Arthur Miller (1915—2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. Miller's father had moved to the USA from Austria Hungary, drawn like so many others by the “Great American Dream”. However, he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the early 1930s.
Miller's most famous play, Death of a Salesman, is a powerful attack on the American system, with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth. In Willy Loman, the hero of the play, we see a man who has got into trouble with this system. Willy is “burnt out” and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment: if he can't do the work, then he is no good to his employer, the Wagner Company, and he must go. Willy is painfully aware of this, and at a loss as to what to do with his lack of success. He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949, the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews, and it won the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut, on the evening of February 10, 2005, the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.Why did Arthur Miller's father move to the USA?
| A．He suffered from severe hunger in his home country. |
| B．He was attracted by the “Great American Dream.” |
| C．He hoped to make his son a dramatist. |
| D．His family business failed |
The play Death of a Salesman________.
| A．exposes the cruelty of the American business world |
| B．discusses the ways to get promoted in a company |
| C．talks about the business career of Arthur Miller |
| D．focuses on the skills in doing business |
What can we learn about Willy Loman?
| A．He treats his employer badly. |
| B．He runs the Wagner Company. |
| C．He is a victim of the American system. |
| D．He is regarded as a hero by his colleagues. |
After it was first staged, Death of a Salesman________.
| A．achieved huge success |
| B．won the first Tony Award |
| C．was warmly welcomed by salesmen |
| D．was severely attacked by dramatists |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．Arthur Miller and his family. |
| B．The awards Arthur Miller won. |
| C．The hardship Arthur Miller experienced. |
| D．Arthur Miller and his best known play. |
Friendship—Seven Tips on How to Make Friends
Friendship is a very important human relationship and everyone needs good friends. Friendship offers companionship, improves an individual self-worth and promotes good health. However making new friends comes easy for some people but for many of us the process is difficult and requires courage. Below are some helpful tips on how to make and keep friends.
Associate with others. The first step to making friends is associating with other people. Health clubs, places of worship and charities are some places where you can meet new people and build friendship. But attending these places is not enough. You will need to make yourself known by becoming an active member.
Be cheerful. A smile on the face is a sure way to attract new friends as people are always drawn to a cheerful disposition. No one wants to keep company with someone who constantly looks upset.
Start a conversation. Starting a conversation is the second most important step in making new friends. Do not wait to be spoken to；you can always start the conversation. Being able to make small talk is a very useful skill in relating with other people regardless of the environment or circumstance.
Stay in touch. For a friendship to grow you need to stay in touch. There are several ways of staying in touch with your friends and these include SMS, phone calls and online social networking sites.
Do things together. Choosing friends with common interest is important in establishing friendship as these interests would always bring you and your friend together and hanging out will always be a pleasant experience. The less you have in common with your friend the more likely the friendship will not grow.
Let it grow. It is a good thing to stay in touch but try not to choke your new friend with calls, messages or visits as this would likely wear him or her out and eventually they may not want to be your friend anymore. The best friendships are the ones that grow naturally.
Enjoy your friendship. The best way to enjoy your new friends is to allow them to be themselves. Try not to be critical of them and try not to change them from who they are to what you want them to be.
| Theme |
Friendship, which has a positive （76） __________on people’s life, is a very important human relationship. |
| （77） _______ on making and keeping friends |
Be （78）__________with people by going to public places. Take an active part in activities to create （79） __________for others to know you. |
| （80）__________a smile all the time to make others willing to get close to you. |
|
| Try to have a conversation with others （81）__________ of environment or circumstance. |
|
| Contact your friends in some ways, （82）__________ SMS, phone calls and online social networking. |
|
| Choose friends whose interests are （83） __________to yours, which will bring you pleasant experiences when you do things together. |
|
| （84）__________ calling or visiting friends too frequently and leave friendships grow naturally. |
|
| Remember not to find fault with or （85）__________your friends, and make them as what they are. |
Eleven months ago, an act of good sportsmanship（体育精神）changed a girls’ running race into something bigger. 
Jenna Huff received a national sportsmanship award from the US Olympic Committee for what she did for Deb Guthmann.
In the race, Jenna was behind Deb until the final few meters of the 5-kilometer race.
Then something awful happened. Deb’s right hip（髋部）broke. She screamed in pain and stopped.
Jenna had never met Deb and had been taught to pass every runner she could to win.
Instead, Jenna stopped with no hesitation.
“Come on.” Jenna told Deb. “We’re going to run.”
Jenna took Deb’s left elbow with her right hand. She helped her jog the last few meters. At the finishing line, she pushed Deb in front of her, reasoning Deb would have beaten her anyway if not for the injury. That act helped Deb’s team win the regional race and advance to the state meet.
Both girls are now 17.
Jenna is still an athlete for her school.
She and her parents went to Colorado to accept an award for the national sportsmanship award. Jenna had to give a five-minute speech to the crowd, a crowd which included a number of former Olympians. “I’m pretty scared about my speech,” Jenna said the other night when we talked on the phone. “You want to hear part of it?” She read me one part including the words from Albert Einstein: “Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine（神圣的）purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know：That we are here for the sake of（为了）others.”
Deb is also still running. She received a full scholarship to Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia. The award was because of her excellent academic record and great sports potential.
But she recently got hurt again and was unable to run for weeks.
Even so, I am confident Deb will write a happier ending for herself one day. Both of these young women make you feel confident about the future. They are strong, compassionate（富于同情心的）and smart.
As Einstein said-and as Jenna showed 11 months ago— “we are here for the sake of others”. The story is intended to __________.
| A．tell us an unexpected story in the girls’ running race |
| B．introduce a famous sportswoman |
| C．show the beauty of good sportsmanship |
| D．remind athletes to pay attention to their safety during the race |
The reason why Jenna pushed Deb in front of her at the finishing line is that __________.
| A．she wanted to get the prize |
| B．she thought she didn’t match Deb in reality |
| C．she helped Deb’s team to win the regional race |
| D．Deb had been injured |
Deb received a full scholarship to Emmanuel College because __________.
| A．she is still running |
| B．she was good at her academy and sports |
| C．she showed the good sportsmanship in the race |
| D．she never gave up even though she had been injured |
What can we know from the passage?
| A．Jenna was the last one to reach the finishing line. |
| B．Deb went to Colorado to accept the prize with her parents. |
| C．The author had a face-to-face interview with Jenna the other night. |
| D．Helping each other can make a big difference to people’s lives. |
It’s parents’ worst nightmare. Their child doesn’t come home one evening and is missing for several days.
When a 14-year-old boy from Atlanta, Georgia disappeared earlier this year, his mother turned to her Smartphone for clues using an app（应用程序） called Family Tracker that helped track his location.
“You can see where your loved ones are without having to call or bother them. ”said Roberto Franceschetti of LogSat, the creators of the Family Tracker, which has more than 100,000 users and is available worldwide.
Parents can track the location of their child on a map, send messages, and even sound an alarm on the phone in a long distance.
“We have an option for the sender to make a very unpleasant, noisy sound. It’s a loud alarm and we repeat that sound every two minutes until the person picks it up, ”he said.
Parents don’t need to own a Smartphone to track their children. The service is also accessible through the web, as long as the phone that is being tracked is running the app.
Family Tracker has an additional service that keeps records of all data from the app for a two-week period, which the company calls GPS breadcrumbs.
“With a subscription（预定）, we keep all the locations where people have been on our servers. You can see where your kid has been for the past two weeks. You can find out where someone was at a certain time or when that person was at a specific place, ”Franceschetti explained.
“When somebody gets abducted（劫持）, usually whoever does this throws the phone away or takes the battery out. We were hoping that our app would at least provide information on where the person was abducted or where they had been in the past. ”
But will these types of apps let out personal secrets?
“The advantages are huge compared to the disadvantages. Let’s not forget that the person always has to give initial permission—no one can be tracked unless they allow someone to do it. ”said Franceschetti. According to the passage, all of the following about “Family Tracker” are true EXCEPT that __________.
| A．it can help parents know where their children are |
| B．all parents don’t need to own a Smartphone to track children |
| C．parents can use all the services of the app for free |
| D．it has little to do with letting out personal secrets |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．The app will enjoy a great popularity in the future. |
| B．The loss of children won’t be a nightmare for parents any more. |
| C．The app will repeat the loud alarm continuously whenever parents track children. |
| D．The app can keep records of information for more than half a month. |
Which belong to the functions of the new app?
a. track location b. detect criminals c. send messages
d. protect privacy e. send remote alarm f. record information
| A．a, b, c, e | B．a, c, e, f | C．a, c, d, e | D．a, d, e, f |
Like every other Olympics, the London 2012 Olympics will depend upon thousands of volunteers to help with the smooth running of the event. To show the importance of the role, London 2012 volunteers are to be called ‘Game Makers’. Lord Coe has said recently: “London 2012 is relying on brilliant Game Makers to help us create a great Olympic and Paralympic Games. ”
London 2012 Olympics volunteers will provide the face of London 2012, working behind the scenes and making sure the games are as well organized, efficient and, most importantly, as enjoyable as possible.
Despite the hard-work and often unsociable hours required of volunteers, applications to be considered as a Game Maker were unprecedented（空前的） with all the 70, 000 available positions applied within days. But, for those still interested in helping out during 2012 and being in the middle of the action, there are still a lot of opportunities available.
If you were one of those who missed out on the chance of becoming London 2012 volunteers, you can now apply to be one of the 8, 000 London Ambassadors（大使）. This important role involves greeting fans from all over the world, welcoming them to the fantastic capital city of London and providing a friendly face as well as help, advice and a good old traditional warm British welcome. The view of London most visitors take away with them after the 2012 Olympics will mostly be down to the volunteers and ambassadors, so these roles play a very important part in the process of making the UK a great place to travel to.
Becoming a London Ambassador is a brilliant way to be involved with the London 2012 volunteers scheme and become a part of what should be an historic summer. Why are London 2012 volunteers called “Game Makers”?
| A．They’ll decide whether the London 2012 Olympics are a success. |
| B．They play an important role in the London 2012 Olympics. |
| C．The London 2012 Olympics won’t be organized without them. |
| D．They will work hard and effectively. |
Which of the following can replace the underlined part “be down to” in Paragraph 4?
| A．be the responsibility of |
| B．be under the control of |
| C．be in harmony with |
| D．be in charge of |
What’s the purpose of the passage?
| A．To appeal to more volunteers. |
| B．To introduce the London 2012 Olympics. |
| C．To show the importance of volunteers. |
| D．To guide how to spend the historic summer. |
Zhu Haoyu, 18, a history major, wears his iPod everywhere on campus. The freshman has it going out for a walk, visiting the library or lying in bed. However, he found that his habit is like displaying a big “Do not disturb ”sign for himself.
As time slips away, he has begun to regret not having conversed much with his peers around . “As I put the little buds (耳机) into my ears, I’m immersed in a universe of my own, forgetting all troubles in the real world,” said Li.
The MP3 player is one of a number of gadgets (小玩意)—starting with the Sony Walkman, which led to the iPod, iPhone and iPad —that give people the ability to shut themselves off from world around them.
Youngsters delight in handset (手持的) technology. In public, students chat on their cell phones, stopping only to talk briefly to friends. On buses or trains it’s common to see youngsters with PlayStations instead of playing poker or sharing jokes or games. And during airline flights, people watch episodes (连续剧) of US TV dramas on their iPads, rather than talking.
The BBC News magazine recently published an article saying that headphone wearing culture is making us anti-social. “Half of humankind is wired to a parallel universe that leaves them ignoring their surroundings and fellows,” wrote Tom de Castella.
Actually, it’s a decade since Apple unveiled the iPod, which promised “1,000 songs in your pocket”. In 2007 more than half of Western residents were using an iPod or MP3 player.
Entertainment is on offer in all surroundings, not just at home. But in the meantime, it has created barriers between us. Many people subscribe to the view that the headphone culture is creating a “spoilt, selfish generation that lacks civic（公民的）culture”.
However, many users of portable MP3 players argue that the device, as a mind drug, helps them relieve stress by escaping for a while. It is also said to be able to help some students concentrate on work or study. “If you want to get away from the hucksters (小贩) on the way, just start listening to your player,” said Liu, a freshman. “They do not approach people with headphones on.” This might also mean he’s blocking those who want to ask him for the directions.
Experts, however, say that short contacts or mini conversations with strangers are helpful to our mind. Many experts warn that it is dangerous to lose touch with people in our lives.Zhu Haoyu found that his wearing the iPod .
| A．disturbed others |
| B．made it easy for him to keep in touch with others |
| C．made it easy for him to visit the library |
| D．made others unwilling to talk to him |
The underlined word “immersed” can be replaced by .
| A．lost | B．involved | C．engaged | D．interested |
What is the main idea of the fourth paragraph?
| A．Students are always busy chatting on their cell phones in public. |
| B．Young people are fond of portable listening or visual devices. |
| C．Young people like to watch US TV dramas on their iPads. |
| D．People like to enjoy the networking. |
Which of the following is not true?
| A．Headphone wearing culture makes people ignore their surroundings and fellows. |
| B．Apple released the iPod ten years ago. |
| C．There are still many people support the headphone culture. |
| D．It’s dangerous to have conversations with strangers. |
What is the writer’s attitude towards the headphone culture ?
| A．Agreeable. | B．Critical. | C．Doubtful. | D．Neutral. |