It was a Sunday and the heavy storm had lasted all night.The morning after the storm,though,was beautiful:blue skies,warm air and a calm,inviting sea touching the shore gently.
My father realised it was a good day for fishing and invited my sister and me to go with him.I was only 14 and fishing had never been my thing, but I decided to go all the same.I’m so glad I did.
On the road to the harbour we could see the terrible destruction on the coast,but the harbour itself was in fairly good shape.After all， it was protected by the arms of a bay that had only one tiny channel to the sea.As we got on board,we noticed two big humps(脊背) in the distance.
On approaching them,we saw it was a mother whale with her baby.We couldn’t believe it ——there aren’t any whales along the coast here.The storm must have driven them across the ocean into the bay, in which the still water was so badlly polluted that nothing could survive.
The little baby whale——actually as big as our boal——was obviously stuck and could not move.The mother dived under the water and came up suddenly,making big whirlpools(漩涡) and waves.”She’s trying to help her baby, but on the wrong side,”my father said.At this point,my father moved our boat in a semicircle to the other side and ,heading the boat towards the baby whale,pushed it gently.With our several gentle pushes the big hump turned over and disappared under water.Then it swam up right beside its mum.They struggled in their desperate attempts to escape but missed the exit and started heading in the wrong direction.We hurried up to the whales
and tried to lead them towards the bay channel.Showly,they let us lead them,some-times rising from the water right beside us to breathe——and to give us a trusting look with those huge eyes.Once they hit their first part of clean water flowing straight from the sea,the mum gave us a wave with her tail and off they swam into the distance.
In the excitement it had felt like only a few minutes, but we had been with those wonderful animals for almost an hour and a half.That was the simple and lasting beauty of the day,Nearly four decades later ,I still look back fondly to that golden day at sea. The author says “I’m so glad I did .”(in Para.2)because __________.
| A．be witnessed the whole process of fishing |
| B．he enjoyed the beauty of the calm sea |
| C．he experienced the rescue of the whales |
| D．he spent the weekend with his family |
The harbour survived the storm owing to____________.
| A．the shape of the harbour |
| B．the arms of the bay |
| C．the still water in the channel |
| D．the long coast line |
The mother whale failed to help her baby because__________.
| A．she had stayed in the polluted water for too long |
| B．the whirlpools she had made were not big enough |
| C．she had no other whales around to turn to for help |
| D．the waves pushed her baby in the wrong direction |
what is the theme of the story?
| A．Saving lives brings people a sense of happiness |
| B．Fishing provides excitement for children |
| C．It’s necessary to live in harmony with animals |
| D．It’s vital to protect the environment |
Years ago while lying in my hammock （吊床）and drinking JD from the bottle, I noticed my dog dragging something under the fence．Upon inspection, to my disappointment, I realized it was the next door neighbor’ s 10 - year - old daughter’ s rabbit．For years I had watched her come home from school and head straight out to its cage, free it and play with it in the yard．I knew that day would be no different and fearing for our dog, I had to think fast．
The rabbit was quite dirty, as if it had put up quite a struggle, so I washed it, combed it with the dog brush and blew it dry with the leaf blower．Upon finishing its grooming I jumped the fence and replaced it back in its cage hoping its death would be written off as "natural caused"．
Back to the hammock and JD．Within the hour the neighbor’ s Volvo palled in as usual and out popped the little girl, and as usual she headed straight for the cage．Only this time she stopped about six feet away and screamed: " D - A - D - D – Y！！！"
Her father, panic stricken, stood looking at the cage．Being the good neighbor that I am, I rushed to fence and asked if there was anything I could do．
Her father less than calmly shouted, "What kind of sick individual would dig up a little girl’s rabbit and put it back in its cage?"The girl was shocked because _____．
| A．the rabbit was killed by someone |
| B．the rabbit was too clean |
| C．the dead rabbit was cleaned and put back into the cage |
| D．the rabbit was asleep in the cage |
That day the girl ran to the cage _____．
| A．because her rabbit was there |
| B．because she．had a habit of going there to see her rabbit |
| C．because she wanted to see her rabbit again |
| D．because the rabbit was dead |
We can infer that the rabbit ______．
| A．was alive before the writer saw his dog dragging it |
| B．was already dead before the writer saw his dog dragging it |
| C．was in the cage playing with the dog |
| D．was at the fence seeking out for food before it was killed by the dog |
According to the story, the writer _____．
| A．was helpful to his neighbor | B．did a smart thing |
| C．was honest | D．made a mistake |
It is not often realized that women held a high place in southern European societies in the 10 th and 11 th centuries. As wife, the woman was protected by the setting up of a dowry (嫁妆) or decimum. Admittedly, the purpose of this was to protect her against the risk of desertion (遗弃)，but in reality its function in the social and family life of the time was much more important. The decimum was the wife’s right to receive a tenth of all her husband’s property. The wife had the right to withhold consent, in all transactions the husband would make, And more than just a right: the documents showed that she enjoyed a real power of decision, equal to that of her husband. In no case did the documents indicate any degree of difference in the legal status of husband and wife.
The wife shared in the management of her husband’s personal property, but the opposite was not always true. Women seemed perfectly prepared to defend their own inheritance(遗产，继承物)against husbands who tried to exceed their rights, and on occasion they showed a fine fighting spirit. A case in point is that of Maria, Vivas, a Catalan woman of Barcelona. Having agreed with her husband Miro to sell a field she had inherited, for the needs of the household, she insisted on compensation. None being offered, she succeeded in dragging her husband to the scribe to have a contract duly drawn up assigning her a piece of land from Miro’s personal inheritance. The unfortunate husband was obliged to agree, as the contract says, “for the sake of peace.” Either through the dowry or through being hot-tempered, the Catalan wife knew how to win herself, within the context of the family, a powerful economic position. A decimum was .
| A．the wife’s inheritance from her father |
| B．a gift of money to the new husband |
| C．a written contract |
| D．the wife’s right to receive one-tenth of her husband’s property |
In the society described in the passage, the legal standing of the wife in marriage was .
| A．higher than that of her husband | B．lower than that of her husband |
| C．the same as that of her husband | D．higher than that of a single woman |
What compensation did Maria Vivas get for the field?
| A．Some of the land Miro had inherited. | B．A tenth of Miro’s land. |
| C．Money for household expenses. | D．Money from Miro’s inheritance. |
Which of the following is Not mentioned as an effect of the dowry system?
| A．The husband had to share the power of decision in marriage. |
| B．The wife was protested from desertion. |
| C．The wife gained a powerful economic position. |
| D．The husband was given control over his wife’s property. |
Daredevil climber Alain Robert, known as the French Spiderman, stood strong winds and rain to climb the world’s tallest skyscraper, Taiper 101, Saturday.
Robert, dressed in a red rain jacket, tights and climbing shoes, climbed up ropes hung down the side of the 101-storey, 1,667-foot office tower, reaching the top in around four hours. “It was a very big moment and I felt a lot of satisfaction though I was already so tired and nearly all of my muscles were painful. I felt completely eased,” said Robert after taking the ride down in one of the tower’s lifts, the world’s fastest.
Several hundred onlookers and shoppers gathered at the base of the tower watching and cheering Roberts progress through live pictures on a large television screen. At times he disappeared from view as clouds passed by the top of the tower surrounding the upper storeys.
The 42-year-old Frenchman has covered scores of well-known structures around the world including the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower–without permission or any safety equipment or ropes.
This time Robert was wearing a harness(背带) fastened to safety ropes for the entire climb. He used the ropes to pull himself up most of the way, using his hands and feet to climb up the walls for only short sections. He said the management had requested he wear the ropes and safety equipment, which had also become necessary due to the rain making the windows and frames very slippery. Robert said he would not carry his pity the next time. The text mainly tells us that .
| A．another world record was broken by a Frenchman. |
| B．the French Spiderman climbed the world’s tallest building |
| C．how Alain Robert got the name “daredevil” |
| D．Alain Robert was praised for his great success |
During his climbing up Taipei 101, Alai Robert .
| A．never felt tired all the time |
| B．never used his hands and feet |
| C．had stayed somewhere for a short rest |
| D．was not seen on the television screen sometimes |
When Alain Robert climbed the Empire State Building, he was likely to .
| A．use only his hands and feet | B．be 42 years old |
| C．carry some safety equipment | D．get permission of someone |
According to the text, we can infer that .
| A．Alain Robert spent three hours climbing Taipei 101 |
| B．Alain Robert chose a rainy day on purpose |
| C．Alain Robert will climb Taipei 101 a second time |
| D．Alain Robert got lots of help from onlookers |
THE BRONTE FAMILY
Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels (小说) of the 19th century. These were Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The youngest sister, Anne, was also a gifted novelist, and her books have the same extraordinary quality as her sisters’.
Their father was Patrick Bronte, born in Ireland. He moved with his wife, Maria Bronte, and their six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care of the remaining three girls and a boy.
Charlotte was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817. Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls were determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes.
As children they had all written many stories. Charlotte, as a young girl, alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty Anne and Emily found a publisher(出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte’s book. (It was not published until 1859.) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her works. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it. It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847.
Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well. People did not like Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animal-like. But gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of the book, and Anne died in 1849.
Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis(肺结核) as her sisters had.We know from the text that .
| A．Jane Eyre was published in 1847 |
| B．Charlotte Bronte wrote 22 books in all |
| C．the Bronte sisters received good education |
| D．Patrick Bronte helped his daughters with their writing |
The underlined words “the other two” in the 5 th paragraph refer to .
| A．Shirley and Villette | B．The Professor and Agnes Grey |
| C．Agnes Grey and Wutheriing Heights | D．The Professor and wuthering Heights |
What do we know about the Bronte sisters from the text?
| A．Their novels interested few publishers. |
| B．None of them had more than two books published. |
| C．None of them lived longer than 40 years old. |
| D．Emily was the least successful of the three. |
Attempt a guess at the following question: In the English-speaking world, which country has the least affordable homes? You are wrong if you guessed the US, even with the housing bubble (气泡) and main sadness. Nor is it the UK, where prices have risen because demand is far from supply. According to a recent survey of 227 cities around the globe, you must go south of the equator (赤道) to Australia to find the priciest homes.
The report measured a city’s housing market along the following guidelines. An “affordable” home required three times or less of the average family’s income to purchase. At four times earnings, a home fell into the “unaffordable” category. And a “seriously unaffordable” home needed five times a family’s income. In Australia, homes in the least affordable city cost just about 9.5 times the average income. Sydney, Perth, and Melbourne were only a little under this figure.
Australian officials offered little comment, apart from a general statement on the dismal findings. These prices make the possibility that many Australians will one day own a home largely unbelievable. Land rationing (配给制) and excessive development charges have raised prices, and the problem will only be solved through urgent action by the Rudd government.
Some American cities were also included on the least affordable list, four of which were in California. America is still involved in a mortgage（抵押）crisis, though, affecting the affordability of homes. Yet a number of US cities garnered “affordable” status, namely Dallas and Kansas. Australia had no cities listed in the top fifty places with affordable homes.
The survey suggests that you can find affordable homes in most places, just not if you’re Australian and choose to live down under.To buy an affordable house, you should pay _____.
| A．3 times or less of the average family’s income |
| B．4 times or less of the average family’s income |
| C．5 times or less of the average family’s income |
| D．9.5 times or less of the average family’s income |
What caused the prices of houses to increase in Australia?
| A．The rising family’s income. |
| B．The demand over supply. |
| C．The excessive development charges. |
| D．The decrease of land. |
The underlined word “dismal” in Paragraph 3 may mean _____.
| A．cheerful | B．satisfactory | C．difficult | D．gloomy |
What might be the most suitable title for the passage?
| A．Affordable Houses |
| B．A House is a Dream First |
| C．Housing Bubble |
| D．Homes Too Expensive |