B
The first time I saw Carlos I would never have believed he was going to change my life. I had my arms full of books and I was tearing into the classroom when I ran into something solid. It was Carlos.
“My, you’re tall,” he said.
Of course, the class began to laugh. Angry, I walked to my seat without a word.
I glanced back to see if Reed Harrington was laughing with the rest. That would be the last straw. But Reed was studying chemistry and did not seem to be aware of anything else. I didn’t know why I considered Reed my friend. Maybe just because he was a good two inches taller than I. Anyway, every time I blew out my birthday candles and made a wish, it was for a date with Reed Harrington. “Take that seat,” Mr. McCarthy told the proud newcomer Carlos, pointing to the only empty one, in the back of the room.
Carlos smiled broadly.“But I need a couple of dictionaries.” Again the class laughed, but now they were laughing with Carlos, not at him. He had been here only 10 minutes and already he had them on his side.
It was the school elections that made me think of Carlos again. Reed Harrington was voted president and Carlos vicepresident.“How come?” I kept asking myself.“How come this shrimp(虾) who’s only been in town for a little over a month gets to be so popular.”
So on that morning, I stopped Carlos and said,“It doesn’t seem to bother you—being short.” He looked up at me.“Of course I mind being short. But there isn’t anything I can do about it. When I realized I was going to have to spend my life in this undersized skin, I just decided to make the best of it and concentrate on being myself.”“You seem to get along great,” I admitted.“But what about me? Nobody wants to date a girl taller than he is.”“The trouble with you is you’re afraid to be yourself. You’re smart. And you could be pretty. In fact, you might be more than pretty.” I felt myself turning red...
55.It’s a story about______.
A.a tall boy and a short girl B.a short boy and a tall girl
C.a tall boy and a tall girl D.a short boy and a short girl
56.From the story, we can see the boy Carlos is______.
A.handsome and humorous B.humorous and confident
C.handsome and popular D.honest and popular
57.The underlined sentence “That would be the last straw” suggests that the writer______.
A.cared much about Reed’s attitude
B.thought Reed was different from the rest
C.couldn’t stand Carlos making fun of her
D.hoped Reed was unaware of the event
58.According to the passage, what happened in the end?
A.Carlos and the author hurt each other.
B.Reed and the author fell into love with each other.
C.The author changed attitude and turned to be confident.
D.Carlos was finally elected president of student committee.
People in the United States honor their parents with two special days: Mother’s Day, on the second Sunday in May, and Father’s Day, on the third Sunday in June. These days are set aside to show love and respect for parents. They raise their children and educate them to be responsible citizens. They give love and care. These two days offer a chance to think about the changing roles of mothers and fathers. More mothers now work outside the home. More fathers must help with child-care.
These two special days are celebrated in many different ways. On Mother’s Day people wear carnations. A red one stands for a living mother. A white one shows that the mother is dead. Many people attend religious services to honor parents. It is also a day when people whose parents are dead visit their graves. On these days, families get together at home and in restaurants. They often have outdoor BBQs for Father’s Day. These are days of fun and good feelings and memories.
Another tradition is to give cards and gifts. Children make them in school. Many people make their own presents. These are valued more than the ones bought in stores. It is not the value of the gift that is important, but it is “the thought that counts”. Greeting card stores, florists, candy makers, bakeries, telephones companies and other stores do a lot of business during these holidays. Which is NOT a reason for children to show love and respect for parents?
| A．Parents bring up children. |
| B．Parents give love and care to children. |
| C．Parents pass away before children grow up. |
| D．Parents educate children to be good persons. |
What do you know from the passage?
| A．Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are both in May. |
| B．Not all the children respect their parents. |
| C．Fewer women worked outside the home in the past. |
| D．Fathers are not as important as mothers at home. |
Which do you think is right about “carnation”?
| A．It only has two kinds of color. |
| B．It is a special kind of clothes people wear on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. |
| C．People can wear carnations only on the second Sunday in June. |
| D．It’s a kind of flower showing love and best wishes. |
What do you think “florists” do?
| A．They sell flowers. |
| B．They made bread. |
| C．They offer enough room for having family parties. |
| D．They sell special clothes for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. |
Another man-made wonder of the United States was built long before the nation was established.About 900 years ago, the Ancestral Puebloan people built villages high in the walls of canyons in Colorado, where 600 cliff dwellings are now part of the Mesa Verde National Park. 
Visitors can stand at the top of the mesas and look into the dwellings almost hidden in openings of the rock walls. The Puebloan people cut small steps into the rock, which connected buildings containing hundreds of rooms.
The rock walls have protected the buildings from severe weather in the area; therefore, they remain mostly unchanged in the hundreds of years since they were built.
Our final man-made wonder is in the northwestern city of Seattle, Washington. The Space Needle was built as the central structure for the 1962 World's Fair.
The 184-meter-tall structure was designed by Edward Carlson, which has a wide base on the ground, with its middle narrow and a large ring-like structure on top. The structure was meant to look like a "flying saucer," a vehicle that was popular in science fiction space travel stories. The saucer includes an observation area and eating place. The restaurant slowly turns to provide visitors with a 360 degree view of Seattle.
The Space Needle, only costing about $4,500,000, was not very costly, and was designed and completed in about a year and opened on the first day of the World's Fair.
Today, the Space Needle is the most popular place for visitors to Seattle. And it remains the internationally known symbol of the city. What the passage before this one can be about?
| A．Some natural wonders in the world. |
| B．Sightseeing in the US. |
| C．Some other artificial wonders in the US. |
| D．American geography. |
What does the underlined word “dwelling” mean?
| A．village | B．house | C．canyon | D．step |
Which of the following descriptions about the Space Needle is TRUE?
A. It is a man-made wonder in Washington, D.C..
B. Edward Carlson built the structure.
C. It has a ring-like structure on top.
D. It remains the internationally known symbol of the US.What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Visiting the US | B．Man-made wonders in the US |
| C．Wonders in the world | D．Famous places in the US |
Why play games? Because they are fun, and a 1ot more besides. Following the rules…planning your next move...acting as a team member…these are all “game” ideas that you will come across throughout your life.
Think about some off the games you played as a young child, such as rope-jumping and hide-and-seek. Such games are entertaining and fun. But perhaps more importantly, they translate life into exciting dramas that teach children some of the basic rules they will be expected to follow the rest of their lives, such as taking turns and cooperating (合作) .
Many children’s games have a practical side Children around the world play games that prepare them for work they will do as grown-ups. For instance, some Saudi Arabian children play a game called bones. Which sharpens the hand-eye coordination（协调）needed in hunting.
Many sports encourage national or local pride. The most famous games of all, the Olympic Games, bring athletes from around the world together to take part in friendly competition. People who watch the event wave flags, knowing that a gold medal is a win for an entire country, not just the athlete who earned it. For countries experiencing natural disasters or war, an Olympic win can mean so much.
Sports are also an event that unites people. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. People on all continents play it — some for fun and some for a living. Nicolette Iribarne, a Californian soccer player, has discovered a way to spread hope through soccer. He created a foundation to provide poor children with not only soccer balls but also a promising future.
Next time you play your favorite game or sport, think about why you enjoy it, what skills are needed, and whether these skills will help you in other aspects of your life. Through playing hide-and-seek, children are expected to learn to ________.
| A．be a team leader | B．obey the basic rules |
| C．act as a grown-up | D．predict possible danger |
The underlined part in Paragraph 2 most probably means that games can________.
| A．describe life in an exciting way |
| B．turn real-life experiences into a play |
| C．make learning life skills more interesting |
| D．change people’s views of sporting event s |
According to the passage, why is winning Olympic medals so encouraging?
| A．It inspires people’s deep love for the country. |
| B．It proves the exceptional skills of the winners. |
| C．It helps the country out of natural disasters. |
| D．It earns the winners fame and fortune. |
Iribarne’s goal of forming the foundation is to _______.
| A．bring fun to poor kids | B．provide soccer balls for children |
| C．give poor kids a chance for a better life | |
| D．appeal to soccer players to help poor kids |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Games benefit people all their lives. |
| B．Sports can get all athletes together. |
| C．People are advised to play games for fun. |
| D．Sports increase a country’s competitiveness. |
Batteries can power anything from small sensors to large systems. While scientists are finding ways to make them smaller but even more powerful, problems can arise when these batteries are much larger and heavier than the devices themselves. University of Missouri (MU) researchers are developing a nuclear energy source that is smaller, lighter and more efficient.
“To provide enough power, we need certain methods with energy density (密度),” said Jae kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. “The radioisotope (放射性同位素) battery can provide power density that is much higher than chemical batteries.”
Kwon and his research team have been working on building a small nuclear battery, recently the size and thickness of a penny, intended to power various micro/nano-electromechanical systems (M/NEWS). Although nuclear batteries can cause concerns, Kwon said they are safe.
“People hear the word ‘nuclear’ and think of something very dangerous,” he said. “However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pace-makers, space satellites and underwater systems.”
His new idea is not only in the battery’s size, but also in its semiconductor (半导体). Kwon’s battery uses a liquid semiconductor rather than a solid semiconductor.
“The key part of using a radioactive battery is that when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can damage the lattice structure (晶格结构) of the solid semiconductor, ” Kwon said. “By using a liquid semiconductor, we believe we can minimize that problem.”
Together with J. David Robertson, chemistry professor and associate director of the MU Research Reactor, Kwon is working to build and test the battery. In the future, they hope to increase the battery’s power, shrink its size and try with various other materials. Kwon said that the battery could be thinner than the thickness of human hair.Which of the following is true of Jae Kwon?
| A．He teaches chemistry at MU. |
| B．He developed a chemical battery. |
| C．He is working on a nuclear energy source. |
| D．He made a breakthrough in computer engineering. |
Jae Kwon gave examples in Paragraph 4 ________.
| A．to show chemical batteries are widely applied |
| B．to indicate nuclear batteries can be safely used |
| C．to describe a nuclear-powered system |
| D．to introduce various energy sources. |
Liquid semiconductor is used to ________ .
| A．get rid of the radioactive waste |
| B．test the power of nuclear batteries |
| C．decrease the size of nuclear batteries |
| D．reduce the damage to lattice structure |
According to Jae Kwon, his nuclear battery ________.
| A．uses a solid semiconductor | B．will soon replace the present ones |
| C．could be extremely thin | D．has passed the final test |
The text is most probably a ________.
| A．science news report | B．book review |
| C．newspaper ad | D．science fiction story |
Christopher Thomas, 27, was a writer by night and a teacher by day when he noticed he was always tired and was losing weight fast. Diagnosed with diabetes (糖尿病), Thomas would need to inject himself with insulin (胰岛素) three times a day for the rest of his life or risk nerve damage, blindness and even death. And if that weren't bad enough, he had no health insurance.
After a month of feeling upset, Thomas decided he'd better find a way to fight back. He left Canton, Michigan for New York, got a job waiting tables, nicknamed himself the Diabetic Rockstar, and created diabeticrockstar.com, a free online community for diabetics and their loved ones — a place where over 1,100 people share personal stories, information, and resources.
Jason Swencki’s son, Kody, was diagnosed with diabetes at six. Father and son visit the online children's forums(论坛) together most evenings. "Kody gets so excited, writing to kids from all over," says Swencki, one of the site's volunteers. "They know what he's going through, so he doesn't feel alone."
Kody is anything but alone: Diabetes is now the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, with 24 million diagnosed cases. And more people are being diagnosed at younger ages.
These days, Thomas's main focus is his charity（慈善机构）, Fight It, which provides medicines and supplies to people —225 to date— who can't afford a diabetic's huge expenses. Fight-it.org has raised about $23,000 — in products and in cash. In May, Thomas will hold the first annual Diabetic Rockstar Festival in the Caribbean.
Even with a staff of 22 volunteers, Thomas often devotes up to 50 hours a week to his cause, while still doing his full-time job waiting tables. "Of the diabetes charities out there, most are putting money into finding a cure," says Bentley Gubar, one of Rockstar's original members. "But Christopher is the only person I know saying people need help now." Which of the following is true of Christopher Thomas?
| A．He needs to go to the doctor every day. |
| B．He studies the leading cause of diabetes |
| C．He has a positive attitude to this disease. |
| D．He encourages diabetics by writing articles. |
Diabeitcrockstar.com was created for _________.
| A．diabetics to communicate | B．volunteers to find jobs |
| C．children to amuse themselves | D．rock stars to share resources. |
According to the text, Kody ______.
| A．feel lonely because of his illness |
| B．benefits from diabeticrockstar.com |
| C．helps create the online kid’s forums |
| D．writes children’s stories online |
What can we learn about Fight It?
| A．It helps the diabetics in financial difficulties. |
| B．It organizes parties for volunteer once a year. |
| C．It offers less expensive medicine to diabetics. |
| D．It owns a well-known medical website. |
The last paragraph suggests that Thomas ______.
| A．works full-time in a diabetes charity |
| B．employs 22 people for his website |
| C．helps diabetics in his own way |
| D．ties to find a cure for diabetes |