四、阅读理解
A
George Banks was a clever journalist． He worked for a good newspaper, and he liked arguing with anybody, and about anything． Sometimes the people whom he argued with were as clever as he was, but often they were not．
He did not mind arguing with stupid people at all: he knew that he could never persuade them to agree, because they could never really understand what he was saying, and the stupider they were, the surer they were that they were right, but he often found that stupid people said very amusing things．
At the end of one argument which George had with one of these less clever people, the man said something which George has always remembered and which has always amused him． It was, “Well, sir, you should never forget this: there are always three answers to every question, your answer, my answer, and the correct answer．”
56．George liked arguing ．
A． neither with anybody nor about anything
B． either with anybody or anything
C．not with anybody but about anything
D． not only with anybody but also about anything
57．The people whom George often argued with were ．
A．those who were cleverer than him
B． those who were stupider than him
C．both such clever people as he and those who were not
D．only the clever people
58．George thought the stupider they were, the surer they were that they were right
because ．
A．the stupider they were, the less knowledge they had
B． they were not worth arguing
C． stupid people often said very amusing things
D． clever people were always right
59．According to one of these less clever people's words, “there are always three answers
to every question, …” meant ．
A． George's answer was right
B． the man's answer was right
C． George's and the man's answers were not right
D． there was not a right answer
When Josephine Cooper was growing up, she learned the importance of charity from her parents. Although they made a modest living for their family of 10, they insisted on sharing with those less fortunate.
Half a century later, Mrs. Cooper became a beloved volunteer at the San Diego Food Bank, where she devoted herself to helping others. She organized and ran a distribution center from a church, helping it become
the organization's largest emergency food distribution center in San Diego. She was one of 25 outstanding senior volunteers in the nation selected and invited Washington D.C. to receive the award.
"She was the main person who helped us make that program grow," said Mike Doody, former director of the Food Bank. "She had a way of getting people to work together and to work hard. She was determined and stubborn, but in a good way. She had a good heart." People knew her as "Grandma" because of her selflessness and her devotion to helping hungry children and families. "She reminded people of their Grandma." Doody said.
As a widow with a young child in 1979, Mrs. Cooper was helped through a difficult financial time when the Food Bank provided her with groceries. "She devoted her life to giving back," said her daughter, Monica Cooper. It wasn't unusual for a local church to call Mrs. Cooper to ask her to aid a needy family. "She would give people food out of her cupboard. Sometimes we would cook a meal for a family living out of their car," Cooper said.
Although Mrs. Cooper was honored to receive the national award for her volunteer work, she said being able to help others was her reward. She died of liver disease and kidney failure, aged 93. The underlined word "charity" in Paragraph 1 refers to _____.
| A．offering help |
| B．donating money |
| C．providing services |
| D．showing sympathy |
The San Diego Food Bank is meant to _____.
| A．distribute food in case of emergency |
| B．help hungry children and families |
| C．give basic first-aid treatment |
| D．train some senior volunteers |
Which of the following is true of Mrs. Cooper?
| A．She died at an early age. |
| B．She refused the national award. |
| C．She was kind and devoted. |
| D．She was not easy to get along with. |
From what Monica Cooper said, we know that _____.
| A．she is in financial trouble |
| B．she was finally rewarded |
| C．she once misunderstood her mother |
| D．she thinks highly of her mother |
Mrs Cooper's story suggests that _____.
| A．everyone needs a Grandma nearby |
| B．children are what their parents are |
| C．a Sound mind is in a sound body |
| D．a mother's love never changes |
Based on Sue Monk Kidd’s best-selling novel, The Secret Life of Bees is a movie of hope and faith for even the unloved and oppressed(受压迫的). Just as in the book, young Lily’s thoughts sound and read like poetry, from the first moment when her room fills with bees.
The movie tells the story of the young white girl who runs away from her cruel father. Lily convinces Rosaleen, the black housekeeper to escape with her, after Rosaleen is beaten when she attempts to vote. When Lily asks Rosaleen why she risked her life standing up to the angry men who wanted to kill her, she hears“Giving in to them would be just another way of dying”.
That’s Lily’s story, too. She finally stands up to her father. They come to Tiburon, a town whose name is written on a label(标签)from a jar belonging to her mother before her death.
In Tiburon, there is no place where Rosaleen can eat or stay, despite the fact that President Johnson just signed the Civil Rights act in 1964. (It’s still just a piece of paper, Rosaleen says. )So Lily goes in to buy food for them, and sees the jar on sale. When Lily finds out it’s made right there in a farmhouse, they go there and ask for help.
The goodhearted August who runs a successful company, offers them the honey house to live in. From August, Lily learns honey business and a life lesson from the bees. She sees a world where intelligence, independence and culture are honored and rewarded. She watches Rosaleen begin to understand that the dream of freedom from oppression she gave up when she was beaten is now possible for her. It is August who helps Lily see that love is all around her and all the others. The story of the Lily is mainly developed by _______.
| A．time |
| B．space |
| C．examples |
| D．comparison |
Which is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The movie is adapted from a novel. |
| B．Lily’s father treats Rosaleen cruelly. |
| C．Lily’s mother writes the label for her. |
| D．In fact, Lily’s mother is August. |
What does Rosaleen really want to get?
| A．Better pay and honey business. |
| B．Equal rights and freedom. |
| C．The right to be voted as president. |
| D．Enough food and houses. |
We can conclude that the story of Lily happened _______.
| A．in modern America |
| B．in the 1960s in North America |
| C．when the black owned equal rights in America |
| D．before the independence of America |
The passage is written to _______.
| A．advertise a book |
| B．explain the secret of bees’ life |
| C．introduce a movie |
| D．tell about American politics |
Full of beauty, happiness and a healthy love of life, the Bulgarian (保加利亚人的) festivals and customs date back to old time when man tried to live in peace with nature. The merriest and richest festivals are
Christmas and the New Year, when the so-called. "sourvakari" makes the round of house with wishes for health and wealth. Other main festivals include "ladouvane"-a holiday for young girls on New Year's Day or
Midsummer Day (24th June), Shrovetide and Mummers' Games which mark the start of spring, and "lazrouvane"-a traditional festival for love and family, health and richness. And among them, the widely popular and typical Bulgarian customs and festivals are "martenitsas" and rose-picking.
Every year on March lst, the Bulgarians give each other "mar-tenitsas"-a small doll made of white and red strings, a symbol of the beginning of spring, health and happiness.
In late May and early June every year, the rose-picking season starts in the Valley of Roses which is between the Balkan Range and the Sredna Gora Mountains. Rose-picking starts at dawn, before sunrise and before the pleasant smell of the rose has disappeared. The Bulgarian rose produces 70 percent of the world's rose oil which is used by the very well-known perfume (香水) company as a basic element of its products.
This is the time of the Festival of Roses, celebrated with carnivals, happy activities, folk songs and dances in Karlovo and Kazanluk on the first Sunday in June. The passage is mainly about _____.
| A．Christmas and the New Year in Bulgaria |
| B．the origin of Bulgarian festivals and customs |
| C．rose-picking and perfume industry in Bulgaria |
| D．typical customs arid festivals of Bulgaria . |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．"Martenitsas"-the Beginning of Spring |
| B．Beauty, Happiness and Love |
| C．Bulgarian Festivals and Customs |
| D．Rose-picking and "Martenitsas" |
The author of this passage intends to _____.
| A．let us know some knowledge of Bulgarian culture |
| B．tell us the differences between customs and festivals |
| C．explain the connection between customs and industry |
| D．find the origin of the Bulgarian customs |
The second and the third paragraphs of the passage _____.
| A．tell us how popular rose-picking is |
| B．link two festivals with health and richness |
| C．show us two merriest and richest festivals |
| D．talk about two typical Bulgarian festivals |
People in the United States honour their parents with two special days: Mother's Day, on the second Sunday in May, and Father's Day, on the third Sunday in June. These days are set aside to show love and respect for parents. They raise their children and educate them to be responsible citizens. They give love and care to their children. These two days offer an opportunity to think about the changing roles of mothers and fathers. More mothers now work outside the home. More fathers must help with childcare.
These two special days are celebrated in many different ways. On Mother's Day people wear camations（康乃馨）. A red one symbolizes（象征） a living mother. A white one shows that mother is dead. Many people attend religious services to honour their parents. It is also a day when people whose parents are dead visit the cemetery. On these days families get together at home, as well as in restaurants. They often have outdoor barbecues(烤肉)for Father's Day. These are days of fun and good feelings and memories.
Another tradition is to give cards and gifts. Children make
them in school. Many people make their own presents. These are
valued more than the ones bought in stores. It is not the value of
the gift that is important, but it is "the thought that counts".
Greeting card stores, florists,candy makers, bakeries,
telephone companies, and other stores do a lot of business during
these holidays. Which is NOT a reason for children to show love and respectfor their parents?
| A．Their parents bring them up. |
| B．Their parents give love and care to them. |
| C．Their parents educate them to be good persons. |
| D．Their parents passed away before they grew up. |
What do you learn from the passage?
| A．Mother's Day and Father's Day are both in May. |
| B．Fewer women worked outside the home in the past. |
| C．Not all the children respect their parents. |
| D．Fathers are not as important as mothers at home. |
Which do you think is RIGHT about "carnation" ?
| A．It only has two kinds of colour. |
| B．It refers to the special clothes people wear on Mother's Dayor Father's Day. |
| C．It's a kind of flower showing love and best wishes. |
| D．People can wear carnations only on the second Sundayin May. |
The world’s astronomers came to their senses yesterday and approved a new definition of the word “planet” that would drop tiny Pluto from the club and relegate it instead to a lesser realm of “dwarf planets.” It was a welcome step away from a proposal that would have kept Pluto as a planet but meantime opened the door for dozens of small, icy bodies on the fringes of the solar system.
The important vote came after fierce debate at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union, which had been considering a proposal to define a planet as any object that orbits a star and is large enough for its own gravity to pull it into a spherical (球形的) shape. That definition was scientifically precise but led to results that offended common sense. An asteroid, a small moon, and another icy ball like Pluto would suddenly have risen to planet-hood, swelling the number of planets to 12, with many more icy rocks likely to qualify as more was learned about them.
Fortunately, the astronomers have now added another requirement to the definition. Planets must not only be large enough to be round, they must also have cleared out the neighborhood around their orbits. Pluto would not qualify — it orbits in a belt of icy debris on the edge of the solar system. Neither would an icy rock nicknamed Xena, which orbits in that same zone, nor Ceres, a big asteroid that marches in the company of other asteroids. Pluto’s moon, Charon, which had qualified under the first proposal, is also out of the running.
Pluto, with its small size and oddball orbit, should never have been deemed a planet in the first place. Henceforth there will be eight planets, at least three dwarf planets, and tens of thousands of “smaller solar system bodies,” like comets and asteroids. Our only regret is that the astronomers chose the name “dwarf planets” for Pluto’s new category instead of abandoning the word entirely when discussing these less-than-planetary bodies. We can know from the passage that the new definition of planet __________.
| A．has been welcomed by all walks of life |
| B．will kick the Pluto out of the planet group in the solar system |
| C．still makes the Pluto as a planet |
| D．will enlarge the number of planets in our solar system into permanently 12 |
After the new definition of “planet” was put forward, all of the following are regarded as planet except________.
| A．Venus |
| B．Ceres |
| C．Mars |
| D．Jupiter |
The writer’s attitudes towards the new definition of “planet” is________.
| A．welcome |
| B．indifferent |
| C．hostile |
| D．neutral |
If the original definition of “planet” had not been changed, there would be the following consequences except that ________.
| A．thousands of icy rocks in space will be classified as planets |
| B．some asteroids big enough to pull itself into a spherical shape will be regarded as planets. |
| C．the Pluto will be relegated to “dwarf planet” |
| D．there will be at least twelve or even more planets in the solar system. |
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