The first time my father and I ever went fishing became a family legend(传奇故事). We spent hours waiting for a bite. The sun was bursting with fire. We were hot, sticky, and mad that the fish refused to suck up our night crawlers(蚯蚓).
Being only seven years old, I observed that perhaps the worms were the problem. Maybe the night crawlers only moved at night, and now they were just lying there motionless on the hook. Dad ignored my assessment of the situation.
We began to pack up to leave. As we headed back to our truck, we heard tires spinning in the distance. Getting into our truck was tough. Having sat in the boiling sun for six hours, the seats were blistering. Naturally, I was wearing shorts.
I shifted from side to side in the seat so as not to cook my bottom. While driving out we saw a truck with a boat trailer and boat that was stuck in the mud. That explained the sound of spinning tires we’d heard.
Being a nice guy, my dad helped pull the man from the mud. In return, this fellow gave Dad some fish for being a Good Samaritan. As Dad climbed back into our truck with a brown bag full of fish, we waved goodbye to our newfound friend.
On the drive home, we agreed to take in the fish as if we had caught them. We were sure there was no way for Mom to know the difference. It was just a little white lie.
We arrived home hot, sweaty, and smelly, and went to clean up while Mom prepared the fish. We made a big deal out of the fact that we had already cleaned them and put them in the bag so as not to make a mess.
After showering, Dad and I met in the hall and exchanged conspiratorial grins(心照不宣的笑). Sitting down to freshly fried fish, we started eating happily and went on about how good something tasted that we had actually caught ourselves. Mother looked suitably impressed.
As we got up to do the dishes, Mom cleared her throat. “I just have one question of you two great fishermen,” she said. We looked at her expectantly, thinking we had another opportunity to delight her with our great fishing ability. With a tiny smile, Mom asked, “How was it again that you two managed to not only clean your fish, but also freeze them before you got home.”Why didn’t the fish eat our night crawlers?
| A．The weather was too hot. |
| B．The reason was not clear. |
| C．The fish were not hungry. |
| D．The fish only ate night crawlers alive. |
Dad was called a Good Samaritan for______.
| A．taking in the fish |
| B．helping a stranger |
| C．showing great strength |
| D．making friends with a stranger |
Mom smiled at the end because she ______.
| A．was amused by the little white lie |
| B．was satisfied with their fishing ability |
| C．was impressed that the fish were clean and frozen |
| D．was delighted that she did not need to deal with the mess |
Why did the fishing become a family legend?
| A．They caught a lot of fish. |
| B．They cooperated well in telling the lie. |
| C．They chose to benefit a stranger rather than themselves. |
| D．They make themselves a fool in front of the mother since they lied. |
Tang Dynasty poets sang for about three centuries in different tones. There were many famous poets living in the Tang period, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin. Poems of the Tang Dynasty edited in the Qing Dynasty is a collection of more than 48,900 poems that were written by over 2,200 poets. But it didn’t cover all the poems of the Tang Dynasty.
During the Tang Dynasty, poems were recited when lovers walked under the moonlight. Poems were also recited when soldiers fought on the battlefield. People recited them in the open air or at temple fairs.
Tang Dynasty poets wrote poems to win fame and also to develop their temperament(性情). They poured our deep feelings for their friends and criticized injustice in the world through poems.
In the Tang Dynasty scholars had to be poets. Their readers were not only people of high social position but also common people. Poets recited poems, women singers sang poems and other ranks of people, including old women and children, read Tang poems. This atmosphere affected foreigners who visited the country at that time. As a result, Tang poetry was introduced to some adjacent countries, like Japan and Vietnam.
Tang poetry is a most brilliant page in the history of ancient Chinese literature. It’s a miracle(奇迹) in the cultural history of mankind. The Tang Dynasty was a powerful empire with a vast territory. It inherited(继承) Chinese civilization that went back to ancient times, was combined with the best of other cultures and adopted the benefits of other nations in the world. Tang poetry wasn’t the only spiritual wealth created by the Tang Dynasty people. Philosophy and religion, handwriting and painting, and music and dance all gained new peaks of development. Tang poetry, however, was the jewel in the crown and its greatest achievement.We can conclude form the passage that ___ .
| A．only people in the Tang Dynasty created poems |
| B．in total there was four famous poets in the Tang Dynasty |
| C．the Tang Dynasty probably existed for about three centuries |
| D．in the Tang Dynasty most common people were poets |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Why the poets created poems? |
| B．Some other kinds of spiritual wealth in the Tang Dynasty. |
| C．The significance and influence if the Tang Dynasty. |
| D．The editors of Poems of the Tang Dynasty. |
The underlined word “adjacent”probably means ___ .
| A．strong |
| B．neighboring |
| C．poor |
| D．rich |
What does the author really want to tell us in Paragraph 4?
| A．Tang Dynasty poems were quite popular. |
| B．In the Tang Dynasty all scholars were poets. |
| C．Many foreigners came to our country during the Tang Dynasty. |
| D．in the Tang Dynasty many poems were sung by women singers. |
Computers are very important to modern life. Many people think that in the future computers will be used in lots of everyday life. It is thought that we won’t have to go shopping because we will be able to get most things which are sold in shops on the Internet. There will be no more books because we will be able to get all texts from computers. The Internet will be used to play games, see films and buy food. Most telephone calls will be made by computers, too.
Some people are glad about these new ways of shopping and communicating. Others do not think that computers will replace our old ways.
Let’s look at books, for example. Some people think that one day we will not read books made of paper. Instead, we will buy and read books using computers. We will read texts on small pocket computers. The computers will keep many different books in them at the same time. We won’t need to turn lots of pages and paper will be saved. Computerized(计算机化) books will be used more and more.
Is Internet shopping such a pleasure as going to the shop? Many people say it is not. It is a pleasure to go into shops and look at things you want to buy. It is also unlikely that many people will want to read large texts on our computers. Because paper books will perhaps be more friendly. Maybe computers won’t change these two habits.In paragraph 1 it is thought people will use computers for ___.
| A．playing games, shopping and making telephone calls |
| B．making telephone calls, having meals and seeing films |
| C．seeing films, buying food, and going for holidays |
| D．playing games, making telephone calls and seeing the doctor |
Which reason for using computerizes books is NOT said in the passage?
| A．Computerized books won’t be very expensive. |
| B．Computers can keep many different books in them. |
| C．We won’t have lots of pages. |
| D．We won’t need any paper. |
Paragraph 4 tells ___.
| A．about the old and new ways of shopping and communicating |
| B．if the Internet will change our habits |
| C．about computerized books |
| D．about future uses of computers |
The title for this passage is ___ .
| A．Computers will replace shops and books |
| B．Computers are the future |
| C．Computers will do everything for man |
| D．How computers change our habits |
Strange stones of Costa Rica
One of the strangest mysteries in archacology was discovered in the Diquis River Delta, in southern Costa Rica. Since the 1930s, hundreds of stone balls have been found. They range in size from a few centimeters to over two metres in diameter.
Who made these perfect spheres(球体) and how they made them remains a mystery. Some researchers believe the stones were made by extreme heating followed by cooling. People could have polished the spheres with sand or leather. The ancient Costa Ricans had no written language so there is no written record of just how they made the spheres.
Almost all are made of granite (花岗岩), a hard stone created by volcanoes. The granite quarries(采石场) were 25 to 30 miles away from the largest stones, which weigh more than 10 tons each. Nobody knows how people moved them..
Many of the stones have been found near the remains of houses or graves. Some believed that the stones contained hidden treasures and a few have been smashed but nothing has been found inside. Despite these losses, the National Museum of Costa Rica has recorded 130 spheres. However, many stones are not included because they have been removed from their original sites and used as ornaments(装饰) in homes, gardens and churches. Clearly, there are also many stones that lie undiscovered.The stones were discovered ___ .
| A．near the volcanoes |
| B．in southern Costa Rica |
| C．in a grave |
| D．in churches |
The writer ___ in the passage.
| A．admires the spheres very much |
| B．doesn’ t believe the spheres were once made by humans |
| C．tells us a discovery |
| D．thinks highly of the spheres |
The underlined word ”polished” refers to “___”.
| A．buried |
| B．wrapped |
| C．made shining |
| D．made big |
According to the passage, which of the following is true?
| A．The stone balls found in the Diquis River Delta are all very huge. |
| B．The stone balls were unearthed from the graves. |
| C．The local people show great interest in the stone balls. |
| D．There are a lot of treasures in the stone balls. |
The passage mainly tells us ___ .
| A．the stones are of great value. |
| B．the stones proved to be made by non-humans. |
| C．the stones are mystery. |
| D．the stone are ornaments. |
Homework can put you in a bad mood, but that might actually be a good thing.New research suggests that, in some cases, being too happy can hurt your performance on certain kinds of tasks.To test whether it is true, researchers performed two learning experiments with children.
The first experiment included 30 children, aged 10 and 11.Each child was given 20 problems in which a houselike shape was hidden inside a different, larger image.The children had to find the small shape while sitting in a room.Either positive or sad classical music was played in the background.
As a measure of mood,the scientists asked the children to point to ont of five faces,ranging from happy to sad.Children listening to the positive music tended to point to the smiling faces.Children surrounded by sad music pointed instead to the frowns(皱眉).The researchers found that sad children took at least to find the small shapes and also correctly found on average three or four more shapes.
In the second experiment,61 children,aged 6 and 7,faced the same type of problems.They watched one of three scenes.One scene was happy.One was neutral(中立的).One was sad.And just like in the first experiment; kids who felt sad or neutral performed better on the tests.They solved on average two or three more problems.
The researchers think that feeling down causes people more likely to fix their attention on a problem or difficult situation.However, other studies suggest that people who feel happy are better able to fix their attention on details.Some researchers insist that the new studies have flaws.It’s possible that the lively music in the first experiment took children’s attention away from their task of finding shapes.
While scientists continue to work on finding the answers,it will might be worth adapting your tasks for your mood.What did the researchers want to find out the experiments?
| A．What determines success in children’s study |
| B．How to train children to keep a happy mood |
| C．Whether and how children’s moods affect their performance |
| D．Whether too much homework affects children’s moods |
What did the two experiments have in common?
| A．Children were divided into happy and sad groups |
| B．Children were asked to find hidden shapes |
| C．Children in a sad moon were considered much cleverer |
| D．Researchers used music to measure children’s moods |
Through the two experiments, researchers think that sadness cause people to___.
| A．perform better in some cases |
| B．become cleverer than before |
| C．pay more attention to details |
| D．be more likely to be influenced by music |
Gregory Anderson, a specialist on endangered languages, once said, "Language is in many ways a window to the mind. What these languages contain are all kinds of ways that we organize the world. Languages reflect a different historical contact with other groups. And, for people who have no written history, language can be one of the ways to get the history just by looking carefully at the different parts in the language."
However, over half of the world's seven thousand languages are in danger of disappearing, and every two weeks one language disappears. One of the most endangered languages is called Siletz Dee-ni, a language from the northwestern part of the United States.
It was spoken on the Siletz reservation (居留地), where the tribe lives on a protected area within the state of Oregon. The reservation was created in the 19th century to hold people from 27 different native groups. The groups spoke different languages, so they developed Chinook Jargon. With its increased use as well as the use of English, the number of people speaking their native languages became smaller. Today, only one person on the reservation speaks Siletz Dee-ni.
Bringing back endangered languages is not easy, but it is very important. One example of this is taking place in the American state of Hawaii. Hawaii became a part of the United States in 1898. English became the official language of Hawaii. Slowly, fewer and fewer young natives learned to speak Hawaiian fluently. The language began to disappear.
In 1986, fewer than fifty children in Hawaii could speak their native language. That same year, the language ban (禁令) was removed because of strong disagreements from native groups. The Hawaiian language began to be taught again in schools. Today, about 2,000 children speak Hawaiian. Also, families now speak Hawaiian with their children at home. Anyway, it is up to the children to keep the language alive.The author wrote the first paragraph to ________.
| A．tell us that many languages are disappearing |
| B．tell us the importance of language |
| C．encourage us to be interested in studying language |
| D．tell us the characteristics of language |
The underlined part "Chinook Jargon" in the third paragraph must be ________.
| A．a hand sign | B．a language |
| C．a language school | D．a language textbook |
After Hawaii became an American state, ________.
| A．its culture was completely mixed with the American culture |
| B．all Hawaiian people got interested in learning English |
| C．Hawaiian was forbidden to be taught in the local schools |
| D．Hawaiian people created another language of their own |
From the last paragraph we can infer that _________.
| A．Hawaiian will become the official language in Hawaii soon |
| B．protecting the Hawaiian language is the biggest concern of the local people |
| C．parents play the most important role in protecting the Hawaiian language |
| D．more Hawaiian people have realized the value of their own language |