A British farmer has been searching for a group of fighter planes for 15 years. The planes were lost in Burma during World War II. David Cundall, 62, traveled to Burma a dozen times. He spent about US $207,000 in the hope of finding a British Spitfire(喷火式战斗机)buried in the Southeast Asian country. Finally, his hard work paid off.
Cundall started his search after his friend heard from a group of U.S. war veterans(老兵)that they had buried Spitfires in the region. “We’ve done some pretty silly things in our time, but the silliest was burying Spitfires,” the veterans said.
Cundall began placing ads in magazines to try to find soldiers who might have been involved. After 15 years of searching, he finally managed to locate the missing airplanes. The planes had never been flown and were buried in their transport crates(条板箱). “We made a borehole(钻孔)and used a camera to look at the crates. They seemed to be in good condition.” Cundall told The Telegraph. The aircraft had arrived at a Royal Air Force base in Burma in August 1945. But, by that point in the war, the planes weren’t needed. “In 1945, Spitfires were ten a penny, and you could see them everywhere.” Said Cundall.
British Prime Minister, David Camerion, recently visited the country. As The Telegraph reports, Camerion’s help may mean that the Spitfires could soon be on their way back to the United Kingdom. Cundall hopes that with the help of investors, the planes can finally take to the skies.
“Spitfires are beautiful aeroplanes and should not be rotting away(腐烂)in a foreign land,” Cundall says. “They saved our neck in the Battle of Britain and they should be protected.”Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A.A British Farmer’s Dream |
B.Burma’s Buried Treasure |
C.A Search for Buried Planes |
D.The Design of the British Spitfire |
What did the war veterans feel when they talked about the buried planes?
A.Disappointed | B.Excited. |
C.Regretful | D.Hopeful |
What does the underlined phrase, “ten a penny ”, in the third paragraph mean?
A.expensive. | B.cheap. | C.rare | D.common |
What can we learn about the British Spitfires?
A.The planes buried under the ground were seriously damaged. |
B.The planes were not needed at that time during World War II. |
C.It will be very difficult to take the planes back to the United Kingdom. |
D.The planes were buried in Burma after they crashed there. |
What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?
A.Cundall has asked Prime Minister David Cameron for help to bring Spitfires back. |
B.The government of Burma will not allow Britain to bring the Spitfires back |
C.The Spitfires buried in Burma are beginning to rot away. |
D.Cundall likes Spitfires very much and he thinks they should be preserved. |
Sport is not only physically challenging, but it can also be mentally challenging. Criticism(批评) from coaches, parents, and other teammates, as well as pressure to win can create an excessive(过多的) amount of anxiety or stress for young athletes. Stress can be physical, emotional, or psychological and research has suggested that it can lead to burnout. Burnout has been described as dropping or quitting of an activity that was at one time enjoyable.
The early years of development are critical(关键的) years for learning about oneself. The sport setting is one where valuable experiences can take place. Young athletes can, for example, learn how to cooperate with others, make friends, and gain other social skills that will be used throughout their lives. Coaches and parents should be aware, at all times, that their feedback(反馈) to youngsters can greatly affect their children. Youngsters may take parents’ and coaches’ criticisms to heart and find a flaw (mistake) in themselves.
Coaches and parents should also be careful that youth sport participation does not become work for children. The outcome of the game should not be more important than the process of learning the sport and other life lessons. In today’s youth sport setting, young athletes may be worrying more about who will win instead of enjoying themselves and the sport. Following a game, many parents and coaches focus on the outcome and find fault with youngster’s performances. Positive reinforcement motivates and has a greater effect on learning than criticism. Again, criticism can create high levels of stress, which can lead to burnout.
59. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A. Mental stress should be reduced.
B. Sports should be made less competitive.
C. Stress should be made less.
D. Sport can be mentally challenging.
60. According to the passage, young people like sport because ______.
A. it can help them learn more about society
B. it enables them to criticize themselves
C. it can provide them with valuable experiences
D. it teaches them how to set realistic goals for themselves
61. According to the passage, parents and coaches should ______.
A. enable children to enjoy sport
B. help children to win every game
C. train children to deal with stress
D. understand the meaning of sport
62. The author’s purpose in writing the passage is ______.
A. to teach young athletes how to avoid burnout
B. to persuade young children not to worry about criticism
C. to stress the importance of encouraging children
D. to discuss the skill of combining criticism with encouragement
第三部分阅读理解
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C、D)中,选出最佳选项。
CHINA
Coal mines claim (使…失踪) more lives
A COAL mine blast (爆炸) in Jixi, Helongjiang, left more than 100 miners dead on Thursday .Ten mines in Jixi were ordered to stop production. The government has tried to shut down thousands of small, illegal mines in the country that do not meet safety standards.
MIDDLE EAST
Bombers continues to kill
PALESTINIANS killed 32 Israelis in three major attacks between Tuesday and Thursday. There were two suicide bombing and a militant (武装的) attack on Jewish settlement . They yielded one of the highest Israeli death tolls ( 死亡人数) in such a short period over the last two years.
CHINA
Young people stand tall
THE average height of Chinese young people has risen by 6 centimeters compared to that of 20 years ago. This year far exceeds (超过) the word’s average growth speed. A survey on health conducted by a panel(调研组) of Chinese students found the results. According to the world average level, youths get taller by 1 cm every 10 years.
CANADA
Talking about world issue
The Group of Eight (G8)—the US, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia ---- will hold a summit on June26 and 27 in Kananaskis, Canada. The G8 are the richest and most powerful countries in the world. G8 leaders and some African presidents will discuss strengthening global economic growth and helping Africa. Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General, will also attend.
56. Thousands of mines have been shut because ______.
A. they have blast B. they produced less coal
C. they are very small and illegal D. they don’t meet the safety standards
57. What’s the purpose of the Summit?
A. to strengthen the global economic growth and helping some poor African countries.
B. To make these eight countries much more powerful.
C. To help some African president to strengthen their economic growth.
D. Kofi Annan will have an important speech on world issues.
58. This passage may probably taken from _______.
A. a story book B. a text book C. a newspaper D. a novel
The term “formal learning” refers to all learning which takes place in the classroom regardless of whether such learning is informed by conservative or progressive ideologies(思想意识). “Informal learning”, on the other hand, is used to refer to learning which takes place outside the classroom.
These definitions(定义) provide the basic difference between the two models of learning. Formal learning is separated from daily life and may actually promote ways of learning and thinking which often run counter to those obtained form practical daily life. A characteristic feature of formal learning is the centrality of activities which can prepare for the changes of adult life outside the classroom, but it cannot, by its nature, consist of these challenges.
In doing this, language plays an important role as a major channel for information exchange. The language of the classroom is more similar to the language used by middle-class families than that used by working-class families. Middle class children thus find it easier to gain the language of the classroom than their working-class classmates.
Informal learning, in contrast, occurs in the setting to which it relates, making learning immediately relevant (相关的). In this context, language does not occupy such an important role: the child's experience of learning is more direct, involving sight, touch, taste, and smell senses that are not used in the classroom. Whereas formal learning is transmitted by teachers selected to perform this role, informal learning is gained as a natural part of child's socialization. Adults or older children who are proficient (熟练的) in skill or activity provide-----sometimes unintentionally (无意义地)---target models of behavior in the course of everyday activity.
Informal learning, therefore, can take place at any time and place. The motivation of learner provides another important difference between the two models of learning. The formal learner is generally motivated by some kind of external goal such as parental approval, social status, and possible financial reward. The informal learner, however, tends to be motivated by successful completion of the task itself and the partial knowledge of adult status.
Given that learning systems develop as a response to the social and economic contexts in which they are firmly, it is understandable that modern, high urbanized (城市化) societies have concentrated almost specially on the establishment of formal education systems. What these societies have failed to recognize are the ways in which formal learning inhibits the child's multi-sensory acquisition of practical skills. The failure to provide a child with a direct education may in part account for many of the social problems which trouble our societies.
67. Formal learning and informal learning are mainly told differences by_________.
A. the place where they take place
B. the kind of knowledge to be obtained
C. the people who learn
D. the language used in instruction
68. The language used in classroom instruction explains________.
A. how learning can take place efficiently
B. why it is not easy for children of working-class families to get high scores
C. why informal learning is more important
D. why formal learning does not work with children of middle-class families
69. In informal learning_________.
A. children usually follow the examples of adults to shape their own behavior
B. children's learning is more direct
C. children are highly motivated by the learning activity it self
D. all of the above
70. The author's attitude towards the present state of formal learning is _______.
A. agreeable B. critical
C. suspecting D. indifferent(不关心的)
请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。注意:每空格1个单词。
Health researchers have noticed that some groups of people are more consistently healthy than others, and wondered… Is it race? Income? Where you live? In the United States, these disagreements in health outcomes have been the focus of intense research for the past several decades.
Harvard University health policy researcher Ellen Meara says scholars have found some clues as to why some groups of people have more or less disease than others. She says one important factor in people’s health is the amount of education they have.
In her most recent paper, Meara looked at data from the United States census. Meara and her colleagues examined data from several decades.
“We looked at life expectancy(预测寿命)at age 25,” Meara says.
“How many additional years can you expect to live if you arrive at age 25 and your education has stopped at high school, or sooner? Versus how many years, can you expect to live if you’ve reached aged 25 and you’ve gone on to at least some college…”
Meara says they found that in 1990, a 25-year-old who only had some secondary school could expect to live for a total of 75 years. In 2000, a 25 year old with some secondary education could also expect to live to the age of 75.
In contrast, for a better educated 25-year-old, they could expect to live to the age of 80 in 1990. Someone with a similar education level in the year 2000, could expect to live to be more than 81 years, 81.6 years to be exact .
Meara says, not only do better-educated people live longer to begin with, but in the past ten years, more educated people has made gains in the length of their lives. Meanwhile, the life expectancy hasn’t changed for less educated people.
Some of these gains can be explained. Meara says researchers know that people who are more educated are more likely to quit smoking cigarettes, or not start at all, compared to people with less education.
“I think it’s a reminder not to be satisfactory,” Meara says. “Just because a population overall appears to be getting healthier, it doesn’t always mean that those advantages and successes that many people have enjoyed really extend into all parts of the population. And I think that's something to really pay attention to regardless of whether you live in the US or elsewhere.”
Meara points out that education can often determine income - people with more education frequently make more money. This makes them aware of health care, and purchase other resources and services that can keep them healthier. But the data on income do NOT show that people who make more money are automatically healthier.
Title |
The Amount of __71_____Contributes to People’s Health |
|||
Comparisons |
The less educated people |
The ____72____ educated people |
||
In 1990 |
They could live for 75 years |
They could live to the age of 80 |
||
In 2000 |
Their life expectancy was the same as in 1990. |
They could live to the age of 81.6 _____73____. |
||
___74___ of the research |
In the past ____75___ |
Their life expectancy remained ____76_____. |
They’ve made gains in the length of their lives, partly ___77____ to their quitting smoking. |
|
People are getting healthier, but it doesn’t mean that the advantages and successes extend into all parts of the population |
||||
Income____78_____ on education. |
People with more education make more money |
|||
Getting more money helps to increase their ____79____ of health care, which can keep them healthier. |
||||
______80_____ |
Education is the key to better health. |
|||
Sir William Osler has a few words for you: “In the Life of a young man, the most essential thing for happiness is the gift of friendship.” Truer words were never spoken. For what more could you ask than comradeship during the peaks and valleys of life? To whom else but a close, valuable friend can you show off your successes and complain about your failures or losses?
What is a “good friend”? How is he best described? Well, it has been my observation that although many will cry with you, few can sincerely rejoice (欣喜) with you. Therefore, in my opinion, a good friend is one who can enjoy your successes without envy; one who can say, “That was wonderful! You can do it again, even better if you want!” and mean it. Nothing taxes a friendship more than the success of one and not the other. Even the closest of friendships often cannot resist such pressure and fail. No wonder many minor friendships go down day by day for the same reason.
A person of good character and sound moral, of honor and humor, of courage and belief is a friend to be sought and treasured — for there are few. Too often we hear, “If you can count your good friends on more than one hand, consider yourself blessed.”
What makes a friendship last? Well, I don’t know all the answers, but one of my observations is that most good friends usually have similar tastes. They generally like and dislike many of the same things. There also usually seems to exist a similarity of personality types — especially in the fundamental values of life such as honesty, sincerity, loyalty, and dependability. More often than not, birds of a feather do fly together. I don’t think it matters a lot whether one prefers jazz or hockey to another’s Mozart or ballet. Much other matters far more: relying, sharing, giving, getting, enjoying; a sympathetic ear always there; criticism when it can help; praise — even if only because it would help. With not many people on this earth will you find this much in common. When you find one, hang on to him, for a good friend found is a rare treasure. The function of Paragraph 1 is to introduce ______.
A.a famous saying |
B.the topic for discussion |
C.a famous person |
D.two different attitudes |
What is the meaning of the underlined sentence in Paragraph two?
A.People don’t have to pay taxes to develop friendship with others. |
B.Success of one person can promote his friendship with others. |
C.Friendship can be affected by the difference in success between friends. |
D.Nothing can affect friendship because it has gone through the peaks and valleys of life. |
What is the main idea of Paragraph three ?
A.One is lucky to have many friends. |
B.A friend should have a good character. |
C.We should count our friends on more than one hand. |
D.A true friend should be treasured because there are few. |
According to the passage, which of the following plays the LEAST important role in a long-lasting friendship?
A.Hobbies. | B.Tastes. | C.Personality. | D.Sympathy. |