American author Mark Twain once noted that “life would be surely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.” Twain’s words were only one of many complaints about aging. The ancient Greek poet Homer called old age “hateful”, and William Shakespeare termed it “terrible winter”.
Alexander the Great, who conquered most of the known world before he died around 323 B.C., may have been looking for a river that healed the ravages of age. During the 12th century A.D., a king called Prester John ruled a land that had a river of gold and a fountain of youth.
But the name linked most closely to the search for a fountain of youth is 16th-century Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. He thought it would be found in Florida. In St. Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S., there’s a tourist attraction. It is said to be the fountain of youth that Ponce de Leon discovered soon after he arrived in what is now Florida in 1513. However, elderly visitors who drink the spring’s water don’t turn into teenagers.
But the tale of the search for a fountain of youth is so appealing that it survives anyway, says Ryan K. Smith, a professor of history. “People are more attracted by the story of looking and not finding than they are by the idea that the fountain might be out there somewhere.”
Still, a few grains of truth have helped to support the story. Kathleen Deagan, a professor of archaeology, says a graveyard and the remains of a Spanish mission dating back to St. Augustine’s founding in 1565 have been discovered near the so-called fountain of youth. Michelle Reyna, a spokesperson for the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park in St. Augustine, says the fountain has been a tourist attraction since at least 1901 and may have been attracting visitors since 1860. According to the passage, who searched for a fountain of youth_________?
A.Ponce de Leon | B.William Shakespeare. |
C.Kathleen Deagan | D.Michelle Reyna |
What does the underlined word “ravages” in the second paragraph probably mean_______?
A.Growth | B.Limits | C.Damages | D.Benefits |
What is the attitude of people towards the fountain of youth________?
A.People find much pleasure in looking for it. |
B.People believe the existence of it somewhere. |
C.People have no interest in searching for it. |
D.People consider the idea of the fountain of youth absurd. |
The passage mainly tells us ________.
A.how the fountain of youth came into being |
B.why some famous people hate becoming old |
C.how to remain young forever |
D.whether the fountain of youth exists |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage_________?
A.The underlined words “the story” refers to Alexander the Great ruling a land that had a river of gold and a fountain of youth. |
B.Augustine, which is the oldest city in the U.S, lies in Florida. |
C.Some elderly visitors find themselves younger after drinking the water from the fountain of youth. |
D.Kathleen Deagan is the spokesperson for the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. |
Scientists find that hard,working people live longer than average men and women. Career(职业) women are healthier than housewives.Evidence shows that the jobless are in poorer health than the jobholders.An investigation (调查) shows that whenever the unemployment rate increases by 1%, the death rate increases by 2%. All this comes down to one point, work is helpful to health.
Why is work good for health?It is because work keeps people busy away from loneliness and solitude (孤单).Researches show that people feel unhappy, worried and lonely when they have nothing to do. Instead the happiest are those who are busy. Many high achievers who love their careers feel that they are happiest when they are working hard. Work serves as a bridge between man and reality. By work people come into contact with each other. By collective activity they find friendship and warmth. This is helpful to health. The loss of work means the loss of everything. It affects man spiritually and makes him ill.
Besides, work gives one a sense of fulfillment and a sense of achievement.Work makes one feel his value and status in society. When a writer finishes his writing or a doctor successfully operates on a patient or a teacher sees his students grow, they are happy beyond words.
From the above we can come to the conclusion that the more you work the happier and healthier you will be. Let us work hard and study hard and live a happy and healthy life.
64. The underlined word “average” in Paragraph1 means“______”.
A. healthy B. lazy C. ordinary D. poor
65. What may be the reason why housewives are not as healthy as career women?
A. Housewives are poorer than career women.
B. Housewives have more children than career women.
C. Housewives have less chance to communicate with others.
D. Housewives eat less food than career women.
66. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to Paragraph 2?
A. Busy people have nothing to do at home.
B. High achievers don't care about their families.
C. There is no friendship and warmth at home.
D. A satisfying job helps to keep you healthy.
67. The best title for this passage may be “______”.
A. People Should Find a Job
B. Working Hard Is Good for Health
C. People Should Make More Friends by Work
D. The Loss of Work Means the Loss of Everything
King Solomon, the most powerful and the most respected Israeli king, once said, “Kings take pleasure in honest lips; they value a man who speaks the truth.” He wrote a book called Proverbs, which is part of the Bible and studied carefully even today.
There was a college graduate in Wuhan who shared his own experience about being truthful. It is a good lesson for everyone who reads of his experience.
Mr. Lou went to work for a factory making electrical machines. On the first day of his job, he accidentally broke an electrical machine because of his inexperience. Since it was very expensive, it caused Mr. Lou to become frightened about what his boss might say to him. The machine was worth his six months’ salary.
He decided to try and repair it. After working on it for about 2 hours, he could make it function, but it didn’t work as well as it should.
After spending a restless night, Mr. Lou felt he must tell his boss the truth. The next morning, he showed the broken machine to his boss nervously, for he didn’t know what the result would be. To his great surprise, the boss praised him for being truthful and even later gave him a rise.
Mr. Lou never forgot this dramatic experience. He had to make the choice of hiding his mistake by saying nothing or of telling the truth. The boss had found an honest new employee who would prove later to be of great value to the company.
Being honest makes a person worthy of trust, which is so important for a family, a company, and even a country.
60. The underlined part “honest lips” (in Paragraph 1) most probably refer to “_____”.
A. people who speak the truth B. lips of honest people
C. people loyal to their king D. lips of people loyal to the king
61. What did Mr. Lou do first after he broke the electrical machine?
A. He hid it in a secret place. B. He reported it to the boss at once.
C. He repaired it himself. D. He replaced it with a used one.
62. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Mr. Lou was excited and happy to have the machine repaired.
B. Mr. Lou told the boss the truth in order to get a rise later.
C. The boss was disappointed and sad about the broken machine.
D. The boss thought honest employees were of great value to the company.
63. By telling the story of Mr. Lou, the author wants to show that _____.
A. mistakes can sometimes bring good luck to a person
B. being truthful is a most important character of a person
C. employees should always be careful with their work
D. experience is important for an employee to do his work well
第三部分:阅读理解(共20小题,每小题2分,满分40分)
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Does this situation seem familiar to you? Your English is progressing well, the grammar is now familiar, the reading comprehension is no problem, you are communicating quite fluently, but: Listening is STILL a problem! First of all, remember that you are not alone. Listening comprehension is probably the most difficult job for almost all learners of English as a foreign language. The most important thing is to listen as often as possible. The first step is to find listening resources. The Internet is really a useful tool for English students. You can download The RealPlayer from RealMedia.com. The RealPlayer allows you to use the Internet like a radio station.
Once you have begun to listen on a regular basis, you might still be frustrated (懊恼) by limited understanding. What should you do?
Here is some of the advice I give my students:
●Accept the fact that you are not going to understand everything.
●Stay relaxed when you do not understand — even if you continue not to understand for a long time.
●Do not translate what you hear into your native language.
●Listen for the general idea of the conversation. Don’t concentrate on detail until you have understood the main ideas.
I remember the problems I had in understanding spoken German when I first went to Germany. In the beginning, when I didn’t understand a word, I insisted on translating it in my mind. This method usually resulted in confusion. Then, after the first six months, I discovered two extremely important facts. Firstly, translating creates a wall between the listener and the speaker. Secondly, most people repeat themselves constantly. By remaining calm, I noticed that — even if I didn’t pay much attention I could usually understand what the speaker had said.
56. The best way to improve our listening is to _____.
A. practice as much as possible
B. find as many listening resources as possible
C. use the Internet like a radio station
D. speak naturally and read as much as possible
57. Which of the following is a good habit when listening?
A. Try to understand everything. B. Try to get the main ideas.
C. Pay much attention to details. D. Translate each word in your mind.
58. Why did the writer mention his / her experience in Germany?
A. To prove the importance of translating.
B. To show the problems of speaking a foreign language.
C. To tell us the importance of staying calm.
D. To point out an ineffective method of listening.
59. The underlined part “a wall” in the last paragraph refers to “_____”.
A. a communication barrierB. culture shock
C. language conflict D. a little misunderstanding
Chinese are very generous when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the United States and Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes which will give them a head in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend an unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor couples will buy a computer for their son or daughter.
However, what most parents fail to see is that the best early education they can give their children is usually very cheap.
Parents can see that their children are very skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today’s children lack self-respect and self-confidence.
The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take multiple-choice tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills that they need to be confident, happy and clever.
Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework.
Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking demands patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and gradually finish his job successfully. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and lots of self-confidence.
Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him curious and arouse his interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them; your child might become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not merely teaching a child to read a book, but rather to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.
62. According to this passage, Parents in China .
A. are too strict with their children
B. are too rich to educate their children
C. have some problems in educating their children correctly
D. are too poor to educate their children
63. Generally speaking, children’s skills .
A. come from their parents
B. may be different from child to child
C. have nothing to do with their education
D. have something to do with their marks in the exams
64. The writer of this passage does not seem to be satisfied with .
A. the parents’ ideas of educating their children B. the education system
C. children’s skills D. children’s hobbies
65. Doing some cooking at home helps children.
A. learn how to serve their parents
B. learn how to become strong and fat
C. make their parents believe that they are clever
D. benefit from it and prepare themselves for the future
C
Kids Wall Art
Large wall posters for kids. Your kids will love these cool posters by artist Darla Daly. Zebras boarding in the skateboard park, a group of jungle animals play in the playground and two giraffes take a drive in the city. Your kids will enjoy decorating their bedroom walls with these posters and their friends will think they are the coolest!
Displaying 1 to 4 (of 4 products)
Name: Alphabet Wall Art Size: 44×72cm(17.5″×28″) Dispatch time: at 9:00 am. every day Prices: $6.8/piece Colorful alphabet art for your kids’ bedroom and playroom. A fun, educational art piece that all kids will enjoy. Kids and babies will love learning their animals and the ABC at the same time! |
Name : Kids World Map Size: 45×75cm(17.5″×29.5″) Dispatch time: at 5:00 am. on Wednesday Prices: $7.2/piece A Colorful, large print by artist Carla Daly. Your kids will love this illustrated world map showing the lands, oceans and the fun animals that live in them. An educational map that will keep your kids amused for hours! |
Name : Skateboard Park Size: 44×60cm(17.5″×23.5″) Dispatch time: at 9:00 am. on weekends Prices: $8.8/piece Fun zebra children’s wall art! Children and kids will love these fun animals enjoying this popular kids’ sport. Boys and girls will enjoy decorating their bedroom walls with this colorful bedroom wall art. |
Name City slickers Size: 44×55cm(17.5″×23.5″) Dispatch time: at 2:00 pm. every day except Friday Prices: $6.5/piece Cute kids wall art of two cool giraffes taking a drive through the city, unusual, fun style for kids walls! Your kids will love this fun giraffe wall art. Boys and girls will have fun decorating their bedroom walls with this colorful bedroom wall art. |
58. Of the four posters, which one is the cheapest?
A. Alphabet Wall Art. B. Kids World Map.
C. Skateboard Park. D. City Slickers.
59. Which poster has the biggest size?
A. Alphabet Wall Art. B. Kids World Map.
C. Skateboard Park. D. City Slickers.
60. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. Kids can just learn some English letters on Alphabet Wall Art.
B. City Slickers posters can be bought at 2:00 pm every day in a week.
C. Kids can get some geography knowledge on Kids World Map.
D. Kids can find two cool giraffes on Skateboard Park.
61. The underlined word “illustrated” in Poster II most probably means “ ”in Chinese.
A. 印刷 B. 装饰 C. 展示 D.图解