There was once, in a little market-town not far from Upsala (瑞典一城市), a peasant who lived there with his family, digging the earth during the week and singing in the choir on Sundays. This peasant had a little daughter to whom he taught the musical alphabet before she knew how to read. Daae was a great musician, perhaps without knowing it. Not a violinist in Scandinavia played as he did. His reputation was widespread and he was always invited to set the couples dancing at weddings and other festivals. His wife died when Christine was entering upon her sixth year. Then the father, who cared only for his daughter and his music, sold his land and went to Upsala in search of fame and fortune. He found nothing but poverty.
He returned to the country, wandering from fair to fair, playing his Scandinavian music pieces, while his child, who never left his side, listened to him in delight or sang to his playing. One day, at Ljimby Fair, Professor Valerius heard them and took them to Gothenburg. He insisted that the father was the first violinist in the world and that the daughter had the making of a great artist. Her education and instruction were provided for. She made rapid progress and charmed everybody with her prettiness, her grace of manner and her real eagerness to please.
When Valerius and his wife went to settle in France, they took Daae and Christine with them. "Mamma" Valerius treated Christine as her daughter. As for Daae, he became ill with homesickness. He never went out of doors in Paris, but lived in a sort of dream which he kept up with his violin. For hours at a time, he remained locked up in his bedroom with his daughter, playing and singing, very, very softly.
Daae seemed not to recover his strength until the summer, when the whole family went to stay at Perros-Guirec, in a far-away corner of Brittany, where the sea was of the same color as in his own country. Often he would play his saddest tunes on the beach and pretend that the sea stopped its roaring to listen to them. And then he persuaded Mamma Valerius to allow him to leave for a while. At the time of the "pardons," the village festivals and dances, he went off with his violin, as in the old days, and was allowed to take his daughter with him for a week. They gave the smallest villages music to last them for a year and slept at night in a barn, refusing a bed at the inn, lying close together on the straw, as when they were so poor in Sweden. At the same time, they were very neatly dressed, refused the halfpence offered to them; and the people around could not understand the behaviour of this country violinist, who walked heavily on the roads with that pretty child who sang like an angel from Heaven. They followed them from village to village. When he was in the countryside, Daae did NOT __________.
| A．work on his land | B．sing in the choir on Sundays |
| C．make a fortune at weddings and festivals | D．teach his daughter how to sing |
The 3rd sentence “He insisted …” in the 2nd paragraph showed Professor Valerius’ ______.
| A．hope for Daae and Christine | B．appreciation of Daae and Christine |
| C．sympathy for Daae and Christine | D．love for Daae and Christine |
While Daae was in Paris, he never went out of doors because he was ________.
| A．always sleepy | B．so homesick that he fell ill |
| C．too busy teaching his daughter | D．willing to be locked up with his daughter |
What made people curious about the father and daughter was that _______.
| A．the father made very good music |
| B．the daughter sang like an angel from Heaven |
| C．the father walked strangely with his daughter |
| D．they appeared to be badly off but refused money offered |
As we all know, it was Thomas Jefferson who wrote the Declaration of Independence (《独立宣言》). He wrote it in two weeks, and after a few changes, it was accepted by the Congress (国会). As a result, he became famous.
Born in 1743 in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, a wonderful student at school and almost talented(天才的 ) lawyer later, was much interested in politics.
Jefferson was elected the Governor of Virginia in 1779, and he was sent to France as the representative of the American government in 1784. Sixteen years later, at the age of 57, he was elected president after Washington and Adams.
Far from a handsome man, he was tall with long arms and big hands. Jefferson, who was an amusing(令人愉快的) talker in conversation but a poor speaker, was generally good-natured.
Jefferson was regarded as a defender of freedom in America. As a president, he protected the right of free speech. Interestingly enough, in his eight years as president, Jefferson never vetoed (否决) a bill which the Congress had passed. He did a lot in organizing the new University of Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson died on July the fourth, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of American Independence.From the passage we can infer that America won its independence in _______.
| A．1786 | B．1800 | C．1842 | D．1776 |
How old was Thomas Jefferson when he was elected President of the U.S.A.?
A. He was 47. B. He was in his forties.
C. He was 57.D. We don’t know.Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Jefferson was an amusing talker, but not good at speaking in public. |
| B．Jefferson was not an easy person to get along with. |
| C．Jefferson was not only very talented but also very handsome. |
| D．Not being politically minded, Jefferson never vetoed a bill passed by the Congress. |
Jefferson died when he was ________.
| A．72 | B．83 | C．73 | D．92 |
Twelve-year-old Leonardo was born in a poor family in Bambamarca in Peru. He knew how to read but he had never seen a book in his life. So he asked the new priest（牧师）in his village to give him one. But there was no electricity. So Leonardo borrowed candles from the church and sat up all night reading it. The next morning, he was at the door of the priest asking for another book to read.
John Medcalf, the priest，was moved. He also realised that people would love to read if given a chance. But he knew how difficult it was for Leonardo and those in his village to get books. And yet, no one can be taught to read and write without books. To make people in a poor, faraway area grow to love books，they have to be with them. So he thought the only way was to bring books to people.
But how could this be done? Mobile libraries or car libraries would be too expensive and difficult to continue in the rocky, hilly land of Peru. So what other method could be used?
Medcalf got a new idea from the barefoot（赤脚）doctors of China. And that was how the barefoot librarians（图书管理员）first appeared in the villages of northern Peru，almost thirty years ago.
The librarians began by going from village to village, lending books to villagers. They helped start The 12ura1 Library Network of Peru.
At first，they were teachers of the village schools which these faraway libraries belonged to. But the teachers were not very interested in the job because it meant a lot of hard work.
So, village leaders took on the job themselves.
Today, there are 600 village libraries across Peru. The barefoot librarians who walk up to 15 hours a day with bags of books are their lifeline.The first paragraph tells us that Leonardo
A. had a lot of books
B. bought candles from others
C, enjoyed reading books
D. lived in the churchThe underlined word "this" in Paragraph 3 probably refers to（指）" "
A, to grow to love books
B. to bring books to people
C. to read and write
D. to build a new libraryThe passage doesn't mention
A, when the barefoot librarians appeared
B. who worked as village librarians at first
C. where Medcalf met Chinese doctors
D. how many village libraries Peru has todayIt can be inferred（推断）from the passage that ．
| A．the first church in Peru was set up by John Medcalf |
| B．car libraries used to be popular in Leonardo's village |
| C．teachers were interested in bringing books to villagers |
| D．the barefoot librarians are important to village libraries |
The greatest scientific breakthroughs of 2014 have affected all aspects of modern life, from medicine, to space exploration, to the future of renewable technologies. Scientists all over the globe are publishing their findings and treating patients with new medicines and techniques that are changing everyday life for the human race, and adding to our vast banks of scientific knowledge.
Irish teens make a breakthrough in crop yields（产量）
16-year-old Ciara Judge, Emer Hickey, and Sophie Healy-Thow won the Google Science Fair2014, with their project “Natural Bacteria Fighting World Hunger”.
While learning about the food shortage in Africa, the three teens got thinking about how they could help. What they found may change the future of worldwide food production.. They experimented and were able to reduce germination（发芽）time by 50%and increase plants’ yield by up to 74%.
This could create the possibility of increased crop yields and reducing crop loss due to bad weather.
Cancer is cured?
In May 2014, the Mayo Clinic published a study in which they treated a 50-year-old female patient’s blood cancer with the measlesvaccine（麻疹疫苗）.After receiving the vaccine, Stacy Erholtz’s body is completely free of cancer.
Stephen Russell, who led the research, said, “It’s a landmark. We’ve known for a long time that we can introduce a virus into the blood and destroy cancer in mice. Nobody’s shown that you can do that in people before.” The measles vaccine will not work for all types of cancer, but is an unbelievable step forward.
Water found on Saturn’s moon Enceladus
In April, scientists announced that NASA’s Cassini spacecraft discovered a body of water on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn（土星）. Enceladus is an icy moon about 300 miles in diameter （直径）.and its mysterious body of water appears to be 5 miles deep, around the size of Lake Superior.
Scientists have also discovered that the body of water features a rock is a possible sign of conditions good for the development of life.The text is mainly about _______.
| A．the new findings in medicine |
| B．the greatest scientists in 2014 |
| C．the new techniques in space exploration |
| D．the greatest scientific breakthroughs of 2014 |
What’s the aim of the three Irish teens’ Project?
| A．To attract Google’s attention. |
| B．To do research on Africa’s soil. |
| C．To solve the problem of world hunger.. |
| D．To understand different plants’ germination time. |
What can be inferred about the Mayo Clinic’s study?
| A．Blood cancer is very is very easy to cure. |
| B．All kinds of cancer will be cured soon. |
| C．Medical experiments on people are not allowed. |
| D．The research is a breakthrough in cancer treatment. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph?
| A．Enceladus is a warm moon |
| B．Enceladus may be suitable for life. |
| C．Enceladus is as big as Lake Superior. |
| D．Enceladus has several rocky sea floors. |
We use both words and body language to express our thoughts and opinions and to communicate with other people. We can learn about what a person is thinking by watching his or her body language. Words are important, but the way a person stands, folds his or her arms, or moves his or her hands can also give us information about his or her feelings.
Just like spoken language, body language varies from culture to culture. Making eye contact —looking directly into someone’s eyes — is in some countries a way to show interest. In other countries, however, eye contact is rude or disrespectful. The gesture for Ok, making a circle with one’s thumb and index finger, has different meanings in different cultures. In Japan, someone who sees another person making the gesture will think it means money. In France, a person seeing the same gesture will think it means zero. In Brazil and Germany, however, the gesture is rude. The thumbs-up gesture, meaning “great” or “good job” in the US is rude in Nigeria, but in Germany and Japan it means the number one. The “crazy” gesture, moving the index finger in a circle in front of the ear, means “you have a phone call” in Brazil.
Even the gesture we use for “yes” and “no” are different around the world. In many countries, shaking one’s head means “no”, and nodding means “yes”. In Bulgaria, parts of Greece, and Iran, however, the gestures have the opposite meaning. There are also differences as to how often we touch each other, how close we stand to someone we are talking to, and how we act when we meet or part. In some countries, for example, France and Russia, a visiting friend is greeted with a kiss on the check, in other countries people greet each other with a firm handshake, a loving hug, a bow or a simply a nod of the head.
While there are many different interpretations of our body language, some gestures seem to be universal. Pressing one’s palms together and resting one’s head on the back of one’s hand while closing the eyes as if sleeping means “I am tired.” A good way of saying “I am full” is moving the hand in circles over the stomach after a meal. If a person pats his or her stomach before a meal, it usually means “ I’m hungry.”
Perhaps the best example of universally understood body language is the smile. A smile can help us get through difficult situation and find friends in a world of strangers. A smile can open doors and tear down walls. It can be used to express almost any emotion. We can use a smile to apologise, to greet someone, to ask for help or to start a conversation. We can smile at ourselves in the mirror to make ourselves feel happier and stronger. And if we are feeling down or lonely, there is nothing better than to see the smiling face of a good friend.In our daily life, which of the following do we use to communicate with each other?
| A．gestures | B．words | C．smiles | D．all above |
As a Chinese , if you are lost in Germany, without knowing German, you’d better---- to ask for help?
| A．use eye-contact | B．thumb-up |
| C．smile | D．say “excuse me” |
What does this passage mainly about?
| A．all the gestures in the world |
| B．the same body language in the world |
| C．gestures in the western countries |
| D．using proper gesture to express yourself |
The underlined word “universal” in the last second paragraph probably means ______.
| A．wide | B．common | C．not similar | D．in space |
One type of fish is named salmon(大马哈鱼). There are many different kinds of salmon, but almost all of them mate(交配) in a very strange way. They are born in small, freshwater rivers. They live in the river for a year, and then swim downstream to a bigger river and eventually to the ocean very quickly. While they live in the ocean, salmon are silver coloured.
After several years at sea, the salmon grow very long and heavy. Then, as if by magic, they all begin to swim home. Each salmon somehow remembers where it was born and the very same area in the small river.
It is a long, difficult journey home. Once the salmon enter fresh, they stop eating. They also change colours. Some salmon turn red, other brown and grey, and some turn pink. Some salmon grow a large bulge on their back, called a hump. These salmon fight to swim upstream against the current of sometimes very to avoid bears, birds, and fishermen
Finally, the salmon that survive mate in the same river in which they were born. Then, after all that work, they die! These salmon still play an important role. Their dead bodies help to provide nutrition(营养) to the animals that live in and around the river When their eggs hatch, the cycle will start again.Which of the following do salmon NOT do when they reenter fresh water?
| A．They change colours. |
| B．They stop eating. |
| C．They grow bulges on their backs. |
| D．They grow teeth. |
Inferring from the passage, why do salmon eat a lot while they are in the ocean? Because_______
| A．they need to have enough energy to return home |
| B．they never stop swimming |
| C．they are afraid of bears |
| D．the different water makes them hungry |
Salmon return to fresh water in order to _______.
| A．mate |
| B．provide nutrition to other animals |
| C．mate and provide nutrition to other animals |
| D．make a difficult journey |