It was Thanksgiving morning. I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together on the top step.
“Any old papers, lady?” asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals （凉鞋）, wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I saved them cocoa and bread to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started cooking.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich?”
“Am I rich? Pity, no!”
I looked at my worn-out slipcovers （椅套）. The girl put her cup back in its saucer （茶碟）carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucers.” They left after that, holding their papers against the wind. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.
Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a regular job, these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy marks of little sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am. The writer let the two children come in and served them well because ______.
| A．she wanted to sell old papers to them |
| B．she wanted to give them some presents |
| C．she showed great pity and care on them |
| D．she wanted to show her thanks to them |
The writer left the muddy marks of little sandals on the floor for a while to _______.
| A．show that she was a kind-hearted lady |
| B．remind her she shouldn’t forget how rich she was |
| C．leave room for readers to think about what being rich is |
| D．call up her memories of the good old days |
It can be inferred from the text that whether you are rich depends on _______.
| A．how much money you have made |
| B．what attitude you have had toward life |
| C．the way you help others |
| D．your social relationship |
Why should I teach my children history? That sounds like a stupid question to even ask. But, as I hear different home schooling teachers discuss history, I get the idea that there may be different reasons for teaching history. Let me briefly explain the three good reasons for studying history and two bad reasons for studying history.
The major reason I see for studying history is that we can learn from the past. I am convinced that the world would be a much better place if more people understood the successes and failures of the past and the things that made these successes and failures. However, as the unfortunately true statement goes "the one thing we seem to learn from history is that we don't seem to learn from history." Perhaps at least in teaching history, to my children I can do a small part in changing this.
A second major reason for studying history is that it is hard to understand the current political climate in the absence of an understanding of its historical context. We can- not even understand why we are and where we are without history, much less (更不必说) try to figure out where we are going or how we should get where we want to be.
I teach my children history, for one more reason. I purchased a set of historical audio (录音机) tapes for our children. My seven-year-old son listened to them over and over. It was my hope that he would become inspired by the accomplishments of people like the Wright brothers to accomplish things by himself. I think that it is good that we celebrate the accomplishments of people like Martin Luther King Jr. if, in doing so, young people are called on to stand for the principles that he stood for and accomplish what he accomplishe D．I also think that by studying people like Adolph Hitler, people can learn to stand against the things that he stood for.What message can we get from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 ?
| A．Many people fail to make good use of history and make the same mistakes. |
| B．Many people aren't clever enough to learn well from the past. |
| C．Many people feel it hard to understand history. |
| D．Many people have no interest in studying history. |
Some historical figures are mentioned in the last paragraph to show ______________.
| A．people can be inspired to do good, while also learning to fight against evil |
| B．people may also learn from bad historical figures |
| C．more celebrations should be held to honor their achievements |
| D．today’s people can also achieve what they achieved |
What would be talked about in the following paragraph?
| A．How to teach history effectively. |
| B．How to get more people to study history. |
| C．Some negative reasons for studying history. |
| D．Some bad historical figures. |
The main purpose of this passage is to ____________.
| A．inspire the parents to teach their children history |
| B．show the importance of history in politics |
| C．explain the reasons why children study history |
| D．introduce the writer' s own way of teaching history |
Animals seem to have the sense to eat when they are hungry and they do not eat more than their bodies need．It has been demonstrated（证明）that rats will, when given a choice over a period of time, prefer water with vitamins(维生素) to water without vitamins even though there is no difference in taste or smell between the two water bottles．When a fragrant（香的）flavor（作料）was added to the vitamin-enriched water, the rats did seem to prefer it and kept drinking it ,even after the vitamins were switched to the clear water．In time, however, they broke the habit and went back to where the necessary vitamins were．
In a classic experiment, babies of 6 to 12 months old were placed in a cafeteria（自助） feeding arrangement, with a wide selection of baby food before them．They were given whatever food they pointed to or appeared interested in．We are told that at first they showed some unusual eating patterns, but that over a period of time they managed to select well-balanced diet．
So, in choosing food, rats and babies do seem to know and act on what's best for them．Apparently, there is a kind of “body wisdom”, which humans soon lose．Most of us do not eat as wisely as we could．Many of our food preferences are culturally determined and influenced by long-formed habits．Some people eat fox, dog and blackbirds, while we eat cows and pigs．So what people eat and how much they eat seems to be greatly influenced by what is going on around them．In the experiment on rats, a fragrant flavor was added to the rats’ drinking water to _____________ .
| A．encourage rats to drink vitamins-enriched water |
| B．test whether rats know which drink is good for them |
| C．find out rats’ preference in flavor |
| D．demonstrate the vitamins are tasteless |
According to the passage ,adults eating habits differ from those of babies because_________．
| A．adults know better than babies what kind of food are good for their health |
| B．adults usually cannot resist the temptation of various delicious foods |
| C．adults have more choices of food than babies in eating patterns |
| D．adults' eating habits are closely related to the social and cultural customs |
The author implied in the passage that most of us_________．
| A．eat a balanced diet |
| B．choose the food that is of nutrition |
| C．have the habits influenced by the surroundings |
| D．like to eat the food with a fragrant flavor． |
As far as their eating habits are concerned, babies and rats are similar in that_________．
| A．both prefer flavored food and drink |
| B．both have the wisdom to choose a balanced diet |
| C．both have the same eating patterns |
| D．both develop a taste for the same kinds of flavors |
China has input several billion yuan of money to stop the dirty water waste on the upper and middle area of the Pearl River from polluting the lowe
r reaches of the river, especially the Macao Special Administrative Region．
The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the upper and middle reaches of the Pearl River has been rapidly urbanized（城市化）and industrialized in recent years, leading to a rise in the amount of urban rubbish to the damage of the land, rivers and atmosphere．
Refuse dumps and special plants in most cities treat rubbish to make it harmless, with 5,800 tons of wastes being burnt, buried or made into fertilizers on a daily basis．
He Suping, a woman engineer with the water resources department in Guangxi said, it is imperative for the autonomous region to treat sewage wastes to protect the area’s Karst terrain（喀斯特地形）and rain water which brings contact between groundwater and surface water, making groundwater more easily polluted．
The Xijiang River, a branch of the Pearl River which runs from Guangxi to neighboring Guangdong Province, provide
s fresh water for a n
umber of riverside cities such as Macao, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Zhaoqing, so Guangxi must begin to treat rubbish quickly to protect the water sources, said Liu Chen, a senior engineer with the Ministry of Water Resources．
The government 2001—2006 plan to spend billions of yuan to turn wastes harmless has been mainly provided by national debt payments and overseas investment．So far wastes treatment projects have received a total of 400 million yuan（48 million US dollars）from national debts and 60 million yuan（7．22 million US doll
ars）from overseas loans（贷款）．The main idea of the passage is __
| A．A large number of waterways have been polluted in China up to now． |
| B．Guangxi and Guangdong have taken the lead in making water clean． |
| C．China's rivers are badly in need of improvement． |
| D．China is making efforts to reduce pollution of the rivers． |
The main idea of the last paragraph is __
| A．The government has no ability to afford the expenses of treating wastes． |
| B．The government has a long-term plan to treat wastes． |
| C．National debt payments and overseas investment are taking an important part in developing China's economy． |
| D．A great deal of money is needed in dealing with wastes． |
The basic reason why the amount of urban rubbish rises in Guangxi lies in _____．
| A．the improvement of people’s living standard |
| B．people’s wasting too much |
| C．urbanization and industrialization |
| D．too many tourists’ coming |
The word “imperative” here probably
means _______．
| A．unnecessary | B．important | C．easy | D．unbelievable |
A story from the Bible tells of old Babylon, where the men decided to build a tower that would touch the sky．But God was unhappy, and he made them speak different languages．They couldn’t understand each other, so their dream never came true．
Yet the dream remains alive: if all men speak the same language, they can do anything．L．L．Zamenhof from Poland was among the men who pursue this dream．He developed Esperanto（世界语）between 1877 and 1885．
As the most successful man-made world language, it is spoken by over two million people around the world．Last month, the World Esperanto Congress（大会）, dealing with language rights, ended in Sweden．The 2004 conference will be held in Beijing．Most Esperanto speakers are in Central and Eastern Europe and in East Asia, particularly Chinese mainland．
Esperanto has two advantages．First, it’s easy．Each letter has exactly one sound and there are just 16 basic grammar rules．The second advantage is that it belongs to no one country．But Esperanto has only reached a small number of people compared with natural languages widely used around the world-such as English or Chinese．While these languages are deeply connected with their nations and cultures, Esperanto doesn’t have this background．
Will Esperanto really become a global language? It remains a question．The writer tells us a story at the beginning to．
| A．explain why men have been making the effort to create a language shared by all |
| B．explain why men now speak different languages |
| C．show the relationship between man and God |
| D．prove that language is very important |
What does the underlined word “pursue” in the second paragraph mean?
| A．“Realize”． | B．“Work for”． | C．“Be against”． | D．“Follow”． |
What is the basic difference between Esperanto and English?
| A．More people speak English than Esperanto． |
| B．Esperanto words are easier to spell． |
| C．Esperanto has fewer grammar rules． |
| D．Esperanto is not supported by any country or culture． |
What does the story mainly talk about?
| A．Advantages and disadvantages of Esperanto． |
| B．Men’s dream of sharing the same language． |
| C．The most successful planned language-Esperanto． |
| D．Comparison of Esperanto and other languages like English and Chinese． |
When I asked my daughter which item she would keep; the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said “the phone”．Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual, because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology．
Point 1 The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic．My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day．If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?
Point 2 The mobile phone means that we are never alone．“The mobile saved my life,” says Cr
ystal Johnstone．She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton．Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance（救护车）to her rescue．
Point 3 The mobile removes our secret．It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went．
Point 4 The telepho
ne separates us．Antonella Bramante in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window．It was easy to get his number．We were so near—but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!”
Point 5 The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives．Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously（同时地）on chat lines（at least my daughter does．I wouldn’t know what to talk about）．We can talk across the world．We can even talk to astronauts（if you know any）while they’re space-walking．And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on Earth．How do you understand ‘Point 1 —The telephone creates the need to communicate,…’？
| A．People don’t communicate without telephone． |
| B．People communicate because of the creating of the telephone． |
| C．People communicate more since telephone has been created． |
| D．People communicate more because of more traffic． |
Which points do you think support the idea that phones improve people’s life?
a．Point 1． b．Point2． c．Point3． d．Point 4．e．Point 5．
| A．c, d | B．a, e | C．a, c | D．b, e |
It is possible to talk to several complete strangers simultaneously through．
| A．the TV screen |
| B．a fax machine |
| C．the phone line hooked up to the computer |
| D．a microphone |
The best heading for the passage is ．
| A．Phone Power | B．Kinds of Phone |
| C．How to Use Phones | D．Advantage of Phones |