A young woman was diagnosed with a terminal illness（不治之症）and given three months to live. So as she was getting her things “in order”, she asked her pastor（牧师）to come to her house to discuss her final wishes. With everything in order, the pastor was ready to leave when the young woman suddenly remembered something very important to her.
“What’s that?” asked the pastor.
“I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand.”
The pastor stood looking at the young woman, not knowing what to say.
“That surprises you, doesn’t it?” the young woman asked.
“Well, to be honest, I’m puzzled by the request,” said the pastor.
The young woman explained, “In all my years of going to church meetings and dinners, I remember that when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would always lean over and say, ‘Keep your fork.’ It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming, like chocolate cake or apple pie，some dessert like that. Something wonderful! I just want people to see me there in that casket（棺材）with a fork so that when they ask you why I have a fork, you can tell them: ‘Keep your fork—the best is yet to come.’”
The pastor hugged the young woman good-bye. He knew that the young woman had a better grasp of heaven than he did. She had a better grasp of what heaven would be like than many people twice her age, with twice as much experience and knowledge.
At the funeral people were walking by the young woman’s casket and they saw the pretty dress she was wearing and the fork placed in her right hand. Over and over, the pastor heard the question “Why does she have a fork?” And over and over again he smiled.
So the next time you reach down for your fork, let it reminded you of this young woman gently. Send the message to everyone you consider a friend even if it means sending it back to the person who sent it to you.
And, keep your fork!!In the author’s opinion, the woman in this passage is _______.
| A．bored | B．optimistic |
| C．pessimistic | D．crazy |
When enjoying a Western dinner, in the later part you have to “Keep your fork.” This usually mean “____________”
| A．Watch out for your fork. |
| B．I wish you good luck with the fork |
| C．Prepare your fork so that you can enjoy the dessert |
| D．You can not take away your fork |
Which of the following is WRONG about the young woman?
| A．She is optimistic about life and diseases. |
| B．She loves sweet food. |
| C．She wants her friends to remember her forever. |
| D．She is a regular church-goer. |
According to the passage, “Keep your fork”, the message may mean “__________”
| A．Don’t be discouraged. Everything will be better. |
| B．What is the matter? I am worried. |
| C．Have you heard the story of a young woman? |
| D．Enjoy your dinner. |
America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending sometimes deeply into both families.
Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality easily.
Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don’t show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.
For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!
60. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage? _________
A. Friendships between Americans usually extend deeply into their families.
B. Friendships between Americans usually last for all their lives.
C. Americans always show their warmth even if they are very busy.
D. Americans will continue their friendships again even after a long break.
61. From the last two paragraphs we can learn that when we arrive in America to visit an American friend, we will probably be ______.
A. warmly welcomed at the airportB. offered a ride to his home
C. treated hospitably at his homeD. treated to dinner in a restaurant
62. The underlined words “generous with our time” in Paragraph 3 probably mean ______.
A. strict with timeB. serious with time
C. careful with timeD. willing to spend time
63. A suitable title for this passage would probably be “______”.
A. Friendships between ChineseB. Friendships between Americans
C. Americans’ hospitalityD. Americans’ and Chinese’s views of friendships
三阅读
第一节
There is a wonderful story about a young girl who had no family and no one to love her. One day feeling very sad and lonely, she was walking through a grassland when she noticed a small butterfly caught in a thorn bush. The young girl carefully released the butterfly. Instead of flying away, the little butterfly changed into a beautiful fairy. The young girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
For your wonderful kindness, the good fairy said to the girl, “ I will give you any wish you would like. The little girl thought for a moment and then replied, I want to be happy.
The fairy leaned toward her and whispered in her ear. Then the fairy disappeared.
As the little girl grew up, there was no one in the land as happy as she. Everyone asked her secret of happiness. She would only smile and answer, the secret of my happiness is that I listened to a good fairy when I was a little girl.
When she was very old and on her deathbed, the neighbours all gathered around her, that her unbelievable secret of happiness would die with her. “Tell us, please,” they begged, “ Tell us what the good fairy said.” The lovely old woman simply smiled and said, “ She told me that everyone, no matter how secure they seemed, no matter how old or young ,how rich or poor, had need of me.”
56.the girl felt sad and lonely.
A. there were many friends but B. there was nobody to love her so
C. there was nothing to do D. seeing the butterfly was caught
57. Noticing the butterfly was caught by the thorn, the orphan girl.
A. helped the butterfly escaped from the thorn
B. felt sorrow, but she didn’t go up to help it
C. fell down on it too
D. failed to help it release from the thorn
58. The butterfly after was saved by the little girl.
A. flied awayB. still diedC. changed into a fairy D. was more beautiful than before
59. The neighbours all gathered around the old happy woman when she was dying, because.
A. they loved this woman deeply and they didn’t wanted her to die
B. the woman had lots of money to be shared as soon as she died
C. they wanted to know the secret of her lifetime happiness
D. they wanted to pray for her after her death.
Do you wake up in the morning dreading the moment that your feet have to hit the floor for you to get ready for work? If that’s the case, join most of Americans. Very few people wake up to that annoying alarm clock and spring out of bed excited about having to go to work.
As if that were not enough, most of us have to fight traffic getting there, usually an hour’s drive. Then, when we get to work, we have to fight with unruly co-workers or a nagging boss. And to make matters worse, you have to fight the same traffic going in the opposite direction just to get back home.
Making dinner, fixing plates, eating and then straightening up afterwards is a job within itself. If that sounds like your life, you probably have a J-O-B. you know what J-O-B stands for? Just Over Broke, that’s what! With a job, most Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and hating every minute of it. I know because I was doing the same thing: trading time for money. And, I came to a conclusion that it stinks (糟糕透了)! Big time!
Looking around at my co-workers, friends and relatives, I saw that they were all doing the same thing I was doing. They were complaining about the same things I was complaining about : not having enough time or money. And, I decided that I wanted to do something different.
So, I started a home-based business. There are several to choose from. The extra income has done so much for our family. We can vacation more. We have been able to give more. And, we’ve even been able to do something calling save! It’s been amazing.
Therefore, if you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, it’s time you make a change, too. The definition of insanity (疯狂) is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I know you aren’t stupid. If you continue to do what everyone else is doing: trading time for money, you’re going to keep getting what everyone else is getting: being broke and not having the time to do what is really important to you.
Do your due diligence. Find a home-based business that works well for you. Go to work, and live the life you’ve always imagined!
68. According to Paragraph 1, which of the following statements is TRUE about most Americans?
A. Most Americans are excited to go to work every day.
B. Most Americans are used to sleeping in the morning.
C. Most Americans are tired of having to go to work every morning.
D. Most Americans have alarm clocks to wake them up in the morning.
69. By writing the first three paragraphs, what feeling does the writer express?
A. Regret. B. Joy. C. Pride. D. Dissatisfaction
70. What does “something different” in Paragraph 4 refer to?
A. To set up a business at home. B. To complain about life and work.
C. To spend more time on holidays. D. To resign from the former job and get a new one.
In the atmosphere , carbon dioxide acts rather like a one-way mirror or the glass in the roof of a greenhouse which allows the sun’s rays to enter but prevents the heat from escaping.
According to a weather expert’s prediction, the atmosphere will be 3℃ warmer in the year 2050 than it is today, if man continues to burn fuels at the present rate. If this warming up took place, the ice caps in the poles would begin to melt, thus raising sea level several meters and severely flooding coastal cities. Also, the increase in atmospheric temperature would lead to great changes in the climate of the northern hemisphere(半球), possibly resulting in an alteration of the earth’s chief food growing zones.
In the past, concern about a man-made warming of the earth has concentrated on the Arctic because the Antarctic is much colder and has a much thicker ice sheet. But the weather experts are now paying more attention to West Antarctic, which may be affected by only a few degrees of warming, in other words, by a warming on the scale that will possibly take place in the next fifty years from the burning of fuels.
Satellite pictures show that large areas of Antarctic ice are already disappearing. The evidence available suggests that a warming has taken place. This fits the theory that carbon dioxide warms the earth
However, most of the fuel is burnt in the northern hemisphere, where temperatures seem to be falling. Scientists conclude, therefore, that up to now natural influences on the weather have gone beyond those caused by man. The question is: Which natural cause has most effect on the weather?
One possibility is the variable behavior of the sun. Astronomers at one research station have studied the hot sports and ‘cold” spots( that is, the relatively less hot spots) on the sun. As the sun rotates(使旋转), every 27.5 days, it presents hotter or colder faces to the earth, and different aspects to different parts of the earth. This seems to have a considerable effect on the distribution of the earth’s atmospheric pressure, and consequently on wind circulation. The sun is also changeable over a long term: its heat output goes up and down in cycles, the latest trend being downward.
Scientists are now finding shared relations between models of solar weather interactions and the actual climate over many thousands of years, including the last Ice Age. The problem is that the models are predicting that the world should be entering a new Ice Age and it is hot. One way of solving this theoretical difficulty is to assume a delay of thousands of years while the solar effects overcome the inertia(惯性) of the earth’s climate. If this is right, the warming effect of carbon dioxide might thus be serving as a useful opposed balance to the sun’s fading heat.
63. It can be concluded that concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would ____.
A. mean a warming-up in the Arctic.
B. raise the temperature of the earth’s surface.
C. prevent the sun’s rays from reaching the earth’ s surface.
D. explain the cause of great changes in the climate in the northern hemisphere.
64. The article was written to explain____.
A. the greenhouse effect. B. the solar effects on the earth.
C. the causes affecting weather. D. the models of solar weather of solar weather interactions.
65. Although the fuel consumption is greater in the northern hemisphere, temperature there seems to be falling. This is ____.
A. mainly because the levels of carbon dioxide are rising
B. partly due to changes in the output of solar energy
C. possibly because the ice caps in the poles are melting
D. only due to the effect of the inertia of the earth’s climate
66. On the basis of their models, scientists are of the opinion that .
A. the climate of the world should be becoming cooler
B. the new Ice Age will be delayed by the greenhouse effect
C. the man-made warning effect helps to increase the solar effects
D. it will take thousands of years for the interia of the earth’s climate to take effect.
67. If the assumption about the delay of a new Ice Age is correct, ___.
A. ice would soon cover the northern hemisphere.
B. the greenhouse effect could work in favor of the earth.
C. the best way to overcome the cooling effect would be to burn more fuels.
D. the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could warm up the earth even more quickly.
(1)Paul Smith's College
The College of Nature
Experience a different kind of classroom: 14,200 acres of forests, lakes and streams, a hotel and a restaurant, 99% placement upon graduation. Two-and-four-year degree programs.
PO. Box 265
Paul Smiths, NY12970
1-800-421-2605
www.paulsmiths.edu
(2) SIMMONS
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES AND MODERN STUDIES
Simmons educates women to achieve their work and life goals. More than 40 majors.
Lie in the heart of Boston. U.S .News & World Report ranks Simmons among the top state universities in the North and among the best values.
617-521-2051
www.simmons.edu
(3) ST.MARYS UNTVERSITY
Personal Attention Powerful Programs
Experience the technology of today at our co-educational university
One Camino Santa Maria
Utah 78228-8503
800-FOR-SIMU
www.stmarytx.edu
(4) Northern University
A famous private university
with 3,200 students in Colleges of Arts & Sciences
●Business and Engineering
●Medicine and Law
Among the top ten by U.S. News and World Report
Old Union 232
CA 94305-3005
650-723-2091
www.stanford.edu
60. If a man is tired of working indoors and wouldn't like to be too far away from his girl friend who studies at Simmons, which college will be choose?
A. Simmons. B. ST. Mary's C. Paul Smith's D. Northern.
61. If a girl wanted to learn modern science and she prefers to stay by the ocean or in the northeast, which college will like best?
A．Simmons. B. ST. Mary's. C. Paul Smith's. D. Northern.
62. If a man wishes to study business and in a non-state-run university, which of the following is her favorite?
A. Simmons. B. ST. Mary's. C. Paul Smith's D. Northern.