The industrial age has been the only period of human history in which most people’s work has taken the form of jobs. The industrial age may now be coming to an end, and some of changes in work patterns which it brought may have to be reversed. This seems a discouraging thought. But, in fact, it could offer the prospect of a better future for work. Universal employment, as its history show, hasn’t meant economic freedom.

Employment became widespread when the enclosures（圈地运动）of the 17th and 18th centuries made many people dependent on paid work by taking them away from the use of the land, and thus from the means to provide a living for themselves. Then the factory system destroyed the cottage industries and removed work from people’s homes. Later, as transport improved, first by rail and then by road, people traveled longer distances to their place of employment until, eventually, many people’s work lost all connection with their home lives and the places in which they lived.

Meanwhile, employment put women at a disadvantage. In pre-industrial times, men and women had shared the productive work of the household and village community. Now it became customary for the husband to go out to paid employment, leaving the unpaid work of the home and family to his wife. Tax and benefit regulations still assume this norm（准则）today, and restrict more flexible sharing of work roles between sexes.

It was not only women whose work status suffered. As employment became the dominant form of work, young people and old people were kept out — a problem now, as more teenagers disappointed and annoyed at school and more retired people want to live active lives.

All this may now have to change. The time has certainly come to switch some efforts and resources away from the utopian（乌托邦）goal of creating jobs for all, to the urgent practical task of helping many people to manage without full-time jobs.

From the passage we can learn that ____.

   A. jobs have existed since human came into being

   B. the industrial age brought jobs to everyone

   C. the industrial age brought the work patterns most people’s work has taken

   D. in the future more and more people could get jobs as the industry is developing

Before the enclosures of the 17^th and 18^th, people lived mainly on ____.

  A. paid work    B. unpaid work    C. taxes and benefits    D. land

Before the industrial age women played ____.

    A. more important roles in making a life            B. less important roles in making a life

    C. roles as weak as after in raising their children     D. roles as important as men in supporting a family

From the passage we can infer that ____.

A. creating jobs for all must be changed         

B. enough jobs must be created by our society

    C. more and more jobs are being created

D. industrial age has made many people unable to live without full-time jobs

Botany, the study of plants, occupies a special position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest (含糊的) of insight. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of peoples, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, eyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognized accurately hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of knowledge at all.

    Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer productions the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the wonder of agriculture; cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the built up knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and close relationship with plants in the wild would begin fade away.

Which of the following statements about early humans is expressed in the passage?

A. They probably had extensive knowledge of plants.

B. They thought there was no need to cultivate crops.

C. They did not enjoy the study of botany.

D. They placed great importance on the ownership of property.

What does the comment “This is logical.” In the first paragraph mean?

A. There is no clear way to determine the extent of our ancestor’s knowledge of plants.

B. It is not surprising that early humans had a detailed knowledge of plants.

C. It is reasonable to assume that our ancestors behaved very much like people in pre-industrial societies.

D. Human knowledge of plants is well organized and very detailed.

According to the passage, why has general knowledge of botany begun to fade?

A. People no longer value plants as a useful resource.

B. Botany is not recognized as a special branch of science.

C. Research is unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of plants.

D. Direct contact with a variety of plants has decreased.

In the second paragraph, what is the author’s purpose in mentioning “ a rose, an apple, or an orchid”?

 A. To make the passage more poetic.

 B. To give an example of plant that are attractive.

 C. To give botanical examples that all readers will recognize.

 D. To explain the variety of botanical life.

According to the passage, what was the first great step toward the practice of agriculture?

A. The invention of agricultural tools and machinery.       

B. The development of a system of names for plants.

C. The discovery of grasses that could be harvested and replanted.

D. The changing diets of early humans. 

Dreaming is believing, claim researchers of a new study, who found that dreams have an effect on people’s behavior, judgment and they might contain important hidden truths as well.
“Psychologists’ explanations of the meaning of dreams vary widely. But our findings show that people believe their dreams provide meaningful insightinto themselves and their world,” said a lead author of the study Carey Morewedge, an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
In six different studies, researchers surveyed nearly 1,100 people about their dreams. One of the studies focused on general beliefs about dreams and involved 149 university students. All students were asked to rate different theories about dreams. The experts found that a surprising majority of the participants supported the theory about dreams revealing(揭示) the hidden truths about themselves and the rest of the world.
In a second experiment, they surveyed 182 people at a Boston train station, and asked them to imagine one out of four possible situation that could have occurred the night before a scheduled airline trip. Most of the participants said that dreaming of a plane crash would be more likely to affect their travel plans than would just thinking about a crash, or being warned by the government of a terrorism risk. They said a dreamed crash would influence their travel plans just as much as learning about a real crash on their planned route would.
Another experiment involved 270 men and women from across the United States. In a short online survey, they were asked to recall one of the dreams they had seen about any person they knew.
The findings showed that people were more likely to remember and describe pleasant dreams about a person they liked, rather than a person they disliked. Meanwhile, in most cases they tended to consider an unpleasant dream as more meaningful if it was about a person they disliked.
“In other words,” said Morewedge, “people attribute meaning to dreams when it corresponds (与……一致) with their pre-existing beliefs and desires.”
The researchers say that more investigation is needed to fully understand how people interpret their dreams. According to Morewedge, most people realize that dreams are not predicting their future, but they still try to find some meaning in there.
【小题1】. The purpose of the studies is to         .

One year ago, when Fiona turned four, Sam and I decided to home-school her instead of sending her to pre-school．I have always felt that the 0-5 years are an irreplaceable dreamtime．As Fiona is an inventive, observant child, sensitive and funny and great company, it would be a tragedy to find school rubbing away her uniqueness and restricting the building of her personality．
I tried not to reproduce school at home．I never had the urge to get a chalk, or a blackboard．I didn’t go and search out a curriculum(课程表)．I felt that my children would learn best if I stayed accessible (易接近的)and stayed out of their way．
Every day we worked some, relaxed some, read some and played some, but Fiona did not seem particularly happy here．She lost her temper once in a while．
How strange it was that my child who was free from school didn’t want to be free at all．Her friends all went to pre-school．She felt left out of a major part of her friends’ shared lives and experiences．I thought she was not in school for very strong, clear reasons, one of which was that the quality of learning my child did at home would be good, even better than expected．
Well, here was a situation I hadn’t expected．When we first decided to do this, Sam and I agreed that we would reassess(再评价)the situation for each child as she turned seven．Meanwhile we would offer her non-school-based opportunities to give her plenty of time with other kids-ballet lessons and swimming classes．She seemed to be enjoying all．But at times she kept asking when she was going to school．Whenever she asked this question, we told her that there would be a family meeting about it when she turned seven．She nearly always responded, “That’s when I’m going to go, then．” A fair amount of her curiosity was about school and I was afraid she was dreaming of going to school before she turned seven．
Although the advantages of home-schooling, I think, far outweigh its disadvantages, it is important for me to respect my daughter’s feelings and allow her to direct her own education．If her curiosity leads her to school, isn’t that where she should go?
Next week I’ll drive Fiona to her school．I hope that Fiona will learn to read and discover something wonderful to pursue in the world that opens up for her．I hope she will find the school activities provide her with satisfactory kid-time．
1．The writer decided to home-school her daughter, Fiona, because she thought________．
A．children aged 0-5 were too young to go to pre-school
B．Fiona may not be accepted by schools for her bad temper
C．home-schooling was much better than school education
D．children at Fiona’s age were too young to have their characters formed by school
2．In home schooling her daughter the writer tried to_______．
A．make her home just like a school
B．teach with a pointer, a piece of chalk, and a blackboard
C．be there when her child wanted her but tried not to stand in her way
D．teach according to a curriculum, which was suitable for Fiona
3．What was the writer’s biggest problem in home schooling her daughter?
A．She couldn’t decide what to teach and how to teach her daughter
B．She was not sure whether her teaching was suitable for Fiona．
C．She could not make Fiona give up the thought of going to school．
D．She didn’t know how to control Fiona’s temper
4．We can learn from the text that_______．
A．Fiona always acted against her mother’s instructions
B．it was against Fiona’s wish that she was educated at home
C．home-schooling was popular some years ago
D．Fiona’s parents would ask her opinions about school education

 Complete the following passage by using the words in the box． Each word can only be used once． Note that there is one word more than you need．

A year ago, at the annual pre-Grammy party, Whitney Houston, the great diva（女歌手）, walked on stage and closed the evening with a brilliant performance．

Last Saturday, Houston was once again the  1  of the showcase before the Grammys, but her presence was a posthumous（死后的）one．

Earlier that day, pop music’s former queen was found dead in her hotel room． She was 48．

This, no doubt, is sad news to the whole music industry and her fans all over the world,   __2__ what a legendary life and remarkable career that she once had．

At her peak, Houston was the golden girl of the music world． From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world’s  3  artists． She strongly impressed the audiences with effortless, powerful and peerless vocals．

Besides multi-million record sales, Houston made countless hits such as The Greatest Love of All, I Have Nothing, and the mostly famous I Will Always Love You．

She also  4  a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey．

But by the end of her career, it was a  5  fall for this superstar． Houston has been addicted to drugs． Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming． Her once calm and peaceful image was shattered by a wild manner and unusual public appearances, and her once natural voice became rough and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she  6  ．

“The biggest devil is me． I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy,” Houston told the ABC in an interview in 2002．

In 2009, Houston staged what seemed to be a successful  7  with the album I Look To You, which debuted on top of the charts．

But hoarse voice,   8  concerts, and continuous illness–Houston’s comeback trail wasn’t smooth at all． In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2009, Houston confessed: “It （show business） is too much． So much to try to live up to, to try to be, and I wanted out．”

Now that Houston has finally taken a break from all the chaos, may she rest  9  ．