"I Went Skydiving at 84!"
As a young girl growing up in the 1930s, I always wanted to fly a plane, but back then it was almost unheard of a woman to do that. I got a taste of that dream in 2011,when my husband arranged for me me ride in a hot air balloon for my birthday. But the experience turned out to be very dull. Around that time ,I told my husband that I wanted to skydive. So when our retirement community（社区）announced that they were having an essay competition and the topic was an experience of a lifetime that you wanted to have, I decided to write about my dream.
In the essay, I wrote about my desire to skydive, stating George Brush Sr. did it at age 80. Why not me? I was just 84 and in pretty good health. A year went by and I heard nothing. But then at a community party in late April 2009, they announced that I was one of the winners. I just couldn't believe it.
One june 11, 2009, nearly 40 of my family and friends gathered in the area close to where I would land while I headed up in the airplane. My instructor, Jay, guided me through the experience. The plane was the noisiest one I had ever been in, but I wasn't frightened-I was really just looking forward to the experience. When we reachen 13,000 feet, Jay instructed me to throw myself out of the plane. When we first hit the air, the wind was so strong that I could hardly breathe. For a second I thought, "What have I gotten myself into?" But then everything got calmer. We were in a free fall for about a minute before Jay opened the parachute（降落伞）, then we just floated downward fo zhout five minutes. Being up in the clouds and looking at the view below was unlike anything I have ever felt-much better than the hot air ballon. I was just enjoying it.
Skydiving was really one of the greatest experiences of my life. I hope other people will look at me and realize that you don't stop living just because you are 84 years old. If there's something you want to experience, look into it. If it's something that is possible, make it happen.
What happened to the auther in 2001?
The author mentioned George Bush Sr. in her essay to
How did the authou feel immediately after she jumped out of the plane?
What did the author enjoy most when she was skydiving?
The beautiful clouds
The wonderful view
The company of Jay
The one-minute free fall
Which word could be used to replace the word "instructor," in Paragraph 3?
doctor
conductor
pilot
trainer
It is difficult for doctors to help a person with a damaged brain. Without enough blood, the brain lives for only three to five minutes. More often the doctors can’t fix the damage. Sometimes they are afraid to try something to help because it is dangerous to work on the brain. The doctors might make the person worse if he operates on the brain.
Dr. Robert White, a famous professor and doctor, thinks he knows a way to help. He thinks doctors should make the brain very cold. If it is very cold, the brain can live without blood for 30 minutes. This gives the doctor a longer time to do something for the brain.
Dr. White tried his idea on 13 monkeys. First he taught them to do different jobs, then he operated on them. He ma
de the monkeys’ blood back to the monkeys’ brains. When the brain’s temperature was 10℃, Dr. White stopped the blood to the brain. After 30 minutes he turned the blood back on. He warmed the blood again. After their operations the monkeys were like they had been before. They were healthy and busy. Each one could still do the jobs the doctor had taught them. The biggest difficulty in operating on the damaged brain is that .
| A．the time is too short for doctors | B．the patients are often too nervous |
| C．the damage is extremely hard to fix | D．the blood-cooling machine might break down |
The brain operation was made possible mainly by .
| A．taking the blood out of the brain | B．trying the operation on monkeys first |
| C．having the blood go through a machine | D．lowering the brain’s temperature |
With Dr. White’s new idea, the operation on the damaged brain .
A．can last as long as 30  minutes |
B．can keep the brain’s blood warm |
| C．can keep the patient’s brain healthy | D．can help monkeys do different jobs |
What is the right order of the steps in the operations?
a. send the cooled back to the brain b. stop the blood to the brain
c. have the blood cooled down d. operate on the brain
| A．a, b, c, d | B．c, a, b, d | C．c, b, d, a | D．b, c, d, a |
Which of the following is not true?
| A．If there isn’t enough blood, the brain can live for only three to five minutes. |
| B．If the brain is very cold, it can live without blood for half an hour. |
| C．Dr. White tried his idea for thirteen times. |
| D．After their operations, the monkeys were healthy and busy again. |
For many years, I was convinced that my suffering was due to my size. I believed that when the weight disappeared, it would take old wounds, hurts, and rejections with it.
Many weight – conscious people also mistakenly believe that changing our bodies will fix everything. Perhaps our worst mistake is 
believing that being thin equals being loved, being special, and being cherished. We fantasize（梦想）about what it will be like when we reach the long – awaited goal. We work very hard to realize this dream. Then, at last, we find ourselves there.
But we often gain back what we have lost. Even so, we continue to believe that next time it will be different. Next time, we will keep it off. Next time, being thin will finally fulfill its promise of everlasting happiness, self–worth, and, of course, love.
It took me a long while to realize that there was something more for me to learn about beauty. Beauty standards vary with culture. In Samoa a woman is not considered attractive unless she weighs more than 200 pounds. More importantly, if it’s happiness that we want, why not put our energy there rather than on the size of our body? Why not look inside? Many of us work hard to change our body, but in vain. We have to find a way to live comfortable inside our body and make friends with and cherish ourselves. When we change our attitudes toward ourselves, the whole world changes.The passage tries to tell us the importance of.
| A．body size | B．attit udes |
| C．culture difference | D．different beauty standards |
What does the word “everything” in paragraph 2 mean?
| A．All the problems. | B．All the properties |
| C．The whole world | D．The absolute truth |
What can be inferr
ed about the author?
| A．The author is a Samoan |
| B．The author succeeded in losing weight |
| C．The author has been troubled by her/his weight. |
| D．The author probably got wounded in wars or accidents. |
. According to the author, what is the common view of those who have lost some weight first and gained it back later?
| A．They feel angry about the regained weight |
| B．They are indifferent to the regained weight |
| C．They feel optimistic about future plans on weight control. |
| D．They think they should give up their future plans on weight control. |
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here’s what I wanted to tell you: Get a life－a real life, not a desire of the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure but it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.
By telling them this: Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.. The best title of this passage probably is ____________.
| A．Live a real life | B．Love your friends |
| C．Don’t waste time | D．Be a good mother and wife |
How did the author form her view of life?
| A．Through social experience. | B．By learning from her friends |
| C．Through an unfortunate experience. | D．From her children and husband. |
. By the underlined sentence “It is so easy to exist instead of to live” in the fifth paragraph, the author really means that people tend to ____________.
| A．make a living rather than live a real life |
| B．work rather than enjoy life |
| C．waste a lot in life |
| D．forget the most important lessons in life |
. It can be inferred from the passage that ___________.
| A．the author is a success |
| B．the author didn’t try her best to work well |
| C．the author spent all her time caring for her children |
D．the author likes traveling very muc h |
On November 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln went to Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to speak at the National Soldiers Cemetery. The Civil War was still going on. There was much criticism of President Lincoln at the time. He was not at all popular. He had been invited to speak at Gettysburg only out of politeness. The principal speaker was to be Edward Everett, a famous statesman and speaker of the day. Everett was a handsome man and very popular everywhere.
It is said that Lincoln prepared his speech on the train while going to Gettysburg. Late that nig
ht, alone in his hotel room and tired out, he again worked briefly on the speech. The next day Everett spoke first. He spoke for an hour and 57 minutes. His speech was a perfect example of the rich oratory of the day. Then Lincoln rose. The crowd of 15,000 people at first paid little attention to him. He spoke for only nine minutes. At the end there was little applause. Lincoln turned to a friend and said , "I have failed again." On the train back to Washington, he said sadly, "That speech was a flat failure, and the people are disappointed."
Some newspapers at first criticized（批评）the speech. But little by little as people read the speech they began to understand better. They began to appreciate its simplicity and its deep meaning. It was a speech which only Abraham Lincoln could have made.
Today, every American school child learns Lincoln's Gettysburg Address by heart. Now everyone thinks of it as one of the greatest speeches ever given in American history..
In 1863, Abraham Lincoln was_________.
| A．very critical |
| B．unpopular |
| C．very popular |
| D．very courteous （礼貌） |
.
. Lincoln was invited to speak at the National Soldiers Cemetery because he was_________.
| A．a famous speaker |
| B．a very handsome man |
| C．President of the country |
| D．a popular statesman |
.
It can be inferred from the text that_________.
| A．Lincoln prepared his speech very carefully before he went to Gettysburg |
| B．Lincoln was very busy at the time and didn't have much time to prepare his speech |
| C．Lincoln's speech was full of rich words |
| D．Lincoln's speech was very long |
.
It was a fact that Lincoln's speech was _________.
| A．an immediate success |
| B．warmly applauded |
| C．a total failure |
| D．not well-received at first |
.
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has deep meaning. |
| B．Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is simple in style. |
| C．Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is memorized by every American school child. |
| D．Lincoln's Gettysburg Address is the greatest speech ever delivered in the United States. |
Welcome to the Grand Hotel. To make your stay as enjoyable as possible, we hope you will use our facilities（设备）to the full.
Dining-room
Breakfast is served in the dining-room from 8 to 9 a.m. The room staff will bring breakfast to your room at any time after 7 a.m. In this case, please fill out a card and hang it outside your door when you go to bed.
Lunch: 12 to 2:30 p.m..
Dinner: 7:30 to 9 p.m.
Room service
This operates 24 hours. Phone the Reception Desk, and your message will be passed to the room staff.
Telephones
To make a phone call, dial（拨号）0 for the Reception Desk to be connected.
Shop
The hotel shop is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Laundry(洗衣房)
We have a laundry in the building, and will wash, iron and return your 
clothes within 24 hours. Ask the room staff to collect them.
Bar(酒吧)
The hotel bar is open from 12 to 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Banking
The Reception staff will cash checks and change money in many foreign currencies (货币)..
The above service notice can be seen ______.
| A．in a hotel dining-room |
| B．in a restaurant |
| C．in a bedroom of a large international hotel |
| D．at the entrance of a small family hotel |
.
.You have arrived and stayed at the hotel. It is 11 p.m. and you want a snack (快餐). What should you do?
| A．Go to the hotel shop. |
| B．Go to the hotel bar. |
| C．Hang a message outside your door. |
| D．Phone the hotel shop assistants. |
.
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．You can’t have your breakfast in your room. |
| B．You can make a phone call in your bedroom. |
| C．Lunch is served from 12 to 2 p. m. |
| D．You can have dinner at midnight. |
.
Which is NOT mentioned in this service notice?
| A．Washing clothes. | B．Booking tickets. |
| C．Drinking. | D．Changing money. |