Bend over, take a deep breath and drink some water! This is just one of the hundreds of tips you might get if you have the hiccups(打嗝). Hiccups are so mysterious. We really don’t know why they start and why they stop.

Everyone has a favorite cure for a case of the hiccups. Some people think that a good scare is necessary to get well. Others eat a teaspoon of sugar. Still others drink a glass of water with a knife in it.

An American man named Jack O’Leary claimed to have hiccupped 160 million times over a period of eight years. He tried 60,000 cures, but none of them worked. Finally he prayed to Saint Jude, the saint of Hopeless cases, and his hiccupping stopped immediately.

It took a British plumber eight months to cure his hiccups. People from all over the world wrote him letters with suggestions for getting well. He tried them all, but the hiccups continued. Finally, he drank a “secret’’mixture someone had sent him. By that evening his hiccups were gone. Why did these cures work for these two men? No one really knows. But people who have studied many cases of hiccups have an idea. Hiccups usually go away if you believe in the cure.

1.

________might be the best cure for hiccups.

A．Special pills

B．A spoonful of salt

C．Cold water

D．What you believe in

2.

The plumber spent________in stopping his hiccups.

A．4 hours

B．2 days

C．8 months

D．8 years

3.

According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A．We know why the hiccups start, but we don’t know how to stop them.

B．Saint Jude is an expert in curing the hiccups.

C．The British plumber drank a secret mixture given by an experienced doctor and then became well.

D．Some people think that a good scare is a cure for a case of hiccups.

4.

What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Different ways to stop hiccups	B．What makes hiccups happen
C．How to get hiccups	D．Jack O’Leary’s hiccups

 

 

                   SPECIAL EVENTS THIS WEEKEND

Captain Good Fellow Do you enjoy interesting stories, funny games and exciting dances? Captain Good Fellow will be ready to teach all these things to children of all ages at the City Theatre on Saturday morning at 10:00, free.

Walking Tour of the Town Forget your worries on Saturday morning. Take a beautiful walk and learn about the local history. Meet at the front entrance of City Hall at 9:30. Wear comfortable shoes!

Films at the Museum Two European films will be shown Saturday afternoon at the Museum Theatre. See Broken Window at 1:30. The Workers will be at 3:45. For further information, call 4987898.

International Picnic Are you tired of eating the same food every day? Come to Central Park on Saturday and enjoy food from all over the world. Delicious and inexpensive. From noon to 5:00 p.m.

Take me out to the Ballgame It’s October, and tonight is the last chance to see the Redbirds this year. Get your tickets at the gate. It might be cold …. Don’t forget sweaters and jackets.

Do you want to hear “the Zoo”? “The Zoo”, the popular rock group from Australia, will give their first U.S. concert tomorrow night at 8 at Rose Hall, City College.

64. You can probably eat Chinese, Italian, and Arab food at ________.

   A. Central Park on Saturday                                   B. the ballgame outside

   C. 5:00 in the afternoon                               D. the front entrance of City Hall

65. You can see movies at ________.

   A. the City College                                     B. the Central Park

   C. the City Theatre                                    D. the Museum Theatre

66. If you are going on the Walking Tour, don’t forget ________.

   A. your worries                                       B. your comfortable shoes

C. your beautiful walk                                              D. your learning about local history

67. “The Zoo” is ________.

   A. a park with lots of animals                             B. a first concert from the US

C. a music group from Australia                          D. a popular rock band from Europe

 

What can you do if you "lose" the data(数据)from your disks(硬盘)? To find an expert, who can recover the lost information for you, is probably the easiest solution. Jack Olson is one of these experts. Jack and a few of his friends set up a company called "Jack's Disk Doctor Service". They work from home and give all the money they earn to charity(慈善团体). The fees are always the same, no matter how precious the data on the disk is. Some people, however, are so grateful that they send extra money to Jack or to the charities his company supports. One oil company offered him $2,000 for his help and an architect even sent him a blank check.

It would be difficult to put a value on the things rescued by the Disk Doctor. There have been disks which contain medical research, television scripts, manuscripts of whole books, a lawyer's papers for a court case, and even Margaret Thatcher's travel plan for a visit to eastern Europe. For this last case, Jack had to go in person to Thatcher's office "for security reasons"!

Disks are usually sent to the Disk Doctor by post, but sometimes people are in such a hurry that they cannot wait for the mail to come. For example, some radio scripts had to be rushed by taxi to Jack's house because they were needed for broadcasting the next day. When the material has been recovered, the disk is returned to the sender with a diagnosis(诊断)and a prescription for avoiding the problem in the future. One grateful client(顾客), and author, put a "thank you" to Jack in the front of his book, "Jack saved me from a heart attack," he wrote. "But," says Jack, "most people don't take any notice of the doctor's advice!"

Why did the architect send Jack a blank check?

A. The architect did not have any money.

B. The architect did it for security reasons.

C. The architect always followed the doctor's advice.

D. The architect thought Jack's service was priceless.

What does the underlined word "rescued" mean?

A. Recovered.       B. Prescribed.      C. Examined.       D. Lost.

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. Jack's Disk Doctor Service has only one standard fee.

B. Jack and his company have made a fortune from their service.

C. Margaret Thatcher is a very important person.

D. Jack's clients are from all walks of life.

Hurry! Time to “steal vegetables”

Don't be afraid! We are not encouraging the stealing behavior, but to tell you maybe the most popular topic from white-collars' mouth in cities. Together with "How many vegetables do you steal today," "it's harvest time for your ripe peach," "I bought you a new car today."

   Are there so many people in the city really have their own farms, or are they really so rich to buy someone else cars casually?

   The answer is obviously negative. They just play some games on Social Network Sites (SNS) like kaixin001.com.

   Can you imagine that more than millions of people in Chinese mainland will spend lots of time on SNS to play game and talk to friends, especially white-collars who work in the cities? Take kaixin001.com as an example, the current member of it has already hit 38 million.

   However, the great number of people who would like to use such SNS indicates another social problem. That is lots of people choose to escape from the reality. And SNS just offer them a Virtual space to forget the reality.

   Kinds of games and various of friends do give netizens lots of fun. Though indulging, dreaming, chatting and playing , it seems like people could really escape from all the upsets in reality. But virtual world is not real and no one can live in it forever, and reality is not that simple like noodling around on the internet.

   Since this kind of social phenomenon is so popular on the internet, people start thinking to remove it in the reality.After playing the "happy farm" game on kaixin001.com, would you like to put yourself among the real corps while smelling the fragrance of the countryside? Recently, a farm land service called "happy farm in reality" was opened in the suburbs of Shanghai where white-collar workers from around that region can experience the real farmer's life by themselves

1.What is the topic of the passage?

   A. It’s time to” steal vegetables.”

B. a computer game called “Happy Farm”

C. open a farm in reality

D. something behind the game “Happy Farm”

2.Why are so many people interested in “Happy Farm”?

A. Because they like playing computer games.

B. Because it offers them a virtual space to escape from reality.

C. because they can talk and play with their friends at the same time.

 D. because they can harvest peaches.

3.Which group are the majority playing the “Happy Farm” game?

A. Farmers    B. White-collars    C. workers     D. students

4.What’s the author’s attitude towards the “ Happy Farm” game?

A. positive      B. worried       C. neutral   D. we don’t know

 

This is a dangerous world we live in. The number of murders goes up every year, people are dying of cancer, more people contract HIV, more teens are using drugs, ect. You know this because you’ve heard all the statistics on the news and in the paper. But do you really have an accurate idea what they mean? The numbers are going up, but how do they compare to the growth in population? Are more cases of these diseases being reported because of better testing techniques, or are the diseases more common? The fact is that without knowing the background statistics mean very little.
This growing trend of reporting only part of the information is becoming dangerous. For example, several years ago a high school student reported the dangers of the chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide. This chemical, found in most cancerous tumors, is often found in the blood of people drunk on alcohol, and causes complete physical and mental dependence for those who take the chemical even once. After reading his report, more than 75% of his Advanced Placement Chemistry class voted to forbid this dangerous chemical! Every one of the above statement is true, yet this chemical is necessary to all life on earth. The students made a mistake because they voted knowing only a few statements and statistics, rather than the chemical’s full background.
The point of this article is that one should be aware of what is and is not being said. When one finds a new fact or number, one should try to consider other important information before forming an opinion with only half-truths. Always remember that the author is trying to convince you of his or her own view, and will leave our information that is different from his view. For example, look again at the statistics that suggest skiing is safe. Only 32 people die each year when skiing, while 897 die from lightening strikes, but which is really more dangerous? If you think more about it, you will realize far fewer people go skiing each year than the number of people in danger of a lightning strike. When you think about it again, skiing is more dangerous than you might at first think when looking at the statistics. If we teenagers are to be left in this world, we had better be able to think critically, and form our own views, rather than be easily persuaded by another’s. To be warned is just to be prepared.
【小题1】What’s the author’s attitude towards the growing trend of reporting only part of the      
information?
Disapproving   B. Positive       C. Indifferent     D. Dangerous
【小题2】In the first paragraph, what does the writer suggest?

A．We are now living in a dangerous world.

B．We get a lot of false statistics from the media.

C．There are around us more and more murders diseases, ect.

D．Statistics alone without full background don’t give us an accurate picture of things.

【小题3】What’s the purpose of the writer’s using the two examples in the second paragraph?

A．To argue that high school students are easily persuaded.

B．To prove what is necessary to us might be dangerous.

C．To show the danger of reporting only part of the information.

D．To warn us of the harmful substance around us.

【小题4】Relative information is often left out because ___________________. 

A．it is not important

B．the author is trying to show what he or she says is true

C．readers will consider other important information

D．readers are able to form an opinion with half-truths

【小题5】What can we learn from the passage?

A．Some measures must be taken to protect our dangerous world.

B．The growing trend of reporting only half-truths is getting out of control.

C．Teenagers ought to improve their ability of telling right from wrong.

D．We should learn to think critically and look at problems from all sides.