A baby giraffe is born 10 feet high and usually lands on its back. Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a new-born giraffe learns its first lesson.
The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look. Then she puts herself directly over her child. She waits for about a minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She throws her long leg and kicks her baby, so that it’s sent sprawling (四脚朝天).
When it doesn’t get up, what the mother has done is repeated again and again. The struggle (挣扎) to rise is important. As the baby giraffe grows tired, the mother kicks it again. Finally, it stands for the first time. Then the mother giraffe kicks it off again. Why? She wants it to remember how it can get up. In the wild, a baby giraffe must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with its group, where there’s safety.
Another writer named Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying great people, writing stories about such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin.
Stone was once asked if he had found something unusual about these great people. He said, “I write about people who sometime in their life have a dream of something. They’re beaten over the head, knocked down and for years they get nowhere. But every time they stand up again. And at the end of their lives they’ve realized some small parts of what they set out (着手) to do.”The expression “a tall order” in Paragraph 1 most probably means ______.
| A．a happy thing | B．a difficult thing |
| C．a big dream | D．a beautiful place |
A View from the Zoo is a book written by .
| A．Gary Richmond | B．Charles Darwin |
| C．Irving Stone | D．Vincent van Gogh |
The mother giraffe puts herself over her child and throws her long leg and kicks her baby because she .
| A．is an unkind mother |
| B．likes watching her bay sprawling |
| C．doesn’t want her baby to live with her |
| D．wants to train her baby to get up in this way |
The writer mainly wants to tell the readers that .
| A．the giraffe is an unusual animal |
| B．we should learn to be a careful writer |
| C．learning to get up leads to success |
| D．A View from the Zoo is a good book to read |
When you are reading something in English, you may often meet with a new word. What’s the best way to know it?
You may look it up in the English-Chinese dictionary. It will tell you a lot about the word: the pronunciation, the Chinese meaning and how to use the word. But how can you know where the word is thousands of English words? How to find it in the dictionary both quickly and correctly?
First, all the English words are arranged(安排) in the letter order. In the dictionary you can first see the words beginning with letter A, then B, C, D…. That means, if there are two words “desert” and “pull”, “desert” will be certainly before “pull”. Then if there are two words both beginning with the same letter, you may look at the second letter. Then the third, the fourth… For example, “pardon” is before “plough”, “judge” before “just”, etc.
Do you understand how to look up in the dictionary?
The dictionary will be your good friend. I hope you’ll use it as often as possible in your English study.This passage is about______.
| A．new words in writing |
| B．different dictionaries |
| C．the best way of reading |
| D．using an English-Chinese dictionary |
In the dictionary you may not find_______.
| A．how to pronounce the word |
| B．the spelling of the word |
| C．who used the word first |
| D．how to use the word |
In an English-Chinese dictionary, the last word______.
| A．begins with Z | B．begins with A |
| C．is a short one | D．is not often used |
Which group of words is in the right order in an English-Chinese dictionary?
| A．perhaps, produce, plenty |
| B．straight, subject, surprise |
| C．century, center, business |
| D．foreign, entrance, headache |
In the passage the writer tries to tell us that_______.
| A．we have to use a dictionary when we read something in English |
| B．an English-Chinese dictionary can tell us everything about a word |
| C．an English-Chinese dictionary can help us a lot in our English study |
| D．all English-Chinese dictionary are the same |
Which is more useful?(有用的)
Thomas is in Grade Two now. He goes to school from Monday to Friday. After school he must do some housework. He helps his parents on the farm(农场) on Saturdays and Sundays. So he doesn’t have any time to play soccer in the daytime. He often plays soccer with his friends in the moon (月亮).
It’s five in the afternoon. School is over. Thomas goes home and cooks for his family. After dinner he sees his friend Paul near his house and asks him to play soccer. The boy looks at the sky and sees the moon. Then he asks,” Which is more useful, the sun or the moon?”
“I think the moon is,” says Thomas. “We need light (光线) in the evening, because we see not the sun, but the moon!”Thomas’ parents are ________.
| A．workers | B．teachers | C．policemen | D．farmers |
Thomas must work on the farmdays in a week.
| A．two | B．three | C．four | D．five |
Thomas is busy in the daytime, so.
| A．he does some homework in the evening |
| B．he does some washing(洗) and cleaning in the evening |
| C．he plays soccer with his friends in the moon |
| D．he watches TV at home in the evening |
Thomas sees Paultoday.
| A．in the morning | B．in the afternoon |
| C．in the evening | D．at school |
Thomas only likes.
| A．the sun | B．the moon | C．Saturdays | D．Sundays |
What will the future be like? What do you think of it? Here are some answers from some students.
Roy Burns: I think life in the future will be better. Most people in the world will use “green cars” by 2020, so there will be less pollution and people will live to be 200 years old. As for space travel, I would say, we will travel to Mars(火星) and some other stars in about fifty years.
Helen Lester: If we don’t take good care of the earth now, our children and grandchildren will be born into a world with too much pollution. There will be fewer trees and more buildings, because there will be more people.
Kitty Smith: I agree with Helen Lester. Things will be worse. The weather in the future will be much hotter. Human beings will have to look for another planet to live on. What are the students doing?
| A．They are talking about space travel. |
| B．They are predicting the future. |
| C．They are talking about pollution. |
| D．They are predicting the weather in the future. |
How many things does Roy Burns predict?
| A．Two | B．Three | C．Five | D．Six |
What does Helen Lester think life will be like in the future?
| A．People will live much longer. |
| B．People will have to live on the moon. |
| C．Everybody will drive a green car. |
| D．There will be more buildings and fewer trees. |
What does the underlined word “planet” mean in Chinese?
| A．太空站 | B．宇宙 | C．星球 | D．南极 |
Why does Kitty Smith think human beings will have to live on another planet?
| A．The earth will be too crowded for human beings to live on. |
| B．There will be too much pollution everywhere. |
| C．There will be too many people. |
| D．The earth will be too hot to live on. |
根据下面一篇短文的内容判断下列句子的正误，正确的用“A”来表示，错误的用“B”来表示。
A young man couldn’t sleep well every night. He was very worried. One day he went to see the doctor. The doctor looked him over carefully. But nothing was wrong with him. The doctor told him to count from 1 to 10 again and again. “Keep doing it until you fall asleep,” the doctor said.
After a few days, the young man came to the doctor again. But to his surprise, the doctor found the young man was even worse than before! “Didn’t you count as I told you?” the doctor asked. “Yes, I did,” the young man answered. “But every time when I reached eight, I couldn’t help jumping(跳) from bed.”
“But why?” the doctor wanted to know. The young man said, “I am a boxer.”(拳击运动员)The young man had a very terrible illness(疾病).
The doctor told him to count numbers from 1 to 1000 .
After a few days the young man was even worse.
The young man didn’t do the things that the doctor told him.
The young man was a boxer.
请仔细阅读，按信息表中的项目要求填写信息。
 Name: Chen Hua From: Beijing |
I have changed a lot over the years. For example, I used to be afraid of exams, but now, it doesn’t bother me in the slightest, and I used to spend time watching TV every day. But now, I have no time, I study all day. My mother used to take me to the concert often, but now, I hardly ever have time on it. I like running, and I used to run every day after class, but now I’m not allowed. My parents want me to study all day. They want me to become the top student in the class, and I don’t want to let them down. So I have to give up running. I used to have colorful time, but now I’m busy enough, and I’m always happy. As you can see, people sure change! |
 Name: Li Yun From: Guangzhou |
I’ve changed a lot over the years. I used to have lots of free time to play computer and watch TV. But now I work harder on studies. I don’t go to bed until 10: 30 because of my homework. I used to love toys because they are so interesting. However, I prefer to play basketball now and it really gives me so much fun! As for my daily life, I used to be afraid of the dark, so I couldn’t sleep with the light off. But I can sleep with the light off now. I think I am really changed now. Time goes by, it’s amazing how I’ve changed and I am never a child! |
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