A
If you can read a clock, you can know the time of the day. But no one knows what time itself is. One way to think about time is to imagine a world without time. But there could be no movement, because time and movement cannot be separated.
In early human history, the only changes that seemed to repeat themselves evenly were the movements of objects in the sky. The most easily seen result of these movements was the difference between light and darkness. The sun rises in the eastern sky, producing light. It moves across the sky and sinks in the west, causing darkness. The appearance and disappearance of the sun was even and unfailing. The periods of light and darkness it created were the first accepted periods of time. We have named each period of light and darkness one day. People saw the sun rise higher in the sky during the summer than in winter. They counted the days that passed from the sun’s highest position until it returned to that position. They counted 365 days. We now know that is the time Earth takes to move once around the sun. We call this period of time a year.
They also developed a way to use the changing faces of the moon to tell time. The moon was “full” when its face was bright and round. The early humans counted the number of times the sun appeared between full moons. They learned that this number always remained the same---about 29 suns. We now know this period of time as one month.
Early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants. They moved in groups or tribes form place to place in search of good. Then, people learned to plant seeds and grow crops. As hunters, people did not need a way to measure time. As farmers, however, they had to plant crops in time to harvest them before winter. They had to know when the seasons would change. So, they developed calendars.
No one knows when the first calendar was developed. But it seems possible that it was based on moons, or lunar months.
1. The underlined word “unfailing” (in para.2) is closest in meaning to “_______”.
A. reliable B. everlasting C. limited D. changing
2. Which of the following is NOT the method early people used to tell time?
A. Sun position B. Sun lightness C. Moon shape D. Planting crops
3. Why did people invent the first calendar to measure time?
A. Because early humans hunted animals and gathered wild plants.
B. Because early farmers had to grow and harvest crops in time.
C. Because early people had to search for food in groups.
D. Because early humans moved in groups or tribes from place to place.
4. Which of the following is TRUE?
A. Why early people developed calendars is not clear
B. When the first calendar was developed remains unknown.
C. What early people based the first calendar on is certain.
D. How early people counted a day is still unknown.
5. It can be concluded from the text that ______.
A. time and movement are loosely related even at present days
B. the light and darkness differences of the sun were the only movements in sky
C. the period of twenty-nine suns is called one month
D. early humans first accepted periods of time created by the moon.
B
I've been writing for most of my life. The book Writing Without Teachers introduced me to one distinction and one practice that has helped my writing processes greatly. The distinction is between the creative mind and the critical mind. While you need to employ both to get to a finished result, they cannot work in parallel no matter how much we might like to think so.
Trying to criticize writing on the fly is possibly the single greatest barrier to writing that most of us meet with. If you are listening to that 5th grade English teacher correct your grammar while you are trying to seize a fleeting(稍纵即逝的) thought, the thought will die. If you capture the fleeting thought and simply share it with the world in raw form, no one is likely to understand. You must learn to create first and then criticize if you want to make writing the tool for thinking that it is.
The practice that can help you pass your learned bad habits of trying to edit as you write is what Elbow calls “free writing”. In free writing, the objective is to get words down on paper non-stop, usually for 15-20 minutes. No stopping, no going back, no criticizing. The goal is to get the words flowing. As the words begin to flow, the ideas will come from the shadows and let themselves be captured on your notepad or your screen.
Now you have raw materials that you can begin to work with using the critical mind that you've persuaded to sit on the side and watch quietly. Most likely, you will believe that this will take more time than you actually have and you will end up staring blankly at the pages as the deadline draws near.
Instead of staring at a blank screen start filling it with words no matter how bad. Halfway through your available time, stop and rework your raw writing into something closer to finished product. Move back and forth until you run out of time and the final result will most likely be far better than your current practices.
6. When the author says the creative mind and the critical mind “cannot work in parallel” (Line 4, Para. 1) in the writing process, he means ________.
A. no one can be both creative and critical
B. they cannot be regarded as equally important
C. they are in constant conflict with each other
D. one cannot use them at the same time
7. What prevents people from writing on is ________.
A. putting their ideas in raw form
B. attempting to edit as they write
C. ignoring grammatical soundness
D. trying to capture fleeting thoughts
8. What is the chief objective of the first stage of writing?
A. To organize one's thoughts logically. B. To choose an appropriate topic.
C. To get one's ideas down. D. To collect raw materials.
9. One common concern of writers about “free writing” is that ________.
A. it overstresses the role of the creative mind
B. it takes too much time to edit afterwards
C. it may bring about too much criticism
D. it does not help them to think clearly
10. What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. It introduces the author’s writing method.
B. It tells us something about the creative mind.
C. It stresses the importance of critical mind.
D. It shows the difficulties to write on the fly.
参考答案：
1-5 BDBBC 6-10 DBCBA
Only in that way can we benefit from them.
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