La Gomera is the only place in the world which has a whistle （口哨）language. We do not know how and why it began because we do not know the complete history of the island. But we can certainly imagine the reasons for the beginning of the whistle language. There are many deep valleys on the island. A person on one side of a valley can not easily shout to a person on the other side. But he can whistle and be heard. Some of the best whistlers can be heard from four miles away and the record is seven miles.
The people who live on the island usually have good teeth, and this helps them to whistle well. They must also have good ears so that they can hear other whistlers.
We can understand why the whistle language continues. It is very useful on the island, and quite easy to learn. When somebody is hurt or ill, the whistle language takes the place of telephone. If the sick person is quite far away from the town, people pass the message from one to another. A boy guarding cattle on a hillside whistles to a man fishing from his boat. The last one is able to describe the trouble fully and exactly to the doctor in town. People help one another in the same way when a car breaks down or a cow is lost.
The whistle language is hundreds of years old, and probably it will continue to live on for hundreds of years more. Radio and TV often kill the special ways of speaking in different parts of a country. But on La Gomera you are nobody if you cannot whistle. Perhaps soon after TV arrives on the island, people there will be whistling the news and other facts and opinions. If a person on La Gomera is ill,______.
| A．others will phone the doctor in town |
| B．people will take him to town by carriage |
| C．his family will take him to the hospital |
| D．the whistle language will help pass the message to the doctor |
La Gomera is special because ______.
| A．many visitors go there every year |
| B．no visitors have ever been there |
| C．people there have special ears to hear whistles |
| D．people there use the whistle language to communicate with each other |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．It is not easy for a person to live on La Gomera if he cannot whistle. |
| B．The whistle language can only be found on La Gomera. |
| C．The whistle language has been used for hundreds of years on the island, but will not be used any longer. |
| D．The record shows that one best whistler can be heard others seven miles away. |
Which of the following will be the best title of this passage?
| A．The Secret Language | B．Do You Know the Whistle Language? |
| C．The Life of Islanders | D．La Gomera一a Mystery |
Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific progress will one day help humans to last tens of years longer than what is now seen as the natural limit（限制）of the human life span（寿命）.
“ I think we are knocking at the door of immortality (永生),” said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. “ I think by 2075 we will see it and that’s a conservative estimate（保守估计）.”
At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said progress in using genes as well as nanotechnology（纳米技术）makes it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past. “ There is a great push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years,” he said. “ Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.”
However, many scientists who research into aging are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.
Scientists also disagree on what kind of life the super aged might live. “It remains to be seen whether you could be healthy enough to have good quality of life when you pass 120.” said Leonard Poon, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Center. “ At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all.”By saying “ we are knocking at the door immortality”, Michael Zey means_____.
| A．they believe that there is no limit of living |
| B．they are sure to find the truth about long living |
| C．they have got some ideas about long living |
| D．they are able to make people live beyond the present life span |
Donald Louria’s attitude toward long living is that_____.
| A．people can live from 120 to 180 |
| B．it is still doubtful how long humans can live |
| C．the human body is designed to last about 120 years |
| D．it is possible for humans to live longer in the future |
The underlined “ it” (Para. 4) refers to_____.
| A．a great push |
| B．the idea of living beyond the present life span |
| C．the idea of living from 200 to 300 |
| D．the conservative estimate |
What would be the best title for this text?
| A．Living longer or not |
| B．Science, technology and long living |
| C．No limit for human life |
| D．Healthy lifestyle and long living |
I was working as a consultant in a beer company, helping the president and senior vice-presidents form and carry out their new planning projects. It was really a great challenge.
At the same time, my mother was in the final stages of cancer.
I worked during the day and drove 40 miles home to be with her every night. It was tiring and stressful, but it was what I wanted to do. My commitment was to continue to do excellent consulting during the day, even though my evenings were very hard. I didn’t want to bother the president with my situation, yet I felt someone at the company needed to know what was going on. So I told the vice-president of Human Resources, asking him not to share the information with anyone.
A few days later, the president called me into his office.
I figured he wanted to talk to me about one of the many issues we were working on. When I entered, he asked me to sit down. He faced me from across his large desk, looked at me in the eye and said, “I hear your mother is very ill”.
I was totally caught by surprise and burst into tears. He just looked at me, let my crying subside(平息), and then gently said a sentence I will never forget: whatever you need.
That was it. His understanding and his willingness to both let me be in my pain and to offer me everything were qualities of sympathy（同情）that I carry with me to this day.When the author was working in a beer company, his mother .
| A．was concerned about him | B．drew the president’s attention |
| C．was seriously ill | D．was proud of her son |
Although he felt tired and stressed, he felt it his duty .
| A．to help plan some new projects |
| B．to avoid bothering the president |
| C．to tell the vice-president his difficult situation |
| D．to do his job well and look after his mother |
Most probably, the president got the information from .
| A．a relative of the author’s | B．the vice-president |
| C．the author’s good friends | D．the author’s workmates |
Which of the following can be the best title of this passage?
| A．Understanding Is Nowhere | B．Generous President |
| C．Sympathy Is Needed | D．An Unforgettable Memory |
Let children learn to judge their own work. A child learning to talk does not learn by being corrected all the time: if corrected too much, he will stop talking. He notices a thousand times a day the difference between the language he uses and the language those around him use. Bit by bit, he makes the necessary changes to make his language like other people’s.
In the same way, children are learning to do all the other things: they learn to do without being taught to walk, run, climb, whistle, ride a bicycle, compare their own performances with those of more skilled people, and slowly make the needed changes. But in school we never give a child a chance to find out his mistakes and correct them for himself. We do it all for him. We act as if we thought that he would never notice a mistake unless it was pointed out to him, or correct it unless he was made to. Let him work out, with the help of other children if he wants it, what this word says, what the answer is to that problem, whether this is a good way of saying or doing this or not.
If it is a matter of right answer, as it may be in mathematics or science, give him the answer book. Let him correct his own papers. Why should we teachers waste time on such routine(常规) work? Our job should be to help the child when he tells us that he can’t find the way to get the right answer. Let the children learn what all educated persons must some day learn, how to judge their own understanding, and how to know what they know or do not know.The first paragraph is written mainly to _________.
| A．give advice on children’s language learning |
| B．tell us the fewer mistakes we correct, the better children will learn a language |
| C．suggest children are often too stubborn to accept advice |
| D．lead to the topic of the passage |
Which of the following does the writer think teachers should NOT do?
| A．Give children correct answers. |
| B．Allow children to make mistakes. |
| C．Point out children’s mistakes to them. |
| D．Let children mark their own work. |
According to the writer, teachers in school should ________.
| A．allow children to learn from each other |
| B．point out children’s mistakes whenever found |
| C．give children more book knowledge |
| D．correct children’s mistakes as soon as possible |
According to the passage, the best way for children to learn things is by _______.
| A．listening to skilled people’s advice |
| B．asking older people many questions |
| C．making mistakes and having them corrected |
| D．doing what other people do |
Laptop computers are popular all over the world. People use them on trains and airplanes, in airports and hotels. These laptops connect people to their workplace. In the United States today, laptops also connect students to their classrooms.
Westlake College in Virginia will start a laptop computer program that allows students to do schoolwork anywhere they want. Within five years, each of the 1500 students at the college will receive a laptop. The laptops are part of a ＄10 million computer program at Westlake, a 110-year-old college. The students with laptops will also have access to the Internet. In addition, they will be able to use e-mail to “speak” with their teachers, their classmates, and their families. However, the most important part of the laptop program is that students will be able to use computers without going to computer labs. They can work with it at home, in a fast-food restaurant or under the trees——anywhere at all!
Because of the many changes in computer technology , laptop use in higher education, such as colleges and universities, is workable. As laptops become more powerful, they become more similar to desktop computers. In addition, the portable computers can connect students to not only the Internet, but also libraries and other resources. State higher-education officials are studying how laptops can help students. State officials are also testing laptop programs at other universities, too.
At Westlake College, more than 60 percent of the staff use computers. The laptops will allow all teachers to use computers in their lessons. As one Westlake teacher said, “ Here we are in the middle of Virginia and we’re giving students a window on the world. They can see everything and do everything.”The main purpose of the laptop program is to give each student a laptop to ________.
| A．use for their schoolwork | B．search the Internet |
| C．work at home | D．connect them to libraries |
Which of the following is true about Westlake College?
| A．All teachers use computers. |
| B．1500 students have laptops. |
| C．It is an old college in America. |
| D．Students there can do everything. |
“a window on the world” in the last paragraph means that students can ________.
| A．attend lectures on information technology |
| B．travel around the world |
| C．get information from around the world |
| D．have free laptops |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．The program is terrible. |
| B．The program is not workable. |
| C．The program is too expensive. |
| D．We don’t know the result yet. |
For many young people, having to attend school with a parent would be their worst nightmare. However, Senior 1 student Li Qinmei is happy taking her father with her as long as she can go to classes. He is disabled and unable to take care of himself.
The 16-year-old country girl in Zhucheng, Shandong Province has experienced one disaster after another in her short life. Li lost her mother at three. Four years later, her father became paralyzed after a tractor accident. At 12, her misfortune returned with the death of her grandma. Since then she has been forced to shoulder all the responsibility for her broken family.
Li learnt to cook and managed to live a life with an allowance of only 24 yuan per month. The most difficult thing she had to deal with was helping her father bathe, dress and use the toilet as he could hardly move.
"I felt embarrassed, and so did my dad. It was really hard at the beginning," she recalled.
During most of her junior school years, Li went to classes only once a month as her father was seriously ill at the time.
"I taught myself at home and asked teachers for help on my school days," she explained.
Li's hard work paid off this fall. She was admitted by Zhucheng No 1 High School, a local key school, based on her good performance in the entrance exams.
The school offered Li and her father a room on campus to live in so she could look after him during breaks.
Once in a while, Li felt sad when she saw her classmates going shopping or hanging out with friends.
"I envy them sometimes because they have both mum and dad to look after them. However, I soon feel relieved as I still have my dad with me," she said.
Li admitted that the difficulties in life had taught her to be strong.
"I believe I will go on and continue my studies at a good university," she said, in a confident tone.
Her teacher Mr. Wang has the same belief. Li made great progress in the recent monthly exams. "She works hard and is always eager to excel . It's not easy for her never to be late for school, but she has managed to make it work," Wang said.Li Qinmei has to shoulder the family because ________.
| A．her father was badly injured in a car accident |
| B．her mother passed away when she was 3 |
| C．her grandma died when she was 12 |
| D．misfortune in her life forced her to do so |
From the passage we can infer that _________.
| A．Li Qinmei doesn’t like others talking about her father |
| B．many young students hate going to school with their parents |
| C．Li Qinmei has made little progress in her study |
| D．Li Qinmei has lost three relatives and has to take care of her father |
What’s the meaning of the underlined phrase “hanging out” in the passage?_________.
| A．playing outside | B．working hard | C．exchanging ideas | D．talking happily |
What’s the best title of the story?
| A．Difficulties make strong |
| B．A touching story |
| C．A strong-minded girl-Li Qinmei |
| D．Li Qinmei’s successful study life |