Dear Cassy,
Thanks for reminding me by e-mail that you want to baby-sit our children. In spite of the fact that you are only 15 years old, my wife and I would be willing to consider your application if you can meet a few modest requirements:
1. Submit three letters from teachers who will prove that you have never failed to follow directions perfectly in class and never failed to hand in the homework on time.
2. Submit a note from two doctors which says that you are in perfect health, have never been sick, and will never be sick.
3. Submit a document (文件) from your physical education teacher or team coach that proves that you can do each of the following: Run two miles in less than nine minutes, climb an oily rope to a height of twenty feet in thirty seconds while balancing a glass of water on your nose, and walk in bare feet over hot coals and broken glass without complaint or injury.
4. Submit letters from at least two mental health experts saying that you have never had a bad thought towards any living being or not living object.
5. Play and defeat five expert chess players with your eyes covered after going without sleep for 48 hours.
6. Wait patiently for two years while we make sure that all your documents are true.
Your loving and trusting friends,
The SmithsFrom the letter we can know that ______.
| A．Cassy wrote to the Smiths twice | B．Cassy loves children very much |
| C．Cassy will be in perfect health | D．Cassy does very well in her studies |
Which of the following can most probably replace the underlined word “submit”?
| A．write | B．report | C．hand in | D．recommend (推荐) |
What can we infer from this text?
| A．Their children are hard to baby-sit. | B．Their children are well educated. |
| C．Cassy is good at doing many things. | D．Cassy won't get the job as a baby-sitter. |
Which of the following words can best describe the Smiths?
| A．Humorous. | B．Patient. | C．Honest. | D．Kind-hearted. |
The Book Of Life
So far, scientists have named about 1. 8 million living species(物种), and that’s just a small number of what probably exists on Earth. With so many plants, animal, and other living things covering the planet, it can be tough to figure out what type of grass is growing by the roadside or what kind of bird just flew by.
A soon-to-be-started Web site might help. An international term of researchers has announced the creation of Web-based Encyclopedia(百科全书) of Life (EoL). The project aims to list every species on Earth in a single, easy-to-use reference guide.
To get the encyclopedia started, the creators will use information from scientific databases(数据库)that already exist. And eventually, in special sections of the site, non-scientists with specialized knowledge will come to help. Bird-watchers, for example, will be able to input what birds they’ve seen and where. To make sure the encyclopedia is accurate, scientists will review much of the information added to it.
As the EoL develops, you might find it useful for school. Projects, The site will feature(以……为特色) special pages for kids who are studying ecosystems in their neighborhoods. Another convenient feature of the EoL is that you’ll be able to pick the level of detail you want to see to match your interests, age, and knowledge.
It now takes years for scientists to collect all the data they need to describes and analyze species. The creators of the Encyclopedia of Life hope that their new fool will speed up that process.The Web based EoL aims to ___
| A．fine out what covers the earth |
| B．list all living things on Earth |
| C．work out the number of birds |
| D．save the existing plants |
One characteristic of the EoL is that ____
| A．it is run by school students |
| B．it focuses on different types of grass |
| C．it provides different levels of information |
| D．it allows non-scientists to review its data |
In the last paragraph,” that process”means ___
| A．analyzing species |
| B．creating a new tool |
| C．collecting data |
| D．describing species |
When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground. I was living in Conyers, Georgia the summer it all happened. I was a second grader, but my best friend Stephanie was only in the first grade. Both of our parents were at work and most of the time they let us go our own way.
It was a hot afternoon and we decided to have an adventure in Stephanie’s basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs, and spotted red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.
“Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are fixing to paint.” She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted bit stripes (条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was fantastic!
The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn’t wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother’s face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.
My mother shut the car door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, “What in the world were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors’ trees, but this! Come inside right now!” I stood there glaring hack at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art.
“Now go clean it up!” Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.
Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful. What did the writer want to do when his mother came home?
| A．To introduce Stephanie to her. |
| B．To prevent her from seeing his painting. |
| C．To put the materials back in the yard. |
| D．To show his artwork to her. |
In his mother’s eyes, the writer_______.
| A．was a born artist |
| B．always caused trouble |
| C．was a problem solver |
| D．worked very hard |
The underlined word “rainbow” in the last paragraph refers to ______.
| A．the rainbow in the sky |
| B．the stripes on the pavement |
| C．something imaginative and fun |
| D．important lessons learned in childhood |
It can be learned from the passage that parents should ________.
| A．encourage children to paint |
| B．value friendship among children |
| C．discover the hidden talent in children |
| D．protect rather than destroy children’s dreams |
How Room Designs Affect Our Work and Feelings
Architects have long had the feeling that the places we live in can affect our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. But now scientists are giving this feeling an empirical（经验的，实证的） basis. They are discovering how to design spaces that promote creativity, keep people focused and lead to relaxation.
Researches show that aspects of the physical environment can influence creativity. In 2007, Joan Meyers-Levy at the University of Minnesota, reported that the height of a room's ceiling affects how people think. Her research indicates that higher ceilings encourage people to think more freely, which may lead them to make more abstract connections. Low ceilings, on the other hand, may inspire a more detailed outlook.
In additions to ceiling height, the view afforded by a building may influence an occupant's ability to concentrate. Nancy Wells and her colleagues at Cornell University found in their study that kids who experienced the greatest increase in greenness as a result of a family move made the most gains on a standard test of attention.
Using nature to improve focus of attention ought to pay off academically, and it seems to, according to a study led by C. Kenneth Tanner, head of the School Design & Planning Laboratory at the University of Georgia. Tanner and his team found that students in classrooms with unblocked views of at least 50 feet outside the window had higher scores on tests of vocabulary, language arts and maths than did students whose classrooms primarily overlooked roads and parking lots.
Recent study on room lighting design suggests than dim（暗淡的） light helps people to loosen up. If that is true generally, keeping the light low during dinner or at parties could increase relaxation. Researchers of Harvard Medical School also discovered that furniture with rounded edges could help visitors relax.
So far scientists have focused mainly on public buildings. "We have a very limited number of studies, so we're almost looking at the problem through a straw（吸管）," architect David Allison says. "How do you take answers to very specific questions and make broad, generalized use of them? That's what we're all struggling with." What does Joan Meyers-Levy focus on in her research?
| A．Light. |
| B．Ceilings. |
| C．Windows. |
| D．Furniture. |
The passage tells us that ______.
| A．the shape of furniture may affect people's feelings |
| B．lower ceilings may help improve students' creativity |
| C．children in a dim classroom may improve their grades |
| D．students in rooms with unblocked views may feel relaxed |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means that ______.
| A．the problem is not approached step by step |
| B．the researches so far have faults in themselves |
| C．the problem is too difficult for researchers to detect |
| D．research in this area is not enough to make generalized patterns |
Which of the following shows the organization of the passage?
 |
CP: Central PointP: Point
SP: Sub-point（次要点）C: Conclusion
At dawn on Friday,May 19,1780,farmers in New England stopped to wonder at the pink color of the sun.By noon the sky had darkened to midnight blackness,causing Americans,still in the painful struggle of a prolonged war of independence,to light candles and tremble at thoughts of the Last Judgment.As the birds quieted and no storm accompanied the darkness,men and women crowded into churches,where one minister commented that “The people were very attentive”.John Greenleaf Whittier later wrote that “Men prayed,and women wept;all ears grew sharp...”
A recent study of researchers,led by Richard Guyette from the University of Missouri Tree-Ring Laboratory,has shown that vast forest fires in the Algonquin Highlands of southern Ontario and elsewhere in Canada brought this event upon New England.The scientists have discovered “fire scars” on the rings for that year,left when the heat of a wildfire has killed a part of a tree’s cambium (形成层).Evidence collected also points to a drought that year.An easterly wind and low barometric pressure(低气压) helped force smoke into the upper atmosphere.“The record fits pretty close,”says Guyette.“We had the right fuel,the drought.The conditions were all there.”
Lacking the ability to communicate quickly over long distances,Americans in 1780 remained in the dark about the event,which had disappeared by the next day.Over the next several months,the papers carried heated debates about what brought the darkness.Some were the voices of angry prediction,such as one Massachusetts farmer who wrote,“Oh! Backsliding New England,attend now to the things which belong to your peace before they are forever hid from your eyes.”Others gave different answers.One stated that “a flaming star” had passed between the earth and the sun.Ash,argued another commentator.The debate,carried on throughout New England,where there were no scientific journals or academies yet,reflected an unfolding culture of scientific enquiry already sweeping the Western world,a revolution nearly as influential as the war for independence from the English.
New Englanders would not soon forget that dark day;it lived on in folklore,poems,and sermons for generations.New Englanders crowded into churches because they were frightened by .
| A．the pink color of the sun |
| B．the darkened sky at daytime |
| C．the Last Judgment on Friday |
| D．the American War of Independence |
What can we infer about the event in New England on May 19,1780?( )
| A．Prayers remained silent and attentive. |
| B．Night birds no longer came out to sing. |
| C．People’s ears became sharper than usual. |
| D．Midday meals were served by candlelight. |
According to the researchers,the origin of the event was .
| A．an east wind |
| B．a severe drought |
| C．some burning fuel |
| D．low barometric pressure |
What can be the best title for the text?( )
| A．New England’s dark day |
| B．Voices of angry prediction |
| C．There is no smoke without fire |
| D．Tree rings and scientific discovery |
Eco-friendly Vauban,Germany,located in the southwest part of the country,is a city where less than 20 percent of the residents own automobiles.Most of the people get around the town by using bicycles and their feet,according to an article (with video) by ABCNews.com.Can an eco-friendly city like Vauban be a model for Americans to stop their over-reliance (过度依赖) on the automobile?
Anytime I watch a news report,what’s often in the back of my mind is what isn’t reported or stressed.While this eco-friendly city is inspiring in that it shows residents getting their exercise and more fresh air through the majority use of bicycles,rollerblades (轮滑鞋),as well as good old-fashioned walking,common sense would tell you that even for a place like Vauban it owes its existence to the automobile.
Do you think that bicycles were able to transport all the construction materials that were needed to build the eco-friendly homes and businesses in Vauban?Were rollerbladers able to move all the materials needed for the sidewalk and bicycle path construction?It took automobiles to help build this place.
I myself haven’t owned a car for more than 14 years.I mostly get around town via running,walking,and use of public transportation.Although I’m glad lots of walking and running has helped to keep me fit and healthier,there are times I wish I had an automobile because it would make things really easier.
In order for America to get even close to being like eco-friendly Vauban,we need to change the way we live,starting with huge investment (投资) in public transportation,etc.Yet ending Americans’ dependence on the automobile will be virtually impossible during my lifetime.At best,one will see more Vauban-like areas in the USA.
It can be hoped that Americans will consider using their feet more to get around when possible,which would cut down on some pollution and provide some health benefits via exercise.The first paragraph serves as a(n) .
| A．explanation |
| B．introduction |
| C．comment |
| D．background |
According to Para.2,the author believes that .
| A．Vauban is not so eco-friendly as the media says |
| B．automobiles will disappear in Vauban soon |
| C．residents in Vauban still need automobiles |
| D．life in Vauban is not comfortable and convenient |
From Para.4 we learn the author seems to stress .
| A．the great value of walking and running |
| B．the disadvantages of owning a private car |
| C．the benefits of using public transportation |
| D．the need of allowing automobiles to exist |
Which of the following opinions would the author accept?( )
| A．American cities can become as eco-friendly as Vauban soon. |
| B．It is unnecessary for Americans to depend on bicycles. |
| C．Americans are still heavily dependent on automobiles. |
| D．The model of Vauban suits American cities very well. |