When I wandered along a path through woods in the countryside, a small water pool came into my sight ahead. I changed my direction and took the part of the path that wasn’t covered by water or mud to go around it. When I reached the pool, I was suddenly attacked by something several times! It was from somewhere totally unexpected. I was surprised as well as unhurt. The attacker stopped attacking me when I backed up a foot. I couldn’t help laughing when I looked down and found I was being attacked by a butterfly!
Curiously, I took a step forward to see clearly. My attacker dashed towards me again. He rushed towards me at full speed, attempting to hurt me but failed. For a second time, I took a stop backwards when the attacker paused. I didn’t know what to do. After all, it’s just uncommon that one is attacked by a butterfly. I stepped back to look the situation over. My attacker moved back to land on the ground. That’s when I discovered why the attacker was kept charging me. He had a mate and she was dying.
Sitting tenderly close beside her, he opened and closed his wings as if to fan her. I could do nothing but admire the love and courage of that butterfly in his concern for his mate. He had attacked me for his mate’s sake, even though she was clearly dying and I was much larger than he. He did so just to give her those extra few precious moments of life. I shouldn’t have been careless enough to step on her. His courage in attacking something thousands of times larger and heavier than himself just for his mates’ safety seemed admirable. I was moved and rewarded him by walking on the more difficult side of the pool, leaving them undisturbed. He had truly earned those moments to be with his dear mate.
Since then, I’ve always tried to remember the courage of that butterfly whenever I see huge barriers facing me. Why did the writer change his direction while walking down a path?
| A．To get close to a butterfly. |
| B．To avoid getting his shoes dirty. |
| C．To escape a sudden attack. |
| D．To look over the bad situation. |
What made the man feel funny?
| A．Making the attacker pause. |
| B．Being stepped on by his mate. |
| C．Being attacked by a butterfly. |
| D．Discovering the energetic butterfly. |
From this experience the man learned _____.
| A．people should protect butterflies |
| B．how he should deal with attacks |
| C．people should show sympathy to the weak |
| D．what he should do when faced with trouble |
Which of the following word can best describe the butterfly?
| A．Brave | B．Amusing. | C．Careless. | D．Strong. |
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on well with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is happier than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious（叛逆的）and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that these parents are much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-year-old Daniel LaSalle. “I always tell them when I'm going out clubbing. When they know what I'm doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Cromer, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call talk or discussion. For example, when I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not based on real facts. A researcher explains, “Teenagers were thought to be different from others in a part of time in our social history. But to our surprise, they say they are getting on well with their parents. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled.”The study shows that teenagers don't want to ______________________.
| A．share family duties |
| B．cause trouble in their families |
| C．go boating with their family |
| D．make family decisions |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents ___________________.
| A．go to clubs more often with their children |
| B．are much stricter with their children |
| C．care less about their children’s life |
| D．give their children more freedom |
According to the writer, teenage rebellion ____________________.
| A．may be a wrong opinion |
| B．is common at present |
| C．always happened in the 1960s |
| D．was caused by changes in families |
Which title best gives the main idea of the passage?
| A．Discussion in family |
| B．Teenage education in family |
| C．Teenage trouble in family |
| D．Harmony in family |
Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head，according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.
Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.
Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said：“Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart.”
The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, “The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed.Thus, our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don't see—and guide whether we see fear.”
To further understand this relationship，the scientists also used a brain scanner(扫描仪)to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person's feeling of fear.
“We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak’ to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear,”Dr Garfinkel said.
“We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders，and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder.”What is the finding of the study? ________.
| A．Fear is a result of one's relaxed heartbeat. |
| B．One's heart affects how he feels fear. |
| C．Fear has something to do with one's health. |
| D．One's fast heartbeats are likely to cause fear. |
The study was carried out by analyzing ________.
| A．volunteers' heartbeats when they saw terrible pictures |
| B．the time volunteers saw fearful pictures and their health conditions |
| C．volunteers' reactions to horrible pictures and data from their brain scans |
| D．different pictures shown to volunteers and their heart－brain communication |
Which of the following is closest in meaning to “mechanism” in Paragraph 6?
| A．order | B．treatment | C．machine | D．system |
This study may contribute to ________．
| A．treating anxiety and stress better |
| B．explaining the cycle of fear and anxiety |
| C．finding the key to the heart－brain communication |
| D．understanding different fears in our hearts and heads |
Some time ago I discovered that one of my chairs had a broken leg. I didn't think there would be any difficulty in getting it mended, as there are a lot of antique (古董) shops near my home. So I left home one morning carrying the chair with me. I went into the first shop expecting a friendly reception. I was quite wrong. The man wouldn't even look at my chair.
The second shop, though slightly more polite, was just the same, and the third and the fourth - so I decided that my approach must be wrong. I entered the fifth shop with a plan in my mind. I placed the chair on the floor and said to the shopkeeper, "Would you like to buy a chair?" "Twenty pounds," I said. "OK,"he said. "I'll give you twenty pounds." "It's got a slightly broken leg," I said. "Yes, I saw that. It's nothing." Everything was going according to the plan and I was getting excited. "What will you do with it?" I asked. "Oh, it will be easy to sell once the repair is done. " "I'll buy it," I said. "What do you mean? You've just sold it to me," he said. "Yes, I know but I've changed my mind. I am sorry. I'll give you twenty-seven pounds for it." " You must be crazy," he said. Then, suddenly the penny dropped. "I know what you want. You want me to repair your chair." "You're right," I said. "And what would you have done if I had walked in and said, 'Would you mend this chair for me?'" "I wouldn't have agreed to do it," he said. "We don't do repairs, not enough money in it and too much trouble. But l'll mend this for you. Shall we say for five pounds?"
He was a very nice man and was greatly amused by the whole thing.We can learn from the text that in the first shop the writer_____.
| A．was rather impolite |
| B．asked the shopkeeper to repair his chair |
| C．asked the shopkeeper to buy his chair |
| D．was warmly received |
The underlined word "approach" in the second paragraph means_____.
| A．plan for dealing with things |
| B．decision to sell tings |
| C．way of doing things |
| D．idea of repairing things |
The expression "the penny dropped" means the shopkeeper______.
| A．changed his mind |
| B．accepted the offer |
| C．saw the writer's purpose |
| D．decided to help the writer |
From the text, we can learn that the writer was_____.
| A．honest | B．careful | C．funny | D．smart |
One Sunday, I took my daughter to the seaside. On arriving at the beach, I saw JoJo, a wealthy man in hotel business. We sat down to chat in an open air cafe while I watched my daughter enjoy herself on the swings (秋千) in front of us.
Suddenly, our conversation was interrupted by a stranger, who politely asked permission to speak to me privately. People often want to tell me something about my TV show.
We stood a bit away from my table. He said, “I’m James, the father of a 7-year-old girl who’s very sick. The doctors said that if she was treated in the UK, she would probably survive. But I’m poor, so can you help me, please?”
I stared into the man’s eyes full of tears and asked how I could help. After I went back, JoJo asked me, “What's wrong?” I told him about it and he was very sorry for that family.
All day I thought about James's family. I even thought about making a special TV show to raise money for the sick child.
On Monday morning, JoJo walked into my office. Actually, JoJo was very busy, and I never imagined he would have the time to come and see me.
“Please, call the man and tell him I’ll pay all the expenses for the girl’s treatment,” JoJo said with a cheque in his hand. “I've been married for 35 years; I wasn’t lucky enough to have a child. Sometimes I feel lonely. I want to help this child.” I picked up the phone to call James.
Now James’s daughter is well and JoJo sometimes goes to visit her. I’m so happy that there are so good people on this earth.According to the passage, the writer _____ .
| A．often go to the beach with his daughter |
| B．is often troubled by his audience |
| C．was unwilling to help James |
| D．met JoJo at the beach by accident |
James turned to the writer for help probably because he _____.
| A．guessed the writer was rich enough to help him |
| B．wanted the writer to ask JoJo for help |
| C．thought the writer could help him through TV |
| D．knew the writer was warm-hearted |
Why did JoJo make up his mind to help James? _____.
| A．To show his love for a child. |
| B．To remove his loneliness by doing something. |
| C．To show his warm heart and kindness. |
| D．To build a relationship with Jame's family. |
John Milton was born in 1606. His father expected him to enter the church of England, but Milton wanted to be a poet. At twenty-nine Milton set off for a travel on the continent. He traveled in France, Switzerland and Italy, winning the friendship of many artists and scientists, including Galileo, the famous Italian scientist who suffered for his discovery in prison. In 1639, he was planning to go on this journey when the news reached him of the break between the king and Parliament(国会). Milton returned to England immediately, and put himself into the struggle against the king, for which he had long been prepared. During the Civil war, Milton worked as the spokesman of the revolution. By the beginning of 1652, Milton had become completely blind, yet he didn’t stop fighting. After the Restoration(复辟), his books were burnt, and he himself avoided being killed because of his blindness.
John Milton was not only a brave revolutionary but also a great poet. His famous poem Paradise Lost(失乐园) was an immediate success. But, for its publication (being published), Milton received only 18 pounds. He died in 1671.The underlined word “continent” in the first paragraph means ________.
| A．Asia | B．Europe | C．America | D．Africa |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．In 1635 Milton made friends with many artists and poets. |
| B．Milton was put in prison for his discovery. |
| C．Paradise Lost was popular and was a hit at that time. |
| D．Milton was determined to be a poet because he didn’t like churches. |
Milton would have been killed if ________________.
| A．he had been the spokesman of the revolution |
| B．his books hadn’t been burnt |
| C．he hadn’t written the poem Paradise Lost |
| D．he hadn’t been completely blind |