Success is often measured by the ability to overcome adversity. But, it is often the belief of others that gives us the courage to try.
J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, began writing at age 6. In her biography, she remembers with great fondness when her good friend, Sean, whom she met in secondary school, became the first person to encourage her and help build the confidence that one day she would be a very good writer.
"He was the first person with whom I really discussed my serious ambition to be a writer. He was also the only person who thought I was bound to be a success at it, which pieant much more to me than I ever told him at the time. "
Despite many setbacks Rowling persevered in her writing, particularly fantasy stories. But it wasn't until 1990 that she first conceived the idea about Harry Potter. As she recalls, it was on a long train journey from London to Manchester that " the idea of Harry Potter simply fell into my head. To my immense frustration （沮丧），I didn't have a functioning pen with me, and I was too shy to ask anybody if I could borrow one. I think, now, that this was probably a good thing, because I simply sat and thought, for four （delayed train） hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me. "
That same year, her mother passed away after a ten-year battle with multiple sclerosis, which deeply affected her writing. She went on to marry and had a daughter, but separated from her husband shortly afterwards.
During this time, Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression. Unemployed, she completed her first novel in area cafes, where she could get her daughter to fall asleep. After being rejected by 12publishing houses, the first Harry Potter novel was sold to a small British publishing house.
Now with seven books that have sold nearly 400 million copies in 64 languages, J. K. Rowling is the highest earning novelist in history. And it all began with her commitment to writing that was fostered by the confidence of a friend ！Rowling first came up with the idea about Harry Potter __________.
| A．at the age of 6 |
| B．on a train journey |
| C．after her mother's death |
| D．in her secondary school |
She felt frustrated on the train because __________.
| A．her train was delayed for four hours |
| B．she didn't have a pen with her |
| C．her mind suddenly went blank |
| D．no one would offer her help |
It can be concluded from Paragraph 5 and 6 that Rowling is __________.
| A．open-minded | B．warm-hearted |
| C．good-natured | D．strong-willed |
The text mainly tells us __________.
| A．hardship makes a good novelist |
| B．the courage to try is a special ability |
| C．you can have a wonderful idea everywhere |
| D．encouragement contributes to one's success |
I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn’t understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.
Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed(解散). As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.
Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated in the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl’s test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very very strange to her that I hadn’t talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued to believe that I had cheated in the test.The girl wanted to borrow a pen, because ____ .
| A．she had not brought a pen with her | B．she had lost her own on her way to school |
| C．there was something wrong with her pen | D．her own had been taken away by someone |
The teacher saw all this, so she asked the boy ____ .
| A．to go on writing his paper | B．to stop whispering |
| C．to leave the room immediately | D．to stay behind after the exam |
The thing(s) emphasized in her talk was(were) ____ .
| A．honesty | B．sense of duty | C．seriousness | D．all of the above |
The boy knew everything ____ .
| A．the moment he was asked to stay behind | B．when the teacher started talking about honesty |
| C．only some time later | D．when he was walking out of the room |
In Denmark, parents are allowed to set up a new school if they are dissatisfied with the school in the area where they are living. Although these schools have to follow the national courses, they are allowed a lot of choice in deciding what to teach. Some of these new schools are called “small schools” because usually the number of pupils in them is only sixty, but a school has to have at least twenty-seven pupils.
Cooleenbridge School in Ireland, is a small school similar to the ones in Denmark, it was set up by parents who came from Holland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, England and other parts of Ireland. They came because they wanted to live in the countryside and to grow their own food. In June 1986, they decided to start a school. They managed to get an old, disused primary-school building and started with twenty-four children aged from four to twelve.
The teachers say, “The important thing in school is doing, not sitting.” And so the courses includes yoga(瑜伽), cooking, knitting(编织), kite-making, music, fishing, drama(戏剧) and environmental river studies, as well as reading, writing, maths and science.What are the rules for setting up a new school in Denmark?
| A．Parents are allowed to set up their own school. |
| B．The school has to follow the national courses. |
| C．The school has to have at least 27 pupils. |
| D．All of the above. |
The writer tells about the Cooleenbridge School in Ireland because .
| A．it was set up by parents who are not people of Denmark |
| B．it was taken as an example of this kind of “small school” |
| C．there were only twenty-four children |
| D．the pupils there were aged from 4 to 12 |
What makes this kind of school special?
| A．It is set up by parents not by government. |
| B．It is free to decide what to teach. |
| C．The number of pupils in it is only sixty. |
| D．It has to have at least 27 pupils. |
“The important thing in school is doing, not sitting.” What the teachers say actually means .
| A．What we should do is teaching in the classroom, not sitting in the office. |
| B．Children should do more homework at home, not just sit in class to listen to the teachers. |
| C．Children should learn by themselves not rely on teachers. |
| D．Children should learn through practice not just from books. |
Grandma Moses is among the most famous twentieth-century painters of the United States, yet she did not start painting until she was in her late seventies. As she once said of herself: “I would never sit back in a rocking chair, waiting for someone to help me.” No one could have had a more productive old age.
She was born Anna Mary Robertson on a farm in New York State, one of five boys and five girls. At twelve she left home and was in domestic(家庭的) service until, at twenty-seven, she married Thomas Moses, the hired hand of one of her employers. They farmed most of their lives, first in Virginia and then in New York State, at Eagle Bridge. She had ten children, of whom five survived; her husband died in 1927.
Grandma Moses painted a little as a child and made embroidery(刺绣) pictures as a hobby, but only changed to oils in old age because her hands had become too stiff(硬的) to sew and she wanted to keep busy and pass the time. Her pictures were first sold at a local market and were soon noticed by a businessman who bought everything she painted. Three of the pictures exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 1940 she had her first exhibition in New York. Between the 1930s and her death she produced some 2,000 pictures: detailed and lively portrayals(描绘) of the country life she had known for so long, with a wonderful sense of colour and form. “I think really hard till I think of something really pretty, and then I paint it.” she said.According to the passage, Grandma Moses began to paint because she wanted to.
| A．make herself beautiful | B．keep active |
| C．earn more money | D．become famous |
The underlined word “survived” means.
| A．graduated from college | B．examined the condition of the house |
| C．lived longer than the other children | D．gave up themselves to the police |
From Grandma Moses’ description of herself in the first paragraph, it can be inferred that she was.
| A．independent | B．pretty | C．rich | D．nervous |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Grandma Moses: Her Life and Pictures. | B．The Children of Grandma Moses. |
| C．Grandma Moses: Her Best Exhibition. | D．Grandma Moses and Other Older Artists. |
There is a wonderful story about a young girl who had no family and no one to love her.
One day,feeling very sad and lonely,she was walking through a grassland when she noticed a small butterfly caught in a thorn （荆棘） bush. The young girl carefully released the butterfly. Instead of flying away,the little butterfly changed into a beautiful fairy. The young girl rubbed her eyes in disbelief.
“For your wonderful kindness,” the good fairy said to the girl,“I will give you any wish you would like.” The little girl thought for a moment and then replied,“I want to be happy.”
The fairy leaned toward her and whispered in her ear. Then the fairy disappeared.
As the little girl grew up,there was no one in the land as happy as she. Everyone asked her secret of happiness .She would only smile and answer,“The secret of my happiness is that I listened to a good fairy when I was a little girl.”
When she was very old and on her deathbed,the neighbors all gathered around her,and feared that her unbelievable secret of happiness would die with her. “Tell us,please,” they begged,“Tell us what the good fairy said.” The lovely old woman simply smiled and said,“She told me that everyone,no matter how secure they seemed,no matter how old or young,how rich or poor,had need of me.”______ the girl felt sad and lonely.
| A．There were many friends but | B．There was nobody to love her so |
| C．There was nothing to do | D．Seeing the butterfly was caught |
Noticing the butterfly was caught by the thorn,the orphan girl ______.
| A．helped the butterfly escaped from the thorn | B．felt sorrow,but she didn’t go up to help it |
| C．fell down on it too | D．failed to help it release from the thorn |
The butterfly ______ after it was saved by the little girl.
| A．flied away | B．still died |
| C．changed into a fairy | D．was more beautiful than before |
The only thing that the little girl wanted was________.
| A．to be rich | B．to have her own parents |
| C．to have a lot of friends | D．happiness |
The neighbors all gathered around the old happy woman when she was dying,because ______.
| A．they loved this woman deeply and they didn’t wanted her to die |
| B．the woman had lots of money to be shared as soon as she died |
| C．they wanted to know the secret of her lifetime happiness |
| D．they wanted to pray for her after her death |
Even if you are a good high-jumper, you can jump only about seven feet off the ground. You cannot jump any higher because the earth pulls you hard. The pull of the earth is called gravity.
You can easily find out the pull of the earth. If you weigh yourself, you will know how much gravity is pulling you.
Since there is gravity, water runs down hill. When you throw a ball into the air, it falls back down. Because of gravity, you do not fall off the earth as it whirls (旋转) around.
Then, can we get away from the earth and go far out into space? Now you can do it, because spaceships have been invented. Then spaceship will go so fast that it can escape (逃出) the earth’s gravity and carry you into space.In this passage, the word “gravity” means_______.
| A．the pull of everything. | B．the force of attraction(吸引) among objects. |
| C．the force which attracts objects towards the centre of the earth | |
| D．the force which attracts the earth towards the sun. |
When you slip(滑) you always fall to the ground because________
| A．the earth always turns round. | B．the earth has gravity |
| C．the earth’s gravity is greater than your weight. | D．you are careless. |
Gravity is strong that_______
| A．it can throw a ball into the air. | B．it makes you jump only seven feet. |
| C．it can let you fly away from the earth. | D．it can keep everything on earth. |
Because of gravity,________
| A．water flows everything. | B．we can go everywhere by ship. |
| C．water always flows downwards. | D．fish can live in water. |
We can get away from the earth by spaceship because________
| A．the spaceship goes very fast. | B．the earth can’t pull the spaceship. |
| C．the spaceship has a strong force. | D．the spaceship can jump higher than others. |