Women were friends, I once would have said, when they totally love and support and trust each other, and bear to each other the secrets of their souls, and run—no questions asked—to help each other, and tell harsh truths to each other(No, you can’t wear that dress unless you lose ten pounds first.) when these truths must be told.
In other words, I once would have said that a friend is a friend all the way, but now I believe that’s narrow point of view. Friendships serve many different functions，meet different needs and range from those as all-the-way as the friendship of the soul sisters mentioned above to that of the most casual playmates.
Convenience friends are women with whom we’d have no particular reason to be friends: a next-door neighbor or the mother of one of our children’s closest friends. They’ll lend us their cups for a party. They’ll drive our kids to school when we’re sick. They’ll take us to pick up our car when we need a lift .As we will for them. But we don’t , with convenience friends, ever come too close or tell too much; we maintain our public face and emotional distance.
Special-interest friends aren’t intimate（亲密）,and they needn’t involve kids or cats. Their value lies in some interest jointly shared .And so we may have an office friend or a tennis friend.
“I’ve got one woman friend,” says Joyce,” who likes, as I do, to take music courses, which makes it nice for me and her. I’d say that what we’re doing is doing together, not being together.”
Crossroads friends are important for what was for the friendship we shared at a crucial（关键的）,now past, time of life. A time, perhaps, when we roomed in college together or went together through pregnancy, birth and that scary first year of new motherhood.
Crossroads friends develop powerful links, links strong enough to endure with not much more contact than once-a-year letters at Christmas. And out of respect for those crossroads years, for those dramas and dreams we once shared, we will always be friends.
Crossroads friends seem to maintain a special kind of intimacy ----dormant（休眠的） but always ready to be revived（复活） ---and though we may rarely meet ,whenever we do connect, it’s personal and strong. Another kind of intimacy exists in the cross-generational friendships, the friends that form across generation in what one woman calls her daughter-mother and her mother-daughter relationships.
There are good friends, pretty good friends and very good friends, and these friendships are defined by their level of intimacy. We might tell a good friend, for example, that yesterday we had a fight with our husband. And we might tell a pretty good friend that this fight with our husband made us so mad that we slept on the couch. And we might tell a very good friend that the reason we got so mad in that fight that we slept on the couch had something to do with a girl who works in his office. But it’s only to our very best friends that we’re willing to tell all, to tell what’s going on with that girl in his office.The underlined word “harsh”(in Para.1)probably means “------“
| A．protective | B．impossible |
| C．unpleasant | D．unbelievable |
What can we know about convenience friends?
| A．People may share their sorrow and pain with their convenience friends. |
| B．People may borrow a large sum of money from their convenience friends. |
| C．People may ask their convenience friends to pick up their children for them. |
| D．People would like to seek comfort and convenience from their convenience friends. |
What is the similarity between crossroads friends and cross-generational friends?
| A．They often write to each other but never meet. |
| B．They become friends at a crucial time of their life. |
| C．They both enjoy a special kind of intimacy with each other. |
| D．The relationship usually exists between mothers and daughters. |
The friendships in the passage are classified（分类） according to _________.
| A．different stages of one’s life |
| B．the purpose of making friends |
| C．how people make friends with others |
| D．how close the relationship is |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．The value of friendship |
| B．How to make lasting friendships |
| C．Ways to avoid destroying your friendship |
| D．Friends, good friends and such good friends |
A large number of women in Western European countries wish that they were born men. The number is said as high as 60% in West Germany.
“Women often wish that they had the same chance as men have, and believe it is still men’s world,” said Dr James Holden, one of the scientists who did the study.
Anne Harper has a very good job for an international oil company. She also believes in “Women’ s Liberation(解放)”.
“I don’t wish that I were a man,” she says, “and I don’t think many women do. But I do wish that people would stop looking down upon us women. At work, for example, we often do the work that men do but get paid less. There are still a lot of jobs that are usually the best ones and open only to men. If you’re a man, you have a much better chance of leading an exciting life. How many women pilots are there ... or engineers or scientists?”What can we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．60% women in West Germany wish that they were born men. |
| B．Most women in Western European countries wish that their babies were all boys. |
| C．60% Western European women wish that they were born men. |
| D．60% Western European women who wish that they were born men are from West Germany. |
“It is still men’s world.” means “______.”
| A．There’re more men than women in the world |
| B．There’re more men scientists or engineers than women scientists or engineers in the world |
| C．Women have not been given the same chance as men |
| D．Women cannot live without men |
Anne Harper considers that women should ______.
| A．be well paid | B．live a better life than men |
| C．be really liberated | D．get better jobs than men |
Which is not true about Anne Harper?
| A．Anne Harper has a very good job for an international oil company |
| B．she is one of the scientists who did the study. |
| C．She believes in “Women’ s Liberation.” |
| D．She doesn’t want to be a man. |
STEVE EMBER: And I'm Steve Ember with People In America in VOA Special English. Today we remember the singer and actress Lena Horne. During her sixty-year career performing, Lena Horne entertained people with her beauty and rich, emotional voice. She used her fame to fight social injustices toward African-Americans.
Lena Horne was born in New York. At sixteen, Lena became a dancer at the famous club in New York City in 1933. After taking voice lessons, she soon became a singer. In 1940, Lena Horne became the first African-American to perform with an all-white jazz hand. After performing at a club in Hollywood, California, she caught the attention of filmmakers. She soon began making movies. Her films became very popular. In the 1940s, Lena Horne was the first African-American in Hollywood to sing a long -term contract with a major movie studio. Her deal with MGM stated that she would never play the role of a servant. She refused to play roles that represented African-Americans disrespectfully.
Lena Horne once said that World War II helped make her a star. She was popular with both black and white soldiers. She sang on army radio programs and traveled to perform for the troops. These experiences led to Lena Horne's work in the civil rights movement.
Lena Horne sang at rights gatherings. She took part in the march on Washington protest in 1963. It was during this event that Martin Luther King gave his "I have a dream" speech. She protested racial separation at the hotels where she performed. She took action so that she and her musicians would be allowed to stay in those hotels. B1ack musicians at the time generally stayed in black neighborhoods.
At the age of eighty, she said she did not have to act like a white woman that Hollywood hoped she would become. She said: "I'm me, and I'm like nobody else."
Lena Horne died in New York in 2010. How old was Lena Horne when she died?
| A．93 years old. | B．98 years old. |
| C．86 years old. | D．88 years old. |
We can infer from the passage that_____
| A．black women were forbidden to perform in the film in the 1940s |
| B．Lena Horne didn't make any films in the 1960s |
| C．Lena Horne liked staying at hotel very much |
| D．black actresses often played roles of servants in the film in the 1940s |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．Lena Home became the first African-American in Hollywood in her forties. |
| B．Dena Horne was a friend of Martin Luther King. |
| C．Lena Horne was involved in civil rights activities in the 1960s. |
| D．Lena Horne took an active part in sports activities. |
This text is developed
| A．by space | B．by time |
| C．by process | D．by comparison |
We know that cigarette smoking kills． So, producers made electronic cigarettes as a safer smoking choice - safer than tobacco． Although e-cigarettes contain the drug nicotine like cigarettes, they do not use tobacco and you do not light them． They are powered by battery （电池）．
However, if e-cigarettes are so safe, why has the United States Center for Disease Control（CDC） seen an increase in telephone calls about e-cigarette poisonings?
The answer is children． Most of the calls are from people worried about children who have played with the devices, In the period of one month this year, the Center said 215 people called the Center with e-cigarette concerns． More than half of these calls were for children aged five and younger． The devices had made them sick．
Tim McAfee is director of the Center's Office on Smoking and Health, He says the problem is regulation． Meaning, the U．S． federal government does not control e-cigarettes even though they contain liquid nicotine． Mr．McAfee adds that liquid nicotine is a well-known danger． Mr．McAfee explains that nicotine poisoning happens when it gets into the skin, gets into the eyes or is swallowed． It can cause stomach pain or a sense of unbalance． And too much nicotine can kill,
Tim McAfee says e-cigarettes do not create the level of risk to people that tobacco products do．He notes that almost 500,000 Americans die each year from cigarettes． "So, cigarettes are the winner in that contest．" E-cigarettes do not contain hundreds of harmful chemicals that are found in real cigarettes． So, the U．S．Surgeon General Boris D． Lushniak has suggested that e-cigarettes may be a useful tool for adults trying to end their tobacco use．
But McAfee worries that teenagers may think electronic cigarettes are harmless． They could become addicted to the nicotine and then start smoking real cigarettes． In other words, he fears that for young people fake e-cigarettes could be a "gateway" to the real thing．It can be inferred from the passage that______．
A． the CDC wants to develop a better type of e-cigarettes
B． the government is in favor of the use of e-cigarettes
C． Surgeon General Boris D． Lushniak is a heavy smoker
D． smokers most probably can't quit smoking using e-cigarettesWhat is Tim McAfee's opinion about smoking?
| A．Adults should use harmless e-cigarettes． |
| B．Smoking e-cigarettes can make a person sick． |
| C．He claims that regulations should be made to ban smoking． |
| D．He is concerned about the teens using e-cigarettes． |
One of the latest trends（趋势） in American Childcare is Chinese au pairs. Au Pair in Stamford, Conn, for example, has got increasing numbers of request for Chinese au pairs from aero to around 4, 000 since 2004. And that’s true all across the country.
“I thought it would be useful for him to learn Chinese at an early age” Joseph Stocke, the managing director of a company, says of his 2-year old son. “I would at least like to give him the chance to use the language in the future, ” After only six months of being cared by 25-year-old woman from China, the boy can already understand basic Chinese daily expressions, his dad says.
Li Drake, a Chinese native raising two children in Minnesota with an American husband, had another reason for looking for an au pair from China. She didn’t want her children to miss out on their roots. ” Because I am Chinese, my husband and I wanted the children to keep exposed to(接触) the language and culture. ” she says.
“Staying with a native speaker is better for children than simply sitting in a classroom, ” says Suzanne Flynn, a professor in language education of Children. ”But parents must understand that just one year with au pair is unlikely to produce wonders. Complete mastery demands continued learning until the age of 10 or 12. ”
The popularity if au pairs from China has been strengthened by the increasing numbers of American parents who want their children who want their children to learn Chinese. It is expected that American demand for au pairs will continue to rise in the next few years.What does the term” au pair” in the text mean?
| A．A mother raising her children on her own |
| B．A child learning a foreign language at home |
| C．A professor in language education of children |
| D．A young foreign woman taking care of children. |
What can we infer from the text?
| A．Learning Chinese is becoming popular In America |
| B．Educated woman do better in looking after children |
| C．Chinese au pairs need to improve their English Skills. |
| D．Children can learn a foreign language well in six months. |
People aren’t walking any more--- if they can figure out a way to avoid it.
I felt superior about this matter until the other day I took my car to mail a small parcel. The journey is a matter of 281 steps. But I used the car. And I wasn’t in any hurry, either, I had merely become one more victim of a national sickness: motorosis.
It is an illness to which I had thought myself immune, for I was bred in the tradition of going to places on my own two legs. At that time, we regarded 25 miles as good day’s walk and the ability to cover such a distance in ten hours as a sign of strength and skill. It did not occur to us that walking was a hardship. And the effect was lasting. When I was 45 years old I raced –and beat—a teenage football player the 168 steps up the Stature of Liberty.
Such enterprises today are regarded by many middle-aged persons as bad for the heart. But a well-known British physician, Sir Adolphe Abrhams, pointed out recently that hearts and bodies need proper exercise. A person who avoids exercise is more likely to have illnesses than one who exercises regularly. And walking is an ideal form of exercise--- the most familiar and natural of all. It was Henry Thoreau who showed mankind the richness of going on foot. The man walking can learn the trees, flower, insects, birds and animals, the significance of seasons, the very feel of himself as a living creature in a living world. He cannot learn in a car.
The car is a convenient means of transport, but we have made it our way of life. Many people don’t dare to approach Nature any more; to them the world they were born to enjoy is all threat. To them security is a steel river thundering on a concrete road. And much of their thinking takes place while waiting for the traffic light to turn green.
I say that the green of forests is the mind’s best light. And none but the man on foot can evaluate what is basic and everlasting.What was life like when the author was young?
| A．people often walked 25 miles a day |
| B．People usually went around on foot. |
| C．People used to climb the Statue of Liberty. |
| D．people considered a ten-hour walk as a hardship. |
The author mentions Henry Thoreau to prove that ________.
| A．middle-aged people like getting back to nature |
| B．people need regular exercise to keep fit |
| C．walking in nature helps enrich one’s mind |
| D．going on foot prevents heart disease |
What is compared to “a steel river” in Paragraph6?
| A．A ray of traffic light | B．A queue of cars |
| C．A flash of lightning | D．A stream of people |