The passengers on the subway who caught a glimpse of me may have thought I was strange. In particular a gentleman sitting opposite me was always staring at me, looking at the cheese bread on the floor in front of me and then staring back at me. A passenger probably dropped it by mistake and got off at a previous stop, but the gentleman might not think so. “Next stop, St. Patrick Station” — my stop was quickly coming up. I had a few minutes to either take the cheese bread, which nobody else was claiming, or leave it there.
In those few minutes I felt my pride getting in the way. “What would others on the subway think of me if I took the cheese bread? Would they think that I was poor and hungry? Would they think that I was stealing?” The ignorant thing to do was say “yes” to any of those self-imposed questions. Actually, they were just my own thoughts. Though I would leave the subway, walk a block to my office, get settled at my desk, and sit comfortably in my office for the whole day, I couldn’t get rid of the enormous sense of guilt and regret.
My thoughts once pushed me towards pride and ignorance, but finally I had to admit I was wrong. This missing cheese bread could be a gift for a homeless person who suffered from cold and hunger. So why not overcome a little bit of my pride and pass along so much kindness?
Just as the doors opened at my stop, I grabbed the cheese bread and left the subway. It felt awesome, but I didn’t care if people were looking at me or what they were thinking. Instead of going directly to my office as usual, I walked a few more blocks up to Queen’s park, where I often saw a homeless man sitting outside. I always wanted to give him something, but only today I walked toward him, who wrapped himself in a sleeping bag. I was full of satisfaction, and so did the homeless man, I thought.The gentleman kept staring at the author because _______.
| A．he wanted to talk to the author |
| B．he might think the author dropped the bread |
| C．the author appeared too nervous |
| D．the author was going to get off |
The underlined word “self-imposed” in paragraph 2 probably means “_______”.
| A．easily obtained |
| B．strongly supported |
| C．purposely created |
| D．completely unaccepted |
Why did the author grab the cheese bread when he got off?
| A．He noticed that no one was looking at him. |
| B．He didn’t want to see the cheese bread to go to waste. |
| C．He remembered a homeless man at that very moment. |
| D．He valued kindness more than his own pride. |
For many parents , raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming, the goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right, it doesn’t matter what the topic is----politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg ----the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority ---- someone who actually knows something ---- and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress. Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?
| A．both can continue for generations. |
| B．both are about where to draw the line. |
| C．Neither has any clear winner. |
| D．Neither can be put to an end. |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
| C．The teens accuse their parents of misleading them. |
| D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ________.
| A．give orders to the other |
| B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other |
| D．get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Causes for the parent-teen conflicts. |
| B．Examples of the parent-teen war. |
| C．Solutions for the parent-teen problems. |
| D．Future of the parent-teen relationship. |
Even at school there had been an unhealthy competition between George and Richard.
“I’ll be the first millionaire in Coleford!” Richard used to boast.
“And you’ll be sorry you knew me,” George would reply “because I’ll be the best lawyer in the town!”
George never did become a lawyer and Richard never made any money. Instead both men opened bookshops on opposite sides of Coleford High Street. It was hard to make money from books, which made the competition between them worse.
Then Richard married a mysterious girl. The couple spent their honeymoon on the coast—but Richard never came back. The police found his wallet on a deserted beach but the body was never found. He must have drowned.
Now with only one bookshop in town, business was better for George. But sometimes he sat in his narrow, old kitchen and gazed out of the dirty window, thinking about his formal rival(竞争对手). Perhaps he missed him?
George was very interested in old dictionaries. He’d recently found a collector in Australia who was selling a rare first edition. When the parcel arrived, the book was in perfect condition and George was delighted. But while he was having lunch, George glanced at the photo in the newspaper that the book had been wrapped in. He was astonished—the smiling face was older than he remembered but unmistakable! Trembling, George started reading.
“Bookends have bought ten bookstores from their rivals Dylans. The company, owned by multi-millionaire Richard Pike, is now the largest bookseller in Australia.”George and Richard were ______ at school.
| A．roommates | B．good friends | C．competitors | D．booksellers |
How did George feel about Richard after his disappearance?
| A．He envied Richard’s marriage. |
| B．He thought of Richard from time to time. |
| C．He felt lucky with no rival in town. |
| D．He was guilty of Richard’s death. |
George got information about Richard from ______.
| A．a dictionary collector in Australia |
| B．the latter’s rivals Dylans |
| C．a rare first edition of a dictionary |
| D．the wrapping paper of a book |
What happened to George and Richard in the end?
| A．Both George and Richard became millionaires. |
| B．Both of them realized their original ambitions. |
| C．George established a successful business while Richard was missing. |
| D．Richard became a millionaire while George had no great success. |
The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of 2 September 1666. In four days it destroyed more than three-quarters of the old city, where most of the houses were wooden and close together. Over one hundred people became homeless, but only a few lost their lives.
The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King’s baker（面包师）in Pudding Lane. The baker, with his wife and family, was able to get out through a window into the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery（面包房）into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.
By eight o’ clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometer of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire destroyed many well-known buildings, old St Pauls and the Guildhall among them.
Samuel Pepys, the famous writer, write about the fire, “People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the heat .”
The fire stopped only when the King finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.
After the fire, Christopher Wren, the architect(建筑师), wanted a city with wider streets and fine new houses of stone. In fact, the streets are still narrow, but he did build more than fifty churches, among them the mew St Pauls.
The fire caused great pain and loss, but after it London was a better place: a city for the future and not just of the past.The fire began in_________ .
| A．a hotel | B．the palace | C．Pudding Lane | D．Thames Street |
The underlined word “family” in the second paragraph means_________ .
| A．home | B．children | C．wife and husband | D．wife and children |
Why did the writer cite(引用)Samuel Pepys?
| A．Because Pepys was among those putting out the fire. |
| B．Because Pepys also wrote about the fire. |
| C．To show that poor people suffered most. |
| D．To give the reader a clearer picture of the fire. |
How was the fire put out according to the text?
| A．The soldiers came to help. |
| B．All the wooden houses in the city were destroyed. |
| C．People managed to get enough water from the river. |
| D．Houses standing in the path of the fire were destroyed according to the King’s order. |
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They combine funny words, pictures, and social opinions.
Dr Seuss wrote his first book for children in 1937. It is called And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. A number of publishers refused to publish it. They said it was too different. A friend finally published it. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years, he wrote more than forty children’s books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects.
By the middle 1940s, Dr Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful writers of children’s books. He liked helping children. In 1954, Life magazine published a report about school children who could not read. The report said that many children’s books weren’t interesting. Dr Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read.
In 1957, Dr Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 225 words to write the book. This was about the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read.
The story is about a cat who tries to entertain two children on a rainy day while their mother is away from home. The cat is not like normal cats. It talks. The book was an immediate success. It was an interesting story and was easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults say it is still one of the stories they like best.What’s the best title for this passage?
| A．Some of Dr Seuss’ books for children. |
| B．What are Dr Seuss’s books mainly about? |
| C．Dr Seuss — a famous writer of children’s books. |
| D．Why are Dr Seuss’ books different? |
What do we know about Dr Seuss’s first book for children?
| A．It was Dr Seuss’ worst book. |
| B．It dealt with a very serious subject. |
| C．Neither children nor adults like it. |
| D．Many publishers didn’t accept his book at first. |
How did Dr Seuss help children according to Paragraph 3?
| A．By asking others to help them in magazines. |
| B．By writing interesting and simple books. |
| C．By changing his old books into simpler ones. |
| D．By giving them books for free. |
Adults most probably think that Dr Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat is _________
| A．interesting | B．serious | C．difficult | D．boring |
Why does the writer introduce so many animals from different places to us?
| A．To frighten us in the zoo. |
| B．To make us lovely in the zoo. |
| C．To attract us to the zoo. |
| D．To show that animals can do everything. |
How much does Mr. Smith have to pay if he visits the zoo with his two-year-old son?
| A．￥3. | B．￥4. | C．￥5. | D．￥6. |
At which of the following time can we visit the zoo?
| A．8:30 a.m. Wednesday. | B．9:30 a.m. Friday. |
| C．3:00 p.m. Sunday. | D．5:00 p.m. Tuesday. |