Coming from the Bronx, Jennifer Lopez knew from an early age it would be tough to achieve her dream. In an interview in 2002 she remembered, “I had such a will in me. I had such a passion in me. I could overcome my situation. But a lot of people will get beaten down and be held back by that.” Lopez was not beaten by her situation. She worked hard dancing, singing, and acting in theaters and her hard work paid off with small roles in television and films.
Lopez’s big breakthrough came in 1996 when she played the main role in the movie Selena. For this movie, Lopez got paid $1 million and became the highest paid Latin actress of all time. Since then, she has had starring roles in several successful movies, including Out of Slight(1998) with George Clooney.
Then, Lopez turned her attention toward music. In 1999, she released first album, On the 6. Two songs from the album, “If You Had My Love” and “Waiting for Tonight,” both reached number one on the Billboard music cha
rts. The album sold more than three million copies around the world.
After starring in The Cell (2000), Lopez released her 
second album, J. Lo, in 2001. The album went straight to the top of the Billboard chart. At the same time that her album came out, Lopez’s new movie, The Wedding Planner, opened in theaters. It became the number one movie at the box office. This meant that Lopez was the first entertainer to ever have a number one album and a number one movie at the same time! Like her first album, J. Lo went tripe-platinum.
But her entertainment career was not the only thing Lopez focused on that year. 2001 was also the year Lopez started her own line of clothing, called J.Lo, and she married Cris Judd, a dancer who performed in her videos. The marriage did not last long, and Lopez and Judd divorced nine months later.
In 2002, Lopez starred in the films Enough and Maid in Manhattan. Maid in Manhattan became Lopez’s biggest movie yet, earning $19 million during its first weekend in theaters. Lopez also put her third album, This Is Me… Then, and the single “Jenny from the Block” hit number one for a week. To go with her line of clothing, Lopez introduced her own perfume.
In an interview, Lopez was asked if she planned to do more acting, singing, designing, or something new. She answered, “Yes, yes, yes, and yes! All of those things. I love making music, I love doing movies and all the other things. I think that everyone should do everything that they have a passion for.”What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Lopez is better at singing than acting. |
| B．Lopez has done many things in her career. |
| C．Lopez grew up in a poor family. |
| D．Lopez has had many problems in her personal life. |
Which of the following was most important in helping her career take off?
| A．acting in the movie Selena | B．getting married to a dancer |
| C．releasing a second album | D．starring with George  Clooney |
Which is NOT true about Lopez?
| A．She has had several number one songs. |
| B．She was a famous singer before she started acting. |
| C．She wants to do other things besides acting and singing. |
| D．She wanted to be an entertainer when she was young. |
“… J. Lo went triple-platinum.” What does this mean about the album?
| A．It was made by an actor or actress. |
| B．It sold more than three million copies. |
| C．It had songs from a movie on it. |
| D．It sold most of its copies outside the United States. |
I have a friend named Monty Roberts who owns a horse ranch (大牧场) in San Isidro. He lets me use his house to hold events to raise money for youth at risk programs.
The last time I was there he greeted me by saying, “I want to tell you why I let you use my house. It all goes back to a story about a young man who was the son of a poor horse trainer who would go from stable (马厩) to stable, farm to farm, training horses. As a result, the boy’s high school was continually interrupted (打断). One day in the last year of high school, he was asked to write a paper about what he wanted to do when he grew up.
“He wrote a seven-page paper about his goal of owning a horse ranch in great detail. He put a great deal of his heart into the project and even drew a detailed floor plan for the dream ranch. Then the next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later he received his paper back. But he got a low mark with a note that read, ‘See me after class.’ “The boy went to see the teacher after class and asked, ‘Why did I receive a low mark?’”
“The teacher said, ‘This is an unrealistic dream for a young boy like you. You have no money. You come from a poor family. Owning a horse ranch requires a lot of money. There’s no way you could ever do it.’ Then the teacher added, ‘If you will rewrite this paper, I will reconsider your mark.’
“The boy went home and thought about it long and hard. He asked his father what he should do. His father said, ‘Look, son, you have to make up your own mind on this. However, I think it is a very important decision for you.’
“Finally, the boy turned in the same paper, making no changes at all. He wrote, ‘You can keep the low mark and I’ll keep my dream.’”Which of the following statements is TRUE about Monty Roberts?
| A．He was born in a poor family. |
| B．He received a good education. |
| C．He is raising money for the poor. |
| D．He is a horse trainer who owns a big ranch. |
From Paragraph 3, we know Monty Roberts _____.
| A．was just a daydreamer |
| B．decided to follow his father’s example |
| C．expected the teacher to praise him |
| D．had a great plan for his future |
The teacher thought Monty Roberts’s dream was _____.
| A．strange | B．great | C．pleasant | D．impossible |
The purpose of the text is to tell readers that _____.
| A．seeing is believing |
| B．knowledge is power |
| C．all roads lead to Rome |
| D．where there is a will, there is a way |
The dirt road made our car jump as we traveled to the Millennium Village in Sauri, Kenya. We passed the market where women sat on the dusty ground selling bananas. Little kids were wrapped in cloth on their mothers’ backs, or running around in bare feet and torn clothing. When we reached the village, we walked to the Bar Sauri Primary School to meet the people. Welcoming music and singing had almost everyone dancing. We joined the dancing and clapped（鼓掌）along to the joyful, lively music. The year was 2004, the first time I had ever been to Sauri.
The Millennium Village project was created to help reach the Millennium Development Goals, which were set by the United Nations in 2000. The plan is to get people out of poverty, assure（确保）them of access to health care and help them stabilize the economy and quality of life in their communities. The goals are supposed to be met by 2015; some other targets are set for 2025. But our first sight of Sauri showed us there was plenty of work to do.
On that day in 2004, we followed the village leaders into Yala Sub-District Hospital. It wasn’t in good shape. The rooms were packed with patients who probably wouldn’t receive treatment, either because the hospital did not have it or the patients could not afford it. There was no running water or electricity in the hospital. It is hard for me to see people sick with preventable diseases who are near death when they shouldn’t have to be. I just get scared and sad.
Malaria（痢疾）is one disease, common in Africa, which is preventable and treatable. Mosquitoes carry malaria, and infect people by biting them. Kids can die from it easily, and adults get very sick. Mosquitoes that carry malaria come at night. A mosquito net, treated with chemicals that last for five years, keeps malarial mosquitoes away from sleeping people. Each net costs $5. There are some cheap medicines to get rid of malaria too. The solutions are simple, yet 20,000 kids die from the disease each day. So sad, and so illogical. Mosquito nets could save millions of lives.
We walked over to see the farmers. Their crops started to die because they could not afford the necessary fertilizer（肥料）and irrigation. Time and again, a family will plant seeds only to have an outcome of poor crops because of lack of fertilizer and water. Each year, the farmers worry: Will they harvest enough food to feed the whole family? Will their kids go hungry and become sick?
Many kids in Sauri didn’t attend school because their parents couldn’t afford school fees. Some kids are needed to help with housework, such as fetching water and wood. In 2004, the schools had minimal supplies like books paper and pencils, but the students wanted to learn. They all worked hard with the few supplies they had. It was hard for them to concentrate, though, as there’s no midday meal.
Great changes have taken place in these years. Today, Yala Sub-District Hospital has medicine, free of charge. Water is connected to the hospital, which also has a generator（发电机）for electricity. There are no school fees, and the school now serves midday meals for the students. The attendance rate is way up. All this is encouraging supporters of the Millennium Villages project.
There are many solutions to the problems that keep people poor. What it will really take is for the world to work together to change poor areas forever. When my kids are my age, I want this kind of poverty to be a thing of history. It will not be an easy task. But Sauri’s progress shows us all that winning the fight against poverty is achievable in our lifetime.In Paragraph 1, the writer describes the kids’ clothes to show that _________________.
| A．local children spent a lot of time outside |
| B．local parents were not responsible |
| C．local villagers were very poor |
| D．local villagers were very friendly |
What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 3?
| A．Medical conditions. | B．Agriculture. |
| C．Education. | D．Economy. |
What does the underlined word “minimal” in Paragraph 6 probably mean?
| A．Many. | B．Few. | C．Colorful. | D．Various. |
Because there was no midday meal in school, __________________.
| A．kids lacked energy to study attentively |
| B．many kids dropped out of school |
| C．kids made more efforts to study hard |
| D．many kids had to go back home for lunch |
This story is mainly about _____________________________.
| A．the education in an African village |
| B．the schools and hospitals in an African village |
| C．the poverty and the progress of an African village |
| D．the author’s car journey to an African village |
This year’s Newsweek list of the top 100 high schools shows that today those with fewer students are rising.
Ten years ago, when the first Newsweek Top School List based on college-level test participation was published, only three of the top 100 schools had graduating classes smaller than 100 students. This year there are 22.
Fifty years ago, they were the latest thing in educational reform: big, modern high schools outside the cities with thousands of students. Big schools meant economic efficiency, a greater choice of courses, and better football teams. But only years later did we understand that it involved the difficulty of strengthening personal connections between teachers and students. SAT scores began dropping; on average, 30% of students did not complete high school in four years, a figure that rose to 50% in poor city neighborhoods. High schools for a variety of reasons seemed to have made little progress.
Size isn’t everything, but it does matter, and the past decade has seen a noticeable trend toward smaller schools. This has been partly due to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has invested $1.8 billion in American high schools, helping to open about 1,000 small schools — most of them with about 400 kids, each with an average enrollment（招生）of only 150 students per grade. About 500 more are on the drawing board. Districts all over the country are taking notice, along with mayors in cities like New York, Chicago and San Diego. And most noticeable of all, there is the phenomenon of large urban and suburban high schools that have split up into smaller units of a few hundred.
Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, California, is one of those ranking No.423 — among the top 2% in the country. In 2003, Hillsdale remade itself into three “houses”. 300 students arriving ninth graders are randomly assigned to one of the houses, where they will keep the same four subject teachers for two years before moving on to another for 11th and 12th grades. Teachers meet with students in groups of 25, five mornings a week, for open-ended discussions of everything from homework problems to bad Saturday-night dates. The advisers also meet with students privately and stay in touch with parents. Along with the new structure came the percentage of freshmen taking biology jumped from 17 to 95. “Our kids are coming to school in part because they know there are adults here who know them and care for them.” says Jeff Gilbert.
But not all schools show advances after downsizing, and it remains to be seen whether smaller schools will be a cure-all solution.
Ranking schools is always controversial. Over the years this system has been criticized for its simplicity — list of top U.S. high schools was made merely according to the percentage of students taking college-level exams. This year a group of 38 superintendents (地区教育主管) from five states wrote to voice their disapproval. “It is impossible to know which high schools are ‘the best’ in the nation,” their letter read. “Determining whether different schools do or don’t offer a high quality of education requires a look at many different measures, including students’ overall academic accomplishments, their later performance in college, and taking into consideration the unique needs of their communities.”What can we learn about the schools sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?
| A．They are often located in poor neighborhoods. |
| B．They are popular with high-achieving students. |
| C．They are mostly small in size. |
| D．Another 150 schools invested by the Foundation are planned to be set up. |
According to Jeff Gilbert, the classes at Hillsdale were set up so that students could ______.
| A．enjoy more help and care from the teachers |
| B．experience a great deal of pleasure in learning |
| C．maintain closer relations with parents |
| D．deal with the demanding biology and physics courses |
Newsweek ranks high schools according to ______.
| A．their students’ academic achievement |
| B．the number of their students admitted to college |
| C．the size and number of their graduating classes |
| D．their college-level test participation |
What attitude does the author have towards the present trend in high school education?
| A．Subjective. | B．Objective. | C．Approving. | D．Disapproving. |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Providing Good Education for Baby Boomers |
| B．Top School List Winning National Support |
| C．Small Schools Rising in popularity |
| D．Students Meeting Higher Academic Standards |
Most magazines, whether online or print, will include book reviews. However, most editors and staff writers are usually too busy to read books and review them themselves. Therefore, writing book reviews can be a great way to get started with a writing career. How do you write a great book review that will be sure to be noticed? Follow these tips to write a really interesting and unique book review.
Start with a description of the book. Many people that are reading your review may not know anything about the book you’re reviewing. Instead of making readers go find information on their own by searching for the book title, start out with a little description of the book. Make sure you avoid too long of a summary. Start with a short paragraph or so that hits all the major points but doesn’t give too much away. You don’t want to tell your readers everything about the book, because then they won’t have to read it at all. Just give enough information so your readers are interested in reading the book.
Be objective. Some magazines like to publish book reviews that are completely impersonal. This means that they want a review of the book that doesn’t share your opinion and that in which your opinion isn’t obvious from reading what you wrote. If you hated a book, it might not be a great book to review. You probably want to review books that you enjoyed. Avoid talking about how much you liked the book, however. You should not include your personal reaction to the book until the very end, where you include a sentence or two about whether or not you would recommend a book and to whom you would recommend it.
Look through a lens（镜头）. A great way to get your review noticed is to look at a book through a specific lens. Read the book as a feminist（男女平等主义者）would, for example, and talk about what a feminist might say to applaud or criticize the book. You can choose any number of lenses, and feminism is just one choice. An economic lens, a family lens, the lens of a different nationality, or the lens of a child could all be interesting ways to look at a book. If you look at a book in this way, instead of just reading it and forming your own opinion, it will be much more interesting and marketable. This is especially the case if you look at a lens that relates to the subject of the magazine to which you are submitting. Feminist magazines love book reviews about books read through a feminist lens, for example, because it is appropriate to their readership.
Talk about the writer’s style. Another great way to write a book review is to talk about the writer’s style. Anyone can pick up a book and read the story, but it takes an experienced writer to note interesting things about another writer’s style and write about them intelligently. Furthermore, most people want to know if a book is easy or fun to read over whether or not the subject matter will interest them.For what purpose is the passage written?
| A．To offer tips on writing book reviews. |
| B．To give advice on reading books. |
| C．To introduce writing styles. |
| D．To comment on a book. |
If a writer thinks a book is worth reading, he’d better state it _________________.
| A．in the title | B．in the first paragraph | C．as much as possible | D．at the final part |
The fourth paragraph is developed mainly by __________________.
| A．analyzing causes | B．giving examples |
| C．drawing comparisons | D．telling personal experiences |
Compared with ordinary readers, a skilled writer does better in _____________.
| A．giving an objective description of a book |
| B．looking at a book through a specific angle |
| C．finding a book and understanding its story easily |
| D．paying close attention to another writer’s style |
Below is a selection about interesting hotels.
Tayka Hotel de Sal
Where: Tahua, Bolivia
How much: About $95 a night
Why it’s cool: You’ve stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That’s something few can claim. Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally of salt – including the beds (though you’ll sleep on regular mattresses（床垫）and blankets). The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric dried-up lake, which is the world’s biggest salt flat. Builders use the salt from the 4,633-square-mile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste（糊）of wet salt that hardens when it dries. When there is big rain, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks.
Green Magic Nature Resort
Where: Vythiri, India
How much: About $240 a night
Why it’s cool: Taking a pulley（滑轮）-operated lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure. As you look out of your open window – there is no glass! – you watch monkey and birds in the rain forest canopy（罩棚）. Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to the main part of the hotel, or just sit on your bamboo bed and read. You don’t even have to come down for breakfast – the hotel will send it up on the pulley-drawn “elevator”.
Dog Bark Park Inn B&B
Where: Cottonwood, Idaho
How much: $92 a night
Why it’s cool: This doghouse isn’t just for the family pet. Sweet Willy is a 30-foot-tall dog with guest rooms in his belly. Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side. You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a few steps of the loft（阁楼）in Willy’s head, or hang out inside his nose. Although you have a full private bathroom in your quarters, there is also a toilet in the 12-foot-tall fire hydrant（消防栓）outside.
Gamirasu Cave Hotel
Where: Ayvali, Turkey
How much: Between $130 and $475 a night
Why it’s cool: This is caveman cool! Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash. But your stay will be much more modern. Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool, about 65·F in summer. (Don’t worry – there is heat in winter.)What is the similarity of the four hotels?
| A．Being expensive. | B．Being comfortable. |
| C．Being natural. | D．Being unique. |
What does the underlined words “Sweet Willy” refer to?
| A．The name of a doghouse. |
| B．The name of the hotel owner. |
| C．The building of Dog Bark Park Inn B&B |
| D．The name of the hotel owner’s pet dog. |
Which of the hotels gives you a feeling of living in the far past?
A. Tayka Hotel de Sal. B. Green Magic Nature Resort.
C. Dog Bark Park Inn B&B. D. Gamirasu Cave Hotel.
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