CANYOUIMAGINEHOWHARDITWOULDBETOREADSENTENCESLIKETHIS? Every one of us gets so used to punctuation marks that not many of us give them a second thought. Actually, the ancient Greeks wrote this way. The lack of punctuation marks probably didn't bother good readers, though. As they read, they just put pauses where they fit best. Also at this time, sentences switched directions. A sentence read from left to right. The next one read right to left, and then left to right again, etc. The ancient Romans sometimes punctuated like this: They * put * something * that * can * separate * words * in * a * sentence. The word punctuation actually comes from this idea and the Latin word punctum, which means a dot. When the 5thcentury arrived, there were just two punctuation marks: spaces and points. The spaces separated words while the points showed pauses in reading. Then in the 13thcentury, a printer named Aldus Manutius tried to standardize punctuation. He always used a period for a complete stop at the end of a sentence. He used a slash (/) to indicate a short pause. Over time, that slash was shortened and curled, and it became the modern comma . Since that time, other marks have enlarged the punctuation family. The exclamation mark comes from the Latin word io. It means "exclamation of joy." The question mark originally started out as the Latin word questio, meaning question. Eventually, scholars put it at the end of a sentence to show a question. Punctuation even keeps changing nowadays. New marks are coming into existence, and old punctuation marks are used in new ways. Take for example the "interrobang". This 1962 invention combines the question mark and exclamation mark for times when writers want both. For example, "She did what?" or "How much did you pay for that dress?" Obviously, the interrobang is not widely used or recognized yet, but its invention shows that English is not yet finished with its punctuation. We can learn from the passage that _ . A) ancient Romans didn't use any punctuation marks B) exclamation and question marks came from Latin C) spaces and slashes were already used before the 5 thcentury D) Aldus Manutius first started to use commas
B

For many centuries,countless scholars have asked the question:What is beauty? As designers update the latest fashions and artists create their masterpieces, what is considered beautiful changes at an alarming pace. Fifty years ago,the full-figured Marilyn Monroe was a symbol of the American aesthetic value;today,many Hollywood actresses different in appearance from Marilyn's have taken her place. However,aesthetic values not only differ from generation to generation,but do so along cultural lines as well. Often, what is considered disgusting to one civilization is just the aesthetic appeal in another. Thus it is difficult to give an absolute definition of beauty. As fundamental physicists,my colleagues and I like to believe that we are involved in a search for a beauty that affects definition. The beauty that we search for is not what is set up through the work of people and subject to the tastes, but rather what has been laid down by nature Physics allows its students to look past outer appearances,into a deeper beauty. As a human being,I am attracted by the visual appeal of a wave crashing on the beach. As a physicist, however I am able to see the deeper beauty of the physical laws that govern such a phenomenon. In truth,since Albert Einstein put forward the idea that there might be one main physical theory that governs the universe,aesthetics have become a driving force in modern physics. Einstein and other later physicists have discovered that:Nature, as its most fundamental level,is beautifully constructed. The extraordinary simplicity of the laws that govern the universe is really breathtaking . As Einstein said, it would seem more likely that we should find ourselves living in a"chaotic world,in no way graspable through thinking". Yet we are now closer than ever to a full understanding of the universe's beautiful clockwork. As new discoveries and technologies allow us to examine the physical world on deeper and deeper levels,we find that the beauty itself becomes much deeper. The passage is mainly to _ . A) present a special way of seeing beauty B) emphasize the influence of physics C) discuss the awareness of cross-culture D) argue the traditional ideas on value
A

Roger Conner is a modern-day Horatio Alger hero. Roger started out as an unpaid worker in a small flower shop. He has become the owner of a florist company whose sales are well over $100 000 a year. One day when Roger was only twelve, he stopped at a local flower shop. He asked the owner if he could work for him, without pay, in order to learn the business. Roger started working every day after school and on weekends. After two years on the job, he finally asked for a small salary. The owners told him he "wasn't good enough to be paid." So he quit, and found a paying job at another local flower shop. He worked hard there, but after six months they _ because business was slow. Not discouraged, Roger decided to do it alone and started his own flower store in a basement in his town. He started his business with only sixty-five dollars. He bought old refrigerators at garage sales and knocked the shelves out. This turned them into coolers for his fresh-cut flowers. His business grew rapidly as he built up a reputation for top quality and fine service. In 1977, Roger bought out the flower store where he had worked without pay for over two years. The people who said he "wasn't good enough to be paid" were astonished to find that they were being taken over by a teenager. He had plans to renovate the whole store. One of the reasons the owners sold out to Roger was that the store wasn't doing well. But after Roger took over ownership and redid the store, business started booming. In fact, business was so good that after one year, he celebrated by buying out the other store where he had worked. Roger then combined both stores and moved to a location in the center of his town. The new store has 2 000 square feet and seven employees. And he did it all before he reached the age of twenty. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage? A) He worked for two years without pay. B) He needed luck to be successful. C) He opened his first flower business in a basement. D) He became successful before the age of twenty.
B

Unless you bring your own thermos, paper cups are the real option for on-the-go coffee. But as we all know, producing these simple items cuts down forests of trees and contributes to mountains of waste. In fact, Starbucks alone uses 4 billion paper cups a year globally and most of these plastic-lined cups are never recycled. But a project from Reduce. Reuse. Grow. is handling the coffee industry's paper cup problem by giving these single-use coffee holders a further purpose: reforestation. A company in California has developed the world's first plantable coffee cup, which has seeds in the paper-based material. That means after you're done with the cup, you can tear it, leave it in water for a few minutes, bury it and let nature take over. To prevent the spread of invasive plants, the bottom of the cup details the seed variety and also includes instructions on how to plant it either in the northern or central coast of California. For those who don't want to get their hands dirty, the cup can be put into a Reduce. Reuse. Grow bin where it will eventually be taken to a reforestation location. The cup can biodegrade within 180 days and offer nutrition to plants. The company is trying to put the cup into commercial production and persuade coffee shops to buy the cups. What is a Reduce. Reuse. Grow. bin used for? A) Selling plantable coffee cups. B) Making plantable coffee cups. C) Collecting plantable coffee cups. D) Recycling plantable coffee cups.
C