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阅读理解 |
It is hardly surprising that clothing manufacturers (生产商)follow certain uniform standards for various features(特征)of clothes.What seems strange,however,is that the standard adopted for women is the opposite of the one for men.Take a look at the way your clothes button.Men"s clothes tend to button from the right, and women"s from the left.Considering most of the world"s population-men and women-are righthanded,the men"s standard would appear to make more sense for women.So why do women"s clothes button from the left? History really seems to matter here.Buttons first appeared only on the clothes of the rich in the 17th entury, when rich women were dressed by servants.For the mostly righthanded servants,having women"s shirts button from the left would be easier.On the other hand, having men"s shirts button from the right made sense, too.Most men dressed themselves,and a sword drawn from the left with the right hand would be less likely to get caught in the shirt. Today women are seldom dressed by servants,but buttoning from the left is still the standard for them. Is it interesting? Actually, a standard, once set, resists change.At a time when all women"s shirts buttoned from the left,it would have been risky for any single manufacturer to offer women"s shirts that buttoned from the right.After all, women had grown so used to shirts which buttoned from the left and would have to develop new habits and skills to switch.Besides, some women might have found it socially awkward to appear in public wearing shirts that buttoned from the right,since anyone who noticed that would believe they were wearing men"s shirts. |
1.What is surprising about the standard of the clothing industry? |
A.It has been followed by the industry for over 400 years. B.It is different for men"s clothing and women"s. C.It works better with men than with women. D.It fails to consider righthanded people. |
2.What do we know about the rich men in the 17th century? |
A.They tended to wear clothes without buttons. B.They were interested in historical matters. C.They were mostly dressed by servants. D.They drew their swords from the left. |
3.Women"s clothes still button from the left today because____. |
A.adopting men"s style is improper for women B.manufacturers should follow standards C.modern women dress themselves D.customs are hard to change |
4.The passage is mainly developed by________. |
A.analyzing causes B.making comparisons C.examining differences D.following the time order |
阅读理解。 |
Working as a manager in the head office of a bank, as I do, clothes can be a nightmare. In New York, where I worked for a time last summer, you have to brave the burning heat every time you dare to go outside, yet freeze once you arrive in a meeting with the air-conditioner turned up. I struggled to know what to wear. The problem was worsened by the office dress code for the months of July and August, which was "dress-down". The dress-down phenomenon seems to have begun in places where staff work through the terrible heat of summer while their families take shelter at the coast or in the hills. Dress-down, limited to Friday, allows staff to head straight for their out-of-town places on Friday evenings without going home to change. But in New York it has now become a week-round state of affairs. This move may have been born out of consideration; to allow people on Wall Street to travel to work in the heat in something more comfortable than a suit, but the effect is less kind. For me, dress-down is bad for two reasons. The first is that it actually requires a whole new wardrobe. For my male colleagues in the US, it seemed to mean a switch from one uniform to another. I basically only own two types of clothes; suits for working in and truly casual clothes for relaxing weekends in the countryside. Returning to London, I was therefore rather embarrassed to discover that my employers had started summer dress-down. Here too, though its relevance to the climate is far from immediately apparent. At first, I tried to sidestep it by simply turning up in my suit as usual, but my staff complained that they then felt pressured into doing the same. So, I found myself having to buy " smart casual" clothes specifically to wear to work; a ridiculous expense. Even more annoying is the fact that I"m still required to have a suit hanging up in my office in case I"m suddenly called to a meeting on our conference floor, where dress-down is banned for fear that a client should witness it. One of my colleagues started to accumulate more and more very smart suits in her office, explaining that she was having her flat renovated and that in-office wardrobe was a necessity as she was staying at a different friend"s place each night. We weren"t convinced. For the other great inconvenience of dress-down for the staff is that it makes it easier than ever to spot when colleagues are going to job interviews. For the rest of the year, it is easy enough to arrange these during the working week, but in the summer when dress-down rules, it"s a dead giveaway to arrive in overly smart clothes and then go out for a "dental appointment". I would normally applaud this state of affairs, as an important part of my time is spent trying to prevent valued employees from moving elsewhere, and any clues about their intentions are helpful and allow me to nip things in the bud(消灭于萌芽中). However, the clothes hanging in my office are now finding a second use. I have suddenly become the target for several "headhunters", people employed by other companies to try and attract employees away with offers of better pay and conditions. The only problem with this is that I have just the one suit at the office. As a series of interviews with one future employer progresses, I"m having to bring in additional clothes. I can hardly present myself as a highly-paid investment banker, requiring a vast salary, if they only ever see me in one suit. At this rate, I shall have to tell my staff that I, too, have decided to have my flat done up. |
1. According to the writer, "dress-down" in New York began as a way of ______. |
A. making life easier for staff in the summer months B. discouraging staff from taking summer holidays C. showing concern for staff who lived out of town D. rewarding those employees willing to work in the heat |
2. What was the writer"s first reaction to the idea of " dress-down" in her London office? |
A. She argued against it. B. She attempted to ignore it. C. She recognized the need for it. D. She persuaded her staff to adopt it. |
3. Why does " dress-down" annoy the writer? |
A. Not everyone obeys the rule. B. Her clients find it embarrassing. C. It does not apply on all occasions. D. The clothes themselves do not suit her. |
4. In which aspect of her work does the writer find "dress-down" an advantage? |
A. Training new members of staff. B. Providing her staff with some information. C. Making sure that her staff remain faithful. D. Making her staff feel more comfortable at work. |
5. The underlined word "giveaway" in the sixth paragraph means_________. |
A. something that is given away free. B. willingness to stop doing something. C. willingness to give away to the other"s wishes. D. something that makes it easy for you to guess something. |
6. What can we infer from the last paragraph? |
A. The writer wants to have her flat redecorated. B. The writer is concerned about her dressing in the interviews. C. The headhunters discovered the writer by her suit. D. The writer feels it wrong to meet with the headhunters. |
阅读理解 Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile (汽车). But Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until 1896.That was eleven years after two Germans developed the world"s first automobile.Many people believe Henry Ford invented the production line that moved a car"s parts to the worker, instead of making the worker move to the parts.That is not true, either.Many factory owners used methods of this kind before Ford.What Henry Ford did was to use other people"s ideas and make them better.And he made the whole factory a moving production line. In the early days of the automobile, almost every car maker raced his cars.It was the best way of gaining public notice.Henry Ford decided to build a racing car.Ford"s most famous race was his first one. It was also the last race in which he drove the car himself. The race was in 1901, at a field near Detroit.All of the most famous cars had entered, but only two were left: the Winton and Ford"s.The Winton was famous for its speed.Most people thought the race was over before it began. The Winton took an early lead.But halfway through the race, it began to lose power.Ford started to gain.And near the end of the race, he took the lead.Ford won the race and defeated the Winton.His name appeared in newspapers and he became wellknown all over the United States.Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile company.In 1903, a doctor in Detroit bought the first car from the company.That_sale was the beginning of Henry Ford"s dream.Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people.It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for.It will be built of the best materials.It will be built by the best men to be employed.And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce.It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one." The Model T was a car of that kind.It only cost $850.It was a simple machine that drivers could depend on.Doctors bought the Model T. So did farmers.Even criminals.They considered it the fastest and surest form of transportation.Americans loved the Model T. They wrote stories and songs about it. Thousands of Model T"s were built in the first few years. 1. What do we know about Henry Ford from Paragraph 1? A. He made good use of ideas from others. B. He produced the first car in the world. C. He knew how to improve auto parts. D. He invented the production line. 2. Why did Henry Ford take part in the 1901 car race? A. To show off his driving skills. B. To draw public attention. C. To learn about new technology. D. To raise money for his new company. 3. "That sale" in Paragraph 4 refers to ________. A. the selling of Ford cars at reduced prices B. the sale of Model T to the mass of people C. the selling of a car to a Detroit doctor D. the sales target for the Ford Company 4. What was Henry Ford"s dream according to the text? A. Producing cars for average customers. B. Building racing cars of simple design. C. Designing more car models. D. Starting more companies. |
阅读理解 A striking new species of lungless salamander has been round living in a small stream in the Appalachian foothills of the US. The salamander is so disting that it"s been classified within its own genus, a taxonomic (分类学) grouping that usually inclodesions host of related species. The creature breathes through its skin, and unusually for its kind, males and females have different colouration. Such a distinct ampbibian (两栖动物) has not been found in the US for half a century. The researchers who discovered the salamander describe it in the Journal of Zoology.They have named it the "patchnosed" salamander after the yellow patch on the animal"s nose. The tiny animal averages just 25 to 26mm long. They found so few of the animals that either it is highly secretive, or more likely it survives in such small, isolated numbers that it is already at the risk of extinction. "This animal is really an amazing find." says biologist Carlos Camp of Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, who led the team which described the new species. "It is the first genus of amphibian, indeed of any fourfooted vertebrate (脊椎动物), discovered in the US in nearly 50 years." Around the world, there are approximately 500 species of salamander.Twothirds of these species are lungless, breathing entirely through their porous, moist skin. The Appalachian Highlands of the southeastern US is a hot spot for lungless salamander diversity, with species occupying a variety of moist or wet environments including living in streams, underground, among the leaf litter of the forest floor, up cliffs and in trees. "The salamander group of the US, particularly of the southern Appalachians, has been intensively studied for well over a century, so the discovery of such a distinct form was completely unsuspected." says Carlos. 1. What is the purpose of the writer writing this passage? A. To tell us a find of a new species of lungless salamander. B. To tell us how the lungless salamander was found. C. To stress the significance of the new find. D. To tell us the difference between the lungless salamander and amphibians. 2. Where does the lungless salamander mostly live? A. Underground. B. Under fallen leaves. C. In damp environments. D. In streams. 3. From what Carlos says, we can learn that ________. A. the new species was once discovered some fifty years ago B. the discovery was not so unusual because they had studied it for over a century C. they were not sure whether they had discovered the distinct species D. there was no doubt about their discovery 4. In what way is the newlydiscovered species of salamander distinct from other species of this kind? A. It breathes through skin. B. Its males and females have different colours. C. It lives in streams. D. It is an amphibian. |