2024年5月28日发(作者：)
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A. Scotland’s UK separation
AT 16 in the UK, you cannot drink alcohol or drive a car. So, should you be able to vote? One man thinks so: Scotland’s
First Minister Alex Salmond. To win the fight for Scottish independence he wants to lower the voting age from 18.
The leader of The Scottish National Party (SNP) is heading a campaign for Scotland to become an independent nation.
He hopes to lower the age of voters in order to secure support from a number of young Scots keen (渴望的) for the country to
end its 300-year union with England.
Decision time is fast approaching. In Autumn 2014, the country will go to the polls (投票选举). But, where did
Scotland’s desire to stand alone come from?
Currently the Scottish parliament (议会) controls some key areas, such as health and education. However, in an
interview with Reuters, Salmond said Scotland should have its own forces and foreign policy so that they can say “no”.
Bloody battles have raged between the two countries for centuries. The iconic (标志性的) film Braveheart depicts (描绘)
one such dispute, telling the tale of colorful Scottish hero William Wallace. With his face painted and dressed in a tartan kilt
(苏格兰格子呢短褶裙) he led the defeat of the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.
Rivalry (对立) also lifts its head in the world of sport. The two sides have competed against each other on rugby and
soccer fields for decades! Strong teams from both sides have competed for the ball. But, perhaps, ironically (讽刺地), now
sport can bring the two together.
A poll by the Scottish Mail on Sunday in August showed that only 27 percent of Scots were in favor of independence,
compared to 30 percent before the London Olympics.
No one knows what will happen next. However, David Cameron must approve the decision to lower the voting age
before it can go ahead.
1. Alex Salmond wants to lower the voting age because he hopes to ______.
A. inspire young people to get involved in politics B. stop Scotland from separating from Great Britain
C. get more support in the fight for Scottish independence D. launch a campaign to separate Scotland from Great Britain
2. The underlined word “raged” in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to ______.
A. rarely happened B. ended up C. continued in a violent way D. produced a terrible effect
3. With the example of the film Braveheart, the author intends to ______.
A. explain how pop culture has influenced voters’ decision
B. introduce a Scottish hero William Wallace and his victory
C. prove that Scotland have its own forces and the ability to say no
D. show conflicts have long existed between Scotland and England
4. What can we conclude from the last three paragraphs?
A. Thanks to the London Olympics, few Scots are in support of independence.
B. Scotland and England are more competitive than ever.
C. The London Olympics has somewhat reduced Scottish people’s desire to stand alone.
D. There will be less rivalry between Scotland and England if the voting age is eventually lowered.
B. Soccer stars head-to-head
THEY dazzle (使……惊叹) with their ball skills and scoring ability, but it is their rivalry that has made headlines.
Who are we talking about…? Two Spanish superstar soccer players: Lionel Messi, of FC Barcelona, and Real Madrid’s
Cristiano Ronaldo.
The pair is believed to compete for everything from league titles to FIFA Player of the Year awards.
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And with the new season kicking off in late August, the battle between Messi and Ronaldo continues.
But Messi says as far as he is concerned there is nothing personal in it. They are not friends, but not enemies either.
“I respect him, but I have no relationship with him, as I don’t with a lot of other footballers,” he told Marca, a Spanish
national daily newspaper. “I have relationships with my Barcelona club mates, and with the international squad (体育运动代
表队), as well as Argentinean players who I’ve got to know well over the years.”
Messi said he had never felt any anger toward Ronaldo. “It’s all made up by the media, the papers, who want a duel (争
斗) between us, but I don’t compete with Cristiano, nor can he with me,” he said.
But ESPN believes the rivalry does drive the two to ever-greater heights. According to AP, Ronaldo hit 46 goals for Real
Madrid last season, only to see Messi reach 50 for Barcelona.
But soccer is a team game. One player’s performance can’t always save the day* for the club. Another even more fierce
one-on-one competition is found on the tennis court – Swiss Roger Federer against Rafael Nadal of Spain.
“Had Nadal’s career not coincided (与……一致) with yours, you probably would have won another four or five French
Open titles and your total tally (记录) might have been around 23 or more – have you wondered about that?” Reuters asked
Federer in an interview in June.
Federer answered: “I’ve enjoyed my rivalry with him. Some losses have been tough but it makes the victories a bit
sweeter as well (especially) when you do beat someone who you have lost many times against.”
The arguments over who is greatest may be never-ending, but for sports fans, just enjoy the rivalry and the great game
they have provided us.
1. What does the underlined word “rivalry” mean in Paragraph 1?
A. Situation of envying each other. B. Situation of competing with each other.
C. Situation of being enemies to each other. D. Situation of being in conflict with each other.
2. What does Messi think of his relationship with Ronaldo?
A. It’s different from what media presents. B. Ronaldo cannot be a real threat for him.
C. He is positive that they’ll be good friends. D. He is grateful to have such a great rival.
3. Why are the numbers 46 and 50 mentioned in Paragraph 8?
A. To indicate both Ronaldo and Messi are superstar soccer players.
B. To indicate that Ronaldo has to work harder to catch up with Messi this season.
C. To indicate both Ronaldo and Messi should owe their success to their teammates.
D. To show that their rivalry has brought out better performances from both Ronaldo and Messi.
4. What does Federer’s answer to Reuters’ question imply?
A. Nadal makes their tennis game enjoyable. B. The life that has no failures is meaningless.
C. Without Nadal, his career couldn’t be so successful. D. He is happy to have such a competitor like Nadal.
C. Loss of a space legend
FORTY-THREE years ago, a man took a “small step” on the moon and brought mankind a “giant leap” forward. As the
first person to walk on the moon, American astronaut Neil Armstrong is a man whose name will be remembered for
generations to come.
But being the first is never easy. With so many unknowns about space at that time, Armstrong himself was surprised that
Apollo 11 actually worked. He thought he and his partners had only a 50 percent chance of a successful landing back in 1969.
It was tough indeed. When the module (登月舱) was approaching the moon’s surface, the computer wanted to rest them
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on a steep (陡峭的) slope covered with rocks, but Armstrong realized it was an unsafe place to stop.
As a last minute decision, he safely landed the module by himself. When they finally touched the ground, “there was
something like 20 seconds of fuel left,” he said in an interview earlier this year.
Unfortunately, some people doubted his visit to the moon, saying it was faked. But Armstrong responded with a chuckle
(轻声笑), saying: “It was never a concern to me because I knew one day, somebody was going to go fly back up there and
pick up that camera I left.”
For all his global fame, Neil Armstrong is a remarkably modest man. He rarely gave interviews and didn’t like talking
about his achievement. He stopped giving autographs (签名) when he found that people sold them for thousands of dollars.
“I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger (记账簿) of our daily work,”
Armstrong said in a CBS interview in 2005. When asked how he felt knowing his footprints would be likely to stay on the
moon’s surface for thousands of years, he said: “I kind of hope that somebody goes up there one of these days and cleans
them up.”
Armstrong passed away last month at the age of 82, but he will be remembered. “The next time you walk outside on a
clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink (眨眼示意),” his family said
to Reuters.
1. It can be inferred from the article that before his expedition to the moon, Armstrong _____.
A. was certain that Apollo 11 would work well B. believed the module would land safely on the moon
C. had prepared himself to face possible failure D. planned to land the module on the moon by himself
2. How did Armstrong respond when people doubted that he had been to the moon?
A. He was angry. B. He was troubled by it.
C. He tried to find evidence that they were wrong. D. He believed they would be proved wrong some day.
3. By saying “I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks but for the ledger of our daily work”,
Armstrong meant that ______.
A. the more daily work you do, the more easily you will be recognized
B. things that look spectacular are not as useful as ordinary successes
C. achieving greatness can make other successes feel less important
D. it is better to be appreciated for the hard work we put in every day than one successful moment
4. Which of the following best describes Armstrong?
A. He was ambitious. B. He tried to avoid the spotlight.
C. He balanced his life and work well. D. He was talkative and loved telling jokes.
D. Take time off work
I BELIEVE in leaving work at five o’clock. In a nation with such a strict work ethic (道德规范), this is considered
strange. Working only 40 hours a week? I just don’t know many people who punch out (打卡下班) at five o’clock anymore.
My father tried to show me the importance of hard work, long hours and dedication (奉献) to a career. But seeing him arrive
home from work and crawl (爬) upstairs had the opposite effect. My father, a sales trainer, was unwell and tired all the time.
He was sick with liver cancer, and suffered the effects of a diabetic ulcer (糖尿病溃疡). Despite all this, one day he traveled
a long way to give a seminar. He probably earned a lot of money for it, but he paid the price. He returned to the hospital soon
afterwards and was dead within three months, aged just 58.
It’s been 10 years since I saw my father come home that night and since then, I’ve thought a lot about work. I’ve decided
that I will never crawl up the stairs exhausted.(1) Much as I love my job as a newspaper reporter, I will never work myself
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into the ground, physically or emotionally.(2)Not taking my work home did not come easily at first. After all, I am my
father’s daughter. I was the girl who sat on the library steps each morning, waiting for the doors to open. I even dreamed
about schoolwork.
My dad once told me he was unable to just gaze at a sunset; he had to be doing something as he looked at it – writing,
reading or playing chess. You could say he was a success. He was a published author, an accomplished musician, fluent in
many languages. But the thing is, I want to be able to gaze at sunsets, not meeting a deadline during them or writing a column
at the same time. This makes me wonder – if I leave work early to watch the sunset, will I get into trouble? Do I risk my
career? Perhaps, because honestly, knocking off after eight hours probably won’t earn me the best promotion. But hey,
leaving work at five o’clock means I get to eat dinner with my family and cycle through the streets of my hometown when
there is no traffic. I get to see a lot of sunsets. That’s got to be worth something.
By Laurie Granieri
1. Which of the following about the author’s father is TRUE?
A. He set a good example for his daughter. B. He tried to force his values on his daughter.
C. He gained great pleasure from his work. D. He ignored his health due to his work.
2. What does the author mean by saying “Not taking my work home did not come easily at first” in Paragraph 2?
A. There was so much work to do. B. All her colleagues took work home.
C. She was educated to be a workaholic.D. Her boss would blame her for being lazy.
3. What’s the author’s attitude toward promotion?
A. She doesn’t care about it at all. B. She is eager to get promoted.
C. She thinks it’s for the ambitious people. D. Getting promoted at all costs is not worthwhile.
4. This text is developed ______.
A. by giving examples B. by making comparison C. by describing process D. by order of time
阅读下面短文，并根据短文后的要求答题。
The Importance of Being Silly
We all, at one time or another, have pretended to be a rock star, singing and dancing along to our favorite song. 1
Me? I love to do that when I drive! I turn on the radio, find a song that I can sing along too and pretty soon my arms are in the
air and I am moving along to the rhythm. Most of the time, I do this on my way to work．
Yes, that is true. I will be in my nice work clothes, jamming while driving or stopped at a traffic light. I get weird looks
from some people and others laugh. Personally, I love to get lost in the rhythm of a song which leads me to share with you
the importance of being silly!
2 I know many people do not want to look foolish. So they walk around all serious, which in all honesty, is foolish!
No one is perfect, I repeat: no one is perfect. I don’t care how educated, how thin, how beautiful, how simple, how
frugal, how rich, and so on… No one is perfect! So why pretend to be something you are not?
Life is so short… 3 Here is a quote by Souza, that I think says it all and is a great recipe for life:
"Dance as though no one is watching you; Love as though you have never been hurt before, Sing as though no one can
hear you, Live as though heaven is on earth．"
When we were kids, we had no idea of what limitations were and we had no care in the world so we could do things
without worrying about how we appeared to others. However, as we grew up, we lost that childlike innocence．
So don’t lose the child that still lives within you. The next time you feel down, go turn on your favorite song, and sing
and dance along like there is no tomorrow. Or watch something that makes you laugh. 4 Trust me, you will feel a
whole lot better, and who doesn’ t want to feel good?
第一节：根据短文内容，从A、B、C、D、E中选出最合适放入短文空缺处的选项。选项中有一项是多余选项。
A．You never know when this beautiful journey will be over, so why waste a single second on being so full of rigidity(僵硬)?
B．Laughter is the best medicine to whatever troubles you and nothing is better than laughing so hard that your stomach hurts.
C．Most of us have done this in the privacy of our own room when we were kids and as adults, in the privacy of our homes.
D．The definition for the word silly, according to the dictionary, is: stupid, foolish and nonsensical.
E．Sometimes most of us will feel sad, happy, excited or foolish, and so on.
第二节：根据短文所给的信息，用一个完整的句子回答下列问题，并写在答题纸的指定位置。
5．What does the author mean by the underlined sentence?
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