B
Deep into the night, the bus pulled into a Howard Johnson’s restaurant and everybody got off the bus except Vingo. The young people began to wonder about him, trying to imagine his life:perhaps he was sea captain; maybe he had run away from wife; he could be an old soldier going home. When they went to the bus, one of the girls sat beside him and introduced herself. After a long time, slowly and painfully, he began to tell his story. He had been in prison in New York for the last four years, and he was going home.
“Well, when I was in prison I wrote to my wife. I said, Martha, I understand if you can’t stay married to me. I said I was going to be away a long time, and that if she couldn’t stand it, if the kids kept asking questions, if it hurt her too much, well, she could just forget all about me. I told her she didn’t have to write to me, and she didn’t. Not for the three and a half years.”
“Last week, when I was sure freedom was coming through, I wrote to her. I told her if she had a new young man, I would understand. But if she didn’t, if she would take me back, she should let me know. We used to live in this town, Brunswick, and there’s a great big oak tree just as you come into the town. I told her if she could take me back, she should put a yellow handkerchief on the tree, and if she didn’t want me, forget me, no handkerchief and I’d keep going on through.”
Soon all the others were in it. When they were 20 miles from Brunswick, the young people took over window seats on the right side, waiting for the approach of the great oak tree. Vingo stopped looking, tightening his face into the excon’s mask. Then it was 10 miles, and five, and the bus became very quiet.
Then suddenly all of the young people were up out of their seats, screaming and shouting and crying, doing small dances. All except Vingo.
39.In the story, the yellow handkerchief probably means_______.
A.happiness B.sadness C.I hate you D.I still love you
40.The bus became quiet when it came near the town because all the passengers_______.
A.got tired after a long journey B.got too sad to say anything
C.were anxious to see the oak tree D.were touched by the story
41.The underlined part “All except Vingo” probably implies_______.
A.he found no handkerchief on the oak tree
B.he feared that his wife was playing a joke
C.he felt he could not match his wife any longer, afraid to face her
D.he had complicated feelings at the moment:guilty, grateful as well as excited
42.What is the best title for the passage?
A.Going Home B.A Handkerchief and an Oak Tree
C.A Long Bus Journey D.A Story of an Oak Tree
People in the United States love their dogs and treat them well. They take their dogs for walks, let them play outside and give them good food and medical care. However, dogs without owners to care for lead a different kind of life. The expression, to lead a dog’s life, describes a person who has an unhappy existence.
Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.
Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.
Some people are compared to dogs in bad ways. People who are unkind or uncaring can be described meaner than a junkyard dog. Junkyard dogs live in places where people throw away things they do not want. Mean dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person who appears to be mean and threatening is really not so bad. We say his bark is worse than his bite.
Husbands and wives use this doghouse term when they are angry at each other. For example, a woman might get angry at her husband for coming home late or forgetting their wedding anniversary. She might tell him that he is in the doghouse. She may not treat him nicely until he apologizes. However, the husband may decide that it is best to leave things alone and not create more problems. He might decide to let sleeping dogs lie.
Dog expressions also are used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs.To achieve success, you must ______.
| A．feel dog-tired |
| B．work like a dog |
| C．become sick as a dog |
| D．be meaner than a junkyard dog |
To everyone’s surprise, Jack has been employed by a big company, about which we can say, “_______”.
| A．Every dog has its day |
| B．Jack works like a dog |
| C．His bark is worse than his bite |
| D．Jack really lives in a dog-eat-dog world |
What kind of people live a difficult life?
| A．Those who are in the doghouse. |
| B．Those who have the dog days. |
| C．Those who lead a dog’s life. |
| D．Those whose bark is worse than his bite. |
What does the article mainly talk about?
| A．Dogs’ life in America. |
| B．How to treat dogs well. |
| C．Why Americans love dogs. |
| D．Expressions with the word “dog”. |
Adrian's “Amazing Race” started early when his parents realized that he, as a baby, couldn't hear a thing, not even loud noises. In a special school for the hearingimpaired (听觉受损的)，he learned sign language and got to mix with other disabled children. However, the sight of all the disabled children communicating with one another upset his mother. She wanted him to lead a normal life. So after speaking to an advisor, she sent him to private classes where he learned to read lips and pronounce words.
Later on, Adrian's parents decided to send him to a regular school .But the headmaster tried to prevent them from doing so, saying regular school couldn't take care of a special student. His parents were determined to take the risk and push him hard to go through his work every day because they wanted to prove that, given the opportunity, he could do anything. Adrian made the grade and got accepted. It was a big challenge. The pace(节奏) was faster so he had to sit at the front of the class and really pay attention to the teacher, which wasn't always easy. But he stuck to it and did a lot of extra work after school.
The efforts made by Adrian and his parents paid off. Adrian graduated with good grades and got into a top high school. He also achieved a lot in life outside school. He developed a love for the outdoors and went to Nepal to climb mountains. He even entered the World Yacht Race—being the first hearingimpaired Asian to do so.
But none of these achievements would have been possible without one of the most important lessons from his mother. “If you believe in yourself and work hard, you can achieve great results，” she often said.How did Adrian communicate with other children in the special school?
| A．By speaking. |
| B．By using sign language. |
| C．By reading lips. |
| D．By making loud noises. |
Adrian's parents decided to send him to a regular school because________．
| A．they wanted him to live a normal life |
| B．they wanted to prove the headmaster wrong |
| C．he wouldn't mix with other disabled children |
| D．he wasn't taken good care of in the special school |
How did Adrian finally succeed in his study?
| A．He did a lot of outdoor activities. |
| B．He was pushed hard to study every day. |
| C．He attended private classes after school. |
| D．He worked very hard both in and after class. |
Why is Adrian's life described as an “Amazing Race”？
| A．He did very well in his study. |
| B．He succeeded in entering a regular school. |
| C．He reached his goals in spite of his disability. |
| D．He took part in the World Yacht Race. |
WASHINGTON－School lunches have been called many things, but a group of retired military officers is giving them a new label: national security threat.
That's not a reference to the mystery meat served up in the cafeteria line either. The retired officers are saying that school lunches have helped make the nation's young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards, and recruitment will be difficult.
A new report being released Tuesday says more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wideranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.
The military group acknowledges that other things keep young adults out of the armed services, such as a criminal record or the lack of a high school diploma. But weight problems that have worsened over the past 15 years are now the leading medical reason that recruits are rejected.
Although all branches of the military now meet or exceed recruitment goals, retired Navy Rear Adm. James Barnett Jr., a member of the officers group, says the obesity trend could affect that.
“When over a quarter of young adults are too fat to fight, we need to take notice，” Barnett said. He noted that national security in the year 2030 is “absolutely dependent” on reversing child obesity rates.
This isn't the first time the military has gotten involved in the debate over school lunches. During World War Ⅱ， military leaders had the opposite problem, reporting that many recruits were rejected because of stunted growth and inadequate nutrition. After the war, military leaders pushed Congress to establish the national school lunch program so children would grow up healthier.
Today, the group is urging Congress to eliminate junk food and highcalorie beverages from schools, put more money into the school lunch program and develop new strategies that help children develop healthier habits.What is the main problem of the lunches in schools according to the military officers?
| A．The meat in the lunches is mysterious. |
| B．The lunches are too expensive. |
| C．The lunches contain too much fat. |
| D．There is inadequate nutrition in the lunches. |
The underlined word “obesity” in Paragraph 5 means ________.
| A．slow in mind | B．state of being fat |
| C．quick in movement | D．lack of confidence |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．The lunches in American schools are not very healthy. |
| B．During World War Ⅱ，many people could not join the army because of overweight. |
| C．According to the author , overweight was the key reason why many recruits were rejected. |
| D．By now, Congress hasn't eliminated junk food and highcalorie beverages from schools. |
Which of the following is the best title for the article?
| A．School lunches: a national security threat? |
| B．National security in danger ? |
| C．Retired officers tired of school lunches |
| D．The recruitment of 2030 |
A Japanese student called Mami told me about her own experiences in Britain. She spent 10 months in the UK last year, studying English at a language school. She really enjoyed her first two weeks in the UK. But soon she started to miss things of her own country. She found it hard to make friends，and got annoyed(恼火的) about local people's behaviour. Mami said，“After a few weeks I started to cry a lot. I felt homesick.I thought the weather was dark and too changeable，and that affected my mood as well.”
To comfort herself Mami began to spend many hours on the Internet chatting with her friends back home. She spent a couple of weeks in the countryside in Kent. She went to a social club for British people who were interested in Japan and started to make some friends there. In addition, she took a short course in calligraphy(书法)to get an opportunity of mixing with local people. A few months later，Mami's impression of the UK had greatly changed .She found that most of the British were friendly, witty and fun.
However，once Mami was back in Japan，she experienced “culture shock”again. She said，“I missed the friends I had made in England. My way of thinking had changed. Sometimes I was annoyed by the views of people in my country—for example，about the value of money and time. I thought people around me lived in such a small world.” Mami noticed some changes in her behaviour：“I kept the habit of always carrying an umbrella with me, even on a fine day—my friends thought I was crazy！”The second paragraph tells us ________．
| A．how Mami overcame culture shock in Britain |
| B．how Mami felt as soon as she arrived in Britain |
| C．what Mami learned in her language school |
| D．what Mami liked and disliked about Britain |
The reason why Mami had the habit of carrying an umbrella was that ________．
| A．she liked umbrellas very much |
| B．the umbrella reminded her of her life in the UK |
| C．she had got used to the changeable weather in Britain |
| D．it often rained in Japan those days |
Why did Mami experience culture shock in Japan?
| A．She didn't like Japanese culture any more. |
| B．The Japanese behaviour had changed a lot. |
| C．The world in Japan was too small for her. |
| D．She had got used to British culture and life. |
The best title for the passage would be “________ ”．
| A．Why not make friends with the British |
| B．Cultural differences between Britain and Japan |
| C．Culture shock experienced by a Japanese student |
| D．How to prepare for culture shock |
There are stories about two US Presidents，Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren，which attempt to explain the American English term OK. We don't know if either story is true，but they are both interesting.
The first explanation is based on the fact that President Jackson had very little education. In fact，he had difficulty reading and writing. When important papers came to Jackson，he tried to read them and then had his assistants explain what they said. If he approved of a paper, he would write “all correct” on it. The problem was that he didn't know how to spell. So what he really wrote was “ol korekt”. After a while，he shortened that term to “OK”．
The second explanation is based on the place where President Van Buren was born，Kinderhook，New York. Van Buren's friends organized a club to help him become president. They called the club the Old Kinderhook Club，and anyone who supported Van Buren was called “OK”．The author ________．
| A．believes both of the stories |
| B．doesn't believe a word of the stories |
| C．is not sure whether the stories are true |
| D．is telling the stories just for fun |
According to the passage，President Jackson ________．
| A．couldn't draw up any documents at all |
| B．wasn't good at reading，writing or spelling |
| C． often had his assistants sign documents for him |
| D．didn't like to read important papers by himself |
According to the first story, the term “OK”________．
| A．was approved of by President Jackson |
| B．was the title of some official documents |
| C．was first used by President Jackson |
| D．was an old way to spell “all correct” |
According to the second story，the term “OK” ________．
| A．was the short way to say “Old Kinderhook Club” |
| B．meant the place where President Van Buren was born |
| C．was the name of Van Buren's club |
| D．was used to call Van Buren's supporters in the election |