People fell in love with Elizabeth Taylor in 1944, when she starred in National Velvet-the story of Velvet Brown, a young girl who wins first place in a famous horse race. At first, the producers of the movie told Taylor that she was too small to play the part of Velvet. However, they waited for her for a few months as she exercised and trained—and added three inches to her height in four months! Her acting in National Velvet is still considered the best by a child actress.
Elizabeth Taylor was born in London in 1932. Her parents, both Americans, had moved there for business reasons. When World war II started, the Taylor moved to Beverly Hills, California, and there Elizabeth started acting in movies. After her success as a child star, Taylor had no trouble moving into adult(成人)roles and won twice for Best Actress: Butterfield 8(1960) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf ? (1966)
Taylor’s fame(名声)and popularity gave her a lot of power with the movie industry, so she was able to demand very high pay for her movies. In 1963, she received $1 million for her part in Cleopatra—the highest pay received by any star up to that time.
Elizabeth Taylor is a legend (传奇人物) of our time. Like Velvet Brown in National Velvet, she has been lucky, she has beauty, fame and wealth. But she is also a hard worker. Taylor seldom acts in movies any more. Instead, she puts her time and efforts into her businesses, and into helping others — several years ago, she founded an organization that has raised more than $40 million for research and education.
60. The producers didn’t let Taylor play the part of Velvet at first because they thought she .
A. was small in size B. was too young
C. did not play well enough D. did not show much interest
61. What Elizabeth Taylor and Velvet Brown had in common was that they were both .
A. popular all their lives B. famous actresses
C. successful when very young D. rich and kind-hearted
62. Taylor became Best Actress at the age of .
A. 12 B. 28 C. 31 D. 34
63. In her later life , Elizabeth Taylor devoted herself to .
A. doing business and helping others B. turning herself into a legend
C. collecting money for the poor D. going about research and education work
Sir Steven Redgrave
Winner of 5 Olympic Gold Medals
“In 1997 I was found to have developed diabetes (糖尿病). Believing my career 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 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 away. |
| 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. |
Where do you think you can find this passage?
| A．Popular Science. | B．Historical Events. |
| C．Successful People. | D．Political Systems. |
Some people are lucky enough to be born with a good sense of direction and even if they have just visited a place once, they will be able to find it again years later.
I am one of those unfortunate people who have a very poor sense of direction and I may have visited a place time after time but I still manage to get lost on my way there.
When I was young I was so shy that I never dared ask complete strangers the way and so I used to wander round in circles and hoped that by some chance I would get to the spot I was heading for.
I am no longer too shy to ask people for directions, but I often receive replies that puzzle me. Often people do not like to admit that they do not know their hometown and will insist on telling you the way even if they do not know it; others, who are anxious to prove that they know their hometown very well, will give you a long list of directions which you cannot possibly hope to remember; and still others do not seem to be able to tell between their left and their right and you find in the end that you are going in the opposite direction to that in which you should be going.
If anyone ever asks me the way somewhere，I always tell him/her that I am a stranger to the town in order to avoid giving him/her wrong directions, but even this can have embarrassing results.
Once I was on my way to work when I was stopped by a man who asked me if I would direct him to the Sunlight Building. I gave my usual reply, but I had not walked on a few steps when I realized that he had asked for directions to my office building.
However, at this point, I decided it was too late to turn back and search him out of the crowd behind me, as I was going to meet with someone at the office and I did not want to keep him waiting.
Imagine my embarrassment when my secretary showed in the very man who had asked for directions to my office and his astonishment when he recognized me as the person he had asked.The author seems to be very frustrated by the fact that ____.
| A．he is poor at giving directions |
| B．he is too shy to ask for direction to improve his sense of it |
| C．he is jealous of those who have excellent sense of direction |
| D．he is not born with an adequate sense of direction |
Poor in recognizing the way, the author managed to ___.
| A．go without asking anyone the way in the street |
| B．lose himself even visiting a place repeatedly |
| C．show others the way when necessary |
| D．go to his office all by himself |
The author prefers not to ask the way now because ___.
| A．he knows many people are just like him |
| B．he has been used to getting lost |
| C．he finds it hard to trust strangers |
| D．few people can give effective instructions |
An example is given to show the narrator’s ___.
| A．embarrassing encounter |
| B．successful escape |
| C．poor sense of direction |
| D．stupid response |
The tone of the story is ___.
| A．helpless | B．proud |
| C．anxious | D．humorous |
Bamboo is one of the nature’s most surprising plants. Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass.
Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist recorded one bamboo plant that grew almost 1.5 meters in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe. There are more than 1,000 kinds of bamboo that grow around the world on both mountains and plains(平原).
Not all bamboo looks the same. Some bamboo plants are very thin. They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimeters across. This plant also comes in different colors, from yellow to black to green.
Many Asian countries have been using bamboo for hundreds of years. They often use bamboo for building new buildings. As a matter of fact, the cables(绳索) that hold up the hanging bridge across the Min River in Sichuan are made of bamboo. The bridge has been in use for more than 1,000 years, and is still holding strong.
In Africa, engineers are teaching poor farmers how to find water using bamboo. These African countries need cheap ways to find water because they have no money, and their fields often die from no rain and no water. It seems that bamboo is one of the best things they can use. Bamboo pipes and drills(钻) can help to make the poor thirsty fields to be watered. How is bamboo like grass?
| A．It is thin and easy to cut. |
| B．It grows everywhere. |
| C．It grows quickly after its cut short. |
| D．It is short and green. |
The sentence “while others may grow to more than 30 centimeters across.” means “Some other bamboo plants may grow to be very _______.”
| A．short | B．strong |
| C．thick | D．tall |
From the text we know ______.
| A．most people call bamboo plant trees |
| B．a bamboo plant may grow 4.5 meters in three days |
| C．the bamboo plant changes its colors when it grows |
| D．a bridge held by bamboo cable was built thousands of years ago |
Why did the engineers teach the poor farmers in Africa to make use of bamboo?
| A．Because it is cheap. |
| B．Because it is colorful. |
| C．Because it drills fast. |
| D．Because it is used by Asians. |
Which of the following is NOT true?
| A．There are many different kinds of bamboo with different colors. |
| B．Cables made of bamboo can last for over a thousand years. |
| C．Bamboo can be used for buildings, bridges and watering projects(工程). |
| D．Bamboo plants are able to grow well in any part of the world. |
Johnny Smith was a good math student at a high school. He loved his computer. He came home early every day, then he worked with it till midnight. But Johnny was not a good English student, not good at all. He got an F in his English class. One day after school Johnny joined his computer to the computer in his high school office. The school office computer had the grades of all the students: the math grades, the science grades, the grades in arts and music, and the grades in English. He found his English grade. An F! Johnny changed his English grade from an F to A. Johnny' parents looked at his report card. They were very happy.
"An A in English!" said Johnny's Dad. "You're a very clever boy, Johnny."
Johnny is a hacker. Hackers know how to take information from other computers and put new information in. Using a modem, they join their computers to other computers secretly. School headmasters and teachers are worried about hackers. So are the police, for some people even take money from bank computer accounts and put it into their own ones. And they never have to leave home to do it! They are called hackers.Johnny changed his English grade with the computer in _______.
| A．the classroom | B．the school office |
| C．a bank near his house | D．his own house |
When Johnny's parents saw the report, they were happy because _______.
| A．Johnny was good at math |
| B．Johnny loved computers |
| C．Johnny could join one computer to another |
| D．they thought Johnny was not poor in English any longer |
Who are worried about hackers in the story?
| A．Johnny's parents. |
| B．School headmasters, teachers and the police. |
| C．The police. |
| D．School headmasters and teachers. |
What should the hackers know well, do you think, after you read this story?
| A．Information. | B．Back computer accounts. |
| C．Computers. | D．Grades. |
The last paragraph is about _______.
| A．Johnny | B．computers |
| C．hackers | D．modem |
Your smartphone(智能手机) can do a lot of things. It can call people. It connects to the Internet. It enables you to play fun games. But there is a dark side to this smart little device（设备）of yours – it might also spread disease.
“People are just as likely to get sick from their phones as from handles of the bathroom,” Jeffrey Cain, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, told The Wall Street Journal.
This may be hard to believe, but scientists reached this conclusion after they tested eight random cell phones from an office in Chicago. All the tested phones showed high numbers of coliforms(大肠菌), a kind of bacteria found in excrement(粪便)，with about 2,700 to 4,200 units of the bacteria on each phone. In drinking water, the healthy limit is less than 1 unit per 100 ml of water. This bacteria can cause flu, pinkeye（红眼病）and diarrhea(腹泻).
Although computers, keys and pens all carry germs(细菌), our smartphones get far dirtier. They touch a lot of stuff, including our hands and the inside of our pocket or purse. We take them almost everywhere: the bus, the subway and who hasn’t played Angry Birds of Fruit Ninja while sitting on the toilet?
“Some things that we think are personal are actually more public than we imagine,” Cain said.
What’s even worse is that after the phone returns from its dirty trip, it then spends most of its time cozying up to our faces. You don’t think about how often you touch your phone to your face, do you? Our noses, mouths and ears are all warm and rich in grease（油脂）, an environment that germs really like.
Compared to traditional keypads（键盘）, touch screens transmit（传播）germs more easily to hands. According to Time magazine’s website, an expert in Australia warned that playing with iPads and iPhones at Apple stores is a health risk.
So how do you keep your smartphone clean? Alcohol is effective when used to kill germs from the back and side of your phone. But it might harm the screen. There is one simple and reliable way you can reduce the germs on your phone’s surface: wash your hands regularly.The underlined word “dark” in the first paragraph means .
| A．black | B．hopeless |
| C．unclear | D．unpleasant |
By saying “Some things we think are personal are actually more public than we imagine”, Cain meant that .
| A．people love to share their smartphones more than they realize |
| B．our personal items could be as risky to our health as public items |
| C．smartphones are used in public places more than people realize |
| D．most people don’t know how dirty their cell phones are |
Compared with traditional keypads, smartphones .
| A．make contact with our hands more often |
| B．are greasier and need more alcohol to clean |
| C．get warm more easily and are harder to clean |
| D．get much nearer to our faces |
What is the article mainly about?
| A．Tips on the use of smartphones. |
| B．Health problems caused by the use of smartphones. |
| C．The danger of coliforms infection. |
| D．The influence that smartphones have on our life. |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号