Two things changed my life：my mother and a white plastic bike basket．I have thought long and hard about it and it's true．I would be a different person if my mom hadn't turned a silly bicycle accessory into a life lesson I carry with me today．
My mother and father were united in their way of raising children，but it mostly fell to my mother to actually carry it out．Looking back，I honestly don't know how she did it．Managing the family budget must have been a very hard task．，but she made it look effortless．If we complained about not having what another kid did，we'd hear something like，"I don't care what so﹣and﹣so got for his birthday，you are not getting a TV in your room a car for your birthday a lsvish sweet 16party．"We had to earn our allowance（零用钱） by doing chores around the house．I can stil l remember how long it took to polish the legs of our coffee table．My brothers can no doubt remember hours spent cleaning the house．Like the two little girls growing up at the White House，we made our own beds （no one left the house unitil that was done）and picked up after ourselves．We had to keep track of our belongings，and if something was lost，it was not replaced．
It was summer and，one day，my mother drove me to the bike shop to get a tire fixed﹣﹣﹣and there it was in the window，White，shiny，plastic and decorated with flowers，the basket winked at me and I knew﹣﹣﹣﹣I knew﹣﹣﹣I had to have it．
"It's beautiful，"my mother said when I pointed it out to her，"What a neat basket．"
I tried to hold off at first，I played it cool for a short while．But then Iguess I couldn't atand it any longer："Mon，please can I please，please get it？I'll do extra chores for as long as you say，I'll do anything，but I need that basket，I love that basket．Please，Mom．Please？"
I was desperate．
"You know，"she said，gently rubbing my back while we both stared at what I believes was the coolest thing ever，"If you save up you could buy this yourself．"
"By the time I make enough it'll bu gone!"
"Maybe Roger here could hold it for you，"she smiled at Roger，the bike guy．
"He can't hold it for that long，Mom．Someone else will buy it．Please，Mom，Please？"
"There might be another way，"she said．
And so our paying plan unfolded．My mother bought the beautiful basket and put it safely in some hiding place I could't find．Each week I eagerly counted my growing saving increased by extra work here and there （washing the car，helping my mother make dinner，delivering or collevting things on my bike that already looked nakedwithout the basket in front）．And then，weeks later，I counted，re﹣counted and jumped for joy．Oh，happy day!I made it!I finally had the exact amount we'd agreed upon…．
Days later the unthinkable happened．A neighborhood girl I'd played with millions of times appeared with the exact same basket fixted to her shiny，new bike that already had all the bells and whistles．I rode hard and fast home to tell my mother about this disaster．This horrible turn of events．
And then came the lesson．I've taken with me through my life："Honey，Your basket is extra﹣special，"Mom said，gently wiping away my hot tears．"Your basket is special because you paid for it yourself．"
55．What can we learn from the first two paragraphs？
| A． |
The children enjoyed doing housework． |
| B． |
The author came from s well﹣off family |
| C． |
The mother raised her children in an unusual way |
| D． |
The children were fond of the US president's daughters． |
56．When the author saw the basket in the window，she ．
| A． |
fell in love with it |
| B． |
stared at her mother |
| C． |
recognized it at once |
| D． |
went up to the bike guy |
57．Why did the author say many"please"to her mother？
| A． |
She longed to do extra work． |
| B． |
She was eager to have the basket． |
| C． |
She felt tired after standing too long． |
| D． |
She wanted to be polite to her mother． |
58．By using"naked"（Paragraph 12），the author seems to stress that the basket was
| A． |
something she could afford |
| B． |
something important to her |
| C． |
something impossible to get |
| D． |
something she could do without |
59．To the author，it seemed to be a horrible turn of events that
| A． |
something spoiled her paying plan |
| B． |
the basket cost more than she had saved |
| C． |
a neighborhood girl had bought a new bike |
| D． |
someone else had got a basket of the same kind |
60．What is the life lesson the author learned from her mother？
| A． |
Save money for a rainy day |
| B． |
Good advice is beyond all price． |
| C． |
Earn your bread with your sweat |
| D． |
God helps those who help themselves． |
Modern society cannot well do without the contribution that women can make in the professions and other kinds of work. There is a serious shortage of nurses and teachers, to mention only two of the occupations followed by women. It is a waste to give years of training at public expense only to have the qualified teacher or nurse marry after a year or two and be lost forever to her profession. The training, it is true, will help her in her duties as a mother, but if she continued to work, her service would be more widely useful. Many factories and shops, too, are largely staffed by women, many of them married. While here the question of training is not so important, industry and trade would be seriously short of staff if married women did not work.
We can see then that there are good reasons for regarding it as desirable that married women should have some occupation outside the home. However, there are serious objections. Schools do not keep children occupied the whole day and school holidays are long. The mother’s working day will almost certainly end well after the school day and her holiday will not begin at the same time as her children’s. There will be therefore a period when children are not taken care of unless a substitute for the mother can be found, or unless it becomes more generally possible for women to work part-time. There seem to be some grounds for believing that there is more bad behavior among the children of working mothers than among those of mothers who stay at home, but more evidence is required before we can be certain of this. What we can be certain of, however, is that many more will continue to do so.According to the writer, women nurses and teachers ought to carry on their occupation after marriage because______.
| A．they are not allowed to give up their jobs |
| B．their training should not be wasted |
| C．they want to make a living by themselves |
| D．they must still improve themselves as mothers |
According to the writer, one possible way for the children of working mothers to be attended to is that________.
| A．schools keep children occupied the whole day |
| B．their mothers change their occupation |
| C．their mothers do not work full time |
| D．their mothers should stay at home |
The clause “unless a substitute for the mother can be found” means_______.
| A．if someone takes over the mother’s occupation |
| B．if no mother works all day |
| C．if no one takes care of the children for the mother |
| D．if someone takes care of the children for the mother |
The writer believes that bad behavior among the children of mothers who do not work is _________ among the children of working mothers.
| A．possibly less than | B．about the same as |
| C．a little greater than | D．certainly more than |
Watching some children trying to catch butterflies one hot August afternoon, I was reminded of an incident in my own childhood. When I was a boy of 12 in South Carolina, something happened to me that cured me forever of wanting to put any wild creature in a cage.
We lived on the edge of a wood, and every evening at dusk the mockingbirds would come and rest in the tree and sing. There isn’t a musical instrument made by man that can produce a more beautiful sound than the song of the mockingbird.
I decided that I would catch a young bird and keep it in a cage and that way have my own private musician.
I finally succeeded in catching one and put it in a cage. At first, in its fright at being captured, the bird fluttered about the cage, but eventually it settled down in its new home, I felt very pleased with myself and looked forward to some beautiful singing from my tiny musician.
I had left the cage out on our back porch（门廊）, and on the second day of the bird’s captivity my new pet’s mother flew to the cage with food in her mouth . The baby bird ate everything she brought to it. I was pleased to see this. Certainly the mother knew better than I how to feed her baby.
The following morning when I went to see how my captive was doing, I discovered it on the floor of the cage, dead. I was shocked! What had happened? I had taken excellent care of my little bird, or so I thought.
Arthur Wayne, the famous ornithologist, happened to be visiting my father at the time and, hearing me crying over the death of my bird, explained what had occurred: “A mother mockingbird, finding her young in a cage, will sometimes bring it poison berries. She thinks it better for her young to die than to live in captivity.”
Never since then have I caught any living creature and put it in a cage. All living creatures have a right to live free.The boy caught a mockingbird because___________.
| A．he wanted a pet for a companion |
| B．he liked its beautiful feather |
| C．he wanted it to sing for him |
| D．he had just got a cage |
The mockingbird died because__________.
| A．it ate some poisonous food the boy gave it by mistake |
| B．it ate the poisonous food its mother gave it |
| C．it was frightened to death |
| D．it refused to eat anything |
The word “ornithologist” in the last but one paragraph probably means________.
| A．a religious person |
| B．a kind and sympathetic person |
| C．a schoolmaster |
| D．an expert in birds |
The most important lesson the boy learned from the incident is that______.
| A．birds put in a cage won’t live long |
| B．you have to be very careful about the food you give to young birds |
| C．when you capture a young mockingbird, you should keep it away from its mother |
| D．freedom is valuable to all living creature. |
When I asked my daughter which item she would keep: the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said, “the phone”. Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual. Because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.
Point 1. The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the every people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?
Point 2. The mobile phone means that we are never alone.”The mobile saved my life,” says Crystal Johnstone. She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance to her rescue.
Point 3. The mobile removes our secret. It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went.
Point 4. The telephone separates us. Antonella Bramanate in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window. It was easy to get his number. We were so near---but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!”
Point 5. The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives. Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously（同声翻译地）on chat lines (at least my daughter does. I wouldn’t know what to talk about). We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts (if you know any) while they’re space-walking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access the Internet, the biggest library on Earth.Point 1 mainly tells us that __________.
| A．The writer’s daughter enjoys talking on the phone |
| B．More roads create more traffic |
| C．phones create the need to communication |
| D．it’s easy to communicate through phones |
People’s attitude towards mobile phone is that it _________.
| A．helps people deal with the emergency |
| B．brings convenience as well as little secret to people |
| C．is so important and should be encouraged |
| D．is part of people’s life |
It is possible to talk to several complete strangers at the same time through_____.
| A．the TV screen | B．a fax machine | C．the Internet | D．the phone |
Which is the most suitable title for the passage?
| A．Phone Power | B．Kinds of Phones |
| C．How to Use Phone | D．Advantages of Phones |
Now let's look ourselves as a species in relation to ecosystem balance.Modern scientists believe that humankind, like other animals, evolved(进化) through millions of years of changes and adaptations to the environment and that our most direct evolutionary ancestor was probably an earlier species of the primate(monkey, ape) group. Despite this similarity with other creatures, however, the evolution of humankind differs from that of other species in one important and unique way.
In other species, evolution has led to specialization, both in the species abilities and in its place within the environmental structure. For example, the giraffe is much adapted to feeding on treetops, but it is also specialized and thus limited to feeding on trees and shrubs. Only with great difficulty can it bend down to graze on the ground. Similarly, the anteater is extremely well adapted to eating ants but is unable to catch or eat other animals. The same is true for countless other species.
For humankind it is opposite. Our evolution had led to a very generalized ability. Our highly developed intelligence and ability to make and handle tools mean that we can do almost anything. Humans evolved in such a way that we are able to move into every environment on Earth and even into space. No natural competitor offers great resistance, and other natural enemies such as disease have been controlled.
Said another way, we see in humankind a great imbalance between biological potential and environmental resistance. The result is the rapidly increasing world population, frequently referred to as the population explosion. Further, to support our growing population, natural ecosystems are being increasingly displaced by human habitations, agriculture, and other human supporting activities.From the passage we can infer that in the course of evolution _______.
| A．humankind is very important to earlier species, such as the primate group |
| B．human beings are limited by the environment while animals are not |
| C．human beings become more and more different from each other |
| D．humankind has experienced a generalization rather than specialization in ability |
According to the passage, primate includes such animals as _______.
| A．monkeys and anteaters | B．tigers and apes |
| C．apes and monkeys | D．monkeys and giraffes |
According to the passage, evolution has made it possible for humans to _______.
| A．increase the population |
| B．resist natural offers |
| C．go to the moon |
| D．cure all diseases |
According to the author, imbalance between biological potential and environ mental resistance has resulted in _______.
| A．the population explosion |
| B．the destruction of human habitations |
| C．the growth of natural ecosystem |
| D．the specialization of humans |
(You may read the questions first.)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Theatrical Release Date: July 1, 2011
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Director: Michael Bay
Genre: Action︱Adventure︱Sequel︱ Sci-Fi︱ 3D
The Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, are back in action, taking on the evil Decepticons. The Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a dangerous space race. The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft on the Moon and must race against the Decepticons to find its secrets, which could turn the tide in the Transformers’ final battle. Shockwave, a longtime “Transformers” character, rules Cybertron while the Autobots and Decepticons battle it out on Earth.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
Theatrical Release Date: July 15, 2011
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: David Yates
Genre: Action︱Adventure︱Sequel︱Fantasy︱3D
In part II, the battle between the good and evil forces of the Wizarding world evolves into an all-out war. This final adventure continues Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s attempt to find and destroy Voldemort’s remaining Horcruxes. Harry Potter is called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice to bring an end to his nemesis.
Winnie the Pooh
Theatrical Release Date: July 15, 2011
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Director: Don Hall, Stephen J. Anderson
Genre: Sequel︱Family Animation
Winnie the Pooh is a 2011 American traditionally animated feature film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Based upon the characters of the children’s books Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne and Return to the Hundred Acre Wood by David Benedictus, the film features two previously unadapted stories from the original books.
In the movie, Owl sends the whole gang to save Christopher Robin from an imaginary bad character, and it turns out to be a very busy day for Winnie the Pooh who simply set out to find some honey.Which of the following is not the genre of Transformers: Dark of the Moon?
A. Action. B. Sequel. C. 3D.D. Fantasy.According to the Movie Express above, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II is mainly about _______.
| A．a journey of Harry, Ron, and Hermione |
| B．high risks of the final adventure |
| C．an all-out war between good and evil forces |
| D．a fear of Lord Voldemort |
Who might be most interested in the Movie Express of Winnie the Pooh?
| A．Would-be parents. | B．Families with children. |
| C．Writers of children’s books. | D．Honey lovers. |