A mother had two daughters. She loved them very much, but two girls would fight with each other from their earliest years. As they grew older, they became total strangers. They had no contact with each other when they were adults.
This caused the mother great pain. Then, later, she had an idea. She decided to write a letter to them. In this letter, she told them how much she loved them, and how she wanted them to love each other in this way. She also gave them news of herself and some guidance on how to live happier lives.
When the letter was ready, she wrote out one copy for each daughter, but these copies were special. Each copy contained only every second sentence of the original letter: the copy for one daughter had only the even (双数的) sentences, and the other daughter’s copy contained only the odd sentences. Neither contained the fullness of the mother’s message.
When the two daughters received their letters, they were puzzled. To understand the half-letter, they would have to put the two letters together and read them as one, which meant they must approach one another again in love and respect. But they each blamed the other for not helping them when trying to read the half-letter.
For a long time, the mother waited in vain. Then one day, when the mother had almost given up hope, there was a knock at the door. There they stood, together. “We’ve come home,” they said at the same time. “We’ve finally put our letters together, and we’ve come to say how much we love you, Mum.” Then she hugged them both, tears of joy streaming down her cheeks, and welcomed them back home.The mother gave her daughters incomplete letters mainly to ______.
| A．win their hearts | B．offer them advice |
| C．tell them her news | D．mend their relations |
Upon receiving their letters, the two daughters ______.
| A．complained about each other as usual |
| B．blamed her mother for the half-letter |
| C．put the letters together and read them |
| D．understood the mother’s purpose at once |
Why did the two daughters visit their mother at last?
| A．They wanted to apologize. |
| B．They missed home very much. |
| C．They had put the letters together. |
| D．They felt grateful for the mother. |
What is the best title for the passage?
| A．An Unusual Letter | B．A Mother’s Endless Love |
| C．Two Special Daughters | D．A Sincere Apology to Mother |
Big Brothers Big Sisters is based on the simplicity and power of friendship. It is a program which provides friendship and fun by matching vulnerable young people (ages 7-17) with a volunteer adult who can be both a role model and a supportive friend.
Volunteer tutors come from all walks of life—married, single, with or without children. Big Brothers and Big Sisters are not replacement parents or social workers. They are tutors: someone to trust, to have fun with, to talk and go to when needed.
A Big Sister and Little Sister will generally spend between one and four hours together three or four times each month for at least twelve months. They enjoy simple activities such as a picnic at a park, cooking, playing sport or going to a football match. These activities improve the friendship and help the young person develop positive self-respect, confidence and life direction.
Big Brothers Big Sisters organizations exist throughout the world. It is the largest and most well-known provider of tutor services internationally and has been operating for 25 years.
Emily and Sarah have been matched since March 2008. Emily is a 10-year-old girl who has experienced some difficulties being accepted by her schoolmates at school. "I was pretty sure there was something wrong with me.”
Emily’s mum came across Big Brothers Big Sisters and thought it would be of benefit to Emily by "providing different feedback(反馈)about herself other than just relying on schoolmates to measure her self-worth. ”
Sarah wanted to get involved in a volunteer program. "I paid close attention to it and found out how to be a part of it. I thought it would be fun for me to get involved in making time to do something because sometimes it’s all work and no play. ”
Big Brothers Big Sisters has been of great benefit and enjoyment to both Emily and Sarah. They love and look forward to their time together and the partnership has certainly helped Emily be more comfortable in being the wonderful, happy and unique girl she is!What is the aim of Big Brothers Big Sisters?
| A．To offer students public services. |
| B．To provide partnership and fun for young people. |
| C．To organize sport activities for young people. |
| D．To help students improve their grades |
A volunteer is usually expected to work within a year for at least .
| A．24 hours | B．72 hours |
| C．48 hours | D．36 hours |
According to Emily’s mother, this program may provide Emily with .
| A．a new way to assess herself |
| B．advice from her teachers |
| C．a new way to judge her schoolmates |
| D．more comments from her schoolmates |
Why did Sarah want to get involved in the program?
| A．She used to be a volunteer. |
| B．She felt a bit bored with her life. |
| C．She needed a part-time job. |
| D．She wanted to get a challenging job. |
According to the passage, ‘vulnerable young people’ underlined in Paragraph1 are probably those who are .
| A．popular at school |
| B．rather weak physically |
| C．easily hurt emotionally |
| D．confident in themselves |
In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopted and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8. Our home was a complete zoo---a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree！
I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the middle of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams. When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be __________.
| A．a writer | B．a teacher |
| C．a judge | D．a doctor |
Why did the author quit school in her second year of college?
| A．She wanted to study by herself. |
| B．She fell in love and got married. |
| C．She suffered from a serious illness. |
| D．She decided to look after her grandma. |
What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?
| A．She was busy yet happy with her family life. |
| B．She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons. |
| C．She wanted to remain a full-time housewife. |
| D．She was too confused to make a correct choice. |
What does the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Little by little, one goes far. |
| C．Every coin has two sides. |
| D．Well begun, half done. |
Which of the following can best describe the author?
| A．Caring and determined. |
| B．Honest and responsible. |
| C．Ambitious and sensitive. |
| D．Innocent and single-minded. |
A sick little girl is being kept alive thanks to her best friend — a dog who carries her oxygen tank on his back. Alida’s faithful dog companion Mr Gibbs has been specially trained to shepherd the three-year-old, who breathes through a tube most of the time. He follows her closely as she plays in her family’s ten-acre land in Louisville, uses the slide or even rides her bike.
Alida was diagnosed with neuroendocrine hyperplasia of infancy（NEHI）when she was just eight months old. Her rare condition has just eight hundred documented sufferers throughout the world, and causes diseased pieces of the lungs to filter oxygen through extra layers of cells, making it hard or almost impossible to breathe. For Alida and her parents, it meant that even a walk in the park was very difficult because oxygen equipment was too heavy for the youngster to be able to carry herself. As parents, they wanted to do something to help their daughter survive despite having a tube following her all the time. The couple found out about “service dogs” from a TV program and realized an animal trained to help the blind could be trained to help Alida. They finally found help in the shape of golden doodle—a retriever crossed with a poodle-dog Mr Gibbs. Now thanks to trainer Ashleigh Kinsley—Alida and Mr Gibbs love nothing more than playing and running around together with the dog acting as Alida’s life saver.What is Mr Gibbs?
| A．A pet dog. | B．A policeman. |
| C．A doctor. | D．A firefighter. |
When did the doctor know Alida caught the disease?
| A．At her birth. |
| B．At the age of eight. |
| C．Before she was one year old. |
| D．When she was three years old. |
The underlined part “the couple” in paragraph 3 refers to _______.
| A．Alida’s classmates | B．Alida’s parents |
| C．Alida’s doctors | D．Alida’s pets |
How did Alida keep alive?
| A．By training her dog. |
| B．By staying with her parents. |
| C．By playing with her fellows. |
| D．By breathing through a tube. |
It was reported last week that developers could take photos from Apple mobile and Google Android devices without the phone owners knowing that the images were being taken. In Apple’s case, developers can also obtain the location information for each photo.
Senator(参议员) Charles Schumer said in a telephone interview that his office had spoken with officials at both Apple and Google on Monday.
“We asked them if they could find a way on their own to prevent Apple from having access to private information,” Mr. Schumer said. “They were friendly and open to the idea that this ought to be changed.”
On Sunday, Mr. Schumer said that he planned to send a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking the agency to investigate Apple and Google after the privacy concerns came to light. Claudia Bourne Farrell, an F.T.C. spokeswoman, said the agency had received the letter but she could not comment further.
“It worries people to think that one’s personal photos, address book, and who knows what else can be obtained and even posted online without permission,” Mr. Schumer wrote in his letter to the F. T.C. “If the technology exists to open the door to this kind of privacy invasion, then surely technology exists to close it, and that’s exactly what must happen.”
Mr. Schumer said if Apple and Google could not come to an agreement to fix the problem, then he would be forced to take the issue further.
He said other companies had been willing to work with his office to fix issues. “I’m optimistic that we can get this changed without any regulation,” he said. “If it’s not changed, then we’ll turn to the F.T.C., and if that doesn’t work then we’ll consider legislative approach.”
The F.T.C. has warned companies to try to be more vigilant(警醒的) in their efforts to protect consumers when it comes to privacy.The senators spoke with officials at both Apple and Google_______.
| A．to urge them not to invade consumers’ privacy. |
| B．to discuss whether it is illegal to have access to private information. |
| C．to stop them from developing the technology of taking photos. |
| D．to keep them from obtaining the location information for each photo. |
Which of the following statements is True?
| A．Privacy invasion from Apple has existed for a long time. |
| B．Mr. Schumer takes the privacy concerns caused by Apple and Google seriously. |
| C．Privacy invasion from Google has existed for a long time. |
| D．Apple and Google have decided to make a change. |
Mr. Schumer’s letter to the F.T.C. mainly shows that the technology to open the door to privacy invasion_______.
A. causes privacy invasion to happen frequently.
B. can be used if permitted.
C. causes people to worry about the safety of their personal information.
D. causes personal information to be posted online without permission.Where can we read about the passage?
| A．In a newspaper. | B．In a magazine. |
| C．In a science report. | D．In a textbook. |
Besides containing attractive flowers, trees and other plants that beautify the community, ecofriendly rain gardens are healthy for the environment and the people living and working nearby.
A rain garden is not very different from a traditional garden. It is just a far more ecofriendly garden. Usually it is built lower than the ground. Rain gardens make smart use of rain and storm water by temporarily holding water from rain and storms and letting it soak(浸入)slowly into the ground before it runs into streams or enters the public drinking water supply.
Thus, a rain garden keeps the water, allowing it to be used as needed by plants in the rain garden, rather than flowing immediately into nearby streams and going unused. The water will soak slowly into the ground within a day or two. This creates an advantage that the rain garden does not allow mosquitoes to breed. This is a simple, attractive, and ecofriendly “green” way to treat storm water.
What’s more, planting a rain garden helps reduce pollution and improve the environment. Without using expensive machinery and chemicals, rain gardens remove harmful chemicals in the rainwater and cut down on the amount of pollution reaching streams and rivers by up to 30%.
Native plants are recommended for rain gardens because they are more used to the local climate, soil, and water conditions. They may attract local wildlife such as native birds. Water your rain garden immediately after planting and once a week, unless you have had at least an inch of rain during the week. Once native plants establish the necessary root system, they will require little care.
Often, local governments and private businesses develop large rain gardens in their yards and in public parks as a way to improve the environment and solve flooding problems. However, you don’t need to be a professionally environmental engineer to create a rain garden. As long as you’re ecoconscious homeowners, you can help the environment by building smaller rain gardens in your yards.Which of the following is NOT true for the function of rain gardens?
| A．They are good for living conditions. |
| B．They increase pollution. |
| C．They can beautify the community. |
| D．They improve the environment. |
Which of the following is the ecofriendly function of rain gardens discussed in Paragraph 4 ?
| A．They can help reduce the pollution problem. |
| B．They can keep the rain and storm water. |
| C．They can be healthy for the people around. |
| D．They can make the environment more beautiful. |
One of the main reasons why native plants are recommended is that.
| A．they cost less and are much easier to get |
| B．they may attract local wildlife to come |
| C．they require little care from the local gardener |
| D．they are more used to the local growing conditions |
What do we know about rain gardens?
| A．They need little water after all the plants are planted. |
| B．They may attract local birds and change the local climate. |
| C．They usually need at least an inch of rainwater a week. |
| D．They may reduce the water pollution problem by 70%. |