阅读理解What kind of music does the writer like?

阅读理解The vast majority of books on the English language take British English as their starting point

阅读理解In the last paragraph，the author shows his appreciation of

阅读理解When do people decide whether or not they want to become friends? During their first four minutes together,according to a book by Dr

阅读理解The National Day holiday is round the comer and, if things go like last year， this fallsGolden Weektoo will be agolden mess

阅读理解Passage 1 Some people think Im extra organized because I always enter notes in my iPhone

阅读理解 Mathematical ability and musical ability may not seem on the surface to be connected, but people who have researched the subject—and studied the brain—say that they are. Research for my book Late-Talking Children drove home the point to me. Three quarters of the bright but speech-delayed children in the group I studied had a close relative who was an engineer, mathematician or scientist—and four-fifths had a close relative who played a musical instrument. The children themselves usually took readily to math and other analytical subjects—and to music. Black, white and Asian children in this group showed the same patterns. However, looking at the larger world around us, it is clear that blacks have been greatly overrepresented in the development of American popular music and greatly underrepresented in such fields as mathematics, science and engineering. If the abilities required in analytical fields and in music are so closely related, how can there be this great discrepancy? One reason is that the development of mathematical and other such abilities requires years of formal schooling, while certain musical talents can be developed with little or no formal training, as has happened with a number of well-known black musicians. It is precisely in those kinds of music where one can acquire great skill without formal training that blacks have excelled—popular music rather than classical music, piano rather than violin, blues rather than opera. This is readily understandable, given that most blacks, for most of American history, have not had either the money or the leisure for long years of formal study in music. Blacks have not merely held their own in American popular music. They have played a disproportionately large role in the development of jazz, both traditional and modern. A long string of names comes to mind—Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, W.C. Handy, Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker...and so on. None of this presupposes any special innate ability of blacks in music. On the contrary, it is perfectly consistent with blacks having no more such inborn ability than anyone else, but being limited to being able to express such ability in narrower channels than others who have had the money, the time and the formal education to spread out over a wider range of music, as well as into mathematics, science and engineering.

阅读理解Passage A The importance and focus of the interview in the work of the print and broadcast journalist is reflected in several books that have been written on the topic

阅读理解The bees knees The bee is one of the worlds busiest creatures: no wonder that in English we have expressions like as busy as a bee and hes the bees knees (meaning he is a very impressive person)

阅读理解(3) Potential AIDS victims who refuse to be tested for the disease and then defend their right to remain ignorant about whether they carry the virus are entitled to that right

阅读理解A smile is typically an expression of_______  in American culture.

阅读理解Today is the anniversary of that afternoon in April a year ago that I first saw the strange and appealing doll (玩具娃娃) in the window of Abe Sheftel''s toy shop on Third Avenue near Fifteenth Street, just around the corner from my office, where the plate on the door reads: Dr. Samuel Amory. I remember just how it was that day: the first hint of spring floated across the East River, mixing with the soft-coal: smoke from the factories and the street smells of the poor neighborhood. As I turned the corner on my way to work and came to Sheftel''s, I was made once more aware of the poor collection of toys in the dusty window, and I remembered the approaching birthday of a small niece of mine in Cleveland, to whom I was in the habit of sending modest gifts. Therefore, I stopped and examined the window to see if there might be anything suitable, and looked at the confusing collection of unappealing objects—a red toy fire engine, some lead soldiers, cheap baseballs, bottles of ink, pens, yellowed envelopes, and advertisements for soft-drinks; And thus it was that my eyes eventually came to rest upon the doll stored away in one corner, a doll with the strangest, most charming expression on her face. I could not wholly make her out, due to the shadows and the film of dust through which I was looking, but I was aware that a tremendous impression had been made upon me as though I had run into a person, as one does sometimes with a stranger, with whose personality one is deeply impressed.

阅读理解London’s Heathrow Airport is notorious for queues and delays. Why is this happening and what can you do to avoid the frustration?In the film Catch Me If You Can, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a dashing young con artist who fools an airline into believing he is one of their captains. He strolls through a sleek and futuristic air terminal flanked by a gaggle of stewardesses, his progress serene. The message is clear: Air travel is glamorous, sexy and a total breeze.Cut to Heathrow, 2007, and what is still the world’s largest airport (by passenger numbers) is stretched to breaking point, beset by delays and hampered by a creaking infrastructure. Ken Livingstone, London’s garrulous Mayor, says the airport is “shaming London”. How did it come to this?In a sense, Heathrow’s key role in the development of Britain’s (and the world’s) aviation industry has been its undoing. First opened to commercial fights in 1946, Heathrow has always been there first; consequently, it has inherited a legacy of aging terminal buildings. Then September 11 happened, and security protocols went through the roof. The 2005 London bombings didn’t help matters.The queues to clear Heathrow’s security can take hours to clear, especially when not all the X-ray machines are open. At the other end of the process, passengers have faced seemingly never-ending waits for luggage. A recent Association of European Airlines report showed that between April and June this year the luggage system at Heathrow broke down 11 times.The British government, spurred on by angry airlines, passenger groups and an increasingly vocal media, has announced an enquiry into how the airport is run. Heathrow, like seven other major airports in the UK, is run by the British Airports Authority (BAA), who has been accused of putting the profits from the vast shopping malls in each terminal before investment in security and staff. Ryanair, British Airways and the head of the International Air Transport Association have all criticized the running of the airport, blaming under-investment.A spokesman for Heathrow notes that all may not be lost quite yet. Ninety-seven per cent of passengers get through security after less than 10 minutes of queuing. The baggage rules for using UK airports have been the same for a while now, so travelers should be getting used to the plastic bags and one item of hand-luggage rule. And BAA is recommending that people don’t turn up earlier than they should—three hours for long-haul, two for short haul and 90 minutes for domestic should be fine. Heathrow has also employed 500 new security staff and opened nine new security lanes this year.And then there’s Terminal Five, the gleaming, light-filled Richard Rodgers creation, complete with a landscaped civic space, due to open in March 2008. It will be British Airways’ new home and should take the pressure off the rest of the airport. Far more suitable for a Leonardo-style sashay.

阅读理解BPort Lympne Reserve, which runs a breeding（繁育）programme, has welcomed the arrival of a rare black rhino calf（犀牛幼息）.When the tiny creature arrived on January 31. she became the 40th black rhino to be born at the reserve. And officials at Port Lympne were delighted with the new arrival, especially as black rhinos are known for being difficult to breed in captivity（圈养）.Paul Beer, head of rhino section at Port Lympne, said: “Obviously we're all absolutely delighted to welcome another calf to our black rhino family. She's healthy, strong and already eager to play and explore. Her mother, Solio, is a first—time mum and she is doing a fantastic job. It's still a little too cold for them to go out into the open, but as soon as the weather warms up. I have no doubt that the little one will be out and about exploring and playing every day.”The adorable female calf is the second black rhino born this year at the reserve, but it is too early to tell if the calves will make good candidates to be returned to protected areas of the wild. The first rhino to be born at Port Lympne arrived on January 5 to first—time mother Kisima and weighed about 32 kg. His mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all born at the reserve and still live there.According to the World Wildlife Fund, the global black rhino population has dropped as low as 5500, giving the rhinos a “critically endangered” status.Which of the following best describes the breeding programme? 

阅读理解 Often, when a fashion designer dies and his life's work is assessed, some insistent hyperbole is necessary before the death matters to anyone beyond his loyal band of ladies who spend their time dashing between luncheons and charity balls. Most modern women are not going to weep at the passing of a fashion designer whose heyday was some 30 years ago. But this time, it's Yves Saint Laurent who has died. And no exaggeration is required to explain the impact he has had on modern fashion. In the 1960s and 70s, when he was at the height of his influence, he brought popular culture, a mannish swagger, sexual power and ethnic awareness to fashion. He gave women a wardrobe that spoke of confidence and authority. He didn't give them armor for the boardroom as much as he gave them the sartorial equivalent of chutzpah, tough talk and bawdiness. He gave dames and broads their costumes. And most importantly, he began fashion's steady march toward democracy. But Saint Laurent was not merely a part of fashion history, he was instrumental in writing the vast majority of it. He popularized the bohemian-chic sensibility that later went on to define the hippie aesthetic and its many artsy, grungy, hipster derivations. He welcomed so-called exotic and unorthodox influences into his work, such as the traditional prints of Africa and the folkloric costumes of Russia. He forged a relationship between fashion and the art world, most dynamically with his Mondrian dress of 1965. 'Most people are lucky if they can do one thing, if they can make one major contribution,' fashion historian Valerie Steele said. Saint Laurent's contributions could fill volumes. There was something profoundly democratic in the work of one of the fashion industry's most rarefied designers. He found inspiration in cultures that were not part of care society. And he celebrated the beauty of women who continue to struggle to find acceptance within fashion's narrowly defined aesthetics. Those who worry about the lack of diversity in the fashion industry in 2014 can look back fondly to the 1970s, when Saint Laurent regularly used black models on his runway—not as gimmicks in a collection that had been inspired by Africa but as representations of a kind of beauty he considered as valid and as enticing as any other. Saint Laurent retired from ready-to-wear in 1998 and a few years later closed his couture house. A long line of designers have tried to reinvent his style and revive the Saint Laurent label for the 21st century. But none of them has been able to make it profitable. Sell enough handbags and the money will come. But it's a rare feat when a designer can leave a legacy that not only changed fashion but transformed the way in which we see ourselves. It may not be enough to make a woman weep, but it certainly is enough to make her smile.

阅读理解Why did the author like to spend time in Southbank when he returned to London? 

阅读理解It makes little sense for prospective students to choose to go to a university simply because it has an excellent reputation

阅读理解According to the passage ,which of the following can cause a tsunami ? 

阅读理解 Optical illusions are like magic, thrilling us because of their capacity to reveal the fallibility of our senses. But there's more to them than that, according to Dr. Beau Lotto, who is wowing the scientific world with work that crosses the boundaries of art, neurology, natural history and philosophy. What they reveal, he says, is that the whole world is the creation of our brain. What we see, what we hear, feel and what we think we know is not a photographic reflection of the world, but an instantaneous unthinking calculation as to what is the most useful way of seeing the world. It's a best guess based on the past experience of the individual, a long evolutionary past that has shaped the structure of our brains. The world is literally shaped by our pasts. Dr. Lotto, 40, an American who is a reader in neuroscience at University College London, has set out to prove it in stunning visual illusions, sculptures and installations, which have been included in art-science exhibitions. He explains his complex ideas from the starting point of visual illusions, which far from revealing how fragile our senses are show how remarkably robust they are at providing a picture of the world that serves a purpose to us. For centuries, artists and scientists have noted that a grey dot looks lighter against a dark background than being against a light background. The conventional belief was that it was because of some way the brain and eye is intrinsically wired. But Dr. Lotto believes it's a learnt response; in other words, we see the world not as it is but as it is useful to us. 'Context is everything, because our brains have evolved to constantly re-define normality,' says Dr. Lotto. 'What we see is defined by our own experiences of the past, but also by what the human race has experienced through its history.' This is illustrated by the fact that different cultures and communities have different viewpoints of the world, conditioned over generations. For example, Japanese people have a famous inability to distinguish between the 'R' and the 'L' sound. This arises because in Japanese the sounds are totally interchangeable. 'Differentiating between them has never been useful, so the brain has never learnt to do it. It's not just that Japanese people find it hard to tell the difference. They literally cannot hear the difference.' Dr. Lotto's experiments are grounding more and more hypotheses in hard science. 'Yes, my work is idea-driven,' he says. 'But lots of research, such as MRI brain scanning, is technique-driven. I don't believe you can understand the brain by taking it out of its natural environment and looking at it in a laboratory. You have to look at what it evolved to do, and look at it in relationship to its ecology.'

阅读理解Whenever people from Scotland live in foreign countries, they are always asked:Is Scotland that place where men wear skirts? The short answer is yes, but there is more about the myths of Scottish skirts