阅读下列短文，从每小题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳答案，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。A
When Dekalb Walcott III was just 8 years old, his father, a Chicago fire chief, let him tag along on a call. Dekalb says a lot of kids idolized basketball player Michael Jordan when he was growing up in Chicago in the 1990s. Not him.
"I wanted to be like Dekalb Walcott Jr.," he says of his father.
So when his dad asked if he wanted to go on that call with him when he was 8, Dekalb was excited. "I'm jumping up and down, saying, 'Mom, can I go? Can I go?'"
The experience changed Dekalb's life, he tells his dad on a visit to Story Corps. "My eyes got big from the moment the alarm went off." the younger Dekalb says. "This is the life that I want to live someday."
Now 27, the younger Dekalb is living that life. He became a firefighter at 21 and went to work alongside his dad at the Chicago Fire Department. Before his father retired, the pair even went out on a call together—father supervising（监督）son.
"You know, it's everything for me to watch you grow," his father says. But he also recalls worrying about one particular fire that his son faced."
I received a phone call that night. And they said, 'Well, your son was at this fire.' I said, 'OK, which way is this conversation going to go? '" Dekalb Walcott Jr. recalls.
"And they said, 'But he's OK. And he put it out all by himself. Everybody here was proud of him.'
And the word went around, 'Who was out there managing that fire? Oh, that's Walcott! That's Walcott up there!' So, you know, moments like that, it's heaven on Earth for a dad."
Dekalb Walcott Jr. retired in 2009. The younger Dekalb says he's proud of being a second-generation firefighter. "You know, it makes me look forward to fatherhood as well, because I'm definitely looking forward to passing that torch down to my son."The underlined phrase tag along in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to ______.
| A．put out fire |
| B．watch basketball |
| C．follow his father |
| D．ask his mother’s permission |
Dekalb Walcott III determined to become a firefighter at the age of _________.
| A．27 | B．21 | C．8 | D．35 |
What can we learn from the last paragraph?
| A．Dekalb Walcott III wants his son to become a firefighter too. |
| B．Dekalb Walcott Jr. is proud to be a second-generation firefighter. |
| C．Dekalb Walcott Jr. wants to pass the torch to Dekalb Walcott III. |
| D．Dekalb Walcott III is proud that his son has become an excellent firefighter. |
Which of the following is the best title of the passage?
| A．Putting Out Fire: A Challenging Job for Father and son |
| B．Passing The Torch: A Firefighter Dad's Legacy |
| C．Dekalb Walcott III: A Second-generation Firefighter |
| D．Dekalb Walcott Jr.: A Chicago Fire Chief |
Have you got a Facebook account? Are you thinking of getting one? Jamie Simmonds has just signed up. Let's see how she's getting along.
My Diary
MONDAY:I'm officially a Facebooker. I find a few people I used to know and I've soon got seven friends. I've never felt so popular! I wonder if my old university flatmate Steve is on here…What do you know! He is! Maybe Facebook has its uses.
TUESDAY:I've received lots of nice welcoming messages on my wall. Later, I meet up with Steve for a drink after not seeing him for five years. We get on really well! Then, he uses his Facebook app for iPhone to suggest me as a friend to some other former classmates. Some of them even come to the pub and it's just like old times–possibly a bit too much like old times. During the night, photos are uploaded to Facebook.
WEDNESDAY:Disaster! My mum's on Facebook! Has she seen the photos of me dancing on the table last night? Has she shown them to dad? Oh. And I have a friend request–mum again!
THURSDAY:There's a message from my boyfriend,“so, it's over then, is it?”Obviously I haven't changed my settings to show I'm“in a relationship”, and I haven't even added him as a friend. Ah, well, I wonder what my ex-boyfriend is doing…Whoops! I accidentally type his name into my status box instead of the searchand now every one can see it on their news feed.
FRIDAY:Time to update my status: “Work is boring. Can't wait for the weekend!” Oh, look, I've received a comment! Someone must feel the same way. Lots of my friends now “like” this status.
SATURDAY:Good news! I've got 100 friends. But wait!Someone has“un-friended”me!I look through my“friend list”to try to work out who it was. Why did they do that? Am I really such a terrible person? I never knew Facebook could be this cruel.
SUNDAY:Wake up. Check my Facebook page. Make coffee. Check my Facebook page again. Get ready to leave. Change my mind and check my Facebook page…again. I am becoming addicted to it! I think it's time to end it all before it takes over my life. I delete my account. Back to good, old, simple e-mails. Oh, look, I've got a message: A friend invited you to join Twitter. . .
In July 2010, Facebook had more than 500 million active users. The average Facebook user has 130 friends. Facebook is translated into more than 70 different languages. The world spends 700 billion minutes a month on Facebook. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page says he's a Harvard graduate, even though he actually dropped out to focus on Facebook. The site is valued at between $7.9 and $11 billion.Why did Jamie's boyfriend ask her whether she had broken up with him?
| A．He had seen photos of Jamie dancing on the table. |
| B．She showed in her Facebook that she was still not dating anyone. |
| C．Her boyfriend was angry that she refused to add him as her friend. |
| D．He saw the name of her ex-boyfriend on his news feed. |
Which of the following is expressed in this article?
| A．Visiting Facebook website took up a large part of Jamie's time and energy. |
| B．Jamie is enthusiastic about her present job. |
| C．Facebook was created by a Harvard graduate, Mark Zuckerberg. |
| D．Compared with Facebook, Twitter is a better choice for Jamie. |
What does the word “un-friend”mean in “Someone has‘un-friended' me!”?
| A．Being unfriendly to others. |
| B．Having a quarrel with somebody. |
| C．Removing a name from the friend list. |
| D．Ending friendship with somebody. |
Which of the following is true according to the passage ?
| A．Steve was Jamie's boyfriend in the university. |
| B．People all over the world spend 700 billion minutes a week on Facebook. |
| C．Jamie's mother saw her dancing on the table last night. |
| D．Jamie felt enthusiastic about Facebook at first. |
It can be learned from the passage that the writer's attitude towards Facebook is _________.
| A．subjective | B．objective | C．negative | D．positive |
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（傲慢与偏见）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（侮辱） 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 dramas（戏剧）and a lot of novels and stories modeling(模仿) after Austen’s memorable (难忘的)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．change her life by marrying rich | D．obey her parents |
What do we know about Elizabeth and Darcy?
| A．They both come from poor families and wish to marry rich. |
| B．They’ve experienced ups and downs but get married in the end. |
| 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．inspired many other novels and many plays have been produced based on it. |
| B．was first published in 1813 and sold 20 million copies soon |
| C．tells a sad love story which moves generations of readers |
| D．is set at the turn of the 19th century and not well received worldwide |
Winter begins in the north on December 22nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels (松鼠), for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect.
They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to know how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut (黑胡桃) trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests.
Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researchers estimate that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls “death traps for seeds”.
Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century.
The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause.The study done by Rob Swihart and Jake Goheen is to ________.
| A．find out the living conditions for squirrels |
| B．do something to get rid of squirrels |
| C．learn squirrels’ influence on black walnut trees |
| D．save the forests in the American state of Indiana |
The difference between gray squirrels and red squirrels mainly lies in ________.
| A．the way they gather the walnut |
| B．the place they store the walnuts |
| C．the time they have winter sleep |
| D．the place they have winter sleep |
When Professor Swihart says “death traps for seeds”, he actually means that ________.
| A．nuts above the ground will not develop into plants |
| B．red squirrels eat more nuts than gray squirrels |
| C．gray squirrels and red squirrels will have severe fights |
| D．seeds can be traps for other animals in the forest |
According to the passage, which of the following is true?
| A．Gray squirrels do more harm to the forest than red squirrels. |
| B．Red squirrels and gray squirrels have helped the spread of walnut trees. |
| C．The cleaning of forest land benefits red squirrels directly. |
| D．The black walnut is equally attractive to both gray and red squirrels. |
One day, when I was in college, a dishonest-looking character approached me in the student union with a leather jacket he wanted to sell. It was a beauty: buttery smooth cowskin, with artfully sewed lines and long leather fringes (穗).
I can’t remember what the price was, but it was apparently too little for such a jacket. Even as I paid the money that day, I knew something wasn’t right. Surely, a couple of days later, the jacket’s real owner, a student about my age came to me as I was on my way to class.
“That’s my jacket,” he said, “and I want it back.”
“No way,” I answered. “I paid for it, and I have no idea if it’s yours. It’s mine.”
He didn’t challenge me, and I left, but the uneasiness(不安) I had about my new possession now had a visible face. A few days later, riding my bike across campus, I saw the real owner standing on the sidewalk. I rode over, took the jacket off, handed it to him said I was sorry, and rode off without another word. More than the weight of the jacket had been lifted from my shoulders.
We’re all human, which means that sometimes we do things we shouldn’t do or say things we shouldn’t say. Sometimes we realize too late that our actions have been hurtful to somebody else. When these hard times occur, the best response --- the only response, really --- is, “I’m sorry.”
Admitting a wrongdoing, as soon as possible and frankly, helps the other person begin to heal. But just as important, it cleans up our own soul and sets us free.
That is a small price to pay for a clear conscience. The author bought the leather jacket from the man in the student union because ______.
| A．it was charged at a reasonable price |
| B．it was a very attractive jacket |
| C．he was in great need of clothing |
| D．he was happy to find such a bargain |
The phrase “had a visible face” in the passage probably implies（暗含） “______”.
| A．started to bother me badly |
| B．might be clearly expressed |
| C．began to give me away openly |
| D．could be instantly melting away |
Giving the leather jacket back to the real owner, the author ______.
| A．offered his forgiveness | B．felt very much relieved |
| C．rode away unwillingly | D．realized his wrongdoing |
What is the author’s purpose of this writing?
| A．To encourage the readers to admit errors honestly. |
| B．To show the readers the reality of his college life. |
| C．To give the readers a lesson on how to say sorry to others. |
| D．To tell the readers a story that once happened at college. |
Transportation and communication networks bring people together. Yet sometimes people themselves create barriers to transportation and communication. In some countries, laws stop people from moving freely from place to place.
Over the centuries, many groups of people have been denied the freedom to travel because of their race, religion, or nationality. In the Middle Ages, for example, Jews were often forbidden to move about freely within certain cities. South Africa's government used to require black Africans to carry passes when they travel within the country. Some governments require all citizens to carry identification papers and to report to government officials whenever they move.
Countries set up Customs posts at their borders. Foreign travellers must go through a Customs inspection before they are allowed to travel in the country. Usually travellers have to carry special papers such as passports and visas(签证). Some countries even limit the number of visitors to their country each year. Others allow tourists to visit only certain areas of the country, or they may require that travellers be with an official guide at all times during their stay.
Many of those barriers to travel also act as barriers to communication. When two governments disagree with each other on important matters, they usually do not want their citizens to exchange news or ideas freely. Countries often try to keep military or industrial information secret.
Today, people have the ability to travel, to communicate, and to transport goods more quickly and easily than ever before. Natural barriers that were difficult or dangerous to cross a hundred years ago can now be crossed easily. The barriers that people themselves make are not so easy to overcome. But in spite of all the different kinds of barriers, people continue to enjoy travel and the exchange of goods and ideas.The examples in paragraph 2 are used to tell the readers that _______
| A．Customs posts are necessary at the borders of the countries |
| B．people have been allowed to travel freely within the country |
| C．people have not been permitted to travel freely for various reasons |
| D．travellers have to carry special papers such as passports and visas |
Some governments limit the freedom of communication because___
| A．they think such freedom will lead to wars |
| B．they more often than not agree with each other on important matters |
| C．they intend to keep their national secrets unknown to others |
| D．they want to show their authority over communication |
We may learn from the passage that _______
| A．people do not care about the removal of barriers between countries. |
| B．people can not remove the obstacles made by themselves |
| C．barriers should be taken for granted as they always exist |
| D．man-made barriers are sometimes harder to overcome than natural ones |
Which of the following can serve as the best title of the passage?
| A．Functions of Communication | B．Barriers Made by People |
| C．Restrictions on Transportation | D．Progress of Human Society |