C

Parties and social gatherings no longer excite us the same way they once did. This is not due to a lack of desire to socialize, but the smartphone.

At parties, more people are on their smartphones than on their drinks. According to a recent International Data Corporation study, well over half of all Americans have a smartphone and reach for it the moment they wake up, keeping it in hand all day. In addition, too much of society is using smartphones while driving and as a result getting into car crashes. 34 percent of teens admit to text while driving, and they confirm that text messaging is their number one driving interruption. People's attachment to their smartphones is unbelievably becoming more important than the lives of themselves and others.

Just as drivers dismiss the importance of focusing while on the road, many people also fail to recognize the significance of human interaction. When with their friends, some people pointlessly check or send text messages in the presence of a friend, which sends a message to that friend: the person I am texting is more important than you. In addition, relying on our smartphone to make friends does not give us the same advantage as being able to make new friendships in the real world. Face-to-face conversations will give us much stronger communication skills in the long run.

As many people risk their lives and the lives of people around them just to send a text or mindlessly check their massages, smartphones are in many ways more dangerous to people. The quality of this technology is de-advancing societal achievements and weakening the value of communication. Not only is the smartphone affecting our desire to interact (交流) face-to-face but it is also lowering society's ability to communicate.

68. The purpose of this text is to ______.

A. call for an end to use the smartphone while driving

B. appeal to us to pay attention to communication skills

C. express concern about the overuse of the smartphone

D. advise us to be cautious about the addiction to the smartphone

69. The second paragraph is developed by ______.

A. giving examples         B. listing figures  

C. comparing facts            D. analyzing the effects

70. The author advocates us to make new friends ______.

A. by using smartphones B. in a face-to-face way

C. in different ways D. under a free circumstance

71. Over dependence on the smartphone leads to the fact that ______.

A. parties and gatherings limit their social circle

B. people are more and more narrow-minded

C. people's communication skills are weakened

D. face-to-face communication becomes less important

 

D

     Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson River must remember the Catskill Mountains. They are a branch of the great Appalachian family, and can be seen to the west rising up to a noble height and towering over the surrounding country. When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their beautiful shapes on the clear evening sky, but sometimes when it is cloudless, gray steam gathers around the top of the mountains which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will shine and light up like a crown of glory.

     At the foot of these mountains, a traveler may see light smoke going up from a village.

     In that village, and in one of the houses (which, to tell the exact truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten), there lived many years ago, a simple, good-natured fellow by the name of Rip Van Winkle.

     Rip's great weakness was a natural dislike of all kinds of money-making labor. It could not be from lack of diligence, for he could sit all day on a wet rock and fish without saying a word, even though he was not encouraged by a single bite. He would carry a gun on his shoulder for hours, walking through woods and fields to shoot a few birds or squirrels. He would never refuse to help a neighbor, even in the roughest work. The women of the village, too, used to employ him to do such little jobs as their less helpful husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip was ready to attend to everybody's business but his own.

      If left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect satisfaction; but his wife was always mad at him for his idleness (懶散). Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was endlessly going, so that he was forced to escape to the outside of the house -- the only side which, in truth, belongs to a henpecked husband.

68. Which of the following best describes the Catskill Mountains?

   A. They are on the west of the Hudson River.

   B. They are very high and beautiful in this area.

   C. They can be seen from the Appalachian family.

   D. They gather beautiful clouds in blue and purple.

69. The hero of the story is probably_____________.

A. hard-working and likes all kinds of work

B. idle and hates all kinds of jobs

C. simple, idle but very dutiful

D. gentle, helpful but a little idle

70. The underlined words "henpecked husband" in the last paragraph probably means

   a man who          .

   A. likes hunting       B. is afraid of hens

   C. loves his wife      D. is afraid of his wife

71. What would be the best title for the text?

   A. Catskill Mountains.    B. A Mountain Village.

   C. Rip Van Winkle.       D. A Dutiful Husband.