I opened my new patient's chart and headed for her room. My son, Eric, had just brought home a disappointing report card, and my daughter, Shannon, and I had argued again about her getting a driver's license. For the next eight hours I wanted to throw myself into helping people who I knew had much more to worry about than I did. Rebekah, mother of three lovely little girls, was only 32, admitted for chemotherapy after breast-cancer surgery, When I gave her an injection, Rebekah shut her eyes tightly and murmured a prayer until it was over. Then she smiled and squeezed my hand. “Before you go, could you get my Bible from the table?" I handed her the worn book. "Do you have a favorite Bible verse?" she asked. "Jesus wept. John 11: 35." "Such a sad one," she said. "Why?""It makes me feel closer to Jesus, knowing he also experienced human sorrow." Rebekah nodded thoughtfully and started flipping through her Bible as I shut the door quietly behind me.
During the following months, her hospital stays became frequent and she worried about her children. One day when I entered her room, I found her talking into a tape recorder. She picked up a notebook and held it out to me. "I'm making a tape for my daughters, " she said. I read the list on her pad: starting school, confirmation, turning 16, first date, graduation. While I worried how to help her deal with death, she was planning for her children's future. She usually waited until the early hours of the morning to record the tapes so she could be free from interruptions. She filled them with family stories and advice，trying to cram a lifetime of love into a few precious hours. Finally, every item in her notes had been checked off and she entrusted the tapes to her husband.
I often wondered what I would say in her place. My kids joked that I was like an FBI agent, with my constant questions about where they’d been and who they’d been with. Where, I thought, are my words of encouragement and love?
It was three o'clock one afternoon when I got an urgent call from the hospital. Rebekah wanted me to come immediately with a blank tape. She was breathing hard when I entered her room. I slipped the tape into the recorder and held the microphone to her lips. "Ruthie, Hannah, Molly, this is the most important tape." She held my hand and closed her eyes. "Someday your daddy will bring home a new mommy. Please make her feel special. Show her how to take care of you. Ruthie, honey, help her get your Brownie uniform ready each Tuesday. Hannah, tell her you don't want meat sauce on your spaghetti. Molly, don't get mad if there's no apple juice. Drink something else. It's okay to be sad, sweeties. Jesus cried too. He knows about sadness and will help you to be happy again. Remember, I'll always love you. I shut off the recorder and Rebekah sighed deeply. "Thank you, Nan, "You'll give this one to them, won't you?" she murmured as she slid into sleep.
A time would come when the tape would be played for Rebekah's children, but right then, after I smoothed Rebekah's blanket, I got in my car and hurried home. I thought of how my Shannon also liked her sauce on the side and suddenly that quirk, which had annoyed me so many times, seemed to make her so much more precious. That night the kids didn't go out; they sat with me long after the spaghetti sauce had dried onto the dishes. And we talked, without interrogations, without complaints，late into the night.From the first paragraph we can learn that ____________ .
| A．Nan was in a bad state and wept a lot in her daily life. |
| B．Nan was not on good terms with her children. |
| C．Nan was worried about how to help Rebeka deal with her death. |
| D．Nan laid more stress on attending on her patients than her children. |
Which of the following scenes was most likely to be seen at Nan’s home before she met Rebekah?
| A．The family sat down in a circle and shared an interesting story. |
| B．After dinner, the children either went out or shut themselves up in their rooms. |
| C．The son was the headache of the parents while the daughter their comfort. |
| D．When Eric did poorly at school, the parents comforted him and cheered him up. |
Which was the most vital message Rebekah left to her children?
| A．Bringing home satisfying school report cards |
| B．Landing a job after graduation |
| C．Growing up healthily and happily |
| D．Accepting their step-mother into their lives. |
The writer learnt from Rebekah that a parent’s real concern should be_______. .
| A．protecting the children from the dangers they may be trapped in. |
| B．having encouraging and loving talks with children. |
| C．making tape records to guide the children in their future lives. |
| D．tolerating the children’s annoying quirks. |
Each time I see a balloon, my mind flies back to a memory of when I was a six - year – old girl. It was a rainy Sunday and my father had recently died. I asked my mom if Dad had gone to heaven. “Yes, honey. Of course.” she said.“Can we write him a letter?”
She paused, the longest pause of my short life, and answered, “Yes.”My heart jumped. “How? Does the mailman go there?” I asked.
“No, but I have an idea.” Mom drove to a party store and returned with a red balloon. I asked her what it was for.“Just wait, honey. You’ll see.” Mom told me to write my letter. Eagerly, I got my favorite pen, and poured out my six - year - old heart in the form of blue ink. I wrote about my day, what I learned at school, how Mom was doing, and even about what happened in a story I had read. For a few minutes it was as if Dad were still alive. I gave the letter to Mom. She read it over, and a smile crossed her face.She made a hole in the corner of the letter where she looped the balloon string. We went out-side and she gave me the balloon. It was still raining.“Okay, on the count of three, let go. One, two, three.”The balloon, carrying my letter, darted upward against the rain. We watched until it was swallowed by the mass of clouds.Later I realized, like the balloon, that Dad had never let his sickness get him down. He was strong. No matter what he suffered, he’d persevere, dart up, and finally transcend this cold world and his sick body. He rose into sky and became something beautiful. I watched until the balloon disappeared into the gray and white and I prayed that his strength was passed on. I prayed to be a balloon.When the girl asked her mother if they could write to her father, her mother _________.
| A．believed it easy to do so | B．thought her a creative girl |
| C．felt it hard to answer | D．found it easy to lie |
When the girl was told that she could send a letter to her father, she __________.
| A．jumped with joy |
| B．was worried that it couldn’t be delivered |
| C．started writing immediately |
| D．became excited |
In the eyes of the author, what was the rain like?
| A．An incurable disease |
| B．An unforgettable memory. |
| C．The failures her father experienced |
| D．The hard time her father had. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．An unforgettable experience | B．Fly to the heaven |
| C．The strong red balloon | D．A great father |
Retail therapy（购物疗法）has long been considered as a good way to let off stress. Now, US scientists have discovered not only does retail therapy exist，but that it could be caused by an individual's fear of sudden death.
Researchers found materialistic people thought terrorism and war more stressful than others.
Psychologists believe the rise of materialism around the world and its treatment effect on extreme stress might be a response to fear of death caused by acts of terrorism, disease and natural disasters.
The scientists from Michigan State University said people with possession obsessions（妄想）often have lower self-esteem than others so are more likely to shop as the result of severe psychological suffering.
Ayalla Ruvio，a business professor studying people's shopping habits while rockets fell in Israel, said, "When the going gets tough, the materialistic people go shopping. This stress spending is likely to produce even greater stress and lower well-being. Essentially, materialism appears to make bad events even worse.
Dr Ruvio led a two-part study of Israeli citizens living in a town that came under extreme rocket attacks for about six months in 2007. She compared 139 residents of the southern town with 170 from another town that was not under attack to see how their symptoms of post-traumatic stress and shopping habits varied. Dr Ruvio found that, when faced with a deadly threat, those who are highly materialistic suffered much higher levels of stress，while their tendency to shop was increased.
Dr Ruvio said, "The relationship between materialism and stress may be more harmful than commonly thought.”
The second stage of their research surveyed 855 Americans about their materialistic nature and fear of death. They found shopping was used to relieve feelings of stress and anxiety about death but this was in response to fear of a variety of life-threatening events like car accidents, criminal attacks and natural disasters.Which of the following opinion is NOT right according to the text?
| A．Terrorism is believed to easily cause the rise of materialism. |
| B．The materialistic find terrorism and war more stressful than others. |
| C．The scientists think possession obsessions help people get self-respect. |
| D．The scientists think people with possession obsessions suffer a lot mentally. |
Why did Dr Ruvio choose to study the two groups of Israeli citizens mentioned in the passage?
| A．They enjoy the special shopping culture. |
| B．The stresses they face are usually deadly. |
| C．They are in different situation in terms of war. |
| D．They are usually active participants for researchers. |
What's the result about Dr Ruvio's research?
| A．Impulsive spending does good to people's health. |
| B．Shopping can't lower one's stress as it is expected. |
| C．Faced with great stress, people feel hopeless for life. |
| D．Faced with threat，people's wish to shop will decrease. |
Which of the following events threaten people's life?
①Greater stress; ②Car accidents; ③Criminal attacks；. ④Natural disasters;
| A．①②③ | B．②③④ | C．①②④ | D．①③④ |
What's the main idea of the passage?
| A．Greater stress can lead to shopping. |
| B．Greater stress can cause a lot of diseases |
| C．Shopping is very important in people's life. |
| D．Can shopping reduce the stress and relieve the fear of death? |
In the Netherlands，cycling isn't seen as eccrfriendly exercise; it's part of everyday life, as it's people's top choice to school and work. There are more bicycles than residents in the Netherlands. In cities like Amsterdam and The Hague, up to 70 percent of all journeys are made by bike.
So how did cycling become such a popular means of transportation in the European country?
In the 1970s, the Dutch government began to improve its cycling infrastructure（基础设施）due to both a social movement demanding safer cycling condition for children and the oil crisis in the Middle East, when oil producing countries stopped their exports to Western Europe.
To make cycling safer and more appealing, the Dutch have built the widest cycling net- work in the world. The country has over 40，000 kilometers of bicycle lanes and paths，which are clearly marked. They have smooth surfaces，separate signs and lights for those on two wheels. The lanes are wide enough to allow side-by-side cycling and passing.
In many cities the bike lanes are completely segregated（隔离的）from motorized traffic. And in many traffic situations cyclists are given priority（优先权）over drivers. Sometimes， where space is limited and both must share, you can see signs showing an image of a cyclist with a car behind accompanied by the words "Bike Street：Cars are guests".
As young people aren't allowed to drive alone until they are 18，cycling offers Dutch teen- agers an alternative form of freedom. The government also makes cycling training lessons a compulsory part of the Dutch school curriculum（课程）．
Bike parking facilities are ubiquitous in the country. Cyclists are accommodated in the way motorists are elsewhere. Take Groningen, a city in the northeastern part of the Netherlands，for example. The city's central train station has underground parking for 10，000 bikes.We can conclude that in the Netherlands cycling is____．
| A．regarded as eco-friendly exercise |
| B．thought of as part of people's life |
| C．looked on as a way to lose weight |
| D．considered as a way to entertain |
What can we learn about the Netherlands from the first paragraph?
| A．Most vehicles the Dutch use are buses. |
| B．The native people cycle the best in the world. |
| C．Everyone has one bike on average in the Netherlands. |
| D．The number of bikes is larger than the population there. |
Which of the following made the government improve the cycling infrastructure?
| A．A large number of bikes. |
| B．Hope for healthy life style. |
| C．People's preference to bikes. |
| D．Children's safety demand and lack of oil. |
The underlined word "ubiquitous" in the last paragraph means“＿，，．
| A．high quality | B．unique | C．very common | D．special |
What does the Dutch government do about teenagers cycling?
| A．It makes cycling covered by school education. |
| B．It encourages teenagers to cycle alone. |
| C．It will watch over teenagers who ride bikes. |
| D．It suggests teenagers cycling before driving. |
Self-confidence is an attitude which allows individuals to have positive yet realistic views of themselves and their situations. Self-confident people trust their own abilities, have a general sense of control in their lives, and believe that，within reason, they will be able to do what they wish., plan., and expect. Having self-confidence does not mean that individuals will be able to do everything. Self-confident people have expectations that are realistic. Even when some of their expectations are not met，they continue to be positive and to accept themselves.
People who are not self-confident depend too much on the approval of others in order to feel good about themselves. They tend to avoid taking risks because they fear failure. They generally do not expect to be successful. They often put themselves down and tend to ignore compliments（赞美）paid to them By contrast，self-confident people are willing to risk the disapproval of others because they generally trust their own abilities. They tend to accept themselves；they don't feel they have to conform in order to be accepted.
Many factors affect the development of self-confidence. Parents' attitudes are crucial to children's feelings about themselves，particularly in children's early years. When parents pro- vide acceptance, children receive a solid foundation for good feelings about themselves. If one or both parents are much to critical or demanding, or if they are overprotective and discourage children's moves toward independence, children may come to believe they are unqualified or inadequate.
Surprisingly, lack of self-confidence is not necessarily related to lack of ability. Instead it is often the result of focusing too much on the unrealistic expectations or standards of others， especially parents and society. Friends' influences can be as powerful or more powerful than those of parents and society in shaping feelings of one's self. Students in their college years reexamine values and develop their own identities and thus are particularly sensitive to the influence of friends.Paragraph 1 mainly talks about____．
| A．the sources of self-confidence |
| B．the benefits of self-confidence |
| C．the development of self-confidence |
| D．the lack of self-confidence |
In Paragraph 2，the underlined word "conform" probably means“_______”．
| A．refuse | B．separate | C．permit | D．obey |
According to the passage, self-confident people tend to____．
| A．be practical | B．control others |
| C．avoid risks | D．depend on others |
Which of the following can we learn about self-confidence according to the passage?
| A．Self-confidence is usually the symbol of special abilities. |
| B．Parents' protection prevents children's self-confidence development. |
| C．Parents and friends matter in building one's self-confidence. |
| D．College students are the least self-confident group in society. |
What might the author most probably continue to talk about in the following passage?
| A．How we can become more acceptable. |
| B．Lack of self-confident has many side effects. |
| C．What self-confident children usually get from parents. |
| D．What one should avoid in building self-confidence. |
She may have lacked a home, but now this teen has top honors.
A 17-year old student who spent much of high school living around homeless shelters and sometimes sleeping in her car-today graduated and spoke on behalf of her class at Charles Drew High School in Clayton County, Ga.，just outside of Atlanta.
Chelsea Fearce, who held a 4.466 GPA and scored 1，900 on her SATs despite having to use her cellphone to study after the shelter lights were turned off at night.
"I know I have been made stronger. I was homeless. My family slept on cushions on the floor and we were lucky if we got more than one full meal a day. Getting a shower, food and clean clothes was an everyday struggle,” Fearce said in a speech she gave at her graduation ceremony. Fearce overcame her day-to-day struggles by focusing on a better day. "I just told myself to keep working, because the future will not be like this anymore, she told WSBTV.
Fearce，one of five children, grew up in a family that sometimes had an apartment to live in, but at other times had to live in homeless shelters or even out of their car, if they had one. "You're worried about your home life and then worried at school. Worry about being a little hungry sometimes and go hungry sometimes. You just have to deal with it, You eat what you can, when you can.”
To our surprise, Fearce overcame the difficulties and even tested high enough to be ad- mitted into college halfway through her high school career. She starts college next year at Spelman College as a junior where she is planning to study biology, pre-"med（医学预科），"Don't give up. Do what you have to do right now so that you can have the future that you want,”Fearce said.Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
| A．So Many Homeless Students in America |
| B．How Does a Homeless Student Live in Society? |
| C．The Hardship of Fearce and Her Family in America |
| D．Homeless Teen Graduates as a Speaker of High School Class |
How did Fearce go on with her study without access to lights?
| A．By the car light. | B．By her cellphone. |
| C．By lights out of shelters. | D．By moonlight. |
When Fearce starts college at Spelman College, she will＿__．
| A．have graduated earlier from high school than normal |
| B．be a 17-year-old student from a poor family |
| C．have a home without sleeping in her car or shelters |
| D．have raised enough money to go to college |
From the passage, we can learn that＿__．
| A．SAT is easy for the students of high schools |
| B．Fearce's parents have six children to support |
| C．Fearce often had to struggle with starvation |
| D．Fearce gave a speech at a ceremony of Spelman College |
What can we learn from Fearce's experience?
| A．Knowledge can change your fate. |
| B．Don't give up, and tomorrow will be better. |
| C．Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well. |
| D．He that will not work shall not eat. |