One night, the first floor of the house suddenly caught fire. The fire was big, and soon became a sea of fire. On the second floor lived a little girl and her grandmother; the little girl’s parents had died, and she lived together with her grandma. In order to rescue the little girl, the grandmother was burned to death, leaving the little girl crying for help loudly.
How could people enter the house? At the very moment, a man carrying a ladder rushed to the flames and got into the window. When he appeared again in the eyes of the people, the little girl was in his arms. He gave the child to the crowd, and then disappeared into the night.
This little girl had no family. Two months later a meeting was held to find a person to adopt (收养) the girl. A teacher was willing to adopt this child, and said she could give her the best education; a farmer wanted to adopt this child, saying that village life would let the child grow up healthily and happily; a rich man said, “I can give the child everything that others can do.”
A lot of people who wanted to adopt this child said about many benefits of their adopting the child. But the little girl’s face had no expression. At this time, a man, through the crowd, walked straight in front of the little girl, and opened his arms for the little girl. People were puzzled, and they found that the man had terrible scars on his arms. The little girl let out a cry, “This is the man who saved me!” She suddenly jumped up, and buried her face in his arms and sobbed. Naturally the man adopted the girl.Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．The grandma was too old to rush out of the room. |
| B．The little girl and her grandpa lived on the second floor. |
| C．To rescue the little girl, her grandma died in the fire. |
| D．The grandma and the little girl cried for help loudly on the first floor. |
What did the man do when he had saved the little girl?
| A．He returned to his work. |
| B．He left the girl to the crowd and left quickly. |
| C．He was injured and went to the hospital. |
| D．He took the girl home. |
The meeting was held there in order to .
| A．decide who would adopt the girl |
| B．find out who had rescued the girl |
| C．decide how the girl would be raised |
| D．honor the hero who had saved the girl |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．People didn’t want to help the little girl at first. |
| B．The man who had saved the girl was a fireman. |
| C．The rich man would buy everything the girl needed. |
| D．The girl recognized the man and was happy to be adopted by him. |
Stephen William Hawking was born on January 8th, 1942 in Oxford, England. His parents’ house was in North London, but during the Second World War Oxford was considered a safer place to have babies. When he was eight, his family moved to St Albans. At eleven Stephen went to St. Albans School, and then on to University College, Oxford, his father’s old college. Stephen wanted to do math, although his father would have preferred medicine. Math was not available at University College, so he did physics instead.
Stephen then went on to Cambridge to do research in Cosmology (宇宙论). After gaining his Ph.D. （哲学博士）he became first a Research Fellow, and later on a Professorial Fellow at Gonville and Caius College. After leaving the Institute of Astronomy in 1973, Stephen came to the Department of Applied Math and Theoretical Physics (理论物理), and since 1979 has held the post of Lucasian Professor of math.
Stephen Hawking has worked on the basic laws which rule the universe. With Roger Penrose he showed that Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity implied space and time would have a beginning in the Big Bang and an end in black holes. These results show it was necessary to unify（统一）General Relativity with Quantum Theory （量子论）. One result of such a unification that he discovered was that black holes should not be completely black, but should give off radiation and disappear in the end.
1. Which of the following is NOT suitable for describing Stephen Hawking?
A. He once studied at the same college that his father studied at.
B. At one time he did research in Cosmology in Oxford.
C. He preferred math to medicine at college.
D. He contributed to the unification of General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Theory.
2. The underlined word “available” in the first paragraph probably means “________”.
A. able to be had B. allowed to study
C. easy to understand D. limited to learn
3. Why did Stephen Hawking’s parents move to Oxford from North London?
A. Because they liked it better than North London.
B. Because there was a world-famous university there.
C. Because they were tired of living in North London.
D. Because it was safer to give birth to a baby in Oxford.
4. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. Einstein and Stephen Hawking
B. Big Bang, a great theory
C. Stephen Hawking, a great British scientist
D. The unification of two theories
OTTAWA — Canada’s western city of Calgary is the world’s best city when it comes to healthy living, local press reported Monday.
According to an international survey by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a London-based consulting firm, Calgary was put at the top of a list of 144 cities. It scored 121 points, just above Honolulu’s score of 120. Helsinki（赫尔辛基，芬兰首都） and Ottawa followed at 119.5 and 118.5 respectively.
Three other Canadian cities came in the top 20. Montreal and Vancouver tied for ninth and Toronto came in at 18th.
The scores are based on air pollution levels, availability and quality of hospitals and medical supplies, as well as the efficiency of waste removal and sewage systems.
In America, the lowest scoring city was Atlanta, which was ranked 76th. Athens was the lowest scoring city in Western Europe, ranking 120th because of its air pollution. London was ranked 59th.
1. How many Canadian cities are in the top 20?
A. 3.B. 4. C. 5. D. 6.
2. Which of the following is NOT taken into account when the cities were scored?
A. Weather conditions. B. Air quality.
C. Waste removal.D. Medical supplies.
3. Among the following cities, which is the lowest scoring one?
A. Atlanta. B. Athens. C. London. D. Helsinki.
It seems that politicians around the world are thinking about the health of their countries. While in China, Chen Zhu has announced his plans for a universal health service and reform across health services. Gordon Brown, the UK Prime Minister, has also announced he is planning to make some changes in our health service.
The crux（问题的中心） of Mr. Brown's proposals are related to giving the NHS (National Health Service) a greater focus on prevention, rather than just curing patients.
He is planning to introduce increased screening for common diseases such as heart disease, strokes, and cancer, for example, breast cancer. In Britain there are 200,000 deaths a year from heart attacks and strokes, many of which might have been avoided if the condition had been known about.
Initially, the diagnostic (诊断的) tests will be available for those who are vulnerable, or most likely to have the disease. One example is a plan to offer all men over 65 an ultrasound（超声波） test to check for problems with the main artery (动脉), a condition which kills 3,000 men a year.
The opposition have criticized Mr. Brown's proposals, saying that they are just a trick, and claiming that there is no proper timetable for the changes. They also say that Mr. Brown is reducing the money available for the treatment of certain conditions while putting more money towards testing for them.
The NHS was founded in 1948, and is paid for by taxation. The idea is that the rich pay more towards the health service than the poor. However in recent years there has been a great increase in the use of private healthcare, because it’s much quicker. NHS waiting lists for operations can be very long, so many people who can afford it choose to pay for medical care themselves.
1. The underlined word vulnerable in the fourth paragraph probably means ________.
A. sick B. weak C. wounded D. old
2. Which of the following is the reason for the increasing private healthcare?
A. People are paying more attention to their own health.
B. People are well off enough to pay their healthcare.
C. The NHS was not available for most of the people.
D. It’s not so convenient for people to go to the NHS for their healthcare.
3. According to the passage, the purpose of the health reform plan in the UK is to _______
A. encourage more private healthcare.
B. focus on the prevention rather than on curing the patient.
C. deal with the main artery problems.
D. fight against the opposition in the UK.
4. The author of this passage intends to tell us _________.
A. the NHS should be reformed right away.
B. more and more people are dying from diseases.
C. the plan to reform the NHS in the UK.
D. the criticism of Mr. Brown's proposals.
Female Chinese space pioneers?
CHINA plans to recruit(招募) women astronauts thanks to the lobbying(游说) of the leading women’s organization. Gu Xiulian, president of the All-China Women’s Federation(ACWF) (全国妇联), said on Saturday that she put forward a proposal that women be trained for space missions after the manned space flight last October. And it was accepted by the central authorities, local media reported. But the plan to recruit female astronauts has yet to be worked out, according to sources close to the astronaut-training programme.
Beijing needs mental health care
MORE than 1,000 people committed suicide(自杀) in Beijing last year, and experts have been encouraging the capital to set up a mental health care system as soon as possible, local media reported last week. About 20 percent of the people of Beijing live in unhealthy conditions, with 3 percent of these suffering from affective disorder and 5 percent reporting symptoms of depression, according to the Beijing Mental Health Service Center.
No need to fear your licence plate
CAR licence plates in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, will not have the number “four” from this month on ---a move that has led to heated discussion among officials, schools and residents. The word for “four” sounds like “death” in Cantonese. The number has been cleared away from the computer data banks that generate the six-digit licence numbers for local cars. Some say that, for the first time, a public agency service has considered local customs and bans. Others worry it will encourage superstitious(迷信的) beliefs.
1．We can infer from the news that ____.
A．there are several female astronauts in China now
B．people in Guangdong province hate number “four”
C．the mental disorder concerns everybody all over the country
D．the city government of Beijing has promised to set up a mental health care system
2．The underlined sentence in the third news means that __ __.
A．there is no number “four” in the computers in Shenzhen
B．computer is used to print six-digit car licence numbers
C．local cars will be protected to use six-digit car licence numbers
D．number “four” will no longer appear in the six-digit car licence numbers
3．What is the message of the first news?
A．China only needs male astronauts.
B．Gu Xiulian wants to be the first space woman.
C．Society doesn’t discriminate(歧视) against women in China.
D．The proposal of female astronaut training hasn’t been approved.
4．Which word has the same meaning as the underlined word “symptoms”?
A．symbol B．signs C．sorts D．shocks
Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and self- respect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized(归类) as "honor" help you create this life of good feelings.
Here's an example to show how honorable actions create happiness.
Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and benefit from the clerk's mistake, we would drive home with a sense of sneaky(鬼祟的) excitement. Later we might tell our family or friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul.
Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness?
In the first case, where we don't tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and self-respect. We would also show that we cannot be trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the clerk's attention causes different things to happen. Immediately the clerk knows us to be honorable. Upon leaving the store, we feel honorable and our self-respect is increased．Whenever we take honorable action we gain the deep internal rewards of goodness and a sense of nobility.
There is a beautiful positive cycle that is created by living a life of honorable actions. Honorable thoughts lead to honorable actions. Honorable actions lead us to a happier existence. And it's easy to think and act honorably again when we're happy. While the positive cycle can be difficult to start, once it's started, it's easy to continue. Keeping on doing good deeds brings us peace of mind, which is important for our happiness.
1．The author thinks that keeping silent about the uncharged item is equal to___.
A．lying
B．stealing
C．cheating
D．advertising
2．The phrase "bringing the error to the clerk's attention" （in para． 5） means___.
A．telling the truth to the clerk
B．offering advice to the clerk
C．asking the clerk to be more attentive
D．reminding the clerk of the charged item
3．How will we feel if we let the clerk know her mistake?
A．We'll be very excited.
B．We'll feel unfortunate.
C．We'll have a sense of honor.
D．We'll feel sorry for the clerk.
4 .Which of the following can be the best title of this passage.
A．How to Live Truthfully
B．Importance of Peacefulness
C．Ways of Gaining Self-respect
D．Happiness through Honorable Actions