My mother was a household servant. Through her work, she observed that successful people spent a lot more time reading than they did watching television. She announced that my brother and I could only watch two to three pre-selected TV programs during the week. With our free time, we had to read two books each from the Detroit Public Library and write book reports. She would mark them up with check marks. Years later we realized her marks were a ruse. My mother had only received a third-grade education. Although we had no money, between the covers of those books, I could go anywhere, do anything and be anybody.
When I entered high school, I was an A-student, but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went form being an A- student to a B- student to a C-student, but I didn’t care.
One night my mother came home and I complained about not having enough shirts. She said, “Okay, I’ll give you all the money I make this week cleaning floors and bathrooms, and you can buy the family food and pay the bills. With everything left over, you can have all the shirts you want.”
I was very pleased with that arrangement but once I got through allocating(分配) money, there was nothing left. I realized my mother was a financial genius to be able to keep a roof over our heads and any kind of food on the table, much less buy clothes.
I also realized that immediate satisfaction wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Success required intellectual(理智的) preparation. I went back to my studies and became an A-student again. I dreamed of becoming a doctor when I was just a kid. And now I have achieved my dream.
Over the years my mother’s changeless faith in God has inspired me, particularly when I found myself faced with my own medical illness. A few years ago I discovered I had a very serious cancer; I was told it might have spread to my spine(脊柱). My mother believed in God very much. She never worried. She said that God would never throw me away forever; there was no way that this was going to be a major problem. The abnormality in spine turned out to be not bad; I was able to have surgery and am cured.
My story is really my mother’s story －a woman little formal education or worldly goods who used her position as a parent to change the lives of her children. The underlined word “ruse” in the first paragraph probably means .
| A．discovery | B．success | C．trick | D．pleasure |
When the author asked his mother to buy him shirts, she .
| A．advised him to earn money by himself |
| B．asked him to try to manage their money |
| C．persuaded him not to buy them patiently |
| D．agreed to buy them for him immediately |
What do we learn about the author?
| A．He now works as a doctor. |
| B．He disliked watching TV as a kid. |
| C．He received little formal education. |
| D．He often did housework when young. |
The underlined word “this” in the last but one paragraph refers to .
| A．God’s throwing me away |
| B．my own medical illness |
| C．the operation on my spine |
| D．my mother’s changeless faith in God |
In writing the passage, the author mainly shows us .
| A．the happy relationships in his family |
| B．the benefits of reading for young children |
| C．the importance of formal education for adults |
| D．his mother’s great influence on his development |
Security—for the information on your smartphone, as well as for the phone itself is a hot topic these days．The truth is that you’re packing a lot of sensitive information on your phone, and you should keep it safe．
When it comes to physical security, iPhone users would do well to download Find My iPhone, a free app from Apple that allows you to visit a website and see your (lost, stolen or misplaced) phone on the map．You can then sound an alarm, send a message that will pop up on its screen, lock the phone or erase all your data．
Android does not have an exact equivalent(等价物), but there are plenty of alternatives．A free app called Lookout offers the find my phone feature．The paid version allows you to wipe the data from your phone remotely．
Then there is your coffee shop’s WiFi network．Anyone with minimal technical expert skill can snoop on(窥视) people using shared wireless networks, harvesting passwords and other personal data．Lookout’s apps will caution you when you’ve logged on to an insecure network, but cannot protect you once you’re there．
In order to protect yourself on such networks, you can use a virtual private network, or V．P．N．This turns all your activity into nonsense to anyone trying to read along with you from across the Starbucks．It also keeps websites from tracking you and, if you’re traveling, allows you to get access to sites that may be blocked in other countries．
If you have an iPhone, the simplest V．P．N．app is probably Hotspot Shield, whose distinguishing feature is said to be that it automatically kicks in each time you start browsing (浏览), as opposed to other V．P．N．apps that require you to start them up manually(手动)．This matters, because even if you decide you want a V．P．N．app, you want to spend approximately zero time thinking about it．For the most part, that was true of Hotspot Shield, though occasionally it took a while to connect or temporarily lost connection without warning．I found myself having to turn the app on and off sometimes, which involved setting my phone constantly．
If even reading about the setting on your phone drives you crazy, then it is probably best to stay away from a V．P．N．app．But if you’re the type who can’t resist checking your bank balance from your comer bar, the hassle (麻烦) may be preferable to the risk．
Which of the following can warn you against the insecure network?
| A．Android |
| B．V．P．N． |
| C．Lookout |
| D．Find My iPhone |
By using V．P．N．, users can ________．
| A．find their lost phone on the Internet |
| B．remove all the data form the phone remotely |
| C．check the bank balance now and then |
| D．save their browsing from being tracked |
The underlined word “that” in Para．6 refers to the fact that _________．
| A．a V．P．N．app kicks in automatically |
| B．the users starts V．P．N．apps manually |
| C．the app take a while to connect |
| D．users spend no time thinking about it |
One evening last summer, when I asked my 14 year old son, Ray, for help with dinner, his response shocked me．"What’s a colander(漏勺)? " he asked．
I could only blame myself．In the family, nobody else’s hands went in the sauce except my own．But that night, as I explained with a touch of panic that a colander is the thing with holes in it, I wondered what else I hadn’t prepared Ray for．
As parents, while we focus on our sons’ confidence and character, we perhaps don’t always consider that we are also raising someone’s future roommates, boyfriends, husbands, or fathers．I wanted to know that I’d raised a boy who would never ask the woman in his life, "What’s for dinner?" So I came up with a plan: I would offer Ray a private home economics course．I was delighted to find that he didn’t say no．For two hours, three days a week, Ray was all mine．One day, as his tomato sauce reduced on the stove, he washed and seasoned a chicken for roasting．Then he rolled out the piecrust (馅饼皮) and filled it with apples, all while listening to my explanation on the importance of preheating an oven．
I knew that he would rather have been shooting hoops in the driveway than learning to mend socks with his mother—he tried to beg off sewing lessons, even though I insisted that one day, someone would find the sight of him fixing his own shirt very attractive— but it couldn’t be denied that he was learning, and more than just housekeeping．"I appreciate what you do as a mom," he told me one day．Ray now understands the finer points of cooking, and more importantly, he realizes there’s nothing masculine (男子气概的) about being helpless．
Now, not only can he make his own dinner, but also he can make a big meal for his family．That’s what I call a man．I’m glad that I prepared so great a present for my future daughter in law．
Why was the author shocked at her son’s response?
| A．Because he was not well behaved． |
| B．Because he refused to help with dinner． |
| C．Because he didn’t know the common kitchen tools． |
| D．Because he was very curious about kitchen tools． |
In the author’s opinion, some parents pay little attention to _______．
| A．building up children’s confidence |
| B．telling kids what is right and wrong |
| C．preparing children for their future life |
| D．making children live a hard life |
After learning to do housework, Ray _______．
| A．fell in love with sewing |
| B．did other work in the house |
| C．began to be more hardworking |
| D．acknowledged his mother’s efforts |
We can infer from the text that Ray _______．
| A．made great progress in cooking． |
| B．always thought housework interesting． |
| C．preferred sewing to cooking． |
| D．was unwilling to learn cooking at first． |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．Useful education for boys |
| B．The importance of housework |
| C．Boys should be involved in housework． |
| D．Cooking and sewing make boys masculine． |
D
“Beauty is only skin deep." This expression means that beauty is only a temporary surface quality. Some beauty products can cause lasting damage that goes far below the surface of the skin.
In America，many people use sunlight and non-natural light to darken their skin. Health experts advise against what is called“tanning”because of its links to akin cancer. In the African country of Senegal（塞内加尔），some women take health risks trying to do just the opposite.
An average beauty supply shop in Dakar has many kinds of skin-lightening creams and soaps. The World Health Organization says that 25％of Senegalese women use skin-lightening production a usual basis. These products can contain chemicals，like mercury（汞），hydroquinone（对苯二酚），etc. These are dangerous ingredients that can cause cancer and possibly other physical damage to the akin. They can actually burn the eyes and skin.
Shop worker Adama Diagne advises her visitors to avoid the stronger products that promise fast results. She users a cream that is made from carrots，not the strong chemical，hydroquinone. She says that it is a personal choice and that no one pressures her. Some women want to be black every day，but for her，she likes to be a shade of brown.
Women in Senegal say they lighten their skin for the same reason that women all over the world make changes to their appearance. They say they want to look beautiful，to find a husband， to stand out in a crowd or simply to look great for a special event.
This thinking troubles Senegalese film-maker Khardiata Pouye Sall. So，she made“This Color That Bothers Me"，a film about the subject of skin lightening. She said，“I used the most shocking images so that women would see the dangers. It is hard to understand why a woman says that dark skin is not beautiful. It is in their heads. They want to please a man，to he loved or they want to please society，to succeed."
Ms. Sall says that the government needs to better control the marketing and the sale of skin-lightening products. But she adds that education is the best way to persuade people against using them.
The underlined part“the opposite" in Paragraph 2 means some Senegalese women ．
| A．use sunlight to darken their skin |
| B．try creams to prevent skin cancer |
| C．use products to lighten their skin |
| D．take health risks to become beautiful |
According to Adama Diagne，women shouldn't believe ·
| A．beauty is just a personal choice |
| B．a cream from carrots is healthier |
| C．it is beautiful to be black every day |
| D．a product can make you beautiful quickly |
We can infer that women in Senegal ．
| A．attract attention with shockingimages |
| B．don't consider dark skin to be beautiful |
| C．find it hard to understand the true beauty |
| D．put beauty in the first place in their heads |
What is Sall's attitude towards skin-lightening products?
| A．Unsupportive. | B．Casual. |
| C．Responsible. | D．Positive. |
C
The year of 2014 saw smart people always busy inventing useful things，which have helped to make the world better，smarter and a little more fun. Now，let's take a look at some of the inventions.
Super banana
Australian biogeneticist（生物遗传学家）James Dale
visited Uganda，a poor African country，in the early 2000s， where he found that 15％-30% of children under 5 were at the risk of going blind because they didn't get enough vitamin A. Dale also learned that people there love bananas. They eat 3 to 11 bananas a day. So hecame up with an idea to plant bananas containing added nutrition in order to improve Ugandans' health ．With the help of Bill Gates' foundation，Dale developed the“super banana，’·He added a gene to the fruit，making it rich in vitamin A.
Which of the following statements would James Dale agree with?
| A．Children in Uganda should eat fewer bananas. |
| B．Vitamin A is largely found in fruits like bananas. |
| C．Super bananas are definitely a safe biological product. |
| D．People's eating habits can be used to develop new food. |
What is the biggest advantage of the 94Fifty Basketball?
| A．The sensors hidden inside can help players run faster in a game. |
| B．It can help players to improve their shooting and ball-handling skills. |
| C．It allows players to connect to their smartphones while playing basketball. |
| D．The Bluetooth chip inside allows its users to listen to music while playing basketball. |
What can we learn about the hovercraft from the text?
| A．It enables its users to float off the ground freely. |
| B．It can work on many different kinds of surfaces. |
| C．It still needs to improve its power and efficiency. |
| D．It is an affordable means of transport for a family. |
What do the hovercraft and wireless electricity have in common according to the text?
| A．They create magnetic fields to produce power. |
| B．They apply technologies to many things in life. |
| C．They are technologies which can produce electricity. |
| D．They use wireless technology to improve their products. |
B
When I began planning to move to Auckland to study，my mother was a little worried about the uncertainty of living in a place that was so different from India，where we lived. She worried particularly about the lack of jobs，the cultural differences and the chance that I would face racism.
Despite these worries，I came to New Zealand in July 2009. I have found the place and people very nice and supportive. Soon after I arrived，I realized the importance of getting a job to supply my living expenses.
Determined to do this on my own ，I spent a whole day going from door to door asking for a job. However，I received little or no response. This became my routine every day after college for a few weeks.
One afternoon，I walked into a building to ask if there were any job opportunities. The people there were very surprised，and advised me not to continue my job search in that manner.
As I was about to leave，a clerk in the building，who had been listening to what the others had said, approached me and asked if I would wait outside. Fifteen minutes later，he returned. He asked me what my plans were and encouraged me to stay confident. He then offered to take me to the Royal Oak area to search for a job.
I was a little surprised，but had a good feeling about him，so I went along. Along the way， I realized that I had run out of copies of my resume（简历）．The man stopped at his business partner's office to make me 15 extra copies. He also gave me tips on dressing and speaking，and added that I should give him, a call if I ever needed anything. I handed out my resumes and went home feeling very satisfied. The following day，I received：call from。store in Royal Oak offering me a job.
It seems that the world always gives back to you when you need it. And this time，it was a complete stranger who turned out to be a real blessing.
What wasn't the author's mother worried about?
| A．People might look down on the author. |
| B．The author couldn't speak the local language. |
| C．The author wasn't familiar with local customs. |
| D．It might be difficult for the author to find a job. |
After staying in New Zealand for a short time, the author
| A．decided to go back to his own country |
| B．felt the local people were not very friendly |
| C．had to find a job to cover his living expenses |
| D．wanted to get a job that needed practical skills |
When the author went into a building to look for a job， ·
| A．a clerk gave him encouragement and advice |
| B．he was confident that he would find a good one |
| C．he found many college students like him already there |
| D．a clerk recommended him to the company he worked for |
What is the story mainly about?
| A．How a stranger offered the author a job. |
| B．How a stranger turned out to be a real blessing. |
| C．How the author adapted himself to a new situation. |
| D．How the author was helped to get a job by a stranger. |
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