Some novels simply entertain and others contain a powerful message in the story line and characters. In his first novel, A Wind In Montana, Mitch Davies tells a story about young adults and how they accept responsibility for their lives.
A Wind In Montana is a marvelous tale of two teenagers, Rory Coleman and Victoria Beach, high school students at the same school, who struggle to make the right decision for themselves. As each of them nears adulthood, they become more concerned with the future and setting goals that will bring them happiness and fulfillment.
Without any advice from his parents, Rory chooses to pursue a profession in chemistry, applies for a chemistry scholarship, and determines to do everything he can to achieve it. Along the path, Rory finds that even though he has a plan, there are obstacles that could prevent him from realizing his goals. Victoria’s struggles are different from Rory’s. Although her father has decided that she should become a professional musician, Victoria has other plans for her life. Together, Rory and Victoria attempt to follow their dreams, despite the obstacles in their paths. A Wind In Montana contains a lesson for all teens about to enter adulthood － that disappointment and setbacks (挫折) are going to occur no matter how determined they are and that they need to develop skills along the way that will help them deal with them effectively.
There are so many major decisions facing teens today －social, parents, other influencing adults and school work － and there’s no guarantee that their plans will succeed, even if they make the so-called “right” decisions. A Wind In Montana explores how two teenagers struggle with their own unique decisions and how the choices they make affect their lives.
Mitch Davies’ book stands out among today’s teen books that deal with imaginary situations. A Wind In Montana is a real story about real people facing real-life situations. It’s entertaining and also helps readers think about their own lives and offers various ways to handle situations that may arise.According to the passage, both Rory and Victoria _____.
| A．have a strong sense of self | B．work hard at their courses |
| C．go against their parents | D．get along well with others |
The third paragraph is mainly about _____.
| A．the value of A Wind In Montana |
| B．Mitch Davies’ achievements |
| C．Mitch Davies’ writing style |
| D．the content of A Wind In Montana |
Unlike other teen books, A Wind In Montana ______.
| A．involves some imaginary situations |
| B．is based on real-life experiences |
| C．focuses on responsibilities teens should take |
| D．discusses the future of young adults |
What’s the purpose of the passage?
| A．To speak highly of an author. | B．To report a piece of news. |
| C．To review a book | D．To collect materials for a book. |
Do you love your family? Then May 15, the International Day of Families, was a good day to celebrate! The United Nations started this special day in 1994. it wanted people to know how important families are. If all the families on Earth could be happy, then the whole world would be a more peaceful place.
What makes a happy family? Our readers say it’s understanding!
Zhao Wei, 15, girl, Harbin Lianzhong Middle School: “My parents seldom fight with each other. I quarrel with them sometimes. They think I should not make friends with some kids who think they are bad. I think I’ve grown up and can make my own decisions. But most of the time, my parents are right. To me, family is like a soft sofa. I can be very comfortable on it!”
Wu Hao, 14, boy, Nanjing Foreign Language School: “My family is not rich. When I was a small child, other kids had a lot of good stuff (东西) but I didn’t. I asked my parents why. They told me that we didn’t have much money. I began to understand my parents then. I will do part-time jobs when I enter college. That way my parents won’t have to work so hard. Family is like a nest. It’s warm and safe.”
Zhang Xun, 15, boy, Hefei No 45 Middle School: “I’m a naughty boy who doesn’t study very hard. My parents always talk to me about this and they get very angry sometimes. I hope they won’t get angry when they talk to me. And I should behave well and be a good boy. My family is like my basketball. I love playing basketball. It makes me happy.”
46. People have celebrated the International Day for _________ years.
A. more than 19 B. about 15 C. less than 15 D. just 8
47. The United Nations started the International Day mainly _______.
A. to amuse peopleB. to get people to know families are important
C. to make people a peaceful worldD. to make people who have families happy
48. Zhao Wei sometimes quarrels with her parents because _______.
A. she has grown up B. she enjoys making friends with kids
C. they stop her from making friends D. her parents are always right
49. Wu Hao will _________ when he enters college.
A. do part-time jobs to make his parents relaxed
B. make his family warm and safe
C. work to buy a lot of good stuff
D. do part-time jobs to get some money
50. Zhang Xun _______.
A. likes his family very much
B. likes his family if his parents let him play basketball
C. hates his family because his parents don’t like him
D. hates his family because his parents always get angry with him
Henry Ford’s parents left Ireland during the potato famine and settled in the Detroit area in the.1840s. Ford was born in what is now Dearborn, Michigan. His formal education was limited, but even as a youngster, he was handy with machinery. He worked for the Detroit Edison Company, advancing from machine-shop apprentice to chief engineer.
In 1893, Ford built a gasoline engine, and within a few years, an automobile, still a novelty item of the rich or do-it-yourself engineers. In 1899, Ford left Edison to help run the Detroit Automobile Company. Cars were still built essentially one at a time. Ford hoped to incorporate ideas from other industries----standardized parts as Eli Whitney has used with gun manufacturing, or assembly line methods George Eastman tried in photo processing ----to make the process more efficient. This idea struck others in his field as crazy, so before long, Ford quit Detroit Automobile Company and began to build his own racing cars. They were good enough to attract backers and even partners, and in 1903, he set up the Ford Motor Company.
He still met resistance to his ideas for mass production of a car the average worker could afford. But he stuck to his goal and finally in 1908, began production of the Model T. Ford gradually adapted the production line until in 1913, his plant incorporated the first moving assembly line. Demand for the affordable car soared even as production went up: before Ford stopped making the model T in 1927, 15 million had been sold, and Ford had become the leading auto manufacturer in the country. In addition to the moving assembly line, Ford revolutionized the auto industry by increasing the pay and decreasing the hours of his employees, ensuring he could get enough and the best workers. During the Model T era, Ford bought out his shareholders so he had completed financial control of the now vast corporation. He continued to innovate, competitors (growing more powerful though fewer in number) began to cut into Ford’s market share.
Ford and his family spent a food deal of time and money on charitable work. They set up a historical museum in Greenfield Village, Michigan, and most notably set up the Ford Foundation, which provides grants for research, education, and development.
“A bore (讨厌鬼) is a fellow who opens his mouth and puts his feats (技艺) in it,” said Ford
51. The main idea of the first paragraph is _________.
A. Ford’s education B. Ford’s family
C. Ford’s quickness to learn D. Ford’s interest and handiness in machinery
52. Which of the following statements is right?
A. Ford created the idea of standardized parts in industry
B. Ford is the first to imply production line in manufacturing
C. Ford is the first to create the idea of mass production of a car affordable for the average workers.
D. Ford is the first to make cars.
53. The reason why Ford left Detroit Automobile Company probably was that _________.
A. he was fired for his crazy idea
B. he hoped to carry out his own idea on car-making
C. people didn’t like to work with him
D. he wanted to set up his own car factory
54. According to the passage, Henry Ford can be probably described as a man of _______.
A. stubbornness B. C. caution C. determination D. well-education
55. Which of the following quotes means most similarly with the last sentence of the passage?
A. You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.
B. Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.
C. The greatest thing you can do is surprise yourself
D. For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
The sleep debt is the difference between the amount of sleep you should get and the amount you actually get. It grows every time we skim some extra minutes off our nightly sleep. “People accumulate sleep debts gradually,” says Dr. William Dement, founder of the Stanford University Sleep Clinic. Studies show that such short-term lack of sleep leads to a foggy brain, impaired vision, worsened driving and troubled remembering. Long- term effects include obesity, insulin(胰岛素) resistance, and heart disease.
A 2007 survey by the National Sleep Foundation reports that Americans sleep for 6.9 hours per night, 6.8 hours on average during the week and 7.4 hours on the weekends. Generally, experts recommend eight hours of sleep per night, although some people may require only six hours of sleep while others need ten. That means on average, Americans lose one hour of sleep each night more than two full weeks of sleep every year.
The good news is that the sleep debt can be repaid with some work, though it won’t happen when you sleep longer for once. Adding an extra hour or two hours of sleep a night is the way to catch up. For the long-term sleep shortage, it takes a few months to get back to natural sleeping pattern, says Lawrence J. Epstein, medical director of the Harvard Sleep Health Center.
Go to bed when you are tired, allowing your body to wake you in the morning, with no alarm clock. You may find yourself uncomfortable at the beginning of the recovery cycle. Expect to bank to ten hours shut-eye per night. As the days pass, however, the amount of sleeping time will gradually decrease. For recovery sleep, both the hours of the sleep and the intensity(强度) of the sleep are important. The most refreshing sleep occurs during deep sleep, which is generally considered a restorative (促使健康的) period for the brain. And when you sleep for more hours, you allow your brain to spend more time relaxing.
As you reduce the sleep debt, your body will come to rest at a sleeping pattern that is specifically right for you. Sleep researcher believe that genes determine our individual sleeping patterns. So you can’t train yourself to be a “short sleeper”. A 2005 study in the journal Sleep found that the more tired we get, the less tired we feel.
46. Which of the following is NOT the side effect of sleep debt?
A. Putting on weight. B. Having a bad memory.
C. Having trouble eating food. D. A temporary loss of eyesight.
47. We learn from the 2007 survey that _______.
A. Americans generally don’t have enough sleep
B. Americans sleep too much over the weekends
C. everyone is supposed to sleep for eight hours
D. most people lack two weeks of sleep every year
48. What should we do to make up for the sleep shortage?
A. We should go to sleep when we are free.
B. We should sleep for at least ten hours every day.
C. We should sleep for one or two more hours at night.
D. We should sleep day and night during the holidays.
49. Why is the intensity of the sleep important to us?
A. Our brain is resting when we are sleeping deeply.
B. Deep sleep helps our brain to fully recover.
C. We feel more relaxed when sleeping soundly.
D. Short sleep makes our body more refreshing.
50. The author seems to believe that _________.
A. the more tired we are getting, the more sleep we need
B. the sleeping patterns have nothing to do with our genes
C. it is possible for us to reduce our sleep time by training
D. it is wise for us to adapt to our natural sleeping patterns.
For those who were born in the year of the pig, good luck and much success! This is your year. When talking to a westerner, however, you’ve got to be a little careful when talk about pigs. Chinese people view the pig as a small and prosperous (rich, luckily) animal. Western ideas tend to be a little more negative.(否定).
A pig in the West is seen as a dirty , lazy and fat animal. If anyone ever called you a pig, you wouldn’t be smiling. When a person doesn’t like someone, something he will call that person a pig.
If you ever meet a Westerner who was born in the year of the pig, don’t say, “Oh , you’re a pig!” Most Westerners will be misunderstanding. They will be sure that you made some kind of mistakes. However, don’t take any chances. You might just offend someone who does not share your positive ideas about.
66. You have to be careful when you talk to a Westerner about pigs because _____.
A. they worship pigs best of all
B. they consider pigs as gad animals
C. they aren’t used to talking about pigs
D, they don’t like the topic about pigs at all
67. According to the passage we can see that Chinese people think of the pig as a _____animal.
A. clever B. rich C. good D. all the above
68. He will call someone a pig if he _____that man.
A. dislikes B. is afraid of C. looks up to D. makes fun of
69. When you call a Westerner a pig, who was born in the year of the pig, most of them _____.
A. will be angryB. will be very surprised
C. can forgive you D. may quarrel with you
70. From the passage we can conclude that ______.
A. different people have different ideas about the same thing.
B. Westerners do not like pigs as much as the Chinese do
C. In general Westerners and the Chinese don’t like pigs
D. All of the Chinese like pigs better than Westerners
An earthquake happens when two plates（板块） rub (碰撞) together. The earth plates travel in different directions and at different speeds. If one plate is slowly forced underneath the other, pressure builds up until the plates break apart. This process causes the ground to move. It is an earthquake. In other words, earth-quakes are the shaking of the earth’s surface caused by the earth’s rocky outer layer as a result of the energy stored within the earth. The strain within the rocks is suddenly released (释放).
The damage an earthquake causes depends on where it is and the time it is happening. If an unpopulated region is struck, there will be low loss of life or property. If it hits a large city, there may be many in-juries and much destruction. Many of the areas at risk are largely populated now. Major earthquakes hitting those areas today could produce terrible damage.
Actually, there are several million small earth-quakes every year. Large earthquakes such as the 1964 Alaskan quake that measured 9.2 on the Richter scale, cause millions of dollars in damage. In the last 500 years, millions of people have been killed by earth-quakes around the world — including 240,000 in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China.
A 60-second or less earthquake can cause devastation that continues for years after the first tremor (小震). In 1972, a series of severe earthquakes struck Managua, Nicaragua. Fifteen years later, the city still looked the way it had a week after the earthquake hit, because the country did not have the necessary money to rebuild it.
The shaking of the earth is sometimes not the greatest disaster. It is in the ensuing fires and floods that often the greatest damage occurs. In the 1906 earthquake, it was the fires caused after it that did the majority of the damage. An earthquake can also destroy dams high above a city or valleys, causing floods to sweep down and sweep away everything in their path.
61.Which of the following is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A. An earthquake comes from inside the earth.
B. The earth has great energy in storage.
C. How the earth plates move.
D. How an earthquake happens.
62.How many examples are used in the passage to show the damage and destruction earthquakes cause?
A. Three. B. Four. C. Five. D. Six.
63. Which of the following is mentioned to show that an earthquake can kill too many people?
A. The 1964 Alaskan quake. B. The 1976 Tangshan earthquake.
C. The 1972 Managua earthquake. D. The 1906 earthquake.
64. The underlined word “ensuing” in the last paragraph probably means ______.
A. causing too much heat and great damage
B. causing many injuries and much destruction
C. happening as a result of another event
D. happening suddenly and unexpectedly
65. By giving the example in Paragraph 4, the author wants to show that ______.
A. an earthquake doesn’t last long B. the damage can last long
C. people in Managua suffered too much D. Nicaragua is still a poor country