题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
I’m afraid to grow old—we’re all afraid. In fact, the fear of growing old is so great that every aged person is an insult and a threat to the society. They remind us of our own death, that our body won’t always remain smooth and responsive, but will someday betray(背叛) us by aging. The ideal way to age would be to grow slowly invisible, gradually disappearing, without causing worry or discomfort to the young. In some ways that does happen. Sitting in a small park across from a nursing home one day, I noticed that the young mothers and their children gathered on one side, and the old people from the home on the other.
Whenever a youngster would run over to the “wrong” side, chasing a ball or just trying to cover all the available space, the old people would lean forward and smile. But before any communication could be established, the mother would come over, murmuring embarrassed apologies, and take her child back to the “young” side.
Now, it seemed to me that the children didn’t feel any particular fear and the old people didn’t seem to be threatened by the children. The division of space was drawn by the mothers. And the mothers never looked at the old people who lined the other side of the park. These well-dressed young women had a way of sliding their eyes over, around, through the old people; they never looked at them directly. The old people may as well have been invisible; they offended the aesthetic eye of the mothers.
My early experiences were somewhat different; since I grew up in a small town, my children had more of a nineteenth-century flavor. I knew a lot of old people, and considered some of them friends.
B. grow old suddenly and then die
C. shut oneself up from others when growing old
D. grow old slowly and then die unnoticed
B. they didn’t like their children to take up the space belonging to the old
C. they felt it was wrong to play balls near where the old stayed
D. they feared their children might hurt the old
B. has never been afraid of getting old
C. was quite free to know and befriend old people in his childhood D. both B and C
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
B
China will soon allow its travel agencies to organize tour groups to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The “mysterious” neighbor is opening its doors. What can we expect?
Climate
The climate is generally classed as continental, with rainfall concentrated in summer. Summer months are warm, but winter temperatures can fall as low as 30 degrees below zero. Late spring droughts are often followed by severe flooding. There are occasional typhoons during the early autumn.
Arirang Festival
Arirang is a special government-sponsored festival held at irregular intervals of several years. The grand mass gymnastics and artistic performance celebrates the late communist leader Kim II- sung's April 15 birthday.
The opening event of the two-month festival is the mass games, which are famous for the huge mosaic(镶嵌图案) pictures created by thousands of well-trained school children.
Scenic sites
According to the present tour paths arranged by DPRK tourism authorities, the capital of Pyongyang is the highlight. It is a garden city built on remains from the Korean War. The most wonderful objects are monuments, including Kim Ⅱsung Square, the Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, and the Grand People's Study House.
Transportation
Air China launched a direct service from Beijing to Pyongyang in March. It is the only foreign airline to offer flights to the DPRK capital.
How to get a visa.
For a short-term tour (3－4days)，sign up for a package tour in Shenyang or Dandong, Liaoning. The travel agency applies for a visa for you. For a longer tour, you can obtain visas from DPRK consulates and embassies.
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
Bad news sells. If it bleeds, it leads. No news is good news, and good news is no news. Those are the classic rules for the evening broadcasts and the morning papers. But now that information is being spread and monitored in different ways, researchers are discovering new rules. By tracking people’s e-mails and online posts, scientists have found that good news can spread faster and farther than disasters and sob stories.
“The ‘if it bleeds’ rule works for mass media,” says Jonah Berger, a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. “They want your eyeballs and don’t care how you’re feeling. But when you share a story with your friends, you care a lot more how they react. You don’t want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer.”
Researchers analyzing word-of-mouth communication—e-mails，Web posts and reviews, face-to-face conversations,found that it tended to be more positive than negative, but that didn’t necessarily mean people preferred positive news. Was positive news shared more often simply because people experienced more good things than bad things? To test for that possibility, Dr. Berger looked at how people spread a particular set of news stories: thousands of articles on The New York Times’ website. He and a Penn colleague analyzed the “most e-mailed” list for six months. One of his first finds was that articles in the science section were much more likely to make the list than non-science articles. He found that science amazed Times’ readers and made them want to share this positive feeling with others.
Readers also tended to share articles that were exciting or funny, or that inspired negative feelings like anger or anxiety, but not articles that left them merely sad. They needed to be arousedone way or the other, and they preferred good news to bad. The more positive an article, the more likely it was to be shared, as Dr. Berger explains in his new book, “Contagious: Why Things Catch On.”
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
People living in the country enjoy several advantages that people living in the city cannot enjoy.
They are in close contact with nature. They make friends with trees and stones. They breathe fresh air. They fight with strong winds. They listen to the song of birds.
This contact with nature is good for health. There are many diseases that are common in the city, but are not to be found in the country, For example, near-sightedness is almost unknown to country people.
Because of the absence of cars, one can walk more freely in the country than in the city, There are no rules of the road nor traffic signs to obey.
People living in the country can easily get fresh vegetables, fresh fruit and fresh milk, Are they get them at lower prices than in the city.
Country life is economical in other ways, too. There are practically no temptations(诱惑）to waste money.
Country people are mostly honest. They say what they mean, and make and keep promises with sincerity. They do not put on air (摆架子). They do not pretend to have those ridiculous manners which are necessary in what we call polite society.
C. Musical concerts. D. Close contact with nature.
B. Living in the country saves one a lot of money.
C. Country people enjoy better health than the city people.
D. Country people are honest.
B. People living in the country enjoy no advantages.
C. People living in the city are in close contact with nature.
D. People living in the country suffer from more diseases than those living in
the city.
C. The Expenses of Living in the Country. D. Healthy Country People.
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
A man in Indiana received the birthday surprise of his life when he opened up a card to find a touching handwritten message from his father, who had died 16 years earlier.
Jace lost his father when he was just a teenager, so when his mother gave him the card on his 30th birthday, he believed it was from another relative. But when he opened it up and saw the signature(签名), he began to cry with joy.
“I was really excited,” Jace told Buzzfeed, and Internet news media company. “I burst into tears and it was hared to speak.” On the card was a simple cartoon dog with a speech bubble saying, “You’re 30? You know what that means,” with the inner message reading, “Time to remove ‘dude’ from your vocabulary and turn your baseball cap back around.”
“It’s been so long that I’ve been just kind of used to the idea that he’s been gone,” Jace wrote on Reddit, where he posted a photo of the card. “I’ve lived longer without him than I did with him. So to have these little moments when he kind of comes back into my life again brings everything back in a rush. I cried, but I did because I was so happy.”
Jace told Buzzfeed that this was not the first card he’d received from his long-gone dad; he said he also received cards on his 20th, 21st, and 25th birthdays--- all saved by his mother. But with the last being five years ago, Jace had forgotten about the possibility.
But this may not be the last that Jace hears from his father. He added, “It makes me wonder what he may have planned for if I get married, have kids, or when I turn 40.”
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
Well, parents, surprise! Lots of us are using Twitter and Facebook to thumb rides, and not just to school. It’s awkward to be refused when you call a friend and ask for a ride. But with Twitter, you just look for other people heading the same way.
It may sound risky, so many teens stay within their own social circles to find rides, and don’t branch out beyond friends when asking on Twitter just like me, but to some young people, especially those taking longer trips, stranger danger is less of a concern.
“I think the digital connection of young people is really key, because younger generations grew up sharing things on line, sharing files, photos, music, etc, so they’ve been very used to sharing,” said Juliet Schor, a sociology professor at Boston College.
The sharing economy got big during the recession (经济衰退), allowing people to access more goods, services using technology and even to share costs. And that technology, for me, is what the car was for my mom, a gateway to more freedom, like what my friend Earl says, “The symbol of freedom isn’t the car any more because there’s technology out there connecting you to a car.”
According to the researchers at the University of Michigan, 30 years ago, eight in ten American 18-year-olds had a driver’s license compared to six in ten today. So it’s not that surprising that on my 16th birthday I wasn’t rushing to get a license but an iPhone.
“Driving, for young people, does mean they have to disconnect from their technology, and that’s a negative. So if they could sit in the passage side and still be connected, that’s going to be a plus.” Schor continued.
To me, another plus is that ridesharing represents something, something much bigger than trying to save money. I see it as evidence that people still depend on each other. My generation shares their cars and apartments the way neighbors used to share cups of sugar. For the system to work, some of us still need our own cars. But until I get my own version of the silver Super Beetle, you can find me on Twitter.
C. they are fond of being connected D. it is much cheaper than a car
B. ridesharing can be seen as a sign that people still count on each other
C. driving cars for teens means a plus and connecting with technology
D. having a car and cost-sharing symbolize more freedom for the author’s mother
C. young people tend to share a car with strangers by means of Twitter
D. being connected via technology comes first for young people
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
A beautiful and very successful actress (女演员) was the star for a new musical show. Her home was in the countryside, but she did not want to go back there every night, so she bought an expensive house in the center of the city, got some beautiful furniture (家具) and got a man to paint the rooms in new colors.
It was very difficult to get tickets for her show, because everybody wanted to see it. So she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of the month, when she got the painter’s bill (账单). At the bottom of it were these words: “ Four hours watching Miss Hall sing and dance: 3 pounds,” with this note: “After 5 p.m., I get 15 shillings (先令) an hour instead of 10 shillings.”
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
Tibet is among the most popular places for Chinese tourists. The number of travelers to Tibet has grown by 10% every year for a few years. Since July 1,2006, when the first train ran 1956 kilometers from Xining to Lhasa, more and more people have been going to Tibet.
The train stops at several famous places along the way, such as Qinghai Lake, Kunlun Mountain, and the Potala Palace. Passengers can also enjoy many activities during the journey, like Tibetan dancing and Karaoke.
On the train, passengers can have tea, eggs and noodles for breakfast, and fried chicken and green vegetables for lunch and dinner. Unlike most Chinese trains which have open - hole toilets, this one has special toilets which can collect the waste. There is also a special rubbish system(系统) in the train that keeps the environment clean. All the windows on the train can protect people from the bright sunlight. TV and electrical sockets(插座) for computers and mobile phones can be found on the train.
Because there isnˈt much oxygen there, trains will have oxygen masks(氧气罩) for those who need them. It makes passengers feel more comfortable when they have enough oxygen on the famous "roof of the world". There are also doctors on the train to make sure that all of the travelers are safe.
题型：阅读理解 题类：期末考试 难易度：较难
年份：2016
C
September is an exciting month in every college freshman’s life. For many, it’s the first time that they’ve left home to live in a new environment. But after the hustle and bustle of a few weeks, excitement gives way to a less enjoyable emotion—homesickness.
Homesickness manifests itself in many ways. You may miss mum’s cooking, your pets, or even your old bed. All this becomes a fond memory of the past. Homesickness can be a bitter feeling for many students, especially when faced with the challenges of settling into an unfamiliar environment.
But remember, you’re not alone. According to a recent BBC article, 70 percent of British college students experience homesickness. In this increasingly globalized world in which people migrate to faraway places for a relationship, education or work, homesickness is a feeling shared by many adults.
Homesickness can have similar symptoms to depression and in extreme cases it can develop into a panic attack. As for the term, homesickness or nostalgia wasn’t invented until the 17th century. It was considered a disorder by a Swiss physician, who attributed soldiers’ mental and physical discomfort to their longing to return home, “nostos” from Greek, and the accompanying pain, “algos”.
Studies in recent years, however, have shown that nostalgia may have some benefits to our mental health. After a decade of surveys and research, Constantine Sedikides, a US social psychologist, found that nostalgia is what makes us human. He explains that nostalgia can resist loneliness, boredom and anxiety. Therefore, it’s necessary for college students to learn some ways to overcome the uncomfortable feeling.
B. only a few students will experience homesickness C. homesickness is an enjoyable emotion among freshmen D. college freshmen usually suffer from homesickness after weeks
C. homesickness won’t do any good to our health D. homesickness is also called nostalgia in Switzerland
