One day, when I was in college, a dishonest-looking character approached me in the student union with a leather jacket he wanted to sell. It was a beauty: buttery smooth cowskin, with artfully sewed lines and long leather fringes (穗).
I can’t remember what the price was, but it was apparently too little for such a jacket. Even as I paid the money that day, I knew something wasn’t right. Surely, a couple of days later, the jacket’s real owner, a student about my age came to me as I was on my way to class.
“That’s my jacket,” he said, “and I want it back.”
“No way,” I answered. “I paid for it, and I have no idea if it’s yours. It’s mine.”
He didn’t challenge me, and I left, but the uneasiness(不安) I had about my new possession now had a visible face. A few days later, riding my bike across campus, I saw the real owner standing on the sidewalk. I rode over, took the jacket off, handed it to him said I was sorry, and rode off without another word. More than the weight of the jacket had been lifted from my shoulders.
We’re all human, which means that sometimes we do things we shouldn’t do or say things we shouldn’t say. Sometimes we realize too late that our actions have been hurtful to somebody else. When these hard times occur, the best response --- the only response, really --- is, “I’m sorry.”
Admitting a wrongdoing, as soon as possible and frankly, helps the other person begin to heal. But just as important, it cleans up our own soul and sets us free.
That is a small price to pay for a clear conscience. The author bought the leather jacket from the man in the student union because ______ .
| A．it was charged at a reasonable price |
| B．it was a very attractive jacket |
| C．he was in great need of clothing |
| D．he was happy to find such a bargain |
The phrase “had a visible face” in the passage probably implies（暗含） “______ ”.
| A．started to bother me badly |
| B．might be clearly expressed |
| C．began to give me away openly |
| D．could be instantly melting away |
Giving the leather jacket back to the real owner, the author ______ .
| A．offered his forgiveness | B．felt very much relieved |
| C．rode away unwillingly | D．realized his wrongdoing |
What is the author’s purpose of this writing?
| A．To encourage the readers to admit errors honestly. |
| B．To show the readers the reality of his college life. |
| C．To give the readers a lesson on how to say sorry to others. |
| D．To tell the readers a story that once happened at college. |
The following are letters to the editor of a school newspaper
Dear editor,
I’d like to express my opinion about grades. Students should be allowed to study without worrying about grades. Fortunately, most educators are becoming aware of the fact that students have different interests and abilities. I understand that grades are useful, but grades often limit creativity. Competing for better grades causes many students to turn down opportunities to pursue music, dramatics and sports. Grades force an arbitrary(武断的) standard of success on everyone. I do not demand as some extremists do, that grades be removed immediately. However, I do believe that less emphasis should be placed on grades. I hope that someday grades will become optional at Village High School.
Magdalena Smith
Drama Club
Dear editor,
I’d like to say something about grades. Let’s face the facts about grades. Grades perform three basic functions. First, grades motivate students to work at their highest level of competence. Second, they act as a reward for hardworking students and as a punishment to students who do not work hard. Finally, grades are used as an effective standard by which to measure student achievement. Good grades help students to get jobs and to get into university. I've spoken with a number of students who have jobs, and most of them say that they were hired primarily on the basis of their grades. My grades helped me land a part-time job and will help me get into university next year. I think grades are extremely important at Village High School.
Simon Harper
Science ClubWhich of the following is not Magdalena Smith’s opinion?
| A．Students may give up the chance to learn music and sports for grades. |
| B．Students’ creativity may not be developed for grades. |
| C．Grades should not be used to measure a person’s success. |
| D．Grades should be taken away at once. |
We can learn Simon Harper _____.
| A．believes in the benefits of good grades |
| B．is concerned about students' creativity |
| C．doesn't work too hard at his studies |
| D．supports students' interests and abilities |
From the second letter, we can infer that Simon Harper is a/an_____.
| A．teacher | B．headmaster | C．student | D．advertiser |
Many people believe the glare from snow causes snow-blindness. Yet, dark glasses or not , they find themselves suffering from headaches and watering eyes, and even snow-blindness, when exposed to several hours of “snow light”. The United States Army has now determined that glare from snow does not cause snow-blindness in troops in a snow-covered country. Rather, a man's eyes frequently find nothing to focus on in a broad expanse of barren (少植被的) snow-covered terrain (地形). So his gaze continually shifts and jumps back and forth over the entire landscape in search of something to look at. Finding nothing, hour after hour, the eyes never stop searching and the eyeballs become sore and the eye muscles ache. Nature eases this irritation by producing more fluid which covers the eyeball. The fluid covers the eyeball in increasing quantity until vision blurs (模糊), then is obscured (遮蔽), and the result is total, even though temporary, snow-blindness.
Experiments led the Army to a simple method of overcoming this problem. Scouts ahead of a main body of troops are trained to shake snow from evergreen bushes, creating a dotted line as they cross completely snow-covered landscape. Even the scouts themselves throw lightweight, dark colored objects ahead on which they too can focus. The men following can then see something. Their gaze is arrested. Their eyes focus on a bush and having found something to see, stop scouring the snow-blanketed landscape. By focusing their attention on one object at a time, the men can cross the snow without becoming hopelessly snow-blind or lost. In this way the problem of crossing a solid white terrain is overcome.To prevent headaches, watering eyes and blindness caused by the glare from snow, dark
glasses are _________.
| A．indispensable and essential | B．useful | C．ineffective | D．available |
When the eyes are sore tears are produced to _________.
| A．balance the pain | B．treat snow-blindness |
| C．clear the vision | D．loosen the muscles |
Snow-blindness may be avoided by _________.
| A．concentrating on the solid white terrain |
| B．searching for something to look at in snow-covered terrain |
| C．providing the eyes with something to focus on |
| D．covering the eyeballs with more fluid |
The scouts shake snow from evergreen bushes in order to _________.
| A．prevent the men behind losing their way |
| B．beautify the landscape of the terrain |
| C．warm themselves in the severe cold |
| D．give the men behind something to see |
A suitable title for this passage would be _________.
| A．nature's cure for snow-blindness |
| B．snow-blindness and how to overcome it |
| C．soldiers marching in the snow |
| D．snow vision and its effect on eyesight |
A recent study, published in last week’s Journal of the American Medical Association, offers a picture of how risky it is to get a lift from a teenage driver. Indeed, a 16-year-old driver with three or more passengers is three times as likely to have a fatal accident as a teenager driving alone. By contrast, the risk of death for drivers between 30 and 59 decreases with each additional passenger.
The authors also found that the death rates for teenage drivers increased dramatically after 10 p.m., and especially after midnight. With passengers in the car, the driver was even more likely to die in a late-night accident.
Robert Foss, a scientist at the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center, says the higher death rates for teenage drivers have less to do with “really stupid behavior” than with just a lack of driving experience. “The basic issue”, he says, “is that adults who are responsible for issuing licenses fail to recognize how complex and skilled task the driving is.”
Both he and the author of the study believe that the way to mitigate (减轻) the problem is to have states institute so-called graduated licensing systems, in which getting a license is a multistage process. A graduated license requires that a teenager first prove himself capable of driving in the presence of an adult, followed by a period of driving with passenger restrictions, before graduating to full driving privileges.
Graduated licensing systems have reduced teenage driver crashes, according to recent studies. About half of the states now have some sort of graduated licensing system in place, but only 10 of
those states have restrictions on passengers. California is the strictest, with a novice (初学者) driver prohibited from carrying any passenger under 20 for the first six months. Which of the following situations is most dangerous according to the passage?
| A．Adults giving a lift to teenagers on the highway after 10 p.m. |
| B．A teenager driving after midnight with passengers in the car. |
| C．Adults driving with three or more teenage passengers late at night. |
| D．A teenager getting a lift from a stranger on the highway at midnight. |
According to Robert Foss, the high death rate of teenage drivers is mainly due to _________.
| A．their lack of driving experience |
| B．their frequent driving at night |
| C．their improper way of driving |
| D．their driving with passengers |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to Paragraph 3?
| A．Teenagers should spend more time learning to drive. |
| B．Driving is a skill too complicated for teenagers to learn. |
| C．Restrictions should be imposed on teenagers applying to take driving lessons. |
| D．The licensing authorities are partly responsible for teenagers' driving accidents. |
A suggested measure to be taken to reduce teenagers' driving accidents is that _________.
| A．driving in the presence of an adult should be made a rule |
| B．they should be prohibited from taking on passengers |
| C．the licensing system should be greatly improved |
| D．they should not be allowed to drive after 10 p.m. |
The present situation in about half of the states is that the graduated licensing system _______.
| A．is under discussion |
| B．has been put into effect |
| C．is about to be set up |
| D．has been perfected |
A person has to be sixteen to drive, seventeen to see certain movies, and eighteen to vote. People can get terrific discounts on all sorts of stuff－provided they’re over sixty-five. Everywhere we look there are age limits that define what people can and can’t do. But creativity has no boundaries, no limitations. Anyone can invent. And they do. Inventors are popping up at the youngest ages.
Sitting in the car waiting for her mom to return from shopping, Becky decided she might as well try to finish her math homework. But it was growing dark and getting hard to see the paper.
“I didn’t have a flashlight, and I didn’t want to open the car door because then the whole car would light up.” recalled Becky. “So I thought it would be neat to have my paper light up somehow, and that’s when the idea came to me.”
It isn’t every day that a ten-year-old invents a product eagerly sought by several businesses, but that’s exactly what Becky Schroeder did when she created a tool that enabled people to write in the dark. Her invention? The Glo-sheet.
That night Becky went home, trying to imagine different ways of making her paper glow in the dark. She remembered all sorts of glow-in-the-dark toys－like balls and Frisbees－and wondered how they were made. She was determined to find a solution. So they very next day, Beck’s dad took her on an outing to the hardware store. They returned with a pail (桶) of phosphorescent paint. She took the paint and stacks of paper into the darkest room in the house－the bathroom. There, she experimented.
“I’d turn on the light, turn it off, turn it on,” said Becky. “My parents remember me running out the room saying ‘It works, it works! I’m writing in the dark!’ ”
She used an acrylic board and coated it with a specific amount of phosphorescent paint. She took a complicated idea and made it work rather simply. When the coated clipboard is exposed to light, it glows. The glowing board then illuminates or lights up the paper that has been placed on top. Two years after her initial inspiration, in 1974, Becky became the youngest female ever to receive a U.S. patent.
She didn’t actively market her Glo-sheet. She didn’t need to. The New York Times wrote an article about an incredible invention－patented by a twelve-year-old, and the inquiries and orders streamed in.From Paragraph 1 , we can draw a conclusion that _________.
| A．it is illegal for one to drive under sixteen |
| B．people enjoy privileges when over sixty-five |
| C．one is never too old or too young to invent |
| D．people hate the limitations that define our behavior |
What caused Becky to invent Glo-sheet?
| A．She was trying to do homework when it got dark. |
| B．She was having trouble with math problems. |
| C．She was trying to earn some money. |
| D．She was working on a school project. |
What is the meaning of the underlined words “phosphorescent paint” in paragraph 5?
| A．paint that acts as a glue |
| B．paint that covers a mark |
| C．paint that becomes hard |
| D．paint that glows in the dark |
What does it mean that Beck “didn’t actively market her Glo-sheet” according to paragraph 8?
| A．She kept the original one for her own use. |
| B．Other people came to her for the Glo-sheet. |
| C．Becky’s father tried to sell the Glo-sheet. |
| D．She gave away patent to the government. |
With which statement would Becky most likely agree?
| A．Experience is needed to be a good inventor. |
| B．Only by inventing things can you know what people need. |
| C．Always try to sell patent rights to large companies. |
| D．You never know what you can do unless you try. |
A huge cloud of dust rose and an overpass disappeared. This was the scene in Zhuzhou，Hunan Province on May 17.Nine people were killed and 16 injured.
Things were similar last year in the Sichuan earthquake. Thousands of people were buried in the ruins and lost their lives. What if we could have warned them?
People are always racking their brains to find a way of preventing buildings’ collapse. Better materials and technology help，but they are not a solution.
Just like humans，a building has its own life cycle from “birth” to “death”．If we know when a building is going to collapse，we can repair it in advance or get out of it before it falls.
Now，scientists at the University of Illinois have developed a material that turns red before it breaks. The invention could be used in things like climbing ropes or bridge supports.
The research was led by Nancy Sottos，a professor at the university’s Beckman Institute，and Douglas Davis，a graduate research assistant.
The secret behind the colorchanging material is a type of molecule (分子)．A molecule is a group of atoms held together by chemical bonds. Imagine you and your friends standing in a circle，holding hands. Each person stands for one atom，your hands represent the bonds，and the entire circle represents a molecule. If one person lets go of his or her hands，the molecule changes color.
The research team put the molecule into a soft material. When the researchers stretched the material，it turned bright red for a few seconds before it broke into two pieces. When they repeatedly stretched and relaxed the material，without breaking it，it only turned a little red.
The major problem is that light can get rid of the red color. When the team shone bright light on the molecule，the broken bond was fixed，and the color disappeared.
If the bright light keeps the red color from appearing，the material’s warning system will be useless. Scientists still have a lot of work to do before the colorchanging molecules can be used outside the lab.What does the passage mainly introduce?
| A．The collapse of an overpass in Zhuzhou，Hunan Province. |
| B．The Sichuan earthquake |
| C．A material that turns red before it breaks. |
| D．A way of preventing building from collapsing. |
The underlined words “racking their brains” in the third paragraph mean ________.
| A．suffering a lot | B．collecting beyond imagination |
| C．losing a lot | D．thinking very hard |
Which of the following is a WRONG statement?
| A．Thousands of people died from the collapse of buildings in the Sichuan earthquake because they hadn’t been warned. |
| B．There is no building that will never collapse. |
| C．A new material has been applied to buildings to warn people of collapse. |
| D．A colorchanging material can turn red before it breaks. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．The colorchanging molecules are certain to be used outside the lab. |
| B．There will be no collapse with the help of the colorchanging material. |
| C．There is a long way to go before the material can be applied. |
| D．The problem caused by bright light will be solved by scientists. |