As prices and building costs keep rising, the do-it-yourself (DIY) trend (趋势) in the U.S. continues to grow.
“We needed furniture (家具) for our living room,” says John Ross, “And we just didn't have enough money to buy it. So we decide to try making a few tables and chairs.” John got married six months ago, and like many young people these days, they are struggling to make a home at a time when the cost of living is very high. The Rosses took a 2-week course for $280 at a night school. Now they build all their furniture and make repairs around the house.
Jim Hatfield has three boys and his wife died. He has a full-time job at home as well as in a shoe making factory. Last month, he received a car repair bill for $420. “I was deeply upset about it. Now I've finished a car repair course, I should be able to fix the car by myself.”
John and Jim are not unusual people. Most families in the country are doing everything they can to save money so they can fight the high cost of living. If you want to become a “do-it -yourselfer”, you can go to DIY classes. And for those who don't have time to take a course, there are books that tell you how you can do things yourself.We can learn from the text that many newly married people _______.
| A．find it hard to pay for what they need |
| B．have to learn to make their own furniture |
| C．take DIY courses run by the government |
| D．seldom go to a department store to buy things |
John and his wife went to evening classes to learn how to _______.
| A．run a DIY shop |
| B．make it repair things |
| C．save time and money |
| D．improve the quality of life |
When the writer says that Jim has a full-time at home, he means Jim _______.
| A．makes shoes in his home |
| B．does extra work at night |
| C．does his own car and home repairs |
| D．keeps house and looks after his children |
Jim Hatfield decided to become a do-it-yourselfer when _______.
| A．his car repairs cost too much |
| B．the car repair class was not helpful |
| C．he could not possibly do two jobs |
| D．he had to raise the children all by himself |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．The Joy of DIY. |
| B．You Can Do It too! |
| C．Welcome to Our DIY course! |
| D．Ross and Hatfield: Believe in DIY. |
One day newly wedded Nancy lost her ring while helping to plant potatoes. Friends were called and the field was searched long but in vain(徒劳). Later, when the potatoes were harvested, Everyone looked out for the ring but it remained lost. Another year came round and all the farmers working in the field kept their eyes open. The following year was the same. And year after year, whoever had business in the field always had Nancy’s ring in his mind.
Then the farm changed hands but it went no farther than to cousins. So the memory of the lost ring remained alive until thirty-eight years had passed. Then came a spring day when a man was ploughing the field behind a pair of horses. Even after thirty-eight years he still looked out for the ring, a
nd knew just which part of
the field Nancy had lost it in. At this time, when he came there, he found it .He picked it up, put it carefully into his pocket, left his horse, and ran all the way down to the village and placed it into Nancy’s hand. How did Nancy come to lose her ring?
| A．She lost it while helping to harvest tomatoes in the field |
| B．She lost it while watering the plants in the field. |
| C．She lost it while working in the field. |
| D．She lost it while helping to plant potatoes in the field. |
Why did people keep looking for the ring even after the farm changed hands?
| A．It was a very expensive ring | B．They all wanted to solve the mystery. |
| C．They all loved Nancy. | D．Everybody wanted to have this ring. |
What did the ploughman do after finding the ring?
| A．He picked it up and put it in his pocket. |
| B．He ran back to tell everybody in the village. |
| C．He placed it in a secret spot. |
| D．He returned it to the owner. |
. What can you infer from the story?
| A．The ring was invaluable. |
| B．People on the farm were honest and helpful. |
| C．The ring’s disappearance was the work of supernatural power. |
| D．Nancy no longer expected that her ring would be found again. |
Every culture has a recognized (公认的) point when a child becomes an adult, when rules must be followed and tests passed.
In China, although teenagers can get their ID cards at 16, many only see themselves as an adult when they are 18. In the US, where everyone drives, the main step to the freedom of adult life is learning to drive. At 16, American teens take their driving test. When they have th
eir license, they drive into the grown-up world.
“Nobody wants to ride the bus to school,” said Eleanor Fulham, 17. She 
remembered the pressure, especially from kids from richer families. “It’s like you’re not cool if you don’t have a car,
” she said.
According to recent research, 41% of 16 to 19-year-olds in the US own cars, up from 23% in 1985. Although, most of these cars are bought by parents, some teens get part-time jobs to help pay.
Not all families will buy cars for their children. In cities with subways (地铁) and limited parking, some teenagers don’t want them. But in rich suburban (郊区的) areas without subways, and where bicycles are more for fun than transportation, it is strange for a teenager not to have a car.
But police say 16-year-olds have almost three times more accidents than 18 and 19-year-olds. This has made many parents think carefully before letting their kids drive.
Julie Sussman, of Virginia, decided that her son Chad, 15, will wait until he is 17.
Chad said he has accepted his parents’ decision, although it has caused some teasing (奚落) from his friends. “They say that I am unlucky,” he said. “But I’d rather 
be alive than driving, and I don’t really trust my friends on the road either.”
In China as more families get cars, more 18-year-olds learn to drive. Will this become a big step to becoming an adult?The story is mainly about _______.
| A．the recognized point between childhood and adulthood |
| B．American teens want to drive a car when they turn 16 |
C．whether teenager s should have a car |
| D．the fact that it’s safer for teens to drive a car at an younger age |
Which of the following is not one of the reasons that kids want to have a car?
| A．With a car, it would be easy to move around. |
| B．A great number of teenagers have cars. |
| C．Having a car would mean more excitement. |
| D．Parents’ support for kids to have a car at an early age. |
.Which of the following is not true?
| A．Some of Chad’s friends have cars. |
| B．When deciding whether to buy a car for their kids, safety weighs heavily on many parents’ mind. |
C．In the US, 16 is consid ered the point between childhood and adulthood. |
| D．More kids from cities own cars than those from the countryside. |
The word “license”
in Paragraph 2 means closest to ______.
| A．driving permit | B．ID card | C．learner’s permit | D．test result |
If you want to stay young, sit down and have a good think. This is the research finding of a team of Japanese doctors, who say that most of out brains are not getting enough exercise, and as a result, we are growing old unnecessarily soon.
Professor Taiju Matsuzawa wanted to find out 
why quite healthy farmers in northern Japan appeared to be losing their ability to think and reason at a rather early age, and how the speed of getting old could be slowed down.
With a team of researchers at Tokyo National University, he set about measuring brain sizes of a thousand people of different ages with different jobs.
Computer technology helped the researchers to get most exact measurements of the sizes of the front and side parts of the brain
, which have something to do with thinking and feeling, and decide the human character. As we all know, the back part of the brain, which controls task like eating and breathing, does not contract(萎缩) with age.
Contraction of front and side parts, as cells(细胞) die off, was seen in some people in their thirties, but it was still not found in some sixty and seventy-year-olds.
Matsuzawa concluded from his tests that there is a simple way to prevent the contraction---using the head.
The fin
dings show that contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country than those in the towns. Those with least possibility, says Matsuzawa, are lawyers, followed by university professors and doctors. White-collar workers doing the same work day after day in government offices are, however, as possible to have contracting brains as the farm workers, bus drivers and shop assistants. The team of doctors wanted to find out ____.
| A．at what point people grow live longer. |
| B．how to make people live longer |
| C．the size of certain people’s brains. |
| D．which group of people are the busiest |
Their research findings are based on ______.c
| A．an examination of farmers in northern Japan |
| B．using computer technology |
| C．examining the brain sizes of different people |
| D．tests given a thousand old people |
The doctor’s tests show that ______.
| A．our brains contract as we grow older |
| B．one part of the brain does not contract |
| C．sixty-year-olds have better brains than thirty-year-olds |
| D．contraction of the brain begins sooner in people in the country |
According to the article, _____ are growing mentally old earlier.
| A．engineers | B．office clerks | C．professors | D．researchers |
The most possible conclusion of the article is that ____.
| A．most of us should take more exercise |
| B．it’s better to live in the towns |
| C．the brain contracts if it is not used |
| D．the more one uses his brain, the sooner he becomes old |
In the 1960s, medical researchers Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe developed a checklist of stressful events. They appreciated the tricky point that any major change can be stressful. Bad events like “serious illness of a family member” were high on the list, but so were some helpful life changing events like marriage.
When you take the Holmes Rahe you must remember that the score does not show how you deal with stress -- it only shows how much you have to deal with. And we now know that the way you deal with these events dramatically affects your chances of staying healthy. By the early 1970s, hundreds of similar studies had followed Holmes and Rahe. And millions of Americans who work and live under stress worried over the reports. Somehow the research got boiled down to a memorable message. Women’s magazines ran titles like “Stress causes illness.”
If you want to stay physically and mentally healthy, the articles said, avoid stressful events. But such simplistic advice is impossible to follow. Even if stressful events are dangerous, many -- like the death of loved one--are impossible to avoid. Moreover, any warning to avoid all s
tressful events is a prescription for staying away from chances as well as trouble. Since any change can be stressful, a person who wanted to be completely free of stress would never marry, have a child, take a new job or move. The idea that all stress makes you sick also takes no notice of a lot of what we know about people. It supposes we're all vulnerable and not active in the face of the difficult situation. But what about human ability and creativity? Many come through periods of stress with more physical and mental strength than they had before. We also know that a long time without change
or challenge can lead to boredom and physical and mental pressure..
The score of the Holmes Rahe test shows ____ .
| A．how you can deal with life changing events |
| B．how helpful events can change your life |
| C．how stressful a major event can be |
| D．how much pressure you are under |
.
. Which of the following expressions has the meaning most close to the underlined phrase “got boiled down to” in paragraph two ?
| A．was argued about | B．made clear |
| C．was concentrated on | D．put an end to |
.
. The studies on stress in the early 1970s led to ____ .
| A．popular avoidance of stressful jobs |
| B．great fear over the mental disorder |
| C．a careful research into stress related illnesses |
| D．widespread worry about its harmful effects |
.
Why is “such simplistic advice ”(Line 2, Para.3) impossible to follow?
| A．No one can stay on the same job for long. |
| B．More effective ways have been found to get rid of stressful events. |
| C．People have to get married some day. |
| D．You could be missing chances as well. |
.
. According to the passage people who have experienced ups and downs may become ____.
| A．nervous when faced with difficulties |
| B．physically and mentally tired |
| C．more able to deal with difficulties |
| D．cold toward what happens to them |
Unless we spend money to spot and prevent asteroids now，one might crash into Earth and destroy life as we know it，say some scientists.
Asteroids are bigger versions of the meteoroids(流星)that race across the night sky. Most orbit the sun far from Earth and don't threaten us. But there are also thousands whose orbits put them on a collision course with Earth.
Buy $ 50 million worth of new telescopes right now. Then spend $ 10 million a year for the next 25 years to locate most of the space rocks. By the time we spot a fatal one，the scientists say，we'll have a way 
to change its course.
Some scientists favor pushing asteroids off course with nuclear weapo
ns. But the cost wouldn't be cheap. I
s it worth it? Two things experts consider when judging any risk are: 1) How likely the event is; and 2) How bad the consequences if the event occurs. Experts think an asteroid big enough to destroy lots of life might strike Earth once every 500,000 years. Sounds pretty rare-but if one did fall，it would be the end of the world. “If we don't take care of these big asteroids，they'll take care of us,” says one scientist. “It's that simple.”
The cure，though，might be worse than the disease. Do we really want fleets of nuclear weapons sitting around on Earth? “The world has less to fear from doomsday(毁灭性的) rocks than from a great nuclear fleet set against them，” said a New York Times article. What does the passage say about asteroids and meteoroids?
| A．They are heavenly bodies different in composition. |
| B．They are heavenly bodies similar in nature. |
C．There are more asteroids th an meteoroids. |
| D．Asteroids are more mysterious than meteoroids. |
What do scientists say about the collision of an asteroid with Earth?
| A．It is very unlikely but the danger exists. |
| B．Such a collision might occur once every 25 years. |
| C．Collisions of smaller asteroids with Earth occur more often than expected. |
| D．It's still too early to say whether such a collision might occur. |
What do people think of the suggestion of using nuclear weapons to alter the course of asteroids?
| A．It sounds practical but it may not solve the problem. |
| B．It may create more problems than it might solve. |
| C．It is a waste of money because a collision of asteroids with Earth is very unlikely. |
| D．Further research should be done before it is proved applicable. |
We can conclude from the passage that ________ .
| A．while pushing asteroids off course nuclear weapons would destroy the world |
| B．asteroids racing across the night sky are likely to hit Earth in the near future |
| C．the worry about asteroids can be left to future generations since it is unlikely to happen in our lifetime |
| D．workable solutions still have to be found to prevent a collision of asteroids with Earth. |
Which of the following best describes the author's tone in this passage?
| A．Optimistic. | B．Critical. | C．Objective. | D．Subjective. |