It is a wonderful morning, as I write this: hot, but without being too hot. Outside my window, I can see the sunniest sky of the year reflected in a huge natural expand of water. It is the kind of sun that makes you well aware of summer's temporary nature a reminder that if I am ever to go around to book this year's holiday, time is running out.
It is now close to four years since I last took a holiday. This is because I have come to the conclusion, over the course of my adult life, that I am not very good at it. You might say this sounds like saying you are not very good at drinking tea or listening to music. What could possibly be difficult about the natural act of putting your working life on hold for a couple of weeks and going somewhere to do nothing?
So what is my problem? On the surface, I'm probably a bit of homebody. And I just find the pressure of being on holiday too severe: it always feels like having a gun held to my head and being forced to have fun. Somehow, packing a carefully itemized （详细列举的 ）list of possessions and meeting a scheduled flight has none of the excitement of suddenly deciding to take a day off and driving somewhere for the fun of it.
Thankfully, I am not alone. This summer, most of my friends have decided not to have a break. And a recent survey highlighted the downside（负面）of holidays, with the results showing that nearly two thirds of people found that the calming effects of a holiday wore off within 24 hours, as stress levels returned to normal. And this year's the Idler magazine published its book, Awful Holidays. Here you will find a list of the five most
ecologically-damaging vacations it's possible to take, along with 50 horrible holidays experiences voted for on the idler website. Over the last decade, The Idler has become well known for promoting the idea of an easy, lazy life. The leisure（休闲）industry might seem an unlikely target of its criticism, but Dan Kienan, the book’s editor, says that he was flooded with entries from readers for his list of awful holidays.According to the first paragraph we can know that the writer .
| A．has a strong desire to book a holiday |
| B．wishes that the weather would change |
| C．finds it is too late to enjoy the sunshine |
| D．realizes it's time to decide whether to go on a holiday |
The reason why the writer dislikes going on holidays is that .
| A．it usually costs too much money |
| B．he is tired of making preparations too much for holidays |
| C．it is far less enjoyable than breaks planned in advance |
| D．he feels embarrassed when other people are having fun but he isn't |
We can learn from the survey that .
| A．most people pretend to enjoy their holiday |
| B．all people fail to relax while they are on holiday |
| C．a lot of people feel that the benefits of going on holidays are limited |
| D．many people have made the same decision as the writer and most of his friends |
The writer takes the book of Awful Holidays as an example to .
| A．damage the reputation of the magazine |
| B．prove the idea of living an easy, lazy life to be wrong |
| C．indicate that his dislike of holidays is widely shared |
| D．focus entirely on bad personal experiences of holidays |
C
People have sailed （航行）the world in quite small boats . It is not an easy thing to do. Sometimes the weather gets bad. That can be the end of everyone in it. Accidents can happen easily and quickly .
One family once had an accident with some big fish. The fish swam under their boat and bit（咬）holes in it. Sea water came in, of course , and the boat soon sank （下沉）. However, these people had another smaller boat----a life-boat, and they all got into that. They lived and hoped for many days. They ate and slept, and they always hoped…At last a ship found them .
How do people live in a very small life-boat? Perhaps for weeks or months? They must be strong in every way . They must have hope----they must want to live: But you cannot eat and drink hope.
You cannot drink sea water: Drink a lot of sea water and you will quickly die . Sailors （水手）can drink rain water. They must catch rain water in their boat. They must also catch fish and birds for food . Life-boats do not often carry a cooker, so the sailors cannot cook their food. Raw （生的）fish and bird-meat is not very nice . But in a life-boat the sailors must eat raw food, or they will die.
What do people think about in a life-boat? They think about land , a warm bed, dry clothes , fresh water and food , food , food .
11．When sailors' boat sinks, their life-boat gives them ______.
A．food B．beds C．rain water D．hope
12．One family once had an accident at sea, because ______
A．their boat was caught in bad weather
B．the boat knocked against a rock and sea water came in
C．some fish bit through the bottom（底部）of their boat
D．none of them knew how to sail the sea
13．Sailors can catch ______ for food and drink at sea in a life-boat .
A．rain water B．fish and birds
C．both sea water and rain water D．both A and B
14．Life-boats do not often carry a cooker, which is ______.
A．something used for cooking B．food for cooking
C．a large basin D．a person who cooks food
15．Which of the following is NOT TRUE?
A．Sailing around the world in quite small boats is not easy.
B．All the food sailors have in a life-boat is cooked fish and bird-meat.
C．Anyone who drinks a lot of sea water will die .
D．No one can live for weeks in a life-boat unless he is strong and wants to live .
B
Babies love chocolate, and sometimes they also eat the paper around it. My cat enjoys a meal of good, thick paper, old letters, for example . She doesn't like newspapers very much .
Of course, the best paper comes from wood. Wood comes from trees , and trees are plants: Vegetables and fruit are plants too, and we eat a lot of them . So can we also eat wood and paper?
Scientists say: “ All food comes in some way from plants. ” Well, is that true? Animals eat grass and grow fat. Then we eat their meat. Little fish eat sea-plants; then bigger fish swim along and eat them . Chickens eat bits of grass and give us eggs . What food does not come from plants in some way?
Scientists can do wonderful things with plants . They can make food just like meat. And they can make it without the help of animals . It is very good food, too . Now they have begun to say : “ We make our paper from wood . We can also make food from wood . The next thing is not very difficult . ”
What is the next thing? Perhaps it is food from paper. Scientists say;“We can turn paper into food . It will be good , cheap food too : cheaper than meat or fish or eggs . ”
So please keep your old books and letters . One day , soon , they will be on your plate. There is nothing like a good story for breakfast .
6．People live mainly on ______.
A．paper B．plants C．fish D．meat
7．Scientists have ______.
A．made a lot of paper B．fed eggs to chickens
C．made food just like meat D．made meat cheaper than food from paper
8．Chickens eat bits of grass . In the sentence “bits of” means _________________________.
A．a little of B .lots of C．big pieces of D .small pieces of
9．Which of the following is NOT true?
A．Scientists say, “All food comes in some way from plants . ”
B．Scientists can make wood into food some day.
C．Scientists can make food from paper some day.
D．Scientists advise us to eat old books and letters at meals .
10．Choose one of the following as the topic for the passage .
A．Paper----Our Future Food B．No More Meat in Future
C．Save Old Books for Breakfast D．Paper----The Best Cat Food
III.Reading comprehension: (40%)
A
For every five men in the Civil War who died in battle , two or three died of disease. Doctors of that time knew very little about causes of sickness or ways of preventing it. Thousands of men in poor health became soldiers. Many of them could not resist epidemic （瘟疫）diseases that went through the places where they lived .
Army life was hard. Soldiers got little fruit or vegetables. There was no milk unless they happened to find a cow. Neither their clothes nor their living places protected the troops from rain, snow, and cold . Sickness and disease were spread by insects , rats , and unclean drinking water . Often the men drank straight from muddy streams .
Gunshot wounds were serious, as in any war, but they did not cause as many deaths as disease did.
1. Disease caused ___.
A．only a few deaths B．fewer deaths than wounds did
C．more deaths than wounds did D．both A and B
2．Men who were accepted as Civil War soldiers were ______.
A．known to have already had some epidemic diseases
B．required to be in perfect health
C．able to resist epidemic disease easily D．sometimes in poor health
3．Army life was hard for troops because ______
A．the place where they lived didn't keep them safe from bad weather
B．they had no warm clothing
C．they seldom had good, healthful food D．all of the above
4．Insects and rats were dangerous because they ______
A．destroyed food B．carried diseases
C．made the water unclean D．tore the soldiers' clothes into pieces
5．The best title for this selection is ______.
A．The Cause of Disease B．The Greatest Danger in the Civil War
C．Insects, Rats, and Gunshot Wounds D．The History of Epidemic Disease
The research carried out by the University of Bari in Italy could help prove hospitals who are accused of wasting money on art and decoration as it suggests a pleasant environment helps patients ease discomfort and pain.
A team headed by Professor Marina de Tommaso at the Neurophysiopathology Pain Unit asked a group of men and women to pick the 20 paintings they considered most ugly and most beautiful from a selection of 300 works by artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli. They were then asked to look at either the beautiful paintings, or the ugly painting, or a blank panel while the team zapped(照射) a short laser pulse at their hand, creating a sensation as if they had been stuck by a pin. The subjects rated the pain as being a third less intense while they were viewing the beautiful paintings, compared with when looking at the ugly paintings or the blank panel. Electrodes measuring the brain's electrical activity also confirmed a reduced response to the pain when the subject looked at beautiful paintings.
While distractions, such as music, are known to reduce pain in hospital patients, Prof de Tommaso says this is the first result to show that beauty plays a part.
The findings, reported in New Scientist, also go a long way to show that beautiful surroundings could aid the healing process.
"Hospitals have been designed to be functional, but we think that their artistic aspects should be taken into account too," said the neurologist. "Beauty obviously offers a distraction that ugly paintings do not. But at least there is no suggestion that ugly surroundings make the pain worse. " "I think these results show that more research is needed into the field how a beautiful environment can alleviate suffering."
Pictures they liked included Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Pictures they found ugly included works by Pablo Picasso, the Italian 20th century artist Anonio Bueno and Columbian Fernando Botero. "These people were not art experts so some of the pictures they found ugly would be considered masterpieces by the art world," said Prof de Tommaso.
1.The underlined word “alleviate” in the fifth paragraph probably means “_________”.
A. cure B. ease C. improve D. kill
2.How many artists have been mentioned in the passage?
A. 4. B. 5.C. 6.D. 7.
3.Which of the following is TURE about the view of Prof de Tommaso’s?
A. Beautiful surroundings could help to heal sufferings completely .
B. Hospitals must take their artistic aspects into consideration first.
C. Ugly surroundings will surely make the pain worse.
D. Both music and beauty can reduce pain in hospital patients.
4.Which of the following is the suitable title for the passage?
A. Beautiful surroundings can ease pain.
B. Ugly paintings could be masterpieces.
C. More research should be done in the field.
D. Latest environmental research.
The key to happiness is how quickly you can get back your focus on what’s important.
-----Anonymous
Sixteen years ago I learned this lesson in the back of a New York City taxi cab. Here's what happened. I hopped in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when, all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car’s back end by just inches!
The driver of the other car, who almost caused a big accident, started yelling bad words at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was friendly. So, I said, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call "The Law of the Garbage Truck."
Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be happy you did.
I started thinking, how often do I let Garbage Trucks run right over me? And how often do I take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets? It was that day I said, "I'm not going to do any more."
Good leaders know they have to be ready for their next meeting. Good parents know that they have to welcome their children home from school with hugs and kisses. Leaders and parents know that they have to be fully present, and at their best for the people they care about. The bottom line is that successful people do not let Garbage Trucks take over their day. What about you? What would happen in your life, starting today, if you let more garbage trucks pass you by? Here's my bet. You'll be happier. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets. So, Love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don't.
1. What happened one day when the author was taking a taxi?
A. The taxi almost hit another car.
B. The taxi driver was injured.
C. The author scolded the driver of the other car.
D. The author learned a lesson from the driver of the garbage truck.
2. How did the taxi driver respond to the behaviour of the driver of the black car?
A. He yelled back at the driver.
B. He sent the driver to the hospital.
C. He was friendly towards the driver.
D. He dumped some garbage in front of his car.
3. What does the taxi driver think of people according to Paragraph 3?
A. Many people like to drive garbage trucks.
B. Many people dump garbage wherever they like.
C. Many people are warm-hearted to make others happy.
D. Many people tend to be very much depressed.
4. What can we infer from Paragraph 4?
A. The author used to have a lot of garbage trucks.
B. The author used to complain a lot.
C. The author used to have a lot of money.
D. The author used to be a good manager.
5. According to the passage, what should you do if people “dump garbage” on you?
A. Ignore them and go on with our own work.
B. Try our best to persuade them not to do that again.
C. Tell them to dump the garbage in the right place.
D. Take over their work and carry the garbage to somewhere else.