2013届高三英语星级阶梯阅读练习 三星级 15
A
When milk arrived on the doorstep
When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our doorstep. His name was Mr. Basille. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.
Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change our order, my mother would pen a note --- “Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery” --- and place it in the box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically appear.
All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and their milkmen. Mr. Basille even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn’t freeze. And I remember Mr. Basille from time to time taking a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.
There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk, thus making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have been practical to have a delivery service.
Recently, an old milk box in the countryside I saw brought back my childhood memories. I took it home and planted it on the back porch (门廊). Every so often my son’s friends will ask what it is. So I start telling stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.
56. Mr Basille gave the boy a quarter out of his coin changer ________.
A. to show his magical power B. to pay for the delivery
C. to satisfy his curiosity D. to please his mother
57. What can be inferred from the fact that the milkman had the key to the boy’s house?
A. He wanted to have tea there. B. He was a respectable person.
C. He was treated as a family member. D. He was fully trusted by the family.
58. Why does home milk delivery no longer exist?
A. Nobody wants to be a milkman now. B. It has been driven out of the market.
C. Its service is getting poor. D. It is forbidden by law.
59. Why did the author bring back home an old milk box?
A. He missed the good old days. B. He wanted to tell interesting stories.
C. He missed it for his milk bottles. D. He planted flowers in it.
B
An idea that started in Seattle’s public library has spread throughout America and beyond. The concept is simple: help to build a sense of community in a city by getting everyone to read the same book at the same time.
In addition to encouraging reading as a pursuit (追求) to be enjoyed by all, the program allows strangers to communicate by discussing the book on the bus, as well as promoting reading as an experience to be shared in families and schools. The idea came from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl who launched (发起) the “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” project in 1998. Her original program used author visits, study guides and book discussion groups to bring people together with a book, but the idea has since expanded to many other American cities, and even to Hong Kong.
In Chicago, the mayor (市长) appeared on television to announce the choice of To Kill a Mockingbird as the first book in the “One Book, One Chicago” program. As a result, reading clubs and neighborhood groups sprang up around the city. Across the US, stories emerged of parents and children reading to each other at night and strangers chatting away on the bus about plot and character.
The only problem arose in New York, where local readers could not decide on one book to represent the huge and diverse population. This may show that the idea works best in medium-sized cities or large towns, where a greater sense of unity (一致) can be achieved. Or it may show that New Yorkers rather missed the point, putting all their energy and passion into the choice of the book rather than discussion about a book itself.
Ultimately (最后) , as Nancy points out, the level of success is not measured by how many people read a book, but by how many people are enriched by the process, or have enjoyed speaking to someone with whom they would not otherwise have shared a word.
60. What is the purpose of the project launched by Nancy?
A. To invite authors to guide readers. B. To encourage people to read and share.
C. To involve people in community service. D. To promote the friendship between cities.
61. According to the passage, where would the project be more easily carried out?
A. In large communities with little sense of unity.
B. In large cities where libraries are far from home.
C. In medium-sized cities with a diverse population.
D. In large towns where agreement can be quickly reached.
62. The underlined words “shared a word” in Paragraph 5 probably mean ________.
A. exchanged ideas with each other B. discussed the meaning of a word
C. gained life experience D. used the same language
63. According to Nancy, the degree of students of the project is judged by ________.
A. the careful selection of a proper book B. the growing popularity of the writers
C. the number of people who benefit from reading
D. the number of books that each person reads
C
In?business, there is a speed difference: It’s the difference between how important a firm’s leaders say speed is to their competitive (竞争的) strategy (策略) and how fast the company actually moves. The difference is important regardless of industry and company size. Companies fearful of losing their competitive advantage spend much time and money looking for ways to pick up the speed.
In our study of 343 businesses, the companies that chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating incomes than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What’s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating incomes over a three-year period.
How did they disobey the laws of business physics, taking more time than competitors yet performing better? They thought differently about what “slower” and “faster” mean. Firms sometimes fail to understand the difference between operational speed (moving quickly) and strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value). Simply increasing the speed of production, for example, may be one way to try to reduce the speed difference. But that often leads to reduced value over time, in the form of lower-quality products and services.
In our study, higher-performing companies with strategic speed always made changes when necessary. They became more open to ideas and discussion. They encouraged new ways of thinking. And they allowed time to look back and learn. By contrast (相比而言), performance suffered at firms that moved fast all the time, paid too much attention to improve efficiency, stuck to tested methods, didn’t develop team spirit among their employee, and had little time thinking about changes.
Strategic speed serves as a kind of leadership. Teams that regularly take time to get things right, rather than plough ahead full bore, are more successful in meeting their business goals. That kind of strategy must come from the top.
64. The underlined part “the laws of business physics” in Paragraph 3 means _________.
A. spending more time and performing worse B. spending more time and performing better
C. spending less time and performing worse D. spending less time and performing better
65. What can we learn from the text?
A. How fast a firm moves depends on how big it is.
B. How competitive a firm is depends on what it produces.
C. Firms guided by strategic speed take time to make necessary changes.
D. Firms guided by operational speed take time to develop necessary team spirit.
66. Where could be the best title for the text?
A. Improve quality? Serve better B. Deliver value? Plough ahead
C. Reduce time? Move faster D. Need speed? Slow down
D
“Experience may possibly be the best teacher, but it is not a particularly good teacher.” You might think that Winston Churchill or perhaps Mark Twain spoke those words, but they actually come from James March, a professor at Stanford University and a pioneer in the field of organizational decision making. For years March (possibly be wisest philosopher of management) has studied how humans think and act, and he continues to do so in his new book The Ambiguities of Experience.
He begins by reminding us of just how firmly we have been sticking to the idea of experiential learning: “Experience is respected；experience is sought；experience is explained.” The problem is that learning from experience involves (涉及) serious complications (复杂化), ones that are part of the nature of experience itself and which March discusses in the body of this book.
In one interesting part of book, for example, he turns a doubtful eye toward the use of stories as the most effective way of experiential learning. In our efforts to make stories interesting, he argues, we lose part of the complicated truth of things. He says “The more accurately (精确地) reality is presented, the less understandable the story, and the more understandable the story, the less realistic it is.”
Besides being a broadly knowledgeable researcher, March is also a poet, and his gift shines through in the depth of views he offers and the simple language he uses. Though the book is short, it is demanding: Don’t pick it up looking for quick, easy lessons. Rather, be ready to think deeply about learning from experience in work and life.
67. According to the text, James March is ________.
A. a poet who uses experience in his writing
B. a teacher who teachers story writing in university
C. a researcher who studies the way humans think and act
D. a professor who helps organizations make important decisions
68. According to James March, experience ________.
A. is overvalued B. is easy to explain
C. should be actively sought D. should be highly respected
69. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?
A. Experience makes stories more accurate.
B. Stories made interesting fail to fully present the truth.
C. The use of stories is the best way of experiential learning.
D. Stories are easier to understand when reality is more accurately described.
70. What’s the purpose of this text?
A. To introduce a book. B. To describe a researcher.
C. To explain experiential learning. D. To discuss organizational decision making
56. C 57. D 58. B 59. A 60. B
61. D 62. A 63. C 64. D 65. C
66. D 67. C 68. A 69. B 70. A
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