In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.
My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.
Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopted and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.
You can imagine how fully occupied I became, raising four boys under the age of 8. Our home was a complete zoo---a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each semester.
The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to quit, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.
In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree！
I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the middle of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams. When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be __________.
| A．a writer | B．a teacher |
| C．a judge | D．a doctor |
Why did the author quit school in her second year of college?
| A．She wanted to study by herself. |
| B．She fell in love and got married. |
| C．She suffered from a serious illness. |
| D．She decided to look after her grandma. |
What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?
| A．She was busy yet happy with her family life. |
| B．She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons. |
| C．She wanted to remain a full-time housewife. |
| D．She was too confused to make a correct choice. |
What does the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?
| A．Failure is the mother of success. |
| B．Little by little, one goes far. |
| C．Every coin has two sides. |
| D．Well begun, half done. |
Which of the following can best describe the author?
| A．Caring and determined. |
| B．Honest and responsible. |
| C．Ambitious and sensitive. |
| D．Innocent and single-minded. |
The Man of Many Secrets — Harry Houdini — was one of the greatest American entertainers in the theater this century. He was a man famous for his escapes — from prison cells, from wooden boxes floating in rivers, from locked tanks full of water. He appeared in theaters all over Europe and America. Crowds came to see the great Houdini and his “magic” tricks.
Of course, his secret was not magic, or supernatural powers. It was simply strength. He had the ability to move his toes as well as he moved his fingers. He could move his body into almost any position he wanted.
Houdini started working in the entertainment world when he was 17, in 1891. He and his brother Theo performed card tricks in club in New York. They called themselves the Houdini Brothers. When Harry married in 1894, he and his wife Bess worked together as magician and assistant. But for a long time they were not very successful. Then Harry performed his first prison escape, in Chicago in 1898. Harry persuaded a detective to let him try to escape from the prison, and he invited the local newspapermen to watch.
It was the publicity(宣传) that came from this that started Harry Houdini’s success. Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs and toes trained to escape ankle chins. But his biggest secret was how he unlocked the prison doors. Every time he went into the prison cell, Bess gave him a kiss for good luck — and a small skeleton key, which is a key that fits many locks, pass quickly from her mouth to his.
Harry used these prison escapes to build his fame. He arranged to escape from the local prison of every town he visited. In the afternoon, the people of the town would read about it in their local newspapers, and in the evening every seat in the local theater would be full. What was the result? World-wild fame, and a name remembered today.According to the passage, Houdini’s success in prison escapes depends on _______.
| A．his special tricks and supernatural power | B．his unusual ability and a skeleton key |
| C．his magic tricks and supernatural powers | D．his wisdom and magic tricks |
In the fourth paragraph, the underlined word “this” refers to _______.
| A．his first prison escape | B．the year 1898 |
| C．the publicity | D．Harry Houdini’s success |
It can be inferred from the passage that Houdini became famous _______.
| A．in 1894 | B．before he married |
| C．at the age of 17 | D．when he was about 24 |
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
| A．A Skeleton Key | B．A Man of Many Secrets |
| C．World-wild Fame | D．Great Escape |
“You’ll have to take care of the baby today,” a woman told her husband . “ I’m not feeling well.”
“Then you must stay in bed and rest, dear. “ her husband said. “I’ll be pleased to look after our baby. “
“Thank you. I’ll have a quiet day and I’ll soon get better. “ his wife told him.
“Shall I do the shopping for you as well?” her husband asked.
She was very pleased and said, “That will help me very much. I’ll give you a list of things to buy. “
She wrote out the list and gave it to him.
“You can get all these things at the supermarket,” she said.
“You can put the baby in the shopping cart, then you won’t have to leave him outside.”
The man took the baby to the supermarket and put him in the shopping cart. Then he pushed the shopping cart along the rows of things to buy and looked for those that were on his list.
At first all was well, but then the baby began to cry.
Then he started to scream.
And scream!
And SCREAM!
“Keep calm ,George, ” the man said. “Don’t get excited. Don’t shout, George. Don’t lose your temper, George.”
A woman in the supermarket heard him saying these things. She walked up to him.
“I think you are wonderful ,”she said. “You are so patient with your little George. ”
“Madam, ”" the man said, “I’m George. He’s Edward.” Why did the man take care of the baby?
| A．it was his turn. | B．His wife was not well. |
| C．His wife was not at home. | D．He always looked after it. |
Why did the man take the baby to the supermarket?
| A．He had to go shopping. |
| B．He wanted to show the baby to his friend. |
| C．He wanted to give the baby a ride in a shopping cart. |
| D．The baby liked going to the supermarket. |
What did the baby do in the supermarket?
| A．pushed the shopping cart | B．lost its temper |
| C．made a lot of noise | D．helped his father |
Finally we can infer from the story that_____ .
| A．the man was very calm when the baby was crying |
| B．the woman was very pleased to see the man |
| C．the woman mistook George for the baby, while in fact the man was named George |
| D．the man was very busy in shopping, but he couldn’t find all the goods on the list |
Americans have contributed (做贡献) to many art forms, and jazz, a type of music, is one of the art forms started in the United States. Black Americans, who sang and played the music of their homeland, created jazz.
Jazz is a mixture of the music of Africa, the work songs the slaves sang, and religious(宗教) music. Improvisation (即兴表演) is an important part of jazz. This is why a jazz song sounds a little different each time it is played.
Jazz bands formed in the late 1800s. They played in bars and clubs in many towns and cities of the South, especially New Orleans. New Orleans is an international seaport, and people from all over the world come to New Orleans to hear jazz.
Jazz became more and more popular. By the 1920s, jazz was popular all over the United States. By the 1940s, you could hear jazz not only in clubs and bars, but in concert halls as well. Today, people from all over the world play jazz. Jazz musicians from the United States, Asia, Africa, South America, and Europe meet and share their music at festivals on every continent. In this way, jazz continues to grow and change. What can be the best title of the passage?
| A．American Art Forms | B．The Development of Jazz |
| C．The Music of Black Americans | D．The Birthplace of Jazz |
From the text we can learn that ______.
| A．New Orleans is the place where jazz was very popular |
| B．the American people are all jazz lovers |
| C．jazz is merrily sung by black people when working |
| D．jazz may become less popular as time goes on |
It took about______ years to make jazz popular in the United States.
| A．200 | B．120 | C．80 | D．40 |
I’m sure you know the song “Happy Birthday”. But do you know who wrote the song and for whom it was written?
The retired professor, Archibald A. Hill in Lucasville, USA could tell us the story. Ninety-seven years ago, two of Mr. Archibald Hill’s aunts, Miss Patty Hill and Miss Mildred Hill were asked to write some songs for a book called “Song Storied for the Sunday Morning”. Miss Patty Hill and Miss Mildred Hill were both kindergarten teachers then. They loved children very much and wrote many beautiful songs for the book. One of them was the famous “Good Morning to You.” The song said, “Good morning to you, good morning to you, children, good morning to all.” This song was very popular at that time among kindergarten children. But not many grown-ups knew it. A few years later little Archibald was born. As his aunt, Miss Patty Hill sang the song “Happy Birthday” to the melody(曲调) of “Good Morning to you” to her little nephew(侄子). She sang the song like this: Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, Archie! Happy birthday to you!
Miss Patty Hill and her sister had never expected that this song would become so popular, but it really did. People all over the world like the song because of its simplicity in tune(曲调简单) and friendliness in words.Archibald A. Hill was _______.
A. English B. American C. Russian D. Australian Professor Archibald A. Hill was Miss Mildred Hill’s ______.
A. son B. student C. brother D. nephewThe song “Happy Birthday” has a history of _______ years.
| A．97 | B．more than 90 | C．less than 90 | D．about 90 |
The sentence “it really did” means _______.
| A．The song really became popular |
| B．Their wish would really come true |
| C．People all over the world like to listen to the song |
| D．Yes, but the song didn’t become popular |
The Internet has become part of teenagers’ life.
A news report on 3,375 students aged from 10 to 18 in seven Chinese cities found that 38 per cent of them believe they use the Internet often.
While most of them get useful information and use the Internet to help in their studies, some are not using it in a good way. Many are playing online games too much. A few even visit Web sites they should not look at. A middle school teacher from Beijing warns that bad things can happen if young people spend too much time on the Internet. She had a student who used to be good at school. But then he started visiting sex Web sites. He went mad, cheated a girl and was taken away by the police.
In order to help young people use the Internet in a good way, a textbook on good Internet behavior has started to be used in some Shanghai middle schools this term. The book uses real examples to teach students all about good ways of using the Internet. The book gives useful advice such as it’s good to read news or find helpful information to study.
Some students also make online friends. But if you are meeting a friend offline, make sure your parents know. Teachers and parents all think the book is a very good idea. This teacher said the book will be a guide for teens using the Internet. She believes it will keep students away from bad sites. “Many students are using the Internet without guidance from their parents,” she said. “The book will teach students how to be a good person in the online world.”The third paragraph mainly tells us that ________.
| A．some students are not using the Internet correctly |
| B．all students in Beijing use the Internet to help their school work |
| C．a teacher in Beijing is worried about her students |
| D．some students visit sex Web sites |
The textbook mainly tells us ________.
| A．why we should use the Internet | B．not to visit sex Web sites |
| C．how to use the Internet correctly | D．how to get help from others |
The writer advises the readers to ________.
| A．let their parents know before visiting their online friends |
| B．not to make friends online |
| C．read the textbook carefully |
| D．only read news on the Internet |
From this passage we know that ________.
| A．more and more students have given up visiting bad Web sites |
| B．schools and teachers begin to pay attention to students’ use of the Internet |
| C．no more homework will be given in Shanghai |
| D．less and less information can be found on line |