Harry potter and The Hunger Games haven’t been big hits for nothing．Lots of teens still read quite a lot．But a study shows a clear decrease over time．Nearly half of 17-year-olds say they read for pleasure no more than one or two times a year．That’s way down from ten years ago.
The digital revolution (革命) means there are more platforms (平台) than ever to read on．Jim Steyer has been studying the effect of technology on children．He has four kids and has seen the trend most with his 16-year-old．“I start to see it in our 10-year-old as well, because he is reading less and less, and more and more attracted to some of the digital media platforms that he has access to, and that he didn’t have access to when he was 6 or 7 years old,” he says.
The studies don’t say that kids are reading less because they’re spending more time online．But Steyer is convinced that’s at least part of the answer.
“First of all, most children now have access to e-readers, or other smart electronic devices like phones and tablets (平板电脑),” he says．“ And they’re spending time on that．Many reports show the increasing use of new technology platforms by kids．It just strikes me as extremely logical that that’s a big reason.
Researchers want to know more about how teens are spending their time in the digital age．But Kathryn Zickuhr of the Pew Research Center says it’s tricky．If a kid is looking at a book, you may think he or she is reading．But when it comes to looking at a smartphone or tablet, who knows?
“We’ve heard from middle and high school teachers that sometimes the Internet is wonderful for enthusiastic students to do deep research,” says Zickuhr．“But on the other side, obviously there are many distractions on the Internet.”
However, Jim Steyer says, “Kids with parents who read, who buy or take books out of the library for their kids, and who then set time aside in their kids’ daily schedule for reading, tend to read the most — whether it’s on a book, an e-book or some other devices.”
What did Jim Steyer see in his four kids?
| A．They tend to read more on electronic devices. |
| B．They created their own digital media platform. |
| C．They improved their reading on electronic devices. |
| D．They have become more addicted to digital media. |
What statement may Kathryn Zickuhr agree to?
| A．Kids are easily distracted on the Internet. |
| B．Most kids pretend to be doing online reading. |
| C．Most kids like to read on a smartphone or tablet. |
| D．Kids rarely use the Internet to do serious research. |
The last paragraph suggests that ________.
| A．parents need to spare time to read for kids |
| B．parents should make a reading plan for kids |
| C．parents can do a lot to encourage more reading |
| D．parents working in a library tend to read the most |
What is the main idea of the text?
| A．What books do teens like to read the most? |
| B．Why aren’t teens reading like they used to? |
| C．How can teens read on electronic platforms? |
| D．When will teens turn to books for fun again? |
For years, business people in Western Europe were worried. They knew they could not compete against business from the U.S. The United States is much larger and had many more resources than any Western European countries
Some European people realized that the European nations need to join together to help each other. If they could forget their language differences and the differences in customs, they might become strong competition against other countries.
In 1958, six of the European countries --- Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Germany and Italy got together and decided to cooperate. They called their group the European Economic Community, or the Common Market. These countries agreed to join their resources together.
Within a few years, the European Economic Community had worked so well that its members were more prosperous than many other European nations. Soon, other nations began to realize the advantage of the Common Market. Today the Common Market includes most of the important countries in Western Europe. It is helping Western Europe to again take its place as a leader among the industrial nations of the world.From the passage we know the U.S. is much richer than ________ in resources.
| A．any other Western European countries | B．any other country in Western Europe |
| C．any country in Western Europe | D．every country in Europe |
The members of the European Economic Community have developed fast because they ___.
| A．share their resources and become more prosperous |
| B．can again take the place as a leader in the world |
| C．forget the differences in their languages and customs |
| D．have become strong competition against the U.S. |
Which statement is true?
| A．The Common Market is only a political association. |
| B．The Common Market is an economic and political association |
| C．The Common Market is only an economic association |
| D．The Common Market is neither an economic association nor a political one. |
In order to ______ the Western European countries decided to cooperate.
| A．join together to found a united country |
| B．help each other to smooth away the differences in customs |
| C．work and act together for common purpose |
| D．work together and fight against the U.S. |
My husband and children think they are very lucky that they are living and that it’s Christmas again. They can’t see that we live on a dirty street in a dirty house among people who aren’t much good. But Johnny and children can’t 
see this. What a pity it is that our neighbours have to make happiness out of all this dirt. I decided that my children must get 
out of this. The money that we’ve saved isn’t nearly enough.
The McGaritys have money but they are so proud. They look down upon the poor. The McGarity girl just yesterday stood out there in the street eating from a bag of candy while a ring of hungry children watched her. I saw those children looking at her and crying in their hearts; and when she couldn’t eat any more she threw the rest down the sewer(下水道). Why , is it only because they have money? There is more to happiness than money in the world, isn’t there?
Miss Jackson who teaches at the Settlement House isn’t rich, but she knows things. She understand people. Her eyes look straight into yours when she talks with you. She can read your mind. I’d like to see the children will be like Miss Jackson when they g
row up. This passage mainly suggests that the writer _______.
| A．is easy to get along with |
| B．is unhappy with the life they are living |
| C．is good at observing and understanding |
| D．is never pleased with her neighbours |
What do you think of McGarity girl?
| A．She is proud and hungry. | B．She is selfish and cruel. |
| C．She is lonely and friendless. | D．She is unhappy and misunderstood. |
In this text, the writer tries to tell us that _______.
| A．money is the key to everything |
| B．the more money you have, the less happy you’ll be |
| C．there is something more important than money |
| D．when talking to people we should look into their eyes |
Pick out the one that does NOT describe the writer’s view o
n money.
| A．Why, is it only because they have money? |
| B．There is more to happiness than money. |
| C．Miss Jackson isn’t rich, but she knows things. |
| D．The money we saved isn’t nearly enough. |
All over my garden I’ve planted nothing but roses, sweet and — if looked at far away — bright with color like sunset clouds, I’d be very happy if anyone of my visiting friends should desire to pick and take some for their homes. I trust that any friend of mine carrying the rose would disappear into the distance feeling that his emotions 
had been rekindled (重燃).
A close f
riend came for a visit the other day. I know her to be a lover of flowers and plants. And for that reason I told her at her departure that she should pick a bunch of roses to grace her bedroom. I promised that the smell of the roses would be wafted f
ar, far away.
That girl friend of mine, tiptoeing into the garden in high spirits, smelt here and there, but in the end she didn’t pick a single rose. I said there were so many of them that she would pick as many as she’d like to; I told her that I was not a flower farmer and didn’t make a living out of them. Saying so I raised the scissors for the sacrifice of the flowers, but she stopped me, crying no, no, no!
To cut such beautiful roses would hurt one, she said. With her hands seizing at my sleeves, she told me that by no means should they be cut. Roses are the smiling face of the earth, and who could be so iron-hearted as to destroy a smile so charming?
My mind was thoroughly shocked: the ugly earth, the rough earth, the plain earth—it is for the reason of that smile that it wins the care and pity of people The underlined word “wafted” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to “__________”.
| A．moved | B．lost | C．destroyed | D．felt |
The writer plants nothing but roses in her garden probably because __________.
| A．she can make money out of them |
| B．her friends like them |
| C．she enjoys the roses very much |
| D．the roses can rekindle her friends’ emotions |
Why did the writer’s close friend refuse to pick a single rose?
| A．Because the roses were not beautiful |
| B．Because she did not like this kind of roses |
| C．Because the writer did not want to give her any |
| D．Because she loved the roses very much |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．A lovely rose garden. | B．The smiling face of the earth |
| C．The pity of people to the roses. | D．A lover of flowers |
Throughout the history of the arts, the nature of creativity has remained constant to artists. No matter what objects they select, artists are to bring forth new forces and forms that cause change—to find poetry where no one has ever seen or experienced it before.
Landscape(风景) is another unchanging element of art. It can be found from ancient times through the 17th-century Dutch painters to the 19th-century romanticists and impressionists. In the 1970s Alfred Leslie, one of the new American realists, continued this practice. Leslie sought out the same place where Thomas Cole, a romanticist, had produced paintings of the same scene a century and a half before. Unlike Cole who insists on a feeling of loneliness and the idea of finding peace in nature, Leslie paints what he actually sees. In his paintings, there is no particular change in emotion, and he includes ordinary things like the highway in the background. He also takes advantage of the latest developments of color photography(摄影术) to help both the eye and the memory when he improves his painting back in his workroom.
Besides, all art begs the age-old question: What is real? Each generation of artists has shown their understanding of reality in one form or another. The impressionists saw reality in brief emotional effects, the realists in everyday subjects and in forest scenes, and the Cro-Magnon cave people in their naturalistic drawings of the animals in the ancient forests. To sum up, understanding reality is a necessary struggle for artists of all periods.
Over thousands of years the function of the arts has remained relatively constant. Past or present, Eastern or Western, the arts are a basic part of our immediate experience. Many and different are the faces of art, and together they express the basic need and hope of human beings. Leslie's paintings are extraordinary because_______ .
| A．they are close in style to works in ancient times |
| B．they look like works by 19th-century painters |
| C．they draw attention to common things in life |
| D．they depend heavily on color photography |
What is the author's opinion of artistic reality?
| A．It will not be found in future works of art. |
| B．It does not have a long-lasting standard. |
| C．It is expressed in a fixed artistic form. |
| D．It is lacking in modern works of art. |
What does the author suggest about the arts in the last paragraph?
| A．They express people's curiosity about the past. |
| B．They make people interested in everyday experience. |
| C．They are considered important for variety in form. |
| D．They are regarded as a mirror of the human situation. |
Dear all,
Please read Professor Hume's email about his next lecture on Rosa Parks.
Susan Miller
Secretary
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Dear Susan,
Please forward this message to students of my history class.
Besides the life story of Rosa Parks in the textbook, the students are also required to read the passage below and some related stories that can be borrowed from the school library.
Ted Hume
The early experiences of Rosa Parks(1913-2005), long known as the “mother of the civil rights movement, ”were not different from those of many African-Americans at that time. The black woman, however, turned the course of American history in December 1955 when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. “By sitting down, ”remarked John Lewis, “she was standing up for all Americans. ”
Among the numerous awards Parks received in her life were the Presidential Medal of Freedom(1996)and the Congressional Gold Medal(1999).
Parks died on Oct. 24, 2005. At St. Paul A. M. E. Church in Montgomery, a large crowd including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice celebrated her life. Rice said she and others, who grew up when the political activities of Parks held public attention, might not have realized her impact(影响)on their lives, “but I can honestly say that without Mrs. Parks, I probably would not be standing here as Secretary of State. ”
After her casket(灵柩)was placed at the Capitol, U. S. President Bush, members of Congress and ordinary Americans paid their respects. In American history Parks is the first woman to lie in state at the Capitol, a very high regard usually reserved for Presidents of the United States. What is the main purpose of Susan’s email?
| A．To make arrangements for Professor Hume's class. | B．To introduce to the students Rosa Parks. |
| C．To help the students organize a lecture. | D．To answer Professor Hume's last email. |
What does the underlined word “forward” mean?
| A．Explain. | B．Send. | C．Take. | D．Read. |
The political impact of Rosa Parks lies in the fact that she .
| A．helped Condoleezza Rice achieve political success |
| B．joined the civil rights movement at a young age |
| C．made racial equality a common value in American society |
| D．set a good example in her early life for other black Americans |
How was Rosa Parks treated after her death?
| A．She was named “mother of the civil rights movement. ” |
| B．She was received by President Bush at the Capitol. |
| C．She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom. |
| D．She was honored to lie in state at the Capitol. |