"Ok," I said to my daughter as she bent over her afternoon bowl of rice. "What's going on with you and your friend J?" J. is the leader of a group of third-graders at her campa position Lucy herself occupied the previous summer. Now she's the one on the outs, and every day at snack time, she tells me all about it, while I offer up the unhelpful advice all summer long.
"She's fond of giving orders," Lucy complained. "She's fat," Lucy mumbled(含糊地说)into her bowl "We are going upstairs," I said, my voice cold, "We are going to discuss this." And up we went.
I'd spent the nine years since her birth getting ready for this day, the day we'd have to have the conversation about this horrible word. I knew exactly what to say to the girl on the receiving end of the teasing(嘲笑), but in all of my imaginings, it never once occurred to me that my daughter would be the one who used the F word-------Fat.
My daughter sat on her bed, and I sat beside her. “How would you feel if someone made fun of you for something that wasn't your fault?” I began. “She could stop eating so much,” Lucy mumbled, mouthing the simple advice a thousand doctors and well-meaning friends and relatives have given overweight women for years.
"It's not always that easy,” I said. “Everyone's different in terms of how they treat food” Lucy looked at me, waiting for me to go on. I opened my mouth,then closed it. Should I tell her that, in teasing a woman's weight, she's joined the long, proud tradition of critics who go after any woman with whom they disagree by starting with "you're ugly" and ending with “no man would want you and there must be something wrong with any man who does"?Should I tell her I didn't cry when someone posted my picture and commented, “I'm sorry, but aren't authors who write books marketed to young women supposed to be pretty?”
Does she need to know, now, that life isn't fair? I feel her eyes on me,waiting for an answer I don't have. Words are my tools. Stories are my job. It's possible she'll remember what I say forever, and I have no idea what to say.
So I tell her the only thing I can come up with that is absolutely true.I say to my daughter,“I love you,and there is nothing you could ever do to make me not love you,But I'm disappointed in you right now. There are plenty of reasons for not liking someone. What she looks like isn't one of them.”
Lucy nods,tears on her cheeks.“I won't say that again,”she tells me,and I pull her close, pressing my nose against her hair. We are both quiet, and I don't know if I have said the right thing. So as we sit there together, shoulder to shoulder, I pray for her to be smart.I pray for her to be strong. I pray for her to find friends,work she loves, a partner who loves her, and for the world not to deprive(剥夺)her of the things that make her who she is,for her life to be easy, and for her to have the strength to handle it when it's not. And still, always,I pray that she will never struggle as I've struggled, that weight will never be her cross to bear. She may not be able to use the word in our home, but I can use it in my head.I pray that she will never get fat.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 indicates that Lucy___,
A.often makes fun of her friend J. |
B.has turned against her friend J. |
C.gets along well with her friend J. |
D.has begun to compete with her friend J. |
Why does the author want to discuss with Lucy?
A.Because she wants to offer some other helpful advice. |
B.Because she has prepared the conversation for nine years. |
C.Because she is really shocked at Lucy's rudeness. |
D.Because she decides to tell Lucy a similar story of her own. |
What does the author want to tell her daughter?
A.It is not easy to take the doctors' advice to eat less. |
B.People shouldn't complain because life is unfair. |
C.She herself was once一laughed at for her appearance. |
D.People shouldn't be blamed for their appearance. |
It can be inferred from the passage that
A.the author earns a living by writing stories |
B.the author is a fat but good-looking woman |
C.the author will stop loving her daughter for what she said |
D.the author's daughter agreed with her from the very beginning |
We can learn from the last paragraph that .
A.Lucy deeply moved by her mother's prayer |
B.a mother's prayer will shape her daughter's attitude towards life |
C.the author allows her daughter to use the F word in her head |
D.the author hopes her daughter will never have weight trouble |
The author's attitude towards her daughter can be best described as .
A.loving but strict |
B.indifferent but patient |
C.satisfied and friendly |
D.unsatisfied and angry |
The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of September 2 ,1666. In four days it destroyed more than three-quarters of the old city, where most of the houses were made of wood and close together. Over one hundred people became homeless, but only a few lost their lives.
The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King's baker (面包师) in Pudding Lane. The baker, with his wife and family, was able to get out through a window into the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.
By eight o'clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometer of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire destroyed many well-known buildings, old St Paul's and the Guildhall among them.
Samuel Pepys, the famous writer, wrote about the fire, "People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the heat."
The fire stopped only when the King finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.
After the fire, Christopher Wren, the architect (建筑师), wanted a city with wider streets and fine new houses of stone. In fact, the streets are still narrow, but he did build more than fifty churches, among them the new St Paul's.
The fire caused great pain and loss, but after it London was a better place: a city for the future and not just of the past.It seems that the writer of the text was most sorry for the fact that _____.
A.some people lost their lives |
B.the birds in the sky were killed by the fire |
C.many famous buildings were destroyed |
D.the King's bakery was burned down |
Why did the writer cite (引用) Samuel Pepys?
A.To give the reader a clearer picture of the fire. |
B.Because Pepys also wrote about the fire. |
C.To show that poor people suffered most. |
D.Because Pepys was among those putting out the fire. |
How was the fire put out according to the text?
A.The King and his soldiers came to help. |
B.All the houses made of wood in the city were destroyed. |
C.People managed to get enough water from the river. |
D.Houses standing in the direction of the fire were pulled down. |
Do you suppose Darwin, one of the greatest scientists of all time, really did foolish experiments? Or did he do experiments that were so simple and basic that other people just thought they were foolish?
Sometimes, people think they already know the answer to a question or the solution to a problem. Sometimes, they really do know an answer or a solution, but without thinking they are important.
Charles Darwin didn’t settle for(满足于)just thinking he knew something. And, he believed all things could be important however simple they seemed to be.
Suppose you drop sheets of paper that are of exactly the same size and shape. If you drop them at the same time in the same place, they will fall in the same way. Now make one of the sheets of paper into a tight little ball and let it drop along with the other sheets. What happens? You have done an experiment that is so simple that you might think it couldn’t be worth anything.
But this simple experiment is important. It explains part of our present-day understandings of physics, ideas that were worked out long ago by Galileo and Newton. And these understandings set aside some of ancient Greek physics.
Scientists sometimes stop to look at very simple things and to think very hard about them. Even the simplest idea, which we might think is foolish, can shake the foundations of science.The passage tells us that Charles Darwin .
A.was a great English scientist |
B.always liked doing the experiments that others thought difficult |
C.thought even the simplest thing was important |
D.didn’t get well with others |
The underlined phrase “set aside” most probably means .
A.throw away | B.store up |
C.put to use | D.realize |
The author of the passage tries to .
A.convince us that Charles Darwin, Galileo and Newton are the greatest scientists in the world |
B.draw the conclusion that basic sciences are simple things |
C.prove that two sheets of paper, with the same size and shape, will fall at the same speed |
D.draw our attention to everyday happenings around us |
Which of the following is TRUE?
A.Darwin really did foolish experiments. |
B.According to some people Darwin did foolish experiments. |
C.It is believed by all the people that things could be important though they seemed to be simple. |
D.Galileo and Newton worked out ancient Greek physics. |
Some countries have a large number of earthquakes. Japan is one of them, while others do not have many, for example, there are few earthquakes in Britain. There is often a great noise during an earthquake. The ground vibrates (颤动).Houses fall down. Railways are broken, which causes trains to turn over. Sometimes thousands of people are killed in different ways. About 60,000 were killed in 1783 in the south of Italy. Some people say that earthquakes often happen near volcanoes(火山), but it is not true. The centers of some earthquakes are under the sea. The bottom of the sea suddenly moves. The powerful forces inside the earth break the rocks. The coast is shaken and great waves appear. These waves travel long distances and rush over the land when they reach it, breaking down houses and other buildings. Sometimes they break more buildings than the earthquake itself.
A terrible earthquake happened in Assam, India, in 1986.The land near Shillong suddenly moved 1.5 feet to one side, and then back again. It continued to act like this 20 times a minute. Few buildings could stand what was happening and the great stones flew four feet up into the air. What kind of building stays up best in an earthquake? The Americans carefully studied the results of the earthquake at San Francisco(1906) and believed it best for buildings to be made with concrete(混凝土) walls together by steel frames. Such are the buildings that can't burn or fall easily.Which of the following is NOT true?
A.Trains' turning over is directly caused by the earthquakes. |
B.Some earthquakes have their centers under the sea. |
C.It isn't certain that earthquakes happen near volcanoes. |
D.Buildings with concrete walls are better against earth quakes. |
Earthquakes often happen .
A.near volcanoes | B.Both A and D |
C.in Britain | D.in Japan |
___________ make(s) more loss than the earthquake itself.
A.Nothing |
B.Volcanoes |
C.Forces inside the earth |
D.Terrible waves by the earthquake |
When an earthquake happens, ____________can be heard.
A.trains | B.thousands of people |
C.a great noise | D.the powerful forces |
If you go into the woods with your friends, stay with them. If you don’t, you may get lost. If you do get lost, this is what you should do.
Sit down and stay where you are. Don’t try to find your friends — let them find you. You can help them to find you by staying in one place. There is another way to help your friends or other people nearby to find you. Give them a signal by shouting or whistling three times. Stop. Then shout or whistle three times again. Any signal given three times is a call for help. You will be helped by others. Keep up the shouting or whistling, always three times together. When people hear you, they will know that you are not just making noise for fun. They will let you know they have heard your signal. They will give two shouts, two whistles or two gunshots. When a signal is given twice, it is an answer to a call for help.
If you don’t think that you will get help before night comes, try to make a little house and cover up the holes with branches with lots of leaves and grass.
What should you do if you get hungry or need to drink some water? You should have to leave your little branch house to look for a brook. Don’t just walk away. Pick off small branches and drop them as you walk so that you can find your way back. The most important thing to do when you are lost is — stay in one place.How do you let people believe that you are not just making noise for fun?
A.Stop now and then. |
B.Go on shouting or whistling. |
C.Shout over and over at the top of voice |
D.Shout or whistle three times once a while. |
If nobody answers you after your signal, what should you do then?
A.Give two gunshots. | B.Shout louder. |
C.Stop shouting. | D.Make a house. |
If you feel thirsty when you are lost in the forest, what should you do?
A.Go and find a brook. |
B.Light a fire and make yourself some tea. |
C.Go to find a brook and leave marks behind you. |
D.Find something to hold the water. |
What’s the best title for the passage?
A.What Do Three Shots And Two Shots Mean In A Forest |
B.How To Find Your Friends When You Are Lost In The Woods |
C.What To Do If You Get Lost In A Forest |
D.The Most Important Thing To Do Is To Stay In One Place |
There was once a professor of medicine, who was very strict with the students. Whenever he took the chair on the exam committee(担任考试委员会主席), the students would be in fear, because he was seldom pleased with the answers they gave. A student would be lucky enough if he or she could receive a good mark from him. At the end of the term, the students of medicine would take their exam again. Now a student entered the exam room and got seated before the committee. This student was a little nervous as he knew it would not be so easy to get through the exam at all.
The professor began to ask. The student was required to describe a certain illness, his description of which turned out to be OK.
Then the professor asked about the cure (药剂) for illness, and the student, too, answered just as right.
“Good,” said the professor, “and how much will you give the patient?”
“A full spoon”, answered the student.
“Now you may go out and wait for what you can get.” said the professor. At the same time, the committee discussed carefully the answers the student had given. Suddenly the student noticed that there was something wrong with his last answer. “A full spoon is too much,” he thought to himself. Anxiously he opened the door of the room and cried, “Mr Professor, I’ve made a mistake! A full spoon is too much for a patient. He can take only five drops.”
“I’m sorry, sir.” said the professor coldly, “But it’s too late. Your patient has died.”The students were afraid of the professor because_________.
A.they often angered and disappointed him |
B.he often misunderstood them and give them bad markers |
C.their answers often astonished him |
D.their answers seldom satisfied him |
Before he left the room the student was almost sure that ______.
A.his last answer was satisfying |
B.he had passed the exam, and the only thing was to wait for the mark |
C.he had made a mistake |
D.he had not done well in the exam |
Which of the following is Not true?
A.The patient will be in danger if he’s taken as much as a full spoon. |
B.The doctor will be in trouble if he’s given the patient a full spoon. |
C.Since one spoon is less than five drops, the patient will be all right soon if he takes only one full spoon at a time. |
D.If the patient wants to remain safe, he should take no more than five drops at a time. |