Passage Two
Last week when I was watching TV news,the announcer,whose name was Ralph Story.
said something that caught my attention.
"All great discoveries",he said,"are made by people between the ages of twenty_five and thirty."
Being a little over thirty myself I wanted to disagree with him.
The next day I spent several hours in the public library looking up ages of famous people and their discoveries.
Ralph was right.
Galileo discovered by the famous experiment that bodies of different weights fall at the same speed when he was 26.
Madame Curie started her research that led to a Nobel Prize when she was 28.
Einstein was 26 when he published his world_changing theory of relativity.
Well,enough of that.Yet I wondered if those"best years"were true in other fields.
Then how about the field of politics?
Winston churchill was elected to the House of Commons at the age of 26.
Abraham Lincoln gave up the life of a country lawyer and was elected to the government at what age?Twenty_six!
But why don't best years come after thirty?
After thirty,I guess,most people do not want to take risks or try new ways.
Then I thought of people like Shakespeare and Picasso.
The former was writing wonderful works at the age of fifty,while the latter was still trying new ways of paining when he was ninety!
Perhaps there is still hope for me.
Questions 14 to 17 are based on the passage you have just heard.
14.What did the speaker do to prove Ralph was wrong?
15.How did the speaker feel after his research?
16.How did the speaker probably feel in the end?
17.What can be concluded from the passage?
Passage Three
People live with noises all their lives.
A place may seem quiet at first,but sound soon come through.
During a quiet night at home,you may hear the noise of a refrigerator motor or the heating system.
Nature's noises usually bother us less than people's noises.
Even in a natural quiet spot one hears birds or animal noises or perhaps the wind.
Weather is sometimes very noisy.Noise is everywhere.
Noise can travel a long distance.
If you live near a free way,you know that mad noise of vehicles can travel from eight to ten miles.
Ways in which people can escape unwanted noise include soundproofing,substitution and selective listening.
Curtains,for example,can soften noises in a home.
Music can cover up less attractive noises by substituting one sound for another.
Selective listening can provide escape from noise.
When a person does something attentively,the sound seems to disappear.
A train that passes on a regular schedule may hardly be noticed after its first noisy journey.
It is fortunate that people have ways to reduce the effects of noise although noise will probably not decrease.
Questions 18 to 20 are based on the passage you have just heard.
18.Which of the following statements is true?
19.Which of the following is not a way to escape unwanted noise?
20.What is the passage mainly talking about?
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