Bob was born in Cambridge. When he was in elementary school, he asked his mother to take him to parks in their community so he could collect empty soda cans to recycle. His mother agreed, as long as he saved part of the money he earned for college.
Bob’s mother remembers Bob as the most determined of her seven kids. Bob’s persistence paid off. On Friday, he will become the first person in his family, originally from El Salvador, to graduate from college. And he’s graduating with university honors.
For his honors thesis（毕业论文）he researched unmanned solar-powered airplanes, which BYU students have been building and testing for about 10 years. Bob’s study helps discover the best way to fly a solar-powered airplane so that it uses the least amount of power. The goal is to design and build an airplane that flies indefinitely. Bob’s thesis helps lay the foundation for this work.
“My parents were always diligent,” Bob said. “They often tell us hard work leads to success. ” Bob’s father taught him to read at the age of 3, and his mother is currently a student at Utah Valley University in a way to becoming a dentist.
Bob acknowledges he overcame some obstacles to get where he is. For starters, English is his second language. He also faced stereotypes（模式化的形象）. Although Bob never doubted that he would be a college graduate, other people assumed he wouldn’t because he didn’t come from a family of high income. There were other obstacles as well, but Bob viewed them all as opportunities.
Bob’s mother says she feels very happy and proud that her son is about to graduate with honors, and remembers the sacrifices he’s made to get there. “He has worked very hard. He started something, and now he has finished it,” Cathy says. “I have always told him, ‘If this is your dream, then you can get it! Keep working hard and you can get it!’”
From the passage we can know that Bob’s honors thesis _____ .
| A．makes his mother feel surprised |
| B．helps to save the power of flying a solar-powered airplane |
| C．is done with BYU students |
| D．doubts the way of flying a solar-powered airplane |
According to the passage, Bob _____ .
| A．researched unmanned solar-powered airplanes for 10 years |
| B．paid for all his study by collecting empty soda cans |
| C．worked hard and has graduated from college |
| D．was affected by his family and has made some achievements |
People thought Bob couldn’t graduate from college because _____ .
| A．his parents had little money to support him |
| B．his teacher didn’t think he could graduate |
| C．he didn’t work hard on his study |
| D．he didn’t dare to face the obstacles for short of confidence |
It can be inferred that _____ .
| A．Bob’s mother is in a way to becoming a dentist |
| B．Bob’s mother works in their community |
| C．Bon’s father will graduate from Utah Valley University on Friday |
| D．Bob’s father learnt to read at the age of 3 |
One day an ant was drinking at a small stream and fell in. She made desperate(拼死的) efforts to reach the side, but made no progress at all. The poor ant almost exhausted(精疲力竭的) was still bravely doing her best. when a dove saw her. Moved with pity, the bird threw her a blade of grass, which supported her like a raft, and thus the ant reached the bank again. While she was resting and drying herself in the grass, she heard a man come near. He was walking along barefooted with a gun in his hand. As soon as he saw the dove, he wished to kill it. He would certainly have done so, but the ant bit him in the foot just as he raised his gun to fire. He stopped to see what had bit him, and the dove immediately flew away. It was an animal much weaker and smaller than herself that had saved her life. The ant could not reach the side though _______.
| A．she cried for help |
| B．she asked the dove to save her |
| C．she tried very hard |
| D．she could smell well |
The dove saved the ant because _______.
| A．she was the ant's friend |
| B．she took pity on the poor ant |
| C．the ant was almost exhausted |
| D．the ant had been struggled in the water for a long time |
The ant succeeded in getting on the bank with the help of _______.
| A．a leaf | B．a piece of wood |
| C．a blade of grass | D．a raft |
Just as the man shot at the dove, _______.
| A．the dove immediately flew away |
| B．the dove hid himself in the grass |
| C．the ant told the dove to leave at once |
| D．he felt something biting him in the foot |
In writing the story, the writer wants to show _______.
| A．how clever the ant was |
| B．how kind the dove was |
| C．how the ant and the dove helped each other |
| D．we often need help from others, therefore we should help others as much as we can |
What is an Oyster card?
Oyster is the easiest way to pay for journeys on the bus，Tube，tram，Docklands light Railway (DLR)，London Overground and National Rail journeys in London You can store your travel cards, Bus & Tram Pass，season tickets and credit to pay for journeys as you go.
Where to get an Oyster card?
There are a number of ways for you to get an Oyster card ：
• At over 3,900 Oyster Ticket stops
• At Tube and London Overground station ticket offices
• At some National Rail stations
• At London Travel information Centres
• Online at tfl. gov. uk/oyster
How to use an Oyster card?
To pay the correct fare on the Tube，DLR，London Overground and National Rail services，you must always touch in on the yellow Oyster card reader at the start of your journey，and touch out at the end. if you don’t, a maximum cash Oyster fare will be changed When using the bus or tram, you must only touch in at the start, but not at the end of your journey.
What happens if I don’t visit London very often?
Don’t worry. Any pay as you go credit on your card will not expire (过期)，so you can keep it for your next visit or lend it to a friend.
Fares
Traveling by Tube from Central London (Zone l)to Heathrow (Zone 6)
Adult Oyster single fare
£ 4. 20 Monday to Friday 06:30 - 09:30 and 16:00一19:00
£ 2. 70 at all other times including public holidays
Adult single cash fare £ 5.00
For further information，visit tfL.gov. uk /fares.You can get an Oyster card at the following places EXCEPT_____
| A．at a post office | B．at an Oyster Ticket stop |
| C．on the website | D．at a Tube station |
If a person with an Oyster card takes the 7 o’clock Tube from Central London to Heathrow for a week (no public holiday in between)，he should pay_____.
| A．£ 18.90 | B．£ 29.40 | C．£ 26.40 | D．£ 21.90 |
The passage is probably taken from a_______
| A．journal | B．travel brochure | C．textbook | D．novel |
Alibaba started taking the lead in China by connecting big Chinese manufacturers(制造商) with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibaba’s advantage wasn’t hard to judge: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its market attracts 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year — and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets — not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings, and anything else my wife wanted. “You’re looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.
Alibaba’s original business-to-business model now is second to consumer buying. Chinese retail(零售) buying makes up 80% of Alibaba’s profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you’ll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba’s other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping — big-box retailers especially —in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beijing, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how wide the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I’m not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher’s iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.Alibaba’s advantage mainly lies in .
| A．its low price |
| B．its big size |
| C．its not charging small sellers |
| D．its business-to-business service |
We know from the passage that Alibaba .
| A．will continue to develop. |
| B．charges all the sellers on its site a percentage of the sale. |
| C．acts as a bridge between the buyers and sellers. |
| D．is of middle size among all the online sites. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．Alibaba’s business-to-business service earns more money than retail. |
| B．TMall.com provides more profit than Taobao. |
| C．Taobao has no obvious advantage over other similar online sites. |
| D．The author’s Chinese teacher is also an online purchase lover. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Shopping online in China is TaoBao. |
| B．How the author purchases online in China. |
| C．Shopping online goes beyond traditional shopping. |
| D．Alibaba influences people’s daily purchase in China. |
A supermarket checkout operator was praised for striking a blow for modern manners and a return to the age of politeness after refusing to serve a shopper who was talking on her mobile phone.
The supermarket manager was forced to apologize to the customer who complained she was told her goods would not be scanned unless she hung up her phone. Jo Clark, 46, said, “I don't know what she was playing at. I couldn’t believe how rude she was. When did she have the right to give me a lecture on checkout manners? I won’t be shopping there again!”
But users of social media sites and Internet forums(论坛) were very angry that store gave in and the public appeared to be supporting the angry checkout worker. “Perhaps this is a turning point for mobile phone users everywhere. When chatting, keep your eyes on people around you. That includes people trying to serve you, other road users and especially people behind you in the stairs,” said a typical post.
“It’s time checkout staff fought back against these people constantly chatting on their phones. They can drive anyone crazy. It’s rude and annoying. I often want to grab someone’s phone and throw it as far as I can, even though I am not a checkout girl, just a passer-by,” said another.
Siobhan Freegard, founder of parenting site www. Netmums.com said, “While this checkout operator doesn’t have the authority to order customers to switch off their phones, you can see clearly how frustrated and angry she felt. No matter how busy you are, life is nicer when you and those around you have good manners.”According to Jo Clark, the checkout operator_____________.
| A．lacked the knowledge of checkout manners |
| B．played with a mobile phone while at work |
| C．had no right to forbid her from using her mobile phone |
| D．deserved praise for her modern manners |
The third and fourth paragraphs imply that the public_________.
| A．are used to chatting on their mobile phones |
| B．are driven crazy by constant mobile calls |
| C．ignore the existence of mobile phone users |
| D．seem to support the checkout operator |
The attitude of Siobhan Freegard towards the checkout operator was________.
| A．disapproving | B．supportive |
| C．neutral(中立的) | D．indifferent |
The passage is mainly about _________.
| A．whether we should talk on our phones while being served |
| B．why we can talk on mobile phones while shopping |
| C．what good manners checkout operators should have |
| D．how we can develop good manners for mobile phone users |
When I was a boy my father told me that he could do anything he wanted to．Dad said that he wanted to be the first to develop color prints in our city, and so he did．
When I was 16，dad looked closely at the violin I played and said that he wanted to make one．He read about violinmaking，and then became a violinmaker at the age of 43．He bought the tools and materials，opened a small store and set Mom up as the shopkeeper，while he worked at a local company．He retired from the company 17 years later and continued to make violins and other instruments．
Dad often guessed why the Stradivarius violins sounded so beautiful．Some experts told him that it was the special varnish(油漆)that gave the instruments their beautiful sound．Dad argued that chemists could analyze the varnish—if that was the answer．
One of Dad’s friends asked him which kind of wood was used to make violins．When dad explained that the top was made of spruce(云杉)，his friend said that he had all old piece of spruce which dad might be interested in．
He worked for the next 12 months making a violin from the wood that his friend had given him．It proved to be an excellent violin and it would become Dad’s masterpiece．He believed that the secret of the Stradivarius sound was in the wood itself．
Later, the instrument was stolen． Dad’s spirit was broken and he stopped making instruments. But he kept the music shop until he was 80 years old，selling guitars and violins．
The violin has been missing for more than 25 years．Somewhere a musician is playing a late-20th-century violin with an excellent tone．The owner today may never understand why this Ordinary-looking violin sounds so much like Stradivarius．In Paragraph l，the writer mentioned his father's developing color prints to ．
| A．let others know that he believed his father |
| B．show that his father would like to make violins |
| C．prove that his father could do anything he wanted to |
| D．give an example showing that his father was an inventor |
What did the writer's father think about Stradivarius violins?
| A．They were made by experts． |
| B．The wood of the violins was special． |
| C．The way of making them was unusual． |
| D．The varnish was different from the others． |
From the underlined sentence，we learn that the writer's father ．
| A．found another new job |
| B．wanted to become famous |
| C．lost interest in instruments |
| D．liked the violin very much |
What could be the best title of the passage?
| A．My Experienced Father |
| B．My Father and His Violin |
| C．The Secret of Making Violins |
| D．The New Owner of the Violin |