After more than a year of bitter political debate, President Obama sat down in the White House East Room on March 23 and signed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law with a pen，and then another pen，and another．Obama used 22 pens to sign the $938 billion health care bill．
The practice of using different pens to sign important 
legislation（法规）dates at least as far back as Franklin Roosevelt．The reason is fairly simple．The pen used to sign historic legislation itself becomes a historical artifact．The more pens a President uses, the more thank-you gifts he can offer to those who helped create that piece of history．The White House often give pens to supporters of the newly signed legislation．When Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he reportedly used more than 75 pens and gave one of the first ones to Martin Luther King Jr．And in 1996, President Clinton gave the four pens he used to sign the Line-Item Veto bill to those most likely to appreciate the bill's consequence.
Once they're given away, some pens end up in museums; others are displayed proudly in recipients'(接受者) offices or homes．But they sometimes appear again, like in the 2008 presidential campaign（竞选活动）, when John Macain promised to use the same pen given to him by President Reagan to cut pork from the federal budget．
Not every President goes for the multipen signature, however．President George W．Bush preferred signing bills with only one pen and then offering several unused "gift" pens as souvenirs．We can learn from paragraph 1 that the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ．
| A．has been passed easily | B．was put forward one year ago |
| C．becomes law in the USA | D．is unimportant |
How are the pens dealt with after being used by President Obama?
| A．Supporters of the newly signed legislation are likely to get some of them. |
| B．Obama will keep them. |
| C．They will be just set aside |
| D．They will be sold to the public at a high price． |
What can we learn about John Macain?
A．He was ever President in the USA.
B．He took part in the 2008 presidential campaign.
C．He never used the pen given by Reagan.
D．He was only concerned about his own business． What does this passage mainly tell us ?
A．Obama signed the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act．
B．It is a practice to use multiple pens to sign important legislation in the USA．
C．Pens are necessary in the signature.
D．All the presidents like the multipen signature.
Zoe Chambers was a successful PR (Public Relations) consultant and life was going well — she had a great job, a beautiful flat and a busy social life in London. Then one evening in June last year, she received a text message telling her she was out of work. The first two weeks were the most difficult to live through." she said. "After everything I'd done for the company, they dismissed me by text! I was so angry and I just didn't feel like looking for another job. I hated everything about the city and my life."
Then, Zoe received an invitation from an old school friend, Kathy, to come and stay. Kathy and her husband had just bought a farm in north-west Wales. Zoe jumped at the chance to spend a weekend away from London, and now, ten months later, she is still on the farm.
"The moment I arrived at Kathy's farm, I loved it and I knew I wanted to stay." said Zoe. "Everything about my past life suddenly seemed meaningless."
Zoe has been working on the farm since then and says she has no regrets. "It's a hard life, physically very tiring." she says. "In London 1 was stressed and often mentally exhausted. But this is a good, healthy tiredness. Here, all I need to put me in a good mood is a hot bath and Kathy's wonderful dinners."
Zoe has never felt bored on the farm. Every day brings a new experience. She has learned how to ride a horse and drive a tractor. She has been helping with the lambing. "Watching a lamb being born is one of the most moving experiences for me. I could never go back to city life now," she says.When working as a PR consultant in London, Zoe thought she lived a ______ life.
| A．satisfying | B．tough | C．meaningless | D．boring |
The most important reason why Zoe went to visit Kathy's farm is that______.
| A．Zoe lost her job as a PR consultant |
| B．Kathy persuaded her to do so |
| C．Zoe got tired of the city life |
| D．Zoe loved Wales more than London |
How does Zoe feel about the country life according to the passage?
| A．Tiresome and troublesome. |
| B．Romantic and peaceful |
| C．Mentally exhausting but healthy |
| D．Physically tiring but rewarding. |
Which of the following is closest to the main idea of the passage?
| A．A friend in need is a friend indeed. |
| B．Where there is a will, there is a way. |
| C．A misfortune may turn out a blessing. |
| D．Kill two birds with one stone. |
Nowroz: Iranian New Year or Nowroz is celebrated on the first day of spring sometime in March. People sing, dance and parade as in a carnival through the streets with drums and trumpets to spread the news of the coming new year.
Rosh Hashanah: The Jewish New Year is called “Rosh Hashanah”, and is celebrated in the month of September. It is a holy (神圣的) time when people think of the things they have done wrong in the past, and promise to do better in the future. Special prayers are held, and an instrument called a Shofar is played. Children are given new clothes, and New Year loaves are baked and fruits are served to remind people of harvest time.
Shogatsu: In Japan, the New Year (Shogatsu) celebrations are from January 1 to January 3 and most Japanese don’t work during these days. In Japan, the New Year is a fresh start. This means that in December all duties should be completed. Parties are held to forget the worries and troubles of the old year. Homes and cars are decorated. On New Year’s Eve, most people spend their time with their families.
Bahai New Year: The Bahai people have their own calendar consisting of nineteen months of nineteen days plus a couple of extra days between the eighteenth and nineteenth months. They have, however, adopted the Iranian custom of beginning the New Year in the spring equinox (春分). The New Year celebrations are held on the evening of March 20th.During the Jewish New Year, .
| A．people don’t mention things they have done wrong |
| B．children often wear new clothes |
| C．loaves and fruits are often not allowed to be served |
| D．Shofar is their favourite food |
Which of the following festivals are celebrated in the same month?
| A．Nowroz and Shogatsu. |
| B．Rosh Hashanah and Shogatsu. |
| C．Nowroz and Rosh Hashanah. |
| D．Nowroz and the Bahai New Year. |
What can we learn from the text?
A. Japanese families often stay together to celebrate Shogatsu.
B. The Bahai people usually hold a carnival to celebrate the New Year.
C. The Jewish harvest fruits to celebrate Rosh Hashanah.
In 1955, a man named Raymond Kroc together with two brothers named McDonald opened a popular restaurant in California which sold food that was easy to prepare and serve quickly. Hamburgers, French fries, and cold drinks were the main food there. Kroc opened similar eating places under the same name, “McDonald’s”, and they were an instant success. He later took over the company, and today it is one of the most famous and successful “fast-food” in America and around the world.
Why was his idea successful? Probably the most important reason was that his timing was right. In the 1950s, most married women stayed home to keep house and take care of their children. In the 1960s, many women returned to the workplace. This meant that they had less time or energy to prepare meals, so they spent more on “ TV dinners ” and fast-food restaurants. Single parents also have little time to spend in the kitchen. People living alone also depend on this type of food, since cooking for one is often more trouble than it is worth.
Fast-food is not part of the diet of all Americans. Another trend of the 1960s, sometimes called the back-to-nature movement influenced many people to avoid food that was packaged (包装) or processed(处理). This preference for natural food continued to this day.
From the success of Raymond Kroc’s fast-food business, we can say that social economic trends influence where and what we eat.The underlined sentence “Cooking for one is often more trouble than it is worth” means that ______.
| A．cooking for some people is worth more money |
| B．it is not worthwhile to take too much time to cook for one person |
| C．there are more problems when one person cooks |
| D．cooking for one person cost more money |
Para 3&4 seem to imply (暗示) that ________.
| A．many married women began to work in the 1960s |
| B．natural foods are still popular today |
| C．fast food is not part of the diet of all Americans |
| D．divorce (离婚) causes people to change their eating habits |
Which of the following is NOT the reason for McDonald’s success?
| A．people living alone tend to depend on fast food |
| B．single parents have little time to spend in the kitchen |
| C．many women returned to the workplace in the 1960s |
| D．Kroc chose the “Mc Donald” brothers as his partners |
The main purpose of the passage is to tell us________.
| A．Raymond Kroc is the most successful fast-food business owner in the world |
| B．social and economic changes affect eating habits |
| C．fast-food is easy to prepare and serve quickly |
| D．Americans eat either fast food or natural food |
On a cold evening I was waiting for a taxi in New York. About 5 minutes later, I was picked up by a driver, and he said how terrible some people were. I knew there was a part of me that wanted to be silent, but I had to listen out of kindness.
The man told me that he had just come from JFK Airport without a customer. During the taxi ride, what started as anger changed slowly and he mentioned that he had read an article which said that the happiest people are the ones that give, so he hoped he’d have more chance to give in his life. I was really starting to enjoy being with this man.
As we arrived at the place where I wanted to go, I paid my money by credit card. I pulled out an extra $20 and said, “Sir, since we’ve been talking about giving this whole time, I want to share that feeling with you. I’ve already paid my money, but here’s an extra little bit. You can tell the next passenger in this taxi that their ride is a gift from another.”
I thought I was pretty cool at this point, but he turned toward me, tears in his eyes, and said, “Sir, I have a better idea. You give that $20 to a homeless person around here and I will give the next passenger a free ride myself.
It was a great honor meeting that man and learning the lesson of how everyone gives and adds joy to another with their generosity.According to the text, when the author got in the taxi, the driver was .
| A．angry | B．nervous | C．worried | D．regretful |
The author gave the driver an extra $20 in order to _.
| A．help him to get out of trouble |
| B．know what he was really like |
| C．experience the joy of giving |
| D．learn how to get along with others. |
What can be inferred (推断) from the taxi driver’s words in Paragraph 4?
| A．A driver should be willing to help. |
| B．People should understand each other. |
| C．The driver was deeply moved. |
| D．One needs to keep an optimistic attitude (乐观态度). |
What would be the best title for the text?
| A．A cold evening in New York |
| B．A lesson learned from a taxi driver |
| C．A gift to a generous stranger |
| D．Always being a happy person |
Many of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all.
We do not know who first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy boat, or calculated the length of the year; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors.
It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage（野人） is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently—this, after all, is what conquerors and generals have done—is not being civilized. People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized people ought to be able to find some way of setting their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side, and then saying that that side which has killed most has won. And not only has it won, but because it has won, it had been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might（权利） is right.The author thinks that the conquerors and generals and soldiers ________.
| A．only appear glorious in history books |
| B．are greater than any other people |
| C．are not as great as described in history books |
| D．do not really help civilization forward |
As it is indicated in the passage, the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier is put on the highest pillars in the great cities of the world mainly because ________.
| A．people respect them very much |
| B．they fought bravely to protect their cities |
| C．people think they fought too brutally（野蛮地） |
| D．they conquered many cities and countries |
What is the writer’s attitude towards the countries that ruled over a large number of other countries ?
| A．Positive. | B．Critical. | C．Ironic. | D．Respectful. |
The author says that civilized people________.
| A．should not have any quarrels to settle |
| B．should not fight when there are no quarrels to settle |
| C．should settle their quarrels without fighting |
| D．should settle their quarrels by killing the other side |
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