In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and preparing for the worst, Australian adventurer Peter Seiter wrote a farewell note to his family, put it in a bottle and threw it overboard. With a sense of bad feeling he wrote: “The ocean has a personality of its own. The place can be such a peaceful environment to be in, yet it can be frightfully violent. I’ve experienced both.” Fearing he wouldn’t make it home, he placed the note -- dated June 11, 1998 -- in a wine bottle and covered the bottle.
“I included my geographical coordinates, so if anything happened to me, they’d know my last place when I threw the bottle into the ocean,” says Peter, who was then sailing from the Azores in Portugal to New York and knew the Atlantic could be dangerous. He also included some money with his message, asking whoever found it to use the money to post the letter to his family.
Seventeen days later he reached his destination, having survived the dangerous seas, but he assumed his message in the bottle had not -- until it was found on shore, 11 years later!
Recently, American woman Katherine Ginn and her friend came across the bottle on a deserted beach in the Bahamas. “Alongside it they’d found a life jacket and, assuming the worst, opened the bottle and spent 24 hours drying it out so they could read my story and write to my family as I requested,” says Peter, 44. “I couldn’t believe it -- that after all these years my bottle had turned up with its contents, still undamaged.”
Overjoyed, he wrote to the pair, saying he was alive and living in Australia with his family.
Katherine posted him his letter, money and some broken glass of his bottle placed in a tiny box as a special souvenir. These special items now share pride of place among photos of Peter’s Atlantic voyage. “I can’t express what this old letter means to me,” Peter says. “It gives me a sense of hope and belief. It’s something special to share with my children as they grow up.” Why did Peter have the idea of a message bottle?
| A．He missed his family very much then. |
| B．He hoped to share his experience with his family. |
| C．He regretted taking a risk on the ocean. |
| D．He thought he might lose his life on the voyage. |
As for the survival of the message bottle, Peter ________.
| A．felt very certain about it |
| B．thought it had little chance of reaching land |
| C．took a long time to search for it |
| D．wrote a letter to Katherine |
What can be inferred about the message bottle according to Paragraph 3 and 4?
| A．Katherine found it by chance on a crowded beach. |
| B．It was 11 years before they came across it at sea. |
| C．Perhaps there was water in it when Katherine found it. |
| D．Peter couldn’t believe more that it was not damaged. |
From the passage, we can learn that ________.
| A．this was Peter’s first voyage in the Atlantic |
| B．Peter spent eleven days in the Atlantic |
| C．without the life jacket, the bottle wouldn’t have survived |
| D．Katherine was a caring and careful person |
The Olympic Games
The ancient Olympic Games was in the year 776BC. They were held at Olympia in Greece every four years, for almost 12 centuries, until AD394.
The contemporary Olympics were first held in 1896, in Athens. It was a Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin, who brought the Olympics back to life. He dreamt that the Olympics would make it possible for 56. 各国人民和平相处. Now people all over the world are helping to realize this dream. Among them are many well-known athletes.
57. 中国运动员为奥运会做出了重要贡献。At the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the People’s Republic of China returned to the Olympics after 32 years’ absence. I am sure the whole of China must have felt proud when Xu Haifeng won the first gold medal for his country. 58. Deng Yaping is perhaps the greatest female table tennis player in the world. At the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Liu Xiang excited people all over Asia when he became the first Asian to win the gold medal in the men’s 110-metre hurdles.
59. The Chinese led the way at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, winning 51 gold medals. For the first time in history, the Chinese women’s gymnastics team won the gold medal.
These are some of the Olympic athletes who have brought joy to people across the world with their attempts to push the boundaries of human achievement. We are looking forward to seeing more of them in future Olympic Games. 60. Join us in wishing the Olympic Movement a successful future.
“If you talk to the plants, they will grow faster and the effect is even better if you’re a woman.” Researchers at Royal Horticultural Society carried out an experiment to find that the voice of a woman gardener makes plants grow faster.
The experiment lasted a month and by the end of the study scientists managed to discover that tomato plants grew up two inches taller when women gardeners talked to them instead of male.
Sarah Darwin was the one making the plants the best growth. Her voice was the most “inspiring” for plants than those of nine other gardeners when reading a passage from The Origin of Species. The great-great-granddaughter of the famous botanist （植物学家）Charles Darwin found that her plant grew about two inches taller than the plant of the best male gardener.
Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent at RHS, said that the finding cannot yet be explained.He says that women have a greater range of pitch and tone（音高和音色）which might have a certain effect on the sound waves that reach the plant. “Sound waves are an environmental effect just like rain or light ,”said Mr Grosbie.
The study began in April at RHS Garden Wisley in Survey. Scientists started with open auditions(听力) for the people who were asked to record passages from John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer's Night Dream and Darwin's The Origin of Species.
Afterwards researchers selected a number of different voices and played them to 10 tomato plants during a period of a month. Each plant had headphones connected to it. Through the headphones the sound waves could hit the plants. It was discovered that plants that “listened” to female voices grew taller by an inch in comparison to plants that heard male voices.What does the passage talk about?
| A．Plants enjoy men’s voices than women’s. |
| B．A science experiment in a museum. |
| C．Voice’s influence on plant growing. |
| D．Strange findings at Royal Horticultural Society. |
What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 mean?
| A．Plants need sound as well as rain and light. |
| B．Sound is basic for the plant to grow. |
| C．Sound has a good effect as rain or light does. |
| D．Plants can’t live without sound, rain or light. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The experiment ended in May. |
| B．Scientist can explain the findings clearly. |
| C．Plants enjoy listening to the passages from famous works. |
| D．The findings are of great importance to human beings. |
Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian culture, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.
Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt（尝试）to “read” people from another culture as we would “read” someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions. Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressions permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.
It is difficult to conclude about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural differences in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of “reading” the other person incorrectly.What does the smile usually mean in the U.S.?
| A．Love. | B．Politeness. | C．Joy. | D．Thankfulness. |
The author mentions the smile of the Vietnamese to prove that smile can ___ .
| A．show friendliness to strangers | B．be used to hide true feelings |
| C．be used in the wrong places | D．show personal habits |
What should we do before attempting to “read” people?
| A．Learn about their relations with others. |
| B．Understand their cultural backgrounds. |
| C．Find out about their past experience. |
| D．Figure out what they will do next. |
What would be the best title for the test?
| A．Cultural Differences | B．Smiles and Relationship |
| C．Facial Expressiveness | D．Habits and Emotions |
Are you looking for some new and exciting places to take your kids (孩子) to? Try some of these places.
·Visit art museums. They offer a variety of activities to excite your kids’interest. Many offer workshops（作坊）for making land-made pieces, traveling exhibits, book signings by children's favorite writer, and even musical performances and other arts.
·Head to a natural history museum. This is where kids can discover the past from dinosaur(恐龙) models to rock collections and pictures of stars in the sky. Also, ask what kind of workshops and educational programs are prepared for kids and any special events that are coming up.
·Go to a Youtheater. Look for one in your area offering plays for child and family visitors. Pre-show play shops are conducted by area artists and educators where kids can discover the secret about performing arts. Puppet(木偶)making and stage make-up are just a couple of the special offerings you might find.
·Try hands-on science. Visit one of the many hands-on science museums around the country. These science play-lands are great fun for kids and grown-ups alike. They’ll keep your child mentally and physically active the whole day through while pushing buttons, experimenting, and building. When everyone is tired, enjoy a fun family science show, commonly found in these museums.If a child is interested in the universe, he probably will visit .
| A．a Youtheater | B．an art museum |
| C．a natural history museum | D．a hands-on science museum |
What can kids do at a Youtheater?
| A．Look at rock collections. | B．See dinosaur models. |
| C．Watch puppet making. | D．Give performances. |
What does “hands-on science” mean in the last paragraph?
| A．Science games designed by kids. | B．Learning science by doing things. |
| C．A show of kids’ science work. | D．Reading science books. |
Where does this text probably come from?
| A．A science textbook. | B．A tourist map. |
| C．A museum guide. | D．A news report. |
There are some topics that readers never grow bored with, and the search for a suitable partner（伴侣） is one of them. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, first published in 1813, tells the story of five young women, all of whom are looking for a husband. In order to fully understand the novel, the readers must know that at the time when Jane Austen was writing, if a family was not rich, the daughters needed to marry well in order to live a comfortable, independent life. That is the reason why Mrs. Bennet, the mother of the five girls, is so eager to have her daughters married.
The heroine of the story is Elizabeth Bennet, and as in all good romantic novels, she and Darcy, the man she finally marries, remain separate until the very end of the story. The wealthy Darcy is a proud, unsociable man, and when Elizabeth hears that he has insulted both her and her family, she dislikes him very much. Poor Darcy then falls head over heels in love with Elizabeth, and has to work terribly hard to persuade her to change her mind about him. He succeeds of course, and they live happily ever after.
Set at the turn of the 19th century, the novel is still attractive to modern readers. It has become one of the most popular novels and receives great attention from literary scholars（学者）.Modern interest in the book has resulted in a number of dramatic（戏剧的）and a lot of novels and stories modeling after Austen’s memorable characters or themes. To date, the book has sold some 20 million copies worldwide.
Jane Austen is rightly famous for her style. Her sentences have a wonderful rhythm（韵律）, and she makes such clever, true comments about people. It is not surprising that Pride and Prejudice has lasted. In the 19th century, a poor girl in Britain was often encouraged to .
| A．master the skills of writing | B．marry the one she loved |
| C．obey her parents | D．change her life by marrying rich |
The underlined word “insulted” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to .
| A．treated warmly | B．paid no attention to |
| C．had mercy on | D．said something rude about |
What do we know about Elizabeth and Darcy?
| A．They’ve experienced ups and downs but get married in the end. |
| B．They both come from poor families and wish to marry rich. |
| C．They get separated from each other shortly after being married. |
| D．Darcy falls over and gets hurt but Elizabeth still loves him. |
According to the passage, Pride and Prejudice _________.
| A．was first published in 1813 and sold 20 million copies soon |
| B．tells a sad love story which moves generations of readers |
| C．inspired many other novels and many plays have been produced based on it. |
| D．is set at the turn of the 19th century and not well received worldwide |