备考2019年高考英语二轮专题复习：任务型阅读（真题）

How Arts Promote Our Economy

    When most people think of the arts, they imagine the end product, the beautiful painting, a wonderful piece of music, or an award-winning performance in the theater. But arts groups bring broader value to our communities. The economic impact of the arts is often overlooked and badly judged.

    The arts create jobs that help develop the economy. Any given performance takes a tour bus full of artists, technical experts, managers, musicians, or writers to create an appealing piece of art. These people earn a living wage for their professional knowledge and skills.

    Another group of folks is needed to help market the event. "If you build it they will come" is a misleading belief. Painters, digital media experts, photographers, booking agents and promoters are hired to sell tickets and promote the event. According to the Dallas Area Cultural Advocacy Coalition, arts agencies employ more than 10,000 people as full-or part-time employees or independent contractors.

    A successful arts neighborhoods creates a ripple effect（连锁反应）throughout a community. In 2005, when the Bishop Arts Theatre was donated to our town, the location was considered a poor area of town. After investing more than $1 million in reconstructing the building, we began producing a full season of theater performances, jazz concerts, and year-round arts education programs in 2008. Nearly 40 percent of jazz lovers live outside of the Dallas city limits and drive or fly in to enjoy an evening in the Bishop Arts District.

    No doubt the theater has contributed to the area's development and economic growth. Today, there are galleries, studios, restaurants and newly built work spaces where neighbors share experiences, where there is renewed life and energy. In this way, arts and culture also serve as a public good.

    Teco Theatrical Productions Inc. made use of Bloomberg's investment of $35,000 to get nearly $400,000 in public and private sector support during the two-year period. Further, Dallas arts and arts-based businesses produce $298 for every dollar the city spends on arts programming and facilities. In Philadelphia, a metro area smaller than Dallas, the arts have an economic impact of almost $3 million and support 44,000 jobs, 80 percent of which actually lie outside the arts industry, including accountants, marketers, construction workers, hotel managers, printers, and other kinds of art workers.

    The arts are efficient economic drivers and when they are supported, the entire small-business community benefits.

    It is wrong to assume arts groups cannot make a profit. But in order to stay in business, arts groups must produce returns. If you are a student studying the arts, chances are you have been ill-advised to have a plan B. But those who truly understand the economic impact and can work to change the patterns can create a wide range of career possibilities.

Why Do We Get Angry?

    Anger seems simple when we are feeling it, but the causes of anger are various. Knowing these causes can make us examine our behavior, and correct bad habits. The main reasons we get angry are triggering（触发）events, personality traits（特征）, and our assessment of situations.

    Triggering events for anger are so many that to describe them all would take hundreds of pages. However, here are some examples: being cut off in traffic, a deadline approaching, experiencing physical pain, and much more. The reason why someone is triggered by something and others are not is often due to one's personal history and psychological traits.

    Each person, no matter who they are, has psychological imbalances. People who have personality traits that connect with competitiveness and low upset tolerance are much more likely to get angry.  Also, sometimes pre-anger does not have to do with a lasting condition, but rather a temporary state before a triggering event has occurred.

    Sometimes even routine occurrences become sources of pre-anger, or anger itself. Sometimes ignorance and negative (消极的) outlooks on situations can create anger.

    However, anger can easily turn violent, and it is best to know the reasons for anger to appear in order to prevent its presence. With these main reasons in mind, we can evaluate our level of anger throughout the day and prevent cases of outbursts by comprehending the reasons for our feelings.

A. Our attitude and viewpoint on situations can create anger within us as well.

B. But some types of situations can help us to get rid of the occurrence of anger.

C. Anger is rarely looked upon as a beneficial character trait, and is usually advised to reduce it.

D. Anger is a particularly strong feeling and maybe people think that they have reasons to feel angry.

E. Having these personality traits implies the pre-anger state, where anger is in the background of your mind.

F. Understanding these reasons will control our own anger if we are willing to evaluate ourselves with a critical eye.

G. Not everyone acts the same in response to events, and that is why what triggers one person may or may not trigger another.

    Some people live to climb the highest mountains. Some people live only dreaming about it while others live to avoid ever climbing at all. But one thing is certain, all people encounter mountains in their life.

    When I was a little girl, my family moved to a tiny town at the bottom of a big mountain. One day after school, while exploring the green woods of this magnificent mountain, I almost fell on a set of stairs. What could these steps lead to? Curiosity got the best of me as I knew it would be starting to get dark soon. I started climbing up those strangely mysterious steps.

    I climbed and climbed. There was nothing but just green bushes and these steps. I had to reach the top! But it was now getting real dark. If I kept going I might not be able to see my way back. My mom would be worried sick if I didn't come home soon. So I ran back home almost in the dark while trying not to get too scared.

    Anxiously I went to bed dreaming about what I would find at the top of this magical mountain. Could there be a castle up there? Maybe I would find a monster(怪物). Maybe I was taking the risk of never coming back home. Or, maybe all I would find was absolutely nothing! But something inside me was going to climb that mountain at all cost. I could hardly wait to try this adventure again.

    Now we live in a world surrounded by the "can't do" attitudes. We all fall down. We all have doubts and regrets. Still we must climb and dream about what's at the top of our mountain. Monsters may appear or the night will fall. But never ever give up on your dream! Never let anyone tell you, "You can't." Dream big and climb high!

    Moving into a new home in a new neighborhood is an exciting experience. Of course, you want to make sure that you become an accepted and valuable part of your new neighborhood. The easiest way to accomplish this is to make sure you conduct yourself as a good neighbor should.

    Perhaps one of the most important things you can do as a good neighbor is to keep your property(房产) neat, clean, and in good repair. By choosing to keep the outside of the home in great shape, you will help to improve the look and feel of the area.

    Second, take the overall appearance of the neighborhood seriously. When going for a walk. Take along a small garbage bag. This small act will let your neighbors know that you care about the area.

     If a neighbor is going to be out of town, offer to collect mail and newspapers. If a neighbor suffers an illness, offer to do the grocery shopping. Let them know you are there to help in any way this acceptable, while still respecting the privacy of your neighbor.

    By following the basic rules of respecting others, taking care of what belongs to you, and taking pride in the appearance of the neighborhood in general, you will quickly become a good neighbor that everyone appreciates.

    Before there was the written word, there was the language of dance. Dance expresses love and hate, joy and sorrow, life and death, and everything else in between.

    We dance from Florida to Alaska, from north to south and sea to sea. We dance at weddings, birthdays, office parties and just to fill the time.

    "I adore dancing," says Lester Bridges, the owner of a dance studio in Iowa. "I can't imagine doing anything else with my life." Bridges runs dance classes for all ages. "Teaching dance is wonderful. It's great to watch them. For many of them, it's a way of meeting people and having a social life."

    "I can tell you about one young couple," says Bridges. "They're learning to do traditional dances. They arrive at the class in low spirits and they leave with a smile. "

    So, do we dance in order to make ourselves feel better, calmer, healthier? Andrea Hillier says, "Dance, like the pattern of a beating heart, is life. Even after all these years, I want to get better and better. I find it hard to stop! Dancing reminds me I'm alive."

    If you are already making the time to exercise, it is good indeed! With such busy lives, it can be hard to try and find the time to work out. Working out in the morning provides additional benefits beyond being physically fit.

    ●Your productivity is improved. Exercising makes you more awake and ready to handle whatever is ahead of you for the day.

    ●Your metabolism(新陈代谢) gets a head start. If you work out in the mornings, then you will be getting the calorie(卡路里)burning benefits for the whole day, not in your sleep.

    ● Studies found that people who woke up early for exercise slept better than those who exercised in evening. Exercise energizes you, so it is more difficult to relax and have a peaceful sleep when you are very excited.

    ● If you work out bright and early in the morning, you will be more likely to stick to healthy food choices throughout the day. Who would want to ruin their good workout by eating junk food? You will want to continue to focus on positive choices.

    There are a lot of benefits to working out, especially in the mornings. Set your alarm clock an hour early and push yourself to work out! You will feel energized all day long.

    Color is fundamental in home design-something you'll always have in every room. A grasp of how to manage color in your spaces is one of the first steps to creating rooms you'll love to live in. Do you want a room that's full of life? Or are you just looking for a place to relax after a long day?, color is the key to making a room feel the way you want it to feel.

    Over the years, there have been a number of different techniques to help designers approach this important point., they can get a little complex. But good news is that there're really only three kinds of decisions you need to make about color in your home: the small ones, the medium ones, and the large ones.

    .They're the little spots of color like throw pillows, mirrors and baskets that most of us use to add visual interest to our rooms. Less tiring than painting your walls and less expensive than buying a colorful sofa, small color choices bring with them the significant benefit of being easily changeable.

    Medium color choices are generally furniture pieces such as sofas, dinner tables or bookshelves..They require a bigger commitment than smaller ones, and they have a more powerful effect on the feeling of a space.

    The large color decision in your rooms concern the walls, ceilings, and floors. Whether you're looking at wallpaper or paint, the time, effort and relative expense put into it are significant..

A. While all of them are useful

B. Whatever you're looking for

C. If you're experimenting with a color

D. Small color choices are the ones we're most familiar with

E. It's not really a good idea to use too many small color pieces

F. So it pays to be sure, because you want to get it right the first time

G. Color choices in this range are a step up from the small ones in two major ways

    Every animal sleeps,but the reason for this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month. 

    One idea is that sleep helps us strengthen new memories.  We  know that, while awake,fresh memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强)connections between brain cells, but the  memory processes that take place while we sleep  have been unclear.

    Support is growing for a theory that sleep evolved so that connections between neurons(神经元)in the brain can be weakened overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day. 

    Now we have the most direct evidence yet that he is right.  The synapses in the mice taken at the end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before sleep,showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.

If Tononi's theory is right, it would explain why, when we miss a night's, we find it harder the next day to concentrate and learn new information —our brains may have smaller room for new experiences.

    Their research also suggests how we may build lasting memories over time even though the synapscs become thinner. The team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same size.   “You keep what matters,” Tononi says.

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Population Change

    Why is the world's population growing？The answer is not what you might think. The reason for the explosion is not that people have been reproducing like rabbits, but that people have stopped dropping dead like flies. In 1900,people died at the average age of 30.By 2000 the average age was 65.But while increasing health was a typical feature of the 20^th century, declining birth rate could be a defining one of the 21^st.

     Statistics show that the average number of births per woman has fallen from 4.9 in the early 1960s to 2.5 nowadays. Furthermore, around 50% of the world's population live in regions where the figure is now below the replacement level(i.e.2.1 births per woman)and almost all developed nations are experiencing sub-replacement birth rate. You might think that developing nations would make up the loss(especially since80% of the world's people now live in such nations),but you'd be wrong, Declining birth rate is a major problem in many developing regions too, which might cause catastrophic global shortages of work force within a few decades.

     A great decline in young work force is likely to occur in China, for instance. What does it imply? First, China needs to undergo rapid economic development before a population decline hits the country. Second, if other factors such as technology remain constant, economic growth and material expectations will fall well below recent standards and this could invite trouble.

     Russia is another country with population problems that could break its economic promise. Since 1992 the number of people dying has been bigger than that of those being born by a massive 50%,Indeed official figures suggest the country has shrunk by 5% since 1993 and people in Russia live a shorter life now than those in 1961.Why is this occurring? Nobody is quite sure, but poor diet an above all long-time alcoholism have much to do with it. If current trends don't bend. Russia's population will be about the size of Yemen's by the year 2050.

     In the north of India, the population is booming due to high birth rates, but in the south, where most economic development is taking place, birth rate is falling rapidly. In a further twist, birth rate is highest in poorly educated rural areas and lowest in highly educated urban areas. In total,25% of India's working-age population has no education. In 2030,a sixth of the country's potential work force could be totally uneducated.

    One solution is obviously to import foreign workers via immigration. As for the USA, it is almost unique among developed nations in having a population that is expected to grow by 20% from 2010-2030,Moreover,the USA has a track record of successfully accepting immigrants. As a result it's likely to see a rise in the size of its working-age population and to witness strong economic growth over the longer term.

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How to Do Man-on-the-Street Interviews

    The man-on-the-street interview is an interview in which a reporter hits the streets with a cameraman to interview people on the sport. But with these tips, your first man-on-the-street interview experience can be easy.

    ● When your boss or professor sends you out to do man-on-the-street interviews for a story, think about the topic and develop a list of about ten general questions relating to it. For example, if your topic is about environmental problems in America, you might ask, “Why do you think environmental protection is important in America?”

    ● Hit the streets with confidence. Say, “Excuse me, I work for XYZ News, and I was wondering if you could share your opinion about this topic.” This is a quick way to get people to warm up to you.

    Move on to the next person if someone tells you she is not intereste

    Don't get discouraged.

    ● Each interview that you get on the street shouldn't be longer than ten minutes. As soon as you get the answer you need, move on to the next person. Make sure that as you go from interview to interview, you are getting a variety of answers. If everyone is giving you the same answer, you won't be able to use it. A safe number of interviews to conduct is about six to ten.

    ● If your news station or school requires interviewees to sign release forms to appear on the air, don't leave work without them.

    Lots of people find it hard to get up in the morning and put the blame on the alarm clock. In fact, the key to easy morning wake-up lies in resting your body clock Here is how to make one.

    ●  In order to make a change, you need to decide why it's important. Do you want to get up in time to have breakfast with your family, get in some exercise, or just be better prepared for your day? Once you are clear about your reason, tell your family or roommates about the change you want to make.

    ● Rethink mornings. Now that you know why you want to wake up, consider re-arranging your morning activities. If you want time to have breakfast with your family, save some time the night before by setting out clothes, shoes, and bags.That's a quarter-hour more you could be sleeping if you bought a coffee maker with a timer.

    ● Keep your sleep/wake schedule on weekends. If you're tired out by Friday night, sleeping in on Saturday could sound wonderful. But compensating on the weekends actually feeds into your sleepiness the following week, a recent study found.

    ● Keep a record and evaluate it weekly. Keep track of your efforts and write down how you feel. After you've tried a new method for a week, take a look at your record.If not, take another look at other methods you could try.

    Interruptions are one of the worst things to deal with while you're trying to get work done. , there are several ways to handle things. Let's take a look at them now.

    .Tell the person you're sorry and explain that you have a million things to do and then ask if the two of you can talk at a different time.

    When people try to interrupt you, have set hours planned and let them know to come back during that time or that you'll find them then.. It can help to eliminate(消除) future interruptions.

    When you need to someone,don't do it in your own office. ， it's much easeier to excuse yourself to get back to your work than if you try to get someone out of your space even after explaining how busy you are

     If you have a door to your office, make good use of it. . If someone knocks and it's not an important matter，excuse yourself and let the person know you're busy so they can get the hint(暗示) that when the door is closed, you're not to be disturbed.

    If anyone had told me three years ago that I would be spending most of my weekends camping. I would have laughed heartily. Campers, in my eyes, were people who enjoyed insects bites, ill-cooked meals, and uncomfortable sleeping bags. They had nothing in common with me. .

The friends who introduced me to camping thought that it meant to be a pioneer. We sleep in a tent, cooked over an open fire, and walked a long distance to take the shower and use the bathroom. This brief visit with Mother Nature cost me two days off from work, recovering from a bad case of sunburn and the doctor's bill for my son's food poisoning.

    I was, nevertheless, talked into going on another fun-filled holiday in the wilderness.    Instead, we had a pop-up camper with comfortable beds and an air conditioner. My nature-loving friends had remembered to bring all the necessities of life.

     We have done a lot of it since. Recently, we bought a twenty-eight-foot travel trailer complete with a bathroom and a built-in TV set. There is a separate bedroom, a modern kitchen with a refrigerator. The trailer even has matching carpet and curtains.

     It must be true that sooner or later, everyone finds his or her way back to nature. I recommend that you find your way in style.

    In the years of my growing up, Dad was strict with me. He made sure I made my bed and did my homework. He would call in advance to make sure there was no alcohol at the party. I got so angry with him for laying down the law. I would scream, “ I hate you!” Dad would yell back, “Good! I don't care!” Deep down I knew he did.

    One time at a party, I drank too much alcohol and got so sick. I said, “ Call my dad.” Next thing, Dad was carrying me to the car. I woke up the next morning, thinking I would definitely be criticised. As expected, I got a roasting, but I now understand why I need discipline.

    Dad was 29 when he got his big roles in films. I had an early start at the age of nine with a role in a 1990s TV series, but it wasn't until I finished film studies that I pursued my career as an actress. Like those early days for Dad, I faced lots of rejections. Working in such a competitive industry, I've sometimes thought, “ I can't do this any more.”

    Once, after a trip to Hollywood, I returned to Australia so depressed and spent months in my bedroom painting, listening to Eckhart Tolle's music and trying to find myself again. Dad sat me down and said,“Alice, I know it's hard, but it's all about persistence(坚持不懈).”

    Now I get to work with Dad a lot, which I love. We both passionate about acting, which comes from us being so interested in people. If it weren't for Dad, I wouldn't be where I am today. He's my biggest fan, and when you have that in your life you can go a long way.