When I was young，I liked to play jokes on people I knew, especially on my parents and friends. One day my mother was cooking and I was playing with my younger brother Tony. Suddenly I ran to my mother and said: “Tony fell from the open window!” She was very worried and ran out of the kitchen. Then I said: “Don’t worry, I’m just joking.” My mother shouted at me, “If you do it again, I’ll hit you.”
Another day I went swimming with my friends in the sea. I wanted to play a joke on them. In the beginning I swam fast and I called out “Help!”. All my friends came to help me. However, they found that I was joking. But half an hour later I wasn’t joking. I was so fast, soon I got tired and couldn’t swim on in water. I tried my best to call my friends for help, but this time nobody came to help me.
In the end they found I was telling the truth. They came and saved my life. They took me to the hospital. This is the best lesson in my life. From then on I haven’t joked on anyone.
When he was young, the writer liked to _______.
| A．play with his brother | B．help his mother cook |
| C．play jokes on people | D．go swimming with his friends |
What happened when the writer was playing with his brother? ______
| A．He got tired. |
| B．He played a joke on his mother. |
| C．Tony fell from the open window. |
| D．His mother hit him. |
In the beginning, all his friends came to help him because he ______.
| A．swam fast |
| B．called for help |
| C．would sink in water |
| D．couldn’t swim on in the water |
When the writer called his friends for help for the second time, they ______.
| A．took him to the hospital at once |
| B．came and saved him immediately |
| C．thought at first he was joking again |
| D．did nothing because the writer had lied to them |
The story tells us that ________.
| A．swimming is dangerous |
| B．the writer is a naughty boy |
| C．one can play jokes only on people he knows |
| D．if someone always tells lies, others won’t trust (信任) him |
A man is going to open a shop selling hats. He wanted a good sign to put over his shop. He wrote:
| JOHN BROWN HATTER Makes and Sells Hats for Ready Money |
The first friend gave him the advice that the word “hatter” wasn’t needed. So John crossed out the word “HATTER” . Then he came to another friend for advice. This friend said that it was not polite to say “for ready money”. So he crossed out “for ready money”. The sign now said:
| JOHN BROWN Makes and Sells Hats |
One day a friend was passing his shop. He saw this sign and said that when a man bought a hat, he didn’t care who made it. So John crossed out that word, too.
But when another friend saw “ John Brown Sells Hats”, he said , “ Of course you sell hats. No one thinks you give them away for free.” So, at last the sign read:
| JOHN BROWN |
“ For ready money” means ___________________.
A. pay for the hat here when you buy it
B. if you buy the hat you can pay for it in a few days
C. hats here are only for the people with much moneyHow many friends gave John some advice on how to write the sign?
A. Three. B. Four. C. Two.___________________was crossed out first.
A. “ John Brown Sells Hats” B. “Hatter” C. “for Ready Money” Each friend has___________________thought.
A. no B. the same C. his own This story tells us that _____________________.
A. it isn’t possible to please everybody
B. it’s easy to sell hats
C. sellers must please everybody
Computer technology has become an important part of people’s life. This technology has its own special words. One well-known computer word is Google. It’s the name of a popular “search engineer(引擎)” for the Internet. People use the search engineer to find information about almost any subject on the Internet. The people who started the company named it Google because in math Google is a very large number----One hundred zeros follow the number one. When you “ Google” a subject, you can get a lot of information about it.
If you Google someone, you might find that person’s name on a blog(博客). A blog is short for a Web log. It’s a personal Web page. Some people write blogs to express their opinions and ideas over the Internet. Some use them to share their lives with faraway friends or family. Others write blogs to help them deal with sickness, money problems or to choose movies to see or books to read. Some people add information to their blogs every day. People who have blogs are called bloggers.
根据短文内容，判断下列句子是否正确Google and Blog are two kinds of popular search engineer.
One can use Google to search the Internet for all information he wants.
People may use Google to share their opinions or ask others for help.
Bloggers must add information to their blogs every day.
From the passage we can infer ( 推断) that computer technology is changing people’s life.
For hundreds Of years, scientists have been trying to answer what things have an effect on people’s emotions (情感). How you feel is controlled by many things. Your emotions can be affected by your personality, by the actions of others and by events around you. Perhaps you don’t know your emotions can be influenced by the weather as well.
People often say they feel good when the sun is shining and sad when it is cloudy. In fact, sunlight makes us feel good. When sunlight hits our skins, our bodies produce a vitamin. Vitamins are natural chemicals (化学物质) which we all need to stay healthy. Sunlight helps our bodies produce vitamin D. Vitamin D helps our bodies make a special chemical. This special chemical affects our brains (大脑) and makes us feel happy. For example, there are long, dark winters of little sunlight in Sweden and Norway, so many people in these countries often feel sad. Without much sunlight, their bodies produce less vitamin D. Without enough vitamin D, their bodies make less of this special chemical which makes them feel good. To help the people in these countries feel better, special “sunrooms” with artificial (人造的) lights have been built. People can go there and get “sunlight” for an hour or two!
The weather can also affect people’s emotions in other ways. Hot weather can make people angry because people feel uncomfortable when they are hot. In the same way, rain can make people angry because being wet can be unpleasant. As you can see, the weather can have an effect on the chemicals which control our brains. Through these ways, the weather can influence our emotions. Sadly, while the weather can change us, we can hardly change the weather. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a factor (因素) that can affect one’s emotions?
| A．Weather. | B．Actions of others. |
| C．Personality. | D．Age. |
Which of the following is true about vitamin D according to the passage?
| A．It is a kind of artificial chemical. |
| B．It makes us worried by affecting our brains. |
| C．It is needed by us all to keep fit. |
| D．It is in the sunlight. |
What can we infer (推断) from the passage?
| A．We feel good when we are in the bright cool weather. |
| B．We will be happy when we are caught in the rain. |
| C．All people in Norway and Sweden feel sad in winter. |
| D．The more vitamin D you have, the happier you’ll be. |
What may be the best title for this passage?
| A．Why Do We Feel Sad? |
| B．The Weather Influences People’s Emotions |
| C．People Need More Vitamin D |
| D．We Can Hardly Change the Weather |
Have successful people ever felt sad? Do they have any “secrets” to success? The answers to these questions can be found in US president Barack Obama’s “back to school” speech. Here is an excerpt(摘录) from his speech.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense that you can be rich and successful without any hard work—that your ticket to success is through rapping (饶舌音乐) or basketball or being a TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. Not all the homework will seem completely important to your life right this minute. And you may not succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was turned down 12 times before it finally came out. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots (投篮) during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures beat you—you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time.
No one’s born being good at things. You become good at things through hard work.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit(承认) when you don’t know something, and to learn something new.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged (泄气), and you feel like other people have given up on you—don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.Why does Barack Obama mention (提到) JK Rowling and Michael Jordan in the fourth paragraph?
| A．To compare these two famous persons. |
| B．To explain that writing and sports are difficult skills. |
| C．To show that the two persons were treated unfairly. |
| D．To prove that failure is the mother of success. |
Which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．No one can be successful without working hard. |
| B．Failure can be good if you treat it in a right way. |
| C．Those who believe in themselves shouldn’t ask others for help. |
| D．One should try his best to make his dream come true. |
Which of the following is the closest in meaning to the underlined sentence?
| A．One should change his mind when others give honest advice to him. |
| B．One should believe in himself no matter what difficulty he is faced with. |
| C．One doesn’t have to work hard when he has failed several times. |
| D．One doesn’t have to take others’ advice when they get away from him. |
Cats are the most popular pets among Americans. So it is not surprising that there are a lot of expressions about cats. Some cats like to catch small birds, like canaries (金丝雀). If someone looks very proud and satisfied with himself, we say “he looks like the cat that ate the canary.”
Sometimes, a cat likes to play with a small animal it catches. So if you “play cat and mouse” with someone, it means that you change between different kinds of behavior when dealing with another person. For example, a girl might offer something sweet to her little brother and then take it away when he reaches for it.
Americans might say that something is “the cat’s miaow” or “the cat’s pajamas(睡衣)” to describe something that is the best or finest. “A copycat” is someone who acts just like someone else or copies another person’s work. “A fat cat” is a person with a lot of money.
If you tell about something that is supposed to be a secret, we say you “let the cat out of the bag”. If you are not able to speak or answer a question, someone might ask you if “the cat has got your tongue(舌头)”
Have you ever watched children in a classroom when their teacher leaves for a few minutes? “When the cat’s away, the mice will play” means people sometimes act badly when there is no supervision (监管).
You may have heard the expression “curiosity killed the cat”. This means caring too much about things that are not your business might cause problems.
If you have ever had cats as pets, you know it is difficult to train them or to get them to do something. Cats are not like Sheep or cows that can be moved in a group. So we say a difficult or impossible job is like “herding (放牧) cats “What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The expression “a fat cat” is used to describe someone who is very fat. |
| B．The expression “play cat and mouse” usually means “play tricks on others”. |
| C．It is more difficult to keep sheep or cows than cats. |
| D．There are more expressions about cats than those about dogs. |
In which of the following situations do we most probably use the expression “curiosity killed the cat”?
| A．Someone always asked a lady her age or weight and it made her angry. |
| B．Someone promised to keep a secret but he failed to do so. |
| C．Someone won the first prize in an English singing competition and he felt very excited. |
| D．Someone tried to swim across the Yangtze River with his newly broken legs. |
Where can you most probably find the passage?
| A．In a scientific research paper about cats. |
| B．On a website telling people how to keep cats. |
| C．In a magazine telling various jokes and funny stories. |
| D．In a language book that teaches students how to use American slang. |