Anna Koumikova was born on June 7th, 1981 in Moscow. Her parents' names are Allah and Sergel. When she was 5 years old, her parents sold their TV to buy her the first tennis bat for Christmas. She played in a club near her place until aged 11. Then she moved to Bradenton, Florida(USA) to train with Nick Bollitierri. At 14, she represented Russia in a Fed Cup match and became the youngest player ever to win a Fed Cup match.
Kournikova made her WTA first show at 15 years old at the US Open where she finally lost against player Steffi Graf. But she made it to the double quarter finals that same match. In 1996, Kournikova won the Rookie of the Year award and the next year. She improved very much to even make it to the semi - finals in Wimbledon. She lost to world number one Martina Hingis at the French Open and at Wimbledon. In 1999 she won her professional title at Midland, Miehigon, an international Tennis Federation match. She was 5th favourite in Illinois the same year and won her 2nd career ITF match. She won her first grand slam(大满贯) title ill 1999 with Martina Hingis in doubles at the Australia Open. Since then, they have played regularly together and have quickly become one of the 'best pairs. Aim in 1999,she made her first career WTA final in key Biscayne against Venus Williams in a tough 3 set match. She alto won her first doubles tile with Monica Seles in Tokyo.
At present Kournikova is more successful on the net than at the net. She remains the "most searched" and "most download (网上下载)" on the internet, three times more popular than the NO. 2 sports figure, Michael Jordan. She is still very young and she seems to have a great future ahead ! Which of the following is right?
| A.Kournikova beat Steffi Graf at the US Open when she was 15. |
| B.Kournikova won the Rookie of the Year award in 1999. |
| C.Koumikova is now more lucky at the net than on the Internet. |
| D.In 1997, Kournikova worked hard to make it to the semi - finals in Wimbledon. |
Kournikova won her first grand slam title in doubles at the Australia Open with .
| A.Steffi Graf | B.Venus Williams | C.Martina Hingis | D.Monica Seles |
From the text we can know Kournikova won her professional title in an ITF match .
| A.at Midland | B.in France | C.in Australia | D.at Biscayne |
What can we learn about Kournikova?
| A.She has a lot of fans on the Internet. |
| B.Her parents gave her much support. |
| C.She beat Martina Hings in 1996. |
| D.She played tennis for her home country Russia. |
Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster each new computer boasts(吹嘘)of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computers results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have then danger according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imaginations take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced; they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.The new products become more and more time-saving because ______.
| A.our love on speed seems never-ending |
| B.time is limited |
| C.the prices are increasingly high |
| D.the manufacturers boast a lot |
What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?
| A.Critical | B.Objective |
| C.Optimistic | D.Negative |
What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A.The present and past times |
| B.Machinery and human beings |
| C.Imaginations and inventions |
| D.Modern technology and its influence |
In the rush to get to school, you drop a piece of toast on the floor. Do you throw it away or decide it’s still OK to eat? If you’re like most people, you eat it. Maybe you follow the “5-second rule”, which claims foods are safe to eat if you pick them up within 5 seconds after dropping them.
But you might want to think again. Scientists now say that 5 seconds is all it takes for foods to become polluted with enough bacteria to make you sick.
Bacteria can cause many kinds of illnesses. Some kinds of bacteria can grow on food. If you eat foods on which these bacteria are growing, you can become sick.
One of these food-borne bacteria is Salmonella. It makes 1.4 million people sick every year. Salmonella is often found in raw eggs and chicken. Cooking kills these bacteria, which is why it is so important to cook eggs, chicken, and other foods thoroughly.
But how long does it take these bacteria to pollute food? A team of scientists in South Carolina did an experiment. First, they placed an amount of Salmonella on three surfaces; wood, tile (瓦片), and carpet. They placed a piece of bread and a piece of bologna(一种大红肠)on each surface for 5, 30, or 60 seconds. After just 5 seconds, both the bread and the bologna picked up enough bacteria to make you sick.
So, forget the 5-second rule. If your toast drops on the floor, throw it away and get another piece of clean toast. And this time, be careful not to drop it!In which part of a newspaper can you most probably find this passage?
| A.Culture. | B.Health. |
| C.Advertisement. | D.Technology. |
After dropping a piece of toast, a person who follows the “5-second rule” will______.
| A.throw away dirty toast immediately and go away |
| B.pick up the toast as quickly as possible and eat it |
| C.eat the toast within 5 seconds and feel pleased |
| D.get another piece of clean toast quickly and eat it |
The scientists in South Carolina did the experiment to ______.
| A.see how quickly bacteria can pollute food |
| B.show that the 5-second rule is correct |
| C.see how harmful bacteria are to people’s health |
| D.show that bacteria grow at different speeds on different foods |
John Blanchard was studying the crowd making their way through the station. He was looking for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t, the girl with the rose.
When reading a book in a Florida library a year before, John became interested not in the contents of the book, but in the notes penciled in the margin. The handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and beautiful mind. He discovered the former owner’s name in the front of the book: Miss Hollis Maynell.
He located her address and wrote a letter introducing himself. The next day he was shipped overseas to serve in the army. During the next year, they grew to know each other through the mail and their friendship developed. John requested a photograph, but she refused, saying if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like. When the day finally came for him to return home, their first meeting was suggested — 7:00 p.m. at the Grand Central Station in New York.
She wrote, “You’ll recognize me by the red rose I wear on my coat.” So now John was in the station to meet the girl with a rose.
As a pretty and slim girl in green came over, John noticed her blue eyes like flowers in spring. He walked directly towards her, entirely forgetting she was not wearing a rose. As John came closer to her, he saw another woman with a red rose stood nearby. Well past 40, this woman had graying hair done under a worn hat. Seeing the girl in green walk quickly away, John felt as if he were split in two. He desired to follow that girl, but longed for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned and supported him.
The woman looked gentle and sensible. John went to her, saying, “I’m Captain John Blanchard. You must be Miss Maynell. I am glad to meet you here. May I take you to dinner?”
She replied with a smile, “I don’t know what this is about. But the lady in green who just went by, begged me to wear this rose on my coat. She said if you asked me out to dinner, I’d tell you she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!”What do we know about the woman with a rose?
| A.She was Miss Maynell’s close friend. |
| B.She was a waitress in the big restaurant. |
| C.She was probably a passerby. |
| D.She was paid to meet John at the Station. |
Which would be the best title of the text?
| A.An Interesting Book | B.A Woman With a Rose |
| C.A Brave Soldier | D.A Love Test |
Hi, everybody!
Welcome to our newly-opened Richards Cinema Bookstore!
Now let me introduce to you some of the new film books in our store.
Are you Chinese film fans? OK, here comes the latest 25 New Takes about Chinese films. It is a collection of 25 fresh readings of different Chinese films from the 1930s to the present. In recent years, Chinese films are very popular in the States, such as Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Flowers of Shanghai.
Do you like French films? Well, here is The French Cinema Book. It covers French films from the 1890s to the beginning of the 21st century. It is written for all lovers of French cinema: students and teachers, specialists and fans, and so on.
Maybe you are Indian film fans and star-chasers. Then here is Encyclopedia(百科全书) of Indian Cinema. The book is complete introduction to all the best Indian films. It also offers a full list of names of the famous and successful film stars in the past ten years. You know, the Indian film industry is the largest in the world after our Hollywood.
If you like British films, we have The British Cinema Book. It is a good review of British cinema. This book contains a good many nice pictures.
In our bookstore, you can also find books about Mexican, Japanese, Australian, German and Italian films.
Well, please help yourselves to some coffee or tea, and have a good time here! The speaker of the passage is most probably ______.
| A.the author of 25 New Takes |
| B.a tourist in the cinema bookstore |
| C.the manager of the cinema bookstore |
| D.a reader of Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema |
The purpose of the speaker is ______.
| A.to satisfy the customers’ various tastes |
| B.to keep the authors in the cinema bookstore |
| C.to offer the tourists chances to meet the film stars |
| D.to turn the readers into film producers |
As any homemaker who has tried to keep order at the dinner table knows, there is far more to a family meal than food. Sociologist Michael Lewis has been studying 50 families to find out just how much more.
Lewis and his co-workers carried out their study by videotaping(录像)the families while they ate ordinary meals in their own homes. They found that parents with small families talk actively with each other and their children. But as the number of children gets larger, conversation gives way to the parents’ efforts to control the loud noise they make. That can have an important effect on the children. “In general the more question-asking the parents do, the higher the children’s IQ scores,” Lewis says. “And the more children there are, the less question-asking there is.”
The study also provides an explanation for why middle children often seem to have a harder time in life than their siblings(兄弟姐妹). Lewis found that in families with three or four children, dinner conversation is likely to center on the oldest child, who has the most to talk about, and the youngest, who needs the most attention. “Middle children are invisible,” says Lewis. “When you see someone get up from the table and walk around during dinner, chances are it’s the middle child.” There is, however, one thing that stops all conversation and prevents anyone from having attention: “When the TV is on,” Lewis says, “dinner is a non-event.”The writer’s purpose in writing the text is to ______.
| A.show the relationship between parents and children |
| B.report on the findings of a study |
| C.teach parents ways to keep order at the dinner table |
| D.give information about family problems |
Parents with large families ask fewer questions at dinner because ______.
| A.they are busy serving food to their children |
| B.they have to pay more attention to younger children |
| C.they are busy keeping order at the dinner table |
| D.they are tired out having prepared food for the whole family |
Lewis’ research provides an answer to the question ______.
| A.why middle children seem to have more difficulties in life |
| B.why TV is important in family life |
| C.why parents should keep good order |
| D.why children in small families seem to be quieter |
Which of the following statements would the writer agree to?
| A.It is important to have the right food for children. |
| B.It is a good idea to have the TV on during dinner. |
| C.Elder children should help the younger ones at dinner |
| D.Parents should talk to each of their children frequently. |