The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
From its opening lines – “ ‘You my lucky piece,’ Grandma says.... Her hand is wrapped around mine” – Heidi W. Durrow pulls us into her first novel, a moving story encircling us as firmly as that protective grandmotherly grip.
When we meet Rachel Morse, the daughter of an African-American GI and a Danish woman, she is just moving into the Portland, Oregon., home of her strong-minded paternal grandmother and her warm, classy Aunt Loretta. We soon learn that Rachel has survived a fall from a nine-story apartment building in which her mother, brother, and baby sister all died. Three months earlier, Rachel’s mother had left her alcoholic husband in Germany, following her “orange-haired” lover to Chicago. But Nella hadn’t been prepared for boyfriend’s drinking and racism, or for the looks and questions she gets as the mother of three brown children.
Rachel’s “new-girl feeling” in her grandmother’s home goes beyond her recent tragedy. Having grown up with a Scandinavian mother in the more colorblind society of an overseas Army base, this is her first time in a mostly black community. Her light-brown skin, “fuzzy” hair, and blue eyes raise questions about her racial identity that are entirely new and puzzling to her.
Starting sixth grade in her new school, Rachel notes, “There are fifteen black people in the class and seven white people. And there’s me. There’s another girl who sits in the back. Her name is Carmen LaGuardia, and she has hair like mine, my same color skin, and she counts as black. I don’t understand how, but she seems to know.” Several years later, in high school, her status remains uncertain. “They call me an Oreo. I don’t want to be white. Sometimes I want to go back to being what I was. I want to be nothing.”
Winner of the Bellwether Prize, created by Barbara Kingsolver to celebrate fiction that addresses issues of social injustice, “The Girl Who Fell From the Sky” comes at a time when bi-racial and multicultural identity – so markedly represented by President Obama – is especially topical.
But set in the 1980s and focusing on one unusually sympathetic girl overcoming family tragedy and feeling her way through racial tensions, Durrow’s novel surpasses topicality.
Like Rachel, Durrow is the light-brown-skinned, blue-eyed daughter of a Danish mother and an African-American father enlisted in the Air Force. With degrees from Stanford, Columbia Journalism School, and Yale Law School, it’s no wonder she gives her heroine discipline and brains.
Rachel’s life, however, is clearly not Durrow’s. No, there’s alcohol and drug addiction; deaths by fire, trauma, and infection. There are mothers who lose their children, and a saintly drug counselor who loses his beloved girl-friend. Through it all, what makes Durrow’s novel soar is her masterful sense of voice, her assured, delicate handling of complex racial issues – and her heart.
After hearing the blues music for the first time, Rachel feels what her mother called hyggeligt – “something like comfort and home and love all rolled into one.” She wonders what might have happened if her mother had known about such soulful music, “that sometimes there’s a way to take the sadness and turn it into a beautiful song.”
This, of course, is precisely what Durrow has done in this powerful book: taken sadness and turned it into a beautiful song.
60. What should be the direct cause of Rachel coming to Portland, Oregon?
A. Her mother left her alcoholic father.
B. A deadly tragedy happened to her family.
C. Her grandmother wants her to come and stay with her.
D. There was too much racism where she used to live with her mother.
61. Durrow’s life is different from Rachel’s in that _____________.
A. Durrow has to struggle through her life, depending on herself.
B. Durrow is troubled in her life by racism, living in a poor neighborhood.
C. Durrow has come through life much easier, with a better family background.
D. There’s alcohol and drug addiction in Durrow’s suffering-laden neighborhood.
62. Why does the writer of the book review mention President Obama in this writing?
A. To show the progress in America’s black community.
B. To highlight the racial harmony in the United States.
C. To indicate Obama’s influence in helping Durrow win the Bellwether Prize.
D. To remind readers of the background when the novel was written and won the Bellwether Prize.
63. The blues music Rachel hears is, deep at the bottom of her heart, most suggestive of ______.
A. bravery B. hope C. sadness D. beauty

第三部分: 阅读理解 (共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项A、B、C和D中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
BEIJING - TV viewers may no longer be able to hear English abbreviations（缩写）, like "NBA" (National Basketball Association), from mainland broadcasters.
China Central Television (CCTV) and Beijing Television (BTV) confirmed to China Daily on Tuesday that they had received a notice from a related government department, asking them to avoid using certain English abbreviations in Chinese programs.
The channels, however, did not reveal exactly how many English abbreviations are listed in the notice.
The Hangzhou-based Today Morning Express reported on Tuesday that a number of provincial television stations have also received the notice.
Broadcasters and journalists have been asked to provide Chinese explanations for unavoidable English abbreviations in their programs, the report said.
The notice not only limits the use of English abbreviations in sports news, but also in economic and political news. Abbreviations such as "GDP" (gross domestic product), "WTO" (World Trade Organization) and "CPI" (consumer price index) will also be substituted with their Chinese pronunciations, it said.
The country's top watchdog on television and radio, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, refused to comment.
The move comes after a growing number of national legislators and political advisors called for preventive measures to preserve the purity of the Chinese language.
"If we don't pay attention and don't take measures to stop mixing Chinese with English, the Chinese language won't remain pure in a couple of years," said Huang Youyi, editor-in-chief of the China International Publishing Group and secretary-general of the Translators' Association of China.
"In the long run, Chinese will lose its role as an independent linguistic system for passing on information and expressing human feelings," he told China Daily in an earlier interview.
According to his proposal, all documents and speeches of top government officials should be written in pure Chinese, without the use of English abbreviations such as GDP, WTO or CPI.
His proposal also noted that a law or regulation should be introduced to serve as a guideline for the use of foreign words in domestic publications, and that a national translation committee should be set up to translate foreign names and technical terms, which can then be published on a website.
The restricted use of English abbreviations on Chinese television programs has provoked a debate among scholars.
"It makes no sense to introduce a regulation to prevent the use of English in the Chinese language in the face of globalization," Liu Yaoying, a professor at the Communication University of China, said on Tuesday. "It is cultural conservatism."
"If Western countries can accept some Chinglish words, why can't the Chinese language be mixed with English?"
The Singaporean newspaper New Straits Times and London's Daily Telegraph both used Chinese Pinyin Lianghui in their reports about the annual meeting of the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, rather than using English to paraphrase the proceedings.
Governments of some Western countries have also attempted to preserve the purity of their languages.
For example, France is a country known for its linguistic pride. Its government outlaws advertising in English and mandates a 40 percent quota of French songs on the radio, according to a Christian Science Monitor report.
56. Who issued the ban on English abbreviation?
A. China Central Television. B. Beijing Television.
C. an authority department. D. a number of national political advisors.
57. The purpose for which was the ban proposed was __________.
A. to preserve the purity of the Chinese language
B. to improve our international communication
C. to standardize the functioning of radio and TV stations
D. to prevent foreign languages interfere with teach of Chinese in schools
58. By calling the regulation “cultural conservatism”, Mr Liu Yaoying meant to show his _________ for the move.
A. approvalB. criticism C. appreciation D. disappointment
59. The most likely opinion of the writer of this news report tends to be _________ towards the newly introduced regulation.
A. critical B. positive C. negative D. neutral

People like different kinds of vacations. Some go camping, They swim, fish ,cook over a fire and sleep outside Others like to stay at a hotel in an exciting city They go shopping all day and go dancing all night Or maybe they go sightseeing go places such Disneyland ,the Tai Mahal or the bouvre .
Some people are bored with sightseeing trips, They don’t want to be “tourists”. They want to have an adventure-a surprising and exciting trip .They want to learn something and maybe help people too .How can they do this? Some travel companies and environmental groups are planning special adventures. Sometimes these trips are difficult and full of hardships, but they’re a lot of fun .One organization, Earthwatch, sends of the world . Some volunteers spend two weeks and study the environment Others word with animals. Others learn about people of the past
Would you like an adventure in the Far North? A team of volunteers is leaving from Murmansk. Russia The leader of this trip is a professor from Alaska, He’s worried about chemicals from factories. He and the volunteers will study this pollution in the environment, If you like exercise and cold weather, this is a good trip for you, volunteers need ski sixteen kilometers every day .
Do you enjoy ocean animals? You can spend two to four weeks in Hawaii. There can follow orders such as “Bring me the large ball”, They also understand opposites .How much more can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals Another study trip goes to Washington State and follows .How much More can they understand? It will be exciting to learn about these intelligent animals Another study trip goes to Washington Stare and follows orcas. We call orcas “Killer Whale ,”but they ‘re really dolphins-the largest kind of dolphin These beautiful animals travel together in family groups ,They move through the ocean with their mothers. They move through the ocean with their mothers, grandmothers and great –grandmothers . Ocean pollution is chasing their lives. Earthwatch is studying how this happens .
Are you interested in history? Then Greece is the place for your adventure. Thirty-five hundred years ago a volcane exploded there, on Santorini. This explosion was more terrible than Krakatoa or Mount Saint Helens. But today, we know a lot about the way of life of the people from that time. There are houses, kitchens, and paintings as interesting as those in pompei. Today reams of volunteers are learning more about people from the past .
Do you want a very different vacation? Do you want to travel far, word hard and learn a lot ? Then an Earthwatch vacation is for you .
The Tai Mahal may be

A．a shopping center

B．a hotel

C．a dancing hall

D．a place of interest

From the passage, on an adverture trip, people

A．ay not spend much time on sighteeing	B．won’t meet some difficulties or hardships
C．can enjoy themselves	D．can’t learn something

If you want to learn something about people of the past ,you can

A．join the team to Hawaii	B．join the team to the Far North
C．join the team to Washington	D．join the team to Greece

The word intelligent in para4means

A．exciting

B．beautiful

C．large

D．clever

Which of the following is false ?

A．Some people find sightseeing trips boring.

B．Earth watch is planning various special adventures

C．The number of orcas is decreasing .

D．Volcano Explosions in all broke out 3500years ago in Greece

Jeter King 15 and Mary ,13 went to see a doctor together peter had a bad cold .so the doctor gave him some polls to take .Mary had a bah cough .so the doctor gave her some cough medicine.
There are the words in the bottle of medicine.

Cough Medicine

Shake well before use

Take three times daily after meals

Dosage: adults 2 teaspoonfulls

Children 8-14, 1 teaspoonfull

4-7,

teaspoonful

Not suitable for children below the age of 4

Store in a cool place

Use before October 2004

Mary or her mother should the medicine after the tenth month of 2004.

A．throw away

B．take two times .

C．stop to take

D．take 3 times more

People aged can’t take this medicine

A．80

B．15

C．20

D．3

Getting a new PC is one thing, Keeping it running smoothly is quite another. While a personal computer should continue to perform well for years, users know that system unsteadiness does exist Yet you can reduce it to the smallest amount by following the tips below .
First, put in as little software as possible. You’11 have fewer software –related problems and a system that is easier to manage.
Second, you should ensure that you have as much memory (RAM) in your PC as you need If you run Windows 98,your computer should have as least 128 megabytes (MB)of RAM and more You can also get by with 128 MB of RAM if you use Windows NT or Windows2000,but these operating systems will run much more smoothly if you have 256 MB of RAM or more.
Third, make sure you buy good hardware. Noname products may be cheaper and sometimes just as good as named-brand products, but name-brand products usually became well-known because of famous companies because Windows will more often support the hardware that you buy ,If you are starting out with to have been tested thoroughly with your operating system, and you will generally experience fewer problems.
Fourth, do prepare for disaster .No matter how well your system runs when you get it ,the day will come when it will need to be replaced .Hopefully, you will replace it because technology has become outdated, but you may need to replace it also because the hard drive crashes or you begin experiencing problems that no one can figure out .That’s why it ‘s important to you’re your important to copy your important information regularly. Whether you use a tape backup device or a CD-RW drive, it’s important to make a regular backup plan and stick to it .
If you want to use Windows2000,but your computer only has 64MB.What will you have to do?
A. Change its RAM for at least 256MB, B. Put in good software in your computer.
C. Enlarge its memory to at least 128 MB D. Buy another new computer to match it .
How many pieces of advice on buying good hard-ware does the writer give us ?

A．Three

B．Two

C．One

D．four

It can be inferred from the passage that……

A．your computer will save the important information when its hard drive crashes

B．Your computer might lose all the information it stores when it crashes .

C．You must not put in much software.

D．You’d better use 128 MB of Ram if you run Windows NT.

the best title of this passage would be “……”

A．the Tips You must Follow

B．How to Start out with a Computer

C．How to Use your PC Better

D．How to Keep Your PC Stable

what does the underlined word “it ”(paragraph 1)refer to ?

A．System unsteadiness	B．personal computer
C．To perform well	D．Getting a new PC