Scrooge looked around him angrily. It was Christmas and his only friend Jacob Marley, had been dead for seven years. What was there for him to celebrate? He listened with growing anger to the people calling out greetings in the street and growled at his nephew Bob Cratchit, who was just ready to go home. “Merry Christmas, uncle,” called Bob as he hurried out of the door.
Scrooge sighed. He might just as well go to bed. Aware that he should not waste his candle, he quickly undressed and climbed into bed. But no sooner had he done so than the ghost of Marley, covered in chains, appeared. “What’s the matter, Jacob?” he asked. “There are the chains I made in my life,” answered the ghost. “I’m forced to wander around with no rest and no peace. I have come here to warn you that if you do not change, this too will be your fate. You will be visited by three spirits. Expect the first one tomorrow when the clock strikes one. Expect the second and the third on the following nights at the same hour.” With that Marley vanished. “Nonsense!” he said and going back to bed, fell fast asleep.
When Scrooge awoke it was dark. The clock struck one. At the sound, light flashed into the room and there stood a young boy. “Who are you?” asked Scrooge in an unsteady voice. “I’m the spirit of Christmas past,” replied the spirit. “Come with me.” “Do you remember this?” he asked. Scrooge did. He heard the happy cries of people, and looking around he found himself, as he used to be, sitting on a chair and reading. It was a Christmas. Suddenly Scrooge watched his younger self joined in a band, dancing and laughing. “Strange,” said the spirit, “that such little things should make people so happy.” The ghost let him go and Scrooge sank down into a deep sleep.
When he awoke again the second night, the clock sounded one again. Before he doubted the second spirit already turned up. The fat and jolly spirit was smiling,“I’m the spirit of Christmas present.”Again Scrooge grasped the spirit’s hand and was transported to a small house filled with a number of children and their mother. “Why, it’s my nephew Bob’s house,” cried Scrooge in astonishment. His surprise increased when the door opened and in came Bob carrying a small, sick boy, Tiny Tim. “Sit down,” cried Bob to his family. “Let’s have the best Christmas dinner!” They all began to eat eagerly. Scrooge watched at the happiness and contentment of his poor nephew’s family. “A Merry Christmas to us all!” cried Bob. “God bless us everyone!” added Tiny Tim, who sat very close to his father and Bob held his thin hand tightly. “No, not for the uncle, but for you and the children. Nobody knows better than you how mean that man is.” exclaimed Bob’s wife. “Spirit,” cried Scrooge. “Will Tiny Tim live?” “If the future remains the same,” said the spirit, “there will be an empty chair next year.” Again the spirit moved Scrooge away, and he fell asleep as he fell back into his bed.
The third night he woke and waited for the hour and the third spirit. This time the spirit didn’t come in a flash of light but arrived quietly wearing a black cloth that covered its face and form. “I’m the spirit of Christmas that is to come.” The spirit pointed and led him to a large stone. It was at the foot of a grave(坟墓) that was clearly neglected. Scrooge looked closer with trembling fingers and with horror read his own name on the stone. “Oh, spirit, no, no!” The spirit’s finger remained steady pointing at the grave. “I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year,” cried Scrooge in terror. He reached out to hold the spirit’s hand, but it slipped away. Scrooge looked around him. he saw he was in his own bed with his own thing around him.
“I have learned from the past, present and the future,” he rushed to the window and shouted to the boys below: “What day is it today?” “Why, it’s Christmas Day,” they replied in amazement. “Wonderful,” cried Scrooge. He rushed to his office to wait for Bob. When he entered, Scrooge pretended to look angry. “Do you know what day it is, my boy?” he asked Bob. “I’m not going to stand for this any longer,” he continued, “and so I’m going to raise your salary.” Bob looked amazed. “A Merry Christmas, Bob,” cried Scrooge slapping him on the back. “I want to help you and your family. Let’s talk about it this very afternoon.”What do the underlined words “growled at” mean in the first paragraph?
| A．said happily to | B．said calmly to |
| C．said slowly to | D．said angrily to |
From the second paragraph, we can learn that ________.
| A．Scrooge was even mean to himself |
| B．Scrooge believed what his friend told him |
| C．Marley lived with chains before his death |
| D．Marley came to say “Merry Christmas” to Scrooge |
When did Scrooge meet three spirits?
| A．At Christmas Eve. |
| B．On the 3 different nights before Christmas. |
| C．On Christmas Day. |
| D．On the 3 different days before Christmas. |
Which is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Scrooge died the next year. |
| B．Bob’s son, Tiny Tim, died the next year. |
| C．There is more than one child in Bob’s family. |
| D．The third spirit showed Scrooge his well-cared-for grave. |
What do you think Scrooge would be in the following years?
| A．Kind and poor. | B．Kind and generous. |
| C．Happy and mean. | D．Miserable and mean. |
Which of the following saying best describes the passage?
| A．No pains, no gains. |
| B．Actions speak louder than words. |
| C．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| D．It will pay to be kind to others. |
Nine years ago, after Leo had died, people said to me. "I never knew he was your stepfather." You see, I never called him that. At first, he was no one special in my life. Then he became my friend. In time, I felt he was also my father.
Leo married my mother when I was eleven. Two years later we moved into a house in a new suburban development, where we put down roots. At first our lawn was just a mud with wild grass, but Leo saw bright possibilities. "We'll plant trees there to give us shade as well as some flowers," he said. And just these little touches made our house different from all the others. More important, a real family was forming. Leo was becoming a full-time parent, and I was learning what it meant to have a father.
Weekday mornings when the weather was bad, Leo often drove me to school. Having a father drop you off may have been something my classmates took for granted, but I always thought it was wonderful. Saturday mornings, we went to the hardware shop, then stepped into the five-and-ten, buying a sports magazine or something else. Some people might think that doing shopping together is nothing special, but I, who had ever before spent my childhood watching other families do their everyday activities, experienced them now with extreme delight. Looking back, I realized that Leo gave me what I needed most—the experience of doing ordinary things together as a family.
Soon after we moved to the suburbs, one of our new neighbors introduced herself to me. She had already met my mother and Leo. "You know," she said, "you look just like your father." I knew she was just making conversation--but even so... "Thank you", I said. Why tell her anything different?The writer's purpose in writing this passage is _______.
| A．to show his pride to have a good stepfather |
| B．to show how interesting a person Leo was |
| C．to remind us of our parents |
| D．to explain why they moved to the suburbs |
The phrase “put down roots”in the second paragraph means _______.
| A．farmed | B．planted | C．settled | D．worked |
In the writer's opinion, _______.
| A．it is not easy to live with a stepfather |
| B．not all the stepfathers are as good as Leo |
| C．the husband and wife must think more about their children before they divorce |
| D．in stepfamilies the love and friendship are extremely precious |
The last sentence “Why tell her anything different?”means that _________.
| A．he should have told the truth |
| B．he wouldn't tell her the truth |
| C．he wanted to tell her something that had nothing to do with Leo |
| D．he wanted to keep silence whenever he met the neighbors |
Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street.
Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, and the life of American people. Most of the radio programs are music.
Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in many places. Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tape. Some of the money from these tapes goes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.
There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. Another is called western or country music. This is started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they are watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music. This passage mainly talks about __________.
| A．American music |
| B．American popular music |
| C．three sorts of music |
| D．popular music singers |
The first three paragraphs mainly tell us _____________.
| A．that Americans like folk music |
| B．that popular music is an important kind of music in American |
| C．how to become a national star as a pop singer in American |
| D．popular music in America is what every student likes |
The underlined word “This” in the last paragraph refers to “__________”.
| A．American music |
| B．folk music |
| C．country music |
| D．the common life of Americans |
According to the passage, the song Country Road probably belongs to _________.
| A．pop music |
| B．folk music |
| C．western music |
| D．jazz |
No one should be forced to wear a uniform under any circumstance. Uniforms are controlling the human spirit and totally unnecessary in a democratic(民主的) society. Uniforms tell the world that the person who wears one has no value as an individual but only lives to function as a part of the whole. The individual in a uniform loses all self-worth.
There are those who say that wearing a uniform gives a person a sense of identification with a larger, more important concept. What could be more important than the individual himself? If an organization is so weak that it must rely on cloth and buttons to inspire its members, that organization has no right to continue its existence.
Others say that the practice of making persons wear uniforms, say in school, gets rid of all envy and competition in a matter of dress, such that a poor person who cannot afford good-quality clothing is not to be looked down upon by a wealthy person who wears expensive clothing. Those persons ignore the concepts as freedom of choice, motivation, and individuality. If all persons were to wear the same clothing, why would anyone struggle to be better? It is only a short step from forcing everyone to drive the same car, have the same type of food. When this happens, all motivation to improve one’s life is removed. Why would parents bother to work hard so that their children could have a better life than they had when they know that their children are going to be forced to have exactly the same life as they had?
Uniforms also hurt the economy(经济). Right now, billions of dollars are spent on the fashion industry yearly. Thousands of people are employed in designing, creating, and marketing different types of clothing. If everyone were forced to wear uniforms, artistic personnel would be unnecessary. Salesmen would be extra as well. Why bother to sell the only items that are available? The wearing of uniforms would destroy the fashion industry which in turn would have a wave effect on such industries as advertising and sales promotion. Without advertising, newspapers, magazines, and television would not be able to remain in business. Our entire information and entertainment industries would collapse.Why does the author discuss forcing everyone to buy the same car or eat the same food?
| A．To show that freedom of choice is absolute in modern society. |
| B．To suggest what would happen if uniforms became compulsory. |
| C．To predict the way the society will be in the next few generations. |
| D．To show that the government has too much control over people’s lives. |
The last word of the passage “collapse” probably means ________.
| A．fail | B．rise | C．disappear | D．struggle |
The author’s primary purpose in writing this passage was to ________.
| A．show that uniforms are not possible in a democratic society |
| B．advise the government to change the rules of wearing uniforms |
| C．advocate stronger governmental controls on the wearing of uniforms |
| D．convince the reader that uniforms have more disadvantages than advantages |
Human beings have used tools for a very long time. In some parts of the world you can still find tools that people used more than two million years ago. They made these tools by hitting one stone against another. In this way, they broke off pieces from one of the stones. These chips of stone were usually sharp on one side. People used them for cutting meat and skin from dead animals, and also for making other tools out of wood. Human beings needed to use tools because they did not have sharp teeth like other meat eating animals, such as lions and tigers. Tools helped people to get food more easily.
Working with tools also helped to develop human intelligence. The human brain grew bigger, and human beings began to invent more and more tools and machines. The stone chip was one of the first tools that people used, and perhaps it is the most important. Some scientists say that it was the key to success of mankind.
Since 1960 a new kind of tool has appeared. This is the silicon chip (硅芯片). It is smaller than a finger nail, but it can store lots of information. It is an electronic brain. Every year these chips get cleverer, but their size gets smaller, and their cost gets less. They are used in watches, calculators and intelligent machines that we can use in many ways. In the future we will not need to work with tools in the old way. Machines will do everything for us. People will have plenty of spare time. But what will they do with it?
Human beings used stone chips for more than two million years, but human life changed very little in that time. We have used silicon chips for only a few years, but life is changing faster every day. What will life be like twenty years from now? What will the world be like two million years from now?From paragraph 1, we can know ________.
| A．why early human beings cut skin from dead animals |
| B．how early human beings discovered the tools |
| C．what early human beings used the tools for |
| D．what food early human beings stored |
The stone chip is thought to be the most important tool because it ________.
| A．was very important to the development of mankind |
| B．led to the invention of machines in the early time |
| C．developed cooking abilities of mankind |
| D．was one of the first tools of mankind |
The silicon chip is mentioned in the passage to ________.
| A．show the changes of tools |
| B．introduce a new kind of tool |
| C．give an example of using tools |
| D．compare the effects of two kinds of tools |
At the end of the passage the author seems to suggest that life in future is ________.
| A．out of order | B．less colorful |
| C．hard to predict | D．full of meanings |
In 1880, fourteen-year-old Matthew Henson loved to hear sailors tell tales of their exciting lives at sea. The travel, the adventure, the danger, and the steady pay were all attracting young Henson. One day, he found a job as a cabin boy on a beautiful ship called the Katie Hinds. For the next five years, Henson sailed around the world. With the help of the ship’s captain and other members of the crew, Henson learned mathematics, navigation, history, geography, and many other subjects. By the time he left the Katie Hinds in 1885, Henson was well educated and had become an excellent seaman.
Unable to find work anywhere else, Henson took a job in a hat shop in Washington, D.C. One day in 1887, a man came in to buy a hat. The man, Robert Peary, asked the owner if he knew anyone with experience at sea. Peary would soon travel to South America for the U.S. government. He needed experienced men to accompany him. The shop owner knew about his young employee’s skills and experience on ocean journeys, so he introduced Peary to Henson.
Using his map-reading and sailing skills, Henson proved himself to be a worthy and smart seaman. Peary soon made Henson his assistant, and they became close friends. One day Peary told Henson about his real dream: to be the first man to stand on “the top of the world” at the North Pole. He asked Henson to help him make his dream come true. Over the next five years, the two explorers made two trips together to the Arctic. However, they were not able to reach the pole either time. The cold, wind, and ice were worse than either of them had ever imagined.
In 1908, Peary and Henson were ready to make their final attempt at reaching the North Pole. Both men were over forty years old. The years of hardship in the arctic cold had made them suffer a lot. This would be their last chance. With four Inuit guides, they made a mad rush straight across the ice toward the pole. Peary’s feet were injured and he had to be pulled on a dogsled. In April 1909, Henson’s instruments showed they were standing at the North Pole. Together Henson and Peary planted the American flag in the snow.
In later years, Robert Peary and Henson were greatly honored for their achievements. Today, the two friends and fellow explorers lie in heroes’ graves not far apart in the Arlington National Cemetery.In paragraph1, the author shows how Henson became ________.
| A．a skilled seaman |
| B．a highly educated captain |
| C．employed in a restaurant |
| D．interested in helping others |
Paragraph 2 mainly tells us ________.
| A．how Matthew Henson met Robert Peary |
| B．why Matthew Henson went to the hat shop |
| C．why Matthew Henson stopped working on the Katie Hinds |
| D．how Robert Peary knew that Matthew Henson had sea experience |
On their trip to the North Pole, Henson and Peary could best be compared to ________.
| A．treasure hunters seeking big fortunes |
| B．generals seeking power over another country |
| C．soldiers going to war to fight for their freedom |
| D．fighters performing a task in an unknown land |
The information presented in this passage is mainly organized ________.
| A．by cause and effect |
| B．by comparing and contrasting |
| C．in the order that the events happened |
| D．with main ideas and supporting examples |