Four years ago my sweet mom went to be with her Lord. She did it her way.
I got the call at work, and I headed home quickly. Mom and Dad lived on a small farm that they had owned since I was seven. I hated going there every weekend. There was nothing for a young girl to do but watch the one station on the old TV set, if the weather allowed reception.
My mom, on the other hand, loved the peace and quiet of the land. The place was rustic, with no indoor plumbing or heat. We had a big wood stove in the kitchen that did its best to heat the little farmhouse, but it always seemed cold and too quiet to me.
In the evenings, my mom and I would sit for hours singing in the little kitchen. I sang the melody and Mom harmonized. Her favorite song was "Moon River" and we sang it over and over. Mom told me stories about how when I was a little girl, I could sing before I could talk.
As time passed, I had my own children and went to visit them every week or two. The kids loved the farm and the tractor rides with my dad. Me, well, I still hated the silence of the farm. While my mom loved to sit at her kitchen table and look out at her garden and flowers and retell all the old stories, I missed the hustle and bustle（喧闹）of my life at home. But I sat there listening quietly as she reminisced.
Now, I sat back in the silence and the silence was deafening so I finally leaned over to turn on an old radio. Music always comforted me.
My heart skipped a beat. "Moon River" was playing on the radio. I sat there stunned, with a tear running down my cheek, as I listened to every familiar note.
Then the radio announcer came on. “Here’s one we haven’t heard in a while,” and an unfamiliar song began. I began to cry harder as I heard the words sung over the airwaves. “Come down, come down from your Ivory Tower…” The writer didn’t like staying in the farm for the following reasons Except that ________.
| A．it was too cold and quiet |
| B．she could only sing one song in the small farm |
| C．there was nothing more that could make her excited |
| D．the place was rustic, with no indoor plumbing or heat |
From the first paragraph, we know that the writer’s mother ________.
| A．left the small farm with Lord |
| B．passed away four years ago |
| C．left for Lord to live her own way |
| D．preferred to be with Lord |
What does the underlined phrase refer to?
| A．shouted | B．comforted |
| C．recalled | D．sighed |
Which of the following would be the best title for this passage? _______
| A．Mom’s music | B．Cherish(珍惜) life |
| C．My happy childhood | D．Our small farmhouse |
| Ticket Prices for Shanghai Expo |
||||
| Time Types |
Pre-sale（预售）Ⅰ Mar. 27，2009 ～Jun. 30，2009 |
Pre-sale Ⅱ Jul. 1，2009 ～Dec. 31，2009 |
Pre-sale Ⅲ Jan. 1，2010 ～Apr. 30，2010 |
Expo Session（期间）May. 1，2010 ～Oct. 31，2010 |
| Peak Day Ticket （指定日门票） |
￥170 |
￥180 |
￥190 |
￥200 |
| Standard Day Ticket （平日门票） |
￥130 |
￥140 |
￥150 |
￥160 |
| 3-Day Ticket |
N/A（无） |
￥400 |
||
| 7-Day Ticket |
￥900 |
|||
| Evening Ticket |
N/A |
￥90 |
41．If Joe wanted to buy the cheapest ticket for Peak Day，he could book（预定）one during ．
| A．Pre - sale Ⅰ | B．Pre – sale Ⅱ |
| C．Pre – sale Ⅲ | D．Expo Session |
On March 1，2010，Sue bought two Standard Day tickets for her parents.
She paid for them.
| A．￥380 | B．￥300 | C．￥260 | D．￥180 |
It cost Thomas ￥160 to get a ticket for Standard Day.He probably bought it on ．
| A．April 23，2009 | B．August l，2009 |
| C．February 2，2010 | D．May 20，2010 |
Kathy spent 900 yuan on a ticket for Shanghai Expo．Her visit can last days．
| A．one | B．three | C．seven | D．ten |
Visitors to Shanghai Expo could buy tickets only after May 1，2010．
| A．morning | B．afternoon |
| C．evening | D．midnight |
The most frightening words in the English language are, “Our computer is down.” You hear it more and more when you are on business. The other day I was at the airport waiting for a ticket to Washington and the girl in the ticket office said, “I’m sorry, I can’t sell you a ticket. Our computer is down.”
“If your computer is down, just write me out a ticket.”
“I can’t write you out a ticket. The computer is the only one allowed to do so.”
I looked down on the computer and every passenger was just standing there drinking coffee and staring at the black screen. Then I asked her, “What do all your people do?”
“We give the computer the information about your trip, and then it tells us whether you can fly with us or not.”
“So when it goes down, you go down with it.”
“That’s good, sir.”
“How long will the computer be down?” I wanted to know.
“I have no idea. Sometimes it’s down for 10 minutes, sometimes for two hours. There’s no way we can find out without asking the computer, and since it’s down it won’t answer us.”
After the girl told me they had no backup(备用) computer, I said. “Let’s forget the computer. What about your planes? They’re still flying, aren’t they?”
“I couldn’t tell without asking the computer.”
“Maybe I could just go to the gate and ask the pilot if he’s flying to Washington, ” I suggested.
“I wouldn’t know what gate to send you to. Even if the pilot was going to Washington, he couldn’t’t take you if you didn’t’t have a ticket.”
“Is there any other airline flying to Washington within the next few hours?”
“I wouldn’t know,” she said, pointing at the dark screen. “Only ‘IT’ knows. ‘IT’ can’t tell me.
By this time there were quite a few people standing in lines. The word soon spread to other travelers that the computer was down. Some people went white, some people started to cry and still others kicked their luggage.The best title for the article is _______.
| A．When the Computer Is Down |
| B．The Most Frightening Words |
| C．The Computer of the Airport |
| D．A different travel |
What could the girl in the ticket office do for the passengers without asking the computer?
| A．She could sell a ticket. |
| B．She could write out a ticket. |
| C．She could answer the passengers’ questions. |
| D．She could do nothing. |
Why do you think they had not a backup computer?
| A．Because it was easy down |
| B．Because it was not relied on . |
| C．Because it was not useful. |
| D．Because it was very expensive. |
The last paragraph suggests that _______.
| A．a modern computer won’t be down. |
| B．computers can take the place of humans |
| C．sometimes a computer may bring suffering to people |
| D．there will be great changes in computers |
What kind of feeling did passengers have when the computer was down?
| A．upset | B．determined |
| C．encouraged | D．happy |
We offer five kinds of courses. Each course has been designed to help students according to their needs.
Course 1: General English
General English is designed to develop students’ basic communication skills in: Speaking and Pronunciation, Reading, Listening, Writing, Grammar and Vocabulary. Tuesday to Friday: 9:00 am to 11:00 am, $288 per week.
Course 2: Academic English
Academic English is for students who want to take the IELTS exam or for those who need to use English in a professional area. Monday to Friday: 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm, $ 320 per week.
Course 3: High School ESL
Why not make the most of your time studying in Australia with the help from TIES? We have High School ESL classes each week specifically designed for international students. Tuesday to Friday: 8:00 am to 11:00 am, $ 25 per hour.
Course 4: Night Classes
Do you want to improve your English and get the best possible results in your GRE test? We have two night classes each week designed to meet your needs. Tuesday and Thursday evenings: 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm, $ 60 per day.
Course 5: One on One
If you are interested in some One on One lessons with TIES teachers, we can design a course to meet your needs. One on One lessons can improve your English language skills more quickly and help students who want to take TOEFL. Tuesday to Friday: 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm, $ 80 per hour. If you are an English beginner, you’d better choose________.
| A．General English | B．High School ESL |
| C．Night Classes | D．Academic English |
Which course would be helpful for students who want to take the IELTS exam?
| A．Course 1. | B．Course 2. |
| C．Course 3. | D．Course 4. |
How much will you pay if you spend two weeks taking the High School ESL course?
| A．$ 200. | B．$ 300. | C．$ 500. | D．$ 600. |
What can we learn from One on One according to the passage?
| A．Its lessons are given in the morning. |
| B．It’s especially designed for English beginners. |
| C．It’s more expensive than the other courses. |
| D．Its lessons are designed to only improve writing skills. |
If you are only free in the morning, you may choose________.
| A．Course 1 or Course 5 | B．Course 3 or Course 4 |
| C．Course 2 or Course 4 | D．Course 1 or Course 3 |
Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was seventy-five, he gave￡12,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children’s playground.
As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was seventy-five and expected to live to be a hundred. The newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at seventy-five. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky and drank some each day. “I have an injection (注射) in my neck each evening,” he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.
The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was seventy-five and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection. Johnson became a rich man through ___________.
| A．doing business | B．making whisky |
| C．cheating | D．buying and selling land |
The gift of money to the school suggests (暗示) that Johnson ___________.
| A．had no children |
| B．was a strange man |
| C．was very warm-hearted and fond of children |
| D．wanted people to know how rich he was |
Many people wrote to Johnson to find out ___________.
| A．what kind of whisky he had |
| B．how to live longer |
| C．how to become wealthy |
| D．what to inject in his neck |
The newspaperman ___________.
| A．should have reported what Johnson had told him |
| B．shouldn’t have asked Johnson what injection he had |
| C．was eager to live a long life |
| D．should have found out what Johnson really meant |
When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening, he really meant that ________.
| A．he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening |
| B．he needn’t an injection in the neck |
| C．a daily injection in the evening would make him sleep well |
| D．there was something wrong with his neck |
Our planet is home to about seven billion people. Since the 1990s, population experts have predicted the number would grow to nine billion before it begins to slow down and possibly decrease.
But a new report predicts the world’s population is likely to increase to almost 11 billion by 2100. Based on the most modern statistical tools, the new report makes use of government records and considers expert predictions, including death rates, birthrates and international migration, or people moving across borders. The report says during the rest of this century, Africa's population will grow from about 3.5 billion to 5.1 billion over the next 85 years
John is director of the United Nations Population Division. He says that in the past, researchers thought population growth in Africa would be similar to that of other areas. They expected slower growth rates as birth control use became more widespread. But he says those ideas were wrong.
“The level of contraception use has continued to increase but slowly — more slowly than expected, and birthrate therefore has been falling less rapidly than expected, and the population therefore continues to grow somewhat more rapidly than we expected.The new findings are based on a joint research project of the United Nations and the University of Washington.
The researchers believe the population of Asia will reach five billion by 2050. That is up from the current 4.4 billion. And then begin to decline. The researchers also believe that North America, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean area will have a total population of below one billion.
John says the pressure of feeding the rising population is likely to be less than that might be expected.
“The relatively good news is that the world has been winning the race between population growth and food production. If you look back historically over the last 50 years, certainly for the world as a whole and for many, most individual countries and regions, the increase in food production has outpaced the increase of population.‖”Which area will experience the largest increase in population at the end of the century?
| A．Asia. | B．Africa. | C．Europe. | D．North America. |
“Contraception use‖ in the fourth paragraph refers to ________.
| A．a method of expert predictions |
| B．a way of avoiding growth in population |
| C．a joint research into the rising population |
| D．a potential technology for food production |
Why is the pressure of feeding the rising population less than expected according to John?
| A．Expert predictions are not exactly like what the facts happen. |
| B．Birthrates have always been falling less rapidly than we expected. |
| C．The population grows less rapidly than population experts expected. |
| D．The increase in food production has outpaced the increase of population. |
What can be inferred from the passage?
| A．The world’s population will increase constantly. |
| B．The population of Asia will rise by 5 billion by 2050. |
| C．John is optimistic about feeding the rising population. |
| D．Population growth in Africa was much slower than expected. |