One day newly wedded Nancy lost her ring while helping to plant potatoes. Friends were called and the field was searched long but in vain(徒劳). Later, when the potatoes were harvested, Everyone looked out for the ring but it remained lost. Another year came round and all the farmers working in the field kept their eyes open. The following year was the same. And year after year, whoever had business in the field always had Nancy’s ring in his mind.
Then the farm changed hands but it went no farther than to cousins. So the memory of the lost ring remained alive until thirty-eight years had passed. Then came a spring day when a man was ploughing the field behind a pair of horses. Even after thirty-eight years he still looked out for the ring, and knew just which part of the field Nancy had lost it in. At this time, when he came there, he found it .He picked it up, put it carefully into his pocket, left his horse, and ran all the way down to the village and placed it into Nancy’s hand.How did Nancy come to lose her ring?
| A．She lost it while helping to harvest tomatoes in the field |
| B．She lost it while working in the field. |
| C．She lost it while helping to plant potatoes in the field. |
| D．She lost it while watering the plants in the field. |
Why did people keep looking for the ring even after the farm changed hands?
| A．They all loved Nancy. |
| B．They all wanted to solve the mystery. |
| C．It was a very expensive ring |
| D．Everybody wanted to have this ring. |
What did the ploughman do after finding the ring?
| A．He picked it up and put it in his pocket. |
| B．He ran back to tell everybody in the village. |
| C．He placed it in a secret spot. |
| D．He returned it to the owner. |
What can you infer from the story?
| A．The ring was invaluable. |
| B．The ring’s disappearance was the work of supernatural power. |
| C．People on the farm were honest and helpful. |
| D．Nancy no longer expected that her ring would be found again. |
How Many Lies Do the Children Tell You?
Mothers who feel their children don’t appreciate them can add another grievance to the list: half the time, their children are lying to them. A study designed to expose the truth about lying shows that undergraduates lie to their mothers in 46% of their conversations. Still, mums should feel better than total strangers, who are told lies an astonishing 77 % of the time.
Bella Depaulo and a team of psychologists from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, asked 77 undergraduates to keep a record of all their conversations for a week, and write down whether they lied at any time. DePaulo named lying broadly, as "when you intentionally try to mislead someone", so she would catch the smallest of lies.
The students told an average of two lies a day. They said they had been studying when they had been out drinking. One told his parents that a textbook cost $50 rather than $20 so that they would send him extra money. Female students constantly told their plain-looking roommates that they were pretty. "They are everyday lies," says DePaulo.
DePaulo and her colleagues conclude that people tend to tell fewer lies to those they feel closest to. College students lied to their best friends 28% of the time but lied to acquaintances 48% of the time. In close relationships, people were more likely to tell "kind-hearted" lies, designed to protect feelings, rather than self-serving lies.
Romantic（浪漫的）partners lie somewhere between close friends and acquaintances. Students lied to romantic partners about a third of the time. DePaulo thinks that unmarried lovers can expect less honesty than best friends because of the insecurity that comes with romance.
Mothers can take heart from one other finding. They may have been lied to, but at least their children talked to them. The students were recorded telling few lies to their fathers because they had little interaction with them.What is the meaning of the underlined word "grievance" in Paragraph 1?
| A．Belief. | B．Opinion. |
| C．Complaint. | D．Difficulty. |
According to the passage, college students felt closest to.
| A．mothers. | B．best friends |
| C．acquaintances | D．romantic partners |
Female students lied to their roommates to.
| A．get money from them | B．offer them the services |
| C．gain more security | D．make them happy |
What is the purpose of this article?
| A．To present a fact. | B．To argue an idea. |
| C．To tell a story. | D．To explain a theory. |
Last night I was driving from Harrisburg to Lewisburg, a distance of about eighty miles. It was late. Several times I got stuck behind a slow-moving truck on a narrow road with a solid white line on my left, and I became increasingly impatient.
At one point along an open road, I came to a crossing with a traffic light. I was alone on the road by now, but as I drove near the light, it turned red and I made a stop. I looked left, right and behind me. Nothing. Not a car, no suggestion of car lamps, but there I sat, waiting for the light to change, the only human being for at least a mile in any direction.
I started wondering why I refused to run the light. I was not afraid of being caught, because there was clearly no policeman around, and there certainly would have been no danger in going through it.
Much later that night, the question of why I'd stopped for that light came back to me. I think I stopped because it's part of a contract(契约) we all have with each other. It's not only the law, but it's an agreement we have, and we trust each other to honor it: we don't go through red lights.
Trust is our first inclination(倾向). Doubting others does not seem to be natural to us. The whole construction of our society depends on mutual(相互)trust, not distrust. We do what we say we'll do；we show up when we say we'll show up; and we pay when we say we'll pay. We trust each other in these matters, and we're angry or disappointed with the person or organization that breaks the trust we have in them.
I was so proud of myself for stopping for the red light that night.Why did the author get impatient while driving?
| A．He was lonely on the road. |
| B．He was slowed down by a truck. |
| C．He got tired of driving too long. |
| D．He came across too many traffic lights. |
What was the author's immediate action when the traffic light turned red?
| A．Stopping still. |
| B．Driving through it. |
| C．Looking around for other cars. |
| D．Checking out for traffic police. |
The event made the author strongly believe that ________.
| A．traffic rules may be unnecessary |
| B．doubting others is human nature |
| C．patience is important to drivers |
| D．a society needs mutual trust |
Why was the author proud of himself?
| A．He kept his promise. |
| B．He held back his anger. |
| C．He made a right decision. |
| D．He followed his inclination |
Today we'll talk about reading. When we read a text, our eyes move across a page in short, quick movements. We recognize words usually when our eyes still fixate(停留, 凝视). Each time they fixate, we see a group of words. This is known as the recognition span or the visual span. The length of time for which the eyes stop varies from person to person. It also varies within any person according to his purpose in reading and his familiarity with the text. In addition, it can be affected by such factors as lighting and tiredness.
Unfortunately, in the past, many reading improvement courses have concentrated too much on how our eyes move across the page. As a result of this misleading emphasis on the purely visual aspects of reading, many exercises have been designed to train the eyes to see more words at one fixation. For example, in some exercises, words are flashed on to a screen for a tenth of a second. One of the exercises has required students to fix their eyes on some central point, taking in the words on either side. Such word patterns are often formed in the shape of pyramids, so the reader takes in more and more words at each successive（连续的）fixation. All these exercises are very clever, but it's one thing to improve a person's ability to see words and quite another thing to improve his ability to read a text efficiently. Reading requires the ability to understand the relationship between words. Consequently, for these reasons, many experts have now begun to question the usefulness of eye training, especially since any approach which trains a person to read isolated(孤立的) words and phrases would seem unlikely to help him in reading a continuous text.The time of the recognition span can be affected by the following factors except _______.
| A．1ighting and tiredness |
| B．one's purpose in reading |
| C．the length of a group of words |
| D．one's familiarity with the text |
What does the author mean by the underlined sentence in the second paragraph?
| A．The ability to see words is not needed for an efficient reading. |
| B．The reading exercises mentioned are of little help to an efficient reading. |
| C．The reading exercises mentioned can help improve reading. |
| D．The reading exercises mentioned have done a great job so far. |
The author may believe that reading ______________.
| A．demands a deeply-participating mind |
| B．requires a reader to see words more quickly |
| C．requires a reader to take in more words at each fixation |
| D．demands more eyes than mind |
The tune of the author in writing this text is ___________.
| A．supportive | B．neutral |
| C．critical | D．optimistic |
Over 500 dogs being delivered to a butcher house were saved by a Chinese animal protection organization.
The incident then triggered debate among Chinese netizens about the necessity of pouring so much money and efforts into saving dogs.
On Friday, a truck loaded with over 500 dogs were stopped by volunteers from animal protection organization on Jingha Expressway Beijing section.
Beijing Times reported these dogs were being delivered to slaughter houses in the city of Changchun, northeast Jilin Province and would be eventually served on dinner tables.
After negotiations with the truck driver, pet service provider Leepet Holding Corp. and a philanthropic foundation, Shang shan Foundation purchased these dogs, each paying 50,000 yuan. Dogs were then delivered to the eadquarter of China Small Animal Protection Association (CSAPA), being taken care of and waiting for adoption.
After the “dog saving mission” was reported, Chinese net users debate over whether saving dogs worth so much efforts and money while there are still many poor and needy people in China lacking assistance.
Some net users argue the “dog saving mission” is placing overt attention to animals while lots of needy people are still left unattended.
A microblogger “Xiaowulaitajie” said on China's twitter like website, weibo.com, “Dogs are saved, adopted and they attracted media spotlight. We'd better spend such money and take such efforts in helping the needy people.”
Another microblogger, Liluping, said “We poured such huge sum of money into saving dogs. I would rather the money be spent on disaster relief.”
Some applaud volunteers' actions and show eagerness of offering their helping hands to those saved dogs.
Still many disapprove those “saving dogs” critics, but they argue that such act nonetheless promotes social progress.
A microblogger named “broken bridge” said, saving dogs does not run counter to taking care of people. Such enthusiasm in public affairs will help raise social awareness in helping the needy.
I think people and animals are created equal. Attention should be paid to people as well as animals.Where did the article come from?
| A．A storybook. | B．A novel. |
| C．Internet. | D．A magazine. |
Which one has the similar meaning to the underlined phrase “run counter to” in the last but one paragraph?
| A．meet with | B．go against |
| C．agree with | D．come across |
Whose opinion is closest to the writer's?
| A．Some net users'. | B．Broken bridge's. |
| C．Liluping's. | D．Xiaowulaitajie's. |
The following statements are TRUE except _______.
| A．All the people don't think it right to save these dogs with so much money. |
| B．More than 25,000,000 yuan was given to the truck driver to purchase these dogs. |
| C．These dogs were finally saved and sent back to their owners. |
| D．Some people think it better to spend the money in helping the needy people. |
Would it surprise you to learn that, like animals, trees communicate with each other and pass on their wealth to the next generation?
UBC Professor Simard explains how trees are much more complex than most of us ever imagined. Although Charles Darwin thought that trees are competing for survival of the fittest, Simard shows just how wrong he was. In fact, the opposite is true: trees survive through their co-operation and support, passing around necessary nutrition “depending on who needs it”.
Nitrogen（氮）and carbon are shared through miles of underground fungi（真菌）networks, making sure that all trees in the forest ecological system give and receive just the right amount to keep them all healthy. This hidden system works in a very similar way to the networks of neurons（神经元）in our brains, and when one tree is destroyed, it affects all.
Simard talks about “mother trees”, usually the largest and oldest plants on which all other trees depend. She explains how dying trees pass on the wealth to the next generation, transporting important minerals to young trees so they may continue to grow. When humans cut down “mother trees” with no awareness of these highly complex “tree societies” or the networks on which they feed, we are reducing the chances of survival for the entire forest.
“We didn't take any notice of it.” Simard says sadly. “Dying trees move nutrition into the young trees before dying, but we never give them chance.” If we could put across the message to the forestry industry, we could make a huge difference towards our environmental protection efforts for the future.What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Old Trees Communicate Like Humans |
| B．Young Trees Are In Need Of Protection |
| C．Trees Contribute To Our Society |
| D．Trees Are More Complex Than You Think |
In Simard's opinion, trees _______.
| A．compete for survival | B．protect their own wealth |
| C．depend on each other | D．provide support for dying trees |
We can learn from the passage that.
| A．“mother trees” are usually of no use to other trees. |
| B．Charles Darwin had the same thought as Simard. |
| C．if “mother trees” are cut down, the survival for the entire forest will be affected. |
| D．people know much about the complex “tree societies”. |
The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refers to .
| A．how “tree societies” work |
| B．how trees grow old |
| C．how forestry industry develops |
| D．how young trees survive |