“Mama, when I grow up, I’m going to be one of those!” I said this after seeing the Capital Dancing Company perform when I was three. It was the first time that my dream took on a vivid form and acted as something important to start my training. As I grew older and was exposed to more, my interests in the world of dance certainly varied but that little girl’s dream of someday becoming a dancer in the company never left me. In the summer of 2005 when I was 18, I received the phone call which made that dream a reality: I became a member of the company dating back to 1925.
As I look back on that day now, it surely lacks any sense of reality. I believe I stayed in a state of pleasant disbelief until I was halfway through rehearsals (排练) on my first day. I never actually expect to get the job. After being offered the position, I was completely astonished. I remember shaking with excitement.
Though I was absolutely thrilled with the chance, it did not come without its fair share of challenge. Through the strict rehearsal period of dancing six days a week, I found it vital to pick up the material fast with every last bit of concentration. It is that extreme attention to detail (细节) and stress on practice that set us apart. To then follow those high-energy rehearsals with a busy show schedule of up to five performances a day, I discovered a new meaning of the words “hard work.” What I thought were my physical boundaries were pushed much further than I thought possible. I learned to make each performance better than the last.
Today, when I look at the unbelievable company that I have the great honor of being a part of, not only as a member, but as a dance captain, I see a tradition that has inspired not only generations of little girls but a splendid company that continues to develop and grow-and inspires people every day to follow their dreams. How many years has the Capital Dancing Company existed when the author received the phone call from it?
| A．180 | B．1925 | C．2005 | D．80 |
How did the author feel when she look back on that day now?
| A．strange | B．unrealistic | C．indifferent | D．lucky |
Which of the following statement can best interpret the underlined sentence in paragraph 3?
| A．Though I was excited, I should share the chance with others. |
| B．Though I was excited, it’s fair to share the chance when there is challenge. |
| C．Though I was excited, it’s a challenge for me to share the chance with others. |
| D．Though I was excited, I know clearly where there is chance there is challenge. |
What conclusion could be drawn from the passage?
| A．The company values practice most. |
| B．The company extremely focus on intelligence. |
| C．The company has an inherited tradition of inspiring its members break their limits. |
| D．The company sets the members apart in order to extremely stress detail and practice. |
B
I’ve loved my mother’s desk since I was just tall enough to sit above the top of it. Mother sat writing letters. Standing by her chair, looking at the ink bottle, pens, and white paper, I decided that the act of writing must be a most wonderful thing in the world.
Years later, during her final illness, Mother kept different things for my sister and brother. “But the desk,” she said again, “is for Elizabeth.”
I never saw her angry, never saw her cry. I knew she loved me; she showed in action. But as a young girl. I wanted to have heart-to-heart talks between mother and daughter.
They never happened. And a gulf opened between us. I was “too emotional (易动感情的)”. But she lived “on the surface (表面)”.
As years passed and I had my own family. I loved my mother and thanked her for our happy family. I wrote to her in careful words and asked her to let me know in any way she chose that she did forgive me.
My hope turned to disappointment, then little interest and, finally, peace – it seemed that nothing happened. I couldn’t be sure that the letter had even got to Mother. I only knew that I had written it, and I could stop trying to make her into someone she was not.
But the present of her desk told me, as she’d never been able to, that she was pleased that writing was my chosen work. I cleaned the desk carefully and found some papers inside – a photo of my father and a one-paper letter, folded and refolded many times. It was my letter.
“In any way you choose, Mother, you always chose the act that speaks louder than words.”The writer began to love her mother’s desk________.
| A．after Mother died | B．after she wrote the letter |
| C．when she was a child | D．when Mother gave it to her |
The passage shows that_________.
| A．Mother was cold on the surface but kind in her heart to her daughter |
| B．Mother was too serious about her daughter in words |
| C．Mother wrote to her daughter in careful words |
| D．Mother wrote to her daughter in careless words |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．The author may work as a writer |
| B．The author and her mother love each other, but didn’t say it out |
| C．Neither the author nor her mother had a happy family. |
| D．The author’s mother is a person who prefers act to words. |
What did Mother do with her daughter’s letter asking for forgiveness?
| A．She had never received the letter. |
| B．For years, she often talked about the letter. |
| C．She didn’t forgive her daughter at all in all her life. |
| D．She read the letter again and again till she died. |
What’s best title of the passage?
| A．My letter to Mother | B．Mother and children |
| C．My Mother’s Desk | D．Talks between Mother and me |
I worked hard for a whole week. So I decided to relax and went out of town with my son for the 1 . When we were walking on the street, we felt a little 2 . So we found a café and 3 to have lunch there. After we sat down at our table, I 4 an elderly couple having lunch at a table across the room. I must have looked over at them a few times because my son asked me if I 5 them. I shook my head and said no. But I told him that they 6 me of my own grandparents.
When the waitress came over, I asked her if she knew them. She said she did. She said it was the elderly man’s birthday today. On hearing this, I wanted to do something for them, so I told the 7 that I wanted to buy them the lunch and gave her the money.
Some time later, the elderly couple came over to 8 us. They were so excited that someone had bought them lunch. It was really a big 9 for them. They said that they had been a little 10 because their own son and daughter seemed to have 11 the old man’s birthday. But they were really cheered up by my 12 .
My son was surprised that I had paid for this couple who we didn’t know. He asked me why I did it. I smiled at him and replied that my grandparents used to go out for lunch to celebrate their birthdays in the same way and it just felt like the 13 thing to do to make this couple smile, 14 on their birthdays. Hearing my 15 , my son smiled.
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If you lose your wallet, how often do you think someone will be kind enough to return it to you, with cash and credit cards?
Some people may be greedy, and others are simply too lazy to bother(打搅) with the trip to the post office to send back a wallet to a stranger. But according to a psychology study by Dr. Richard Wiseman, there’s one thing that’ll greatly increase your odds of being reunited with a lost wallet: a photograph of a cute baby.
In the study, hundreds of wallets were scattered(分散) around the streets of Edinburgh, Scotland. The psychologists wanted to see how many strangers would take the trouble to return them to the addresses listed on the drivers’ licenses inside—but more than that, they wanted to find out what would make a person more likely to help out a stranger.
To finish this, they included personal things in most of the wallets: some included a photo of a happy elderly couple, some contained a cute puppy, some contained a family portrait, and some held a photo of a lovely baby. Others had receipts(发票) showing that the wallet’s owner had recently donated to a charity（慈善）. Some contained no personal details.
As the psychologists soon discovered, the sight of a smiling baby is enough to warm nearly any heart: only one in ten of the strangers who retrieved such wallets did not return them. In contrast, the second most successful image, the puppy, had a 53% return rate. When the wallet included no photograph, it stood only a one in seven chance of being returned to the owner.
The success of the baby photograph shows a human compassion(同情) for the young that’s been passed down through the ages, according to Dr. Wiseman. “The baby kicked off a caring feeling in people, which is not surprising from an evolutionary perspective(进化的角度),” he told the Times.
To ensure our species’ survival, scientists think that we must feel empathy and compassion for our young. Scientists say that this study supports the argument that we won’t feel compassion only for our own babies, but for any that we see—hence, the strong desire a stranger would feel to return a wallet to the baby’s parent.
On a more basic level, the study also provides a great tip to help ensure that if your wallet is ever lost, you’re more likely to get it back. “If you want to increase the chances of your wallet being returned if lost, gain a photograph of the cutest baby you can find and ensure that it is clearly displayed,” said Dr. Wiseman.The main purpose of the psychologists’ leaving hundreds of wallets around was to find out________.
| A．whether people were as honest as before |
| B．what made people willing to help strangers |
| C．what kind of feelings could be caused by a smiling baby |
| D．how evolution influenced human beings |
The underlined word “retrieved” in Para. 5 probably means “________”.
| A．picked up | B．spread out | C．found out | D．looked for |
Why did people return a wallet with a photograph of a cute baby in it?
| A．Because the wallet was not attractive enough to keep. |
| B．Because the sight of a baby could cause a caring feeling in them. |
| C．Because they were curious to know the parents of the baby |
| D．Because the sight of a cute baby reminded them of their own children. |
If there are 30 lost wallets with a photograph of a cute baby, how many of them will probably be returned?
| A．Only 3. | B．About 15. | C．20 or so. | D．About 27. |
We can learn from the last two paragraphs that________.
| A．humans usually have compassion for the young |
| B．the caring feeling in people is gone during evolution |
| C．scientists believed that people only feel compassion for their own babies |
| D．a wallet with a cute baby’s picture in it cannot be lost |
Letters to the next president
Dear Mr. President:
I would like to personally thank you for your time and concern for our great country. I would like to take a few minutes to address a few concerns that I have with the United States.
First of all, I would like to address the war. In my opinion, we should have never been involved with Iraq to the extent that we are now. I believe we should pull our troops out. However, I think there should be a time table that we follow but the time table should not be released（发布） because the enemy does not need to know when we are going to pull out. Also, the war takes out a ton of our money, which leads me to my next issue.
The economy right now, in the opinion of many Americans is the biggest issue with which we are facing right now. No one can predict what will happen one day or the next. The obvious thing to do is to put 700 billion dollars in the economy, but that bill failed and was rejected by the House of Representatives(众议院). Instead of putting 700 billion dollars in, I think the money should be equally distributed among Americans to pay off their debts. I'm not sure if this would work, but I think it is a positive alternative(替代) we could take.
My final issue I would like to call to your attention is teacher's salaries. The high school students of today are America's future. In a way, America's future depends greatly on the high school teachers of America. Saying this, it is sad that teacher's salaries are where they are. While teachers are working harder and harder every day to teach high school students, CEO's of big companies that are driving our countries economy into the ground are getting bonuses. I'm not saying that teacher's salaries should be the same of CEO's of companies, but I do strongly believe that action should be taken to increase the salaries of teachers because they have one of the most important jobs in America - - preparing our country for the future.
Once again, thank you for your time and your effort you put in to making this great country a better place.
Sincerely, WalkerWhat's the author's attitude towards the Iraq War?
| A．Supportive | B．Objective(客观的) | C．Negative | D．Positive |
What's true about the time of pulling the troops out?
| A．We should pull the troops out without delay. |
| B．There is no need to have a time table to follow. |
| C．The public has the fight to know the time table. |
| D．We should keep the time secret from the enemy. |
According to the author, the 700 billion dollars__________
| A．is the biggest issue with which we are facing right now. |
| B．has been accepted by the House of Representatives. |
| C．should be equally shared among Americans |
| D．should be put in the economy |
When talking about high school teachers, the author thinks that____________
| A．the teachers' salaries are not high enough. |
| B．teacher's salaries should be as high as CEO's. |
| C．the teachers work harder than CEO's of companies. |
| D．teaching is more important than any other job in America |
Which of the topics is NOT included in the letter?
| A．Election | B．International affair | C．Finance | D．Education, |
Many people watched the lift-off of the space shuttle Columbia on March 21, 1982. But none watched more closely than eighteen-year-old Ted, as Ted’s insects were on board the shuttle.
The Shuttle Student Involvement Program invited students to make a science experiment. The experiment would be done by astronauts on the space shuttle.
Ted had always been interested in space and flight. Insect flight especially interested him. Ted noticed that insects need gravity to take off and land. They need gravity to fly in a straight line. But in space, there is no gravity. Could insects fly in zero gravity? That is what Ted wanted to find out.
Ted made an experiment called “Insect in Flight Motion Study”. He entered his experiment and soon news came that it was a winner.
A large team of scientists and engineers helped Ted get his experiment ready to fly. There were many questions to be answered first. What kind of insects would Ted use in his experiment? The insects would have to be strong enough to live on the shuttle for nine days without much food. What kind of container would hold the insects? Would the insects die during the shuttle flight?
After months of hard work, the “insectronauts” were chosen. A group of moths, flies, and honeybees were put into a special box and put onto the space shuttle. When Columbia flew into space, it was carrying insect passengers.
On March 24, astronauts Gordon Fullerton and Jack Lousma took out the box that held the insects. They began filming the insects with a special video camera.
When the space shuttle landed Ted was able to watch the video film of insects. Just as he thought, most of the insects did have trouble flying in zero gravity. The flies did well. But the moths’ flight seemed “uncontrolled”. They would often just hang in the air. The bees had the most trouble. They couldn’t fly at all! The film showed bees spinning around in all directions. Others were just floating about in the box.
Ted learned the answer to his question about insects’ flight in zero gravity. But he also learned a lot more. He learned about the hard work needed in making a successful experiment.What does the underlined sentence “it was a winner” mean?
| A．Ted could fly in space. | B．Ted won a prize. |
| C．Ted’s experiment was accepted. | D．Ted won in a race. |
What did Ted want to find out?
| A．Whether the insects could fly in space. |
| B．Whether the insects could fly in a straight line. |
| C．Whether the insects could land after flying for a while. |
| D．Whether the insects could take off after resting for a while. |
Of the three kinds of insects sent into space, which one flew worst in zero gravity?
| A．The flies. | B．The honeybees. | C．The insects. | D．The moths. |
Who did the experiment?
| A．Ted himself. |
| B．Ted’s friend. |
| C．A large team of scientists and engineers. |
| D．Two astronauts on the space shuttle. |
How did Ted learn the answer to his question about insects’ flight in zero gravity?
| A．By asking the scientists and engineers. |
| B．By studying a book written by the astronauts. |
| C．By going into space and watching the insects’ flight himself. |
| D．By watching the video film made by the astronauts. |