My 3-year-old son and I lived a very hard life because I had been out of work since two years ago. Being poor is a terrible feeling when your 3-year-old finishes his meal and says: “Can I have some more bread and jam （果酱） please, Mummy?” And you break down in tears, because you don’t know how to tell him that there is no more food. With ￡6, I went to the supermarket, picked up some food and started to cook at home. It was time for me to make a change and get back on my feet. I began to write a series of articles for the website named Hunger Hurt in July 2011.
A few months later, local food bank gave me some help-- with some free vegetables every month, which made my life a little easier. I began to write recipes（食谱）, posting them on my blog. To my surprise, families, students and those poor people told me how much it helped to see healthy recipes made from affordable supermarket vegetables.
My Life took unexpected turns. I was invited to give a speech on food , interviewed for an Oxfam report on food banks and asked to write a cookery book.
When I got the money from the book, for the first night in almost two years, I went to bed without worrying. Now, I have a well-paid job and a beautiful home, and I’ll never forget the days when I worked hard for a good life.The writer started to cook because _______.
| A．the food at the supermarket was unhealthy |
| B．she had to feed themselves in a cheap way |
| C．she was advised to do so by someone |
| D．her son preferred home-cooked food |
According to the text, the food bank _______.
| A．helps sell the food in supermarkets |
| B．gives out food to those people who are in need |
| C．brings people together who care about food waste |
| D．write healthy recipes to food lovers around the world |
The writer’s first post of recipes _______.
| A．drew much attention | B．was given little notice |
| C．moved the readers | D．attracted only housewives |
Which could be the best title?
| A．what a loving mother |
| B．A lesson hard life teaches me |
| C．A mother’s dream job |
| D．Success lies in your own hands |
Many artists late in the last century were in search of a means to express their individuality. Modern dance was one of the ways some of these people sought to free their creative spirit. The beginnings of modem dance were happening before Isadora Duncan, but she was the first person to bring the new dance to general audiences and see it accepted and acclaimed.
Her search for a natural movement form sent her to nature. She believed movement should be as natural as the swaying of the trees and the rolling waves of the sea. Her great contributions are in three areas.
First, she began the expansion of the kinds of movements that could be used in dance. Before Duncan danced, ballet was the only type of dance performed in concerts. In the ballet the feet and legs were emphasized, with virtuosity (技巧高超) shown by complicated, codified positions and movements. Duncan performed dance by using all her body in the freest possible way. Her dance stemmed from (源自) her soul and spirit. She was one of the pioneers who broke tradition so others might be able to develop the art.
Her second contribution lies in dance costumes (服装). She discarded corset, ballet shoes, and stiff costumes. These were replaced with flowing clothes, bare feet, and unlimited hair. She believed in the natural body being allowed to move freely, and her dress displayed this ideal.
Her third contribution was in the use of music. In her performances she used the symphonies (交响乐) of great masters, including Beethoven and Wagner, which was not the usual custom.
She was as exciting and eccentric in her personal life as in her dance.. The best title for the passage would be“_________”.
| A．Dance in the Twentieth Century |
| B．Artists of the Last Century |
| C．Natural Movement in Dance |
| D．A Pioneer in Modern Dance |
According to the passage, nature meant_________ to Duncan.
| A．something to conquer | B．a model for movement |
| C．a place to find peace | D．a symbol of disorder |
The paragraph following the passage most probably discusses_________.
| A．Duncan’s further contribution to modern dance |
| B．The music customarily used in ballet |
| C．other aspects of Duncan’s life |
| D．audience acceptance of the new form of dance |
Several days ago, a Beijing-based IT company fired about 400 people overnight. No one had expected the job cuts, which broke with traditional ways of letting go of workers in China. Moreover, what was special about this case was that the day before the 400 were fired, they all received from their boss a gift—the book “Who Moved My Cheese?”
The book—a bestseller in the US—is being used by men and women to deal with changes in their lives and work. Some large organizations, including Coca-Cola, Kodak and General Motors, ask their employees to read it in order to encourage them to be active towards changes.
Cheese is something related to everyone’s livelihood-Our jobs, the industries we work in, relationships and love as well.
With China’s official entry into the WTO, the whole nation will face up to more changes and challenges. So what we should do once this “cheese” on which we are so dependent is moved?
“Whatever challenges and changes we meet, we should face up to them bravely,” Jiang Hengwei, a civil servant said after reading the book.
Professor Zhang Yang in Renmin University of China agrees. “We should change our way of thinking. The coming competitive foreign companies and products provide us with great chances to learn from them and improve our own products to meet international standards and be more competitive.”
“With hard work and wisdom, we will create a much larger and better piece of cheese.” Zhang smiled confidently.. The whole passage is about_________.
| A．a bestseller in the US |
| B．what people think about China’s entry into the WTO |
| C．the change in people’s attitude towards changes and challenges |
| D．how a book influences the Chinese workers |
The company in Beijing gave each of the 400 fired workers a copy of “Who Moved My Cheese ”in order to_________.
| A．be more competitive with foreign firms |
| B．find an excuse for their job cuts |
| C．let the workers make a living on their own |
| D．encourage the fired workers |
. The word “cheese” in the passage can refer to_________.
| A．something we depend on |
| B．a most important kind of food |
| C．change or challenge |
| D．way of life |
. From what Heng wei and Professor Zhang Yang said, we can know that____________.
| A．they have different opinions on changes and challenges |
| B．people are not afraid of competition from foreign companies |
| C．the Chinese people are ready to face any changes and challenges |
| D．they are both greatly encouraged by the book |
The following diaries were written by an Australian boy named Tony. He was on holiday with his family in South Asia.
27 December, 2007
This morning I read an e-mail about a boy in hospital looking for his father and I finally thought of a way to help. I took my camera to the hospital and took photos of the boy. Now I’m going to set up a website on my dad’s computer, upload the photos and add his name and information of the hospital. Hopefully it will help!
2 January, 2008
At the end of the trip, I learned that the boy found his father! His Swedish uncle saw the e-mail on my webpage and arranged the meeting. Is it my website that has made such a success? But at least I’ve done something.
We’re returning home tomorrow but I will remember the experience and tell my friends: No matter what we are, we can think of a way to help others.. Tony thought of the way to ______.
| A．forget the experience |
| B．take photos of the travelers |
| C．set up a website for the hospital |
| D．help the boy find his father |
______ saw the e-mail and photos on the webpage and arranged the meeting.
| A．The boy’s uncle | B．Tony |
| C．Tony’s father | D．The doctor |
Tony was more likely to be ______ in South Asia.
| A．living | B．studying |
| C．shopping | D．traveling |
It can be learned from the diaries that ______.
| A．people are willing to set up websites |
| B．Tony’s father worked in the hospital there |
| C．people can do something to help each other |
| D．Tony went there to look for his family members |
It doesn’t matter when or how much a person sleeps, but everyone needs some rest to stay alive. That’s what all doctors thought, until they heard about Al Herpin. Al Herpin, it was said, never slept. Could this be true? The doctors decided to see this strange man themselves.
Al Herpin was 90 years old when the doctors came to his home in New Jersey. They thought for sure that he got some sleep of some kind. So they stayed with him and watched every movement he made. But they were surprised. Though they watched him hour after hour and day after day. They never saw Herpin sleeping. In fact, he did not even own a bed. He never needed one.
The only rest that Herpin sometimes got was sitting in a comfortable chair and reading newspapers. The doctors were puzzled by this strange continuous sleeplessness. They found only one answer that might explain his condition. Herpin remembered some talk about his mother having been injured several days before he was born. But that was all. Was this the real reason? No one could be sure. Herpin died at the age of 94.. The main idea of this passage is that _______.
| A．large numbers of people do not need sleep. |
| B．a person was found who actually didn’t need any sleep. |
| C．everyone needs some sleep to stay alive. |
| D．people can live longer by trying not to sleep. |
The doctors came to visit Herpin, expecting to _______.
| A．find that his sleeplessness was not really true. |
| B．cure him of his sleeplessness |
| C．find a way to free people from the need of sleeping. |
| D．find out why some old people didn’t need any sleep. |
After watching him closely, the doctors came to believe that Al Herpin _______.
| A．was too old to need any sleep. |
| B．often slept in a chair. |
| C．needed no sleep at all. |
| D．needed some kind of sleep. |
One reason that might explain Herpin’s sleeplessness was _______.
| A．that he hadn’t got a bed. |
| B．that he had gradually got tired of the sleeping habit. |
| C．his mother’s injury before he was born. |
| D．his magnificent physical condition. |
Millions of Americans return from long-distance trips by air, but their luggage doesn’t always come home with them. Airline identification tags（标签） can come loose, and the bags go who-knows-where. And passengers leave all kinds of things on planes.
The airlines collect the items and, for 90 days, attempt to find their owners. They don’t keep them, since they’re not in the warehouse business. And by law, they cannot sell the bags, because the airlines might be tempted to deliberately misplace luggage.
So once insurance companies have paid for lost bags and their contents, and they no longer belong to passengers, a unique store in the little town of Scottsboro, Alabama, buys them. The “Unclaimed Baggage Center,” is so popular that the building, which is set up like a department store, is the number-one tourist attraction in all of Alabama. More than one million visitors stop in each year and take one of the store’s shopping carts on a hunt for treasures.
Each day, clerks bring out 7,000 new items, and veteran（老练的）shoppers rush to paw over them. You can find everything from precious jewels to hockey sticks, best-selling novels, leather jackets, tape recorders, surfboards, even half -used tubes of toothpaste.
The store’s own laundry washes or cleans all the clothes found in luggage, then sells them. The Unclaimed Baggage Center has found guns, illegal drugs and even a live rattlesnake.
The store has a little museum where some of its most unusual acquisitions（获得物） have been preserved. They include highland bagpipes, a burial mask from an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, and a medieval suit of armor.
Statistics indicate that less than one-half of one percent of luggage checked on U.S. carriers is permanently lost and available to the store. Paragraph1 shows that many passengers lose their luggage because______.
| A．they are forgetful |
| B．they are in a hurry |
| C．there is no lost and found office in many airports |
| D．the owners of some luggage can’t be identified |
The reason why the airlines cannot sell the bags is that ______.
| A．they have to find the owners |
| B．they are likely to make a profit on the bags on purpose |
| C．some bags are expensive |
| D．they have to keep the bags as long as possible |
The Unclaimed Baggage Center is very popular because______.
| A．there's a large variety of goods. |
| B．all thethings there are very cheap. |
| C．visitors may purchase something undervalued. |
| D．Visitors will enjoy some amusing activities there. |
What can we infer from the passage?
| A．A little museum will keep all the precious unclaimed baggage. |
| B．The percentage of passengers who lose their baggage for ever is small. |
| C．The things in the Unclaimed Baggage Center are articles for daily use. |
| D．People are not allowed to buy the illegal things in the store. |
What is the main purpose of the passage?
| A．To introduce how the unclaimed baggage in the airports is handled in America. |
| B．To introduce an attractive place to tourists. |
| C．To remind passengers of taking care of their baggage. |
| D．To advise the airlines to find the owners of the unclaimed baggage. |