When he took office, George W. Bush, son of former president George Herbert Walker Bush, became the first son to follow his father into the White House since John Quiney Adams followed John Adams in the early 19th century.
Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and Barbara Pierce Bush. Although George Herbert Walker Bush began his career in the oil industry, he finally served as a congressman(国会议员), and vice(副) president and president of the United States.
At the age of two, Bush moved with his parents from Connecticut to Odessa, Texas, where his father took up the oil business. After a year in Texas, the family moved to California for business reasons. A year later, the family returned to Texas and settled in Midland, where Bush lived from 1950 to 1959.
In 1959, again for business reasons, the family moved to Houston, Texas. In 1961 Bush left Texas and went to Andover, Massachusetts, to attend Phillips Academy, aboarding school(寄宿学校) that his father had also attended.
At Phillips, Bush played basketball, baseball, and football. He was best known for being head cheerleader. In 1964 he enrolled at Yale University in Connecticut.His father and grandfather had also attended Yale. At Yale, Bush was considered an average student, but he was popular with his classmates.
Bush graduated from Yale with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1968. Then he joined the Air National Guard and remained in the Guard until 1973. After earning his MBA from Harvard in 1975, Bush returned to Midland. Like his father, he first entered the oil industry as a “landsman(新手)”. However, Bush’s oil companies never enjoyed great success. He took more interest in politics. He helped his father to become president and in 1994 he himself was elected governor of Texas.
In the summer of 1999, Bush began to run for the president of the USA and on January 20, 2001, George W. Bush, hand raised, took the oath(宣誓) of office to become the 43rd president of the US.What does the writer intend to tell us in the first paragraph?
| A．George W. Bush is the first son in American history to follow his father into the White House. |
| B．George W. Bush is the first son of former president George Herbert Walker Bush. |
| C．George W. Bush is the second one in American history to follow his father into the White House. |
| D．John Quincy Adams and his father were both former American presidents. |
We may learn from the text that young Bush ______.
| A．got on very well at the universities |
| B．was very good at basketball, baseball and football |
| C．was a very successful politician like his father |
| D．did everything as his father had done |
Which of the following is NOT true about George W. Bush?
| A．He once studied at a university that his father and grandfather had also attended. |
| B．Young Bush lived with his family in Texas from 1948 to 1961. |
| C．He once ruled over an American state before he entered the White House. |
| D．He once served at the Air National Guard for about five years. |
French lessons in France
Whatever your level is, choosing to take French lessons in France is the best way to learn French. Place yourself in the local culture and practice your newly found skills in your free time.
You will be taught by native (本地的) French speakers who have a love for teaching and use excellent teaching techniques. Lessons are interesting and you will speak French on the first day both inside and outside the classroom.
Learners
● Suitable for all levels from beginners to advanced (高级的)
● Over 18 years old
Class Schedule (课表)
● Classes start on Mondays and run throughout the summer.
● Please arrive at the school by 8:15 am on your first day for a short level test. It will help to place you in the right class.
● Classes run from Monday to Friday each week.
● Classes start at 8:45 am each day depending on your level.
● You will have 3 classes per day lasting 55 minutes each.
● You will have a short break between classes.
Free Time and Tours
● The school offers a lot of cultural activities throughout the week. These activities can include cooking lessons, wine and cheese tasting, visits to Paris, cycling, movies and much more.
● You will have plenty of free time to explore (探索) the local area and practice your newly found language skills or just relax on this learning holiday with a difference.
Other Information
● You should bring a small dictionary, pens and paper with you.
Get more from your holiday, have fun, meet new people and take home a new language skill that will stay with you forever.What is special about the French courses?
| A．They are taught in small groups. |
| B．The teachers are young French speakers. |
| C．People learn French in and out of class. |
| D．They will offer a wine tasting license. |
On the first day, the students should ______.
| A．take a language test | B．pay for their study |
| C．do a survey | D．introduce themselves to the class |
How many lessons are there in a week?
| A．21. | B．30. | C．15. | D．12. |
We can learn from the text that the course ______.
| A．is not suitable for teenagers |
| B．offers cooking classes as well |
| C．provides dictionaries for students |
| D．has a short game between classes |
The United States is full of cars. There are still many families without cars, but some families have two or more. However, cars are used for more than pleasure. They are a necessary part of life.
Cars are used for business. They are driven to offices and factories by workers who have no other way to get to their jobs. When salesmen are sent to different parts of the city, they have to drive in order to carry their products. Farmers have to drive into the city in order to get supplies.
Sometimes small children must be driven to school. In some cities school buses are used only when children live more than a mile away from the school. When the children are too young to walk too far, their mothers take turns driving them to school. One mother drives on Mondays taking her own children and the neighbors' as well. Another mother drives on Tuesdays, another on Wednesday, and so on. This is called forming a car pool. Men also form car pools, with three or four men taking turns driving to the place where they all work.
More car pools should be formed in order to put fewer cars on the road and use less gas. Too many cars are being driven. Something will have to be done about the use of cars.The United States is filled with cars, but.
| A．not every family has a car |
| B．few families have two cars or even more |
| C．every American has a car |
| D．every family has a car |
Which statement is true according to the third paragraph?
| A．Small children are driven to school. |
| B．All children go to school by bus in some cities. |
| C．Mothers drive their children who can't walk to school. |
| D．School buses pick up all children. |
Mothers form car pools in order that .
| A．they can drive to school |
| B．they can take turns driving their children to school |
| C．they reach school quickly |
| D．they can drive their children to school in time |
The traffic in and around cities is a great problem because.
| A．too many cars are being driven | B．there are too many car pools |
| C．people put fewer cars on the roads | D．there is less gas |
Mr. Grey was the manager of a small office in London. He lived in the country, and came up to work by train. He liked walking from the station to his office unless it was raining, because it gave him some exercise.
One morning he was walking along the street when a stranger stopped him and said to him, “You may not remember me, sir, but seven years ago I came to London without a penny in my pockets, I stopped you in this street and asked you to lend me some money, and you lent me £ 5, because you said you were willing to take a chance so as to give a man a start on the way to success.”
Mr. Grey thought for a few minutes and then said, “Yes, I remember you. Go on with your story!” “Well,” answered the stranger, “are you still willing to take a chance?”Mr. Grey liked walking to his office because ________.
| A．he couldn’t afford the buses |
| B．he wanted to save money |
| C．he wanted to keep in good health |
| D．he could do some work on the way |
Mr. Grey had been willing to lend money to a stranger in order to_______
| A．give him a start in life | B．help him on the way to success |
| C．make him rich | D．gain more money |
One morning the stranger recognized Mr. Grey, and_______
| A．wanted to return Mr. Grey the money |
| B．again asked Mr. Grey for money |
| C．would like to make friends with him |
| D．told Mr. Grey that he had been successful since then |
In the second paragraph,“… take a chance” means ______.
| A．Mr. Gray happened to meet a stranger |
| B．Mr. Grey had a chance to help a stranger |
| C．Mr. Grey helped a stranger by chance |
| D．Mr. Grey took the risk that the stranger would not give back the money which he lent him |
Poet Dean Young has dealt with impermanence (无常) a lot in his career, but it’s a particularly strong theme in Young’s latest collection, Fall Higher. The new collection was published in April, just days after the poet received a life-saving heart transplant (移植) after about a decade of living with a weakening heart condition.
Young, whose work is often frank and rich with twisted humor, tells NPR’s Renee Montagne that as he recovers from operation, he’s also slowly returning to his everyday writing habits.
“I’m getting back to it,” Young says, “not with the sort of concentration and sort of flame that I look forward to in the future, but I am blackening some pages.”
And on those blackened pages you’ll find poems like “How Grasp Green”, which carries themes of springtime and rebirth. It’s one of the first poems Young has written since his transplant.
It’s easy to spot clues (线索) to Young’s awful health situation in the lines of his poetry.
Fall Higher’s “Vintage” opens with “Because I will die soon, I fall asleep, during the lecture on the ongoing emergency.” And the poem “The Rhythms Pronounce Themselves Then Vanish”—published in The New Yorker in February—opens with the CT scan that revealed Young’s heart condition.
Hearts tend to come up a lot in poetry, and that’s especially true if Young’s work, which has clearly been influenced by the troubles of his own heart.
“A lot of times, it’s not just a metaphor (暗喻),” Young says. “For me, it’s an actual concern because I’ve been living with this disease for over 10 years. My father died of heart problems when he was 49, so it’s been a sort of shadowy concern for me my whole life.
But Young’s poems also deal with more abstract matters of the heart. He wrote Fall Higher’s, “Late Valentine” for his wife. “We’ve been married since late November and most of it has been spent in the hospital,” Young says of his marriage to poet Laurie Saurborn Young, who says “‘Late Valentine’ is very sweet.”
His work also touches on themes of randomness and fate—two factors that contributed to him getting a second chance in the form of transplanting a new heart from a 22-year-old student. “I just feel enormous gratitude,” he says of his donor (捐献者). “He gave me a heart so I’m still alive … I’m sure I’m going to think about this person for the rest of my life.”The poetry collection Fall Higher .
| A．was published in February |
| B．is Young’s latest collection of poetry |
| C．makes darkness as its main theme |
| D．was written after Young’s heart transplant |
We can learn from the text that Young .
| A．was born with heart disease |
| B．received a heart transplant in February |
| C．married a female poet after he wrote “late Valentine” |
| D．wrote a poem for his wife in his collection |
What does the write try to say in Paragraph 3?
| A． The writer had less enthusiasm than before, but he still kept on writing. |
| B． The writer expected some bright future, but he was disappointed. |
| C． The writer devoted more time to poems, so he grasped a good chance. |
| D． The writer wrote poems with less enthusiasm, so he quitted fora while. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A． “How Grasp Green” is the first poem in FaU Higher |
| B． Young began all his poems with his illness. |
| C． Young’s fether died when Young was 49 years old. |
| D． Young’s health situation is mentioned in his poetry. |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．The meaning of Fdl Higher. |
| B．Dean Young and his heart problems. |
| C．Dean Young and his latest collection. |
| D．An analysis of Dean Young’s poems. |
When talking about his present life, Young seems to be .
| A．grateful | B． pessimistic | C． guilty | D．considerate |
For those who make journeys across the world, the speed of travel today has turned the countries into a series of villages. Distances between them appear no greater to a modern traveler than those which once faced men as they walked from village to village. Jet planes fly people from one end of the earth to the other, allowing them a freedom of movement undreamt of a hundred years ago.
Yet some people wonder if the revolution in travel has gone too far. A price has been paid, they say, for the conquest (征服) of time and distance. Travel is something to be enjoyed, not endured (忍受). The boat offers leisure and time enough to appreciate the ever-changing sights and sounds of a journey. A journey by train also has a special charm about it. Lakes and forests and wild, open plains sweeping past your carriage window create a grand view in which time and distance mean nothing. On board a plane, however, there is just the blank blue of the sky filling the narrow windows of the airplane. The soft lighting, in-flight films and gentle music make up the only world you know, and the hours progress slowly.
Then there is the time spent being ‘processed’ at a modern airport. People are conveyed like robots along walkways; baggage is weighed, tickets produced, examined and produced yet again before the passengers move to another waiting area. Journeys by rail and sea take longer, yes, but the hours devoted to being ‘processed’ at departure and arrival in airports are luckily absent. No wonder, then, that the modern high-speed trains are winning back passengers from the airlines.
Man, however, is now a world traveler and cannot turn his back on the airplane. The working lives of too many people depend upon it; whole new industries have been built around its design and operation. The holiday-maker, too, with limited time to spend, patiently endures the busy airports and the limited space of the flight to gain those extra hours and even days, relaxing in the sun. Speed controls people’s lives; time saved, in work or play, is the important thing—or so we are told. Perhaps those first horsemen, riding free across the wild, open plains, were enjoying a better world than the one we know today. They could travel at will, and the clock was not their master. What does the writer try to express in Paragraph 1?
| A．Travel by plane has speeded up the growth of villages. |
| B．Man has been fond of traveling rather than staying in one place. |
| C．The speed of modern travel has made distances relatively short. |
| D．The freedom of movement has helped people realize their dreams. |
How does the writer support the underlined statement in Paragraph 2?
| A．By giving examples. |
| B．By giving instructions. |
| C．By analyzing cause and effect. |
| D．By following the order of time. |
According to Paragraph 3, passengers are turning back to modern high-speed trains because ______.
| A．they pay less for the tickets |
| B．they feel safer during the travel |
| C．they can enjoy higher speed of travel |
| D．they don’t have to waste time being ‘processed’ |
What does the last sentence of the passage mean?
| A．They could travel with their master. |
| B．They needed the clock to tell the time. |
| C．They preferred traveling on horseback. |
| D．They could enjoy free and relaxing travel. |