People in the United States honor their parents with two special days: Mother’s Day, on the second Sunday in May, and Father’s Day, on the third Sunday in June. These days are set aside to show love and respect for parents. They raise their children and educate them to be responsible citizens. They give love and care. These two days offer an opportunity to think about the changing roles of mothers and fathers. More mothers now work outside the home. More fathers must help with child-care.
These two special days are celebrated in many different ways. On Mother’s Day people wear carnations. A red one symbolizes a living mother .A white one shows that the mother is dead. Many people attend religious services to honor parents .It is also a day when people whose parents are dead visit the cemetery（公墓）. On these days families get together at home, as well as in restaurants. They often have outdoor barbecues for Father’s Day. These are days of fun and good feelings and memories.
Another tradition is to give cards and gifts. Children make them in school. Many people make their own presents. These are valued more than the ones bought in stores. It is not the value of the gift that is important, but it is “the thought that counts”. Greeting card stores, florists, candy makers, bakeries and telephone companies do a lot of business during these holidays.Which is NOT a reason for children to show love and respect for parents?
| A．Parents bring up children. |
| B．Parents give love and care to children. |
| C．Parents educate children to be good persons. |
| D．Parents pass away before children grow up. |
What do you know from the passage?
| A．Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are both in May. |
| B．Fewer women worked outside the home in the past. |
| C．Not all the children respect their parents. |
| D．Fathers are not as important as mothers at home. |
Which do you think is right about “carnation”?
| A．It only has two kinds of color. |
| B．It refers to the special clothes people wear on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. |
| C．It’s a kind of flower showing love and best wishes. |
| D．People can wear carnations only on the second Sunday in May. |
Mozart was a great man born with a given talent. He was writing songs at the age of five and performing before the queen by the time he was six years old. Early on, Mozart realized what his talents were, practiced or honed what he was born to do and used his natural abilities to create amazing pieces of music.
Mozart was not the first to be born with natural talents and he wasn't the last. We all have them. We only need to discover what they are and use them to the best of our abilities. You have been given amazing gifts that are meant to be shared with the world. Your job is to find out what those talents are and master them.
Finding your natural talents may not be an easy task. Perhaps your parents except fewer wouldn't approve of （赞成）your artistic ability to paint or sing, because they want you to be a successful doctor or lawyer. Maybe your gift wouldn't seem to have the ability to bring the kind of wealth you hope. These may be excuses; it's up to you. Have you ever noticed that when you engage in an activity in which you are naturally talented, you feel active and excited? That's a sign that these are the things you should do. Discover your brilliance （才华）in life and practice, practice, practice.
Look at the world's greatest athletes. They practice what they're naturally good at, and what they love. You don't see Jordan sitting trying to study DNA. If that was something he was talented at, that's what he would be doing. But it's not. He's a brilliant athlete. He sticks to what he does best and he realizes his dream.
There are only two steps to success-discover your brilliance and perfect it.In the writer's opinion Mozart's success lies in __________.
| A．his great given talent |
| B．making good use of his natural talent |
| C．learning from others |
| D．his favorable conditions |
What does the underlined word " honed" in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
| A．To do something repeatedly to improve one's skill. |
| B．To find out what one is always good at doing. |
| C．To do what one likes and what is interesting. |
| D．To ask others for some advice of doing something. |
In Paragraph 4 the writer advises us to __________.
| A．work hard at what we are engaging in |
| B．fear no difficulty and realize our dream |
| C．practice what we are naturally good at |
| D．become a great athlete like Jordan |
When something goes wrong, it can be very satisfying to say，"Well, it's so-and-so's fault. " or " I know I'm late, but it's not my fault; the car broke down. " It is probably not your fault, but once you form the habit of blaming somebody or something else for a bad situation, you are a loser. You have no power and could do noting that helps change the situation. However, you can have great power over what happens to you if you stop focusing on whom to blame and start focusing on how to remedy the situation. This is the winner's key to success.
Winners are great at overcoming problems. For example, if you were late because your car broke down, maybe you need to have your car examined more regularly. Or, you might start to carry along with you the useful phone numbers, so you could call for help when in need. For another example, if your colleague causes you problems on the job for lack of responsibility or ability, find ways of dealing with his irresponsibility or inability rather than simply blame the person. Ask to work with a different person, or don't rely on this person. You should accept that the person is not reliable and find creative ways to work successfully regardless of how your colleague fails to do his job well.
This is what being a winner is all about-creatively using your skills and talents so that you are successful no matter what hap-pens. Winners don't have fewer problems in their lives; they have just as many difficult situations to face as anybody else. They are just better at seeing those problems as challenges and opportunities to develop their own talents. So, stop focusing on “whose fault it is.” Once you are confident about your power over bad situations, problems are just stepping stop on for success.According to the passage, winners __________.
| A．deal with problems rather than blame others |
| B．meet with fewer difficulties in their lives |
| C．have responsible and able colleagues |
| D．blame themselves rather than others |
The underlined word “remedy" in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to __________.
| A．avoid | B．accept |
| C．improve | D．consider |
When your colleague brings about a problem, you should __________.
| A．find a better way to handle the problem |
| B．blame him for his lack of responsibility |
| C．tell him to find the cause of the problem |
| D．ask a more able colleague for help |
When problems occur, winners take them as __________.
| A．excuses for their failures |
| B．barriers to greater power |
| C．challenges to their colleagues |
| D．chances for self-development |
On April 24th, another natural disaster-the oil spill（泄露）in the Gulf of Mexico, happened. Millions of dollars have been used to help stop the spill and to clean up the animals, beaches, and land spoiled by the oil. Unfortunately, when many of these chemicals are used, more damage is caused to the environment, especially to lives in the sea.
But governments seem to accept the risk of transporting mil-lions of tons of oil by ship every day so that we can fill up our cars and drive around and cause even more environmental damage. Interestingly, the biggest companies in the world produce cars, and the next biggest supply the gasoline to make them run.
Of all of today's environmental disasters, an oil spill may actually be one of the least serious. Although oil is poisonous, it is a natural material. In the end, it breaks down naturally. In 1967 the tanker Torrey Canyon sank off the Scilly Isles near the coast of England and spilled 120，000 tons of oil into the ocean. If you go there today, you will find it hard to see any sign that it ever happened.
However, we should be thinking more about reducing our dependency on oil. Governments should be encouraging research into new technologies, such as cars run by solar power, electricity, hydro-gen, and so on. Much of this research, in the past, was stopped by the oil, gas, and coal.
If the world's millions of cars were 10% more efficient （高效的），we would need many fewer tankers crossing the oceans each year. If this happened, the risks of oil spills would be reduced, and the air we breathe would be cleaner and fresher, too.What is the passage mainly talking about?
| A．Oil spills pollution. |
| B．What oil pollution is. |
| C．Oil tanker accidents. |
| D．How to reduce oil pollution. |
How does the author support the idea that oil spills are not as serious as people believe?
| A．By giving a description. |
| B．By making an argument. |
| C．By giving an example. |
| D．By drawing a diagram（图表）. |
Which suggestion is made for reducing oil tankers according to the passage?
| A．We should build safer tankers in the near future. |
| B．We should develop new technologies to cut oil use. |
| C．Tankers should not be allowed to sail near the coastlines. |
| D．Countries should build more oil pipelines under the sea. |
Where can you read this article?
| A．In a story book. | B．In a science magazine. |
| C．In a novel. | D．In a brochure. |
Without proper planning, tourism can cause problems. For ex-ample, too many tourists can crowd public places that are also enjoyed by the inhabitants of a country. If tourists create too much traffic, the inhabitants become annoyed and unhappy. They begin to dislike tourists and to treat them impolitely. They forget how much tourism can help the country's economy. It is important to think about the people of a destination country and how tourism affects them. Tourism should help a country keep the customs and beauty that attract tourists. Tourism should also advance the wealth and happiness of local inhabitants.
Too much tourism can be a problem. If tourism grows too quickly, people must leave other jobs to work in the tourism industry. This means that other parts of the country's economy can suffer.
On the other hand, if there is not enough tourism, people can lose jobs. Businesses can also lose money. It costs a great deal of money to build large hotels, airports, air terminals, first-class roads, and other support facilities （配套设施）needed by tourist attractions. For example, a major international class tourism hotel can cost as much as 50 thousand dollars per room to build. If this room is not used most of the time, the owners of the hotel lose money.
Building a hotel is just a beginning. There must be many sup-port facilities as well, including roads to get to the hotel, electricity, sewers to handle waste, and water. All of these support facilities cost money. If they are not used because there are not enough tourists, jobs and money are lost.Which of the following do you think has been discussed in the part before this selection?
| A．It is extremely important to develop tourism. |
| B．Building roads and hotels is essential. |
| C．Support facilities are highly necessary. |
| D．Planning is of great importance to tourism. |
The underlined word " inhabitants "（in Paragraph 1） probably means __________.
| A．tourists | B．passengers |
| C．population | D．citizens |
Too much tourism can cause all these problems EXCEPT __________.
| A．a bad effect on other industries |
| B．a change of tourists' customs |
| C．over-crowdedness of places of interest |
| D．pressure on traffic |
The author thinks it is good for local people to know that tourism will __________.
| A．waste a lot of money |
| B．weaken their economy |
| C．help establish their customs |
| D．help improve their life |
Parents have to do much less for their children today than they used to do, and home has become much less of a workshop. Clothes can be bought ready made; washing can go to the laundry; food can be bought-cooked, canned or preserved; bread is baked and delivered by the baker; milk arrives on the doorstep; meats can be had at the restaurant, the work's canteen, and the school dining-room.
It is unusual now for a father to pursue his trade or other employment at home, and his children rarely, if ever, see him at his place of work. Boys are therefore seldom trained to follow their father's occupation, and in many towns they have a fairly wide choice of employment and so do girls. The young wage-earner often earns good money, and soon acquires a feeling of economic independence. In textile areas it has long been customary for mothers to go out to work, but this practice has become so widespread that the working mother is now a not unusual factor in a child's home life, the number of married women in employment having more than doubled in the last twenty-five years. With mother earning and his older children drawing substantial wages father is seldom the dominant figure that he still was at the beginning of the century. When mother works, economic advantages accrue, but children lose some-thing of great value if mother's employment prevents her from being home to greet them when they return from school.The writer mentions home as workshop because __________.
| A．fathers often pursue employment at home |
| B．parents had to make food and necessity themselves for their daily-life |
| C．many families produce goods at home for sale |
| D．both fathers and mothers and mothers in most families are workers |
The writer says that home has become much less of a workshop. He means __________.
| A．in the past, home was more like a workshop |
| B．home is much more of a workshop now |
| C．home-workshops are becoming fewer and fewer |
| D．home was less like a workshop in the past |
The chief reason that boys are seldom trained to follow their father's occupation is __________.
| A．that children nowadays rarely see their fathers at their place of work |
| B．that fathers do not like to pursue employment at home any more |
| C．that there is a wide choice of employment for children |
| D．that children also like to have jobs outside |