Few of us haven’t read Cinderella, the story of a young woman living in poverty who meets the prince of her dreams. Some might not want to admit it, but there is a hidden Cinderella in everyone’s heart－we all wish we could achieve recognition or success after a period of obscurity.
Mary Santiago has that secret dream, too. Her story is shown in Another Cinderella Story, a film set in a US high school.
Mary is shy but loves to dance. Compared with other girls, she is invisible. However, her world changes completely when a famous teenager pop singer, Joey Parker, appears.
Joey is everything the rest of the boys in her class are not－kind, handsome and desirable. Mary and Joey’s paths cross at a ball. They meet and fall in love with each other. But when Mary has to rush back home, she leaves behind her MP3 player, which becomes the only clue Joey has to find the girl. Of course, there is a wicked stepmother, Dominique. She takes in Mary after her dancer mother dies. Dominique treats Mary like a maid and does everything she can to make sure Mary doesn’t get into the top dance school. Her two daughters are equally determined to stop Joey finding Mary, even if that means embarrassing them.
The story, though it mostly follows Cinderella, does add a few modern-day twists to the classic fairy tale. Refreshingly, the film, unlike many high school films, does not focus on looks, although the actors are all beautiful. There is a lot less materialism in Another Cinderella Story than in many similar movies.
“The movie takes the Cinderella fairy tale as its jumping off point,” writes movie critic Amber Wilkinson, “Yet the focus is firmly on following your dream.”The first paragraph is mainly to
A. raise a question on poverty
B. remind us of a fairy tale inform us of the importance of dream
D. build our interest about the following movieWhat can we infer from the passage .
| A．Joey is just like other boys in Mary’s class |
| B．Mary’s mother used to be a singer |
| C．The MP3 player helps Joey find Mary |
| D．Another Cinderella Story is just another copy of Cinderella |
What does the underlined word “obscurity” probably mean?
| A．being popular | B．being unknown |
| C．being famous | D．being silent |
The passage is mainly about
| A．An advertisement of Another Cinderella Story |
| B．An essay about dreams |
| C．A review about a movie |
| D．A fairy tale |
When Ben Franklin was only a boy, he always wanted to know about things. He was always asking his father and brothers ‘What?’ and ‘How?’ and ‘Why?’
They couldn’t always tell him what he wanted to know．
When they couldn’t tell him, Ben tried to find out for himself．
Many times Ben did find out things that no one knew before. The other boys would say, ‘That is Ben Franklin! He’s always finding out something new!’
Ben lived close to the water. He liked to go there to see the boats. He saw how the wind blew them across the water．
One day Ben said to himself: ‘Why can’t the wind help me float across the water? And I’m going to try.’ Ben got his big kite．He took hold of the kite string and ran with it. The wind took the kite up into the air．Then Ben jumped into the water．
The wind blew the kite high into the air．Ben began to float across the water．Soon he was on the other side, and he had not worked at all．
One boy shouted, ‘Look at Ben floating across the water! His kite takes him to the other side without any work!’
‘Yes,’ said another. ‘He’s always finding new ways to do things.’ When he was only a child, Ben____________.
| A．liked to fly a kite by himself |
| B．always asked easy questions |
| C．always liked to play with water |
| D．always liked to find out how things worked |
His father and brothers_____________.
| A．couldn’t answer all his questions |
| B．could answer all his questions |
| C．tried hard to find out something new for him |
| D．were too busy to answer his questions |
How did Ben Franklin float across the water? _______________.
| A．The other boy took him across it. | B．The water carried him across it. |
| C．The flying kite took him across it. | D．A boat took him across it. |
He found out many things that______________.
| A．children didn’t know | B．his father knew |
| C．people didn’t know | D．most people knew |
From the story we can see that young Ben Franklin liked____________.
| A．using his mind | B．using his hands | C．making kites | D．flying kites |
I will never forget the lesson about my window. Four years ago, I moved to a house in a large town. One of my new neighbors’ house was only a few feet away from mine. There lived a woman. Through one of my windows, I could see her reading by her window every afternoon.
Several months later, I found I couldn’t see the woman clearly. I thought her window was too dirty. I said to myself, “Why doesn’t she clean her window? It looks terrible!”
One afternoon, I decided to clean my house including the window. I felt tired after three hours of hard work. So I sat down by the window for a rest. What a surprise! I could see the woman reading there clearly again! By that time, I realized that my own window was too dirty, not hers! I really felt ashamed for myself. I had been watching her through my dirty window in the past days!
The experience is very important for me. So I try to clean the window of my heart before judging others. How long has the writer lived in the house according to the passage?
| A．One years | B．Two years. | C．Three years. | D．Four years. |
What did the woman do every afternoon?
| A．Read by her window. | B．played tennis on the grass. |
| C．Danced in her house. | D．sang in front of the house. |
The writer couldn’t see the woman clearly because ______________.
| A．the writer’s window was dirty |
| B．the woman’s house was too far |
| C．the woman didn’t open her window |
| D．there was something wrong with his eyes. |
The underlined word “ashamed” means _________________.
| A．高兴的 | B．放松的 | C．羞愧的 | D．自豪的 |
According to the passage, the writer has learnt how to __________________.
| A．clean the house | B．judge others | C．help neighbors | D．learn English |
Dreaming is a natural part of who we are. We explore our dreams and develop personal dreams. We even like to dream BIG!
For the most part our dreams and wishes focus on the end result. We see ourselves in love, married, driving a great car, on vacation, with tons of money, in a great career, etc. Dreaming about the end result is just fantasizing and wishing. Wishing relies on some magical force to make our dreams turn into reality, and we become unhappy as we’re not living(实现) our dreams.
So how can we make our dreams come true? That is a question we all often struggle with. Even though we struggle with the answer, the answer is not that clear. We make our dreams come true with the action we take.
In my opinion, if you dream about being in good health, then change your dream to see yourself working out and eating right day by day. See the beginning of the dream and let the dream build day by day with all the action that gets you to the end dream of you being in good health.
If you want riches, then change the dream. Dream of yourself going to school, developing a career, working hard and taking the steps to arrive at the destination. If you want love, love the process. Love the dating process(过程). Love yourself and the journey to find love.
Make all your dreams include the beginning, middle and end. Then when you are doing the action instead of thinking to yourself, “This is a drag. I don’t like working out,” or if you are having any negative thoughts about doing the work it takes to create your visions(梦幻), realize then that every step of the way you are living your dream. You are living your dream because you made the action and journey part of your dream.According to the writer, most of the people____.
| A．pay more attention to developing their dreams |
| B．enjoy the process of their dreams |
| C．are always ignoring the process of living their dreams |
| D．probably dream of making much more money easily |
In order to live our dreams, we must____.
| A．struggle with dreams day and night. |
| B．have great wishes and thoughts. |
| C．have magical forces every night. |
| D．take action or steps. |
If you want to keep fit,______
| A．you’d better dream a sweet dream first. |
| B．you must love the process of the journey. |
| C．you would rather begin with your diet and exercise. |
| D．you should have a good beginning first. |
what can be inferred from the last paragraph?
| A．It’s important to focus on your final result. |
| B．Good mind and action can help you live your dream. |
| C．Think to yourself while living your dream. |
| D．Creating your visions comes first. |
How long do you want to live? How many years might be added to a life? Do you want to live another 100 years or more? Some experts say that scientific advances will one day enable humans to last tens of years beyond what is now seen as the natural limit of the human life span.（寿命）
“I think we are knocking at the door of immortality(永生) , " said Michael Zey, a Montclair State University business professor and author of two books on the future. "I think by 2075 we will see it and that's a conservative estimate(保守的估计)."
At the conference in San Francisco, Donald Louria, a professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark said advances in using genes as well as nanotechnology(纳米技术) make it likely that humans will live in the future beyond what has been possible in the past. "There is a great push so that people can live from 120 to 180 years," he said. "Some have suggested that there is no limit and that people could live to 200 or 300 or 500 years.
However, many scientists who research into ageing are doubtful about it and say the human body is just not designed to last past about 120 years. Even with healthier lifestyles and less disease, they say the failure of the brain and organs will finally lead all humans to death.
Scientists also differ on what kind of life the super aged might live. "It remains to be seen if you pass 120,you know, could you be healthy enough to have good quality of life?" said Leonard Poon, director of the University of Georgia Gerontology Centre. "At present people who could get to that point are not in good health at all."By saying "we are knocking at the door of immortality", Michael Zey means ______.
| A．they have got some ideas about living forever |
| B．they are sure to find the truth about long living |
| C．they believe that there is no limit of living |
| D．they are able to make people live past the present life span |
Donald Louria's attitude towards long living is that ______.
| A．people can live from 120 to 180 |
| B．it is possible for humans to live longer in the future |
| C．the human body is designed to last past about 120 years |
| D．it is still doubtful how long humans can live |
The underlined word "it"( in Paragraph 4)refers to______.
| A．using genes as well as nanotechnology |
| B．the idea of living beyond the present life span |
| C．a great push |
| D．the conservative estimate |
What would be the best title for this text?
| A．No Limit for Human Life | B．Science, Technology and Long Living |
| C．Living Longer or Not | D．Healthy Lifestyle and Long Living |
While many other teen stars built up their celebrity status(名人地位) by working hard on popular TV shows, Justin shot straight to the top by using social media.
A few years ago, Justin uploaded(上传) videos of himself on YouTube, showing covers of his favorite songs at home. He just saw it as a bit of fun for friends and family, but when music manager Scooter Braun saw one of the videos, he flew to Justin’s hometown of Ontario, Canada to sign him up. Justin was just 13.
Shortly after, Justin was flown to the US. He eventually started working with R&B superstar Usher. Justin’s first album My world was released in 2009. But all the time, Justin continued to build his fan base on his YouTube account, where some of his original home videos can still be found, and where he continues to post music. “I wasn’t sending mixtapes or anything like that to record labels,” he told us when we met him on his promotional tour for his latest film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. “I was just doing regular stuff at home and I just posted videos online without purpose. I would never be here if it wasn’t for the Internet and YouTube.”
But it isn’t just YouTube that helps Justin’s popularity. He also updates his Twitter account (@Justin-Bieber) regularly and has about 8.8 million followers. In fact, he’s so popular that Justin was responsible for 3% of the site’s activity at one time and so popular that entire racks of servers on Twitter were devoted to him.
In light of his story, many young, aspiring artists are now taking advantage of Twitter and YouTube. Both these sites can help artists build fan bases in the hope that they’ll become the next big thing. Justin added, “I think my story brings hope to people and I think that’s very important. The only thing holding you back is yourself. Never say never.”What is the best title for the passage?
| A．A famous young man | B．YouTube---A popular website |
| C．Justin’s way to success | D．Social media is the most important |
The underlined word “covers” in Paragraph 2 means_____.
| A．The cover of a book. |
| B．The shelter from attack. |
| C．The sheet on the bed. |
| D．Another version of a pop song by a different artist. |
Which one is right according to the passage?
| A．Justin posted videos online in order to succeed. |
| B．Justin becomes a celebrity partly owing to social media. |
| C．Justin has the same way to succeed as others. |
| D．Justin has built many websites. |
What can we know from Paragraph 5?
| A．Many young, aspiring artists are objection to Justin’s way. |
| B．Many celebrities like Justin must appear in the future. |
| C．Justin tells others never to depend on social media. |
| D．Justin has set an example to many young, aspiring artists. |