A year ago, I paid no attention to English idioms, though my teacher stressed the importance again and again. But soon, the importance of English idioms was shown in an amusing experience.
One day, I happened to meet an Englishman on the road, and soon we began to talk. As I was talking about how I was studying English, the foreigner seemed to be astonished. Gently shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders, he said, “You don’t say!” “You don’t say!” I was puzzled. I thought, perhaps this is not a proper topic. “Well, I’d better change the topic.” So I said to him, “Well, shall we talk about the Great Wall? By the way, have you ever been there?” “Certainly, everyone back home will laugh at me if I leave China without seeing it. It was wonderful.” He was deep in thought when I began to talk like a tourist guide. “The Great Wall is one of the wonders in the world. We are very proud of it”. Soon I was interrupted again by his words：“You don’t say!” I couldn’t help asking, “Why do you ask me not to talk about it?” “Well, I didn’t request you to do so,” he answered, greatly surprised. I said, “Didn’t you say ‘you don’t say’?” Hearing this, the Englishman laughed to tears. He began to explain, “‘You don’t say’ actually means ‘really?’ It is an expression of surprise. Perhaps you don’t pay attention to English idioms.” Only then did I know I had made a fool of myself. Since then I have been more careful with idiomatic expressions.
Always remember: what the English teachers say is always right to us students.A year ago, I paid no attention to English idioms because _______.
| A．I didn’t have the slightest interest in them |
| B．English idioms are not important |
| C．My teacher didn’t emphasize the importance of them |
| D．I was not careful with English idioms |
At first, on hearing “You don’t say,” I thought the foreigner meant _______ .
| A．I had talked too much |
| B．he was not interested in the topic |
| C．he was only interested in the Great Wall |
| D．he had something to tell me |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．The Englishman left China without seeing the Great Wall. |
| B．The Englishman wanted to see the Great Wall after I talked about it. |
| C．The Englishman wanted me to act as his guide. |
| D．The Englishman visited the Great Wall and thought it worth visiting. |
After the Englishman explained the idiom, _______.
| A．I felt very silly |
| B．the Englishman became a real fool |
| C．I thought he had made me a fool |
| D．I became more careful in everything |
That summer I drank every day, everywhere I went. I had a bottle in my drawer next to me and a bottle next to my bed. I never did another drug, but I drank so much that my family finally asked a priest for help. My father gave me a bottle of medicine for alcoholism that produces unpleasant symptoms when users drink alcohol. I drank while taking it, which made me very sick. And I still drank.
When the priest came, he said, "Jimmy, doctors said that with your diseases and the amount of drinking you’re doing, you’d be lucky to live another six months. So your choice is either to stop drinking and live or to continue drinking and die within six months.”
I said, "I know I can't stop, so guess I'll have to die." The priest told my family what I said. My little brother–who is like my soul mate, looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "But we don't want you to die." All I could think of was how desperately I had to get out of that room at that moment and have a drink.
But I finally stopped drinking. I was on the care team of my dentist Russell. A lot of people in New York knew him. At the time he was the most famous dentist in the city. He drank heavily and was also with AIDS, so I was selected to be on his care team. Everybody on the team was sober (清醒) but me. He went through dementia (痴呆) and died so quickly before my eyes. I stopped drinking and I’ve been with the disease for 35 years now. Why did the author’s father give him the bottle of medicine?
| A．He wanted him to cure his illness. |
| B．He was trying to keep him dying. |
| C．He thought the medicine could make him sick. |
| D．He believed it could prevent him drinking. |
What did the priest mean by saying to the author “…you’d be lucky to live another six months” in the second paragraph?
| A．The author would die after six weeks. |
| B．The author was too lucky to live for six months. |
| C．The author could hardly live for six months. |
| D．The author’s luck was only six months. |
How did the author stop drinking?
| A．The dentist Russell helped him to stop it. |
| B．He was persuaded by the dentist Russell’s death. |
| C．His care team managed to inspire him. |
| D．His little brother’s soul saved him. |
What can we learn from the above story?
| A．Drinking heavily increases AIDS patients’ illness. |
| B．Priests can cure many AIDS patients’ illnesses. |
| C．Drug taking and heavily drinking can cure AIDS patients. |
| D．Team work and patience can cure AIDS patients. |
Young people and older people do not always agree. They sometimes have different ideas about living, working and playing. But in one special program in New York State, adults and teenagers live together in a friendly way.
Each summer 200 teenagers and 50 adults live together for eight weeks as members of a special work group. Everyone works several hours each day. They do so not just to keep busy but to find meaning and fun in work. Some teenagers work in the forests or on the farms near the village. Some learn to make things like tables and chairs and to build houses. The adults teach them these skills.
There are several free hours each day. Weekends are free, too. During the free hours some of the teenagers learn photo-taking or drawing. Others sit around and talk or sing. Each teenager chooses his own way to pass his free time.
When people live together, they should have rules. In this program the teenagers and the adults make the rules together. If someone breaks a rule, the problem goes before the whole group. They talk about it and ask, “Why did it happen? What should we do about it?”
One of the teenagers has said something about it, “You have to stop thinking only about yourself. You learn how to think about the group.”In one special program in New York State, young and older people_______.
| A．don’t work well together |
| B．are friendly to each other |
| C．teach each other new ways of building houses |
| D．spend eight weeks together, working as farmers |
All the members work some time every day mainly to________.
| A．lead a busy life |
| B．learn new skills of farming |
| C．get used to the life on the farms |
| D．find useful things and pleasure in work |
Living together,________.
| A．the teenagers don’t have to obey the rules |
| B．the members have to obey the rules the adults make |
| C．the members have no free time but on weekends |
| D．the members should not break the rules they make together |
The best title for the passage is________.
| A．The Rules of Living Together |
| B．Life in New York State |
| C．Teenagers and Adults Together |
| D．Free Hours in the Special Work Group |
Terrafugia Company has said that its flying car, named Transition, has successfully finished a 37- second test flight
On March 5, 2009, at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York. It was piloted by Phil Meteer, the company's chief pilot.
Transition is a two-seat airplane that can take off and land at airports as well as drive on roads.
The company said that the flying carcan travel at speeds up to 115 mph for 450 miles in the air, drive at highway speeds on the ground, and fold up(折叠) to fit in a garage (车库) 81 inches wide, and 80 inches high.
This could be used in hospitals to transport patients so as to avoid road traffic. It may start running on wheels, and when it gets to traffic lights it can fly overhead the lights and keeps its way forward. So it’s good news to avoid trafficproblem and the traffic accidents.
But some people say this is a going airplane rather than a flying car, at least on the appearance. Anyway, we are happy for scientific-technical progress, what a fantastical world in the near future! This kind of new machine is made by ______.
| A．Phil Meteer |
| B．Terrafugia Company |
| C．Plattsburgh International Airport |
| D．both A and B |
___ people can sit in Transition.
| A．3 | B．5 | C．4 | D．2 |
Transition can travel ____ miles every hour in the air .
| A．115 | B．120 | C．450 | D．480 |
Which of the following sentences about Transition is not true? __________.
| A．It can be folded up. |
| B．It can both run on the ground and fly in the sky. |
| C．It is used in hospital now. |
| D．It looks like a plane . |
One night, a little before nine o’clock, Dr Johnson was answering a telephone call. He was asked to go and give an operation to a very sick boy at once. The boy was in a small hospital in Glens Falls, sixty miles away from Dr Johnson’s city – Albany. The boy had hurt himself in a traffic accident. His wife was in danger, but his family was so poor that they could not pay the doctor anything. After he heard all this, Dr Johnson was driving carefully. He thought that he could get to the hospital before 12 o’clock. A few minutes later, the doctor’s car had to stop for a red light at a crossing. Suddenly a man in an old black coat opened the door of the car and got in.
“Drive on”, he said. “I’ve got a gun (枪).”
“I’m a doctor,” said Johnson, “I’m on my way to a hospital to operate on a very sick…”
“Don’t talk,” said the man in the old black coat, “Just drive.”
A mile out of the town he ordered the doctor to stop the car and get out. Then the man drove on down the road. The doctor stood for a moment in the snow. After half an hour, Dr Johnson found a telephone and called a taxi. At the railway station he learned that the next train to Glens Falls would not leave until 12 o’clock.
It was after two o’clock in the morning when the doctor arrived at the hospital in Glens Falls. Miss Clarke, a nurse, was waiting for him.
“I did my best,” said Dr Johnson. Miss Clarke said, “The boy died an hour ago.”
They walked into the waiting room. There sat the man in the old black coat, with his head in his hands.
“Mr. Shute,” said Miss Clarke to the man, “this is Dr Johnson. He had come all the way from Albany to try to save your boy.” From the story we know it took Dr Johnson _________ to get to the hospital.
| A．12 hours | B．7 hours | C．only 1 hour | D．about 5 hours |
Dr Johnson was late because __________.
| A．there was something wrong with his car |
| B．a strange man made it hard to drive |
| C．a strange man drove his car away |
| D．the train to Glens Falls was late |
The man in a black coat __________.
| A．hit the boy and ran away |
| B．took the boy to the hospital |
| C．was the boy’s father |
| D．was the real doctor |
The man in black would feel __________ in the end.
| A．happy and pleased | B．regretful(悔恨) and sad |
| C．worried and angry | D．tired and hungry |
Happiness is for everyone. You don’t need to care about those people who have beautiful houses with large gardens and swimming pools or those who have nice cars and a lot of money and so on. Why? Because those who have big houses may often feel lonely and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads at their free time.
In fact, happiness is always around you if you put your heart into it. When you are in trouble at school, your friends will help you; when you study hard at your lessons, your parents are always taking good care of your life and your health; when you get success, your friends will say congratulations to you; when you do something wrong, people around you will help you to correct it. And when you do something good
to others, you will feel happy, too. All these are your happiness. If you notice them, you can see that happiness is always around you.
Happiness is not the same as money. It is a feeling of your heart. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy, because you have something else that can’t be bought with money. When you meet with difficulties, you can say loudly you are very happy, because you have more chances to challenge yourself. So you cannot always say you are poor and you have bad luck. As the saying goes, life is like a revolving(旋转 ) door. When it closes, it also opens. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person. When you do something wrong, _______________.
| A．you may correct it |
| B．you will have no chance to challenge yourself |
| C．anybody will laugh at you |
| D．you will be happy |
Which is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．When you get success, your friends will be very proud of you. |
| B．You can get help from others when you make mistakes. |
| C．You can still be a happy person even if you have little money. |
| D．All the above. |
Why do we say “Happiness is not the same as money”? Because _______________.
| A．money always brings happiness |
| B．money doesn’t always bring happiness |
| C．everything can be bought with money |
| D．only rich people have happiness |
Which is the title of the passage?
| A．Do Something Good to Others |
| B．Happy and Lucky |
| C．Happiness |
| D．Life and Success |