May : Happenings from the past
May 5,1884
Isaac Murphy , son of a slave and perhaps the greatest horse rider in American history , rides Buchanan to win his first Kentucky Derby . He becomes the first rider ever to win the race three times .
May 9 , 1754
Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette produces perhaps the first American political cartoon （漫画）, showing a snake cut in pieces, with the words “ Join or Die” printed under the picture.
May 11,1934
The first great dust storm of the Great Plains Dust Bowl , the result of years of drought（干旱），blows topsoil all the way to New York City and Washington , D.C. .
May 19, 1994
Jacqueline Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis , former first lady and one of the most famous people of the 1960s , died of cancer in New York City at the age of 64 .
May 24, 1844
Samuel F.B. Morsr taps out the first message , “ What Hath God Wrought ,” over the experimental long-distance telegraph line which runs from Washington, D.C. , to Baltimeore , Md .
1. We know from the text that Buchanan is_____________.
A Isaac”s father B a winnning horse
C.a slave taking care if horses D.the first racing horse in Kentucky
2. What is the title of the first American political cartoon ?
A.Join or Die B.Pennsylvania Gazette
C.What Hath God Wrought D.Kentucky Derby
3. In which year did the former first lady Jacqueline die ?
A. 1934 B. 1960 C . 1964 D. 1994
4.Which of the following places has to do with the first telegram in history ?
A. Washington , D. C. B. New York City
C. Kentucky. D. Pennsylvania
Human wants seem endless. When a starving man gets a meal, he begins to think about an overcoat; when a manager gets a new sports car, he dreams of country clubs and pleasure boats dance into view.
The many wants of mankind might be regarded as making up several levels. When there is money enough to satisfy one level of wants, another level appears.
The first and most basic level of wants is food. Once this want is satisfied, a second level of wants appears: clothing and some sort of shelter. By the end of World War II these wants were satisfied for a great majority of Americans. Then a third level appeared. It included such items as cars and new houses.
By 1957 or 1958 this third level of wants was fairly well satisfied. Then in the late 1950s a fourth level of wants appeared: the “life-enriching” level. While the other levels mean physical satisfaction—the feeding, comfort, safety and transportation of the human body—this level means mental needs for recognition, achievement and happiness. It includes a variety of goods and services many of which could be called “luxury” items. Among them are vacation trips, the best medical care and entertainment. Also included here are fancy foods and the latest styles in clothing.
On the fourth level, a greater percentage of consumers spending goes to services, while on the first three levels more is spent on goods. Will consumers raise their sights to a fifth level of wants as their income increases, or will they continue to demand luxuries and personal services on the fourth level?
A fifth level probably would be wants that can be achieved by community action. Consumers may be spending more on taxes and crime. After filling our stomachs, our garages, and our minds, we now may seek to ensure the health and safety to enjoy more fully the good things on the first three levels.According to the passage, man will begin to think about such needs as housing and clothing only when _______
| A．he has saved up enough money |
| B．he has grown dissatisfied with his simple shelter |
| C．he has satisfied his hunger |
| D．he has learned to build houses |
It can be inferred from the passage that by the end of World War II most Americans ______
| A．were very rich |
| B．were very poor |
| C．Had the good things on the first three levels |
| D．didn’t own cars |
Which of the following is NOT related to “physical satisfaction”?
| A．A successful career | B．A comfortable house |
| C．A good service | D．A family car |
The author thinks that a fifth level______
| A．would be a little better than the fourth level |
| B．may be a lot more desirable than the first four |
| C．can be the last and most satisfying level |
| D．will come true if the government takes actions |
For many parents, raising a teenager is like fighting a long war, but years go by without any clear winner. Like a border conflict between neighboring countries, the parent-teen war is about boundaries: Where is the line between what I control and what you do?
Both sides want peace, but neither feels it has any power to stop the conflict. In part, this is because neither is willing to admit any responsibility for starting it. From the parents’ point of view, the only cause of their fight is their adolescents’ complete unreasonableness. And of course, the teens see it in exactly the same way, except oppositely. Both feel trapped.
In this article, I’ll describe three no-win situations that commonly arise between teens and parents and then suggest some ways out of the trap. The first no-win situation is quarrels over unimportant things. Examples include the color of the teen’s hair, the cleanliness of the bedroom, the preferred style of clothing, the child’s failure to eat a good breakfast before school, or his tendency to sleep until noon on the weekends. Second, blaming. The goal of a blaming battle is to make the other admit that his bad attitude is the reason why everything goes wrong. Third, needing to be right. It doesn’t matter what the topic is. The laws of physics or the proper way to break an egg —the point of these arguments is to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong, for both wish to be considered an authority—someone who actually knows something — and therefore to command respect. Unfortunately, as long as parents and teens continue to assume that they know more than the other, they’ll continue to fight these battles forever and never make any real progress. Why does the author compare the parent-teen war to a border conflict?
| A．Both can continue for generations. | B．Both are about where to draw the line |
| C．Neither has any clear winner | D．Neither can be put to an end |
What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．The teens blame their parents for starting the conflict. |
| B．The teens agree with their parents on the cause of the conflict |
| C．The teens cause their parents to mislead them |
| D．The teens tend to have a full understanding of their parents |
Parents and teens want to be right because they want to ________.
| A．give orders to the other | B．know more than the other |
| C．gain respect from the other | D．get the other to behave properly |
What will the author most probably discuss in the paragraph that follows?
| A．Causes for the parent –teen conflicts | B．Examples of the parent –teen war. |
| C．Solutions for the parent –teen problems | D．Future of the parent-teen relationship |
Two men, Alan and Henry, both seriously ill, shared a hospital room. Alan was allowed to sit up in his bed and his bed was next to the room’s only window. Henry had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours, of their wives, families, their homes and their jobs. And every afternoon when Alan, in the bed next to the window, could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm among flowers. Trees and skyline could be seen in the distance. As he described all this, Henry, on the other side of the room, would close his eyes and imagine the scene.
One warm afternoon Alan described a parade (游行) passing by. Although Henry could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind. Unexpectedly, an alien thought entered his head: why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never got to see anything? It doesn’t seem fair. Henry felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sight, his envy grew and soon let him down. He began to find himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window—and that thought now controlled his life.
Late one night, as he lay staring at the ceiling. Alan began to cough. He was choking. Henry watched in the dim room as the struggling man tried hard to reach for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room, he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have brought the nurse running. In less than five minutes, the coughing and choking stopped, along with the sound of breathing. Now, there was only silence—deathly silence.
As soon as it seemed appropriate, Henry asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he struggled to take his first look. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He looked out, but faced a black wall.Judging from the passage, the meaning of the underlined word “alien” is ______.
| A．disappointing | B．sudden | C．new | D．strange |
What finally happened to Alan?
| A．He was moved to another room. | B．He died. |
| C．He switched his bed with Henry. | D．He was very sick. |
Henry, who had his bed switched, had expected _____.
| A．to see the black wall | B．to feel the joy of seeing the outside world |
| C．to feel the joy of breathing fresh air | D．to see more than Alan |
Which of the following words could be used to describe Alan?
| A．Kind-hearted and imaginative | B．Well-informed and humorous |
| C．Talkative and funny | D．Cold-hearted and indifferent |
I had applied for the nuclear（核）submarine(潜艇) program, and Admiral Rickover was interviewing me for the job. It was the first time I met Admiral Rickover, and we sat in a large room by ourselves for more than two hours, and he let me choose any subjects I wished to discuss. Very carefully, I chose those about which I knew most at the time – recent events, seamanship, music, literature, naval tactics(海军战术), electronics, gunnery(射击学) – and he began to ask me a lot of questions that were more difficult. Every time after my answers, he soon showed that I knew rather little about the subjects I had chosen.
He always looked right into my eyes, and he never smiled. I was saturated with cold sweat.
Finally, he asked me a question and I thought it was my turn to show myself off. He said, “How did you stand in your class at Georgia Tech before entering Annapolis as a first year student?” I had done very well, and I threw my chest with pride and answered, “Sir, I stood thirty-ninth in a class of 820!” I sat back to wait for the congratulations – which never came. Instead, the question: “Did you do your best?” I started to say, “Yes, sir,” but I remembered who this was, and thought of several of my times at the Academy when I could have learned more about our allies(二战时的同盟国), our enemies, weapons strategy(战略) and so on, so I finally said, “No, Sir, I didn’t always do my best.”
He looked at me for a long time, and then turned his chair around to end the interview. He asked one final question, which I have never been able to forget – or to answer. He said, “Why not?” I sat there for a while, shaken, and then slowly left the room.The passage suggests that ___.
| A．the atmosphere of the interviews was very serious |
| B．the author always did his best in doing everything |
| C．the author and Admiral Rickover were good friends |
| D．Admiral Rickover knew the author quite well |
The word “saturated” in the second paragraph may probably mean ___.
| A．very satisfied | B．completely wet | C．rather sad | D．too excited |
When the author said: “Sir, I stood thirty-ninth in a class of 820!’’ He meant __.
| A．he did better than most of his classmates at the Academy |
| B．he had 820 classmates and he was Number thirty-nine |
| C．he was proud that the class he was in was very large |
| D．in the class only thirty-nine students stood in front of him |
My elder brother Steve, in the absence of my father who died when I was six, gave me important lessons in values（价值观念） that helped me grow into an adult.
Steve taught me to face the results of my behavior. Once when I returned in tears from a Saturday baseball game, it was Steve who asked me what happened. When I explained that my baseball had soared through Mrs. Holt’s basement window, breaking the glass with a crash, Steve encouraged me to admit to her. Although my knees knocked as I explained to Mrs. Holt, I offered to pay for the window from my pocket money if she would return my ball.
I also learned from Steve that personal property（财产） is a sacred（神圣的） thing. After I found a shiny silver pen in my fifth-grade classroom, I wanted to keep it, but Steve explained that it might be important to someone else in spite of the fact that it had little value. He reminded me of how much I’d hate to lose to someone else the small dog my father made with a piece of cheap wood. I returned the pen to my teacher, Mrs. David, and still remembered the smell of her perfume (香水) as she patted me on the shoulder.
Yet of all the instructions Steve gave me, his respect for life is the most unforgetful in my mind. When I was twelve I killed an old brown sparrow(麻雀)in the yard with a BB gun. Excited, I screamed at Steve to come and take a look. I shall never forget the way he stood for a long moment and stared at the bird on the ground. Then in a dead, quiet voice, he asked, “Did it hurt you first, Mark?” I didn’t know what to answer. He continued with his eyes firm, “The only time you should even think of hurting a living thing is when it hurts you first, and then you think a long, long time.” I really felt terrible then, but that moment stands out as the most important lesson my brother taught me.What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The relationship between Mark and Steve. |
| B．The important lessons Mark learned in school. |
| C．Steve’s important role in Mark’s growth stage. |
| D．Mark and Steve’s respect for living things. |
When Mark admitted his mistakes to Mrs. Holt, he ____.
| A．was surprised | B．felt frightened |
| C．was light-hearted | D．cried before her |
From the third paragraph, we can know that Mark _____.
| A．had a shiny silver pen | B．respected his teacher |
| C．hated his father very much | D．once owned a small wooden dog |
To Mark, which is the most important lesson Steve taught him?
| A．Respecting life. | B．Being responsible for one’s behavior. |
| C．Being honest. | D．Respecting others’ property |
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