A few years ago, I took a sightseeing trip to Washington, D.C．Standing outside the Ronald Reagan Center, I heard a voice say, “Can you help me?” When I turned around, I saw an elderly blind woman with her hand extended．In a natural reflex, I reached into my pocket, pulled out all of my loose change and placed it on her hand without even looking at her．I was annoyed at being bothered by a beggar．But the blind woman smiled and said, “I don’t want your money．I just need help finding the post office.”
In an instant, I realized what I had done．I judged another person simply for what I assumed she had to be．I hated what I saw in myself．This incident re-awakened my belief in humility(谦恭), even though I’d lost it for a moment．
The thing I had forgotten about myself is that I am an immigrant．I left Honduras and arrived in the U.S．at the age of 15．I started my new life with two suitcases, my brother and sister, and a strong, serious-minded mother．Through the years, I have been a dishwasher, mechanic and pizza delivery driver among many other humble jobs, and eventually I became a network engineer．
In my own life, I have experienced many open acts of prejudice (偏见)．I remember a time, at age 17 —— I worked as a waiter, and I heard a father tell his little boy that if he did not do well in school, he would end up like me．I have also witnessed the same treatment of my family and friends, so I know what it’s like, and I should have known better．
But now, living in my American middle-class lifestyle, it is too easy to forget my past, to forget who I am and where I have been, and to lose sight of where I want to be going．That blind woman on the streets of Washington, D.C., cured me of my blindness．She reminded me of my belief in humility and to always keep my eyes and heart open．By the way, I helped that lady to the post office．And in writing this essay, I hope to thank her for the priceless lesson．We can learn from the first two paragraphs that _______．
| A．the author regretted his act of prejudice |
| B．the blind woman needed the money badly |
| C．the author was as poor as the blind woman |
| D．the author was a native American |
According to Paragraph 4, hearing the father’s words, the author was probably _______．
| A．rather hurt | B．very excited |
| C．deeply moved | D．greatly inspired |
According to the passage, the author probably agrees that one should _______．
| A．be nice to the elderly and the disabled |
| B．try to experience different kinds of life |
| C．treat others equally with love and respect |
| D．think about one’s past as often as possible |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Learn from your past |
| B．How my dream comes true |
| C．A Belief that will never change |
| D．A priceless lesson in the street |
The Harrington School is an old one-room schoolhouse in Georgia. The building has not been used in years. Community leaders and even the local historical society thought it wasn’t worth saving. “Just look at it and you could tell it was going to fall any minute, so let’s tear it down, ” they said.
The Harrington School was built in nineteen twenty-five for black children on St. Simons Island. Amy Roberts well remembers she attended first grade there in nineteen fifty-three. That was a year before the United States Supreme Court ruled that schools had to be racially integrated. A number of states kept blacks from attending school with whites. After the ruling, the children joined white students at St. Simons' other elementary school.
The old schoolhouse continued to be used for social activities and a day care center. By 1970, however, it was empty. Amy Roberts worried that developers might tear it down. So she started the African-American Heritage Coalition to try to save it.
“If it's not saved, then eventually you would not know that we existed here on St. Simons. Everything of African-American heritage has been torn down，” she said.
In 2009 the Harrington School was weeks away from destruction. Then a local historian named Patty Deveau took a closer look. She remembered a movement called the Rosenwald Fund.Georgia historian Jeanne Cyriaque explains, “At the very core of that movement was the involvement of the community, sympathetic whites and philanthropy, merging together to do what today we'd call partnerships.”
Julius Rosenwald was a businessman. In 1915 he donated money to black communities to build their own schools. By the late 20s, the Rosenwald Fund had donated to more than 5,000 educational buildings in 15 states across the South. One-third of rural black children were attending a Rosenwald school.
“This particular school kind of embodies to me what was going on with the communities at the time, because in many African-American communities, it was African-American families that gave land for these schools to be built.” Jeanne Cyriaque said.
Now, preservation architects are developing plans to restore the Harrington School. Amy Roberts and others were surprised by what the experts found about the structure. “They went through it and they talked about how sound it was and how, you know, I mean, they'd never seen anything like this. I mean, it was, like, in great shape!”
What do you learn about the Harrington School?
It only has one room and is going to fall down.
It was built in 1925 and is poor condition now.
It has not been used since 1954.
Though it was built over 85 years ago, it is still in good condition.According to the second paragraph, we learn that _______.
| A．the Harrington School was ruled by the United States Supreme Court |
| B．the Harrington School used to be a white school mixed with blacks |
| C．black children went to separate school before the ruling |
| D．the Harrington School was forbidden to be used for racial reasons |
The meaning of the underlined word “integrated” is similar to _______.
| A．mixed |
| B．completed |
| C．seperated |
| D．destroyed |
Amy Roberts is anything but _______.
| A．a black woman |
| B．an African-American |
| C．a clerk who used to work in the African-American Heritage Coalition |
| D．a woman in her sixties |
Which of the following titles do you think would attract the readers most?
| A．A school with a Long History |
| B．Saving a School, and Its History |
| C．Saving the African-American Heritage |
| D．The Harrington School, an African-American Heritage |
WASHINGTON——Chinese Vice-President XiJinping arrived at Andrews Air Force Base in Washington，February 13，2012．Vice-President XiJinping said he would explore important problems in an active and practical manner with his America hosts on Monday during his five-day official trip here after arriving at Andrews Air Force Base in the afternoon．
In a written statement given upon his arrival，Xi said as the international situation experiences complex and complete changes，China and the United States have more extensive common interests and shoulder more important common responsibilities on the present world stage.
The purpose of the current visit is to “carry out the important consensus reached by President Hu with President Obama during his visit to the United States in January last year and to advance the building of the China—US cooperative partnership based onmutual respect and mutual benefit,” said Xi.
According to Xi，bilateral(双边的)relations have moved forward in spite of some twists and turns during the past several decades.
“This has brought enormous benefits to our two countries and two peoples，and has had a positive，farreaching impact on peace，stability and the prosperity of the AsiaPacific region and the world at large.”
Xi said that “whether we can seize opportunities，tackle challenges and build a cooperative partnership at the new historical starting point matters to the future of our two countries and the world as a whole.”
Xi said he looks forward to engaging in extensive dialogue and exchanges with Americans from various sectors to enhance cooperation and strengthen friendship.
Xi is scheduled to meet US senior government officials，including Henry Kissinger，Brent Scowcroft，Zbigniew Brzezinski，Madeleine Albright and Henry Paulson this evening to listen to their advice on ChinaUS ties. Meetings between Xi and US VicePresident Biden and President Obama are scheduled on Tuesday.The passage mainly tells us ______.
| A．Xi's fiveday official trip |
| B．ChinaUS cooperative partnership |
| C．Xi is set to discuss important bilateral problems |
| D．China and the US have more common interests |
It can be inferred from the second paragraph that ______.
| A．the current world stage remains peaceful |
| B．China and US should build the cooperative partnership |
| C．Xi himself wrote a statement about his arrival |
| D．China and the US have the equal rights |
The underlined word “consensus” in Paragraph 3 means ______.
| A．agreement |
| B．opinion |
| C．partnership |
| D．benefit |
According to the passage，bilateral relations between China and US have experienced ______.
| A．enormous dialogues |
| B．extensive exchanges |
| C．many challenges |
| D．various hardships |
What is Xi's attitude towards the visit?
| A．Respectful. |
| B．Optimistic. |
| C．Approving. |
| D．Expectant. |
Life is difficult.
It is a great truth because once we truly understand and accept it, then life is no longer difficult.
Most people do not fully see this truth. Instead they complain(抱怨) about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that difficulties stand for a special kind of suffering especially forced on them or else on their families, their class, or even their nation.
What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending on their nature, cause sadness, or loneliness(孤独) or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as painful as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes a lot of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.
Yet, it is in this whole process of solving problems that life has its meaning. Problems are the serious test that tells us success from failure. When we want to encourage the growth of human spirit, we encourage the human ability to solve problems, just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and working out problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Those things that hurt, instruct(指导)." It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems. From the passage, it can be inferred that_______.
| A．everybody has problems |
| B．we become stronger by facing and solving the problems of life |
| C．life is difficult because our problems bring us pain |
| D．people like to complain about their problems |
The writer probably used just one short sentence in the first paragraph to ___.
| A．save space |
| B．persuade readers |
| C．make readers laugh |
| D．get readers' attention |
The main idea of paragraph 3 is that _________.
| A．most people feel life is easy |
| B．the writer feel life is easy |
| C．the writer likes to complain about his problems |
| D．most people complain about how hard their lives are |
According to the passage, we give school children difficult problems to solve in order to ______.
| A．encourage them to learn |
| B．teach them to fear the pain of solving the problems |
| C．help them learn to deal with pain |
| D．teach them how to respect problems |
The saying from Benjamin Franklin "Those things that hurt, instruct" suggests that ______.
| A．we do not learn from experience |
| B．we do not learn when we are in pain |
| C．pain teaches us important lessons |
| D．pain cannot be avoided |
As civilization proceeds in the direction of technology, it passes the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life-food, shelter, clothes and warmth. Then we are faced with a choice between using technology to provide and fulfill needs which have now been regarded as unnecessary or, on the other hand, using technology to reduce the number of hours of work which a man must do in order to earn a given standard of living. In other words, we either raise our standard of living above that necessary for comfort and happiness or we leave it at this level and work shorter hours.
I shall take it for granted that mankind has, by that time, chosen the latter alternative. Men will be working shorter and shorter hours in their paid employment. It follows that the housewife will also expect to be able to have more leisure in her life without lowering her standard of living. It also follows that human domestic servants will have completely ceased to exist. Yet the great majority of the housewives will wish to be relieved completely from the routine operations of the home such as scrubbing the floors or the bath of the cooker, or washing the clothes or washing up, or dusting or sweeping, or making beds.
By far the most logical step to relieve the housewife of routine is to provide a robot which can be trained to the requirements of a particular home and can be programmed to carry out half a dozen or more standard operations, when switched by the housewife. As civilization develops in the direction of technology, ________.
| A．the basic essentials of life must be supplied |
| B．it is important to supply the basic essentials of life |
| C．it is no longer so important as it was in the past to supply all the basic essentials of life |
| D．it is not necessary to supply the basic essentials of life |
According to the author, we are faced with________.
| A．the choice of providing and fulfilling our needs |
| B．the choice of using technology |
| C．the choice of earning a standard of living |
| D．a choice between using technology to provide and fulfill needs to reduce the number of working hours |
What alternative will mankind have chosen in future?
| A．To leave our standard of living at this level and work shorter hours. |
| B．To raise our standard of living. |
| C．To fulfill needs which have been regarded as unnecessary. |
| D．To lower our standard of living and work shorter hours. |
Now most housewives wish to________.
| A．stop doing their housework |
| B．do more housework to improve their life |
| C．get rid of the heavy burden of their housework |
| D．do only simple and light housework |
It can be inferred that robots will be invented ______.
| A．to take the place of housewives |
| B．to help manage a family |
| C．to do the routine of housework instead of human |
| D．to provide the daily necessities for man |
A California family drives a car that could help protect the environment.
When Jon and Sandy go to the store or to their daughters’ soccer games, they drive in high-tech style. They drive a ＄1 million, fuel-cell-powered car. It may be the world’s most expensive car and one of the most environmentally friendly cars.
The FCX is the first fuel-cell-powered car to be used by a family
anywhere in the world. The FCX uses hydrogen and oxygen for fuel.
Car makers have been working to develop vehicles that are better for the environment. They are developing cars that use fuel other than gasoline.
what is fuel cell technology?
Fuel cell technology works by changing the chemicals hydrogen and oxygen into water. This process produces electricity, and water vapor which comes out of the exhaust pipe. Most cars release dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide(一氧化碳) and carbon dioxide. Many scientists say these gases are major contributors to global warming.
“The FCX is driven just like any other vehicle on the road, but
without the gases which pollute the environment, ” scientists say.
Fuel cell technology has been around since the 1800s, but scientists have yet been to perfect it. They say it may take years before the technology is ready for widespread use.
Creating environmentally friendly cars
Another earth-friendly car is already on the market.
Hybrid cars use both gasoline and an electric motor. They are becoming more popular with customers because they cut pollution and improve fuel efficiency. Which of the following about the FCX is NOT true?
| A．It may be the most expensive car in the world. |
| B．It is one of the most environmentally friendly cars. |
| C．It releases dangerous gases to pollute the air. |
| D．It uses hydrogen and oxygen for fuel other than gasoline. |
According to the passage, what is the major cause for global warming?
| A．Gases from FCX. |
| B．Water vapor from cars. |
| C．Hydrogen and oxygen. |
| D．Gases from cars. |
From the passage, we know that fuel cell technology _______.
| A．works by water |
| B．has a history for over two hundred years |
| C．works by electricity |
| D．has been widely used since the 1800s |
We can infer from the passage that _______ .
| A．future cars will be environmentally friendly |
| B．there will be no gasoline for cars |
| C．people can’t afford to buy cars in the future |
| D．global warming has been stopped |
Hybrid cars are popular because _______ .
| A．they are the fuel-cell-powered cars |
| B．they are energy-saving and cut pollution |
| C．they are perfect cars in the world |
| D．they produce gases to pollute the environment |