I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the easy carelessness of youth. But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years later, and ever since have been of great value to me.
Carl Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.
"Do you practice in long stretches（一段时间）, an hour at a time?"
"I try to.”
"Well, don't,” he exclaimed. “When you grow up, time won't come in long stretches. Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life."
When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings. For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said. During the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript（手稿）ready for revision, later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal（零碎的） method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were idle moments which could be caught and put to use. I even took up piano--playing again, finding that the small intervals of the day provided sufficient time for both writing and piano practice.
There is an important trick in this time--using formula: you must get into your work quickly. If you have but five minutes for writing, you can't afford to waste it in chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.
I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter has had a tremendous influence on my life. To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I plunge in without delay.
1. What is the best title of this passage?
A. Concentrate on Your Work B. A Little at a Time
C. How I Became a Writer D. Good Advice
2. Which of the following statements is true?
A. The writer owes great thanks to his teacher for teaching him to work in long stretches.
B. Carl Walter has had a great influence on the writer’s life since he became a student.
C. The writer didn't take the teacher's words to heart at first.
D. Rapid concentration is actually more difficult than most people imagine.
3. The underlined part "counted on" can he replaced by____.
A. enriched B. concentrated C. valued D. expected
4. We can infer that the writer .
A. has new books published each year however busy his teaching is
B. is always tired of interruptions in life because his teaching schedule is always heavy
C. has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels
D. makes mental preparations beforehand, so he’s devoted to work instantly
Send us your old jeans and other denim (牛仔布)!
What Are We Going to Do with All This Denim?
All the denim will be donated to COTTON FROM BLUE TO GREEN.®. This denim drive is a call-to-action to donate denim and give it "new life" by changing it into UltraTouchtm Natural Cotton Fiber Insulation (纤维隔热材料), which is used to help build houses in places that have been damaged by hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters. Your jeans will help set a record, keep clothes out of landfills (垃圾场), and build houses for families to live in! UltraTouehtm is made of 85% recycled fibers and is an environmentally safe, natural cotton fiber insulation.
It's a Fact
It takes about 500 pairs of jeans to recycle enough denim to insulate one average-size U.S. house. So send us lots!
Here's How You Can Get Involved!
1. Get a parent's permission and select as many denim clothes as you like. (Any denim clothing is OK.)
2. The denim must be used.
3. The denim can be any brand.
4. The denim can be of any color or size but must have been worn by a human (no doll clothes!).
5. Please print out this form and include it with each package!
6. Send as many jeans or denim items as you wish to:
NG Kids P.O. Box 98001 Washington, D.C. 20090-8001
Jeans must be received by June 30, 2009!
61. The activity organizer asks you to send denim clothes to ________.
A. collect old clothes for being reused B. prevent them from being thrown away
C. provide clothes for the homeless D. turn them into new clothes for sale
62. The denim clothes that you intend to send_______.
A. can be either new or second-hand B. can be of any shape or color
C. must be a certain brand D. Can be worn by dolls
63. We can infer that UltraTouchtm may be the name of_________.
A. a brand of jeans B. an organization C. a building material D. a kind of cloth
64. This activity is probably ________.
A. a charity(慈善) act B. a school's homework
C. a building company' s task D. an environmental act
A few months ago, I had the responsibility of delivering some donations (捐赠物) to the local City Mission, a place where the homeless, and often the injured can find shelter from a life that has been turned upside down for them.
It was late autumn, and already the promise of winter was whispering through the open windows of the Mission's storage area.
After setting the donations near the sorting table, I said goodbye to the worker, and headed back through the dining area towards the door.
I was careful not to notice the people sitting at the tables, choosing to leave before feeling the guilt (罪过) of my " having", in the midst of so many who have nothing.
But it was not to be.
"Not yet," I heard a woman's voice say. "Not till we pray (祈祷)."
I was behind them when the mother bowed her head and began one of the most heartfelt prayers I have ever heard, and I stopped where I was to look over at the table. A young mother was there with her two young boys, one about three years old on her left, the other, about five, on her right. Both were waiting, heads bowed, eyes closed.
My heart broke as I watched and listened. She was in a leg cast (腿上打着石膏), and scars (伤疤) covered her arms, her face and head.
One of the younger ladies working at the Mission had come to stand beside me, and she whispered, "She's a single mom; her husband just took off one day and didn't come back. She came here when their apartment caught fire. She was burned getting her kids out."
She started to say something else but stopped.
We were silent ... and the words this young mother said in our silence will always follow me, "... and thanks for the fruit on the ground, when I just can't reach the tree."
54. By saying "Not yet", the woman probably wanted to______.
A. thank the author for sending the food B. ask her children to pray before eating
C. blame those who have too much D. pray for the happiness of her children
55. Why did the woman come to the City Mission?
A. Because her husband left her and her children.
B. Because she suffered from a serious disease.
C. Because her house caught fire suddenly.
D. Because she was out of work.
56. From the last paragraph, we can infer that the woman was ______.
A. happy to find the fallen fruit on the ground
B. regretful for not climbing the tree for the fruit
C. satisfied to pick up the fruit for her children
D. grateful very much for the help she received
The brain of an insect isn’t very big. But insects are somehow still able to make lots of important decisions. Bees, ants and roaches(蟑螂) build hives with thousands of workers doing specialized work. The jobs are done without a head or even a plan. How do insects manage this?
To solve the mystery, scientists in Belgium spent months building robotic roaches and then putting them among real roaches. The final goal of the research is to find out how the simple behavior of individuals gives rise to a collective(集体的) decision. The roach is a good starting point for trying to answer the big question because its social system is simple enough for scientists to study.
The first step was to build robots that real roaches would accept as their own. Although the robotic roaches don’t look much like the real thing, they have similarities with them in three key ways: they naturally head toward dark areas, they are influenced by the behavior of other roaches, and even more importantly, they smell like roaches.
The next step was getting the robotic and real roaches to work together on common tasks. In experiments, the robots would collectively head towards a dark place, copying the behavior of natural roaches. That got the researchers wondering: if you program the robotic roaches to go toward the lighted place, will the real roaches follow, going against their natural instincts.(本能) ?
They will – it turned out. Many of the real roaches followed the robots to a lighter shelter. But influence turned out to be a two- way street. On occasion, the real roaches were able to override the programming of the robot roaches and get them to turn into dark hiding places. Being social creatures, both the robotic and natural roaches were paying attention to and following the example set by others.
In theory, it would be possible to create a robot that could influence collective decision-making in humans. To do this, researchers would have to invent a robot that people would accept. Fortunately, the technology isn’t there yet.
69. Why do scientists choose the roaches to study?
A. Their social system is simple
B. They are social creatures.
C. They are able to build their hives quite well.
D. It is easy to create robotic ones.
70. The robotic roaches are accepted by real ones because of all the following EXCEPT that ______ .
A. they smell like real ones B. they look exactly like real ones
C. what they do are somewhat influenced by other roaches
D. they naturally head toward dark areas
71. What’s the author’s attitude to creating a robot that would influence collective decision-making in humans?
A. Uninterested B. Positive
C. Negative D. Doubtful
72. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage ?
A. Scientists’ Research B. Robotic Roaches
C. Amazing Insects D. Insects’ Social System
第二部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每小题2分，满分40分）
第一节：阅读下列短文，然后从所给的四个选项 (A、B、C和D) 中选出最佳选项，并写在答题纸上.
Every spring scores of people flock to the Buzzard Festival（秃鹫节） at Hinckley, Ohio. They come to watch for buzzards. Most would be glad just to take a look at a buzzard. If they do see one of these “flying garbage cans”, it will probably be circling high in the sky. From there it can watch the ground for signs of the waste and the dead animals on which it feeds.
The buzzard is the ugliest bird in the United States. In fact, it may well be the ugliest bird in the world. It has a small, bare, pink head. Its thick body is covered with dark, rough feathers.
In spite of its looks, the buzzard is important to the people of Hinckley. It is their first sign of spring. After a winter in the south, buzzards return to their homes in the north. In the Hinckley area, they always return on March 15. No one knows why. But they have come back to Hinckley Ridge on that day, sure as clocks work, for at least forty years.
The excitement starts in February. By the middle of March it has reached a high peak. Bets are placed. Prizes go to the person who sees the first buzzard. Radio stations and newspapers tell of the coming festival. And on the weekend after March 15 the people of Hinckley hold their Buzzard Festival.
The people come and look around. They chat. They eat their pancakes and sausages. Then they drive past Buzzard’s Roost on Hinckley Ridge.
A lot of them stop near the road at the stand set up to give information to visitors. There they can hear, from a recording, the main facts about the buzzard. They can see a stuffed buzzard. They can look at some pictures taken of buzzards in other years. With good luck and a strong pair of field glasses, they may sight one or two live buzzards high in the sky.
Buzzards may be ugly. They may be “flying garbage cans”. But in Hinckley they are just as welcome as the swallows are in Capistrano in California. It would be a sad spring indeed if the buzzards ever failed to come back to Hinckley Ridge.
61．A good title for this story would be _________.
A. The Hinckley Buzzard Festival
B. Buzzard, the Ugliest Bird
C. Why the Buzzard Has a Pink Head
D. The Return of “The Garbage Can”
62．The buzzard is called the“flying garbage can”because it _________.
A. is ugly
B. eats waste and dead animals
C. looks like a garbage can
D. collect rubbish on the ground
63．The surprising thing about Hinckley’s buzzards is that _________.
A. they spend the winter in the south
B. they come very close to the town
C. they return on the same day each year
D. both buzzards and swallows return to Capistrano on March 15
64．At the information stand, visitors to Hinckley’s Buzzard Festival can _________.
A. feed their pancakes and sausages to buzzards
B. easily see a live buzzard
C. take some pictures with the background of live buzzards
D. learn some facts about the buzzard
What does the word “home” mean to you? How do you say the word in English? In Spanish? In your language? Although people usually know what the word means it often has no exact t
ranslation. It’s not surprising really, because the idea of home varies from country to country, and from person to person. A home is more than a roof and four walls. It’s the cooking, eating, talking, playing and family living that go on inside, which are important as well. And at home you usually feel safe and relaxed.
But it’s not just that homes look different in different countries, they also contain different things and reveal（显示）different attitudes（态度） and needs. For example, in cold northern Europe, there’s a fire in the living room or kitchen and all the chairs face it. In the south, where the sun shines a lot and it’s more important to keep the heat out, there are small windows, cool stone floors and often no carpets. We asked some people about their homes.
How often do people move house in your country?
“In my country many people don’t stay in one place for a very long time. They often move every ten years or so.”
— Cheryl, Boston, USA
What are typical features of homes in your country?
“In Britain, even in town there’s always a garden and sometimes a basement. We have separate bedrooms and living rooms. But we don’t oft
en have balconies.
The weather isn’t warm enough!”
— Pat, Exeter, England
( )49. The word “home” has no exact translation because ______.
A. people can’t find this word in the dictionary
B. no one really knows what a home looks like
C. it has different meanings in different countries
D. people can’t understand each other very well
( )50. You can ______ at home according to the passage.
A. cook, talk, and play games B. eat, play, and teach students
C. swim, eat, and make friends D. do nothing but cool yourself
( )51. Why is it important to keep the heat out of the houses in southern Europe?
A. Because they want to breathe fresh air outside.
B. Because there’s a fire in the living room.
C. Because they wear heavy clothing all day long.
D. Because the sun there shines a lot in the daytime.
( )52. Which one is true according to the passage?
A. People in Britain seldom have balconies because it’s so hot outside.
B. “Home” is a place where people feel safe, relaxed and comfortable.
C. Though homes look different in places, they have the same needs.
D. Houses in Europe always have big windows and cool stone floors.