Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He stopped by the fence in front of the house where he lived with his aunt Polly. He looked at it, and all joy left him. The fence was long and high. He put the brush into the whitewash and moved it along the top of the fence. He repeated the operation. He felt he could not continue and sat down.
He knew that his friends would arrive soon with all kinds of interesting plans for the day. They would walk past him and laugh. They would make jokes about his having to work on a beautiful summer Saturday. The thought burned him like fire.
He put his hand into his pockets and took out all that he owned. Perhaps he could find something to pay someone to do the whitewashing for him. But there was nothing of value in his pockets. So he put the bits of toys back into his pockets and gave up the idea.
At this dark and hopeless moment, a wonderful idea came to him. It filled his mind with a great, bright light. Calmly he picked up the brush and started again to whitewash.
While Tom was working, Ben Rogers appeared. Ben was eating an apple as he walked along the street. When he came close to Tom, he stopped.
Tom went on whitewashing. He did not look at Ben. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hello! I’m going swimming, but you can’t go, can you?”
No answer. Tom moved his brush carefully along the fence and looked at the result with the eye of an artist. Ben came nearer. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he kept on working.
Ben said, “Hello, old fellow, you’ve got to work, hey?”
Tom turned suddenly and said, “Why, it’s you, Ben! I wasn’t noticing.”
“I’m going swimming. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work. You seem to like it very much.”
“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”
Ben stopped eating his apple. Tom moved his brush back and forth, stepped back to look at the result, added a touch here and there, and stepped back again. Ben watched every move and got more and more interested. Soon he said,
“Tom, let me whitewash a little.”
Tom thought for a moment, was about to agree; but he changed his mind.
“No, no, it won’t do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly wants this fence to be perfect. It has got to be done very carefully. I don’t think there is one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it well enough.”
“No — is that so? Oh come, let me just try. Only just a little.”
“Ben, I’d like to, but if it isn’t done right, I’m afraid Aunt Polly ...”
“Oh, I’ll be careful. Now let me try. I’ll give you half of my apple.”
“Well, here — No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afraid ...”
“I’ll give you all of it.”
Tom gave up the brush with unwillingness on his face, but joy in his heart. And while Ben worked at the fence in the hot sun, Tom sat under a tree, eating the apple, and planning how to get more help. There were enough boys. Each one came to laugh, but remained to whitewash. And when the middle of the afternoon came, Tom had won many treasures. The fence had been whitewashed three times. If he hadn’t run out of whitewash, Tom would have owned everything belonging to his friends.
He had discovered a great law of human action that in order to make a man or a boy want a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to get.Why did Tom take all his bits of toys out of his pockets?
| A．Because he was tired and wanted to play with his toys. |
| B．Because he wanted to exchange his toys with his friends. |
| C．Because he wanted to give his toys to his friends. |
| D．Because he wanted to know if he could buy help with his toys. |
Tom was about to agree to let Ben whitewash when he changed his mind because ______.
| A．Tom wanted to do the whitewashing himself |
| B．Tom planned to make Ben give up his apple first |
| C．Tom was unwilling to let Ben do the whitewashing |
| D．Tom was afraid Ben couldn’t do the whitewashing well. |
We can learn from the passage that ______.
| A．Tom was fond of whitewashing the fence |
| B．Tom had a lot of friends who were ready to help him |
| C．Tom managed to let other boys do the whitewashing for him |
| D．Tom was better at whitewashing the fence than others |
Which of the following is the most suitable title for this passage?
| A．The Happy Whitewasher |
| B．Tom And His Fellows |
| C．Whitewashing A Fence |
| D．How To Make Things Difficult To Get |
A “blogger” is a person who writes on an Internet computer Web site called a “blog”. The word “blog” is a short way of saying Web log, or personal Web site. Anyone can start a blog, and they can write about anything they like.
There are millions of blogs on the Internet today. They provide news, information and ideas in many people who read them. They contain links to other Web sites. And they provide a place for people to write about their ideas and react to the ideas of others.
A research company called Perscus has studied more than 300 Web logs. It says that blogs are most popular with teenage girls. They use them to let their friends know what is happening in their lives. The study also says that more than 100,000 bloggers stopped taking part in the activity after a year.
However, some people develop serious blogs to present political and other ideas. For example, the Republican and Democratic parties in the southern state of Kentucky recently started their own blogs. And American companies are beginning to use blogs to advertise their products.
At the same time, some long-standing blogs have ended last week, blogging leader Dave Winer closed his free blog service weblogs. com. He says the site became too costly to continue. He started the blog four years ago. And thousands of people had written on it. They are now upset because they did not know that the site was closing.
One blog that is still going strong is called Rebecca’s Pocket. Rebecca Blood created the Website in 1999. She wrote about the history of blogs on the site. That article led to a book called “The Weblog Handbook”. It has been translated into four languages so far.
Ms. Blood says Rebecca’s Pocket gets about 30,000 visitors a month. She writes about anything and everything—politics, culture and movies. She recently provided medical advice. And she wrote about how to prevent people from stealing money from on-line bank accounts.The text is mainly written to .
| A．introduce an Internet computer Web site called “blog” |
| B．introduce a short way of saying Web log |
| C．tell readers about blogs |
| D．tell readers how to write blogs |
From the text we can learn that blogs cover almost everything except.
| A．different ideas | B．medical advice |
| C．advertisements | D．account passwords |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the text?
| A．Politicians don’t use blogs at all |
| B．A lot of bloggers no longer write or read blogs |
| C．Those who like to use blogs are mostly teenage girls. |
| D．Dave Winer closed his “weblogs.com” because of money shortage. |
The reason why Rebecca’s Pocket is still going strong is that.
| A．it was created by a woman. |
| B．it is about the history of blogs. |
| C．it provides useful information and advice |
| D．it has editions in at least four different languages |
Cancer researchers urged people on Wednesday to take more vitamin D to lower risk of cancer， saying studies showed a clear link. "Our suggestion is for people to increase their intake， through diet or a vitamin supplement，" Dr. Cedric Garland said in a telephone interview.
Garland's research team reviewed 63 studies，including several large long-term ones，on the relationship between vitamin D and certain types of cancer worldwide between 1966 and 2004. "There's nothing that has this ability to prevent cancer，" he said， urging governments and public health officials to do more to fortify foods with vitamin D. Garland is part of a University of California at San Diego Moors Cancer Center team that published its findings this week online in the American Journal of Public Health.
Vitamin D is found in milk，as well as in some fortified orange juice，yogurt and cheeses，usually at around 100 international units （IU） a serving. People might want to consider a vitamin supplement to raise their intake to 1000 IUs per day， Garland said，adding that it was well within the safety guidelines established by the National Academy of Sciences.
The authors said that taking more vitamin D could be especially important for people living in northern areas，which receive less vitamin D from sunshine.
African Americans，who don't produce as much of the vitamin because of their skin color， could also benefit significantly from a higher intake， the authors said.Which of the following can not help people get more Vitamin D？
| A．Have some sunshine | B．Have more meat |
| C．Have more fortified cheese | D．Have a vitamin supplement |
Who can Garland probably be？
| A．A health researcher | B．A doctor |
| C．A scientist | D．A public health official |
Which of the following food can lower people‘s chance of getting cancer？
| A．Milk | B．Fortified orange juice |
| C．Fortified yogurt | D．All of the above |
People from which area should take more Vitamin D according to the passage？
| A．Asian people | B．African people |
| C．American people | D．European people |
Once upon a time，the animals decided that they must do something heroic to meet the problems of” a new world”．So they organized a training school．
They adopted an activity curriculum（课程） consisting of running，climbing，swimming and flying．To make it easier to manage the curriculum，all the animals took all the subjects．
The duck was excellent in swimming，in fact，better than his instructor，but he made only passing grades in flying and was very poor in running．Since he was slow in running，he had to stay after school and also drop swimming in order to practice running．This was kept up until his webbed(脚蹼) feet were badly worn and he was only average in swimming．But average was acceptable in school，so nobody worried about that except the duck．
The rabbit started at the top of the class in running，but had a nervous breakdown because of so much make-up work in swimming．
The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of from the treetop down．He also developed a “Charlie horse” and then got a C in climbing and a D in running．
The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely．In the climbing class he beat all the others to the top of the tree，but insisted on using his own way to get there．
At the end of the year，an abnormal eel that could swim very well，and also run，climb and fly a little，had the highest average and was the one who gave a good-bye speech．
The prairie dogs stayed out of the school because the administration would not add digging to the curriculum．Why was the duck kept after school according to the passage? Because ________．
| A．he only passed in flying |
| B．he ran very slowly |
| C．he wasn’t good at swimming |
| D．he had to practice climbing |
We can learn from the passage that ________．
| A．an abnormal eel’s average score is the highest in all subjects |
| B．the squirrel met frustration before practicing climbing |
| C．the rabbit liked to make up in water so she failed at last |
| D．in fact，the duck behaved better than any other animal in class |
What’s the reason that the eagle was disciplined?
| A．He was a problem child． |
| B．He beat all to become the best． |
| C．He didn’t do as teachers taught． |
| D．He decided to climb to the top of the tree． |
What activity curriculums were not offered in this training school?
| A．Running． | B．Swimming． | C．Flying． | D．Digging． |
In a new study about the way kids learn math in elementary school, Beilock and Levine found a surprising relationship between what female teachers think and what female students learn: If a female teacher is uncomfortable with her own math skills, then her female students are more likely to believe that boys are better than girls at math.
“If these girls keep getting math-anxious female teachers in later grades, it may create a snowball effect on their math achievement,” Levine told Science News. In other words, girls may end up learning math anxiety from their teachers. The study suggests that if these girls grow up believing that boys are better at math than girls are, then these girls may not do as well as they would have if they were more confident.
The researchers also gave the students tests to tell whether the students believed that a math superstar had to be a boy. Then the researchers turned to the teachers: To find out which teachers were anxious about math, the researchers asked the teachers how they felt at times when they came across math, such as when reading a sales receipt. A teacher who got nervous looking at the numbers on a sales receipt, for example, was probably anxious about math.
Boys, on average, were unaffected by a teacher’s anxiety. On average, girls with math-anxious teachers scored lower on the end-of-the-year math tests than other girls in the study did. Plus, on the test showing whether someone thought a math superstar had to be a boy, 20 girls showed feeling that boys would be better at math — and all of these girls had been taught by female teachers who had math anxiety.
According to surveys done before this one, college students who want to become elementary school teachers have the highest levels of anxiety about math. Plus, nine of every 10 elementary teachers are women, Levine said.Which of the followings is NOT the study mentioned in the passage?
| A．Girls may be bad at math because of their female teachers’ anxiety. |
| B．Most students tend to believe that a math superstar has to be a boy. |
| C．What kind of teachers is more likely to have math anxiety. |
| D．On average boys are also affected by a teacher’s anxiety. |
What can you infer from the second paragraph?
| A．Girls can do as well as boys if they are confident. |
| B．Girls are born much weaker than many boys. |
| C．Boys are stronger and better in math than girls. |
| D．Girls who are bad at math can do other things better. |
According to the last paragraph, Levine’s imply attitude to the math teaching in elementary schools is _______.
| A．hopeful | B．disappointed | C．worried | D．content |
I told my friend Graham that I often cycle the two miles from my house to the town centre but unfortunately there is a big hill on the route. He replied, "You mean fortunately." He explained that I should be glad of the extra exercise that the hill provided.
My attitude to the hill has now changed. I used to grumble as I approached it but now I tell myself the following. This hill will exercise my heart and lungs. It will help me to lose weight and get fit. It will mean that I live longer. This hill is my friend. Finally as I wend my way up the incline I console myself with the thought of all those silly people who pay money to go to a gym and sit on stationery exercise bicycles when I can get the same value for free. I have a smug smile of satisfaction as I reach the top of the hill.
Problems are there to be faced and overcome. Helen Keller was the first deaf and blind person to gain a University degree. Her activism and writing proved inspirational. She wrote, "Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved."
One of the main determinants of success in life is our attitude towards adversity. From time to time we all face hardships, problems, accidents, afflictions and difficulties. Some are of our making but many confront us through no fault of our own. Whilst we cannot choose the adversity we can choose our attitude towards it.
The biographies of great people are littered with examples of how they took these kinds of steps to overcome the difficulties they faced. The common thread is that they did not become defeatist or depressed. They chose their attitude. They chose to be positive. They took on the challenge. They won.Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Attitude makes difference |
| B．Well begun is half done. |
| C．The early bird gets the worm. |
| D．Easier said than done. |
From Helen Keller’s example we can infer that__________.
| A．Great people are born to be great and successful |
| B．Life is hard and difficult so we have to give up |
| C．We cannot achieve anything with an easy life |
| D．Practice makes people successful and powerful |
What do you think the author is most likely to suggest if he/she continues to write?
| A．Some examples of our daily life. |
| B．His stories of overcoming difficulties. |
| C．Stories of some unlucky great people. |
| D．Some examples of his friend Graham. |
The underlined word “adversity ” in the fourth paragraph probably NOT refers to ______.
| A．problems | B．difficulties | C．hardships | D．advertisements |