This is my world now; it’s all I have left. You see, I’m old. And, I’m not as healthy as I used to be. I’m not necessarily happy with it, but I accept it. Occasionally, a member of my family will stop in to see me. He or she will bring me some flowers or a little present, maybe a set of slippers—I’ve got eight pairs. And then they will return to the outside world and I’ll be alone again. Oh, there are other people here in the nursing home. Residents, we’re called. The majority are about my age. I’m 84. Many are in wheelchairs. The lucky ones are passing through—a broken hip, a diseased heart, something has brought them here for rehabilitation(康复). When they’re well they’ll be going home.
The help here is basically pretty good, although there’s a large turnover of staff. Just when I get comfortable with someone he or she moves on to another job. I understand that. This is not the best job to have. I don’t much like some of the physical things that happen to us. I don’t care much for a diaper(尿布). I seem to have lost the control acquired so diligently as a child. The difference is that I’m aware and embarrassed, but I can’t do anything about it. I’ve had three children, and I know it isn’t pleasant to clean another’s diaper. My husband used to wear a gas mask when he changed the kids. I wish I had one now.
Why do you think the staff insists on talking baby talk when speaking to me? I understand English. I have a degree in music and am a certified teacher. Now I hear a lot of words that end in “y”. There is little need for anyone to position their face directly in front of mine and raise their voice with those “y” words. Sometimes it takes longer for a meaning to sink in; sometimes my mind wanders when I am bored. But there’s no need to shout.
I’d love to go out for a meal or travel again. I’d love to go to my own church, sing with my own choir. I’d love to visit my friends. Most of them are gone now or else they are in different “homes” of their children’s choosing. I’d love to play a good game of bridge, but no one here seems to concentrate very well. My children put me here for my own good. They said they would be able to visit me frequently. But they have their own lives to lead. That sounds normal. I don’t want to be a burden. They know that. But I would like to see them more. One of them is here in town. He visits as much as he can.
Something else I’ve learned to accept is loss of privacy. Quite often I’ll close my door when my roommate—imagine having a roommate at my age—is in the TV room. I do appreciate some time to myself and believe that I have earned at least that courtesy(礼貌). As I sit thinking or writing, one of the aides invariably opens the door unannounced and walks in as if I’m not there. Sometimes she even opens my drawers and begins searching around. Am I invisible? Have I lost my right to respect and dignity? I am still a human being. I would like to be treated as one.
Back to my semiprivate room for a little semi-privacy or a nap(午睡). I do need my beauty rest; company may come today. What is today, again? The afternoon drags into early evening. This used to be my favorite time of the day. Things would wind down. I would kick off my shoes. Put my feet up on the coffee table. Pop open a bottle of Chablis and enjoy the fruits of my day’s labor with my husband. He’s gone. So is my health. This is my world.Which of the following statements can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The staff at the nursing home mistreated the elderly people. |
| B．Nursing home workers sometimes stole items from her drawers. |
| C．Her children did not often visit because they felt guilty for having put her in the nursing home. |
| D．The staff used baby talk with her because they assumed her mind had aged as her body had. |
The author concluded her essay with a tone of ________.
| A．dignity | B．sadness | C．disappointment | D．confusion |
How will the author’s son most probably feel after he reads this essay?
| A．Sympathetic. | B．Regretful. | C．Angry. | D．Relieved. |
The best title for the passage would be ________.
| A．The Disadvantages of Growing Old |
| B．If Only I could be getting better |
| C．The Elderly: A Forgotten Generation |
| D．The Place That Changed My Life |
Madame de Stael says that only the people who can play with children are able to educate them. For success in training children, the first condition is to become a child oneself. It means to treat the child as really one’s equal, that is, to show him the same consideration, the same kind of confidence one shows to an adult. It means not to affect the child to be what we ourselves want him to become, but to be affected by the impression of what the child himself is; not to treat the child with cheating, or by force, but with the seriousness and true love suitable to his own character.
Not leaving the child in peace is the greatest problem of present methods of training children. Parents do not see that during the whole life, the need of peace is never greater than in the years of childhood, an inner peace under all outside liveliness.
But what does a child experience? Corrections, orders, interference（干涉）, the whole livelong day. The child is always required to leave something alone, or to do something different, to find something different, or want something different from what he does, or finds, or wants. He is always guided in another direction from the true inner will that is leading him. All of this is caused by our so-called enthusiasm in directing, advising, and helping the child to become the same model produced in one assembly line（流水线）. Understanding, the deepest characteristic of love, is almost always absent.
To bring up a child means carrying one’s soul in one’s hand; it means never placing ourselves in danger of meeting the cold look on the face of the child. It means the truth that the ways of injuring the child are limitless while the ways of being useful to him are few. How seldom does the educator remember that the child, even at four or five years of age, has already had a sharp feeling! The smallest mistrust and unkindness, the least act of injustice, leave wounds that last for life in the heart of the child. While, on the other hand, unexpected friendliness and kindness make quite as deep an impression on those soft senses.The passage mainly talks about _______.
| A．misleading zones and right ways in educating children |
| B．current problems in training children |
| C．what should be taught to children |
| D．the importance of educating children |
Children, according to the passage, are experiencing _______.
| A．corrections, orders and peace |
| B．orders, interference and peace |
| C．interference, orders and corrections |
| D．peace, guide and praise |
If you were a parent, which of the following methods is TRUE according to the text?
| A．You could treat your children not so seriously for they don’t understand many things. |
| B．You could train your children as you wish them to be since you are parents. |
| C．You should sometimes leave your children in peace as they wish in their childhood. |
| D．You should correct your children immediately if their behavior is not what you want. |
We may conclude that the author believes people should _______.
| A．play with the children with enthusiasm all day long just to please them |
| B．try to give an order, advice and suggestions to their children at any time |
| C．treat their children just as the way they treat an adult in their daily life |
| D．regard their children as an equal to them and have understanding of the inner peace of them |
Fifty people died, over 11,000 were injured, and 100,000 houses were heavily damaged or destroyed in an earthquake that struck North China's Hebei Province.
The quake, measuring 6. 2 on the Richter scale (里氏6 .2级) , hit the area 220km northwest of Beijing at 11: 50 a. m. on January 10, 1998.
Scientists made a report of the recent quake. They said that the area of northwestern Beijing, the joint of Shanxi and Hebei Provinces and the Inner Mongolia (内蒙古) were most easily attacked by earthquakes measuring 6 to a bit over 7 on the Richter scale.
However, scientists did not see the recent earthquake earlier. Clouds covered a large area in the northern part of North China before the earthquake and experts say that this prevented satellites from correctly watching the temperature at the correct altitude (纬度).
Experts say that in the last ten years, about 305 earthquakes have taken place in China with 9 measuring over 7 on the Richter scale, 60 measuring over 6, and 236 measuring over 5.
Tens of thousands of people died or were injured. Loss(损失) valued over 10 billion yuan.When the earthquake attacked the area, most people there were unlikely（不太可能的）to ____.
| A．sleep in bed | B．work in the fields | C．walk in the streets | D．stay at home |
The report shows that about nine earthquakes in the past ten years are measured over ____ on the Richter scale.
| A．7 | B．5 | C．9 | D．6 |
It can be inferred（推断） from the report that the damage caused by the earthquakes could be much less heavy if ____.
| A．all the people stayed outside |
| B．the earthquake happened at midnight |
| C．the people had been warned earlier |
| D．the earthquake scale was lower than 6. 2 only |
Which of the following can be reasonable except ____.
| A．We can not stop earthquakes |
| B．Scientists are working hard at the researches on earthquakes |
| C．We can do our best to have fewer damages than ever |
| D．Nothing can be done on earthquakes |
When I first got an e-mail account ten years ago, I received communications only from family, friends, and colleagues. Now it seems that every time I check my e-mail，I have an endless series of advertisements and other correspondence that do not interest me at all. If we want e-mail to continue to be useful, we need specific laws that make spamming（发送垃圾邮件）a crime.
If lawmakers do not do something soon to prohibit spam, the problem will certainly get much worse. Computer programs allow spammers to send hundreds of millions of e-mails almost instantly. As more and more advertisers turn to spam to sell their products，individual e-mail boxes are often flooded with spam e-mails. Would people continue to use e-mail if they had to deal with an annoying amount of spam each time?
This problem is troubling individuals and companies as well. Many spam e-mails contain computer viruses that can shut down the entire network of a company. Companies rely on e-mail for their employees to communicate with each other. Spam frequently causes failures in their local communications networks, and their employees are thus unable to communicate effectively. Such a situation results in a loss of productivity and requires companies to repeatedly repair their networks. These computer problems raise production costs of companies, which are, in the end, passed on to the consumer.
For these reasons, I believe that lawmakers need to legislate（立法）against spare. Spammers should be fined, and perhaps sent to prison if they continue to disturb people. E-mail is a tool which helps people all over the world to communicate conveniently, but spam is destroying this convenience.What does the underlined word “correspondence” in the Paragraph l probably mean?
| A．messages | B．ideas | C．connections | D．programs |
According to the text, what is the major cause of the flooding spam?
| A．Companies rely on e-mail for communications. |
| B．More people in the world communicate by e-mail. |
| C．Many computer viruses contain spam e-mail. |
| D．More advertisers begin to promote sales through spam. |
According to Paragraph 3, who is the final victim of spam?
| A．The business. | B．The advertiser. | C．The employee. | D．The consumer. |
What is the purpose of the text?
| A．To inform. | B．To educate. | C．To persuade. | D．To instruct. |
Victor’s hobby was collecting stamps. He had stamps from many countries, like England, Canada and China. On his birthday, can you guess what people gave him? That’s right—stamps.
Victor’s favorite stamps came from France. He had almost every stamp from 1954 to 2004. He only needed one. That was a 1974 special edition*. It was very hard to find.
He looked for it everywhere. He asked his friends and relatives to help him. But nobody could find the stamp. It made Victor very sad.
“Don’t worry. Never give up,” his father said to him. “If you have enough patience, you’ll find it one day.”
“I hope so,” Victor said.
Victor also liked writing. He had a pen friend in France. They wrote to each other every month. Victor’s pen friend, Phillip, usually used new stamps to send letters. Sometimes, his mother gave him stamps to use. Once Phillip’s mother gave him a big, green stamp. It looked old. When Victor received the letter, he was very surprised. On the envelope, he looked carefully at the stamp. It was the 1974 special edition stamp. Victor was so happy. He told his sister, his mother and his father.
“You see,” his father said. “You did find your stamp. So, it’s good to have two things in life. ”
“What are they?” Victor asked.
“Friends and patience.” He answered. It was very difficult for Victor to find a special French stamp of _________.
| A．1954 | B．1974 | C．1994 | D．2004 |
Who owned the special edition stamp at the very beginning?
| A．Phillip. | B．Phillip’s mother. | C．Victor. | D．Victor’s father. |
The passage mainly tells us that ________ is（are）important to people.
| A．a happy family | B．a good hobby |
| C．relatives and friendship | D．friends and patience |
One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river. When he began crying, God appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?"
The woodcutter told him that he had dropped his axe into water. God went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe.
"Is this your axe?" God asked.
The woodcutter said "No."
God again went down and came up with a silver axe." Is this your axe?" God asked.
The woodcutter said "No."
God again went down and came up with a iron axe." Is this your axe?" God asked.
The woodcutter said "Yes."
God was pleased with the man's honesty and gave him all the three axes.
The woodcutter went home happily. One day while he was walking with his wife along the river, his wife fell into the river. W hen he began crying, God appeared and asked him, "Why are you crying?"
"My wife has fallen into water."
God went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez.
"Is this your wife?" God asked him.
"Yes." he said.
God was furious(狂怒的),"YOU CHEAT !Now I am going to curse you."
The woodcutter quickly said, “Forgive me my lord. It is a misunderstanding. IF I say 'No' to Jennifer Lopez, you will come up with Catherine Zeta Jones, If I also say 'No' to her, you will finally come up
With my wife and I will say, 'Yes.' Then you will give all the three to me .I am a poor man .I will not be able to look after all the three. So that's why I've to say 'Yes' "Which of the following best describes the author's tone in telling the story?
| A．Optimistic | B．Humoristic | C．Objective | D．Critical |
The impression that the woodcutter makes on you is that he is -----
| A．foolish but honest | B．foolish and honest |
| C．smart but honest | D．smart and honest |
What can you infer about Jennifer Lopez and Catherine Zeta Jones?
| A．They are the secret lovers of the woodcutter |
| B．They look much like the woodcutter's wife. |
| C．They are both rich women with a lot of gold and silver. |
| D．They are both popular with women, much worthy than his wife |