Why People Get Tattoos

Jack lay, quiet and unmoving for thirty minutes while a stranger repeatedly stabbed (刺) him with sharp needles, causing blood to pour steadily out of his leg. Jack was getting a tattoo. His friend Tony had recently gotten a tattoo, and Jack was so impressed by it that he decided to get one too. Peer pressure, media influence, and personal expression are some of the common reasons for wearing tattoos today.

The desire to be accepted by one’s friends or peers can have a great influence on what a person does. Sometimes, wearing a tattoo can be a sign that you belong to a certain group. Gangs often use special clothes and tattoos to identify their particular group. Some of these groups wear only brand – name clothes. Others wear tattoos. When a person’s friends are all doing something, that person is more likely to do the same thing.

The media is another big influence behind the popularity of tattoos in North America. A wide variety of media images(人物，圖像) show tattoos－people appearing in commercials selling expensive cars, famous sports heroes with tattoos in magazines, fashion models wearing designer clothes that show their bodies tattooed with detailed and colourful patterns. These media images link tattoos to ideas of wealth, success, and status. As a result, many people decide to get a tattoo for its fashion and status value.

Many people decide to wear tattoos in order to express their artistic nature, their beliefs, or their feelings－in other words, to show their individuality(個(gè)性). A musician in a rock band may get a tattoo of a guitar on the arm. Some environmentalists may tattoo pictures of endangered animals on their shoulders. A tattoo can be a public sign to show what is important in a person's life.

As you can see, there are many reasons why young North Americans get tattoos. A tattoo can be part of a group's uniform, a sign of fashion or an expression of individuality. The decision to get a tattoo is most often a result of the influence of friends or media or the desire to express oneself. For Jack, it was a mixture of all three.

72. Jack has got tattoos in order to           .

      A. show his great bravery      B. gain a special experience

       C. make himself more healthy      D. be different from others

73. According to the passage, media images are linked to         .

       A. traditional lifestyle                   B. social position

       C. cultural background   D. public interest 

74. We can infer from the passage that          .

       A. some people get tattoos out of pressure   

       B. tattoo is related to religious belief

       C. getting tattoos costs a lot of money 

       D. most people with tattoos are artists

75. Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?

CP: Central Point     P: Point     Sp: Sub – point (次要點(diǎn))   C: Conclusion

All but_______ going to spend the holiday in the country.

A . him and I are         B. I and he is       C. him and me am       D. he and I are

---Mr. Parker is so ambitious. He is seeking any opportunity to get promoted.

   ---That’s understandable.       you are in our company determines how well you are paid and       you can do with your life.

       A．Who; that B．How; what       C．What; that D．Where; what

It was so dark in the cinema that I could hardly      my friend.

       A．turn out    B．bring out  C．call out     D．pick out

-- Why do you look so worried?

   -- My computer broke down and my essay _____ since.

A. has been left unfinished                    B. has left to finish 

C. was left to finish                         D. had been left unfinished

Passengers, don’t occupy the chairs with your luggage,        ?

       A．don’t you B．will they   C．don’t they D．will you

We invite you to join us this summer for the First ePals Conferencel

    Dear ePals Community Member, ePals will hold its first conference

for tech directors and teachers on Tuesday, July 15, in Boston. Our one-day

event is a pre-conference of Alan.

November’s Building Learning Commurities 2008 Conference.

Come see how ePals, the Internet’s largest social learning network, can

transform your classroom,

school and district with our award-winning, safe and protected School

M@ilTM and SchoolBlogTM

offered at no cost.

ePals team members, expert teachers and instructional technology directors will share their

experiences using the ePals Global Community to build 21st Century skills in the classroom.

Among the speakers are:

??       Tim DiScipio, co-founder of ePals, sharing the vision for global collaboration and corporate partnerships with National Geographic, the classmate PC powered by Intel, and the XO from One Laptop Per Child

??       Dr. Kari Stubbs on "ePals 101: Where and How to Start Using Global Collaborative Tools in Project-based Learning." Dr. Stubbs led the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) initiative in Kansas before joining ePals as director of professional development.

??       Dr. Rita Oates on "Accomplishing the New NETS Standards for Students with ePals Tools and Activities." Dr. Oates formerly was in charge of ed tech in Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

??       Dr. Laurie Henry, University of Kentucky, talking about literacy(讀寫能力) issues in the online world

??       Dr. Shelia Gersh, City Colleges of New York, sharing her ePals project as an example of a successful 21st century online educational experience

??       Carol Bar, teacher at Blue Valley High School(KS), "Blogging for Language Acquisition"

??       Adina Popa, teacher at Potowmack Elementary (VA), will speak about schoolwide use of ePals and video conferencing to other classrooms

??       Several district tech directors talking about best practices in implementation(安裝) and use in their districts for safe and protected student email and blogs

??       Other classroom teachers sharing their experiences for instructional success in the online community and using free, safe and protected online tools from ePals

Register and get more information at www.epals.com/conference

The letter is written to _______.

         A．a(chǎn)ttract more customers

         B．a(chǎn)nswer readers’ questions

         C．inform related people of a conference

         D．recommend some teachers

From the text we can learn that ______.

         A．the July 15 conference is just a pre-conference

         B．the July 15 conference will last till November

         C．BLC08 will be set up at the July 15 conference

         D．the BLC08 Conference will be held this summer

________ will talk about his/her experiences in using the ePals and video conference in classrooms at school.

         A．Tim DiScipio              B．Dr. Laurie Henry      

         C．Adina Popa                      D．A tech director

It can be inferred from the text that ePals here _______.

         A．refer to those who keep in touch with each other through email

         B．is in fact a software for online language study

         C．is an expensive tool for language learners on the Internet

         D．refer to all the language teachers who globally communicate with each other

Flexible working hours, homeworking opportunities and cover for emergencies or school holidays are the top concerns for working mothers, according to a British survey on Thursday.

    The survey of 1,677 people by specialist employment advice website workingmums.co.uk showed that despite a tougher job climate, in which redundancies(裁員) had risen dramatically during the crisis, mothers demanded for a more flexible schedule.

    Flexible hours for full-time jobs came top of the list for 85 percent of respondents who were asked what they thought made for a family-friendly employer. That came just ahead of homeworking opportunities.

   “Flexibility is really key and able to help achieve an element of work/life balance,” workingmums.co.uk founder Gillian Nissim told reporters.

She said the crisis had not reduced the urgency of this issue for working mums and that employers who want to be prepared for the eventual upturn would do well to listen to them rather than risk losing them to more forward-thinking rivals.

    Many women said they had considered setting up their own business as a way around the flexibility problem and nearly half (45 percent) of respondents said they had looked into it.

    Nissim said the workingmums.co.uk database alone showed that on average working mums have more than 15 years of work experience and a range of valuable skills picked up in the workplace and from their parenting experiences.

    “So the benefits to employers of being able to accommodate (適應(yīng)) a degree of flexibility is significant,” she said.

Part-time work, flexibility around emergency cover or school holidays were the next highest concerns with extended maternity （產(chǎn)假） pay as well on the list of concerns.More than half (54 percent) of respondents said they would accept a less well-paid job in return for flexibility, with 40 percent prepared to consider this option.

The passage mainly discuss the problem of _______.

A. working mothers requiring flexible working hours.

B. working mothers planning to set up their own businesses.

C. well-paid jobs.

D. unemployment at the time of financial crisis.

Flexibility of working hours can help women _______.

A. to have an extended maternity.

B. to have opportunities to operate their own companies.

C. to strike a balance between work and life.

D. to pick up a range of valuable skills.

It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _____.

A. 40 percent of the respondents are ready to have less-paid jobs instead of full-time jobs.

B. more than half of the respondents would accept a less well-paid job if they were given a job of flexible hours.

C. the highest concern of working mums is about part-time work.

D. women were more concerned about extended maternity pay than school holidays.

If you are the editor of a newspaper, which column will you fit this article in?

   A. Advertisements.  B. People.    C. Education.   D. Career.

---Jason, you need to refresh yourself with a cup of coffee.

  --- Yeah, I went to bed very late last night, _______, early this morning.

  A, rather than    B. what’s more    C. or rather   D. what’s worse

Please tell me the way you thought of ________ the garden.

A. take care of     B. to take care of    C. taking care of     D. to take care