BEING an astronaut sounds cool, doesn't it? In space, they get to do some pretty amazing things, like floating in zero gravity(重力).
However, there are also plenty of things that astronauts can't do because of their weightless environment, and that's very sad. What's worse, they can't even let their sadness show, because it's impossible to cry in zero gravity.
Of course, astronauts can still produce tears. But crying is much more difficult in space, according to The Atlantic(大西洋月刊) in January. Without gravity, tears don't flow(流动) down out of the eyes like they do here on Earth. This means that when you cry in space, your tears have nowhere to go-they just stick(粘) to your eyes.
In May 2011, astronaut Andrew Feustel experienced this during one of his spacewalks. "Tears," he said, "don't fall off of your eyes...They just kind of stay there."
Besides making your vision(视线)unclear, this can also cause physical pain. Back on Earth, tears are supposed to bring comfort to the eyes. But that's not the case in space. The space environment dries out astronauts' eyes, and when tears suddenly wet the eyes, it can cause pain rather than comfort. "My right eye is stinging(刺痛) like crazy," Feustel told his teammate during the walk.
Since gravity doesn't work in space, astronauts need some extra help to get rid of（除去） the tears. Feustel chose to rub his eyes against his helmet to wipe(擦) the tears away. Another choice is to just wait-"When the tears get big enough they simply break free of the eyes and float around," astronaut Ron Parise told The Atlantic.
There are lots of small things-things like crying-that we are so used to on Earth. We usually take them for granted until they become a problem in a totally different environment, like space. There, astronauts can't talk to each other directly. They also can't eat or drink in normal ways. They can't even burp (打嗝), because there is no gravity to hold the food down in their stomach. If they do burp, they just end up throwing up（呕吐）everything in their stomach, according to the UK National Space Center.
Therefore, perhaps it's only space explorers who can honestly say: "Gravity, you're the best."From Paragraphs 2 and 3 , we can know that_______.
| A．astronauts are unable to feel sad in space |
| B．astronauts produce fewer tears in space |
| C．tears produced in space flow down more slowly |
| D．tears produced in space don't flow downward |
What effect do tears have on astronauts?
| A．They cause physical pain. |
| B．They bring comfort to them. |
| C．They make their vision clearer. |
| D．They float around and cause trouble. |
The underlined phrase "take them for granted" in paragraph 7 means _______.
| A．find them important |
| B．consider them useless |
| C．need them during an emergency |
| D．fail to notice their presence(存在) |
The second-to-last paragraph (paragraph 7) is mainly about_______.
| A．suggestions of how astronauts can stay comfortable in space |
| B．other basic things that are difficult to do in space |
| C．why burping is impossible in space |
| D．things human can't do without gravity |
A young man once went into town and bought himself a pair of trousers. When he got home, he went upstairs to his bedroom and put them on. He found that they were about two inches (英尺) longer.
He went downstairs to the kitchen. His mother and two sisters were washing up the tea-things there. “The new trousers are too long,” he said. “They need shortening（缩短）by about two inches.
Could one of you do it for me, please?” His mother and sisters were busy and none of them said anything. But when his mother finished washing up, she went quietly upstairs to her son’s bedroom and shortened the trousers by two inches. She came downstairs without saying anything to her daughters.
Later on, after supper, the elder sister remembered her brother’ s trousers. She was a kind girl,so she went quietly upstairs withoutsaying anything to anyone, and shortened the trousers by two inches. The younger sister went to the cinema, but when she came home she,too, remembered her brothers trousers. So she ran upstairs and did as her mother and sister had done. You can imagine（想象）the look on the young man’s face when he put the trousers on the next morning. .What were the young man’s new trousers like at first?
| A．They were a bit too long. |
| B．They were just suitable. |
| C．They were too short for him. |
| D．There were about two inches shorter. |
Why didn’t the young man’s mother and sisters answer him in the kitchen?
| A．Because they were very busy. |
| B．Because they didn’t hear him. |
| C．Because they didn’t like him. |
| D．Because they couldn’t do that. |
When did his elder sister shortened the trousers?
| A．In the evening. |
| B．Before she finished the washing. |
| C．After lunch. |
| D．After she came back from the cinema. |
What did the young man find about the trousers the next morning?
He found that the trousers were ______ inches too short for him.
| A．two | B．four | C．six | D．eight |
How did the young man feel when he put the trousers on the next morning?
| A．Pleasant. | B．Thankful. | C．Surprised. | D．Bored. |
Once there was a little girl in a village. She spent summers on her grandfather’s farm. The year she was four, she knew some ducks. The ducks were white with orange feet. They lived in a little wooden house near the road. The little girl liked these ducks very much. Every day they walked down the road to the pond（池塘）. Then the ducks went into the water and the little girl sat on the bank（岸） and saw them swimming in the pond. The little girl talked to the ducks and they quacked（嘎嘎叫）back. Then one day the ducks were gone. No one would say anything about them. The little girl was afraid to ask where they were. One night everyone sat down for dinner. The food looked a little like chicken. The girl didn’t want to eat. Can you guess why?
A. eating chickenB. sitting by the pond
C. living on a farm D. ducks and a little girl The ducks were __________.
| A．yellow and orange | B．yellow and white |
| C．white with orange feet | D．white and black |
When the little girl ________ , the ducks quacked back.
| A．saw them swimming | B．sat on the bank |
| C．walked to the pond | D．talked to them |
At the end of the story, the ducks were probably _______.
| A．under the water | B．on the plate (盘子) |
| C．in the wooden house | D．swimming in the pond |
The little girl didn’t eat because _____________.
| A．she wanted nice cakes | B．the food was ducks |
| C．the food was too hot | D．the plate was empty |
请认真阅读下面短文，并根据短文内容回答问题。
On December 23, 2008, Niu Niu held a piano concert at the national Grand Theater (国家大剧院). As an eleven-year-old boy, he became the youngest pianist ever to perform a concert at the theater.
Never too young to learn
Niu Niu was born into a musical family in Xiamen. His father Zhang was a piano teacher. Niu Niu grew up listening to his father’s students playing the piano. At just three years old, Niu Niu asked his father to teach him to play, too.
“I gave Niu Niu some sheet music and helped him find the eight notes when he first played the piano. To my surprise, he played nearly 80 percent correct,” said the father. He used to think that three years old is too young an age to learn piano, but Niu Niu changed his mind. He continued to allow Niu Niu to watch his teaching of other students and gave him more sheet music to play.
Playing for fun
Zhang started teaching Niu Niu standard piano lessons when he was four. Unlike many other piano teachers, Zhang didn’t insist that Niu Niu play strictly with the correct finger positioning (位置). He said that the strict finger positioning would rob some kids of fun of playing. So Niu Niu could play in his own way. He could play the tone successfully. But Niu Niu was required to play the music without looking at the sheet music. Now he can remember about 80 pages.
Rising to fame
In 2003, at the age of 6, Niu Niu successfully held a sole concert in his hometown Xiamen. At the age of 8, he gave a performance at the International Piano Festival in France. At the age of 10, Niu Niu played in London and his performance was praised by Prince Charles. Last year, this young pianist published his first album “Niu Niu Plays Mozart” and over 10,000 copies have been sold in the world.
We are very glad to see a young Chinese pianist rising in the music world.How old was Niu Niu when he performed a concert at the National Grand Theater?
What was Niu Niu’s father?
What did Niu Niu’s father feel when Niu Niu played nearly 80 percent of the sheet music correct?
What did Niu Niu’s father say about the strict finger positioning?
What do you think of Zhang’s way of teaching his son Niu Niu? （请自拟一句话作答）
Hu Yaohui, a schoolgirl in Zhejiang province, didn’t want to speak or eat for a week. She kept worrying about her scores on the exam. “I can’t stop thinking about my place in the class,” she said. “I feel stressed out.”
Hu is not the only one who faces stress. According to a recent survey conducted by Wuhan University of Hubei province, 70 percent of the 2,000 students who are going to take the college and high school entrance exams feel under pressure (压力).
Stress is a normal physical response (反应) to things that make people feel worried or break their balance of life in some way.
Stress isn’t always bad. Sometimes, people’s stress is important during emergency situations, such as when a driver has to stop his car to avoid an accident. Sometimes, stress can help people do their best — like while getting ready before a big competition or exam.
However, too much or long-term stress gives people a stress overload (负荷过多). People with stress overloads may have problems remembering or concentrating on things. They are quick to get angry or lose patience. They may even have other problems, such as sleeping problems, headaches and often getting colds.
The most helpful way to deal with stress overloads is to learn how to manage the stress. For example, you might manage it by getting a good night’s sleep, or by exercising every day.
Another good way to deal with stress is to ask parents or friends for help. Everyone has stress. For many people, stress is so common that it has become a way of life. Don’t be too shy to tell others that you are having a hard time. They may comfort you or give you some useful advice. Sometimes just sharing your problems with someone else can make you feel better.Hu Yaohui felt stressed out about __________.
| A．her marks on the exams |
| B．which seat to take during exams |
| C．not being able to sit in the front |
| D．not being allowed to eat in class |
According to the survey in Paragraph 2, __________ of the 2,000 students who will take entrance exams feel stressed.
| A．nearly half | B．about 1,400 |
| C．almost seven hundred | D．about one seventh |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Stress is a kind of serious heart disease. |
| B．Stress is always bad for people. |
| C．Stress is always useless for an exam. |
| D．Stress is greatly needed sometimes. |
The best title of this passage is “__________”.
| A．Many students face stress now. |
| B．People’s stress is sometimes important. |
| C．How to get less stress |
| D．How to get good results with the help of stress. |
To most of us, school means classes, teachers, schedules, grades, and tests. But for the children at Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, school is very different.
Firstly, there are no lessons. All the children, aged between 4 and 19, do whatever they want. There are no teachers, only “staff members (职员)”. The idea behind this is that you do not need to make children learn, because children want to learn anyway. “You do not need to say to a three-year-old. ‘Go explore your environment.’ You can’t stop them!” says Daniel Greenberg, a founder of the school. “But if you make children do what you want all day, they will lose all taste for learning.”
At Sudbury Valley School, you will allow children to talk, read, paint, cook, work on computers, study French, play the piano, climb trees, or just run around. Two boys spent three years just fishing!
The other way that Sudbury Valley School is different is that the children can decide the rules. Every week, there is a school meeting where both children and staff have one vote each — even the four-year-olds. They decide the school rules, how to spend the school budget（预算）, and even which staff they want and do not want any more.
When the school first opened in 1968, people said it would never work. But today, the school has 200 students, and 80% of its students go on to college. Even the two boys who went fishing all time have successful careers today. One of them is a musician and the other is a computer scientist.What does the school believe?
| A．Teachers cannot teach children well. |
| B．Children learn best when they do what they want to do. |
| C．Learning is for adults — children should only play. |
| D．Children should only learn about one thing at a time. |
What does Daniel Greenberg say about three-year-olds?
| A．They love learning. |
| B．They are very naughty. |
| C．They want to be outside all the time. |
| D．They are too young to learn anything. |
What happens to the children after they leave this school?
| A．They do the same things as children from other schools. |
| B．They have problems getting into college or getting a job. |
| C．They usually do very unusual jobs. |
| D．They are not successful in their business. |
What is the main topic of the article?
| A．Children’s hobbies | B．Education in the US |
| C．A school without rules | D．An unusual school |