For most South Africans, Nelson Mandela is the father of their nation – many even called him "Tata", a local word for father. It was sometimes forgotten that he was also a real father of six, grandfather of 18, great-grandfather of eight, and husband to three women.
He earned a place in history just like another father of a nation, Mahatma Gandhi. But there was a fundamental difference between these beloved men. While Gandhi was thought to be a depressed family man, Mandela was a strong and loving family man. Even so, Mandela and his family paid dearly for his devotion to his country's freedom.
Mandela himself offered a glimpse into his personal war. "To be the father of a nation is a great honor, but to be the father of a family is a greater joy. But it was a joy I had far too little of." he said in April 1992, announcing his separation from Winnie.
In 1944, Nelson Mandela married Evelyn. "I could not give up my life in the struggle," Mandela explained in his autobiography(自传), Long Walk to Freedom, "and she (Evelyn) could not live with my devotion to something other than herself and her family... I never lost my admiration for her, but in the end we could not make our marriage work." They divorced in 1958.
When Evelyn died in 2004, Mandela stood at her graveside with his third wife, Graca. Winnie also attended the funeral.
Mandela married Winnie in 1958. But Winnie bore the hardship of life as Mandela, enduring her husband's 27-year imprisonment. From prison, Mandela wrote some of the greatest love letters to Winnie. "I dust it (your photo) carefully every morning – I even touch your nose with mine to regain the electric current that used to run through my blood whenever I did so."
For many South Africans, it was the end of a fairytale love story when their separation was made public in 1992. "Tensions" had arisen and they had agreed on a separation. The hurt in his words was clear: "Perhaps I was blinded to certain things because of the pain I felt for not being able to play my role as a husband to my wife and a father to my children."
“Unstable(不稳定的) personal lives seemed freedom fighters' destiny(命运),” he said. "When your life is the struggle, as mine was, there is little room left for family. That has always been my greatest regret, and the most painful aspect of the choice I made." The couple divorced in 1996.The author mentioned Mahatma Gandhi in the second paragraph in order to _________.
| A．show the character of Gandhi |
| B．prove Mandela is the great leader |
| C．draw attention to Mandela’s personal life |
| D．honour these two great fathers |
The underlined sentence in the third paragraph shows_________.
| A．Mandela felt regretful about his family life |
| B．Mandela got no joy from his family |
| C．Mandela was not satisfied with his wife Winne |
| D．Mandela preferred to be the father of the nation |
The first wife of Nelson Mandela is _________.
| A．Winnie | B．Evelyn |
| C．Graca | D．not mentioned |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Mandela: not just the father of the nation. |
| B．Mandela: a devoted leader of the nation. |
| C．Mandela: a freedom fighter with deep love. |
| D．Mandela: success and failure. |
I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized．Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere．She even labeled(贴标签)everything．I always looked for everything．Over time，Kate got neater and I got messier．She would push my dirty clothing over，and I would lay my books on her tidy desk．So we both got tired of each other．
War broke out one evening．Kate came into the room．Soon，I heard her screaming，“Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!”Deafened，I saw my shoes flying at me．I jumped to my feet and started yelling．She yelled back louder．
The room was filled with anger．We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call．Kate answered it．From her end of the conversation，I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill．When she hung up，she quickly crawled(爬)under her covers，sobbing．Obviously，that was something she should not go through alone．All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart．
Slowly，I collected the pencils，took back the books，made my bed，cleaned the socks and swept the floor，even on her side．I got so into my work that I even didn’t notice Kate had sat up．She was watching，her tears dried and her expression was such disbelief．Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine．I looked up into her eyes．She smiled at me，“Thanks．”
Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year．We didn’t always agree，but we learned the key to living together：giving in, cleaning up and holding on． What made Kate so angry one evening?
| A．She couldn’t find her books． |
| B．She heard the author shouting loud． |
| C．She got the news that her grandma was ill． |
| D．She saw the author's shoes beneath her bed． |
The author tidied up the room most probably because_____．
| A．she was scared by Kate’s anger |
| B．she hated herself for being so messy |
| C．she wanted to show her care |
| D．she was asked by Kate to do so |
How is Paragraph 1 mainly developed?
| A．By analyzing causes． | B．By showing differences． |
| C．By describing a process． | D．By following time order． |
What might be the best title for the story?
| A．My Friend Kate | B．Hard Work Pays Off |
| C．How to be Organized | D．Learning to be Roommates |
Like many new graduates, I left university full of hope for the future but with no real idea of what I wanted to do．My degree，with honors in English literature had not really prepared me for anything practical．I knew I wanted to make a difference in the world somehow，but I had no idea how to do that．That’s when I learned about the Lighthouse Project．
I started my journey as a Lighthouse Project volunteer by reading as much as I could about the experiences of previous volunteers．I knew it would be a lot of hard work，and that I would be away from my family and friends for a very long time．In short，I did not take my decision to apply for the Lighthouse Project lightly．Neither did my family．
Eventually，however，I won the support of my family，and I sent in all the paperwork needed for application．After countless interviews and presentations，I managed to stand out among the candidates and survive the test alone．Several months later，I finally received a call asking me to report for duty．I would be going to a small village near Abuja，Nigeria. Where? What? Nigeria? I had no idea．But I was about to find out．
After completing my training，I was sent to the village that was small and desperately in need of proper accommodation．Though the local villagers were poor，they offered their homes，hearts，and food as if I were their own family．I was asked to lead a small team of local people in building a new schoolhouse．For the next year or so，I taught in that same schoolhouse．But I sometimes think I learned more from my students than they did from me．
Sometime during that period，I realized that all those things that had seemed so strange or unusual to me no longer did，though I did not get anywhere with the local language，and I returned to the United States a different man．The Lighthouse Project had changed my life forever． What do we know about the author?
| A．His dream at university was to become a volunteer． |
| B．His university education focused on theoretical knowledge． |
| C．He took pride in having contributed to the world． |
| D．He felt honored to study English literature． |
According to Paragraph 2，it is most likely that the author______．
| A．discussed his decision with his family |
| B．asked previous volunteers about voluntary work |
| C．attended special training to perform difficult tasks |
| D．felt sad about having to leave his family and friends |
In his application for the volunteer job，the author_______．
| A．participated in many discussions |
| B．went through challenging survival tests |
| C．wrote quite a few papers on voluntary work |
| D．faced strong competition from other candidates |
On arrival at the village, the author was
| A．asked to lead a farming team |
| B．sent to teach inaschoolhouse |
| C．received warmly by local villagers |
| D．arranged to live in a separate house. |
What can we infer from the author’s experiences in Nigeria?
| A．He found some difficulty adapting to the local culture |
| B．He had learned to communicate in the local language. |
| C．He had overcome all his weaknessesbefore he left for home. |
| D．He was chosen as the most respectable teacher by his students. |
Larry was on another of his underwater expeditions(探险)but this time, it was different. He decided to take his daughter along with him. She was only ten years old. This would be her first trip with her father on what he had always been famous for.
Larry first began diving when he was his daughter’s age. Similarly, his father had taken him along on one of his expeditions. Since then, he had never looked back. Larry started out by renting diving suits from the small diving shop just along the shore. He had hated them. They were either too big or too small. Then, there was the instructor. He gave him a short lesson before allowing him into the water with his father. He had made an exception. Larry would never have been able to go down without at least five hours of theory and another similar number of hours on practical lessons with a guide. Children his age were not even allowed to dive.
After the first expedition, Larry’s later diving adventures only got better and better. There was never a dull moment. In his black and blue suit and with an oxygen tank fastened on his back, Larry dived from boats into the middle of the ocean. Dangerous areas did not prevent him from continuing his search. Sometimes, his was limited to a cage underwater but that did not bother him. At least, he was still able to take photographs of the underwater creatures.
Larry’s first expedition without his father was in the Cayman Islands. There were numerous diving spots in the area and Larry was determined to visit all of them .Fortunately for him, a man offered to take him around the different
Spots for free. Larry didn’t even know what the time was how many spots he dived into or how many photographs he had taken. The diving spots afforded such a wide array of fish and sea creatures that Larry saw more than thirty varieties of creatures.
Larry looked at his daughter. She looked as excited as he had been when he was her age. He hoped she would be able to continue the family tradition. Already, she looked like she was much braver than had been then. This was the key to a successful underwater expedition.In what way was this expedition different for Larry?
| A．His daughter had grown up. |
| B．He had become a famous diver. |
| C．His father would dive with him. |
| D．His daughter would dive with him. |
What can be inferred from Paragraph2?
| A．Larry had some privileges. |
| B．Larry liked the rented diving suits. |
| C．Divers had to buy diving equipment. |
| D．Ten-year-old children were permitted to dive. |
What can be learned from the underlined sentence?
| A．Larry didn’t wear a watch. |
| B．Larry was not good at math. |
| C．Larry had a poor memory. |
| D．Larry enjoyed the adventure. |
You wake up in the morning, the day is beautiful and the plans for the day are what you have been looking forward to for a long time. Then the telephone rings, you say hello, and the drama starts. The person on the other end has a depressing tone in his voice as he starts to tell you how terrible his morning is and that there is nothing to look forward to. You are still in a wonderful mood? Impossible!
Communicating with negative people can wash out your happiness. It may not change what you think, but communicating long enough with them will make you feel depressed for a moment or a long time.
Life brings ups and downs, but some people are stuck in the wrong idea that life has no happiness to offer. They only feel glad when they make others feel bad. No wonder they can hardly win others’ pity or respect.
When you communicate with positive people, your spirit stays happy and therefore more positive things are attracted. When the dagger（匕首） of a negative person is put in you, you feel the heavy feeling that all in all, brings you down.
Sometimes we have no choice but to communicate with negative people. This could be a co-worker, or a relative. In this case, say what needs to be said as little as possible. Sometimes it feels good to let out your anger back to the negative person, but all this is to lower you to that same negative level and they won’t feel ashamed of themselves about that.
Negativity often affects happiness without even being realized. The negative words of another at the start of the day can cling to（附着） you throughout the rest of your day, which makes you feel bad and steals your happiness. Life is too short to feel negative. Stay positive and avoid negativity as much as possible.The purpose of the first paragraph is to __________.
| A．make a comparison | B．offer an evidence |
| C．introduce a topic | D．describe a daily scene |
How can negative people have effect on us?
| A．By changing our ways of thinking |
| B．By telling us the nature of life |
| C．By influencing our emotion |
| D．By comparing their attitudes to life with ours |
According to the passage, to reduce negative people’s influence on us, we are advised to __________.
| A．show our dissatisfaction to negative people |
| B．communicate with negative people as little as possible |
| C．change negative people’s attitudes to life |
| D．make negative people feel ashamed of themselves |
Recordings of angry bees are enough to send big, tough African elephants running away, a new study says. Beehives (蜂窝)—either recorded or real—may even prevent elephants from damaging farmer’s crops.
In 2002, scientist Lucy King and her team found that elephants avoid certain trees with bees living in them. Today, Lucy wants to see if African honeybees might discourage elephants from eating crops. But before she asked farmer to go to the trouble of setting up beehives on their farms, she needed to find out if the bees would scare elephants away.
Lucy found a wild beehive inside a tree in northern Kenya and set up a recorder. Then she threw a stone into the beehive, which burst into life. Lucy and her assistant hid in their car until the angry bees had calmed down. Next，Lucy searched out elephant families in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya and put a speaker in a tree close to each family.
From a distance, Lucy switched on the pre-recorded sound of angry bees while at the same time recording the elephants with a video camera. Half the elephant groups left the area within ten seconds. Out of a total of 17 groups, only one group ignored the sound of the angry bees. Lucy reported that all the young elephants immediately ran to their mothers to hide under them. When Lucy played the sound of a waterfall (瀑布) instead of the angry bees to many of the same elephant families, the animals were undisturbed. Even after four minutes, most of the groups stayed in one place.
Lucy is now studying whether the elephants will continue to avoid the sound of angry bees after hearing it several times. She hasn’t tested enough groups yet to know, but her initial (最初的) results were promising enough to begin trials with farmers. She has now begun placing speakers in the fields to see if elephants are frightened away.We know from the passage that elephants may be frightened of .
| A．loud noises | B．some crops |
| C．video cameras | D．angry bees |
As mentioned in the passage, Lucy.
| A．works by herself in Africa |
| B．needs to test more elephant groups |
| C．has stopped elephants eating crops |
| D．has got farmers to set up beehives on their farms |
Why did Lucy throw a stone into a wild beehive?
| A．To record the sound of bees. |
| B．To make a video of elephants. |
| C．To see if elephants would run away. |
| D．To find out more about the behavior of bees. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Young elephants ignore African honeybees. |
| B．Waterfalls can make elephants stay in one place. |
| C．Elephants do not go near trees with bees living in them. |
| D．Farmers do not allow Lucy to conduct tests in their fields. |