David Brown and Anne are two patients in the Adult Day Care Program at Mercy Hospitals. David Brown is seventy-two years old. He’s friendly and likes to talk. He lives with his wife in the city. But David is becoming forgetful. His wife says, “He’ll heat up some soup, then forget to turn off the gas.” She is sixty-one and still works. She is worried about leaving her husband alone.
Anne is eighty and lives with her 60-year-old daughter. Her daughter says that she needs a rest. “Mom follows me everywhere. She follows me when I read newspapers. I need a rest and she does, too.”
And so, several times a week, David and Anne’s families take them to the Adult Day Care Center. Many hospitals have this program. Patients come to the Center for a full or half day, from one to five days a week. All the patients live with their families and most are old people.
Mrs. Carol Johnson is the director of the Center. She says, “We are offering both the patients and their families a service of great value. Patients have the chance to get out of their houses. Husbands, wives or grown children can work or have a rest. Most important of all, families are able to stay together.”Why did David Brown become a patient of the Adult Day Care Center?
| A．Because he is seventy-two years old. |
| B．Because he is lonely at home. |
| C．Because he is becoming forgetful. |
| D．Because he is seriously ill. |
What happens to Anne’s family?
| A．Her daughter is too old to look after her. |
| B．Anne cleans all the rooms everyday. |
| C．Her daughter doesn’t want Anne to live with her. |
| D．Her daughter is very tired because Anne always follows her. |
Adult Day Care Center is run by ____.
| A．hospitals | B．schools | C．churches | D．government |
Which statement is NOT true about the patients of the Center?
| A．Most patients are old people. |
| B．All the patients live with their families. |
| C．The patients learn many things in the Center. |
| D．The patients come to the Center six days a week. |
Which of the following statements is NOT the reason why the Center is offering a valuable service?
| A．Families are able to stay together. |
| B．Husbands, wives or grown children can work or have a rest. |
| C．Patients have the chance to go out of their houses. |
| D．The patients there are given the best medicine and the best operation. |
Where do you find out about the world’s longest walk? The world's tallest man? The world's oldest woman? You know the answer, of course. It is the Guinness Book of World Records. How would people find such unusual facts without this book?
Guinness Book did not exist until 1951. Here is what happened. The managing director of Guinness Brewery was a curious man. He wanted answers to some questions about records. For example, he wanted to know what was the fastest flying game bird in Europe. But he was frustrated. There was no book to answer questions like this.
The director, Sir Hugh Beaver, contacted the McWhirter twins. They were brothers who owned a research agency. He asked them to put together a new reference book. It would include all kinds of unusual records. The brothers quickly accepted. The first edition of their book was published in 1955. Soon the Guinness Book of World Records was a best seller. It has sold more copies than any book except the Bible. A new edition is published every year.
Where do all the book's records come from? They are a combination of things like natural wonders, sports records, and stunts(特技) (How many people would push an egg with their noses if they weren’t trying to get to the book?). But the editors try to keep things honest. All records must be verified by an investigator. Only then are they printed.
The Guinness Book is a big business. It is published in dozens of languages. There are TV shows and museums. It is proof of how interested people are in strange pieces of information. The passage is mostly about _____.
| A．the McWhirter twins |
| B．the director Sir Hugh Beaver |
| C．unusual records in the Guinness Book |
| D．a history of the Guinness Book |
The Guinness Book _____.
| A．is a best seller |
| B．is published only in English |
| C．does not always check its records |
| D．has a full-length movie based on it |
It is clear from the passage that the McWhirter twins _____.
| A．wanted to publish the book so that they set up a research agency |
| B．owned so good a research agency that they liked to help others |
| C．recognizes that Sir Hugh's idea for a book was a good one |
| D．wanted to know the answers to some questions about records |
In this passage, the underlined word "verified" means _____.
| A．questioned | B．proved the truth | C．written up | D．blocked |
The desire for a better life is sometimes so big that it makes people leave their countries and their families and work in other countries. They know that they will have to face difficult moments, that they won't be able to communicate with the persons around them, and that they have to work in illegal conditions to get the money they need for their families, but they all take these chances and they hope they will succeed.
On the other hand, there are people who immigrate (移民) just for the sake of the people they love. They leave their families to make other families with the people they love. Women go to meet their men who have chosen other countries to start a new life, even if they miss their families and friends. Maybe they don't have a place to work but they are able to wait to see what destiny (命运) has for them.
There are also the cases of the people who are forced to leave their countries because of a war which threatens their lives. They'd rather start from the very beginning again than risk putting their lives in danger.
When well-developed countries see that their homeland is being "invaded" by lots of immigrants, they set new laws that make immigration harder. As a result of this, many illegal immigrants cross the borders and are eager to work, although they are paid only half the amount of money native workers receive for the same kind of job.
The opinions of the local people are varied and they range from total refusal to complete acceptance. Immigrants in countries which have large communities of them are fighting for the recognition of their social rights and for equal treatment. Many immigrants have managed to be fully accepted by the communities where they live and have managed to change the opinions of the local people about them.Which of the following reasons for immigration is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Escaping from a war. |
| B．Being reunited with the beloved people. |
| C．Seeking a better life |
| D．Studying a foreign language |
What's the usual response to immigrants in well-developed countries?
| A．To accept them. |
| B．To refuse them. |
| C．To put limitations on immigration. |
| D．To encourage them. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Some immigrants are still fighting for their rights now. |
| B．Immigrants are never accepted no matter how hard they try. |
| C．Native people usually earn more money than illegal immigrants. |
| D．The local people have different attitudes toward immigrants. |
The passage implies that _____.
| A．many people go to other countries with great determination |
| B．illegal immigrants cause great damage to developed countries |
| C．stricter laws should be set to prevent immigration |
| D．culture shock causes great anxiety in some immigrants |
The first day our professor challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t know. I looked around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady smiling at me.
She said, “Hi, handsome. My name is Rose. I’m 87. Can I give you a hug?” I laughed, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze. “Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, and have a couple of children.” “No seriously,” I said. “I want to realize my dream!” she told me. Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and everyone liked to listen to this “time machine”.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet and I’ll never forget what she taught us. “There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are 19 and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn 20. If I am 87 and stay in bed for a year and never do anything I will turn 88. We have less time to live on. Anybody can grow older. That doesn’t take any talent or ability. The idea is to grow up by always finding opportunity in change. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do.”
At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had dreamed about all those years. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep. Over 2,000 students attended her funeral honoring the wonderful woman who taught us such an important message. Rose made herself known to the author in a _____ manner.
| A．serious | B．cold | C．crazy | D．humorous |
Rose was considered a “time machine” because she _____.
| A．always followed a strict time schedule |
| B．was never late for any of her classes |
| C．had lived a long and rich life |
| D．always appeared in time whenever she was needed |
According to Rose, growing up is different from growing older because _____.
| A．growing up doesn’t need as much effort or talent as growing older |
| B．growing up means young people have enough time to waste |
| C．there is no need for one to worry about death |
| D．growing up means one has more chances or time to choose what one likes |
Rose came to study in college at such an old age for the purpose of _____.
| A．challenging her old age |
| B．realizing her long dream about college education |
| C．meeting someone rich and attractive |
| D．not having any regrets in her life |
There are some things humans can go without. We can lose a kidney (肾)or a lung, an arm or two and still live perfectly well. But some fish put us to shame. They can get by without stomachs. 
One such fish is the stout longtom（尖嘴魚）. The group it belongs to carries a more appropriate name: the needlefish. All needlefish lack stomachs. Their ancestors had them, but later they were lost.
The stout longtom can reach 1.3 meters in length, and lives near the sea surface. Like all needlefish, it can jump out of the water to escape its enemies. Tropical(热带) fishermen are sometimes injured by needlefish. In 1977, a 10-year-old Hawaiian boy was killed when a needlefish jumped through his brain. The longtom eats smaller fish. Its teeth are not good at cutting fish into pieces, so it swallows fish whole.
Ryan Day from Australia and his colleagues wanted to know how the longtom digests its meaty meals without a stomach, so they ran some chemical tests about the fish.
Day’s results show that the longtom can consume food without the help of a stomach. It uses a special material called trypsin（胰岛素） that can break down proteins without acid — although the approach is less efficient than using a stomach.
Because it’s a meat-eating animal, the longtom gets a lot of protein in its food, so it can afford this slightly less efficient system for absorbing it. Two plant-eating fish that Day studies actually had higher levels of trypsin in their body, as their food was low in protein.
Day thinks that the longtom and its stomachless relatives might actually have arrived at an energy-saving solution. He says that although the stomach is critical to many kinds of animal, the organ is “a fairly expensive organ to run”. This perhaps explains why some animals have got rid of theirs. What does the underlined phrase “get by” mean?
| A．Live. | B．Fight. | C．Hunt. | D．Recover. |
Ryan Day ran the chemical tests in order to find out how the longtom ______.
| A．catches smaller fish in the water |
| B．can jump so high to escape its enemies |
| C．digests the smaller fish in its body |
| D．uses acid to break down the protein |
What plays a key role in the longtom’s digestion process?
| A．Acid | B．Trypsin. | C．The stomach. | D．Protein in its body. |
Ryan Day’s results show that ______.
| A．the longtom often waste energy |
| B．the longtom can make acid easily |
| C．the longtom’s high-protein food helps its unique way of consuming food. |
| D．meat-eating fish have higher levels of trypsin in their bodies than plant-eating fish |
The increase in tuition fees has led to a “clear drop” in the number of English students applying for university places this autumn. There are 15,000 “missing” applicants（申请人） this academic year, according to the Independent Commission on Fees. Chairman Will Hutton said: “We’re asking our young men and women to have more debt than any other country in the world — it’s higher than the average debt in the US. It’s not clear whether those lost students this year will return next year, or if it’s a storm warming of a worrying trend.”
But the commission’s report says there does not seem to be an impact on poorer communities. The commission found there was no significant change in the application rate to the key universities, such as Oxford or Cambridge. The decline（下降） in England has not been mirrored（再现） in other parts of the UK where fees have not been raised, and the drop can only partly be explained by falling numbers of young people in the population. Students from Scotland attending Scottish universities do not pay fees, while the Welsh Assembly says it will pay fees above ￡3,465 for Welsh students attending UK institutions.
The average tuition fee at English universities this year is ￡ 8,385, rising to ￡ 8,507 next year. UK and EU students have access to government-backed loans to pay the fees. And the survey of 1,000 pupils aged 15-18, carried out this April, found that the majority expected to go on to higher education as people continue to understand that university remains a good long term investment（投资） in their future.
A spokeswoman at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which is responsible for universities, said: “Students shouldn’t be forced to put off going to university for financial reasons. Most students will not have to pay in advance, and no one will have to start paying back their student loan until they start to earn at least ￡ 2l,000 per year.”From the first paragraph, we know that .
| A．the rising tuition fees have a great effect on English students |
| B．many English students are missing the final examinations |
| C．the lost English students will find their way back |
| D．it’s a trend that English students are dropping out of school |
Why is there still a drop of applicants though fees have not been raised?
| A．Because the students live in poor communities. |
| B．Because education is free for Scottish students. |
| C．Because there are less young students in the area. |
| D．Because Welsh students will pay fees above￡3,465. |
What’s the students’ attitude to universities in the survey?
| A．They will stop applying for university places this autumn. |
| B．They feel universities takes up too much time. |
| C．They are anxious to go to a key university. |
| D．Most of them are willing to go to university. |
The spokeswoman in the last paragraph advises students to .
| A．put off going to university |
| B．pay for the fees in advance |
| C．reduce the anxiety about the rising fees |
| D．pay back their loan soon aller graduation |