Before Alaska became part of the U.S., it had been owned by Russia. Trading posts and small settlements were scattered along the coast. The rest of land was left unexplored. The Russians were mainly interested in the wealth of furs from the vast herds of seals they found there.
By the mid-1800’s, most of the seal herds had been wiped out, and Russia no longer wanted to keep Alaska. William Seward, Secretary of State for President Johnson, believed the United States should buy Alaska from Russia. President Johnson wasn’t so sure it was a wise way to spend U.S. money, but he agreed to let Seward discuss it with the Russians. Acting quickly, Seward made a deal. On March 30, 1867, he signed an agreement for the U.S. to pay seven million dollars for the land.
Many people thought it was a foolish waste of America’s money. They called the deal “Seward’s folly”. Then gold was discovered in Alaska and public opinion changed quickly.
Seward did not live to see the true value of Alaska. He died in 1872, five years after making the purchase (购买). Each year, Alaska’s natural resources(资源) have brought in many times the $7,000,000 paid for it. Natural gas, coal, oil, lumber, seafood and other minerals, besides the gold first found, have made it a valuable addition to the United States. In 1959, Alaska be-came the 49th state of the United States.The Russians wanted to sell Alaska because ______.
| A．they thought it wasn’t a good place |
| B．they thought it didn’t belong to Russia |
| C．they couldn’t find enough seals there |
| D．they wanted to earn more money from the U.S. |
When Seward signed the agreement, many people thought ______.
| A．it was a successful deal | B．it had its true value |
| C．he wasted U.S. money | D．he was clever |
Which of the following things was found first in Alaska?
| A．Gas. | B．Coal. | C．Oil. | D．Gold. |
The best title for this passage would probably be ______.
| A．Alaska, a beautiful place | B．Alaska with natural resources |
| C．Alaska, the 49th state of the U.S. | D．Alaska, home to seals |
As far back as he could remember，Larry had longed to go to Hollywood and become a film star．The young man’s hopes for success were broken again and again，however．Hollywood just did not seem interesting．When he first came to California，Larry had decided never to give up and return home without success．Therefore，he kept on trying．Someday，he told himself，his big opportunity would come．
Larry found a job parking cars for one of Hollywood’s big restaurants．His pay was elementary，but since the guests were kind enough to give him more money，he managed to make a living．One day he recognized an important film director driving into the parking lot （停车场） and getting out of his car．Larry had recently heard that the man was ready to make a new picture．
Larry got into the car and prepared to drive it on into the lot and park it．Then he stopped，jumped out，and ran over to the director．“Excuse me，sir，but I think it’s only fair to tell you that it’s now or never if you want me in your next picture．A lot of big companies are after me．”
Instead of pushing away the boy，the director laughed，then wrote something on a card and handed it to the young man．“Come and see me tomorrow．”
Larry got a small part in the director’s next film．He was on his way！Which of the following was Larry interested in?
| A．Working as a waiter． | B．Becoming a film star |
| C．Parking cars for film stars． | D．Owing a big company |
Why did Larry find a job parking cars?
| A．Because he liked the job． |
| B．Because the parking lot was near Hollywood． |
| C．To make a living and wait for the opportunity． |
| D．To see a lot of film stars and work for them． |
After reading the story what can we infer （推断） about the film director ?
| A．He wanted to laugh at Larry． |
| B．He recognized Larry at first sight． |
| C．He was kind and gave Larry a try． |
| D．He thought Larry would become a star． |
what does the word “elementary” mean in this passage?
| A．基本的 | B．充足的 | C．较高的 | D．不达标的 |
“He was on his way”refers to the fact that ________．
| A．he gave up and returned home |
| B．he began to work towards success |
| C．he took a journey to Hollywood |
| D．he had difficulty in playing the small part |
It may help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech．At some point in every speech, every speaker says something that is not understood exactly as he has planned．Fortunately, the moments are usually not obvious to the listeners. Why ? Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say. They hear only what the speaker does say. If you lose your place for a moment, wrongly change the order of a couple of sentences, or forget to pause at a certain point, no one will be any the wiser．When such moments occur, don’t worry about them. Just continue as if nothing happened．
Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech, that don’t really matter. If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King’s famous speech – “ I have a dream”, you may notice that he stumble（结巴）his words twice during the speech．Most likely, however, you don’t remember．Why? Because you were fixing your attention on its message rather than on his way of speech-making. People care a lot about making mistakes in a speech because they regard speech-making as a kind of performance rather than as an act of communication. They feel the listeners are like judges in an ice-skating competition．But, in fact, the listeners are not looking for a perfect performer. They are looking for a well-thought-out speech that expresses the speaker’s ideas clearly and directly．Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker’s attractiveness by making him more human．
As you work on your speech, don’t worry about being imperfect．Once you free your mind of this, you will find it much easier to give your speech freely．The underlined part in the first paragraph means that no one will ___________．
| A．be smarter than you | B．notice your mistakes |
| C．do better than you | D．know what you are talking about |
You don’t remember obvious mistakes in a speech because ___________．
| A．your attention is on the content |
| B．you don’t fully understand the speech |
| C．you don’t know what the speaker plans to say |
| D．you find the way of speech-making more important |
It can be inferred from the passage that ___________
| A．giving a speech is like giving a performance |
| B．one to two mistakes in a speech may not be bad |
| C．the listeners should pay more attention to how a speech is made |
| D．the more mistakes a speaker makes, the more attractive he will be |
What would be the best title of the passage?
| A．How to Be a Perfect Speaker |
| B．How to Make a Perfect Speech |
| C．Don’t Expect a Perfect Speech |
| D．Don’t Expect Mistakes in a Speech |
When an ant dies, other ants take it out of the nest, often within an hour after its death. This behavior interests scientists and they wonder how ants know for sure—and so soon—that another ant is dead.
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behaviour. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist, a scientist who studies animals and plants. He found that ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I'm dead—take me away” when it is dead.
But there's a question to answer: As we know, if an ant is dead, it stops moving. But when an ant is sleeping or knocked unconscious, it is also not moving. However, other ants don't move the living ant out of the nest. How do they know this ant is not dead? Choe found that ants have another chemical on their bodies, which tells nearby ants something like, “Wait—I'm not dead yet” when it is not dead. Choe suspects that when an ant dies, the chemical that says, “Wait I'm not dead yet” quickly goes away. When other ants detect the “dead” chemical without the “not dead yet” chemical, they move away the body.
To test his theory , Choe and his team put different chemicals on ants. When the scientists used the “I'm dead” chemical, other ants quickly moved the treated ant away. When the scientists used the “Wait—I'm not dead yet” chemical, other ants left the treated ant alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the “not dead yet” chemical overrides the “dead” chemical when picked up by other ants. And that when an ant dies, the “not dead yet” chemical fades away. Other nearby ants then detect the remaining “dead” chemical and remove the body from the nest.
Understanding this behavior can help scientists figure out how to stop ants from invading new places and causing problems.What is the function of the first paragraph?
| A．Leading the following paragraphs. |
| B．Showing the main idea of the passage. |
| C．Introducing the background of the passage. |
| D．Giving a summary of the passage. |
Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “overrides” in the fourth paragraph?
| A．is weaker than | B．is stronger than |
| C．is better than | D．is worse than |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Living ants can also be taken away when they are not moving. |
| B．When an ant dies, it can tell others using a certain chemical. |
| C．A living ant can pretend to be dead using a special chemical. |
| D．Ants often use chemicals to communicate with each other. |
Which of the following descriptions about Dong-Hwan Choe is right?
| A．Choe did this study in order to stop ants from invading new places. |
| B．Choe is a biologist who is only interested in animals, especially in ants. |
| C．Choe first came up with an idea to explain this ant behavior，and then did some tests to prove his theory. |
| D．Choe did the research on this ant behavior on his own |
A super drug that could remove Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆症)，heart disease and diabetes (糖尿病) and help people live to 100 is being developed by scientists. Their research is based on the identification of three genes that help prolong lives and prevent diseases which occur in old age. Medically controlling the proteins made by the “ longevity genes” will allow millions to live longer, predicts Dr Nir Barzilai.
Those whose DNA strongly features the three genes are 80 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s. The genes also fight against the deadly impact of smoking, poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise.
Already, several laboratories are working on a pill to imitate the benefits of the genes and Dr Barzilai thinks it could be tested within three years. The pill could remove some diseases that damage old age. “ The advantage of finding a gene that involves longevity is that we can develop a drug that will imitate exactly what this gene is doing,” he said.
Of the three longevity genes, two genes increase the production of so-called good cholesterol(胆固醇), which reduces the risk of heart disease. The third prevents diabetes. They were discovered by Dr Barzilai’s team while studying the DNA of 500 Ashkenazi Jews with an average age of 100. The chances of living that long are one in 10,000 but the group, which shared relatively few common ancestors, was 20 times more likely to hit the entury. Dr Barzilai said: “ 30 percent of them were obese or overweight and 30 percent smoked two acks of cigarettes a day for more than 40 years, however they can live to 100.”
But Andrew Ketteringham of the Alzheimer’s Society said: “Alzheimer’s disease, a most common disease, is likely to be caused by a combination of genetic disosition(遗传倾向), lifestyles and life events. Many genes are probably involved. Some people are able to live to 100 years because of ______.
| A．a magical medicine | B．three special genes | C．good living habits | D．longevity proteins |
Why does the discovery of the longevity genes mean a lot?
| A．Because it can bring great benefits to scientific labs. |
| B．Because it can help people change their unhealthy genes |
| C．Because it helps produce a drug that can make people live longer. |
| D．Because it will help scientists build up a new branch of biology. |
From Paragraph 4 we can infer that ________.
| A．longevity genes can create good cholesterol. |
| B．the volunteers share some common ancestors |
| C．bad habits are likely to have no effect on the volunteers |
| D．longevity genes protect the volunteers against bad habits |
What is Andrew Ketteringham’s attitude toward the study?
| A．Positive | B．Negative | C．Critical | D．Cautious |
The church seems cold this morning, even after all the people, friends and family, fill the benches. I sit here in silence, in shock and denial. This was not supposed to happen. What about our dreams, or our plans? We were going to raise our children, travel the world, and grow old together. I’m only 37, a typical housewife. I don’t know if I can do all this alone—two children, no father. What do I do or say?
The faces of so many people confuse me as they come to pay their last respects. Some have real sorrow; I can see it in their eyes. The others seem to just say, “I told you so.” Those famous last words: I-told-you-so. How I can’t stand them. And the pointing fingers as so-called family and so-called friends pick me out of the crowd for others to see. I want to scream and wake up but I can’t do anything but sit there. How can they be so blind? I fell in love with a man. Love knows no boundaries .
He was a good man, hardworking, caring and kind. He was retired from the Navy and a gentleman. He was sensitive to others’ needs, the kind of man that knew what to do or say, how to humor any situation and calm everyone’s fears. I remember our first child was a big surprise to both of us. I remember when I told him the news. He fell off his chair, saying over and over in disbelief, “But I’m almost sixty.” After a few months he started planning our next and even doing his famous little dance whenever he discussed the idea.
A man, thirty years older than I, lies in a coffin. Flowers, the American flag and his VFW comrades surround him, paying tribute（颂词）to him as the man he really was. And I sit alone here, with our two children, in silence, praying that this cold morning at church is only a nightmare and I will awake to his loving arms again.What can we know from the passage about the writer?
| A．She married a man much older than she. |
| B．She is going to give birth to their second child. |
| C．She lost her husband, who was as old as she. |
| D．She lost her father, whom she loved deeply. |
From Paragraph Two, we can see ______.
| A．the writer didn’t really love the man |
| B．some of her family members didn’t understand her |
| C．some of her family members and friends were blind |
| D．she thought her marriage to the man was a mistake |
Which of the following can best replace the underlined words “But I’m almost sixty”?
| A．I can’t believe it. |
| B．That’s a lot of trouble. |
| C．That should have happened long ago. |
| D．It can’t be my child. |
Which of the following can’t be used to describe the writer’s feelings for the man?
| A．Sad. | B．Loving. | C．Inseparable | D．Complaining. |