Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958. He was born in Gary, Indiana. He was the seventh child out of nine children in his family. Michael was often physically abused (虐待) by his father, beaten up and also verbally （口头地） abused. But Michael also owed his success to his father’s being strict.
Michael was always an entertainer（艺人）. Even when he just joined school, he would perform in front of friends and classmates. Michael started his professional music career at the age of 11, as a member of the Jackson Five.
He’s well-known for increasing the popularity of MTV through his music videos. Before this, music videos were made just to promote the albums （专辑）. But Michael’s videos managed to change that in videos being made as an art, and for big business. Some of the music videos that are good examples of this fact are Beat It, Billie Jean, and Thriller. Through these works of his, the world got caught onto the idea of music videos and dedicated music video channels.
Michael enthralled his fans and audiences with his style of singing, dressing, and his complex dance moves, especially the “Moonwalk”. The moonwalk is something that people from every part of the globe loved and try to copy People have also done mass moonwalks all around to show their love towards him.
Michael Jackson supported 39 charities （慈善机构）. Through his work and various foundations, he raised and gave millions toward charity, much more than any other showman. He had great love for children, especially the poor ones, and he felt children were the next best thing after God.
Michael planed to start a 50-concert tour in July 2009. Sadly, on 25th June, 2009, Michael passed away at home. Michael Jackson was a great performer, showman, and entertainer, besides the good human and charitable person that he was. It’s very unlikely that there will ever be another entertainer like Michael Jackson ever again.Which of the following topics is Not described about Michael Jackson in the passage?
| A．Childhood | B．Personal life |
| C．Music career | D．Charity |
According to the passage, Michael Jackson ________.
A. lived a happy life as a child
B. fell in love with music at 11
C. loved performing at school
C. was grateful to his father since his childhoodThe underlined word “enthralled” in Paragraph 4 most probably means _________.
| A．encouraged | B．developed |
| C．attracted | D．puzzled |
The purpose of the passage is to ________.
| A．call on readers to learn from Michael Jackson |
| B．show love and respect for Michael Jackson |
| C．prove Michael Jackson is a great person |
| D．offer readers some facts about Michael Jackson |
The home of the future won’t be completely different and we will be living in houses and flats just as we do today．But people will want to shape their homes to match their dreams．No two homes will be the same．People will be able to buy “house kits” containing a basic house structure, with movable walls, doors and windows．They will put together the different parts to create the home they want．
Many jobs that we do today will disappear, others will still exist but will change and new jobs will be created. Skilled workers such as builders, gardeners and electricians won’t disappear because machines can’t replace them. Teachers will still exist because students need human contact. But they will be using modern technology in class more and students will be working more from home. The medical technology revolution and space travel will create new jobs which we can only imagine today．
Space holidays will develop in the future, but these holidays won’t be for everyone because they won’t be cheap. Short space trips will develop first, then space hotels will orbit the earth where it will be possible to have a longer vacation. By the end of the next century, there will be holiday centres on the moon with leisure facilities for families．
Paper won’t exist in the future. Instead, there will be e-paper which people will be able to use over and over again. This will develop in order to save natural resources. E-newspapers and e-magazines will replace traditional newspapers and magazines and we will download information and news articles from the Internet every day onto our reuseable paper．
The laws of physics tell us that the earth is going to disappear some time in the future．This isn’t going to happen tomorrow but scientists predict that it will happen in five billion years when our sun explodes (爆炸)．We will have to explore the universe and find another home. At some point in the distant future, either we stay on the earth and die with it, or we leave and move to another planet. There won’t be any other choice.Homes of the future will ________．
| A．be completely different from those of today |
| B．be very similar to our homes |
| C．all be different from one another |
| D．be movable as you want |
Space trips and staying in space hotels will ________．
| A．become a very common way to spend a holiday |
| B．be the best holiday option for families |
| C．attract a lot of people |
| D．still only be for very rich people |
E-paper will replace traditional paper because ________．
| A．we will use it again |
| B．it won’t waste natural resource |
| C．it will be cheaper to produce |
| D．it will be convenient to carry |
We will have move to another planet ________．
| A．if we want to save the human race |
| B．when the sun explodes |
| C．when the earth disappears |
| D．when the earth is too crowded to fill people on |
As the pace of life continues to increase, we are fast losing the art of relaxation. Once you are in the habit of rushing through life, being on the go from morning till night, it is hard to slow down. But relaxation is essential for a healthy mind and body.
Stress is a natural part of everyday life and there is no way to avoid it. In fact, it is not the bad thing it is often supposed to be. A certain amount of stress is vital to provide motivation and give purpose to life. It is only when the stress gets out of control that it can lead to poor performance and ill health．
The amount of stress a person can withstand depends very much on the individual. Some people are not afraid of stress, and such characters are obviously prime material for managerial responsibilities, others lose heart at the first sign of unusual difficulties. When exposed to stress, in whatever form, we react both chemically and physically. In fact we make choice between “flight or fight” and in more primitive days the choices made the difference between life or death. The crises we meet today are unlikely to be so extreme, but however little the stress, it involves the same response. It is when such a reaction lasts long, through continued exposure to stress, that health becomes endangered. Since we can't remove stress from our lives (it would be unwise to do so even if we could), we need to find ways to deal with it．People are finding less and less time for relaxing themselves because ________.
| A．they regard working as their greatest enjoyment |
| B．they believe that work is superior to relaxation |
| C．they are traveling fast all the time |
| D．they are becoming busier with their work than ever before |
According to the author, the most important character for a good manager is his________.
| A．strong will to hold out stress |
| B．knowing the art of relaxation |
| C．high sense of responsibility |
| D．having control over performance |
Which of the following statements is TRUE, according to the passage?
| A．We can find quite a few ways to avoid stress． |
| B．Stress is always harmful to people's health |
| C．It’s easy to change the habit of keeping oneself busy with work． |
| D．Different people can bear different amount of stress． |
In the last sentence of the passage, “do so” refers to ________.
| A．“expose ourselves to stress” |
| B．“find ways to deal with stress” |
| C．“remove stress from our lives” |
| D．“establish links between diseases and stress” |
The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 3-year-old daughter for wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper．Money was tight and he became infuriated（愤怒的） when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree．Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next morning and said, “This is for you, Daddy.”
The man was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found out the box was empty．He yelled at her, stating, “Don't you know, when you give someone a present, there is supposed to be something inside?” The little girl looked up at him with tears in her eyes and cried, “Oh, Daddy, it’s not empty at all．I blew kisses into the box. They’re all for you, Daddy.”
The father was crushed．He put his arms around his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness．
Only a short time later, an accident took the life of the child．It is also told that her father kept that gold box by his bed for many years and, whenever he was discouraged, he would take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it there．
In a very real sense, each one of us, as humans beings, have been given a gold container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family members, friends, and God．There is simply no other possession, anyone could hold, more precious than this．The 3-year-old girl was punished by her father for ________．
| A．decorating a box |
| B．wasting wrapping paper |
| C．putting the box under the Christmas tree |
| D．bringing the gift to her father |
The father remembered the love of his daughter by ________．
| A．kissing the gold box |
| B．putting gold into the box． |
| C．taking out an imaginary kiss from the box． |
| D．keeping the little girl’s ash box by his bed． |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．The kisses in the box |
| B．A girl and his father |
| C．A love story |
| D．The box under the Christmas tree |
Michael Fish may soon be replaced as a weather forecaster by the shark (鲨鱼).
Research by a British biology student suggests that sharks could be used to predict storms. Lauren Smith, 24, is close to completing her study on shark’s ability to sense pressure. If her studies prove the theory, scientists may be able to monitor the behavior of sharks to predict bad weather.
Miss Smith had previously studied the behavior of lemon sharks in the Bahamas.
She then used their close relatives, lesser spotted dogfish, for further research at Aberdeen University.
Her work---thought to be the first of its kind to test the pressure theory ---- resulted from the observation that juvenile blacktip sharks off Florida moved into deeper water ahead of a violent storm in 2001.
Miss Smith said: “I’ve always been crazy about traveling and diving and this led me to an interest in sharks.”
“I was delighted to have been able to research in the area for my degree. I know there’s so much more we need to understand ---- but it certainly opens the way to more research.”
It has been discovered that a shark senses pressure using hair cells in its balance system.
At the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas, Miss Smith fixed hi-tech sensors to sharks to record pressure and temperature, while also tracking them using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.
In Aberdeen, she was able to study the effects of tidal (潮汐的) and temperature changes on dogfish----none of which were harmed. She also used a special lab which can mimic (模拟) oceanic pressure changes caused by weather fronts.
She is due to complete her study and graduate later this year. She says she will be looking for a job which will give her the chance to enrich her experience of shark research.The passage is most probably taken from _______.
| A．a short-story collection |
| B．a popular science magazine |
| C．a research paper |
| D．a personal diary |
What do we learn from the first four paragraphs of the passage?
| A．Sharks may be used to predict bad weather. |
| B．Sharks’ behavior can be controlled. |
| C．Michael Fish is not fit for his job. |
| D．Lauren Smith will become a weather forecaster. |
Lauren Smith conducted her research by _______.
| A．removing hair cells from a shark’s balance system |
| B．measuring the air pressure of weather fronts |
| C．recording sharks’ body temperature |
| D．monitoring sharks’ reaction to weather changes |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．A popular way of forecasting weather. |
| B．A new research effort in predicting storms. |
| C．Biologists’ interest in the secrets of sharks. |
| D．Lauren Smith’s devotion to scientific research. |
Once there was an 11-year-old boy who went fishing with his father in the middle of a New Hampshire lake. On the day before bass (巴斯鱼) season opened, they were fishing early in the evening, catching other fish with worms. Then the boy tied on a small silver lure (鱼饵) and put it into the lake. Suddenly he felt that something very big pulling on the lure. His father watched with admiration as the boy skillfully brought the fish beside the bank. Finally he lifted the tired fish from the water. It was the largest one he had ever seen, but it was a bass.
The boy and his father looked at the big fish. The father lit a match and looked at his watch. It was 10 p.m.—two hours before the season opened. He looked at the fish, then at the boy. “You’ll have to put it back, son,” he said.
“Dad!” cried the boy. “There will be other fish,” said his father. “Not as big as this one,” cried the boy. He looked around the lake. No other fishermen or boats were in sight in the moonlight. He looked again at his father.
Even though no one had seen them, nor could anyone ever know what time he had caught the fish, the boy could tell from his father’s voice that the decision couldn’t be changed. He threw the huge bass into the black water. The big fish disappeared. The boy thought that he would never again see such a big fish.
That was 34 years ago. Today the boy is a successful architect in New York City. He often takes his own son and daughters to fish at the same place.
And he was right. He has never again caught such a large fish as the one he got that night long ago. But he does see that same fish ... again and again ... every time he has an ethical (道德的) decision to make. For, as his father had taught him, ethics are simple matters of right and wrong. It is only the practice of ethics that is difficult. What happened when the big fish turned out to be a bass?
| A．The boy and his father discussed what to do with the big fish. |
| B．The boy threw the bass back into the water willingly. |
| C．The father lit a match in order to check the time. |
| D．They worried other fishermen may discover what they had done. |
From the text we know that the father _________.
| A．didn’t love his son |
| B．always disagreed with his son |
| C．disliked the huge fish |
| D．was firm and stubborn |
How did the boy feel when the huge bass was thrown into the water?
| A．Excited. | B．Embarrassed. | C．Disappointed. | D．Annoyed. |
The successful architect went fishing with his children at the same place because _________.
| A．they might catch a big fish there |
| B．he was taught an important lesson there |
| C．it was a most popular fishing spot |
| D．their children enjoyed fishing there |