Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904. He was famous because of the books he wrote for children. They have funny words, pictures, and social opinion（观点）. Dr Seuss wrote his first book for children in 1937. It is called And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street. Soon other successful books followed. Over the years, he wrote more than forty children’s books. They were fun to read. Yet his books sometimes dealt with serious subjects.
By the middle 1940s, Dr Seuss had become one of the best-loved and most successful writers of children’s books. He had a strong desire to help children. In 1954, Life magazine gave a report about school children who could not read. The report said many children’s books weren’t interesting. Dr Seuss decided to write books that were interesting and easy to read.
In 1957, Dr Seuss wrote The Cat in the Hat. He used less than 225 words to write the book. This was about the number of words a six-year-old should be able to read. The story was about a cat who tried to play with two children on a rainy day while their mother was away from home. The cat was very special and it could talk. The book was a great success. It was an interesting story and was easy to read. Children loved it. Their parents loved it, too. Today many adults(成年人) say it is still one of the stories they like best.Theodor Seuss Geisel was famous for .
| A．his funny words and pictures |
| B．his social opinion |
| C．his ideas on serious subjects |
| D．his books written for children |
The underlined word desire in the passage probably means “ .”
| A．问题 | B．愿望 | C．感激 | D．标准 |
According to the passage we know that .
| A．Dr Seuss wrote his first book for children at the age of 33 |
| B．Dr Seuss wrote less than forty children’s books over the years |
| C．Life magazine gave a report about adults who could not read in 1954 |
| D．And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street was loved by children and parents |
Why do many adults like reading The Cat in the Hat today?
| A．Because Dr Seuss used 225 words to write the book. |
| B．Because it was about a cat trying to play with two children. |
| C．Because it was an interesting story and was easy to read. |
| D．Because the cat was very special and it could talk with children. |
French Presidents（总统）
| Name |
Time for being president of France |
| Charles de Gaulle |
8 January, 1959 – 28 April, 1969 |
| Georges Pompidou |
20 June, 1969 – 2 April, 1974 |
| Valéry Giscard d´Estaing |
27 May, 1974 – 21 May, 1981 |
| Francois Mitterrand |
21 May, 1981 – 17 May, 1995 |
| Jacques Chirac |
17 May, 1995 – 16 May, 2007 |
| Nicolas Sarkozy |
16 May, 2007— 7 May, 2012 |
| Francois Hollande |
7 May, 2012 — |
Georges Pompidou became president of France on ____________.
| A．8 January, 1959 | B．2 April, 1974 | C．20 June, 1969 | D．17 May, 1995 |
According to the chart（表格）, ______ was president of France for the longest time.
| A．Valéry Giscard d´Estaing | B．Jacques Chirac |
| C．Francois Mitterrand | D．Charles de Gaulle |
According to the chart, we know that Nicolas Sarkozy .
| A．won’t be the next president of France |
| B．was president of France for 6 years |
| C．became president of France on 7 May, 2012 |
| D．was a very successful president |
Hi! My name is Robert and I live in Chicago. My school is called Parkside Elementary. It is Jake and Elizabeth's school too. Michael and Trevor's school is called Lincoln Middle School. In the USA many students go to elementary school between the ages of 5-10, then middle school between the ages of 11-13, and then a four year high school, and last but not least, many people go to college or vocational school.Our elementary school starts at 8:30 am and ends at 3:20 pm.We go to school on Monday through Fridays and have the weekends off.
Some of the favorite sports here in America are basketball, baseball, football, soccer, hockey, and more. But, my favorite sport is football. My favorite player in the NFL (National Football League) is Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears ( the Bears are my favorite team too).
Americans wear jeans, a shirt, socks, shoes, and sometimes a hat. I usually wear a baseball hat, my favorite pants, and my favorite shirt. My pants have 4 pockets on it, and my shirt has red and black stripes on it.
There is no common agreement in the west about the best method of education. Many views can be found among parents, teachers, and students.Students in elementary school stay at school for about ________days.
| A．four | B．five | C．six | D．seven |
The writer’s favorite sport is __________.
| A．basketball | B．baseball | C．hockey | D．football |
The third passage mainly tells us __________.
| A．the writer’s favorite sports | B．the writer’s favorite food |
| C．the writer’s favorite clothes | D．the writer’s favorite color |
“views”in the last passage means _________ in Chinese.
| A．视野 | B．风景 | C．见解 | D．检查 |
Have you ever wondered?
1. Why do airplanes take longer to fly west than east?
It can take five hours to go west-east from New York (NY) to London but seven hours to travel east-west from London to NY. The reason for the difference is an atmospheric phenomenon known as the jet (喷射) stream. The jet stream is a very high altitude wind which always blows from the west to the east across the Atlantic. The planes moving at a constant air speed thus go faster in the west-east direction when they are moving with the wind than in the opposite direction.
2. What would happen if the gravity on Earth was suddenly turned off?
Supposing we could magically turn off gravity. Would buildings and other structures (建筑物) float away? What happened would depend on how strongly the things were attached to the Earth. The Earth is moving at quite a speed, moving at over a thousand miles per hour. If you turn something around your head on a string (细绳), it goes around in a circle until you let go of the string. Then it flies off in a straight line. ‘Switching off’ gravity would be like letting go of the string. Things not attached to the Earth would fly off in a straight line. People in buildings would suddenly shoot upwards at a great speed until they hit the ceiling. Most things outside would fly off into space. What information can we get from the first passage?
| A．It is the jet stream that affects how fast airplanes fly. |
| B．Planes go slower when they are moving with the wind. |
| C．It takes more time to fly from NY to London than from London to NY. |
| D．The jet stream always blows from the east to the west across the Atlantic. |
The word “shoot” underlined in the 2nd passage probably means “__________”.
| A．send for | B．move quickly |
| C．come out | D．grow quickly |
It can be inferred that without gravity __________.
| A．buildings and other structures would float away |
| B．trees and buildings would not so easily fly off |
| C．something around your head would not float away |
| D．everything outside buildings would fly off into space |
Which of the following statements is not mentioned in the passage?
| A．It takes seven hours to travel from London to New York. |
| B．The earth is moving at a high speed |
| C．Everything on the earth will float away if there’s no gravity. |
| D．Everything not attached to the earth would fly off in a straight line. |
Where can we most probably read this text?
| A．In a research paper. |
| B．In a short story. |
| C．In a travel magazine. |
| D．In a student’s book. |
In recent years advances in medical technology have made it possible for people to live longer than in the past. New medicines and instruments are being developed every day to extend（延长）life. However，some people，including some doctors， are not in favour of these life extending measures，and they argue that people should have the right to die when they want. They say that the quality of life is as important as life itself，and that people should not be forced to go on living when conditions of life have become unbearable（不能忍受的. They say that people should be allowed to die with dignity（尊严） and to decide when they want to die. Others argue that life under any conditions is better. In recent years, people can live longer than in the past,It’s because of_________.
| A．the development of medical technology |
| B．big hospitals |
| C．good doctors |
| D．both B and C |
According to some people， whether a dying patient has the right to die or not is up to_________.
| A．the doctors | B．the surroundings（环境） |
| C．his or her family | D．the patient himself or herself |
The writer’s opinion is_________.
| A．death is better than life |
| B．life is better than death |
| C．neither death nor life is good |
| D．none of the above |
Why do some patients want to die? Because_______.
| A．the doctors are not good |
| B．the conditions are bad |
| C．life is too hard |
| D．they are seriouly ill |
Some teenagers think that newspapers are boring and only for adults. But that’s not true. There are many interesting stories in the paper. You just need to make clear what you are looking at. “I spend about half an hour reading newspapers every day,” said 15-year-old Gao Ming from Beijing. “I’m interested in things happening at school. ” School news is just one kind of news story in newspapers. There’s also world news: from international problems to pop stars.
Read the newspaper carefully, we’ll find different types of articles on the pages:
News stories — these stories are about events. Reporters try to show all points of a story to help readers understand what happened. Reporters try to speak to as many people as possible. They also use pictures and numbers to show the readers that the stories are true. The newspaper Teenagers has lots of news stories on the news page and front page. When we read them, we learn more about the facts, not the writers’ ideas.
Opinion writing — opinion writing is usually about something happening right now. But it isn’t just facts. Here writers add their own opinions to the news. Writers pick only the facts that help back up their ideas. They make readers believe that they are telling the truth. This is usually the kind of story that gets people thinking. Go to “Speak Out” on Page Two for an example of opinion writing in Teenagers.
Advertisement — Don’t get happy too early when you read them. Those sweet words and lovely pictures are just ways to get us interested in their products! People have to pay to put advertisements in newspapers!The underlined sentence means that the readers ___________.
| A．should understand interesting news stories |
| B．ought to know which kind of things to read |
| C．need to look at the school news first |
| D．must know the contents of all the news |
In the writer’s opinion, we’d better be ___________ advertisements in newspapers.
| A．interested in | B．against | C．worried about | D．careful of |
This passage mainly discusses how___________.
| A．reporters write different kinds of news |
| B．teenagers get interested in newspapers |
| C．readers can read newspapers in better ways |
| D．readers can’t read different news in newspapers |