I’m a pig, and my son is a rabbit. I have snakes for daughters, and my wife, believe it or not, is a dragon! Do I live in a zoo? No, of course not! I am talking about Chinese zodiac signs. Depending on the year of your birth, each person has an animal for a sign. That’s why I am a pig and my wife is a dragon. If you, like me, were born in the year of the pig, then you are brave, thoughtful and loyal. The year of the pig is filled with good fortune.
Now let’s take a closer look at this interesting animal.
Pigs were first raised by man about 9,000 years ago, and are still a very common farm animal in many parts of the world. We don’t just use pigs for their meat — almost every part of the animal is used. The hair is used for artists’ brushes. The fat is used to make floor wax, rubber and plastics.
Pigs have also been important in the world of entertainment. In 1995 the film ‘Babe’ starred a loveable talking pig as its main character. The film won an Oscar and was nominated for 6 more. In England you can even go to watch pig racing. A farmer, Rob Shepherd, has been raising money for charity by holding pig races on his farm. The events have been very successful. People don’t just want to eat pigs, it seems!
Pigs also play an important r
ole in the English language. For example, if someone says that he will travel to the sun one day, you can say “pigs might fly!” to him. Hungry? Well then, you can “pig out” and eat lots of food. And what if someone rescues you? Well, you can say that they “saved your bacon”.
44. The writer wrote the first paragraph in a ______ tone.
A. sad B. confused
C. serious D. humorous
45. We may know from the passage that ______.
A. people in England like pigs more than other animals
B. pigs are more useful than ordinary people imagine
C. pigs are the first animals raised by man
D. more people don’t want to eat pigs now
46. The underlined sentence “pigs might fly!” in the fifth paragraph means “______”.
A. What you have just said is impossible
B. Pigs are great animals
C. I don’t understand your words
D. I can’t agree with you more
47. Which diagram shows the structure of the passage?
Shopping is not as simple as you think! There are all sorts of tricks at play each time we reach out for that particular brand of product on the shelf.
Coloring, for example, varies according to what the producers are trying to sell. Health foods are packages in greens, yellows or browns because we think of these as healthy colors. Ice cream packets are often blue and expensive foods, like chocolates, are gold and silver.
When some kind of pain killer was brought out recently, researchers found that the colors turned the customers off because they made the product look weak and ineffective. Eventually, it came on the market in a dark blue and white package because we think of it as safe, and white as calm.
The size of a product can attract a shopper. But quite often a bottle doesn’t contain as much as it appears to.
It is believed that the better-known companies spend, on average, 70 percent of the total cost of the product itself on packaging.
The most successful producers know that it’s not enough to have a good product. The founder of Pears soap, who for 25 years has used pretty little girls to promote their goods, came to the conclusion: “Any fool can make soap, but it takes a genius to sell it.”Which of the following may trick a shopper into buying a product according to the text?
| A．The cost of its package. |
| B．The price of the product. |
| C．The color of its package. |
| D．The brand name of the product. |
The underlined part in paragraph 3 means that the colors ________.
| A．attracted the customers strongly |
| B．had weak effect on the customers |
| C．tricked the customers into shopping |
| D．caused the customers to lose interest |
Which of the following would be the best title for this text?
| A．Choice of Good Products |
| B．Disadvantages of Products |
| C．Effect of Packaging on Shopping |
| D．Brand Names and Shopping Tricks |
Not everyone goes to university after high school graduation. Some work, others join the army and an increasing number worldwide are taking a “gap year” to travel or do community service in their own countries or abroad. They are studying sharks off the Australian coast, building schools in Mexico and learning Spanish or Italian.
The concept of a gap year may not be new, but the recent surge (涌现) of interest certainly is. Some students are putting off admissions. Others, who don’t get into the college of their choice, are taking a year to explore new frontiers before reapplying.
Students are choosing to take a breather; they are thinking. They are not sure what they are going to do. They are going and exploring some of their interests. They are getting experience they can take to the school they finally go to.
It is an idea actively encouraged by colleges. Princeton University has just launched a “bridge year” program that will send 10 percent of its incoming class to do volunteer work abroad, starting in 2009. And the Harvard has spent the last 30 years urging incoming students to take a gap year.
“Many speak of their year away as a ‘life-changing’ experience or a ‘turning point’” says Harvard admissions director Marlin Lewis. “Many come to college with new opinions about their academic plans, their extracurricular interests and the career possibilities they observed in their year away.”The reasons why some take a gap year are the following EXCEPT that ________.
| A．they hate studying |
| B．they don’t know what to do |
| C．they want to get experience |
| D．they want to know their real interests |
A student won’t ________ in a gap year.
| A．travel | B．join the army |
| C．do community service | D．learn a foreign language |
After a gap year, one would probably _________.
| A．take another year off |
| B．earn a lot of money |
| C．be refused by his college |
| D．have new ideas about their future career |
From the passage we know that ________.
| A．more and more students will take a gap year |
| B．fewer and fewer colleges will encourage his students to take a gap year |
| C．the gap year can only give one some experience about society |
| D．nobody will change his own interests after the gap year |
American magician David Blaine left the glass box in which he had lived for 44 days without food on October 19, 2003. Hundreds of people came to watch the end of his starvation experiment, which has become one of London’s main tourist attractions.
Looking thinner and darker, 30-year-old Blaine was taken out of his box over the River Thames and immediately went to hospital. He was then slowly reintroduced to food, a process doctors say could be life threatening. He had been drinking only water since September 5.
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Blaine first became known as a street magician in the early 1990s. He soon found himself doing magic tricks in bars for the likes of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio and his super model friends.
Over the last decade Blaine has become famous with a combination of breathtaking magic and clever tricks aimed at getting a lot of attention. In 1999, he was buried in a coffin (棺材) for one week and, in 2000, he spent 62 hours in a giant block of ice. Last year he stood on top of a 25-meter pillar (柱子) in the center of New York for 35 hours before jumping into a pile of boxes.
“I think a lot of people are unable to accept that they’re able to do what they can do,” he said. “They don’t realize we can survive. The human being is an amazing creation.”
But he seems to have suffered from spending so long in the glass box. He said that at times he was unable to see, had serious back pains and lost his sense of taste.It is for David Blaine to eat food after such a long starvation.
| A．pleasant | B．delicious | C．dangerous | D．important |
Having spent such a long time in the glass box, he suffered the following EXCEPT that .
| A．he had become blind | B．he had serious back pains |
| C．he lost his sense of taste | D．he was in weak health |
Which of the following can best describe David Blaine?
| A．Serious. | B．Adventurous. | C．Smart. | D．Crazy. |
Which of the following is NOT true about David Blaine?
| A．Blaine immediately went to hospital after he was taken out of his box. |
| B．Blaine was born and brought up in England. |
| C．In Blaine’s opinion, people can create a wonder. |
| D．Blaine didn’t have any food for 44 days. |
阅读短文，并按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
Born in 1949, Diana Nyad took an early interest in swimming as a sport and was a Florida State High School swimming champion. Like many young athletes, she had Olympic dreams, but a serious illness kept her from competing in the Games. The disappointment didn’t stop her from going forward. Instead, she became interested in marathon swimming. A brilliant athlete, she was well-conditioned for spending long periods of time in the water. As a long-distance swimmer, she would compete against herself and the obstacles presented by distance, danger, cold, and exhaustion.
For ten years Nyad devoted herself to becoming one of the world’s best long-distance swimmers. In 1970, she swam a ten-mile marathon in Lake Ontario, setting the women’s record for the course. In 1972 she set another record by swimming 102.5 miles from an island in the Bahamas to the coast of Florida. Then she broke a third record when swimming around Manhattan Island in 1975.
Nyad attempted to swim the distance between Florida and Cuba in 1978. Though the span of water is less than 100 miles wide, it is rough and dangerous. After battling the water for two days, she had to give for the sake of her own health and safety. Even so, she impressed the world with her courage and strong desire to succeed. For Nyad her strength of purpose was just as important as reading Cuba. That is how she defined success. It did not matter that her swim came up short; she believed she had touched the other shore.
When Nyad ended her career as a swimmer, she continued to try new things---travelling the world as a reporter, writing books and giving public speeches about her life. Diana Nyad works to inspire others, just as she did when she swam the waters of the world.What prevented Nyad from taking part in the Olympic Games? (No more than 5 words)
__________________________________________________________________________What does the underlined word “obstacles” mean? (1 word)
___________________________________________________________________________What achievement did Nyad make in 1970? (No more than 10 words.)
________________________________________________________________________________Why did Nyad believe that she had touched the other shore? (No more than 10 words)
___________________________________________________________________________Please explain how you are inspired by Nyad. (No more than 20 words)
_______________________________________________________________________________
You are given many opportunities in life to choose to be a victim or creator. When you choose to be a victim, the world is a cold and difficult place. "They" did things to you which caused all of your pain and suffering. "They" are wrong and bad, and life is terrible as long as "they" are around. Or you may blame yourself for all your problems, thus internalizing(内化)your victimization. The truth is, your life is likely to stay that way as long as you feel a need to blame yourself or others.
Those who choose to be creators look at life quite differently. They know there are individuals who might like to control their lives, but they don't let this get in the way. They know they have their weaknesses, yet they don't blame themselves when they fail. Whatever happens, they have choice in the matter. They believe their dance with each sacred(神圣的)moment of life is a gift and that storms are a natural part of life which can bring the rain needed for emotional and spiritual growth.
Victims and creators live in the same physical world and deal with many of the same physical realities, yet their experience of life is worlds apart. Victims relish (沉溺)in anger, guilt, and other emotions that cause others---and even themselves---to feel like victims, too. Creators consciously choose love, inspiration, and other qualities which inspire not only themselves, but all around them. Both victims and creators always have choice to determine the direction of their lives.
In reality, all of us play the victim or the creator at various points in our lives. One person, on losing a job or a special relationship, may feel as if it is the end of the world and sink into terrible suffering for months, years, or even a lifetime. Another with the same experience may choose to first experience the grief, then accept the loss and soon move on to be a powerful creative force in his life.
In every moment and every circumstance, you can choose to have fuller, richer life by setting a clear intention to transform the victim within, and by inviting into your life the powerful creator that you are.
| 1． |
What does the word "they" in Paragraph 1 probably refer to?
|
| 2． |
According to Paragraph 2, creators.
|
| 3． |
What can we learn from Paragraph 3?
|
| 4． |
The examples mentioned in Paragraph 4 show that.
|
| 5． |
What is the author's purpose in writing this passage?
|