Many American presidents in the 19th century were born in poor families. They spent their childhood in little wooden rooms. They got little education . Washington and Lincoln, for example, never went to school and they taught themselves. Lincoln once did jobs of a worker, shopkeeper and post officer in his early years.
A large number of U. S. presidents had experiences in the army. The two best known were Ulysses Grant and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Grant was a general (将军) in the American Civil War and Eisenhower was a hero in the Second World War. It happened that they graduated from the same school—West Point Military Academy . One may be surprised to learn that both of them did not do well in the school. Eisenhower, for example, was once fined (罚款) because he broke the rules of the school.
The jobs of U. S. presidents are tiring. He must keep an eye on anything important which happens both at home and abroad. Every day, a lot of work waits for him to do, and he has to make many important decisions. When Franklin Roosevelt was a child, he was once brought to visit President Taft. The old president said to him, “When you grow up, you should not be president. It’s a tiring job.”In the nineteenth century, many U.S. presidents .
A.did not have much knowledge in their work |
B.had been workers, shop-keepers and post officers in their early years |
C.couldn’t receive good education before they grew up |
D.didn’t want to go to school during their childhood |
President Eisenhower became well-known .
A.while studying in West Point Military Academy. |
B.during the American Civil War |
C.after he was elected President of the U. S. |
D.during World War II |
In this passage, “keep an eye on” means “ ”.
A.pay close attention to | B.not pay attention to |
C.look at something with one eye | D.never keep in mind |
Which of the following do you think is right according to the last paragraph?
A.In the U. S. no one wanted to be president because it was tiring. |
B.None of the presidents except Taft could do the tiring job. |
C.It is an important and tiring job to be a president in the U. S. |
D.President Taft didn’t want Roosevelt to be a president because he was too young. |
Which do you think is the main idea of the second paragraph?
A.Many of the U. S. presidents had served in the army before they took office. |
B.Only those who didn’t work hard at school but were good at fighting could be presidents. |
C.Grant and Eisenhower became well-known because they both graduated from West Point Military Academy. |
D.Eisenhower was President at the beginning of the Second World War. |
Waste can be seen everywhere in the school. Some students ask for more food than they can eat and others often forget to turn off the lights when they leave the classroom. They say they can afford these things. But I don't agree with them.
Waste can bring a lot of problems. Although China is rich in some resources , we are short of others, for example, fresh water(淡水). It is reported that we will have no coal or oil to use in 100 years. So if we go on wasting our resources, what can we use in the future and where can we move? Think about it. I think we should say no to the students who waste things every day. Everybody should stop wasting as soon as possible.
In our everyday life, we can do many things to prevent waste from happening, for example, turn off the water taps when we finish washing, turn off the lights when we leave the classroom, try not to order more food than we need, and so on. Little by little, everything will be changed. Waste can be stopped one day, if we do our best. From the passage we know that some students often ________ in the school.
A.waste things | B.don't work hard |
C.eat too much | D.throw rubbish everywhere |
Which is not mentioned in this passage?
A.Forest. | B.Fresh water. | C.Oil. | D.Coal. |
What may happen in 100 years?
A.We may still have enough oil. |
B.We may still have enough coal. |
C.We may have a little oil. |
D.We may have no coal or oil to use. |
Which is the best title of this passage?
A.School life | B.Stop Wasting |
C.Waste in the School | D.Rich Resources in China |
Happiness is for everyone. You don' t need to care about those people who have beautiful houses with large gardens and swimming pools or those who have nice cars and a lot of money and so on. Why? Because those who have big houses may often feel lonely and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads at their free time.
In fact, happiness is always around you if you put your heart into it. When you are in trouble at school, your friends will help you; when you study hard at your lessons, your parents are always taking good care of your life and your health; when you get success, your friends will say congratulations to you; when you do something wrong, people around you will help you to correct it. And when you do something good to others, you will feel happy, too. All these are your happiness. If you notice a bit of them, you can see that happiness is always around you.
Happiness is not the same as money. It is a feeling of your heart. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy, because you have something else that can' t be bought with money. When you meet with difficulties, you can say loudly you are very happy, because you have more chances to challenge yourself. So you cannot always say you are poor and you have bad luck. As the saying goes, life is like a revolving(旋转的)door. When it closes, it also opens. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person.When you fall down in a PE class, both your teacher and your classmates will ______.
A.laugh at you | B.play jokes on you |
C.quarrel with you | D.help you up |
What will your friends say to you when you make great progress?
A.Congratulations. | B.Oh, so do I. |
C.Good luck. | D.It' s just so-so. |
Which idea is NOT RIGHT according to the passage?
A.Happiness is always around you though difficulties come towards you. |
B.You can get help from others when you make mistakes. |
C.You can still be a happy person even if you have little money. |
D.People who have cars would never like to walk in the open air. |
Which of the following is this passage about?
A.Bad luck | B.Good luck | C.Happiness | D.Life. |
Debra Veal is a very brave woman. She took part in a race to row across the Atlantic,a journey for about 3, 360 kilometers. She was in one of the 36 small rowing boats that set off on October 7th, 2001 from Tenerife. Each small boat was the same with food for the journey. She arrived in Barbados on January 26th , 2002 after rowing across the Atlantic for three-and-a-half months.
Debra began the journey with her husband in a small boat called Troika Transatlantic. But after 14 days he became very afraid, so he was taken off the small rowing boat. This did not make Debra give up. For the next hundred days, she rowed her small boat against the waves and the wind.
When she at last arrived at the end of her journey, she was reluctant ( 不情愿的 ) to leave her boat though her husband and family were there to welcome her. The boat had carried her safely to the end of the journey. She said, "I just want to toast(给……敬酒)this lady, this very special lady. I am full of sadness that I will have to leave her. She has protected me through many storms. "Debra Veal's husband gave up because_________.
A.he had to look after their child | B.it was a dangerous journey |
C.there was no food for the journey | D.he was fed up with the journey |
"this lady" refers to_________.
A.her mother | B.her boat | C.herself | D.the journey |
Which of the following is right?
A.The journey lasted 100 days. |
B.Each boat was different. |
C.Debra Veal wanted to leave her boat as soon as the race ended. |
D.It was hard to get to the end of the journey. |
Cultural Center Adds Classes for Young Adults
The Allendale Cultural Center has expanded its arts program to include classes for young adults. Director Leah Martin announced Monday that beginning in September, three new classes will be offered to the Allendale community. The course titles will be Yoga for Teenagers; Hip Hop Dance: Learning the Latest Moves; and Creative Journaling for Teens: Discovering the Writer Within. The latter course will not be held at the Allendale Cultural Center but instead will meet at the Allendale Public Library.
Staff member Tricia Cousins will teach the yoga and hip hop classes. Ms. Cousins is an accomplished choreographer (舞蹈教师) as well as an experienced dance educator. She has an MA in dance education from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she wrote a thesis on the pedagogical (教学法的) effectiveness of dance education. The journaling class will be taught by Betsy Milford. Ms. Milford is the head librarian at the Allendale Public Library as well as a columnist for the professional journal Library Focus.
The courses are part of the Allendale Cultural Center’s Project Teen, which was initiated by Leah Martin, Director of the Cultural Center. According to Martin, this project is a direct result of her efforts to make the center a more essential part of the Allendale community. Over the last several years, the number of people who have visited the cultural center for classes or events has steadily declined. Project Teen is primarily funded by a generous grant from The McGee Arts Foundation, an organization devoted to bringing arts programs to young adults. Martin oversees the Project Teen board, which consists of five board members. Two board members are students at Allendale’s Brookdale High School; the other three are adults with backgrounds in education and the arts.
The creative journaling class will be cosponsored by Brookdale High School, and students who complete the class will be given the opportunity to publish one of their journal entries in Pulse, Brookdale’s student literary magazine. Students who complete the hip hop class will be eligible to participate in the Allendale Review, an annual concert sponsored by the cultural center that features local actors, musicians, and dancers. All classes are scheduled to begin immediately following school dismissal, and transportation will be available from Brookdale High School to the Allendale Cultural Center and the Allendale Public Library. For more information about Project Teen, contact the cultural center’s programming office at 988-0099 or drop by the office after June 1 to pick up a fall course catalog. The office is located on the third floor of the Allendale Town Hall.Which of the following statements is correct?
A.Tricia Cousins will teach two of the new classes. |
B.The new classes will begin on June 1. |
C.People who want a complete fall catalogue should stop by the Allendale Public Library. |
D.The cultural center’s annual concert is called Pulse. |
According to Leah Martin, what was the direct cause of Project Teen?
A.Tricia Cousins was available to teach courses in the fall. |
B.Community organizations were ignoring local teenagers. |
C.The McGee Arts Foundation wanted to be more involved in Allendale’s arts programming. |
D.She wanted to make the cultural center a more important part of the Allendale community. |
Which of the following factors is implied as another reason for Project Teen?
A.The number of people visiting the cultural center has declined over the last several years. |
B.The cultural center wanted a grant from The McGee Arts Foundation. |
C.The young people of Allendale have complained about the cultural center’s offerings. |
D.Leah Martin thinks classes for teenagers are more important than classes for adults. |
This article is organized in which of the following ways?
A.In time order, from the past to the future. |
B.Most important information first, followed by background and details. |
C.Background first, followed by the most important information and details. |
D.As sensational news, with the most controversial topic first. |
The number of speakers of English in Shakespeare's time is estimated to have been about five million. Today it is estimated that some 260 million people speak it as a native language, mainly in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In addition to the standard varieties of English found in these areas, there are a great many regional and social varieties of the language as well as various levels of usage that are employed both in its spoken and written forms.
In fact, it is impossible to estimate the number of people in the world who have acquired an adequate working knowledge of English in addition to their own languages. The purpose for English learning and the situations in which such learning takes place are so varied that it is difficult to explain and still more difficult to judge what forms an adequate working knowledge for each situation.
The main reason for the widespread demand for English is its presentday importance as a world language. Besides serving the indefinite needs of its native speakers, English is a language in which some of important works in science, technology, and other fields are being produced, and not always by native speakers. It is widely used for such purposes as meteorological and airport communications, international conferences, and the spread of information over the radio and television networks of many nations. It is a language of wider communication for a number of developing countries, especially former British colonies. Many of these countries have multilingual populations and need a language for internal communication in such matters as government, commerce, industry, law and education as well as for international communication and for entrance to the scientific and technological developments in the West. Which of the following statements is NOT true?
A.Some 260 million people in the world have an adequate working knowledge of English. |
B.There are some 260 million native speakers of English in the world. |
C.It is almost impossible to estimate the number of people with an adequate working knowledge of English. |
D.People learn English for a variety of reasons. |
According to the passage, what is the main reason for the widespread use of English?
A.It was popular during Shakespeare's time. |
B.It is used in former British colonies. |
C.It serves the needs of its native speakers. |
D.It is a world language that is used for international communication. |
What forms an adequate working knowledge of English?
A.The ability to read a newspaper. |
B.It is difficult to judge because it differs for each situation. |
C.Being a multilingual. |
D.Being a native speaker. |
What type of developing countries would be most likely to use English?
A.Those geographically close to the United States. |
B.Those interested in the culture of the United States. |
C.Former colonies of Great Britain. |
D.Countries where international conferences are held. |