My secret of staying young is quite simple：devote your attention to the part of you that’s young and growing—your brain. Keep your mind awake and you will stay young all over. These are exciting times. Take an interest in the world around you，and make a point of learning one new thing every day.
No matter how old you are ，it’s not too late to make your life more interesting. I know a housewife without knowledge in the past who made herself into an excellent industrial designer. I know an old electrical engineer who has become a highly paid artist.
Get over the idea the you are too old to go back to school. I know a man who entered a medical college at 70. He got his degree with honors and became a famous doctor. Another man went to a law school at 71 and now is an active lawyer.
No matter how old people are，staying young is easy for those who live in the future. You can do it if you are active enough to try. Keep your mind active and awake：that’s the only youth elixir.
54. Which of the following best express the main idea of this passage？
Staying young is the only youth elixir.
Learning at least one new thing every day.
Never too late to go back to school.
The secret of staying young.
55. If you wish to stay young，above all ，you should .
A. keep your mind awake and active B. make your life more interesting
C. keep your mind from being harmed D. keep in tough with other people
56. The implied meaning of the passage is that .
A. anyone can learn to do something no matter how old they may be.
B. the electrical engineer learned to be an artist to become famous.
C. the man who entered the medical collage at 70 came out at the top of the list.
D. every one can be successful if you try to learn no matter how old he may be
57. The word “elixir”in the last sentence probably means something that can keep people .
A. healthy B. wealthy C. young D. happy
Heather Mills McCartney lives an admirable life, attending celebrity pa
rties, meeting regularly with the rich and famous and doing meaningful work for charity. All who work with her admire and respect her. But Heather’s life hasn’t always been so easy. When Heather was only 9 years old, her mother abandoned her and her two brothers. At the age of 13, she ran away from home and ended up living on the streets in London. Eventually, however, her exceptional beauty led to a career in modeling. At that time, Heather also began helping with the war relief efforts in former Yugoslavia. Through her modeling and relief work, she soon became famous.
But in August 1993, at age 25 her life changed once again. She was crossing the street in London when a motorcycle crashed into her. She was so badly injured that the doctors had to cut off her left leg. After that, she discovered she frequently needed to change her artificial limbs. It was expensive and she felt it was a waste to just throw away the old one. It occurred to her to set up an organization that could deliver used artificial limbs to Yugoslavia and other war-torn countries. It was through her charity work that she met her husband Paul McCartney.
Throughout her life, Heather has risen above problems and focused on helping others. Her work with artificial limbs even earned her a nomination(提名) fo
r the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. Heather’s persistence and determination are what impresses anyone who knows her. Heather believes anyone can make a positive difference in the world. This passage is mainly about _________.
| A．Heather’s miserable life | B．Heather’s contributi on to the world |
| C．Heather’s success in her work | D．Heather’s belief in life |
Heather began her modeling career _________.
| A．due to her mother’s encouragement |
| B．after her brothers abandoned her |
| C．because of her excellent intelligence and performances |
| D．because she was especially beautiful |
Which of the following is Not true according to the passage?
| A．Heather won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. |
| B．Heather began her charity work while working as a model. |
C．Her artificial limbs had to be re placed continuously. |
| D．Heather has never been defeated by her problems. |
From the passage we can infer that people admire and respect Heath
er because
_________.
| A．she had a lot of misfortunes during her childhood. |
| B．she was a world-famous model |
| C．she is determined and never gives in |
| D．she made a great difference in the world |
If you happen to be the 200th customer to buy Cholesterolblock, you will .
| A．be able to buy it at a low price | B．be the luckiest one online |
| C．try it free of charge | D．chan ge your diet |
Liptor®, Zocor®, Crestor® are .
| A．diseases | B．side effects | C．medicines | D．cholesterol |
CholestrolblockTM has the following advantages EXCEPT that _____________________.
| A．it helps take cholesterol out of whatever food you eat. |
| B．it has been proved useful in hospital testing. |
| C．it helps people absorb at least 42% cholesterol. |
| D．it sells best on Internet every month. |
Where can you most probably read this passage?
| A．In a travel guide book. | B．On a university bulletin board. |
| C．In a health magazine. | D．In a doctor's prescription. |
You know Australia is a big country, but you may not know how easy it is to get
around. The untouched beaches that go for miles and deserts that touch the horizon are just there, waiting to be reached and explored. Following are the different ways you can explore our vast country.
Getting around Australia
Air
Flying is the best way to cover large distances in a short time. You can spend more time on the Australia’s can’t - miss landscapes and relaxing lifestyle. Moreover, competition among airlines makes great flying fees a
vailable for you.
Drive
Australia has a vast network of well - maintained roads and some of the most beautiful touring routes in the world. You have no difficulty finding car rental companies at major airports, central city locations, suburbs and attractions.
Bus
Bus travel in Australia is comfortable, easy and economical. 
Buses generally have air conditioning, reading lights, adjustable seats and videos. Services are frequent, affordable and efficient.
Rail
Train travel is the cheapest and gives you an insight into Australia’s size and variety, all from the comfort of your carriage. Scheduled services are a great way to get quickly between our cities and regional centers.
Ferry(轮渡)
The Spirit of Tasmania runs a passenger and vehicle ferry service between Melbourne and Tasmania nightly. Extra services are running during summer rush hours. Sea - link ferries connect South Australia and Kangaroo Island several times a day. Ferries connect suburbs in our capital cities
Walk
With easy - on - the - feel pedestrian streets, walking is a great way to get around our cities.
Besides all of above, you can also experience some of the longest tracks and trails in the world in central Australia - impressive journeys of a thousand kilometers or more that can take several weeks to complete. The underlined word "untouched" (in the 1st paragraph) means______.
| A．secure | B．special | C．natural | D．artificial |
Which of the following is TRUE about traveling in Australia? ______.
| A．More travelers make the flying fees among airlines higher than before |
| B．You can easily rent a car to explore its most beautiful touring routes |
| C．Taking a bus tour is the most comfortable, economical and efficient way |
| D．Train services can offer you more comfort than any other means of transport |
Ferry service between Melbourne and Tasmania usually runs ______.
| A．only at night hours | B．only during rush hours |
| C．several times a day | D．between different cities |
From the passage, we know that ______.
| A．pedestrian walking is a great way to travel between cities |
| B．traveling in Central Australia is time - consuming |
| C．Central Australia has the world’s longest railway line |
| D．you have to walk over a thousand kilometers in Australia |
How Much to Tip
You’re out to dinner. The food is delicious and the service is fine. You decide to leave a big fat tip. Why? The answer may not be as simple as you think.
Tipping, psychologists have found, is not just about service. Instead, studies have shown that tipping can be affected by psychological reactions to a series of different factors from the waiter’s choice of words, to how they carry themselves while taking orders, to the bill’s total. Even how much waiters remind customers of themselves can determine how much change they pocket by the end of the night.
“Studies before have shown that mimicry (模仿) brings into positive feelings for the mimicker,” wrote Rick van Baaren, a social psychology professor. “These studies show that people who are being mimicked become more generous toward the person who mimics them.”
S
o Rick van Baaren divided 59 waiters into two groups. He requested that half serve with a phrase such as, “Coming up!” Those in the other half were instructed to repeat the orders and preferences back to the customers. Rick van
Baaren then compared their take-home. The results were clear — it pays to mimic your customer. The copycat(模仿者) waiters earned almost double the amount of tips to the other group.
Leonard Green and Joel Myerson, psychologists at 
Washington University in St. Louis, found the generosity of a tipper may be limited by his bill. After research on the 1,000 tips left for waiters, cabdrivers, hair stylists, they found tip percentages in these three areas dropped as customers’ bills went up. In fact, tip percentages appear to plateau (达到稳定水平) when bills topped $100 and a bill for $200 made the worker gain no bigger percentage tip than a bill for $100.
“That’s also a point of tipping,” Green says. “You have to give a little extra to the cab driver for being there to pick you up and something to the waiter for being there to serve you. If they weren’t there, you’d never get any service. So part of the idea of a tip is for just being there.” Apart from service, how many other factors affecting the customers’ tipping are mentioned in the passage?
| A．1. | B．2. | C．3. | D．4. |
These studies show that _________.
| A．tipping can be affected by physical reactions to many different waiter’s factors |
| B．people who are being mimicked usually tip less to the person who mimics them |
| C．the mimic waiters can get almost twice as much money as the other group |
| D．mimicry makes the mimicker feel bad |
According to the passage, which of the following will be likely to show the right change of the tip percentages?
 |
A B C D We know from the passage that the writer seems to __________.
| A．object to Mr. Green’s idea about tipping |
| B．think part of Mr. Green’s explanation is reasonable |
| C．give his generous tip to waiters very often |
| D．support the opinions of Mr. Green and Rick van Baaren about tipping |
My father was a foreman of a sugar-cane plantation in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. My first job was to drive the oxen that ploughed the cane fields. I would walk behind an ox, guiding him with a broomstick. For $ 1 a day, I worked eight hours straight, with no food breaks.
It was very tedious work, but it prepared me for life and taught me many lasting lessons. Because the plantation owners were always watching us, I had to be on time every day and work as hard as I could. I’ve never been late for any job since. I also learned about being respectful and faithful to the people you work for. More important, I earned my pay; it never entered my mind to say I was sick just because I didn’t want to work.
I was only six years old, but I was doing a man’s job. Our family needed every dollar we could make because my father never earned more than $ 18 a week. Our home was a three-room wood shack with a dirty floor and no toilet
. Nothing made me prouder than bringing home money to help my mother, father, two brothers and three sisters. This gave me self-esteem(自尊心), one of the most important things a person can have.
When I was seven, I got work at a golf course near our house. My job was to stand down the fairway and spot the balls as they landed, so the golfers could find th
em. Losing a ball meant you were fired, so I never missed one. Some nights I would lie in bed and dreamt of making thousands of dollars by playing golf and being able to buy a bicycle.
The more I dreamed, the more I thought. Why not? I made my first golf club out of guava limb(番石榴树枝) and a piece of pipe. Then I hammered an empty tin can into the shape of a ball. And finally I dug two small holes in the ground and hit the ball back and forth. I practiced with the same devotion and intensity. I learned working in the field — except now I was driving golf balls with club, not oxen with a broomstick. The writer’s first job was _______.
| A．to stand down the fairway at a golf course |
| B．to watch over the sugar-cane plantation |
| C．to drive the oxen that ploughed the cane fields |
| D．to spot the balls as they landed so the golfers could find them |
T
he writer learned that_______ from his first job.
| A．he should work for those who he liked most |
| B．he should work longer than what he was expected |
| C．he should never fail to say hello to his owner |
| D．he should be respectful and faithful to the people he worked for |
_______ gave the writer self-esteem.
| A．Having a family of eight people |
| B．Owning his own golf course |
| C．Bringing money back home to help the family |
| D．Helping his father with the work on the plantation |
Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
| A．He wanted to be a successful golfer. |
| B．He wanted to run a golf course near his house. |
| C．He was satisfied with the job he got on a plantation. |
| D．He wanted to make money by guiding oxen with a broomstick. |