I arrived at my mother’s home for our Monday family dinner. The smells of food flew over from the kitchen. Mother was pulling out quilt(被子)after quilt from the boxes, proudly showing me their beauties. She was preparing for a quilt show at the Elmhurst Church. When we began to fold and put them back into the boxes, I noticed something at the bottom of one box. I pulled it out. “What is this?” I asked.
“Oh?” Mom said, “That’s Mama’s quilt.”
I spread the quilt. It looked at if a group of school children had pieced it together; irregular designs, childish pictures, a crooked line on the right.
“Grandmother made this?” I said, surprised. My grandmother was a master at making quilts. This certainly didn’t look like any of the quilts she had made.
“Yes, right before she died. I brought it home with me last year and made some changes,” she said. “I’m still working on it. See, this is what I’ve done so far.”
I looked at it more closely. She had made straight a crooked line. At the center of the quilt, she had stitched(缝) a piece of cloth with these words: “My mother made many quilts. She didn’t get all lines straight. But I think this is beautiful. I want to see it finished. Her last quilt.”
“Ooh, this is so nice, Mom,” I said. It occurred to me that by completing my grandmother’s quilt, my mother was honoring her own mother. I realized, too, that I held in my hands a family treasure. It started with the loving hands of one woman, and continued with the loving hands of another.Why did the author go to mother’s home?
| A．To see her mother’s quilts. | B．To help prepare for a show. |
| C．To get together for the family dinner. | D．To discuss her grandmother’s life. |
The author was surprised because .
| A．the quilt looked very strange. | B．her grandmother liked the quilt. |
| C．the quilt was the best she had seen. | D．her mother had made some changes |
The underlined wood “crooked” in the passage most probably means .
| A．unfinished | B．broken | C．bent | D．unusual |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．A Quilt Show | B．Mother’s Home | C．A Monday Dinner | D．Grandmother’s Quilt |
How to Be a Winner
Sir Steven Redgrave
Winner of 5 Olympic Gold Medals
“In 1997 I was found to have developed diabetes(糖尿病). Believing my career（职业生涯） was over, I felt extremely low. Then one of the specialists said there was no reason why I should stop training and competing. That was it the encouragement I needed. I could still be a winner if I believed in myself. I am not saying that it isn’t difficult sometimes. But I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn't finished yet. Nothing is to stand in my way.”
Karen Pickering
Swimming World Champion
“I swim 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. I manage that sort of workload by putting it on top of my diary. This is the key to success-you can’t follow a career in any field without being well—organized. List what you believe you can achieve. Trust yourself, write down your goals for the day, however small they are, and you’ll be a step closer to achieving them.”
Kirsten Best
Poet & Writer
“When things are getting hard, a voice inside my head tells me that I can’t achieve something. Then there are other distractions, such as family or hobbies. The key is to concentrate. When I feel tense, it helps a lot to repeat words such as ‘calm’, ‘peace’ or ‘focus’, either out loud or silently in my mind. It makes me feel more in control and increases my confidence. This is a habit that can become second nature quite easily and is a powerful psychological（心理的） tool”What does Sir Steven Redgrave mainly talk about?
| A．Difficulties influenced his career. | B．Specialists offered him medical advice. |
| C．Training helped him defeat his disease. | D．He overcame the shadow of illness to win. |
What does Karen Pickering put on top of her diary?
| A．Her training schedule. | B．Her daily happenings. |
| C．Her achievements. | D．Her sports career. |
What does the underlined word “distractions” probably refer to？
| A．Ways that help one to focus. | B．Words that help one to feel less tense. |
C．Activities that turn one's attention awa y. |
D．Habits that make it hard for one to relax. |
According to the passage ,what do the three people have in common?
| A．Courage. | B．Devotion. | C．Hard work . | D．Self-confidence. |
I was waiting for a phone call from my agent. He had left a message the night before, telling me that my show was to be cancelled(取消). I called him several times, but each time his secretary told me that he was in a meeting and that he would call me later. So I waited and waited, but there was still no call. Three hours passing by, I became more and more impatient. I was certain that my agent didn’t care about my work, and he didn’t care about me. I was overcome with that thought. I started to shout at the phone, “Let me wait, will you? Who do you think you are?”
At that time I didn’t realize my wife was looking on. Without showing her surprise, she rushed in, seized the phone, tore off the wires, and shouted at the ph
one, “Yeah! Who do you think you are? Bad telephone! Bad telephone! ” And she swept it into the wastebasket.
I stood watching her, speechless .What on earth…?
She stepped to the doorway and shouted at the rest of the house, “Now hear this! All objects in this room—if you do anything to upset my husband , out you go!”
Then she turned to me, kissed me, and said calmly, “Honey, you just have to 
learn how to take control.” With that, she left the room.
After watching a crazy woman rus
hing in and out, shouting at everything in sight, I noticed that something in my mood（情绪）had changed. I was laughing. How could I have trouble with that phone? Her antics helped me realize I had been driven crazy by small things. Twenty minutes later my agent did call. I was able to listen to him and talk to him calmly.Why did the author shout at the telephone?
| A．He was mad at the telephone. | B．He was angry with his agent. |
| C．He was anxious about his wife. | D．He was impatient with the secretary. |
What did the author’s wife do after she heard his shouting?
| A．She said nothing. | B．She shouted at him. |
| C．She called the agent. | D．She threw the phone away. |
What made the author laugh?
| A．His own behavior. | B．His wife’s suggestion. |
| C．His changeable feelings. | D．His wife’s sweet kiss. |
What does the underlined word “antics” refer to?
| A．Smart words. | B．Unusual actions. | C．Surprising looks. | D．Anxious feelings. |
To what degree can a computer achieve intelligence ? The answer to this question may lie in a newly-developed US computer program called Smarter Child and the Internet .
If you ran into Smarter Child online , you would be surprised at this kid’s huge memory .It can recite many facts . For example , Smarter Child knows every baseball player in every team this season .
He 
knows every word in the dictionary and the weather in every major city areas across the US. However , if you ask Smarter Child other questions , you get stranger answers . A question about Smarter Child’s age returns . “One year , 11 days , 16 hours , 7 minutes , and 47 seconds!” Asking where he lives gets , “In a clean room in a high-tech building in California.”
Smarter Child uses the vast information on the World W
ide Web as his memory bank . To answer questions about spelling , for instance , Smarter Child goes to American Heritage Dictionary online . For the weather , he visits www.intellicast.com.
Some scientists believe that by joining the many systems of the Internet , an artificial being with the combined knowledge of , say , Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon and Britney Spears could be born. However if Smarter Child wants to think and learn on his own like the boy-computer David in the movie A. I. , Artificial Intelligence , he must overcome two problems .
The first is that computers find it difficult to read web pages because the files are labeled in different ways . That’s why programmers need to tell Smarter Child where to look for the weather . It would be a much more difficult task to let him find it himself .
Another problem is that while Smarter Child can process (处理) information more exactly and faster than any human , he lacks common sense—a basic grounding of knowledge that is obvious to any young child .From the text we can infer that www.intellicast.com is a website .
| A．which is specially designed to help Smarter Child . |
| B．where we people can find Smarter Child |
| C．where weather forecasts are made |
| D．which is about artificial intelligence |
It is probably most difficult for Smarter Child to .
| A．tell us how to spell a difficult word |
| B．tell us show the American government is run |
| C．provide us with a famous poem by Shakespeare |
| D．learn the ability to tell right behaviors from wrong ones . |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the text ?
A．Smart Child has his own memory bank big enough for all kinds of information .
B．A.I. Artificial Intelligence is probably the name of a film about a boy-computer .
C．Smart Child can recognize different files and find information needed on his own .
D．We have similar product now which ahs the knowledge of Einstein , Nixon and Spears.Which of the following is the bet title for the passage ?
| A．A New Web Child | B．Smarter Child |
| C．The Future of Internet | D．Intelligence Development |
We often think of future．We often wonder what the world would be like in a hundred years' time.
Think of space, perhaps a permanent(永久的) station on the moon will have been set up．Perhaps people will be able to visit the moon as tourists．Cheap rockets for space travel will have been developed, permitting long journeys throughout the solar system(太阳系)．When that time comes, people will be taking holidays in space and visiting other planets．Great progress will have been discovered for the most terrible of all diseases—cancer．Pollution is a problem we must solve．In a hundred years' time it will have been controlled.
All the world will have been developed—even Antarctica．There will be large cities in Antarctica．We already have supersonic(超音速的) flight, but in a hundred years' time we will have supersonic land travel as well.
We will have used up most of earth's land to build our cities, so floating cities will have been built．The Japanese already have plans for cities of this kind．And there will be cities under the sea．The first of these will have been completed.We will have developed __________ in a hundred years' time, permitting long journeys all over the solar system.
| A．cheap rockets for space travel | B．a plane for space travel |
| C．a permanent spaceship | D．a satellite for tourists |
The last paragraph mainly talks about _____________.
| A．new ways of building cities | B．the building of cities under the sea |
| C．the building of floating cities in Japan | D．the danger which earth's land will face |
The best title for the passage is ______________.
| A．Travel in the Future | B．Future Life |
| C．Where to Live in the Future | D．Space Travel |
“Cool” is a word with many meanings. Its old meaning is used to expressa temperature that is a little bit cold．As the world has changed, the word has had many different meanings. “Cool” can be used to express feelings of interest in almost anything. When you see a famous car in the street, maybe you will say, “It’s cool.” You may think, “He’s so cool,” when you see your favorite footballer. We all maximize（扩大）the meaning of “cool”. You can use it instead of many words such as “new” or “surprising”. Here’s an interesting story we can use to show the way the word is used．A teacher asked her students to write about the waterfall （瀑布） they had visited．On one student’s paper was just the one sentence, “It’s so cool. ” Maybe he thought it was the best way to show what he saw and felt. But the story also shows a scarcity（缺乏）of words. Without “cool”, some people have no words to show the same meaning. So it is quite important to keep some credibility （可信性）. Can you think of many other words that make your life as colorful as the word “cool”? I can. And I think they are also very cool .We know that the word “cool” has had ________________
| A．only one meaning | B．no meanings |
| C．many different meanings | D．the same meaning |
In the passage, the word “express” means “_____________”
| A．see | B．show | C．know | D．feel |
In the passage, the writer suggests（暗示） that the word “cool”__________
| A．can be used instead of many words | B．usually means something interesting |
| C．can make your life colorful | D．may not be as cool as it seems |
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