Vitas 2008 Beijing Concert

Venue:  Capital Gymnasium

Time:　 2008-01-24 19:30

Price:　 TBD(Booking)

Tel.:    86-10-64177845

God Blessed Boy

Extremely Beautiful Voice

Unforgettable Hot Live

First appeared on the Russian stage in December 2000, this show became an extreme classic in Vitas' music history. Since then, moreover, more fans from other countries were caught by him from this video especially in China. The lack of Russian language was not in the way for dozen thousands of admirers from China, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan first to pay attention and then to love Vitas' creative work, his voice and songs. Undoubtedly his 2008 concert will also be considered as the yearly expectable concert in Chinese music scene and the most important event among his fans. Let's expect it!

Lang Lang Piano Solo Concert

Venue:  National Grand Theater-Concert Hall

Time:　 2008-01-03 19:30:00/2008-01-04 19:30:00

Price:　 TBD(Booking)

Tel:     800-810-1887

Acclaimed in the major concert halls of North America, Europe and Asia, Lang Lang - at the age of 20s - has demonstrated an extraordinary ability to connect with audiences on a deeply personal level and has established himself as one of the most exciting pianists of our time. Lang Lang's talent and personality make him an ideal ambassador for classical music and a role model for young people. He is the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic and all "Big Five" American orchestras.

Li Yun Di Piano Recital（独奏会）

Venue:  National Grand Theater-Concert Hall

Time:　 2008-3-27 19:30:00 

Price:　 TBD(Booking)

Tel:    010-64177845

Remarks: The tickets for Li Yun Di Piano Recital will be available soon!

Called "extravagantly gifted and highly accomplished" by the Los Angeles Times, China pianist Li Yundi was born in 1982 in Chongqing and first gained worldwide attention after winning first prize at the 2000 Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw. He was the first person in 15 years to be awarded a first prize.

Soprano Te Kanawa Solo Concert

Venue:  National Grand Theater-Concert Hall

Time:　 2008-01-02 19:30:00 

Price:　 180(Out)280(Selling)480(Selling)680(Selling)880(Selling)1680(Out)

Tel:     400-810-1887

Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa is an internationally famous New Zealand opera singer. In 1981, she was seen and heard around the world by an estimated 600 million people when she sang Handel's "Let the Bright Seraphim" at the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

72．The main purpose of this passage is______.

      A．to attract people to attend these concerts

      B．enrich your knowledge of some famous musicians

      C．rouse your interest in music

      D．call on young people to learn from them

73．Which concert will you attend if you want to hear an opera?

       A．Vitas 2008 Beijing Concert        B．Lang Lang Piano Solo Concert

       C．Li Yun Di Piano Recital           D．Soprano Te Kanawa Solo Concert

74．About the tickets to Li Yun Di Piano Recital, which of the following is right?

       A．The price for the tickets hasn’t been determined.

       B．The tickets have been sold out.

       C．The price of the tickets is too high.

       D．It will be long before you can book the tickets for it.

75．What can you know from the advertisement?

      A．The lack of Russian language stops people in China loving Vitas’s songs.

      B．Some of the tickets for Soprano Te Kanawa Solo Concert have been sold out.

       C．Lang Lang is one of the first Chinese pianists to be engaged by the Berlin Philharmonic and all "Big Five" American orchestras.

       D．You have to pay the telephone bill if you call to book the tickets for Soprano Te Kanawa Solo Concert

D
I know what you’re thinking: pizza（比萨饼）? For breakfast? But the truth is that you can have last night’s leftovers in the a.m. if you want to.
I know lots of women who skip breakfast（不吃早餐）, and they have a ton of different excuses for doing it. Some say they don’t have time; others think they’re “saving” calories（卡路里）；still others just don’t like breakfast food . 
But the bottom line is that eating in the morning is very important when you’re trying to lose weight. “Eating just about anything from 300 to 400 calories would be better than nothing at all,” says Katherine Brooking R.D., who developed the super-easy eating plan for this year’s “SELF CHALLENGE”. And even pizza can be healthy if it’s loaded with vegetables, and you stick to one small piece. 
Breakfast is one meal I never miss, and the same goes for most weight loss success stories. Research shows that eating breakfast keeps you from overeating later in the day. Researchers at the University of Southern California found that breakfast skippers have a bigger chance of gaining weight than those who regularly have a morning meal.
So eat something in the morning, anything. I know plenty of friends who end up having no breakfast altogether, and have just coffee or orange juice. I say, try heating up last night’s leftovers—it may sound crazy, but if it works for you, do it! I find if I tell myself, “You can always eat it tomorrow,” I put away the leftovers instead of eating more that night. Try it. You may save yourself some pre-bedtime calories. And watch your body gain the fat-burning effects.
68. The word “leftovers” in Paragraph 1 probably means_______. 
A. food remaining after a meal         B. things left undone
C. meals made of vegetables           D. pizza topped with fruit
69. What can we infer from the text?
A. Working women usually have breakfast in a hurry.
B. Many people have wrong ideas about breakfast. 
C. There are some easy ways of cooking a meal. 
D. Eating vegetables helps save energy. 
70. According to the last paragraph, it is important to________. 
A. eat something for breakfast           B. be careful about what you eat
C. heat up food before eating it          D. eat calorie-controlled food
71. The text is written mainly for those________. 
A. who go to work early        B. who want to lose weight
C. who stay up late            D. who eat before sleep

Three armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from an art museum in downtown Sao

Paulo on Thursday, which was the city’s second high-profile art theft in less than a year. The bandits also took two oil paintings by well-know Brazilian artists Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Lasar Segall, said Carla Regina, a spokeswoman for the Pinacoteca do Estado museum.

The Picasso prints stolen were "The Painter and the Model" from 1963 and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women" from 1933, according to a statement from the Sao Paulo Secretary of State for Culture, which oversees the museum. The prints and paintings have a combined value of $612,000, the statement and a museum official said.

About noon, three armed men paid the $2.45 entrance fee and immediately went to the second-floor gallery where the works were being exhibited, bypassing more valuable pieces, authorities said. "This indicates to us that they probably received an order" to take those specific works, Youssef Abou Chain, head of Sao Paulo's organized crime unit, told reporters at a news conference. The assailants overpowered three unarmed museum guards and grabbed the works, officials said. The robbery took about 10 minutes and the museum was nearly empty at the time. The assailants took the pieces — frames and all — out of the museum in two bags. The institution has no metal detectors.

In December, Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" by Candido Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art by three men who used a crowbar（铁撬棍）and car jack to force open one of the museum's steel doors. The framed paintings were found Jan. 8, covered in plastic and leaning against a wall in a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, South America's largest city. One of the suspects in that robbery — a former TV chef — turned himself over to police in January, who already had two suspects in custody（监禁）.

1.What did the armed men steal on Thursday?

         A．Two prints by Pablo Picasso

        B．Two oil painting by Brazilian artists

        C．Two prints by Pablo Picasso and two oil paintings by two Brazilian artists.

        D．Two prints by two Brazilian artists and two oil paintings by Picasso Pablo.

2.Why didn't the thieves take other more valuable works?

        A．Because they didn't know that the other pieces were worth more.

        B．Probably because they had received an order for the prints that they took.

        C．Because they didn't have enough time. [来源:Zxxk.Com]

        D．Because they were in such a hurry that they couldn’t get them all.

3.How many people were in the museum during the robbery?

        A．A lot. The museum was crowded.

        B．Not too many. It was almost empty.

        C．There were a lot of people outside the museum.

        D．Only three of them.

4.According to the passage, which of the followings is TRUE?

        A．In December, "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" painted by Candido

Portinari were stolen.

        B．There are steel doors and no detectors in Sao Paulo Museum of Art.

        C．Three robbers defeated three armed museum guards and took away the works on Thursday.

        D．Three suspects in the first high-profile art theft in less than a year were arrested.

D
I wrote to the White House asking about a birthday greeting for my grandfather who will be 95 next year. I received a card signed by Bill and Hillary. They look like real signatures（签名）and are not printed and they are probably produced by autographing（亲笔签名）machines. That says:
Happy Birthday!
Hillary and I are delighted to join your friends and family in congratulating you on this special day. As you look forward to the year ahead, please accept our best wishes for good health and much future happiness.
This was sent in a double envelope so that I could address the inner one to my grandfather and send the sealed（盖章） card to him. The card has the presidential seal printed in gold. The outer envelop is hand addressed. 
NOTE: the postage meter impression on the outer envelope reminded me that the president does not have franking privileges.（邮资特权）
The outer envelope does have a little "B" written on the upper right corner indication that they have a pile of these pre-signed and double-enveloped; when a request comes in, they just write the address on the outer envelope and mail it. 
The return address on both envelopes is simple: The White House, Washington.
73．When did the writer write to the White House?
A．On his grandfather’s birthday.
B．On his birthday.
C．When his grandfather was 94 years.
D．When his grandfather was 95 years old.
74．It’s clear that the card sent by Bill and Hillary was                     .
A．signed by an autographing machine
B．the one that had real signatures of Bill and Hillary
C．the one whose signatures were printed
D．the one that was signed with their own names
75．Form what the card says, we can find it                        .
A．was a public letter for those who were in need of greeting
B．can be sent to all those who write to them both
C．was sent specially to the writer’s grandfather
D．can be sent to anyone whose birthday is coming near
76．The letter “B” on the upper right corner of the outer envelope means              .
A．these are all double envelope having cards with pre-signatures inside them
B．these are all letters which have franking privileges
C．they have written the address on the outer envelopes
D．they have written “The White House, Washington” on both envelopes

D
I shall never forget the night, a few years ago, when Marion J. Douglas was a student in one of my adult-education classes. He told us how tragedy had struck at his home, not once, but twice. The first time he had lost his five-year-old daughter. He and his wife thought they couldn’t bear that first loss; but, as he said, “Ten months later, God gave us another little girl and she died in five days.”
This double bereavement was almost too much to bear. “I couldn’t take it,” this father told us. “I couldn’t sleep, eat, rest or relax. My nerves were entirely shaken and my confidence gone.” At last he went to the doctors; one recommended sleeping pills and another recommended a trip, but neither helped. He said, “My body felt as if it was surrounded in a vice(大钳子), and the jaws of the vice were being drawn tighter and tighter.” The tension of grief(悲伤) — if you have ever been paralyzed(使瘫痪) by sorrow, you know what the meant.
“But thank God, I had one child left — a four-year-old son. He gave me the solution to the problem. One afternoon as I sat around feeling sorry for myself, he asked, ‘Daddy, will you build a boat for me?’ I was in no mood to build a boat; in fact, I was in no mood to do anything. But my son is a persistent fellow! I had to gave in. Building that toy boat took me about three hours. By the time it was finished, I realized that those three hours spent building that boat were first hours of mental relaxation and peace that I had had in months! I realized that it is difficult to worry while you are busy doing something that requires planning and thinking. In my case, building the boat had knocked worry out of the ring. So I determined to keep busy.”
“The following night, I made a list of jobs that ought to be done. Scores of items needed to be repaired. Amazingly, I had made a list of 242 items that needed attention. During the last two years I have completed most of them. I am busy now that I have no time for worry.”
No time for worry! That is exactly what Winston Churchill said when he was working eighteen hours a day at the height of the war. When he was asked if he worried about his huge responsibilities, he said, “I am too busy. I have no time for worry.”
53. The underlined word “bereavement” in the second paragraph refers to _____.