Having a great collection of books at home doesn’t really mean that you are a person who has a passion for literature and reading. It can be a family inheritance(继承) or it can be just to impress people around you about the fact that you are a person of culture. On the other hand, there are many persons who cannot afford to buy books, because some of them are quite expensive, but they usually go to libraries and spend hours reading something that interests them a lot, or just borrow books to read at home.
From my point of view, literature is very important in our lives from several points of view. For example, reading is a means of gaining culture and enriching our knowledge in different areas of activities. It can help us have a great imagination and it makes things easier when it comes to making compositions on different themes. It gives you the possibility to speak about science, even if you don’t work in this field, or you can express your opinion about a political aspect, just because you have read something connected to that.
Secondly, literature offers us the possibility to enter the world of imagination, and to leave apart the real one for a couple of hours. We come to meet kings and queens many years ago, dream in the world of the rich or imagine how life will be in the future. Sometimes, we identify ourselves with the characters in the stories we read and they can give us some clues to solve our problems and how to react in certain circumstances.
To conclude, I would like to say that literature is the perfect means to enrich our culture, to express correctly and have a rich vocabulary, to be able to interfere(干涉) in conversations in different fields of interest and to really be considered an erudite person.The people who are fond of literature are those that _________.
A.go to libraries on weekends |
B.buy expensive books in the bookstore |
C.keep many books in their studies |
D.have much interest in reading |
We can learn from the third paragraph that _________.
A.we can bring kings and queens back to life |
B.what we read can be useful in our daily life |
C.it is very good for us to stay alone for some hours |
D.we can make friends with the people in the stories |
The underlined word “erudite” in the last paragraph probably means_________.
A.hard-working | B.enthusiastic |
C.learned | D.creative |
What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A.To advise readers to like reading. |
B.To explain the true meaning of reading. |
C.To tell readers how to read a book. |
D.To tell readers who has the real passion for literature. |
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Here are some advertisements taken from a newspaper.
(1)
Dear Drew Carter,
Your first year on this earth has been a pleasure ride for all of us. We love you!
Love,
Dad and Mom and many friends
(2)
Lawlis—Clarke
The Doctors Virgil and Marjorie Lawlis are pleased to announce the engagement(订婚)of their daughter Diana Susan to Mr. Robert Brent Clarke, son of Mr. and Mrs. James Clarke of Herford, Texas.
A spring wedding is planned in Houston.
(3)
Isbell—Foss
Mr. And Mrs. Davis K. Isbell announce the marriage of their daughter Dang to Mr. Stanley Foss, son of Mrs. John Sipe of Ada, Minnesota.
The wedding will be early April at Abiding Love Lutheran Church.
(4)
Story—Kurio
Miss Stephanie Story and Mr. Warren Kurio married on February 5, at half past seven o’clock in the evening at Highland Park Presbyterian Church in Dallas, Texas. The bride(新娘)is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs, Herbert Brule Story Jr. of Dallas. The groom(新郎)is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gerald Stanley Kurio of Austin.
68.What would be the best title for the first advertisement?
A.We Love You B.Happy 1st Birthday C.One Year Old D.Our One-Year-Old Son
69.Lawlis and Clarke are going to get married .
A.in a church B.where Clarke’s parents live
C.against their parents’ will D.to Lawlis’s parents’ joy
70.Who got or will get married in spring?
A.Not only Lawlis and Clarke but also Isbell and Foss.
B.Neither Lawlis and Clarke nor Isbell and Foss.
C.Either Isbell and Foss or Story and Kurio.
D.Neither Lawlis and Clarke nor Story and Kurio.
71.Who are now a married couple?
A.Lawlis and Clarke. B.Dand Isbell and Foss.
C.Story and Kurio. D.The text doesn’t say.
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Robert Owen was born in Wales in 1771. At the age of ten he went to work. His employer had a large
Private library so Owen was able to educate himself. He read a lot in his spare time and at nineteen he was given the job of superintendent(监工) at a Manchester cotton mill. He was so successful there that he persuaded his employer to buy the New Lanark mill in Scotland.
When he arrived at New Lanark it was a dirty little town with a population of 2,000 people. Nobody
paid any attention to the workers' houses or their children's education. The conditions in the factories were very bad. There was a lot of crime and the men spent most of their wages on alcoholic drinks.
Owen improved the houses. He encouraged people to be clean and save money. He opened a shop and sold the workers cheap, well-made goods to help them. He limited the sale of alcoholic drinks. Above all, he fixed his mind on the children's education. In 1816 he opened the first free primary school in Britain.
People came from all over the country to visit Owen's factory. They saw that the workers were healthier and more efficient than in other towns. Their children were better fed and better educated. Owen tried the same experiment in the United States. He bought some land there in 1825,but the community was too far away. He could not keep it under control and lost most of his money.
Owen never stopped fighting for his idea. Above all he believed that people are not born good or bad.
He was a practical man and his ideas were practical. "If you give people good working conditions," he thought, "they will work well and, the most important thing of all, if you give them the chance to learn, they will be better people."
64. For Owen, his greatest achievement in New Lanark was _____________.
A. improving worker's houses B. helping people to save money
C. preventing men from getting drunk D. providing the children with a good education
65. From the passage we may infer that Owen was born ___________.
A. into a rich familyB. into a noble family
C. into a poor family D. into a middle class family
66. Owen's experiment in the United States failed because _______.
A. he lost all his money
B. he did not buy enough land
C. people who visited it were not impressed
D. it was too far away for him to organize it properly
67. We may infer form the passage that no children in Britain could enjoy free education until ____.
A. 1771 B. 1816C. 1825 D. 1860
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Do dogs understand us?
Be careful what you say around your dog. It might understand more than you think.
A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee(黑猩猩).
In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided the into 20groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back. In four tests,Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right. As the dog couldn't see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words.
In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room
with seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico to fetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before.
The correct object was chosen in seven out of l0 tests, suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of elimination(排除法). A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive.
Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed (种)known for its mental abilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months.
It's hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can't talk back. Still, it wouldn't hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!
60. From paragraph 2 we know that ______________.
A. animals are as clever as human beings
B. dogs are smarter than parrots and chimpanzees
C. chimpanzees have very good word-learning skills
D. dogs have similar 'learning abilities as 3-year-old children
61. Both experiments show that__________
A. Rico is smart enough to get all commands right
B. Rico can recognize different things including toys
C. Rico has developed the ability of learning mathematics
D. Rico won't forget the names of objects once recognizing them
62. Which of the following statements is true?
A. The purpose of the experiments is to show the border collie's mental abilities.
B. Rico has a better memory partly because of its proper early training.
C. The border collie is world-famous for recognizing objects.
D. Rico is born to understand its owner's commands.
63. What does the writer want to tell us?
A. To train your dog. B. To talk to your dog.
C. To be friendly to your dog. D. To be careful with your dog.
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III. Reading comprehension30%:
WASHINGTON---Worldwide sales of personal computer in 1995 rose 24.7 percent over 1994 with Compaq(美国康柏电脑公司)holding its first—place position while IBM overcame(击败)Apple for the No.2 slot (表上排名),according to Dataquest.
A total of 59.7 million computers were sold around the world with important gains(获得)in Japan and Europe.
Compaq sold 5.99 million computers ,or 10percent of the market ,unchanged from 1994.
IBM sold 4.7 million with an 8 percent share of the market compared with 8.2 percent in 1994 .
Apple sold 4.7 million ,or 7.8 percent of the trade ,compared with 8.4 percent in 1994.
Their lost market share was taken up by Packard Bell and NEC ,which sold 3.1 million and 2.8 million computers separately.
56.Which company was the first in selling computers in 1994?
A.Compaq B.IBM C.Apple D.NEC
57.Which company sold the third most computers in 1995?
A.Compaq B.IBM C.Apple D.NEC
58.What was the market share of Compaq in 1994?
A.5.99% B.8.2% C.8.4% D.10%
59.Packard Bell and NEC take up about____________ of the market share in 1995.
A.8.2% B.52% C.10% D.5%
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I travel a lot, and I find out different “styles” of directions every time I ask “How can I get to the post office?”
Foreign tourists are often confused(困惑) in Japan because most streets there don’t have names; in Japan, people use landmarks(地标) in their directions instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, “Go straight down to the corner. Turn left at the big hotel and go past a fruit market. The post office is across from the bus stop.”
In the countryside of the American Midwest, there are not usually many landmarks. There are no mountains, so the land is very flat; in many places there are no towns or buildings within miles. Instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distances. In Kansas or Iowa, for example, people will say, “Go north two miles. Turn east, and then go another mile.”
People in Los Angeles, California, have no idea of distance on the map; they measure distance in time, not miles. “How far away is the post office?” you ask. “Oh,” they answer, “it’s about five minutes from here.” You say, “Yes, but how many miles away is it?” They don’t know.
It’s true that a person doesn’t know the answer to your question sometimes. What happens in such a situation? A New Yorker might say, “Sorry, I have no idea.” But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers “I don’t know.” People in Yucatan believe that “I don’t know” is impolite. They usually give an answer, often a wrong one. A tourist can get very, very lost in Yucatan!
67. When a tourist asks the Japanese the way to a certain place, they usually ______.
A. describe the place carefully B. show him a map of the place
C. tell him the names of the streets D. refer to recognizable buildings and places
68. What is the place where people measure distance in time?
A. New York.. B. Los Angeles. C. Kansas. D. Iowa.
69. People in Yucatan may give a tourist a wrong answer ______.
A. in order to save time B. because of honesty
C. so as to be polite D. for fun
70. What can we infer from the text?
A. It’s important for travelers to understand cultural differences.
B. It’s useful for travelers to know how to ask the way properly.
C. People have similar understandings of politeness.
D. New Yorkers are generally friendly to visitors.