In the age of reality television, success isn’t the only way to the public eye. Failure can also create fame, just like William Hung, 21, a native of Hong Kong.
Hung recently has made an agreement with US-based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network. They will publish a full-length record, titled “The True Idol” on April 6.
The idol is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley. He did a version of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on the television show “American Idol 3”, on January 27. The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people. In the case of Hung, however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act.
Hung’s response? “I already gave my best, so I have no regrets at all.” That’s good, because any common person would have found plenty to regret: The off-key singing. The blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high. The terrible dancing. The hips jerking (摇摆) to a beat that did not belong to the song, maybe not even to this planet. It was, by all accounts, bad.
But, it was this very bad act that sold well.
Marc Juries, president of Fuse, explained it this way: “Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom, completely off-key and completely unworried. That’s what William did and immediately won the hearts of America.”
Whatever it is, for the moment it’s big. Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks. Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno-music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station.
So, what does Hung think of this?
“There were all these people saying things about me. A lot were saying I was very courageous and that I was great on the show, but some didn’t have much respect for me and some were kind of mean.”
Now he says he’s not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour (魅力) or to accept it. Returning to normal hasn’t been easy.
【小题1】What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly.

B．Hung’s performance attracted the public eye.

C．How an unsuccessful person became famous.

D．Success sometimes does not require hard work.

【小题2】What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 7 refer to?

A．William Hung.

B．Hung’s bad act.

C．Hung’s website.

D．The public’s opinion.

【小题3】Which of the following shows the correct order of what happened to Hung?
a. The entertainment firms made an agreement with Hung.
b. The judges cut Hung off in mid-act in the singing contest.
c. Hung became popular among Americans.
d. Hung gave a terrible performance though he tried his best.
e. Three websites put Hung’s funny performance on the Internet.

A．d, b, e, c, a

B．a, c, d, b, e

C．a, d, b, c, e

D．d, b, a, e, c

Eleven-year-olds are to learn Shakespeare using the approaches taken by actors, and English teachers will be encouraged to let pupils walk around the classroom rather than read the plays while pupils are sitting at their desks.
Within the English curriculum(课程) you tend to look at a play text as a piece of literature rather than performance. But you can’t possibly understand Shakespeare’s language if you’re just reading it in your head. Shakespeare is difficult; it’s not a 21stcentury text. You have to use different ways to understand it.
The new teaching way focuses on how actors come to understand Shakespeare’s language. In fact actors have the same nervousness about Shakespeare’s language as young people in schools do. But in six to eight weeks they get to a place of complete confidence about the play. Pupils can do as well.
Exercises devised are to let children aged 11 to 14 imitate the methods of professional actors. Written and oral assessments developed alongside the lessons will show how well students have understood the texts.
In one task pupils will work on creating four key physical figures of king, warrior(勇士), lover and joker, finding which lines of their chosen character go with those features first and then acting them out. Through this they can examine how a character such as Macbeth can switch dramatically within one scene from soldier to kingly figure to trick planner. It’s really creative but you’re still getting a really wonderful model of understanding. It’s miles away from a “chalk and talk” method.
Educators think Shakespeare should be a central part of every young person’s education. Developing a love of Shakespeare at a young age often leads to a lifelong passion for literature and helps to improve a child’s reading and writing.
【小题1】How will young people learn Shakespeare?

A．Reading them aloud.	B．Reciting them.
C．Cooperating with actors.	D．Acting them out.

【小题2】You cannot understand Shakespeare’s words easily because________.

A．they are pieces of literature	B．their expressions are different
C．ordinary people cannot understand them	D．they are performances

【小题3】The underlined sentence “It’s miles away from a ‘chalk and talk’ method.” In Paragraph 5 means_____.

A．Chalk and talk are far away from each other

B．It is much better than the traditional way

C．Chalk and talk are quite different

D．By chalk and talk we can understand Shakespeare

【小题4】What’s the best title of the reading passage?

A．The New Approach to Shakespeare

B．The Introduction to Shakespeare

C．How to act Shakespeare’s plays

D．Shakespeare’s works in the English curriculum

任务型阅读（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入1个最恰当的单词。(Reuters) - A U.N. climate deal due to be agreed in Copenhagen at talks from December 7-18 may fall short of a legally binding(有约束力的) agreement. If Copenhagen fails to live up to hopes of a strong agreement to slow global warming, what are the reasons and who risks blame? The following are some of the candidates:

● Decline in economy distracted(分散) focus from climate change after the world agreed in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 to work out a new U.N. agreement by December 2009. Rich nations have put billions of dollars into green growth as part of recovery packages but, when unemployment at home is high, find it hard to promise extra money for developing countries. The slowdown in industrial output means a brief fix -- greenhouse gas emissions(排放) are likely to fall by as much as 3 percent this year.

● Many delegates at U.N. talks have given up hope that the United States, the number two emitter after China, will agree legislation(立法, 法律) to limit carbon emissions before Copenhagen. The US is the only industrialized nation outside the Kyoto Protocol(京都协议书) for cutting greenhouse emissions until 2012. Many countries welcomed President Barack Obama's promises of doing more to fight climate change when he took office in January but hoped for swifter action.

● Developing nations accuse the rich of repeatedly failing to keep promises of more aid. Few developed countries live up to a target agreed by the U.N. General Assembly in 1970 to give 0.7 percent of their gross domestic product in development aid. Other plans, such as the Agenda 21 environmental development plan agreed in 1992, have fallen short.

● Most rich nations are promising cuts in greenhouse gas emissions well short of the 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, which are needed to avoid the worst of climate change. Overall cuts promised by developed nations total between 11 and 15 percent. Best offers by countries including Japan, the European Union, Australia and Norway would reach the range.

● More than 90 percent of the growth in emissions between now and 2030 is set to come from developing nations -- with almost 50 percent from China alone, U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern said this week. "No country holds the fate of the earth more in its hands than China. Not one," he said. China and India say they are slowing the growth of emissions but raising living standards is more important. So burning more energy is unavoidable -- as industrialized nations have done for 200 years.

● 2008 was the 10th warmest year since records began in the mid-19th century. The warmest was 1998, when a strong El Nino event in the eastern Pacific disrupted(使混乱) weather worldwide. That has led some to argue that global warming is slowing even though the U.N.'s WMO(世界气象组织) says a long-term warming trend is unchanged.

● People have been slow in changing lifestyles to use less carbon. Simple choices like taking more public transport, using less heating or air conditioning, even changing light bulbs can help if millions of people act.

Who's to blame if U.N. climate deal falls short?

Possible candidates	Supporting Details
__71___downturn	● Faced with the______72____ rising unemployment, rich countries fail to give more aid to developing ones. ●____73_____industrial output brings about a temporary relief from the pressure of greenhouse gas emissions.
United States	● It’s the only industrialized country outside the Kyoto Protocol. ● Immediate____74____ was expected to be taken by President Obama to fight climate change.
Rich-Poor divide	● Developed nations are____75____ by the poor for repeatedly breaking promises of aid.
Developed nations	● There is a huge ____76____between the overall cuts promised by developed nations and those required to avoid climate catastrophe.
Developing nations	● The increase in emissions from developing nations ____77____for 90% between now and 2030. ● Developing nations need to be given priority to raising living standards by burning more ___78____.
The weather	● The worldwide disorder caused by El Nino has __79__some people into believing that global warming is slowing.
The public	● People should be _80__to change lifestyles to use less carbon.

Eleven-year-olds are to learn Shakespeare using the approaches taken by actors, and English teachers will be encouraged to let pupils walk around the classroom rather than read the plays while pupils are sitting at their desks.

Within the English curriculum(课程) you tend to look at a play text as a piece of literature rather than performance. But you can’t possibly understand Shakespeare’s language if you’re just reading it in your head. Shakespeare is difficult; it’s not a 21stcentury text. You have to use different ways to understand it.

The new teaching way focuses on how actors come to understand Shakespeare’s language. In fact actors have the same nervousness about Shakespeare’s language as young people in schools do. But in six to eight weeks they get to a place of complete confidence about the play. Pupils can do as well.

Exercises devised are to let children aged 11 to 14 imitate the methods of professional actors. Written and oral assessments developed alongside the lessons will show how well students have understood the texts.

In one task pupils will work on creating four key physical figures of king, warrior(勇士), lover and joker, finding which lines of their chosen character go with those features first and then acting them out. Through this they can examine how a character such as Macbeth can switch dramatically within one scene from soldier to kingly figure to trick planner. It’s really creative but you’re still getting a really wonderful model of understanding. It’s miles away from a “chalk and talk” method.

Educators think Shakespeare should be a central part of every young person’s education. Developing a love of Shakespeare at a young age often leads to a lifelong passion for literature and helps to improve a child’s reading and writing.

1.How will young people learn Shakespeare?

A．Reading them aloud.                     B．Reciting them.

C．Cooperating with actors.                  D．Acting them out.

2.You cannot understand Shakespeare’s words easily because________.

A．they are pieces of literature               B．their expressions are different

C．ordinary people cannot understand them     D．they are performances

3.The underlined sentence “It’s miles away from a ‘chalk and talk’ method.” In Paragraph 5 means_____.

A．Chalk and talk are far away from each other

B．It is much better than the traditional way

C．Chalk and talk are quite different

D．By chalk and talk we can understand Shakespeare

4.What’s the best title of the reading passage?

A．The New Approach to Shakespeare

B．The Introduction to Shakespeare

C．How to act Shakespeare’s plays

D．Shakespeare’s works in the English curriculum

 

In the age of reality television, success isn’t the only way to the public eye. Failure can also create fame, just like William Hung, 21, a native of Hong Kong.

Hung recently has made an agreement with US-based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network. They will publish a full-length record, titled “The True Idol” on April 6.

The idol is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley. He did a version（改写本）of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on the television show “American Idol 3”, on January 27. The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people. In the case of Hung, however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act.

Hung’s response? “I already gave my best, so I have no regrets at all.” That’s good, because any common person would have found plenty to regret: the off-key singing; the blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high; the terrible dancing; the hips jerking（摇摆）to a beat that did not belong to the song, maybe not even to this planet. It was, by all accounts, bad. But, it was this very bad act that sold well.

Marc Juris, president of Fuse, explained it this way: “Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom, completely off-key and completely unworried. That’s what William did and immediately won the hearts of America. ”

Whatever it is, for the moment it’s big. Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks. Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station.

So, what does Hung think of this?

“There were all these people saying things about me. A lot were saying I was very courageous and that I was great on the show, but some didn’t have much respect for me and some were kind of mean ”

Now, he says he’s not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour（魅力）or to accept it. Returning to normal hasn’t been easy.

What is the main idea of this passage?

       A．Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly.

       B．Hung’s performance attracted the public eye.

       C．How an unsuccessful person became famous.

       D．Success sometimes does not require hard work.

Hung was popular in America for all the following reasons EXCEPT ________.

       A．his shirt and pants           B．his off-key singing

       C．his hips jerking        D．his excellent version

What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 6 refer to?

       A．William Hung.        B．Hung’s bad act.

       C．Hung’s website.              D．The public’s opinion.

Which of the following shows the correct order of what happened to Hung?

       a．The entertainment firms made an agreement with Hung.

       b．The judges cut Hung off in mid-act in the singing contest.

       c．Hung became popular among Americans.

       d．Hung gave a terrible performance though he tried his best.

       e．Three websites put Hung’s funny performance on the Internet.

       A．d, b, e, c, a     B．a, c, d, b, e      C．a, d, b, c, e      D．d, b, a, e, c

Why was Hung able to win the hearts of America?

       A．His success was based on his own hard work.

       B．He attracted people’s attention in the contest.

       C．He was good-looking though he didn’t sing well.

       D．His character was completely different from other idols”