All of my childhood and early, adult life, my mom weighed over 220 pounds (one pound =" 0.454" kilograms). I could feel the pain that my mom experienced with her fatness.
I was never uncomfortable about my mother, but I think she was uncomfortable about herself, and that feeling was painful for all of us. And she began to lose weight.
After more than twenty years of battling obesity（肥胖）, my mother completed a forceful eighteen-month diet that left her ninety pounds lighter than before. A new woman was born! At age twenty-eight, I got a new mom! For the first time, I met the woman my mother truly was, the beautiful little lady under the fatness. It wasn’t so much her new body that was the surprise, but rather her new spirit.
To celebrate her new size and to devote herself to dancing again, my mother joined a “Mrs. Forty-Plus” competition, where she would have to model, give a speech and provide a dance performance. She told our family that she did not care if she won — she simply had always wanted to perform on stage.
She told each one of us, “I’m not doing it to win; I’m doing it to dance!”
The competition was exciting! I prayed(祈祷) that my mom would win, but while watching her on stage I was simply overjoyed just by her effort. To me, she had already won. She posed to perfection, her speech brought tears to everyone’s eyes, and her performance was wonderful.
That night, at age fifty-three, my mother was crowned (为......加冕) “Mrs. Forty-Plus”. She was the first person in our family to ever win such a title. The first two paragraphs mainly show that the author’s mom was __________.
| A．experienced | B．painful | C．comfortable | D．fat |
After the author’s mom completed a forceful eighteen-month diet, she was about ______.
| A．85 kilograms | B．41 kilograms |
| C．130 pounds | D．90 pounds |
In order to join in the “Mrs. Forty-Plus” Competition, the author’s mom has to do the following EXCEPT __________.
| A．providing a dance performance |
| B．telling a funny story about herself |
| C．giving a speech to a large number of people |
| D．wearing special clothes to show to people |
The underlined part in Paragraph 6 means that __________.
| A．the author’s mom succeeded in modeling and speaking |
| B．the author’s mom’s performance was very wonderful |
| C．the author’s mom was not successful in modeling |
| D．the author’s mom succeeded in making a speech |
GUATEMALA CITY （Reuters） – A fish that lives in mangrove swamps(红树沼泽) across the Americas can live out of water for months at a time, similar to how animals adapted(适应) to land millions of years ago, a new study shows.
The Magrove Rivulus, a type of small killifish, lives in small pools of water in a certain type of empty nut or even old beer cans in the mangrove swamps of Belize, the United States and Brazil. When their living place dries up, they live on the land in logs(圆木), said Scott Taylor, a researcher at the Brevard Endangered Lands Program in Florida.
The fish, whose scientific name
is Rivulus marmoratus, can grow as large as three inches. They group together in logs and breathe air through their skin until they can find water again.
The new scientific discovery came after a trip to Belize.
“We kicked over a log and the fish just came crowding out,” Taylor told Reuters in neighboring Guatgemala by telephone. He said he will make his study on the fish known to the public in an American magazine early next year.
In lab tests, Taylor said he found the fish can live up to 66 days out of water without eating.
Some other fish can live out of water for a short period of time. The walking catfish found in Southeast Asia can stay on land for hours at time, while lungfish found in Australia, Africa and South America can live out of water, but only in an inactive state. But no other known fish can be out of water as long as the Mangrove Rivulus and remain active, according to Patricia Wright, a biologist at Canada’s University of Guelph.
Further studies of the fish may tell how animals changed over time.
“These animals live in conditions similar to those that existed millions of years ago, when animals began making the transition(过渡) from water onto land,” Wright said.
1. The Mangrove Rivulus is a type of fish that _______.
A. likes eating nuts
B. prefers living in dry places
C. is the longest living fish on earth
D. can stay alive for two months out of water
2. Who will write up a report on Mangrove Rivulus?
A. Patricia Wright.
B. Scott Taylor.
C. Scientists from Belize.
D. Researchers in Guatemala.
3. According to the text, lungfish can ________.
A. breathe through its skin
B. move freely on dry land
C. remain alive out of water
D. be as active on land as in water
4. What can we say about the discovery of Mangrove Rivulus?
A. It was made quite by accident.
B. It was helped by Patricia Wright.
C. It was based on a lab test of sea life.
D. It was supported by an American magazine.
Most young people enjoy some form of physical activity. It may be walking, cycling or swimming, winter skating or skiing in winter. It may be a game of some kind, football, hockey, golf or tennis. It may be mountaineering（爬山）.
Those who have a passion（热情）for climbing high and difficult mountains are often looked upon with astonishment. Why are men and women willing to suffer cold and hardship, and to take risks on high mountains? This astonishment is caused probably by the difference between mountaineering and other forms of activity to which men give their leisure.
Mountaineering is a sport and not a game. There are no man-made rules, as there are for such games as golf and football. There are, of course, rules of a different thing that it would be dangerous to ignore（忽视），but it is this freedom from man-made rules that makes mountaineering attractive to many people. Those who climb mountains are free to use their own methods.
If we compare mountaineering and other more familiar sports, we might think that one big difference is that mountaineering is not a “team game”. We should be mistaken in this. There are, it is true, no“matches”between“teams”of climbers, but when climbers are on a rock face linked by a rope on which their lives may depend, there is obviously teamwork.
The mountain climber knows that he may have to fight forces that are stronger and more powerful than men. He has to fight the forces of nature. His sport requires high mental and physical qualities
A mountain climber continues to improve in skill year after year. A skier is probably past his best by the age of thirty, and most international tennis champions are in their early twenties. But it is not unusual for a man of fifty or sixty to climb the highest mountains in the Alps. They may take more time than younger men, but they probably climb with more skill and less waste of efforts and they certainly experience equal enjoyment.Mountaineering involves.
| A．cold | B．hardship | C．physical risk | D．all of the above |
The difference between a sport and a game has something to do with the kind of .
| A．activity | B．rules | C．uniform | D．participants |
Mountaineering can be called a team sport because.
| A．it is an Olympic event |
| B．teams compete against each other |
| C．mountaineers depend on each other while climbing |
| D．there are 5 climbers on each team. |
Which is the best title for the passage?
A．Mountaineering Is Different from Golf and Football k  |
| B．Mountaineering Is More Attractive than Other Sports |
| C．Mountaineering |
| D．Mountain Climbers |
What makes a person a scientist? Does he have ways or tools of learning that are different from those of others? The answer is “no”. It is not the tools a scientist uses but how he uses these tools that makes him a scientist. You will probably agree that knowing how to use a power is important to a carpenter. You will probably agree, too, that knowing how to investigate(调查),how to discover information, is important to everyone. The scientist, however, goes one step further, he must be sure that he has a reasonable answer to his questions and that his answer can be confirmed by other persons. He also works to fit the answers he gets to many questions into a large set of ideas about how the world works.
The scientist’s knowledge must be exact. There is no room for half right or right just half the time. He must be as nearly right as the conditions permit. What works under one set of conditions at one time must work under the same conditions at other times. If the conditions are different, any changes the scientist observes in a demonstration must be explained by the changes in the conditions. This is one reason that investigations are important in science. Albert Einstein, who developed the theory of relativity, arrived at this theory through mathematics. The accuracy of his mathematics was later tested through investigations. Einstein’s ideas were shown to be correct. A scientist uses many tools for measurements. Then the measurements are used to make mathematical calculations that may test his investigations.What makes a scientist according to the passage?
| A．The tools he uses. | B．His ways of learning. |
| C．The way he uses his tools. | D．The various tools he use |
“The scientist, however, goes one step further,” the author says this to show。
| A．the importance of information |
| B．the importance of thinking |
| C．the difference between scientists and ordinary people |
| D．the difference between carpenters and people with other jobs. |
A sound scientific theory should be one that.
| A．does not only work under one set of conditions at one time, but also works under the same conditions at other times |
| B．leaves no room for improvement |
| C．does not allow any change even under different conditions |
| D．can be used for many purposes |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Scientists are different from ordinary people. |
| B．The theory of relativity. |
| C．Exactness is the core（核心）of science. |
| D．Exactness and way of using tools are the keys to the making of a scientist. |
Below is a table which shows the melting(液化)and boiling points of common substances.Study the table.Then do Numbers 4—7.
| Substance |
Melting point(C) |
Boiling Point(C) |
| Water Alcohol Nitrogen Oxygen |
0 –117 –210 -218 |
100 78 –196 –183 |
The underlined word‘substances'means‘a type of'_________.
| A．matter | B．liquid |
| C．solid | D．gas |
Which of the four should be a liquid at-90 degrees?
| A．water | B．alcohol |
| C．nitrogen | D．oxygen |
Mixing alcohol and water is often used to wash windscreens of cars during the wintertime because _________.
| A．it is easier for alcohol to change into gas |
| B．alcohol is not easily separated from water |
| C．alcohol freezes at lower temperature than water |
| D．the mixture is not expensive |
In order to change water from a solid to a liquid energy must be _________.
| A．removed | B．added |
| C．created | D．destroyed |
Perhaps the most famous theory, the study of body movement, was suggested by Professor Ray Birdwhistell. He believes that physical appearance is often culturally programmed. In other words, we learn our looks—we are not born with them. A baby has generally informed face features. A baby, according to Birdwhistell, learns where to set the eyebrows by looking at those around-family and friends. This helps explain why the people of some areas of the United States look so much alike, new Englanders or Southerners have certain common face features that cannot be explained by genetics (遗传学). The exact shape of the mouth is not set at birth, it is learned after. In fact, the final mouth shape is not formed until well after new teeth are set. For many, this can be well into grown-ups. A husband and wife together for a long time often come to look alike. We learn our looks from those around us. This is perhaps why in a single country area where people smile more than those in other areas. In the United States, for example, the South is the part of the country where the people smile most frequently. In New England they smile less, and in the western part of New York State still less. Many southerners find cities such as New York cold and unfriendly, partly because people on Madison Avenue smile less than people on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia. People in largely populated areas also smile and greet each other in public less than people in small towns do. Ray Birdwhistell believes that physical appearance ___________.
| A．has little to do with culture |
| B．has much to do with culture |
| C．is ever changing |
| D．is different from place to place |
According to the passage, the final mouth shape is formed _____________.
| A．before birth |
| B．as soon as one’s teeth are newly set |
| C．sometime after new teeth are set |
| D．around 15 years old |
Ray Birdwhistell can tell what area of the United States a person is from by __________.
| A．how much he or she laughs |
| B．how he or she raises his or her eyebrows |
| C．what he or she likes best |
| D．the way he or she talks |
This passage might have been taken out of a book dealing with ____________.
| A．physics | B．chemistry |
| C．biology | D．none of the above |