It has been two years since I published my first article on Yahoo!Contributor Network.I was very excited when I saw that what I had written was published on the Internet.
I recognized that the content sites such as Associated Content can provide a fertile ground for learning how to become a writer.I was thrifty(节俭的)—I could see that this was an open door for systematically(系统地)learning some basic writing skills without paying college tuition for classes,all to be finished at my own speed and without leaving the comfort of my own home.
During these past few years I gained enough experience and understanding of using Associated Content to try writing.I found writing for that site was not my cup of tea.However,my experience there was positive as I was rewarded with even more learning opportunities just by giving it a try.Through Associated Content I was introduced to the world of bolgs(博客).I decided to learn how to set up a blog myself.Now I’m interested in blogs and continue to work as a writer.
Writing for the content site Yahoo!Contributor Network gives me a chance of trying creative writing—news,reviews and numerous lifestyle issues.And all of these topics are my own choices.Then there is an opportunity to meet other writers.Yahoo!Contributor Network has a wonderful in-house messaging system that allows its writers to communicate easily with one another.Not all your tries are satisfactory and easy when you write for a content site,but the benefits are many if you try it.
My teacher once said,“If you don’t quit,you will win.”I have no desire to quit writing as I really enjoy it.My thanks go out to Associated content and yahoo!Contributor Network for all my progress in writing!And to my fellow writers—thank you so much for your support and friendship.May we continue in our efforts of inspiration for many years to come!According to the author,_______.
| A．people can read a lot of novels on Associated Content |
| B．Associated Content helps readers study writing regularly |
| C．Associated Content contributes to making one become a writer. |
| D．studying on Associated Content is rather expensive but convenient. |
In the author’s eyes,writing for Associated Content was not______.
| A．a job he can deal with | B．his favorite thing |
| C．a difficult task for him | D．meaningful work for him |
What is the benefit that Yahoo!Contributor Network offers?
| A．You can have all your articles published. |
| B．You can get a lot of rewards from the site. |
| C．You can use its information and messages for free. |
| D．You can easily communicate with other writers. |
The author uses his teacher’s words to show that____.
| A．he will stick to his writing career |
| B．his teacher gave him a lot of help |
| C．what his teacher said is really true |
| D．he has met much difficulty in writing |
We can learn from the passage that____.
| A．two years has passed since the author began writing |
| B．the author is grateful for the sites and his fellow writers |
| C．the author had his first book published on the Internet |
| D．the author thinks writing on the Internet is very easy |
If your family is like many in the United States, keeping a lot of bottled water at home, it’s easy to get a cold one right out of the fridge on your way to a soccer game or activity, right?
But all those plastic bottles use a lot of fossil fuels and pollute the environment. In fact, Americans buy more bottled water than any other nation in the world, and add 29 billion water bottles a year to the problem. In order to make all these bottles, manufacturers use 17 million barrels of crude oil (原油). That’s enough oil to keep a million cars going for twelve months.
So why don’t more people drink water straight from the kitchen faucet? Some people drink bottled water because they think it is better for them than water out of the tap, but that’s not true. In the US, local governments make sure water from the faucet is safe.
People love the convenience of bottled water. But maybe if they realized the problems it causes, they would try drinking from a glass at home or carrying water in a refillable steel container instead of plastic.
Unfortunately, for every six water bottles we use, only one makes it to the recycling bin. The rest are sent to landfills. Or, even worse, they end up as trash on the land and in rivers, lakes and the ocean. Plastic bottles take many hundreds of years to break down.
Water is good for you, so keep drinking it. But think about how often you use water bottles, and see if you can make a change. And yes, you can make a difference. Remember this: recycling one plastic bottle can save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for six hours. No matter who you are, you can do something for the environment. Join us and protect the environment.What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．Drinking water: bottled or from the tap? |
| B．How to save more energy? |
| C．Why is it good to drink water out of the tap? |
| D．Stop drinking bottled water from now on. |
According to the passage, why don’t some people drink water straight from the kitchen faucet?
| A．Because they think bottled water is healthier than water out of the tap. |
| B．Because local governments don’t make sure that water from the faucet is safe. |
| C．Because bottled water is much cheaper than water out of the kitchen faucet. |
| D．Because water out of the kitchen faucet is not provided anywhere. |
The author may disagree that _____.
| A．it is very hard for plastic bottles to break down |
| B．if we used one bottle less, more oil would be saved |
| C．bottled water is very convenient to drink |
| D．plastic bottles have been causing less and less pollution |
Although the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have English as an official language, the United States does not have an official language. This is why it’s possible to become a US citizen without speaking English. Canada also has French as an official language, though it is mostly spoken in the province of Quebec. Because many of the English speakers who originally lived in Canada came from the US, there is little difference in American and Canadian English. Similarly, Australian English and New Zealand English have few differences, except Australia was originally settled as a penal colony (罪犯流放地) and New Zealand was not. New Zealanders were more attached to the Received Pronunciation of the upper class in England, so their dialect is considered closer to British English.
British colonialism (殖民主义) has spread English all over the world, and it is still popular in South Africa, India, and Singapore, among other nations. In South Africa, English became an official language, along with Afrikaans and 9 African languages, in the 1996 constitution. However, only 3% of the country’s 30 million people are native English speakers. Twenty percent are descendants (后代) of Dutch farmers who speak Afrikaans, and the rest are native Africans.
India became independent from Britain in 1947. However, today English and Hindi are the official languages. Indian English is characterized by treating mass nouns as count nouns, frequent use of the “isn’t it?” tag, use of more compounds, and a different use of prepositions. In Singapore, Chinese, Malay and Indian languages all influence the form of English spoken. Everyone is taught English in the school system, but there are a few differences from British English as well. Mass nouns are treated as count nouns, “use to” means usually, and no articles are used before occupations.Why can people become a US citizen without speaking English?
| A．They can learn English there. |
| B．Different languages are spoken in the US. |
| C．The US doesn’t have an official language. |
| D．They can speak their own language there. |
What do we know about South Africa?
| A．English is its only official language. |
| B．It has 11 different official languages. |
| C．English is becoming less important there. |
| D．20 percent of its population are native English speakers. |
What can we infer from the last paragraph?
| A．The Indians are good at English grammar. |
| B．People in Singapore often misuse count nouns. |
| C．Singaporean English is similar to Indian English. |
| D．English is a required subject in Singaporean schools. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．British colonialism. |
| B．The wide use of English. |
| C．English around the world. |
| D．The history of the English language. |
JULY
| MON. |
TUES. |
WED. |
THURS. |
FRI. |
SAT. |
SUN. |
| 132 |
2 29 |
3 31 |
4 40 |
5 46 |
6 38 |
|
| 7 27 |
8 34 |
9 30 |
10 24 |
1139 |
1245 |
1341 |
| 14 23 |
15 31 |
1628 |
1726 |
1838 |
19 49 |
2039 |
| 2126 |
22 35 |
2327 |
24 25 |
25 43 |
2647 |
2742 |
| 2829 |
2927 |
30 34 |
3129 |
Ms. Rossi owns the Roadside Motel(汽车游客旅馆)，which has 50 units.She wishes to keep a handy record of the number of units occupied(占用).To do this she uses a calendar and writes the number of units occupied in a small box in the right-hand square of each date.The following questions are based on the occupancy rate(率) for July.The total number of units occupied during the week of July 14 through July 20 was ______.
| A．234 | B．239 | C．240 | D．244 |
The average(平均) occupancy rate for Thursday was ________.
| A．29 | B．31 | C．27 | D．28 |
Ms. Rossi regards a 90% occupancy rate as excellent.On how many days during the month did the Roadside Motel have a 90% or better rate of occupancy?
| A．6. | B．5. | C．4. | D．1. |
After the Summer Olympics are over, when all the athletics have gone home and the television audience has switched off, another group of athletics and fans will arrive at the host city, and another competition will begin. These are the Paralympics, the games for athletes with a disability. But in Beijing in 2008, for the first time, one of the greatest Paralympics will not be taking part.
She is a British athlete by the name of Tanni Grey-Thormpson. Born with spina bifida (脊椎裂) which left her paralyzed from the waist down. Tanni used a wheelchair from the age of 7. At first, she was not keen on sport, apart from horse-riding, which gave her a sense of freedom. But in her teens, she started taking sports more seriously. She tried swimming, basketball and tennis. Eventually
she found athletics, and never looked back.
Indeed, Tanni’s athletic career took off. In 1984, when she was 15, she pulled off a surprise victory in the 100metres at the Junior National Wheelchair Games.
In 1988, Tanni went to her first Paralympic Games in Seoul. She won bronze in the 400 metres. Even greater success followed at the 1992 Barcelona. Paralympics. Tanni won gold in the 100, 200, 400 and 800 metres relay, setting two world records in the process. In the same year she achieved the first of her six London Wheelchair Marathon victories.
Tanni’s enduring success had been part motivation(动机), part preparation, “The training I do that enables me to be a good sprinter(短跑运动员) enables me to be good at a marathon too. I train 50 weeks of the year and that keeps me prepared for whatever distance I want to race. I am still competing at a very high lever, but as I get older things get harder and I want to retire before I fall apart.”
Indeed Tanni retired finally after the Visa Paralympic World Cup in 2007. Her wish is to coach young athletes for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
In spite of ups and downs, she never take her fate lying down. In her splendid life, she has won an amazing eleven gold medals, four silvers and one bronze in series of Paralympics--- a top lever athletic career covering two decades. She has won the London Wheelchair Marathon six times, more than any other competitor, and she has set over thirty world records.
What advice does she have for young athletes? “Work hard at your studies, and then train, train and train again.”Which of the following sports did Tanni like before thirteen?
| A．Basketball | B．Swimming. |
| C．Tennis. | D．Horse-riding. |
When did Tanni win her first Olympic gold medal?
| A．In 1984. | B．In 1988. |
| C．In 1992. | D．In 2007. |
The underlined word “that” in the 5th paragraph refers to _______.
| A．fifty weeks’ training |
| B．being a good sprinter |
| C．training almost every day |
| D．part motivation and part preparation |
What’s the right order of the events related to Tanni?
a. She works as a coach.
b. She took up athletics.
c. She won four gold medals in Barcelona.
d. She competed in her first Paralympic Games.
e. She achieved a victory in her first London Wheelchair Marathon.
| A．b,d,c,e,a | B． a,d,b,c,e |
| C．a,d,c,e,b | D．b,d,a,e,c |
What can we learn from Tanni’s success?
| A．Union is strength. | B．Never too late to learn. |
| C．Well begun is half done. | D．No pains, no gains. |
I would never forget the time when we were standing at the top of a church tower. My father had brought me to this spot in a small town not far from our home in Rome. I wondered why.
“Look down, Elsa，” Father said. I gathered all my courage and looked down. I saw the square in the center of the village. And I saw the crisscross (纵横交错) of streets leading to the square. “See, my dear，” Father said gently. “There is more than one way to the square. Life is like that. If you can't get to the place where you want to go by one road, try another.”
Now I understood why I was there. Earlier that day I had begged my mother to do something about the awful lunches that were served at school. But she refused because she didn't believe the lunches were as bad as I said.
When I turned to Father for help, he would not interfere (干涉). Instead, he brought me to this high tower to give me a lesson. By the time we reached home, I had a plan.
At school the next day, I secretly poured my lunch soup into a bottle and brought it home. Then I asked our cook to serve it to Mother at dinner. The plan worked perfectly. She swallowed one spoonful and sputtered, “The cook must have gone bad！” Quickly I told what I had done, and Mother stated firmly that she would deal with the matter of lunches at school the next day!
In the following years I often remembered the lesson Father taught me. I began to work as a fashion designer two years ago. I wouldn't stop working until I tried every possible means to my goal. Father's wise words always remind me that there is more than one way to the square.The author's father took her to the top of a church tower to ________.
| A．find out how many ways lead to the square |
| B．enjoy the beautiful scenery of the whole town |
| C．help her forget some unpleasant things earlier that day |
| D．inspire her to find out another way to solve her problem |
What did the author want her mother to do earlier that day?
| A．Do something delicious for lunch. |
| B．Speak to the school about lunch. |
| C．Taste her awful lunch. |
| D．Dismiss the cook. |
The underlined sentence in the fifth paragraph means ________.
| A．the cook agreed to serve the soup to Mother |
| B．the matter of lunch was successfully settled |
| C．her father persuaded her mother successfully |
| D．the method the author thought of was effective |