Every evening, 15-year-old Rashida returns home from school, changes out of her uniform, and rushes to a neighboring farm to help her mother harvest vegetables. Her father is disabled, so the modest profit the two of them earn must cover food, clothing and other necessities for all seven children and their parents. Despite having precious little time to study, Rashida is one of the top students at her junior secondary school. But with so much responsibility on her small shoulders, she admits that it is sometimes hard for her to imagine a more promising future.
Last year, Rashida was invited to join 155 other girls at Camfed Ghana’s first Girls’ Career Camp, a program designed to inspire girls growing up in the country’s Northern Region to dream big, and to support them to pursue those dreams. “We organized this camp because we wanted to let girls know that even if they are struggling with poverty, their lives will not be defined by limitations,” says Dolores Dickson, Camfed Ghana’s Executive Director.
Over the course of five days, the camp led the junior and secondary school students through a range of experiences and career opportunities that were entirely new to them. Dr. Agnes Apusiga, a lecturer from the University of Development Studies, ran the workshop on goal-setting and career choices, describing the universities and training colleges in Ghana that could help them achieve their dreams. Participants then visited the University for Development Studies, where they toured the medical school and science labs. Another highlight was a workshop at the computer lab at Tamale Secondary School. Many of the girls had studied information technology from a book but had never before seen a computer.
“When the girls arrived at camp, they were not ambitious, because they didn’t have any idea what the world held for them,” says Eugenia Ayagiba, Project Officer with Camfed Ghana. “Many had scarcely traveled beyond their own villages.”
“I think the most important thing that happened at the camp is that we opened a window of hope for a group of girls coming from backgrounds of poverty,” says Eugenia. For Rashida, who has been laughed at in the past by her schoolmates because of her father’s disability, the experience was important. “She told one of the camp mentors(辅导员) that when she is at school, she often feels like a misfit, and she prefers to keep to herself,” says Eugenia. “But at the camp, it was different. She made friends with girls who have similar struggles. She took part in every single activity,
every single game. On the last day, she said to her mentor, ‘The camp has challenged me to study hard. Now I see that there is light at the end of the tunnel.’How many are there in Rashida’s family?
| A．Seven | B．Eight | C．Nine | D．Ten |
According to the passage, Camfed Ghana’s first Girls’ Career Camp is ．
| A．a program to help poor girls to have ambition |
| B．a program to help poor girl students to get university education |
| C．a program to help poor girls to study hard |
| D．a program to help the poor families |
Why did the camp lead the students to visit universities and training colleges?
| A．To show they are better than their schools |
| B．To encourage them to get good education． |
| C．To show them what they are like |
| D．To get them to touch the advanced equipment there |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．Rashida has become friends with her mentors |
B．Rashida’s ment ors has encouraged her a lot． |
| C．Rashida was sad because of her father’s disability． |
| D．Rashida has had her new dream since the camp |
The best title of the passage is ___________．
| A．Poor Girls in Ghana | B．Girls’ Career Camp |
| C．Camfed Ghana | D．Students in Ghana Dream Big |
Music comes in many forms; most countries have a style of their own. The US is well known for jazz (爵士乐), which has gained world-wide popularity.
In contrast to classical (古典的) music, which follows formal European traditions, jazz is natural and free-form. It is full of energy, expressing the moods, interests, and feelings of the people. It has a modern sound that makes people very excited. In the 1920s jazz sounded like America. And So it does today.
The origins of this music are as interesting as the music itself. Jazz was produced by American blacks, who were brought to the Southern States as slaves. They were sold to plantation owners (种植园主) and forced to work long hours in the cotton and tobacco fields. This work was hard and life was short. When a Negro died, his friends and relatives formed a group to carry the body to the cemetery.
A band often went with them. On the way to the cemetery the band played slow and sad music. But on the way home the mood changed. Spirits lifted. Everybody was happy. Death had removed one of their members, but the living were glad to be alive. The band played happy music, which made everyone want to dance. It was an early form of jazz.
Music has always been important in their lives. Coming mainly from West Africa, the black men who were brought to America already possessed a rich musical tradition. This music centered on religious ceremonies (宗教的仪式) in which dancing, singing, clapping and stamping (顿足) to the beat of a drum were important forms of musical expression. As these people settled in to their fields, they made up work songs. Singing made the hard work go faster.
Another musical form that helped to develop jazz was the blues. Blues songs always describe something sad — an unhappy love affair, a money problem, bad luck. To this day, the expression “feeling blue” means being sad.Through jazz, people can express______.
| A． their moods |
| B． their feelings |
| C． their interests |
| D． all the above |
Which of the following is true according to the text?
| A．Jazz follows European traditions. |
| B．Jazz always describes something sad. |
| C．Jazz was first produced by black slaves. |
| D．Blues made the hard work of those slaves go faster. |
The underlined sentence “Spirits lilted,” suggested that______.
| A．everybody was feeling blue |
| B．everybody was still in a sad mood |
| C．everybody became happy |
| D．people’s souls went to the heaven |
What should be the best tide for this passage?
A. A Light Music.
B. Black men’s Music.
C. The Origin of the Jazz Music.
D. The Popular Music—Jazz in the U.S.A.Why did the band play happy music on the way home from the cemetery?
| A．Because they felt happy for the dead men. |
| B．Because they were glad that they themselves were still alive. |
| C．Because they would have a big dinner after they returned home. |
| D．Because they hated that dead man |
Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the United States today because it is about simple but strong human feelings and events-love, sadness, good times, and bad times. It tells real-life stories and sounds the way people really talk, as life becomes more complicated (复杂的) it is good to hear music about ordinary people.
Country music, sometimes called country-western, comes from two lands of music. One is the traditional music of the people in. the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. The other is traditional cowboy music from the west. The singers usually play guitars, and in the 1920s they started using electric guitars.
At first city people said country music was low class. It was popular mostly in the South. But during World War II, thousands of Southerners went to the northeast and Midwest to work in the factories. They took their music with them. Soldiers from the rest of the country went to army camps in the South. They learned country music. Slowly it became popular all over the country.
Today country music is also popular everywhere in the United States and Canada—in small tows and in New York City, among black and white, and among educated and uneducated people. About 1,200 radio stations broadcast country music twenty-four hours day, English stars sing it. In British English, and people in other countries sing it in their own languages. The music that started with cowboys and poor southerners is now popular all over the world.It can be learned from the passage that country music comes from_____.
| A．the northeast and Midwest |
| B．factories and army camps in the South |
| C．the Appalachian Mountains and the West |
| D．real-life stories in small towns |
During World War II many Southerners went to the Northeast and the Midwest because______.
| A．they wanted to take music with them |
| B．they wanted to make other people like country music |
| C．they wanted to work in the factories there |
| D．they wanted to make country music popular |
Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the world today because _______.
| A．many people said it was low class |
| B．people could sing it in different languages |
| C．it started with cowboys and poor Southerners |
| D．It is loved by different kinds of people in the world |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Country music is sung by stars all in English. |
| B．Country music is about human feelings and events. |
| C．Country music is only popular with city people today. |
| D．The singers started using electric guitars in the 1930s. |
Americans have contributed to many art forms, but Jazz a type of music, is one that was not started in the United States. Blacks, who sang and played the music of their homeland, created jazz.
Jazz is a mixture of the music of Africa, the work songs the slaves sang and religious(宗教的) music. Improvisation is an important part of jazz. This means that musicians make the music up as they go along, or create the music on the spot. This is why a jazz song might sound a little different each time it is played
Jazz bands formed in the late 1800s. They played in bars and clubs in many towns and cities of the South, especially in New Orleans. New Orleans is an international seaport, and people from all over the world came to New Orleans to hear jazz.
Jazz became more and more popular. By the 1920s, jazz was popular all over the United States. By the 1940s, you could hear jazz not only in clubs and bars, But in concert halls as well. Today, people from all over the world play jazz. Jazz musicians from the United States, Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe meet and share their music at festivals on every continent. In this way jazz continues to grow and change.What can be the best title of the passage?
| A．American Art Forms |
| B．The Development of Jazz |
| C．The Music of Black Americans |
| D．The Birthplace of Jazz |
Which of the following is true?
| A．Jazz is now popular all over the world. |
| B．Jazz is now a kind of religious music. |
| C．Jazz is now played only in bars and clubs. |
| D．Jazz is now played in the same way as before. |
From the text it can be inferred that
| A．New Orleans is the place where jazz was first produced |
| B．the American people are all jazz lovers |
| C．jazz is merely sung by the black when working |
| D．jazz may become more popular as time goes on |
It took about _____years to make jazz popular in the United States.
| A．200 | B．120 | C．80 | D．40 |
Like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, the Five Friendlies will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace and blessings from China to children all over the world.
Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, the Five Friendlies also embody the natural characteristics of four of China’s most popular animals—the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow—and the Olympic Flame.
Each of the Friendlies has a rhyming two-syllable name—a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow.
When you put their names together—Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni—they say “Welcome to Beijing,” offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of the Five Friendlies as young ambassadors for the Olympic Games.
The Five Friendlies also embody both the landscape and the dreams and aspirations of people from every part of the vast country of China. In their origins and their headpieces, you can see the five elements of nature—the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky—all stylistic rendered in ways that represent the deep traditional influences of Chinese folk art and ornamentation.The Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games carry the following messages EXCEPT .
| A．friendship | B．peace | C．love | D．blessing |
The Five Friendlies embody .
| A．the sea and the forest | B．the fire and the earth |
| C．the sky and the earth | D．the natural characteristics, landscape, the dreams and aspirations |
What does the Five Friendlies mean when put together?
| A．Welcome to Beijing. |
| B．They represent the five elements of nature—the sea, forest, fire, earth and sky. |
| C．They are designed to express the playful qualities of five little children. |
| D．They represent the deep traditional influences of Chinese folk art and ornamentation. |
COLUMBUS, Ohio—The heart operation taking place in the pale-green operating room at the Ohio State University Medical Center was unusual. The patient, a 62-year-old man, was made to sleep, tied with blue drapes（消毒帷帘）and lying face up on a narrow table. But no one was touching him.
Instead, the operation was being performed by a robot, whose three metal arms went through pencil-sized holes in the man’s chest. At the ends of the robot’s arms were tiny metal fingers, with turning wrists, which held a tiny instrument, a light and a camera. The robot’s arms and fingers were controlled by Dr. Randall K. Wolf, sitting at a computer in a corner of the operating room about 20 feet away.
This sort of operation, heart surgeons say, is the start of what may be the biggest change in their profession since heart bypass surgery（心脏搭桥手术）began nearly 30 years ago. “The reason we make cuts is that we have big hands,” said Dr. Wolf, the director of the surgery at Ohio State. The robot’s dainty fingers, no longer than a nail on the small finger, at the end of the long sticks could work better.
Eventually, surgeons believe, most heart surgery will be done by robots whose arms are put in through pencil-sized holes punched in patients’ chests. Instead of directly staring into a patient’s body, surgeons will view magnified images of the operation on computer screens. In theory, the doctor would not have to be in the same room, or even the same country, as the patient.In this passage, the underlined word “dainty” means ______.
| A．weak | B．small | C．fat | D．quick |
According to the passage, the reason that most operations require large cuts is that ______.
| A．patients have large organs | B．surgeons have large hands |
| C．large cuts take less time | D．large cuts cost less money |
The main idea of this passage is that heart surgery by robots ______.
| A．is quicker than surgery done by doctors | B．may replace surgery done by doctors |
| C．is a new and risky procedure | D．was developed at Ohio State University |
Based on the information in this passage, all of the following conclusions are true EXCEPT ______.
| A．Robot surgery is being developed at Ohio State |
| B．Robot surgery will be used on many patients in the near future |
| C．All doctors at Ohio Sate develop new surgical techniques |
| D．Many hospitals will eventually offer robot surgery to patients |