1
Time was---20 or 30 years ago---when Mom and kids would go to a studio and sit, and the idealized result would be framed and given to Dad, who would take it to the office and display it for visitors to admire. Often, I'm sure, said photo really did enable the working man to contemplate his loved ones between appointments, but it served other purposes as well. The photo was an emblem, an asset, a hanging prize. Behold, it said; I am not only a lawyer or corporate titan, I am a husband and father. It clarified that work and family occupied two distinct realms, and testified that the owner had achieved success in both.
Now, the opposite is true. On one level, to be sure, random unframed photos are just an expression of the more casual (and cramped) nature of the modern so-called office. For many of us, to hang a framed formal portrait of our family would not only look out of place; its weight alone would topple our cubicle wall, knocking over the next cubicle and triggering a disastrous domino effect. More than that, though, today's photos are an expression of the conflicted feelings of the modern office worker. Rather than relegating the family to a different realm, they are an attempt to bring the two realms closer, to admit family into the office. They are attempts to make us feel that we are not separate from our kids; that we are still with them, and they with us, vivid, changeable, in the flesh. They are expressions of pride, yes, and love, yes, but also of guilt and longing. So powerful are the emotions roused that a friend of mine, upon returning to work after having her first child, found that she couldn't bring any photos; they made the absence from her son too painful.
Not everything has changed. Formal photos still hang in uneasy coexistence with informal ones, in women's offices and in men's. Sociologist Arlie Hochschild spent time at a company she refers to, in her book The Time Bind, as \"Amerco.\" There, she noted, it was the lower-ranking women who peppered their desks with intimate family snapshots. For these women, she posits, the photos sent a message： I may not be powerful here, but there's a place, home, where I am. The more high-up the woman, the less she indulged in these snapshots, as if they might call her commitment into question. Instead, executive women resorted to the traditional framed trophy photo. I don't entirely buy this distinction -- in my workplace, women at all levels do the montage thing, as do men -- but I do remember being in the office of a busy lawyer and seeing a framed photo of her and her kids on the beach, and it was facing me, not her, and I wondered, a little, if it was saying： I don't work as much as it seems!
at the same time that family photos testify to what we have, they also testify to what we don't. What we don't have, while we're working, is the very thing they display： the spontaneous moments, the golden unlimited hours. In keeping these snapshots at our desk we are like pets, really, that in their master's absence seek out his sweater to lie upon. Absent our family, the best we can do is bask in its representation, create the illusion that we can sense our kids, feel them, hear their laughter.
1. 20 or 30 years ago, office photos conveyed the idea of _______
A . work commitment
B . family achievement
C . personal freedom
D . guilt
正确答案:family achievement
2. According to the passage, today’s office photos differ from photos of 20 or 30 years ago in that_______
A . they are more formal
B . they mainly serve a decorative purpose
C . they bridge work and family
D . they help relieve the stress of workplace
正确答案:they bridge work and family
3. The author disagrees to some extent with the fact that_______ A . lower-ranking women generally do not have trophy photos in office
B . some executive women have trophy photos in their office
C . high-up women don’t bring snapshots to office
D . lower-ranking women use family snapshots to show their power at home
正确答案:high-up women don’t bring snapshots to office
4. People bring to office snapshots that represent_______ A . positive elements of life
B . family life they miss at work
C . their pride in their achievements
D . their ranking in the office
正确答案:family life they miss at work
5. Compare office photos of the past with those of the modern times, they are_______
A . completely the same in function
B . almost identical in function
C . share some similarities in function
D . totally different in function
正确答案:share some similarities in function
2
For centuries in Spain and Latin America, heading home for lunch and a snooze with the family was something like a national right, but with global capitalism standardizing work hours, this idyllic habits is fast becoming an endangered pleasure. Ironically, all this is happening just as researchers are beginning to note the health benefits of the afternoon nap.
According to a nationwide survey, less than 25 percent of Spaniards still enjoy siestas (午休，午睡). And like Spain, much of Latin America has adopted Americanized work schedules, too, with shortened lunch times and more rigid work hours. Last year the Mexican government passed a law limiting lunch breaks to one hour and requiring its employees to work their eight-hour shift between 7 a.m and 6 a.m. Before the mandate (指令，训令), workers would break up the shift --- going home midday for a long break with the family and returning to work until about 9 or 10 p.m. The idea of siesta is changing in Greece, Italy and Portugal, too, as they rush to join their more “industrious” counterparts in the global market.
Most Americans I know covet sleep, but the idea of taking nap mid-afternoon equates with laziness, unemployment and general sneakiness. Yet according to a Nation Sleep Survey poll, 65 percent of adults do not get enough sleep. Numerous scientific studies document the benefits of nap taking, including one 1997 study o the deleterious (有害的) effects deprivation in the journal internal Medicine. The researchers found that fatigue harms not only marital and social relations but worker productivity.
According to Mark Rosekind, a former NASA scientist and founder of Solutions in Cupertino, Calif., which educates businesses about the advantages of sanctioning (赞许) naps, we’re biologically programmed to get sleep between 3 and 5 p.m and 3 and 5 a.m our internal timekeeper --- called the circadian clock --- operates on a 24-hour rotation and every 12 hours there’s a dip. In accordance with these natural sleep rhythms, Rosekind recommends that naps be either for 40 minutes or for two hours. Latin American counties, asserts Rosekind, have it right all long. They’re been in sync with (与…同步) their clocks; we haven’t.
Since most of the world is sleep-deprived, getting well under the recommended eight hours a night (adults get an average of 6.5 hours nightly), we usually operate on a kind of idle midday. Naps are even more useful now that most of us forfeit (失去) sleep because of insane work schedules, longer commute times and stress. In a study published last April, Brazilian medical researchers noted that blood pressure and arterial blood pressure dropped during a siesta.
1. In the second sentence of para.1 “all this” refers to_______ A . the standardizing of work hours
B . the growth of global capitalism
C . the habit of napping
D . the decline of the siesta tradition
正确答案:the decline of the siesta tradition
2. We can infer from the second paragraph that Mexican workers now_______ A . get home from work much later than in the past
B . finish the workday earlier than in the past
C . work fewer hours than in the past
D . work more reasonable hours than in the past
正确答案:finish the workday earlier than in the past
3. The word “covet” in para.3 most likely means_______ A . lack
B . value
C . need
D . desire
正确答案:desire
4. The author suggests that most Americans feel that _______ A . nap-taking will put their jobs at risks
B . nap-taking is a sign of laziness
C . they get plenty of sleep
D . Spanish culture is inefficient
正确答案:nap-taking is a sign of laziness
5. This text is mainly about_______
A . the siesta tradition and its health benefits
B . the negative effects of sleep-deprivation on health and worker productivity
C . the importance of the siesta tradition in Spain and Latin America
D . the health benefits of afternoon naps
正确答案:the siesta tradition and its health benefits
3
Perhaps most challenging is the set of skills required to produce a written assignment, the most common means by which student learning is evaluated. This demands a critical evaluation of a potentially large amount of required reading.
The reading required to perform writing tasks required a set of effective strategies with which many students may be unfamiliar. The texts themselves may vary greatly in both content and style from subject to but all required the same critical analysis of conceptually complicated material.
Similarly, the experience of speaking before an audience will almost certainly be a new experience for most undergraduates. Again, students are expected to critically evaluate issues and to contribute to the discussion or analysis.
Participation in these discussions often forms part of a student’s course assessment and those who fail to express themselves may gain lower grades.
Many students find the experience of attending university lecture to be a confusing and frustrating experience. The lecture speaks for one or two hours, perhaps illustrating the talk with slides, writing up important information on the blackboard, distributing reading material and giving out assignments. The new student sees the other students continuously writing on notebooks and wonders what to write. Very often the student leaves the lecture with notes which do not catch the main points and which become hard even for the student himself to understand.
Most institutions provide courses which assist new students to develop the skills they need to be effective listeners and note-takers. If these are unavailable there are many useful study-skills guides which enable learners to practice these skills independently. In all cases it is important to tackle the problem before actually starting your studies. If you leave it until after your course begins, you may find that you are not able to study and to learn how to study at the same time.
It is important to acknowledge that most students have difficulty in acquiring the language skills required in college study. One way of overcoming these difficulties is to attend the language and study-skills classes which most institutions provide throughout the academic year. Another basic strategy is to find a study partner with whom it is possible to identify difficulties, exchange
ideas and provide support.
The acquisition of effective language and study skills is a process which continues throughout undergraduate life and is itself a fundamental component of a university education.
1. The passage is mainly about _______ A . the necessity of getting much knowledge
B . the importance of acquiring a set of effective study skills
C . the training of writing at college
D . the training of reading ability
正确答案:the importance of acquiring a set of effective study skills
2. The author advises students to _______ A . speak bravely
B . take a lot of course
C . take as many notes as possible
D . read and think critically
正确答案:read and think critically
3. When a student has difficulties acquiring language skills, it is advisable for him or her to _______
A . memorize more words
B . seek advice from books
C . exchange ideas with a partner
D . turn to the teacher immediately
正确答案:exchange ideas with a partner
4. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage? A . learning how to learn is just as important as what to learn
B . most teachers fail to teach students how to learn
C . taking notes in class is not so important
D . most students are confused by traditional teaching
正确答案:learning how to learn is just as important as what to learn
5. When speaking before an audience, it is important for a student to _______ A . notice the reactions from the audience
B . give his own comments
C . speak clearly enough
D . show his knowledge from books
正确答案:give his own comments
4
The hotel habits of business travelers have been studied for the third year by the worldwide hotel chain Novotel, which has several hotels in China.
The survey of Novotel hotels throws up some interesting facts about behavior of businessmen and businesswomen when they are away from home. Women pilfer (小偷小摸)souvenirs (纪念品) from their hotel rooms as men raid the bars in the refrigerators in their rooms, the hotel study found. It discovered that women are more likely to take a souvenir from their hotel room than men, and a
man, more often than a woman, will have the biggest mini-bar bill for drinks used in their rooms.
Men leave cleaner hotel rooms---men were voted tidier travelers than women by staff (员工)and management at the international chain of hotels--- but they make noisier guests, usually caused by watching the television with the sound turned loudly.
It is almost always the male guest who is caught naked (赤裸的)outside his room, often through mistaking the door to the hallway for the one to the bathroom.
It found the most popular time for dinner was 7 p.m. ---7：30 p.m., although men were likely to dine in the restaurant while women preferred room service. A Caesar salad was the most popular choice of all women diners surveyed, while men preferred to choose a steak if eating in their room.
But in two matters, both sexes were on an equal footing： men and women were equally forthright (直截了当的)when it came to asking for an upgrade (上升) to a better room, and it is almost standard business practice these days for both men and women on business trips to be carrying a laptop computer with them.
1. According to the study by Novotel hotels, women are mire likely to
_______than men.
A . dine in hotel restaurants
B . eat the things in the refrigerators in hotel rooms
C . take home some decorative things from hotel rooms as souvenirs
D . keep hotel rooms tidy
正确答案:take home some decorative things from hotel rooms as souvenirs
2. According to the study by Novotel hotels, men are more likely to _______than women.
A . spend more on drink consumption in hotel rooms
B . make hotel rooms dirty
C . dine in hotel rooms
D . require a move to a better room
正确答案:spend more on drink consumption in hotel rooms
3. According to the study by Novotel hotels, men and women are similar in
_______
A . dining in the restaurant
B . bringing a laptop computer
C . asking for room services
D . choosing the food for dinner
正确答案:bringing a laptop computer
4. The purpose of the study by Novotel hotels is _______ A . not mentioned in the passage
B . to show that women are preferable guests for a hotel to men
C . to show that both men and women have some interesting hotel habits
D . to show that men are preferable guests for a hotel to women
正确答案:not mentioned in the passage
5
Today, there are many ways open to those who wish to continue their education. However, nearly all require some break in one’s career in order to attend school full time.
Part-time education, that is, attending school at night or for one weekend a month, tends to drag the process out over time and puts the completion of a degree program out of reach of many people. Additionally, such programs require a fixed time commitment which can also impact negatively on one’s career and family time.
Of the many approaches to teaching and learning, however, perhaps the most flexible and accommodating is that called distance learning.
Distance learning is an educational method, which allows the students the flexibility to study at his or her own pace to achieve the academic goals, which are so necessary in today‘s world. The time required to study many be set aside at the student’s convenience with due regard to all life‘s other requirements. Additionally, the student may enroll in distance learning courses from virtually any place in the world, while continuing to pursue their chosen career. Tutorial assistance may be available via regular airmail, telephone, facsimile machine, teleconferencing and over the Internet.
Good distance learning programs are characterized by the inclusion of a subject evaluation tool with every subject. This precludes the requirement for a student to travel away from home to take a test. Another characteristic of a good
distance-learning program is the equivalence of the distance-learning course with the same subject materials as those students taking the course on the home campus. The resultant diploma or degree should also be the same whether distance learning or on-campus study is employed. The individuality of the professor/student relationship is another characteristic of a good distance-learning program. In the final analysis, a good distance learning program has a place not only for the individual students but also the corporation or business that wants to work in partnership with their employees for the educational benefit, professional development, and business growth of the organization. Sponsoring distance learning programs for their employees gives the business the advantage of retaining career-minded people while contributing to their personal and professional growth through education.
1. According to the passage， which of the following is NOT a disadvantage of part-time education?
A . It tends to last too long for many people to complete a degree program.
B . It affects one‘s career.
C . It gives the student less time to share with the family.
D . It requires some break in one‘s career.
正确答案:It requires some break in one‘s career.
2. Which of the following is NOT an advantage of distance learning? A . They can pursue their chosen career while studying.
B . Their tutorial assistance comes through regular airmail, telephone, facsimile machine, etc.
C . The students may choose his or her own pace.
D . The students may study at any time to his or her convenience.
正确答案:Their tutorial assistance comes through regular airmail, telephone, facsimile machine, etc.
3. What benefit will distance-learning program bring to a business? A . Further training of employees and business growth.
B . Recruitment of more talented people.
C . Better cooperation with universities.
D . Good image of the business.
正确答案:Further training of employees and business growth.
4. What benefit will distance learning bring to an employee of a business？ A . Higher salary.
B . Good relationship with the employer.
C . Professional growth.
D . Good impression on the employer.
正确答案:Professional growth.
5. Which is not the characteristic of distance learning？ A . It includes a subject evaluation tool with every subject.
B . Its course uses the same subject materials as those students taking the course on the home campus.
C . A distance-learning program has a place only for students.
D . The relationship of the professor/student is characterized by individuality.
正确答案: A distance-learning program has a place only for students.
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