Success is often measured by the ability to overcome adversity. But, it is often the belief of others that gives us the courage to try.
J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series，began writing at the age of 6. In her biography, she remembers with great fondness when her good friend Sean, whom she met in secondary school, became the first person to encourage her and help build the confidence that one day she would be a very good writer.
“He was the first person with whom I really discussed my serious ambition to be a writer. He was also the only person who thought I was bound to be a success at it, which meant much more to me than I ever told him at the time.”
Despite many setbacks, Rowling persevered in her writing, particularly fantasy stories. But it wasn't until 1990 that she first conceived the idea about Harry Potter. As she recalls，it was on a long train journey from London to Manchester that the idea of Harry Potter simply fell into her head.“To my immense frustration (沮丧), I didn't have a functioning pen with me, and I was too shy to ask anybody if I could borrow one. I think, now, that this was probably a good thing, because I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, blackhaired, bespectacled(戴眼镜的) boy who didn’t know he was a wizard became more and more real to me.”
That same year, her mother passed away after a tenyear battle with multiple sclerosis, which deeply affected her writing. She went on to marry and had a daughter, but separated from her husband shortly afterwards.
During this time, Rowling was diagnosed with clinical depression. Unemployed, she completed her first novel in area cafes, where she could get her daughter to fall asleep. After being rejected by 12 publishing houses, the first Harry Potter novel was sold to a small British publishing house.
Now with seven books that have sold nearly 400 million copies in 64 languages, J. K. Rowling is the highest earning novelist in history. And it all began with her commitment to writing that was fostered by the confidence of a friend !
Rowling first came up with the idea about Harry Potter________.
| A．at the age of 6 |
| B．on a train journey |
| C．after her mother’s death |
| D．in her secondary school |
It can be concluded from Paragraph 5 and 6 that Rowling is________.
| A．openminded | B．warmhearted |
| C．goodnatured | D．strongwilled |
The text mainly tells us________.
| A．hardship makes a good novelist |
| B．the courage to try is a special ability |
| C．you can have a wonderful idea everywhere |
| D．encouragement contributes to one’s success |
These are some signs that you can see on the roads of Great Britain.
Number one is a sign with the number thirty on it. When drivers see this sign they must not go at more than thirty miles an hour. We see this sign when we get to parts of the country where there are many houses and other buildings, for example, when we are getting near a town. Thirty miles an hour is the speed limit. Number two is sign for the end of the speed limit. We are out of the town now and may go at more than thirty miles an hour. Number three is a sign that we are near a crossroads, that is, a place where two roads cross. We must drive carefully. Number four is a sign that there is a bend in the road. Again, we must drive slowly and carefully. Number five is a sign that there is a hill and number six is a sign that the roads get narrow. Drivers must go slowly and carefully. Number seven has the word “school” on it. This is a sign that there is a school at the side of a street or road. Perhaps there are children going to school or leaving school. So drivers must look carefully and go slowly until they are past the school building.
Number eight is a sign with the letter P on it. The letter P is for “parking.” A parking place is a place where drivers may leave their cars. If the driver of a car wants to leave his car and go to the shops, he looks for this sign. Then he knows that he may leave his or her car there.Who will most probably read the passage?
| A．People who drive badly. | B．People who are learning to drive. |
| C．People who drive well. | D．People who drive carelessly. |
When a driver sees the sign number one, he must .
| A．always go at 30 miles an hour |
| B．go at more that 30 miles an hour |
| C．not go at more than 30 miles an hour |
| D．stop |
A driver must drive carefully when he gets to .
| A．a bend | B． a crossroads |
| C． a narrow road | D． all of them |
If a driver wants to leaves his car and go to the shops, .
| A．he can leave his car anywhere |
| B．he can leave his car at the gate of any shop |
| C．he must look for the sign with the letter P on it |
| D．he can leave his car at the side of the street. |
Now , you—three drivers are driving side by side along the road, if you see the No. six sign, you have to _______.
| A．drive along one after one because the road is not wide enough |
| B．drive more slowly because of the speed limit |
| C．drive more carefully because school children maycrossthe road |
| D．drive slowly because you have got to drive uphill |
Thomas Edison was one of ten said to be the greatest genius of his age. There are only a few men in all of the history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be happy only because someone said he was a genius.“ There is no such thing as genius,” Edison said. He said that what people called genius was mostly hard work.
But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker.. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. Nature , he often said ,is full of secrets. He tried to understand them; then , he tried to learn what could usefully be done with them.
Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people will do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking can give men enjoyment and pleasure.
Edison could not understand how anyone could be uninterested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what ideas he had about life. “ Work,” he answered. “Discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Edison invented the electric light. |
| B．Many other people have changed Edison’s life. |
| C．Edison has changed the life of many other people. |
| D．Few men in history can change other people’s life. |
Edison thought .
| A．he could be happy if he was a genius |
| B．genius plays the most important part in one’s success |
| C．hard work could do better than genius |
| D．genius could do better than hard work |
Edison was .
| A．very much interested in nature |
| B．interested in discovering the secrets of nature |
| C．interested in changing people’s ideas |
| D．uninterested in making people happier by discovering the secrets of nature |
In Edison’s opinion, .
| A．thinking can supply people with enjoyment and pleasure as well as help |
| B．people’s success lies mostly in genius |
| C．hard work is the second important thing in making people successful |
| D．there are few secrets for him to discover later |
The last sentence in the passage most probably implies .
| A．life is too short for Edison to invent more for human beings |
| B．Edison made 100 inventions in his life |
| C．Edison was able to live and work for 100 years |
| D．People of his time were ready to give Edison another 100 years’ work |
I love seeing Europeans line up in airports to applaud arriving refugees. But humanitarianism (人道主义) will not guide policy for long. We liberals need to argue from Europe’s self-interest: our continent has the need, the space and the ability to accept people.
Many European countries are gradually turning into old people’s homes. Germany, Italy, Spain and others have some of the lowest birth rates in human history. It is predicted that about one-third of their populations will be aged over 65 in 2050. Germany needs to import at least 350,000 people a year to keep its workforce stable. Suddenly, young ambitious workers are pouring into the country as if called by a genie (精灵) with a lamp. No wonder Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, has been more welcoming than David Cameron, British Prime Minister. But all over Europe, carers for old people are already in need. Norway found oil under the seabed but it would have been better off if it had discovered 50,000 nurses there instead.
Many rightwingers think we have reached our limits. This feeling is widespread. And it’s true that Western Europe is one of the most densely populated regions on earth. Indeed, density has long been Europe’s unique selling point: with so many people of different nations closely packed together, we have always traded goods and exchanged ideas fast. That’s why the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries happened here.
But we have plenty more room. Many European cities aren’t dense enough. Now east Germany, north-western Spain and gorgeous mountain villages in Italy are losing people. Lots of cities have unused industrial land.
Humans inhabit a slice of the EU’s territory. Only about 2.5 per cent of the EU’s land is used for housing, estimates the European Commission. By contrast, a whopping 43 per cent was used for agriculture in 2009, it says. That’s too much. We could turn more land into forest or into green landscapes where people can relax and play. Making that transition is feasible because we now use agricultural land inefficiently.
Migrants often spend years locked up together in serious government-funded “migrant centers”. However, the way to learn a new country’s language, make friends and find work is to live with a local. This crisis has shown that lots of Europeans are willing to take refugees into their homes. After Iceland’s government said it could take only 50 Syrian refugees, many Icelanders came forward offering to take a far greater number into their own homes. People aren’t just sitting around waiting for government to do something.
We need migrants, and we can accommodate them. If opponents just don’t like foreigners, they should say so instead of pretending to be hardheaded pragmatists (实用主义者).Why is Angela Merkel willing to take in refugees according to the passage?
| A．Germany has already stepped into aged society. |
| B．Birth rates in Germany are the lowest in history. |
| C．She is kind and shows sympathy for homeless people. |
| D．Refugees can make up the shortage of labor in Germany. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．No other region is more densely populated than Western Europe. |
| B．Density has become Europe’s most outstanding characteristic. |
| C．All European cities are not crowded together in great numbers. |
| D．Large quantities of unused industrial land will turn into forest. |
It can be inferred that _______.
| A．nurses are more badly needed than petrol in Europe |
| B．liberals always do something for the Europe’s benefit |
| C．aging problem in Germany is the worst in Europe |
| D．Europeans have already made intelligent use of the land |
What is the last paragraph but one mainly about?
| A．Migrants can privately be accommodated. |
| B．Migrants had better not live in migrant centers. |
| C．Everyone can live with migrants to help them fit in. |
| D．Everyone has done their own part to help migrants. |
An oral drug, named ERDRP-0519, was invented. It is specifically designed to protect people who got infected measles(麻疹) from spreading the virus to others. Like the flu, measles spreads through the air by breathing, coughing or sneezing. There is typically a time, about two weeks, between becoming infected with the virus and the beginning of symptoms like skin rash(皮疹), runny nose, heavy cough and high fever.
“This therapy application determines the desired characteristics of the drug, which are orally available, cost-effective manufacture and high stability,” Richard Klemperer, professor of Georgia State University, told reporters last Wednesday.
“With these criteria in mind, we have developed a small drug that blocks the measles virus over the past years, which is essential for copy of the virus.”
The researchers tested the drug in rats infected with canine distemper virus(犬瘟病) , which is a close relative of measles virus. They found that all of the infected rats treated with the drug survived the deadly infection, showed no clinical signs of disease and developed a strong protective immune response.
The drug could be used to treat friends, family and other social contacts of a person infected with measles virus, which have not developed symptoms yet but are at risk of having caught the disease, Klemperer said truthfully.
“The emergence of strong antiviral immunity(抗病毒免疫力) in treated animals is particularly encouraging, since it suggests that the drug may not only save an infected individual from disease but contribute to closing measles immunity gaps in a population,” Klemperer said.
The researchers emphasized the drug is not intended as a substitute for vaccination, but as an additional weapon to get rid of the measles. They planned to test the drug’s safety in larger animals, before moving into clinical trials in humans.
“If our next series of studies confirms that the human situation mirrors what we have seen in rats, then this drug may make a major contribution to getting rid of measles by preventing local outbreaks” Klemperer said.
Despite the existence of an effective vaccine, annual measles deaths worldwide have remained constant at around 150,000 since 2007. The reasons for this are the highly infectious nature of the virus, in the developing world largely due to issues of resources, and in many developed countries in particular in the European region due to parental concerns regarding vaccination safety. If a boy got infected by measles virus, he might NOT show the symptom like ________.
| A．runny nose | B．bad cough |
| C．high fever | D．sick stomach |
From what Klemperer said, we know that the drug _________.
| A．is only intended as a substitute for vaccination |
| B．can only save those infected individuals from disease |
| C．is cost-effective and high stability for curing measles |
| D．has the same effect on human as on larger animals |
The best title of the passage is_________.
| A．the Introduction of a New Oral Drug |
| B．the Desired Characteristics of Drugs |
| C．the Common Symptoms of Getting Measles |
| D．the Application of Post-exposure Therapy |
The Best Time to Visit Sydney
If you prefer the cold to heat, especially if seeking to escape the northern summer, the best time to visit Sydney could be in the Australian winter from June 1 to August 31.
The Sydney winter isn’t really harsh and the weather’s generally pleasant. It’s great for touring the city on foot and for bushwalking. And the ski slopes are not too far away.
Holiday time
You get the Queen’s Birthday holiday weekend in June and the school holidays in July. Aside from within those periods, accommodation costs in the city will generally be lower.
Winter weather
Expect generally cool conditions. The average temperature should range from around 8°C (46°F) at night to 16°C (61°F) in the daytime in mid-winter. Expect from 80mm to 131mm of rainin a month, with the most rain in June tapering into August.
Winter accommodation
Outside of the holiday periods, Sydney accommodation will usually be available and should be relatively cheaper.
Winter activities
The weather’s fine for a walking tour of Sydney. Visit The Rocks, the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australian Museum, Hyde Park, Chinatown, Darling Harbour.
Go on a harbor cruise. At the very least, take a Sydney ferry and cross the harbor to Manly.
Take a daytrip north, south and west of Sydney.
Spot the whales as they travel north in the whale migration season.
Go bushwalking at the Royal National Park. Considering weather and accommodation, the best time to visit Sydney is in ________.
| A．June | B．July | C．August | D．December |
Which of the following activities is NOT recommended in the passage?
| A．Going skiing near Sydney. |
| B．Hunting whales in the Royal Botanic Gardens. |
| C．Touring Sydney on foot. |
| D．Bushwalking at the Royal National Park. |