When I was a child, I often dreamed of the time when I could leave home and escape to the city. We lived on a farm, in the winter especially, we were quite cut off from the outside world. As soon as I left school, I packed my bags and moved to the capital. However, I soon discovered that my life has its problems ,too.
One big disadvantage is money. It costs so much to go out, not to mention basics like food and housing. Another disadvantage is pollution. I suffer from asthma(哮喘), and at times the air is so bad that I am afraid to go outside. Then there is the problem of traveling round. Although I have a car, I seldom use it because of the traffic jams. One choice is to go by bicycle, but that can be quite dangerous.
Of course there are advantages. First, there is so much to do in the city, whatever you tastes in culture or entertainment(娱乐活动). Besides, there are wonderful jobs and greater chances of moving to a more important job or position. Finally, if you like shopping, the variety of goods is very surprising --- and , what is more, shops are often only a short walk away.
Is life better then, in the city? Perhaps it is , when you are in your teens(十几岁)or twenties. However, as you get older, and especially if you have small children, the peace of the countryside may seem preferable. I certainly hope to move back there soon.
1.Which of the following is true about the writer?
A. He is very old now.
B. He is in good health.
C. He prefers driving a car.
D. He lives in the city now.
2.In the passage, the writer tries to __________.
A. express his opinions about way of life
B. describe his life in the countryside
C. an interest in the outside world
D. persuade the reader to live in the city
3.How is the passage mainly developed?
A. By inferring.
B. By comparing.
C. By listing examples.
D. By giving explanations.
A serious problem for today’s society is who should be responsible for our elderly and how to improve their lives. It is not only a financial problem but also a question of the system we want for our society. I would like to suggest several possible solutions to this problem.
First, employers should take the responsibility for their retried employees. To make this possible, a percentage of profits should be set aside for this purpose. But when a company must take life long responsibility for its employees, it may suffer from a commercial disadvantage due to higher employee costs.
Another way of solving the problem is to return the responsibility to the individual. This means each person must save during his working years to pay for his years of retirement. This does not seem a very fair model since some people have enough trouble paying for their daily life without trying to earn extra to cover their retirement years. This means the government might have to step in to care for the poor.
In addition, the government could take responsibility for the care of the elderly. This could be financed through government taxes to increase the level of pensions. Furthermore, some institutions should be created for senior citizens, which can help provide a comfortable life for them. Unfortunately , as the present situation in our country shows, this is not a truly viable answer. The government can seldom afford to care for the elderly, particularly when it is busy trying to care for the young.
One further solution is that the government or social organizations establish some workplaces especially for the elderly where they are independent.
To sum up, all these options have advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that some combination of these options may be needed to provide the care we hope to give to our elderly generations.
1.What is the passage mainly about?
A. The problem faced by the old in society.
B. Why we should take responsibility for the old.
C. How we can improve the lives of the old.
D. Where the old can go to get their pensions.
2.According to the passage, how can the government help to improve the lives of retired people?
A. Set aside some profits to help people with problems after they retire
B. Increase saving levels of people during their working years
C. Increase the discounts for food and transport for the old
D. Make available pensions for those who have retired
3.The underlined word “viable” most probably means ____.
A. impossible B. practical
C. useful D. successful
4.What can be concluded from the passage?
A. Taking care of the old is mainly an issue of money
B. Employers should allow their workers to retire at a later age
C. Becoming independent should be the goal of most old people
D. There is no single solution to the problem of the old
Did you know that women’s brains are smaller than men’s? The average women’s brain weighs 10% less than men’s. Since research has shown that the bigger the brain, the cleverer the animal, men must be more intelligent than women. Right? Wrong. Men and women always score similarly on intelligence tests, despite the difference in brain size. Why? After years of study, researchers have concluded that it’s what’s inside that matters, not just the size of the brain. The brain consists of “grey matter” .
It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls tend to learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of information from different sources at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.
There are other important differences between two sexes. As white matter is the key to spatial(空间的) tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher. That may explain one of life’s great mysteries: why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!
The differences begin when fetuses(胎儿) are about nine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children and young as one. A boy would try to climb a barrier (障碍物) before him or push it down while a girl would attract help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors(祖先) ,among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.
If all this disappoints you, it shouldn’t. “The brain changes throughout our lives according to what we do with it.” says a biologist.
1.Which of the following is true according to the first paragraph?
A. Women’s brain is 10% less than men’s.
B. Grey matter plays the same role as white matter.
C. Grey matter controls thinking in the brain.
D. Both sexes have the same amount of white matter.
2.What can we infer from the second and third paragraphs?
A. Women prefer doing many things at a time.
B. Men do better dealing with one job at a time.
C. Women do not need to tell directions.
D. Men have weaker spatial abilities.
3.Which of the following do you agree with according to the fourth paragraph?
A. Young boys may be stronger than young girls.
B. More women take up jobs requiring speech skills
C. Women may have stronger feelings than men.
D. Our ancestors needed more spatial skills.
4.What is the writer’s attitude in writing this passage?
A. Defensive. B. Persuasive.
C. Supportive. D. Objective.
Watercolor is the oldest paints known. It dates back to the early cave men who discovered they could add lifelike qualities to drawings of animals and other figures on the walls of caves by mixing the natural colors found in the earth with water.
Fresco(壁画), one of the greatest of all art forms, is done with watercolor. It is created by mixing paints and water and applying these to wet plaster(灰泥). Of the thousands of people who stand under Michelangelo's heroic ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, very few know that they are looking at perhaps the greatest watercolor painting in the world.
The invention of oil painting by the Flemish masters in the fifteenth century made fresco painting go down-hill, and for the next several centuries watercolor was used mainly for doing sketches(素描) or as a tool for study. It was not until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that English painters put back watercolor as a serious art form. The English have a widely-known love for the outdoors and also small, private pictures. The softness of watercolor had a remarkably strong attraction for them.
The popularity of watercolor continued to grow until in the twentieth century. The United States passed England as the center for watercolor, producing such well-known watercolor artists as Thomas Eakins and Andrew Wyeth.
1.What is the passage mainly about?
A. The gradual weakness of fresco painting.
B. Oils having more power or influence over watercolor.
C. The rediscovery of watercolor in England.
D. The start and development of watercolor.
2.The first watercolor artists were ______.
A. early cave men
B. Italian fresco artists
C. Flemish masters
D. English artists of the 18th century
3.According to the passage, watercolor painting was put back in England because ______.
A. it was easy to use outdoors
B. it was a strong medium
B. it was extremely bright in color
D. it was well suited to popular tastes
4.What would the next paragraph most probably deal with?
A. the works of famous American watercolor artists.
B. The weakness of oils as popular paints.
C. Techniques of producing watercolor.
D. Modern American oil painters.
Children of America are getting fatter every time. 13% of the children at the age of 6 to 11 are overweight (too fat).
When we look at the children's lives today in the USA, we can see the root of the problem----sports and foods. Young children like sports but they don't have enough around the start of high school. That's especially true for girls. Meanwhile, to make matters worse, schools are becoming much more interested in sports teams. So children are not able to get enough exercise just when they need it the most. There is also the food problem. Children get most of their calories at restaurants or parties or somewhere else away from home. They often drink too many Cokes. Parents have a lot of fears about telling a child he needs to lose weight-- they are afraid it will push a child into an eating disorder. Some parents fear that pushing children to lose weight means their children will think they're not good enough, or not loved because of their weight. Parents need to come to terms with(向…妥协) the fact that the family is very important to the children. The most useful program for children is called "family weight control". This is good news. Mom and Dad, even if they don't have weight problems, have to go throu
gh the same program as their children and learn how to get some exercise and how to eat healthily.
1.Why are American children getting fatter? The writer thinks ______________________.
A. parents also have weight problem as their children
B. children have less exercise and eat unhealthily
C. schools are more interested in sports teams
D. children dri
nk too many Cokes
2.The writer wants to tell parents that _________________.
A. overweight children are not loved by people
B. family members can help overweight children a lot
C. children are afraid to lose weight when they have to
D. girls don't like to exercise
3.The writer thinks if mother or father is on the same program as their children, _______.
A. their children will not eat better
B. it will make the children eat much more
C. "family weight control" will be successful
D. parents will feel sorry about themselves
4.Which of the following is NOT the root of overweight problem?
A. Family weight control B. Less sports
C. Higher-calorie D. higher-fat foods.
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 (A．B．C和D)中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
A
One morning, my husband Jerry went back to the kitchen as he just finished loading his car. “I guess filling my thermos(保温瓶) is all that I have left to do, and then I’m off.” Down the drain(下水道) went the hot water that had been warming his thermos.
With a nostalgic(怀旧的) look on his face, he softly said: “Anytime I fill my thermos I think of your mom.” The tone in his voice was so tender(温柔的) as he spoke of my mother, who is sadly no longer with us.
“Oh honey, I know she’s watching and listening right now with a big smile on her face,” I responded, tears in my eyes.
One morning years ago when we were leaving, mother watched as Jerry was to fill his thermos. Mom then casually said, ‘Jerry, if you filled your thermos with hot water and let it sit a while, your coffee would stay hot for longer then.” With her simple suggestion, his face showed that he was shocked by his own lack of common sense. Well, of course it would!
He poured out the small amount of coffee already in the thermos and refilled it with boiling hot water. Then he poured the water and refilled it with hot coffee. Mom smiled as Jerry did so.
Words of wisdom from a loving mother-in-law made an impact(影响) that will never be forgotten. She never dreamed her words would be a treasured and everlasting memory in the heart of her son-in-law.
The lasting memories don’t necessarily come from major moments in life. Memories are often made during those small, ordinary times. Life is about small moments we share with friends and loved ones.
1.Which word best describes the author’s feeling in Paragraph 3?
A. Concerned B. Confused
C. Interested D. Touched
2.The underlined part “don’t necessarily” is similar in meaning to ________.
A. out of the question
B. possibly but uncertainly
C. certainly and absolutely
D. without any doubt
3.The message that the story intends to convey（传达） is ______.
A. that lasting memories come from small things
B. how valuable a mother’s advice is to her children.
C. what a wise woman the mother is to her son-in-law
D. why we should respect our parents and listen to them.
