It was late Wednesday night when the dreadful phone call reached our home . I rememeber laying in my bed trying to fall asleep when I heard the phone ring . Interested in who would be calling so late I sat up, so I could hear the phone call better . To my surprise , I heard my mom burst into tears , “ Get the car , dear ! Andrea has been in a car accident .”
We ran every red light on the way to the hospital and our tires screeched(发出刺耳声) around every corner . We got to the hospital , but were not allowed to see Andrea . The next morning , after wearing masks , we were allowed to go to the ICU to see Andrea . Well , the least I could say was that everything was injured in her body and she lost all of her memories . It was a fatal car accident .
Over the next two months , I lived more at the hospital than I did at my house . I watched as Andrea worked so hard to gain back everyday motor skills . She never once complained or pitied herself , and her determined spirit was shining through . After two weeks in the ICU and two months of regular hospital treatment , Andrea came home . She missed several months of school , so it was hard for her to catch up . Andrea had many tasks to accomplish , and no matter how hard it was , she stuck to it until the job was done . Though she was busy dealing with the pain and the therapy , she always found time to love and play with me .
I’ll never forget the impact that this incident made on my life . I admire my sister for her strong-willed personality and her determined spirit . Today she is perfectly normal , despite the scars and the pins holding her leg in place . I couldn’t ask for a better sister or a hero in my life .
1. The writer wanted to hear the call better , because_______.
A. he sensed that something terrible had happened
B. he might be curious about who would phone so late
C. he wanted to scold the person who phoned so late
D. he wasn’t sure whether the telephone concerned him
2. From the underlined sentence in the second paragraph , we can learn that________.
A. the family didn’t obey the traffic rules
B. the writer’s father wasn’t good at driving
C. the whole family were anxious to see Andrea
D. their house was very far from the hosptial
3. It was mainly________that made the author’s sister recover from the car accident .
A. the family’s encouragement B. Andrea’s strong will
C. the treatment D. the eagerness to study
4. What would be the best title for the passage ?
A. A Miracle Happening to My Sister B. My Sister—the Hero in My Life
C. An Accident Changed My Sister D. An Incident Which Influenced Me Much
Why do parents have such a difficult time to communicate openly and honestly with their teens? For this, there are many reasons but most of them stem from not being able to properly understand their teens. It is a dangerous gap because parents will have to communicate with their teens about a wide variety of issues during the most important years of their lives. Thus, parents must know how to communicate openly and honestly with their teens.
Here are a few tips to make communication easier between parents and teenagers.
1. Try not to talk down to your teens. Make them feel as if their views really matter, which not only helps your discussions with your teen but bring you closer to him.
2. Imagine what it would be like to be a teen. Try to remember some of the negative feelings you experienced as a teenager and apply it to your teen's situation.
3. Never make negative remarks to your teen about what she has said or done.
4. Remember how much courage it would have taken for your teen to come and talk to you about his personal issues. So listen respectfully.
5. Don't ignore your teen's feelings because it is usually a cry for help. For instance, if your teen is unusually angry, it may be time to spend a bit of quality time with your teen to determine what is wrong and where he is coming from.
It is, therefore, necessary for parents to strive to keep lines of communication open at all times with their teens. Try to remember what it was like to be a teenager and how vulnerable(脆弱的)you felt. Then you will be well on your way to help your teen communicate more openly and honestly.Why don't teens want to talk about their personal issues with their parents?
A.Because they can't respect their parents. |
B.Because they can't understand their parents. |
C.Because their parents won't understand them well. |
D.Because their parents are not honest. |
When your son comes to you for help, you should NOT _____.
A.listen respectively | B.treat him seriously |
C.care about his feeling | D.make negative remarks |
Which of the following has the similar meaning to the underlined phrase “talk down to”?
A.put down | B.look down upon |
C.chat with | D.quarrel with |
The best title for this passage is _____.
A.Causes of generation gap |
B.Relations between teens and parents |
C.Suggestions for parents-children effective communication |
D.Problems with communication between teens and parents |
Argentina in the late nineteenth century was an exciting place. Around 1870,it was experiencing an economic boom(繁荣), and the capital, Buenos Aires, attracted many people. Farmers, as well as a flood of foreigners from Spain and Italy, came to Buenos Aires seeking jobs. These jobs didn′t pay well, and the people felt lonely and disappointed with their new life in the city. As the unhappy newcomers mixed together in the poor parts of the city, the dance known as the tango(探戈舞)came into being.
At the beginning the tango was a dance of the lower classes. It was danced in the bars and streets. At that time there were many fewer women than men, so if a man didn′t want to be left out, his only choice was to dance with another man so that he could attract the attention of the few available women. Gradually, the dance spread into the upper classes of Argentinean society and became more respectable.
In Europe at this time, strong interest in dance from around the world was beginning. This interest in international dance was especially evident in Paris. Every kind of dance from ballet(芭蕾舞)to belly dancing could be found on the stages of the Paris theaters. After tango dances from Argentina arrived in Europe, they began to draw the interest of the public as they performed their exiting dance in cafes. Though not everyone approved of the new dance, saying it was a little too shocking, the dance did find enough supporters to make it popular.
The popularity(流行)of the tango continued to grow in many other parts of the world. Soldiers who returned to the United States from World War I brought the tango to North America. It reached Japan in 1926, and in 2003 the Argentinean embassy in Seoul hired a local tango dancer to act as a kind of dance ambassador, and promoted tango dancing throughout South Korea.The origin of the tango is associated with _____________.
A.Belly dancers | B.American soldiers |
C.Spanish city | D.the capital of Argentina |
Which of the following is true about the tango?
A.It was created by foreigners from Spain and Italy. |
B.People of the upper classes loved the tango most |
C.It was often danced by two males in the beginning |
D.A dancer in Seoul became the Argentinean ambassador. |
Before World War I, the tango spread to __________.
A.America | B.Japan | C.France | D.South Korea |
What can be the best title for the text?
A.How to Dance the Tango |
B.The History of the Tango |
C.How to Promote the Tango |
D.The Modern Tango Boom |
Since many of you are planning to study at a college or university in this country, you may be curious to know what you usually do in a typical week, how you can get along with your fellow students, and so on. These are the questions I want to discuss with you today.
First, let's talk about what your weekly schedule will look like. No matter what your major may be, you can expect to spend between four and six hours a week for each class attending lectures. Lectures are usually in very large rooms because some courses such as introduction to sociology or economics often have as many as two or three hundred students, especially at large universities. In lectures, it's very important for you to take notes on what the professor says because the information a lecture is often different from the information in your textbooks. Also, you can expect to have exam questions based on the lectures. So it isn't enough to just read your textbooks; you have to attend lectures as well. In a typical week you will also have a couple of hours of discussion for every class you take. The discussion section is a small group meeting usually with fewer than thirty students where you can ask questions about the lectures, the reading, and the homework. In large universities, graduate students, called teaching assistants, usually direct discussion sections.
If your major is chemistry, or physics, or another science, you'll also have to spend several hours a week in the lab, or laboratory, doing experiments. This means that science majors spend more time in the classroom than non science majors do. On the other hand, people who major in subjects like literature or history usually have to read and write more than science majors do.The main purpose of this text is ______.
A.to persuade the students to attend lectures |
B.to help the students to learn about university life |
C.to encourage the students to take part in discussions |
D.to advise the students to choose proper majors |
We can learn from the passage that university professors ______.
A.spend about 5 hours on lectures each week |
B.must join the students in the discussion sections |
C.prefer to use textbooks in their lectures |
D.require the students to read beyond the textbooks |
A discussion section does NOT include ______.
A.discussing the problems related to the students' homework |
B.talking over what the students have read about the courses |
C.working under the guidance of university professors |
D.raising questions about what a professor has said in a lecture |
According to the author, science majors ______.
A.have to work harder than non science majors |
B.spend less time on their studies than non science majors |
C.consider experiments more important than discussions |
D.read and write less than non science majors |
Three Boys and a Dad
Brad closed the door slowly as Sue left home to visit her mother. Expecting a whole day to relax, he was thinking whether to read the newspaper or watch his favourite TV talk show on his first day off in months. "This will be like a walk in the park," he'd told his wife. "I'll look after the kids, and you can go visit your mom."
Things started well, but just after eight o'clock, his three little "good kids"—Mike, Randy, and Alex—came down the stairs in their night clothes and shouted "breakfast, daddy." When food had not appeared within thirty seconds, Randy began using his spoon on Alex's head as if it were a drum. Alex started to shout loudly in time to the beat(节拍). Mike chanted "Where's my toast, where's my toast," in the background. Brad realized his newspaper would have to wait for a few seconds.
Life became worse after breakfast. Mike wore Randy's underwear on his head. Randy locked himself in the bathroom, while Alex shouted again because he was going to wet his pants. Nobody could find clean socks, although they were before their very eyes. Someone named "Not Me" had spilled a whole glass of orange juice into the basket of clean clothes. Brad knew the talk show had already started.
By ten o'clock, things were out of control. Alex was wondering why the fish in the jar refused his bread and butter. Mike was trying to show off his talent by decorating the kitchen wall with his colour pencils. Randy, thankfully, appeared to be reading quietly in the family room, but closer examination showed that he was eating apple jam straight from the bottle with his hands. Brad realized that the talk show was over and reading would be impossible.
At exactly11:17, Brad called the daycare centre(日托所). "I suddenly have to go into work and my wife's away. Can I bring the boys over in a few minutes? " The answer was obviously "yes" because Brad was smiling.When his wife left home, Brad expected to __________.
A.enjoy his first day off work |
B.watch TV talk show with his children |
C.go out for a walk in the park |
D.read the newspaper to his children |
Which of the following did Randy do?
A.Drawing on the wall. | B.Feeding the fish |
C.Eating apple jam | D.Reading in a room |
Why did Brad ask the daycare centre for help?
A.Because he wanted to clean up his house |
B.Because he suddenly had to go to his office. |
C.because he had to take his wife back home. |
D.Because he found it hard to manage his boys. |
This text is developed _________.
A.by space | B.by comparison |
C.by process | D.by time |
Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale?Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond's wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.
Yes, that's parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.
Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.
Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy(哲理) behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, and jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back from them in your life, to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, "I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything."
Another philosophy we've learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself that you earn energy and confidence.Which of the following is TRUE of parkour?
A.It is a team sport. |
B.It is a good but boring sport. |
C.It challenges human abilities. |
D.It needs special training. |
As its participants move around a city, ________.
A.they can ask for help |
B.they should run to extremes |
C.they may choose to escape |
D.they must learn to survive |
Which of the following is the philosophy of parkour?
A.Excitement and popularity. |
B.Determination and freedom. |
C.Dreams and success. |
D.Sports and extremes. |
What is the passage mainly about?
A.What parkour is and where can do it. |
B.What parkour is and what it can bring us. |
C.Why we do parkour and what we get from it. |
D.When we can do parkour and how we do it well. |