It was 9:00 am already! Richard had to leave for work! Before leaving he hurriedly looked at the newspaper and stood still! Is he seeing it right? He rubbed his eyes and saw again… Yes,it was his name in the obituary (讣告)! He threw the paper in the bin and screamed.
Richard started to recollect. He remembered that last night when he went to bed he had a chest pain and he was rushed to hospital. Then he went into a sound sleep. But what happened after that?
He could suddenly see his living room filled with people… all in tears; his mom, his wife and his children. He also saw his best friend, the one he had a serious misunderstanding a few days ago. He wanted to say “Sorry” to him… but now no one could hear his voice.
He wondered how he could tell his mom that he felt so thankful to have her in his life! He wanted to tell his children how much he loved them. He wanted to tell his wife how much he loved her; he felt sorry to have hurt her sometimes.
Richard started crying and pleading to God for one LAST chance! “God, one last chance, please”, shouted Richard and opened his eyes.
Oh, this was a dream!
He woke up; looked around everywhere. He was on his bed; his wife lay beside him, deep in sleep. Richard whispered in her ears, “You are the best thing to have ever happened to me!”
He went up to the window, looking outside. Yes, everything was just the way he has been knowing so long. He decided to meet up his friends and clear all misunderstandings; he also decided to tell everyone who mattered to him all that has remained unsaid so far!When Richard saw his name in the newspaper, he felt _________.
| A．sad | B．worried | C．regretful | D．shocked |
Richard felt sorry to his wife because _________.
| A．he hurt her sometimes |
| B．he misunderstood her |
| C．they had a quarrel the other day |
| D．he didn’t love her |
After the dream, Richard would probably _________.
| A．demand an apology from his friend |
| B．express appreciation and thanks to his friend |
| C．be on good terms with his friend again |
| D．break up with his friend |
The writer of the story mainly tells us that _________.
| A．misunderstanding between friends is common |
| B．we should tell our family how much we love them |
| C．getting along well with friends is important |
| D．we need to see a doctor when having a chest pain |
The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts had found. Researchers have studied each of her messages to the Commonwealth countries since 1952 to find out the change in her pronunciation from the noble Upper Received to the Standard Received.
Jonathan Harrington, a professor at Germany’s University of Munich, wanted to discover whether accent changes recorded over the past half century would take place within one person. “As far as I know, there just is nobody else for whom there is this sort of broadcast records,” he said.
He said the noble way of pronouncing vowels (元音) had gradually lost ground as the noble upper-class accent over the past years. “Her accent sounds slightly less noble than it did 50 years ago. But these are very, very small and slow changes that we don’t notice from year to year.”
“We may be able to relate it to changes in the social classes,” he told The Daily Telegraph, a British newspaper. “In 1952 she would have been heard saying ‘thet men in the bleck het’. Now it would be ‘that man in the black hat’. Similarly, she would have spoken of ‘citay ’ and ‘dutay’ , rather than ‘citee’ and ‘dutee’ and ‘hame’ rather than ‘home’. In the 1950s she would have been ‘lorst’, but by the 1970s ‘lost’.”
The Queen’s broadcast is a personal message to the Commonwealth countries. Each Christmas, the 10-minute broadcast is put on TV at 3 pm in Britain as many families are recovering from their traditional turkey lunch.
The results were published in the Journal of Phonetics.The Queen’s broadcasts were chosen for the study mainly because ______.
| A．she has been Queen for many years. |
| B．she has a less upper-class accent now. |
| C．her speeches are familiar to many people. |
| D．her speeches have been recorded for 50 years. |
Which of the following is an example of a less noble accent in English?
| A．“dutay” | B．“citee” | C．“hame” | D．“lorst” |
We may infer from the text that the Journal of Phonetics is a magazine on _________.
| A．speech sounds | B．Christmas customs |
| C．TV broadcasting | D．personal messages |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV. |
| B．The relationship between accents and social classes. |
| C．The changes in a person’s accent. |
| D．The recent development of the English language. |
Dear SJ,
Losing a best friend is never easy.
Your problem, is not just that you miss your best friend, it is that you feel empty and lost without her friendship.
It takes time to get over a lost, and during that time, your mind is getting used to a new way of being. This is usually a good thing, even if it feels like a bad thing.
Now that you are on your own, you are being forced to learn to be by yourself and to rely upon your own inner voice for guidance. I am sure that this feels strange for you, but if you can hang on for a bit longer, it may work to your advantage.
Best friends are cool, but it is important to know the difference between missing someone and being too independent upon them.
At your age, girls do tend to stick together and having a good boyfriend may not yet be the better choice. Your friend is leaving you, her best friend, for a boyfriend. Boyfriends are completely different from best friends. The distinction is that boyfriends come and go, while girl friends often stay in your life throughout high school, and even afterwards. It is a completely different sort of bond.
I suggest that you take advantage of this period in your life to expand your horizons. Enjoy the freedom of having no best friend for a while, and hang with the group. By the time your former best friend breaks up with her boyfriend, you will be in a completely different place, a far better place.
And, by the way, next time you feel empty and lost, try to write about it in a diary. In several months, you will look back and read it with curiosity about yourself. “Who was I then, and what could I have been thinking?”Judging from the letter, SJ’s problem was that she didn’t know _______ .
| A．whether to give up her best friend |
| B．what to do without her best friend |
| C．whom to choose between two friends |
| D．how to stop missing her former friend |
The underlined part “a new way of being” (in Paragraph 3) refers to the situation in which SJ has to _______.
| A．find a new friendship | B．live without her boyfriend |
| C．learn to give up | D．learn to be independent |
The writer believes by the time SJ’s former friend loses her boyfriend, SJ will _______.
| A．take revenge on her former friend |
| B．comfort her former friend |
| C．feel more independent and confident |
| D．continue friendship with her former friend |
What does the last paragraph seem to suggest?
| A．Unhappy experiences are easy to forget. |
| B．Keeping a diary helps correct oneself. |
| C．SJ will get over her problem soon. |
| D．One shouldn’t forget the past experiences. |
While watching the Olympics the other night, I came across an unbelievable sight. It was not a gold medal, or a world record broken, but a show of courage.
The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks. For one reason or another, two of them false started, so they were disqualified. That left only one to complete. It would have been difficult enough, not having anyone to race against, even though the time on the clock is important.
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong. I’m not an expert swimmer, but I can tell a good dive from a poor one, and this was not exactly medal quality. When he resurfaced, it was evident that the man was not out for gold—his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle. The crowd started to laugh. Clearly this man was not a medal competitor.
I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time. Finally he made his turn to start back. It was pitiful. He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out.
But in those few awful strokes, the crowd had changed.
No longer were they laughing, but beginning to cheer. Some even began to stand and shout “Come on, you can do it!” and he did.
A clear minute past the average swimmer, this young man finally finished his race. The crowd went wild. You would have thought that he had won the gold, and should have. Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history, this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors.
Just a short year ago, he had never even swum, let alone race. His country had been invited to Sydney.
In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold, or when they act so proudly in front of their competitors, it is nice to watch an underdog.The crowd changed their attitudes because _______.
| A．they felt sorry for the young man |
| B．they wanted to show their sympathy |
| C．they were moved by the young man |
| D．they meant to please the young man |
From the passage we can learn that the young man _______.
| A．made his turn to start back pitifully |
| B．was skillful in freestyle in the game |
| C．swam faster than the average swimmer |
| D．was not capable enough to win the medal |
According to the passage, “it is nice to watch an underdog” probably means _______.
| A．it’s amusing to watch a man with awful swimming skills |
| B．it’s amazing to watch an ordinary man challenging himself |
| C．it’s cheerful for athletes to act proudly before their competitors |
| D．it’s brave enough for some athletes to remove the silver medals |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．Go for it! | B．Try again！ |
| C．Compete for Gold! | D．Break a Record! |
When you're surfing the Internet on your laptop from your dorm or home, do you know your personal details are being gathered secretly? And would you be surprised to know the information may be sold cheaply to advertisers and marketers?
According to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal, all it takes is a tiny file in a computer－a single code consisting of a long series of numbers and letters－to record the computer user's age, gender, location, favorite movies and hobbies.
The newspaper reports that Lotame Solutions Inc., a New York company, uses an advanced software called “beacon” to capture what people are typing on a website.
Lotame packages that data into profiles (个人资料) about individuals, only without their names, and sells the profiles to companies seeking customers. Batches of such data may be sold for a few dollars.
The Wall Street Journal survey discovered that spying on Internet users is one of the fastestgrowing businesses on the World Wide Web.
The “cookie”－a tiny text file put on your PC by websites or marketing firms which might be used to remember your preferences for one site, or to track you across many sites is already old news. There are new and more complex tools such as “beacon” which scan in real time what people are doing on a webpage. These beacons instantly assess the Internet user's location, income, shopping interests and even medical conditions.
Millions of Internet users around the world also face unprecedented (空前的) threats. Private, sensitive, personal and business information is being gathered and sold without their knowledge.
Companies insist the information they gather is anonymous(匿名的) and the data is used harmlessly. But the technology has grown so powerful that even some of the biggest websites in the US don't know that they were installing intrusive files on visitors' computers. These include MSN.com and Yahoo.com.
Next time you visit a webpage and find an ad banner advertising something you've been planning to buy, don't be amazed that your computer can read your mind.The purpose of the passage is to ______.
| A．introduce a tiny file in a computer－a single code |
| B．show how your individual information was let out when you surf the Internet |
| C．show how to protect your privacy |
| D．introduce a sophisticated software called “beacon” |
All of the following statements are not true EXCEPT ______.
| A．Lotame sells the profiles about individuals to companies seeking customers with their age, gender, location, hobbies and names |
| B．spying on Internet users is the fastestgrowing business on the World Wide Web |
| C．some of the biggest websites in the US know they were installing intrusive files on visitors' computers |
| D．a tiny file in a computer－a single code consisting of a long series of numbers and letters can record the user's information |
What’s the writer’s attitude to the issue?
| A．neutral | B．optimistic | C．worried | D．indifferent |
I turned 16 on Friday, but the Driver’s License Office in my small hometown was only open on Tuesday, so I had to wait through that extremely long weekend and an endless Monday before going in for my examination.
I came to the Driver’s License Office half an hour earlier that Tuesday morning, pacing back and forth on the worn porch waiting for the office to open at eight. I reviewed the driver’s manual for the hundredth time. I was ready. I knew the manual backward and forward; I had made an “A” in my driver’s training course, and I was a genius behind the wheel.
Finally, the door opened and a weary-looking man in a brown uniform let me in.
“Let me guess. You want to take the driver’s test.” his voice was not enthusiastic.
“Yes!” I answered in excitement.
“Ok, fill this out, and if you pass we’ll go for a drive.”
I grabbed the test and rushed to the desk where I filled it out in record time. A quick check showed that my paper was perfect.
“Let’s get in the car.” He tossed me a set of keys, and I slid behind the wheel. Everything was going smoothly as we pulled out of the empty parking lot. I signaled a right hand turn, and we were on a deserted street. This was going to be easy.
“Turn left and go up Young Blood Hill,” he ordered. My hometown is in the mountains, and Young Blood Hill was almost vertical (垂直的). As I eased up the steep hill and came to a stop at the top, I heard the car’s engine die. My heart sank. I would have to start it again without rolling back down the hill. I swallowed hard and turned the key; as I moved my foot from the brake, the car began to roll. I suppose I could have rolled all the way back to the bottom except for one thing. There was something behind me which stopped my roll with a rough shake and crash of glass—a police car.
The policeman wrote me a ticket as I looked over the damage, and the man from the Driver’s License Office slid behind the wheel. I waited until we had parked before I asked how long a person had to wait before taking the test again.What time does “that Tuesday morning” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
| A．The morning when he made an “A” in his driver’s training course. |
| B．The morning when he knew the driver’s manual perfectly well. |
| C．The Tuesday morning right before his 16th birthday. |
| D．The first Tuesday morning immediately after his 16th birthday. |
Why didn’t the car roll back to the bottom?
| A．It hit a police car. |
| B．The engine died. |
| C．The writer braked it hard. |
| D．The man from the Driver’s License Office helped make it stop. |
From the underlined sentence “I grabbed the test and rushed to the desk where I filled it out in record time”, we can know that ______ .
| A．the writer didn’t like the man from the Driver’s License Office. |
| B．the writer was excited and eager to go for the driver’s test. |
| C．time for the test was tight. |
| D．the test paper was very easy. |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．The man from the Driver’s License Office got a ticket. |
| B．The policeman drove the car away after the accident. |
| C．The writer failed the driving test. |
| D．The writer didn’t want to take the driving test again. |