A little stream flowed down from a high mountain far, far away through many villages and forests, until it reached a desert. The stream then thought, “I’ve been through countless obstacles. I should have no problem crossing this desert!” But when she decided to start her journey, she found herself gradually disappearing into the mud and sand. After numerous tries, she found it was all in vain and was very upset. “Maybe it’s my destiny(命运) ! I’m not destined to reach the vast ocean in the legend, ” she murmured sadly to herself.
At this time, a deep voice came, saying, “If a breeze can cross the desert, so can a river.”
It was the voice of the desert. Unconvinced, the little stream replied, “That’s because a breeze can fly, but I can’t.”
“That’s because you stick to what you are. If you’re willing to give it up, and let yourself evaporate （蒸发） into the breeze, it can take you across, and you can reach your destination,” said the desert in its deep voice.
The little stream had never heard of such a thing. “Give up what I am now and disappear into the breeze? No! No!” She could not accept this idea. After all, she had never experienced anything like it before. Wouldn’t it be self-destruction to give up what she was now?
“How do I know if this is true?” asked the little stream.
“The breeze can carry the vapor across the desert and release it as rain at an appropriate site. The rain will form a river again to continue its course,” answered the desert very patiently.
“Will I still be what I am now?” asked the little stream.
“Yes, and no. Whether you’re a river or invisible vapor, your inner nature never changes. You stick to the fact that you’re a river because you don’t know your inner nature,” answered the desert.
Deep down, the stream vaguely remembered that before she became a river, it was perhaps also the breeze that carried her halfway up a high mountain, where she turned into rain and fell onto the ground and became what she was now. Finally the little stream gathered her courage and rushed into the open arms of the breeze, which carried her to the next stage of her life.
Perhaps you can try asking yourself these questions: What is my inner nature? What is it that I cling （紧抓） to? And what is it that I really want?When reaching the desert at first, the little stream was ________ to cross it.
| A．upset | B．confident | C．pessimistic | D．hesitant |
The desert suggests that the stream ________ in order to cross the desert.
| A．change its form | B．disappear into the desert |
| C．stick to what it is | D．turn to another stream for help |
Finally the stream successfully crossed the desert with the help of ________.
| A．the rain | B．the desert | C．the breeze | D．the mountain |
In the text the writer compares the stream to ________.
| A．the Truth | B．the courage | C．the course of life | D．the obstacles in life |
People in the United States love their dogs and treat them well. They take their dogs for walks, let them play outside and give them good food and medical care. However, dogs without owners to care for lead a different kind of life. The expression, to lead a dog’s life, describes a person who has an unhappy existence.
Some people say we live in a dog-eat-dog world. That means many people are competing for the same things, like good jobs. They say that to be successful, a person has to work like a dog. This means they have to work very, very hard. Such hard work can make people dog-tired. And, the situation would be even worse if they became sick as a dog.
Still, people say every dog has its day. This means that every person enjoys a successful period during his or her life. To be successful, people often have to learn new skills. Yet, some people say that you can never teach an old dog new tricks. They believe that older people do not like to learn new things and will not change the way they do things.
Some people are compared to dogs in bad ways. People who are unkind or uncaring can be described meaner than a junkyard dog. Junkyard dogs live in places where people throw away things they do not want. Mean dogs are often used to guard this property. They bark or attack people who try to enter the property. However, sometimes a person who appears to be mean and threatening is really not so bad. We say his bark is worse than his bite.
Husbands and wives use this doghouse term when they are angry at each other. For example, a woman might get angry at her husband for coming home late or forgetting their wedding anniversary. She might tell him that he is in the doghouse. She may not treat him nicely until he apologizes. However, the husband may decide that it is best to leave things alone and not create more problems. He might decide to let sleeping dogs lie.
Dog expressions also are used to describe the weather. The dog days of summer are the hottest days of the year. A rainstorm may cool the weather. But we do not want it to rain too hard. We do not want it to rain cats and dogs.To achieve success, you must ______.
| A．feel dog-tired |
| B．work like a dog |
| C．become sick as a dog |
| D．be meaner than a junkyard dog |
To everyone’s surprise, Jack has been employed by a big company, about which we can say, “_______”.
| A．Every dog has its day |
| B．Jack works like a dog |
| C．His bark is worse than his bite |
| D．Jack really lives in a dog-eat-dog world |
What kind of people live a difficult life?
| A．Those who are in the doghouse. |
| B．Those who have the dog days. |
| C．Those who lead a dog’s life. |
| D．Those whose bark is worse than his bite. |
What does the article mainly talk about?
| A．Dogs’ life in America. |
| B．How to treat dogs well. |
| C．Why Americans love dogs. |
| D．Expressions with the word “dog”. |
Adrian's “Amazing Race” started early when his parents realized that he, as a baby, couldn't hear a thing, not even loud noises. In a special school for the hearingimpaired (听觉受损的)，he learned sign language and got to mix with other disabled children. However, the sight of all the disabled children communicating with one another upset his mother. She wanted him to lead a normal life. So after speaking to an advisor, she sent him to private classes where he learned to read lips and pronounce words.
Later on, Adrian's parents decided to send him to a regular school .But the headmaster tried to prevent them from doing so, saying regular school couldn't take care of a special student. His parents were determined to take the risk and push him hard to go through his work every day because they wanted to prove that, given the opportunity, he could do anything. Adrian made the grade and got accepted. It was a big challenge. The pace(节奏) was faster so he had to sit at the front of the class and really pay attention to the teacher, which wasn't always easy. But he stuck to it and did a lot of extra work after school.
The efforts made by Adrian and his parents paid off. Adrian graduated with good grades and got into a top high school. He also achieved a lot in life outside school. He developed a love for the outdoors and went to Nepal to climb mountains. He even entered the World Yacht Race—being the first hearingimpaired Asian to do so.
But none of these achievements would have been possible without one of the most important lessons from his mother. “If you believe in yourself and work hard, you can achieve great results，” she often said.How did Adrian communicate with other children in the special school?
| A．By speaking. |
| B．By using sign language. |
| C．By reading lips. |
| D．By making loud noises. |
Adrian's parents decided to send him to a regular school because________．
| A．they wanted him to live a normal life |
| B．they wanted to prove the headmaster wrong |
| C．he wouldn't mix with other disabled children |
| D．he wasn't taken good care of in the special school |
How did Adrian finally succeed in his study?
| A．He did a lot of outdoor activities. |
| B．He was pushed hard to study every day. |
| C．He attended private classes after school. |
| D．He worked very hard both in and after class. |
Why is Adrian's life described as an “Amazing Race”？
| A．He did very well in his study. |
| B．He succeeded in entering a regular school. |
| C．He reached his goals in spite of his disability. |
| D．He took part in the World Yacht Race. |
WASHINGTON－School lunches have been called many things, but a group of retired military officers is giving them a new label: national security threat.
That's not a reference to the mystery meat served up in the cafeteria line either. The retired officers are saying that school lunches have helped make the nation's young people so fat that fewer of them can meet the military's physical fitness standards, and recruitment will be difficult.
A new report being released Tuesday says more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans ages 17 to 24, are too overweight to join the military. Now, the officers are advocating for passage of a wideranging nutrition bill that aims to make the nation's school lunches healthier.
The military group acknowledges that other things keep young adults out of the armed services, such as a criminal record or the lack of a high school diploma. But weight problems that have worsened over the past 15 years are now the leading medical reason that recruits are rejected.
Although all branches of the military now meet or exceed recruitment goals, retired Navy Rear Adm. James Barnett Jr., a member of the officers group, says the obesity trend could affect that.
“When over a quarter of young adults are too fat to fight, we need to take notice，” Barnett said. He noted that national security in the year 2030 is “absolutely dependent” on reversing child obesity rates.
This isn't the first time the military has gotten involved in the debate over school lunches. During World War Ⅱ， military leaders had the opposite problem, reporting that many recruits were rejected because of stunted growth and inadequate nutrition. After the war, military leaders pushed Congress to establish the national school lunch program so children would grow up healthier.
Today, the group is urging Congress to eliminate junk food and highcalorie beverages from schools, put more money into the school lunch program and develop new strategies that help children develop healthier habits.What is the main problem of the lunches in schools according to the military officers?
| A．The meat in the lunches is mysterious. |
| B．The lunches are too expensive. |
| C．The lunches contain too much fat. |
| D．There is inadequate nutrition in the lunches. |
The underlined word “obesity” in Paragraph 5 means ________.
| A．slow in mind | B．state of being fat |
| C．quick in movement | D．lack of confidence |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．The lunches in American schools are not very healthy. |
| B．During World War Ⅱ，many people could not join the army because of overweight. |
| C．According to the author , overweight was the key reason why many recruits were rejected. |
| D．By now, Congress hasn't eliminated junk food and highcalorie beverages from schools. |
Which of the following is the best title for the article?
| A．School lunches: a national security threat? |
| B．National security in danger ? |
| C．Retired officers tired of school lunches |
| D．The recruitment of 2030 |
A Japanese student called Mami told me about her own experiences in Britain. She spent 10 months in the UK last year, studying English at a language school. She really enjoyed her first two weeks in the UK. But soon she started to miss things of her own country. She found it hard to make friends，and got annoyed(恼火的) about local people's behaviour. Mami said，“After a few weeks I started to cry a lot. I felt homesick.I thought the weather was dark and too changeable，and that affected my mood as well.”
To comfort herself Mami began to spend many hours on the Internet chatting with her friends back home. She spent a couple of weeks in the countryside in Kent. She went to a social club for British people who were interested in Japan and started to make some friends there. In addition, she took a short course in calligraphy(书法)to get an opportunity of mixing with local people. A few months later，Mami's impression of the UK had greatly changed .She found that most of the British were friendly, witty and fun.
However，once Mami was back in Japan，she experienced “culture shock”again. She said，“I missed the friends I had made in England. My way of thinking had changed. Sometimes I was annoyed by the views of people in my country—for example，about the value of money and time. I thought people around me lived in such a small world.” Mami noticed some changes in her behaviour：“I kept the habit of always carrying an umbrella with me, even on a fine day—my friends thought I was crazy！”The second paragraph tells us ________．
| A．how Mami overcame culture shock in Britain |
| B．how Mami felt as soon as she arrived in Britain |
| C．what Mami learned in her language school |
| D．what Mami liked and disliked about Britain |
The reason why Mami had the habit of carrying an umbrella was that ________．
| A．she liked umbrellas very much |
| B．the umbrella reminded her of her life in the UK |
| C．she had got used to the changeable weather in Britain |
| D．it often rained in Japan those days |
Why did Mami experience culture shock in Japan?
| A．She didn't like Japanese culture any more. |
| B．The Japanese behaviour had changed a lot. |
| C．The world in Japan was too small for her. |
| D．She had got used to British culture and life. |
The best title for the passage would be “________ ”．
| A．Why not make friends with the British |
| B．Cultural differences between Britain and Japan |
| C．Culture shock experienced by a Japanese student |
| D．How to prepare for culture shock |
There are stories about two US Presidents，Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren，which attempt to explain the American English term OK. We don't know if either story is true，but they are both interesting.
The first explanation is based on the fact that President Jackson had very little education. In fact，he had difficulty reading and writing. When important papers came to Jackson，he tried to read them and then had his assistants explain what they said. If he approved of a paper, he would write “all correct” on it. The problem was that he didn't know how to spell. So what he really wrote was “ol korekt”. After a while，he shortened that term to “OK”．
The second explanation is based on the place where President Van Buren was born，Kinderhook，New York. Van Buren's friends organized a club to help him become president. They called the club the Old Kinderhook Club，and anyone who supported Van Buren was called “OK”．The author ________．
| A．believes both of the stories |
| B．doesn't believe a word of the stories |
| C．is not sure whether the stories are true |
| D．is telling the stories just for fun |
According to the passage，President Jackson ________．
| A．couldn't draw up any documents at all |
| B．wasn't good at reading，writing or spelling |
| C． often had his assistants sign documents for him |
| D．didn't like to read important papers by himself |
According to the first story, the term “OK”________．
| A．was approved of by President Jackson |
| B．was the title of some official documents |
| C．was first used by President Jackson |
| D．was an old way to spell “all correct” |
According to the second story，the term “OK” ________．
| A．was the short way to say “Old Kinderhook Club” |
| B．meant the place where President Van Buren was born |
| C．was the name of Van Buren's club |
| D．was used to call Van Buren's supporters in the election |