Some people will do just about anything to save money.And I am one of them.Take my family's last vacation.It was my six-year-old son's winter break from school,and we were heading home from Fort Lauderdale after a weeklong trip.The flight was overbooked,and Delta,the airline,offered us $400 per person in credits to give up our seats and leave the next day.I had meetings in New York,so I had to get back.But that didn't mean my husband and my son couldn't stay.I took my nine-month-old and took off for home.
The next day,my husband and son were offered more credits to take an even later flight.Yes,I encouraged—okay,ordered—them to wait it out at the airport to “earn” more Delta Dollars.Our total take:$1,600.Not bad,huh?
Now some people may think I'm a bad mother and not such a great wife either.But as a big-time bargain hunter,I know the value of a dollar.And these days,a good deal is something few of us can afford to pass up.
I've made a living looking for the best deals and exposing(揭露) the worst tricks.I have been the consumer reporter of NBC's Today show for over a decade.I have written a couple of books including one titled Tricks of the Trade:A Consumer Survival Guide.And I really do what I believe in.
I tell you this because there is no shame in getting your money's worth.I'm also tightfisted when it comes to shoes,clothes for my children,and expensive restaurants.But I wouldn't hesitate to spend on a good haircut.It keeps its shape longer,and it's the first thing people notice.And I will also spend on a classic piece of furniture.Quality lasts.Why did Delta give the author's family credits?
A.They took a later flight. |
B.They had early bookings. |
C.Their flight had been delayed. |
D.Their flight had been cancelled. |
What can we learn about the author?
A.She rarely misses a good deal. |
B.She seldom makes a compromise. |
C.She is very strict with her children. |
D.She is interested in cheap products. |
What does the author do?
A.She's a teacher. |
B.She's a housewife. |
C.She's a media person. |
D.She's a businesswoman. |
What does the author want to tell us?
A.How to expose bad tricks. |
B.How to reserve airline seats. |
C.How to spend money wisely. |
D.How to make a business deal. |
It's only 4 hours flying time from Sydney, but a world away. What better place to rest than a country where the only place people hurry is on the football field and things are done in "Fiji time"?
Viti Lev--Great Fiji--is the largest island. Here you'll find the capital Suva and the international airport at Nadi Vatoa in the farthest part of Fiji. Then there are 331 other islands, many of them with places to stay.
With less than a million people living on islands, you'll never feel crowded . And with a climate that changes only for five degrees between seasons, there’s never a bad time to come.
From cities to villages, from mountains to beaches, from water sports to wooden artworks, Fiji can give you more adventures and special experiences than you could find almost anywhere in the world.
Whenever you come , wherever you go ,you’re sure to see some unforgettable events ,from war dances to religious songs,from market days to religious days. It's not just staged for tourists; it's still a part of everyday life in Fiji.And any one of us can enjoy Fiji's spirit by being part of the traditional sharing of yaqona—a drink made from the root of a Fiji plant.
So why not join us for the experience of a lifetime?
67. Where is the international airport of Fiji?
A. In Suva B. In Sydney
C. On the island of Vatoa D. On the island of Viti Levu
68. What does the text tell us about Fiji people ?
A. They invented “Fiji time” for visitors. B. They stick to a traditional way of life.
C. They like to travel from place to place. D. They love taking adventures abroad.
69. One of the things that make Fiji a tourist attraction is
A. its comfortable hotels B. its good weather all year round
C. its exciting football matches D. its religious beliefs
70. Where can we most probably read this text?
A. In a personal diary B. In a science report
C. In a travel magazine D. In a geography textbook
The coyote (丛林狼), that clever animal of wide-open spaces, has come to the nation’s capital. In fact, coyotes have spread to every corner of the United States, changing their behaviors to fit new environments and causing researchers to deal with a troublesome new kind of creature: the city coyote.
The coyote originally lived in the middle of the continent. One of its most obvious characters is its smartness, which has made the animal a notorious (臭名昭著的) pest. Hunters trapped, shot and poisoned more than a million coyotes in the 1900s. It’s still one of America’s most hunted animals. Yet the coyote has survived. How has the coyote shown this extraordinary ability? “I guess if you wanted to use one word, it’d be ‘plasticity’,” says Eric Gese, an expert at Utah State University. Coyotes can live alone, in pairs, or in large packs like wolves; hunt at night or during the day; occupy a small region or an area up to 40 square miles; and live on all sorts of food, from lizards (蜥蜴) and shoes, to ants and melons.
Unbelievably people helped coyotes increase when they killed most of the wolves in the United States. The spreading of coyotes into city areas, though, is recent. They travel at night, crossing sidewalks and bridges, running along roads and ducking into culverts (钻入涵洞) and underpasses. No one knows why coyotes are moving into cities, but experts explain that cleverer, more human-tolerant (不怕人的) coyotes are teaching urban survival skills to new generations.
Occasionally, coyotes might attack human beings. There have been about 160 attacks on people in recent years. Therefore, people have been consistently told not to feed coyotes or leave pet food unsecured. That, plus a large trapping program in the neighborhood, has cut down on the coyote population.
63. The underlined word “plasticity” in Paragraph 2 refers to _____.
A. the ability to fit the environment B. notorious smartness
C. hunting ability D. being human-tolerant
64. The aim of the passage is to _____.
A. tell people how to fight against coyotes
B. tell us why the coyote is the most hunted animal
C. supply the reason why the coyote is a kind of notorious pest
D. explain how the coyote has spread to and survived in cities
65. According to the passage, coyotes _____.
A. originally lived in the west of the continent
B. sleep during the day but look for food at night
C. are teaching survival skills to their younger generations
D. suffered a population decrease because people killed wolves
66. According to the passage, to cut down the coyote population, people should ____________.
A. leave pet food secured B. keep coyotes in small regions
C. force coyotes to live alone D. avoid using trapping programmes
Susan Sontag (1933 — 2004) was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything — to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing. When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American cultural life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. With great effort and serious judgment, Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.
Seriousness was one of Sontag’s lifelong watchwords(格言), but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poor-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasures of pop culture. In ‘‘Notes on Camp”, the 1964 essay that first made her name, she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings, through which she could not have been more famous. ‘“Notes on Camp”, she wrote, represents “a victory of ‘form’ over ‘content’ ,‘beauty’ over ‘morals’”.
By conviction(信念)she was a sensualist(感觉论者), but by nature she was a moralist(伦理论者), and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the latter side of her that came forward. In Illness as Metaphor — published in 1978, after she suffered cancer — she argued against the idea that cancer was somehow a special problem of repressed personalities (被压抑的个性), a concept that effectively blamed the victim for the disease. In fact, re-examining old positions was her lifelong habit.
In America, her story of a 19th century Polish actress who set up a perfect society in California, won the National Book Award in 2000. But it was as a tireless, all-purpose cultural view that she made her lasting fame. “Sometimes,” she once said, “I feel that, in the end, all I am really defending ... is the idea of seriousness, of true seriousness.” And in the end, she made us take it seriously too.
58. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 means Sontag _____ .
A. was a symbol of American cultural life
B. developed world literature, film and art
C. published many essays about world culture
D. kept pace with the newest development of world culture
59. She first won her name through _____ .
A. her story of a Polish actress
B. her book Illness as Metaphor
C. publishing essays in magazines like Partisan Review
D. her explanation of a set of difficult understandings
60. According to the passage, Susan Sontag ______.
A. was a sensualist as well as a moralist
B. looked down, upon the pop culture
C. thought content was more important than form
D. blamed the victim of cancer for being repressed
61. As for Susan Sontag’s lifelong habit, she ______.
A. misunderstood the idea of seriousness B. re-examined old positions
C. argued for an openness to pop culture D. preferred morals to beauty
62. Susan Sontag’s lasting fame was made upon _____ .
A. a tireless, all-purpose cultural view B. her lifelong watchword: seriousness
C. publishing books on morals D. enjoying books worth reading and movies worth seeing
IV.阅读理解(共17小题;每小题2分,满分34分)
Like cats, geckos(壁虎)always land on their feet. If they happen to fall from a wall or leaf they’ve been climbing, a quick move of the tail makes sure that they always land on their feet first, a new study finds.
Geckos are truly built for climbing: their feet have hairy toes that can fix themselves to a wall or other vertical(竖直的)surfaces. However, geckos’ feet can’t always keep hold and they may fall to the ground. When geckos fall or jump off a wall, they always land stomach-side down. Geckos’ long tails become necessary during their falls, the new study shows.
Researchers did an experiment. They placed geckos up-side-down on the underside of a leaf. When they lost their foothold and fell, the geckos pitched (倾斜)their tails for balance. They then rotated(旋转)their tails to make their bodies rotate. As soon as they were right-side up, they stopped rotating. On average, it only took the geckos about a tenth of a second to right themselves so that they would land on their feet.
Cats use a different way to land on their feet after a fall. As their tails don’t have the power like geckos’ tails, cats can’t use them to right themselves. Instead they twist their bodies around mid-air.
Engineers are trying to build a robot that imitates the geckos’ climbing ability. A tail will be fixed to the robot to allow it to keep balance.
54. What do we know about geckos?
A. Their toes make it possible for them to walk on walls.
B. Their tails can fix them to a wall or other vertical surfaces.
C. They often land on their backs when they jump off walls.
D. It takes them a second to right themselves in mid-air.
55. How do cats avoid their injury during a fall?
A. By twisting their bodies.B. By fixing their toes to the ground.
C. By using their tails to right themselves.D. By landing upside-down.
56. Geckos’ special abilities have given engineers some new ideas to _________.
A. allow robots to climb vertical surfaces
B. reproduce geckos like robots
C. invent robots that can rotate on the ground
D. invent robots that can balance themselves using their tails
57. What is the text mainly talking about?
A. The interesting living habits of geckos. B. The differences between cats and geckos.
C. Why geckos always land on their feet.D. How geckos climb up vertical walls.
If there is one thing that matters in high school-and for your whole life-it is friendships.
My latest novel,THE UNWRITTEN RULE,is about a girl,Sarah,who falls for her best friend Brianna’s boyfriend,Ryan,but it’s more about wrestling with feelings for a guy that you know you shouldn’t have.A lot of the book deals with friendship,the kind of lifelong friendship that means the world to you...and what happens when you realize that maybe it isn’t what you think it is.
Maybe your best friend isn’t your best friend.Maybe she isn’t even a friend at all.
Friendships are tricky things.You can he sure everything is fine,and that your friendship is going to last forever...and it can just end.No explanation,no anything.And it is not easy.In fact,I think losing a friend is worse than losing a boyfriend,especially when it is a friend you’ve had in your life for a long time.
One of the things that Sarah struggles with in THE UNWRITTEN RULE,beyond her feelings for Ryan,is her friendship with Brianna—how long they’ve been friends,how she understands Brianna in a way no one else does,and what to do when a crack appears in their friend ship,not because of Sarah’s feelings for Ryan,but because Sarah begins to wonder if maybe Brianna isn’t her best friend after all.
Having a friendship end is incredibly painful and one of the things I hated when I was younger—and that I still hate now—is how people say.“Oh,it’ll be okay.You’ll move on,you’ll be fine.”
It is true that you will eventually move on and that you will be fine.But you will also always carry that lost friendship with you.It may not take up all of your heart like it does at first,but it will take part of it.
And that,I think,is something no one ever talks about and that I wish we could — and would.
What do you do when someone you are friends with decides your friendship is over? How do you deal with it?
Maybe my latest novel can provide something for you.
47.From the passage we can infer that_____.
A.it may takes Sarah a long time to recover after she lost Brianna’s friendship
B.Sarah and Brianna are still best friends after a long period of time
C.Sarah does not value Brianna’s friendship at all
D.Ryan would feel puzzled about his real love
48.What do you think the book THE UNWRITTEN RULE is mainly about?
A.Friendship. B.School life. C.Love. D.Wrestling with feelings.
49.What’s the writer’s attitude towards friendship?
A.We will all lose some friends in our life.
B.Ending a friendship is worse than losing a boyfriend.
C.It’s usual when a crack appears.
D.You will eventually move on after you lose a friendship.
50.What do you think is the best title for the passage above?
A.My Latest Novel.B.Tricky Friends.
C.Sarah and Brianna. D.Unforgettable Friendship