As far back as he could remember，Larry had longed to go to Hollywood and become a film star．The young man’s hopes for success were broken again and again，however．Hollywood just did not seem interesting．When he first came to California，Larry had decided never to give up and return home without success．Therefore，he kept on trying．Someday，he told himself，his big opportunity would come．
Larry found a job parking cars for one of Hollywood’s big restaurants．His pay was elementary，but since the guests were kind enough to give him more money，he managed to make a living．One day he recognized an important film director driving into the parking lot （停车场） and getting out of his car．Larry had recently heard that the man was ready to make a new picture．
Larry got into the car and prepared to drive it on into the lot and park it．Then he stopped，jumped out，and ran over to the director．“Excuse me，sir，but I think it’s only fair to tell you that it’s now or never if you want me in your next picture．A lot of big companies are after me．”
Instead of pushing away the boy，the director laughed，then wrote something on a card and handed it to the young man．“Come and see me tomorrow．”
Larry got a small part in the director’s next film．He was on his way！Which of the following was Larry interested in?
| A．Working as a waiter． | B．Becoming a film star． |
| C．Parking cars for film stars． | D．Owing a big company． |
Why did Larry find a job parking cars?
| A．Because he liked the job． |
| B．Because the parking lot was near Hollywood． |
| C．To make a living and wait for the opportunity． |
| D．To see a lot of film stars and work for them． |
After reading the story what can we infer （推断） about the film director ?
| A．He wanted to laugh at Larry． |
| B．He recognized Larry at first sight． |
| C．He was kind and gave Larry a try． |
| D．He thought Larry would become a star． |
what does the word “elementary” mean in this passage?
| A．基本的 | B．充足的 | C．较高的 | D．不达标的 |
“He was on his way”refers to the fact that ________．
| A．he gave up and returned home |
| B．he began to work towards success |
| C．he took a journey to Hollywood |
| D．he had difficulty in playing the small part |
（London）—If it really is what’s on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble.
Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding important organs like the heart or liver could be as dangerous as the external fat which can be noticed more easily.
“Being thin doesn’t surely mean you are not fat,” said Dr Jimmy Bell at Imperial College. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create “fat maps” showing where people store fat.
According to the result, people who keep their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are slim.
Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside. Of the women, as many as 45 percent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had too high levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 percent.
According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are actually on the edge of being fat. They eat too many fatty and sugary foods, but they are not eating enough to be fat. Scientists believe we naturally store fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.
Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some think it has something to do with heart disease and diabetes. They want to prove that internal fat damages the body’s communication systems.
The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. “If you want to be healthy, there is no short cut. Exercise has to be an important part of your lifestyle,” Bell said.What is this piece of news mainly about?
| A．Thin people may be fat inside. |
| B．Internal fat is of no importance. |
| C．Internal fat leads to many diseases. |
| D．Thin people also have troubles. |
Doctors have found _____.
| A．the exact dangers of internal fat |
| B．internal fat is the cause of heart disease and diabetes |
| C．being slim is not dangerous at all |
| D．being slim doesn’t mean you are not fat inside |
According to the passage, which of the following is WRONG?
| A．Exercise can help to reduce the internal fat. |
| B．People can get rid of internal fat by improving diet. |
| C．Men are more likely to have too much internal fat. |
| D．People with heart disease all have internal fat. |
From the last paragraph, we can find that _____.
| A．whether internal fat can lead to disease has been proved |
| B．exercise plays in important role in people’s life for keeping healthy |
| C．thin people usually have internal fat even if they are slim |
| D．it is easier to burn off internal fat than external fat |
Tim Richter and his wife, Linda, had taught for over 30 years near Buffalo, New York—he in computers, she in special education. “Teaching means everything to us.” Tim would say. In April 1998, he learned he would need a heart operation. It was the kind of news that leads to some serious thinking about life's purpose.
Not long after the surgery, Tim saw a brochure describing Imagination Library, a program started by Dolly Parton's foundation (基金会) that mailed a book every month to children from birth to age five in the singer's home town of Sevier, Tennessee. “I thought, maybe Linda and I could do something like this when we retire.” Tim recalls. He placed the brochure on his desk, “as a reminder”．
Five years later, now retired and with that brochure still on the desk, Tim clicked on imaginationlibrary.com. The program had been opened up to partners who could take advantage of book and postage discounts.
The quality of the books was of great concern to the Richters. Rather than sign up online, they went to Dollywood for a looksee. “We didn't want to give the children rubbish.” says Linda. The books—reviewed each year by teachers, literacy specialists, and Dollywood board members—included classics such as Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day and newer books like Anna Dewdney's Llama Llama series.
Satisfied, the couple set up the Richter Family Foundation and got to work. Since 2004, they have shipped more than 12,200 books to preschoolers in their area. Megan Williams, a mother of four, is more than appreciative：“This program introduces us to books I've never heard of.”
The Richters spend about $400 a month sending books to 200 children. “Some people sit there and wait to die.” says Tim. “Others get as busy as they can in the time they have left.”What led Tim to think seriously about the meaning of life?
| A．The news from the Web. | B．His love for teaching. |
| C．The influence of his wife. | D．His health problem. |
What did Tim want to do after learning about Imagination Library?
| A．Give out brochures. |
| B．Write books for children |
| C．Do something similar.. |
| D．Retire from being a teacher. |
According to the text, Dolly Parton is ________.
| A．a wellknown surgeon |
| B．a singer born in Tennessee |
| C．a mother of a fouryearold |
| D．a computer programmer |
What can we learn from Tim's words in the last paragraph?
| A．He considers his efforts worthwhile. |
| B．He wonders why some people are so busy. |
| C．He tries to save those waiting to die. |
| D．He needs more money to help the children. |
Life is difficult.
But life is no longer difficult once we truly understand and accept it.
Most do not fully see this truth. Instead they complain about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that their difficulties represent a special kind of suffering especially forced upon them or else upon their families, their class, or even their nation.
What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is painful. Problems, depending on their nature, cause us sadness or loneliness or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.
Yet, it is in this whole of solving problems that life has its meaning.
Problems are the serious test that tells success from failure. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit we encourage the human ability to solve problems just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and working out problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those things that hurts, instruct.” It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems.From the passage, it can be inferred that ______.
| A．not everybody has problems |
| B．we become stronger by facing and solving the problems in life |
| C．life is difficult because our problems bring us pain |
| D．people like to complain about their problems |
The writer uses just one short sentence in the first paragraph probably to ______.
| A．save space | B．persuade readers |
| C．make readers laugh | D．get readers’ attention |
According to the passage, we give school children difficult problems to solve in order to ______.
| A．encourage them to learn |
| B．make them suffer |
| C．help them learn to deal with pain |
| D．help them understand life is difficult |
“Those things that hurt, instruct.” From Benjamin Franklin suggests that ______.
| A．we do not learn from experience |
| B．we do not learn when we are in pain |
| C．pain teaches us important lessons |
| D．pain cannot be forgotten |
A good modern newspaper is an extraordinary piece of reading. It is remarkable first for what it contains: the range of news from local crime to international politics, from sport to business to fashion to science, and the range of comment and special features as well, from editorial page to feature articles and interviews to criticism of books, art, theatre and music.
A newspaper is even more remarkable for the way one reads it: never completely, never straight through, but always by jumping from here to there, in and out glancing at one piece, reading another article all the way through, reading just a few paragraghs of the next. A good modern newspaper offers a variety to attract many different readers, but far from one reader is interested in what brings this variety together in. One place is its topicality(时事性), its immediate relation to what is happening in your world and your locality now. But immediacy and the speed of production that goes with it mean also that much of what appears in a newspaper has no more than transient(短暂的) value. For all these reasons, no two people really read the same paper: what each person does is to put together out of the pages of that day’s paper, his own selection and sequence, his own newspaper. For all these reasons, reading newspapers efficiently, which means getting what you want from them without missing things you need but without wasting time, demands skill and self-awareness as you modify and apply the techniques of reading.A modern newspaper is remarkable for all the following EXCEPT its ______.
| A．wide coverage | B．uniform style |
| C．speed in reporting news | D．popularity |
According to the passage, the reason why no two people really read the same newspaper is that ______.
| A．people scan for the news they are interested in |
| B．different people prefer different newspapers |
| C．people are not interested in the same kind of news |
| D．people have different views about what a good newspaper is |
It can be concluded from the passage that newspaper readers ______.
| A．apply reading techniques skillfully |
| B．jump from one newspaper to another |
| C．appreciate the variety of a newspaper |
| D．usually read a newspaper selectively |
A good newspaper offers “a variety” to readers because ______.
| A．it tries to serve different readers |
| B．it has to cover things that happen in a certain locality |
| C．readers are difficult to please |
| D．readers like read different newspapers |
Rain, who was born on June 2, 1982 in Seoul, South Korea, is a popular singer with a very deep and rich voice. Jung Ji Hoon is his real name, known as the “Michael Jackson of Korea” for his amazing dancing skills. Rain is very modest and friendly, even a little shy.
He released his first album Bad Guy in 2002, which caused a sensation. It took him to all the major award ceremonies, and many of them honored him with Best New Award. His following album How to Run from the Sun was successful, and his third album It’s Raining topped the charts for weeks.
Rain is not only a singer but also an actor, who has given impressive performances in two TV series, Sang Doo! Let’s go to school（《尚道，上学去》）in 2003 and Full House（《浪漫满屋》）in 2004. Rain’s leading role in Full House made him win Best Actor Award at the KBS Acting Awards and also deeply touched the hearts of many Asian female fans. At the same time it made him become one of the most popular Korean actors in Asia.
Now Rain is very popular in China. It’s Raining has already sold more than 100,000 copies in China. Rain received the “Korean Artist of the Year” award at the MTV -- CCTV Mandarin Music Honors held on July 24, 2005 at the Workers Stadium in Beijing, China. His recent Beijing concert caused a great hit, creating “Korean Fever” in China.The reason why Jung Ji Hoon is called “Michael Jackson of Korea” is that ______.
| A．he is a popular singer with a rich voice |
| B．his dancing skills are amazing |
| C．he is very modest and friendly |
| D．he shares the same name with Michael Jackson |
What would be the best title for this passage?
| A．Michael Jackson of Korea --Rain |
| B．Jung Ji Hoon’s First Album – Bad Guy |
| C．Rain, a Singer and a Painter |
| D．Korea Fever in China |
Which of the following is True about Rain?
| A．His album “How to Run from the Sun” was so successful that it topped the charts for weeks. |
| B．Rain’s leading role in “Sang Doo! Let’s go to school” made him win Best Actor Award at the KBS Acting Awards. |
| C．Rain won the “Korean Artist of the Year” award because of his music career. |
| D．Rain has suffered a fever since his recent Beijing concert caused a great hit. |
Which of the following is the passage most likely from?
| A．Textbooks for senior school students. |
| B．Entertainment newspapers. |
| C．Textbooks for music students. |
| D．A book written for Michael Jackson. |