At the end of my senior year of high school, I got a job working at a local coffee shop．I thought the job would be easy and stress-free．I pictured myself pouring the best coffees, making delicious doughnuts (炸面包圈), and becoming friends with regular customers．
I wasn’t expecting the people with enormous orders, the women who complained that the coffee was much too creamy (含乳脂的), or the men who wanted their iced coffees remade again and again until they reached perfection．I couldn’t seem to please anyone．
One rainy day, one of my regular customers came in looking upset．He said he felt like getting in bed, pulling the sheets up over his head, and staying there for a few years．I knew exactly how he felt．
Before he left, I handed him a bag along with his iced coffee．He was surprised, since he hadn’t ordered anything but coffee．I had given him his favorite type of droughnut．
“It’s on me,” I told him．“Have a nice day．”
He smiled and thanked me before heading back out into the rain．
The next day, it was still raining．I spent my afternoon hanging out the window handing people their orders．I was completely wet and freezing cold．Worse, no one was tipping that day．Every time I looked into our empty tip jar, I grew more depressed．
In the evening, the customer from the day before drove up to the window．He handed me a pink rose and a note．He said that not many people took time to care about others and he was glad there were still people like me in the world．With a friendly wave, he drove away．
I ran to the back of the shop and read the note．It read:
Christine,
Thanks for being so sweet, kind and thoughtful yesterday．It is so nice to meet someone who’s indeed nice．Please don’t change your ways! Have a great day! –Hank
After that, whenever I felt depressed or sick of coffee, I thought of Hank and his kindness．Then I would smile, hold my head up high, clear my throat and ask politely, “How can I help you?”
45．Why wasn’t the writer happy with her job at first?
A．The customers didn’t tip her enough．
B．It was difficult to make iced coffee perfect．
C．Everybody had an enormous order．
D．The job didn’t turn out as she had expected．
46．The man came to the coffee shop to ______．
A．buy his favorite doughnut B．complain to the author
C．buy a cup of iced coffee D．get out of the rain
47．The man felt thankful for the writer because ______．
A．she was indeed kind to him in a time of need
B．she knew exactly how the man felt
C．she offered him coffee and food for free
D．she comforted him by sharing his pain
48．What can we learn from the passage?
A．Don’t count your eggs until they are hatched．
B．If you light a lamp for somebody, it will also brighten your path．
C．The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships．
D．A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy．
Controlling the Ebola virus outbreak at the source in West Africa is the most effective way to decrease international risk of transmission, according to a research paper.
If the epidemic(时疫) persists and grows, it's likely there will be more cases(病例) of the deadly virus exported to other countries, including Canada, via air travel, said Dr. Kamran Khan, a physician and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital.
Dr. Khan, who examines global airline travel patterns to predict the spread of diseases, said that every month, three Ebola-infected travellers are likely to leave West Africa, which is experiencing a widespread outbreak of the virus -- and this number would only increase as the epidemic grows.
Dr. Khan and his co-authors said it is essential that other countries, their public health agencies and hospitals should be prepared. The risk of international spread would be further _____ if this epidemic were to take hold in other countries, especially those with weak public health systems.
"The international community must be mindful and be ready to support the early detection and control of cases." Dr. Khan said.
Dr. Khan noted that of the almost 500,000 travellers who flew on commercial flights out of Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone in 2013, more than half were headed to destinations in five countries: Ghana (17.5 per cent, Senegal (14.4 per cent), the United Kingdom (8.7 per cent, France (7.1 per cent) and Gambia (6.8 per cent). More than 60 per cent of travellers from those countries in 2014 are expected to have final destinations in low- or lower-middle income countries.
"Given that these countries have limited medical and public health resources, they may have difficulty quickly identifying and effectively responding to imported Ebola cases”, said Dr Khan.How does Dr. Khan predict the spread of diseases?
| A．By doing experiments |
| B．By examining global airline travel patterns |
| C．By setting up a model |
| D．By collecting the data of the cases |
We can fill in the blank in Paragraph 4 with _____.
| A．decreased | B．increased |
| C．avoided | D．predicted |
In low income countries, ______.
| A．it is easy to identify imported Ebola cases |
| B．people have rich medical resources |
| C．imported Ebola cases may not be effectively responded to |
| D．travelers are not allowed to go to some places |
The end of the 2014 World Cup does not mean the end of the international competition in Brazil. A major football event which is known as RoboCup will be held in the coastal city Joao Pessoa. Teams of robots from around the world will take part in it and play the game known as soccer in the United States. The robot teams are guided by teams of human beings.
Watching robots play football is similar to watching children play the game. The kicks are not good, there are a lot of falls , and people are there to guide and support the robot players. Students of the University of Pennsylvania are trying for their fourth victory at the competition. The students have won the last three RoboCup competition in the Netherlands, Mexico and Turkey.
Jian Qiaoli is one of the leaders of the University of Pennsylvania team. He says one goal he has set for his team is to make sure the robots can find the ball and know where they are on the playing field. And he wants the team to be able to better control the walking ability of the robots. They should pay more attention to the kicking ability, which is the key to winning the game.
Qin He is another leader of the robot team. She says the abilities of the robots improve every year. The robots know the difference between the colors green and red, and they can decide where to go and where the ball is on the playing field. She says the robots are self-learning and don’t need to be told what to do. If there are three robot players on the playing field at the same time, they will communicate with each other to decide different responsibility for each of them. They have very good team play right now.
As long as the radar detection(雷达探测) works well, the robots will be very competitive. So RoboCup will be an exciting technology competition. Each team develops their own software. Actually, it’s a competition of who has the best software. Some RoboCup participants hope to develop a team of robots that can play against human beings.What does the underlined word “it” in the first paragraph refer to?
| A．The 2014 World Cup | B．Joao Pessoa |
| C．RoboCup | D．A basketball game |
What can we learn about the robot players?
| A．They look like children. |
| B．They are from Joao Pessoa. |
| C．They are not very skillful. |
| D．They are against human beings. |
What is the deciding factor for the robots to win the game?
| A．The ability to find the ball. |
| B．The ability to know the position. |
| C．The ability of walking. |
| D．The ability of kicking. |
What’s the best title for the text?
| A．The technology competition—RoboCup |
| B．The international competitions in Brazil |
| C．How to develop robot players? |
| D．Can robot players play football? |
In spring, you may have seen white foam(泡沫) on a green tree or other plants. As a matter of fact, the foam is where young spittlebugs(吹沫虫) live. These insects are protected by the foam, and they usually don’t do much harm to the plants.
As we all know, in late summer, a mother spittlebug lays her eggs on the plant. The babies will hatch(孵化) in spring. After they come to the new world, they begin to eat juice from the plant. The babies eat more juice than their bodies need for food. The extra juice mixes with a special waste that the spittlebugs produce. When this fluid(液体) is released, it mixes with the air, forming bubbly foam.
What is so great about having a foam home? The space inside is so wet that it can keep the bugs’ soft bodies from drying out. And the foam tastes bad, so it keeps away most animals that would eat the bugs. Some birds will reach their heads through the foam to find the bugs. Wasps and ants might eat them, too. But most of the bugs stay safe inside the foam.
Once the bugs have grown into adults, they stop making foam. They leave their homes and jump from plant to plant in search of food. The adults look a little like tiny frogs. For this reason they are also called froghoppers.
If you see some foam on a plant, you might want to take a careful look inside. Gently push some of the foam aside with a small stick. Deep inside you may see a few insects eating plant juice. They might also be making more foam. Be sure to push the foam back after a moment to cover the insects and keep them safe. Soon the spittlebugs will grow up and leave their foam home. They will join the other insects in the grassland.The eggs of spittlebugs_____.
| A．are laid in late spring |
| B．have to pull through a winter before they hatch |
| C．are protected by mother spittlebugs all the time |
| D．will be eaten by ants |
According to the passage, the white foam_____.
| A．does much harm to the plant |
| B．protects the plant from being harmed |
| C．is where a mother spittlebug is living |
| D．is plant juice mixed with spittlebugs’ waste and the air |
Which of the following is a function of a foam home?
| A．Protecting the bugs from being eaten. |
| B．Helping the bugs find food. |
| C．Providing enough drinking water for the bugs. |
| D．Keeping the plant from drying out. |
After the spittlebugs grow into adults, they______.
| A．continue to make foam |
| B．take on a different look |
| C．begin to eat tiny frogs |
| D．begin to do harm to plants |
Nancy Tillman’s wonderful On the Night You Were Born is one of my favorite books. Its celebration of the uniqueness of each and every child told in lyrical language makes it the gift I choose most often for expectant or adoptive parents. I also read it regularly with my grandchildren and talk with them about how special they are.
Tillman feels that the most important message for children to receive is simply, “You are loved.” And it’s that message that is the focus of this, her newest book, Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You. Once again, it is her turn of phrase that most fascinates me: In the green of the grass ... in the smell of the sea ... in the clouds floating by ... at the top of a tree ... in the sound crickets make at the end of the day ... “You are loved. You are loved. You are loved,” they all say. Phrases encourage children to grow, to try new things, to “march to the front” of their “own parade” and assures them that, no matter how far they go or what they do, they will be loved.
Though the words alone would convince me to buy, share and recommend this book, Tillman is also a gifted artist and her lovely work makes this book a visual treasure as well. Through the pages, a child rides hippos, splashes in the surf with elephants, plays hide and seek with rabbits, shares a trampoline (蹦床) with a kangaroo and enjoys some quiet time with a pair of pandas. My favorite drawing has the child walking away along a wide path that runs between trees covered in mist. In all of the drawings, swirls of sparkling lights wrap around the child--the love that will always be with him/her.
I’ve read On the Night You Were Born dozens of times and with every single reading, I am incredibly touched. Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You creates the same feeling of wonder, peace and happiness in me. It’s a keep-forever book and I’m so happy to have it in my collection to share with the children I love most.The purpose of this passage is to _____.
| A．encourage people to buy Nancy Tillman’s books for their children |
| B．recommend Tillman’s new book--Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You |
| C．advocate the theme of love among family members |
| D．Let children know they are loved and educate them to love others |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage? _____.
| A．Nancy Tillman’s book On the Night You Were Born encourages children to try new things. |
| B．The most important focus of Tillman’s books is for children to know they are loved. |
| C．The writer considers Tillman a gifted artist for her vivid use of words and rich imagination. |
| D．The writer has bought and read both of Tillman’s books mentioned in this passage. |
Pick out the true statements according to the passage. _____.
| A．The words alone makes Tillman’s books the writer’s favorite. |
| B．Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You is published earlier than On the Night You Were Born. |
| C．My favorite drawing shows the feeling of wonder with the child swirling in sparkling lights. |
| D．The drawings in Wherever You Are convey love with pictures involving animals. |
We know more about the surface of the planet Mars than we know about what is at the bottom of Earth’s oceans.
Until recently, scientists had mapped only about 20 percent of the sea floor. But our knowledge of the deep seas is changing because of information from satellites. Scientists have produced a new map that provides a detailed picture of the oceans. The map is expected to help oceanographers, industry and governments.
The new map is twice as detailed as the map made 20 years ago. David Sandwell is a geophysics professor at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California. He and other scientists worked on the mapping project. He says they turned to space to look deeper into the ocean. He spoke to VOA on SKYPE.
“The way we’re doing that is to use a satellite altimeter (高度计), a radar to map the topography (地貌) of the ocean surface. Now that seems sort of strange that you’d map the topography of the ocean surface when you really want to get at the sea floor. But, the ocean surface topography has these bumps and dips due to gravitational effects that mimic what’s on the sea floor.”
The scientists collected and studied information from two satellites. Some of the data came from the European Space Agency’s Cryo-2 satellite. It was placed in Earth’s orbit to watch sea ice. The other satellite is the American space agency’s Jason-1. It is studying the surface of the oceans. Scientists combined the satellite data with images gathered by sonar ( 声呐：利用声波探测水下物体的装置或系统) equipment on ships. Sonar works by sending sound waves through the water. When the sound waves hit an object, its presence is confirmed.
“That enables us to look at smaller-scale features and also features that are buried by sediments in the ocean basins.”
The new map shows the sea floor as it has never been seen before. It shows thousands of underwater mountains and places where continents pulled apart. It shows where earthquakes were active many years ago. They all are buried deep underneath the ocean floor.
In one place, three mountain ridges join at the same area. Huge tectonic (构造的) plates can be seen clearly there.The passage is likely to _____.
| A．be an advertisement | B．appear on VOA |
| C．make a comment on radar | D．appear on SKYPE |
What will be mentioned in the following paragraph, according to the last paragraph? _____.
| A．The detailed information about the place. |
| B．The more important thing in the ocean. |
| C．The things buried in the ocean. |
| D．Scientists told SKYPE they will explore at the same area. |
Scientists collected and studied information by _____.
| A．the European Space Agency’s Cryo-2 satellite |
| B．the American space agency’s Jason-1 |
| C．sonar equipment on ships |
| D．the Cryo-2 and the Jason-1 |
What’s the best title of the passage? _____.
| A．Scientists Create New Maps of Ocean Floor |
| B．Scientists Knows More Oceans Than Mars |
| C．Oceans Will Provide Us With Maps |
| D．People Knows Easily About Mars |