A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it

A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it

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A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.
Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the money box without stopping, and continued to walk.
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work.
The one who paid the most attention was a 3-year-old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.
In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most beautiful pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. 
Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.
This is a real story. Joshua Bell’s playing in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment.
The outlines were: in a common environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we enjoy beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected situation?
One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”
小题1:Few people stopped to listen to Joshua Bell playing because______.
A.people were in a hurry
B.they were not interested in music
C.it was too cold in the subway
D.the performance was not good enough
小题2:When children stopped to look at the violinist, their parents ______.
A.would give him some money
B.would stop to enjoy the music
C.would applaud for the performance
D.would urge them to continue walking
小题3:Joshua Bell played in the metro station in order to ______.
A.make more money
B.practice his skills in playing music
C.made an advertisement for his concert
D.find out people’s reaction under such a circumstance
小题4:The purpose of the passage is to _____.
A.set us to think about our life
B.show us how to play music
C.tell us the importance of music
D.report a subway performance

答案

小题1:A 
小题2:D
小题3:D
小题4:A
解析

试题分析: 当人们处在匆忙之中时,有多少人会为美好的事物而驻足呢?在华盛顿的地铁站,一个男士演奏了45分钟的小提琴,因正值上班时间,几乎没有人停下脚步去欣赏这美妙的音乐,可是谁又知道这位男士是著名的小提琴手Joshua Bell呢?
小题1:A 细节理解题。根据文章第一段most of them on their way to work.以及下文中出现的多个描述人们行为的词hurry,可以判断因忙着去上班而很少人能停下来去欣赏美妙的音乐,选A。
小题2:D细节理解题。根据文章第五段内容This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.可知当孩子们停下来听音乐的时候,家长们都会催促他们继续赶路,选D。
小题3:D推理判断题。根据文章后三段内容可知Joshua Bell的行为是华盛顿邮报进行的一项实验:人们在像车站这样普通的地方,在匆忙去上班的这段时间人们对于美好的东西会不会去欣赏,人们对于美好的事物是如何反应,故答案选D。
小题4:A主旨大意题。从文章末段If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?”可知文章目的是让人们思考人生,选A。
举一反三
A smart phone is a mobile phone built on a mobile operating system, with more advanced computing abilities than a common phone. The first smart phones enabled the users to send and receive emails. Later models added the function of portable media players, pocket video cameras, and GPS navigation units to form one multi-use device. Many modem smart phones also include touchscreens and web browsers that display web pages.
A recent report says we spend an average of two hours and 40 minutes each day looking at a smart phone. That doesn’t mean making calls, but playing phone games and browsing the Web.
Nowadays we always find people checking emails in a restaurant, taking a picture of the food when it arrives, or checking a message during a conversation instead of traditional communication. It’s no secret that our lives are being affected by our smart phones obsession.
However, this phenomenon has never been presented so vividly as in the short YouTube film I Forgot My Phone. Despite only being online for a few days, it"s already been viewed more than 10.5 million times. Whether it will be screened in the cinema remains to be seen.
Ironically, YouTube’s data show that the site gets a billion views per day from mobile devices, so a lot of those people watched it on their phones.
The short film, written by and starring actress Charlene Deguzman, shows groups of people in various social situations, the majority of whom are absorbed in their phones instead of the world around them. To a certain extent, we all do it.
小题1:People prefer a smart phone to a common one, because the latter only can help us ______.
A.check emails B.send messagesC.find the destinationD.watch a video
小题2:The underlined word “obsession” in the third paragraph most probably means “______”.
A.devotion B.contribution C.addictionD.emotion
小题3:Which of the following is right?
A.People spend as average of two hours and 40 minutes each day using smart phones.
B.The film hasn’t been put on in the cinema.
C.The film is written by an actor named Charlene Deguzman.
D.The film has already been viewed more than 105 million times in the first few days.
小题4:When the writer mentions the number of people watching the film from mobile devices in the fifth paragraph, he mainly feels ______.
A.encouraged B.depressedC.proudD.satisfied

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
Being honest are fundamental requirements if you want to grow spiritually and follow your true destination of personal development. It"s not simply about being honest with people. While that will make you a better person and a more accepted one it"s more importantly about being honest with yourself.
Living your life honestly means that you"ve decided to live openly and to show your true self to others and that you can be relied upon to be trustworthy. On the other hand, dishonesty is all about shade and concealment and living your life in "dark corners". When you"re dishonest, it means that you remain living in the dark and cannot grow spiritually.
Honesty produces trust-trust in ourselves and in all those around us. Trust in turn produces confidence which we all need to overcome life"s problems and which also encourages us to take risks in order to achieve our goals.
You"ll have no doubt you have heard expressions such as "what goes around, comes around" and "you get back, what you give out in life" and that"s very true. If you don"t live your lives honestly, you can be assured that the people you"ll attract will turn out to be very similar to you and it"s therefore unavoidable that one day you"11 be on the receiving end of someone"s dishonest actions or words.
There may be situations where telling the whole truth causes you to bring a lot of pain on somebody else. For example, John may have told Paul that he can"t go on a weekend fishing trip with him because he has a family commitment arranged that weekend. You know differently and that the real reason John isn"t going is because he hates Paul. When Paul asks you if you know whether the reason is true, what do you say? Well, in situations like this, it"s often better to be economical with the truth. You might say that you don"t know why John can"t go or that you think he has something on that weekend." Of course, this isn"t telling the complete truth but you are sparing Paul"s feelings on something that won"t, after all, have strong influence on Paul"s future.
小题1:If you want to grow spiritually, it is best for you to______.
A.follow your destination
B.be true to yourself
C.plan your personal development
D.accept honest people as ends
小题2:The passage tells us that if you choose to live a dishonest life, you will_____.
A.suffer from dishonesty
B.become very attractive
C.influence honest people
D.have attractive friends
小题3:The example in the last paragraph is used to prove that______.
A.we should always tell the truth
B.John is not a trustworthy person
C.telling lies causes pain on someone else
D.sometimes we can"t be completely honest
小题4:What is the main idea of the passage?
A.We should be economical with the truth.
B.People can gain from dishonesty.
C.Honesty helps you develop.
D.Trust produces confidence.

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
Most city parks are places where you can escape from big,ugly structures of metal and stone.The Manhattan High Line is different.Raised 25 feet above the ground,this massive metal structure once supported a rail line.The line opened in 1934 but it was hardly used after the 1960s,and much of it was torn down.However,one stretch remained in a region of Manhattan.The railway structure was ugly and everyone knew that at some time,it would have to be removed.
But the High Line was not destroyed.In fact.now the old rail line serves as one of the most peaceful places in the city.The idea to change the rail line into a park came from Joshua David and Robert Hammond.In 1999,they attended a community meeting to decide the fate of the High Line.David and Hammond were the only people at the meeting interested in saving the historical structure. Later on,when they asked railway officials to take them up to look at the High Line,they saw a mile and a half of wild flowers growing in the middle of the city,and they realized that the High Line had potential to become a park.There was growing interest in improving urban centers,and so the project quickly gathered funds for construction.
The first section of the High Line opened in 2009 and immediately became popular with tourists and locals alike.Each part of the park has a different atmosphere.Some areas are like balconies with wonderful city views.Other sections have wide lawns and walkways planted with wild flowers.Only the final section remains the way it has been for the last fifty years—a railway line overgrown with weeds.
小题1:What is the text mainly about?
A.A park.B.A train line.
C.City transport.D.A historical monument.
小题2:Which of the following is NOT true about the High Line?
A.It is above ground level.B.Only part of the line remains.
C.It is now a popular park.D.Trains still use the line.
小题3:Why did David and Hammond want to save the High Line at first?
A.They thought it would make a good park.
B.They wanted to reopen the train line.
C.They thought it had historical value.
D.They were interested in improving the city.
小题4:Why were people easily persuaded by David and Hammond’s idea?
A.They wanted to make cities nicer places.
B.They wanted to see the wild flowers too.
C.They realized the High Line was important.
D.They knew that funds were available.
小题5:We can infer from the last paragraph that the park is ______________.
A.popular with touristsB.similar to what it used to be
C.various in its design D.1ike natural countryside

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
How far would you be willing to go to satisfy your need to know? Far enough to find out your possibility of dying from a terrible disease? These days that’s more than an academic question,as Tracy Smith reports in our Cover Story.
There are now more than a thousand genetic(基因的)tests,for everything from baldness to breast cancer,and the list is growing.Question is do you really want to know what might eventually kill you? For instance,Nobel Prize-winning scientist James Watson,one of the first people to map their entire genetic makeup, is said to have asked not to be told if he were at a higher risk for  Alzheimer’(老年痴呆症).
“If I tell you that you have an increased risk of getting a terrible disease,that could weigh on your mind and make you anxious,through which you see the rest of your 1ife as you wait for that disease to hit you.It could really mess you up.”Said Dr.Robert Green,a Harvard geneticist.
“Every ache and pain,”Smith suggested,could be understood as“the beginning of the e nd.”“That’s right.If you ever worried you were at risk for Alzheimer"s disease,then every time you can’t find your car in the parking lot,you think the disease has started.”
Dr.Green has been thinking about this issue for years.He led a study of people who wanted to know if they were at a higher genetic risk for Alzheimer’s.It was thought that people who got bad news would,for lack of a better medical term,freak out.But Green and his team found that there was “no significant difference”between how people handled good news and possibly the worst news of their lives.In fact,most people think they can handle it.People who ask for the information usually can handle the information,good or bad,said Green.
小题1:The first paragraph is meant to .
A.ask some questionsB.introduce the topic
C.satisfy readers,curiosity D.describe an academic fact
小题2:Which of the following is true of James Watson?
A.He is strongly in favor of the present genetic tests.
B.He is more likely to suffer from Alzheimer"s disease.
C.He believes genetic mapping can help cure any disease.
D.He doesn’t want to know his chance of getting a disease.
小题3:According to Paragraphs 3 and 4,if a person is at a higher genetic risk,it is .
A.advisable not to let him know
B.impossible to hide his disease
C.better to inform him immediately
D.necessary to remove his anxiety
小题4:The underlined part“freak out”in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to .
A.break downB.drop outC.leave offD.turn away
小题5:The study led by Dr.Green indicates that people .
A.prefer to hear good newsB.tend to find out the truth
C.can accept some bad news D.have the right to be informed

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
In England, people often talk about the weather because they can experience (经历) several seasons in one day. In the morning the weather is warm just like in spring. An hour later black clouds come and then it rains hard. The weather gets a little cold. In the late afternoon the sky will be sunny, the sun will begin to shine, and it will be summer at this time of a day.
In England, people can also have summer in winter, or have winter in summer. So in winter they can swim sometimes, and in summer sometimes they should take warm clothes.
umbrella (伞)or a raincoat with them in the sunny morning, but you should not laugh at them.If you don"t take an umbrella or a raincoat, you will regret (后悔) later in the day.
小题1:Why do people in England often talk about the weather?
A.Because they may have several seasons in one day
B.Because they often have very good weather
C.Because the weather is warm just like in spring
D.Because the sky is sunny all day
小题2:From the story we know that when _________come, there is a heavy rain.
A.sunshine and snowB.black clouds
C.summer and winterD.spring and autumn
小题3:In the sunny morning some English people usually take a raincoat or an umbrella with them because ________.
A.their friends ask them to do soB.it often rains in England
C.they are going to sell themD.they are their favourite things
小题4:The best title (标题)for this passage is ________.
A.Bad SeasonsB.Summer or Winter
C.The Weather in EnglandD.Strange English People

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