My secret of staying young is quite simple：devote your attention to the part of you that’s young and growing—your brain. Keep your mind awake and you will stay young all over. These are exciting times. Take an interest in the world around you，and make a point of learning one new thing every day.
No matter how old you are ，it’s not too late to make your life more interesting. I know a housewife without knowledge in the past who made herself into an excellent industrial designer. I know an old electrical engineer who has become a highly paid artist.
Get over the idea the you are too old to go back to school. I know a man who entered a medical college at 70. He got his degree with honors and became a famous doctor. Another man went to a law school at 71 and now is an active lawyer.
No matter how old people are，staying young is easy for those who live in the future. You can do it if you are active enough to try. Keep your mind active and awake：that’s the only youth elixir.
54. Which of the following best express the main idea of this passage？
Staying young is the only youth elixir.
Learning at least one new thing every day.
Never too late to go back to school.
The secret of staying young.
55. If you wish to stay young，above all ，you should .
A. keep your mind awake and active B. make your life more interesting
C. keep your mind from being harmed D. keep in tough with other people
56. The implied meaning of the passage is that .
A. anyone can learn to do something no matter how old they may be.
B. the electrical engineer learned to be an artist to become famous.
C. the man who entered the medical collage at 70 came out at the top of the list.
D. every one can be successful if you try to learn no matter how old he may be
57. The word “elixir”in the last sentence probably means something that can keep people .
A. healthy B. wealthy C. young D. happy
English, as we all know, is considered as the universal language. It is spoken all over the world. However, you will also notice that people all over the world are using different types of English. Let’s take a closer look at these two popular types: UK and US English. Even if both types of English are wildly used, there are some differences that will be worth knowing to find out the type of English that you are using.
US English is what we know as the American English which is wildly used in the United States. UK English, on the other hand, is known as the British English. Some also call it the BBC English since it is the English used by British reporters, and another name for it is the Queen’s English.
In terms of vocabulary, some words in US English may mean something different in the UK English. For example, the word biscuit for the British means baked sweet or salty cake that is hard when baked and softened over time; while in the US it is a quick bread served with salty foods.
With regards to pronunciation, American English is more nasal (鼻音的). Stress (重音) is also another difference to consider. Just like in the word princess, British stress the second syllable (音节) while Americans stress the first.
Spelling is another area of difference. American English spelling is more simple. Example of which includes, color for the US and colour for the UK, same goes with honor and honour. The doubling of letters in words is another good example. It will be traveler in the US and traveller in the UK. The use of “-og” instead of “-ogue” in word such as dialog and dialogue or catalog and catalogue.What can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Similarity between US English and UK English |
| B．Difference between US English and UK English |
| C．The future of US English and UK English |
| D．The history of US and UK English |
What does the underlined word “it” refer to according to Paragraph 2?
A The British English.
B The American English.
C The BBC.
D The Queen of UK.he word biscuit in UK English refers to the cake which may be finally.
| A．sweet and hard |
| B．salty and sweet |
| C．hard and salty |
| D．salty and soft |
Which of the following may belong to UK English?
| A．Color. | B．Traveler. |
| C．Dialog. | D．Catalogue. |
In the 1950s，a family who owned a farm near Beulah，Michigan kept a bull chained to an elm (榆树)．The bull paced around the tree，dragging the heavy iron chain，which led to a groove (槽) in the bark.The groove deepened over the years，though for whatever reason，it did not kill the tree.
After some years，the family took their bull away.They cut the chain，leaving the loop (圈) around the tree and one link hanging down.
Then one year，agricultural disaster struck Michigan in the form of Dutch Elm Disease.All of the elms lining the road leading to the farm became infected and died.Everyone thought that the old elm would be next.
The farm’s owners considered doing the safe thing：pulling it out and cutting it up into firewood before it died.But they simply could not bring themselves to do it.It was as if the old tree had become a family friend.So they decided to let_nature_take_its_course.
Amazingly，the tree did not die.Nobody could understand why it was the only elm that was still standing in the country!
Plant pathologists(病理学家) from Michigan State University came out to observe the tree.They observed the scar left by the iron chain，now almost completely covered by bark.The plant experts decided that it was the chain that saved the elm’s life.They reasoned that the tree must have absorbed so much iron from the chain that it became immune (免疫) to the fungus (真菌)．
It’s said that what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.Or，as Ernest Hemimgway put it，“Life breaks us all，but afterwards，many of us are strongest at the broken places.”What happened to the elms in Michigan during the agricultural disaster?
| A．The elms were tied by iron chains. |
| B．Some of the elms were cut up into firewood. |
| C．All the elms were infected by a disease and died. |
| D．Nearly all of the elms died of a disease. |
From the passage we can learn that the old elm was saved by________.
| A．the groove in the bark | B．the fungus in the tree |
| C．the iron remaining in it | D．its own immune system |
The underlined sentence “let_nature_take_its_course” means______.
| A．leave the elm at the mercy of nature |
| B．help the elm grow normally |
| C．let nature take the elm away |
| D．have nature give a lesson to the elm |
What is the best title for the text?
| A．Never Lose Heart in Trouble |
| B．Strike While the Iron is Hot |
| C．Brave to Face Failure |
| D．Stronger after Suffering |
Shu Pulong has helped at least l000 people bitted(咬) by snakes. "It was seeing people with snake bites(伤口) that led me to this career" he said.
In l963, after his army service, Shu entered a medical school and later became a doctor of Chinese medicine. As part of his studies he had to work in the mountains. There he often heard of people who had their arms and legs cut off after a snake bite in order to save their lives.
"I was greatly upset by the story of an old farmer I met. It was a very hot afternoon. The old man was pulling grass in his fields when he felt a pain in his left hand. He at once realized he had been bitten by a poisonous snake. In no time wrapped a cloth tightly around his arm to stop the poison spreading to his heart. Rushing home he shouted 'bring me the knife!' Minutes later the man lost his arm forever."
"The sad story touched me so much that I decided to devote myself to helping people bitten by snakes," Shu said.The best headline (标题) fot this newspaper article is ______.
| A．Astonishing Medicine | B．Farmer Loses Arm |
| C．Dangerous Bites | D．Snake Doctor |
The farmer lost his arm because______.
| A．the cloth was wrapped too tightl | B．he cut it off to save his life |
| C．Shu wasn't there to help him | D．he was alone in the fields |
Shu decided to devote himself to snake medicine because______.
| A．he wanted to save people's arms and legs |
| B．he had studied it at a medical school |
| C．he had seen snakes biting people |
| D．his army service had finished. |
Why did Shu go into the mountains?
| A．He wanted to study snake bites. |
| B．He wanted to help the farmers. |
| C．He was being trained to be a doctor. |
| D．He was expected to serve in the army. |
Which of the following words can take the place of the word career in the first paragraph (段) ?
| A．conclusion | B．story | C．incident | D．job |
A German study suggests that people who were too optimistic about their future actually faced greater risk of disability or death within 10 years than those pessimists who expected their future to be worse.
The paper, published this March in Psychology and Aging, examined health and welfare surveys from roughly 40,000 Germans between ages 18 and 96. The surveys were conducted every year from 1993 to 2003.
Survey respondents (受访者) were asked to estimate their present and future life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10, among other questions.
The researchers found that young adults (age 18 to 39) routinely overestimated their future life satisfaction, while middle-aged adults (age 40 to 64) more accurately predicted how they would feel in the future. Adults of 65 and older, however, were far more likely to underestimate their future life satisfaction. Not only did they feel more satisfied than they thought they would, the older pessimists seemed to suffer a lower ratio (比率) of disability and death for the study period.
“We observed that being too optimistic in predicting a better future than actually observed was associated with a greater risk of disability and a greater risk of death within the following decade,” wrote Frieder R. Lang, a professor at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
Lang and his colleagues believed that people who were pessimistic about their future may be more careful about their actions than people who expected a rosy future.
“Seeing a dark future may encourage positive evaluations of the actual self and may contribute to taking improved precautions (预防措施),” the authors wrote.
Surprisingly, compared with those in poor health or who had low incomes, respondents who enjoyed good health or income were associated with expecting a greater decline. Also, the researchers said that higher income was related to a greater risk of disability.
The authors of the study noted that there were limitations to their conclusions. Illness, medical treatment and personal loss could also have driven health outcomes.
However, the researchers said a pattern was clear. “We found that from early to late adulthood, individuals adapt their expectations of future life satisfaction from optimistic, to accurate, to pessimistic,” the authors concluded.According to the study, who made the most accurate prediction of their future life satisfaction?
| A．Optimistic adults. | B．Middle-aged adults. |
| C．Adults in poor health. | D．Adults of lower income. |
Pessimism may be positive in some way because it causes people ______.
| A．to fully enjoy their present life |
| B．to estimate their contribution accurately |
| C．to take measures against potential risks |
| D．to value health more highly than wealth |
How do people of higher income see their future?
| A．They will earn less money. |
| B．They will become pessimistic. |
| C．They will suffer mental illness. |
| D．They will have less time to enjoy life. |
What is the clear conclusion of the study?
| A．Pessimism guarantees chances of survival. |
| B．Good financial condition leads to good health. |
| C．Medical treatment determines health outcomes. |
| D．Expectations of future life satisfaction decline with age. |
The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place. Now it is an ecological disaster area. Nauru's heartbreaking story could have one good consequence—other countries might learn from its mistakes.
For thousands of years, Polynesian people lived on the remote island of Nauru, far from western civilization. The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798. He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship. He called the island Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first. Then whaling ships and other traders began to visit, bringing guns and alcohol. These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island. A tenyear civil war started, which reduced the population from 1,400 to 900.
Nauru's real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate(磷酸盐) on the island. In fact, it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate, which is a very important fertilizer for farming. The company began mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not a hole in the ground; it is a stripmine. When a company stripmines, it removes the top layer of soil. Then it takes away the material it wants. Stripmining totally destroys the land. Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.
In 1968, Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world. Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars. In addition, they used millions more dollars for personal expenses. Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem—their phosphate was running out. Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing. By 2000, Nauru was almost financially ruined. Experts say that it would take approximately $433,600,000 and more than 20 years to repair the island. This will probably never happen.What might be the author's purpose in writing the text?
| A．To seek help for Nauru's problems. |
| B．To give a warning to other countries. |
| C．To show the importance of money. |
| D．To tell a heartbreaking story of a war. |
What was Nauru like before the Europeans came?
| A．Rich and powerful. |
| B．Modern and open. |
| C．Peaceful and attractive. |
| D．Greedy and aggressive. |
The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from ________.
| A．soil pollution |
| B．phosphate overmining |
| C．farming activity |
| D．whale hunting |
Which of the following was a cause of Nauru's financial problem?
| A．Its leaders misused the money. |
| B．It spent too much repairing the island. |
| C．Its phosphate mining cost much money. |
| D．It lost millions of dollars in the civil war. |
What can we learn about Nauru from the last paragraph?
| A．The ecological damage is difficult to repair. |
| B．The leaders will take the experts' words seriously. |
| C．The island was abandoned by the Nauruans. |
| D．The phosphate mines were destroyed. |
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