Imagine one day, the water taps in your house stop running. You have to buy water from shops. And still there isn’t enough for everyone. Your mother has to save the family’s shower water to do other things. Would you be able to stand that kind of life?
Probably not. But that’s what kids in Yemen are experiencing. Experts said Yemen is going to be the first country in the world to run out of water. According to a report, the capital, Sanaa, will run out of drinking water as early as 2025.
Because of the shortage, the government often cuts the water supply. Hannan, an 18-year-old from Lahej, told the Times: “In a good week we’ll have a water supply all week. But then the following week there will be water only for a day or two.”
Hannan said only rich people have enough water to use. They can buy water from the shops or from the water truck. Private companies own the trucks. They travel around the city every day to sell water – at very high prices.
“A lot of people can’t afford it,” she said.
The average person in Yemen uses 100 to 200 cubic meters of water per year. That is far below the international water poverty line of 1,000 cubic meters.
The government is thinking of making use of seawater. But it will cost a lot and it may not happen soon enough to help the people of Yemen.The purpose of the text is to _______.
| A．tell us what life is like in Yemen |
| B．draw our attention to water shortage |
| C．remind us how important water is |
| D．show us ways of solving problems |
The underlined word “that” in Paragraph 2 refers to _____.
| A．buying water from shops |
| B．drinking dirty water |
| C．suffering from water shortage |
| D．washing clothes with used water |
Hannan described _____.
| A．what her life is like |
| B．how beautiful Lahej is |
| C．how people use water fully |
| D．how heavy the traffic in Lahej is |
The Yemen Government _____.
| A．has found a practical solution |
| B．only cares about rich people |
| C．may try to make use of seawater |
| D．can do nothing about the water supply |
We can infer from the text that _____.
| A．Sanaa will run out of water in 10 years |
| B．Hannan is a teenager from a rich family |
| C．the capital of Yemen is developing fast |
| D．private companies make a lot of money |
Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street.
Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, and the life of American people. Most of the radio programs are music.
Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in many places. Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tape. Some of the money from these tapes goes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.
There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This is started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they are watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music. This passage mainly talks about __________.
| A．American music |
| B．American popular music |
| C．three sorts of music |
| D．popular music singers |
The first three paragraphs mainly tell us _____________.
| A．that Americans like folk music |
| B．that popular music is an important kind of music in American |
| C．how to become a national star as a pop singer in American |
| D．popular music in America is what every student likes |
The underlined word “This” in the last paragraph refers to “__________”.
| A．American music |
| B．folk music |
| C．country music |
| D．the common life of Americans |
According to the passage, the song Country Road probably belongs to _________.
| A．pop music |
| B．folk music |
| C．western music |
| D．jazz |
No one should be forced to wear a uniform under any circumstance. Uniforms are controlling the human spirit and totally unnecessary in a democratic(民主的) society. Uniforms tell the world that the person who wears one has no value as an individual but only lives to function as a part of the whole. The individual in a uniform loses all self-worth.
There are those who say that wearing a uniform gives a person a sense of identification with a larger, more important concept. What could be more important than the individual himself? If an organization is so weak that it must rely on cloth and buttons to inspire its members, that organization has no right to continue its existence.
Others say that the practice of making persons wear uniforms, say in school, gets rid of all envy and competition in a matter of dress, such that a poor person who cannot afford good-quality clothing is not to be looked down upon by a wealthy person who wears expensive clothing. Those persons ignore the concepts as freedom of choice, motivation, and individuality. If all persons were to wear the same clothing, why would anyone struggle to be better? It is only a short step from forcing everyone to drive the same car, have the same type of food. When this happens, all motivation to improve one’s life is removed. Why would parents bother to work hard so that their children could have a better life than they had when they know that their children are going to be forced to have exactly the same life as they had?
Uniforms also hurt the economy(经济). Right now, billions of dollars are spent on the fashion industry yearly. Thousands of people are employed in designing, creating, and marketing different types of clothing. If everyone were forced to wear uniforms, artistic personnel would be unnecessary. Salesmen would be extra as well. Why bother to sell the only items that are available? The wearing of uniforms would destroy the fashion industry which in turn would have a wave effect on such industries as advertising and sales promotion. Without advertising, newspapers, magazines, and television would not be able to remain in business. Our entire information and entertainment industries would collapse.Why does the author discuss forcing everyone to buy the same car or eat the same food?
| A．To show that freedom of choice is absolute in modern society. |
| B．To suggest what would happen if uniforms became compulsory. |
| C．To predict the way the society will be in the next few generations. |
| D．To show that the government has too much control over people’s lives. |
The last word of the passage “collapse” probably means ________.
| A．fail | B．rise | C．disappear | D．struggle |
The author’s primary purpose in writing this passage was to ________.
| A．show that uniforms are not possible in a democratic society |
| B．advise the government to change the rules of wearing uniforms |
| C．advocate stronger governmental controls on the wearing of uniforms |
| D．convince the reader that uniforms have more disadvantages than advantages |
Human beings have used tools for a very long time. In some parts of the world you can still find tools that people used more than two million years ago. They made these tools by hitting one stone against another. In this way, they broke off pieces from one of the stones. These chips of stone were usually sharp on one side. People used them for cutting meat and skin from dead animals, and also for making other tools out of wood. Human beings needed to use tools because they did not have sharp teeth like other meat eating animals, such as lions and tigers. Tools helped people to get food more easily.
Working with tools also helped to develop human intelligence. The human brain grew bigger, and human beings began to invent more and more tools and machines. The stone chip was one of the first tools that people used, and perhaps it is the most important. Some scientists say that it was the key to success of mankind.
Since 1960 a new kind of tool has appeared. This is the silicon chip (硅芯片). It is smaller than a finger nail, but it can store lots of information. It is an electronic brain. Every year these chips get cleverer, but their size gets smaller, and their cost gets less. They are used in watches, calculators and intelligent machines that we can use in many ways. In the future we will not need to work with tools in the old way. Machines will do everything for us. People will have plenty of spare time. But what will they do with it?
Human beings used stone chips for more than two million years, but human life changed very little in that time. We have used silicon chips for only a few years, but life is changing faster every day. What will life be like twenty years from now? What will the world be like two million years from now?From paragraph 1, we can know ________.
| A．why early human beings cut skin from dead animals |
| B．how early human beings discovered the tools |
| C．what early human beings used the tools for |
| D．what food early human beings stored |
The stone chip is thought to be the most important tool because it ________.
| A．was very important to the development of mankind |
| B．led to the invention of machines in the early time |
| C．developed cooking abilities of mankind |
| D．was one of the first tools of mankind |
The silicon chip is mentioned in the passage to ________.
| A．show the changes of tools |
| B．introduce a new kind of tool |
| C．give an example of using tools |
| D．compare the effects of two kinds of tools |
At the end of the passage the author seems to suggest that life in future is ________.
| A．out of order | B．less colorful |
| C．hard to predict | D．full of meanings |
In 1880, fourteen-year-old Matthew Henson loved to hear sailors tell tales of their exciting lives at sea. The travel, the adventure, the danger, and the steady pay were all attracting young Henson. One day, he found a job as a cabin boy on a beautiful ship called the Katie Hinds. For the next five years, Henson sailed around the world. With the help of the ship’s captain and other members of the crew, Henson learned mathematics, navigation, history, geography, and many other subjects. By the time he left the Katie Hinds in 1885, Henson was well educated and had become an excellent seaman.
Unable to find work anywhere else, Henson took a job in a hat shop in Washington, D.C. One day in 1887, a man came in to buy a hat. The man, Robert Peary, asked the owner if he knew anyone with experience at sea. Peary would soon travel to South America for the U.S. government. He needed experienced men to accompany him. The shop owner knew about his young employee’s skills and experience on ocean journeys, so he introduced Peary to Henson.
Using his map-reading and sailing skills, Henson proved himself to be a worthy and smart seaman. Peary soon made Henson his assistant, and they became close friends. One day Peary told Henson about his real dream: to be the first man to stand on “the top of the world” at the North Pole. He asked Henson to help him make his dream come true. Over the next five years, the two explorers made two trips together to the Arctic. However, they were not able to reach the pole either time. The cold, wind, and ice were worse than either of them had ever imagined.
In 1908, Peary and Henson were ready to make their final attempt at reaching the North Pole. Both men were over forty years old. The years of hardship in the arctic cold had made them suffer a lot. This would be their last chance. With four Inuit guides, they made a mad rush straight across the ice toward the pole. Peary’s feet were injured and he had to be pulled on a dogsled. In April 1909, Henson’s instruments showed they were standing at the North Pole. Together Henson and Peary planted the American flag in the snow.
In later years, Robert Peary and Henson were greatly honored for their achievements. Today, the two friends and fellow explorers lie in heroes’ graves not far apart in the Arlington National Cemetery.In paragraph1, the author shows how Henson became ________.
| A．a skilled seaman |
| B．a highly educated captain |
| C．employed in a restaurant |
| D．interested in helping others |
Paragraph 2 mainly tells us ________.
| A．how Matthew Henson met Robert Peary |
| B．why Matthew Henson went to the hat shop |
| C．why Matthew Henson stopped working on the Katie Hinds |
| D．how Robert Peary knew that Matthew Henson had sea experience |
On their trip to the North Pole, Henson and Peary could best be compared to ________.
| A．treasure hunters seeking big fortunes |
| B．generals seeking power over another country |
| C．soldiers going to war to fight for their freedom |
| D．fighters performing a task in an unknown land |
The information presented in this passage is mainly organized ________.
| A．by cause and effect |
| B．by comparing and contrasting |
| C．in the order that the events happened |
| D．with main ideas and supporting examples |
You may have seen a talking parrot on a TV show, in a movie, or even in someone’s home. The parrot has learned to copy sounds that people make. Birds are not the only animals that can copy the noises they hear. Dolphins, bats, and some apes also copy sounds. Now we can add elephants to this list of copycats.
Dr. Joyce Poole is a zoologist. She studies the sounds of elephants. While she was in Kenya, she would hear strange noises made by Mlaika after sunset. Mlaika was a 10-year-old African elephant.
Mlaika lived near a highway. Dr. Poole says, “I could not tell the difference between Mlaika’s call and the distant truck noise.” She and other scientists studied Mlaika’s sounds. It turned out that Mlaika was copying the sounds of the trucks driving by. Why would Mlaika copy trucks that she heard going by on the highway? Animals that are able to copy sounds may enjoy practicing new sounds. When they are kept outside of their natural environment, they may copy unusual sounds. That may be why an elephant would copy the sound of a truck.
“Mlaika was not the only copycat elephant,” Dr. Poole says. Calimero is a 23-year-old male African elephant. He spent 18 years with two female Asian elephants. Asian elephants make chirping sounds (sounds made by birds) to talk with one another. African elephants usually do not make chirping sounds. But Calimero now does. He is copying his Asian elephant friends. Dr. Poole says that elephants need to form bonds with their family and friends. She says, “They make sounds to communicate with each other. When they are separated, they use sounds to keep in contact.”
Parrots, dolphins, humans, and elephants show that being a copycat is one way that animals and people make new friends and keep old ones.According to the passage, what does Mlaika copy?
| A．The sound of people. | B．The sound of trucks. |
| C．The sound of Calimero. | D．The sound of birds. |
Why is Calimero mentioned in the passage?
| A．To clarify the meaning of copycat elephants. |
| B．To show the cleverness of African elephants. |
| C．To add another example of copycat elephants. |
| D．To introduce a special life skill of Asian elephants. |
From paragraph 4, we can know________.
| A．how long it takes for an elephant to learn a new sound |
| B．why the African elephant can make chirping sounds |
| C．why the Asian elephants make noises after sunset |
| D．how Asian and African elephants are alike |
According to the passage, why do some animals like to be copycats?
| A．To keep in touch with nature. |
| B．To please people and other animals. |
| C．To make new friends and keep old ones. |
| D．To avoid the danger from the outside world. |