Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17,1706 in Boston，America. In his life he built a successful printing and publishing business in Philadelphia；he conducted scientific studies of electricity and made several important discoveries；he was a diplomat (外交官) and statesman；he helped establish Pennsylvania’s first university and America’s first city hospital；he also organized the country’s first subscription library (收费图书馆)．
Franklin was also unequaled in America as an inventor until Thomas Edison. Ben had poor eyesight and needed glasses to read. He got tired of always taking them off and putting them back on，so he decided to figure out a way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of glasses cut in half and put half of them together. Today，we call them bifocals (双光眼镜)．Another invention of his，an iron stove，allowed people to warm their homes.
He loved to learn about new things. He also thought it was important to make life better with the things that he invented. Electricity was one of the things he experimented with when he retired from his business. Ben discovered that lightning (闪电) and electricity were the same thing. The lightning rod was an important invention that we still use today to protect buildings and ships from lightning damage.
Franklin preferred to have his inventions used freely for the comfort and convenience of everyone. Thomas Jefferson，the third president of America，called Benjamin Franklin “the greatest man of the age and country in which he lived”．To Benjamin Franklin there was no greater purpose in life than to “live usefully”．Benjamin Franklin was NOT a________.
| A．diplomat | B．scientist |
| C．businessman | D．president |
The underlined word “unequaled” in Paragraph 2 means________.
| A．better than any other | B．worse than any other |
| C．the same as others | D．confident as others |
Which of the following is NOT Benjamin’s invention?
| A．Bifocals. | B．The iron stove. |
| C．Printing. | D．The lightning rod. |
What was Benjamin Franklin’s purpose in life?
| A．To live comfortably every day. |
| B．To be useful to others. |
| C．To be a famous person in the world. |
| D．To earn a lot by inventing things. |
Victor’s hobby was collecting stamps. He had stamps from many countries, like England, Canada and China. On his birthday, can you guess what people gave him? That’s right--stamps.
Victor’s favourite stamps came from France. He had almost every stamp from 1954 to 2004. He only needed one. That was a 1974 special edition(版本). It was very hard to find.
He looked for it everywhere. He asked his friends and relatives to help him. But nobody could find the stamp. It made Victor very sad.
“Don’t worry. Never give up,” his father said to him. “If you have enough patience, you’ll find it one day.”
“I hope so,” Victor said.
Victor also liked writing. He had a penfriend in France. They wrote to each other every month. Victor’s penfriend, Phillip, usually used new stamps to send letters. Sometimes, his mother gave him stamps to use. Once Phillip’s mother gave him a big, green stamp. It looked old. When Victor received the letter, he was very surprised. On the envelope, he looked carefully at the stamp. It was the 1974 special edition stamp. Victor was so happy. He told his sister, his mother and his father.
“You see,” his father said. “ You did find your stamp. So, it’s good to have two things in life.”
“What are they?” Victor asked.
“ Friends and patience.” He answered.It was very difficult for Victor to find a special French stamp of _________.
| A．1954 | B．1974 | C．1994 | D．2004 |
What does the underlined word “patience” mean?
| A．勇气 | B．知识 | C．耐心 | D．目标 |
Who owned the special edition stamp at the very beginning?
| A．Phillip. | B．Phillip’s mother. |
| C．Victor. | D．Victor’s father. |
Which sentence is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Victor’s father didn’t support his hobby. |
| B．Victor both liked collecting stamps and writing. |
| C．Phillip’s mother wanted his son to write letters to Victor. |
| D．Phillip was from France. |
The passage mainly tells us that ________ is(are) important to people.
| A．a happy family |
| B．a good hobby |
| C．relatives and friendship |
| D．friends and patience |
At noon, Shi Huizi received a text message: “This is Yuantong Express. Please come to the school gate and pick up your parcel.” The 22-year-old girl at Beijing International Studies University rushed to the school gate, where hundreds of parcels lay waiting to be collected by their owners.
This scene is not uncommon on China’s campuses, as shopping online has become an important part of their lifestyle for many university students. But convenient as it is, online shopping among students is marked by impulse(冲动) buying and other risks. Students should be cautious to avoid them.
According to Taobao, during last year’s graduation season, 250,000 graduate students from 116 “211” project universities nationwide spent 846 million yuan on Taobao. Beijing Haidian Consumers’ Association conducted a survey on the online purchasing behavior of students, which showed that nearly 54 percent of respondents had made irrational purchases.
Yang Yi is one of them. The 23-year-old business administration major at Beijing Wuzi University bought a limited edition Gundam model kit online for a small fortune, only to find that its appeal faded rapidly. “I did like it when I bought it, but it doesn’t look so attractive to me anymore now. So I’ve decided to sell it to pay off my debts,” says Yang. Yang’s experience reflects the consumption patterns (消费方式) of many university students. In an attempt to be unique, many of them turn to online shops to buy “exotic(奇异的)” items not easily found in the domestic (国内的) market.
According to Lei Li, a psychology professor at Renmin University, the impulsive buying patterns found among students have psychological roots. When shopping online is a campus trend, it’s not only about convenience, but also about group identification(认可). “If everyone is doing something and you’re not, you’re less likely to be accepted by others,” Lei says. The mentality(心态) of not wanting to be left out is fuelling impulse buying.
As he Haidian survey indicates, online shopping is not always a satisfying experience. Of 848 respondents(调查对象) from universities based in Beijing, 42 percent said they had received products that didn’t match the online description or photos. Even so, 72.5 percent of student buyers don’t return unsatisfactory goods due to the inconvenience it causes and long procedures.
Lei suggests that students who are enthusiastic about online shopping “pay attention to the consequences and develop a wiser way of consuming—namely, buying items within their budget and being aware of the risks of buying online.”How does the passage introduce its topic?
| A．By making comparisons. |
| B．By giving an example. |
| C．By making an analysis (分析). |
| D．By showing the result of a survey. |
According to the passage, which of the following is NOT the reason why shopping online becomes a campus trend?
| A．Because of the mind of not wanting to be left out in a group. |
| B．Because many students turn to online shops trying to buy rare items in China. |
| C．Because it is convenient to buy online. |
| D．Because the school hasn’t taught them how to consume wisely. |
What does the underlined word “irrational” in Para. 3 mean?
| A．Unreasonable. | B．Expensive. |
| C．Worthless. | D．Priceless. |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．The Risks of Shopping Online |
| B．The Trend of Shopping Online |
| C．Students Shop on Impulse |
| D．Buying More Wisely |
If you have a chance to go to Taiwan, there’s one place you should not miss— the Taipei Palace Museum. The museum has around 650,000 pieces of ancient Chinese treasures. These treasures were originally in the Palace Museum in Beijing. But how did they get to Taiwan?
In 1931, the Japanese invaded the northeast part of China. To protect the national treasures from the Japanese, the government of the Republic of China decided to move some important pieces to Nanjing.
However, they did not stay long in Nanjing. In 1949, the people’s Liberation Army won in the Liberation War. The Guomindang government went from Nanjing to Taiwan. Along with them they took the art pieces. The Taipei Palace Museum was set up in 1965 to hold the national treasures.
Taiwan people are very proud of the Taipei Palace Museum. Some of the collections are world famous. One of the most visited art pieces in the museum is the “Jade Cabbage”. It is made from a single piece of jade(绿玉). If you take a close look, you can see two grasshoppers on the leaves, a large one and a small one, which were the symbol of many children in a family.
If you are interested in the treasures, you could take a look at a TV programme called Taipei Palace Museum. It gives a picture of the treasures of the Taipei Palace Museum. There are also interviews with over a hundred experts about the stories behind some of the pieces.The treasures stayed in Nanjing for about _______ years.
| A．10 | B．16 | C．18 | D．34 |
Why did the Guomindang government take these treasures to Taiwan?
| A．Because the Japanese invaded the northeast part of China. |
| B．Because they wanted to protect the treasures from the Japanese. |
| C．Because they wanted to show them to Taiwan people. |
| D．Because they were defeated by the People’s Liberation Army. |
From the last two paragraphs we can learn _______.
| A．Taiwan people are proud of the Taipei Palace Museum because of its world famous collections. |
| B．the most famous art piece in the museum is the “Jade cabbage”. |
| C．two grasshoppers on the leaves stand for two sons in a family. |
| D．you can learn about these treasures by visiting the Taipei Palace Museum. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．The most famous art piece—Jade Cabbage |
| B．The Beijing Palace Museum |
| C．A place of interest—Taiwan |
| D．The Taipei Palace Museum |
I am a Chinese. I’ve always been making drams from time to time. Those dreams made by each average Chinese like me are certainly Chinese dreams. Dreams vary from person to person, an d also from time to time. But in a certain time, people share the similar dreams here I’d like to share my Chinese dreams with you.
When I was a child in 1970s, poverty kept hovering (盘旋) over my family, just as it did with other average families in the countryside. The unfit(不合身的) second-hand clothes, rain leaking roof of old adobe(土坯) house became part of my memory. However, the worse impression is that I was feeling hungry all the time. Sometimes hunger bit me so severely that I regarded dried sweet potato slices as a delicious snack. The sharp cracks of chewing are still echoing (回响) in my dream. At that time, my dram was getting enough to fill my cooing empty belly.
In the early years of 1980s, as the reform and opening-up policy was carried out, the child dream came true. And then another dream became clearer and clearer in my mind. I must try my best to escape out of my poor and backward hometown. I worked harder at my study than most of my classmates, and, after luckily succeeding in the national college entrance examination, my dream became reality again: after graduation, I became a citizen working in a city. As the first college graduate out of a remote (偏远的) village, my success set an example for my folks. They came to realize that schooling is a good way to change one’s fate(命运). In the following years, there were less drop-outs and more college graduates in my village, of which I am proud even today.
Afterwards, I got accustomed to the life of citizens and I began to dream the same things as other peers: a comfortable home, my own car and a big house. Based on my hard-work, more than ten years passed, all of these dreams have been fulfilled. Of course, new dreams will come true sooner or later only if my motherland keeps advancing with current(当前的，现在的)pace.
My Chinese dreams are also ones of other Chinese people. If every individual’s dreams come true, the dream of the great rejuvenation(复兴) of the Chinese nation will be sure to come true. “The Chinese dream, after all, is the dream of the people,” as the Chairman Xi Jingping said.What is it that made the author’s child dream come true?
| A．Selling the dried sweet potato slices. |
| B．The country’s reform and opening-up policy. |
| C．Escaping from his poor hometown. |
| D．Working harder than any other classmates. |
When the author was young, his family ______.
| A．was as poor as many other families |
| B．was richer than other average families |
| C．didn’t like the second-hand clothes |
| D．never get the author’s belly cooing |
Which of the following statements about the author is WRONG?
| A．The author has many dreams in his life. |
| B．The author accepted his college education. |
| C．there are more drop-outs in the author’s village. |
| D．The author realized all of his dreams by hard-working. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The author’s dreams are different from other Chinese people’s dreams. |
| B．The Chinese dream is based on every Chinese individual’s dreams. |
| C．Only if the Chinese dream comes true, can the author’s dreams come true. |
| D．The author and his family live a happy life in the countryside. |
Chocolate is good for your heart, skin and brain. Usually, people think that chocolate is bad for their health. They describe chocolate as “something to die for” or say “death by chocolate”. Now they should bite their tongues! Evidence is showing that some kinds of chocolate are actually good for you in the following ways:
A happier heart
Scientists at Harvard University recently examined 136 studies on cocoa— the main ingredient in chocolate— and found that it does seem to strengthen the heart. Studies have shown heart benefits from increased blood flow. These benefits are the result of cocoa’s chemicals, which seem to prevent both cell damage and inflammation(炎症)。
Better blood pressure
If yours is high, chocolate may help. Jeffrey Blumberg from Tufts University recently found that people with high blood pressure who ate 3.5ounces of dark chocolate per day for two weeks saw their blood pressure drop quickly.
Muscle magic
Chocolate milk may help you recover after a hard workout(锻炼). In a small study at Indiana University, people who drank chocolate milk between workouts did better on a tiredness test than those who had some sports drinks.
Better for your skin
German researchers gave 24 women a half-cup of special cocoa every day. After three months, the women’s skin was moister(润滑的) and smoother. The research shows that chocolate helps protect and increase blood flow to the skin, improving its appearance.
Brain gains.
It sounds almost too good to be true, but research suggests that chocolate may improve your memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem-solving skills by increasing blood flow to the brain.What’s the meaning of “bite their tongues” in the first paragraph?
| A．Stop talking. | B．Speak up. |
| C．Think of it. | D．Listen to it. |
What’s the meaning of the underlined sentence in the fourth paragraph?
| A．Sports drinks are better than chocolate milk. |
| B．sports drinks can make people easy to be tired. |
| C．Drinking milk can keep you energetic at work. |
| D．we should drink chocolate milk between times when we work hard. |
What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．Chocolate, a Healthy Food |
| B．More Chocolate, Less Health |
| C．Chocolate and Blood Pressure |
| D．Advice on Eating Chocolate |