Mercury(水星) is the closest planet to the sun. It is a planet slightly larger than the Earth’s moon. It is covered in craters. Some craters have ice in them, even though the planet is hot. Sunlight never touches some parts because of the planet’s special position. Without air, there are great temperature differences between the coldest and hottest parts. Mercury days are so long that there are big differences between temperatures on the daylight side and the night side.
Mercury was created billions of years ago, when big rocks ran into each other. After these accidents, the planet was frequently visited by meteorites (流星) for several hundred million years. There were also many volcanic eruptions. As the planet cooled, the thin, rocky outside shell reduced in diameter(直径) by about 3 kilometers.
The Caloris Basin is one of the largest craters on Mercury. This big crater is 1, 300 kilometers wide and was formed when a large rock, about 100 kilometers across, knocked into the surface. Beethoven, another large crater, is 643 kilometers across.
The cliffs on Mercury are up to 2 kilometers high and hundreds of kilometers long. The cliffs were formed when the thin surface fell apart, as volcanic activity slowed down and Mercury became cooler.
One Mercury day lasts about 59 Earth days. Mercury takes about 88 Earth days to have a complete year, instead of the 365 days that we have on the Earth. Mercury speeds around the sun so that there are three Mercury days every two Mercury years! Mercury has a strange relationship with the Earth. Every 117 days, when Mercury is closest to the Earth, it always has the same side facing us.
Mariner 10 is the only spacecraft to visit Mercury. It made three visits to Mercury in, the 1970s, taking photos of many cliffs and craters. Although the first three visits answered many questions, they have raised others.
1. What is the surface of Mercury like?| A．It’s generally flat. | B．It’s hot everywhere. |
| C．It’s bright everywhere. | D．It’s cold in some parts. |
| A．A drop in temperature changed its size. |
| B．A great many meteorites ran into it. |
| C．It got out of shape as time passed. |
| D．Lots of surface rocks fell off. |
| A．One Mercury day lasts about 88 Earth days. |
| B．It turns around the sun faster than the Earth. |
| C．Six Mercury days are two Mercury years. |
| D．It has more cliffs than large craters. |
| A．Another spacecraft visited Mercury. |
| B．New cliffs and craters were formed. |
| C．New signs of volcanic activity appeared. |
| D．Lots of new puzzles needed to be solved. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Sport is not only physically challenging, but can also be mentally challenging. Criticism (批评) from coaches, parents and other teammates, as well as pressure to win can create too much anxiety or stress for young athletes. Stress can be physical, emotional, or psychological and research has indicated that it can lead to burnout. Burnout has been described as dropping out of or quitting an activity that was at one time enjoyable.
The early years of growth are important years for learning about oneself and the sport setting is one where valuable experiences can take place. Young athletes can for example, learn how to cooperate with others, make friends, and gain other social skills that will be used throughout their lives. Coaches and parents should be aware, at all times, that their feedback to youngsters can greatly affect their children. Youngsters may take their parents and coaches’ criticisms to heart and find faults in themselves.
Coaches and parents should also pay attention that youth sport participation does not become work for children. The outcome of the game should not be more important than the process of learning the sport an other life lessons. In today’s youth sport setting, young athletes may be worrying more about who will win instead of enjoying themselves and the sport. Following a game, many parents and coaches focus on the outcome and find faults with youngsters’ performances. Positive support should be provided regardless of the outcome. Research indicates that positive support encourages and has a greater effect on learning than criticism. Again, criticism can create high levels of stress, which can lead to burnout.
1. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?| A．Sport can be mentally challenging. |
| B．Stress should be made less. |
| C．Mental stress should be reduced. |
| D．Sport should be made less competitive. |
| A．It enables them to criticize themselves. |
| B．It can provide them with valuable experiences. |
| C．It can help them learn more about society. |
| D．It teaches them how to set realistic goals for themselves. |
| A．Train children to deal with stress. | B．Help children to win every game. |
| C．Make sure children enjoy sport. | D．Understand the meaning of sport. |
| A．To stress the importance of encouraging children in sport. |
| B．To persuade young children not to worry about criticism. |
| C．To teach young athletes how to avoid burnout. |
| D．To discuss the skill of combining criticism with encouragement. |
【推荐2】There is no doubt that when you receive a compliment, you feel good and when you receive a criticism, you feel upset and want to refuse it.
You shouldn’t be surprised by your reaction to the negative comment, as it’s human’s survival mechanism to avoid being criticized. Clearly, we don’t want to be seen as failures, so we’d rather shut our eyes and cover our ears than have to take any criticisms from others.
Imagine you’re learning to play the guitar, and you have just done your first public performance. Your teacher says, “You did well,” which may not be as useful in helping you improve your performance skills as “Your timing needs some work.” So I believe that criticisms are better than compliments.
No one would argue that healthy nutrition is a bad thing. However, too much food or drink — no matter how healthy they may be — can make us ill. Too many compliments take us away from our original enthusiasm of enjoying an activity. We start doing the activity only for the sake of receiving self-satisfying praise. Without the expectation of praise, our enthusiasm to complete things begins to be lost.
Launched in 2010, Microsoft KIN only lasted on the market for 48 days. It was very obvious that most 15 to 30-year-olds preferred Androids, BlackBerrys and iPhones to the Microsoft KIN. If criticism and feedback from the target group had been received while the phone was in development, Microsoft KIN could have avoided the huge embarrassment and its final failure.
Just to be clear, I’m talking about constructive criticism, which I like to think of as “healthy criticism”. The right kind of criticism is honest feedback that will benefit you. Feedback forces you to reconsider your actions and the way you work. If you use constructive criticism wisely, it can guide you away from bad practices, giving you support and courage to move forward to be a better person in the future.
1. What can we learn about compliment and criticism in Paragraph 1?| A．People’s response to them. | B．People’s ways to express them. |
| C．People’s understanding of them. | D．People’s different opinions on them. |
| A．More annoyed. | B．More satisfied. | C．Less worried. | D．Less interested. |
| A．To encourage growth. | B．To develop intelligence. |
| C．To avoid embarrassment. | D．To reduce enthusiasm. |
| A．Criticisms are better than compliments. |
| B．Constructive criticism contributes to better future. |
| C．Honest feedback comes from healthy criticism. |
| D．Enough enthusiasm is vital for further development. |
【推荐3】The term “Pygmalion effect” was coined in reference to studies done in the 1960s on the influence of teacher expectations on students’ IQs. The studies asked if teachers had high expectations, would those expectations become self-fulfilling prophecies (预言）regardless of initial IQ? In that particular case, years of debate and analysis have resulted in the conclusion that the effects were negligible.
However, the concept of the Pygmalion effect—expectations influencing performance and becoming self-fulfilling prophecies —is widespread. Many people have stories of achieving something just because someone had especially high expectations of them.
The Pygmalion effect suggests our reality is negotiable and can be influenced by others — on purpose or by accident. What we achieve, how we think, how we act, and how we perceive our capabilities can be affected by the expectations of those around us.
An interesting use of the Pygmalion effect might be that suggested by George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. In it, Professor Henry Higgins takes a poor flower seller from the streets, Eliza Doolittle, and by giving her lessons helps her sound like a duchess(公爵夫人). Being able to speak like a member of the upper classes is meant to open doors and give her opportunities that she would otherwise never have. Eliza finally appears to be a duchess as Higgins wishes. The expectations people have of us affect us in countless subtle(微妙的) ways each day. Like Eliza Doolittle, those expectations affect the opportunities we are offered, how we are spoken to, and the praise and criticism we receive.
Individually, these may have minimal impact. In the long run, however, they might decide whether we succeed or fail or fall somewhere on the range in between.
The Pygmalion effect is best understood as a reminder to be mindful of the potential influence of our expectations. Even if the effect is small, having high expectations in many situations can only inspire others regarding their own capabilities. People’s limitations can be stretched if you change your perception of their limitations. A lot of what we accomplish in life is done in groups. If you want the people around you to have success, you can try raising your expectations. If you expect the worst, you’ll probably get it.
1. What does the underlined word “negligible” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Slight. | B．Unusual. | C．Important. | D．Shocking. |
| A．It works better in individuals than in groups. |
| B．It takes effect only in the field of education. |
| C．It stresses people’s expectations on others. |
| D．It can increase people’s initial IQ. |
| A．making a comparison |
| B．providing an example |
| C．introducing an approach |
| D．presenting an assumption |
【推荐1】In conversations with strangers, people commonly tend to think they should speak less than half the conversation time to be likable. But we’ve discovered this idea is wrong. Our data shows that people tend to think they should speak about 45% of the time to be likable in a one-on-one conversation with someone new. However, it appears speaking up a bit more is actually a better strategy.
In our research, we randomly assigned people to speak for 30%, 40%, 50%, 60% of the time in a conversation with someone new. We found that the more they spoke, the more they were liked by their new partners. This was only one study with 116 participants, but the outcome is supported by other researchers’ findings. For example, a previous study randomly assigned one in a pair to take on the role of “speaker” and the other to take on the role of “listener. ” After engaging in 12-minute interactions, listeners liked speakers more than speakers liked listeners because listeners felt more similar to speakers than speakers did to listeners. This outcome suggests the reason people prefer those who speak up: Learning more about a new partner can make you feel like you have more in common with him or her.
Further, we assigned people to speak for up to 70% and even 90% of the time. The result shows it is not an ideal strategy. Our research does not suggest people hold down a conversational partner but rather that they feel comfortable speaking up more than they usually might.
Research like ours can help people gain a ‘more reasonable understanding of social interactions with new people and become more confident about how to make a good first impression. It has the obvious benefit of allowing us to carefully control speaking time. However, it does not reflect more natural conversations. Future research should figure out whether our findings generalize to more natural interactions.
1. What is the common belief concerning conversations with strangers?| A．Speaking a little less is preferred. |
| B．Speaking half the time is the best. |
| C．Listeners are more likable than speakers. |
| D．Listeners fail to control the conversations. |
| A．By analyzing speaking habits. |
| B．By making comparisons. |
| C．By listing examples. |
| D．By collecting data. |
| A．The conversation time is limited. |
| B．Further study is hard to continue. |
| C．The findings are less widely appliable. |
| D．Interactions with strangers are missing. |
| A．Attending a family gathering. |
| B．Partying with your friends. |
| C．Meeting a new teacher. |
| D．Making a public speech. |
【推荐2】Biological fieldwork can mean trips to exotic places. But the work itself can be depressing, especially when you are trying to track down complicated subjects. The most common method is to send a few eager graduate students armed with camera traps and several weeks of spare time. But perhaps not for much longer. A paper published in Current Biology, whose lead authors are Christina Lynggaard at the University of Copenhagen and Jan Gogarten at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health in Germany, suggests an easier method: simply swabbing (用拭子拭抹) nearby leaves for DNA.
The DNA in question is called “environmental DNA” (eDNA for short). It refers to all the genetic information that animals shed as they go about their daily business: breathing, urinating. moving around, or interacting with their environment in any way.
In recent years, gene-sequencing technology has become quick and sensitive enough to pick out genetic sequences from this universal eDNA-particular animals, including humans. One way of doing so is to blow air through filters, then analyses them to see which creatures live in the surroundings.
Aware of that technique, Drs Gogarten and Lynggaard wondered if there might be a simpler approach. Air-sampling systems can take days to do their work. Maintenance must be done, and filters must be changed. But given that eDNA is literally blowing around ecosystems, the researchers wondered if it might be collected on leaves. The leaves of many plants are waxy (质地光滑) and somewhat sticky. The researchers theorized that eDNA might end up stuck to leaves and that it could subsequently be collected by swabbing them. They tested their theory in the dense rainforests of Kibale National Park, in Uganda.
The swabs revealed the presence of 26 birds, 24 mammals, one amphibian and one fish, with each swab containing DNA from eight animals on average. More than half the samples were good enough to work out the precise species they came from.
1. When can biological fieldwork be discouraging?| A．You’re tracing down complex issues. |
| B．You’re exploring exotic destinations. |
| C．You’re making trips to unfamiliar fields. |
| D．You’re appointing graduates to send camera traps. |
| A．It can be tested in distant rainforests. |
| B．It might be gathered by swabbing leaves. |
| C．It might end up to be a little smooth and sticky. |
| D．It can literally center on ecosystem protection. |
| A．By making a comparison. |
| B．By analyzing the cause. |
| C．By giving some examples. |
| D．By providing some figures. |
| A．A new system to swab leaves. |
| B．A convenient way to track animals. |
| C．A novel method to identify samples. |
| D．A special technique to sequence genes. |
【推荐3】Why do people long for celebrity news? At least some of the hunger centers around schadenfreude—having joy from the suffering of others. People often act as if joy is dependent on achieving material gain. Seeing people that seem to “have it all” suffer (going through divorce, drug abuse, mental illness, etc.) momentarily destroys that thought. And then people can think, “Perhaps it’s OK that I don’t have my own television show, and own four large houses.” Let’s chat a bit more about schadenfreude and related concepts. If you’ve been alive a couple of decades, you’ve certainly seen plenty of examples showing that money does not bring happiness. But what does bring happiness? One of the keys involves learning to fully attend to and enjoy the present moment—not just learning this as information, but, through practice, developing the skill of living mindfully in this moment.
Other keys to happiness involve developing the skill of compassion (同情) and loving kindness. This may seem strange to readers: developing a skill of compassion? Don’t you just have or not have compassion? There are some types of meditation (冥想) originating from Buddhist traditions that are designed to develop compassion and loving kindness.
The four related qualities developed by these types of meditation practices are termed: loving kindness, calmness, compassion, and sympathetic joy. Sympathetic joy is the exact opposite of schadenfreude—with sympathetic joy, we get joy from the joy of others. Think of a close family member doing well and notice the joy you feel—that is sympathetic joy. To develop more sympathetic joy, when something good happens to another person, say to yourself (with as much meaning as possible), “I’m happy for you. May your good fortune continue. May your good fortune grow.”
When a person, celebrity or not, is suffering, you can practice a compassion meditation. Close your eyes and imagine a scene that naturally brings forth sympathy, such as hugging a loved one, or holding a baby. Then imagine saying to the person suffering, “May you be free from suffering,” or “May your suffering ease.”
1. What can make us happy according to the author?| A．Having a well-paid job. | B．Owning great popularity. |
| C．Focusing on celebrities’ news. | D．Learning to live in the moment. |
| A．Compassion and loving kindness. | B．The origin of some traditions. |
| C．Happiness and meditation. | D．Meditation practices. |
| A．You cheer up when a celebrity gets divorced. |
| B．You crow over it when your schoolmate gets injured. |
| C．You’re delighted when your classmate wins a competition. |
| D．You’re pleased when a celebrity practices attentively meditation. |
| A．To show celebrities’ real life. |
| B．To introduce the findings of a study. |
| C．To stress the importance of happiness. |
| D．To correct the negative attitudes to other people’s sufferings. |
【推荐1】Twenty-year old Brian, our eldest son, was riding his motorcycle home from work when a drunken driver ran him down. The driver, Ruben Gonzalez, was accused of man-slaughter (过失杀人). For three years we had waited. Now we were to be in court (法庭) in three weeks' time, when the judge would sentence (判决) Gonzalez at last.
"Jeri," our lawyer said,"there is a chance that the judge might delay (延期) Gonzalez's sentence because his boy has a bad heart and may only live six months. Please be prepared." "Prepared for what?" I shouted. "The possibility of Brian's killer going unpunished?"
In the car, I sat in silent agony as my husband Charles drove us home. I believed that the man who had killed my beautiful son should be punished. It might teach others a lesson about drinking and driving. All I wanted was a twenty-month prison term.
On the day of the sentencing, the courtroom was filled with our relatives and friends. When it was time for me to read my statement, I glanced at Mr. Gonzalez and said, "I pray that God will let your boy live. But if you lose him, you will know the feeling we have known losing our son." Then judge Gilroy called Gonzalez forward and pronounced the sentence. Twenty months in prison, to be served immediately.
I just sat there, feeling no relief. The lawyer said we could go if we wished, but I couldn't move. My mind spun all the next day. I said to Charles, "I know this sounds strange after all we've been through, but I feel very strongly that we should ask the court to let Mr. Conzalez be with his son." Relief flooded my husband's face and I knew he felt the same. He picked up the phone and dialed the judge's office. "I hope it's not too late, " Charles said.
The next day we were back in the courtroom. Ruben Gonzalez was called forward by judge Gilroy and told that he would be allowed to spend his son's final days with him, after which he would complete a six-month prison term.
1. What had the author and her husband probably waited for?| A．Apology from Gonzalez. | B．The police arresting Gonzalez. |
| C．The court putting Gonzalez into prison. | D．The judge delaying Gonzalez's sentence. |
| A．Doubt. | B．Pain. |
| C．Shame. | D．Peace. |
| A．It brought much relief to the author. |
| B．It completely met what the author had wanted. |
| C．Gonzalez was slightly punished because of his son. |
| D．The author's statement had a large influence on it. |
| A．Heartless. | B．Undetermined. |
| C．Merciful. | D．Honest. |
【推荐2】Walmart China has named Zhu Xiaojing Christina as president and CEO, effective May 8, its first female head in China. Current CEO Wern-Yuen Tan will leave the company after three years to return home to his family in Singapore. Zhu joins Walmart from Fonterra China, where she most recently served as president. The new appointment signals the US retailer's direction to be more digitalized and innovative in China's competitive retail（零售的）market.
"At a time of incredible disruption（扰乱）in retail landscape across China, it's vital to have a digital savvy, innovative leader to continue the remarkable work Yuen has done over the past few years heading up our business in China,” said Dirk Van den Berghe, Walmart's EVP, Global Sourcing and Regional CEO-Asia.
"Christina's impact on Fonterra's overall business —improving its brands and products as top sellers in many categories through digitization and constant innovation ——cannot be understated."
Before joining Fonterra in 2011, Zhu held various leadership roles in multinational companies such as Honeywell and McKinsey & Co.
Tan, who will leave the company on June 15, joined Walmart China in 2017. During his three years with Walmart China, Tan oversaw an expansion in formats and services across Walmart and Sam's Club China. Recently, Tan played a good role in Walmart China's response to the recent COVID-19 crisis.
Van den Berghe said： "From the moment we first learned of the novel coronavirus（冠状 病毒）threat, Yuen poured himself into the response effort, first ensuring the health and safety of our staff, then working with government officials to keep our retail units open so that customers could access essential goods and services. ” As our business in China found its way forward, Yuen went even further, compiling learning and best practices to share with the US business and across our international markets. The speed and effectiveness of Walmart's global response to the pandemic is a credit to Yuen's leadership.
Walmart said it was planning to open more than 500 new stores and depots （smaller warehouses） in China during the next five to seven years and improving 200 existing stores in three years.
1. What does the underlined word "savvy" mean in Para. 2?| A．Practical knowledge or understanding of sth. |
| B．A statement in which sb admits that sth is true. |
| C．The part of a person's character that consists of feelings |
| D．Something that you do or say to show a particular intention. |
| A．Sam's Clubs China. | B．Fonterra. |
| C．Honeywell. | D．McKinsey & Co. |
| A．Yuen s contribution to working to keep the retail units open. |
| B．Yuen s contribution to Walmart's global response to the pandemic. |
| C．Yuen s contribution to ensuring the health and safety of the staff. |
| D．Yuen s contribution to customers' accessing essential goods and services. |
| A．Walmart's direction to be more digitalized in China |
| B．Current CEO Wern-Yuen Tan will leave Walmart |
| C．Walmart expects to be more competitive in China's retail market |
| D．Walmart creates history by appointing female as China head |
【推荐3】What makes babies laugh? It sounds like one of the most fun questions a researcher could investigate, but there’s a serious scientific reason why Caspar Addyman wants to find out.
He’s not the first to ask this question. The great psychologist(心理学家) of human development, Jean Piaget, thought that babies laughter could be used to see into their minds. Studying when babies laugh might therefore be a great way of gaining insight into how they understand the world, he reasoned. But although he suggested this in the 1940s, this idea remains to be properly tested. Despite the fact that some very famous investigators have studied the topic, it hasn’t been given enough attention by modern psychology.
Addyman, of Birkbeck, University of London, is out to change that. He believes we can use laughter to get at exactly how babies understand the world. He’s completed the world’s largest and most comprehensive survey of what makes babies laugh, presenting his initial results at the International Conference on Infant Studies, Berlin, last year. Via his website he surveyed more than 1,000 parents from around the world, asking them questions about when, where and why their babies laugh.
The results are heart-warming. A baby’s first smile comes at about six weeks, their first laugh at about three and a half months. Peekaboo(躲猫猫) is a sure-fire favourite for making babies laugh, but tickling(挠痒痒) is the single most reported reason why babies laugh.
Importantly, from the very first chuckle(低声轻笑), the survey responses show that babies are laughing with other people, and at what they do. The mere physical sensation of something being ticklish isn’t enough. Nor is it enough to see something disappear or appear suddenly. It’s only funny when an adult makes these things happen for the baby. This shows that way before babies walk, or talk, they – and their laughter – are social. If you tickle a baby they apparently laugh because you are tickling them, not just because they are tickled.
What’s more, babies don’t tend to laugh at people falling over. They are far more likely to laugh when they fall over, rather than someone else, or when other people are happy, rather than when they are sad or unpleasantly surprised. Although parents report that boy babies laugh slightly more than girl babies, both genders (性别) find mummy and daddy equally funny.
In spite of the scientific potential, baby laughter is “strangely ignored”, according to Addyman. Part of the reason is the difficulty of making babies laugh reliably in the lab, although he plans to deal with this in the next stage of the project. But partly the topic has been ignored, he says, because it isn’t viewed as a subject for “proper” science to look into. This is a prejudice Addyman hopes to overturn – for him, the study of laughter is certainly no joke.
1. The psychologist Jean Piaget held the belief that ________.| A．even a good joke could not be got across to babies |
| B．his theory about laughter would be proved in the end |
| C．studying babies’ laughter helped to know how they understand the world |
| D．babies’ laughter could be used to find out whether their brains functioned well |
| A．the present situation of Birkbeck | B．the study conducted by Jean Padget |
| C．thinking little of modern psychology | D．ignoring the research into babies’ laughter |
| A．babies are likely to laugh at people falling over |
| B．babies are very fond of being tickled |
| C．babies’ first laugh comes at six weeks |
| D．babies and their laughter are social in a way |
| A．babies’ laughter is well worth studying |
| B．nobody should play jokes on babies |
| C．babies’ laughter is not a real science subject |
| D．scientists can get reliable information only in the lab |
| A．Admiring | B．Fact-based |
| C．Doubtful | D．One-sided |
【推荐1】A prisoner picked up 1,000 yuan in the course of building the road outside the prison. He handed it out without hesitation. However, someone who was in charge of the prison said to him in contempt, "Stop cheating! With your own money, play such a trick to bribe me; what you want to gain back is the reduced sentence; people of your sort are not honest."
In total despair, the prisoner believed that no one in the world would trust him any more. So he escaped from prison that night.
On his way to flight, he robbed money and values without restraint(无拘无束地). After robbing enough money, he took a train bound for the border. The carriages were so crowded that he had to stand close to a water closet. At this moment, a quite beautiful girl walked into the closet, and found that the latch was broken when she closed the door. She stepped out and whispered to him, "Sir, could you guard the door for me?"
In a daze for a second, he, looking into the pure eyes of the girl, nodded his head. The girl went into the closet with a blush; and he guarded the door tightly like a' loyal guard.
At that very moment, he changed his mind suddenly. At the next stop he got off the train, and went to give himself up to the police at the train station.
Trust is the most precious thing in this world. It cannot be bought, or gained by lure or force. It comes deep from one's soul, and lives in the clear spring of the soul. It can redeem(拯救) the soul and make the soul and make the heart full of purity and confidence.
1. Why did the prisoner escaped from the prison?| A．In order to get freedom. |
| B．He wanted to reduce sentence. |
| C．He planned to make more money by stealing. |
| D．Because he thought no one in the world would trust him any more. |
| A．He wanted to hunt for a job at the train station. |
| B．He was going to hand in the money to the police. |
| C．He was determined to mend his ways and turn over a new leaf. |
| D．He went to the police station to tell the police what happened on the train. |
| A．The girl thought the prisoner was a bad man. |
| B．The prisoner was set free because of his honesty. |
| C．The prisoner finally decided to help the girl because of trust. |
| D．The man escaped from the prison to reduce sentence. |
| A．Trust is the most valuable thing in this world. |
| B．It is certain that honesty is important at any time. |
| C．Anyone who helps others in time is well worth praising. |
| D．There is no doubt that we should believe in ourselves all the time. |
【推荐2】So far we have focused on the textual elements of the Great Gatsby, but it's time to turn to structural concerns-the ways in which the patterns of language and imagery create the backbone of a story. I would say it's almost impossible to see these patterns in a single reading: it took me six to understand their full effects.
Where did that ending,the thinking of the green light, come from? Books have endings but a do chapters. The seeds for the ending of Gatsby are Planted at the end of chapter 1 , where Nick sees Gatsby for the first time: But I didn't call to him, for he gave a sudden hint that he was content to be alone--he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could see he was trembling. I glanced seaward--and saw nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock (码头). When I looked once more for Gatsby, he had vanished (消失), and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.
It's all there:the dark water, the green light, the end of a dock, the stretching,reaching and desperate struggling-as well as the mysterious character of Gatsby.
Should a reader at the last chapter be expected to remember that scene in Chapter 1? Maybe. But perhaps the reader could benefit from a reminder. I found it in the novel's central scene in which Gatsby and Daisy are reunited after five years.
"If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay,"said Gatsby.
"You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock."
Daisy put her arm through his unexpectedly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the great significance of that light had now vanished forever....Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted (看魔) objects had reduced by one.
It is important to note the repetition of key words over significant spaces of text. The word vanished echoes (呼应)the end of chapter 1, Gatsby's vanishing act. But enchanted appears before the phrase at the end of the book,"a short enchanted moment.”
It just so happened that I was visiting Long Island while I was rereading this passage, when I noticed that it fell on the central chapter. The physical,structural,virtual center of the novel.
What are we to learn from this? It should remind us that a truly great work of art is beautifully and finely created. It should reveal how purposeful the strategic vision of the author is.Whatever its effect in Gatsby, it also serves as a writing lesson for the rest of us, whether we are writing fiction, nonfiction,biography, screenplays, or poetry.
1. What is this passage mainly about?| A．Paragraph development. | B．Right words. | C．Story structure. | D．Textual elements. |
| A．two. | B．three. | C．four. | D．six |
| A．It took the writer six hours to discover the patterns of the novel. |
| B．The description in Para 3 has no links to the character of Gatsby. |
| C．The reappearance of some key words may just be coincidence. |
| D．The ending of the novel may remind readers of Chapter 1. |
【推荐3】Do you like chocolate? Maybe most people do. A box of it can be a great gift. Buy one for a friend and give it as a surprise. See how happy that person gets.
Say you just got a box of chocolate. Which piece do you pick first? A man has studied people’s choices. He says they tell something about the person. Did you choose a round piece? You are a person who likes to party. Did you choose an oval (椭圆形的)shape? You are a person who likes to make things. Picking a square shape shows something else. The person is honest and truthful. You can depend on him or her.
What kind of chocolate do you pick? Maybe you like milk chocolate. This shows you have warm feeling about the past. Dark chocolate means something else. A person who chooses it looks toward the future. What about white chocolate? Would you choose it? If so, you may find it hard to make up your mind. Some people like chocolate with nuts(果仁). These are people who like to help others.
Do you believe these ideas? Can candy tell all these things? It doesn’t really matter. There is one sure thing about eaters of chocolate. They eat it because they like it.
1. This passage mainly tells us ______.| A．why people like chocolate | B．almost everyone likes chocolate |
| C．about different kinds of chocolate | D．different choice may show different characters |
| A．likes singing, dancing and drinking | B．likes to do something for others |
| C．is good at making things | D．can be depended on |
| A．look forward to the future | B．like to think of the past |
| C．enjoy parties and fun | D．have trouble making decisions |
| A．in oval shape | B．in square shape | C．with nuts | D．with coffee |
| A．believes all the information about chocolate |
| B．does not believe the information about candy |
| C．is trying to get you to believe false information |
| D．doesn’t think it important whether you believe the ideas |
