第三部分:阅读(共两节,满分40分)
第一节:阅读下面短文,从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项,并把答案写在答题卷上。(共15小题,每小题2分,满分30分)
Bamboo is one of the nature’s most surprising plants. Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass.
Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist recorded one bamboo plant that grew almost 1.5 meters in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe. There are more than 1,000 kinds of bamboo that grow around the world on both mountains and plains(平原).
Not all bamboo looks the same. Some bamboo plants are very thin. They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimeters across. This plant also comes in different colors, from yellow to black to green.
Many Asian countries have been using bamboo for hundreds of years. They often use bamboo for building new buildings. As a matter of fact, the cables (绳索) that hold up the hanging bridge across the Min River in Sichuan are made of bamboo. The bridge has been in use for more than 1,000 years, and is still holding strong.
In Africa, engineers are teaching poor farmers how to find water using bamboo. These African countries need cheap ways to find water because they have no money, and their fields often die from no rain and no water. It seems that bamboo is one of the best things they can use. Bamboo pipes and drills (钻) can help to make the poor thirsty fields to be watered.
41.How is bamboo like grass?
A. It is thin and easy to cut. B. It grows everywhere.
C. It grows quickly after its cut short. D. It is short and green.
42.The sentence “while others may grow to more than 30 centimeters across.” means “Some other bamboo plants may grow to be very _______.”
A. short B. strong C. thick D. tall
43.From the text we know ______.
A. most people call bamboo plant trees
B. a bamboo plant may grow 4.5 meters in three days
C. the bamboo plant changes its colors when it grows
D. a bridge held by bamboo cable was built thousands of years ago
44.Why did the engineers teach the poor farmers in Africa to make use of bamboo?
A. Because it is cheap. B. Because it is colorful.
C. Because it drills fast. D. Because it is used by Asians.
45.Which of the following is NOT true?
A. There are many different kinds of bamboo with different colors.
B. Cables made of bamboo can last for over a thousand years.
C. Bamboo can be used for buildings, bridges and watering projects(工程).
D. Bamboo plants are able to grow well in any part of the world.
When students and parents are asked to rate subjects according to their importance, the arts are unavoidably at the bottom of the list. Music is nice, people seem to say, but not important. Too often it is viewed as entertainment, but certainly not an education priority(优先). This view is shortsighted. In fact, music education is beneficial and important for all students.
Music tells us who we are, because music is an expression of the beings who create it, it reflects their thinking and values, as well as the social environment it came from. Rock music represents a lifestyle just as surely as does a Schubert song. The jazz influence that George Gershwin and other musicians introduced into their music is obviously American because it came from American musical traditions. Music expresses our character and values. It gives us identity as a society.
Music provides a kind of perception (感知) that cannot be acquired any other way. Science can explain how the sun rises and sets. The arts explore the emotive (情感的) meaning of the same phenomenon. We need every possible way to discover and respond to our world for one simple but powerful reason: No one way can get it all.
The arts are forms of thought as powerful in what they communicate as mathematical and scientific symbols. They are ways we human beings “talk” to each other. They are the language of civilization through which we express our fears, our curiosities, our hungers, our discoveries, our hopes. The arts are ways we give form to our ideas and imagination so that they can be shared with others. When we do not give children access to an important way of expressing themselves such as music, we take away from them the meanings that music expresses.
Science and technology do not tell us what it means to be human. The arts do. Music is an important way we express human suffering, celebration, the meaning and value of peace and love.
So music education is far more necessary than people seem to realize. According to Paragraph 1, students ____.
A.regard music as a way of entertainment |
B.disagree with their parents on education |
C.view music as an overlooked subject |
D.prefer the arts to science |
In Paragraph 2, the author uses jazz an example to_________ .
A.compare it with rock music |
B.show music identifies a society |
C.introduce American musical traditions |
D.prove music influences people’s lifestyles |
According to the passage, the arts and science__________.
A.approach the world from different angles |
B.explore different phenomena of the world |
C.express people’s feeling in different ways |
D.explain what it means to be human |
What is the main idea of the passage?
A.Music education deserves more attention. |
B.Music should be of top education priority. |
C.Music is an effective communication tool. |
D.Music education makes students more imaginative. |
A motivational strategy that parents can employ with their kids, is to frame tasks and responsibilities in the context of what the end benefit is for them. I call this strategy WIIFM
(“What’s in it for me?”).
When a teen can combine an understanding of WIIFM with a sense of passion about achieving a goal, barriers will start to fall away. At our teen summer camps, we arrange an event near the end of the 10-day session that helps campers identify an important life goal and mentally break through their biggest barrier to achieving the goal.
We pass around 12-by-12-inch pine boards. We tell campers that this activity is not about breaking a piece of wood. It’s about how you can get what you want in your life. It’s about breaking barriers to grab on to your goals.
They have the power to break through any barrier. It has nothing to do with body size or physical condition. The skinniest, smallest teens will break through the board almost as easily as the big ones.
We talk to the campers about the reasons they might have had for not reaching their goals in the past. Maybe they got lazy and decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Maybe they failed and let their fear of failure hold them back. But this exercise is about putting the past where it belongs. Today is about making new choices.
By this point in the program, we ask them to think of the goal they’ve set for themselves and write their goals on the boards. Then they write the possible obstacles which may hold them back on the opposite sides. An inch of pine now stands between them and their dreams.
The facilitators and their teammates gather around. The support is strong. One by one, they break through the barriers and grab their goals! All around us teens are laughing, crying, hugging, and holding up the broken pieces of their boards. The confidence shown on their faces is beautiful.
While arranging such an activity in one’s home is almost unrealistic for parents, the value of helping a teen break through a personal barrier simply by being there as moral support can not be overestimated. More help for parents in the form of videos and articles is available at our website, in our blogs and in a monthly e-newsletter.The 12-by-12-inch pine boards are used as _________________.
A.materials to test one’s muscles |
B.signs of goals in one’s life |
C.assessments to show one’s progress |
D.symbols of barriers in one’s life |
We can learn from the passage that through the event the campers _________.
A.become hard-working | B.get moral support |
C.gain confidence | D.set right goals |
Which is the best title for the passage?
A.The Power of WIIFM | B.What’s in It for Me |
C.The Importance of Goals | D.Motivational Strategies |
The passage is intended for _____________.
A.teens | B.parents | C.campers | D.Tutors |
My house is made out of wood, glass and stone. It is also made out of software.
If you come to visit, you’ll probably be surprised when you come in. Someone will give you an electronic PIN (个人身份号码)to wear. This PIN tells the house who and where you are. The house uses this information to give you what you need. When it’s dark outside, the PIN turns on the lights nearest you, and then turns them off as you walk away from them. Music moves with you too. If the house knows your favorite music, it plays it. The music seems to be everywhere, but in fact other people in the house hear different music or no music. If you get a telephone call, only the nearest telephone rings.
Of course, you are also able to tell the house if you want something. There is a home control console (控制台), a small machine that turns things on and off around you.
The PIN and the console are new ideas, but they are in fact like many things we have today. If you want to go to a movie, you need a ticket. If I give you my car keys, you can use my car. The car works for you because you have the keys. My house works for you because you wear the PIN or hold the console.
I believe that ten years from now, most new homes will have the systems that I’ve put in my house. The systems will probably be even bigger and better than the ones I’ve put in today.
I like to try new ideas. I know that some of my ideas will work better than others. But I hope that one day I will stop thinking of these systems as new, and ask myself instead, “How will I live without them?”What does the passage mainly discuss?
A.How to develop a new system. | B.The function of the PIN. |
C.A home for the future. | D.Easy life in the future. |
What’s the purpose when the writer wrote the fourth paragraph?
A.To let readers know why his ideas are new. |
B.To let readers know how special his house is. |
C.To explain the importance of the PIN and the console. |
D.To explain more easily what the functions of the PIN and the console are. |
What is the writer most likely to be according to the passage?
A.An IT expert. | B.A famous doctor. |
C.An idealist | D.An experienced teacher. |
As I was busy working on my work plan in my bedroom, I could hear my four children playing upstairs. Suddenly, I heard the children running down the stairs and shouting, “Freddie, Freddie.” I heard the word “window” and rushed outside, heart in mouth. My three-year old son Freddie was lying on his side on the ground. I cried for my husband Simon to dial 999 and within minutes the air ambulance arrived. They quickly took him in the helicopter. During the flight, Freddie was looking at me and I remember thinking was a good sign, but then his eyes began to roll. As the doctors tried to stabilize(稳定) him, I couldn’t believe what was happening.
When we arrived at the hospital in Portsmouth, there were some doctors and nurses waiting for us and they immediately set to work on Freddie. I was hopelessly wishing everything would be alright, but Freddie had broken his skull in two places and blood clots were forming in his brain. He needed surgery(外科手术), and only a surgeon at another hospital in Bristol could do it. This meant another helicopter ride, but we couldn’t go with Freddie because there was no enough space. Simon and I drove the long 130 miles from our home in north Devon in silence. Neither of us dared say what we were thinking, “What if we get there and he’s dead?” “Is he going to be brain-damaged?”
Freddie was just coming out of surgery when we arrived. The surgeon said it had gone well. When I finally saw him, I hardly recognize my child—he was covered in tubes and there were wires coming out of his head.
On the third day, Simon went home to see our three girls and to pick up some clean clothes for us. While he was gone, the pressure in Freddie’s brain suddenly increased. He was taken into theater again and this time I fell apart. Luckily, the surgery managed to stabilize Freddie. After almost a week, Freddie was finally woken up. When he opened his eyes, he looked at me. He didn’t say anything, but I knew straight away that it was my old Freddie, and that he was going to be alright. Over the next two weeks, his recovery went well. After help with learning to swallow again and encouragement with speaking, he was soon playing with his Gruffalo cards and eating meals by himself.
I still don’t know how the accident happened, but we got some idea from our girls. Clearly Freddie and Minnie had been sitting on the window ledge, and Freddie must have opened it to look out and fallen 20 feet onto the ground below.
The guilt I feel is awful— for weeks I was full of “ if onlys”, and we put window locks everywhere. Six months later, although the accident seems a lifetime ago, it has changed me. I feel differently about life now. I’ve left my job to put my children first. I want to spend every minute with them.The underlined sentence in paragraph 1 shows the author was ______________.
A.hopeless | B.worried | C.curious | D.puzzled |
Why did the author’s son have to be moved to another hospital in Bristol?
A.Because no surgeons were on duty in the first hospital that day. |
B.Because the author wanted his son to stay in a hospital nearer her home. |
C.Because no surgeons in the first hospital knew the injuries to the author’s son. |
D.Because no surgeons in the first hospital could do surgery on the author’s son. |
When the author finally saw her son, she could hardly recognize him probably because his
face_____________.
A.was seriously injured |
B.was filled with small pipes |
C.was too pale to be recognized |
D.was covered by a piece of cloth |
On the third day after being taken to the hospital, _____________.
A.the author’s son finally opened his eyes. |
B.the situation of the author’s son suddenly worsened |
C.the author’s son was finally out of danger |
D.the author’s son did not need any more surgery |
After the accident, what did the author probably learn?
A.Life is full of “if onlys”. |
B.Being a single mother is not easy. |
C.Children are more important than work. |
D.Accidents can happen to every kid. |
A study shows that nearly ninety percent of teens report that they have tried alcohol. That’s an increase of 23 percent in just four years!
Each year, 1.1 billion cans of beer are drunk by students aged 15-19 years old. Beer is the most common alcoholic drink among teens—81 percent of the drinkers had tried it. Beer is followed by wine with 63 percent, hard liquor(烈酒) with 53 percent and wine coolers with 35 percent.
When the young people are asked why they drank, the most common answer is that drinking is “something to do”. If a teen’s parents drink alcohol, the teenager is more likely to start drinking at an early age. Also, tens see all of their friends drinking alcohol so they think it is the must-to-do thing. Peer pressure is probably the hardest thing teens have to deal with. What’s more, teens often drink alcohol because it makes them feel older and cooler.
Researchers asked 56,000 students about their drinking habits and grades, to see how drinking might affect their grades in school. The results seem to be clear. Students who got a C level or lower tend to use three times as much alcohol as those who got B’s or A’s.
Alcohol use can be deadly. About 8,100 young people are killed per year in alcohol-related accidents. Eight young people die per day as a result of a drunk-driving accident. Between 50 and 65 percent of all teen suicides (自杀) occur after the young people drink.
So you see, drinking the alcohol doesn’t always end up with a good time. The next time you try to push someone to drink or someone tries to push you to drink, please remember this. One drink can set the habit for life. Why not throw it away?The reasons for teens’ drinking alcohol are mentioned EXCEPT that _______________.
A.they think it is cool to drink alcohol |
B.their parents set a bad example to them |
C.alcohol can make them happier |
D.peer pressure plays an important role |
What can we learn from paragraph 4?
A.Drinking alcohol makes students stupid. |
B.Good students never try alcohol. |
C.Drinking habits have something to do with IQ. |
D.Students with poor grades tend to use more alcohol. |
The passage was written mainly to ______________________.
A.show the bad effect of drinking alcohol |
B.show how many teenagers drink alcohol |
C.tell teenagers not to try alcohol |
D.tell the reasons why teenagers drink alcohol. |