Jack London had endured more hardships by the age of twenty-one than most people experience in a lifetime. His struggles developed in him sympathy for the working class and a lasting dislike of hard work and provided inspiration for his career as a writer.
London grew up in San Francisco in extreme poverty. At an early age, he left school and supported himself through a succession of un skilled jobs ----working as a paper boy, in bowling alleys, on ice wagons, and in canneries（罐头食品厂） and mills. Despite working long hours at these jobs, London was able to read constantly, borrowing travel and adventure books from the library.
The books London read inspired him to travel, and his job experiences led him to become active in fighting for the fights of workers. He sailed to Japan on a journey aiming at catching seals and joined a cross-country protest march with a group of unemployed workers. After being arrested for vagrancy near Buffalo, New York, London decided to educate himself and reshape his life. He quickly completed high school and entered the University of California.
After only one term, however, the appeal of fortune and adventure proved uncontrollable. London gave up his studies and traveled to the Alaskan Yukon in 1897 in search of gold. Jack London was among the first of these miners. He may have searched for more than gold, however. London once commented, “ True, the new region was mostly poor; but its several hundred thousand square miles of coldness at least gave breathing space to those who else would have choked at home.” Although he was unsuccessful as a miner, London’s experiences in Alaska taught him about the human desire for wealth and power and about humankind’s inability to control the forces of nature. While in Alaska, London also absorbed memories and stories that would make him known one hundred years later.
Once back in California, London became determined to earn a living as a writer. He rented a typewriter and worked up to fifteen hours a day, spinning his Alaskan adventures into short stories and novels.
According to legend, London’s piles of rejection slips from publishers grew to five feet in height!
Even so, London preserved. In 1903, he earned national fame when he published the popular novel The Call of the Wild. He soon became the highest paid and most industrious writer in the country. During his career, he produced more than fifty books and earned more than a million dollars. Several of his novels, including The Call of the Wild(1903),the Sea-Wolf(1904),the White Fang(1906),have become American classics. In fact, he was a creative writer whose fiction explored several regions and their cultures: the Yukon, California, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands. He experimented with many literary forms, from traditional love stories and dystopias（反面乌托邦小说）to science fantasy. His noted journalism included war communication, boxing stories, and the life of Molokai lepers（麻风病患者）. He was among the most influential figures of his day, who understood how to create a public persona and use the media to market his self-created image of poor-boy-turned-success. London's great passion was agriculture, and he was well on the way of creating a new model for spreading through his Beauty Ranch when he died of kidney disease at age 40. He left over fifty books of novels, stories, journalism, and essays, many of which have been translated and continue to be read around the world. His best works describe a person’s struggle for survival against the powerful forces of nature. “To Build a Fire”, for example, tells the story of a man’s fight to survive the harsh cold of the Alaskan winter._________made Jack London reconsider his life in the future.
| A．His job experience | B．The books he read |
| C．Being arrested | D．Long-hour work |
What is TRUE about Jack London?
| A．Jack London was poor all his life. |
| B．Jack London got enough money while in the search of gold. |
| C．The books Jack London read inspired him to travel and become active. |
| D．The experience of gold searching made Jack London determined to write novels about Alaska adventures. |
After the experience in Alaska, Jack London ________________.
| A．realized the nature of human beings. |
| B．knew people could control the nature finally. |
| C．regretted being there. |
| D．thought highly of himself. |
In paragraph 4, the sentence “True, the new region was mostly poor; but its several hundred thousand square miles of coldness at least gave breathing space to those who else would have choked at home.” implies_______________________________.
| A．Jack London regarded Alaska a poor place as he never got any gold there. |
| B．people would have been ill at home if they had never been Alaska. |
| C．People searching for gold there still have chance to win. |
| D．Alaska was a poor but large region. |
Which one of following works doesn’t belong to Jack London according to the passage?
| A．love stories | B．poetry | C．journalism | D．essays |
What can we learn from Jack London’s final success?
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Practice makes perfect. |
| C．Knowledge is powerful. |
| D．All of above. |
Speak, speak, speak!
Practise speaking as often as you can. Speaking to yourself is good practice.
Try recording yourself whenever you can.
Compare your pronunciation with the master version（原版）to see how you can do better and have another go. If you do this several times, you will find that each time is better than last.
Why not learn with someone else?
It helps if you can learn with someone else. If you can persuade a friend or family member to study with you, it will make you keep working.
Don't get stuck by a word you don't know.
Practise improving ways of getting your meaning across when speaking spontaneously（本能地），even if you don't know the exact words or phrases. Think of things you might want to say whenever you have spare time. Use facial expressions, hand movements, anything to make yourself understood.
Language learning is also about intuition（直觉）．
Guesswork is an important way to learn a new language. When listening to recorded material, you aren't expected to understand everything first time round. If you play the same piece several times, you will most probably understand something new each time.
Build up your vocabulary.
A wide vocabulary is the key to successful language learning but don’t try to learn too much at once. It’s best to study frequently, for short periods of time. Take at most six or seven items of vocabulary and learn them. Put them into sentences to fix them in your mind, and then come back to them later.
And above all, have fun! What’s the purpose of this passage?
| A．To tell us the importance of practicing speaking as often as we can. |
| B．To tell us a few tips to help us learn a new language well. |
| C．To tell us that guesswork is an important way to learn a new language. |
| D．To tell us that a wide vocabulary is the key to successful language learning. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined phrase in the first part?
| A．Have another try or attempt. |
| B．Move away from a place to another. |
| C．Enter a certain state or condition. |
| D．Follow or take a certain course. |
To learn English well, we shouldn’t _______ according to the passage.
| A．practice speaking as often as possible |
| B．study frequently, for short periods of time to build up our vocabulary |
| C．try to understand everything and stop when we meet a new word |
| D．try to persuade a friend or family member to study with us |
According to the passage, to learn a new language well, the most important thing is ______.
| A．speaking as much as possible | B．having fun |
| C．a wide vocabulary | D．guesswork |
There is a wonderful story about a young girl who had no family and no one to love her.
One day, feeling very sad and lonely, she was walking through a grassland when she noticed a small butterfly caught in a thorn（荆棘）bush. The young girl carefully released the butterfly. Instead of flying away, the little butterfly changed into a beautiful fairy. The young girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
“For your wonderful kindness,” the good fairy said to the girl, “I will give you any wish you would like.” The little girl thought for a moment and then replied, “I want to be happy.”
The fairy leaned toward her and whispered in her ear. Then the fairy disappeared.
As the little girl grew up, there was no one in the land as happy as she. Everyone asked her secret of happiness. She would only smile and answer, “The secret of my happiness is that I listened to a good fairy when I was a little girl.”
When she was very old and on her deathbed, the neighbors all gathered around her， that her unbelievable secret of happiness would die with her. “Tell us, please,” they begged, “Tell us what the good fairy said.” The lovely old woman simply smiled and said, “She told me that everyone, no matter how secure they seemed, no matter how old or young, how rich or poor, had need of me.” ______ the girl felt sad and lonely.
| A．There were many friends but |
| B．There was nobody to love her so |
| C．There was nothing to do |
| D．Seeing the butterfly was caught |
Noticing the butterfly was caught by the thorn, the orphan girl ______.
| A．helped the butterfly escaped from the thorn |
| B．felt sorrow, but she didn ‘t go up to help it |
| C．fell down on it too |
| D．failed to help it release from the thorn |
The only thing that the little girl wanted was________.
| A．to be rich |
| B．to have her own parents |
| C．to have a lot of friends |
| D．happiness |
The neighbors all gathered around the old happy woman when she was dying, because ______.
| A．they loved this woman deeply and they didn‘t wanted her to die |
| B．the woman had lots of money to be shared as soon as she died |
| C．they wanted to know the secret of her lifetime happiness |
| D．they wanted to pray for her after her death |
If you do not use your arms or your legs for some time, they become weak. When you start using them again, they slowly become strong again. Everybody knows this. Yet there are many people who do not seem to know that one’s memory works in the same way. When someone says that he has a good memory, he really means that he keeps his memory in practice by exercising it regularly. When someone else says that his memory is poor, he really means that he does not give it enough chance to become strong.
If a friend complains that his arms are weak, we know that it is his own fault. But if he tells us that he has a poor memory, many of us think that his parents are to blame, or that he is just unlucky, and few of us realize that it is really his own fault. Not all of us can become very strong or very clever, but all of us can improve our memory by the same means — practice.
Have you ever noticed that people who cannot read or write usually have a better memory than those who can? Why is this? Of course, because people who can’t read or write have to remember things: they cannot write them down in a little notebook. They have to remember dates, prices, names, songs and stories, so their memory is exercised all the time.
So if you want a good memory, learn from those who cannot read or write: practise remembering. According to the passage, few people know that _____.
| A．arms or legs become weak if they are not used for some time |
| B．when they start using their arms or legs again, they slowly become strong again |
| C．a person’s memory becomes weak if he does not practise remembering things |
| D．it is their own fault if their arms or legs are weak |
The author thinks that if a person has a poor memory, _________.
| A．it is his own fault |
| B．his parents are to blame |
| C．he is just unlucky |
| D．his arms must be weak |
From Paragraph 3, we can learn that _________.
| A．people who can’t read are cleverer than those who can |
| B．people who can’t write are cleverer than those who can |
| C．a little notebook helps people who cannot read or write get a better memory |
| D．people who practise remembering regularly have a better memory |
The passage mainly tells us ____________.
| A．how to get our arms and legs stronger |
| B．how to improve our memory |
| C．how to read and write |
| D．how to remember dates and prices |
On the River Thames there are a number of boat races every year and these have become very popular with the public. Perhaps the best–known of these races is the University Boat Race. This takes place just before Easter every year and is a competition between teams from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. They row from Putney to Mertlake, a distance of about four and a quarter miles. This race has been taking place almost every year since 1829. The best – known of these races is __________.
| A．the Boat Race of the University of Oxford. |
| B．the Boat Race of the University of Cambridge |
| C．the Boat Race of the Olympic Games |
| D．the University Boat Race |
Generally, the Boat Race takes place _________.
| A．once a year | B．twice a year |
| C．every three years | D．every other year |
The words “Putney” and “Mertlake” are _________.
| A．names of places | B．names of teams |
| C．names of boat races | D．names of universities |
Most British people prefer to live in a house rather than a flat and one of the reasons is that houses usually have gardens. The garden is a place where people can be outside and yet private.
If a house has a front and back garden, the front is likely to be formal(正规的) and decorative(装饰性的), with a lawn (an area of grass) or fancy flower borders. The back garden usually also has a lawn and flower beds, and sometimes a vegetable plot(菜地) fruit trees. There’s often a bird table, on which food is put for birds, and a small simple house in which garden tools are kept.
Many British people spend quite a lot of money on their gardens and even the smallest may contain different kinds of flowers and plants. For them gardening is a hobby and they take pride in their gardens. Some towns and villages have competitions for the best-kept small garden. People with a small garden, or no garden at all, can rent a piece of land, on which most grow vegetables.
There are garden centers near most towns, selling everything a gardener might need, from flower pots to fish ponds as well as many types of plants.
The British interest in gardening affects the appearance of whole towns. Public parks and some roads often have bright displays of flowers in summer and public buildings have windows boxes(窗口花坛) and hanging baskets. Towns and villages enter for the Britain in Bloom competition every year. According to paragraph 2, a back garden _________.
| A．is also formal |
| B．has flower beds |
| C．doesn’t have a lawn |
| D．has beautiful flower borders |
What do we know about garden centers?
| A．They are in the centre of the town. |
| B．Each town has a garden center. |
| C．Gardeners can buy tools there. |
| D．They have gardens for rent. |
From the last paragraph we know that _________.
| A．gardening improves the appearance of British towns |
| B．British parks are full of flowers all year round |
| C．the British interest in gardening is decreasing |
| D．Britain in Bloom is a worldwide competition |