A “blogger” is a person who writes on an Internet computer Web site called a “blog”. The word “blog” is a short way of saying Web log, or personal Web site. Anyone can start a blog, and they can write about anything they like.
There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They provide news, information and ideas in many people who read them. They contain links to other Web sites. And they provide a place for people to write about their ideas and react to the ideas of others.
A research company called Perscus has studied more than 300 Web logs. It says that blogs are most popular with teenage girls. They use them to let their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study also says that more than 100,000 bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year.
However, some people develop serious blogs to present political and other ideas. For example, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their products.
At the same time, some long-standing blogs have ended last week, blogging leader Dave Winer closed his free blog service weblogs. com. He says the site became too costly to continue. He started the blog four years ago. And thousands of people had written on it. They are now upset because they did not know that the site was closing.
One blog that is still going strong is called Rebecca’s Pocket. Rebecca Blood created the Website in 1999. She wrote about the history of blogs on the site. That article led to a book called “The Weblog Handbook”. It has been translated into four languages so far.
Ms. Blood says Rebecca’s Pocket gets about 30,000 visitors a month. She writes about anything and everything—politics, culture and movies. She recently provided medical advice. And she wrote about how to prevent people from stealing money from on-line bank accounts.The text is mainly written to .
| A．introduce an Internet computer Web site called “blog” |
| B．introduce a short way of saying Web log |
| C．tell readers about blogs |
| D．tell readers how to write blogs |
From the text we can learn that blogs cover almost everything except .
| A．different ideas | B．medical advice |
| C．advertisements | D．account passwords |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the text?
| A．Politicians don’t use blogs at all |
| B．A lot of bloggers no longer write or read blogs |
| C．Those who like to use blogs are mostly teenage girls. |
| D．Dave Winer closed his “weblogs.com” because of money shortage. |
The reason why Rebecca’s Pocket is still going strong is that .
| A．it was created by a woman. |
| B．it is about the history of blogs. |
| C．it provides useful information and advice |
| D．it has editions in at least four different languages |
Barditch High School decided to hold an All-School Reunion. Over 450 people came to the event. There were tours of the old school building and a picnic at Confederate Park. Several former teachers were on hands to tell stories about the old days. Ms. Mabel Yates, the English teacher for fifty years, was wheeled to the Park.
Some eyes rolled and there were a few low groans(嘟囔声)when Ms.Yates was about to speak. Many started looking at their watches and coming up with excuses to be anywhere instead of preparing to listen to a lecture from an old woman who had few kind words for her students and made them work harder than all the other teachers combined.
Then Ms. Yates started to speak:
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be here. I haven’t seen many of you since your graduation, but I have followed your careers and enjoyed your victories as well as crying for your tragedies. I have a large collection of newspaper photographs of my students. Although I haven’t appeared in person, I have attended your college graduations, weddings and even the birth your children, in my imagination.”
Ms. Yates paused and started crying a bit. Then she continued:
“It was my belief that if I pushed you as hard as I could, some of you would succeed to please me and others would succeed to annoy me. Regardless of our motives, I can see that you have all been successful in you chosen path.”
“There is no greater comfort for an educator than to see the end result of his or her years of work. You have all been a great source of pleasure and pride for me and I want you to know I love you all from the bottom of my heart.”
There was a silence over the crowd for a few seconds and then someone started clapping. The clapping turned into cheering, then into a deafening roar(呼喊). Lawyers, truck drivers, bankers and models were rubbing their eyes or crying openly with no shame all because of the words from a long forgotten English teacher from their hometown.What activity was organized for the school reunion?
| A．Sightseeing in the park. |
| B．A picnic on the school playground. |
| C．Telling stories about past events. |
| D．Graduates’ reports in the old building. |
What can be inferred from Paragraph 2?
| A．Some graduates were too busy to listen to Ms. Yates’ speech. |
| B．Many graduates disliked Ms. Yates’ ways of teaching. |
| C．Some people got tired from the reunion activities. |
| D．Most people had little interest in the reunion. |
We can learn from Ms. Yates’ speech that she _____________.
| A．kept track of her students’ progress |
| B．gave her students advice on their careers |
| C．attended her students’ college graduations |
| D．went to her students’ wedding ceremonies |
What was Ms.Yates’ belief in teaching teenagers?
| A．Teachers’ knowledge is the key to students’ achievements. |
| B．Pressure on students from teachers should be reduced. |
| C．Hard-pushed students are more likely to succeed. |
| D．Students’ respect is the best reward for teachers. |
I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.
I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.
It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.
Then I met an agent（代理商）who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.
The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal — that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.
It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck — of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract（合同）of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding（有回报的）.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?
| A．I was waiting for good fortune. |
| B．I was trying to find an admirable job. |
| C．I was being aimless about a suitable job. |
| D．I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time. |
The author decided to write a novel ______ .
| A．to finish the writing course |
| B．to realize her own dream |
| C．to satisfy readers’ wish |
| D．to earn more money |
How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?
| A．Disturbed. | B．Ashamed. | C．Confident. | D．Uncertain. |
What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?
| A．It pays to stick to one’s goal. |
| B．Hard work can lead to success. |
| C．She feels like being unexpectedly lucky. |
| D．There is no end in sight when starting to do something. |
About twenty of us had been fortunate enough to receive invitations to a film-studio(影棚)to take part in a crowd-scene. Although our "act" would last only for a short time, we could see quite a number of interesting things.
We all stood at the far end of the studio as workmen prepared the scene, setting up trees at the edge of a winding path. Very soon, bright lights were turned on and the big movie-camera was
wheeled into position. The director shouted something to the camera operator and then went to speak to the two famous actors nearby. Since it was hot in the studio, it came as a surprise to us to see one of the actors put on a heavy overcoat and start walking along the path. A big fan began blowing tiny white feathers down on him, and soon the trees were covered in "snow". Two more fans were turned on, and a "strong wind" blew through the trees. The picture looked so real that it made us feel cold.
The next scene was a complete contrast (对比). The way it was filmed was quite unusual. Pictures in front taken on an island in the Pacific were shown on a glass screen (幕). An actor and actress stood of the scene so that they looked as if they were at the water’s edge on an island. By a simple trick like this, palm trees, sandy beaches, and blue, clear skies had been brought into the studio!
Since it was our turn next, we were left wondering what scene would be prepared for us. For a full three minutes in our lives we would be experiencing the excitement of being film "stars"!Who is the author?
| A．A cameraman. |
| B．A film director. |
| C．A crowd-scene actor. |
| D．A workman for scene setting. |
What made the author feel cold?
| A．The heavy snowfall. |
| B．The man-made scene. |
| C．The low temperature. |
| D．The film being shown. |
What would happen in the "three minutes" mentioned in the last paragraph?
| A．A new scene would be filmed. |
| B．More stars would act in the film. |
| C．The author would leave the studio. |
| D．The next scene would be prepared. |
A mouse looked through a crack(缝隙) in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package; what food might it contain? He was astonished to discover that it was a mouse trap!
Running to the farmyard, the mouse shouted, warning everyone, “There is a mouse trap in the house, there is a mouse trap in the house.”
The chicken, with her head high, glared at the mouse and said, “Shut up. Little Ugly. This is a great concern to you, but it has nothing to do with me; I can’t be troubled by it.
The mouse turned to the pig and told him, “There is a mouse trap in the house.” “I am so sorry, Mr. Mouse,” said the pig sympathetically, “but there is nothing I can do about it but pray; you are always in my prayers.”
The mouse turned to the cow, who relied, “ A mouse trap, am I in great danger, huh?”
Now the mouse had to face the farmer’s mouse trap alone.
The very night a sound was heard through the house, like that of a mouse trap catching its prey. The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In the darkness, she did not see it was a big poisonous snake whose tail the trap had caught. The snake bit the farmer’s wife. The farmer rushed her to the hospital. She returned home with a fever. It is said that drinking fresh chicken soup will help treat fever, so the farmer took his sharp knife to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient. His wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer killed the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well, in fact, she died, and so many people came for her funeral. The farmer had the cow killed to provide for all of them to eat.
So next time when someone is facing a problem, don’t say that it has nothing to do with you. Remember: when the least of us is threatened, we all might be at risk.We could see from the passage that the mouse was _____.
| A．good at cheating others | B．honest |
| C．kind and warm-hearted | D．foolish |
Which of the following is False according to the passage?
| A．The others help the farmer kill the cow. |
| B．The mouse trap was very practical |
| C．The pig is more friendly than the other animals. |
| D．The farmer’s family was very poor and they had no friends |
What can we learn from the story?
| A．Better safe than sorry |
| B．Traps can always cause chain reactions |
| C．To keep the balance of nature is the duty of us all |
| D．What you think impossible to happen to you might come at you unexpectedly |
Frankenstein is one of the world’s most famous horror stories. It’s about a doctor who creates a new man from the body parts of dead people and brings it to life. But the experiment goes wrong and the monster(怪兽) kills the doctor and many others. The story has been read by millions since it was first published and in the last hundred years it has been made into dozens of movies. Many people are surprised to learn its writer was a 19-year-old woman, called Mary Shelley.
Mary was born into a rich London family in August 1797. She was educated by her parents and when she was 13 she decided to become a writer. In 1812, she met the famous writer Percy Shelley and they soon got married. Sadly for Mary, their first child died soon after birth in Italy. In her diary, Mary wrote about a dream：“I dreamt that my little baby came to life again---that it had only been cold and that we rubbed it before the fire and it lived.”
In 1816, Percy Shelley and 19-year-old Mary visited the poet Lord Byron at his home in Switzerland. Because of the bad weather they stayed indoors reading horror stories. On night, Byron asked everyone to write their own story. Mary thought of her dream and wrote the story of Frankenstein
Frankenstein was published when Mary was 21, and became a huge success. Many people didn’t think a 19-year-old woman could write so well and believed her husband was the real writer.
Although famous, Shelley’s life was full of sadness. Only one of her four children lived and in 1822 her husband died in a swimming accident. Mary was broken-hearted and decided not to marry again. She devoted herself to her child and continued to write until her death in 1851.Where was Mary Shelley when she wrote the story Frankenstein ?
| A．In England | B．In Italy | C．In Switzerland | D．In France |
In which order do the following take place?
a. Bad weather made everyone stay indoors reading horror stories.
b. The story Frankenstein was first published.
c. Mary wrote about a dream in her diary.
d. Mary met the famous writer Percy Shelley.
e. Movies based on the story of Frankenstein were made.
| A．a,c,b,e,d | B．d,c,a,b,e | C．c,a,b,d,e | D．b,a,d,c,e |
How old was Mary Shelley when she died?
| A．43 | B．48 | C．51 | D．54 |