Last week my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home in Tucson, Arizona. He moved there a few years ago, and I was eager to see his new place and meet his friends.
My earliest memories of my father are a tall, handsome, successful man devoted to his work and his family, but uncomfortable with his children. As a child I loved him. He seemed unhappy with me unless I got straight A’s and unhappy with my boyfriends if their fathers were not as “successful” as he was. Whenever I went out with him on weekends, I used to struggle to think up things to say, feeling on guard.
On the first day of my visit, we went out with one of my father’s friends for lunch at an outdoor café. We walked along that afternoon, did some shopping, ate on the street table, and laughed over my son’s funny facial expressions. Gone was my father’s critical (挑剔的) air and strict rules. Who was this person I knew as my father, who seemed so friendly and interesting to be around? What had held him back before?
The next day dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closer to him at that moment. After so many years, I’m at last seeing another side of my father. And in so doing, I’m delighted with my new friend. My dad, in his new home in Arizona, is back to me from where he was. Why did the author feel bitter about her father as a young adult?
| A．He was silent most of the time. |
| B．He was too proud of himself. |
| C．He did not love his children. |
| D．He expected too much of her. |
When the author went out with her father on weekend, she would feel .
| A．nervous |
| B．sorry |
| C．tired |
| D．safe |
What does the author think of her father after her visit to Tucson?
| A．More critical. |
| B．More talkative |
| C．Gentle and friendly. |
| D．Strict and hard-working. |
The underlined words “my new friend” in the last paragraph refer to .
| A．the author’s son |
| B．the author’s father |
| C．the friend of the author’s father |
| D．the café owner |
Body and Food
Your body, which has close relations with the food you eat, is the most important thing you own, so it needs proper treatment and proper nourishment (营养).The old saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”is not as silly as some people think. The body needs fruit and vegetables because they contain vitamin C. Many people take extra vitamins in pill form, believing that these will make them healthy.
But a good diet is made up of nourishing food and this gives all the vitamins you need. The body doesn’t need or use extra vitamins, so why waste money on them?
In the modern western world, many people are too busy to bother about eating properly. They throw anything into their stomachs, eating hurriedly and carelessly. The list of illnesses caused or made worse by bad eating habits is frightening,“Your body has close relations with the food you eat.” It really means that ______.
| A．all kinds of food you eat can be made into your body |
| B．your body is made up of the food you eat |
| C．what you eat has great effect on your health |
| D．the more you eat, the fitter you will feel |
The old saying referred to in the passage tells us that ______.
| A．eating apples regularly does lots of good to our health |
| B．the apple is the best among all kinds of fruits |
| C．apples can take the place of doctors |
| D．an apple is a sure cure for illness |
In the modern western countries ______.
| A．people don‘t want to pay more attention to their eating |
| B．lots of people’s illnesses are caused or made worse by bad eating habits |
| C．people throw everything into their stomachs without chewing |
| D．people are only too busy to cook meals for themselves |
From the passage we can draw a conclusion that if we want to keep healthy,we should ______.
| A．only eat an apple a day |
| B．eat properly |
| C．take as many vitamin pills as possible |
| D．throw something into our stomachs slowly and carefully |
Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s.The sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 percent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people’s diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.
Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetable.
People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.
Today, we know that the little iron there is in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid.
It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.Why did many people eat spinach after they saw Popeye the Sailor?
| A．They thought spinach made them strong. |
| B．They thought Popeye was funny. |
| C．Spinach had a lot of iron. |
| D．People liked folic acid. |
A research group told people that spinach______.
| A．made Popeye strong |
| B．was a green vegetable |
| C．had less iron than other green vegetables |
| D．had more iron than other green vegetables |
The reading passage says that perhaps Popeye got his strength from______.
| A．iron | B．folic acid | C．spinach | D．exercise |
Folic acid is ______.
| A．something in food | B．a vegetable | C．dangerous | D．a certain kind of spinach |
Everyone wants some degree of success. Many people believe that they deserve success simply because they believe that they deserve success.
But there is a widespread belief that people who get on in life may be successful not because they deserve it, but because of influential (有影响的) friends or the right background. Sometimes it may just be a comforting and harmless belief, while at the other extreme it can be very destructive. I once met a brilliant young engineer who worked in a chemical plant. Because of her knowledge and experience, she should have been promoted to Production Manager. Instead, the job went to a man who was totally unsuited for the post. Everyone knew that he only got it because he was politically acceptable to his superiors (上司). This injustice discouraged the young engineer and many of her colleagues. It also meant that the factory was much less efficient than it could have been.
At the same time, we should not be pessimistic (悲观的). More and more the modern world depends on having people who are in the job because they are good enough, not just because their faces fit. There is a story of a factory owner who sent for an engineer to see to a machine which would not go. He examined it, then took out a hammer and tapped, once. The machine started up immediately. When he presented his bill, the owner protested, "This can't be right! $ 100 just for tapping a machine with a hammer?" The engineer wrote out a new bill: "For tapping a machine, $1; for knowing where to tap. $99."The engineer at the chemical plant was not promoted because _____.
| A．it was politically less good for the boss to accept her than the man |
| B．her boss did not think she had the fight qualifications for the job |
| C．the man who got the promotion was more experienced than she was |
| D．it is more difficult for a woman to get a promotion than for her male colleague |
The engineer who repaired the machine was right in charging $ 100 because____.
| A．he hit the machine to get it started again |
| B．the factory owner could not have repaired it himself |
| C．he was charging for his knowledge and expert skills |
| D．he was the only person who could find out what was wrong with it |
What can we learn about the author's attitude toward the widespread belief that "people get on in life may be successful not because they deserve it"?
| A．He quite agrees with it. |
| B．He doesn't express his opinion his opinion at it. |
| C．He completely disagrees with it. |
| D．He doesn't quite agree with it. |
According to the text, which of the following is NOT true?
| A．Having influential friends or right background seems helpful sometimes. |
| B．The engineer had good reason to overcharge the factory owner. |
| C．Not all those who are good in their jobs have the chance to be promoted. |
| D．Those who are good in their jobs are still largely needed by the modern society. |
A traveller was staying in an Egyptian village. One day, she held up her camera to take pictures of the children. Suddenly the young ones began to shout at her. The traveller's face turned red and she apologized to the head for what she was doing, and told him she had forgotten that people in some places believed a person would lose his soul(灵魂) if his picture was taken. She explained to him the operation of a camera for a long time. Several times the head tried to say something, but he couldn't. When she believed that the head didn't fear any longer, the traveller then let him speak. With a smile, he said, "The children were trying to tell you that you forgot to take off the lens(镜头) cap!" The children shouted when the traveller was taking pictures of them because _______.
| A．they didn't want to stop playing |
| B．the traveller forgot to take off the cap on her head |
| C．they didn't want to have their pictures taken |
| D．the traveller was not doing well with her camera |
The traveller explained how to use a camera to the head because _______.
| A．the head was very interested in her camera |
| B．the head wanted to learn to take pictures |
| C．she was afraid of the head |
| D．she wanted the head not to worry about what she was doing |
The traveller made an apology to the head because _______.
| A．she thought it was not right to take people's pictures without telling them beforehand(事先) |
| B．the children would lose their souls |
| C．she had stayed in the village too long |
| D．she didn't take a picture of the head first |
Which of the following is NOT right?
| A．The traveller knew something about people in some countries. |
| B．The children wouldn't mind if the traveller took pictures of them. |
| C．The head was afraid that the traveller's camera would hurt the children. |
| D．The traveller didn't understand why the children shouted. |
The United States economy has dipped into economic recession (经济衰退). This caused discomfort and hardship in every level of society; but for many of the nation’s poor, discomfort and hardship turned into misery (苦难).
An increase in homelessness is probably the worst result of a nation’s financial disaster. About 3 million Americans were homeless because of a lack of affordable housing. Experts suggest that a family should spend no more than 30 percent of its income on housing. In fact, in some families housing costs make up 50 percent or more. An unexpected event, such as losing work or illness, can quickly push a family into homelessness.
An article in Time magazine tells a story of one such family. A young couple and their three children rented a two-bedroom apartment for about $350 a month. They could hardly go on with the husband’s $920-a-month take-home pay; so when their rent was raised to $500 a month, they could no longer make ends meet.
Another woman was found dead on a street in Washington D.C., the capital, and she died at a bus-stop across the street from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
People become homeless for different reasons. Some may not be able to pay for housing, because they have lost their job and cannot find another place they can afford. Others have mental diseases, or are addicted to drugs or alcohol, many of whom do not live with their family. And what’s more, there are not enough centers for shelter as the government doesn’t pay enough attention to this social problem.
People are making efforts to solve the problem. However, it will not be easy, because it is a personal and economical problem as well as a social problem.The passage is mainly about __________ in the US.
| A．ways of solving economic problems |
| B．homeless people being taken good care of |
| C．different reasons for economic recession |
| D．economic recession leading to social problems |
In the passage the author supported his view by __________.
| A．presenting specific figures | B．giving examples |
| C．explaining in details | D．discussing different opinions |
One main result that economic recession has led to is __________
| A．an increase of living costs | B．more and more deaths |
| C．an increase of homeless people | D．less centers for poor people |
How many reasons why people become homeless are listed in the passage?
| A．2. | B．3. | C．4. | D．5. |