A woman from Japan ，who had visited major businesses and investment companies in New York City ，was telling a friend about her trip to the US．"I studied English before I left home．But I still was not sure that people were speaking English."

Her problem is easy to understand．Americans in business are like people who are in business anywhere．They have a language of their own．Some of the words and expressions deal with the special areas of their work．Other expressions are borrowed from different kinds of work such as the theater and movie industry.

One such saying is get your act together.

When things go wrong in a business, an employer may get angry．He may shout, "Stop making mistakes．Get your act together."

Or, if the employer is calmer, he may say, "Let us get our act together."

Either way, the meaning is the same．Getting your act together is getting organized．In business, it usually means to develop a calm and orderly plan of action.

It is difficult to tell exactly where the saying began．Perhaps one of the actors was nervous and made a lot of mistakes．The director may have said, "Calm down, now．Get your act together."

Word expert James Rogers says the expression was common by the late 1970s．He says the Manchester Guardian newspaper used it in 1978．The newspaper said a reform policy required that the British government get its act together.

Now, this expression is heard often when officials of a company meet．One company even called its yearly report, "Getting Our Act Together."

1．Paragraph1 is written mainly to _______

　 A．tell us the Japanese woman’s English is poor

　 B．lead to the subject in the whole passage

　 C．tell us it is important to grasp spoken English

　 D．tell us traveling in the US is very difficult

2．The reason why the woman was not sure that people were speaking English was that ______

　 A．they speak too fast to follow

　 B．they didn’t want the woman to learn their experience

　 C．they have some special words and expressions of their own in their field .

　 D．they are from theater and movie industry

3．The saying “ get your act together” in Paragraph 4 means _______

　 A．Don’t do that again 　　　 B．You are dismissed

　 C．Calm down 　　　　　　　　　 D．Get organized

4．We can infer that the saying “get your act together.” ________

　 A．began from movie industry.

　 B．was created by Word expert James Rogers in the 1970s

　 C．is used commonly in businesses and investment companies at present

　 D．was first used by the Manchester Guardian newspaper

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科目：高中英語 來源：2014屆遼寧瓦房店高級(jí)中學(xué)高三10月月考英語卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Betty Friedan, born in 1921 in Peoria, Illinois, attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She finished her studies in psychology in 1942. After college she attended the University of California at Berkeley to continue her studies. Later, she moved to New York City and worked as a reporter and editor for labor union newspapers.

In 1947, Betty married Carl Friedan. They had a child, the first of three. When Betty Friedan became pregnant for the second time, she was dismissed from her job at the newspaper. After that she worked as an independent reporter for magazines. But her editors often rejected her attempts to write about subjects outside the traditional interests of w omen.

In 1966, Betty Friedan helped found NOW, the National Organization for Women. She served as its first president. She led campaigns to end unfair treatment of women seeking jobs. She wanted women to take part in social and political change. Betty Friedan led a huge demonstration(游行) in New York City for women’s rights. Demonstrations were also held in other cities.

In 1981, Betty Friedan wrote a book called “The Second Stage” about the condition of the women’s movement. Friedan wrote that the time for huge demonstrations and other such events had passed. She urged the movement to try to increase its influence on American political life. Some younger members of the movement criticized her as too conservative.

Betty Friedan died on February 4, 2006. She was considered the mother of modern women’s liberation movement. Betty Friedan once told a television reporter how she wanted to be remembered: “She helps make women feel better about being women.”

1.According to Paragraph 2, Betty lost her job because         .

A. she was pregnant                                                 B. she got married

C. her editors didn’t like her                                           D. she was too independent

2.Betty led a huge demonstration to           .

A. fight against the government

B. fight for women’s rights

C. take part in political life

D. get support from the government

3.The book“The Second Stage”            .

A. was popular among young women readers

B. thought highly of those huge demonstrations

C. was about the condition of the women’s movement then

D. decreased the movement’s influence on American political life

4.Fr om the last paragraph, we know that         .

A. Betty help ed women live better

B. Betty wanted to be remembered forever

C. Betty thought it better to be a woman

D. the television reporter knew Betty well

 

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