In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ is about, It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbours.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighbourhood outside New York City. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he 
saw that rich people had servants. Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbours.
It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They moved back to an apartment(公寓房间) in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich life--style of their neighbours. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series (系列) of short stories, He called it ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ because ‘Jones’ is a very common name in the United States.’ Keeping up with the Joneses’ came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are ‘Jonses’ in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.
| A．want to be as rich as their neighbours |
| B．want others to know or to think that they are rich |
| C．don’t want others to know they are rich |
| D．want to be happy |
It can be inferred from the story that rich people like to ________.
| A．live outside New York City |
B．live in New York City |
| C．live in apartments | D．have many neighbours |
The underlined word neighbourhood in the second paragraph means ________.
| A．a person who lives near another | B．people living in an area |
| C．an area near the place referred to | D．an area in another town or city |
According to the writer, it is ________to keep up with the Joneses.
| A．correct | B．interesting | C．impossible | D．good |
If you want to be a volunteer, you have to answer the following typical questions. Do you want to work with people, animals or machines? Do you want to work indoors or outdoors, directly serve people in need or serve people behind the scenes? Every year, thousands of people in the west offer volunteer service. Volunteering greatly strengthens the community because it helps the old, the young, the weak, the sick, and the disabled and the injured to solve problems.
Volunteers usually help in many different ways. They may give people advice, offer friendship to the young, drive the elderly to church (if up to the driving age), advise kids against drugs, work as assistants in schools or nursing homes, raise funds, plant trees, help out in local libraries and do many other things. Volunteering can be a few hours a week or a few hours a month. Anybody who wants to serve people in need can become a volunteer.
In fact, the art of volunteering is a process of both giving and receiving. Volunteering allows volunteers to meet new people, make new friends and mix with people from all walks of life. Volunteering is an excellent way to experiment and try out new techniques and skills, discover your individual talents and explore career choice. Being a volunteer will take you on a wonderful journey and help you learn more than what you can get from books.
As a volunteer, only when you grow old enough can you _______.
| A．plant trees on hills | B．drive the elderly to church |
| C．give advice to others | D．help out in local libraries |
. How is the second paragraph mainly developed?
| A．By listing examples. | B．By comparing. |
| C．By giving explanations. | D．By discussing. |
It can be inferred from the passage that to be a volunteer, _______.
| A．you can do experiments | B．you must be very strong |
| C．you need to work very long | D．you can get something valuable |
What’s the best title of the passage?
| A．How to hunt for jobs | B．Volunteer service in the west |
| C．How to make friends | D．How to work with animals |
Nowadays, more and more villagers have left to make a living in big cities. As a result, their children have become leftover children and they need more care. The survey below is from villages in Yongzhou, Hunan Province. Three hundred children were chosen to answer the questions.
| What they want |
 Love |
Money |
Freedom |
Control |
Something else |
||
| 40% |
18% |
28% |
10% |
4% |
|||
| Whom to communicate with |
Oneself |
Family members |
No one |
||||
| 27% |
55% |
18% |
|||||
| Whether they can communicate with their parents freely |
Yes |
A little difficult |
No |
||||
| 46% |
44% |
10% |
|||||
| The way they prefer to live |
Living with parents |
Living without parents |
No idea |
||||
| 58% |
14% |
28% |
|||||
| What they think of their parents’ working in cities |
Bad |
Good |
No idea |
||||
| 20% |
39% |
41% |
|||||
| Happiest place |
School |
Home |
Friend’s homes |
||||
| 48% |
34% |
18% |
|||||
Of all the five needs, the leftover children need _______ most.
| A．love | B．money | C．control | D．freedom |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．About one out of every two children has no one to talk with. |
| B．All of the children prefer to stay at home without their parents. |
| C．About 1/3 of the children think their parents’ working in cities is bad. |
| D．More than half of the children think it good to live with their parents. |
How many children think their happiest place is their school?
| A．48. | B．102. | C．144. | D．156. |
We can learn from the survey that _______.
| A．most leftover children want more freedom without parents |
| B．over 40% of the children have difficulty talking to parents freely |
C．all the leftover children dream of making money in big cities |
| D．most villagers prefer living a peaceful life in the countryside |
At 7:49 a.m. local time on Wednesday, April 14th, a huge earthquake struck Yushu County in Qinghai, China, described as “end of the earth” in a famous poem of the Tang Dynasty.
The earthquake destroyed many houses, cut off power and caused over 2,000 deaths and injuries. On the night when the earthquake happened, many survivors had to sit or lie on the ground in terrible darkness. Some brought their own tents and others turned on the lights of motorcycles. It seemed that the earth was at an end. But their natural character made them get together to fight the early spring’s cold nights. Facing the disaster, they chose to be stronger and standing still and firmly like Yushu, the name of their hometown meaning “Standing like Trees”.
The disaster drew much attention both at home and abroad. Our country leaders ordered rescuers（营救人员） to value every life and never to give up. Thousands of rescuers and medical teams rushed to Yushu from many areas of China, bringing machines, medicines and something necessary to the quake-hit town. They entered every village to search for survivors. Governments, organizations and volunteers are offering money and materials to the areas.
We believe that under the leadership of the Central Government, people in the disaster areas are sure to restore production and rebuild homeland as soon as possible. And the overall victory can be achieved in the earthquake rescue work.
In Paragraph 2, the writer refers to the meaning of “Yushu” to show that _______.
| A．the strong trees stand still to fight the early spring’s cold nights |
| B．some trees were cut down to make tents to live through the disaster |
| C．the big tree standing still brings the local people good luck |
| D．people there are brave and strong when facing the earthquake |
Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?
| A．Yushu, a young town, was destroyed in the terrible earthquake. |
| B．A huge earthquake once hit Yushu County in the Tang Dynasty. |
| C．The whole nation does its best to help rebuild the new homeland. |
| D．There was still electricity after the earthquake struck the town. |
The underlined word “restore” in Paragraph 4 probably means _______.
| A．战胜 | B．储存 | C．恢复 | D．修理 |
Lacrosse（长曲棍球）is a popular sport in Canada. It is one of the oldest organized sports in America. The Indians in northern New York State and southern Ontario, Canada, invented it. They used it to train for war. They invented this game before Columbus arrived in the New World.
People play lacrosse outdoors. The lacrosse field is seven metres long. At each end of the field there is a net. There are ten players on each team. Each 
player has a stick called “crosse”. The players hit a ball that is 21 centimetres around and weighs 140 grams. They try to hit the ball into the net as many times as pos
sible. Lacrosse is a very fast game because the players can catch and pass the ball at a high s
peed with their sticks.
At one time lacrosse was the national summer sport in Canada. It is also popular in Britain and Australia.
________ invented the popular sport — Lacrosse.
| A．The British | B．The Spanish | C．The Indians | D．The Australians |
Lacrosse was invented because it was used to ________.
| A．honour God | B．have fun | C．lose weight | D．train for war |
The seven-metre-long lacrosse field has _________.
| A．only one net | B．one net at each end |
| C．two nets at each end | D．four nets at each end |
Who will be the winner in the lacrosse game? ________.
| A．The team who hit the ball into the net more times |
| B．The team who catch and pass the ball faster |
| C．The team who have many more stronger players |
| D．The team who use sticks to hit the ball farther |
James Stallman Rockefeller, the oldest-known U. S. Olympic medal winner and the former head of the bank that became Citigroup, died Tuesday. He was 102. Records of the U. S. Olympic Committee show that Rockefeller was the oldest American medal winner. He was the captain of Yale University’s eight-man rowing team with coxswain that won gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics - beating the Canadian team by less than 16 seconds. The oars from the winning race and the gold medal were prominently displayed in Rockefeller’s house. “I think he was really proud of that - probably more than the bank career,” said his grandson.
Rockefeller suffered a stroke on Thursday, said his grandson, who lived with him at his Greenwich home for two years, attributed his long life to a regimented（严密组织的） lifestyle: breakfast at eight a. m. , lunch at 1 p. m. , cocktails at 6 p. m. and dinner promptly at 7 p. m. . He liked plain food, without sauces or cheese, and plenty of fresh vegetables, including those grown in the garden of his estate. Rockefeller was in good health until shortly before he died. He drove his car up until last year and would review documents from the various charities and businesses he helped lead.
Rockefeller, born on June 8, 1902, was a grandson of William Rockefeller, who founded Standard Oil with his brother, John D. Rockefeller. He graduated from Yale in 1924 and served in the Airborne Command during World War II. He started at the bank, and then called the National City Bank, in 1930, following his uncle and grandfather, who were leaders of the bank. He became president in 1952, chairman in 1959 and retired in 1967. In 1955, under Rockefeller’s leadership, the bank merged with the First National Bank of New York to form Citigroup. Rockefeller also was a director of numerous companies, including Pan American Airways, Northern Pacific Railroad, NCR and Monsanto, and served on the boards of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the American Museum of Natural History.
Rockefeller and his wife. Nancy Carnegie Rockefeller, had four children. His wife died in 1994.
Rockefeller lost his wife when he was____ ___.
| A．at the age of 91 | B．in his eighties | C．in his early nineties | D．in his 1994 |
We can learn from the passage that ____ ___.
| A．the American rowing team beat the Canadian team in less than 16 seconds in 1924. |
| B．Rockefeller was the first American medal winner. |
| C．James Stallman Rockefeller founded the National City Bank and was the first president. |
| D．His grandson thought Rockefeller had long life because of a regimented lifestyle. |
What we can infer from the passage is that ______.
| A．James Stallman Rockefeller is a great Olympic medal winner. |
| B．James Stallman Rockefeller was in good health until he died. |
| C．James Stallman Rockefeller was very active in American society. |
| D．James Stallman Rockefeller was the only grandson of William Rockefeller. |
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