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John sent his mother expensive presents on his mother's birthday every year. He liked to show her how rich he was. "I must find something wonderful for her, and it must be the only one in the whole world. Then my mother must be very happy.” John thought. He advertised (登广告) in the newspapers. “Wanted—the best present for the woman who has everything. "
For many days his telephone did not stop ringing. People phoned him from all over the world. They wanted to sell him "the best present". But they did not have anything that was the only one in the whole world.
Then less than a week before his mother's birthday, a man came to his office. He was carrying a cage, and in the cage there was a large bird.
"This bird, "the man said, "can speak ten languages and sing any pop song. There is no other bird like it in the world. "
"I will listen to it, "John said. “If what you said is true, I will buy the bird from you.”
The man spoke to the bird. "Talk to me in French, " he said. The bird spoke to him in French. "Tell me a joke in Japanese, " he said. The bird told him a joke in Japanese. "Sing a famous pop song, "he said. The bird sang a famous pop song.
"I'll buy it, "John said. "How much do you want?"
"One hundred thousand dollars, "the man said. This was a lot of money but John paid him. Then he sent the bird to his mother with a birthday card.
The day after his mother's birthday he phoned her. "Well, mother, "he said, "Is the bird wonderful?"
"Oh, it was delicious, dear, "she said.
Why did John send her mother expensive presents for her birthday every year?

A.Because he loved his mother very much.
B.Because his mother needed these presents.
C.Because he wanted to show he had a lot of money.
D.Because he was the richest man in the world.

How did people know John wanted the best present in the world?

A.They rang John up.
B.They knew it from the newspapers.
C.John phoned them one by one.
D.They knew it on TV.

Why did John pay the man a lot of money for the bird?

A.Because it was such a beautiful bird.
B.Because he wanted to help the poor man with the bird.
C.Because the bird could look after his mother.
D.Because he thought the bird could make his mother happy.

What does the sentence "It was delicious, "really mean in the story?

A.His mother ate the bird.
B.His mother let the bird fly away.
C.His mother began to learn languages from the bird.
D.His mother thought it was the most expensive present in the world.
科目 英语   题型 阅读理解   难度 中等
知识点: 日常生活类阅读
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I promised Michael I wouldn’t mention this until the season was over.Now l think it's time.
Early last season, I wrote a column about an art of kindness I had seen Jordan do to a disabled child outside the stadium.After it ran,I got a call from a man in the western suburbs.He said,“I read what you wrote about Jordan.but I thought I should tell you another thing I saw.”
Here it comes, I thought. It always does. Write something nice about a person, and people call you up to say that the person is not so nice.
A few weeks later Jordan and I were talking about something else before a game, and I brought up what the man had said. Was the man right? Had Jordan really been talking to those two boys in that poor and dirty neighborhood?
"Not two boys," Jordan said. "But four."
And he named them. He said four names. And what did they talk about?
"Everything,” Jordan said. " Anything. I’ve asked to see their grades so that I can check to see if they're paying attention to their study. If it turns out that one or two of them may need teaching, I make sure they get it."
It's just one more part of Michael Jordan's life,one more thing that no one knows about, and one more thing Jordan does fight for. The NBA season is over now, and those boys have their memories. So do J! When the expert reviewers begin to turn against Jordan as they surely will, I'll think about those boys under the streetlight, waiting for the man they know to come. For someone they can depend on.
The writer wrote this story about Jordan and his young friends because _______

A.he thought highly of Jordan's deeds
B.he hated to see Jordan do something bad
C.he believed it was time to help the disabled
D.he felt sure he needn't keep the promise then

A man in the western suburbs made a call to_______

A.know why Jordan stopped in a bad area
B.get a chance to become famous himself
C.let the writer know Jordan was not that nice
D.offer an example to show how Jordan helped others

Jordan talked with the boys because he _______.

A.needed their support
B.had promised to do so
C.liked to teach them to play basketball
D.wanted to make sure they all studied well

The text implies that Jordan is _______.

A.an excellent basketball player
B.good at dealing with problems of life
C.always ready to make friends with young people
D.willing to do whatever he can for the good of society

Violin prodigies (神童), I learned, have come in distinct waves from distinct regions. Most of the great performers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were born and brought up in Russia and Eastern Europe. I asked Isaac Stern, one of the world’s greatest violinists the reason for this phenomenon. “It is very clear,” he told me. “They were all Jews and Jews at the time were severely oppressed and ill-treated in that part of the world. They were not allowed into the professional fields, but they were allowed to achieve excellence on a concert stage.” As a result, every Jewish parent’s dream was to have a child in the music school because it was a passport to the West.
Another element in the emergence of prodigies, I found, is a society that values excellence in a certain field to nurture (培育) talent. Nowadays, the most nurturing societies seem to be in the Far East. “In Japan, a most competitive society, with stronger discipline than ours,” says Isaac Stern, children are ready to test their limits every day in many fields, including music. When Western music came to Japan after World War II, that music not only became part of their daily lives, but it became a discipline as well. The Koreans and Chinese as we know, are just as highly motivated as the Japanese.
That’s a good thing, because even prodigies must work hard. Next to hard work, biological inheritance(遗传) plays an important role in the making of a prodigy. J. S. Bach, for example, was the top of several generations of musicians, and four of his sons had significant careers in music.
Jewish parents in Eastern Europe longed for their children to attend music school because ________.

A.it would allow them access to a better life in the West
B.Jewish children are born with excellent musical talent
C.they wanted their children to enter into the professional field
D.it would enable the family to get better treatment in their own country

Nurturing societies as mentioned in the passage refer to societies that ________.

A.are highly motivated in the education of music
B.treasure talent and provide opportunities for its full development
C.encourage people to compete with each other
D.promise talented children high positions

Which of the following contributes to the emergence of musical prodigies according to the passage?

A.a natural gift. B.extensive knowledge of music.
C.very early training. D.a prejudice-free society.

Which of the following titles best summarizes the main idea of the passage?

A.Jewish Contribution to Music B.Training of Musicians in the World
C.Music and Society D.The Making of Music Prodigies

Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface(BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.

Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic school in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated(展示)a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person's thoughts.

In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right band. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.

"our brain has billions of nerve ceils. These send signals through the spinal cord (脊髓)to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles," Tavella says. "Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices."

The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.

Prof. Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. "The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair."

He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit frotn. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.

1.

BCI is a technology that can

A. help to update computer systems B. link the human brain with computers
C. help the disabled to recover D. control a person's thoughts
2.

How" did Tavella operate the wheelchair in the laboratory?

A. By controlling his muscles. B. By talking to the machine.
C. By moving his hand. D. By using his mind.
3.

Which of the following shows the path of the signals described in Paragraph 5?

A. scalp→computer→cap→wheelchair
B. computer→cap→scalp→wheelchair
C. scalp→cap→computer→wheelchair
D. cap→computer→scalp→wheelchair
4.

The team will test with real patients to

A. make profits from them B. prove the technology useful to them
C. make them live longer D. learn about their physical condition
5.

Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A. Switzerland, the BCI Research Center
B. New Findings About How the Human Brain Works
C. BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled
D. Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries

Diana Jacobs thought her family had a workable plan to pay for college for her 21-year-old twin sons: a combination of savings, income,

scholarships, and a modest amount of borrowing. Then her husband lost his job, and the plan fell apart.

"I have two kids in college, and I want to say 'come home,' but at the same time I want to provide them with a good education," says Jacobs.
The Jacobs family did work out a solution: They asked and received more aid form the schools, and each son increased his borrowing to the maximum amount through the federal loan (贷款) program. They will each graduate with $20,000 of debt, but at least they will be able to finish school.

With unemployment rising, financial aid administrators expect to hear more families like the Jacobs. More students are applying for aid, and more families expect to need student loans. College administrators are concerned that they will not have enough aid money to go around.

At the same time, tuition(学费)continues to rise. A report from the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found that college tuition and fees increased 439% from 1982 to 2007, while average family income rose just 147%. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade,

"If we go on this way for another 25years, we won't have an affordable system of higher education," says Patrick M. Callan, president of the center. "The middle class families have been financing it through debt. They will send kids to college whatever it takes, even if that means a huge amount of debt."

Financial aid administrators have been having a hard time as many companies decide that student loans are not profitable enough and have stopped making them. The good news, however, is that federal loans account for about three quarters of student borrowing, and the government says that money will flow uninterrupted.

1.

According to Paragraph 1, why did the plan of Jacobs family fail?

A. The twins wasted too much money.
B. The father was out of work.
C. Their saving ran out.
D. The family fell apart.
2.

How did the Jacobs manage to solve their problem?

A. They asked their kids to come home.
B. They borrowed $20,000 from the school.
C. They encouraged their twin sons to do part-time jobs.
D. They got help from the school and the federal government.
3.

Financial aid administrators believe that.

A. more families will face the same problem as the Jacobses
B. the government will receive more letters of complaint
C. college tuition fees will double soon
D. America's unemployment will fall
4.

What can we learn about the middle class families from the text?

A. They blamed the government for the tuition increase.
B. Their income remained steady in the last decade.
C. They will try their best to send kids to college.
D. Their debts will be paid off within 25 years.
5.

According to the last paragraph, the government will.

A. provide most students will scholarships
B. dismiss some financial aid administrators
C. stop the companies from making student loans
D. go on providing financial support for college students

Tim Richter and his wife, Linda, had taught for over 30 years near Buffalo, New York--he in computers, she in special education. "Teaching means everything to us," Tim would say. In April1998, he learned he would need a heart operation. It was the kind of news that leads to some serious thinking about life's purpose.
Not long after the surgery, Tim saw a brochure describing Imagination Library, a program started by Dolly Parton' s foundation (基金会) that mailed a book every month to children from birth to age five in the singer's home town of Sevier, Tennessee.“I thought, maybe Linda and I could do something like this when we retire," Tim recalls. He placed the brochure on his desk, "as a reminder."
Five years later, now retired and with that brochure still on the desk, Tim clicked on imagination library .com. The program had been opened up to partners who could take advantage of book and postage discounts.
The quality of the books was of great concern to the Richters. Rather than sign up online, they went to Dollywood for a look-see. “We didn’t want to give the children rubbish,” says Linda. The books-reviewed each year by teachers, literacy specialists and Dollywood board members-included classics such as Ezra Jack Keats’s The Snowy Day and newer books like Anna Dewdney’s Llama Llama series.
Satisfied, the couple set up the Richter Family Foundation and got to work. Since 2004, they have shipped more than 12,200 books to preschoolers in their in their area. Megan Williams, a mother of four, is more than appreciative: “This program introduces us to books I’ve never heard of .”
The Richters spend about $400 a month sending books to 200 children. “Some people sit there and wait to die,” says Tim. “Others get as busy as they can in the time they have left.”

What led Tim to think seriously about the meaning of life?

A.His health problem. B.His love for teaching.
C.The influence of his wife. D.The news from the Web.


What did Tim want to do after learning about Imagination Library?

A.Give out brochures. B.Do something similar.
C.Write books for children D.Retire from being a teacher.


According to the text, Dollly Parton is .

A.a well-known surgeon B.a mother of a four-year-old
C.a singer born in Tennessee D.a computer programmer


Why did the Richters go to Dollywood?

A.To avoid signing up online.
B.To meet Dollywood board members.
C.To make sure the books were the newest.
D.To see if the books were of good quality.


What can we learn from Tim’s words in the last paragraph?

A.He needs more money to help the children.
B.He wonders why some people are so busy.
C.He tries to save those waiting to die.
D.Hconsiders his efforts worthwhile.

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