Victor’s hobby was collecting stamps. He had stamps from many countries, like England, Canada and China. On his birthday, can you guess what people gave him? That’s right—stamps.
Victor’s favorite stamps came from France. He had almost every stamp from 1954 to 2004. He only needed one. That was a 1974 special edition*. It was very hard to find.
He looked for it everywhere. He asked his friends and relatives to help him. But nobody could find the stamp. It made Victor very sad.
“Don’t worry. Never give up,” his father said to him. “If you have enough patience, you’ll find it one day.”
“I hope so,” Victor said.
Victor also liked writing. He had a pen friend in France. They wrote to each other every month. Victor’s pen friend, Phillip, usually used new stamps to send letters. Sometimes, his mother gave him stamps to use. Once Phillip’s mother gave him a big, green stamp. It looked old. When Victor received the letter, he was very surprised. On the envelope, he looked carefully at the stamp. It was the 1974 special edition stamp. Victor was so happy. He told his sister, his mother and his father.
“You see,” his father said. “You did find your stamp. So, it’s good to have two things in life. ”
“What are they?” Victor asked.
“Friends and patience.” He answered. It was very difficult for Victor to find a special French stamp of _________.
| A．1954 | B．1974 | C．1994 | D．2004 |
Who owned the special edition stamp at the very beginning?
| A．Phillip. | B．Phillip’s mother. | C．Victor. | D．Victor’s father. |
The passage mainly tells us that ________ is（are）important to people.
| A．a happy family | B．a good hobby |
| C．relatives and friendship | D．friends and patience |
Several years ago, I worked as a truck driver for a company. On Saturdays I usually spent several hours doing something to keep my truck in good condition.
One Saturday, as I was cleaning my truck, I noticed the boss’s elderly father came out to ask his grandson to take him fishing after work. The grandson told him all about how much he would love to do that, but he just couldn’t because he had other plans already. The old man hobbled (蹒跚) off to the house.
Then I heard the grandson telling his dad, "I’m not taking that old man fishing! It’s worse than taking a kid."
That just broke my heart.
I quit working immediately and went home to fetch my fishing gear (渔具) and a chair. Then I came back and invited the old man to go fishing. He accepted happily.
When we got to the river, I let him sit in the chair at the edge of the water. It wasn’t long before he got a fish. He got one fish after another. His eyes were shining like a child. About half an hour later, he told me he was tired and needed to go home. So I took him and the fish home.
Two weeks later, the old man died. His family told me later that all he talked about during that time was his fishing trip. I am satisfied that I have taken an old man on his last fishing trip, but I am sorry that his family have lost their last chance. Whenever you get the chance, don’t forget about taking Grandpa fishing. Someday, you may be in the same place and you’ll want your family to care about you, too.The writer wrote the passage mainly to ________.
| A．tell us something about his work |
| B．tell us about a fishing experience |
| C．persuade us to take Grandpa fishing |
| D．persuade us to care about the elderly |
The old man’s Grandson refused to fish with him because ______.
| A．he had something more important to do that day |
| B．he didn’t like to fish with an old man |
| C．he was tired of his job and he wanted to rest |
| D．he preferred fishing with a child |
What’s the possible meaning of the underlined word "quit"?
| A．start | B．stop | C．imagine | D．try |
According to the passage, we can infer（推断） that the author is _______.
| A．willing to make his boss happy |
| B．in need of care from his family |
| C．prefers fishing to his work |
| D．kind and warm-hearted |
The world’s oldest person, Ms. Baines, died. She celebrated her 115th birthday with congratulations from Barack Obama, President of the United States. Over her life she lived through the terms of 21 US presidents.
Gertrude Baines passed away(去世) peacefully in her sleep at the Western Convalescent Hospital in Los Angeles, where she had lived for her last ten years. Emma Camanag , the hospital’s leader ，said she was a respectable lady. "It is really an honor for the hospital to take care of her over the last 10 years and we will greatly miss her. It is just like we have lost a relative（亲戚）," said Emma.
Ms. Baines, who was born in Shellman, Georgia, in 1894, had no living relatives. She grew up in the southern US during difficult times. During that time, African American people were required to use separate, often poor, public services. She married young and later divorced (离婚). Her only child, a daughter, was born in 1909 and died of a terrible disease at the age of 18. Ms. Baines worked as a maid (女佣) in Ohio before moving to Los Angeles where she lived on her own until she was well over 100.
She once told an interviewer（记者）, "As for the secrets of long life, I do not have any disappointments（失望） in my own life."
She gained some fame when she voted for Mr. Obama in the US presidential election（总统大选）, saying she supported him "because he’s for the colored people". It was only the second time in her life she had voted, the first time being for John F. Kennedy.
Ms. Baines became the world’s oldest person in January. Japanese woman, Kama Chien, 114, has now taken over the title.It was an honor for the hospital to take care of Ms. Baines because ________.
| A．she was a respectable lady |
| B．she was a relative of the hospital’s leader |
| C．she lived in the hospital for years |
| D．she voted for Mr. Obama in the election |
Ms. Baines voted for Mr. Obama because he ________.
| A．was very popular in the hospital |
| B．did even better than John F. Kennedy |
| C．did good things for African Americans |
| D．congratulated her on her birthday |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Ms. Baines used to serve others in Ohio. |
| B．Ms. Baines died in a hospital in Los Angeles. |
| C．Ms. Baines and her husband had only one child. |
| D．Ms. Baines liked to live alone. |
The passage is mainly about ________.
| A．the world’s oldest person, Ms. Baines |
| B．why Ms. Baines voted for Mr. Obama |
| C．how Ms. Baines lived for so long |
| D．Ms. Baines and President Obama |
One’s style of the dress reveals the human obsession with both novelty and tradition. People use clothing to declare their membership in a particular social group; however, the rules for what is acceptable dress for that group may change. In affluent societies, this changing of the rules is the driving force behind fashions. By keeping up with fashions, that is, by changing their clothing style frequently but meanwhile, members of a group both satisfy their desire for novelty and obey the rules, thus demonstrating their membership in the group.
There are some interesting variations (变种) regarding individual status. Some people, particularly in the West, consider themselves of such high status that they do not need to display it with their clothing. For example, many wealthy people in the entertainment industry appear in very casual clothes, such as the worn jeans and work boots of a manual laborer. However, it is likely that a subtle but important signal, such as an expensive wristwatch, will prevail over the message of the casual dress. Such an inverted (颠倒的)status display is most likely to occur where the person’s high status is conveyed in ways other than with clothing, such as having a famous face.According to the author, fashions serve all the following purposes EXCEPT
| A．satisfying an interest in novelty |
| B．signaling a change in personal beliefs |
| C．displaying membership in a social group |
| D．following traditional rules |
Why does the author discuss individual status in paragraph 2?
| A．To state that individual’s status is not important in the West |
| B．To argue that individuals need not obey every fashion rule |
| C．To contrast the status of entertainers with that of manual laborers |
| D．To explain how high status may involve an inverted status display |
What’s the meaning of the underlined word?
| A．newness | B．convention | C．nobleness | D．benzene |
Butterflies are some of the most fascinating and beautiful insects in the world. Adult butterflies will live about 2 to 4 weeks. They use their senses of sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste to survive in the world, find food and mates, lay eggs in an appropriate place, migrate, and avoid hungry enemies.
Butterflies have large compound eyes, which allow them to see in all directions without turning their heads. Like most insects, butterflies are very nearsighted, so they are more attracted to a sea of flowers than individual plants. Butterflies do not “see” colors such as red, green, and yellow, but they can sense sunlight, which indicates the direction the sun is shining, as well as ultraviolet light, which is present on many flowers and guides butterflies to honey sources.
Butterflies have a very well-developed sense of smell, but it is not in their nose, since they don't have one. Sense receptors are located in their antennae, feet, and many other parts of the body. They can help butterflies find their favorite flower honey food, and mates.
Butterflies' feet have sense organs that can taste the sugar in flower honey, letting the butterflies know if something is good to eat or not. Some females also carefully choose host plants by tasting to find appropriate places to lay their eggs. Adult butterflies feed their babies using a long tube. Butterflies force blood into the tube to straighten it out, allowing them to feed. Butterflies get all their food from this tube.
Butterflies don't have ears. Instead they “hear” sounds through their wings by sensing changes in sound vibrations.
Butterflies may possess senses we don't even know about yet, because their body structure is very different from ours, and therefore difficult to understand, when observed through our own human senses.The text mainly focuses on ________.
| A．butterflies' living habits | B．butterflies' beauty |
| C．butterflies' senses | D．butterflies' daily activities |
What can we learn from the 2nd paragraph?
| A．Butterflies can see in all directions and don't need to turn heads. |
| B．Butterflies have good eyesight. |
| C．Butterflies are sensitive to bright colors including red and yellow. |
| D．Butterflies cannot sense the ultraviolet light. |
Why do female adult butterflies carefully choose the host plants?
| A．To find highqualified honey. |
| B．To have a good place for living. |
| C．To make it easier for them to hide from the enemies. |
| D．To find a proper place for their eggs. |
Former Irish President Mary Robinson was just making a polite conversation with an Ethiopian (埃塞俄比亚的) teenager about her wedding day. The 16yearold had already been married for a year. “She looked at me with the saddest eyes and said, ‘I had to drop out of school’，” Robinson said in a telephone interview. “That conveyed to me the reality，” said Robinson, the first woman to serve as Ireland's president and former U．N. high commissioner for human fights. “Her life, as far as she is concerned, had more or less ended.”
Robinson said keeping girls in school was one of the most important things policymakers could do to address the coming challenges of an ever-increasing population, predicted by the United Nations to reach 7 billion soon. “European countries are concerned about aging populations as is Japan, but this is much less of an issue than the huge number of people which we are going to see over the next 40 years when the population goes from 7 billion to 9 billion，” she said. “Almost all of that increase will be in poor developing countries, so that we have a very big challenge.”
Family planning experts worry in particular about the future population explosion in subSaharan Africa. In May, the United Nations projected the world population would reach 9.3billion in 2050 and 10.1 billion by 2100. Much of that growth will come from Africa, where the population is growing at 2.3 percent a year—more than double Asia's 1 percent growth rate. If that rate stays consistent, which is not certain, Africa's population will reach 3.6 billion by 2100 from the present 1 billion.
Joel Cohen, a professor of population studies at Rockefeller University and Columbia University in New York, said universal secondary education offered a way to reduce population in high birthrate regions. In addition to providing information about birth control, a secondary education teaches women to reduce their own fertility (生育力), improve the health of their children and allows them to move from a mindset of having many children, in the hopes that some will survive to improving the quality of each child's life, Cohen wrote in the journal Nature.In the first paragraph, the author introduces his topic by ________.
| A．explaining the author's opinions |
| B．giving an example |
| C．describing the poor education system |
| D．coming straight to the topic |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Robinson is happy after talking to the Ethiopian girl. |
| B．Robinson is a successful expert in population studies. |
| C．Robinson is worried about population growth. |
| D．Robinson encourages female education. |
What is Joel Cohen's view about secondary education?
| A．It provides basic knowledge of health. |
| B．It improves the health of children. |
| C．It makes people pay more attention to education. |
| D．It can change people's parenting ideas. |
According to Robinson, what is one of the most important things policymakers can do to prevent the population from increasing rapidly?
| A．Keeping girls in school. |
| B．Letting girls go away from Africa. |
| C．Letting young girls remain single. |
| D．Keeping girls in families. |