I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.
I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.
It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.
Then I met an agent(代理商)who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.
The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal — that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.
It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck — of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract(合同)of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding(有回报的).What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?
A.I was waiting for good fortune. |
B.I was trying to find an admirable job. |
C.I was being aimless about a suitable job. |
D.I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time. |
The author decided to write a novel ______ .
A.to finish the writing course |
B.to realize her own dream |
C.to satisfy readers’ wish |
D.to earn more money |
How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?
A.Disturbed. | B.Ashamed. | C.Confident. | D.Uncertain. |
What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?
A.It pays to stick to one’s goal. |
B.Hard work can lead to success. |
C.She feels like being unexpectedly lucky. |
D.There is no end in sight when starting to do something. |
第三部分:阅读理解(共20小题;每小题2分,满分40分)
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑
Many people cannot forget the beautiful thousand hand dance performed by disabled people during the 2005 CCTV Spring Gala(晚会). Many of these dancers cannot hear or speak, but their performances are wonderful.
The leading dancer is a beautiful young woman, Tai Lihua, who was born healthy but lose her hearing when she was two years old because of a fever. Not long after that, she also became mute and, from then on, her world was silent. She did not realize this at first, but when she was five, she played a game about sounds with her school friends and discovered she was different. She felt very sad. Her father went to many places looking for treatments for her disabilities, but nothing worked.
When she was seven years old, Tai Lihua went to a school for deaf and mute children, where
she did very well in her studies. Her teacher said she used her brain more than other children and was very good at expressing her feelings through movements.
Then when she was fifteen, she started learning to dance. At first, she found it difficult but she didn’t give up. She spent a lot of time practicing and became a brilliant dancer. In the last few years, she has performed in many countries and is much admired by foreign audience. Dancing has changed her life and brought her world wide success and fame.
56. Which of the following is expressed in the passage?
A. Where there is life, there is hope.
B. No one is too old to learn.
C. Where there is a will, there is a way.
D. The early bird catches the worm.
57. Tai Lihua discovered that she was different from other children when she was _____.
A .two B. five C. seven D. fifteen
58. We can learn from the passage that ______.
A. Tai Lihua was born healthy.
B. Tai Lihua isn’t successful now.
C. Tai Lihua’s parents didn’t take good care of her.
D. Tai Lihua had a natural ability to dance very well.
59. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. A disabled girl.
B. A dancer in a silent world.
C. A beautiful dancer.
D .Dance performance in the CCTV Spring Festival Gala.
To what degree can a computer achieve intelligence (智力)? The answer to this question may lie in a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child and the Internet.
If you ran into Smarter Child online , you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory.It can recite many facts. For example , Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season.
He knows every word in the dictionary and the weather in every major city areas across the US.However , if you ask Smarter Child other questions , you get stranger answers.A question about Smarter Child’s age returns. “One year, 11 days, 16 hours, 7 minutes, and 47 seconds!” Asking where he lives gets , “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California.”
Smarter Child uses the vast information on the World Wide Web as his memory bank.To answer questions about spelling , for instance , Smarter Child goes to American Heritage Dictionary online.For the weather , he visits www.intellicast.com.
Some scientists believe that by joining the many systems of the Internet , an artificial being with the combined knowledge of , say , Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born.However if Smarter Child wants to think and learn on his own like the boy-computer David in the movie A.I., Artificial Intelligence , he must overcome two problems.
The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files are labeled in different ways.That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather.It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it himself.
Another problem is that while Smarter Child can process (处理) information more exactly and faster than any human , he lacks common sense—a basic grounding of knowledge that is obvious to any young child.
67.From the text we can infer that www.intellicast.com is a website___________.
A.which is specially designed to help Smarter Child
B.where we people can find Smarter Child
C.where weather forecasts are made
D.which is about artificial intelligence
68.It is probably most difficult for Smarter Child to_______.
A.tell us how to spell a difficult word
B.tell us how the American government is run
C.provide us with a famous poem by Shakespeare
D.learn how to tell right behaviors from wrong ones。
69.Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
A.Smart Child has his own memory bank big enough for all kinds of information.
B.A.I.Artificial Intelligence is probably the name of a film about a boy-computer.
C.Smart Child can recognize different files and find information needed on his own.
D.We have similar product now which has the knowledge of Einstein , Nixon and Spears.
70.Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A.A New Web Child B.Smarter Child
C.The Future of Internet D.Intelligence Development
Everyone’s at it, even my neighbors. I thought I might be the only person left in the world who hadn’t done an eBay deal. So, I decided to try my hand at online auction(网上拍卖).
Buying for Beginners
Sign up on www. eBay. co. uk. Most items (e.g. tables, computers and books) ready for auction will come with a picture and a short description; others may be marked with “Buy It Now ” and have a fixed price. You can buy these right away.
If the item is being auctioned, you offer the highest price you are prepared to pay and eBay bids (出价) for you. The bid will be increased little by little until it goes beyond your highest bid, then you are emailed and asked if you would like to bid again. Auctions last up to 10 days and when they finish, you get an email telling you whether you have won the item.
How to Pay
Sellers decide how they would like to be paid and you need to check this before placing a bid as you might not want to post a check or postal orders. The easiest way is through PayPal, an online payment system that takes the money away from your credit card.
Selling Made Simple
If you plan to sell on eBay, it helps to include a picture of the item. I followed my friends’ advice and put up the items I wanted to sell for a 10-day auction, starting on a Thursday. This way buyers had two weekends to bid.
The big Things in Life
It’s easy to post a small item, but furniture is a big part of eBay and this has to be collectively sent by deliverymen. Check the ways of delivery before you bid.
64. What is the passage mainly about?
A. How to make payment online. B. Ways of making delivery online.
C. How to use an online-auction system. D. Advantages of an online auction system.
65. After bidding for an item, a buyer ________.
A. has chances to make higher bids B. will get what he wants in ten days
C. should make payment immediately D. may check its picture and description
66. The easiest way of making payment mentioned in the passage is ________.
A. through a local banking system B. by sending the money to the seller
C. through an online payment system D. by paying the deliveryman directly
“How are you?” is a nice question. It’s a friendly way that people in the United States greet each other. But “How are you?” is also a very unusual question. It’s a question that often doesn’t have an answer. The person who asks “How are you?” hopes to hear the answer “Fine.”, even if the person’s friend isn’t fine. The reason is that “How are you?” isn’t really a question and “Fine.” isn’t really an answer. They are simply other ways of saying “Hello!” or “Hi!”.
Sometimes, people also don’t say exactly what they mean. For example, when someone asks, “Do you agree?”, the other person might be thinking, “No, I disagree. I think you’re wrong …” But it isn’t very polite to disagree strongly, so the other person might say “I’m not sure …”. It’s a nice way to say that you don’t agree with someone.
People also don’t say exactly what they are thinking when they finish talking with other people. For example, many talks over the phone finish when one person says “I’ve to go now.” Often, the person who wants to hang up gives an excuse, “Someone is at the door.” “Something is burning on the stove.” The excuses might be real, or it might not. Perhaps the person who wants to hang up simply doesn’t want to talk any more, but it isn’t polite to say that. The excuse is more polite, and it doesn’t hurt the other person.
When they are greeting each other, talking about an idea, or finishing a talk, people often don’t say exactly what they are thinking. It’s an important way that people try to be nice to each other, and it’s also a part of the game of language.
60. When a person in the United States asks “How are you?”, he or she wants to hear “___________”
A. How are you? B. Hello! C. I don’t know. D. Fine.
61. When a person wants to disagree with someone, it is polite to say “___________”
A. You’re wrong. I disagree. B. I’m not sure.
C. I’m sure I disagree. D. No, I disagree.
62. When a person says “I’ve to go now. Someone is at the door.”, he or she may be __________.
A. giving an excuse B. hurting someone’s feeling
C. talking to a person at the door D. going to another place
63. One of the rules of the game of language is probably “_________”
A. Always say what you mean. B. Don’t disagree with people.
C. Never say exactly what you’re thinking. D. Be polite.
第三部分:阅读理解(共15小题,每小题2分,满分30分)
John was waiting for the girl whose heart he knew,but whose face he didn’t,the girl with the rose.Thirteen months ago,in a Florida library he took a book off the shell and found himself interested in the notes in the margin(页边).The soft handwriting showed a thoughtful soul and insightful(有洞察力的)mind.
In front of the book,he discovered the name,Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he got her address.He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to keep in touch.
During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. A romance started.John requested a photograph,but she refused.She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.Later they agreed on their first meeting—7:00 pm at Grand Central Station in New York.
“You’ll recognize me,” she wrote,“by the red rose I’ll be wearing my coat.” So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for the girl with the red rose.
A girl in a green suit was coming toward him,her figure long and slim and her eyes were blue as flowers.Almost uncontrollably he came to her,and just at this moment he saw Hollis Maynell—a woman well past 40.The girl was walking quickly away.
He did not hesitate(犹豫),saying,“I’m John,and you must be Miss Maynell.I am so glad you could meet me. May I take you to dinner?”The woman smiled, “I don’t know what this is about,son,” she answered,“but the young lady in the green suit begged me to wear this rose on my coat.And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner,I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the restaurant across the street.She said it was some kind of test!”
56.Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A.John once met Miss Maynell somewhere before.
B.Miss Maynell was not honest.
C.John didn’t know who Miss Maynell really was when he spoke to the woman.
D.John and Miss Maynell kept in touch by telephone before they met.
57.From the last paragraph,we can learn that.
A.the woman was waiting to be asked to dinner by John
B.the woman past 40 was Miss Maynell’s close friend
C.the woman wearing the red rose on her coat was Miss Maynell
D.Miss Maynell wanted to test John before they met
58.How did John learn about Miss Maynell at first?
A.They talked with each other on the Internet.
B.John knew her name while reading in a library.
C.They met each other in a bookstore.
D.The woman well past 40 years introduced them to each other.
59.From the passage,we can infer that.
A.Miss Maynell would accept John as her boyfriend
B.Miss Maynell used to work in the library
C.John regretted not greeting the girl in green
D.John loved Miss Maynell because of her good looks