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。
Most people don't know the true story of the little boy who came to be known as Douglas Craig. He was found wandering around the streets of Washington, D.C. He could not hear or speak. At night, he drew the knees up to his body in doorways and slept. Sometimes people pitied him and gave him food and clothing. If not, he ate what he could find in garbage cans.
Dr. E. M. Gallaudet at Gallaudet College let him stay in the Kendall School until he was old enough to work. He became the best "handy man" that Gallaudet had ever had. He had many duties, such as picking up mail at the post office, mowing grass, tending the flower beds, and carrying notes from the boys to the girls. Clearly, he was a familiar sight on campus.
It is said that Douglas courted(求爱) a black woman from Baltimore. Since his courtship required letter-writing, and he was illiterate, he had a student in the college act as his "private secretary." Though that relationship did not work out, he did marry a black deaf woman. The wedding took place in a church, and most of the college faculty and teachers were present. Douglas was dressed in a full-dress suit with a white tie and white gloves. The happy couple went to Baltimore for a honeymoon, but the honeymoon only lasted for one day. Their plans were cut short when his pocketbook containing about $300 was either lost or stolen.
He once went to Norfolk, Virginia on a vacation, but he did not know what a vacation was. He spent the entire time working around the docks of Norfolk. He came home with a pocketful of money, and told everyone that he had a fine vacation.
Douglas' last public duty was to raise the flag to the top of the new flagpole. He was very weak and sat in an armchair during the ceremonies. He died in 1936, but left a legend at Gallaudet that would live forever.
1. The main idea of the story is that_____:
A. Craig liked no women except those from universities.
B. Gallaudet is the best place for an orphan to grow up.
C. No one ever found out exactly what happened to Craig’s family.
D. Craig, a man with an unusual background, worked at Gallaudet for many years.
2. It is most likely that Douglas Craig enjoyed working at Gallaudet because_____:
A. Gallaudet was a good place to collect junk. B. he found it easy to communicate with people.
C. people felt sorry for him so he didn't have to work hard. D. he didn't have a home.
3. Craig and his new wife's honeymoon did not last long because_______:
A. their money was lost or stolen. B. Craig missed Gallaudet and wanted to come back early.
C. they spent all their money. D. their baggage and clothing was lost or stolen.
ArrivinginSydneyonhisownfromIndia, my husband ,Rashid, stayedina hotel for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children.
During the first week of his stay, he went out one day to do some shopping. He came back in the late afternoon to discover that his suitcase was gone. He was extremely worried as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his passport.
He reported the case to the police and then sat there,lost and lonely in strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a distant country while trying to settle down in a new one.
Late in the evening, the phone rang. It was a stranger. He was trying to pronounce my husband's name and was asking him a lot of questions. Then he said they had found a pile of papers in their trash can(垃圾桶)that had been left out on the footpath.
My husband rushed to their home to find a kind family holding all his papers and documents. Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of unfamiliar papers. Her parents had carefully sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign addresses on most of the documents. At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had given his new telephone number to a friend.
That family not only restored the important documents to us that day but also restoredour faith and trust in people. We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish their way.
1. |
What did Rashid plan to do after his arrival in Sydney?
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2. |
The girl's parents got Rashid's phone number from.
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3. |
What does the underlined word "restored" in the last paragraph mean?
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4. |
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
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As more and more people speak the global languages of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will likely die out by the next century, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations- UNESCO and National Geographic among them –have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.
Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Center, Yale University, who specializes in the languages and oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, looking and raising a family in a village in Nepal.
Documenting the Tangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayans reaches of India, Nepal, Bhutan, and China. But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.
At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials- including photographs, films, tap recordings, and field notes- which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection.
Now, through the two organizations that he has founded-the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project- Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, found in libraries and stores around the world, available not just to scholars but to the youngers.
Generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected.Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet. Turin notes,the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.Many scholars are making efforts to _____.
A.promote global languages |
B.rescue the disappearing languages |
C.search for language communities |
D.set up languages research organizations. |
What does “that tradition” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A.Having first records of the languages |
B.Writing books on language searching |
C.Telling stories about language users |
D.Linking with the native speakers |
What is Turin’s book based on?
A.The cultural statics in India. |
B.The documents available at Yale. |
C.His language research in Britain. |
D.His personal experience in Nepal. |
Which of the following best describe Turin’s Work?
A.Write sell and donate. |
B.Record,repeat and reward. |
C.Collect,protect and reconnect. |
D.Design, experiment and report. |
A typical lion tamer (驯兽师) in people's mind is an entertainer holding a whip (鞭子)and a chair .The whip get all of the attention , but it's mostly for show .In reality , it's the chair that does the important work .When a lion tamer holds a chair in front of the lion's face , the lion tries to focus on all four legs of the chair at the same time .With its focus divided , the lion becomes confused and is unsure about what to do next .When faced with so many options , the lion chooses to freeze and wait instead of attacking the man holding the chair.
How often do you find yourself in the same position as the lion ? How often do you have something you want to achiever (e,g. lose weight , start a business , travel more ) -only to end up confused by all of the options in front of you and never make progress ?
This upsets me to no end because while all the experts are busy debating about which option is best , the people who want to improve their lives are left confused by all of the conflicting information .The end result is that we feel like we can't focus or that we're focused on the wrong things , and so we take less action , make less progress , and stay the same when we could be improving .
It doesn't have to be that way .Anytime you find the world waving a chair in your face , remember this :All you need to do is focus on one thing .You just need to get started .Starting before you feel ready is one of the habits of successful people .If you have somewhere you want to go , something you want to accomplish , someone you want to become ….take immediate action .If you're clear about where you want to go , the rest of the world will either help you get there or get out the way .
1. |
Why does the lion tamer use a chair?
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2. |
In what sense are people similar to a lion facing a chair?
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3. |
What is the author's attitude towards the experts mentioned in paragraph 3?
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4. |
When the world is "waving a chair in your face", you're advised to.
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Passenger pigeons(旅鸽)once flew over much of the United States in unbelievable numbers. Written accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries described flocks(群)so large that they darkened the sky for hours.
It was calculated that when its population reach its highest point, there were more than 3 billion passenger pigeons – a number equal to 24 to 40 percent of the total bird population in the United States, making it perhaps the most abundant birds in the world. Even as late as 1870 when their numbers had already become smaller, a flock believed to be 1 mile wide and 320 miles (about 515 kilometers) long was seen near Cincinnati.
Sadly, the abundance of passenger pigeons may have been their undoing. Where the birds were abundant, people believed there was an ever-lasting supply and killed them by the thousands. Commercial hunters attracted them to small clearings with grain, waited until pigeons had settled to feed, then threw large nets over them, taking hundreds at a time. The birds were shipped to large cities and sold in restaurants.
By the closing decades of the 19th century, the hardwood forests where passenger pigeons nested had been damaged by Americans’ need for wood, which scattered(驱散)the flocks and forced the birds to go farther north, where cold temperatures and spring storms contributed to their decline. Soon the great flocks were gone, never to be seen again.
In 1897, the state of Michigan passed a law prohibiting the killing of passenger pigeons, but by then, no sizable flocks had been seen in the state for 10 years. The last confirmed wild pigeon in the United States was shot by a boy in Pike County, Ohio, in 1900. For a time, a few birds survived under human care. The last of them, known affectionately as Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden in September 1, 1914.In the 18th and early 19th centuries, passenger pigeons _______.
A.were the biggest bird in the world |
B.lived mainly in the south of America |
C.did great harm to the natural environment |
D.Were the largest population in the US |
The underlined word “undoing” probably refers to the pigeons’ _______.
A.escape | B.ruin | C.liberation | D.evolution |
What was the main reason for people to kill passenger pigeons?
A.To seek pleasure. | B.To save other birds. |
C.To make money. | D.To protect crops. |
What can we infer about the law passed in Michigan?
A.It was ignored by the public. | B.It was declared too late. |
C.It was unfair. | D.It was strict. |
The Cambridge Science Festival Curiosity Challenge
Dare to Take the Curiosity Challenge!
The Cambridge Science Festival (CSF) is pleased to inform you of the sixth annual Curiosity Challenge. The challenge invites, even dares school students between the ages of 5 and 14 to create artwork or a piece of writing that shows their curiosity and how it inspires them to explore their world.
Students are being dared to draw a picture, write an article, take a photo or write a poem that shows what they are curious about. To enter the challenge, all artwork or pieces of writing should be sent to the Cambridge Science Festival, MIT Museum, 265 Mass Avenue. Cambridge 02139 by Friday, February 8th.
Students who enter the Curiosity Challenge and are selected as winners will be honored at a special ceremony during the CSF on Sunday, April 21st. Guest speaker will also present prizes to the students. Winning entries will be published in a book. Student entries will be exhibit and prizes will be given. Families of those who take part will be included in the celebration and brunch will be served.
Between March 10th and March 15th, each winner will be given the specifics of the closing ceremony and the Curiosity Challenge celebration. The program guidelines and other related information are available at: http://cambridgesciencefestival.org.Who can take in the Curiosity Challenge?
A.School students. |
B.Cambridge locals. |
C.CSF winners. |
D.MIT artists. |
When will the prize-giving ceremony be held?
A.On February 8th. |
B.On March 10th |
C.On March 15th.. |
D.On April 21st. |
What type of writing is this text?
A.An exhibition guide. |
B.An art show review. |
C.An announcement. |
D.An official report. |