This is a dangerous world we live in. The number of murders goes up every year, people are dying of cancer, more people contract HIV, more teens are using drugs, ect. You know this because you’ve heard all the statistics on the news and in the paper. But do you really have an accurate idea what they mean? The numbers are going up, but how do they compare to the growth in population? Are more cases of these diseases being reported because of better testing techniques, or are the diseases more common? The fact is that without knowing the background statistics mean very little.
This growing trend of reporting only part of the information is becoming dangerous. For example, several years ago a high school student reported the dangers of the chemical known as dihydrogen monoxide. This chemical, found in most cancerous tumors, is often found in the blood of people drunk on alcohol, and causes complete physical and mental dependence for those who take the chemical even once. After reading his report, more than 75% of his Advanced Placement Chemistry class voted to forbid this dangerous chemical! Every one of the above statement is true, yet this chemical is necessary to all life on earth. The students made a mistake because they voted knowing only a few statements and statistics, rather than the chemical’s full background.
The point of this article is that one should be aware of what is and is not being said. When one finds a new fact or number, one should try to consider other important information before forming an opinion with only half-truths. Always remember that the author is trying to convince you of his or her own view, and will leave our information that is different from his view. For example, look again at the statistics that suggest skiing is safe. Only 32 people die each year when skiing, while 897 die from lightening strikes, but which is really more dangerous? If you think more about it, you will realize far fewer people go skiing each year than the number of people in danger of a lightning strike. When you think about it again, skiing is more dangerous than you might at first think when looking at the statistics. If we teenagers are to be left in this world, we had better be able to think critically, and form our own views, rather than be easily persuaded by another’s. To be warned is just to be prepared.What’s the author’s attitude towards the growing trend of reporting only part of the
information?
Disapproving B. Positive C. Indifferent D. DangerousIn the first paragraph, what does the writer suggest?
| A．We are now living in a dangerous world. |
| B．We get a lot of false statistics from the media. |
| C．There are around us more and more murders diseases, ect. |
| D．Statistics alone without full background don’t give us an accurate picture of things. |
What’s the purpose of the writer’s using the two examples in the second paragraph?
| A．To argue that high school students are easily persuaded. |
| B．To prove what is necessary to us might be dangerous. |
| C．To show the danger of reporting only part of the information. |
| D．To warn us of the harmful substance around us. |
Relative information is often left out because ___________________.
| A．it is not important |
| B．the author is trying to show what he or she says is true |
| C．readers will consider other important information |
| D．readers are able to form an opinion with half-truths |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Some measures must be taken to protect our dangerous world. |
| B．The growing trend of reporting only half-truths is getting out of control. |
| C．Teenagers ought to improve their ability of telling right from wrong. |
| D．We should learn to think critically and look at problems from all sides. |
Today when a man steps onto the moon, or something new and important happens, the world learns about it immediately. What did the newspapers say about that first flight in 1903? Strangely enough, they said hardly anything about it at all. There were only a few reports about it in the papers. These reports said very little. Some of the things they said were not even correct. In 1904 the Rights built a second machine. They called it “Flyer No. Two”. They invited some reporters to a field near Dayton to watch them fly. Unfortunately there was some mechanical trouble with the plane and it did not fly at all that day. The newspapermen went away. They were disappointed and did not come back. The Rights went on with their work. In 1905 they built an even better machine, “Flyer No. Three”. They were able to stay up in the air for half an hour and more in this machine. They were ale to turn and climb in the air. Farmers, travelers on the roads around Dayton often saw them flying. But when these people told newspapermen about it, they refused to believe them.
The Rights offered “Flyer No.Three” to the United States Government. The Government was not interested. They seemed to think the Rights wanted money in order to build an airplane. They did not understand the Rights had already done this, and flown it as well. Experts were still saying that mechanical flight was impossible. At the end of 1905, the two brothers took their plane to pieces. The parts were put into a huge wooden case. It seemed nobody was interested.
1. What does the beginning sentence of the passage suggest?
A. The speed of information spreading today makes it possible to learn the world quickly.
B. People of today are only concerned with space exploration.
C. Reporters of today cover important events in a different way.
D. People in the past didn’t care about the outside world.
2. What can we know about “Flyer No.Three”?
A. The Rights had such a successful flight that it aroused the government’s interest.
B. The Rights were able to fly it for half an hour and even turn and climb in the air.
C. There was something wrong with the craft and it did not fly at all that day.
D. The Rights took the plane to pieces and put it into a wooden case immediately after the flight.
3. When the Rights offered “Flyer No.Three” to the United States Government, the Government_______.
A. decided to build an airport for the brothers
B. showed great interest in the machine
C. didn’t believe in the possibility of the flight
D. asked the brothers to put the machine in a wooden case
4. Which of the following is not mentioned in the passage?
A. There were only a few reports about the first successful flight in the papers.
B. Some reporters were invited to watch the second flight experiment.
C. Many people witnessed the successful flight but the newspapermen refused to believe them/
D. Before 1903 no one had ever stepped on the moon.
Rules
Students are asked to submit essays of 500 to 700 words of their own work. Any essay containing material plagiarized(剽窃) from another source will be disqualified.
Manuscripts should be typed double-spaced, with the student’s name, address, and grade level on a separate sheet of paper.
Essays must be turned in by 4:00 p.m. on November 30. They can be brought to Mrs. Elton in Room 104 or to Mr. Markham in the school library.
Essay-Writing Tips
Catch your readers’ interests--- Your opening should immediately pull your readers into your essay. Asking a question or starting with an anecdote, quotation, or surprising statement is a good way to do this.
Create a picture--- Use active words that show your readers what is happening. Instead of telling your readers vaguely that “the room was disordered”, paint a picture using active verbs and lively adjectives.
Have a purpose--- Well-written essays do more than just describe an incident or express a viewpoint, and they also communicate a message.
Check for mistakes--- Read your paper over to check for mistakes. Ask another student to read your paper and make suggestions. Another pair of eyes will often spot a mistake you’ve overlooked.
Format your essay--- Neatly type your essay on white paper. Choose an attractive cover for submission. The computer lab will be open after school from 3:15 to 4:45 p.m. each day this month so that students can use the computers.
Prizes
Winning essays will be published in the Centerville Times. Every contestant (选手) will also receive a free pass to enter one school activity or athletic game this year.
First Prize: $150
Second Prize:Dictionary and thesaurus
Third Prize: Pen set and journal
Special thanks to the Centerville Writers’ Association for the prizes to help encourage our aspiring authors. Good luck to all contestants.
1. The first writing tip given is mostly about________.
A. the use of quotations and anecdotes in an essay
B. using active verbs and lively adjectives
C. How a student should begin an essay
D. how to submit your essays
2. The prize section of the poster is included in order to _________.
A. show organizations how to donate prizes
B. inform teachers of the prizes available
C. persuade students to enter the essay contest
D. convince students to buy the local newspapers
3. Thanks are given to the Centerville Writers Association because it has_________.
A. offered to judge the contest B. prepared the essay-writing tips
C. organized the essay contest D. donated prizes for the contest
4. What do we know by inference from the passage?
A. The computer lab usually closes at 4:15 p.m. each day.
B. Winning essays will be published in the Centerville Times.
C. Every contestant will benefit from the essay contest.
D. The essay contest is held annually at Centerville High School.
Vincent Van Gogh was not always an artist. In fact, he wanted to be a church minister and was even sent to the Belgian mining community of Borinage in 1879. He discovered that the miners there endured terrible working conditions and poverty-level wages. Their families were skin-and-bone and struggled simply to survive. He felt concerned that the small pay he received from the church allowed him a reasonable lifestyle, which, in contrast, seemed to him unfair.
One cold February evening, while he watched the miners trudging home, he spotted an old man staggering toward him across the fields, wrapped in a burlap(粗麻布) bag for warmth. Van Gogh laid his own clothing out on the bed, set aside enough for one change, and decided to give the rest away. He gave the old man a suit of clothes and he gave his overcoat to a pregnant woman whose husband had been killed in a cave-in.
He lived on starvation food and spent his salary on food for the miners. When children in one family caught typhoid fever, though feverish himself, he packed up his bed and took it to them.
A wealthy family in the community offered him free room and board, Van Gogh declined the offer, stating that it was the final temptation (诱惑) he must reject if he was to faithfully serve his community of poor miners. He believed that if he wanted them to trust him, he must become one of them. And if they were to learn of the love of God through him, he must love them enough to share with them.
He was acutely aware of the big difference between words and actions. He knew that our lives always speak louder and clearer than our words. Maybe that is why Francis of Assisi often said to his monks, “Wherever you go, preach(讲道). Use words if necessary.”
Others are “listening” carefully to your actions. What are you saying to them?
1. We can infer form the passage ____________.
A. our lives always speak louder and clearer than our words
B. the miners there worked under excellent working conditions
C. the ministers lived a much better and easier life than the miners at the time
D. Van Gogh himself offered to work in the Belgian mining community of Borinage in 1879.
2. What does the underlined word “trudging” in the second paragraph mean?
A. Moving very quicklyB. Moving with quick light steps
C. Walking slowly for pleasure. D. Walking with slow heavy steps.
3. According to the passage, which of the following words can best describe Van Gogh?
A. Ambitious and aggressive. B. Considerate and sympathetic
C. Greedy and selfish. D. Determined and grateful
4. What does the last paragraph want to tell us?
A. Use words if necessary B. Actions speak louder than words
C. Rome was not built in a day. D. Where there is a will there is a way.
Watch out, Yahoo. There is a search engine out there with super speed and accuracy. It’s very cool.
Google is the Web’s largest search engine. In just two years it has gained a reputation for surprising speed and accuracy, delivering what you are looking for in a second. The site now does this 40 million times a day --- a number achieved without spending a penny on a TV or newspaper ad.
Google doesn’t need them. In the past six months alone, the site has won a Webby (the online version of the Oscar) for technical excellence, set a new record for search engines by indexing a billion Web pages.
Yahoo still has ten times the audience, but Google consistently ranks first in customer satisfaction: 97% of users find what they are looking for most or all of the time. “You see people smile when they use it, like they’ve found something no one else knows about,” says Danny Sullivan, editor of an online newsletter.
No one is smiling more than Larry Page, 27, and Sergey Brin, 26, who seem certain to become billionaires when the company goes public, probably sometime in 2004. they make a great comedy duo(成对的表演者)。When they first met as Ph. D. students, the pair say, they found each other horrible – “I still find him horrible,” adds Brin – but driven together by a computer-science project aimed at coming up with better ways of searching the Web.
The idea behind the Google is that traditional search engines are stupid. They think relevance (关联) is based on repetition; if you type in a request for Tiger Woods, say, you’ll get websites listed according to how many times those words appear. Not only is this no guarantee of quality, but it’s also open to abuse. If you own a Tiger fan site and want to lead more people to it, simply type his name thousands of times in the site’s source code(编码).
1What does the underlined word “them” in the third paragraph refer to?
A. 40 million times B. Speed and accuracy.
C. TV and newspaper ads.D. Web pages
2. Which of the following win greater customer satisfaction?
A. Yahoo B. Tiger Woods C. Larry Page D. Google
3. It can be inferred that Page and Brin ______________.
A. hold very important positions in Google
B. are two ordinary computer programmers of Google.
C. used to hate each other very much
D. hold quite different opinions of computer-science
4. We can learn from the last paragraph that ___________.
A. Google is open to abuse
B. Google remains a traditional search engine
C. Google thinks relevance is based on repetition
D Google is better than traditional search engines
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
When I first heard that Zhang Yimou, China’s leading director most well-known for Hero in the West, was remaking the Coen Brothers’ first film, Blood Simple, a question immediately came into my mind: Would A Simple Noodle Story be directed by the good Zhang Yimou or the bad Zhang Yimou? The answer: neither.
Starting with his first time as a cinema-photographer on Yellow Earth right after graduating from film school in the early 80s, everything Zhang shot was inspired. In the late 80s and early 90s, he directed several movies already considered classics, including the banned To Live.
A Simple Noodle Story is set in the late Ming Dynasty (1368--1644), follows several amusing characters working in a restaurant in the faraway, but naturally beautiful, western province of Gansu, Zhang brought together a group of popular comedic(喜剧) actors led by Xiao Shenyang, who shot to fame earlier this year because of his very funny styles. Shenyang’s character, Li Si, is having an affair with his boss’s wife, who is simply called “Boss’ Wife” throughout the movie.
A Simple Noodle Story, which started national Screening Friday, is already bringing in money, scoring a total box office income of 67.1 million yuan($9.83 million) by Sunday morning and is expecting its first weekend to reach 100 million yuan ($14.65 million).
In spite of the box office success, the film has received mixed reviews. Most local media admitted Zhang’s success in entertaining the public, but writer Han Han wrote in his blog that A Simple Noodle Story is more like a long-drawn-out TV comedy and that Zhang has made no improvement in directing since his first film.
In his defense, Zhang said that he was just trying to have fun with the film. “I’m not a master of artistic films. I’m just trying to make a fun movie.”
1. Which of the following about A Simple Noodle Story is wrong?
A. Xiao Shenyang was the host of the film.
B. It has earned a lot of money after being put on.
C. It is about a story happening in the ancient times.
D. Xiao Shenyang became famous because of the character of Li Si.
2. What kind of result has A Simple Noodle Story got?
A. It has earned a little money and bad reviews.
B. It has earned lots of money but bad reviews.
C. It has earned little money but good reviews.
D. It has earned lots of money with good and bad reviews.
3. What does Han Han think of Zhang’s direction?
A. He thinks it’s improved to a higher level.
B. He thinks it can prove Zhang’s new improvement.
C. He thinks it has fallen down to the bottom at the beginning.
D. He thinks Zhang is a master of artistic films.
4. From the last paragraph we know Zhang________.
A. wants to protect himself with fighting words
B. just wants to have fun with a film
C. just wants to make money with a fun film
D. wants to prove his ability to be great director.