A. making money to help people in need

B. putting her great-grandmother’s recipe to good use C. developing a traditional technique for producing honey D. rescuing the endangered but beneficial honeybees 23. What do the four young people have in common? A. They’ve gained wide recognition now. C. They are commercially successful.

B

In 1975, George Carlin appeared on a popular TV show, Saturday Night Live, with his famous words about blue food. “Why is there no blue food? I can’t find blue food—I can’t find the flavor of blue! I mean yellow is lemon; orange is orange and red is cherry. Where is the blue food? ”

Well, Carlin pretty much has it right—there’s not no blue food, but there’s certainly not a lot of it. Fresh-picked blueberries are blue, though they become purple when they are turned into jam. The blue in blueberries—like the purple in grapes and the red in tomatoes—is found in nature. But it isn’t a hot color for food. People don’t seem to prefer blue food. Some diet programs even suggest that those determined to lose weight should make their food blue.

Eating, in part, begins with our eyes. Charles Spence—an experimental psychologist from Oxford University—points out that color can change our taste experience. Commonly, we consider red-colored foods up to 20% sweeter than they actually are; and green foods as being more sour. Spence suggests: human expectations may be influenced by our long history of watching - green fruits can become sweet as they grow up and turn red.

But what about blue? Except blueberries, much of the blue food we see these days is dyed blue artificially. Food producers argue that artificial color doesn’t do much harm to health. A lot of research shows that some physical problems of kids are related to food dyes—while other studies show no effects at all. Blue birthday cake or even blue-dyed chicken can be served on the dinner table. So what?

24. George Carlin’s words are placed at the beginning of the passage to _______.

B. They have no interest in academic subjects. D. They’re leading a wealthy and full life.

A. tell a famous person

B. lead in the topic D. introduce a TV show

C. show the author’s opinion

25. Which of the following statements of blue is true? A. The blue in blueberries is found unnatural. B. People often feel cold when they eat blueberries. C. Blueberries are always blue, whether fresh or not D. Blue is not a very popular color for foods.

26. Eating sometimes begins with our eyes because _______. A. red-colored food are 20% sweeter than green food B. people prefer red-colored food to green food C. our taste experience can be influenced by color D. before eating, people watch food for a long time

27. The underlined words “is dyed” in Para. 4 are closest in meaning to “_______”. A. is changed in color

B. is eaten up

C

Do you listen to the songs that your parents like? Chance are that you don’t. You probably think the But here is what scientists found recently: people’s music tastes change as they age, according to a study music that they like is old and dull and that the Songs on your playlist are much cooler.

published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. So it’s likely that your own musical preference will follow a similar path to your parents’ whether you like it or not.

We used to think that culture and personality are the only factors that affect one’s music choice. But researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK, gathered data from more than 250,000 people over the past 10 years. They noticed that as people age, their social circumstances change, and so does their music taste. There are three musical periods that people pass through as they “mature-intense”, “contemporary” and “sophisticated”. The first period comes in the teenagers years, during which time people like intense music such as punk and rock because teenagers tend to be aggressive and want to establish their identity as independent individuals. But as people move into early adulthood, their lifestyle changes—they socialize more and want to build close relationships with others. As a result, they become more fond of contemporary

C. is harmful to

D. has grown up

music, such as pop and R&B, which is usually uplifting and danceable and played at parties where people hang out together and chat.

When middle age comes, things have settled down for most people. This period will be dominated by more “sophisticated” music, such as jazz and classical, as well as more catchy music like country, folk, and blues. “For many, this life stage is frequently exhausted by work and family, and there is a requirement for relaxing, emotive (动情的) music,” Jason Rentfrow, a researcher member, told The telegraph.

But you must be thinking: “Aren’t there old people who are still into rock music?” Of course there are. But Rentfrow explained that their reasons for listening to rock music may have changed. “We use music for different reasons,” he said, and thus at that age people may listen to remind themselves of their youths.

28. Why do children usually like different songs from their parents according to the passage?

A. Children prefer cool music.

B. parents’ songs are always dull.

D. Parents have better social circumstances. B. like Pop and R&B

C.

C. Music taste changes with age. A. lead a stressful life

29. Middle age is a period when people ________. have an aggressive goal

D. desire close connections with others

B. Music can serve as a reminder. D. Listening to rock music needs reasons. B. How can you improve your music talent? D. Why do different people like different music?

30. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A. Old people don’t like rock music. C. Rock music makes old people younger. A. Why do people like music?

31. What’s the main idea of the passage?

C. What influences peopled music taste?

D

Bertie knew there was something in the wind. His mother had been sad in recent days, not sick, just strangely sad. The lion had just lain down beside him, his head warm on Bertie's feet, when Father cleared his throat and began, “You’ll soon be eight, Bertie. A boy needs a proper education. We’ve found the right place for you, a school near Salisbury in England.”

His heart filled with a terrible fear, all Bertie could think of was his white lion. “But the lion,” he cried, “What about the lion?”

“I’m afraid there’s something else I have to tell you,” his father said. Looking across at Bertie’s mother, he took a deep breath. Then he told Bertie he had met a circus owner from France, who was over in Africa looking for lions to buy. He would come to their farm in a few days.

“No! You can’t send him to a circus!” said Bertie. “People will come to see him. He’ll be shut up behind bars. I promised him he never would be. And they will laugh at him. He’d rather die. Any animal would!” But as he looked across the table at them, he knew their minds were quite made up.

Bertie felt completely betrayed. He waited until he heard his father’s deep breathing next door. With his white lion at his heels, he crept downstairs in his pyjamas, took down his father’s rifle from the rack and stepped out into the night. He ran and ran till his legs could run no more. As the sun came up over the grassland, he climbed to the top of a hill and sat down, his arms round the lion’s neck. The time had come. “Be wild now,” he whispered. “You’ve got to be wild. Don’t ever come home. All my life I’ll think of you, I promise I will.” He buried his head in the lion's neck. Then, Bertie clambered down off the hill and walked away.

When he looked back, the lion was still sitting there watching him; but then he stood up, yawned, stretched, and sprang down after him. Bertie shouted at him, but he kept coming. He threw sticks. He threw stones. Nothing worked.

There was only one thing left to do. With tears filling his eyes and his mouth, he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired over the lion’s head.

32. Bertie's mother was sad probably because she _______. A. had been seriously ill recently B. had decided to send Bertie to school C. knew Bertie would hate to go to England D. knew selling the lion would upset Bertie

33. The underlined word “they” in Para. 4 probably refers to _______. A. other animals B. some audience

C. Bertie’s parents

D. circus’s owners

34. In the last paragraph, the boy lifted the rifle at the lion to _______. A. kill the lion out of fear C. protect himself from the lion 35. The passage intends to show that _______. A. people and animals can be faithful to each other B. parents are sometimes cruel to their children C. animals usually lead a miserable life in circuses D. animal-hunting is popular in Africa

B. threaten the lion back to the wild D. show his anger towards his father