Sometimes two very different individuals (个体)become the best friends. For example,, who could have thought that a spider would become friends with a pig? But in American writer E.B.White’ novel Charlotte’s Web, this is exactly what happens
Wibur the pig grows up in a barn(谷仓) and makes many friends, including a spider called Charlotte. One day a sheep tells Wibur that he will finally be served up as dinner. But Charlotte decides to save her friend. To help Wibur，Charlotte writes words like “terrific”, “radiant” and “humble” on her web to praise Wibur. This makes the farmer believe that is too important to kill.Wibur is saved, but Charlotte is so tired that she dies.
The book was first published in 1952. In over 60 years Charlotte has become one of the most famous spiders of all time. She teaches us about love and promise. “She is very, very loving under that crusty(暴躁),that ugly look,” Peter Neumeyer, writer of The Annotated Charlott’s Web
The book’s success drew the attention of Hollywood filmmakers , however, they wanted a happier ending. White was strongly against this idea and as a result the film, like the book, ends with Charlotte’s death.
Jen Doll, reporter with The Atlantic, believe that “death is a part of life”. She says this is one of the main messages of the book.
As Charlotte tells Wibur, “You have been my friend. That in itself is a wonderful thing. I wove(纺织)my webs for you because I like you. After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while and then we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess(杂乱), with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a little. God knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.”Which of the following about the story is TRUE?
| A．It’s a good example of how differences make us different |
| B．It encourages children to love their family and friends |
| C．The farmer kills Wibur as dinner |
| D．Charlotte is loving and helpful although she is ugly |
What is the disagreement about Charlotte’s Web between Hollywood filmmaker and White?
| A．How Charlotte makes friends with Wibur |
| B．How to make Charlotte lovely |
| C．Whether Charrlotte should die |
| D．Whether Wibur should be killed |
In the last paragraph, Charlotte’s main message is that _________
| A．life could be boring and troublesome |
| B．friendship is more important than life |
| C．dying for a good cause is worthwhile(值得的) |
| D．life is like a web |
The holidays are a time to give. These charities---and many more—are looking for volunteers and donations.
World Wildlife Fund
The World Wildlife Fund is helping to protect endangered species through the Symbolic Species Adoption program. Those who “adopt” an animal will receive an adoption certificate and a photo of their species. Anyone can support endangered species year round by buying WWF apparel(服装). worldwildlife. Org/giving
DoSomething. org
This month, Dosomething. org launched their holiday campaign, “Grandparents Gone Wired”. The goal of the campaign is to make it easier for senior citizens to keep in touch with their loved ones using the Internet. Teens can volunteer to help seniors in their community. Volunteers are able to win prizes and scholarships. dosomething. org/grandparents
Coins for Change
Disney’s Club Penguin, a virtual gaming site for kids, launched its annual Coins for Change campaign this month. From Dec. 15 to Dec. 27, Club Penguin players can donate virtual coins to real-world causes. If players reach the donation goal, Club Penguin will donate $2 million to charity projects. clubpenguin.com.
Toys for Tots
Each year, the U.S. Marine Corps Toys Program collects new, unwrapped toys for the holidays. Communities across the nation host Toys for Tots drives around the holiday season. The toys collected are given as gifts to needy children so they can experience the joy of Christmas. toyfortots.org
American Red Cross
All you need is a pen and a piece of paper. The American Red Cross Holiday Mail Heroes Program is collecting handwritten card to send to members of the U.S. Armed Forces during the holidays. The charity has also set up a Holiday Giving Catalog where you can buy personal gifts, such as babysitting lessons. redcross.org
The Warm Coats & Warm Hearts Drive
The Warm Coats & Warm Hearts Drive is a non-profit organization sponsored by ABC’s Good Morning America and Burlington Coat Factory. During the holiday season Burlington stores collect gently worn coats. The donated coats are given to people in need to keep warm during the winter. onewarmcoat.orgDavid, 8, is fond of playing virtual games. Which charity should he attend?
| A．Coins for Change. | B．Toys for Tots. |
| C．DoSomething,org. | D．American Red Cross. |
Handwritten cards for members of the U.S. Armed Forces are collected by____.
| A．Disney’s Club Penguin |
| B．the Warm Coats& Warm Hearts Drive |
| C．the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Program |
| D．the American Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes Program |
From the passage we can learn that______.
| A．Club Penguin donates $2 million to charity projects yearly |
| B．old toys collected are given to needy children as gifts |
| C．teens can help seniors contact their family members online |
| D．whoever donates warm coats is likely to win scholarships |
New crime prediction software should reduce not only the murder rate, but the rate of other crimes. Developed by Richard Berk, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the software has already used in Baltimore and Philadelphia to predict which individuals on probation(缓刑) or parole(假释) are most likely to murder and to be murdered.
“When a person goes on probation or parole he is supervised(监督) by an officer. The question is ‘what level of supervision is appropriate?’” said Berk. It used to be that parole officers used the person’s criminal record, and their judgment to make decisions.
“This research replaces those seat-of-the –pants calculations,” he said.
Technology helps determine level of supervision. On average there is one murder for every 100,000 people. Even among high-risk groups the murder rate is one in 100. Predicting such a rare event is very difficult, but advances in computer technology works.
Years ago, the researchers made a dataset of more than 60,000 various crimes. Using the software they developed, they found some much more likely to commit murder when paroled or probated. They could identify eight future murderers out of 100.
Berk’s software examines roughly two dozen variables(可变因素), from criminal record to geographic location. The type of crimes, and more importantly, the age at which that crime was committed, were two of the most predictive variables.
“People assume that if someone murdered then they will murder in the future,” said Berk. “ What really matters is what that person did as a young individual. Predicting future crimes sounds well. But we aren’t anywhere near being able to do that.”
“Berk’s scientific answer leaves policymakers with difficult questions. By labeling one group of people as high risk, and supervise them closely, there should be fewer murders, which the potential victims should be happy about. It also means that those high-risk individuals will be supervised more aggressively. For human rights advocates, that means punishing people who, most likely, will not commit a crime in the future,” said Bushway. “It comes down to a question of whether you would rather make these errors or those errors.”The underlined words(in Para.3) probably mean___.
| A．calculations based on subjective opinions |
| B．calculations based on widespread voting |
| C．calculations made by advanced technology |
| D．calculations based on serious considering |
For 650 people with crime records, how many potential murderers would the software find?
| A．6.5. | B．13. | C．52. | D．65. |
From Para 7, we can infer that______.
| A．the technology developed by Richard Berk will soon be widely used in the US |
| B．the technology would not be widely accepted in the short term |
| C．whether a person murders or not largely decided by his upbringing while young |
| D．if a person murdered when he was fifty, he is sure to murder again while on probation |
Bushway’s attitude to the technology put forward by Richard Berk is ____.
| A．positive | B．negative | C．objective | D．indifferent |
Which would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Closely Supervise Potential Murders |
| B．Measures Taken to Prevent Criminal Behavior |
| C．Technology Revolutionizes Judges’ Way of Working |
| D．Software is Developed to Predict Criminal Behavior |
No one knows why we sleep, but it’s certain that we need to. People who are prevented from sleeping begin to suffer obvious effects after a few days—they think less clearly, and they fall asleep during the working hours; some may have hallucinations(幻觉).
There are no rules about sleep. Generally speaking, grown-ups sleep about 7 and a half hours each night and probably more than 60 per cent get between seven and eight hours. But perhaps eight per cent are quite happy with 5 hours or less, and four per cent or so find that they want ten hours or more. If you feel all right, you’re probably getting enough sleep. The important thing is not to worry how much other people get—their needs may be different. Exercise doesn’t seem to increase the need for sleep—office workers, for example, sleep for about as long as people doing physically active work.
Children sleep more than grown-ups—perhaps 14 to 18 hours soon after birth, going down to grown-up levels by early teenage. Sleep patterns also tend(倾向) to be different in the elderly, who may sleep less at night than they did when younger, find sleep getting more broken, and often make it a rule to sleep during the daytime.According to the passage, some people are unable to think clearly because ___________ .
| A．they have hallucinations |
| B．they feel sleepy during the working hours |
| C．they don’t have enough sleep |
| D．they are certain to be kept from going to bed |
Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．All grown-ups must have at least eight-hour sleep. |
| B．Most of grown-ups sleep for seven or eight hours. |
| C．Quite a few people need only 5 hours or less for them to sleep. |
| D．No grown-ups sleep more than ten hours. |
Whether you have got enough sleep is judged by__________.
| A．how many hours you have slept |
| B．how many hours you need to sleep |
| C．whether you do exercise and physical work |
| D．whether you feel fresh and energetic |
According to the passage, a boy of 14 years old sleeps__________.
| A．as long hours as a grown-up |
| B．much longer hours than a grown-up |
| C．for 14 hours each night |
| D．for less than 8 hours per night |
An English saying goes: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” That means we should relax after a day’s hard work or we’ll be unhealthy.
Many students know that if they want to get ideal jobs with good salaries, they must do well in high school so they can enter good universities. Therefore, they spend all day studying without time to relax.
However, not all students can go to top universities even if they work very hard. Students are pressurized by parents and teachers who are just concerned about their studies and exam scores while ignoring their hobbies and individual differences. As a result, students are forces to work harder and harder. Furthermore, there is pressure coming from students themselves. They realize they have a slim chance of getting into a top university as competition is fierce. So, they put a lot of stress on themselves and stay in a nervous state day after day. If they keep it up, they’ll suffer illnesses; both psychological and physical.
What students need is relaxation. This doesn’t mean that they should give up their ambitions and stop studying hard. It means “work while you work, play while you play”. If you can do this, you will improve your health greatly. You’ll feel yourself suddenly fresh, just like recovering from a terrible illness. You’ll find that your studies are not a burden(负担) anymore.The underlined part in the first paragraph might mean all the following EXCEPT______.
| A．too much work may bring trouble to anyone |
| B．overwork without rest is sure to make one foolish |
| C．Jack becomes dull because he works too much |
| D．Anyone who doesn’t work will break down |
What trouble have both the parents and teachers brought to the students?
| A．They don’t know how to let the students relax. |
| B．They give too much burden for them to bear. |
| C．They don’t love those who work the hardest. |
| D．They fail to understand what the students need most. |
What causes the student’ pressure from themselves?
| A．That they don’t know how to get top universities. |
| B．That they want to relax but have no chance. |
| C．That they fail to relax themselves during their work. |
| D．That they think too much about the result of their work. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．What to do to relax yourself. |
| B．The serous situation for the poor students. |
| C．Some problems caused by the misunderstanding of learning. |
| D．How to be a healthy and successful learner. |
There are many differences between America and China. The biggest difference is traffic rules. In America there are too much more cars than in China. But there are much fewer traffic jams and accidents in America than in China. We hardly see traffic police in the street, but all cars obey strictly traffic rules, and people hardly find that a car does not obey traffic rules in the street.
About American traffic rules, there are many better terms, such as:
1. Stop line: There are stop lines in all crossing without traffic light (some have two stop lines and others have four stop lines). All cars must stop while meeting the stop line.
2. Traffic light: There is traffic light in the crossing of the road. Cars may almost turn every direction. The traffic light can give signal step by step including u-turn. There is a kind of middle lane of turning left. When a car wants to turn left in the road, he may enter into the middle lane of turning left and give a signal of turning left. When he thinks being safe, he may turn left. In many conditions the order of passing is also given very specifically. If people want to change lane or turn, they must look behind and think being safe. Only so, they may do it.
3. Specific item: Such as parking, there are three kinds of lines (their colors are white, blue or red) in the roadside. Every line may park different kinds of cars. There are many streets in some residential areas (住宅区), and there is a kind of rule that any car cannot park at any time or any period time. In every parking, there are some special positions for invalid (伤残的) people.
4. About the priority of passenger and car: At any case, passengers have the priority to cars. And only after passengers have passed the road and got the top of sidestep, cars may go ahead.
In general, traffic rules of America are very specific, convenient, safe and humanizing.Which of the following is NOT the reason why we can hardly see traffic police in the street in America?
| A．Traffic police are not very necessary because few cars break traffic rules. |
| B．The traffic is very clear and there are few traffic jams and accidents in the street. |
| C．There are so many cars in the street that the traffic police can’t be seen. |
| D．The effective traffic rules play an important part in the road safety. |
Why is there a middle lane of turning left on the road?
| A．It is designed for the cars that want to turn left. |
| B．It is very safe to drive there. |
| C．It is very convenient for the traffic police to find the cars that break the rules. |
| D．The cars that want to turn left can easily give a signal of turning left. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．In America, all cars in the crossing must stop when they meet the stop line. |
| B．In America, any car cannot park in the streets in some residential areas. |
| C．If people want to turn, they can obey the guide of the traffic police. |
| D．There are more traffic jams in China. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．American Traffic Rules |
| B．Differences in Traffic Rules between China and America |
| C．Traffic Jams in America |
| D．American People Who Obey Traffic Rules |