Urbanization
(2013·高考北京卷)Until relatively recently，the vast majority of human beings lived and died without ever seeing a city.The first city was probably founded no more than 5,500 years ago.__ 【小题1】__In fact，nearly everyone lived on farms or in tiny rural (乡村的) villages.It was not until the 20th century that Great Britain became the first urban society in history—a society in which the majority of people live in cities and do not farm for a living.
Britain was only the beginning. 【小题2】__The process of urbanization—the migration (迁徙) of people from the countryside to the city—was the result of modernization，which has rapidly transformed how people live and where they live.
In 1990，fewer than 40% of Americans lived in urban areas.Today，over 82% of Americans live in cities.Only about 2% live on farms.__ 【小题3】__
Large cities were impossible until agriculture became industrialized.Even in advanced agricultural societies，it took about ninetyfive people on farms to feed five people in cities._ 【小题4】_Until modern times，those living in cities were mainly the ruling elite(精英) and the servants，laborers and professionals who served them.Cities survived by taxing farmers and were limited in size by the amount of surplus food that the rural population produced and by the ability to move this surplus from farm to city.
Over the past two centuries，the Industrial Revolution has broken this balance between the city and the country. 【小题5】_Today，instead of needing ninetyfive farmers to feed five city people，one American farmer is able to feed more than a hundred nonfarmers.
| A．That kept cities very small. |
| B．The rest live in small towns. |
| C．The effects of urban living on people should be considered. |
| D．Soon many other industrial nations became urban societies. |
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They like using the Internet. They have lots of pocket money to spend. And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us. Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy－games, CDs and clothing－are easily sold on the Web.
But paying online is a troublesome business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards. Most have to use a parent’s card. They want a facility that allows them to spend money.
That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber (网络的) space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic. If successful, these products can stimulate online sales.
In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153bn (billion) in the US last year and ￡20bn annually in the UK. Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school－88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK. According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online－mainly CDs and books.
In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children. Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing them to spend on the high street. They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online.
One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as InternetCash in the US and Smart cards in the UK. Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as￡20 or $50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account.
【小题1】What does the word “They” in paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．Sellers. | B．Buyers. | C．Teenagers. | D．Parents. |
| A．More than half of the teenagers in the US and the UK have Internet access. |
| B．Teenagers pay for goods online with their own credit cards. |
| C．Most teenagers in the US and the UK have bought something online. |
| D．Teenagers found it easier to persuade parents to buy online than in a shop. |
| A．a new machine | B．special coins and notes |
| C．prepaid cards | D．pay-as-you-go mobile phones |
| A．Online shopping traps. |
| B．Internet users in the US and the UK. |
| C．New credit cards for parents. |
| D．The arrival of cyber pocket money. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Everyone hates to wait in lines. We get that anxious feeling that our precious life is slipping away while we’re doing something so meaningless. But it’s not always the length of the wait we find so unbearable. Some people camp outside Apple stores for an entire night just to get their hands on the latest product. But waiting 10 minutes in a grocery store just to buy a drink? Forget it.
Our behavior when waiting is only partly decided by the length of the wait. “Often the psychology of queuing is more important than the statistics of the wait itself,” notes the MIT researcher Richard Larson.
One apparent aspect of queuing psychology is that we get bored when we wait in line. This issue is solved in many ways, from magazines in hospital waiting rooms to mirrors in elevators so that we can check our appearance.
We really hate it when we expect a short wait and then get a long one. But studies show that we are much more patient when we are given an idea of how long we’ll be waiting.
Walt Disney Co knows this better than anyone else. It posts estimated waiting times for attractions in its theme parks. But according to Larson, these times are overestimated so that visitors get to the front of the queue more quickly than they expect. It keeps them happy.
But perhaps the biggest influence on our feelings about waiting in a line has to do with our sense of fairness. When it comes to queues, the universally acknowledged standard is first come, first served. Any departure from this principle is regarded as unfair and can lead to violent queue anger.
You’ve probably experienced mild queue anger yourself in fast food restaurants, watching people in the other line zoom ahead of you, cursing yourself for having chosen the “wrong” line. In order to solve this problem, the serpentine(蛇形) line was invented. The serpentine line guides all customers into one big snaking queue, separated by ropes or barriers. When you reach the head of the queue, you are directed to the next available server, or teller, or customs official. The serpentine line isn’t always faster than multi-lines before an array(排) of cash registers. But it offers important comfort: you absolutely never have to see someone arrive after you and get served before you.
In life, waiting is inevitable. But a better understanding of the psychology of waiting can help make it a bit more bearable. When all else fails, bring a book or a smart phone will also do.
【小题1】In the 1st paragraph, the author intends to tell us_____.
| A．why people are crazy about Apple’s products |
| B．people waste their precious time in queuing |
| C．waiting time is not the only cause for people’s hate in queuing |
| D．the psychology is the real reason why people hate to wait in lines |
| A．having people queue in serpentine line |
| B．letting people know how long they will wait exactly |
| C．making people queue shorter than they are informed |
| D．offering people magazines to read when waiting in lines |
| A．make the waiting line move faster |
| B．guarantee the first-come-first-served principle |
| C．solve the problem of feeling bored in queuing |
| D．guide all customers into one big snaking queue |
| A．to explain the advantages of serpentine line |
| B．to introduce ways of saving time in queuing |
| C．to offer an explanation of the psychology of queuing |
| D．to analyze the psychology of people queuing for Apple products |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Micro bloggers：have you ever compared the number of fans on your Sina Weibo or Tencent micro blog with those of your friends ?Don’t imagine you have more fans just because your number is bigger——some of them might be “zombie fans”，or fake(假的)followers．
That’s what Chen Chuanliang ，creator of Leijian Network，found when he bet against his friend several months ago．Chen，who used to do data mining for Microsoft Asia Research Institute，discovered that there were far more invalid(无效的)micro blog accounts than he had imagined．
Later Chen picked 1 0 users on Sina Weibo and analyzed their statistics．Kai-Fu Lee，the former CEO of Google China，who’s on Chen’s list of research，posted a message on his micro blog after he found out that he had more than 1 million fake fans(out of about 5 million)，joking“I have 1 million zombie fans ?If united，we can finally defeat those plants．”
According to a report by S Weekly in March，zombie fans on micro blogs are defined as invalid accounts signed up by network companies for the purpose of increasing the number of fans for certain users and getting them more attention．
And this kind of fake followers are also very much alive on Western social networks such as Twitter and Facebook ．
The Financial Times reported in August，that Newt Gingrich，a Republican candidate in the US presidential election，bought about 80 percent of his 1．3 million Twitter followers and tried to use them as help in his campaign．
Now there are also business deals through which users can get hundreds of thousands of fans for their micro blog accounts，by paying a small amount of money．
“We have been working to find ways to block or delete those invalid accounts，”Mao Taotao，a spokesperson for Sina Weibo told S Weekly.
“But as the fake accounts grow so fast，they’re going to be here for a while．
【小题1】Which of the following might be the best title for the passage?
| A．Micro Bloggers | B．Blog Accounts |
| C．Zombie Fans | D．Micro Blog Fans |
| A．making friends with people |
| B．paying a little money |
| C．helping their weibo followers |
| D．doing search on the Internet |
| A．there are more fake fans in America than in China |
| B．invalid accounts for micro blogs will be deleted in no time |
| C．there exist many fake fans on western social networks as well |
| D．Newt Gingrich had 1．3 millions followers in his presidential election |
| A．deals’ | B．fans’ | C．campaigns’ | D．users’ |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
We are not who we think we are.
The American self-image is spread with the golden glow of opportunity. We think of the United States as a land of unlimited possibility, not so much a classless society but as a place where class is mutable—a place where brains, energy and ambition are what counts, not the circumstances of one's birth.
The Economic Mobility Project, an ambitious research led by Pew Charitable Trusts, looked at the economic fortunes of a large group of families over time, comparing the income of parents in the late 1960s with the income of their children in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Here is the finding: "The 'rags to riches' story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the top.
That is right, just 6 percent of children born to parents who ranked in the bottom of the study sample, in terms of income, were able to bootstrap their way into the top . Meanwhile, an incredible 42 percent of children born into that lowest are still stuck at the bottom, having been unable to climb a single rung of the income ladder.
It is noted that even in Britain---a nation we think of as burdened with a hidebound class system-children who are born poor have a better chance of moving up. When the studies were released, most reporters focused on the finding that African-Americans born to middle-class or upper middle-class families are earning slightly less, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than did their parents.
One of the studies indicates, in fact, that most of the financial gains white families have made in the past three decades can be attributed to the entry of white women into the labor force. This is much less true for African-Americans.
The picture that emerges from all the quintiles, correlations and percentages is of a nation in which, overall, "the current generation of adults is better off than the previous one", as one of the studies notes.
The median income of the families in the sample group was $55,600 in the late 1960s; their children's median family income was measured at $71,900. However, this rising tide has not lifted all boats equally. The rich have seen far greater income gains than have the poor.
Even more troubling is that our nation of America as the land of opportunity gets little support from the data. Americans move fairly easily up and down the middle rungs of the ladder, but there is "stickiness at the ends" —four out of ten children who are born poor will remain poor, and four out often who are born rich will stay rich.
【小题1】What did the Economic Mobility Project find in its research?
| A．Children from low-income families are unable to bootstrap their way to the top. |
| B．Hollywood actors and actresses are upwardly mobile from rags to riches. |
| C．The rags to riches story is more fiction than reality. |
| D．The rags to riches story is only true for a small minority of whites. |
| A．perfect its self-image as a land of opportunity |
| B．have a higher level of upward mobility than Britain |
| C．enable African-Americans to have exclusive access to well-paid employment |
| D．encourage the current generation to work as hard as the previous generation |
| A．The US is a land where brains, energy and ambition are what counts. |
| B．Inequality persists between whites and blacks in financial gains. |
| C．Middle-class families earn slightly less with inflation considered. |
| D．Children in lowest-income families manage to climb a single rung of the ladder. |
| A．Social Upward Mobility. |
| B．Incredible Income Gains. |
| C．Inequality in Wealth. |
| D．America Not Land of Opportunity. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Men are spending more and more time in the kitchen encouraged by celebrity (名人) chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, according to a report from Oxford University.
The effect of the celebrity role models, who have given cooking a more manly picture, has combined with a more general drive towards sexual equality and men now spend more than twice the amount of time preparing meals than they did in 1961.
According to the research by Prof. Jonatahn Gershuny, who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford, men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking, up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961.
Prof. Gershuny said, “The man in the kitchen is part of a much wider social trend. There has been 40 years of sexual equality, but there is another 40 years probably to come.”
Women, who a generation ago spent nearly two hours a day cooking, now spend just one hour and seven minutes—a great fall, but they still spend far more time in the kitchen than men.
Some experts have named these men in aprons as “Gastrosexuals (men using cooking skills to impress friends)”, who have been inspired to pick up a kitchen knife by the success of Ramsay, Oliver as well as other male celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Marco Pierre White and Keith Floyd.
“I was married in 1974. When my father came to visit me a few weeks later, I was wearing an apron when I opened the door. He laughed,” said Prof. Gershuny. “That would never happen now.”
Two-thirds of adults say that they come together to share at least three times a week, even if it is not necessarily around a kitchen or dining room table. Prof. Gershuny pointed out that the family meal was now rarely eaten by all of its members around a table—with many “family meals” in fact taken on the sofa in the sitting room, and shared by family members. “The family meal has changed a lot, and few of us eat—as I did when I was a child—at least two meals a day together as a family. But it has survived in a different format.”
【小题1】What is one reason behind the trend that men spend more time cooking than before?
| A．The improvement of cooks’ status. |
| B．The influence of popular female chefs. |
| C．The change of female’s view on cooking. |
| D．The development of sexual equality campaign. |
| A．Men spend more time cooking than women nowadays. |
| B．Women spend much less time on cooking than before. |
| C．It will take 40 years before men spend more time at the stove than women. |
| D．There is a sharp decline in the time men spend on cooking compared with 1961. |
| A．It has become a thing of the past. |
| B．It is very different from what it used to be. |
| C．It shouldn’t be advocated in modern times. |
| D．It is beneficial to the stability of the family. |
| A．The Changes of Family Meals |
| B．Equality between Men and Women |
| C．Cooking into a New Trend for Men |
| D．Cooking—a Thing of the Past for Women |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Parents are creating an “I want it now” generation by indulging children's every demand at Christmas，say experts.Youngsters are becoming increasingly selfish，claim the education analysts.
Consumersavvy children are forcing their families into racking up huge debts and risk becoming spoilt and dissatisfied in the future.
Behavioural consultant Chris Calland said，“Parents are desperate to make Christmas into a magical fairy tale for their kids.There's nothing wrong with that as such.The problem arises when it means always giving in to all our children's demands—even if they are beyond our price range or not ageappropriate.”
Ms.Calland，who runs “Santa Says No” style sessions with colleague Nicky Hutchinson，added, “Many of us go into so much debt providing the gifts our children want that we spend the rest of the year paying off the bills.Yet so often the parcels we've carefully wrapped，once opened，are just pushed away because the very thing our little boy or girl was once so desperate for, they have now lost interest in.”
Ms. Calland and Ms.Hutchinson have drawn up a list of guidelines to help parents manage their offspring's Christmas lists this year.They say that adults can actually improve their relationships with their children by resisting “pester (纠缠) power”．
Ms.Calland said，“All too often we say yes because we want an easier life when the fact is that we're only building up problems for the future.We are helping create a generation of youngsters who are blind to the needs of others and the necessity of hard work.”
“Children learn fast—if we sometimes change our mind，they quickly realise it might be worth lying on the floor and screaming for it.Make sure you and your partner are working together on this.Be consistent.And try not to get caught up in competition with other families or friends.”
【小题1】How is the “I want it now” generation created?
| A．Parents can't afford the gifts for their children. |
| B．Parents become heavily in debt. |
| C．Parents are trying to make Christmas into a magical fairy tale. |
| D．Parents give children whatever they want at Christmas. |
| A．They are quite selfcentered. |
| B．They like to live in fairy tales. |
| C．They waste a lot of money on gifts. |
| D．They can't keep their interest in gifts. |
| A．To advise on how to wrap gifts properly. |
| B．To keep children's interest in the gifts. |
| C．To tell parents how to say no to children's demands. |
| D．To advise parents on what gifts to buy for children. |
| A．analyze children's behavior |
| B．give advice to parents |
| C．introduce a new generation |
| D．give her support to parents |
| A．buy nothing for children at Christmas |
| B．choose gifts carefully for children |
| C．let children choose their own gifts |
| D．avoid competing with others |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Suppose you don't need your car today.And suppose，as it happens that a stranger in your area does need a car.Would you be willing to rent yours out?
Several carsharing startups，including Getaround，RelayRides and JustSharelt，are eager to connect car owners with renters this way.The companies have different rules，but participating owners receive，generally speaking，about twothirds of the rental earnings.RelayRides says an owner of a midsize，latemodel sedan who rents out a car for 10 hours a week could expect to clear about $ 3,000 a year.
Peertopeer carsharing remains in the trial stage；it can be found in San Francisco and a few other places.It has a long way to go before it becomes the auto equivalent of Airbnb，the surprise success story for peertopeer sharing of space in apartments and houses.
Shelby Clark，founder of RelayRides，says potential investors in his company have been concerned that owners will be afraid to hand their car over to strangers.To address that，he points to Airbnb，saying，“Letting people sleep in your living room is much more of a disturbance into your personal space than letting someone use your car.”
All of these companies offer their own insurance coverage for their renters，which are supposed to put owners' minds at ease.But only two states—California and Oregon—have passed laws to clarify that an owner will not suffer any consequences should a carsharing renter have an accident.
“In all the other states，legal ambiguity remains，” Shelby Clark says.“If a renter should be involved in a serious accident in those states，the victim can be expected to go after every party possible，including the car's owner.”
Also to remove the worries of car owners，the driving records of renters are checked for recent serious violations..
【小题1】What does the underlined word “sedan” in Paragraph 2 probably refer to?
| A．A kind of car. |
| B．An owner of a car. |
| C．A renting company. |
| D．A carsharing renter. |
| A．It cares little about personal privacy. |
| B．It deals with housesharing successfully. |
| C．It is a very popular carsharing company. |
| D．Its ideas are being tried out in some states. |
| A．has to take legal responsibility |
| B．will not suffer the consequence |
| C．is not covered by health insurance |
| D．must pay the insurance for the renter |
| A．legal ambiguity is clarified in all the states |
| B．renters are warned not to violate traffic rules |
| C．more money is given to participating owners |
| D．people are aware of the importance of sharing |
| A．makes no profit |
| B．remains in popularity |
| C．is against the state law |
| D．is a new business model |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Do you want to love what you do for a living? Follow your passion. This piece of advice provides the foundation for modern thinking on career satisfaction. But this can be a problem.
I've spent the past several years researching and writing about the different strategies we use to seek happiness in our work. It became clear early in the process that the suggestion to “follow your passion” was flawed (有缺陷), for it lacks scientific evidence. However, it doesn't mean you should abandon the goal of feeling passionate about your work. The reality emphasizes that things are quite complicated.
Passion is earned. Different people are looking for different things in their work, but generally, people with satisfying careers enjoy some combination of the following features: autonomy，respect, competence, creativity, and a sense of impact. In other words，if you want to feel passionate about your livelihood，don't seek the perfect job，but seek to get more of these features in the job you already have.
Passion is elusive (难捉摸的). Many people develop the rare and valuable skills leading to passion, but still end up unhappy in their work. The problem is that the features leading you to love your work are more likely to be useful to you than your organization. As you become increasingly “valuable”，for example, your boss might push you toward traditional promotions that come with more pay and more responsibility, as this is what is most useful to your company. However, you might find more passion by applying your value to gain autonomy in your schedule or project selection.
Passion is dangerous. I've watched too many of my peers fall into anxiety and chronic(慢性的) job-hopping (跳槽) due to the “follow your passion” advice. The issue is expectations. If you believe we all have a pre-existing passion, and that matching it to a job will lead to instant workplace happiness, reality will always pale in comparison.
Work is hard. Not every day is fun. If you're seeking a dream job, you'll end up frustrated, again and again. Don't set out to discover passion. Instead, set out to develop it. This path might be longer and more complicated than what most cheerful career guides might advocate, but it's a path much more likely to lead you somewhere worth going.
【小题1】People satisfied with their careers are _______.
| A．autonomous and passionate | B．creative and passionate |
| C．respectable and sensitive | D．creative and competent |
| A．Figuring out early what one will do in the future. |
| B．Matching the pre-existing passion to one's work. |
| C．Developing passion for what one is doing. |
| D．Discovering skills that lead to interesting careers. |
| A．it is not easy to match our passion with our jobs |
| B．we shouldn't think everyone has a pre-existing passion |
| C．workplace happiness does not require a pre-existing passion |
| D．high expectations of passion in jobs bring disappointment |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Supportive. | C．Cautious. | D．Unclear. |
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