Most musicians agree that the best violins were made in Cremona, Italy, about 20

Most musicians agree that the best violins were made in Cremona, Italy, about 20

题型:不详难度:来源:
Most musicians agree that the best violins were made in Cremona, Italy, about 200 years ago. They even sound better than violins made today. Violin makers and scientists try to make instruments like the old Italian violins. But they aren’t the same. Why are these old Italian violins so special? Many people think they have an answer.
Some people think it is the age of the violins. But there is a problem here. Not all old violins sound wonderful. Only those from Cremona are special. So age cannot be the answer.
Other people think the secret to those violins is the wood. The wood of the violin is very important. It must be from certain kinds of trees. It must not be too young or too old. Perhaps the violin makers of Cremona knew something special about wood for violins.
But the kind of wood may not be so important. It may be more important to cut the wood in a special way. Wood for a violin must be cut very carefully. It has to be the right size and shape. The smallest difference will change the sound of the violin. Musicians sometimes think that this is the secret of the Italians.
Size and shape may not be the answer either. Scientists make new violins that are exactly the same size and shape. But the new violins still do not sound as good as the old one. Some scientists think the secret may be the varnish(清漆), which covers the wood of the violin and makes it look shiny. It also helps the sound of the instrument. Since no one knows what the Italian violin makers used in their varnish, no one can make the same varnish today.
There may never be other violins like the violins of Cremona. And there are not many of the old violins left. So these old violins are becoming more and more precious.
小题1:What would be the best title for the passage?
A.The Secrets of Cremona Violins
B.The History of Italian Violins
C.Special Musical Instruments
D.How to Make the Best Violins
小题2:The main purpose of the first paragraph is to_______________
A.list some factsB.raise a question
C.give an opinion D.offer an answer
小题3:What is still unclear about Cremona violins according to the writer?
A.The shape.B.The size.C.The wood.D.The varnish.
小题4:Which of the following words can best describe Cremona violins?
A.Light.B.Shining.C.Valuable.D.Modern
小题5:What can we learn from this passage?
A.Modem things are always better than ancient ones
B.Ancient things are always better than modem ones
C.Once a cultural relic is lost.it Can never be recovered
D.Varnish for violins will become more and more precious

答案

小题1:A
小题2:B
小题3:D
小题4:C
小题5:C
解析

试题分析:文章主要中讲到200年前在克雷莫纳生产的小提琴是最好的。那为什么呢?科学家和小提琴制造者进行了各种各样的研究。有人认为是个小提琴的时间有关,还有人认为跟制作的木头有关,另外有人认为和大小和形状有关,但这都被否定了。最后有人说跟小提琴上的清漆有关,由于不知道古代的意大利人用什么清漆,这个得不到证明。
小题1:.主旨大意题。根据第一段Most musicians agree that the best violins were made in Cremona, Italy, about 200 years ago.大多数音乐家都同意最好的小提琴是在200年前意大利的克雷莫纳生产的;Why are these old Italian violins so special? Many people think they have an answer.为什么古意大利的小提琴那么特别呢?许多人认为这是有原因的。接下来文章讲了各种各样的说法并作出分析。所以选A。
小题2:写作目的题。第一段主要提出了问题Why are these old Italian violins so special?下文开始分析问题。故选B。
小题3:细节理解题。根据倒数第二段中Since no one knows what the Italian violin makers used in their varnish, no one can make the same varnish today.由于没有谁知道意大利的小提琴制造者使用了什么清漆,如今没人能做出相同的清漆。故选D.
小题4:推理判断题。根据最后一段There may never be other violins like the violins of Cremona. And there are not many of the old violins left. So these old violins are becoming more and more precious.从来没有其它的小提琴像克雷莫纳的一样,而且古老的克雷莫纳小提琴数量也不多。因此这些古琴就越来越珍贵了。故选C。
小题5:故选C。推理判断题。从文中我们知道,我们再也做不出象200年前克雷莫纳那样的古琴。也就说明,一旦一种文化遗产丢失了,就再也不能恢复了
举一反三
“Whatever",totally tops most annoying word in the poll (民意测验).So, you know, it is what it is, but Americans are totally annoyed by the use of‘ whatever"’ in conversations. The popular term of indifference (不感兴趣)was found most annoying in conversations by 47 percent of the Americans surveyed in a Marist College poll on Wednesday.
“Whatever"easily beat out “you know",which especially annoyed a quarter of interviewers. The other annoying expressions were "anyway"(at 7 percent), “it is what it is” (11percent) and “at the end of the day(2 percent).
"Whatever" is an expression with staying power It left everyone a deepimpression in the song by Nirvana (“oh well, whatever, never mind”)in 1991 and was popularized by the Valley Girls in the film “Clueless”,later that decade. It is still commonly used, often by younger people.
It can be a common argument-ender or a signal of indifference. And it can really be annoying. The poll found "whatever" to be consistently(始终地) disliked by Americans regardless of their race, sex, age, income or where they live.
“It doesn"t surprise me because ‘whatever’,is in a special class, probably, said Michael Adams, author of “Slang(俚语)~The People"s Poetry" and an associate professor of English at Indiana University. "It"s a word that -and it depends on how a speaker uses it -can suggest being not worthy of attention or respect.” Adams, who didn"t take part in the poll and is not annoyed by "whatever," points out that its use is not always negative. “It can also be used in place of other neutral(中性的)phrases that have fallen out of favor, like ‘six of one, half dozen of the other’ ” he said. However, he also noted that the negative meaning of the word might explain why “whatever” was judged more annoying than the ever-popular “you know”.
小题1:Which tops second among the annoying expression according to the passage?"
A.Whatever.B.You know
C.Anyway.D.It is what it is.
小题2:What can we know about the word "whatever"?
A.It became popular because of Nirvana.
B.It can be commonly used at the beginning of an agreement.
C.Old people like it while young people don"t.
D.Almost half of the Americans surveyed disliked it.
小题3:In Adams" opinion, the reason why “whatever”, was judged more annoying may be that_____.
A.most of the people don"t like it
B.it can be used in place of other neutral phrases
C.it carries certain negative meaning sometimes
D.the poor don"t like it
小题4:Which of the following statements is true?
A.Adams is not only a writer but also a professor.
B.“Whatever” is a signal of concern.
C.Adams is angry at the word “whatever”
D."Whatever" will be replaced by "You know”

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案



小题1:What you have just read is a _______.
A.noteB.reportC.scheduleD.poster
小题2:What is going to take place on 2 February, 2013?
A.A party for close friends to meet and have fun
B.A party to celebrate a traditional festival.
C.A big event to welcome a Chinese new year.
D.A social gathering to raise money for wildlife.
小题3:Which of the following statements is true?
A.Tickets are sold in Kwun Tong High School
B.It"s unnecessary to take soft drinks with you.
C.Free digital cameras are provided for everybody
D.Festival food will be served without extra charge.

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
“Indeed,” George Washington wrote in his diary in 1985, “some kind of fly, or bug, had begun to eat the leaves before I left home.” But the father of America was not the father of bug. When Washington wrote that, Englishmen had been referring to insects as bugs for more than a century, and Americans had already created lighining-bug(萤火虫)。But the English were soon to stop using the bugs in their language, leaving it to the Americans to call a bug a bug in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The American bug could also be a person, referring to someone who was crazy about a particular activity. Althoug fan became the usual term. sports fans used to be called racing bugs, baseballbugs, and the like.
Or the bug could be a small machine or object, for example, a bug-shaped car. The bug could also be a burglar alarm, from which comes the expression to bug, that is, “to install (安装) an alarm”. Now it means a small piece of equipment that people use for listening secretly to others’ conversation. Since the 1840s, to bug has long meant “to cheat”, and since the 1940s it has been annoying.
We also know the bug as a flaw in a computer program or other design. That meaning dates back to the time of Thomas Edison. In 1878 he explained bugs as “little problems and difficulties” that required months of study and labor to overcome in developing a successful product. In 1889 it was recorded that Edison “had been up the two previous nights discovering ‘a bug’ in his invented record player.”
小题1:We learn from Paragraph 1 that ___________.
A.Americans had difficulty in learning to use the word bug
B.George Washington was the first person to call an insect a bug
C.the word bug was still popularly used in English in the nineteenth century
D.both Englishmen and Americans used the word bug in the eighteenth century
小题2:What does the word “flaw” in the last paragraph probably mean?
A.Explanation.B.Finding.C.Origin.D.Fault.
小题3:The passage is mainly concerned with__________.
A.the misunderstanding of the word bug
B.the development of the word bug
C.the public views of the word bug
D.the special characteristics of the word bug

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案


At the top of a three-storey brick house Sue and Johnsy had their studio. In November a cold, unseen stranger, whom the doctors called Pneumonia(肺炎), touched one here and there with its icy fingers. Johnsy was struck down, and she lay, hardly moving, on her bed looking through the window at the blank side of the next brick house.
One morning the busy doctor invited Sue into the hallway(走廊).
“She has one chance in ten,” he said, “And that chance is for her to want to live. She has made up her mind that she’s not going to get well. I will do all that I can. But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession(队列), I subtract 50 percent from her chance to live.”
After the doctor had gone, Sue went into the workroom and cried. Then she came into Johnsy’s room with her drawing board, whistling.
Johnsy lay hardly moving with her face toward the window. Sue stopped whistling, thinking she was asleep.
She arranged her board and began a drawing. As Sue was sketching, she heard a low sound. She went quickly to the bedside.
Johnsy’s eyes were open wide. She was looking out the window and counting backward.
“Twelve,” she said, and a little later “eleven”; and then “ten”, and “nine”; and then “eight” and “seven”, almost together.
Sue looked out the window. What was there to count? There was only the blank side of the brick house twenty feet away. An old ivy vine(常春藤) climbed halfway up the brick wall. Its branches clung(紧紧缠着), almost bare, to the bricks.
“What is it, dear?” asked Sue.
“Six,” said Johnsy, in almost a whisper. “They’re falling faster now. Three days ago there were almost a hundred. There goes another one. There are only five left now”.
“Five what, dear? Tell me.”
“Leaves. On the ivy vine. When the last one falls, I must go, too. Didn’t the doctor tell you?”
“Oh, I never heard of such nonsense,” said Sue. “What have old ivy vine leaves to do with your getting well? Why, the doctor told me this morning that your chances for getting well real soon were ten to one! Try to take some soup now.”
“There goes another. No, I don’t want any soup. I want to see the last one fall before it gets dark. Then I’ll go , too.”
“Johnsy, dear,” said Sue, bending over her, “will you promise me to keep your eyes closed, and not look out the window until I’m done working? I need the light or I would draw the shade down.”
“Tell me as soon as you have finished,” said Johnsy, closing her eyes, “because I want to see the last one fall. I’m tired of waiting. I want to turn loose my hold on everything and go sailing down, down, just like one of those poor, tired leaves.”
小题1:By saying “Pneumonia touched one here and there” (in the first paragraph), the author means that _________.
A.some people were affected by the illnesses of others
B.pneumonia caused damage to the ivy vine
C.two people became ill
D.many people came down with the illness
小题2: How did Johnsy feel about the situation during the passage?
A.confidentB.hopelessC.tiredD.curious
小题3:We can learn from the passage that _____________.
A.Sue came into the room whistling perhaps because she thought Johnsy might like the music.
B.Johnsy’s life was compared to the carriages in a funeral procession
C.Sue told a lie to Johnsy about the doctor’s words
D.Johnsy wanted to know about the falling ivy leaves to meet her own curiosity
小题4:The underlined word “subtract” in the third paragraph probably means “________”.
A.reduceB.hopeC.addD.doubt
小题5:The passage is probably taken out of ______________.
A.a newspaperB.a novel
C.a medical reportD.a girl’s diary

题型:不详难度:| 查看答案
President Coolidge’s statement, “The business of America is business,” still points to an important truth today—that business institutions have more prestige(威望)in American society than any other kind of organization, including the government. Why do business institutions possess this great prestige?
One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based on the ideal of competition than other institutions in society. Since competition is seen as the major source of progress and prosperity by most Americans, competitive business institutions are respected. Competition is not only good in itself, it is the means by which other basic American values such as individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work are protected.
Competition protects the freedom of the individual by ensuring that there is no monopoly(垄断)of power. In contrast to one all-powerful government, many businesses compete against each other for profits. Theoretically, if one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers, it will lose to competing business which treats its customers more fairly. Where many businesses compete for the customers’ dollars, they cannot afford to treat them like inferiors or slaves.
A contrast is often made between business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because business is competitive, many Americans believe that it is more supportive of freedom than government, even though government leaders are elected by the people and business leaders are not. Many Americans believe, then, that competition is as important, or even more important, than democracy(民主)in preserving freedom.
Competition in business is also believed to strengthen the ideal of equality of opportunity. Competition is seen as an open and fair race where success goes to the swiftest person regardless of his or her social class background. Competitive success is commonly seen as the American alternative to social rank based on family background. Business is therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equality of opportunity rather than the aristocratic(贵族的)idea of inherited privilege.
小题1:The statement “The business of America is business” probably means ________.
A.America is a great power in world business
B.Business is of primary concern to Americans
C.The business institutions in America are concerned with commerce
D.Business problems are of great importance to the American government
小题2:Americans believe that they can realize their personal values only _______.
A.by protecting their individual freedom
B.when given equality of opportunity
C.by way of competition
D.through doing business
小题3:Who can benefit from business competition?
A.People with ideals of equality and freedom.
B.Both business institutions and government.
C.Honest businessmen.
D.Both businessmen and their customers.
小题4:Government is believed to differ strikingly from business in that government is characterized by ________.
A.its role in protecting basic American values
B.its absolute control of power
C.its democratic way of exercising leadership
D.its function in preserving personal freedom
小题5:It can be inferred from the passage that the author believes ___________.
A.in many countries success often depends on one’s social status
B.businesses in other countries are not as competitive as those in America
C.American businesses are more democratic than those in other countries
D.Americans are more ambitious than people in other countries

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