Still seeking a destination for your weekend break? There are some places which are probably a mere wall away from your college．
King’s Art Centre
A day at the Centre could mean a visit to an exhibition of the work of one of the most interesting contemporary artists on show anywhere．This weekend sees the opening of an exhibition of four local artists．
You could attend a class teaching you how to ‘learn from the masters’ or get more creative with paint – free of charge．
The Centre also runs two life drawing classes for which there is a small fee．
the Botanic Garden
The Garden has over 8,000 plant species; it holds the research and teaching collection of living plants for Cambridge University．
The multi-branched Torch Aloe here is impressive．The African plant produces red flowers above blue-green leaves, and is not one to miss．
Get to the display house to see Dionaea muscipula, a plant more commonly known as the Venus Flytrap that feeds on insects and other small animals．
The Garden is also a place for wildlife-enthusiasts．Look for grass snakes in the lake．A snake called ‘Hissing Sid’ is regularly seen lying in the heat of the warm sun．
Byron’s Pool
Many stories surround Lord Byron’s time as a student of Cambridge University．Arriving in 1805, he wrote a letter complaining that it was a place of “mess and drunkenness”．However, it seems as though Byron did manage to pass the time pleasantly enough．I’m not just talking about the pet bear he kept in his rooms．He spent a great deal of time walking in the village.
It is also said that on occasion Byron swam naked by moonlight in the lake, which is now known as Byron’s Pool．A couple of miles past Grantchester in the south Cambridgeshire countryside, the pool is surrounded by beautiful circular paths around the fields．The cries of invisible birds make the trip a lovely experience and on the way home you can drop into the village for afternoon tea．If you don’t trust me, then perhaps you’ll take it from Virginia Woolf – over a century after Byron, she reportedly took a trip to swim in the same pool．As mentioned in the passage, there is a small charge for ____．
| A．attending the masters’ class |
| B．working with local artists |
| C．seeing an exhibition |
| D．learning life drawing |
“Torch Aloe” and “Venus Flytrap” are ____．
| A．impressive plants | B．common insects |
| C．rarely-seen snakes | D．wildlife-enthusiasts |
We can infer from the passage that Byron seemed ____．
| A．to like walking |
| B．to fear pet bears |
| C．to be a heavy drinker |
| D．to finish university in 1805 |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Some places for weekend break． |
| B．A way to become creative in art． |
| C．The colourful life in the countryside． |
| D．Unknown stories of Cambridge University. |
Several southwestern provinces in China are now experiencing the worst drought(旱灾) since the 1950s. The drought has left 18 million people and 11 million farm animals in Yunnan, Guangxi, Sichuan and Chongqing without enough water supplies. And it has affected 5 million hectares of crops in the provinces.
According to China’s Meteorological Administration (中国气象局), the average daily temperature in Yunnan over the past six months has been two degrees higher than normal. And the province has had only half the rainfall of an ordinary year. In Qinglong county, Guizhou, there had been no rain for 268 days until March 25, when it finally rained for three hours.
To ensure the safety of drinking water, local governments have taken emergency action. Workers in parts of Yunnan are drilling (钻空) daily in the hope of digging 1035 wells by mid-May. Among them, 52 have already started working and 288 are under way, providing 20 percent of the required drinking water. Meanwhile, Yunnan province intends to send more migrants (农民工) to work outside the province as the drought worsens. This will not only help to deal with the drinking water shortages, but also increase those farmers’ income. The government will offer free skill training and organize job fairs.
56 The word “This” in paragraph 3 refers to______.
A. the worsening drought
B. the shortage of drinking water
C. sending more migrants to work outside
D. providing 20 percent of the required drinking water
57 Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. The drought in southwestern provinces has been the worst ever in China.
B. Guizhou province has had only half the rainfall of an ordinary year.
C. The average temperature in Yunnan is two degrees lower than normal.
D. 1035 wells are expected to be drilled by mid-May in parts of Yunnan.
58 What’s the main idea of the passage?
A. Local governments have taken action to deal with drought.
B. Serious drought hits southwestern provinces in China.
C. More migrants work outside the southwestern provinces.
D.Yunnan government offers free skill training and organizes job fairs.
We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively（被动地）. We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning.
We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it’s not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.
Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem. It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor(谣言).
Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn’t show it to anyone. Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person. That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game. The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it. Then the two written statements are compared. Typically, the original message has changed.
That’s what happens in daily life. The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping（打上标记）it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.
This process is also found among scholars and authors: A statement of opinion by one writer may be re-stated as fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts.
57. According to the passage, passive learning may occur in _______.
A. doing a medical experiment B. solving a math problem
C. visiting an exhibition D. doing scientific reasoning
58. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refers to _____.
A. active learning B. knowledge
C. communication D. passive learning
59. The author mentions the game Rumor to show that _____.
A. a message may be changed when being passed on
B. a message should be delivered in different ways
C. people may have problems with their sense of hearing
D. people tend not to believe in what they know as rumor
60. What can we infer from the passage?
A. Active learning is less important.
B. Passive learning may not be reliable.
C. Active learning occurs more frequently.
D. Passive learning is not found among scholars.
Now more and more students become volunteers. The projects may be with their school, neighborhood, or town, but the work of all volunteers is important. Students find that there are many advantages to volunteering.
First, volunteering helps others. Many people complain about problems in our society. Volunteers are part of the solution to our problems! While it is easy to complain about things that are not right, the volunteer takes action rather than complaining. When a student spends time working at a retirement (退休) home, cleaning up a park, or teaching a younger student, the volunteer makes the world a better place.
Second, being a volunteer makes students feel good about themselves. When a student volunteer knows that his or her efforts have made someone else’s life better, the volunteer feels great. Students always hear people saying that everyone should care about other people. Volunteers make it happen. Although some volunteer work is long or tiring, student volunteers end the day knowing they did the right thing. Their parents, teachers, and the public are proud of them. Knowing they did the right thing makes them feel better, even if they are tired.
Finally, students learn that volunteering is fun. A group of students might volunteer to clean up a riverbed in early spring. It is fun to be with their friends, to enjoy the weather, and to picnic later in a beautiful, clean area. Other students might read to young children in a playgroup. It is fun to spend time with children and to have them smile and laugh. No matter what their ages or talents are, every student can be a volunteer. The work of student volunteers is a powerful force that makes the world a better place.
54. The tile of this passage is ________.
A. Free-time Jobs B. Daily Activities C. School Life D. Volunteer Work
55. The writer really wants to say that ___________.
A. volunteering helps society as well as volunteers themselves
B. it is fun to spend time volunteering in a pre-school
C. some people complain instead of taking action
D. some volunteer work is long and tiring
56. According to the passage, how are volunteers different from other people?
A. They never complain. B. They always feel great.
C. They take action. D. They enjoy teaching.
One morning a few years ago，Harvard President Neil Rudenstine overslept. For this busy man，it was a sort of alarm: after years of non-stop hard work，he might wear himself out and die an early death.
Only after a week's leave—during which he read novels, listened to music and walked with his wife on a beach—was Rudenstine able to return to work.
In our modern life, we have lost the rhythm between action and rest. Surprisingly, within this world there is a universal but silly saying:“I am so busy.”
We say this to one another as if our tireless efforts were a talent by nature and an ability to successfully deal with stress. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, and to be unable to find time to relax—this has become the model of a successful life.
Because we do not rest, we lose our way. We miss the guide telling us where to go, the food providing us with strength, the quiet giving us wisdom.
How have we allowed this to happen? I believe it is this: we have forgotten the Sabbath, the day of the week—for followers of some religions—for rest and praying. It is a day when we are not supposed to work, a time when we devote ourselves to enjoying and celebrating what is beautiful. It is a good time to bless our children and loved ones, give thanks, share meals，walk and sleep. It is a time for us to take a rest, to put our work aside, trusting that there are larger forces at work taking care of the world.
Rest is a spiritual and biological need；however，in our strong ambition to be successful and care for our many responsibilities，we may feel terribly guilty when we take time to rest. The Sabbath gives us permission to stop work. In fact, “Remember the Sabbath ”is more than simply permission to rest；it is a rule to obey and a principle to follow.
50. The “alarm” in the first paragraph refers to “______”.
A. a signal of stress B. a warning of danger
C. a sign of age D. a spread of disease
51. According to Paragraph 4,a successful person is one who is believed to ____.
A. be able to work without stress B. be more talented than other people
C. be more important than anyone else D. be busy working without time to rest
52. Some people feel guilty when taking time to rest because they ____.
A. think that taking a rest means lacking ambitions
B. fail to realize that rest is an essential part of life
C. fail to realize that religions force them to rest
D. think that taking a rest means being lazy
53. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. We should balance work with rest.
B. The Sabbath givers us permission to rest.
C. It is silly for anyone to say “I am so busy.”
D. We should be available to our family and friends.
The Conservative（保守的） Party leader David Cameron has become the British prime minister. The 43-year-old Cameron is the youngest to hold the post in almost 200 years.
Cameron grew up with poor school reports but has become a famous political figure. He is reportedly a descendant（后裔）of King William IV. Cameron studied at the elite（精英的）Eton College. He went to Oxford University, where he graduated with a first-class honors degree in philosophy, politics and economics.
At Eton, Cameron was a problem boy. In 1983, he allegedly（涉嫌） took drugs. He was punished, and ordered to copy 500 lines of Latin text. He later passed the Oxford entrance exam. Now he is British’s prime minister, he has to deal with the country’s deep economic troubles.
46. How old was David Cameron allegedly took drugs?
A.15 B.16 C.17 D.18
47. What can you infer about David Cameron from the text?
A. He is the youngest prime minister in history. B. He often got high scores at school.
C. He is handsome. D. He didn’t behave well at Eton.
48. Which was David Cameron’s favorite subject?
A. Internet B. biology C. politics D. maths
49. According to the text, we know that
A. As a punishment, he copied 50 lines of Latin text.
B. David Cameron passed the Cambridge entrance exam.
C. British has trouble with economy now.
D. David Cameron is a heavy smoker.