How hard we have all prayed(祈祷) to grow up quickly, and looked forward to the happy days of being a grown-up and enjoying the many interests that a youth should have.
At last, you have grown up. At least you are no longer a child. They call you “young lady”. You then enjoy the pleasure of being a young lady. You are proud of being a grown-up teenager. People welcome you-this young lady-heartily. You are glad that your prayer has been answered.
But there is always something that troubles you a lot. You say; “Papa and Mama, give me some money please. My pocket money is all gone already.”
“No”, they say, “your age is a dangerous age. If you have too much money to spend, it won’t do you any good.” Then you have to stay at home because you dare not go out with an empty pocket.
Another time you tell your grandma, “Grandma, see, I am a grown-up now.”
“Good, now, you can sit here and knit (编织) this for me while I go and have a rest.” To show that you are no more a child, you have to sit there the whole afternoon doing the work, which only a grown-up can do. After an hour, you find it hard to do, and give the knitting basket back to your grandma. Your grandma criticizes your work. You hear what she says, “Such a big girl can’t do such easy work.” You wish then you were a child again.
But the fact is, you are growing up, and you can’t help it. That’s the way it goes!
56.The passage is told about _______ problems.
A. a growing-up boy’s B. a teenage girl’s C. an old woman’s D. a grown-up’s
57.It is clear that the writer, as a teenager, ________.
A. is pleased with the present life B. is unhappy about growing up
C. doesn’t think her present life happy enough D. knows happy life will come to her soon
58.How does she know her prayer has been answered?
A. People treat her as a young lady. B. She is no longer a kid.
C. People begin to call her teenager. D. She can join women in all kinds of activities.
59.From what her parents say, we know _________.
A. they don’t believe she is already a teenager B. it’s dangerous for a girl to spend money
C. they love her more than before D. they still regard her as a child
Mr. Grey was the manager of a small office in London. He lived in the country, and came up to work by train. He liked walking from the station to his office unless it was raining, because it gave him some exercise.
One morning he was walking along the street when a stranger stopped him and said to him, “You may not remember me, sir, but seven years ago I came to London without a penny in my pockets, I stopped you in this street and asked you to lend me some money, and you lent me £ 5, because you said you were willing to take a chance so as to give a man a start on the way to success.”
Mr. Grey thought for a few minutes and then said, “Yes, I remember you. Go on with your story!” “Well,” answered the stranger, “are you still willing to take a chance?”How did Mr. Grey get to his office?
| A．He went up to work by train. |
| B．He walked to his office. |
| C．He went to his office on foot unless it rained. |
| D．He usually took a train to the station and then walked to his office if the weather was fine. |
Mr. Grey liked walking from the station to his office because ________.
| A．he couldn’t afford the buses | B．he wanted to save money |
| C．he wanted to keep in good health | D．he could do some exercises on the way |
Mr. Grey had been willing to lend money to a stranger in order to______.
| A．give him a start in life | B．help him on the way to success |
| C．make him rich | D．gain more money |
One morning the stranger recognized Mr. Grey, and_______.
| A．wanted to return Mr. Grey the money |
| B．again asked Mr. Grey for money |
| C．would like to make friends with him |
| D．told Mr. Grey that he had been successful since then |
In America, drivers’ education is part of the regular high school curriculum. Every student in his or her second year of high school is required to take a class in driver’s education. However, unlike other courses, it is not given during the regular school year. Instead it is a summer course.
The course is divided up into two parts: class time for learning laws and regulations and driving time to practice driving. Class time is not unlike any other class. The students have a text from which they study the basic laws they must know to pass the written driving test that is given to anyone wanting to get a driver’s license.
Driving time is a chance for the students to get behind the wheel (steering wheel) and practice starting steering, backing up, parking, switching lanes, turning corners, and all the other maneuvers (操作) required to drive a car. Each student is required to drive a total of six hours. The students are divided up into groups of four. The students and the instructor go out driving for two hour blocks of time. Thus, each student gets half an hour driving time per outing. The instructor and “driver” sit in the front seats and the other three students sit in the back.
Drivers Ed cars are unlike other cars in which they have two sets of brakes, one on the driver’s side and one on the other side where the instructor sits. Thus, if the student driver should run into difficulties the instructor can take over. The car also has another special feature. On the top of the car is a sign that reads: STUDENT DRIVER. That lets nearby drivers know that they should use extra caution because the student driver is a beginning driver, not very experienced and prone to driving slowly.
After the student has passed the driver’s education course and reached the appropriate age to drive (this age differs in every state but in most cases the person must be 16 years old), they can go to a designated state office to take their driver’s test, which is made up of an eye examination, a written test, and a road test. The person must pass all three tests in order to be given a driver’s license. If the person did well in his or her driver’s education class, he or she will pass the test with flying colors and get a driver’s license. Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
| A．Driving Classes. | B．Driving Learning. |
| C．Driving Course. | D．Driving Experience. |
In America, the driver’s course mentioned above _____.
| A．is considered as part of the advanced education |
| B．is given to any student wanting to get a driver’s license |
| C．is carried on at the same time as other courses |
| D．is offered to all the students of Grade 2 in high schools |
To prevent accidents, a drivers Ed car _____.
| A．has a sign inside it | B．has two sets of brakes |
| C．is big enough to hold five persons | D．can’t run very fast |
Which of the following does not agree with the requirements for the students wanting to get their driver’s license?
| A．They must be 16 years of age. |
| B．They should go to have their driver’s test. |
| C．They must have their eyes examined. |
| D．They ought to do well in their driver’s course. |
In the last sentence, “with flying colors” means _____.
| A．happily | B．successfully | C．colorfully | D．quickly |
In Stockholm, the Swedish Academy has chosen the British author Doris Lessing for the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature.
The selection of Doris Lessing for a Nobel was popular among the hundreds of journalists gathered for the announcement in Stockholm.
Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy Horace Engdahl said with skepticism, fire and visionary power Lessing has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny.
Doris Lessing was born in 1919 in Persia - modern-day Iran - to British parents, moving as a child with her family to southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where she stayed in school only to the age of 14.
A year after moving to London, she published her first novel in 1950. The Grass is Singing examines unbridgeable racial conflict in colonial Africa through the eyes of a white farmer’s wife and her black servant.
A member of the British Communist Party during the 1950s and a campaigner against nuclear arms and South African apartheid, Lessing was for years banned from that country and from Rhodesia.
Her literary breakthrough came in 1962 with publication of The Golden Notebook, seen by many, though not necessarily Lessing, as a pioneering work of modern feminism. A disjointed study of the mind of the main character, Anna Wulf, the novel explores her thoughts about Africa, politics and communism, relationships with men and sex, and Jungian analysis and dream interpretation.
Lessing’s themes shifted to psychology in her works from the 1960s, and by the 1970s she was fascinated with the Islamic mystic tradition of Sufism. Her turn toward science fiction with the Canopus series in the early 1980s was not warmly received by traditionalist critics, but she has continued to win new readers and numerous literary awards, including the David Cohen British Literary Prize and the Companion of Honour from the Royal Society of Literature, both in 2001.
Following the announcement, the Horace Engdahl told VOA why he was personally so pleased with Lessing’s selection.
"She is one of the truly great writers - of novels, short stories, fiction and non-fiction," Engdahl said. "She is one of the few writers who have had the courage to uphold the principle of equality between the male and female experience, and she has given the impulse to numbers of other women writers. And she is really the mother of a school that is one of the most important in our contemporary literature."
At 87, Doris lessing is the oldest Nobel Literature laureate since the first prizes were awarded in 1901. Each Nobel Prize is this year accompanied by a check for approximately $1.4 million.How old was Doris Lessing when she published her first novel?
| A．14 | B．26 | C．31 | D．50 |
Which of the following about The Grass is Singing is true?
| A．It is mainly about racial conflict between the whites and the blacks in the US. |
| B．The main characters are a white farmer’s wife and her black servant. |
| C．It was published in Africa. |
| D．It was Doris Lessing’s most famous novel. |
We can infer from the passage that __________.
| A．Journalists are very interested in the election of Doris Lessing’s for Nobel Prize. |
| B．Doris Lessing regard The Golden Notes as a pioneering work of feminism. |
| C．Doris Lessing has written about many different subjects. |
| D．Many writers have the courage to stick to the equality between the male and female experience. |
The underlined wordschool in the last but one paragraph means________.
| A．institution for educating children |
| B．college or university |
| C．department of a university |
| D．group of writers, thinkers |
Which of the following can be the best title of this passage?
| A．Doris Lessing wins Nobel Prize for literature. |
| B．The greatest British female writer. |
| C．The oldest Nobel Prize winner. |
| D．2007 Nobel Prize announced in Stockholm. |
LEEDS, England ─ A Leeds University psychology (心理学) professor is teaching a course to help dozens of Britons forgive their enemies.
"The hatred we hold within us is a cancer," Professor Ken Hart said, adding that holding in anger can lead to problems such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
More than 70 people have become members in Hart’s first 20-week workshop in London ─ a course he says is the first of its kind in the world.
These are people who are sick and tired of living with a memory. They realize their bitterness is a poison they think they can pour out, but they end up drinking it themselves, said Canadian-born Hart.
The students meet in groups of eight to ten for a two-hour workshop with an adviser every fortnight.
The course, ending in July, is expected to get rid of the cancer of hate in these people. "People have lots of negative attitudes towards forgiveness," he said. "People confuse forgiveness with forgetting. Forgiveness means changing from a negative attitude to a positive one."
Hart and his team have created instructions to provide the training needed.
"The main idea is to give you guidelines on how to look at various kinds of angers and how they affect you, and how to change your attitudes towards the person you are angry with," said Norman Claringbull, a senior expert on the forgiveness project.
Hart said he believes forgiveness is a skill that can be taught, as these people "want to get free of the past". From this passage we know that ______.
| A．high blood pressure and heart disease are caused by hatred |
| B．high blood pressure can only be cured by psychology professors |
| C．without hatred, people will have less trouble connected with blood and heart |
| D．people who suffer from blood pressure and heart disease must have many enemies |
If you are angry with somebody, you should ______.
| A．try your best to defeat him or her |
| B．never meet him or her again |
| C．persuade him or her to have a talk with you |
| D．try to build up a positive attitude towards the person |
In Hart’s first 20-week workshop, people there can ___.
| A．meet their enemies |
| B．change their minds |
| C．enjoy the professor’s speech |
| D．learn how to quarrel with others |
If you are a member in Hart’ s workshop, you’ll ______.
| A．pay much money to Hart |
| B．go to the workshop every night |
| C．attend a gathering twice a month |
| D．pour out everything stored in your mind |
The author wrote this passage in order to ________.
| A．persuade us to go to Hart’s workshop |
| B．tell us the news about Hart’s workshop |
| C．tell us how to run a workshop like Hart’s |
| D．help us to look at various kinds of angers |
Down on the beach of Dover, 56-year-old Channel swimmer Jackie Cobell bravely set off for Calais. The time was 6:40 am. 28 hours and 44 minutes later the exhausted, successful mother from Kent crawled (爬行) to the shore and walked proudly into the record books. After five years in training, Mrs Cobell became the slowest person to cross the Channel under her own steam. The previous record for the slowest crossing, set by Henry Sullivan at 26 hours and 50 minutes, has stood for 87 years before Mrs Cobell started at Dover Saturday morning.
She had struggled through changing tides that swept her first one way, then the other. It turned the 21-mile crossing into a 65-mile one. She declared, “Time and tide wait for no man—and they certainly didn’t wait for me. I was fully expecting it to get dark before I got to Calais but I never imagined I’d also see the dawn again. But I wasn’t going to give up.”
Her feat(壮举) raised more than $2,000 in charity sponsorship for research into Huntingdon’s disease, a sum that was continuing to grow as news of her achievement spread. That was why she did it. “I don’t really know myself,” she said. “ I just kept thinking of all the people I’d be letting down if I stopped.”
Mrs Cobell took to the water so well at school. But after bringing up two daughters, she started to gain weight. Five years ago she took up swimming again and decided to prepare for the Channel challenge to lose weight. She became much fitter. Then came the big swim. “I practiced on Windermere lake,” she said. “it’s about half the distance of the Channel so I just double
d it, added some extra time, and worked out I could probably get to Calais in about 16 hours.”
Her husband David, trainer, official observer and friend sailed alongside her on a boat. She said, “I sang to keep myself going. When they told me I was a record breaker I thought they were just having a joke—until I realized it was the record for the slowest crossing. But maybe next time I might be a bit quicker.”According to Paragraph 1, Mrs Cobell_____________.
| A．started to learn swimming five years ago |
| B．arrived at Calais on late Sunday morning |
| C．wanted to break the record for the slowest crossing |
| D．was too exhausted to move after crossing the Channel |
Why did Mrs Cobell spend so much time crossing the Channel?
| A．Because the tides changed her direction. |
| B．Because she was not in good condition. |
| C．Because she wasn’t good at swimming. |
| D．Because the winds kept her from swimming fast. |
Mrs Cobell crossed the Channel for the main purpose of____________.
| A．taking a risk |
| B．losing more weight |
| C．raising money for charity |
| D．becoming famous worldwide |
How did Mrs Cobell feel about the record she set?
| A．Dissatisfied | B．Excited | C．Annoyed | D．Proud |