Whilemanyotherteenstarsbuiltup-优题课

D
It was Sunday morning. All the summer world was bright and fresh, and full of life. There was cheer on every face and a spring in every step.
Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.
He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.
He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find some way to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets—nothing that could buy even half an hour of freedom. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.
At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.
While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. As he walked along, he was making noises like the sound of a riverboat. First he shouted loudly, like a boat captain. Then he said “Ding-Dong-Dong”, “Ding-Dong-Dong” again and again, like the bell of a riverboat. And he made other strange noises. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.
Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: "Hello! I’m going swimming, but you can’t go, can you?”
No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.
Ben said, "Hello, old fellow, you’ve got to work, hey?"
Tom turned suddenly and said, "Why, it's you, Ben! I wasn't noticing."
"Say — I'm going swimming. Don't you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work — wouldn't you? Of course you would."
Tom looked at the boy a bit, and said "What do you call work?"
"Why, isn't that work?"
Tom went back to his whitewashing, and answered casually,
"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer."
"Oh come, now, you don't mean to say that you like it?"
The brush continued to move.
"Like it? Well, I don't see why I shouldn’t like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?" Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said,
"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."
Tom thought for a moment, was about to agree; but he changed his mind:
"No — no — it won’t do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don’t think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough."
"No — is that so? Oh come, now —let me just try. Only just a little."
"Ben, I'd like to, but if it isn’t done right, I’m afraid Aunt Polly— "
"Oh, I'll be careful. Now let me try. Say -- I'll give you the core（核心）of my apple."
"Well, here — No, Ben, now don't. I'm afraid —"
"I'll give you all of it."
Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was tired, Tom sold the next chance to Billy for a kite; and when Billy was tired, Johnny bought in for a dead rat — and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures
And he had not worked. He had had a nice idle time all the time, with plenty of company -- and the fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn't run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.
He had discovered a great law of human action, namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.
68．Tom was about to agree to let Ben whitewash when he changed his mind because ______ .
A. Tom wanted to do the whitewashing by himself
B. Tom was unwilling to let Ben do the whitewashing
C. Tom was afraid Ben would do the whitewashing better
D. Tom didn’t want to let Ben do the whitewashing before he made him give up his apple first
69．The underlined word “casually” is most similar to “______” in meaning.
A. carelessly B. delightedly C. seriously D. angrily
70．We can learn from the passage that ______ .
A. Tom was interested in whitewashing the fence.
B. Tom had a lot of friends who are ready to help others.
C. Tom was unwilling to whitewash the fence, but he managed to let other boys do it for him
D. Tom was good at whitewashing the fence, so he looked at the result of his work with the eye of an artist.

C
Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion--a world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terror or hate. Try to imagine the consequences of such a transformation. People might not be able to stay alive: knowing neither joy nor pleasure, anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt them as acts that were beneficial. They could not learn: they could not benefit from experience because this emotionless world would lack rewards and punishments. Society would soon disappear: people would be as likely to harm one another as to provide help and support. Human relationships would not exist: in a world without friends or enemies, there could be no marriage, affection among companions, or bonds (关系) among members of groups. Society's economic underpinnings (支柱) would be destroyed: since earning $10 million would be no more pleasant than earning $10, there would be no incentive to work. In fact, there would be no incentives(刺激,动力) of any kind, for as we will see, incentives imply a capacity to enjoy them.
In such a world, the chances that the human species would survive are next to zero, because emotions are the basic instrument of our survival and adaptation. Emotions structure the world for us in important ways. As individuals, we categorize objects on the basis of our emotions. True, we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object's physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to us--hurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorizations colored by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are "good" and others are "bad”, and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social life--from what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept. In fact, society uses our emotional reactions and attitudes, such as loyalty morality, pride shame, guilt, fear and greed, in order to maintain itself. It gives high rewards to individuals who perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such as flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal penal (刑法的) system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.
64. Which of the following is Right according to the first paragraph?
A. People would not be able to tell the texture of objects.
B. People would not know what was beneficial and what was harmful to them.
C. $10 million is equal to $10 in a world without emotions.
D. There would be full of lies, arguments and violence.
65. It can be inferred from the passage that the economic foundation of society is dependent on _______.
　　A. the ability to make money　　 B. the capacity to work
　　C. the stimulus to work　　 D. the categorizations of our emotional experiences
66. Why are the emotional aspects of an object more important than its physical aspects?
A. They help society use its members for profit.
B. They encourage us to perform important tasks.
　　C. They help to perfect the legal and penal system.
D. They help us adapt our behavior to the world surrounding us.
67. What is the text mainly about?
A. People could only live in a world with emotions.
B. People would always do bad things in the emotionless world.
C. Emotions are very important in the world.
D. Emotions structure the world for us in important ways.

B
As I was reading a recent story in Slate on 20-somethings complaining about how the economy was ruining their life plans, I couldn’t help but think the 20-somethings sounded like a bunch of spoiled children who grew up expecting everything to be easy for them. As a 20-something myself, I certainly share their disappointment: my husband and I probably won’t be able to buy a house until we’re in our 40s, and we too are burdened by student loans (贷款). But why should it be any different? Being young persons in America, shouldn’t they take up all of the challenges and opportunities that this country offers?
Consider some of these views shared in the Slate story: Jennifer, 29, owner of a two-bedroom apartment with her husband, worries that she won’t be able to have children for at least a decade because they can’t afford to buy a house yet.
I read that, and I thought, what planet is she living on where you need to own a house in order to have kids? Has she ever visited a developing country, or even downtown areas in this one? Home ownership is a luxury (奢华), not a fertility requirement.
A 26-year-old in the story despairs that he can’t afford to get a Ph.D. in literature. Well, that sounds a bit like expressing disappointment that no one will pay you to write poetry on the beach in Thailand for five years.
Yes, it’s sad that these young people feel so lost. But I think the problem is their extremely high expectations, not economic reality. Beth Kobliner, author of Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties, says that she thinks people’s expectations are slowly adjusting, but today’s 20-somethings grew up at a time when everyone’s wealth appeared to be expanding. Their parents probably saw their home values rise along with their investments. “So you have people who have grown up in an environment where people had great expectations of what living well means,” says Kobliner.
This recession (衰退) will certainly play a role in forcing those expectations into more realistic group. In the meantime, it seems a lot better for our mental health to focus on being grateful --- for our one-bedroom apartments, for living in modern cities, or perhaps just for being able to eat three meals a day --- than on longing for some kind of luxury life.
60. What makes the author think the 20-somethings sound like a bunch of spoiled children?
A. They expect everything to be easy for them.
B. They complain that the economy is spoiling their life plans.
C. They are reluctant to face all of the challenges.
D. They are burdened by student loans.
61. The underlined word “fertility” in Paragraph 3 probably means ______.
A. baby production B. pleasant C. baby comfort D. essential
62. What’s the author’s attitude towards the 20-somthings with high expectation in Paragraph 5?
A. Intolerant. B. Negative. C. Unbelieving. D. Understanding.
63. What is the best title for this passage?
A. How Young People Afford to Continue Their Study
B. Why Young People Can’t Afford to Buy a House
C. When Young People’s High Hopes Create Despair
D. What the 20-somethings’ High Expectations Are

第三部分：阅读理解（共15小题，每小题2分，满分30分）.
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
A
Scholars and researchers have tried to discover what personality characteristics go along with success in intercultural experiences. Their findings have often been unclear or incomplete. But three characteristics stand out in their reports: patience, a sense of humor, and the awareness of being unclear.
Patience, of course, is the ability to keep calm even when things do not go as one wants them to, or hopes they will, or has even been sure they will. Impatience sometimes brings improvements in relations with other people, but usually it does not.
A person with a sense of humor is less likely to take things too seriously and more ready to see the humor in his own reactions than a humorless person. The value of a sense of humor really needs to be paid more attention to.“The awareness of being unclear” is a more difficult concept than patience or a sense of humor. Foreigners often find themselves in situations that are unclear to the newcomers. That is, they do not know what is happening in the situation. Perhaps they do not understand the local language well enough, or they do not know how some system or organization works, or they can’t be sure of different people’s roles in what is going on. “It’s like I just got here from the moon,” a Chinese graduate student who newly arrived in the United States said, “things are just so different here. ”
56. The passage mainly tells us_____.
A. some problems about communication.
B. humor- an important thing in communication.
C. some characteristics in communicating with foreigners.
D. three useful ways of communicating with foreigners.
57. From the third paragraph, we can infer that a humorous person_____.
A. tends to treat everything carelesslyB. is optimistic about things.
C. likes making fun of others.D. is an impatient one .
58. The underlined part “The awareness of being unclear” refers to “_______”.
A. knowing the meaning of an exact situation.B. not stating clearly what happens.
C. realizing the possible misunderstanding D. being aware of the unclear situations.
59. What can we know from the passage?
A. It is necessary to learn a language before you go abroad.
B Americans are used to the culture of other countries.
C. Patience usually improves the relationship with others.
D. To live in a foreign land, one should get fully prepared.

D
Weather changes when the temperature and the amount of water in the atmosphere change. We can see and feel water coming from the atmosphere when we have rain. But the water must somehow get back to the atmosphere. Meteorologists call this the water cycle.
There are many stages in the water cycle. Rain falls when water vapor in clouds condenses(凝结). Drops of water form and fall to the ground. The water soaks into the ground and feeds streams and rivers. A lot of rain falls into the sea. The heat of the sun evaporates（蒸发） some of the water in the ground and in the rivers, lakes, and the sea. It changes the liquid water into water vapor. The vapor rises onto the air. Water vapor（汽） is normally invisible. On a very damp or humid day, however, you can sometimes see water vapor rising from a puddle(水坑) or pond in a mist above the water. Water vapor also gets into the air from living things. Trees and other plants take in water through their roots and give off water vapor from their leaves. People and land animals drink water and breathe out water vapor. In all these ways the water returns to the air. There it gathers to form clouds and condenses to form rain. The rain falls to earth, and the cycle starts again. It continues even if snow or hail(冰雹) fall instead because both eventually melt to form water. The amount of water vapor in the air depends on the temperature. The air is more moist(潮湿) in the tropics than in the cold polar regions.
68. What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Water cycle. B. Water vapor. C. How rain forms.D. Water, vapor, rain.
69. How many ways of the water returning to the air are discussed in the text?
A. Two. B. Three. C. Four.D. Five.
70. Whether water vapor can be seen or not depends on _______.
A. how much water is evaporatedB. how good your eyes are
C. in which way water is evaporatedD. climate or weather

A．A famous young man	B．YouTube---A popular website
C．Justin’s way to success	D．Social media is the most important