One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap(包装).
On September 11th, 1958, Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying. "I promised you a gift, and here it is." What an honor! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. I told it over and over how much I loved it!
One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it. Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as "hopeless", "pitiful", and "dying", which sounded ominous.
Christmas was coming. "Don’t expect any presents this year." Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room. "If your baby brother lives, that'll be Christmas enough." As he spoke, his eyes were filled with tears. I'd never seen him cry before.
The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say. "What? He's all right?" He hung up and shouted upstairs. “The hospital said we can bring Richard home!"
"Thank God.'" I heard Mum cry.
From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I ran downstairs. My socks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!What happened to the author on September 11th 1958?
A.He got a baby brother |
B.He got a Christmas gift |
C.He became four years old |
D.He received a doll |
What does the underlined word “ominous” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
A.Impossible. | B.Boring |
C.Difficult | D.Fearful |
Which word can best describe the feeling of the father when Christmas was coming?
A.Excitement. | B.Happiness. |
C.Sadness. | D.Disappointment. |
What is the passage mainly about?
A.A sad Christmas day |
B.Life with a lovely baby |
C.A special Christmas gift. |
D.Memories of a happy family |
Robert Ballard was born in 1942. From an early age, he loved the sea. Ballard grew up in Southern California. He spent his free time at the beach near his home. He enjoyed fishing and swimming. He even learned to dive.
When Ballard wasn’t at the ocean, he loved reading about it. At age 10, he read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a book which describes the undersea adventures of Captain Nemo. Ballard decided he wanted to be like Captain Nemo when he grew up. His parents helped him follow his dream.
Ballard was a hardworking student. He spent many years learning all he could about the ocean. By the age of 28, he was an expert. In 1970, he took a job as a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. There he studied underwater mountains of the Atlantic Ocean. He came up with ways to predict(预知)volcanoes under the oceans. Working with other scientists, Ballard also found previously(以前)unknown sea animals. These animals lived far below the ocean’s surface, where scientists had believed no animals could live.
By the 1980s, Ballard’s interests changed. He developed unmanned(无人的)vehicles to explore the ocean bottom. His first find, the well-known ship Titanic, made Ballard famous. He was not happy with just one big find, however. He looked for — and found — other well-known ships. One was the German battleship Bismarck. Another was the U.S.S. Yorktown, an aircraft carrier (航空母舰) that sank during World War II.
Today Robert Ballard is still an underwater explorer. He also heads an organization that encourages students to learn about science. Ballard hopes that some of the students will follow in his footsteps. After all, the world’s huge oceans are mostly unknown. Who knows what remains to be discovered under the sea?What was Ballard’s dream when he was young?
A.To be a science teacher. |
B.To be an underwater explorer. |
C.To be an animal expert. |
D.To be a famous writer. |
When Ballard worked at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, he _____.
A.explored the undersea world by ship |
B.thought of ideas to predict underwater volcanoes |
C.found some unknown sea animals alone |
D.set up an organization to teach students science |
Which is the correct order of the events mentioned in the text about Ballard?
a. He found the German battleship Bismarck.
b. He read a book about Captain Nemo.
c. He found the famous ship Titanic.
d. He became an expert in science.
A.b-c-d-a |
B.d-b-c-a |
C.b-d-c-a |
D.d-c-a-b |
What can we learn from the text?
A.Ballard’s parents felt disappointed at his undersea adventures. |
B.Ballard didn’t like fishing and swimming in his childhood. |
C.Ballard was greatly influenced by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. |
D.Human beings have explored more than half of the sea. |
Many animal and plant species have become extinct (灭绝的) and many more are in critical danger.
Dodo
The Dodo is a classic example of how human caused damage to the earth's biology. The flightless Dodo was native to the Island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. The easily controlled bird became a source of food for sailors and was attacked by animals introduced to the island by humans such as pigs, monkeys and rats. The population of Dodos rapidly decreased and last one was killed in 1681.
Rhinos
The Rhino (犀牛) horn is a highly prized item for Asian medicine. This has led to the animal being hunted in its natural habitat. Once widespread in Africa and Eurasia, most rhinos now live in protected natural parks and reserves(保护区). Their numbers have rapidly decreased in the last 50 years, and the animals remain under constant threat from poachers(偷猎者).
The Giant Panda
The future of the Giant Panda is far from certain. As few as 1,000 remain in the wild. The Chinese government has set up 33 panda reserves to protect these beautiful animals. However, The panda's distinct black and white patched coat fetches a high price on the black market and determined poachers still pose(造成)one of the most serious threats to the animals continued existence.
Whales
Despite the fact that one-third the world's oceans have been declared whale sanctuaries(保护区), 7 out of 13 whale species remain endangered. Hunted for their rich supply of oil, their numbers have decreased to just 300. Collisions(碰撞)with ships, poisonous pollution and being caught in fishing nets are other major causes of whale deaths.
Tigers
The last 100 years has seen a 95% reduction in the numbers of remaining tigers to between 5,000 and 7,000 and The Bali, Javan, and Caspian tigers are already extinct. The South China tiger is precariously close to disappearing, with only 20 to 30 still alive. Like the Rhino horn, tigers’ bones and organs are sought after for traditional Chinese medicines. These items are traded illegally along with tiger skins.
Animal Conservation
Wildlife |
Main features or uses |
Present state(状况) |
|
Dodo |
Hunted for food; Attacked by animals |
Have become |
|
Rhinos |
Horns,highly prized items for Asian |
Hunted by poachers |
Have rapidly decreased |
Traditional Chinese medicines |
Some species extinct |
||
Whales |
Rich |
Collisions with ships;heavily |
Only three hundred |
The Giant Panda |
black and white patched coat |
Far from certain |
Everywhere I look outside my home I see people busy on their high-tech devices, while driving, walking, shopping, even sitting in toilets. When connected electronically, they are away from physical reality.
People have been influenced to become technology addicted. One survey reported that “addicted” was the word most commonly used by people to describe their relationship to iPad and similar devices. One study found that people had a harder time resisting the allure of social media than they did for sleep, cigarettes and alcohol.
The main goal of technology companies is to get people to spend more money and time on their products, not to actually improve our quality of life. They have successfully created a cultural disease. Consumers willingly give up their freedom, money and time to catch up on the latest information, to keep pace with their peers or to appear modern.
I see people trapped in a pathological(病态的)relationship with time-sucking technology, where they serve technology more than technology serves them. I call this technology servitude. I am referring to a loss of personal freedom and independence because of uncontrolled consumption of many kinds of devices that eat up time and money.
What is a healthy use of technology devices? That is the vital question. Who is really in charge of my life? That is what people need to ask themselves if we are to have any chance of breaking up false beliefs about their use of technology. When we can live happily without using so much technology for a day or a week, then we can regain control and personal freedom, become the master of technology and discover what there is to enjoy in life free of technology. Mae West is famous for proclaiming the wisdom that “too much of a good thing is wonderful.” But it’s time to discover that it does not work for technology.
Richard Fernandez, an executive coach at Google acknowledged that “we can be swept away by our technologies.” To break the grand digital connection people must consider how life long ago could be fantastic without today’s overused technology.The underlined word “allure” in Paragraph 2 probably means ______.
A.advantage |
B.attraction |
C.adaption |
D.attempt |
From the passage, technology companies aim to ______.
A.attract people to buy their products |
B.provide the latest information |
C.improve people’s quality of life |
D.deal with cultural diseases |
It can be inferred from this passage that people ______.
A.consider too much technology wonderful |
B.have realized the harm of high-tech devices |
C.can regain freedom without high-tech devices |
D.may enjoy life better without overused technology |
What’s the author’s attitude towards the overusing of high-tech devices?
A.Neutral. |
B.Sceptical. |
C.Disapproving. |
D.Sympathetic. |
How fit are your teeth? Are you lazy about brushing them? Never fear: An inventor is on the case. An electric toothbrush senses how long and how well you brush, and it lets you track your performance on your phone.
The Kolibree toothbrush was exhibited at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. It senses how it is moved and can send the information to an Android phone or iPhone via a Bluetooth wireless connection.
The toothbrush will be able to teach you to brush right (don’t forget the insides of the teeth!) and make sure you’re brushing long enough. “It’s kind of like having a dentist actually watch your brushing on a day-to-day basis,” says Thomas Serval, the French inventor.
The toothbrush will also be able to talk to other applications on your phone, so developers could, for instance, create a game controlled by your toothbrush. You could score points for beating monsters among your teeth. “We try to make it smart but also fun,” Several says.
Serval says he was inspired by his experience as a father. He would come home from work and ask his kids if they had brushed their teeth. They said “yes,” but Serval would find their toothbrush heads dry. He decided he needed a brush that really told him how well his children brushed.
The company says the Kolibree will go on sale this summer, for $99 to $199, developing on features. The U.S. is the first target market.
Serval says that one day, it’ll be possible to replace the brush on the handle with a brushing unit that also has a camera. The camera can even examine holes in your teeth while you brush. Which is one of the feature of the Kolibree toothbrush?
A.It can sense how users brush their teeth. |
B.It can track users’ school performance. |
C.It can detect users’ fear of seeing a dentist. |
D.It can help users find their phones. |
What can we learn from Serval’s words in Paragraph 3?
A.You will find it enjoyable to see a dentist. |
B.You should see your dentist on a day-to –day basis. |
C.You can brush with the Kolibree as if guided by a dentist. |
D.You’d like a dentist to watch you brush your teeth every day. |
Which of the following might make the Kolibree toothbrush fun?
A.It can be used to update mobile phones. |
B.It can be used to play mobile phone games |
C.It can send messages to other users |
D.It can talk to its developers. |
What can we infer about Serval’s children?
A.They were unwilling to brush their teeth |
B.They often failed to clean their toothbrushes. |
C.They preferred to use a toothbrush with a dry head. |
D.They liked brushing their teeth after Serval came home. |
What can we learn about the future development of the Kolibree?
A.The brush handle will be removed. |
B.A mobile phone will be built into it. |
C.It will be used to fill holes in teeth |
D.It will be able to check users’ teeth |
In the mid-1950s, I was a somewhat bored early-adolescent male student who believed that doing any more than necessary was wasted effort. One day, this approach threw me into embarrassment
In Mrs. Totten’s eighth-grade math class at Central Avenue School in Anderson, Indiana, we were learning to add and subtract decimals (小数).
Our teacher typically assigned daily homework, which would be recited in class the following day. On most days, our grades were based on our oral answer to homework questions.
Mrs. Totten usually walked up and down the rows of desks requesting answers from student after student in the order the questions had apeared on our homework sheets. She would start either at the front or the back of the classroom and work toward the other end.
Since I was seated near the middle of about 35 students, it was easy to figure out which questions I might have to answer. This particular time, I had completed my usual two or three problems according to my calculations.
What I failed to expect was that several students were absent, which threw off my estimate. As Mrs. Totten made her way from the beginning of the class,I desperately tried to determine which math problem I would get. I tried to work it out before she got to me, but I had brain freeze and couldn’t function.
When Mrs. Totten reached my desk,she asked what answer I’d got for problem No. 14. “I…I didn’t get anything,” I answered,and my face felt warm.
“Correct,” she said.
It turned out that the correct answer was zero.
What did I learn that day? First, always do all your homework. Second, in real life it isn’t always what you say but how you say it that matters. Third,I would never make it as a mathematician.
If I could choose one school day that taught me the most, it would be that one. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 indicate?
A.It is wise to value one’s time. |
B.It is important to make an effort |
C.It is right to stick to one’s belief. |
D.It is enough to do the necessary. |
Usually, Mrs. Totten asked her students to _______.
A.recite their homework together |
B.grade their homework themselves |
C.answer their homework questions orally |
D.check the answers to their homework questions |
The author could work out which questions to answer since the teacher always _______.
A.asked questions in a regular way |
B.walked up and down when asking questions |
C.chose two or three questions for the students |
D.requested her students to finish their usual questions |
The author failed to get the questions he had expected because _______.
A.the class didn’t begin as usual |
B.several students didn’t come to school |
C.he didn’t try hard to make his estimate |
D.Mrs. Totten didn’t start from the back of the class |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A.An Unforgettable Teacher |
B.A Future Mathematician |
C.An Effective Approach |
D.A Valuable Lesson |