设 s= ‘Happy New Year’,则s[3:8]的值为 ()
A.‘ppy Ne’
B.‘py Ne’
C.‘ppy N’
D.‘py New’
A.‘ppy Ne’
B.‘py Ne’
C.‘ppy N’
D.‘py New’
They will quite ______ squander a whole year's savings on two weeks in the sun. (happy)
Passage Three
People enjoy talking about "firsts." They like to remember their first love or their first car. But not all firsts
are happy ones. Few people enjoy recalling the firsts that are bad.
One of history's bad but important firsts was the first car accident. Autos were still young when it happened. The crash took place in New York City. The year was 1896. The month was May. A man from Massachusetts was visiting the city in his new car. At the time, bicycle riders were still trying to get used to the new set of wheels on the road. No one is sure who was at fault. In any case, the bike and the car collided. The man on the bike was injured. The driver of the car had to stay in jail and wait for the hospital report on the bicycle rider. Luckily, the rider was not killed.
Three years later, another automobile first took place. The scene was again New York City, a real estate broker named Henry Bliss stepped off a streetcar. He was hit by a passing car. Once again, no one is sure just how it happened or whose fault it was. The driver of the car was put in jail. Poor Mr. Bliss became the first person to die in a car accident.
44. In each accident the driver was ______.
A. found guilty
B. set free
C. laughed at
D. put in jail for a while
Later that year I got a job as an entertainer in small clubs, and suddenly I knew this was the career I had been searching for. The world of the theater was far removed from the world of my father, yet I found myself returning to him time and again, for the same reason his friends did.
When I was 20 I got what every actor dreams of—a permanent job! At that time, at the depth of the depression, actors were out of work by the hundreds, yet I wanted to quit that job because I needed new experiences and challenges.
Pop heard me out, then said, "There are some people who always have to test themselves, to stretch their wings and try new winds. If you think you can find more happiness and usefulness this way, then you should do it." This advice came from a man who never left a secure job in his life, who had the European tradition of family responsibility, but who knew I was different. He understood what I needed to do and he helped me do it.
For the next few years I worked in clubs, and then I got my big break, appearing in a major movie. After that I went to Hollywood, and from then on Pop lived with me and my family there. We had a big party one evening. That night I thought Pop might enjoy hearing some of the old folk songs we used to sing at home. When I began to sing, the music and the memories were too much for him to resist, and he came over to join me. I faded away, and he was in the middle of the room singing alone—in a clear, true voice. He sang for 15 minutes before some of the world's highest-paid stars. This simple, kindly old man singing of our European roots had touched something deep in these sophisticated people. When he finished there was overwhelming applause.
I knew the applause that night was not just for a performance; it was for a man.
By saying "to be happy every day is to be not happy at all", Pop means ______.
A.one should not be happy every day
B.it is impossible for one to be happy every day
C.people should not pursue happy life alone
D.people should have a realistic attitude toward life
In the compressed history of Earth the Declaration of Independence is signed______.
A.a long time before the New Year
B.immediately after the New Year's Day
C.just one second before the New Year
D.right on the New Year's Day
A New Year resolution is ______.
A. made to begin a new year
B. a promise to make a joke
C. a decision to improve oneself and make one a better person
D. to be kept for the New Year's Day only
The Rose Bowl parade (takes place) every year (in) Pasadena (in) (New Year's Day).
A.takes place
B.in
C.in
D.New Year's Day
A.give
B.gave
C.given
D.would give us
In all these cultures, there is a practice of making noise. People made noise in ancient times to drive away the evil spirits (妖精) from their homes. Today making noise is more of a custom than a religious rim
In the United States, many people stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve to watch the clock pass from one year to the next. Friends often gather together at a party on New Year's Eve, and when the new year comes, all ring bells, blow' whistles, sing songs, and kiss each other. A favorite Scottish song which everyone sings together is Auld Lang Sync. The words tell of old friends and good times.
In all cultures, New Year's Day is a time when people think of new beginnings. They want to make the coming year better than the last one. Many people in the United States make New Year resolutions. These are specific promises that they make to improve their behavior, change their habits, and become better people. There are many jokes about how a person keeps his or her New Year resolutions.
In ancient times, the practice of making noise was meant ______.
A.to keep the evil spirits away
B.to have fun
C.to celebrate the coming of the new year
D.to keep to a custom
Passage Four
Every culture and every country in the world celebrates New Year, but not everyone does it the same way. The countries in North America and Europe welcome New Year on January the first. This practice began with the Romans in the Middle East, New Year is when spring begins. People in China and Vietnam celebrate it on the first day of the Spring Festival, which is the first day of their calendar based on the moon. Rosh Hashana, which is the Jewish (犹太人的) New Year, comes at the end of summer. The Hindus (印度教教徒 ) in India celebrate the first day of each season, so they have four New Years.
In all these cultures, there is a practice of making noise. People made noise in ancient times to drive away the evil spirits (妖精) from their homes. Today making noise is more of a custom than a religious rim
In the United States, many people stay up until midnight on New Year's Eve to watch the clock pass from one year to the next. Friends often gather together at a party on New Year's Eve, and when the new year comes, all ring bells, blow' whistles, sing songs, and kiss each other. A favorite Scottish song which everyone sings together is Auld Lang Sync. The words tell of old friends and good times.
In all cultures, New Year's Day is a time when people think of new beginnings. They want to make the coming year better than the last one. Many people in the United States make New Year resolutions. These are specific promises that they make to improve their behavior, change their habits, and become better people. There are many jokes about how a person keeps his or her New Year resolutions.
48. In ancient times, the practice of making noise was meant ______.
A. to keep the evil spirits away
B. to have fun
C. to celebrate the coming of the new year
D. to keep to a custom
Today's Georgia is diminished by war, buffeted by geopolitics and recovering from post-Soviet chaos. But 800 years ago the country was a mighty military, cultural and ecclesiastical force. Its greatest monarch, Queen Tamara, defeated many foes (including her first husband) and built fine monuments. In her time, Georgia also had a big stake in the Christian life of the Holy Land. From Jerusalem to the Balkans, Georgia's priests, artists and church-builders were active and respected. So too were its poets, like Shota Rustaveli, the national bard who dedicated an epic to his beloved queen.
In between seeking western aid and coping with power cuts, modern Georgia has pledged to keep a wary eye on every place where churches, inscriptions and frescoes testify to its golden age. That includes Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and above all, Israel. Last year, Georgians were enraged when a fresco of Rustaveli, in a Jerusalem church under the care of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, was defaced, then badly restored. This year, a better restoration was done, but Georgians now want a promise that in all future restoration their own experts can take part. They also want to stop the seepage of Georgian frescoes and icons, supposedly under the Patriarchate's care, on to the art market. Several times, Georgia has had to use its meagre resources to buy back pieces of the national heritage. The hope is that things will improve with the recent election of a new Jerusalem Patriarch, after his predecessor was ousted under a cloud of scandal.
Georgia's ties with Israel are good, thanks to a thriving Georgian-Jewish community with happy memories of its homeland. Georgia also gets along with Greece, amid a fug of sentimentality over legends about the Argonauts that link the two nations. But can these warm, fuzzy feelings translate into better protection for an ancient culture? That will be a challenge for Gela Bezhuashvili, who succeeds Salome Zourabichvili, the French-born diplomat who was sacked, after a power struggle, as Georgian foreign minister on October 19th.
The word "tricky" in the first paragraph of the text denotes______.
A.deceptive
B.crafty
C.tough
D.tacit
A big part of the answer is economics. The number of home-schooled kids nationwide has risen to as many as 1.9 million from an estimated 345,000 in 1994, and school districts that get state and local dollars per child are beginning to suffer. In Maricopa County, which includes Mesa, the number of home-schooled kids has more than doubled during that period to 7,526, at about $ 4,500 a child, that's nearly $ 34 million a year in lost revenue.
Not everyone's happy with these innovations. Some states have taken the opposite tack. Like about half the states, West Virginia refuses to allow home-schooled kids to play public-school sports. And in Arizona, some complain that their tax dollars are being used to create programs for families who, essentially, eschew participation in public life. "That makes my teeth grit," says Daphne Atkeson, whose 10-year-old son attends public school in Paradise Valley. Even some committed home-schoolers question the new programs, given their central irony., they turn home-schoolers into public-school students, says Bob Parsons, president of the Alaska Private and Home Educators Association. "We've lost about one third of our members to those programs. They're so enticing. "
Mesa started Eagleridge four years ago, when it saw how much money it was losing from home schoolers—and how unprepared some students were when they re-entered the schools. Since it began, the program's enrollment has nearly doubled to 397, and last year the district moved Eagleridge to a strip mall (between a pizza joint and a laser-tag arcade). Parents typically drop off their kids once a week; because most of the children qualify as quarter-time students, the district collects $ 911 per child. "It's like getting a taste of what real school is like," says 10-year-old Chad Lucas, who's learning computer animation and creative writing.
Other school districts are also experimenting with novel ways to court home schoolers. The town of Galena, Alaska, (pop. 600) has just 178 students. But in 1997, its school administrators figured they could reach beyond their borders. Under the program, the district gives home-schooling families free computers and Internet service for correspondence classes. In return, the district gets $ 3,100 per student enrolled in the program—$ 9.6 million a year, which it has used partly for a new vocational school. Such alternatives just might appeal to other districts. Ernest Felty, head of Hardin County schools in southern Illinois, has 10 home-schooled pupils. That may not sound like much— except that he has a staff of 68, and at $ 4,500 a child, "that's probably a teacher's salary," Fehy says. With the right robotics or art class, though, he could take the home out of home schooling.
In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by______.
A.posing a contrast
B.justifying an assumption
C.explaining a phenomenon
D.making a comparison