高三英语三星级阶梯阅读练习14.doc

2013届高三英语星级阶梯阅读练习 三星级 14adear sir,just over six months ago, i saw an advertisement in the morning mail for a set of the complete works of william shakespeareyour company, cosmo books ltd , offered this set （ eight books of plays and two books of poetry） at a & remarkable price: fifteen pounds and fifty pence, including postage and packing i had wanted a set of shakespeares plays and poems for some time, and these books looked particularly attractive, so i sent for themtwo weeks later, the books arrived, together with a set of works of charles dickens which i had not orderedso i returned the dickens books to you, with a cheque for fifteen pounds and fifty pence for the works of shakespeare two more weeks passed then there arrived on my door step a second set of the works of shakespeare, the same set of novels by dickens and a six book set of the plays of moliere, in french since i do not read french, these were of no use to me at allhowever, i could not afford to post all these books back to you, so i wrote to you right away instructing you to come and collect all the books that i did not want, and asking you not to send any other books until further noticeyou did not reply to that letterinstead you sent me a bill for forty two pounds, and a set of the plays of schiller, in german since then, a new set of books has arrived every two weeks, the works of goethe, the poems of milton, the plays of strindberg; i hardly know what i havethe books are still all in their boxes, in the garage, and my car has to stand in the rain outsideplease send no more books, send no more bills, send no more angry letters demanding payment just send one large lorry and take all the books away, leaving me only with the one set of the complete works of shakespeare for which i have paid yours faithfully, simon walker56 simon walkers main purpose of writing the letter is to .a show his anger to cosmo books ltdb argue about sending him books he had not orderedc advise readers not to order books from cosmo books ltdd urge cosmo books ltd to take away the books he had not ordered57 the advertisement that mrwalker saw in the morning mail was for .a unlimited number of cosmo booksb a set of 10 books of the works of shakespearec fifteen pounds and fifty penced a book containing all the plays and poems of shakespeare58 it can be inferred that .amr walker took some action after receiving the books he did not orderbseveral sets of books have been sent to mrwalker free of chargeccosmo books have sent bills for books that they have not sentdmrwalker hasnt received the books that he ordered59 the tone（语气） of the letter is that of .a bitterness b respectc annoyance d humorbjk rowling writes novel for adultsjk rowling, the harry potter author, has signed a deal with little, brown and company to publish her first ever novel for adults, which is set to become one of the most expected book in yearsthe deal means that rowling s long-standing relationship with bloomsbury, the london-based publisher that launched the harry potter books, has come to an end, at least in terms of new works by the authorrowling is keeping her fans guessing about the characters and plot of her new bookshe only said that the new novel will be nothing like the harry potter series, which was sold over 30 million copies in the uk alone she thought that with the move from childrens to adult fiction, a switch to a new publisher seemed like a natural and reasonable step,she said, although ive enjoyed writing it every bit as much, this book will be very different from the harry potter series the freedom to explore a new field is a gift tthat harrys success has brought me ian rankin, the edinburgh-based author whose highly-successful detective novels are also set in the city, suggested rowlings book will be a crime novel wouldnt it be funny if jk rowling s first novel for adults turned out to be a crime story set in edinburgh? he said,industry insiders guessed that the deal is worth more than5 million and the new book is expected to come out later this yeara spokesman said, jk rowling s audience is vast and her position is unique harry potter books were a global success and hef tans are very loyal children that were eight, nine, or ten when the books first came out in the 1990s are now in their 20s plenty of adults loved the books regardless of whether they had children, so the potential market for her is huge60 what does the passage mainly tell us?a jk rowling has signed a deal with a new publisherb jk rowlings first book for adults will be published later this yearc jk rowlings new book will be more successful than her harry potter series d jk rowling has to switch to a new publisher in order to publish her new book61 jk rowlings new book for adults .a has been sold 30 million copies in the uk aloneb is poorly thought of by the london-based publisher bloomsburyc has nothing in common with the harry potter seriesd is expected to bring her more money than the harry potter series62 what the spokesman said in the last paragraph tells us that .a children wont have any interest in jk rowlings new bookb jk rowlings fans are so loyal that they dont care what she will writec only readers of harry potter series will be interested in rowling s new bookd rowlings vast audience and unique position will guarantee the new books successcin our culture, the sources of what we call a sense of mastery-feeling important and worthwhile-and the sources of what we call a sense of pleasure-finding life enjoyable-are not always identical women often are told, you cant have it all sometimes what the speaker really is saying is you choose a career, so you cant expect to have closer relationships or a happy family life, or you have a wonderful husband and children-what s all this about wanting a career? but women need to understand and develop both aspects of well-being if they have to feel good about themselvesour study shows that, for women, well-being has two dimensions one is mastery, which includes self-confidence, a sense of control over your life, and low levels of anxiety and depressionmastery is closely related to the doing side of life, to work and activitypleasure is the other dimension, and it is composed of happiness, satisfaction and optimismit is tied more closely to the feeling side of lifethe two are independent of each other women could be high in mastery and low in pleasure, or the other way around for example, a woman who has a good job, but whose mother has just died, might be feeling very good about herself and in control of her work life, but the pleasure side could be damaged for a timethe concepts of mastery and pleasure could help us identify the sources of well-being for women, and find solution to past mistakesin the past, women were encouraged to look only at the feeling side of life as the source of all well-beingbut we know that both mastery and pleasure are important and mastery seems to be achieved largely through workin our study, all the groups of employed women rated significantly higher in mastery than did women who were not employeda womans well-being is improved when she takes on multiple roles at least by middle adulthood, the women who were involved in the combination of roles-marriages, motherhood, and employment-were the highest in well-being, in spite of warning about stress and strain63 it can be inferred from the first paragraph that .a women cant have mastery and pleasure at the same timeb mastery and pleasure are both necessary to womenc for women, mastery is more important than pleasure d for women, pleasure is more important than mastery64 which of the following can be identified as a source of pleasure for women?a freedom from anxiety b regular employment cmultiple roles in society, d family life65 the authors attitude towards women having a career is .a positiveb negative c objective d realistic66 which is the best title for the passage?a the well-being of career women b two aspects of women s well-beingc sources of mastery and pleasure d multiple roles of women in societydwhale songs catch on like pop musicwhen lady gaga releases a catchy new single, it quickly goes around the world now scientists have discovered the same thing happens with the songs of another creaturethe humpback whale the mammals tunes just like people do, and the spread globally like hit singlesbecome fixated （迷恋）on new most popular original whale songsspread globally kike hit singles.the discovery has astonished experts who say it is the first time such a large population-wide cultural exchange has been seen inthe animal kingdommale humpback whales are well-known for theloud, long and complex songs they make during the mating season scientists are unsure why the males sing some believe it is a way of advertising themselves to females, others that it allows migrating whales to stay in contacteach song lasts for 10 to 20 minutes and the males can sing continuously for 24 hours at any one time, all the males in a population sing the same song but a study, published in the journal current biology, shows that this song changes over time and spreads around the oceansdrellen garland of queensland university said, our findings show cultural change on a vast scale（规模）songs move like cultural ripples（ small low wave） from one population to another, causing all males to change their song to a new versionresearchers recorded songs from six neigh bouring populations of whales in the pacific over a decadethey found that new versions of the songs appear over time and always spread from west to east it takes two years for songs that appear in the waters off australia to be heard in french polynesiadrgarland believes that a small number of whales may migrate to other populations carrying the new songs with them, or that they are heard by passing whales most of the new songs contain material from last year and something newit would be like linking an old beatles song with u2, she saidoccasionally they completely throw the current song out of the window and st