Why do people run? That is, why do thousands get up early and put their knees and ankles and hearts and lungs through the hell of 10,000 meters on the roads? For those who stick with it and are lucky, they get into another world: a state of physical and mental grace reached when their blood is racing through every vein (血管).
And in Austin, those who long to get better, even when they know it’s impossible, hang on Gilbert’s every word.
Gilbert’s methods are simple. It’s all about form: how the arms move and the feet land. He pushes his students hard. When they feel like they’re about to die, they look at Gilbert’s scars (伤疤) — the burns along his right arm, and then to his right leg, where the flames ate down to the bone. Whatever they feel, how bad, really, could it be?
“He gets people to believe in themselves,” says Lisa Spenner, one of the fanatics, who are crazy about Gilbert. “He treats everyone like they’re amazing.” If Gilbert is their savior, they are his saviors too. “Eventually, I realized I had to help people. When I help people, I feel good,” he says.
Gilbert’s right leg was so badly burnt that the knee was stuck at a 90-degree angle. The doctor said it would take six months to heal. Frustrated, Gilbert got on a bike. The biking led to walking, which finally led to running a year after he had been left to die.
In truth, runners don’t race other runners. They race against themselves to conquer their wills. So Gilbert spent the spring and summer of 2007 trying to do that, racing men faster than he is, knowing it would make him better.
Gilbert’s students, of course, keep rooting for him, though sometimes they wonder, “How much better can he get?” After all, they see him as more than just a runner and a coach. He’s a flesh-and-blood symbol: the daily struggle to show what you’re made of.What’s the purpose of the first paragraph?
| A．To explain to us why people run in the morning. |
| B．To tell us how important it is for people to run. |
| C．To lead to the topic of the passage. |
| D．To tell us that we may be running the wrong way. |
The underlined word “fanatics” in the fourth paragraph can be replaced by
“_____”.
| A．students | B．friends |
| C．fans | D．relatives |
What do we learn about Gilbert after reading the passage?
| A．He used to work as a fireman. |
| B．He has determination and strong will-power. |
| C．He learnt running from a coach. |
| D．He was advised to ride a bike when he was badly burnt. |
A new report says the number of foreign students at colleges and universities in the United States increased by three percent last year. This has been the first obvious increase since 2001.
American schools last fall had 583,000 foreign students. The record is 586,000. That was set in 2002 after many years of gains. But after that the numbers fell. The terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 led to more visa (签证) requirements. Now stronger efforts are being made to get more foreign students to study in the United States.
China remained in second place in front of South Korea but behind India, which sent almost 84,000 students last fall. The number of Japanese fell sharply by nine percent, although it remained in fourth place.
There were three percent drops from Indonesia and Kenya, the only African country in the top twenty last year. But there were obvious increases from Saudi Arabia, Nepal and Vietnam. The number of Saudi students more than doubled, rising to nearly eight thousand.
For a sixth year, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles had the most foreign students. Columbia University in New York was second. Other schools in the top five were New York University, the University of Illinois and Purdue University.
Unlike American students in other countries, who often choose history and language study, the leading area of study in the USA was business and management. Second was engineering.
The new report also says more than 220,000 Americans studied in other countries. That was during the 2005-2006 school year. It was a record number, and an increase of eight and a half percent from the year before. But only five percent of them stayed for a full year. After 2002, the number of foreign students in the USA fell mainly because ____ .
| A．Americans were worried that foreign students might attack them |
| B．few American universities welcomed students from abroad |
| C．their own countries could offer them a better education |
| D．it was harder for foreign students to get permission to study in the USA |
Which of the following Asian countries has the largest number of students studying in the USA?
| A．China. | B．Japan. | C．South Korea. | D．India. |
Which subject is the most attractive to foreign students in the USA?
| A．Business and management. | B．History. |
| C．Engineering. | D．Language. |
We can learn from the passage that ____ .
| A．Kenya is the only African country that has students in the USA |
| B．now foreign students are encouraged to study in the USA |
| C．the number of students studying in America always increases |
| D．the number of foreign students in the USA will keep increasing in the future |
In which section of a newspaper could you most probably read this passage?
| A．Culture. | B．Science. | C．Education. | D．Business. |
“Linda, if beating yourself up were an Olympic sport, you’d win a gold medal!”
Annabel, my close friend, stunned（使…震惊）me with that frank observation after I told her how I had mishandled a situation with a student in a third-grade class where I was substituting（代替）. “I should never have let him go to the boy’s room without a pass! It was my fault he got into trouble with the hall monitor! I’m so stupid!”
My friend burst out laughing, and then made her “Olympic” comment. After a brief period of reflection I had to admit that she was right. I did put myself down an awful lot. Why, just during the previous day I had called myself “a slob” for having some papers spread out on my desk, “ugly” when I left the house without makeup and “an idiot” when I left the house for an emergency substitute job without my emergency lesson plan.
In a more reflective tone, Annabel said, “I once took a workshop at church where the woman in charge had us list all the mean things we say about ourselves.”
“How many did you have on your list?” I asked.
“Fifteen,” she confessed. “But then the teacher said, ‘Now turn to the person next to you and say all the items on your list as if you were speaking to that person!’ ”
My jaw dropped，“What did you do?”
“Nothing. Nobody did. We all just sat there, until I said, ‘I could never say these things to anyone else!’ ”
“And our teacher replied, ‘Well, if you can’t say them to anyone else, then don’t ever say them to yourself!’ ”
My friend had a point. I would never insult a child of God---and I’m God’s child, too!
God, today let me be as kind to myself as I would be to another of Your children.What does Annabel mean by the first sentence of the passage?
| A．The writer is a good athlete. |
| B．The writer scolds herself too much. |
| C．She is encouraging the writer |
| D．A gold medal is not a big deal. |
What does the writer intends to tell us through the second and third paragraphs?
| A．She has low self-esteem over some small things. |
| B．She often makes serious mistakes in daily life. |
| C．She is a third-grade teacher. |
| D．She cares too much about her appearance. |
We can infer that the underlined word “slob” might be _____.
| A．something untidy | B．someone dangerous | C．something dirty | D．someone lazy |
What can we learn about Annabel?
| A．She used to put herself down a lot. |
| B．She often goes to church. |
| C．She was in charge of a workshop. |
| D．She used to be too shy to talk to others. |
What does the writer mean by the last sentence of the passage?
| A．She is ready to turn to God for help. |
| B．She will be kind to all children. |
| C．She won’t insult(侮辱) herself as well as others. |
| D．She is willing to be a child of God. |
Did Steve Jobs kill the music industry? That’s the question on many people’s lips since rock star Jon Bon Jovi accused the Apple boss of personally destroying the music industry.Bon Jovi centers his criticism on how he believes music downloading has robbed young people of what he calls the “beauty of buying an album”. “Kids today have missed the beauty of taking your pocket money and making a decision based on the jacket (封面), not knowing what the record sounded like,” he said.
But far from killing the industry, many young people today think Jobs has been a blessing (带来幸运的人), offering you instant, and selective access to a whole world of music.
Keith Staskiewicz at Enthertainment Weekly speaks for the feelings of many music lovers. He believes listening to MP3s rather than records or CDs “just save money” and doesn’t “remove the sense of discovery they get from new music”. Staskiewicz also argues that it’s wrong to blame Jobs and Apple for destroying anything. “Change is just part of the business,” Staskiewicz said. “No doubt in 50 years, Justin Bieber will complain about how kids don’t listen to ipods anymore.”
For now, though, it appears that music downloading is set to continue for the near future.
According to Summer Redstone, chairman of media company Viacom, iTunes has “resurrected(复兴) the music industry by creating a legal, affordable purchasing system for fans”.
But recent surveys suggested that, despite the “legalizing(合法化)” of music downloading through sites like iTunes, young people are still choosing to download music illegally. A report by Jupiter Research suggested that illegal downloading sites are used three times as much as legal ones. The problem, according to its analyst Mark Mulligan, is how today’s youth grow up viewing music as something they can get for free.
He said, “Unless the musci industry can shift these consumers while they are young away from free consumption to paid music formats(格式), they may never develop music purchasing behavior and the recording industry could suffer long-term harm.”Which one is TRUE about young people nowadays?
| A．They are music lovers and are willing to save money to enjoy music. |
| B．The majority of them download music through legal sites like iTunes. |
| C．They are most likely to go back to the store to buy albums in the near future. |
| D．They are robbed of the change of enjoying music by Apple. |
According to Mark Mulligan, the best solution to the problem of illegal music downloading is to_______.
| A．legalize music downloading through sites like iTunes |
| B．help young people get used to paying for music |
| C．offer young people instant and selective access to a variety of music |
| D．create an affordable purchasing system for fans |
What is the main point of the article?
| A．How Steve Jobs and Apple destroyed the music industry. |
| B．Why young people prefer downloading music to buying albums. |
| C．The problem of illegal downloading of music. |
| D．Different opinions on effects of music downloading. |
The human body has hundreds of muscles. The three types are skeletal(骨骼的) muscles, smooth muscles and cardiac, or heart muscles. Each kind of muscle has a special job to do.
The skeletal muscles are attached to the bones; they actually hold the skeleton together. Strong cords, called tendons(肌腱), help connect these muscles to the bones. Skeletal muscles give us strength and allow us to move in many ways. If you look at skeletal muscles through a microscope, you will see that it has bands of fibers that look like stripes(条纹). These stripes are called striations. Skeletal muscles usually move because the brain has sent a conscious message to them telling them what to do. This is called voluntary movement.
Another type of muscle is smooth muscle. Unlike skeletal muscle, smooth muscle does not have striations. This is found in organs such as the stomach, the bladder(膀胱), the lungs and the eyes. Smooth muscles are smaller than the skeletal muscles and they move involuntarily. The brain tells these muscles what to do, but we aren’t even aware of it. For example, we don’t have to think about breathing or digesting food. The smooth muscles just do their jobs automatically. For this reason smooth muscles are sometimes called involuntary muscles.
Like smooth muscle, cardiac muscle also works involuntarily. It is a very thick muscle that is found only in the walls of the heart. Its job is to pump blood out of the heart and into blood vessels called arteries(动脉). The arteries help carry the blood to all parts of the body. When the cardiac muscles relax, they let blood back into the heart. Cardiac muscles have striations, just like skeletal muscles do. When we _______, the job is done by smooth muscles.
| A．close our eyes | B．kick a ball | C．hug our friends | D．lift a suitcase |
Skeletal muscles and heart muscles are alike because_______.
| A．both can move voluntarily |
| B．both are thick muscles |
| C．both are bigger than smooth muscles |
| D．both have stripes called striations |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Heart muscles are very important because they give us strength and allow us to move. |
| B．The heart of human beings completely consists of heart muscle. |
| C．The skeletal muscles are connected to the bones by tendons. |
| D．Smooth muscle does its work without receiving message from the brain. |
I’ve often had difficulty remembering names. Proper nouns seldom found easy purchase in my brain unless I consciously repeat them over and over again. Needless to say, when people leave my life their names are often soon forgotten. This can have some embarrassing consequences.
Five or six years after high school graduation, I was reading carefully the shelves of a local auto supply shop when I noticed someone familiar enter the store. I knew him. He was in my graduation class and although he was not a good friend of mine, we had shared many classes and knew each other well. I began to feel an increasing sense of foreboding（预感）and quickly hid behind the nearest shelving unit. I should have known his name. How many times had I heard it during class role call? How many conversations had we had in the hallways?
I easily remembered his surname, “Ricca”. His was a large, well know family in the town of my childhood. I couldn’t have just acknowledged him using his surname. I might as well have admitted forgetting his name, which was not a choice. One’s name is important to every person’s identity. Not remembering an old acquaintance’s name is similar to forgetting your wife’s favourite flower, an embarrassing mistake of the highest order.
I quickly ran through the alphabet (字母表), a strategy I developed for just such an occasion. Abe? No, Adam, Andy, Bob? No, Bill? Yes! Bill sounded right. Of course, his name is Bill. I confidently made my way around the shelves and spoke to him as he was studying some cans of motor oil.
“Bill, how are you doing?”, I said offering him my hand which he took with a friendly shake. We talked a bit, some amusing remarks about our college experiences and such. I took his hand again, said how good it was to see him and gave him a happy wave, calling him by name again, as I left.
I was so pleased that I avoided yet another awkward encounter(相遇) that I could feel a big smile on my face as I paid the cashier and exited the store. As I marched merrily across the parking lot, an awful thought came into my mind. John, his name is John! Where did Bill come from? Was that one of my brothers? The sudden realization of what I did made me stop in my tracks. My head dropped when I realized my mistake. There was no way Mrs. Ricca would name one of her sons “Bill”. “Billerica” was the name of a town just north of Boston.Which one can show the charge of the writer’s feelings?
a. guilty b. anxious c. embarrassed d. happy e sure
| A．a-d-b-e-c | B．d-e-b-a-c | C．c-b-e-d-a | D．b-c-d-e- |
According to the passage, which statement is NOT sure?
| A．Forgetting your wife’s favourite flower is a very serious mistake. |
| B．It is common to call an old acquaintance his given name. |
| C．The writer was in his twenties when he met John in the store. |
| D．John and the writer studied in the same college. |
The underlined word “acknowledge” probably means “” here.
| A．accept | B．greet | C．thank | D．admit |
We can infer from the passage that _______.
| A．The writer must have experienced such embarrassment many times |
| B．The writer had difficulty remembering names because he was getting old |
| C．Running through the alphabet was always an effective way of remembering an acquaintance’s name for the writer |
| D．Mrs. Ricca would have named one of her sons “Bill” if Billerica was not the name of a town north of Boston |