After the Summer Olympics are over, when all the athletics have gone home and the television audience has switched off, another group of athletics and fans will arrive at the host city, and another competition will begin. These are the Paralympics, the games for athletes with a disability. But in Beijing in 2008, for the first time, one of the greatest Paralympics will not be taking part.
She is a British athlete by the name of Tanni Grey-Thormpson. Born with spine hifida (脊椎裂) which left her paralysed from the waist down. Tanni used a wheelchair from the age of 7. at first, she was not keen on sport, apart from horse-riding, which gave her a sense of freedom. But in her teens, she started taking sports more seriously. She tried swimming, basketball and tennis. Eventually she found athletics, and never looked back.
Indeed, Tanni's athletic career took off. In 1984, when she was 15, she pulled off a surprise victory in the 100metres at the Junior National Wheelchair Games.
In 1988, Tanni went to her first Paralympic Games in Seoul. She won bronze in the 400 metres. Even greater success followed at the 1992 Barcelona. Paralympics. Tanni won gold in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres relay, setting two world records in the process. In the same year she achieved she first of her six London Wheelchair Marathon victories.
Tanni's enduring success had been part motivation(动机), part preparation, "The training I do that enables me to be a good sprinter(短跑运动员) enables me to be good at a marathon too. I train 50 weeks of the year and that keeps me prepared for whatever distance I want to race…. I am still competing at a very high lever, but as I get older things get harder and I want to retire before I fall apart."
Indeed Tanni retired finally after the Visa Paralympic World Cup in 2007. Her wish is to coach young athletes for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
In spite of ups and downs, she never take her fate lying down. In her splendid life, she has won an amazing eleven gold medals, four silvers and one bronze in series of Paralympics- a top lever athletic career covering two decades. She has won the London Wheelchair Marathon six times, more than any other competitor, and she has set over thirty world records.
What advice does she have for young athletes? "Work hard at your studies, and then train, train and train again."
| 1． |
Which of the following sports did Tanni like before thirteen?
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| 2． |
When did Tanni win her first Olympic gold medal?
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| 3． |
The underlined word "that" in the 5th paragraph refers to.
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| 4． |
What's the right order of the events related to Tanni? a. She works as a coach. b. She took up athletics.
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| 5． |
What can we learn from Tanni's success?
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For those who are tired of doing the laundry, Samsung has found an answer: a washing machine that can tell you when your laundry is done via a smartphone app (application).
Strange though it may seem — "my wife already does that" was a common response among attendees viewing the device when it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week — Samsung is just one of many appliance makers racing to install a large number of internet-connected features in machines in an effort to make them "smart".
Last year, it was a refrigerator that tweeted. This year, it's Wi-Fi-enabled laundry machines and fridges that can tell you when your groceries are going bad.
The washers and dryers, available starting in the spring, connect to any smartphone through a downloadable application. The phone can then be used as a remote control, so the machines can be turned on and off while their owner is at work or on the bus.
Samsung says it's not just something new — the app connection actually has some practical uses.
"If you started to dry clothes in the morning and forgot to take them out, you can go to your phone and restart your dryer for the time when come home, so your clothes are refreshed and ready to go." said spokesperson Amy Schmidt.
The company also says that with electricity rate (电价) varying depending on the time of day, more control over when the machines are used can help save money.
Perhaps, but what they will probably really accomplish is what all good technologies do — enable laziness. Rather than getting up to check on whether the laundry is done, users will instead monitor it on their phones while watching TV. What can be inferred from the common response of the attendees at the CES?
| A．The machine will be a big success. |
| B．their wives like doing the laundry. |
| C．The machine is unrelated to their life. |
| D．This kind of technology is familiar to them. |
We can conclude from Samsung's statements that ________.
| A．the app connection makes life easier |
| B．it is better to dry clothes in the morning |
| C．smartphone can shorten the drying time |
| D．we should refresh clothes back at home |
What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
| A．The laundry should be frequently checked |
| B．Lazy people like using such machines |
| C．Good technologies also cause problems |
| D．Television may help do the laundry |
It is easy for us to tell our friends from our enemies. But can other animals do the same? Elephants can! They can use their sense of vision and smell to tell the difference between people who pose a threat and those who do not.
In Kenya, researchers found that elephants react differently to clothing worn by men of the Maasai and Kamba ethnic groups. Young Maasai men spear animals and thus pose a threat to elephants; Kamba men are mainly farmers and are not a danger to elephants.
In an experiment conducted by animal scientists, elephants were first presented with clean clothing or clothing that had been worn for five days by either a Maasai or a Kamba man. When the elephants detected(察觉)the smell of clothing worn by a Maasai man, they moved away from the smell faster and took longer to relax than when they detected the smells of either clothing worn by Kamba men or clothing that had not been worn at all.
Clothing color also plays a role, though in a different way. In the same study, when the elephants saw red clothing not worn before, they reacted angrily, as red is typically worn by Maasai men. Rather than running away as they did with the smell, the elephants acted aggressively toward the red clothing.
The researchers believe that the elephants’ emotional reactions are due to their different interpretations of the smells and the sights. Smelling a potential danger means that a threat is nearby and the best thing to do is run away and hide. Seeing a potential threat without its smell means that risk is low. Therefore, instead of showing fear and running away, the elephants express their anger and become aggressive.According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE about Kamba and Maasai people?
| A．Maasai people are a threat to elephants. |
| B．Kamba people raise elephants for farming. |
| C．Both Kamba and Maasai people are elephant hunters. |
| D．Both Kamba and Maasai people traditionally wear red clothing. |
How did the elephants react to smell in the study?
| A．They attacked a man with the smell of new clothing. |
| B．They needed time to relax when smelling something unfamiliar. |
| C．They became anxious when they smelled Kamba-scented(有…气味的) clothing. |
| D．They were frightened and ran away when they smelled their enemies. |
What is the main idea of this passage?
| A．Elephants use sight and smell to detect danger. |
| B．Elephants attack people who wear red clothing. |
| C．Scientists are now able to control elephants’ emotions. |
| D．Some Kenyan tribes understand elephants’ emotions very well. |
What can be inferred about the elephants’ behavior from this passage?
| A．Elephants learn from their experience. |
| B．Elephants have sharper sense of smell than sight. |
| C．Elephants are more intelligent than other animals. |
| D．Elephants tend to attack rather than escape when in danger. |
Chelsea Clinton, the 31-year-old daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is stepping into her own spotlight.
According to the New York Times, NBC has hired Clinton to become a full-time special correspondent（记者） for NBC News. Her feature stories will reportedly be used in the “Making a Difference” series, which runs on “NBC Nightly News”. The sections attract people who volunteer to improve the lives of others in their communities.
When Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992, the first lady asked the press to keep Chelsea out of the public eyes. As a young adult, Chelsea continued to avoid media attention in order to attend college and quietly enter the business world. Once her mother decided to run for the presidency in 2007, however, Chelsea made hundreds of public appearances, mostly on college campuses, to support the campaign. More recently, she has worked for New York University and promoted her father’s latest book. She is currently pursuing a doctor’s degree at Oxford.
Clinton is the second daughter of a president hired by NBC News; Jenna Bush Hager, daughter of former President George W. Bush, works as a correspondent for NBC’s “Today” show. Chelsea Clinton continued to stay out of media attention to _____.
| A．improve the lives of others |
| B．help her father in the election |
| C．study and go to the business circle |
| D．support her mother for the presidency |
What does the underlined word mean in Paragraph 2?
| A．is shown | B．flows | C．is managed | D．spreads |
Which is the right order of the events?
a. Chelsea helped to sell Bill Clinton’s latest book.
b. Chelsea pursues her doctor’s degree.
c. Chelsea supported her mother’s career.
d. Chelsea was out of the public attention.
| A．d, a, c, b | B．c, d, b, a |
| C．c, b, d, a | D．d, c, a, b |
According to the text, we can conclude that _____.
| A．Chelsea Clinton is the second daughter of Bill Clinton |
| B．Chelsea Clinton is in favour of her parents’ careers |
| C．Chelsea Clinton always follows her mother’s advice |
| D．Jenna Bush Hager is a correspondent for “NBC Nightly News” |
Mini Book Excerpts (节选)
Biography
When Salinger learned that a car park was to be built on the land, the middle-aged writer was shocked and quickly bought the neighboring area to protect it… The townspeople never forgot the rescue and came to help their most famous neighbor.
J. D. Salinger: A Life by Kenneth Slawenski (Random House, $27)
Mystery (疑案小说)
"You're a smart boy. Benny's death was no accident, and you're the only who saw it happen. Do you think the murderer should get away with it?" The boy was staring stubbornly at his lap again.
A thought suddenly occurred to Annika, "Did you …You recognized the man in the car, didn't you?"
The boy hesitated, twisting his fingers, "Maybe," he said quietly.
Red Wolf by Liza Marklund (Atria Books, $25.99)
Short Stories
She wants to say to him what she has learned, none of it in class. Some women are born stupid, and some women are too smart for their own good. Some women are born to give, and some women only know how to take. Some women learn who they want to be from their mothers, some who they don't want to be. Some mothers suffer so their daughters won't. Some mothers love so their daughters won't.
You Are Free by Danzy Senna (Riverhead Books, $15)
Humor
Do your kids like to have fun? Come to Fun Times! Do you like to watch your kids having fun? Bring them to Fun Times! Fun Times!'s "amusement cycling" is the most fun you can have, legally, in the United States right now. Why spend thousands of dollars flying to Disney World when you can spend less than half of that within a day's drive of most cities?
Happy: And Other Bad Thoughts by Larry Doyle (Ecco, $14.99)If the readers want to know about the life of Salinger, they should buy the book published by ________.
| A．Ecco | B．Atria Books | C．Riverhead Books | D．Random House |
The book Happy And Other Bad Thoughts is intended for ________.
| A．young children | B．Disney World workers |
| C．middle school teachers | D．parents with young children |
Which book describes women with characters of their own?
A. Happy And Other Bad Thoughts
B. J. D. Salinger: A Life
C. You Are Free
D. Red Wolf After finishing the book Red Wolf, the readers would learn that ________.
| A．the boy helped arrest the murderer |
| B．Benny died of an accident |
| C．the murderer got away with the crime |
| D．Annika carried out the crime |
You are watching a film in which two men are having a fight. They hit one another hard. At the start they only fight with their fists（拳头）.But soon they begin hitting one another over the heads with chairs. And so it goes on until one of the men crashes through a window and falls thirty feet to the ground below. He is dead!
Of course he isn’t really dead. With any luck he isn’t even hurt. Why ? Because the men who fall out of high windows or jump from fast moving trains, who crash cars of even catching fire, are professionals（职业）.They do this for a living. These men are called stuntmen. That is to say, they perform tricks（骗局）.
There are two sides to their work. They actually do most of the things you see on the screen. For example, they fall from a high building. However, they do not fall on to hard ground but on to empty cardboard boxes covered with a mattress（床垫）. Again, when they hit one another with chairs, the chairs are made of soft wood and when they crash through windows, the glass is made of sugar!
But although their work depend on trick of this sort, it also requires a high degree of skill and training. Often a stuntman’s success depends on careful timing（计时）.For example, when he is “blown up” in a battle scene, he has to jump out of the way of the explosion（爆炸）just at the right moment.
Naturally stuntmen are well paid for their work, but they lead dangerous lives. They often get seriously injured, and sometimes killed. A Norwegian stuntman, for example, skied over the edge of a cliff a thousand feet high. His parachute（降落伞）failed to open, and he was killed.
In spite of（尽管）all the risks, this is no longer a profession for men only. Men no longer dress up as women when actresses have to perform some dangerous action. For nowadays there are stuntgirls too!Stuntmen are those who____________
| A．Often dress up as actors |
| B．prefer to lead dangerous lives |
| C．often perform seemingly dangerous actions |
| D．often fight each other for their lives |
Stuntmen earn their living by___________
| A．playing their dirty tricks |
| B．selling their special skills |
| C．jumping out of high windows |
| D．jumping from fast moving trains |
When a stuntman falls from a high building,___________
| A．he needs little protection |
| B．he will be covered with a mattress |
| C．his life is endangered |
| D．his safety is generally all right |
Which of the following is the main factor(因素) of a successful performance?
| A．Strength | B．Exactness | C．Speed | D．Carefulness |
What can be inferred from the author’s example of the Norwegian stuntman?
| A．Sometimes an accident can occur to a stuntman. |
| B．The percentage of serious accidents is high. |
| C．Parachutes must be of good quality. |
| D．The cliff is too high. |