Mandara seemed to know something big was about to happen. So she let out a yell, caught hold of her 2-year-old daughter Kibibi and climbed up into a tree. She lives at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
And on Tuesday, August 23rd, witnesses say she seemed to sense the big earthquake that shook much of the East Coast before any humans knew what was going on. And she’s not the only one. In the moments before the quake, an orangutan (猩猩) let out a loud call and then climbed to the top of her shelter.
“It’s very different from their normal call,” said Brandie Smith, the zookeeper. “The lemurs (monkey-like animals of Madagascar) will sound an alarm call if they see or hear something highly unusual.”
But you can’t see or hear an earthquake 15 minutes before it happens, can you? Maybe you can — if you’re an animal. “Animals can hear above and below our range of hearing,” said Brandie Smith. “That’s part of their special abilities. They’re more sensitive to the environment, which is how they survive.”
Primates weren’t the only animals that seemed to sense the quake before it happened. One of the elephants made a warning sound. And a huge lizard (蜥蜴) ran quickly for cover. The flamingoes (a kind of bird) gathered before the quake and stayed together until the shaking stopped.
So what kind of vibrations were the animals picking up in the moments before the quake? Scientist Susan Hough says earthquakes produce two types of waves — a weak “P” wave and then a much stronger “S” wave. The “P” stands for “primary”. And the “S” stands for “secondary”. She said she thinks the “P” wave might be what set the animals off.
Not all the animals behaved unusually before the quake. For example, Smith says the zoo’s giant pandas didn’t jump up until the shaking actually began. But many of the other animals seemed to know something was coming before it happened. “I’m not surprised at all,” Smith said.Why did Mandara act strangely one day?
| A．Because it sensed something unusual would happen. |
| B．Because its daughter Kibibi was injured. |
| C．Because it heard an orangutan let out a loud call. |
| D．Because an earthquake had happened. |
According to Brandie Smith, _____.
| A．many animals’ hearing is sharp |
| B．earthquakes produce two types of waves |
| C．primates usually gather together before a quake |
| D．humans can also develop the ability to sense a quake |
Which word in the passage has a close meaning to the underlined word “cover”?
| A．vibration | B．shelter | C．quake | D．range |
Which animal seems unable to sense a quake?
| A．A giant panda. | B．A flamingo. | C．A lemur. | D．A lizard. |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．How animals survive a quake. |
| B．How animals differ from humans. |
| C．How animals behave before a quake. |
| D．How animals protect their young in a quake. |
She is a cute，quiet girl.As a daughter，she has no secrets from her mother，who is very pleased with her. But recently she has become somewhat mysterious，and not so open as before. She has a diary that she keeps under lock and key. Her mother cannot help worrying about her: what if she falls in love，which is too early for a girl of her age? After all she is reaching the “dangerous stage”. These thoughts have caused trouble in the mother’s mind.
One weekend the girl came to tell her mother that she was going to the cinema with her schoolmate and would return late. This was the first time her mother agreed，and she couldn’t help worrying because her daughter had never been away at night before. The mother waited till nine and her uneasiness got the upper hand over her. She decided to go out to meet her daughter. Just at that moment the noise of a car pulling up drew her to the window and－there was her daughter, waving goodbye to a boy. Her heart missed a beat. When the girl came in，the mother was watching TV，pretending nothing had happened. “Mum, I’m back.”“Yeah.”“Sorry to be late. Still sitting up?”“Yes, Oh，that... Who’s that boy？”The daughter was stunned for a moment. “Ah. It’s my monitor. He gave me a lift on his way home. Mum，I’m going to bed. ”“All right. Go to sleep early.”
Next morning when the mother went to the daughter’s room to do some tidying，she found her diary left at her pillow. After a few minutes’ hesitation she eventually opened it to the entry of the night before. It reads: Mum，it’s love that made you ask, but it would show your understanding of me if you hadn’t.
Holding the diary，the mother fell into thought.Which is the correct order according to the story?
a. She took a lift back in her monitor’s car.
b. She went to see a film with her schoolmate.
c. She wrote in her diary to her mother.
d. Her mother pretended to watch TV.
e. Her mother worried about her daughter’s returning late.
| A．b，e，a，d，c |
| B．e，b，a，d，c |
| C．b，a，e，d，c |
| D．b，e，a，c，d |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the story?
| A．The girl knew her mother would ask her the question about the boy. |
| B．What the daughter did recently had worried her mother. |
| C．The mother was eager to read her daughter’s diary the next day. |
| D．The girl’s diary was always unlocked. |
The main purpose of this article is to show that parents should________．
| A．care about what their children really think and feel |
| B．not give much freedom to their children |
| C．talk with their children about their early love |
| D．keep silent about their children’s privacy(隐私) |
Which can be the best title for this story?
| A．Mother’s True Love |
| B．Early Love Between Students |
| C．To Ask or Not to Ask |
| D．Dangerous Age |
F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on September 24，1896, an American novelist, was once a student of St.Paul Academy, the Newman School and attended Princeton University for a short while.In 1917 he joined the army and was posted in Alabama，where he met his future wife Zelda Sayre. Then he had to make some money to impress her.
His life with her was full of great happiness, as he wrote in his diary, “My own happiness in the past often approached such joy that I could not share it even with the person dearest to me but had to walk it away in quiet streets and take down parts of it in my diary.”
This Side of Paradise, his first novel, was published in 1920. Encouraged by its success，Fitzgerald began to devote more time to his writing.Then he continued with the novel The Beautiful and Damned (1922), a collection of short stories Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)，and a play The Vegetable(1923). But his greatest success was The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, which quickly brought him praise from the literary world. Yet it failed to give him the needed financial security. Then, in 1926, he published another collection of short stories All the Sad Young Men.
However, Fitzgerald’s problems with his wife Zelda affected his writing. During the 1920s he tried to record his life, but failed. By 1930, his wife had her first breakdown and went to a Swiss clinic.During this period he completed novels Tender Is the Night in 1934 and The Love of the Last Tycoon in 1940. While his wife was in hospital in the United States, he got totally addicted to alcohol. Sheila Graham, his dear friend, helped him fight his alcoholism.How many novels written by Fitzgerald are mentioned in the passage?
| A．5. |
| B．6. |
| C．7. |
| D．8. |
Which of the following is the correct order to describe Fitzgerald’s life according to the passage?
a．He became addicted to drinking.
b．He studied at St. Paul Academy.
c．He published his first novel This Side of Paradise.
d．The Great Gatsby won high praise.
e. He failed to reord his life.
f．He joined the army and met Zelda.
| A．f，c，e，a，b，d |
| B．b，e，a，f，c，d |
| C．f，d，e，c，b，a |
| D．b，f，c，d，e，a |
We can infer from the passage that Fitzgerald________．
| A．had made some money when he met Zelda in Alabama |
| B．was well educated and well off before he served in the army |
| C．would have completed more works if his wife hadn’t broken down |
| D．helped his friend get rid of drinking while his wife was in hospital |
The passage is probably followed by a concluding paragraph about________．
| A．Zelda’s personal life |
| B．Zelda’s illness and treatment |
| C．Fitzgerald’s friendship with Graham |
| D．Fitzgerald’s contributions to the literary world |
Arthur Miller(1915—2005) is universally recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century.Miller’s father had moved to the USA from AustriaHungary，drawn like so many others by the “Great American Dream”．However，he experienced severe financial hardship when his family business was ruined in the Great Depression of the early 1930s.
Miller’s most famous play，Death of a Salesman，is a powerful attack on the American system，with its aggressive way of doing business and its insistence on money and social status as indicators of worth.In Willy Loman，the hero of the play，we see a man who has got into trouble with this system.Willy is “burnt out” and in the cruel world of business there is no room for sentiment：if he can’t do the work，then he is no good to his employer，the Wagner Company，and he must go.Willy is painfully aware of this，and at a loss as to what to do with his lack of success.He refuses to face the fact that he has failed and kills himself in the end.
When it was first staged in 1949，the play was greeted with enthusiastic reviews，and it won the Tony Award for Best Play，the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award，and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.It was the first play to win all three of these major awards.
Miller died of heart failure at his home in Roxbury，Connecticut，on the evening of February 10，2005，the 56th anniversary of the first performance of Death of a Salesman on Broadway.Why did Arthur Miller’s father move to the USA?
| A．He suffered from severe hunger in his home country. |
| B．He was attracted by the “Great American Dream”． |
| C．He hoped to make his son a dramatist. |
| D．His family business failed. |
The play Death of a Salesman ________．
| A．exposes the cruelty of the American business world |
| B．discusses the ways to get promoted in a company |
| C．talks about the business career of Arthur Miller |
| D．focuses on the skills in doing business |
What can we learn about Willy Loman?
| A．He treats his employer badly. |
| B．He runs the Wagner Company. |
| C．He is a victim of the American system. |
| D．He is regarded as a hero by his colleagues. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．Arthur Miller and his family. |
| B．The awards Arthur Miller won. |
| C．The hardship Arthur Miller experienced. |
| D．Arthur Miller and his bestknown play. |
A T-shirt a day has kept unemployment away for an American man who is making about ＄ 85,000 a year by selling advertising space on his shirt.
Jason Sadler,26,was once a former marketing expert from Florida. In 2008, he founded his own company, “I wear your shirt”,with the idea to wear a T-shirt supplied by any company and then use social media tools to develop the company. Sadler charges the “face value” of the day for his human billboard(广告牌)service. So January 1 costs ＄1,while December 31 costs ＄365. He said this may not sound like a lot, but it adds up to ＄66,795 a year if he sells out every day, which he did this year. He also sells monthly sponsorships (赞助) for ＄1,500,adding another ＄18,000 to his income.
“I walk around, take photos, wear the shirt all day... I blog about those photos. I put them up on Twitter. I change my Facebook introduction... and then I do a Youtube video. I made about ＄83,000 this year,” Reuters Television. The average U. S. income is about＄615 a week or about ＄ 32,000 a year,according to the U. S. government.
Sadler has already begun to plan for his year 2010. He is making services larger by hiring another person to wear a shirt a day on the west coast of the United States.What is Sadler’s “face value” of the day December 30?
| A．＄364. |
| B．＄365. |
| C．＄615. |
| D．＄1,500. |
It can be inferred that Sadler didn’t advertise on___________.
| A．Twitter |
| B．Facebook |
| C．Youtube |
| D．Reuters |
Jason Sadler has a new plan to___________for the year 2010.
| A．employ another person to replace him |
| B．start his business on the west coast |
| C．stay at home on the east coast |
| D．double the charge for the service |
The passage is mainly about___________in a new way.
| A．taking photos |
| B．writing blogs |
| C．making money |
| D．selling T-shirts |
Neil Armstrong took“one small step for man”when he stepped on the moon’s surface while worldfamous physicist Stephen Hawking took a “giant leap (跳跃)”for Earth’s physically disabled when he experienced eight rounds of weightlessness in what he saw as the first step in a personal goal to travel in space.
“It was amazing，”Hawking told reporters afterwards，using his wellknown computerized voice.“The zeroG part was wonderful，and the highG part was no problem.I could have gone on and on.I have long wanted to go into space，and the zerogravity flight is the first step towards space travel.”
Hawking is one of the bestknown scientists because of his bestselling works on the mysteries of black holes and the origins of the universe，and because of his increasing disability.He is almost completely paralyzed (瘫痪的) and can communicate only via facial gestures and a gesturecontrolled computer system.
Thursady’s flight was a test run to find out if Hawking is capable of a rocketpowered journey to the edge of outer space，perhaps aboard the spaceship now being developed for Virgin Galactic.That craft is due to enter service in 2009 or so，and taking such a flight would check off what Hawking has said is his“next step”．“He would have flown more if we let him，”said Noah McMahon，one of Hawking’s coaches.“He was all smiles all the time.”
Zero Gravity had originally planned to bring Hawking back to NASA’s Shuttle Landing Facility here after six upsanddowns.Hawking’s performance showed well for more tests.Zero Gravity Corp.cofounder Peter Diamandis said Hawking experienced the flight better than his physicians had expected.He noted that the four minutes Hawking spent in weightlessness was about as much time as he would spend in zeroG during a space flight.By saying“Stephen Hawking took a‘giant leap’” in the first paragraph，the writer means __________．
| A．ordinary people can not do what Hawking did |
| B．Stephen Hawking managed to jump by himself |
| C．it is not easy for a disabled person like Hawking |
| D．Hawking has finished almost all that is needed to do |
The underlined word“zeroG”in Paragraph 2 probably refers to __________．
| A．space travel |
| B．zerogravity |
| C．a personal goal |
| D．the first step |
Which of the following would the writer probably agree?
| A．Hawking was one of the workers in Zero Gravity Company. |
| B．McMahon was not satisfied with what Hawking did in this test. |
| C．Peter Diamandis bought a spaceship for Hawking to travel in space. |
| D．Hawking would spend in zeroG during a space flight for 4 minutes. |
The text mainly wants to tell us _________．
| A．Hawking takes a “giant leap”for Earth’s disabled |
| B．a spaceship will be sent into space before long |
| C．what Neil Armstrong had experienced in space |
| D．common people can also experience space flights |