【正文】 Have you ever thought of quitting your job when you feel exhausted? Maybe most of you would say “yes”. After a particularly busy period at work, I decided to get away from it all by going on a hike in the mountains in southern France. Before I left, I read an interesting story in a magazine. It read, “Once, while I was riding on a crowded bus, the man sitting next to me threw his cell phone out of the window when his phone rang. I was surprised. He looked at me, shrugged (聳聳肩 ) and looked away. I had no idea whether it was his or stolen or whether he even knew what a cell phone was or not, but he clearly wanted to be free of it, because it clearly troubled him. ” Billions of people across the world use cell phones. Though cell phones are a wonderful way for munication, they often do the exact opposite. Using cell phones can increase stress within families and friends. So when I recently returned home, I got rid of my cell phone. Now I go outside without taking my phone with me. I’ve noticed things in my neighborhood I never noticed before, such as gardens. I’ve met new people, started conversations with neighbors I didn’t speak to before and talked with some of my friends face t o face instead of chatting over the phone. Instead of keeping me off from the world, stopping using my cell phone has helped me get even closer to my family and friends. 24. According to the story, the man on the bus threw away his cell phone because ______. A. it didn’t work properly B. it was stolen from someone else C. he didn’t like the phone’s style D. he didn’t want to be bothered by it 25. We can learn from the passage that cell phones ______. A. are too expensive for many people B. are of no use to the author C. can also get people into trouble D. can make life more interesting 26. What can we learn about the author? A. He wants to own a garden now. B. He always chatted with his neighbors. C. He used to take his cell phone when going outside. D. He once threw away his cell phone. 27. The main purpose of the passage is to ______. A. tell us not to let cell phones control our lives B. encourage others to hike with him in France C. share his experiences in France with us D. teach us how to get along with neighbors C If you’re ever reading a book or watching a movie and get the distinct feeling you’ve e across the story before — or even better, can predict exactly what39。s going to happen next — there could be a good reason for that. Researchers from the Computational Story Laboratory at the University of Vermont studied the plete text of some 1,737 fiction works available on Project Gutenberg, an online collection of more than 50,000 digital books in the public area. They discovered that English literature consists of just six kinds of emotional arcs (情感弧線 ) that make up nearly all of the most wellknown stories. By analysing the sentiment (情感 ) of language used in these texts, the researchers were able to show the emotional ups and downs for the stories as a whole. They discovered that negative words like “poverty”, “dead”, and “punishment” dragged the emotion down, while positive terms like “l(fā)ove”, “peace”, and “friend” brought it up. According to the researchers, those six core (核心的 ) emotional arcs are: “Rags to riches” (An ongoing emotional rise) “Tragedy, or riches to rags” (An ongoing emotional fall) “Man in a hole” (A fall followed by a rise) “Icarus” (A rise followed by a fall) “Cinderella” (Rise– fall– rise) “Oedipus” (Fall– rise– fall) Interestingly, based on download statistics from Project Gutenberg, the researchers say the most popular stories are ones that use more plex emotional arcs, with the “Cinderella” and “Oedipus” arcs registering the most downloads. Also popular are works that bine these core arcs together in new ways within one story, such as two “Man in a hole” arcs stuck together, or the “Cinderella” arc coupled with a tragic ending. often feel familiar when reading a new story because stories have similar ______. A. beginnings B. endings C. characters D. emotional arcs 29. How did researchers carry out their study? A. By conducting surveys among readers. B. By reading books borrowed from libraries. C. By analysing works from an online collection. D. By interviewing authors of the wellknown stories. 30. Which set of works may drag emotion down? A. Hope, fortune and riches. B. Disease, murder and war. C. Smile, health and beauty. D. Cold, earthquake and spring. 31. According to the last paragraph, which kind of works are most popular among readers? A. Works with an ongoing emotional rise. B. Works with an ongoing emotional fall. C. Works with a rise followed by a fall. D. Works with more than one rise and fall. D Winston Churchill is probably the most popular British prime minister ever. Having served as a soldier and politician, he is often considered among the greatest of Britons. While his heroic stand against the Nazis is well known, there are still a few facts about the popular politician that might surprise you. His Cigars The classic image of Winston Churchill includes a giant cigar stuck between his lips. Churchill developed his love of cigars as a young man, when he traveled to Cuba. For the rest of his life, he smoked eight or nine cigars every day. However, he almost never took a puff (吸 ,抽 ), preferring to chew on the end until it went out, then relight it and start again. To prevent the cigar from being soggy(濕軟的 ), Churchill invented the “bellybando,” a strip of brown paper which could be glued around