There are still many things that Peter Cooke would like to try his hand at — paper-making and feather-work are on his list. For the moment, though, he will stick to the skill that he has been delighted to make perfect over the past ten years: making delicate and unusual objects out of shells.
As he leads me round his apartment showing me his work, he points to a pair of shell-covered ornaments(装饰品) above a fireplace. “I shan’t be at all bothered if people don’t buy them because I have got so used to them, and to me they’re lovely. I never meant to sell my work commercially. Some friends came to see me about five years ago and said, ‘You must have an exhibition — people ought to see these. We’ll talk to a man who owns an art gallery’”. The result was an exhibition in London, at which 70 per cent of the objects were sold. His second exhibition opened at the gallery yesterday. Considering the enormous prices the pieces command —around ￡2,000 for the ornaments — an empty space above the fireplace would seem a small sacrifice for Cooke to make.
There are 86 pieces in the exhibition, with prices starting at￡225 for a shell-flower in a crystal vase. Cooke insists that he has nothing to do with the prices and 
is cheerily open about their level: he claims there is nobody else in the world who produces work like his, and, as the gallery-owner told him, “Well, you’re going to stop one day and everybody will want your pieces because there won’t be any more.”
“I do wish, though,” says Cooke, “that I’d taken this up a lot earlier, because then I would have been able to produce really wonderful things — at least the potential would have been there. Although the ideas are still there and I’m doing the best I can now, I’m more limited physically than I was when I started.” Still, the work that he has managed to produce is a long way from the common shell constructions that can be found in seaside shops. “I have a miniature(微型的) mind,” he says, and this has resulted in boxes covered in thousands of tiny shells, little shaded pictures made from shells and baskets of astonishingly realistic flowers.
Cooke’s quest(追求) for beautiful, and especially tiny, shells has taken him further than his Norfolk shore: to France, Thailand, Mexico, South Africa and the Philippines, to name but a few of the beaches where he has lain on his stomach and looked for beauties to bring home. He is insistent that he only collects dead shells and defends himself against people who write him letters accusing him of stripping the world’s beaches. “When I am collecting shells, I hear people’s great fat feet crunching(嘎吱嘎吱地踩) them up far faster than I can collect them; and the ones that are left, the sea breaks up. I would not dream of collecting shells with 
living creatures in them or diving for them, but once their occupants have left, why should I not collect them?” If one bases this argument on the amount of luggage that can be carried home by one man, the beauty of whose work is often greater than its natural parts, it becomes very convincing indeed.What does the reader learn about Peter Cooke in the first paragraph?
| A．He has produced hand-made objects in different materials. |
| B．He hopes to work with other materials in the future. |
| C．He has written about his love of making shell objects. |
| D．He was praised for his shell objects many years ago. |
When mentioning the cost of his shell objects, Cooke ____.
| A．cleverly changes the subject. |
| B．defends the prices charged for his work. |
| C．says he has no idea why the level is so high. |
| D．notes that his work will not always be so popular. |
The “small sacrifice” in Paragraph 2 refers to _________.
| A．the loss of Cooke’s ornaments | B．the display of Cooke’s ornaments |
| C．the cost of keeping Cooke’s ornaments | D．the space required to store Cooke’s ornaments |
What does Cooke regret about his work?
| A．He is not as famous as he should have been. | B．He makes less money than he should make. |
| C．He is less imaginative than he used to be. | D．He is not as skillful as he used to be. |
What does the reader learn about Cooke's shell-collecting activities?
| A．Not everyone approves of what he does. |
| B．Other methods might make his work easier. |
| C．Other tourists get in the way of his collecting. |
| D．Not all shells are the right size and shape for his work |
Why do people run? That is, why do thousands get up early and put their knees and ankles and hearts and lungs through the hell of 10,000 meters on the roads? For those who stick with it and are lucky, they get into another world: a state of physical and mental grace reached when their blood is racing through every vein (血管).
And in Austin, those who long to get better, even when they know it’s impossible, hang on Gilbert’s every word.
Gilbert’s methods are simple. It’s all about form: how the arms move and the feet land. He pushes his students hard. When they feel like they’re about to die, they look at Gilbert’s scars (伤疤) — the burns along his right arm, and then to his right leg, where the flames ate down to the bone. Whatever they feel, how bad, really, could it be?
“He gets people to believe in themselves,” says Lisa Spenner, one of the fanatics, who are crazy about Gilbert. “He treats everyone like they’re amazing.” If Gilbert is their savior, they are his saviors too. “Eventually, I realized I had to help people. When I help people, I feel good,” he says.
Gilbert’s right leg was so badly burnt that the knee was stuck at a 90-degree angle. The doctor said it would take six months to heal. Frustrated, Gilbert got on a bike. The biking led to walking, which finally led to running a year after he had been left to die.
In truth, runners don’t race other runners. They race against themselves to conquer their wills. So Gilbert spent the spring and summer of 2007 trying to do that, racing men faster than he is, knowing it would make him better.
Gilbert’s students, of course, keep rooting for him, though sometimes they wonder, “How much better can he get?” After all, they see him as more than just a runner and a coach. He’s a flesh-and-blood symbol: the daily struggle to show what you’re made of.What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?
| A．To explain to us why people run in the morning. |
| B．To tell us how important it is for people to run. |
| C．To lead to the topic of the passage. |
| D．To tell us that we may be running the wrong way. |
The underlined word “fanatics” in the fourth paragraph can be replaced by
“_____”.
| A．students | B．friends |
| C．fans | D．relatives |
What do we learn about Gilbert after reading the passage?
| A．He used to work as a fireman. |
| B．He has determination and strong will-power. |
| C．He learnt running from a coach. |
| D．He was advised to ride a bike when he was badly burnt. |
If your family is like many in the United States, keeping a lot of bottled water at home, it’s easy to get a cold one right out of the fridge on your way to a soccer game or activity, right?
But all those plastic bottles use a lot of fossil fuels and pollute the environment. In fact, Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, and add 29 billion water bottles a year to the problem. In order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million barrels of crude oil (原油). That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months.
So why don’t more people drink water straight from the kitchen faucet? Some people drink bottled water because they think it is better for them than water out of the tap, but that’s not true. In the US, local governments make sure water from the faucet is safe.
People love the convenience of bottled water. But maybe if they realized the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a refillable steel container instead of plastic.
Unfortunately, for every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. The rest are sent to landfills. Or, even worse, they end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to break down.
Water is good for you, so keep drinking it. But think about how often you use water bottles, and see if you can make a change. And yes, you can make a difference. Remember this: recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for six hours. No matter who you are, you can do something for the environment. Join us and protect the environment.What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．Drinking water: bottled or from the tap? |
| B．How to save more energy? |
| C．Why is it good to drink water out of the tap? |
| D．Stop drinking bottled water from now on. |
According to the passage, why don’t some people drink water straight from the kitchen faucet?
| A．Because they think bottled water is healthier than water out of the tap. |
| B．Because local governments don’t make sure that water from the faucet is safe. |
| C．Because bottled water is much cheaper than water out of the kitchen faucet. |
| D．Because water out of the kitchen faucet is not provided anywhere. |
The author may disagree that _____.
| A．it is very hard for plastic bottles to break down |
| B．if we used one bottle less, more oil would be saved |
| C．bottled water is very convenient to drink |
| D．plastic bottles have been causing less and less pollution |
Although the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have English as an official language, the United States does not have an official language. This is why it’s possible to become a US citizen without speaking English. Canada also has French as an official language, though it is mostly spoken in the province of Quebec. Because many of the English speakers who originally lived in Canada came from the US, there is little difference in American and Canadian English. Similarly, Australian English and New Zealand English have few differences, except Australia was originally settled as a penal colony (罪犯流放地) and New Zealand was not. New Zealanders were more attached to the Received Pronunciation of the upper class in England, so their dialect is considered closer to British English.
British colonialism (殖民主义) has spread English all over the world, and it is still popular in South Africa, India, and Singapore, among other nations. In South Africa, English became an official language, along with Afrikaans and 9 African languages, in the 1996 constitution. However, only 3% of the country’s 30 million people are native English speakers. Twenty percent are descendants (后代) of Dutch farmers who speak Afrikaans, and the rest are native Africans.
India became independent from Britain in 1947. However, today English and Hindi are the official languages. Indian English is characterized by treating mass nouns as count nouns, frequent use of the “isn’t it?” tag, use of more compounds, and a different use of prepositions. In Singapore, Chinese, Malay and Indian languages all influence the form of English spoken. Everyone is taught English in the school system, but there are a few differences from British English as well. Mass nouns are treated as count nouns, “use to” means usually, and no articles are used before occupations.Why can people become a US citizen without speaking English?
| A．They can learn English there. |
| B．Different languages are spoken in the US. |
| C．The US doesn’t have an official language. |
| D．They can speak their own language there. |
What do we know about South Africa?
| A．English is its only official language. |
| B．It has 11 different official languages. |
| C．English is becoming less important there. |
| D．20 percent of its population are native English speakers. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph?
| A．The Indians are good at English grammar. |
| B．People in Singapore often misuse count nouns. |
| C．Singaporean English is similar to Indian English. |
| D．English is a required subject in Singaporean schools. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．British colonialism. |
| B．The wide use of English. |
| C．English around the world. |
| D．The history of the English language. |
JULY
| MON. |
TUES. |
WED. |
THURS. |
FRI. |
SAT. |
SUN. |
| 132 |
2 29 |
3 31 |
4 40 |
5 46 |
6 38 |
|
| 7 27 |
8 34 |
9 30 |
10 24 |
1139 |
1245 |
1341 |
| 14 23 |
15 31 |
1628 |
1726 |
1838 |
19 49 |
2039 |
| 2126 |
22 35 |
2327 |
24 25 |
25 43 |
2647 |
2742 |
| 2829 |
2927 |
30 34 |
3129 |
Ms. Rossi owns the Roadside Motel(汽车游客旅馆)，which has 50 units.She wishes to keep a handy record of the number of units occupied(占用).To do this she uses a calendar and writes the number of units occupied in a small box in the right-hand square of each date.The following questions are based on the occupancy rate(率) for July.The total number of units occupied during the week of July 14 through July 20 was ______.
| A．234 | B．239 | C．240 | D．244 |
The average(平均) occupancy rate for Thursday was ________.
| A．29 | B．31 | C．27 | D．28 |
Ms. Rossi regards a 90% occupancy rate as excellent.On how many days during the month did the Roadside Motel have a 90% or better rate of occupancy?
| A．6. | B．5. | C．4. | D．1. |
After the Summer Olympics are over, when all the athletics have gone home and the television audience has switched off, another group of athletics and fans will arrive at the host city, and another competition will begin. These are the Paralympics, the games for athletes with a disability. But in Beijing in 2008, for the first time, one of the greatest Paralympics will not be taking part.
She is a British athlete by the name of Tanni Grey-Thormpson. Born with spina bifida (脊椎裂) which left her paralyzed from the waist down. Tanni used a wheelchair from the age of 7. At first, she was not keen on sport, apart from horse-riding, which gave her a sense of freedom. But in her teens, she started taking sports more seriously. She tried swimming, basketball and tennis. Eventually
she found athletics, and never looked back.
Indeed, Tanni’s athletic career took off. In 1984, when she was 15, she pulled off a surprise victory in the 100metres at the Junior National Wheelchair Games.
In 1988, Tanni went to her first Paralympic Games in Seoul. She won bronze in the 400 metres. Even greater success followed at the 1992 Barcelona. Paralympics. Tanni won gold in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres relay, setting two world records in the process. In the same year she achieved the first of her six London Wheelchair Marathon victories.
Tanni’s enduring success had been part motivation(动机), part preparation, “The training I do that enables me to be a good sprinter(短跑运动员) enables me to be good at a marathon too. I train 50 weeks of the year and that keeps me prepared for whatever distance I want to race. I am still competing at a very high lever, but as I get older things get harder and I want to retire before I fall apart.”
Indeed Tanni retired finally after the Visa Paralympic World Cup in 2007. Her wish is to coach young athletes for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
In spite of ups and downs, she never take her fate lying down. In her splendid life, she has won an amazing eleven gold medals, four silvers and one bronze in series of Paralympics--- a top lever athletic career covering two decades. She has won the London Wheelchair Marathon six times, more than any other competitor, and she has set over thirty world records.
What advice does she have for young athletes? “Work hard at your studies, and then train, train and train again.”Which of the following sports did Tanni like before thirteen?
| A．Basketball | B．Swimming. |
| C．Tennis. | D．Horse-riding. |
When did Tanni win her first Olympic gold medal?
| A．In 1984. | B．In 1988. |
| C．In 1992. | D．In 2007. |
The underlined word “that” in the 5th paragraph refers to _______.
| A．fifty weeks’ training |
| B．being a good sprinter |
| C．training almost every day |
| D．part motivation and part preparation |
What’s the right order of the events related to Tanni?
a. She works as a coach.
b. She took up athletics.
c. She won four gold medals in Barcelona.
d. She competed in her first Paralympic Games.
e. She achieved a victory in her first London Wheelchair Marathon.
| A．b,d,c,e,a | B． a,d,b,c,e |
| C．a,d,c,e,b | D．b,d,a,e,c |
What can we learn from Tanni’s success?
| A．Union is strength. | B．Never too late to learn. |
| C．Well begun is half done. | D．No pains, no gains. |