专题练习

Passage 11 ❌2 19m 28s

精析 P391

In many ways, Hamburger University is just like other schools. It has an 80-acre campus. It has classrooms and teachers and more than 275,000 graduates. __1__ Instead, they are McDonald’s restaurant owners and workers learning how to do their jobs better.

Hamburger University isn’t a business school. It’s a corporate university. __2__ As a result, the school teaches skills and methods that help improve efficiency in McDonald’s restaurants.

Hamburger University is one of the world’s most famous corporate universities, but it is far from unique. __3__

Companies operate corporate universities for many different reasons. Some improve the technical skills of employees. Others focus on training people in management. Still others help employees develop skills like learning to learn, creative thinking and problem solving.

__4__ Their students often come from distant places and have full-time jobs. To make training possible for students, corporate universities have to use very flexible teaching methods. Some companies pay for their employees to attend specific classes at a local university. Others work with outside educators to develop courses for employees to take at their workplaces. Still others develop their own programs consisting of weekend and online courses.

Corporate universities may never compete with traditional schools. But they have changed the way many see education. Training has always been difficult for busy employees. __5__ Through them, continuing education is possible for many who, otherwise, wouldn’t have the chance to study.

A. Corporate universities help by offering flexible programs.

B. Corporate universities face a number of special problems.

C. It exists to help the company McDonald’s meet its business goals.

D. But Hamburger University students don’t attend to earn a degree.

E. Many large companies, like IBM have their own successful corporate universities.

1 ✅

D

2 ✅

C

3 ✅

E

4 ❌

A ❌
B ✅

5 ❌

B ❌
A ✅

Passage 12 ✅ 24m 24s

精析 P392

My grandmother was from a town in Michigan. I enjoyed staying with my grandparents when I was young child. __1__ People knew everyone, their kids, their pets and their ancestors. The relationship with them continued to grow as I grew and got older.

__2__ She would make little sandwiches and we’d have tea parties. She would plant flowers and carefully tend them. I remember the small thimble she would use while doing her needlework. Placing her thimble on her finger she’s remark: “I wouldn’t want to sew without one.”

A few years ago when my grandmother passed away, I bade farewell to a loving grandmother. __3__ We had just had tea together a couple of months earlier, on her 91st birthday. I missed her very much, but I noticed it particularly on my birthday, as there was no card from my grandmother. She’d never forgotten my birthday!

On one particular birthday when I was feeling a little low, something happened to make me feel like she was sharing that special day with me. __4__ They are what she had made, and suddenly I felt something inside one pillow. It was small and hard. I moved the object to a seam that I carefully opened, and to my delight out came a tiny silver thimble!

__5__ Not realizing it had fallen off her finger, she sewed it in that little pillow that I just “happened” to fluff. I carefully laid the thimble alongside the others I’ve collected over the years, where I could continue to see the gift God chose to reveal to me.

What a precious memory of a very special lady who somehow, I knew, was delighted to sew her thimble inside my pillow!

A. How quickly our lives can change!

B. I loved the small town they lived in.

C. I was arranging some colorful pillows.

D. Grandma was always using her hands for something exciting.

E. How happy I was to find something that had been a part of her!

1 ✅

B

2 ✅

D

3 ✅

A

4 ✅

C

5 ✅

E

Passage 13 ✅ 21m 04s

精析 P393

Twenty years ago, the prosperous high street was the heart of most cities. It was crowded with customers. __1__ Nowadays, high streets are declining, with very few shops and shoppers. With about 14 shops down every day, Britain’s high streets are dying little by little.

__2__ It is fairly easy to understand. To start with, people are spending less because of the economic recession. On top of that, more and more people are using the Internet to do their shopping. And it is not easy for shopkeepers in the high streets, either. __3__ Finally, there are the out-of-town retail parks with free car parking that sell just about everything at very low prices.

What can be done? Prime Minister David Cameron has hired Mary Portas, a British business woman and star of TV show Mary Queen of Shops, to bring some life back into Britain’s high streets. She’s talked about creating “magnets” to attract people back to the centre. __4__ In one town, a bicycle rickshaw service is delivering people’s shopping to their homes. __5__ where children can be cared for while parents are shopping.

Members of the public have also voiced their opinions. “My ideal shopping center is one where there’s a wide selection of attractive looking shops, with cheap parking and good public transport links,” said a 28-year-old man. “I’d like to see Night Shopping evenings where shops are open through to 10 pm or later,” said a 22-year-old girl.

A. They have to pay increasing high rents.

B. But he is not the only one to solve the problem.

C. But that’s all changed.

D. In another town, they set up a nursery.

E. Why are high streets in such a desperate situation?

1 ✅

C

2 ✅

E

3 ✅

A

4 ✅

B

5 ✅

D

Passage 14 ✅ 19m 26s

精析 P393

For some people, the warmest memories from childhood come from being read a great story. __1__ It develops children’s language skills and increases their ability to succeed in school and, later, work.

A new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics says reading aloud is so important that parents should start as soon as their children are born and continue to read aloud even after their children can read by themselves. They say parents should also point to and talk about pictures in books for infants (婴幼儿). __2__

The company Scholastic is a major U.S. publisher of children’s books. Every two years, Scholastic publishes a report on American reading attitudes and habits. The 2015 report says only 31 percent of children in the U.S. read a book for fun almost every day.

__3__ One is simply to have books in the home. Elizabeth Lyttleton, the mother of three, is lucky. Her mother once wrote and illustrated children’s books, so the family always have plenty to read. She says all her children learn from books — but in different ways. __4__ Researchers from the Scholastic company found that 80% of children surveyed — of all ages — say they love being read to. And children ages 6 to 11 whose parents do not read to them anymore say they miss it.

__5__ Of all the six to 17-year-olds in the Scholastic study, more than 90% said their favorite books are the ones they chose for themselves.

A. The Scholastic report also suggests permitting children to choose their own books.

B. Scholastic also identifies some ways to develop a love of reading in a child.

C. For young children, parents should ask questions about the book.

D. Another way to develop a reading habit in children is to read to them.

E. But reading to children does more than create warm memories.

1 ✅

E

2 ✅

C

3 ✅

B

4 ✅

D

5 ✅

A

Passage 15 ✅ 23m 36s

精析 P394

According to a British news report, some blind people may finally get a chance to “see”. __1__ Dr. Peter Meijer, a scientist at Philips Research Laboratories in the Netherlands, has developed a new system called the vOICe. The three middle letters in vOICe stand for “Oh, I see.” Meijer’s groundbreaking technology may change the lives of visually impaired people all over the world.

A wearable setup of vOICe system consists of a head-mounted camera, stereo headphones and a notebook PC. The system translates visual images from a camera into complex sounds. __2__

The program is based on the theory that people can hear certain sounds and learn to translate them into meaningful mental images. Everything has its own unique sound. __3__ The height of an object or person could be determined by pitch. And a built-in color identifier speaks out color names when it is turned on. What the vOICe users have to learn is which sound goes with which object. Meijer says that he is counting on the brain’s ability to adapt.

__4__ Within two weeks, most people who experiment with the vOICe system are able to identify objects such as walls and doors. They are also able to identify certain situations, including whether the lights in a room are on or off. __5__ Meijer thinks that translating will eventually become automatic for many users of the vOICe, bringing a form of vision to them for the very first time.

A. Brighter areas sound louder than darker areas.

B. It then sends these sounds to a person through headphones.

C. However, they are not learning to see with their eyes; they are learning to see with their ears.

D. To evaluate the new system’s effectiveness, a number of visually impaired people were chosen to test the vOICe.

E. Over time, some users have even learned to “watch” television or “recognize” the outlines of buildings as they walk.

1 ✅

C

2 ✅

B

3 ✅

A

4 ✅

D

5 ✅

E