Thomas Edison was one of ten said to be the greatest genius of his age. There are only a few men in all of the history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius.“ There is no such thing as genius,” Edison said. He said that what people called genius was mostly hard work.
But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. Nature, he often said, is full of secrets. He tried to understand them; then, he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.
Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.
Edison could not understand how anyone could be uninterested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what ideas he had about life. “ Work,” he answered. “Discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Edison invented the electric light. |
| B．Many other people have changed Edison’s life. |
| C．Edison has changed the life of many other people. |
| D．Few men in history can change other people’s life. |
Edison thought .
| A．he could be happy if he was a genius |
| B．genius plays the most important part in one’s success |
| C．hard work could do better than genius |
| D．genius could do better than hard work |
Edison was .
| A．very much interested in nature |
| B．interested in discovering the secrets of nature |
| C．interested in changing people’s ideas |
| D．uninterested in making people happier by discovering the secrets of nature |
In Edison’s opinion, .
| A．thinking can supply people with enjoyment and pleasure as well as help |
| B．people’s success lies mostly in genius |
| C．hard work is the second important thing in making people successful |
| D．there are few secrets for him to discover later |
Finding a good friend can be quite difficult in the contemporary lives of teenagers. I was once baffled by what the definition of a good friend was，until I discovered a single step that，if taken，would make you the greatest friend.
It is willingness. That is all it takes in order to be considered a good friend. Willingness must come from within your heart. Listening to your friends makes them feel important, special and wanted. The will to sacrifice(牺牲) for your friends will also take you a step closer to being a good friend. For instance，as you are about to leave to enjoy your Saturday night，your best friend calls you right when you are stepping out and tells you how terrible he feels，and then you must be willing to give up your Saturday night and go to your friend’s house and try to comfort him in any way that you can.
You must always be willing to give advice to your friends. For example, if your friends are in a situation where they do not know what to do，you must be willing to think things through and try to give them the best advice. The willingness to care is also a big must in being a good friend. You must care about how your friends feel and what they’re experiencing. Caring about your friends is one of the best things you can do，because when your friends are in their time of need and the whole world seems to turn against them，you must be the one to care.
Nobody ever said being a good friend was easy. If you want to be a good friend，you have to be willing to listen, sacrifice，give advice and care about your friends.From this passage，we can learn that if a friend is confused about what to do next, we’d better _____ .
| A．give up our benefit to help him |
| B．leave him alone and let him calm down |
| C．listen to him quietly |
| D．offer him some reasonable advice |
The underlined word “baffled” in the first paragraph probably means “_____”.
| A．confused | B．frustrated |
| C．curious | D．frightened |
We can learn from the passage that _____ .
| A．being a good friend is so difficult that few people can do it |
| B．willingness can make a person a good friend |
| C．friendship always means sacrificing your own interests |
| D．a person doesn’t need to care about his friends all the time |
What method does the author use to explain his opinion in the second paragraph?
| A．Making a definition. | B．Citing an example. |
| C．Making a comparison. | D．Listing some numbers. |
What is the passage mainly talking about?
| A．How to encounter a good friend. |
| B．How to be a good friend. |
| C．How to make friends with others. |
| D．How to maintain friendship. |
Last year my wife and I spent a most interesting month in Turkey. Before we left, we were reminded of the difficulties of driving in Turkey. We certainly did not find this to be the case and, except for a few places in faraway mountain areas, the roads were wide, and well-paved (铺设). We drove for 12 days along the Western Coast of Turkey and had no problems at all. We found the Turkish drivers to be very polite and well educated. We also found that eating lunch in the smaller towns was difficult, so we picnicked almost every day.
The following day after our arrival was Turkey’s Children’s Day, started by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk loved children and he often said: “Children are a new beginning of tomorrow.” He even dedicated (奉献) the day 23rd of April to the children which today is celebrated as Children’s Day as well as the date when the Republic of Turkey was founded.
On that day certain children are picked to take over the places of the government, and a lucky kid will be the president of Turkey for a whole day. He can decide what’s going to happen and whether or not he is going to have the president next to him. There are a very large number of possibilities of things he can do but some shops aren’t open because they are celebrating the day as well.
All in all, it was a more enjoyable trip. I would recommend (推荐) a trip to Turkey to anyone with an adventurous (冒险的) spirit!Before the author and his wife went on a trip to Turkey, they were told that ________.
| A．it was difficult to travel in Turkey |
| B．it was not easy to drive in Turkey |
| C．the streets in Turkey were dangerous |
| D．there were many mountainous roads |
Which of the following is TRUE, according to the first paragraph?
| A．Places in mountain areas were difficult to reach. |
| B．The couple drove for 12 days during their journey. |
| C．The Turkish drivers had good manners. |
| D．It was difficult to eat meals in Turkey. |
The underlined word “He” in Paragraph 3 refers to ________.
| A．every one of us |
| B．the government |
| C．the president of Turkey |
| D．the lucky child |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The couple had no difficulty making their way in Turkey. |
| B．Turkey’s National Day falls on the 22nd of April. |
| C．The author joined in celebrating Children’s Day. |
| D．On Turkey’s Children’s Day everyone had holidays. |
What does the author think of the trip to Turkey?
| A．Interesting and dangerous. | B．Difficult and expensive. |
| C．Enjoyable and exciting. | D．Boring and adventurous. |
Years ago, there lived a wealthy man named Mr. Cooper who, with his dearest young son John, loved art collecting. Together they traveled around the world, collecting the finest art treasures.
One winter, war came to the nation, and John left to serve his country. After only a few short weeks, his father received a telegram reading that John had died while saving a fellow soldier. Filled with sadness, the old man cried. On the coming Christmas morning, a soldier called on him and gave him a picture of John.
The following spring, the old man became ill and passed away. According to his will, all of his works of art would be auctioned (拍卖) on Christmas Day, when he had received the greatest gift of his life. The day soon arrived and art collectors from around the world gathered to buy some of the world’s greatest paintings. The auction began with a painting of the old man’s son. “Who will open the bidding (出价) with $100?” the auctioneer (拍卖人) asked. Minutes passed, but no one spoke. Finally, a neighbor of the old man’s spoke. “Can I take the painting for ten dollars? It is all I have, and he is a good man.”
“Will anyone go higher?” called the auctioneer. After more silence, the auctioneer said, “Going once, going twice, gone.” The gavel(槌) fell. “Now we can get on to the real treasures,” someone shouted angrily. But the auctioneer said that the auction was over. Someone asked, “It’s over? We didn’t come here for a picture of some old guy’s son. There are millions of dollars worth of art here!” The auctioneer replied, “It’s very simple. According to the will of the father, whoever takes the son ... gets all.” Why did they travel around the world?
| A．They wanted to visit some well-known artists. |
| B．They had their own companies around the world. |
| C．They wanted to visit all kinds of places of interest. |
| D．They wanted to collect the world’s finest art. |
When did the old man die?
| A．The morning when the solider visited him. |
| B．Several months after John died. |
| C．A few days after John served in the army. |
| D．The day he received the news of John’s death. |
The underlined words “the greatest gift” in Paragraph 3 refer to ________.
| A．a picture of John |
| B．the painting John collected |
| C．the finest work of art |
| D．the telegram about his son |
A neighbor of the old man’s bought the painting of John ________.
| A．because he knew the will of the old man |
| B．to pick up the world’s greatest paintings |
| C．in honor of John, who was worth respecting |
| D．because no one else was willing to buy it |
It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
| A．the old man and the auctioneer were good friends |
| B．no art collectors wanted to buy Mr. Cooper’s collection of art |
| C．John was a successful art collector and an excellent artist |
| D．the old man, Mr. Cooper, loved his son very much |
Kieron Williamson, a seven-year-old British boy, is being recognized as an art genius after selling 16 paintings for 18, 000 pounds in just 14 minutes. This boy has artistic skills that would
be the envy of any serious painter and drawn comparisons to Pablo Picasso, a child prodigy（神童）who became one of the most recognized artists of the 20th century. It all began on a family holiday to Cornwall on the southwest English coast when Kieron was five. Inspired by the view, he asked his parents for his first sketch-pad （速写纸）. From that moment on, he became deeply interested. While supportive, Kieron’s parents are careful not to push their son. He only paints when and what he wants.
He has a waiting list of hundreds and requests for his works have been flooding in. His father said a sale of Kieron’s works held in November even drew a buyer from Japan. “We had people driving down that night, there were people on the door waiting to come in the morning who had been standing outside, the phones were going mad as soon as the door opened at nine o’clock and within 14 minutes all the 16 pictures had gone, ” he said.
All this talent, money and high praise could so easily go to a young boy’s head, but Kieron said his friends keep him grounded. “Some of them want to be as good as me and some of them think. . . Umn, ‘you are not too special’,” he said.
Kieron’s favourite painter is British artist Edward Seago and he has spent some of his earnings buying a work by his hero. The rest is being invested by his parents until he reaches 25. Kieron’s parents and his younger sister Billi-Jo don’t see him as anything other than a normal seven-year-old boy who likes to tear around the house and who’s mad about football. But for now, with so much still to learn, there’s only one thing he wants to be when he grows up. He said, “I think I’ll definitely be an artist. ”According to Paragraph 1, we can know Kieron Williamson ______ .
| A．painted 16 paintings in only 14 minutes |
| B．draws as well as Picasso did |
| C．is one of the most recognized artists |
| D．has unusual ability in painting |
What made Kieron Williamson begin to love painting?
| A．His first sketch-pad. |
| B．His parents’ encouragement. |
| C．The view at the seaside. |
| D．His swimming near the coast. |
In Kieron Williamson’s friends’ opinion, he ______.
| A．is famous but a little proud |
| B．isn’t very special from other children |
| C．isn’t worth praising at all |
| D．is hard to get along with |
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ______.
| A．Edward Seago thinks highly of Kieron’s painting |
| B．Kieron likes doing sports and painting instead of studying |
| C．Kieron’s family is very poor |
| D．Kieron wants to be a great painter |
The passage mainly tells us ______.
| A．a seven-year-old painting genius |
| B．how to be a great painter |
| C．Kieron Williamson may become the second Picasso |
| D．the painting changed Kieron Williamson’s life greatly |
Tea drinking was common in China for nearly one thousand years before anyone in Europe had ever heard about tea. People in Britain were much slower in finding out what tea was like, mainly because tea was very expensive. It could not be bought in shops. People had it sent from Holland. And even those people who could afford it did so only because of curiosity. Some of them were not sure how to use it. They thought it was a vegetable and tried cooking the leaves. Then they served them mixed with butter and salt. They soon discovered their mistake but many people used to spread the used tea leaves on bread and give them to their children as sandwiches.
Tea remained very expensive in England until the ships of the East India Company began to bring it direct from China early in the seventeenth century. During the next few years so much tea came into the country that the price fell and many people could afford to buy it.
At the same time people on the Continent were becoming more and more fond of tea. Until then tea had been drunk without milk in it, but one day a French lady named Madame de Sevigne decided to see what tea tasted like when milk was added. She found it so pleasant that she would never again drink it without milk. Because she was so famous a lady that people liked to copy everything she did, they also drank their tea with milk in it. Slowly this habit spread until it reached England and today only very few Britons drink tea without milk.
At first, tea was usually drunk after dinner in the evening. No one ever thought of drinking tea in the afternoon until a duchess （公爵夫人） found that a cup of tea and a piece of cake at three or four o'clock stopped her getting “a sinking feeling” as she called it. She invited her friends to have this new meal with her and so, tea-time was born.The word “curiosity” in the first paragraph probably means ________.
| A．好奇 | B．臆测 | C．迷恋 | D．决心 |
Which of the following is true of tea-drinking in Britain?
| A．The British people got expensive tea from India. |
| B．The habit of tea-drinking reached Britain from France. |
| C．The British people were much slower in getting the habit. |
| D．People in Britain began drinking tea one thousand years ago. |
Some people cooked tea leaves because ______
| A．most children liked to have them |
| B．they were very good vegetables |
| C．they didn’t know how to use them |
| D．sandwiches needed mixing with them |
People in Britain like to drink tea with milk because of the influence of _______.
| A．a famous French lady |
| B．people in Holland |
| C．the upper social class |
| D．the ancient Chinese |
This passage mainly discusses _______.
| A．how tea-time was born in history |
| B．the history of tea-drinking in Britain |
| C．the habit of drinking tea with milk in it |
| D．differences about tea-drinking Europe |