Mark Twain left school when he was twelve. He had little school education. In spite of this, he became the most famous writer of his time. He made millions of dollars by writing. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but he is better known all over the world as Mark Twain, his penname.
Mark Twain was born in 1835 and he was not a healthy baby. In fact, he was not expected to live through the first winter. But with his mother’s care, he managed to survive. As a boy, he caused much trouble for his parents. He used to play jokes on all his friends and neighbors. He didn’t like to go to school, and he often ran away from home. He always went in the direction of the nearby Mississippi(密西西比河). He was nearly drowned nine times.
After his father’s death, Mark Twain began to work for a printer, who only provided him with food and clothing. Then, he worked as a printer, a river-boat pilot and later joined the army. But shortly after that he became a miner. During this period, he started to write short stories. Afterwards he became a full time writer.
In 1870, Mark Twain got married. In the years that followed he wrote many books including Tom Sawyer in 1876, and Huckleberry Finn in 1884, which made him famous, and brought him great fortune.
Unfortunately, Mark Twain got into debts in bad investments(投资) and he had to write large numbers of stories to pay these debts. In 1904, his wife died, and then three of his children passed away.
At the age of 70, his hair was completely white. He bought many white suits and neckties. He wore nothing but white from head to foot until his death on April 21, 1910.In his childhood, Mark Twain, ________.
| A．learned a lot at school |
| B．he often went swimming with other boys |
| C．his mother often worried about his safety |
| D．he often played games with other boys |
Which of the following shows the right order about Mark Twain?
a. He became a miner. b. He worked as a printer.
c. He got into debts. d. His father died.
e. He became a full-time writer. F. He joined the army.
| A．a—d—b—c—e—f | B．d—b—f—a—e—c |
| C．d—a—f—e—b—c | D．c—b—d—f—e—a |
In order to make a living, Mark Twain _______.
| A．first worked as a printer |
| B．did many kinds of work |
| C．wrote stories in the beginning |
| D．joined the army after he worked in a mine |
From the passage we can see that Mark Twain _______.
| A．had a happy childhood |
| B．was a good boy and always did what he was asked |
| C．was very naughty when he was young |
| D．lived a pleasant life |
When it comes to friends, I desire those who will share my happiness, who possess wings of their own and who will fly with me. I seek friends whose qualities illuminate me and train me up for love. It is for these people that I reserve the glowing hours, too good not to share.
When I was in the eighth grade, I had a friend. We were shy and "too serious" about our studies when it was becoming fashionable with our classmates to learn acceptable social behaviors. We said little at school, but she would come to my house and we would sit down with pencils and paper, and one of us would say, " Let's start with a train whistle today." We would sit quietly together and write separate poems or stories that grew out of a train whistle. Then we would read them aloud. At the end of that school year, we, too, were changing into social creatures and the stories and poems stopped.
When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend, he was in despair and I was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.
For almost four years I have had remarkable friend whose imagination illuminates mine. We write long letters in which we often discover our strangest selves. Each of us appears, sometimes in a funny way, in the other's dreams. She and I agree that, at certain times, we seem to b
e parts of the same mind. In my most interesting moments, I often think, " Yes, I must tell.." We have never met.
It is such comforting companions I wish to keep. One bri
ght hour with their kind is worth more to me than the lifetime services of a psychologist, who will only fill up the healing silence necessary to those darkest moments in which I would rather be my own best friend..
. In the eighth grade, what the author did before developing proper social behavior was to ______.
| A．become serious about her study |
| B．go to her friend's house regularly |
| C．learn from her classmates at school |
| D．share poems and stories with her friend |
.
. In Paragraph 3, "We gave London to each other" probably means ______.
| A．our exploration of London was a memorable gift to both of us |
| B．we were unwilling to tear ourselves away from London |
| C．our unpleasant feeling about London disappeared |
| D．we parted with each other in London |
.
. According to Paragraph 4, the author and her friend _______.
| A．call each other regularly |
| B．have similar personalities |
| C．enjoy writing to each other |
| D．dream of meeting each other |
.
. In the darkest moments, the author would prefer to ______.
| A．seek professional help |
| B．be left alone |
| C．stay with her best friend |
| D．break the silence |
.
. What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Unforgettable Experiences |
| B．Remarkable Imagination |
| C．Lifelong Friendship |
| D．Noble Companions |
Princeton University
Location
The University is in Princeton, New Jersey. It is an hour's train ride south of New York City and an hour's train ride north of Philadelphia.
Students
There are 4,600 undergraduates （本科生）. There are also 1,900 graduate students, but Princeton is unusual among universities in having a student body made up largely of undergraduates.
Faculty
Princeton has about 700 full-time faculty members （教员）. There are another 300 or so part -time and visiting faculty. All faculty members at Princeton are expected to teach and research.
Degrees
Princeton offers two undergraduate degrees: the bachelor （学士） of arts （A.B.） degree and the bachelor of science in engineering （B.S.E.） degree.
Academic Year
An academic year runs from September to late May and lasts two te
rms （fall and spring）. A normal course load is four or five courses per term, although many students take extra courses.
Residences
Princeton provides housing for all undergraduate students. Freshmen and second-year students are required to spend their first two years in one of five colleges. Each college has its own dining hall, common rooms and computer centers.
Fees and Expenses （Academic Year 2004-2005）
Tuition （学费）: $29,910
Room and board: $ 8,387
Other expenses （books, telepho
ne, etc.）: $ 3,083
Total: $ 41,380.
How many kinds 
of faculty members are there in Princeton University?
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
.
In Princeton University, an undergraduate will pay at least ________ for the Academic Year 2004-2005 besides tuition.
| A．$ 41,380 | B．$ 52,850 | C．$11,470 | D．$ 8, 387 |
.
In what way is Princeton Universi
ty different from other American universities according to the text?
| A．It has five colleges. |
| B．Its students are mainly undergraduates. |
| C．It provides housing for all undergraduate students. |
| D．All the faculty members at Princeton are expected to teach and research. |
.
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Princeton offers two undergraduate degrees. |
B．An academic year lasts about nine months in Pri nceton University. |
| C．Undergraduates should spend their first two years in one of five colleges. |
D．It's about an hour's train ride from Princeton University to the north of New York Cit y. |
The private automobile（私家车）has long played an important role in the United States. In fact, it has become a necessary and important part of the American way of life. In 1986, sixty-nine percent of American families owned at least one car, and thirty-eight percent had more than one. By giving workers rapid transportation, the automobile has freed them from having to live near their place of work. This has encouraged the growth of the cities, but it has also led to traffic problems.
For farm families the automobile is very helpful. It has made it possible for them to travel to town very often for business and for pleasure, and also to transport their children to distant schools.
Family life has 
been affected（影响）in various ways, The car helps to keep families together when it is used for picnics, outings, and other shared experiences. However, when teenage children have the use of the car, their parents can't keep an eye on them. There is a great danger if the driver has been drinking alcohol or taking drugs, or showing off by speeding or breaking down traffic laws. Mothers of victims（受害者）of such accidents have formed an organization called MADD（Mothers Against Drunk Driving. These women want to prevent further tragedies（悲剧）. They have worked to encourage the government to limit the youngest drinking age, Students have formed a similar organization, SADD（Students Against Drunk Driving）and are spreading the same message among their friends.
For many Americans the automobile is a necessity. But for some, it is also a mark of social position and for young people, a sign of becoming an adult. Altogether, cars mean very much to Americans. .
. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text?
| A．Cars have encouraged the growth of the cities. |
| B．Cars can bring families together when they go for picnics. |
| C．Cars have enabled people to live far from their place of work. |
| D．Cars help city families to transport their children to faraway schools. |
.. What has been done to deal with the problem of drunk driving?
| A．Patents have paid more attention to their children. |
| B．Some organizations have been set up against drunk driving. |
| C．Mothers have tried to persuade their children not to drink alcohol. |
| D．University students have asked the government to solve the problem. |
. We can infer from the text that ____________ in America.
A．it will be more difficult for peop le to get new cars |
| B．parents will not allow their children to have their own cars |
| C．the government will encourage people to use public transportation |
| D．cars will still be popular though they have caused many problems |
How Many Lies Do the Children Tell You?
Mothers who feel their children don’t appreciate them can add another complaint to the list: half the time, their children are lying to them. A study designed to expose the
truth about lying shows that undergraduates lie to their mothers in 46% of their conversations. Still, mums should feel 
better than-total strangers, who are told lies an aston
ishing 77% of the time.
Bella DePaulo and a team of psychologists from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, asked 77 undergraduates to keep a record of all their conversations for a week, and write down whether they lied at any time. DePaulo named lying broadly, as “when you intentionally try to mislead someone”, so she would catch the smallest of lies.
The students told an average of two lies a day. They said they had been studying when they had been out drinking. One told his parents that a textbook cost $50 rather than $20 so that
they would send him extra money. Female students constantly told their plain-looking roommates that they were pretty. “They are everyday lies,” says DePaulo.
DePaulo and her colleagues conclude that people tend to tell fewer lies to those they feel closest to. College students lied to their best friends 28% of the time but lied to acquaintances 48% of the time. In close relationships, people were more likely to tell “kind-hearted” lies, designed to protect feelings, rather than self-serving lies.
DePaulo finds that unmarried lovers can expect less honesty than best friends because of the insecurity that comes with romance.
Mothers can take heart from one other finding. They may have been lied to, but at least their children talked to them. The students were recorded telling few lies to their fathers because they had little interaction with them. Female students lied to their roommates to ________.
| A．get money from them | B．offer them the services |
| C．gain more security | D．make them happy |
According to the passage, college students told fewer lies to ________.
| A．mothers | B．best friends |
| C．acquaintances | D．romantic partners |
Which of the following statements is correct ?
| A．Undergraduates lie to their mothers in 77% of their conversations. |
| B．Strangers become very annoyed when children tell lies to them. |
| C．Compared with mothers, students’ fathers are told fewer lies. |
| D．Best friends can expect more insecurity than unmarried lovers. |
What is the purpose of this article ?
| A．To present a fact. | B．To argue an idea. |
| C．To tell a story. | D．To explain a theory. |
One of the greatest sources of unhappiness, in my experience, is the difficulty we have in accepting things as they are.
When we see something we don’t like, we wish it could be different -- we cry out for something better. That may be human nature, or perhaps it’s something that’s ingrained（根深蒂固的）in our culture.
The root of unhappiness is that we decided we didn’t like it in the first place. We’ve judged it as bad, rather than saying, “It’s not bad or good, as it just is.”
An example: in my recent post（帖子）, A Beautiful Method to Find Peace of Mind, quite a few commentators thought my outlook was negative, pessimistic, or fatalistic（听天由命的）... because I said you should expect people to mess up, expect things to go differently from what you planned. Above all, you should embrace that.
It’s too negative to expect something to go wrong, they said. However, I think it’s only negative if you see it as negative, or if you judge i
t as bad.
Instead, you could accept it as the way the world works -- as the way things actually are. And try to understand why they are that way.
Does it mean you can never change things? Not at all. But changing things is not because you can’t accept things as they are, but because you enjoy the process of change of learning and growing.
Can we make this world a better place? Again, that’s an assumption that it’s a bad place fight now. But instead, you could say the world is just what it is -- and that’s neither good nor bad. You can say that you’ll continue to try to do things to help others, to grow as a person, to make a difference in this world -- not because you’re such a bad person now, but because that’s the path you choose to take, because you enjoy that path.
As you catch yourself judging, and wishing for different -- try a different approach: accept, and understand. It might lead to some interesting results. Which of the following statements is correct according to the author?
| A．We can never change things because we can’t accept them. |
| B．We shouldn’t try to do whatever we can to help others and make a difference. |
| C．It’s wrong of you to expect things to go differently. |
| D．There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. |
What’s the main idea of the whole passage?
| A．The world is a good place for us to live in. |
| B．Unhappiness comes from what we want to be different. |
| C．You might as well accept the world as it is and try to embrace it. |
| D．Let’s make the world more beautiful. |
Where does the passage probably come from?
| A．A novel. | B．A news story. | C．A travel guide. | D．A magazine. |