阅读理解According to the author, whether digital textbooks will catch on still ______.

阅读理解As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of (47)______ through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is (48)______ for a healthy mind and body. Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide (49)______ and give purpose to life. It is only when stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor (50)______ and ill health. The amount of stress a person can (51)______ depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such (52)______ are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities. Others lose heart at the first signs of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between "fight" or "flight" and in more primitive days the choices made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so (53)______, but however little the stress, it (54)______ the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued (55)______ to stress, that health becomes endangered. Such serious conditions as high blood pressure and heart disease have established (56)______ with stress. Since we cannot remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it. Word Bank A) appears B) exposure C) withstand D) characters E) links F) rushing G) minimum H) motivation I) presents J) extreme K) performance L) context M) judgments N) essential O) involves

阅读理解Section CDirections: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.

阅读理解The Biggest Australian Budget Ever The Australian government is to announce some of the biggest ever spending increases in education, welfare, the foreign office and defence at lunchtime tomorrow. After a decade of strong industrial growth, record low unemployment and a booming economy, the government feels confident enough to reinvest some of the funds it has been hoarding since it came to power four years ago. In accordance with the priorities which were stated when the Liberal party was elected, a very sizeable portion of this bounty will go to education and to schools in particular. Approximately A $1 billion is expected to go on educational building through the Neighbourhood Renewal Scheme. School buildings have suffered shameful neglect for over half a century. The population has grown and education has changed in that time but no new school buildings have been erected for 10 years. But this change should increase expenditure per child from some A $350 to over A $700. A further A $400 million will go on increasing teachers'' pay. There is national shortage of teachers, especially in areas such as science, mathematics and religion. The target to increase teachers in training to 5, 600 last year was missed by a huge margin; only 2, 533 actually enrolled. Increase both in basic pay and in incentive enrolled. Increases both in basic pay and in incentive schemes, such as rewards for conspicuous achievement and cash payments for trainee teachers, will be made. In contrast to last year, expenditure on health will rise by less than one per cent and changes here will be in research funding. The most notable change is in funding to the Adelaide Epidemiology Center which is nearing its goal of marketing a vaccination against AIDS. The Department of Health will inject A $5. 8 million for the large-scale, double-blind trials it requires. This compares with A $ 575, 000 invested by the government in this programme last year. A government spokesman explains that, "health will be taking a back seat this year because of the huge increases announced in this area over the previous two years." In other areas significant changes are also occurring. In the Department of Pensions and Welfare, state old age pensions, frozen at A $204 per month for the last three years are set to rise to A $225 per month. Unemployment benefit, likewise frozen for three years, is also set to rise but not until next year. Thereafter, rises of 10.5% over each of the remaining three years of this Parliament are schedules. This is not as generous as it may seem, however, as certain categories of expenditure will be phased out. The Work Now Scheme to encourage single mothers back into the labour market will go, as will the infamous YTCs. The Youth Training Councils received a bad press over the Manning scandal which led to the resignation of the Minister, but there is evidence that these schemes placed in work only those people who would have found work anyway. More importantly, the period over which unemployment benefit is paid has been cut from a year to eight months and this might remove 20% of all claimants. In Defence and the Foreign Office, there are increases in the funding of the Voice of Australia radio service. The A $ 128 million may seem a small investment but it checks the reduction in funds from A $ 2 billion to A $ 698 million over the last decade which threatened to end the service entirely. A $ 500 million is being made available for two new warships and a further A $ 250 million for an extension to the Rapid Reaction Force now seen as so much more important given recent political and civil unrest in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Fiji.

阅读理解When Roberto Feliz came to the USA from the Dominican Republic, he knew only a few words of English. Education soon became a (47)______ "I couldn''t understand anything," he said. He (48)______ from his teachers, came home in tears, and thought about dropping out. Then Mrs. Malave, a bilingual educator, began to work with him while teaching him math and science in his (49)______ Spanish. "She helped me stay smart while teaching me English," he said. Given the chance to demonstrate his ability, he (50)______ confidence and began to succeed in school. Today, he is a (51)______ doctor, runs his own clinic, and works with several hospitals. Every day, he uses the language and academic skills he (52)______ through bilingual education to treat his patients. Roberto''s story is just one of (53)______ success stories. Research has shown that bilingual education is the most (54)______ way both to teach children English and ensure that they succeed academically. In Arizona and Texas, bilingual students (55)______ outperform their peers in monolingual programs. Calexico, Calif., implemented bilingual education, and now has dropout rates that are less than half the state average and college (56)______ rates of more than 90%. In El Paso, bilingual education programs have helped raise student scores from the lowest in Texas to among the highest in the nation. A) wonder I) hid B) acquired J) prominent C) consistently K) decent D) regained L) countless E) nightmare M) recalled F) native N) breakthrough G) acceptance O) automatically H) affective

阅读理解Two hours from the tall buildings of Manhattan and Philadelphia live some of the world''s largest black bears. They are in northern Pennsylvania''s Pocono Mountains, a home they share with an abundance of other wildlife. The streams, lakes, meadows (草地), mountain ridges and forests that make the Poconos an ideal place for black bears have also attracted more people to the region. Open spaces are threatened by plans for housing estates and important habitats (栖息地) are endangered by highway construction. To protect the Poconos'' natural beauty from irresponsible development. The Nature Conservancy (大自然保护协会) named the area one of America''s "Last Great Places". Operating out of a century-old schoolhouse in the village of Long Pond, Pennsylvania, the conservancy''s bud Cook is working with local people and business leaders to balance economic growth with environmental protection. By forging partnerships with people like Francis Altemose, the Conservancy has been able to protect more than 14,000 acres of environmentally important land in the area. Altemose''s family has farmed in the Pocono area for generations. Two years ago Francis worked with the Conservancy to include his farm in a county farmland protection program. As a result, his family'' s land can be protected from development and the Altemoses will be better able to provide a secure financial future for their 7-year-old grandson. Cook attributes the Conservancy''s success in the Poconos to having a local presence and a commitment to working with local residents "The key to protecting these remarkable lands is connecting with the local community," Cook said. "The people who live there respect the land. They value quite forests, clear streams and abundant wildlife. They are eager to help with conservation efforts. For more information on how you can help The Nature Conservancy protect the Poconos and the world''s other "Last Great Places," please call 1-888-564 6864 or visit us on the World Wide Web at www.tnc.org.

阅读理解Passage Two Energy independence

阅读理解The large American energy service company, Enron, failed two years ago. It had been the seventh largest company in the United States. More than twenty people have been charged with financial crimes related to the company''s hidden debt, inflated (夸大的) profits and accounting risks. On January 22nd, Enron'' s former chief accounting officer faced charges of helping Enron cheat investors and others. Richard Causey said he is not guilty. He says he believed all of Enron''s financial records were correct. He says he followed rules called the Generally Accepted Accounting Standards. The government says Mr. Causey used his knowledge of accounting to make Enron look profitable. The government says Mr. Causey sought to gain from his actions by causing the price of Enron stock to increase. The government has charged Mr. Causey with planning businesses related to Enron, called partnerships. Enron used financial exchanges with partnerships to hide big financial losses. The government says these exchanges do not meet the requirements for real business exchanges. This is because only Enron'' s money was at risk. Mr. Causey is an important person in the Enron case. The charges came soon after another top official of Enron agreed to a deal. Andrew Fastow was the chief financial officer at Enron. On January 14th, he admitted guilt for two criminal acts. He will be sentenced to ten years in prison. Fastow had faced more than ninety separate charges. The deal depends on evidence he will offer in the future. Fastow admitted that he hid the financial situation at Enron by using partnerships. He admitted using partnerships for his own gain. He has been forced to return more than 23 million dollars and other property to the government. Fastow and other former Enron officials have admitted guilt. They are expected to give evidence that will be used against Mr. Causey. What is different between the two cases is that Mr. Fastow has admitted to cheating Enron. Mr. Causey is charged with cheating investors and others.

阅读理解Passage One Losing your ability to think and remember is pretty scary

阅读理解The better defined your hiring process is, the more easily it will be adhered to. I suggest that you use a multi-stage interviewing process by which the candidate meets with multiple people to provide different opinions and input on the hiring-decision. Again, keep all notes taken during the interview. These notes should be factual and should detail observations made by the people conducting the interview as well as quotations of the candidate''s responses to questions. There should be no inferences made about a candidate in any notes, and no notes should be taken on a resume (简历). Pre-determine three to six questions that will help you uncover the capability of each applicant and ask those same questions to each person that is interviewed. These initial questions will serve as a departure point to base other follow-up questions on. By using the same question in different ways and you will also be able to draw close comparisons between each candidate'' s responses, which will help you determine the best match for the position. Developing that interviewing process a little further, time limits should be set on responses to candidates. Today'' s job market changes so rapidly that waiting more than 72 hours to inform a candidate how he or she did in an interview is an eternity (永远). Many candidates have multiple interviews within one or two days and plan to take the first job offered that meets their salary and benefit demands. Hired or not, as a candidate, it is much easier to keep a positive frame of mind about a company that is responsive, shows an interest in your success as an individual, and provides feedback (反馈) about an interview within one or two days. Waiting to make a decision about candidates is how other companies manage to hire the "perfect fit" right out from under you!

阅读理解What does Lucia Dunn think might be a risk for the credit card issuing banks?

阅读理解A century ago, most families (47)______ on income from agriculture. Today, over half of all labor is in white-collar (48)______ . a (49)______ that includes doctors, lawyers, teachers, managers, and sales and clerical(文秘的) workers. Employment in blue collar work (assembly lines and construction are examples) and, especially farming, has declined over the years. The most (50)______ change in labor markets over the past few decades has been the surge (激增) of women into the labor (51)______ . In the 1950s, only one woman in three worked outside the home, more than half hold jobs today, and 44 percent of all workers are mothers with small children. Even more remarkable is the threefold increase in working mothers with small children. Several theories have been (52)______ to explain these changes. A revolution of rising (53)______ about living standards propelled many women into the workforce who might have been housewives in an earlier era. Legal reforms and changing attitudes about women''s work roles have opened doors to careers that were previously closed. The flight from the worst types of household hard work was (54)______ by such innovations as washers and dryers, microwave oven. Options to postpone children and control family size have been made available by cheap and effective birth control, also increasing women''s labor force (55)______ rates. These changes have not occurred in a (56)______ . The labor force participation rates of men fell slightly over this same period, partially because more young men are going to college, while mature men have typically been retiring at earlier ages. Word Bank A) facilitated I) grasped B) advanced J) expectations C) vacuum K) participation D) primarily L) journal E) relied M) category F) mixture N) force G) occupations O) literary H) dramatic

阅读理解Indonesian Tsunami (海啸) Disaster Ing, eleven years old, isn''t sure how she felt after surviving the tsunami disaster that hit the western coast of Thailand on 26 December 2004. The tidal waves not only swallowed her whole native village of Baan Nam Kem, but also the life of her loving aunt, who had taken care of her after her parents'' separation. Another aunt is missing and has not yet been found. "What happened really saddens me. I cried until I had no more tears. The only reminders of them that I could find in the debris (残骸，瓦砾) were one of their blouses and a watch...On the day of the disaster, I was staying with my grandmother in a nearby village. I got very scared when I saw the wave. It was as tall as the tops of the pine trees. When it hit, I thought my grandmother and I were going to die. Luckily, a truck stopped and picked us up. We finally made it to the top of the mountain safely," she said, still looking frightened. "My house was completely destroyed, and I do not have the courage to go back and live there again, let alone to swim in the sea. I''m afraid that such a terrible thing might happen again." Ing is now staying at a temporary shelter, waiting for her mother who lives in another district to come and collect her. At the same time, she looks forward to going back to school. "I want to go back to study, and only hope that my school will reopen soon." What I Witnessed Gordon Weiss, UNICEF''s (联合国儿童基金会) Media coordinator of Emergency Operations, was in Aceh, the province hardest-hit by the tsunami. He gave us an eyewitness account of the disaster. A young boy clung to a plank (厚木板) . People were watching him from the bridge above, staring for a few moments, and then moving on. The boy''s dead body lay atop a sea of debris, the gentle ocean swelled, rocking him against the bridge''s wooden pillar (柱子，支柱). The once emerald-green (翡翠绿) rice paddy-fields (稻田) of Aceh have become graveyards for thousands of people. Bloated (肿胀) , blackened bodies rose above the water and lined the narrow roads. Corpses seemed to be everywhere... On that fateful morning, farmers working on their fields watched in amazement as a wall of water appeared in the distance, then tore across a broad strip of coastal land, smashing everything in its path. The 10-meter-high wall of water — carrying wood and other debris — surged across the plain, crossing the two kilometers to Segun Ayon in about 4 minutes. We drove on a little closer to the sea, to the village of Pengungi. Of the 6,000 people in the area, about 1,000 were killed. A third of the victims were children; another third, women. The children, frightened by their experience, clung to their parents as we talked. The adults told us mat 13 of the 15 schools in this small cluster of villages had been destroyed. Many of the teachers were killed. Apart from food and water, the people here pleaded for help to reopen the schools for their children, who desperately needed a safe place that could restore some normalcy (正常状态) to their shattered lives. One old woman said in broken English, "Education is medicine to these children." Every few hours, aftershocks (余震) shook me ground here. The stench (臭气，恶臭) of death lingered in the air. Half of the city of Banda Aceh had been destroyed, with the figures for the dead rising each hour. What We Can Do Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of United Nations, delivered his statement in Jakarta, Indonesia, 6 January 2005. What happened on 26 December 2004 was an unprecedented, global catastrophe (灾难，灾祸). It requires an unprecedented, global response. For the United Nations, it is the largest natural disaster the Organization has had to respond to on behalf of the world community, in the sixty years of our existence... It seems at times like a nightmare from which we are still hoping to awaken. We will never know the exact number of how many men, women and children perished on 26 December, and in the eleven days mat have passed since then. We do know that at least half a million people are injured; mat more man a million people are displaced (被迫离开家园的，失去家 园的); that nearly two million people need food aid; and that many more need water, sanitation (卫生) and health care. So as we grieve for the dead and pray for those still searching for loved ones, we have a duty to the survivors. To Treat the Wounded To prevent further suffering as a result of polluted drinking water, destroyed infrastructure, lack of food, clothing and shelter. To stop the tsunami from being followed by a second wave of death, this time from preventable causes. And in the longer term, to prevent a third wave of despair, where people can''t recover their livelihoods, homes or communities. The governmental response has been matched by unprecedented generosity from the general public. Consider the six-year-old boy in Shenyang, China, who donated his life savings of 22 dollars. Or the citizens of Sweden, a country of nine million inhabitants, who have raised more than 70 million dollars for the relief effort in Asia, while struggling to cope with the fact that almost 2,000 of their compatriots (同胞) are still missing in the tragedy... So the goodwill and concern around the world are enormous. So are the challenges facing us. Another Disaster to Children The most heartbreaking the tsunami disaster has brought was on children, who account for as many as one-third of the total killed. Now, as refugees register in temporary camps, the world is confronting a different sort of tragedy: tens of thousands of children have been either separated from their parents or orphaned. These kids, whom relief workers are calling "the Tsunami Generation," have become prime objects of the global outpouring of sympathy. But they are also drawing some unwanted attention. Relief workers say many orphans are suffering from both physical and psychological trauma (创伤) . A UNICEF spokesman says many are "in a state of denial." Some who saw their mothers drown, he says, cling to the belief that Mom has just gone to the ocean for a while, and that she will soon return. Protecting children from exploitation is another priority. Previous disasters have demonstrated that kids are targets for gangs involved in human trafficking (人口买卖) , which thrives in parts of the region. How serious is the threat? Supervisors in at least one refugee center in Sri Lanka report that people have turned up asking if they can buy children. "Bad people take advantage of difficult situations," Bellamy says. Response to the Threat The Indonesian government responded by restricting travel for kids and banning adoptions out of Aceh. Indeed, none of the affected nations are eager to send tsunami orphans abroad. The U.S. State Department, for its part, has placed a postponement on adoptions of tsunami survivors by U.S. citizens. For one thing, not all the displaced children are necessarily orphans. Some newly single parents may have dropped off their kids at shelters as they surveyed the ruins of their houses and lives. Other parents may still be alive but were separated from their children during the chaos of the flood. "For every story about an orphan," says Paul Deveril, a UNICEF project officer in India, "there''s also a story about a parent searching for their child." Those who still want to help have options. Both the French and Italian governments have set up programs that will allow people to sponsor tsunami orphans. In the U.S., the Christian mission Gospel for Asia, based in Carrollton, Texas, is raising funds to build 10 "transition homes" in Sri Lanka alone. But there''s also the risk that with so many displaced children, local governments won''t be able to find new homes for all of them, which could make thousands of orphans permanent wards (被监护人) of their respective states. Perhaps then their adoption by foreigners will not seem such a bad idea.

阅读理解Jones Beach Connecticut is beautiful in early June. The rolling hills are green and beckoning, the leaves on the trees full and deep. The land is fertile, washed and nourished by the spring rains; and in the rich soil of gardens, peas and carrots are appearing. The mornings are warm and clear, the sun rising early so that by midday you can get a taste of the summer heat that will follow in July and August. On a day like this, on a Wednesday morning in early June, it is possible to feel free; for school is over for the year and the summer lies ahead. And so, on this Wednesday morning, you get up early in the morning and go out for a drive in your car, because you like that, it''s fun. You drive along a little country road, the top of your car down, and you feel the chili of the early morning air , as the wind blows all around you. You feel the chill in your neck and behind your ears, but the sun is getting higher in the sky; it will be warmer soon. You feel your hair being blown in a thousand directions, and that''s fine. It''s good to feel the long brown hair blowing around your ears, it''s good sometimes to look down onto the road next to your car and see the shadow of the car, with you inside, and your hair blowing in the wind. You drive through patches of sunlight and shade; the air is dry, so you feel the difference. And you feel free, being free. It is hard to be free. It is probably one of the hardest things in the world, because the world doesn''t leave much room for freedom. There isn''t much space given you, there aren''t many people around you who are free. Everyone has miles to go and things to do, and the world catches you up, it carries you along, it doesn''t give you much room. But it''s also so easy to be free. Being free is probably one of the easiest things in the world, too, only almost nobody realizes it. Because we are free: we were born free, we live free, and we will die free. Only we don''t realize it. There is always so much going on, perhaps, always so much to do, that we never stop and look at what''s happening. Until some day, some Wednesday morning in early June, when you get up in the morning when it''s still chilly and you go for a drive in your car, along a country road, through little towns, past little homes and farmhouses, and suddenly you realize it, you know it: you are free, free always, free forever. That is all it takes. You like to drive, you like driving your little sports car with the top down, and that''s all it takes. And you find yourself getting high, as. high as the sky, because it is wonderful to be there, in that time and in that place, and you would exchange it for none other. You feel elated just by driving, and you begin to think that maybe they''re all wrong, maybe all the ones who have taught you are wrong. Because they''ve taught you that what goes up always comes down. That''s physics, after all, that''s science and knowledge, and when an apple falls from a tree, it''s going to hit someone who''s sitting beneath. That''s the way things are. But you begin to wonder. Maybe things don''t have to be that way. Maybe it''s possible to go up and never come down, to stay up, to be always up, to be always elated. Maybe there is a place there, a place that the birds know, a place which men have reached for. Maybe it really does exist, and if you could find it you would never leave, you would never need to leave or want to leave, because the place is perfect and you feel wonderful there. So you drive along, out driving just for the fun of driving, and then maybe you say to yourself, "The hell with that place, things are fine here. I like it here. "For you feel good, there, feel good driving along, and you think you could probably feel good any place doing anything. The hell with the birds, let them have their place, because you''ve got yours, and you like it fine. The hell with wondering and worrying. School''s out, it was out five days ago, you''ve passed your exams, so you don''t need to worry again for three months. It''s the summer now, the beginning of the summer. It''s a beautiful day, and you don''t need anything more. Except maybe a little music, so you turn on the radio. It''s warmer now, it''s just right, and the air that flows over these hills, past these homes and farmhouses, and down these country roads, the air is fresh and clean.

阅读理解The president of the United States has one of the toughest jobs in the world. Hardly anyone else is watched so closely by so many people. Reporters follow the president patiently, eager for his opinion on everything from nuclear warheads to the outcome of a football match. The president must be careful at all times that his answers to reporters'' questions reflect his policies. In addition, wherever the president may go, he never for a moment escapes the responsibilities of his office. The evening news may show him on a working vacation, but the work is always with him. The job seems to demand a person of outstanding ability, so you might think the US Constitution (宪法) would contain a long list of job qualifications. However, it lists only three. Article Ⅱ, Section I of the Constitution states that the President must: 1. be a natural-born citizen of the United States; 2. be at least 35 years old; 3. have been the resident of the United States for 14 years. While Constitution lists only three qualifications for the President, the voters certainly consider many others. Among these are intelligence, good health, experience in government, ability to lead others, knowledge of national and world affairs, personality, ability to speak well, and persuasiveness. The President is the Chief Executive of the United States and heads the executive branch of the Government. However, the President must share power with members of the other two branches of Government: the legislative (立法的) branch, or the Congress; and the judicial (司法的) branch, or the federal courts. The Constitution states the powers and duties of the Presidency; it also tells how each branch of the Government is to check the powers of the other two in order to balance the powers and prevent any single branch from abusing its power. This system of checks and balances was designed by the writers of the Constitution because they did not want any one person or branch of the Government to gain too much power.

阅读理解Like many of my generation, I have a weakness for hero worship. At some point, however, we all begin to question our heroes and our need for them. This leads us to ask: what is a hero? Despite immense differences in cultures, heroes around the world generally share a number of characteristics that instruct and inspire people. A here does something worth talking about. A hero has a story of adventure to tell and a community who will listen. But a hero goes beyond mere fame. Heroes serve powers or principles larger than themselves. Like high-voltage transformers, heroes take the energy of higher powers and step it down so that it can be used by ordinary people. The hero lives a life worthy of imitation. Those who imitate a genuine hero experience life with new depth, enthusiasm, and meaning. A sure test for would-be heroes is what or whom do they serve? What are they willing to live and die for? If the answer or evidence suggests they serve only their own fame, they may be famous persons but not heroes. Madonna and Michael Jackson are famous, but who would claim that their fans find life more abundant? Heroes are catalysts (催化剂) for change. They have a vision from the mountaintop. They have the skill and the charm to move the masses. They create new possibilities. Without Gandhi, India might still be part of the British Empire. Without Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. , we might still have segregated (隔离的) buses, restaurants, and parks. It may be possible for large-scale change to occur without leaders with magnetic personalities, but the pace of change would be slow, the vision uncertain, and the committee meetings endless.

阅读理解What is characteristic of work in the 21st century?

阅读理解Some people would say that the Englishman''s home is no longer his castle; that it has become his workshop. This is partly because the average Englishman is keen on working with his hands and partly because he feels, for one reason or another, that he must do for himself many household jobs for which, some years ago, he would have hired professional help. The main reason for this is a financial one: the high cost of labor has meant that builders'' and decorators'' costs have reached a level which makes them so high that the house-proud English people of modest means hang back. So, if they wish to keep their houses looking bright and smart, they have to deal with some of the repairs and decorating themselves. As a result, there has grown up in the post-war years what is sometimes referred to as the "Do-It-Yourself Movement". The "Do-It-Yourself Movement" began with home decorating but has since spread into a much wider field. Nowadays there seem to be very few things that cannot be made by the "do-it-yourself method. A number of magazines and handbooks exist to show hopeful handymen of ages just how easy it is to build anything from a coffee table to a fifteen-foot sailing boat. All you need, it seems, is a hammer and a few nails. You follow the simple instructions step-by-step and, before you know where you are, the finished article stands before you, complete in every detail. Unfortunately, it is not always quite as simple as it sounds! Many a "do-it-yourselfer" has found to his cost that one cannot learn a skilled craftsman''s job overnight. How quickly one realizes, when doing it oneself, that a job which takes the skilled man an hour or so to complete takes the amateur five or six at least And then there is the question of tools. The first thing the amateur learns is that he must have the right tools for the job. But tools cost money. There is also the wear and tear on the nerves. It is not surprising then that many people have come to the conclusion that the expense of paying professionals to do the work is, in the long run, more economical than "doing it yourself."

阅读理解Passage Two According to the dictionary definition of create, ordinary people are creative every day

阅读理解Doesn''t that sound terribly yellow to you? "I can''t say. I''m colour blind", was my flat-mate''s response. And that was that for another twenty odd years, when by chance I came across an article in a newspaper on research into synaesthesia(共感觉) at a London hospital. At last, I understood my interpretation of the world through colour. What is synaesthesia? Synaesthesia is the subjective sensation of a sense other than the one being stimulated. For example, the sight of a word may evoke sensations of colour or the sound of music may also have a similar effect, as my taste. Or, to put it simply, synaesthetes, i.e. people with synaesthesia, have their senses hooked together, so that they experience several senses simultaneously. History To those not already aware of it, synaesthesia seems a new phenomenon. Yet, it is far from new. In 1690, John Locke, the philosopher, wrote of a blind man with synaesthetic capabilities. The first reference in the medical field was in 1710, by Thomas Woodhouse, an English ophthalmologist. In his Theory of Colour, the German writer, Goethe, talked about colour and the senses. The poet, Arthur Rimbaud, wrote about synaesthesia in his 187 poem Vouyelles, as did another French poet Baudilaire, in Correspondance. So, synaesthesia has a respectable history. Sufferers Synaesthesia is understandably met with a certain degree of scepticism, since it is something beyond the ken of the vast majority of people. Son et lumiere shows in the 19th century were an attempt at combining the senses in a public display, but such displays were not capable of conveying the sensations experienced by involuntary synaesthesia, as the ability which synaesthete''s experience is called. There has been a number of well-documented synaesthetes. Alexander Scriabin, the Russian composer, (1871-1915) tried to express his own synaesthetic abilities in his symphony Prometheus, the Poem of Fire (1992). And another Russian, Rimsky-Korsakov, noted the colour associations musical keys possessed. For example, Scriabin saw C major as red, while to Rimsky-Korsakov it was white, Arthur Bliss, an English composer, base his 1922 Colour Symphony on the concept of synaesthesia. He did not claim to be a synaesthete; his colour choices were arbitrary and the project was an intellectual exercise. In the field of the visual arts, probably the best-known artist with synaesthetic capabilities is the Russian artist. Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944), credited with being the founder of abstract painting. It is said he experienced "sensory fusion" at a performance of Wagner''s Lohengrin, with the music producing colours before his eyes. He did not see colours solely in terms of objects, but associated them with sounds. He even composed an opera, Der Gelbe Klang (The Yellow Sound), which was a mixture of colour, light, dance and sound. A New Sight on Synaesthesia For many people with synaesthesia, knowing that what they have been experiencing has both a name and a history and that they are among a number of notable sufferers is a revelation. Initially, they often feel that there is something wrong psychologically or mentally, or that everyone feels that way. Then they realize with a thud that other people do not. Suppression is an option, but unwittingly some people have managed to make use of the ability to their advantage. While the condition of synaesthesia may hamper many people because of its disorienting effects, it can also open up a range of new skills. It is not unusual for people who have synaesthesia to be creative and imaginative. As many studies have shown, memory is based to some extent on association. Synaesthetes find they are able to remember certain things with great ease. The person who associates the shape able to remember a longer sequence of words; and the same goes for other areas where memory needs to be used. Drawbacks But this condition like all gifts, has its drawbacks. Some people see words as colours; others even individual letters and syllables, so that a word becomes a kaleidoscope of colour. Beautiful though such a reading experience may be, synaesthesia can cause problems with both reading and writing. Reading can take longer, because one has to wade through all the colours, as well as the words! And, because the colour sequences as well as the words have to fit together, writing is then equally difficult.