They say there are three ways to experience the Grand Canyon; on foot, on mules(骡子) or by air. We chose the first. Up early; my husband and I and our three children couldn’t wait to get started. We decided to walk along a lovely path named Bright Angel Trail.
As we set out, I was shocked at how narrow the path was. And I couldn’t help noticing that the other tourists weren’t like us. They had heavy backpacks, water bottles, and hats. But as usual we were dressed, As the sun rose higher, Arizona’s famous heat seemed to roast(烘烤) us. There was no shade and our legs were aching. We decided to go back, with the girl on my back and the boys far behind. By the time we finally got back, our legs were like jelly.
The next day, after we’d had a long rest and a good breakfast, we were ready for another view of the Canyon by air. After our last walk, this would be the easiest thing in the world.
We called to each other excitedly as the plane took off and circled around the Canyon. But the smiles on our faces disappeared as the pilot tossed(翻转) the plane around, pretending he was going to hit the ground. I shouted, “STOP, TAKE US BACK!” When we finally arrived back on land, once again our legs were like jelly. We hardly spoke as we drove back.
As I said, there are three ways to view the Grand Canyon. We never tried the mules, but personally I’d suggest a fourth: buy yourself a good magazine like National Geographic. That way, you can see the Canyon, without fear or tiredness. Which of the following is true according to the second paragraph?
| A．They made a careful preparation before the trip |
| B．They children were more joyful than their parents. |
| C．Bright Angel Trail was not as lovely as they expected. |
| D．The summer heat prevented them from enjoying the view. |
The underlined expression “Our legs were like jelly” probably means .
we were weak
B. we were unhappy
C. we were dissatisfied
D. we were disappointed Which of the following best describes their Canyon trip by air?
| A．It proved to be frightening. |
| B．It was more comfortable |
| C．It turned out to be exciting |
| D．It made each of them tired. |
We can infer from the passage that .
| A．experiencing the Canyon on mules would be the best way |
| B．one needs to dress less when visiting the Grand Canyon. |
| C．the writer was not serious when she made the suggestion. |
| D．the whole family narrowly escaped from the air accident. |
A major earthquake rocked Haiti at 4:53 pm local time on Jan.12, 2010, killing possibly thousands of people but no official figure has been released so far.
The quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks. In the space of a minute, numerous buildings fell down. A five-story U.N. building was also brought down by the 7.3 magnitude quake, the most powerful to hit Haiti in more than 200 years according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
As night fell, the whole city is in total darkness. You can see thousands of people sitting in the streets with nowhere to go. There are people running, crying, screaming. Describing the earthquake as a "catastrophe", Haiti’s president said the cost of the damage could run into billions.
Haiti became the first independent Caribbean state in the early 19th century. Haiti’s location, history and attracting climate once made it a tourist hot place. However, decades of poverty, environmental pollution and violence have left it as the poorest nation in the Americas. It has suffered a lot, including four hurricanes and storms in 2008 that killed hundreds. The great earthquake happened to the _______ of the capital city.
| A．south-west | B．north-west | C．south-east | D．north-east |
What can we infer from the underlined sentence?
| A．People in Port-au-Prince don’t like to light on. |
| B．The earthquake happened in the evening. |
| C．Electricity in the city was cut off that night. |
| D．There are no lights at all in Port-au-Prince. |
What’s the meaning of the word in bald “catastrophe”?
| A．chance. | B．joke. | C．illness. | D．disaster. |
Which statement about Haiti is NOT true?
| A．Haiti became an independent state in the early 19th century. |
| B．Haiti belongs to Americas, just like Canada, America and so on. |
| C．At one time, tourism was important to the economy of Haiti. |
| D．Haiti is a country where such strong quacks often take place. |
On June 17, 1774, the officials from Maryland and Virginia held a talk with the Indians of the Six Nations. The Indians were invited to send boys to William and Mary College. In a letter the next day they refused the offer as follows:
We know that you have a high opinion of the kind of learning taught in your colleges, and that the costs of living of our young men, while with you, would be very expensive to you. We are sure that you mean to do us good by your proposal（提议）; and we thank you heartily. But you must know that different nations have different ways of looking at things, and you will therefore not be offended（冒犯） if our ideas of this kind of education happen not to be the same as yours. We have had some experience of it. Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the northern provinces: they were taught all your sciences; but when they came back to us, they were bad manners, ignorant（无知的）of every means of living in the woods–they were totally good for nothing.
We are, however, not the less thankful by your kind offer, though we refuse to accept it; and, to show our grateful sense of it, if the gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their sons, we will take care of their education, teach them in all we know, and make men of them.The tone(语气) of the letter as a whole is best described as________.
| A．angry | B．pleasant | C．polite | D．ambitious |
The Indian chief’s purpose of writing the letter seems to be to ____.
| A．politely refuse a friendly offer | B．express their opinions on equal treatment |
| C．show their pride | D．describe Indian customs |
According to the letter, the Indians believed that ____.
| A．it would be better for their boys to receive some schooling |
| B．they were being insulted by the offer |
| C．they knew more about science than the officials |
| D．they had better way of educating young men |
Different from the officials’ view of education, the Indians thought ____.
| A．young women should also be educated |
| B．they had different goals of education |
| C．they taught different branches of science |
| D．they should teach the sons of the officials first |
Dr. Marie Curie is known to the world as the scientist who discovered radioactive metals i.e. Radium and Polonium.
Marie Curie was a Polish physicist and chemist. Together with her husband, Pierre, she discovered two new elements and studied the x-rays they emitted. She found that the harmful properties of x-rays were able to kill tumors. By the end of World War I, Marie Curie was probably the most famous woman in the world. She had made a conscious decision, however, not to patent methods of processing radium or its medical applications.
Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Poland and died on July 4, 1934. Her co-discovery with her husband Pierre Curie of the radioactive elements radium and polonium represents one of the best known stories in modern science for which they were recognized in 1901 with the Nobel Prize for Physics. In 1911, Marie Curie was honored with a second Nobel prize, this time for chemistry, to honor her for successfully isolating pure radium and determining radium’s atomic weight.
As a child, Marie Curie amazed people with her great memory. She learned to read when she was only four years old. Her father was a professor of science and the instruments that he kept in a glass case fascinated Marie. She dreamed of becoming a scientist, but that would not be easy. Her family became very poor, and at the age of 18, Marie became a governess. She helped pay for her sister to study in Paris. Later, her sister helped Marie with her education. In 1891, Marie attended the Sorbonne University in Paris where she met and married Pierre Curie, a well-known physicist.
Marie Curie contributed greatly to our understanding of radioactivity and the effects of x-rays. She received two Nobel prizes for her brilliant work, but died of leukemia, caused by her repeated exposure to radioactive material.The underlined word “emitted” in the 2nd paragraph means_______.
| A．gave off | B．gave away | C．set out | D．set off |
According to the passage, which order of the following is right?
① Marie Curie worked as a governess.② Marie Curie met and marry Pierre Curie.
③ Marie Curie learned to read.④ Marie Curie was honored with a second Nobel Prize.
⑤ Marie Curie discovered radium.
| A．①②③④⑤ | B．③①②⑤④ | C．①②③⑤④ | D．③①②④⑤ |
When did Marie Curie win a Nobel Prize for a chemistry?
| A．In her twenties | B．In her thirties | C．In her forties | D．In her fifties |
What does the passage mainly talked about?
| A．Marie Curie discovered radium | B．Marie Curie, a famous chemist |
| C．Marie Curie won two Noble Prizes | D．The brief biography of Marie Curie |
The Queen’s English is now sounding less upper-class, a scientific study of the Queen’s Christmas broadcasts has 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 ‘the 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 (传统火鸡午餐).
The results were published (发表) in the Journal of Phonetics.What is the text mainly about?
| A．The relationship between accents and social classes. |
| B．The Queen’s Christmas speeches on TV. |
| C．The changes in a person’s accent. |
| D．The recent development of the English language. |
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 |
Prepare: Plan ahead and think about what you are going to say. In the words of Mark Twain, it usually takes you more than three weeks to prepare for it.
Know your subject: Always make sure that you know the subject and have background information at hand for question time.
Know you audience: Find out who you will be addressing so that you can tailor(适合) your comments accordingly.
Make a point: Keep your speech short and brief and have a few clear points that you need to convey(传达).
Practice: Never learn your speech by heart as your speech will become stilted, but do practice it a few times in front of the mirror, your parents or your dog.
Eye contact: If the thought of looking into a sea of faces scares you, adjust your gaze（注视）regularly at different points in the room to create the same effect.
First impressions: Your first impression is important when making a public presentation. Find out about dress codes(准则) at the place so that you look your best and, if possible, check the microphone beforehand to ensure you know how to use it.
Get help: If public presentations are a major part of your life, read up on the art of speech---writing and delivery to improve your skills.The advice benefits (有益于)____________________.
| A．teachers | B．actors | C．speechmakers | D．spokesmen |
Knowing your subject helps you __________.
| A．make a perfect speech |
| B．make better answers when asked questions about the subject. |
| C．keep a clear head |
| D．attract people’s attention |
The underlined word “stilted” probable means ________ here.
| A．unnatural | B．unnecessary | C．unpleasant | D．undeveloped |
If asked for more advice besides what has been mentioned in the text, you may suggest ______.
| A．eye contact with the audience | B．proper clothes |
| C．proper tones and body languages | D．more practice |