Jeffrey Bezos, founder, president and chairman of the board of Amazon.com, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His mother’s ancestors were early settlers in Texas, and over the generations had acquired a 25,000 acre farm at Cotulla. Jeffrey spent most summers of his youth working with his grandfather on their farm.

Jeffrey showed intense and varied scientific interests at an early age. He set up an electric alarm to keep his younger sisters and brothers out of his room and changed his parents’ garage into a laboratory for his science projects.

After he graduated from Princeton University with a degree in computer science and electrical engineering, Jeffrey Bezos found employment on Wall Street, where computer science was increasingly in demand to study market trends. He rose quickly, becoming a senior vice president, and looked forward to a bright career in finance, when he made a discovery that changed his life, and the course of business history.

In 1994, there was still no internet commerce to speak of. One day that spring, Jeffrey Bezos observed that Internet usage was increasing by 2300 percent a year. He saw an opportunity for a new circle of commerce, and immediately began considering the possibilities.

Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994, setting up the original company in his garage. The company was called Amazon for the seemingly endless South American river with its numberless branches. It started as an online bookstore but soon diversified to all kinds of products. His work with Amazon eventually led him to become one of the most excellent dot-com entrepreneurs. He was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1999. In 2008, he was selected by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders. Bezos’ Amazon has become “the Earth’s biggest anything store”. Amazon.com is now called “one of the smartest strategies in business history”.

Today, Jeffrey Bezos lives north of Seattle and is increasingly concerned with charity activities. “Giving away money takes as much attention as building a successful company,” he said.

1. In his childhood, Bezos ______.

A．had to work with his grandfather on their farm all day long

B．showed great interest in science

C．didn’t get along well with his brothers and sisters

D．wanted to become a businessman

2.Jeffrey changed the course of business history because he ______.

A．looked forward to a bright career in finance on Wall Street

B．considered the possibility of setting up an original company

C．founded a new form of commerce that developed fast later

D．was the first to speak of Internet commerce

3.Which of the following isn’t mentioned in the passage?

A．How hard Bezos studied in Princeton University.

B．“Amazon.com” only sold books in the beginning.

C．Bezos not only devoted his life to Internet commerce but also to charity.

D．The reason why Jeffrey Bezos decided to found Amazon.com.

4. It can be inferred from the passage that ______.

A．it was Bezos’s grandfather on the farm who helped him a lot

B．Bezos invented e-commerce to win the world fame overnight

C．Bezos has a sharp business mind and a kind heart

D．Bezos aimed at setting up “the Earth’s biggest bookstore”

 

认真阅读下列短文，根据所读内容在文章中的表格中填入恰当的序号。注意：表格中的每个空格只填一个词。

Directions : Read the following text and choose the most suitable heading from A---E for each paragraph.

A．Social background for the Development of Adult Education

B．What is the present situation?

C．The purposes in Adult Education

D．Ways of Adult Education

E. The history of Adult Education

F. What is Adult Education?

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Voluntary learning in organized courses by mature men and women is called adult education. Such education is offered to make people able to enlarge and interpret their experience as adults. Adults may want to study something which they missed in earlier schooling, get new skills or job training, find out about new technological development, seek better self-understanding, or develop new talents and skills.

62                

This kind of education may be in the form of self-study with proper guidance through the use of libraries, correspondence(函授)courses,or broadcasting.It may also be acquired collectively in schools and colleges, study groups, workshops, clubs, and professional associations.

63                

Modern adult education for large numbers of people started in the 18th and 19th centuries with the rise of the Industrial Revolution. Great economic and social changes were taking place: people were moving from rural areas to cities: new types of work were being created in an expanding factory system. These and other factors produced a need for further education and reeducation of adults.

64                

The earliest program of organized adult education arose in Great Britain in the 1790s, with the founding of an adult school at Nottingham and a mechanics’institute at Glasgow. The earliest adult education institution in the United States was founded by Benjamin Franklin and some friends in Philadelphia in 1727.

65                

People recognize that continued learning is necessary for most forms of employment today. For example, parts of the adult population in many countries find it necessary to take part in retraining programs at work or even to learn completely new jobs. Adult education programs are springing up constantly to meet these and other needs.                                    

 

In this age of Internet chat, videogames and reality television, there is no shortage of mindless activities to keep a child occupied. Yet despite the competition, my 8-year-old daughter Rebecca wants to spend her leisure time writing short stories. She wants to enter one of her stories into a writing contest, a competition which she won last year.

As a writer, I know about winning contests – and about losing them. I know what it is like to work hard on a story only to receive a rejection letter from the publisher. I also know the pressure of trying to live up to a reputation created by previous victories. What if she doesn’t win the contest again? That’s the strange thing about being a parent. So many of our own past scars and destroyed hopes can resurface in our children.

A revelation (启示) came last week when I asked her, “Don’t you want to win again?” “No,” she replied, “I just want to tell the story of an angel going to first grade.”

I had just spent weeks correcting her stories as she spontaneously (自发地) told them. Telling myself that I was merely an experienced writer guiding the young writer across the hall, I offered suggestions for characters, conflicts and endings for her tales. The story about a fearful angel starting first grade was quickly “guided” by me into the tale of a little girl with a wild imagination taking her first music lesson. I had turned her contest into my contest without even realizing it.

Staying back and giving kids space to grow is not as easy as it looks. Because I know very little about farm animals who use tools or angels who go to first grade, I had to accept the fact that I was co-opting my daughter’s experience.

While stepping back was difficult for me, it was certainly a good first step that I will quickly follow with more steps, putting myself far enough away to give her room but close enough to help if asked. All the while I will be reminding myself that children need room to experiment, grow and find their own voices.

1.What do we learn from the first paragraph?

A．A lot of amusements compete for children’s time nowadays.

B．Children have lots of fun doing mindless activities.

C．Rebecca is much too busy to enjoy her leisure time.

D．Rebecca draws on a lot of online materials for her writing.

2.What did the author say about her own writing experience?

A．She was constantly under pressure to write more.

B．Most of her stories had been rejected by publishers.

C．She did not quite live up to her reputation as a writer.

D．Her road to success was full of pain and frustrations.

3.Why did Rebecca want to enter this year’s writing contest?

A．She believed she possessed real talent for writing.

B．She was sure of winning with her mother’s help.

C．She wanted to share her stories with readers.

D．She had won a prize in the previous contest.

4.The underlined sentence probably means that the author was _______.

A．trying not to let her daughter enjoy her own life

B．trying to get her daughter to do the thing as the author wished

C．making sure that her daughter would win the contest

D．helping her daughter develop real skills for writing

 

In our life, we have rarely expressed our gratitude to the one who lived those years with us. In fact, we don't have to wait for anniversaries to thank the ones closest to us and the ones so easily overlooked. If I have learned anything about giving thanks, it is this: give it now! While your feeling of appreciation is alive and sincere, act on it. Saying thanks is such an easy way to add to the world's happiness.

Saying thanks not only brightens someone else's world, it brightens yours. If you're feeling left out, unloved or unappreciated, try reaching out to others. It may be just the medicine you need. Of course, there are times when you can't express gratitude immediately. In that case, don't let embarrassment sink you into silence and speak up the first time you have the chance.

Once a young minister, Mark Brian, was sent to a remote parish(教区)of Kwakiutl Indians in British Columbia. The Indians, he had been told, did not have a word for thank you. But Brian soon found that these people had unusual generosity. Instead of saying thanks, it is their custom to return every favor with a favor of their own, and every kindness with an equal or superior kindness. They do their thanks. I wonder if we had no words in our vocabulary for thank you, would we do a better job of communicating our gratitude? Would we be more responsive, more sensitive, more caring?

Thankfulness sets in motion a chain reaction that transforms people all around us－including ourselves. For no one ever misunderstands the melody(旋律)of a grateful heart. Its message is universal; its poems transcend(超越)all earthly barriers; its music touches the heaven.

1.Who do we easily forget to express our thanks to according to the writer?

A．Friends not meeting for a long time.	B．Former teachers and friends.
C．People we want to get close to.	D．Our family members and good friends.

2. When we say something for what others do for us, it ______.

A．benefits the people who do something for us

B．is good for both us and people who help us

C．wastes our and our friends' time at the same time

D．does harm to both us and people who help us

3.What does the writer mean in the third paragraph?

A．The only way to thank others is to express by your own words.

B．The best way to thank others is to do something for them.

C．We can thank people who help us in various ways.

D．We can thank people who help us in two ways.

4.The way to make us feel happy is ______ when we think we ourselves are forgotten in the world.

A．to help and appreciate others	B．to ask others to help us
C．to remind others of our helping them	D．to ask someone to help others

 

Are you looking for some new and exciting places to take your kids (孩子) to? Try some of these places.

·Visit art museums. They offer a variety of activities to excite your kids’interest. Many offer workshops（作坊）for making land-made pieces, traveling exhibits, book signings by children's favorite writer, and even musical performances and other arts.

·Head to a natural history museum. This is where kids can discover the past from dinosaur(恐龙) models to rock collections and pictures of stars in the sky. Also, ask what kind of workshops and educational programs are prepared for kids and any special events that are coming up.

·Go to a Youtheater. Look for one in your area offering plays for child and family visitors. Pre-show play shops are conducted by area artists and educators where kids can discover the secret about performing arts. Puppet(木偶)making and stage make-up are just a couple of the special offerings you might find.

·Try hands-on science. Visit one of the many hands-on science museums around the country. These science play-lands are great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. They’ll keep your child mentally and physically active the whole day through while pushing buttons, experimenting, and building. When everyone is tired, enjoy a fun family science show, commonly found in these museums.

1.If a child is interested in the universe, he probably will visit            .

A. a Youtheater                     B. an art museum

C. a natural history museum         D. a hands-on science museum

2.What can kids do at a Youtheater?

A. Look at rock collections.            B. See dinosaur models.

C. Watch puppet making.         D. Give performances.

3.What does “hands-on science” mean in the last paragraph?

A. Science games designed by kids.  B. Learning science by doing things.

C. A show of kids’ science work.       D. Reading science books.

4.Where does this text probably come from?

A. A science textbook.              B. A tourist map.

C. A museum guide.              D. A news report.