I stood up from the bench. Then I ______ my army uniform, while studying the crowd of people _______their way through Grand Central Station. I was looking for the girl whose heart I knew but whose ______ I didn’t, the girl with the rose.
My interest in her had begun thirteen months ______ in a Florida library. Taking a book off the _____, I found myself intrigued（着迷的）, not with the words of the book, _____ with the notes penciled in the margin (页边空白). The soft ______ reflected a thoughtful soul and a insightful mind. In the front of the ______, I discovered the previous owner’s______, Miss May Nell.
With time and ______ I discovered her address. She lived in New York City. I ______ her a letter introducing myself and inviting her to correspond（通信）. The next day I was ______ overseas for ______ in World War II. During the next year and one month we two _______ to know each other ______ the mail. Each letter was a _______falling on a fertile（肥沃的）heart. Then, I______ a photograph, but she refused. She said that if I really ______, it wouldn’t ______ what she looked like.
When the day finally came for me to return from Europe, we arranged for our first meeting—7:00 pm at the Grand Central Station in New York. “ You will ______ me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing in my lapel(翻领).” So at 7:00 I was in the station looking for the girl whose heart I loved, but whose looks I’d never seen.
1.A. appreciated B. put on C. cleaned D. straightened
2.A. making B. taking C. losing D. finding
3.A. mouth B. face C. legs D. hands[
4.A. after B. later C. ago D. before
5.A. bench B. chair C. desk D. shelf
6.A. however B. so C. but D. therefore
7.A. cover B. notebook C. handwriting D. pencil[
8.A. book B. notes C. library D. station
9.A. friend B. name C. sister D. neighbor
10.A. money B. effort C. excitement D. enjoyment
11.A. got B. received C. read D. wrote
12.A. shipped B. brought C. killed D. wounded
13.A. pleasure B. travel C. service D. further education
14.A. had B. grew C. were D. wanted
15.A. in B. with C. across D. through
16.A. plant B. seed C. fire D. greeting
17.A. asked B. sent C. took D. requested
18.A. helped B. cared C. refused D. hated[
19.A. matter B. occur C. last D. continue
20.A. know B. understand C. see D. recognize
Nature's cheats
Mary is digging in the ground for a potato，when along comes John．Seeing that there is no one in sight, John starts to scream．John's angry mother rushes over and drives Mary away．Once his mum has gone，John helps himself to Mary's potato．
We've a
ll experienced similar annoying tricks when we were young-the brother who stole your ball and then got you into trouble by telling your parents you had hit him．But Mary and John are not humans．They're African baboons（狒狒）．1.
John's scream and his mother's attack on Mary could have been a matter of chance, but John was later seen playing the same tricks on others．2.
Studying behavior like this is complicated, but scientists discovered apes（猿）clearly showed that they intended to cheat and knew when they themselves had been cheated．3. An ape was annoying him, so he tricked her into going away by pretending he had seen something interesting．When she found nothing, she "walked back, hit me over the head with her hand and ignored me for the rest of the day．"
Another way to decide whether an animal's behavior is deliberate is to look for actions that are not normal for that animal．A zoo worker describes how an ape dealt with an enemy．"He slowly stole up behind the other ape, walking on tiptoe．When he got close to his enemy, he pushed him violently in the back, then ran indoors．" Wild apes do not normally walk on tiptoe．4. But looking at the many cases of deliberate trickery in apes, it is impossible to explain them all as simple copying．
It seems that trickery does play an important part in ape societies．5. Studying the intelligence of our closest relative could be the way to understand the development of human intelligence．
A．In most cases the animal probably doesn't know it is cheating．
B．An amusing example of this comes from a psychologist working in Tanzania．
C．And playing tricks is as much a part of monkey behavior as it is of human behavior．
D．So the psychologists asked his colleagues if they had noticed this kind of trickery．
E．The ability of animals to cheat may be a better measure of their intelligence than their use
of tools．
F．This use of a third individual to achieve a goal is only one of the many tricks commonly
used by baboons．
G．Of course it's possible that it could have learnt from humans that such behavior works, without understanding why．
According to a new US study, couples who expect their children to help care for them in old age should hope they have daughters because they are likely to be twice as attentive as sons overall.
The research by Angelina Grigoryeva, a sociologist at Princeton University, found that, while women provide as much care for their elderly parents as they can manage, men do as little as they can get away with and often leave it to female family members.
Her analysis of the family networks of 26,000 older Americans concluded that gender(性别) is the most important predictor(预示物) of whether or not people will actively care for elderly parents.
In a paper being presented at the annual conference of the American Sociological Association in San Francisco, she concludes that simply having a sister makes men statistically likely provide less care.
Using data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study, a study which has been tracking a cross-section of over-50s for the last decade, she calculated that women provide an average of 12.3 hours a month of care for elderly parents while men offer only 5.6 hours.
“Whereas the amount of elderly parent care daughters provide is associated with limitations they face, such as employment or childcare, sons’ caregiving is associated only with the presence or absence of other helpers, such as sisters or a parent’s spouse(配偶),” she explained.
“Sons reduce their relative caregiving efforts when they have a sister, while daughters increase theirs when they have a brother.”
“This suggests that sons pass on parent caregiving responsibilities to their sisters.”
In the UK, the 2011 census(人口普查) showed that there are now around 6.5 million people with caring responsibilities – a figure which has risen by a tenth in a decade.
But many are doing so at the risk of their own health. The census showed that those who provide 50 hours or more of care a week while trying to hold down a full- time job are three times more likely to be struggling with ill health than their working counterparts(相对应的人) who are not carers.
1.What’s the most important factor to predict if people will actively care for the elderly?
A. Gender. B. Education.
C. Career. D. Family networks.
2.The US study finds that _______.
A. sons are twice as likely as daughters to care for parents in old age
B. having a sister makes men less likely to do their fair share
C. sons and daughters seem to give equal care to their parents
D. sons are unwilling to leave caregiving responsibilities to female family members
3.What does the author stress in the last paragraph?
A. People should give up their jobs to care for the elderly.
B. Many care providers work longer hours than others.
C. People shouldn’t pass on caring responsibilities to others.
D. Many care providers have potential health problems.
4.The author develops the text by _______.
A. explaining social networks of careers
B. describing people’s experiences
C. analyzing various research and data
D. comparing different gender behavior
The son of a piano producer, Elwyn Brooks White was born in Mount Vernon in a wealthy family．And he was raised with the mix of sophistication（富有经验）and common sense that would mark his writing．
After graduation, White spent a year as a newspaper reporter in New York City, then decided to drive across the country with a friend．The trip gave White a lifetime of anecdotes．“When they ran out of money," White's friend, James Thurber, noted, "they played for their supper and their gasoline on an interesting musical instrument that White had made out of some pieces of wire and an old shoe．"
When White returned to New York City in the mid-1920s, he spent a few years bouncing between advertising jobs and unemployment before trying his hand again at writing．Not very seriously, he sent some essays to a new magazine called The New Yorker．Since its founding in 1925, the magazine had struggled to find its niche, and White's work helped put The New Yorker on the map．His essays were funny and sophisticated; they spoke equally to socialites(社会名流）and cab drivers, professors and repairmen．Through his essays, which he wrote for nearly 50 years, White helped give The New Yor
ker its voice and identity．
In 1945, already a leading literary figure, White switched to his second occupation writing children's books．He moved from New York to a farm in Maine, where he raised chickens and geese． Seeking a way to amuse his nieces and nephews, White started to write stories for them．“Children were always after me to tell them a story and I found I couldn't do it," he said．“ So I had to get it down on paper．”
By the time he died from Alzheimer's disease in 1985, White's essays had appeared in more literary collections in colleges than those of any other writer．Many said his essays matched his personality: sophisticated without being simple, critical without being mean．
1.What do we learn from Paragraph 2?
A. White took the trip to realize his lifelong dream．
B. The trip had a lasting effect on White's personality．
C. The travelling companion found White's music talent．
D. White had many experiences to talk about after the trip．
2.The underlined part "its niche" means something that ．
A. suits its sponsors' tastes
B. protects its social identity
C. helps to build its own style
D. voices its authors' concern
3.What do we know about White's works?
A. They originally came from the stories told by his nieces．
B. They were intended for people of different social status．
C. They helped The New Yorker find its position on the map．
D. They were chosen by college textbooks when they came out．
Is it possible that the sinking of the Titanic was caused by a ghost? A lot of the story below is true…but did it really happen quite like this?
Our story begins not in the icy cold waters of the North Atlantic, but rather thousands of miles away in Egypt. It is here, perhaps, that we can find the start of the mystery(谜) of the Titanic, in the year 1910, in the great city of Cairo.
One day, a famous professor of Egyptian history called Douglas Murray was staying in Cairo, when he was contacted by an American adventurer.
The American had something unusual to offer Murray, something that was certain to thrill him: a beautiful ancient Egyptian mummy case, containing the mummy of an Egyptian queen. It was over 3000 years old, but in beautiful condition —gold, with bright paintings on it. Murray was delighted with both the object and the asking-price. He gave the man a cheque immediately.
The cheque was never cashed. That evening the American adventurer died. For his part, Murray arranged to have the treasure sent back to Britain. However, it was not long before he learnt more about the beautiful mummy case: On the walls of the tomb in which it had been discovered, there were messages which warned of terrible consequences to anyone who broke into the tomb. Murray was disbelieving of these warnings until a few days later, when a gun he was holding exploded in his hand, shattering his arm. The arm had to be cut off.
After the accident, Murray decided to return to his homeland. On the return journey, two of his companions died mysteriously, and two servants who had handled the mummy also passed away. The now-terrified Murray decided he would get rid of the cursed case as soon as he arrived in London. A lady he knew named Janet Jones said she would like it, so he gave it to her. Shortly afterwards, Jones’ mother died, and she herself caught a strange disease. She tried returning the mummy, but naturally Murray refused it. In the end, it was presented to the British Museum.
Even in the museum, the mummy apparently continued to cause strange events. A museum photographer died shortly after taking pictures of the new exhibit, and a manager also died for no apparent reason. In the end, the British Museum decided to get rid of the mummy too. They sold it to a collector in New York.
At the start of April 1912, arrangements for the transfer were complete, and the mummy began the journey to its new home. But the New Yorker never received the mummy or its case. For when the Titanic sank, one of the objects in its strong-room was the mummy case. Or so they say.
1.From the passage, we know Professor Murray ________.
A. used to work for the British Museum
B. was a Bri
tish professor of Egyptian history
C. didn’t believe the mummy really brought bad fortune
D. was a famous American adventurer
2.In Paragraph 6, the underlined word “cursed” is closest in meaning to
A. uncomm
on B. expensive
C. unlucky D. forgotten
3.In what order did the following events occur?
a. The case was given to the British Museum.
b. Janet Jones caught a mysterious illness.
c. Murray’s arm was cut off
d. The mummy case was sold to an American.
e. A man who took a picture of the case died.
f. Warnings were written on the tomb’s walls.
A. c, f, b, a, e, d B. d, f, b, c, a, e
C. f, a, c, b, e, d D. f, c, b, a,e, d
4.According to the passage, where is the Egyptian mummy now?
A. In New York. B. In Egypt.
C. Under the sea. D. At the British Museum.
Just a couple of hours ago, I was on the plane, ready to fly home from London. The flight had been delayed by a few hours so it felt good to be so close to takeoff. I had my iPod in place and a new book to read. Then, over the loudspeaker came the pilot’s voice: “The ground crew has found a metal instrument in one tire. We regret that we must cancel this flight.”
The passengers’reactions that announcement led to were interesting. One man close to me began to argue with a flight attendant. A couple in another row complained loudly. A businessman in a black suit actually kicked the seat in front of him. Yet some passengers responded differently. An elderly gentleman smiled as he helped others take their bags down from the overhead compartments (行李厢). A teenager, rather than trying to rush off the plane like most of the other passengers, stopped to help a woman with a disability. The lady sitting next to me laughed and said: “Hey, it’s not the end of the world,” before she made a call to her kids and shared her adventure with them. The wisest among us have a remarkable ability to maintain grounded when times get tough.
No life is perfect; mine certainly isn’t. We all must face challenges, both large and small. You and I have the power to choose to rise above the external circumstances. We always have the choice to be strong and kind when things fall apart.
That’s grace under pressure. My seatmate was right—things could have been so much worse. Anyway, I am safe. I have my health. I have two wonderful children. I have work I love and so much to be grateful for. Sure I now have to wait a few hours to catch the next flight home.
1.What caused the passengers’ different reactions?
A. The loudspeaker.
B. The delay of the flight.
C. The ground crew’s fault.
D. The pilot’s announcement.
2.Who turned his anger on the seat?
A. The teenager helping the disabled.
B. The old man taking bags down.
C. The man in a dark suit.
D. The man close to me.
3.What did the woman sitting next to the author do?
A. She assisted a disabled woman.
B. She made a phone call to her family.
C. She helped others carry their luggage.
D. She told moving stories to her children.
4.What can we learn from the story?
A. Our life is full of ups and downs.
B. It is natural to be scared under pressure.
C. We should help each other in times of difficulty.
D. We should be positive and calm when life is hard.
