Alex Taw, a 21yearold student from Wiltshire, England. He spent last summer like any other
high school graduate-hanging out with friends, preparing for college, worrying about his university
fees. While most of his peers gave up on their pipe dreams, he sat down with a notebook at home,
and jotted down (草草记下) the question: How can I become a millionaire?
The result was the Million Dollar Homepage. com. Alex"s initial investment was 50 pounds to
buy web space and a domain (领域) name. He divided the blank homepage into one million pixels
(电脑上的像点), 10,000 blocks of 100 pixels each. Each pixel was worth $ 1, minimum purchase:
100 pixels. Within a month Alex had earned some $ 37,000, enough for him to cover the entire cost
of his forthcoming three years at university. In just a few months, he became a real millionaire.
How did he come up with the idea of the Millionaire Dollar Home Page?
"Well, I was trying to think of a way to make some money before I started university, as I was
about to take on a huge debt and I was already overdrawn (透支). Swift action was necessary!"
He said.
He also added, "The important thing is that anything is possible-we are only limited by our
imagination. I always had this belief that a good idea can be successful on its own. I think I"ve learnt
that if we think deeper there are magical solutions hiding away for us to find."
His personal philosophy around money is: Money is not everything, but it"s an essential part of
the way we live. Having__some__removes__a__certain__amount__of__stress,__but,__unless_
_we__are__careful,__it__can__create__a__new__type__of__stress.
He also said, "I still want to go to university. Aside from gaining knowledge about business, there
are other reasons-exploring your interests, meeting new people, and being in a creative environment."
Besides making contributions to society, he would try to encourage and inspire people to think
of creative solutions to problems, whatever they are.
| ( )1. A. age ( )2. A. polite ( )3. A. order ( )4. A. hardly ( )5. A. wrote ( )6. A. regret ( )7. A. change ( )8. A. reminded ( )9. A. refused ( )10. A. came to ( )11. A. why ( )12. A. shy ( )13. A. pretend ( )14. A. But ( )15. A. problem ( )16. A. frightened ( )17. A. Something ( )18. A. experienced ( )19. A. besides ( )20. A. incident | B. bill B. sensitive B. hope B. proudly B. felt B. desire B. face B. advised B. prepared B. depended on B. when B. proud B. continue B. So B. chance B. surprised B. Everything B. trusted B. for B. service | C. appearance C. nervous C. impression C. luckily C. followed C. success C. afford C. approached C. paid C. gave up C. how C. excited C. expect C. Or C. gift C. disappointed C. Anything C. won C. despite C. joke | D. manner D. important D. promise D. freely D. ignored D. danger D. prevent D. helped D. finished D. turned against D. where D. foolish D. struggle D. Because D. adventure D. bored D. Nothing D. saved D. like D. food |
| 阅读理解。 | |||
| High school is tough. And if you were to ask Pink her opinion on the subject she"d tell you the same. Before she became famous, and when she was still called Alicia Moore, the young superstar faced more than her fair share of high school drama. In her interview with Faze, Pink admits she was sorted as a troublemaker at school, "The problem was, I was labelled as trouble-so I was like "trouble". I"ll show you trouble. You want trouble, well here it is!" Unfortunately, Pink began to deliver what the teachers expected and the vicious cycle began. "It"s like the label they give you, you grow into it anyway. They treat you bad, so you act bad," Pink says and continues. "Did I deserve it?-in the end yes, but I feel I just conformed to the label they gave me. I think a lot of kids just get frustrated and act the way the teachers expect them to." It"s no surprise that eventually Pink developed a problem with authority, "When they would say it had to be a certain way I would ask, "why?" They"d say, "Because it always has," so I"d try to prove them wrong." Predictably, Pink dropped out of school and soon after began to sing in nightclubs. She sang any chance she could get and was eventually discovered by a talent scout (星探) while singing in a club in Philadelphia. She does not regret anything she has done and would not change her past if she could. "To change that would change who I am," she said in her Faze interview. She believes having faced so many difficulties at a young age is a good thing. "To experience the good you have to have seen the bad. Plus it makes you appreciate blessings more," she says. Pink encourages us to be ourselves and not to worry about being labelled. "Just wait," she says. "Give it a couple of years then it won"t matter. Because no matter what label they give you, the best thing you can do is prove them wrong." | |||
| 1. According to the passage, what is Pink"s suggestion? | |||
| A. Do it your way. B. To be confident. C. Don"t make trouble. D. To be happy. | |||
| 2. What does the underlined word "labelled" in the second paragraph mean? | |||
| A. Known. B. Realized. C. Classified. D. Discovered. | |||
| 3. The passage implies that students ________. | |||
| A. will usually follow their teachers" advice B. will act the way their parents expect them to C. are likely to behave in a bad way as others expect D. are willing to meet with many difficulties | |||
| 4. Pink felt that high school was hard because ________. | |||
| A. she fell behind others B. she was misunderstood C. she was unsuccessful D. she felt lonely | |||
| 阅读理解 | |||
| A gunman killed eight people at a mall in Omaha this afternoon and then killed himself, setting off panic among holiday shoppers, the police said. "The person who we believe to be the shooter has died from selfinflicted gunshot wounds," Sgt. Teresa Negron of the Omaha Police Department said at televised news. "We have been able to clear the mall," she said. "We don"t believe we have any other shooters." The police said that at least five other people had been injured in the shootings. She did not give the shooter"s identity. "We are still conducting the investigation," Sergeant Negron said, adding that the city"s mayor, who was out of town, was on his way back to Omaha. She said the police received a 911 call from someone inside the Westroads Mall on the west side of Omaha, and shots could be heard in the background. The first police officers arrived at the mall six minutes after the first call, she said, but by then the shootings were over. It is reported that the gunman left a suicide note that was found at his home by relatives. A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity (匿名) said the note indicated that the gunman wanted to "go out in style". The shootings broke the usually banal routine of holiday shopping. The gunman was said by some witnesses to have fired about 20 shots into a crowd. Some customers and workers ran screaming from the mall, while others dived into dressing rooms to hide from the shooter. Shoppers and store workers were trapped inside the mall, which has roughly 135 stores. Others streamed out of mall exits with their hands raised. The president was in Omaha this morning to deliver a speech, but he had left the city by the time the shootings took place. | |||
| 1. Where did the news about the shooting first come out? | |||
| A. On a newspaper. B. On the Internet. C. On TV. D. In a police poster. | |||
| 2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? | |||
| A. Nobody knows why the shooter did so and nothing was found at his home. B. The city"s mayor happened not to be in the city when the shooting took place. C. Police arrived at the mall before the shootings were over and rescued customers. D. The gunman fired two shots into a crowd. | |||
| 3. We can learn from the passage that ________. | |||
| A. there is more than one shooter in this event B. the shooting didn"t trouble the customers much C. an important holiday is coming soon D. the president came to the scene soon after the shooting | |||
| 4. Which of the following would be the best title for the news? | |||
| A. Gunman Kills 8 People, Then Himself at a Mall in Omaha B. Shoppers in Great Panic before the Holiday C. The President Happened to Escape a Shot D. Shooter Found Dead in a Mall on the West of Omaha | |||
| 阅读理解 | |||
| I"ve always known my kids use digital communications gear (装置) a lot. But my cellphone bill last month really grabbed my attention. My son had come up to nearly 2,000 incoming text messages, and had sent nearly as many. Of course, he was out of school for the summer and communicating more with friends from a distance. Nevertheless, he found time to hold down a summer job and complete a college course in between all that typing with his thumb. I was even more surprised to learn that my son is normal. Teenagers with cellphones each send and receive 2,272 text messages a month on average, Nielsen Mobile says. Some experts regret that all that keyboard jabber is making our kids stupid, unable to read nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, gestures, posture and other silent signals of mood and attitude. Unlike phones, text messaging doesn"t even allow transmission of tone of voice or pauses, says Mark Bauerlein author of a book called The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes (危害) Our Future. Beyond that, though, I"m not sure I see as much harm as critics of this trend. I"ve posted before on how I initially tried to control my kids" texting. But over time, I have seen my son suffer no apparent ill effects, and he gains a big benefit, of easy, continuing contact with others. I don"t think texting make kids stupid. It may make them annoying, when they try to text and talk to you at the same time. And it may make them distracted,__when buzzing text messages interrupt efforts to noodle out a math problem or finish reading for school. But I don"t see texting harming teens" ability to communicate. My son is as accustomed to nonverbal cues as any older members of our family. I have found him more engaged and easier to communicate with from a great distance, because he is constantly available via text message and responds with faithfulness and speed. | |||
| 1. What does the underlined word "distracted" in the fifth paragraph mean? | |||
| A. Confused. B. Absentminded. C. Comfortable. D. Badtempered. | |||
| 2. What would be the best title for this passage? | |||
| A. For Teens, Texting Instead of Talking B. For Parents, Caring Much for Their Kids C. Advantages and Disadvantages of Texting D. The Effect of Communication | |||
| 3. What is Mark Bauerlein"s attitude towards texting? | |||
| A. It is so convenient for teens to communicate with others. B. It is likely to cause trouble in understanding each other. C. It is convenient for teens to text and call at the same time. D. It will cause damage to the development of intelligence. | |||
| 4. The author"s attitude towards texting is ________. | |||
| A. suspicious B. opposed C. supportive D. doubtful | |||
| 5. According to the passage, which of the following statements is NOT true? | |||
| A. It is normal for a teen to send or receive 60 text messages a day. B. Texting is a very popular way of communication among teens. C. Parents don"t mind teens" texting and talking at the same time. D. The writer limited his son to sending or receiving text messages at first. |