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Moreover, the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from drudgery. At times, they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but the number of such sensations is limited, especially after youth is past.
Accordingly the more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of whose earth-shaking importance they are firmly persuaded.
Question:The author is certain that ________.
A:work causes happiness
B:work causes unhappiness
C:there is always too much work
D:too much work causes pain
Young people should have the right to control and direct their own learning, that is, to decide what they want to learn, and when, where, how, how much, how fast, and with what help they want to learn it. To be still more specific, I want them to have the right to decide if, when, how much, and by whom they want to be taught and the right to decide whether they want to learn in a school and if so which one and for how much of the time.
No human right, except the right to life itself, is more fundamental than this. A person's freedom of learning is part of his freedom of thought, even more basic than his freedom of speech. If we take from someone his right to decide what he will be curious about, we destroy his freedom of thought. We say, in effect, you must think not about what interests and concerns you, but about what interests and concerns us.
This right of each of us to control our own learning is now in danger. When we put into our laws the highly authoritarian notion that someone should and could decide what all young people were to learn and beyond that, could do whatever might seem necessary (which now includes dosing them with drugs) to compel them to learn it, we took a long step down a very steep and dangerous path. The requirement that a child go to school, for about six hours a day, 180 days a year, for about ten years, whether or not he learns anything there, whether or not he already knows it or could learn it faster or better somewhere else, is such a gross violation of civil liberties that few adults would stand for it. But the child who resists is treated as a criminal. With this requirement we created an industry, an army of people whose whole work was to tell young people what they had to learn and to try to make them learn it. Some of these people, wanting to exercise even more power over others, or to be even more "helpful," are now beginning to say, "If compulsory education is good for children, why wouldn't it be good for everyone? If it is a good thing, how can there be too much of it?"
They are beginning to talk, as one man did on a nationwide TV show, about "womb-to-tomb" schooling. If hours of homework every night are good for the young, why wouldn't they be good for us all—they would keep us away from the TV set and other frivolous pursuits. Some group of experts, somewhere, would be glad to decide what we all ought to know and then very so often check up on us to make sure we knew it—with, of course, appropriate penalties if we did not.
Question:A child who resists the current system is likely _______.
A:to be sent to prison
B:to be dismissed from school
C:to be all right
D:to be regarded as a bad child
Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. There is certainly much work which is exceedingly irksome, and an excess of work is always very painful. I think, however, that, provided work is not excessive in amount, even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. There are in work all grades, from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights, according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting, but even such work has certain great advantages. To begin with, it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people, when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice, are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing, and whatever they decide on, they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
Moreover, the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided the orders are not too unpleasant. Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from drudgery. At times, they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa, or by flying round the world, but the number of such sensations is limited, especially after youth is past.
Accordingly the more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor, while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of whose earth-shaking importance they are firmly persuaded.
Question:Work not interesting ________.
A:can also give profound delight
B:can produce only tedium
C:also needs creative spirit
D:may also be beneficial
Over sixty percent of the city _____ destroyed in the war.
Thirty-five percent of the doctors _____ women.
A:was,was
B:was,were
C:were,were
D:were,was
Such a skilled tennis player knows how to take ____ of his opponent's chief weakness.
A:use
B:advantage
C:utility
D:chance
I meant ____ you, but I'm afraid I forgot.
A:ringing
B:being ringing
C:to ringing
D:to ring
It was not until she arrived in class ____ realized she had forgotten her book.
A:and she
B:when she
C:she
D:that she
I ____ get this done immediately or it will be too late.
A:must
B:can
C:may
D:might
The trip will be ____ till next week because of the bad weather.
A:put out
B:put off
C:put on
D:put up
He used to get up late, ____?
A:did not he
B:did he
C:didn't he
D:use he
Yhudi Menuhin, who died in Berlin on March 12, 1999, at the age of 82, was a child prodigy who fulfilled his promise to become one of the world's foremost violinists before extending his range to teaching and conducting.
The gently spoken U.S.-born virtuoso became as renowned for his devotion to humane causes as for his mastery of the violin.
The spotlight has been on him since his debut at seven in 1924. By the time he was 13, he had performed in Paris, London and New York. In Berlin, his performance prompted physicist Albert Einstein to exclaim, "Now I know there is a God in Heaven."
Reportedly the world's highest paid musician in the 1930s, his striving for perfection made him a legend. Menuhin said the violin made its own demands, "Almost like a pagan goddess, exacting a certain tribute."
When he was 38, one New York newspaper wrote, "The freshness and unique purity of his playing is exhilarating. No other violinist has such speaking eloquence in the tone alone."
He gave up public violin performances in his 70s. His hearing was a little impaired by then and he had taken on many more interests. But his conducting was still full of energy and his travel schedule grueling.
"I feel that what I've learned in music I can apply to a wide repertoire, which is fun because I am exploring new terrain," he said in an interview at the time of his 80th birthday.
"But I feel no desire now to spend hours working away again at something which I myself in the past and other people can play far better than I can now. I don't see the point."
A British citizen since 1985 and a life peer since 1993—Baron Menuhin of Stoke d'Abernon in the County of Surrey—he had a school in England and an academy in Switzerland for young musicians, whom he often conducts.
He has also helped found various musical festivals, held the Nehru Peace Prize and was a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO.
While pursuing interests such as the environment, organic farming, alternative medicine, education and the plight of gypsies, he sticks to a long-standing healthy diet and yoga.
"I don't squander my energies. Keep myself in fairly good trim. I stand on my head every morning. Conducting is a wonderful exercise because it uses every faculty," he says.
Question:The above passage discusses ___________.
A:how Menuhin worked hard to succeed
B:the legend of Menuhin
C:Menuhin as a musician
D:Menuhin as a successful violinist and a statesman
Yhudi Menuhin, who died in Berlin on March 12, 1999, at the age of 82, was a child prodigy who fulfilled his promise to become one of the world's foremost violinists before extending his range to teaching and conducting.
The gently spoken U.S.-born virtuoso became as renowned for his devotion to humane causes as for his mastery of the violin.
The spotlight has been on him since his debut at seven in 1924. By the time he was 13, he had performed in Paris, London and New York. In Berlin, his performance prompted physicist Albert Einstein to exclaim, "Now I know there is a God in Heaven."
Reportedly the world's highest paid musician in the 1930s, his striving for perfection made him a legend. Menuhin said the violin made its own demands, "Almost like a pagan goddess, exacting a certain tribute."
When he was 38, one New York newspaper wrote, "The freshness and unique purity of his playing is exhilarating. No other violinist has such speaking eloquence in the tone alone."
He gave up public violin performances in his 70s. His hearing was a little impaired by then and he had taken on many more interests. But his conducting was still full of energy and his travel schedule grueling.
"I feel that what I've learned in music I can apply to a wide repertoire, which is fun because I am exploring new terrain," he said in an interview at the time of his 80th birthday.
"But I feel no desire now to spend hours working away again at something which I myself in the past and other people can play far better than I can now. I don't see the point."
A British citizen since 1985 and a life peer since 1993—Baron Menuhin of Stoke d'Abernon in the County of Surrey—he had a school in England and an academy in Switzerland for young musicians, whom he often conducts.
He has also helped found various musical festivals, held the Nehru Peace Prize and was a goodwill ambassador for UNESCO.
While pursuing interests such as the environment, organic farming, alternative medicine, education and the plight of gypsies, he sticks to a long-standing healthy diet and yoga.
"I don't squander my energies. Keep myself in fairly good trim. I stand on my head every morning. Conducting is a wonderful exercise because it uses every faculty," he says.
Question:Menuhin began his career as _________.
A:a child prodigy
B:a violinist
C:a teacher
D:a conductor
What ____ next will be discussed at today's meeting.
A:will do
B:to do
C:shall we do
D:to be done
I wonder what your ____ in life is.
A:symbol
B:topic
C:system
D:goal
I get jumpy inside when I get jealous and I find it hard to control that. At first I try to avoid it, try to pretend it's not there. Mostly that works for me; my jealous feelings are fleeting things anyway. They never last very long.
I know that jealousy is real and I don't want to deny it in me, but I don't like the physical feeling it gives me. I sometimes like the feelings behind the jealousy and being made to feel jealous. It says to me that I care enough, like someone enough to be moved in that way. It means that I am still in touch with someone in a relationship and that the relationship is important to me, whether it's a male friend or a woman.
When I am jealous it's as if someone was intruding on some private territory. But once I understand what's happening I can talk about it with the people involved and understand it's not threatening to my relationship, it seems okay. It seems like me giving permission to come into something that is personal and private. It can start out to be very private, but that can be negotiated.
Sometimes I wish I could talk about it more with the person that causes me to be jealous, but sometimes I don't think that's a way I should be and I don't talk about it. Anyhow, jealousy is real and I don't want to hide it. Sometimes I don't want to talk about it because the person I'm dealing with is not important enough for me to spend the time and energy it would take to straighten things out. If it's someone I care about and am going to be spending more time with, I think I can and would talk about what's bothering me.
When I get down to it, I think my jealousy has to do with low self-esteem, low self-concept or feeling inadequate. Mostly it's built around insecurity. But I don't know if I'll ever become that secure as to not experience some jealousy. I don't want anyone to be that meaningless to me. It seems kind of dangerous to me to be that sure.
Question:Which of the following statements is true concerning the author's idea about jealousy?
A:Jealousy always makes him feel so terrible that he wants to get rid of it right away.
B:Jealousy is a completely private matter.
C:Sometimes jealousy doesn't affect his relationship with others.
D:Jealousy is not communicable.
I ____ everything by the time you get back next month.
A:shall finish
B:will be finishing
C:have finished
D:shall have finished
In an Indianapolis neighborhood where some teenage girls flaunt pregnancies like new hairdos, Aisha Fields is unabashedly square: She plans to abstain from sex until she marries. "Most of my friends already have babies," says Aisha, a high school junior and abstinence mentor. "Being pregnant is a fashion. Girls go around bragging:‘I'm three months (pregnant).' They think it's cool." With 1 million US teens becoming pregnant every year, and 13 percent of all American babies born to teens, Aisha's "just-say-no" attitude is a policymaker's dream come true. Federal and state officials are banking on such an attitude as they launch a new campaign to shrink the ranks of unwed teenage moms. On Oct. 1, the government will begin dispensing some of the nearly $850 million earmarked under the welfare—reform law over five years for teaching abstinence and preventing out-of-wedlock births. But experts say there is no research to suggest that abstinence—only education will succeed. In contrast, more comprehensive programs that cover contraception, family planning, and communication skills can help delay sexual involvement by teens, according to a study by the National Campaign to Prevent Pregnancy in Washington. "It seems foolish to be tossing away all this money without knowing whether it will work," says Lisa Kaeser, a senior associate at the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit group that researches reproductive health. But experts agree the latest campaign against teen pregnancy marks a big improvement over older policies in one fundamental respect: It emphasizes prevention. Question:Experts think that __________.
A:as long as teenagers get abstinence education, they will avoid being pregnant
B:contraception is more useful in preventing teen pregnancy
C:family planning and communication skills can be learned easily
D:many things should be done in preventing teen pregnancy
She was sitting in an armchair ____ a book.
A:reading
B:to read
C:to be reading
D:to have read
____ he says or does won't make me change my mind at all.
A:Whatever
B:However
C:Which
D:How
John is determined to carry out the very important experiment.____ happens, he will not change his plan.
A:That
B:Whatever
C:What
D:Wherever
____ deserves the award will certainly get it.
A:Who we think
B:Whoever we think
C:Whoever does
D:Whoever do we think
His mother is going to stay in Beijing for ____.
A:some times
B:some time
C:sometime
D:sometimes
There is no ____ in applying for that job as you are not properly qualified.
A:reason
B:result
C:point
D:chance
The streets were deserted ____ the policeman on duty.
A:except
B:except for
C:but
D:besides
You will never guess whom I ____ on the street yesterday.
A:ran over
B:ran out of
C:ran into
D:ran upto
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发表于 2020-8-8 19:03:48
