“I once hoped to afford a wonderful telescope, but now I wish my father would be back.” Lucy Lawrence’s letter to Father Christmas written after his father had been knifed to death outside his school gate, must have touched every heart. Lucy went on to say that without his father he couldn’t see the stars in the sky. When those whom we love depart from us, we cannot see the stars for a while.
But Lucy, the stars are still there, and one day, when you are older and your tears have gone ,you will see them again . And, in a strange way, I expect that you will find your father is there too, in your mind and in your heart . I find that my parents , long dead now , still occur in many of my dreams and that I think of them perhaps more than I ever did when they were alive . I still live to please them and I’m still surprised by their reactions. I remember that when I became a professor , I was so proud , or rather so pleased with myself , that I couldn’t wait to write to my parents . The reply was a long time in coming, but when it did, all Mother said was “I hope this means that now you will have more time for the children! ” I haven’t forgotten. The values of my parents still live on.
It makes me pause and think about how I will live on in the hearts and minds of my children and of those for whom I care. Would I have been as ready as Philip Lawrence have been to face the aggressors, and to lay down my life for those in my care ? How many people would want me back for Christmas? It’s a serious thought, one to give me pause.
I pray silently , sometimes , in the dead of night ,that ancient cry of a poet “Deliver my soul from the sword（剑）, and my darling from the power of the evil .” Yet I know the death comes to us all, and sometimes comes suddenly. We must therefore plan to live forever, but live as if we will die tomorrow. We live on, I’m sure, in the lives of those we loved, and therefore we ought to have a care for what they will remember and what they will treasure. If more parents knew this in their hearts to be true, there might be fewer knives on our streets today.According to the whole text we can see that the first paragraph .
| A．shows the author’s pity on the kid |
| B．acts as an introduction to the discussion |
| C．puts forward the subject of the text |
| D．makes a clear statement of the author’s opinions |
In the second paragraph the author mainly wants to explain to us .
| A．why his parents often appear in his dream |
| B．how much he misses his parents now |
| C．when Lucy will get over all his sadness |
| D．how proud he was when he succeeded in life |
What feeling did the author’s mother express in her reply?
| A．Proud. | B．Excited. |
| C．Uninterested. | D．Uneasy. |
What does the writer mean by the sentence taken from an old poem?
| A．Call on criminals and murderers to lay down their guns. |
| B．Advise parents stay with their children safely at home. |
| C．Try to keep violence and murder far away from society. |
| D．Spend every day meaningfully in memory of the death. |
The government of Norway is planning to build an unusual storage center on an island in the Arctic Ocean. The place would be large enough to hold about two million seeds. The goal is to present all crops known to scientists. The British magazine New Scientist published details of the plan last month. The structure will be designed to protect the world’s food supply against nuclear war, climate change and other possible threats. It will be built in a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen. The mountain is less than one thousand kilometers from the North Pole, the northernmost position on earth.
An international group called the Global Crop Diversity Trust is working on the project. The director of the group, Cary Fowler, spoke to New Scientist. He said the project would let the world rebuild agriculture if, in his word, “the worst came to the worst”. Norway is expected to start work next year. The project is expected to cost three million dollars. Workers will drill deep in the side of a sandstone mountain. Temperatures in the area never rise above 0ºC. The seeds will be protected behind walls a meter thick and high-security door.
The magazine report says the collection will represent the products of ten thousand years of farming. Most of the seeds at first will come from collections at seed banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America. To last a long time, seeds need to be kept in very low temperatures. Workers will not be present all the time. But they plan to replace the air inside the storage space each winter. Winter temperatures on the island are about eighteen degrees below 0ºC. The cold weather would protect the seeds even if the air could not be replaced.
Mr. Fowler says the proposed structure will be the world’s most reliable gene bank. He says the plant seeds would only be used when all other seeds are gone for some reason. Norway first proposed the idea in the 1980s. But security concerns delayed the plan. At that time, the Soviet Union was meeting in Rome of the Food and Agriculture Organization.The project is meant to ______.
| A．increase the world’s food output in the future |
| B．carry out some scientific experiments on plant genes |
| C．protect crop seeds from dying out in case of possible disasters |
| D．build an exhibition centre of the world’s plant seeds |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the above passage?
| A．The government of Norway will perform the project alone. |
| B．Seeds to be collected there were produced ten thousands years ago. |
| C．Spitsbergen is chosen because it is free of the threat unclear war forever. |
| D．Temperature is a major consideration when choosing the storage place. |
We can infer from the text that _______.
| A．People will get newly-developed seeds from the center every year. |
| B．The storage center will greatly promote world agriculture |
| C．Norway had meant to build the storage centre about 30 years before. |
| D．There haven’t been any seed storage centers in the world before. |
What is probably the best title of the passage?
| A．The Best Place to Store Seeds |
| B．Noah’s Ark（诺亚方舟）of Plant Seeds in Plan |
| C．Concerns of World Food Supply |
| D．A New Way to Feed the World |
Beginning college is exciting: new ideas to explore, new challenges to be met and many decisions to be made; your future begins here.
However, you will find college life is different from your previous school environment. Many of us can be easily defeated by the details of running a well-balanced life. While some of us may have the know-how, I guess there are more of us who can benefit from learning about the experiences of others who have walked the college halls before you.
The following you may find useful about life on campus:
·Plan well. There are so many new things to do at a new college or university. Give yourself time to make new friends and became familiar with the campus, but don’t forget why you are there. Give some time for social activities and manage your time wisely.
·If you don’t have a “system” for planning your time now (like a day timer, a computer data book), get one. Most of all, don’t depend on your memory.
·Don’t miss the guidelines. The restrictions, rules and regulations of all kinds can usually be found in your student’s handbook. Consider them well-balanced food for thought. What dates are important? What pieces of paper need to be handed in? What can / can’t you do in your student residence（住处）? Who has the right for what? What do you need to complete to graduate?
·Write the word “STUDY” on the walls of your bedroom and bathroom, and maybe it will help to write it on a piece of paper and stick it on the telephone, TV and the kitchen table. Consider this — you are paying thousands of dollars for your course. You pay every time you have to repeat or replace a course.
·Build your identity. This is the time for you to decide what to do and what not to do. Take as much time as you need to explore new ideas. Do not be afraid of the beyond. This is learning to make good choices.
(From http://www.iamnext.com/academics/frosh10tips.html)What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To offer advice on college life. |
| B．To explain why college life is exciting. |
| C．To describe the importance of college life. |
| D．To persuade you to go to college. |
According to the passage, why is it exciting to begin college life?
| A．Because you will have more freedom at college. |
| B．Because you will no longer be afraid of the beyond |
| C．Because you prepare for your future career and life there. |
| D．Because professors there will provide you with many new ideas. |
The underlined word “know-how” refers to _____.
| A．An understanding of how things are going at college |
| B．Practical knowledge about how to learn well at college |
| C．College halls where rules and regulations are presented |
| D．An environment completely different from the one you’re used to |
According to the passage, college students _______.
| A．needn’t learn from those who went to college before them |
| B．spend as much time as possible on social activities |
| C．should know what they have fight for on campus |
| D．are supposed to repeat or replace at least one course |
A study of English learning problems was carried out among a total of 106 foreign students. It shows that most students considered understanding spoken English to be their biggest problem on arrival. This was followed by speaking. Writing increased as a problem as students discovered difficulties in writing papers that they were now expected to hand in. Reading remained as a big problem.
Information gained helped us in determining where special attention should be paid in our course. Although many students have chosen to join the course with a reasonable motivation, we considered it important to note what seemed to encourage interest. Nearly all the students have experienced some kind of grammar-based English teaching in their own country. To use the same method would be self-defeating because it might reduce motivation, especially if it has failed in the past. Therefore a different method may help because it is different.
Variety of activity was also seen as a way of maintaining or increasing motivation. Several years ago we had one timetable that operated throughout, but we soon found that both the students and the teachers lost interest about halfway through the ten weeks. This led us to a major re-think, so in the end we brought it into line with the expressed language needs of the students.What does the passage want to tell us?
| A．Foreign students have more problems. |
| B．There are many ways to improve English. |
| C．Teaching should meet students’ needs. |
| D．English learning problems should be studied again. |
Writing became a bigger problem when foreign students __________.
| A．had to write their papers |
| B．became better at speaking |
| C．became less interested in reading |
| D．had fewer problems with listening |
We may infer from the last two paragraphs that_________.
| A．different teaching methods should be used |
| B．grammar-based teaching seems to be encouraging |
| C．English courses are necessary for foreign students |
| D．teaching content should be changed halfway |
GARDEN RESTAURANT
Telephone: 2706030
Address: 9020 Bridgeport road
Open: Mon. to Fri. 7:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Sat. 7:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Sun. 11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.
NEW YORK MUSEUM
Telephone: 7364431
Address: Vanier Park, 1100 Chestnut St. New York, America’s largest museum specializing in American history and part of our native people
Open: Mon. to Fri. 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. (Monday free)
Sat. 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
LANSDOWNE PARK SHOPPING CENTER
Telephone: 3562367
Address: 5300 No. 3 Road
Open: Mon. Tues. and Sat. 9:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Wed. Thurs. and Fri. 9:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Sun. 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
SKYLINE HOTEL
Telephone: 2785161
Address: 3031 No. 3 Road (at Sea Island Way)
Hangar Den: Wed. to Sun. Lunch from 10:30 a.m.
Coffee Shop: Mon. – Fri. 6:00 a.m., Sat. 6:30 a.m. and Sun. 7:00 a.m.;
Mon. – Wed. to 10:00 p.m., Thurs. – Sun. to 11:00 p.m. If you want to go out for lunch on Tuesday you can call up the number ______.
| A．2706030 | B．7364431 | C．3562367 | D．2785161 |
You do not have to pay on Monday if you go to ______.
| A．Skyline Hotel |
| B．Lansdowne Park Shopping center |
| C．New York Museum |
| D．Garden Restaurant |
Suppose you want to enjoy yourself on Sunday mornings, you can go to ______.
| A．5300 No. 3 Road |
| B．Vanier Park, 1100 Chestnut St. |
| C．9020 Bridgeport Road |
| D．3031 No. 3 Road |
What can you do after 2 o’clock on Saturday afternoons?
| A．Visit New York Museum |
| B．Do some shopping in Lansdowne Park Shopping Center |
| C．Go to Garden Restaurant |
| D．B and C |
Jack Andraka from Maryland won the grand prize at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. It is the largest high school science competition in the world. The Maryland teenager is the youngest winner of the $75,000 prize. He was chosen from among 1,500 students in 70 countries.Jack Andraka invented a test for pancreatic cancer （胰腺癌）. He started to learn it after losing a close family friend to the disease. “I went on the Internet and I found that 85%of all pancreatic cancers are found late, when someone has less than 2% chance of survival（生存）, ” he says, “and I was thinking,’ That’s not right. We should be able to do something.’” He found that early discovery is important to increasing the chances of surviving the disease.
The Maryland teenager asked to work in a laboratory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and was allowed. There he developed a simple paper test, which can recognize the disease in a single drop of blood. His test has proved correct 90% of the time. It also is 100 times more sensitive（敏感的）than other tests. “It costs 3 cents per test, and then it takes only 5 minutes to run,” he said.
Jack’s success wouldn’t have been possible without Anirban Maitra, a professor at Johns Hopkins. He was the only person among the 200 researchers Jack wrote to who showed interest in his project. “I was very surprised that this was a 15-year-old who was writing this. I wanted to meet this clever young man and see what he wanted to talk about and so I called him over for an interview（会面）. ”
Jack worked in Professor Maitra’s laboratory, completing his project in 7 months. The government has given the Maryland teenager patent rights（专利权）to the pancreatic cancer test. He is now talking with companies about developing the test into a simple product.
Whatever happens, the professor believes Jack Andraka’s name is one we will be hearing again over the next 10 to 20 years. What made Jack Andraka research pancreatic cancer?
| A．A high school task. | B．A professor’s encouragement. |
| C．Losing a friend. | D．Doubts about the present test. |
Jack Andraka’s research on pancreatic cancer __________.
| A．proved to be very successful |
| B．was 100 times cheaper than other tests |
| C．gave patients a 90% chance of survival |
| D．was finished at the high school of Maryland |
We can infer（推断）from the text that Jack Andraka __________.
| A．left a deep impression on Professor Maitra |
| B．was thought highly of by companies |
| C．got support from others easily |
| D．wasn’t afraid of failure |
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph suggested Jack Andraka will __________.
| A．become rich |
| B．make contributions（贡献）continually |
| C．get a good job |
| D．make products to treat cancer |
What’s the best title for the text?
| A．Intel International Science and Engineering Fair |
| B．Jack Andraka’s Fights Against Cancer |
| C．Research on Pancreatic Cancer |
| D．Teenager Cancer Researcher |