Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.
He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.
He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets —nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea
At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.
While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding-Dong-Dong”, “Ding-Dong-Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.
Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I’m going swimming, but you can’t go, can you?”
No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.
Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you’ve got to work, hey?”
Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it’s you, Ben! I wasn’t noticing.”
“Say —I’m going swimming. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work — wouldn’t you? Of course you would.”
Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said “What do you call work?”
“Why, isn’t that work?”
Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered carelessly.
“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”
“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to say that you like it?”
The brush continued to move.
“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”
Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said,
“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”
Tom thought for a moment, was about to agree; but he changed his mind.
“No —no —it won’t do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don’t think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”
“No —is that so? Oh come, now —let me just try. Only just a little.” “Ben, I’d like to, but if it isn’t done right, I’m afraid Aunt Polly … ”
“Oh, I’ll be careful. Now let me try. Say —I’ll give you the core of my apple.”
“Well, here —No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afraid …”
“I’ll give you all of it.”
Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought in for a dead rat —and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures.
And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company －and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.
He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get. How many characters are mentioned in this story?
| A．7 | B．6 | C．5 | D．4 |
Why did Tom take all his bits of toys out of his pockets?
| A．Because he is tired and wanted to play with his toys. |
| B．Because he wanted to throw his toys away. |
| C．Because he wanted to know if he could buy help with his toys. |
| D．Because he wanted to give his toys to his friends. |
Tom was about to agree to let Ben whitewash when he changed his mind because ______.
| A．Tom wanted to do the whitewashing by himself |
| B．Tom was afraid Ben would do the whitewashing better. |
| C．Tom was unwilling to let Ben do the whitewashing |
| D．Tom planned to make Ben give up his apple first |
We can learn from the passage that ________.
| A．Tom was good at whitewashing the fence, so he looked at the result of his work with the eye of an artist. |
| B．Tom was unwilling to whitewash the fence, but he managed to let other boys do it for him |
| C．Tom had a lot of friends who are ready to help others. |
| D．Tom was interested in whitewashing the fence. |
What made Ben Rogers eagerly gave up his apple and offer to brush the fence for Tom?
| A．His curiosity about Tom’s brushing job. |
| B．His warm heart and kindness to friends. |
| C．Tom’s threat. |
| D．Aunt Polly’s idea. |
Which of the following is the most suitable title for this passage?
| A．Tom And His Fellows |
| B．The Happy Whitewasher |
| C．Whitewashing A Fence |
| D．How To Make The Things Difficult To Get |
How important can a fifteen-year-old boy’s work be? Well, Louis Braille’s work changed the world. Born in a small town near Paris in 1809, shortly after his third birthday Louis blinded himself in one eye while playing with a sharp pointed tool in his father’s workshop. He soon lost the sight in his other eye when the infection(感染) spread.
He wanted to go to school, but in his small town there was no school for him. At that time, blind people did not get any school education. Braille went to Paris to study, but there were few books for the blind.
Louis knew that books were the key to learning. He struggled with ideas for three years. Finally, at fifteen, he invented an alphabet made with raised dots(点). Blind people could “read” by feeling the patterns of the dots.
Being able to read Braille allows blind children to learn together with the sighted at school, and go on to get jobs. It allows people who lose their eyesight to continue to read, learn and get information.Braille got blind as a result of _________.
| A．an illness | B．an accident |
| C．a party | D．a fired |
From the passage we know in Braille’s day, _________
| A．there were no schools in the town |
| B．none of blind could go to school |
| C．there were few books for the blind |
| D．blind children could read by talking |
It took Braille _______ to invent the alphabet.
| A．three years | B．six years |
| C．fifteen | D．many years. |
The Braille alphabet _________.
| A．was of no use for the blind people. |
| B．helped Louis make much money. |
| C．allowed people to get information directly. |
| D．made the blind read and learn more easily. |
Which could be the best title for the passage?
| A．Louis Braille changed the world |
| B．Louis Braille struggled in his life |
| C．Louis Braille saved sighted children |
| D．Louis Braille set up a blind school |
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who wrote the story of the detective(侦探) Sherlock Holmes, was having a trip in Europe. One day he got out of the railway station and climbed into a taxi. Before he could say a word, the driver turned to him and asked, “Where can I take you, Mr. Doyle?”
Doyle was rather surprised. He asked the driver if he had ever seen him before. “No, sir,” the driver replied, “I have never seen you before.” Then he explained, “This morning’s newspaper had a story about your being on vacation in Marseilles. This is the taxi stop where people who return from Marseilles always come. Your skin color tells me you have been on vacation. The ink spot on your right fingers suggests to me that you are a writer. Your clothes are very English, not French. Adding up all those pieces of information, I conclude that you are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.”
“This is truly surprising!” the writer cried out. “You are a real-life copy to my fictional(虚构的) story, Sherlock Holmes!”
“And there is one other thing,” the driver added, with a smile on his face.
“What’s that?”
“Your name is on the front of your suitcase.”The conversation between the two people took place________.
| A．at a bus stop | B．in a taxi |
| C．in Marseilles | D．in a railway station |
Doyle was rather surprised because ________.
| A．the driver had seen him before |
| B．the driver could call him by his name |
| C．the driver was waiting for him |
| D．the driver answered no questions from him |
After he heard the driver’s analysis, Doyle concluded that ______.
| A．the driver was Sherlock Holmes |
| B．the once wrote a story about the driver |
| C．he had met the driver long before |
| D．the driver was a real life-copy to his story |
From what the driver said, we could know ________.
| A．Doyle was from England |
| B．Doyle could not speak French |
| C．Doyle liked English very much |
| D．Doyle was writing a French story |
The driver knew the writer’s name because _______.
| A．Doyle told the driver himself |
| B．it was on the front of his suitcase |
| C．the morning’s newspaper had said that |
| D．the detective let out the information |
You could feel sorry for Alberto Torres, who is blind. The last thing he remembers seeing was his daughter being born 13 years ago. Then the world went blank; he can only imagine what his only child looks like now, as a teenaged honor student. Bad luck is no stranger to this warm and thoughtful 37-year-old man. His mother died of cancer when he was 4, and his father, who was often ill, had to give him up to the care of the state when he was 11. He later worked for 19 years in a workshop making household goods, deathly boring work. Earlier this month, Alberto Torres’s wife, who had just been laid off from her job, had to have a breast removed due to cancer and now faces a year of radiation treatments. Things seemed always to go from almost incredibly bad to worse. Even Mr. Torres’s good luck has a dark side: Five years ago, his lovely guide dog pulled him out of the path of a truck. Mr. Torres was not hurt. The dog was killed.
But Mr. Torres does not feel sorry for himself. “These are just little bumps you have to go over in your life,” he said. At 5 a.m. on a recent morning, we caught up with Mr. Torres at a subway stop in Brooklyn, New York, near where he lives in a third-floor apartment (with no elevator). He had been up since 3 a.m., feeding his new dog, making coffee, getting ready. “When you’re blind, it takes a little longer to do things,” he said.
Mr. Torres was beginning his two-hour trip to his job developing film in the X-ray department of the emergency room of the Bronx hospital. He would take the G train to Queens Plaza station to the R train, heading towards Manhattan. He would then ride the R train to 59th Street where he would walk upstairs to switch to the Number 6 train. At one point along the journey, he might chat with a stranger. At another, someone would pat his dog, calling him by name. People offered assistance, even seats. At 125th Street, Mr. Torres would transfer to the Number 4 train by crossing the platform. At 149th Street, he would go down to the Number 2. He would take that to East 180th Street where he nearly always has a long wait for his final train, to Pelham Parkway. Then he and his dog would walk 20 minutes to the hospital.
It was a hard job to come by. Before he got the job, Mr. Torres was determined to escape the workshop run by an organization dedicated to help people who can’t see. He wanted a job developing X-ray film, something that everyone must do in the dark. He had to handle the long trip, as well as the work. “Our philosophy here is that blind people can do just about anything except drive buses,” it was the thinking about disabled people at the Bronx hospital. “We find what a person can do rather than what he can’t do,” said the hospital’s director.
One day a while ago marked the first anniversary of Mr. Torres’s hiring. He developed 150 or so X-rays, his usual output, to celebrate. Mr. Torres works by himself in a small, dark room that smells of chemicals. He cannot wear gloves, because he needs to feel. It is hard work, related to emergency of lives. His immediate supervisor says he trusts him 100%. Mr. Torres makes $20,000 a year. But his motivation goes beyond money. “If I start feeling like a victim, that makes me bitter. And why be bitter? That makes you go into a hole and stay there.” he said. “I’m not doing anything out of the ordinary,” insisted Mr. Torres as he quickly completed the task.Mr. Torres became blind when________.
| A．his daughter was just born |
| B．he was thirteen years old |
| C．his mother died of cancer |
| D．his wife was out of work |
Mr. Torres does not feel sorry for himselfbecause he ________.
| A．was once saved by his lovely guide dog |
| B．is taken good care of by the government |
| C．thinks it’s natural to have setbacks in life |
| D．believes it takes a little longer to do things |
The description of Mr. Torres’s long trip to work shows ________.
| A．the effective traffic system |
| B．the kindness of New Yorkers |
| C．the loyalty of his guide dog |
| D．his will to overcome difficulty |
What is the principle of the hospital in employing a worker?
| A．Sympathy counts most. |
| B．Ability comes first. |
| C．Preference for the blind. |
| D．Easy job for the weak. |
Mr. Torres works very hard in order to ________.
| A．make plenty of money |
| B．win his supervisor’s trust |
| C．live like a normal person |
| D．complete his daily task |
In the eyes of the writer, Alberto Torres is a man of _______.
| A．deep thinking | B．weak motivation |
| C．special talents | D．great independence |
Studies show that you may be lied to every day anywhere from 10 to 200 times. We say, “Nice song.” “Honey, you don’t look fat in that, no.” But another study showed that strangers lied three times within the first 10 minutes of meeting each other. We lie more to strangers than we lie to coworkers. Men lie eight times more about themselves than they do other people. Women lie more to protect other people. If you’re married, you’re going to lie to your wife/ husband in one out of every 10 communications. If you’re unmarried, that number drops to three. But look, if at some point you got lied to, it’s because you agreed to get lied to. Truth about lying: lying’s a cooperative act. Not all lies are harmful. Sometimes we’re willing to lie for the sake of social dignity (尊严), maybe to keep a private secret.
Lying is complex. It’s woven into the fabric of our daily and business lives. We’re deeply disturbed by the truth. We explain it, sometimes for very good reasons, other times just because we don’t understand the gaps between ideals and realities in our lives. We’re against lying, but secretly we’re for it in ways that our society has practiced for centuries and centuries. It’s as old as breathing. It’s part of our culture and history. Think the stories from Dante, Shakespeare, the Bible, News of the World.
Lying has great value to the evolution of human being. Researchers have long known that the more intelligent the species, the more likely it is to lie. We human like to become leaders. It starts really early. How early? Well, babies will pretend to cry, pause, wait to see who’s coming and then go right back to crying. One-year-olds learn hiding truth. Two-year-olds bluff (虚张声势). Five-year-olds lie outright and try to control via flattery (讨好). Nine-year-olds, masters of covering up. By the time you enter college, you’re going to lie to your mom in one out of every five interactions. By the time we enter this work world to be breadwinners, we’ve entered a world that is just full of fake digital friends, business media, identity thieves, world-class cheats, ——in short, a post-truth society.
What do you do? Well there are steps we can take to guide our way through the bushes. Trained lie spotters get to the truth 90% of the time. The rest of us, we’re only 54% accurate. Why is it so easy to learn? There are clever liars and stupid liars. There’re no real original liars. We all make the same mistakes. We all use the same techniques.From Para.1 we learn that lying is very ________.
| A．harmful | B．easy |
| C．interesting | D．common |
According to the passage, a lie works when _________.
| A．the liar’s words are sweet enough |
| B．it is given to a complete stranger |
| C．someone gives the liar cooperation |
| D．we are willing to lie for the dignity |
Lying is complex because ________.
| A．it is practiced by clever ones |
| B．people are for it as well as against it |
| C．ancient stories are full of lies |
| D．it is the whole part of great culture |
The examples of kids lying in the passage show ________.
| A．lying is a sign of intelligent development |
| B．lying is good for children’s growing up |
| C．at what age children begin to tell lies |
| D．9-year-old children are masters of lying |
What will the writer most likely talk about if he continues the passage?
| A．How to become clever liars. |
| B．How to avoid stupid lies. |
| C．How to get through the bushes. |
| D．How to tell truth from lies. |
Below is a page adapted from About Wikipedia (维基百科) on how to take full advantage of Wikipedia.
Wikipediais a web-based, free-content encyclopedia (百科全书) in many languages.
§Exploring Wikipedia
Many visitors come to Wikipedia to acquire knowledge, while others come to share knowledge. At this very instant, dozens of articles are being improved, and new articles are also being created. Over 3,500 articles have been listed by the Wikipedia community as featured articles. Another 15,000 articles are listed as good articles. Wikipedia is available in more than 280 languages including English. Its related projects include a dictionary, quotations, books, manuals, and scientific reference sources, and a news service. All of these are kept, updated, and managed by separate communities, and often include information and articles that can be hard to find through other common sources.
§Basic navigation in Wikipedia
Wikipedia articles are all linked, or cross-referenced. In every article, there are links to some related articles or Wikipedia pages with further in-depth information. Holding the mouse over a certain link will often show to where the link will lead. There are other links towards the ends of most articles, for other articles of interest, related websites and pages and so on. Some articles may also have links to dictionary definitions, audio-book readings, quotations, the same article in other languages etc.
§Using Wikipedia as a research tool
Wiki articles are never considered complete and may be continually edited and improved. Over time, this generally results in an upward trend of quality and a growing agreement over a representation of information. Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start. Indeed, many articles start their lives as displaying a single viewpoint; and, after a long process of discussion, debate, and argument, they gradually take on a neutral point of view reached through agreement. Others may, for a while, become caught up in a heavily unbalanced viewpoint which can take some time—months perhaps—to achieve better balanced coverage of their subject.
§Wikipedia vs. paper encyclopedias
Wikipedia has advantages over traditional paper encyclopedias. Wikipedia has a very low “publishing” cost for adding or expanding entries and a low environmental impact in some respects, since it never needs to be printed. In addition, Wikipedia has wikilinks instead of in-line (内嵌) explanations and its articles provide not only summaries but also plenty of details. Additionally, the editorial cycle is short. A paper encyclopedia stays the same until the next edition, while editors can update Wikipedia at any instant, around the clock, to help ensure that articles keep up with the most recent events.We know from the passage that Wikipedia________.
| A．provides very accurate information |
| B．offers links to most leading media |
| C．covers rich resources of knowledge |
| D．comes available in any language |
The underlined word “they” in the passage probably refers to “________”.
| A．users | B．articles | C．editors | D．subjects |
The links in Wikipedia to other resources are mainly to________.
| A．provide details of the same articles |
| B．help the users to be better informed |
| C．guarantee the quality of the service |
| D．offer basic guidance on web research |
The passage is presented in a way of ________.
| A．discussion | B．description |
| C．instruction | D．summary |