第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题材所给的四个选项A、B、C、D、中，选出最佳选项
A few weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf coast, the Texas school where I teach collected furniture and other household items for a family from Louisiana that had lost everything. I thought of how sad it would be to lose all of the things that held so many priceless memories. Nothing could ever really replace a memory. I prayed I would be able to help the family in some ways , and at least give them practical things they could use.
I had a couple of old chairs in the house, and went into the spare bedroom to dig them out. Then I saw the wooden rocking chair(摇椅) in the corner. Deep brown , with a unique pattern of fruits and leaves edged in gold on the back. I’d never seen another like it. I used to rock my son to sleep in it when he was a baby. Talking about memories, I could never bear to part with that rocker. http://wx.jtyjy.com/
But a feeling suddenly swept over me. Give it away. “Do you really want to do this?” my husband asked. I said firmly, “Yes!” He helped me load the rocking chair into my car. “Doesn’t it hold sentimental(情感的)value for you?” I couldn’t explain it. I took the rocker to the school the next day. The woman in charge of the donations(捐赠品)for the Louisiana family loaded it into the back of her truck.
The very next day at school, the woman in charge came rushing into my classroom. “Angie, I have to tell you a story about that rocking chair!” she said.
The family was grateful for every single item we’d donated, they told her. Then they saw the rocker. Everyone stopped and stared. Then the granddaughter cried out, “Grandma, look! It’s your rocking chair!” http://wx.jtyjy.com/
My rocking chair was exactly like the one they had lost in the hurricane, the one that held their sweetest memories.
56. Why did the author feel sympathy for the family that had lost everything?
A. They met Hurricane Katrina.
B. They had no furniture and other items to use.
C. They lost the things holding memories.
D. They had to rebuild their house.
57. When thinking of having used the rocking chair the author .
A. decided to give it away B. asked her husband for advice
C. liked it more than before D. hated to part with it
58. We can infer from the passage that the author’s husband .
A. didn’t support the author’s social work B. didn’t agree to donate the chair
C. thought the rocking chair valuable D. could understand what she thought then
59. What’s the best title for this passage?
A. A good deed for a homeless family B. Comfort a family with a gift of memories
C. A piece of furniture donated to a family D. We all need the rocking chair
Children have their own rules in playing games. They seldom need a referee (裁判) and rarely trouble to keep scores. They don’t care much about who wins or loses, and it doesn’t seem to worry them if the game is not finished. Yet, they like games that depend a lot on luck, so that their personal abilities cannot be directly compared. They also enjoyed games that move in stages, in which each stage, the choosing of leaders, the picking-up of sides, or the determining of which side shall start, is almost a game in itself.
Grown-ups can hardly find children’s game exciting, and they often feel puzzled at why their kids play such simple game again and again. However, it is found that a child plays games for very important reasons. He can be a good player without having to think whether he is a popular person, and he can find himself being a useful partner to someone of whom he is ordinary afraid. He becomes a leader when it comes to his turn. He can be confident, too, in particular games, that it is his place to give orders, to pretend to be dead, to throw a ball actually at someone, or to kiss someone he has caught.
It appears to us that when children play a game they imagine a situation under their control. Everyone knows the rules, and more importantly, everyone plays according to the rules. Those rules may be childish, but they make sure that every child has a chance to win.What is true about children when they play games?
| A．They can stop playing any time they like. |
| B．They can test their personal abilities. |
| C．They want to pick a better team. |
| D．They don’t need rules. |
To become a leader in a game the child has to _________.
| A．be a useful partner |
| B．wait for his turn |
| C．be confident in himself |
| D．be popular among his playmates |
Why does a child like playing games?
| A．Because he can be someone other than himself. |
| B．Because he can become popular among friends. |
| C．Because he finds he is always lucky in games. |
| D．Because he likes the place where he plays a game. |
Which is the best title for this passage?
| A．Rules in Children’s Games |
| B．Advantages of Playing Games for Children |
| C．Reasons for Children’s Games |
| D．How to Be a Popular Game Player |
New York, 10 November — 5:27 pm, yesterday. Biggest power failure in the city’s history.
* Thousands of people got stuck in lifts. Martin Saltzman spent three hours between the 21st and 22nd floors of the Empire State Building. “There were twelve of us. But no one panicked. We passed the time telling stories and playing word games. One man wanted to smoke but we didn’t let him. Firemen finally got us out.”
* “It was the best night we’ve ever had,” said Angela Carraro, who runs an Italian restaurant on 42nd Street. “We had lots of candles on the tables and the waiters were carrying candles on their trays. The place was full — and all night, in fact, for after we had closed, we let the people stay on and spend the night here.”
* The zoos had their problems like everyone else. Keepers worked through the night. They used blankets to keep flying squirrels and small monkeys warm. While zoos had problem keeping warm, supermarkets had problems keeping cool. “All of our ice cream and frozen foods melted,” said the manager of a store in downtown Manhattan. “They were worth $ 50,000.”
* The big electric clock in the lobby(大厅) of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in downtown Manhattan started ticking again at 5:25 this morning. It was almost on time.Throughout the period of darkness, Martin Saltzman and the eleven others were _________.
| A．nervous | B．excited | C．calm | D．frightened |
In what way was the night of November 9 the best night for Angela Carraro?
| A．She had a taste of adventure. |
| B．Burning candles brightened the place. |
| C．Business was better than usual. |
| D．Many people stayed the night in her restaurant. |
How long did the power failure last?
| A．Nearly 12 hours. | B．More than 12 hours. |
| C．Nearly 24 hours. | D．More than 24 hours. |
There was once a professor of medicine, who was very strict with his students. Whenever he took the chair on the exam committee, the students would be in fear, because he was seldom pleased with the answers they gave. A student would be lucky enough if he or she could receive a good mark from him. At the end of the term, the students of medicine would take their exam again. Now a student entered the exam room and got seated before the committee. This student was a little nervous as he knew it would not be so easy to get through the exam at all.
The professor began to ask. The student was required to describe a certain illness, his description of which turned out to be OK. Then the professor asked about the cure for the illness, and the student, too, answered just as right. “Good,” said the professor, “and how much will you give the patient?” “A full spoon,” answered the student. “Now you go out and wait for what you can get,” said the professor. At the same time the committee discussed carefully the answers the student had given. Suddenly the student noticed there was something wrong with his last answer. “A full spoon is too much,” he thought to himself. Anxiously he entered the room and cried, “Mr. Professor, I’ve made a mistake! A full spoon is too much for the patient. He can take only five drops. ”
“I’m sorry, sir,” said the professor coldly, “but it’s too late. Your patient has died.”The students were afraid of the professor because ___________.
| A．they often angered and disappointed him |
| B．their answers often astonished him |
| C．their answers seldom satisfied him |
| D．he often misunderstood them and gave them bad marks |
Before he left the room, the student probably ___________.
| A．believed that he had passed the exam |
| B．thought five drops of medicine would cure the patient |
| C．knew he had made a mistake |
| D．felt he had not done well in the exam |
Which of the following is NOT true according to this text?
| A．The patient will be in danger if he’s taken as much as a full spoon. |
| B．The doctor will be in trouble if he has given the patient a full spoon. |
| C．Since one spoon is more than five drops, the patient will be all right soon after taking one spoon. |
| D．If the patient wants to remain safe, he should take no more than five drops at a time. |
We can learn from this text that ___________.
| A．someone died in the exam |
| B．the student would probably not pass the exam |
| C．the professor was pleased to see the students’ improvement |
| D．the slight change may not cause big difference in medical treatment |
Everyone has done experiments in high school laboratories, but have you ever thought about designing a satellite to explore space?
On Nov. 19, a team of students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the US awed peers and even scientists by successfully launching a satellite.
The first satellite designed and built by high school students was sent up into space along with a record-setting. 28 other small ones on a rocket were sent from a NASA center in Virginia, CNN reported. It took the students seven years to build.
The students call their tiny satellite TJ3Sat, which is named after their school. It is just 10x10x12 centimeters and weighs only 0.89 kilograms, according to Orbital Sciences, a company which developed the rocket and supported the students’ project. It can be controlled with a smartphone.
Like most satellites, TJ3Sat can send and receive data. The small spacecraft is equipped with a voice synthesizer (合成器), which can switch text to voice and transmit those sounds back to Earth over radio waves, said Orbital officials. In this case, anyone can give it a try via the project’s website (school website) by submitting (提交) a text. The texts that get approved will be sent to the satellite, changed to voice and then broadcast back to Earth via radio waves.
“I can say ‘Go Colonials’ on our ground station and when it is on the other side of the world, in India, someone can hear ‘Go Colonials’over the radio,” the team explains on the website.
The satellite will stay in space for at least three months.
School principal Evan Glazer told The Washington Post that the project started in 2006 as an activity in the spare time. Later it became a research project for a select group of seniors.
At a time when American students are busy with SATs, the launch of the satellite shows what diligent teenagers can achieve when allowed to pursue their own curiosities, Glazer said.
“It used to be that kids growing up wanted to be an astronaut,” Andrew Petro, program executive (主管) for small spacecraft technology at NASA, said in a statement. “I think we might be seeing kids saying what they want to do is build a spacecraft. The idea here is that they really can do that.”The underlined word “awed” in the second paragraph is closest in meaning to ___.
| A．influenced | B．amazed |
| C．delighted | D．inspired |
Which of the following statements about TJ3Sat is TRUE according to the article?
| A．It took a group of students about a decade to build the satellite. |
| B．Besides TJ3Sat, 28 other small satellites were built by the students. |
| C．TJ3Sat can receive text messages that the students send into space, which can be changed to voice messages and broadcast back to Earth. |
| D．TJ3Sat is expected to stay in orbit for the next year, sending out messages together with information about its position in space. |
According to the article, the launch of the satellite _______.
| A．is evidence of the advance of spacecraft technology |
| B．proves that hard-working teenagers can achieve a lot |
| C．shows the importance of extracurricular activities at school |
| D．has inspired many people to take an interest in space travel |
Whether you’re eating at a fancy restaurant or dining in someone’s home, proper table manners are likely to help you make a good impression. According to a US expert, Emily Post, “All rules of table manners are made to avoid ugliness.”
While Henry Hitchings of the Los Angeles Times admits that good manners can reduce social conflict, he points out that mostly their purpose is protective – they turn our natural warrior-like selves into more elegant ones.
So where did table manners come from?
In medieval England, a writer named Petrus Alfonsi took the lead to urge people not to speak with their mouths full. And King David I of Scotland also proposed that any of his people who learned to eat more neatly be given a tax deduction (减除).
Disappointingly, that idea never caught on. It was during the Renaissance, when there were real technical developments, opinions of correct behavior changed for good. “None of these was more significant than the introduction of the table fork,” wrote Hitchings. “Gradually, as forks became popular, they brought the new way of eating, making it possible, for instance, to consume berries without making one’s fingers dirty.”
Forks were introduced to Britain in 1608 and 25 years later, the first table fork reached America. Yet while most of the essentials (基本要素) are the same on both sides of the Atlantic, there are a few clear differences between what’s normal in the US and what holds true in the UK. For example, in the US, when food needs cutting with a knife, people generally cut a bite, then lay aside the knife and switch the fork to their right hand. Then they pick up one bite at a time. By contrast, Britons keep the fork in the left hand and don’t lay the knife down.
Though globalization has developed a new, simpler international standard of table manners, some people still stick with the American cut-and-switch method.The Los Angeles Times noted, “They are hanging on to a form of behavior that favors manners above efficiency.”What does the story mainly talk about?
| A．The importance of proper table manners . |
| B．The development of table manners in Western countries. |
| C．Some unwritten rules of table manners in the US and UK. |
| D．Differences between American and British table manners. |
The underlined phrase “caught on” in the passage probably means ______.
| A．worked in practice | B．became popular |
| C．drew attention | D．had a positive effect |
Which of the following events influenced people’s table manners most according to the article?
| A．The introduction of forks. |
| B．The tax deduction policy. |
| C．The rise of the Renaissance. |
| D．Petrus Alfonsi’s efforts in promoting table manners. |
What can we conclude from the article?
| A．British and American table manners are completely different from each other. |
| B．American people pay more attention to their table manners than British people do. |
| C．With globalization, the American cut-and-switch method has been abandoned in the US. |
| D．British people’s way of using a knife and fork may be more efficient than American people’s. |
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