John was quite _____ at her creative painting.

John said that he didn’t quite ________ and asked me to repeat what I had said.

A) snatch up

B) summon up

C) catch on

D) watch out

A.Criticizing

B.To criticize

C.Criticized

D.Having criticized

A. John Ashberry

B. Fran O'Hara

C. Robert Bly

D. Kenneth Koch

A.suitable

B.close

C.right

D.convenient

A.They have less money.

B.They don’t want to buy old furniture.

C.The new furniture is of good quality.

D.They don’t have much money and don’t want to buy the cheap furniture.

Very often, introductions are made using both first and last names: "Mary Smith, this is John Jones." In this situation you are free to decide whether to call the lady "Mary" or "Miss Smith". Sometimes both of you will begin a conversation using last names, and after a while one or both of you may begin using first names instead. You have a choice: if you don't want to use first names so quickly, no one will think it impolite if you continue according to your own custom.

In the first paragraph the author tells us that ______.

A．Americans do not talk about rank, especially socially

B．Americans feel uncomfortable when talking about rank

C．Americans take interests in social customs

D．Americans don't care much about social rank

When John and Victoria Falls arrived in New York City for one-year stay, they did not bring very many things with them. They had planned either to live in a furnished apartment or to buy used furniture. But they soon learned about a new system that more and more people are using. The renting of home furnishings (bed, tables, dishes,and so on) has become one of America's fastest growing businesses.What kinds of people rent their home furnishings instead of buying them？ People who are international business or government officials, foreign students, airline workers, young married couples -people whose job or business may force them to move frequently from one city to another. They save a lot of trouble and the cost of moving their furniture each time. They simply rent new furniture when they reach their new homes. Young people with little money do not want to buy cheap furniture that they may soon dislike. They prefer to wait until they have enough money to buy furniture they really like. Meanwhile, they find they can rent better quality furniture than they could afford to buy.One family, who now have a large, beautiful home of their own, liked their rented furniture so much that they decided to keep renting it instead of buying new things. But usually people don't like to tell others about it. The idea of renting home furnishings is still quite new, and they are not sure what their neighbors might think.

(1)、Which of the following has become one of America's fastest growing businesses？ ________

A：Selling home furnishings.

B：Renting furnished apartments.

C：Selling used furniture.

D：Renting home furnishings.

(2)、Why do some people prefer to rent furniture？ ________

A：Because the furniture they get in this way is new.

B：Because it saves them a lot of money.

C：Because it saves them much trouble and money.

D：Because they can always get better quality furniture in this way.

(3)、What can you infer from the passage？ ________

A：The idea of renting furniture is not acceptable.

B：Renting furniture is not popular in the couple's home town.

C：Only those who don't have enough money to rent furniture.

D：People usually grow to like the furniture they have rented.

(4)、Which of the following can best serve as the title of the passage？ ________

A：Rent or Buy？

B：A New Way of Getting Home Furnishings.

C：Furnished Apartments.

D：A New Idea.

(5)、Young people liked renting home furniture in that ________

A：They have less money.

B：They don't want to buy old furniture.

C：The new furniture is of good quality.

D：They don't have much money and don't want to buy the cheap furniture.

Text 4

Jill Ker Conway ,president of Smith ,echoes the prevailing view of contemporary technology when she says that " anyone in today's world who doesn't understand data processing is not educated. " But she insists that the mcreasing emphasis on these matters leave certain gaps. Says she: "The very strongly utilitarian emphasis in education ,which is an effect of man-made satellites and the cold war, has really removed from this culture something that was very profound in its 18th and 19th century roots ,which was a sense that literacy and learning were ends in themselves for a demo- cratic republic. "

In contrast to Plato's claim for the social value of education,a quite different idea of intellectu-al purposes was advocated by the Renaissance humanists. Ovejoyed with their rediscovery of the classical leaming that was thought to have disappeared during the Dark Ages,they argued that the imparting of knowledge needs no justification-religious ,social ,economic ,or political. Its purpose,to the extent that it has one ,is to pass on from generation to generation the corpus of knowledge that constitutes civilization. "What could man acquire ,by virtuous striving ,that is more valuable than knowledge？" asked Erasmus ,perhaps the greatest scholar of the early 16th century. That idea has acquired a tradition of its own. "The educational process has no end beyond itself," said John Dewey. "It is its own end. "

But what exactly is the corpus of knowledge to be passed on？ In simpler times ,it was all included in the medieval universities' Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music ) and Trivium(grammar, thetoric ,logic). As recently as the last century ,when less than 5% of Americans went to college at all, students in New England establishments were compelled mainly to memorize and recite various Latin texts,and crusty professors angrily opposed the introduction of any new scientific discoveries or modern European languages. "They felt," said regretfully Charles Francis Adams, Jr. ,the Union Pacific Railroad president who devoted his later years to writing history ,"that a classical education was the important distinction between a man who had been to college and a man who had not been to college ,and that anything that diminished the importance of this distinction was essentially revolutionary and tended to anarchy. "

56. The first paragraph shows that Jill Ker Conway accepts utilitarian emphasis in education

[A] wholeheartedly.

[B] with reservation.

[C] against her own will.

[D] with contempt.

When a couple gets divorced, the court usually requires the man to pay his former wife a monthly sum of money.If the couple has children, they usually remain with the mother, and the father is expected to pay for their support.

Although divorce is quite common in the United States, 80 percent of those who get divorced remarry.The remarriages allow thousands of people, especially children, to enjoy family life again, but at the same time many troubles have arisen.A well-known American joke tells of a wife calling to her second husband, “Quick, John! Come here and help me! Your children are beating up our children!”

6.What does the passage mainly discuss？()

A.Financial trouble in the family

B.Different attitudes between husband and wife towards children’s education

C.Women’s liberation movement

D.Lack of democratic atmosphere in the household often leads to divorce

7.What do you know of modern American women according to the passage？()

A.They are overbearing

B.They respect their husbands, but do not listen to them

C.They do not have much to say in the household

D.They are more independent than ever before

8.What kind of marriage can be successful according to the passage？()

A.Both the man and woman are financially secure

B.husband and wife share housework

C.Decisions are made by the man and woman together

D.Both the man and woman are well-educated

9.What happens when a couple is divorced according to the passage？()

A.The children become homeless

B.The man, rather than the woman, remarries soon

C.Life becomes difficult for the woman and her children

D.The man is still held responsible for the welfare of his children

10.What does the well-known joke suggest？()

A.Remarriages often end up in failure

B.Children are unhappy in the new family

C.The mother is not respected by the stepchildren

D.Remarriage causes new troubles in the household