Su Su is a 16-year-old Beijinger. She studies at the High School Affiliated to Renmin University. She has just published(发表) her first book, The Enigma of the Universe.
The Enigma of the Universe tells a story of a girl called April. One day she meets an alien(外星人) boy named Kaka. Kaka takes April on a journey into the universe(宇宙). Later April finds out a big secret about Kaka...
What’s special about this book? It's a book written in both Chinese and English.
Su wrote the book when she was 14 years old. She was influenced(影响) by the book Sophie’s World and the movie The Truman Show.Sophie is a girl who is interested in philosophy(哲学).Truman’s life is run by television.
These stories gave Su an idea for her own book. She decided to write it in English. “My English teacher asked us to write something,” says Su, “I thought I’d write about my idea.”
Su spent a whole summer vacation writing the story. “Sometimes I had to stop because I couldn’t find the right words,” says Su. “I used the dictionary all the time.”
After finishing the English novel, Su had another idea. She decided to turn it into Chinese. The job took her just a few days. “It was easy because Chinese is my mother language ,” she says.
Su says her story is “a mixture of philosophy and detective (侦探) story and science fiction”. “My classmates and I have turned it into a DV play,” says Su. “I wrote the play and I played April. We will show it in our school soon!”What did Su Su write？
| A．Harry Potter. | B．Sophie’s World. |
| C．The Truman Show. | D．The Enigma of the Universe. |
In Which language did Su Su write this book?
| A．Chinese. | B．English. |
| C．French . | D．Both Chinese and English. |
How did Su Su write the book?
| A．She wrote it in Chinese first and then turned it into English. |
| B．She wrote it in English first and then turned it into Chinese. |
| C．She wrote it half in Chinese first and then wrote it half in English. |
| D．She wrote it half in English first and then wrote it half in Chinese. |
What does her book talk about?
| A．It talks about how to learn English well. |
| B．It is a mixture of philosophy and detective story and science fiction. |
| C．It talks about how to learn English grammar well. |
| D．It is a mixture of love. |
What’s the best title of this passage?
| A．A clever girl | B．An interesting book |
| C．Su Su and her first book | D．A young writer |
Researchers found that people become happier and experience less worry after they reach the age of fifty. In fact, they say by the age of eighty-five, people are happier with their life than they were when they were eighteen years old.
Arthur Stone in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at Stony Brook University in New York led the study. His team found that levels of stress were highest among adults between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. The findings showed that stress levels dropped sharply after people reached their fifties. Happiness was highest among the youngest adults and those in their early seventies. The people least likely to report feeling negative emotions were those in their seventies and eighties.
The findings appeared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers say they do not know why happiness increases as people get older. One theory is that, as people grow older, they grow more thankful for what they have and have better control of their emotions. They also spend less time thinking about bad experiences.
The researchers considered possible influences like having young children, being unemployed or being single. But they found that influences like these did not affect the levels of happiness and well-being related to age.
The study also showed that men and women have similar emotional patterns as they grow older. However, women at all ages reported more sadness, stress and worry than men.What is the best title of the passage?
| A．The older a person is, the more stressed he feels. |
| B．The more lighthearted a person is, the happier he is. |
| C．The older a person is, the more clever he grows. |
| D．The older a person is, the happier he grows. |
We can learn from the research that _________.
| A．only when people get older, will they feel happier |
| B．older people usually have no worries in their life |
| C．stress levels among the youngest are the highest of all |
| D．older people are more likely to be thankful in life |
According to the researchers, what is probably the reason why people grow happier when they get older?
| A．When people get older, they can’t remember bad experiences. |
| B．When people get older, they have no young children to care about. |
| C．When people get older, they learn to adjust their feelings. |
| D．When people get older, they don’t care about their feelings. |
What do you think the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is?
| A．A Gallup organization. |
| B．A popular science magazine. |
| C．A university in New York. |
| D．A research institution |
What would the writer probably deal with in next paragraph?
| A．Advice to the young people on how to keep happy. |
| B．Advice to the old people on how to live longer. |
| C．Why women at all ages are more sad, stressed and worried. |
| D．Why people will grow happier with their ages. |
Lynn is the publisher of Indiana Living Green magazine, a local Indiana-based publication focusing on all issues related to leading a sustainable lifestyle. Her knowledge, passion and unwavering dedication to this cause are both inspiring and admirable and are the reasons I recommend her for the Heart of Green Local Hero.
Lynn's interest in sustainable living has expanded over the years from simple recycling and wildlife gardening to encouraging others to appreciate nature and do what each can to care for the environment.
Lynn has been instrumental in bringing her green consciousness to Indiana by way of Indiana Living Green magazine over the past two years. Indiana Living Green is the only local publication solely focused on green living and sustainability.
In addition to her role as publisher of Indiana Living Green magazine, Lynn is also a Habitat Steward Host for National Wildlife Federation, editor of Hoosier Organic Gardener, the newsletter of the Indiana Organic Gardeners Association, and a member of Garden Writers Association.
Lynn Jenkins deserves to be publicly recognized for all that she is and all that she has done and continues to do to educate and empower each of us to improve our individual lives, communities and our Earth. Which of the following is NOT true of Lynn Jenkins?
| A．She is the publisher of the magazine Indiana Living Green. |
| B．She won the award the Heart of Green Local Hero. |
| C．She is a member of Garden Writers Association. |
| D．She encourages people to love and protect nature. |
The underlined word in the third paragraph probably means ________.
| A．mainly | B．simply | C．earnestly | D．seriously |
What is the purpose of the writing?
| A．To recommend Lynn Jenkins for the Heart of Green Local Hero. |
| B．To call on readers to protect the environment and live green. |
| C．To introduce the readers to the Heart of Green Local Hero. |
| D．To advertise for Indiana Living Green and its publisher. |
Three Boys and a Dad
Brad closed the door slowly as Sue left home to visit her mother. Expecting a whole day to relax, he was thinking whether to read the newspaper or watch his favourite TV talk show on his first day off in months. “This will be like a walk in the park,” he’d told his wife. “I’ll look after the kids, and you can go visit your mom.”
Things started well, but just after eight o’clock, his three little “good kids”—Mike, Randy, and Alex—came down the stairs in their night clothes and shouted “breakfast, daddy.” Brad realized his newspaper would have to wait for a few seconds.
Life became worse after breakfast. Mike wore Randy’s underwear on his head. Randy locked himself in the bathroom, while Alex shouted again because he was going to wet his pants. Nobody could find clean socks, although they were before their very eyes. Someone named “Not Me” had spilled a whole glass of orange juice into the basket of clean clothes. Brad knew the talk show had already started.
By ten o’clock, things were out of control. Alex was wondering why the fish in the jar refused his bread and butter. Mike was trying to show off his talent by decorating the kitchen wall with his colour pencils. Randy, thankfully, appeared to be reading quietly in the family room, but closer examination showed that he was eating apple jam straight from the bottle with his hands. Brad realized that the talk show was over and reading would be impossible.
At exactly11:17, Brad called the daycare centre (日托所). “I suddenly have to go into work and my wife’s away. Can I bring the boys over in a few minutes? ” The answer was obviously “yes” because Brad was smiling.When his wife left home, Brad expected to __________.
| A．go out for a walk in the park |
| B．watch TV talk show with his children |
| C．read the newspaper to his children |
| D．enjoy his first day off work |
Which of the following did Randy do?
| A．Drew on the wall. | B．Read in a room . | C．Fed the fish. | D．Ate apple jam. |
Who is “Not Me”(underlined in Para.3)?
| A．One of the family’s neighbor |
| B．One of the three kids |
| C．The father |
| D．The text doesn’t mention |
This text is developed _________.
| A．by space | B．by comparison | C．by time | D．by process |
I live in Hollywood. You may think people in such an attractive, fun-filled place are happier than others. If so, you have some mistaken ideas about the nature of happiness.
Many intelligent people still equate happiness with fun. The truth is that fun and happiness have little or nothing in common. Fun is what we experience during an act. Happiness is what we experience after an act. It is a deeper, more long-lasting emotion. Going to an amusement park or ball game, watching a movie or television, are fun activities that help us relax, temporarily forget our problems and maybe even laugh. But they do not bring happiness, because their positive effects end when the fun ends.
I have often thought that if Hollywood stars have a role to play, it is to teach us that happiness has nothing to do with fun. These rich, beautiful individuals have constant access to exciting parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, everything that spells “happiness”. But in memoir(回忆录) after memoir, celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all their fun: depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages, troubled children, and long-time loneliness.
The way people hold on to the belief that a fun-filled, pain-free life equates happiness actually decreases their chances of ever attaining real happiness. If fun and pleasure are equated with happiness, then pain must be equated with unhappiness. But, in fact, the opposite is true: More times than not, things that lead to happiness involve some pain.
As a result, many people avoid the very efforts that are the source of true happiness. They fear the pain inevitably brought by such things as marriage, raising children, professional achievement, religious commitment, charitable work and self-improvement.According to the passage, “fun activities” ____________.
| A．are the things we do before we find happiness |
| B．may help us relax and forget our problems sometimes |
| C．will lead us to the true happiness |
| D．could provide long-last positive effects |
In the author’s opinion, those Hollywood stars ____________.
| A．possess happiness because they are rich and famous |
| B．experience almost all kinds of happy things |
| C．tell us happiness isn’t equal to fun using their own stories |
| D．have to suffer a lot before they become successful |
It is difficult for people to find real happiness because ____________.
| A．they believe happiness is the fun life without pain |
| B．they find pain equals unhappiness |
| C．they fear to lose what they already have in life |
| D．They are afraid all their efforts were in vain |
The main purpose of the text is to ____________.
| A．describe the difference between happiness and fun |
| B．show the true meaning of happiness |
| C．encourage people to pursue fun activities |
| D．advise people to find their real life |
“I THIRST”
Each day water-related diseases kill 3,900 of the world’s children.
Across the world, 1.1 billion people have no access to clean drinking water. More than 2.6 billion people lack basic sanitation (卫生设备).
The combination proves deadly. Each year, diseases related to inadequate water and sanitation kill between 2 and 5 million people and cause an estimated 80 percent of all sicknesses in the developing world. Safe drinking water is a precondition for health and the fight against child death rate, inequality between men and women, and poverty.
Consider these facts:
* The average distance that women in Africa and Asia walk to collect water is 6 kilometres.
* Only 58 percent of children in sub-Sharan Africa are drinking safe water, and only 37 percent of children in South Asia have access to even a basic toilet.
* Each year in India alone, 73 million working days are lost to water-borne diseases.
Here are three ways you can help:
1) Write Congress
Current U.S. foreign aid for drinking water and sanitation budgets only one dollar per year per American citizen. Few members of Congress have ever received a letter from voters about clean drinking water abroad.
2) Sponsor a project with a faith-based organization
Many U.S. religious groups already sponsor water and sanitation projects, working with partner organizations can make safe water a reality for thousands of people.
3) Support nonprofit water organizations
Numerous U.S. based nonprofits work skillfully abroad in community led projects related to drinking water and sanitation. Like the sample of non-profits noted as follows, some organizations are large, others small-scale, some operate world-wide, others are devoted to certain areas in Africa, Asia, Latin America. Support them generously.The three facts presented in the passage are used to illustrate that ______.
| A．poverty can result in water-borne diseases |
| B．people have no access to clean drinking water |
| C．women’s rights are denied in some developing countries |
| D．safe drinking water should be a primary concern |
The intended readers of the passage are _______.
| A．Americans | B．overseas sponsors |
| C．Congressmen | D．U.S. based water organizations |
The main purpose of the passage is to call on people to ______.
| A．get rid of water-related diseases in developing countries |
| B．donate money to people short of water through religious groups |
| C．fight against the worldwide water shortage and sanitation problem |
| D．take joint action in support of some nonprofit water organizations |