new law gives the US Food and Drug Administration the power to strictly limit the making and marketing of tobacco products.
At a White House signing ceremony Monday, Obama said that he was among the nearly 90% of smokers who took up the habit before their 18 th birthday.
Obama, who has publicly struggled to give up smoking, said he still hadn’t completely kicked the habit. Every now and then he still smokes in secret.
“As a former smoker I struggle with it all the time. Do I still smoke sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No.” Obama said at a news conference.
“I don" t do it in front of my lads．I don ?t do it in front of my family．I would say that I am 95% cured, but there are times when I mess up, " he said．
"Once you go down this path, it" s something you continually struggle with, which is exactly why the law is so important．The new law is not about me, it" s about the next generation of kids coming up．What we don " t want is kids going down that path," he said．
Nearly 20% of Americans smoke and tobacco use kills about 440,000 people a year in the United States due to cancer, heart disease, and other serious diseases．
小题1:The new law makes life difficult for .| A．Obama | | B．tobacco industry | | C．White House | | D．US Food and Drug Administration |
小题2:What do we know about Obama?| A．He no longer smokes． | | B．He still smokes as usual． | | C．He began to smoke at eighteen． | | D．He is trying hard to give up smoking． |
小题3:According to the passage, Obama is most concerned about ．| A．children | B．officials | C．his family | D．Businessmen |
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He was a hero that saved two children from the jaws of a cougar(美洲狮). Standing barely 1.7 meters, the 22-year-old with black-frame glasses might pass more for a Chinese Harry Potter. Yet Shen Huigang is now getting recognition for his bravery in fighting off a cougar on Vancouver Island, Canada, during a family outing. Shen, also known as Ian, was then an exchange student. With him was a friend, Myles Hagar, and Hagar’s two grandchildren. Silently and suddenly a cougar appeared out of nowhere. By the time they spotted the cat, it already had the head of 18-month-old Julien in its mouth.
“At first, my brain was nothing but blank,” Shen recalled. “But I believed I could get the child back.” He gestured as if he were ready for a fight, and tried to scare the beast off with his bag. Hearing the noise Shen made, the animal dropped the baby and Hagar rushed to grab his grandson. But the animal didn’t run, instead turned toward 3-year-old Iris standing beside Shen. “Had Ian not been there, shouting at the cougar, remaining calm and standing firm, it would certainly have attacked Iris.” Hagar recalled.
They chased the animal back into the woods. “We moved slowly to our vehicle as we waved our fists and bags, pretending to wrestle it,” Shen said. “The vehicle wasn’t far away but it felt like it took us a century to travel the short journey.” As Hagar drove for help, Shen held the heavily-bleeding boy in the passenger seat and calmly kept him awake by hugging and kissing him in case he would go into a coma(昏迷). The boy was flown to a hospital nearby. Doctors later said his little skull had been punctured(刺穿) through to his brain in two places. Luckily, Julien made a full recovery.
“Any hesitation, even a second delay, would have resulted in certain death for Julien, but Ian was there…” Hagar said. Following the incident, the story appeared on Canadian TV networks in every city, and in many small town newspapers---plus many US Internet news sites. The Royal Canadian Humane Association planned to give Shen a Canada Bravery Award, but it couldn’t reach him because he had returned to China.
小题1:Why did the cougar drop the baby?| A．Because it was scared by the noise made by Ian’s shouting. | | B．Because Hagar rushed to grab the baby from its jaws. | | C．Because it wanted to attack Iris and took her away. | | D．Because Hagar and Ian were chasing it back into the woods. |
小题2:Which of the following statements about Shen Huigang is TRUE?| A．He was called Chinese Harry Potter because he was very brave. | | B．His deed was spread both in Canada and the US. | | C．He was better at fighting and wrestling compared with Hagar. | | D．He was too shocked to move to the vehicle in the incident. |
小题3:What did Ian do in the car to keep the baby awake?| A．He held, hugged and kissed the baby in the passenger seat. | | B．He drove the car as quickly as possible to find a hospital. | | C．He encouraged the baby telling him to be awake. | | D．He held the heavily- bleeding wound of the baby. |
小题4:Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?| A．Saving Lives From the Jaws of Death | | B．Experiencing a Family Outing | | C．Taking Care of Two Children | | D．Interviewing a Clever Young Student |
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A businessman was on a business trip to Tokyo（东京）. One day he went to buy some gifts for his employees (雇员) back in his country. He entered a supermarket. A lady smiled and welcomed him. He was very touched, and felt good .Because he was not able to 1 the warmth of her smile, he was watching her as he was 2 . She was giving the same 3 to all the people who walked into the supermarket.
The businessman started thinking if she hated doing the same thing. So he asked, “My dear lady, are you 4 of doing this job?” The lady smiled and said, “No, sir, I have 5 here for the last 10 years and I love my job.” The businessman was surprised and asked, “Why have you stayed here for ten years, and why do you like your job 6 much?” The lady said, “Because I am doing something good for my 7 .” The businessman found this interesting. He asked, “Why?” The lady said, “As most of our customers are 8 , they spend foreign currency（货币） here. So our country has a lot of money and becomes richer. People who are happy with our service will __9___ more often and spend more money in our country.”
Surprised by her 10 , the businessman thanked her. After returning to his own country he worked hard to introduce the same attitude (态度) to his workers, and today his company is one of the best companies in the world.
| 小题1: | | A．require | B．enjoy | C．hide | D．forget |
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| 小题2: | | A．traveling | B．working | C．singing | D．shopping |
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| 小题3: | | A．feeling | B．smile | C．warmth | D．watching |
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| 小题4: | | A．fond | B．tired | C．proud | D．afraid |
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| 小题5: | | A．stood | B．learned | C．worked | D．lived |
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| 小题7: | | A．home | B．country | C．supermarket | D．boss |
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| 小题8: | | A．millionaires | B．managers | C．strangers | D．foreigners |
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| 小题9: | | A．sing | B．visit | C．talk | D．save |
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| 小题10: | | A．action | B．service | C．attitude | D．help |
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A farmer had a cow.
A farmer had a cow. He took very good care of this cow and one day when it was ill, he was very worried. He telephoned the vet.
“What’s the problem?” The vet asked him when he arrived.
“My cow’s ill,” the farmer said. “I don’t know what"s the matter with her. She’s lying down and won’t eat. She’s making a strange noise.”
The vet looked over the cow. "She’s certainly ill," he said, "and she needs to take some very strong medicine."
He took a bottle out of his box, put two pills into his hand and said, "Give her these. The pills should make her better."
“How should I give them to her?” the farmer asked.
The vet gave him a tube (管子)and said, "Put this tube in her mouth, then put the pills in the tube and blow（吹）. That’ll make it."
The next day the vet came to the farm again. The farmer was sitting outside his house and looked more worried.
“How’s your cow?” the vet asked.
“No change,” the farmer said, “and I’m feeling very strange myself.”
“Oh?” the vet said, "Why?"
“I did what you said,” the farmer answered. “I put the tube in the cow’s mouth and then put two pills down it.”
“And?” the vet asked.
“The cow blew first,” the farmer said.
小题1:The farmer asked the vet for help when his cow _______| A．couldn"t lie down | B．didn"t eat the pills | C．couldn"t make any noise | D．was ill |
小题2:What medicine did the vet give the farmer?| A．A bottle of pills. | B．A long tube. | C．Two pills. | D．A small box. |
小题3:The vet taught the farmer how _________.| A．to blow the tube | B．to make the cow take the pills | | C．to take the medicine | D．to put the tube in his mouth |
小题4:Which of the following is true?| A．The farmer ate the pills himself. | | B．The cow got better after taking the medicine. | | C．The vet came to help the farmer change the cow the next day. | | D．The farmer was working outside his house the next day. |
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