The day of my holiday arrived, but I wasn’t looking forward to it. I had little money and had only been able to afford to stay with my Aunt Rosa in Spain. So, I wasn’t really excited as I knew exactly what it was going to be like: lots of noisy cousins , and Aunt Rosa begging me to take her for a ride.
After I had checked in, I made my way slowly to the departure gate. As I was waiting to board the plane, I kept thinking about my ideal holiday destination: Jamaica, with its long, sandy beaches and crystal clear water.
As soon as the plane took off, I fell fast asleep and only woke to the sound of the announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, please fasten you seat belts, as we will shortly be landing in Kingston.” I froze in my seat. Was I dreaming? Kingston? Jamaica? I had boarded the wrong plane!
Immediately after the plane landed, I explained the situation to the authorities. It seems there were also three other passengers heading for Spain. Apparently it had been the airline’s fault, since the flight numbers for Spain and Jamaica were exactly the same! Therefore, with no flight back to London for a week, the airline had no choice but to pay for our stay.
So there I was, lying on the beach, enjoying the music and the marvelous food of Jamaica! As for Aunt Rosa, I suppose she just had to live without me!
1.Why did the writer choose to spend her holiday with her aunt in Spain?
A. She missed her cousins very much.
B. Her aunt begged her to go there.
C. She could hardly afford any better trip.
D. Spain was her ideal destination.
2.In the story, the writer ended up _________.
A. flying to London immediately
B. heading for Spain from Jamaica
C. complaining to the authorities
D. enjoying a free beach holiday
3.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A. A Lucky MistakeB. A Terrible Adventure
C. A Nice DreamD. A Well-Planned Trip
假设你是新华中学的学生李华，你校计划于下周六上午主办题为“My Dream”的英语演讲比赛，你准备参加。请你根据以下要点写一篇演讲稿：
1. 对梦想的看法；
2. 你的梦想；
3. 你打算如何实现你的梦想。
注意：1. 120-150词；
2. 可适当增加细节，以使文章连贯。
[1]Although known as an extraordinarily successful businessman, Warren Buffet comes off as a pretty ordinary person.
[2]Looking back on his childhood, one can see how serious he was about making money. Buffet used to go door-to-door and sell soda pop. Later, he also worked at his grandfather’s grocery store. At the ripe age of 11, Buffet bought his first stock(股票). When his family moved to Washington D.C., Buffet became a paperboy for The Washington Post. While still in school, he was making $175 a month, a full-time wage for many young men.
[3]From the beginning, Buffet made his fortune from investing. He started with all the money that he had made from selling pop, delivering papers and so on. Between 1950 and l956, he grew his $9, 800 to $14, 000．From there, he organized investment partnerships with his family and friends, and then gradually drew in more people through very attractive terms.
[4]Buffet applied to Harvard Business School but , making it to be one of the worst admission decisions in Harvard history. The outcome ended up affecting Buffet’s life deeply, for he ended up attending Columbia Business School, where he studied under Benjamin Graham, the father of securities analysis who provided the foundation for Buffet’s grand success.
[5]Buffet is a person of habit—same house, same office, same city. He doesn’t collect houses or cars or works of art, and he hates companies that waste money on such goods. Instead, he has established the Buffet Foundation, with a detailed plan on how to invest his money more wisely to society.
1.What kind of person is Buffet according to Paragraph 1? (no more than 10 words)
_____________________________________________________________________
2.What does the writer intend to tell us in Paragraph 2? (no more than 10 words)
_____________________________________________________________________
3.According to Paragraph 3, how did Buffet start his investment? (no more than 10 words)
_____________________________________________________________________
4.Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4 with proper words. (no more than 3 words)
_____________________________________________________________________
5.Explain the underlined sentence in Paragraph 5.
_____________________________________________________________________
Nearly everyone agrees that money doesn’t buy as much as it used to, no matter when you want to spend it. This is certainly true of the paper money that passes so quickly through one’s hands. But what about coins that seem to do very little except stay in purses and pockets? Unlike notes, metal money becomes more valuable the longer it is held, especially if it is put away where it won’t get scratched or worn. Why is this? One reason is that coins, being more durable, fall more readily into a category for collectors. Naturally, the rarer gold pieces must become more valuable as the price of this metal goes up.
But, curiously, one of the rarest coins in the world is not made of gold, but of the relatively cheaper silver. In 1840, the United States mint (造币厂) struck 19570 silver dollars. That is what its records show. Today only six of this original number remain and these are unlikely ever to reach the auction (拍卖) market. So what happened to some 19564 large silver coins, not the easiest sort of things to lose? One of the more romantic theories is that they were part of the payment to Napoleon for the American land then known as Louisiana. But they never reached France. Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, the ship transporting them was sunk, either by a storm or by pirates. The probable answer to the mystery is that they were melted down — since the silver value was greater than the actual value of the coin. What really happened to the rest will probably always remain a mystery. What is known is that whoever can come up with one will find himself instantly rich.
1.We can learn from the passage that _______.
A. money buys as much as it did before
B. money does not buy as much as it did before
C. paper money buys more than metal money
D. metal money buys more than paper money
2.Which of the following is true of a coin?
A. The longer it is held, the less valuable it becomes.
B. The more it wears out, the more valuable it becomes.
C. The less it gets scratched, the less it values.
D. The longer it lasts, the more it values.
3.According to this passage, one of the rarest coins in the world is made of _______.
A. silver B. gold
C. copper D. paper
4.Coins become more valuable because _______.
A. they stay in purses and pockets
B. the price of metal goes up
C. they fall more readily into a category for collectors due to their duration
D. Both B and C
5.What really happened to some 19564 large silver coins?
A. They were melted down.
B. They were sunk in the Gulf of Mexico.
C. It is still a mystery.
D. They were stolen by pirates.
Nuclear power’s danger to health, safety, and even life itself can be summed up in one word: radiation.
Nuclear radiation has a certain mystery about it, partly because it cannot be detected by human senses. It can’t be seen or heard, or touched or tasted, even though it may be all around us. There are other things like that. For example, radio waves are all around us but we can’t detect them, sense them, without a radio receiver. Similarly, we can’t sense radioactivity without a radiation detector. But unlike common radio waves, nuclear radiation is not harmless to human beings and other living things.
At very high levels, radiation can kill an animal or human being immediately by killing masses of cells in vital organs. But even the lowest levels can do serious damage. There is no levels of radiation that is completely safe. If the radiation does not hit anything important, the damage may not be serious. This is the case when only a few cells are hit, and if they are killed immediately. Your body will replace the dead cells with healthy ones. But if the few cells are only damaged, and if they reproduce themselves, you may be in trouble. They can grow into cancer. Sometimes this does not show up for many years.
This is another reason for some of the mystery about nuclear radiation. Serious damage can be done without the victim being aware at the time that damage has occurred. A person can be irradiated（辐射）and feel fine, then die for cancer five, ten, or twenty years later as a result. Or a child can be born weak as a result of radiation absorbed by its grandparents.
Radiation can hurt us. We must know the truth.
1.What is the most dangerous factor of nuclear power?
A. Radiation B. Quantity
C. Amount D. Place
2.Which of the following statements is true?
A. Nuclear radiation can do harm to human beings.
B. Nuclear radiation cannot do harm to human beings.
C. Nuclear radiation can be detected by human senses.
D. Nuclear radiation is just like common radio waves.
3.How can nuclear radiation kill an animal?
A. By damaging its heart.
B. By killing a few cells.
C. By killing many cells in important organs.
D. By hitting any place in its body.
4.Why does nuclear radiation have a certain mystery?
A. Because human beings learn its harmfulness.
B. Because it can do harm to a person while the victim isn't aware the damage has occurred.
C. Because nuclear radiation can kill a person very easily.
D. Because human beings have no effective machine in order to detect nuclear radiation.
5.If a human being is hit by nuclear radiation, he may _______.
A. die of cancer after many years
B. die immediately
C. have a child who may be born weak
D. all of the above
American teenager Thomas Cheatham had planned to study Latin during his sophomore year at Hebron High School in Texas. But when he learned that the school district was going to offer a Mandarin class, he quickly changed his mind. “I thought it (Mandarin) would be more beneficial than Latin,” said Cheatham, who is now in his second year of studying the language.
He speaks Mandarin to order food at Chinese restaurants and can read Face book posts from his Chinese-speaking friends.
While it’a difficult language to master, the high school junior, who plans to study computer engineering, thinks it will be a valuable thing in his career.
“Chinese is a good language to know, especially with China becoming a growing power,” he said.
Many experts agree that proficiency in a language spoken by a billion people worldwide will give American students an edge in the global economy.
“People are looking at China as our next economic competitor, and interest in Mandarin is growing,'' said Marty Abbott, executive director of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. ''We're seeing it in all parts of the country.”
The number of students studying Mandarin in public schools nationwide in grades 7 through 12 grew from 20,000 in 2004-2005 to 60,000 three years later, according to the council’s most recent survey.
Abbott estimates that as many as 100,000 students are now studying Mandarin, in public and private schools, throughout the nation.
She said the US government has considered Mandarin to be an “important needs” language and provides professional development programs for teachers.
“Our government wants to increase our language ability for national security and economic competitiveness,” Abbott said.
At the same time, the Chinese government is spreading knowledge of the Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institutes established in many states.
The Confucius Institute at the University of Texas in Dallas, founded in 2007, opens Confucius Classrooms at 11 local public and private schools where more than 700 students are learning Mandarin.
1.Why does the writer mention Thomas in the passage?
A. To tell us how changeable he is.
B. To introduce the topic of the passage.
C. To introduce his college life.
D. To tell us Latin is less popular now.
2.Many experts in America agree that _______.
A. Mandarin is becoming more beneficial than Latin
B. Mandarin is very difficult to learn for most American students
C. Mandarin will be of some help to American students in the global economy
D. China is a competitor of America in culture
3.Why does Mandarin become so popular in America?
A. Because Mandarin is more interesting than Latin.
B. Because there are many good teachers in the Confucius Institutes.
C. Because Mandarin is very helpful in the global economy.
D. Because the Chinese government has tried his best.
4.From the passage we know that the Confucius Institutes _______.
A. have trained 100,000 students to learn Mandarin in America
B. provide professional development programs for teachers
C. have been established in many states in America
D. were founded in 2007
5.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. An increasing number of students in America are learning Mandarin.
B. Confucius Institutes have been established in many states in America.
C. Latin is less popular in America now.
D. China now is becoming a growing power.
