I was born into a family of five children. As the youngest child, I didn’t have many new clothes. Though my parents worked very hard, we could hardly make ends meet. The only time we would receive new clothes was at Christmas.
The family across the street lived a much better life. They just had two daughters and they were often seen wearing new dresses. The younger girl named Anna was of my age. One afternoon, she walked on the street wearing a beautiful white dress. She looked like an angel in that dress. I, together with many little girls, followed her. We just couldn’t keep our eyes off her dress. We all wished we would have such a dress one day!
That day, after coming back, I told my mom that I wanted a dress like that. My mom frowned(皱眉) she thought such a beautiful dress like that must cost an arm and a leg, but my mom kept that in mind. She worked five days a week at that time, but when Christmas was getting close, she worked even on every Saturday.
However, several days before Christmas, I changed my mind. It was Anna’s birthday that day and I was invited to her home with some other girls. After that party, I asked if I could try on her white dress. “Of course,” she said, “and you can take it if you like it.” I couldn’t believe my ears. How could she give such a beautiful dress to someone else? After trying it on, I knew why.
The dress looked beautiful, but it was uncomfortable to wear. As a matter of fact, my back was quite itchy(痒的) after I put it on. From that day on, I stopped admiring what others had. They may not be as good aswe think.When the writer was a little girl, she .
A.couldn’t get whatever she liked |
B.couldn’t see her parents at all |
C.didn’t like new clothes |
D.didn’t like Christmas that much |
When the other girls saw Anna’s dress, they thought it .
A.too little | B.very cheap |
C.very beautiful | D.very comfortable |
The writer’s mother started working on very Saturday because she .
A.wanted to buy a new dress for herself |
B.had to buy all her children expensive gifts |
C.prepared herself for the busiest Christmas. |
D.wanted to buy the dress the writer wanted |
From the passage, we learn that .
A.there are always kind-hearted people around us |
B.what others have may not be as good as we think |
C.we should give what we no longer need to others |
D.we can get what we want if we try hard enough |
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy. He was the oldest of five children in his family. His father was a wool weaver. He helped his father with the weaving, but he always wanted to sail the seas.
He didn’t get to school very much, but he learned to read and write Spanish during his travels. He also taught himself Latin because all the geography books were written in Latin. Some people thought he was trying to prove the world was round, but this is not true. He wanted to find a short way to get to the Indies by ship.
He was a Christian and wanted to tell the story of Christ to the people he would find in the far-away lands. He also wanted wealth for himself and for Spain, and he wanted to be famous. He tried for eight years to get King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to supply him with ships and money.
They left Spain on August 3, 1492 and sailed toward the west. After many days, the sailors had covered a long distance on the sea and were ready to turn around for home when they saw land, an island Columbus named San Salvador. He thought he had found the Indies and called the people he saw there “Indians”. When they got to Cuba, he thought he was in Japan. The world was a lot larger than he thought.
On Christmas Eve, the Santa Maria was wrecked near Haiti. Columbus built a fort(城堡) and left 40 men to hunt for gold. Then he returned to Spain on the Nina. The people of Spain welcomed him as a hero. He made three more voyages across the ocean. His 13-year-old son, Ferdinand, went with him on the fourth voyage.
Columbus did not become rich as he had hoped. At the end of his life he only had a pension the king and the queen had given him because he was the first to reach the New World. He spent the last few months of his life in bed because of the pain of arthritis(关节炎). Columbus not only discovered a New World, but he led the way for other explorers.Columbus taught himself Latin because _______.
A. he wanted to prove the earth was round. |
B.he wanted to find a short way to the Indies by sea. |
C.he found Latin was very useful at that time. |
D.he wanted to travel around the world. |
How was Columbus able to make his voyage to the west?
A.He was supported by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. |
B.He worked hard for eight for to save enough money for his voyage. |
C.The king and the queen helped him with money and ships. |
D.Many people supported him with money and food for his voyage. |
Why did Columbus call the local people in Salvador “Indians”?
A.Because he thought he had arrived in Japan. |
B.Because he thought he looked like in the Indies. |
C.Because he thought it was a wealthy place. |
D.Because he thought he had arrived in the Indies. |
From the fifth paragraph we can infer that “Santa Maria” and “Nina” must be the names of_________.
A.trains | B.ships | C.cities | D.women |
From the text we know that ________.
A.Columbus lived a difficult life in his later life. |
B.Columbus was considered as a hero all his life. |
C.Columbus didn’t get the wealth as he had hoped for. |
D.Columbus was the first person to travel round the world. |
At five he was collecting old newspapers to make money. And when he was 15 he signed his schoolmates up to start a baby-sitting circle.
Now 20, third-year Cambridge University student, Peter Blackburn is managing director of a company with a £ 30,000 plan. And he thinks it will make more than $15,000 by next summer. He set up Peter Blackburn Ltd last year to bring out a new, color term-planner that now students all over the UK are using.
"I felt that most of the planners going around were pretty unimaginative," he says, "I believed that I could do a better job and decided to have a go".
Blackburn admits that he is putting far more effort into business than his computer studies course at university. While fellow students are out with their friends, he keeps in touch with his business office in Lancashire by movable phone. Before he set up the company he spent one holiday preparing a plan that would persuade his bank to lend him money.
"Most students work hard for a good degree because they believe that will help them get a job to support themselves," he says "I work hard at my company, because that is what will support me next year, after I leave college."
Friends believe that Blackburn will make £ 1 million within 5 years. He is not quite so sure, however. "There's a lot to be done yet," he says.Choose the right order of the facts given in the passage.
a. He spent his holiday preparing a plan. b. He collected newspapers.
c. He set up his own company. d. He asked the bank for money.
e. He set up a babysitting circle.
A.e, b, c, a, d | B.b, e, a, d, c |
C.b, e, d, a, c | D.b, e, c, a, d |
When he was quite young, Blackburn _______ .
A.already made a lot of money | B.already had a business brain |
C.was already managing director of a company | D.already set up his own business |
The underlined expression in the fourth paragraph "have a go," here means _______ .
A.give up this job and have a new one | B.leave the company |
C.have a try | D.develop my business quickly |
In spite of(尽管) a college student, Blackburn _______ .
A.spends more time on his business than on his studies course |
B.keeps in touch with his business office by movable phone |
C.seldom goes out with his friends |
D.often spends whole holiday preparing business plan |
Which of the following best explain why Blackburn works hard at his company?
A.He wants to do more business practice before he leaves college. |
B.He wants to make more money before he leaves college. |
C.He wants to get a good job like most students after he leaves the college. |
D.he depends on the company for his living in the future. |
Happiness is for everyone. You don’t need to care about those people who have beautiful houses with large gardens and swimming pools or those who have nice cars and a lot of money and so on. Why? Because those who have big houses may often feel lonely and those who have cars may want to walk on the country roads in their free time.
In fact, happiness is always around you if you put your heart into it. When you are in trouble at school, your friends will help you; when you study hard at your lessons, your parents are always taking good care of your life and your health; when you get a success, your friends will say congratulations to you; when you do something wrong, people around you will help you to correct it. And when you do something good to others, you will feel happy, too. All these are your happiness. If you notice a bit of them, you can see that happiness is always around you.
Happiness doesn’t mean money. It is a feeling of your heart. When you are poor, you can also say you are very happy, because you have something that can’t be bought with money. When you meet with difficulties, you can say loudly you are very happy, because you have more chances to challenge yourself. As the saying goes, life is like a revolving(旋转的)door. When it closes, it also opens. If you take every chance you get, you can be a happy and lucky person.When you do something wrong, people around you will_______.
A.quarrel with you | B.help you correct it |
C.do something wrong like you | D.laugh at you |
What will your friends say when you make great progress?
A.Oh, so do I. | B.Congratulations! | C.Good luck! | D.Just so-so! |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A.People who have cars would never like to walk in the open air. |
B.You can get help from others when you are in trouble. |
C.You can still be a happy person even if you have little money. |
D.Happiness is always around you though difficulties come towards you. |
The passage mainly tells us_______.
A.parents always care for our life and health |
B.we’re not happy if we meet with difficulties |
C.happiness is always around us |
D.life is colorful |
For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict(冲突)between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part,this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ (青少年)complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrel on unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is—politics, the laws of physics, or the proper way to break an egg—the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong,for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something—and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress. Why does the author compare the parent teen war to a border conflict?
A.Both can continue for generations. |
B.Both are about where to draw the line. |
C.Neither has any clear winner. |
D.Neither can be put to an end. |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
A.The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
B.The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict. |
C.The teens accuse their parents of misleading them. |
D.The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents. |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to__________.
A.give orders to the other | B.know more than the other |
C.gain respect from the other | D.get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
A.Causes for the parent-teen conflicts |
B.Examples of the parent-teen war |
C.Solutions for the parent-teen problems |
D.Future of the parent-teen relationship |
Read the following directions on a bottle of medicine:
“Take two tablets(药片)with water, followed by one tablet every eight hours, as required, For maximum(最大量) night-time and early morning relief(缓解疼痛), take two tablets at bed - time, Do not take more than six tablets in twenty-four hours.
For children six to twelve years old, give half the amount for a grownup. For children under six years old, ask for your doctor’s advice.
Reduce the amount if nervousness, restlessness, or sleeplessness occurs,”The directions on this medicine bottle clearly warn the patient not to take more than _____ .
A.twenty-four tablets a day. | B.eight tablets a day. |
C.six tablets a day. | D.three tablets a day. |
We can infer from the directions that ______ .
A.the medicine could cause some people to feel nervous. |
B.children may take the same amount that grown-ups take. |
C.one may not take this medicine before going to bed. |
D.the medicine is a liquid. |
If one cannot sleep, it is suggested that he _____ .
A.take two tablets before going to bed. |
B.take less than two tablets before going to bed. |
C.stop taking the medicine. |
D.ask advice of a doctor. |
Obviously the medicine _______ .
A.may be dangerous to small children. |
B.cannot be taken by children under twelve years old. |
C.may be taken by children but not by grown-ups. |
D.may be taken by grown-ups but not by children. |