America is growing older. Fifty years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 or older. Today, 10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65. The aging of the population will affect American society in many ways — education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the graying of America has made us a very different society — one in which people have a quite different idea of what kind of behavior is suitable at various ages.
A person's age no longer tells you anything about his/her social position, marriage or health. There's no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that keeps us on time and tells us when to go to school, get a job, or stop working isn't as strong as it used to be. It doesn't surprise us to hear of a 29-year-old university president or a 35-year-old grandmother, or a 70-year-old man who has become a father for the first time. Public ideas are changing.
Many people say, “I am much younger than my mother — or my father — was at my age. 'No one says Act your age' any more. We've stopped looking with surprising at older people who act in youthful ways."
1. It can be learnt from the text that the aging of the population in America _______________________.
A. has made people feel younger
B. has changed people's social position
C. has changed people's understanding of age
D. has slowed down the country's social development
2. The underlined word "one" refers to "__________________."
A. a society B. America C. a place D. population
3 "Act your age" means people should __________________.
A. be active when they are old
B. do the right things at the right age
C. show respect for their parents young or old
D. take more physical exercise suitable to their age
4. If a 25-year-old man becomes general manager of a big firm, the writer of the text would most probably consider it _________________.
A. normal B. wonderful C. unbelievable D. unreasonable
B
I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled（贴标签）everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.
War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming. “Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!” Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.
The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled（爬）under her covers, sobbing.
Obviously, that was not something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.
Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn’t notice Kate had sat up. She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, “Thanks.”
Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn’t always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.What made Kate so angry one evening?
| A．She couldn’t find her books. |
| B．She heard the author shouting loud. |
| C．She got the news that her grandma was ill. |
| D．She saw the author’s shoes beneath her bed. |
The author tidied up the room most probably because _______.
| A．she was scared by Kate’s anger |
| B．she hated herself for being so messy |
| C．she wanted to show her care |
| D．she was asked by Kate to do so |
How is Paragraph 1 mainly developed?
| A．By analyzing causes |
| B．By showing differences |
| C．By describing a process |
| D．By following time order |
What might be the best title for the story?
| A．My Friend Kate | B．Hard Work Pays Off |
| C．How to Be Organized | D．Learning to Be Roommates |
A
When I told my father that I was moving to Des Moines, Iowa, he told me about the only time he had been there. It was in the 1930s, when he was an editor if the literary magazine of Southern Methodist University（SMU）in Dallas, Texas. He also worked as a professor at SMU, and there was a girl student in his class who suffered from a serious back disease. She couldn;t afford the operation because her family was poor.
Her mother ran a boardinghouse in Galveston, a seaside town near Houston, Texas. She was cleaning out the attic（阁楼）one day when she came across an old dusty manuscript（手稿）. On its top page were the words, “By O. Henry”. It was a nice story, and she sent it to her daughter at SMU, who showed it to my father. My father had never read the story before, but it sounded like O. Henry, and he knew that O. Henry had once lived in Houston. So it was possible that the famous author had gone to the beach and stayed in the Gainestown boardinghouse, and had written the story there and left the manuscript behind by accident. My father visited an O. Henry expert at Columbia University in New York, who authenticated the story as O. Henry’s.
My father then set out to sell it. Eventfully, he foud himself in Des Moines, meeting with Gardner Cowles, a top editor at the Des Moines Register. Cowles loves the story and bought it on the spot. My father took the money to the girl. It was just enough for her to have the operation she so desperately needed.
My father never told me what the O. Henry story was about. But i doubt that it could have been better than his own story.Who found the O. Henry’s manuscript?
| A．The girl’s mother. | B．The author’s father. |
| C．The girl. | D．The author. |
Which of the following might explain the fact that the manuscript was found in the attic?
| A．O. Henry once worked in Houston. |
| B．O. Henry once stayed in Galveston. |
| C．O. Henry once moved to Des Moines. |
| D．O. Henry once taught at SMU. |
The underlined word “authenticated” in Paragraph 2 probably means __________.
| A．named | B．treated |
| C．proved | D．described |
D
Bursting into the classroom from recess, 15 children take their seats and face the woman they know as Ms. Yang.
“What day is it today?” she asks, in Mandarin Chinese.
“Confucius’ birthday!” the fifth graders shout in Mandarin.
“Why do we celebrate Confucius’ birthday?”
“Because he’s the greatest teacher in the history of China!” exclaims a brown-haired girl. She is speaking Mandarin.
English is rarely heard in Lisa Yang’s class at the Chinese American International School(CAIS), despite the fact that few students are native speakers of Mandarin.
The United States is actively trying to increase the group of students in “critical languages” such as Mandarin. The students at CAIS are way ahead in such a trend.
Founded 25 years ago, this small private school in San Francisco, USA, does what few other American schools do: It produces fully fluent speakers of Mandarin Chinese, by far the most commonly spoken language in the world.
Mandarin Chinese is suddenly hot in American schools. As China becomes the world’s leading economy sometimes this century, schools in the U. S. are scrambling to add Mandarin to their list of foreign languages or expand Chinese programs already in place.
“It really is almost unprecedented. People are looking at China as a force to be reckoned with… And to ensure that the U. S. has the ability to conduct trade, and to work with the Chinese. Certainly having an understanding of Chinese language and culture is an advantage,” said Marty Abbott of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages(ACTFL).
To develop Chinese-language programs has not been smooth. A shortage of trained teachers has made it difficult for some schools to join the race. When schools do get teachers, they often hire them straight from China, and the teachers usually suffer culture shock when they come to the U. S.
Robert Liu remembers his first two years in an American classroom It was not an easy adjustment. “In China, students respect their teachers,” he said. Liu found that American students, however, expect an active teaching style. He had to use games to engage them rather than lectures.
To avoid many of the problems with foreign teaching styles, the CAIS has been working with the Chinese government to improve training of teachers who are sent to the U. S.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Understanding Chinese language and culture is helpful to work with Chinese. |
| B．Chinese-language programs have met trouble during the development. |
| C．Many other American schools do the same as CAIS, founded 25 years ago. |
| D．A lack of trained Mandarin Chinese teachers is a problem for the programs. |
What kind of problem is the most difficult to adjust in teaching Chinese in America?
| A．To adapt themselves to the American life styles. |
| B．To communicate with the American students. |
| C．To get along well with the American students. |
| D．To be fit for the cultural differences in teaching styles. |
The meaning of the underlined word “scrambling” is similar to .
| A．climbing | B．rushing |
| C．changing | D．beating |
It can be learned from the passage that .
| A．the students in Lisa Yang’s class usually speak Chinese |
| B．There are few American students in Lisa Yang’s class |
| C．We celebrate Confucius’ birthday because he’s the greatest history teacher |
| D．in America the students don’t respect their teachers |
C
When it comes to hard, noisy traveling, we’ve found that sometimes we’d rather read about it than actually go. Here are some bestsellers for armchair travelers.
The Station by Robert Byron. In 1928, the 22-year-old man made a journey to Mount Athos, resulting in one of the best travel books ever written, matched only by Byron’s own, much more famous The Road to Osciana.
In Darkest Africa by Henry Monton Stanley. It’s about his great efforts to save an unlucky German doctor Eduard Schnitzer, who had no desire to be rescued at all.
A Traveler’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs by Sir Steven Runciman. A to Z and around the world. He provides priceless information of long-gone princesses, priests, and places.
South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage by Sir Ernest Shackleton. As the planet started the global war, Shackleton and his brave group of explorers made an unsuccessful but heroic journey to cross Antarctica from 1914 to 1917.
The Michelin Red Guide: France 2005 Reading through this final listing of all the nice hotels and wonderful restaurants in France is better than going there, listening to Chirac talk about the poisonous American culture, and spending the price of this book for a tiny cup of tea and a cookie the size of your thumb.
The Past Is a Foreign Country by David Lowenthal. This great book of an armchair exploration tells us what has happened in the past and shows the relationship between us and the past travelers.The underlined phrase “armchair travelers” in the first paragraph refers to those who___________ .
| A．can only travel with special equipment for the disabled |
| B．find fun teaching others how to travel to other places |
| C．like to write about their strange traveling experiences |
| D．like to read about travels instead of traveling themselves |
Which of the books has a very low price according to the passage?
| A．The Past Is a Foreign Country. |
| B．South: A Memoir to the Endurance Voyage. |
| C．The Michelin Red Guide: France 2005. |
| D．A Traveler’s Alphabet: Partial Memoirs. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The Station is more famous than The Road to Osciana |
| B．Henry Monton Stanley, was saved by a German doctor in Africa. |
| C．It took Shackleton and his men 3 years to cross Antarctica. |
| D．In his book, Lowenthal focuses more on history than the present. |
This passage is written____________ .
| A．to warn readers against traveling |
| B．to sell more books about travels |
| C．as an introduction to famous travelers |
| D．to tell people where to travel |
B
Nelson Mandela is respected and admired across the world. And to South Africans he is a superstar. He is a hero who shocked the world by fighting for peace between races, despite the 27 years he spent in the prison of the South Africa’s white, racist regime(政权).
Mandela who won the nation’s first all-race elections after the fall of apartheid (种族隔离) in 1994, retired 1999.
But he remains as popular as ever.
“He’s loved by all people, whether you’re white or black, whether you’re young or old,” said Ali Bacher, South Africa’s former cricket (板球) chief.
His popularity has inspired an entire national industry. His portrait(肖像) has appeared at many places, including on some goods. His face has appeared on a South African coin, a metropolitan area was named in his honour and some business leaders hope to build a massive, rotating statue in his likeness --- the Statue of Freedom. It would stand taller than New York’s Statue of Liberty.
His popular appeal is similar to that of John F. Kennedy with US or Winston Churchill in Britain, but few politicians in this times have achieved his level of admiration, said Tom Lodge, head of the political science department of the University of the Witwatersrand.
“Sometimes it isn’t completely appreciated what a skilled performer Mandela has been throughout his political career. He’s a very, very clever man.” However, he is far from perfect.
Most articles for his birthday, which appeared in every major South African newspaper on the day, brief mentioned that Mandela did have his shortcomings.
Then they returned to their flowing praises.
“Through the ages, the human race has had its icons (偶像) --- men and women who rose above ordinary people to inspire their generations,” The Mail and Guardian Weekly said. “In our generation, the gods presented us Nelson Mandela.”Nelson Mandela is loved by all the people of South Africa because _____.
| A．he’s as popular as Kennedy and Churchill |
| B．he spent 27 in prison |
| C．he’s a great fighter against the racialism |
| D．he’s the first all-race elections president |
Which of the following statements about Mandela’s portrait is true?
| A．It helps develop business. |
| B．It appears on the Statue of Freedom. |
| C．It is used to raise money for the Statue of Freedom. |
| D．It is similar to that of John F. Kennedy or Winston Churchill. |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means “________.”
| A．Mandela is as great as a god |
| B．We are proud to live in Mandela’s time |
| C．Mandela lives together with us all |
| D．We are proud to know Mandela |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．Mandela is very skilled politician. |
| B．Most articles specially stressed Mandela’s shortcomings. |
| C．The Statue of Freedom is a present for Mandela’s birthday. |
| D．The article may have appeared in a newspaper on Mandela’s birthday. |