第39题 (15.0) 分

The news report that night was about a famine (饥荒) in Ethiopia. The pictures were of people who were so thin that they looked like beings from another planet. The camera focused on one man so that he looked directly at me, sitting in my comfortable living room. All around was the sound of death.

It was clear that world had not noticed this until now. You could hear the sadness in the voice of the reporter, Michael Buerk. At the end of the report he was silent. Paula started crying, then rushed upstairs to check our baby, Fifi, who was sleeping peacefully.

I kept seeing the news pictures in my mind. What could I do? I was only a pop singer and by now not a very successful pop singer. All I could do was to make records which no one bought. But I would give all the profits of the next Pats (the name of the music group he was in ) record to Oxfam (an organization in Britain which helps poor people around the world) . What good would that do? It would only be a little money but it was more than I could give just from my bank account. Maybe some people would buy it because the profits were for Oxfam. And I would be protesting about this disaster. But that was not enough.

第40题 (15.0) 分

When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings. Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much , I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. A t last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.

He listened to me quietly. Then he asked. “Are the thing she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well , you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”

I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could —and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I got a fairly clear picture of myself.

I brought the list back to Daddy. He refused to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said. “You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears and eyes in anger and feel hurt. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”

Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.                         

第39题 (15.0) 分

Contacts (交往) between Japan and the rest of the world have grown a great deal in the twentieth century. In the last thirty years, business contacts between Japan and the West have become very important. Many foreign companies now have offices in Japan and Japanese businessmen do business around the world.

Differences between Japanese and Western ways of doing business, however, often bewilder the foreign businessman and make doing business in Japan difficult for foreigners.

The American businessman, for example, wants to start talking business immediately. He wants quick decisions. He does not wait. The Japanese, on the other hand, likes to arrive at decisions gradually after giving them a great deal of thought. Another thing foreign businessmen have difficulty in understanding is when a Japanese means “Yes” or “No”. This is because of cultural difference between Japanese and western society which makes it difficult for a Japanese to say “No” directly.

In English, it is easy to say “No” to something we do not want to do. But in Japan it is very difficult to say “No”. To refuse an invitation or a request with “No”, or a similar phrase, is felt to be impolite. It is thought to be selfish and unfriendly. So instead of saying “No”. These enable them to avoid hurting other people’s feelings. However, this often makes communication with the Japanese difficult for foreigners to understand and follow.

第40题 (15.0) 分

When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings. Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much , I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. A t last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.

He listened to me quietly. Then he asked. “Are the thing she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well , you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”

I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could —and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I got a fairly clear picture of myself.

I brought the list back to Daddy. He refused to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said. “You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears and eyes in anger and feel hurt. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”

Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.                         

第39题 (15.0) 分

A young man who lived in London was in love with a beautiful girl. Soon she became his fiancee. The man was very poor while the girl was rich. The young man wanted to make her a present on her birthday. He wanted to buy something beautiful for her, but he had no idea how to do it, as he had very little money. The next morning he went to a shop. There were many fine things there: rings, gold watches, diamonds—but all these things were too expensive. There was one thing he could not take his eyes off. It was a beautiful vase. That was a suitable present for his fiancee. He had been looking at the vase for half an hour when the manager of the shop noticed him. The young man looked so pale, sad and unhappy that the manager asked what had happened to him.

The young man told him everything. The manager felt sorry for him and decided to help him. A brilliant idea struck him. The manager pointed to the corner of the shop. To his great surprise the young man saw a vase broken into many pieces. The manager said: “I can help you. I shall order my servant to pack it and take it to your fiancee. When he enters the room, he will drop it.”

On the birthday of his fiancee the young man was very excited.

Everything happened as had been planned. The servant brought in the vase, and as he entered the room, he dropped it. There was horror on everybody’s face. When the vase was unpacked the guests saw that each piece was packed separately.

第40题 (15.0) 分

A four-year-old girl is lying in the arms of a doctor. She has just lost her mother. Her pink clothes are full of blood and her eyes look at something only she can see.

Every day we see pictures like this on our televisions. We see Iraqi children begging for food and water from American and British soldiers as they move through towns and cities towards the capital, Baghdad. We see these children following parents, carrying bags of almost the same size as their small bodies as they escape from their homes in Baghdad.

They show just some of the young lives that have been turned upside down by ongoing war and the terrible price paid by Iraqi children.

“Dad, why are the Americans fighting against us? Are we going to be killed?” asks the son of Abu Singer, an Iraqi engineer. Abu finds it hard to explain this war to his eight-year-old son.

He tries to make him feel safe by saying, “The bombs are far away from us. The Americans are fighting the soldiers. We’re going to be all right.” Even though Abu knows it isn’t always true, little else can be done. In Baghdad, parents give their children sleeping pills to try and let them escape from the sound of bombs. And all the schools are closed.

Now things are worse, and the ongoing war makes it impossible to count the number who are hungry, sick, hurt or even dead.

第39题 (15.0) 分

The news report that night was about a famine (饥荒) in Ethiopia. The pictures were of people who were so thin that they looked like beings from another planet. The camera focused on one man so that he looked directly at me, sitting in my comfortable living room. All around was the sound of death.

It was clear that world had not noticed this until now. You could hear the sadness in the voice of the reporter, Michael Buerk. At the end of the report he was silent. Paula started crying, then rushed upstairs to check our baby, Fifi, who was sleeping peacefully.

I kept seeing the news pictures in my mind. What could I do? I was only a pop singer and by now not a very successful pop singer. All I could do was to make records which no one bought. But I would give all the profits of the next Pats (the name of the music group he was in ) record to Oxfam (an organization in Britain which helps poor people around the world) . What good would that do? It would only be a little money but it was more than I could give just from my bank account. Maybe some people would buy it because the profits were for Oxfam. And I would be protesting about this disaster. But that was not enough.

第40题 (15.0) 分

When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings. Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student, I talked too much , I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as I could. A t last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.

He listened to me quietly. Then he asked. “Are the thing she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well , you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”

I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could —and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I got a fairly clear picture of myself.

I brought the list back to Daddy. He refused to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said. “You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears and eyes in anger and feel hurt. When something said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.”

Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.                         

第39题 (15.0) 分

Francis Bacon, one of the most important philosophers of England, was born in London and educated at Cambridge University. When he was only 15, he went to France to work for the English ambassador（大使）. Two years later he went up to England to study law. At the age of twenty-three he was elected to parliament (议会). His ideas about how scientists should study things in nature help to bring about the modern way of thinking, called the scientific method.

One of the Bacon best-known books was his Essays. Each essay was a short piece of writing in which he tried to give a lesson by discussing sides of a subject such as studying, conversation, friends and healthful living. In many of his books, Bacon explained how scientists should study things as they really exist in nature and then try to figure out what caused a particular thing to be as it is. Later, by doing experiments, the scientist could see that any cause would always have the same result. This method, which is called inductive ( 归纳) reasoning, is used by all the scientists today, but it was new in Bacon’s time.

第40题 (15.0) 分

A young man who lived in London was in love with a beautiful girl. Soon she became his fiancee. The man was very poor while the girl was rich. The young man wanted to make her a present on her birthday. He wanted to buy something beautiful for her, but he had no idea how to do it, as he had very little money. The next morning he went to a shop. There were many fine things there: rings, gold watches, diamonds—but all these things were too expensive. There was one thing he could not take his eyes off. It was a beautiful vase. That was a suitable present for his fiancee. He had been looking at the vase for half an hour when the manager of the shop noticed him. The young man looked so pale, sad and unhappy that the manager asked what had happened to him.

The young man told him everything. The manager felt sorry for him and decided to help him. A brilliant idea struck him. The manager pointed to the corner of the shop. To his great surprise the young man saw a vase broken into many pieces. The manager said: “I can help you. I shall order my servant to pack it and take it to your fiancee. When he enters the room, he will drop it.”

On the birthday of his fiancee the young man was very excited.

Everything happened as had been planned. The servant brought in the vase, and as he entered the room, he dropped it. There was horror on everybody’s face. When the vase was unpacked the guests saw that each piece was packed separately.

第39题 (15.0) 分

The news report that night was about a famine (饥荒) in Ethiopia. The pictures were of people who were so thin that they looked like beings from another planet. The camera focused on one man so that he looked directly at me, sitting in my comfortable living room. All around was the sound of death.

It was clear that world had not noticed this until now. You could hear the sadness in the voice of the reporter, Michael Buerk. At the end of the report he was silent. Paula started crying, then rushed upstairs to check our baby, Fifi, who was sleeping peacefully.

I kept seeing the news pictures in my mind. What could I do? I was only a pop singer and by now not a very successful pop singer. All I could do was to make records which no one bought. But I would give all the profits of the next Pats (the name of the music group he was in ) record to Oxfam (an organization in Britain which helps poor people around the world) . What good would that do? It would only be a little money but it was more than I could give just from my bank account. Maybe some people would buy it because the profits were for Oxfam. And I would be protesting about this disaster. But that was not enough.

第40题 (15.0) 分

A four-year-old girl is lying in the arms of a doctor. She has just lost her mother. Her pink clothes are full of blood and her eyes look at something only she can see.

Every day we see pictures like this on our televisions. We see Iraqi children begging for food and water from American and British soldiers as they move through towns and cities towards the capital, Baghdad. We see these children following parents, carrying bags of almost the same size as their small bodies as they escape from their homes in Baghdad.

They show just some of the young lives that have been turned upside down by ongoing war and the terrible price paid by Iraqi children.

“Dad, why are the Americans fighting against us? Are we going to be killed?” asks the son of Abu Singer, an Iraqi engineer. Abu finds it hard to explain this war to his eight-year-old son.

He tries to make him feel safe by saying, “The bombs are far away from us. The Americans are fighting the soldiers. We’re going to be all right.” Even though Abu knows it isn’t always true, little else can be done. In Baghdad, parents give their children sleeping pills to try and let them escape from the sound of bombs. And all the schools are closed.

Now things are worse, and the ongoing war makes it impossible to count the number who are hungry, sick, hurt or even dead.

第39题 (15.0) 分

The most precious fluid on earth is not oil, but water. Water is basic to life and health. A person can survive several days or even weeks without food, but only a short time without water. Over 1 billion people worldwide have no access to safe drinking water. There are few challenges as important as conserving the world's usable water and supplying clean drinking water and water for irrigation to those who need it. Yet this work is not getting done. Humans are depleting the earth's store of usable water at a rate that will soon threaten our food supply. Poor water management already kills millions of people a year and condemns hundreds of millions to hunger.
    The technology exists to solve these problems. Providing slums（贫民区） with drinking water and sanitation, for example, is easy to do and a cost-effective way to prevent deaths and disease. But because those who suffer are poor, their access to water is rarely a political priority. There is now an opportunity for progress. More than 100 water ministers from around the world, along with thousands of water experts from villagers to scientists, have gathered in the Netherlands. The conference will be useful if it can persuade governments and international banks to pay more attention to conservation and fair distribution of water.
    In 1980, the U.N. set a goal of safe drinking water for all by 1990. Because of international prodding（激励）, about two billion new people received clean drinking water over the subsequent 14 years. A new commitment is urgently needed to spread these health gains, help poor farmers and conserve the world's precious supply of usable water.

第40题 (15.0) 分

The news report that night was about a famine (饥荒) in Ethiopia. The pictures were of people who were so thin that they looked like beings from another planet. The camera focused on one man so that he looked directly at me, sitting in my comfortable living room. All around was the sound of death.

It was clear that world had not noticed this until now. You could hear the sadness in the voice of the reporter, Michael Buerk. At the end of the report he was silent. Paula started crying, then rushed upstairs to check our baby, Fifi, who was sleeping peacefully.

I kept seeing the news pictures in my mind. What could I do? I was only a pop singer and by now not a very successful pop singer. All I could do was to make records which no one bought. But I would give all the profits of the next Pats (the name of the music group he was in ) record to Oxfam (an organization in Britain which helps poor people around the world) . What good would that do? It would only be a little money but it was more than I could give just from my bank account. Maybe some people would buy it because the profits were for Oxfam. And I would be protesting about this disaster. But that was not enough.