It was Thanksgiving morning. I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together on the top step.
“Any old papers, lady？” asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals(凉鞋), wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I'll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I served them cocoa and bread to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started cooking.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich？”
“Am I rich? Pity, no！”
I looked at my wornout slipcovers(椅套). The girl put her cup back in its saucer(茶碟)carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucers.” They left after that, holding their papers against the wind. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.
Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred(搅动)the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a regular job, these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy marks of little sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
| A．Lady, are you rich? | B．A story of Thanksgiving Day |
| C．Don't forget how rich you are | D．Does cups and saucers match well? |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．The girl thought the writer was rich just because she wanted to make the writer happy. |
| B．The writer had thought she wasn't rich because her supplies were not expensive. |
| C．If cups and saucers match well, they are a best pair even though cheap. |
| D．After hearing what they said, the writer seemed to understand what a rich life was. |
The writer left the muddy marks of little sandals on the floor for a while to________.
| A．show that she was a kindhearted lady |
| B．remind her that she shouldn't forget how rich she was |
| C．leave room for readers to think about what being rich is |
| D．prove that she had understood what meant being rich |
It can be inferred from the text that whether you are rich depends on________.
| A．how much money you have made |
| B．what attitude you have had towards life |
| C．the way you help others |
| D．your social relationship |
三、阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
请阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A, B, C和D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该选项的标号涂黑。
When I get off the bus, I’m usually greeted by the sounds of news on CNN. My father welcomes me, and I help him with the usual things—changing the channel and some other tasks. My father has a disease that makes him unable to walk. Despite his disability, my father has always been my role model.
In my first year at middle school, my grades slipped greatly. My father told me I could improve. I currently maintain a B plus average, and he confidently supports me in all my academic efforts. He is against violence to the best of his ability. Love is his most important tool,and he makes sure we know that violence is never the answer.
He urges me not to fear,but to believe in what I think is right.“No matter what anyone tells me,”he says,“I believe what I choose. If someone is discriminating against you for who you are, they don’t deserve your time.”My friends are the most caring people I’ve met, because I realize that they don’t judge me, and they like me as I am.
I’ve always found it strange that people pity me because of my father’s condition. He’s not inferior(次于) to anyone. His disease doesn’t hold him back. He’s normal person.
When I see disabled people out in public, I consider them equal to any other individual. No one is superior to anyone for any physical reason. I’ve known that from that day on, thanks to my dad.
“Anything else?”I’ll ask.
“No, that’s fine.”
As I walk to my room, I think my dad who teaches me the most important things I’ll ever need to know. My father is in no way inferior to anyone else. If anything, he’s even better.
According to the passage,we learn that the author’s father is_________.
| A．kind but sort of strict | B．disabled but optimistic |
| C．independent but violent | D．full of love but lacks confidence |
It can be learned from Paragraph 3 that the author’s father gives him some advice on
_________.
| A．how to make friends | B．how to help the disabled |
| C．how to learn from failure | D．how to improve his studies |
.When the author sees disabled people in public,he feels_________.
| A．embarrassed | B．sorry | C．natural | D．uncomfortable |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The author is proud of his father. |
| B．The author is likely to be taken in by his friends. |
| C．The author encourages his father to do things himself. |
| D．The author is looked down upon because of him disabled father. |
“Humans should not try to avoid stress any more than they would shun food, love or exercise.” said Dr. Hans Selye, the first physician to document the effects of stress on the body. While here’s no question that continuous stress is harmful, several studies suggest that challenging situations in which you’re able to rise to the occasion can be good for you.
In a 2001 study of 158 hospital nurses, those who faced considerable work demands but coped with（设法处理） the challenge were more likely to say they were in good health than those who felt they couldn’t get the job done.
Stress that you can manage may also boost immune(免疫的) function. In a study at the Academic Center for Dentistry in Amsterdam, researchers put volunteers through two stressful experiences. In the first, a timed task that required memorizing a list followed by a short test, subjects believed they had control over the outcome. In the second, they weren’t in control: They had to sit through a gory(血淋淋的) video on surgical procedures. Those who did go on the memory test had an increase in levels of immunoglobulin A, an antibody that's the body’s first line of defense against germs. The video-watchers experienced a downturn in the antibody.
Stress prompts the body to produce certain stress hormones（荷尔蒙）. In short bursts these hormones have a positive effect, including improved memory function. “They can help nerve cells handle information and put it into storage,” says Dr. Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University in New York. But in the long run these hormones can have a harmful effect on the body and brain.
“Sustained stress is not good for you,” says Richard Morimoto, a researcher at Northwestern University in Illinois studying the eff
ects of stress on longevity(长寿), “It’s the occasional burst of stress or brief exposure to stress that could be protective.”The passage is mainly about ________.
| A．the benefits of manageable stress |
| B．how to avoid stressful situations |
| C．how to cope with stress effectively |
| D．the effects of stress hormones on memory |
The underlined word “shun” (Line 1, Para.1) most probably means___
_____.
| A．cut down on |
| B．stay away from |
| C．run out of |
| D．put up with |
We can conclude from the study of the 158 nurses in 2001 that ________.
| A．people under stress tend to have a poor memory |
| B．people who can’t get their job done experience more stress |
| C．doing challenging work may be good for one’s health |
| D．stress will weaken the body’s defense against germs |
Dr. Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University believes that ________.
| A．a person’s memory is determined by the level of hormones in his body |
| B．stress hormones have lasting positive effects on the brain |
| C．short bursts of stress hormones enhance memory function |
| D．a person’s memory improves with continued experience of stress |
When it comes to friends, I desire those who will share my happiness, who possess wings of their own and who will fly with me. I seek friends whose qualities illuminate（照亮）me and train me up for love. It is for these people that I reserve the glowing hours, too good not to share.
When I was in the eighth grade, I had a friend. We were shy and “too serious” about our studies when it was becoming fashionable with our classmates to learn acceptable social behaviors. We said little at school, but she would come to my house and we would sit down with pencils and paper, and one of us would say, “Let’s start with a train whistle today.” We would sit quietly together and write separate poems or stories that grew out of a train whistle. Then we would read them aloud. At the end of that school year, we, too, were changing into social creatures and the stories and poems stopped.
When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend, He was in despair and I was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.
For almost four years I have had remarkable friend whose imagination illuminates mine. We write long letters in which we often discover our strangest selves. Each of us appears, sometimes in a funny way, in the other’s dreams. She and I agree that, at certain times, we seem to be parts of the same mind. In my m
ost interesting moments, I often think: “Yes, I must tell….”We have never met.
It is such comforting companions I wish to keep. One bright hour with their kind is worth more to me than the lifetime services of a psychologist（心理学家），who will only fill up the healing（愈合的）silence necessary to those darkest moments in which I would rather be my own best friend. In the eighth grade, what the author did before developing proper social behavior was to ______.
| A．become serious about her study |
| B．go to her friend’s house regularly |
| C．learn from her classmates at school |
| D．share poems and stories with her friend |
In Paragraph 3, “We gave London to each other” probably means ______.
| A．our exploration of London was a memorable gift to both of us |
| B．we were unwilling to tear ourselves away from London |
| C．our unpleasant feeling about London disappeared |
| D．we parted with each other in London |
According to Paragraph 4, the author and her friend _______.
| A．call each other regularly |
| B．have similar personalities |
| C．enjoy writing to each other |
| D．dream of meeting each other |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．Unforgettable Experiences |
| B．Remarkable Imagination |
| C．Lifelong Friendship |
| D．Noble Companions |
It is often necessary to release a fish, that is, set it free after catching, because it is too small, or you just don’t want to take it home to eat. In some cases, releasing fish is a good measure that will help keep fish variety and build their population size. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) encourages fishermen who practice catch-and-release fishing to use a few simple skills when doing so. The advice provided below will help make sure that the fish you release will survive to bite again another day.
—When catching a fish, play it quickly and keep the fish in the water as much as possible.
Don’t use a net in landing the fish and
release it quickly to prevent it from dying.
—Hold the fish gently. Do not put your fingers in its eyes. Don’t wipe the scales (鱼鳞) off the fish because it might cause it to develop a disease and reduce its chance of survival.
—Remove your hook (鱼钩) quickly. If the hook is too deep or hooked in the stomach, cut the line and leave the hook in. The hook left inside will cause no serious problem to the fish.
—Take good care of the fish by moving it gently in water. Release the fish when it begins to struggle and is able to swim.
—Do not hold fish in a bucket or some other containers and later decide to release it. If you are going to release a fish, do so right away.
With a little care and by following the suggestions given above, you can give the released fish a better chance of survival. People sometimes set a fish free after catching it because they _________.
| A．don’t want it to die | B．hope it will grow quickly |
| C．don’t want to have it as food | D．want to practice their fishing skills |
Which of the following will probably make a fish ill?
| A．Taking the hook off it. | B．Removing its scales. |
| C．Touching its eyes | D．Holding it in your hand. |
A proper way to release a fish is to _________.
| A．move it in water till it can swim |
B． take the hook out of its stomach |
| C．keep it in a bucket for some time |
| D．let it struggle a little in your hand |
What is the purpose of the test?
| A．To show how to enjoy fishing. |
| B．To persuade people to fish less often. |
| C．To encourage people to set fish free. |
| D．To give advice on how to release fish. |
Domestic (驯养的) horses now pull ploughs, race in the Kentucky Derby, and carry police. But early horses weren’t tame (驯服的) enough to perform these kinds of tasks. Scientists think the first interactions humans had with horses were far different from those today.
Thousands of years ago, people killed the wild horses that lived around them for food. Over time, people began to catch the animals and raise them. This was the first step in domestication.
As people began to tame and ride horses, they chose to keep those animals that had more desirable characteristics. For example, people may have chosen to keep horses that had a gentle personality so they could be ridden more easily. People who used horses to pull heavy loads would have chosen to keep stronger animals. Characteristics like strength are partly controlled by the animals’ genes. So as the domesticated horses reproduced, they passed the characteristics on to their young. Each new generation of houses would show more of these chosen characteristics.
Modern day horse breeds come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. This variety didn’t exist in the horse population before domestication. The Shetland horse is one of the smallest breeds—typically reaching only one meter tall. With short, strong legs, the animals were bred to pull coal out of mine shafts (矿井) with low ceilings. Huge horses like the Clydesdale came on the scene around 1700. People bred these heavy, tall horses to pull
large vehicles used for carrying heavy loads.
The domestication of horses has had great effects on societies. For example, horse were important tools in the advancement of modern agriculture. Using them to pull ploughs and carry 
heavy loads allowed people to farm more efficiently. Before they were able to ride horses, humans had to cross land on foot. Riding horses allowed people to travel far greater distance in much less time. That encouraged populations living in different areas to interact with one another. The new from of rapid transportation helped cultures spread around the world. Before domestication horses were ______.
| A．caught for sports |
| B．hunted for food |
| C．made to pull ploughs |
| D．used to carry people |
The author uses the Shetland horse as an example to show ______.
| A．it is smaller than the Clydesdale horse |
| B．horse used to have gentle personalities |
| C．some horses have better shaped than others |
| D．horses were of less variety before domestication |
Horses contributed to the spread of culture by ______.
| A．carrying heavy loads |
| B．changing farming methods |
| C．serving as a means of transport |
| D．advancing agriculture in different areas |
The passage is mainly about _______.
| A．why humans domesticated horses |
| B．how humans and horses needed each other |
| C．why horses came in different shapes and sizes |
| D．how human societies and horses influenced each other |