My grandmother was from a town in Michigan. Summer after summer, I enjoyed staying with my grandparents as a young child. I was from the city and loved the small town they lived in. People knew everyone, their kids, their pets, their ancestors. The bond with them continued to grow as I grew and they got older. Grandma was always using her hands for something exciting. She would make little sandwiches and we’d have tea parties. She’d make beautiful quilts for each one. I remember the small thimble(顶针) she would use while doing her needle work.
A few years ago, when Grandma left this earth, I bid farewell to a loving grandmother. How quickly our lives can change. We had just had tea together a couple of months earlier, on her 91st birthday.
On one particular birthday, when I was feeling a little low, something happened to make me feel like she was sharing that special day with me. I was arranging some colorful pillows that she had made, and suddenly I felt something inside one pillow. It was small and hard. I moved the object to a seam(接缝) that I carefully opened, and to my delight out came a tiny silver thimble! How happy I was to find something that had been a part of her. I carefully laid the thimble alongside the others I’ve collected over the years, where I could continue to see the gift God chose to reveal(启示)to me. What a precious memory of a very special lady who somehow, I knew, was laughing in delight at sewing her thimble inside my pillow.
I made some tea, using my best china, as Grandma always did, and enjoyed my tea and Grandma’s thimble. What a wonderful birthday that was! The author wrote this passage to .
| A．show how she missed her grandma |
| B．express a desire to lead a simple life |
| C．call on people to care for the old |
| D．look back upon her happy childhood |
The author liked staying with her grandparents because .
| A．she knew almost everyone there |
| B．she liked the simple and friendly town life there |
| C．she could have tea parties and eat sandwiches |
| D．she could learn to sew quilts |
How did the author feel when she found the silver thimble?
| A．Sad. | B．Proud. | C．Lucky. | D．Cheerful. |
It can be inferred from the passage that the silver thimble .
| A．was the item the author had been trying to find |
| B．was the most treasured possession of Grandma |
| C．was very precious to the author |
| D．was a birthday gift Grandma had given the author |
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 |
What’s your idea of a good time? What about dancing in a rainy field with one hundred and fifty thousand other people while a famous rock band plays on a stage so far away that the performers look like ants?
It may sound strange but that is what many hundreds of thousands of young people in the UK do every summer. Why? Because summer is the time for outdoor music festivals.
Held on a farm, the Glastonbury Festival is the most well-known and popular festival in the UK. It began in 1970 and the first festival was attended by one thousand five hundred people each paying an admission price of ￡1 — the ticket included free milk from the farm.
Since then the Glastonbury Festival has gone from strength to strength — in 2004 one hundred and fifty thousand fans attended, paying ￡112 each for a ticket to the three-day event. Tickets for the event sold out within three hours. Performers included superstars, such as Paul McCartney and James Brown, as well as new talent, like Franz Ferdinand and Joss Stone.
Although many summer festivals are run on a profit —making basis, Glastonbury is a charity event, donating millions of pounds to local and international charities.
Glastonbury is not unique in using live music to raise money to fight global poverty (贫穷). In July of this year, the Live 8 concerts were held simultaneously (同时) in London, Paris, Rome and Berlin. Superstars such as Madonna, Sir Elton John and Stevie Wonder performed in order to highlight (强调) international poverty and debt.What does the author mean by saying “the Glastonbury Festival has gone from strength to strength”?
| A．The festival has achieved growing success. |
| B．Great efforts have been made to hold the festival. |
| C．The festival has brought in a large amount of money. |
| D．There have been thousands of fans attending the festival. |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The Glastonbury Festival is run on a profit-making basis. |
| B．Tickets for the 2004 Glastonbury Festival were in great demand despite the high price. |
| C．Both James Brown and Joss Stone were born in poor families. |
| D．In the 1970 Glastonbury Festival, one could have lunch on the farm for free. |
We can learn from the last paragraph that _____.
| A．the Glastonbury Festival is not so popular as the Live 8 concerts |
| B．the Live 8 concerts are held every year in London |
| C．London, Paris, Rome and Berlin are famous for outdoor music festivals |
| D．some superstars are concerned about global poverty |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．How to have a good time |
| B．Charity events around the world |
| C．The Glastonbury Festival |
| D．Superstars’ performances in charity events |