William Butler Yeats, a most famous Irish writer, was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. His childhood lacked the harmony(和睦) that was typical of a happy family. Later, Yeats shocked his family by saying that he remembered “little of childhood but its pain”. In fact, he inherited(继承) excellent taste in art from his family—both his father and his brother were painters. But he finally settled on literature, particularly drama(戏剧) and poetry.
Yeats had strong faith in coming of new artistic movements. He set himself the fresh task in founding an Irish national theatre in the late 1890s. His early theatrical experiments, however, were not received favorably at the beginning. He didn’t lose heart, and finally enjoyed success in his poetical drama.
Compared with his dramatic works, Yeats’s poems attract much admiring notice. The subject matter includes love, nature, history, time and aging. Though Yeats generally relied on very traditional forms, he brought modern sensibility to them. As his literary life progressed, his poetry grew finer and richer, which led him to worldwide recognition.
He had not enjoyed a major public life since winning the Nobel Prize in 1923. Yet, he continued writing almost to the end of his life. Had Yeats stopped writing at age 40, he would who probably now be valued as a minor poet, for there is no other example in literary history of a poet who produces his greatest works between the ages of 50 and 75. After Yeats’s death in 1939, W.H.Auden wrote, among others, the following lines:
Earth, receive an honored guest:
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel(船) lie
Emptied of its poetry. Which of the following can describe Yeats’s family?
| A．It filled Yeats’s childhood with laughter. |
| B．It was shocked by Yeats’s choice. |
| C．It was a typically wealthy family. |
| D．It had an artistic atmosphere. |
According to the passage, what do we know about Yeats’s life?
| A．Yeats founded the first Irish theater. |
| B．Yeats stuck to modern forms in his poetry. |
| C．Yeats began to produce his best works from the 1910s. |
| D．Yeats was not favored by the public until the 1923 Noble Prize. |
What kind of feeling is expressed in W. H. Auden’s lines?
| A．Envy. |
| B．Sympathy. |
| C．Emptiness. |
| D．Admiration. |
Popular music in America is what every student likes.Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class, and at lunch.Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street.
Adult drivers listen to the car radio as they drive to work.They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, and the life of American people.Most of the radio programmes are music.
Pop or popular music singers make much money.They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in many places.Once the popular singer is heard all over the country, young people buy his or her tapes.Some of the money from these tapes goes to the singer.Wherever the singer goes , all the young people want to meet him or her.Now the singer has became a national star.
There are other kinds of music that are important to Americans.One is called folk music.It tells stories about the common life of Americans.Another is called western or country music.This was started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows when they were watching.Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music.________ kinds of music are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Two | B．Four | C．Three | D．Five |
When pop singers _________, they will become national stars.
| A．make much money | B．make a CD or tape |
| C．are loved by all the young people | D．are wanted to sing on the radio |
From the passage we know that country music is about ________
| A．common life about Americans | B．country life and love story |
| C．life of cowboys | D．school life in America |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Most students in America like popular music |
| B．Students with cars in America like to listen to music while driving |
| C．Adult drivers in America listen to music all the time while driving. |
| D．Everyone in America wants to meet pop sing |
With long brown hair, deep blue eyes, a tall and thin figure(身躯) Brad Pitt seems to be a born actor.He made his first appearance in a film in 1990.Though he was in the film for only 14 minutes, people flooded the cinema to see him.In his next film Pitt played the role of a fisherman.To make the film better, he learned the skill of fishing from a fisherman.
Pitt, caring more about roles than money, has a special favor for the “hard” roles.After reading the screenplay(剧本) of “Legends of the Fall”, he was attracted by the leading character.He asked for a lower pay from the shooting team and was willing to work in hard conditions in the Rocky Mountains for six months.“The film gives the chance to know life.I shall always remember the time when we were making the film,” Pitt said after completing it fully.
Pitt started his dream of art when he was in university.Though born in a common family in 1964, he showed his interest in film at an early age.After leaving high school, he went to university to study law.Because he loved film more than law, shortly before he could graduate, he dropped out for a life of his own, with only 325 dollars in hand, sometimes as a porter or a waiter.Thanks to his hard work, he finally opened up a new field of his own.Pitt acted his first film at the age of .
| A．6 | B．14 | C．26 | D．36 |
The underlined expression “a born actor” means .
| A．he was born in an actor family |
| B．he became an actor soon after he was born |
| C．he was an actor when he was born |
| D．he has a strong natural ability to be an actor |
From the passage we know .
| A．Pitt became known as an actor at an early age. |
| B．To achieve his goal, Pitt suffered a lot before success |
| C．it was wrong of Pitt not to finish his university education |
| D．In order to develop his interest, Pitt failed to enter university |
Which of the following words can best describe the character of Pitt?
| A．Devoted. | B．Generous. | C．Selfish. | D．Mean. |
In 1971 a young man who grew up very poor was travelling across the country, trying to make a new start for himself.Along the way he had completely run out of（用光） money and was forced to spend the night in his car.This continued until one morning, after a week of sleeping in his car, he walked nervously into a restaurant and ordered a big breakfast.
After eating his first good meal in weeks, he found himself lying to the waiter, telling him he had lost his wallet.The waiter, who was also the owner, walked behind the chair where the young man had been sitting.He bent down, and came up with a $20 bill that looked as if it had fallen on the floor and said, “Son, you must have dropped this,” the owner said.The young man couldn’t believe his luck! He quickly paid for the breakfast, left a tip, bought gas with the change, and headed West.
On the way out of town, he began to understand what the owner did.Maybe nobody dropped the money at all.“Maybe that fellow just knew I was in trouble and he helped me in a way that didn’t embarrass(使尴尬)me.So I just made a promise to help other people if I can.”
Later, he worked very hard and became a rich man.Now he lives near Kansas City.Each year he gives away thousands of dollars.He is known as the “Secret Santa” because at Christmas time each year, he personally hands money out to those on the street and at restaurants.Last year, he gave more than $50,000 away in Kansas City.The young man was travelling cross the country in 1971 to______.
| A．look for a good restaurant | B．improve his life |
| C．show his new car to others | D．hand out dollars |
The underlined sentence implies(暗示) that the young man got to know that______.
| A．it was vey lucky of him to get his lost money back |
| B．it was very honest of the owner to return his money |
| C．the owner helped him in a way that didn’t hurt his feelings |
| D．another person who had breakfast in the restaurant lost the money |
From the end of the passage we can learn that ______.
| A．the man did carry out his promise |
| B．the man was not successful in the end |
| C．the owner was paid back the money |
| D．Santa gives the man money each year |
The message of the story is “______”.
| A．One good turn deserves another |
| B．Where there is a will there is a way |
| C．He who travels far knows much |
| D．Give love wings (翅膀) and it may fly higher |
Why do men live a shorter life than women? The latest research indicates that men’s hearts going into a rapid decline when they reach middle age could be the cause.
The research of ageing on the heart has shown that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose much pumping power with age.
“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 20 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, Samantha of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
“Within the heart there are millions of cells which make it beat.Between the ages of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men ,” said Samantha.“This is part of the ageing process.”
What amazes scientists is that the female heart suffers very little loss of these cells.A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could work almost as perfectly as a 20-year-old one’s.
“This gender （性别）difference might give the reason why men live shorter than women,”said Samantha.They studied over 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 17 and 80, who are mainly healthy persons so as to reduce the influence of disease.“The team has yet to think about why ageing suffers a greater loss on the male heart,” said Samantha.
But there is also good news -- men can enjoy the health of their hearts with regular exercise.Samantha stressed that women should also take regular exercise to stop their leg muscles getting weaker as they age.The underlined word “longevity” in the second paragraph means “________”.
| A．health | B．long life | C．ageing | D．effect |
The text mainly talks about ________.
| A．men’s heart cells | B．women’s ageing process |
| C．the gender difference | D．hearts and long life |
According to the text, the UK scientists have known that ________.
| A．men have fewer cells than women when they are born |
| B．women can produce the cells that make the heart beat |
| C．the female heart suffers less loss of the cells with age |
| D．women will never suffer the loss of pumping power with age |
If you want to live a long life, you should ________.
| A．enable your heart to beat much faster |
| B．think about the reason for ageing |
| C．take regular exercise to keep your heart healthy |
| D．stop your cells from being lost |
The United States has about 475,000 school buses ---all painted yellow.Each day they carry more than 25,000,000 children, half of all schoolchildren in the country.But these buses, on average, use four liters of diesel (柴油) fuel to travel less than sixteen kilometers.When the school year began last fall, diesel averaged 55 cents a liter nationally.The price nearly doubled, to a dollar and 8 cents, by the end of school in June.
Bob Riley speaks for the American School Bus Council.He says fuel prices for schools are not much lower than others have to pay.As a result, schools are looking for ways to reduce transportation costs.Bus routes are being redrawn or, in some cases, canceled (取消).Some areas are buying buses that use natural gas or other alternative fuels.Other steps include fewer field trips and less travel by sports teams.And some school districts (地区) may end any bus service not required by law.
Studies show that school buses are the safest form of transportation to and from school.The American School Bus Council says cuts in bus service are bad for children and possibly the environment.It says removing buses from the road will mean an increase in other vehicles transporting students.Spokesman Bob Riley says another concern is that reducing bus services might reduce attendance.
But it could also get more children to walk or bicycle to school.And that would surely make people happy at the National Center for Safe Routes to School.More kids walking or biking safely to school is the aim of a three-year-old federal program, part of an international movement.The goal is to increase physical activity and reduce air pollution.The United States will celebrate Walk to School Day on October the eighth this year.But for some students, high fuel prices could make every day a walk-to-school day.What does this passage mainly tell us?
| A．High fuel prices’ influences on school buses. |
| B．New measures to transport school students. |
| C．The safest form of student transportation. |
| D．The origin of Walk to School Day. |
Which of the following information is implied in the first paragraph?
| A．There are too many school buses in the United States. |
| B．There are too many students in the US. |
| C．Diesel prices are going up too rapidly in the US. |
| D．School buses consume too much diesel in the US. |
What can we learn from Paragraph 3?
| A．Cuts in bus service will have negative results. |
| B．The US government is encouraging cuts in bus services. |
| C．The US schools are searching for the safest transportation means. |
| D．Reducing bus service will do a lot of good to the environment. |
The National Center for Safe Routes to school encourages more children to walk or bike to school in order to ____.
A.save more fuels and diesel for the country
B.keep the children safe on their way to school
D.keep the children healthy and the environment clean.