Happy birthday

The China Nation Opera (CNO)will give a concert to celebrate its 50th birthday.

Different generations of CNO vocalists(歌手), like Li Guangxi, Yao Hong and Ma Mei, will present the concert which will feature both songs from famous Chinese operas like “The White-haired GM “and “The Hundredth Bride”, as well as, arias (咏叹调) of such Western opera classics as “Madame Butterfly”, “La Traviata” and “Rigoletto”.

Time/date : 7:30 pm, September 7, 8

Location : Tianqiao Theatre

Tel : 6551-4787, 8315-6170

Tickets : 60—50 yuan (US $7.2-60.2)

Folk music

A concert will be held to feature some recently-composed traditional Chinese music works.

The concert, given by the Folk Orchestra of the China Opera and Ballet Theatre, will include such pieces as “Memory of Childhood”, “Memorial Ceremony for God” and “Wine Song”.

Time/date : 7:30 pm, September 13

Location: Concert hall at the National Library of China

Tel: 6848-5462, 6841-9220

Tickets : 30-200 yuan (US $ 3.6—24.1)

Moon music

A concert of traditional Chinese music will be given on the eve of the Moon Festival which falls on September 21st this year.

The concert will feature a number of famous pieces centered on this theme of the moon, such as “Moonlight”, “Spring Night on a Moonlit River” and “Lofty Mountain and Flowing River.”

A number of established traditional Chinese music performers, like Zhou Yaokun and Fan Weiqing, will play solos（独奏）as well as collaborate（合奏）with the folk music orchestra.

Time/ date: 7:30 pm, September 21st

Location: Grand Theatre of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities

Tel: 6606-8888, 6606-9999

1. If you want to buy tickets for listening to the music “Memory of Childhood”, you will dial       .

A. 6551-4787

B. 6848-5462

C. 8315-6170

D. 6606-9999

2. “Madame Butterfly” is       .      

A. a Chinese opera

B. a song

C. a piece of music

D. a Western opera

3. The passage will most probably appear in the column “      ”of a newspaper.   

A. Animals

B. People

C. Entertainment

D. Sports

 

When responding to any adult, you must answer by saying “Yes ma’am” or “No, sir.” Just nodding your head is not acceptable.

    Because I grew up in rural North Carolina, this rule comes    36    to me, and it seems the obvious choice to come first. If you want children to respect you, you have to let them know    37  . Simply telling them you want them to address you by saying “sir” lets them know   38      you expect them to treat you. I also tell my students it’s a very useful tool when    39   with adults, and furthermore it also     40    handy for any adult interacting with another adult. Case in point: I was   41     the phone recently with the phone company discussing the inaccuracies(差错) of my    42   . The lady I spoke to was not 43    and seemed annoyed.    44   , in the midst of the conversation, I threw in a “yes, ma’am,” and her entire  45   changed. She became far more helpful and   46   to deal with, and she   47   cutting my bill in half.

Some of my students in Harlem were to be   48   for a chance to attend a high-rated junior high school. The school only had thirty openings for the following year, and twelve of my students were   49   the many kids across the city who applied for the spots. I practiced what the interview would be   50   with my students, and one main thing I stressed was, “  51   you say ‘yes ma’am’ or ‘no sir’ no matter what!” Weeks after the interviews, I was delighted to hear that all twelve of my students had been   52   . When I talked with the admissions director at the school, the main   53   he made over and over was how   54    my students were in their interviews. It seemed like just such a simple thing to do, but it gets   55   .

1.A. frequently B. eagerly C. constantly     D. naturally

2.A. you    B. it C. themselves   D. why

3.A. the way      B. the wish         C. the method   D. the reason

4.A. disagreeing         B. debating        C. dealing D. discussing

5.A. comes in    B. gets on C. goes out        D. brings in

6.A. on      B. in  C. by D. with

7.A. record        B. phone call     C. message        D. bill

8.A. useful         B. hopeful          C. optimistic     D. helpful

9.A. Instead       B. Then    C. Moreover     D. Otherwise

10.A. method    B. thinking         C. attitude          D. feeling

11.A. interesting        B. easy      C. close     D. different

12.A. took up    B. came up        C. picked up      D. ended up

13.A. introduced       B. demanded    C. intended       D. interviewed

14.A. among      B. above   C. over      D. with

15.A. popular    B. familiar C. like        D. successful

16.A. Make sure        B. By no means C. Make a promise    D. Be cautious

17.A. received  B. allowed          C. appreciated  D. accepted

18.A. contributionB. comment  C. impression    D. reason

19.A. considerate      B. confident      C. polite    D. clever

20.A. results      B. responsibility         C. relief     D. reforms

 

I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.

I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.

It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.

Then I met an agent（代理商）who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.

The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal—that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.

It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck—of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract（合同）of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding（有回报的）.

1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．I was waiting for good fortune.

B．I was trying to find an admirable job.

C．I was being aimless about a suitable job.

D．I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time.

2.The author decided to write a novel ______ .

A．to finish the writing course

B．to realize her own dream

C．to satisfy readers’ wish

D．to earn more money

3.How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?

A．Disturbed.

B．Ashamed.

C．Confident.

D．Uncertain.

4.What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?

A．It pays to stick to one’s goal.

B．Hard work can lead to success.

C．She feels like being unexpectedly lucky.

D．There is no end in sight when starting to do something.

 

 

The film “Avatar” has received great popularity around the world. It turned out to be a great success. The film got ＄1 billion in ticket sales in a very short time. The story in the film happens on an alien planet called Pandora where many strange species live. Among the planet’s inhabitants(居民,栖息动物)，the one that has the most similarities with humans is the Na’vi, and it is the struggle between the Ma’vi and human invaders(入侵者) that forms the story of the film.

As to the factors(因素) leading to the film’s success, many think that the entertaining feast(盛宴) for the eyes and the wonderful story shouldn’t be forgotten, but the new language invented especially for the film which provides audiences with a new experience also plays an important part.

In order to increase the truthfulness of an alien race（外星人）, the film’s director James Cameron asked an expert in languages from the University of Southern California to invent a language for the Na’vi. Professor Paul Frommer combined the languages spoken among Indians, Africans and mid-Asians and worked with James Caneron for four years to create the Na’vi language based on the original 30 words that the director had already come up with.

According to Professor Frommer, the most important characteristic of the Na’vi language is that it could be pronounced. “This is an alien language but obviously it has to be spoken by human actors and actresses,” Professor Frommer told the BBC, “it has to sound natural and it should make human beings comfortable when using it.”

The language has a vocabulary of around 1000 words but Progessor Formmer hopes to enlarge the vocabulary in possible follow-ups to the film and in video games. The professor hopes that one day his creation will be as successful as the Klingon alien language from the “Star Trek”films. “There’s a translation of Hamlet into Klingon and it has received great popularity among the audiences,” says Professor Frommer，“if anything like this happens to the Na’vi language, I’d be very happy.”

1. What do we know about“Avatar” from this passage?

A. The story in it is a moving love story.    

 B. It brings the producer ＄1 billion in total.

C. The story in it happens on an alien planet.

 D. It talks about humans and aliens’ friendship.

2. The director of “Avatar” James Cameron had a language invented for the Na’vi to     

A. make the film a whole mystery          B. make the Na’vi more believable

C. make the Na’vi different from humans    D. make the film have specific characteristics

3. Who first created the basic words of the Na’vi language?

A. Paul Frommer.        B. An Indian.    C. James Cameron     D. Hamlet.

4. The important feature of the Na’vi language is that      

A. it can be spoken by humans         B. it has just 30 original words

C. it has a vocabulary of 1000 words.    D. it is like the Klingon alien language

5. We can infer from the passage that       

A. James Cameron will produce follow-ups to “Avatar”

B. the Na’vi language is another kind of the Klingon language

C. the director believes the Na’vi language will be popular

D. Paul Frommer hopes to add new words to the Na’vi language

 

I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.

I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.

It takes confidence to make a new start—there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.

Then I met an agent(代理商) who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.

The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal—that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.

It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck—of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract(合同)of the publisher—to be a published writer—is unbelievably rewarding(有回报的).

1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．I was waiting for good fortune.

B．I was trying to find an admirable job.

C．I was being aimless about a suitable job.

D．I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time.

2.The author decided to write a novel              .

A．to finish the writing course                B．to realize her own dream

C．to satisfy readers’ wish                 D．to earn more money

3.How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?

A．Disturbed.         B．Ashamed.         C．Confident.         D．Uncertain.

4.What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?

A．It pays to stick to one’s goal.

B．Hard work can lead to success.

C．She feels like being unexpectedly lucky.

D．There is no end in sight when starting to do something.