___Stephen: Last summer I went through a training program and became a literacy volunteer. When I began to discover what other
people's lives were like because they could not read, I realized the true importance of reading.
___Susan: I'm a girl from England and has studied French for years. I'm here in Fudan University studying Chinese. I like China as it is full of mysteries. So I hope the voluntary work will help me to get in touch with Chinese people and get to know about China．Although my study is busy, I can be free at night and at the weekends.
__Tim: Since I myself have overcome a lot of difficulties in my life, I understand young people's problems and I know how to listen patiently to others and offer some advice. I'm working now in the daytime so I can only spend two to three hours a day at night to help others.
Lisa: I burst into tears when I saw those children in a TV programme. What a sight. They are only bone and skin left. What's worse, every day the children are dying because of lack of food．I realized how lucky I am with enough food and a good chance to get education. The summer vacation is coming and I hope I can do something for them.
| A．As we know, the 2010 World Expo are held in Shanghai and many people from other countries come to visit China．The taxi drivers in Dongfeng Taxi Company think the way to show kindness is to be able to greet the foreigners in their languages. They need someone who can teach them languages and the best time is at night when they are not so busy. |
| B．Tom is so addicted to on-line games that he cannot concentrate on his study like before. Now he often misses school in order to play games, thus telling lies to his teachers and parents again and again. Though he realizes what he does is wrong, he just can't stop it. How badly he needs someone's help. |
| C．Mane, a 44-year-old single mother of three, has to walk two miles to the nearest supermarket twice a week because she doesn't know which bus to take. What's worse, since she does not know words, she can not write out a shopping list. Also, she can only recognize items by sight, so if the product has a different label, she will not recognize it as the product she wants. |
| D．"Helping hand" organization will hold an event to help the starving children in Africa．The event starts in August and those taking part in will go without food for 30 hours. In this way, it is expected that money will be raised for the poor children. |
If you’re ever apart from your children, just talking on the phone will help just as much as a hug.
If you’re a parent who spends long hours on the job, you probably feel guilty for spending so much time away from your kids. But the results of a new study show that a mother’s voice alone can be just as comforting to an anxious child as physical contact.
In an experiment, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison asked a group of girls between the ages of 7 and 12 to solve math problems in front of judges — a stressful situation for anyone. Before the girls were set to give their answers, the researchers measured their levels of two hormones (荷尔蒙): cortisol, which goes up during stressful periods, and oxytocin, the “love” hormone.
After they were finished, some of the girls got to meet up with their mothers right away. The moms came in and hugged the girls. Another group of the girls didn’t see their mothers, but received phone calls from them, in which their mothers told them how well they’d done. The final group had no contact with their mothers, but instead watched an animal movie, March of the Penguins.
Finally, the girls’ hormone levels were measured again. Although the movie was interesting, it did nothing to ease the children’s anxiety — but, surprisingly, both the physical contact and phone calls from their mothers had the same influence on reducing the girls’ stress levels.
So, no matter how old you are, if you’re feeling stressed about something in your life, a phone call to Mom might be just the key to help you feel better. How does the writer make his point?
| A．By showing an experiment by him. |
| B．By showing the results of a study. |
| C．By telling an interesting story. |
| D．By giving some data. |
The new study finds that ____.
| A．kids don’t need their mothers so much |
| B．a mother’s voice can comfort her anxious kid |
| C．kids get less anxious with their mothers nearby |
| D．mothers haven’t spent enough time with their kids |
What is the CORRECT time order of the events in the study?
a. The girls solved their math problems.
b. The girls’ levels of hormones were measured again.
c. The girls were divided into three groups.
d. The girls’ levels of hormones were measured.
| A．a, c, d, b |
| B．c, a, d, b |
| C．d, a, c, b |
| D．d, c, a, b |
The final group was arranged to _____.
| A．hug their parents |
| B．watch a boring movie |
| C．watch an interesting movie |
| D．give their parents a phone call |
What does the underlined word in the second last paragraph probably mean?
| A．Notice. |
| B．Develop. |
| C．Replace. |
| D．Reduce. |
A clever cat has been called a hero after he prevented his owners’ home from burning down. Five-year-old Pepper has learned to open windows and lets himself out every night by using his paws to turn the latch. So when a fire broke out while his owners were at Christmas shopping, the quick-thinking cat leapt into action and opened the window to allow the poisonous smoke to escape.
Owner Sharon White said, “He can climb back in through the window, so he really does come and go as he pleases. Pepper is still a bit afraid but is still managing to eat plenty of food.” Sharon and her husband Phil were handed Pepper over four years ago after a neighbor could no longer look after it.
The fire started at 4 pm on Saturday after the couple went to the shops and left their microwave on a ten minute timer, which then caught fire. Sharon said, “We put something in the microwave for ten minutes and then went out to do our Christmas shopping in the local town. I discovered on the way that I had left my purse at home but decided not to turn around. It was my relative who lives next door that rang us and told us that we’d better get home as there was quite a lot of smoke coming out of our house and the firefighters were here.”
Firefighters rushed to their £350,000 house and put out the fire before it could spread and the kitchen suffered only smoke damage. Phil added, “Pepper managed to get out and smoke must have been pouring out the window which attracted the attention of the neighbors. He’s got a real mind of his own. Without him, the fire could have been so much worse.”
What is this passage mainly about?
| A．A quick-thinking cat thanked his owners. |
| B．A quick-thinking cat saved a house from a fire. |
| C．A quick-thinking cat saved himself from a fire. |
| D．A quick-thinking cat showed how clever he was. |
How did Pepper help avoid the danger of the fire?
| A．By ringing a neighbor’s bell. |
| B．By running into a neighbor’s room. |
| C．By standing in the way of some fire fighters. |
| D．By opening the window and letting out smoke. |
From Paragraph 2 we know that Pepper ____.
| A．didn’t belong to Sharon at first |
| B．was not frightened by the fire at all |
| C．has been taught to open the window |
| D．was found by its owners on the street |
What can we learn from what Sharon said in Paragraph 3?
| A．She and her husband were terribly frightened. |
| B．She and her husband didn’t call the firefighters. |
| C．It was that [LU2] relative who first noticed the smoke. |
| D．She and her husband knew there would be no damage. |
We can infer that Sharon and her husband Phil ____.
| A．are very careful |
| B．lived a very poor life |
| C．are very thankful to Pepper |
| D．didn’t like Pepper before the fire |
Dear readers,
I receive many letters from children and can’t answer them all — there wouldn’t be enough time in a day. I’ll try to answer some of the questions that are commonly asked.
Where did I get the idea for Stuart Little and for Charlotte's Web? Well, many years ago, I went to bed one night in a railway sleeping car, and during the night I dreamed about a tiny boy who acted rather like a mouse. That’s how the story of Stuart Littlegot started.
As for Charlotte’s Web, I like animals and my farm is a very pleasant place to be — at all hours. One day, when I was on my way to feed the pig, I began feeling sorry for the pig because, like most pigs, he was going to die. This made me sad. So I started thinking of ways to save a pig’s life. Three years after I started writing it, it was published. (I am not a fast worker, as you can see.)
Sometimes I’m asked when I started to write, and what made me want to write. I started early — as soon as I could spell. Children often find pleasure and satisfaction through trying to set their thoughts down on paper, either in words or in pictures. I was not good at drawing, so I used words instead. As I grew older, I found that writing can be a way of earning a living.
Well, here is the answer to the last question. No, they are imaginary tales, containing fantastic characters and events. In real life, a family doesn’t have a child who looks like a mouse and a spider doesn’t write words in her web. Although my stories are imaginary, I like to think that there is some truth in them, too — truth about the way people and animals feel and think and act.
Yours sincerely,
E.B. WhiteE.B. White wrote this letter to _____.
A. introduce his new books
B. introduce two funny stories
C. explain why he enjoys writing
D. answer some readers’ questionsWe can know from the passage that E.B. White is a writer who ______.
A. writes very fast
B. works on a friend’s farm
C. mainly writes stories for adults
D. writes imaginary tales for children What inspired E.B. White to write Charlotte's Web?
A. He wanted children to love animals.
B. He was deeply impressed by a clever pig.
C. He wanted to use his own way to save a pig. The reason why E.B. White started to write is to ______.
A. improve his spelling B. express his thoughts
C. show his sadness D. make a good living What is probably the last question?
| A．Are your stories true? |
| B．What is the truth in your stories? |
| C．Will you write more imaginary tales? |
| D．Do you know a child looking like a mouse? |
Jackie Heinricher's love affair with bamboo started in her backyard. “As a child, I remember playing among the golden bamboo my dad had planted, and when there was a slight wind, the bamboos sounded really musical.”
A fisheries biologist, Heinricher, 47, planned to work in the salmon industry in Seattle, where she lived with her husband, Guy Thornburgh, but she found it too competitive. Then her garden gave her the idea for a business: She'd planted 20 bamboo forests on their seven-acre farm.
Heinricher started Boo-Shoot Gardens in 1998. She realized early on what is just now beginning to be known to the rest of the world. It can be used to make fishing poles, skateboards, buildings, furniture, floors, and even clothing. An added bonus: Bamboo absorbs four times as much carbon dioxide as a group of hardwood trees and releases 35 percent more oxygen.
First she had to find a way to mass-produce the plants—a tough task, since bamboo flowers create seed only once every 50 to 100 years. And dividing a bamboo plant frequently kills it.
Heinricher appealed to Randy Burr, a tissue culture expert, to help her. “People kept telling us we'd never figure it out,” says Heinricher.“Others had worked on it for 27 years! I believed in what we were doing, though, so I just kept going.”
She was right to feel a sense of urgency. Bamboo forests are being rapidly used up, and a United Nations report showed that even though bamboo is highly renewable, as many as half of the world's species are threatened with dying out. Heinricher knew that bamboo could make a significant impact on carbon emissions(排放)and world economies, but only if huge numbers could be produced. And that's just what she and Burr figured out after nine years of experiments—a way to grow millions of plants. By placing cuttings in test tubes with salts, vitamins, plant hormones, and seaweed gel, they got the plants to grow and then raised them in soil in greenhouses.
Not long after it, Burr's lab hit financial difficulties. Heinricher had no experience running a tissue culture operation, but she wasn't prepared to quit. So she bought the lab.
Today Heinricher heads up a profitable multimillion-dollar company, working on species from all over the world and selling them to wholesalers(批发商). “If you want to farm bamboo, it's hard to do without the young plants, and that's what we have，” she says proudly.What was the main problem with planting bamboo widely?
| A．They didn't have enough young bamboo. |
| B．They were short of money and experience. |
| C．They didn't have a big enough farm to do it. |
| D．They were not understood by other people. |
What does Heinricher think of bamboo?
| A．Fragile and affordable. |
| B．Productive and flexible. |
| C．Useful and earth-friendly. |
| D．Strong and profitable. |
The underlined word “renewable” in Paragraph 6 probably means “________”．
| A．able to be replaced naturally |
| B．able to be raised difficultly |
| C．able to be shaped easily |
| D．able to be recycled conveniently |
What do you learn from the passage?
| A．Heinricher's love for bamboo led to her experiments in the lab. |
| B．Heinricher's determination helped her to succeed in her work. |
| C．Heinricher struggled to prevent bamboo from disappearing. |
| D．Heinricher finally succeeded in realizing her childhood dream. |
In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity, others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.
I have taught many children who held the belief that their self – worth relied (依赖) on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life – and – death affairs. In their single – minded pursuit (追求) of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.
However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s self – respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition.What does this passage mainly talk about?
| A．Competition helps to set up self–respect. |
| B．Opinions about competition are different among people. |
| C．Competition is harmful to personal quality development. |
| D．Failures are necessary experiences in competition |
Why do some people favor competition according to the passage?
| A．It pushes society forward. |
| B．It builds up a sense of duty. |
| C．It improves personal abilities. |
| D．It encourages individual efforts. |
The underlined phrase “the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means ________ .
| A．those who try their best to win |
| B．those who value competition most highly |
| C．those who are against competition most strongly |
| D．those who rely on others most for success |
What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a desire to fail ?
| A．One’s worth lies in his performance compared with others. |
| B．One’s success in competition needs great efforts. |
| C．One’s achievement is determined by his particular skills. |
| D．One’s success is based on how hard he has tried. |
Which point of view may the author agree to?
| A．Every effort should be paid back. |
| B．Competition should be encouraged. |
| C．Winning should be a life–and–death matter. |
| D．Fear of failure should be removed in competition. |
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