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My father had always been an alert observer of human character. Within seconds of meeting someone, he could sum up their strengths and weaknesses. It was always a challenge to see if any of my boyfriends could pass Dad’s test. None did. Dad was always right---they didn’t pass my test either. After Dad died, I wondered how I’d figure it out on my own.
That’s when Jack arrived on the scene. He was different from any other guy I’d dated. He could sit for hours on the piano bench with my mother, discussing some composers. My brother Rick loudly announced that Jack wasn’t a turkey like the other guys I’d brought home. Jack passed my family’s test. But what about Dad’s?
Then came my mother’s birthday. The day he was supposed to drive, I got a call. “Don’t worry,” he said, “but I’ve been in an accident. I’m fine, but I need you to pick me up.”
When I got there, we rushed to a flower shop for something for Mom. “How about gardenias?” Jack said, pointing at a beautiful white corsage(胸花). The florist put the corsage in a box.
The entire ride, Jack was unusually quiet. “Are you all right?” I asked. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” he said. “I might be moving.” Moving? Then he added, “Moving in with you.” I nearly put the car on the sidewalk. “What?” I asked. “I think we should get married,” he said. He told me he’d planned his proposal in a fancy restaurant, but after the accident, he decided to do it right away. “Yes,” I whispered. We both sat dumbfounded, tears running down our cheeks. I’d never known such a tender moment. If only Dad were here to give his final approval.
“Oh, let’s just go inside.” Jack laughed. My mother opened the door. “Happy Birthday!” we shouted. Jack handed the box to her. She opened it up. Suddenly, her eyes were filled with tears. “Mom, what’s wrong?” I asked. “I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her eyes. “This is only the second gardenia corsage I’ve ever received. I was given one years ago, long before you kids were born.” “From who? ” I asked. “Your father,” Mom said. “He gave me one right before we were engaged.” My eyes locked on Jack’s as I blinked away(眨掉) tears. Dad’s test? I knew Jack had passed.
According to the text, we know the writer’s father was __________.

A．interested in observing things around

B．good at judging one’s character

C．strict with her boyfriend

D．fond of challenges

What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?

A．Jack got the family’s approval except Dad’s.

B．Jack was different from any other boy.

C．Jack was getting on well with Mother.

D．Jack knew a lot about piano.

The underlined word “proposal” in Paragraph 5 means __________.

A．piece of advice	B．wedding ceremony
C．celebration of birthday	D．offer of marriage

On hearing “moving in with you”, the writer felt __________.

A．pleased	B．worried
C．surprised	D．disappointed

Why did the writer’s mother cry?

A．The gift was the same as the one her husband gave her.

B．She had never received such a beautiful gift.

C．Her daughter found her life partner at last.

D．The gardenia corsage was too expensive.

The evidence for harmony （和谐）may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly-held image(形象) of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. "We were surprised by just how positive today's young people seem to be about their families," said one member of the research team. "They're expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There's more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don't want to rock the boat."
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. "My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me," says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. " I always tell them when I'm going out clubbing. As long as they know what I'm doing, they're fine with it." Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. "Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I'd done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that."
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, "Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over."
According to the author, teenage rebellion ________.

A．resulted from changes in families

B．is common nowadays

C．may be a false belief

D．existed only in the 1960s

What is the passage mainly about?

A．Education in family

B．Harmony in family

C．Teenage trouble in family

D．Negotiation in family

The study shows that teenagers don't want to ________.

A．go boating with their family

B．share family responsibility

C．make family decisions

D．cause trouble in their families

Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today's parents ________.

A．care less about their children's life

B．go to clubs more often with their children

C．give their children more freedom

D．are much stricter with their children

Authorities in Shanghai said Thursday night that another person has died from H7N9 bird flu, bringing the death toll to five around the country. The city has reported six infections (感染) to date, and four have died, said the Shanghai Municipal Health and Family Planning Commission. Of the rest two, there was a four-year-old, the agency said. The baby was recovering from mild illness, it added. The person died at Huashan Hospital on Wednesday and was confirmed infected with the H7N9 bird flu on Thursday.
Also on Thursday, the commission reported the city's third death from the H7N9 bird flu. The case involved a 48-year-old man surnamed Chu, a poultry (家禽) transporter from Rugao in neighboring Jiangsu Province. He developed symptoms(症状) of cough on March 28. After having a fever on Monday, he went to a private clinic for treatment. The man then sought help in the Tongji Hospital in Shanghai in the early hours of Wednesday after his condition worsened. Chu died three hours after being admitted to the hospital. He was confirmed infected with the H7N9 virus on Thursday. Eight people who had close contact with him have shown no abnormal symptoms.
So far, China has confirmed 14 H7N9 cases -- six in Shanghai, four in Jiangsu, three in Zhejiang and one in Anhui, in the first known human infections of the lesser-known type of bird flu. Of all, four died in Shanghai and one died in Zhejiang. China's Ministry of Agriculture said Thursday the H7N9 avian flu virus has been detected from pigeon (鸽子) samples collected at a marketplace in Songjiang District of Shanghai.
After gene sequence analysis, the national avian flu reference laboratory concluded that the H7N9 virus found on pigeons was highly congenetic with those found on persons infected with H7N9 virus. China's health authorities have promised transparency(透明) and cooperation (合作) to the World Health Organization in regards to human infections of the new type of bird flu. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday that no human-to-human transmission of H7N9 has been discovered.
What does the underlined word “confirmed” probably mean?

A．said

B．doubted

C．proved

D．made

What does the news report mainly about?

A．How many people died of H7N9 bird flu

B．How the development of the H7N9 bird flu vaccine (疫苗) is going on

C．What measures the government has taken to stop the spreading of H7N9

D．The new outbreak of the H7N9 bird flu

Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the news report?

A．H7N9 bird flu has killed four people in Shanghai and one in Zhejiang.

B．H7N9 virus is not one that spreads from human to human

C．So far, China has confirmed 14 deaths from the H7N9 bird flu

D．The government agreed to cooperate with WHO in regards to the H7N9

What can we infer from the second paragraph?

A．Chu, a poultry transporter is the city’s third death from the H7N9 bird flu

B．Chu developed symptoms of cough and a fever

C．Chu died three hours after being admitted to a private clinic

D．Eight people who had close contact with him haven’t been infected with H7N9

Silence is unnatural to man．He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness．In between he does all he can to make a noise in the world, and he fears silence more than anything else．Even his conversation is an attempt to prevent a fearful silence．If he is introduced to another person, and a number of pauses occur in the conversation, he regards himself as a failure, a worthless person, and is full of envy of the emptiest headed chatterbox（喋喋不休的人）.He knows that ninety-nine percent of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly, but he is anxious to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure（蜡塑人像）.
The aim of conversation is not, for the most part, to communicate ideas; it is to keep up the buzzing sound. There are, it must be admitted, different qualities of buzz; there is even a buzz that is as annoying as the continuous noise made by a mosquito （蚊子）.But at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito than a quiet person. Most buzzing, fortunately, is pleasant to the ear, and some of it is pleasant even to the mind. He would be a foolish man if he waited until he had a wise thought to take part in the buzzing -with his neighbors.
Those who hate to pick up the weather as a conversational opening seem to me not to know the reason why human beings wish to talk. Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of learning anything new. Some of them are content if they are merely allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears, though they have nothing to tell them except that they have seen two or three new plays or that they had food in a Swiss hotel. At the end of an evening during which they have said nothing meaningful for a long time, they just prove themselves to be successful conservationists.
According to the passage, people usually talk to their neighbors_____.

A．in the hope of learning something new

B．in the hope of getting on well

C．about whatever they have prepared

D．about whatever they want to

According to the author, people make conversation to______.

A．achieve success in life

B．exchange ideas

C．overcome their fear of silence

D．prove their value

What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?

A．To persuade people to stop making noises．

B．To explain why people keep talking．

C．To discuss why people like talking about weather．

D．To encourage people to join in conversations．

By "the buzzing of a fly"(Para.1), the author means"_____".

A．the voice of a chatterbox

B．meaningless talk sound

C．a low whispering

D．the noise of an insect

The African elephant, the largest land animal remaining on earth, is of great importance to African ecosystem(生态系统). Unlike other animals, the African elephant is to a great extent the builder of its environment. As a big plant-eater, it largely shapes the forest-and-savanna(大草原) surroundings in which it lives, therefore setting the terms of existence for millions of other animals that live in its habitat.
It is the elephant’s great desire for food that makes it a disturber of the environment and an important builder of its habitat. In its continuous search for the 300 pounds of plants it must have every day, it kills small trees and under-bushes, and pulls branches off big trees. This results in numerous open spaces in both deep tropical forests and in the woodlands that cover part of the African savannas. In these open spaces are numerous plants in various stages of growth that attract a variety of other plant-eaters.
Take the rain forests for example. In their natural state, the spreading branches overhead shut out sunlight and prevent the growth of plants on the forest floor. By pulling down trees and eating plants, elephants make open spaces, allowing new plants to grow on the forest floor. In such situations, the forests become suitable for large hoofed plant-eaters to move around and for small plant-eaters to get their food as well.
What worries scientists now is that the African elephant has become an endangered species. If the elephant disappears, scientists say, many other animals will also disappear from vast areas of forest and savanna, greatly changing and worsening the whole ecosystem.
What does the underlined phrase “setting the terms” most probably mean?

A．Improving the quality.

B．Worsening the state.

C．Fixing the time.

D．Deciding the conditions.

The passage is developed mainly by_________.

A．showing the effect and then explaining the causes

B．giving examples

C．pointing out similarities and differences

D．describing the changes in space order

What is the passage mainly about?

A．Forests and savannas as habitats for African elephants.

B．The eating habit of African elephants.

C．Disappearance of African elephants.

D．The effect of African elephants’ search for food.

What do we know about the open spaces in the passage?

A．They are home to many endangered animals.

B．They result from the destruction of rain forests.

C．They are attractive to plant-eating animals of different kinds.

D．They provide food mainly for African elephants.