Singles Day falls on every November 11th, and as the name indicates, this relatively new holiday is one exclusively for people who are still living the single life. I was a bit surprised when I googled “Singles Day” on the Internet, to find that China is the only country in the world that has set aside a special day for singles to celebrate their lives. To find out more about this celebration, please read on.

An old story goes that once there were four single men, leading very boring lives. None of them were married, or had lovers, or did anything exciting. They just sat around all day and played Mahjong.

One day they played Mahjong from 11 in the morning until 11 at night. During the game, no matter who won, the winning card was always the “four columns” card (the card shows four independent, parallel columns in two lines). Even more of a coincidence, it was Nov 11, or 11/11. In order to commemorate the day, they nicknamed it Singles Day.

Singles Day was first celebrated at various universities in Nanjing, capital city of Jiangsu Province during the 1990s. It got the name Singles Day because the date consists of four “ones”. These college students have since graduated, and carried their university tradition into society. Singles Day is now a special day for all fashionable youths.

The main way to celebrate Singles Day is to have dinner with your single friends, but it’s important that each person pay their own fee to show their independence. People also hold “blind date” parties in an attempt to say goodbye to their single lives.

Many singles also choose to say goodbye to their single lives on this day. Many attend “blind date” parties and many people choose to marry on this day. In addition to meaning “single” the four “ones” of the date can also mean “only one” as in “the only one for me.” Some people will use this date and this meaning to tell their special someone that they are the only “one” in their heart.

1.Singles Day got its name because _______.

A. the persons who play Mahjong are four singles

B. the date consists of four “ones”

C. only single persons celebrate the day

D. it was first celebrated at universities in Nanjing

2.Which of the following is wrong?

A. Singles Day was first celebrated in Nanjing’s universities.

B. Many singles choose Singles Day to say goodbye to their single lives.

C. The only way to celebrate the Singles Day is to have dinner with your single friends.

D. It was these college graduated students that carried their university’s tradition into society.

3.We can infer from the passage that ______.

A. the four singles did not get married

B. Singles Day receives great popularity among young people

C. when having dinner, one pays the fee for all his friends

D. on Singles Day many attend parties where blind people were present

4.What is the best title for the passage?

A. The Origin of Singles Day.               B. How to Celebrate Singles Day.

C. Singles Day.                             D. Say Goodbye to Singles Day.

 

Soon it would be the holidays, but before that, there were year exams. All the ___11___ had been working hard for some time, reviewing their lessons for the exams. If they didn’t __12___, they would have to retake them in September. There were usually a few who ___13___, but Jane didn’t want to be one of them. She had worked hard all year, but just before the exams she was working so hard that her sister Barbara was ___14___ about her. She went to bed too__15___. The night before the first exam, Barbara __16___ that she have an early night and take a __17___ pill（藥丸）. She promised to wake her up in the morning.

As she was falling asleep, Jane was afraid that she might oversleep. Her ___18___ kept jumping from subject to subject. At last, with the help of ___19___, she went to sleep. In no time at all, she was sitting in the examination hall, looking at the examination ___20____, but she couldn’t answer any of the questions. Everyone around her was writing pages and gages. Though she thought hard, she couldn’t find anything to write about . She kept looking at her ___21____. Time was running out. There was only an hour to go. She started one question, wrote two sentences, ___22____ and tried another one. With only half an hour left she wrote another two sentences. By this time she was so worried that she started ___23___. Her whole body shook. It shook so much that she ___24___ up. She was still in bed and it had all been a ___25____ dream. A minute later, Barbara called her name.

1.	A．teachers B．students C．classmates D．schools

 

2.	A．prepare B．miss C．join D．pass

 

3.	A．succeeded B．failed C．ended D．called

 

4.	A．excited B．frightened C．worried D．pleased

 

5.	A．early B．late C．heavily D．eagerly

 

6.	A．insisted B．hoped C．ordered D．wished

 

7.	A．sleeping B．resting C．exciting D．breathing

 

8.	A．hand B．eye C．mind D．body

 

9.	A．her sister B．her parents C．the lessons D．the medicine

 

10.	A．result B．marks C．desk D．paper

 

11.	A．watch B．textbook C．sister D．subject

 

12.	A．gave up B．put off C．look around D．think over

 

13.	A．examining B．leaving C．copying D．crying

 

14.	A．raised B．woke C．stood D．cheered

 

15.	A．nice B．wonderful C．terrible D．special

 

Remembering names is an important social skill. Here are some ways to master it.

Recite and repeat in conversation（談話，交往）.

When you hear a person’s name, repeat it. Immediately say it to yourself several times without moving your lips. You could also repeat the name in a way that does not sound forced or artificial（矯揉造作的，不自然的）.

Ask the other person to recite and repeat.

You can let other people help you remember their names. After you’ve been introduced to someone，ask that person to spell the name and pronounce it correctly for you. Most people will be pleased by the effort（努力） you’re making to learn their names.

Admit you don’t know.

Admitting that you can’t remember someone’s name can actually make people relaxed. Most of them will feel sympathy if you say, “I’ m working to remember names better. Yours is right on the tip of my tongue. What is it again？”

Use associations（聯(lián)絡(luò)，聯(lián)系）.

Link（聯(lián)系） each person you meet with one thing you find interesting or unusual. For example, you could make a mental note：“Vicki Cheng — tall, black hair.” To reinforce (加強) your associations, write them on a small card as soon as possible.

Limit the number of new names you learn at one time.

When meeting a group of people, concentrate on（集中精力） remembering just two or three names. Free yourself from remembering everyone. Few of the people in mass introductions expect you to remember their names. Another way is to limit yourself to learning just first names. Last names can come later.

Go early.

Consider going early to conferences（會議）, parties and classes. Sometimes just a few people show up（到場） on time. That’s fewer names for you to remember. And as more people arrive, you can hear them being introduced to others — an automatic （無意識的）review for you.

1..．How will most people feel when you try hard to remember their names?

A．They will be moved.	B．They will be annoyed.
C．They will be delighted.	D．They will be discouraged.

2..If you can’t remember someone’s name, you may ________.

A．tell him the truth	B．tell him a white lie
C．a(chǎn)sk him for pity	D．a(chǎn)sk others to help you

3..．When you meet a group of people, it is better to remember________.

A．a(chǎn)ll their names	B．a(chǎn) couple of names first
C．just their last names	D．a(chǎn)s many names as possible

4..．What does the text mainly tell us?

A．Tips on an important social skill.	B．Importance of attending parties.
C．How to make use of associations.	D．How to recite and repeat names.

 

To what degree can a computer achieve intelligence(智力)? The answer to this question may lie in a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child and the Internet.

If you ran into Smarter Child online, you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory. It can recite many facts. For example, Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season.

He knows every word in the dictionary and the weather in every major city areas across the US. However, if you ask Smarter Child other questions, you get stranger answers. A question about Smarter Child’s age returns, “One year, 11 days, 16 hours, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds!” Asking where he lives gets, “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California.”

Smarter Child uses the vast information on the World Wide Web as his memory bank. To answer questions about spelling, for instance, Smarter Child goes to American Heritage Dictionary online. For the weather, he visits www. intellicast. com.

Some scientists believe that by joining the many systems of the Internet, an artificial being with the combined knowledge of, say, Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born. However if Smarter Child wants to think and learn on his own like the boy-computer David in the movie A. I., Artificial Intelligence, he must overcome two problems.

The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files are labeled in different ways. That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather. It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it himself.

Another problem is that while Smarter Child can process(處理) information more exactly and faster than any human, he lacks common sense—a basic grounding of knowledge that is obvious to any young child.

1.From the text we can infer that www. Intellicast. com is a website              .

A．which is specially designed to help Smarter Child

B．where we people can find Smarter Child

C．where weather forecasts are made

D．which is about artificial intelligence

2. It is probably most difficult for Smarter Child to              .

A．tell us how to spell a difficult word

B．tell us how the American government is run

C．provide us with a famous poem by Shakespeare

D．learn how to tell right behaviors from wrong ones.

3. Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A. Smart Child has his own memory bank big enough for all kinds of information.

B. A. I. Artificial Intelligence is probably the name of a film about a boy-computer.

C. Smart Child can recognize different files and find information needed on his own.

D. We have similar product now which has the knowledge of Einstein, Nixon and Spears.

4.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?

A．A New Web Child	B．Smarter Child
C．The Future of Internet	D．Intelligence Development

 

Forty-three years seems like a long time to remember the name of a person．I have forgotten the name of an old lady who was a（n）   36   on my paper route when I was a twelve-year-old boy．Yet it seems like just yesterday that she taught me a lesson in   37 ．One afternoon, a friend and I were   38   rocks onto the roof of the old lady’s house   39   her backyard．The object of our play was to observe how the rocks changed to missiles as they   40   to the roof’s edge and shot out into the   41  ．

         I found myself a perfectly smooth rock and sent it for a ride．The stone was too smooth, however, so it   42   from my hand as I let it go and headed   43   for a small window on the old lady’s back wall．

         I was too scared about getting   44   that first night to be concerned about the old lady with the broken window．However, a few days later,   45   I was sure that I hadn’t been discovered, I started to feel   46   for her misfortune．

         I made up my mind that I would   47   my paper delivery money, and in three weeks I had the seven dollars that I   48   would cover the cost of her window．I put the money in an envelope with a（n）   49   explaining that I was sorry for breaking her window and hoped that the seven dollars would cover the   50   for repairing it．

         I waited until it was dark, then put the envelope through the letter slot in her door．

         The next day, I   51   the old lady her paper and was able to   52   the warm smile that I was   53   her．She thanked me for the paper and said, “Here, I have something for you．” It was a bag of cookies．I thanked her and ate the cookies as I   54   my route．

         After several cookies, I   55   an envelope．When I opened the envelope, I was shocked．Inside was the seven dollars and a short note that said, “I’m proud of you．”

1.A．a(chǎn)ssistant        B．customer       C．a(chǎn)dviser           D．neighbour

2.A．selfishness    B．cleverness      C．carefulness       D．forgiveness

3.A．picking         B．kicking            C．throwing        D．striking

4.A．from           B．under                  C．by                D．a(chǎn)round

5.A．flowed       B．rolled        C．dropped         D．fell

6.A．yard           B．kitchen           C．room         D．sky

7.A．stepped          B．stopped         C．skipped          D．slipped

8.A．right           B．slow           C．straight           D．fast

9.A．caught       B．trapped        C．lost               D．hurt

10.A．but           B．when        C．before            D．though

11.A．guilty        B．nervous        C．a(chǎn)nxious            D．safe

12.A．borrow    B．save                   C．transfer         D．move

13.A．used          B．earned          C．chose            D．calculated

14.A．book          B．notice            C．note                   D．a(chǎn)rticle

15.A．period       B．distance       C．size             D．cost

16.A．handed    B．showed         C．left            D．sold

17.A．witness    B．bring        C．return             D．wear

18.A．comparing toB．receiving from C．learning about    D．playing with

19.A．continued   B．forgot          C．followed      D．chose

20.A．tore        B．felt         C．bought       D．marked