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 Little got started.
As for Charlotte’s Web, I like animals and my farm is 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 his 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 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 could be a way of earning a living.
Well, here is the answer to the last question. No, they are imaginary (虚构的) tales. 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, think and act.E.B. White wrote this passage 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 friends’ farm
C. mainly writes stories for adults
D. writes imaginary tales for childrenWhat inspired E.B. White to write Charlotte’s Web?
A. That he wanted children to love animals.
B. That he was deeply impressed by a clever pig.
C. That he wanted to use his own way to save a pig.
D. That he wanted to save the animals on a farm. E.B. White started to write because he wanted to ______.
A. improve his spelling
B. express his thoughts
C. show his sadness
D. make a good livingWhat 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? |
Win a trip to the OREGON COAST-Dare to Explore the Pacific Ocean. Build the biggest sand castle on the beach. Search tide pools for sea life. Watch the bright orange sunset over the ocean. Whether you’ve been to the Pacific Ocean before or have only closed your eyes and imagined it, we want to know how you would explore the Oregon Coast if you had the chance to go this summer.
JUDGING
1. Clear relationship between the Essay and the Drawing 40%
2. Creativity and skill in design and form of the Drawing 40%
3. Expression of the passion to draw and explore 10%
4. Journalistic quality, tidy nature and overall quality of the Essay 10%
PRIZE
By entering, you will have the chance to win an all expense paid trip to the ORECON COAST. Activities will include: kite flying, studying beautiful sea creatures, searching for sea life in a boat, science exploration at a science center and roasting over a beach campfire.
Who may enter: The competition is 0pen to kids aged 6 - 14.
TERM : Entries(参赛作品) must be postmarked no later than July 31 ,2009.
How to enter
Surf travelogue. com/kids to download and print out an entry form.
Be sure to mark whether you have or have not been to the Pacific Ocean in山e form. Create a drawing of the Pacific Ocean on a piece of paper using a pen or paints.
Write an article of 100 words or less to explain why you want to go, what you think you would see and what you would explore if you have never been to the Pacific Ocean, or describe your favorite memories from your last visit.
Send to Dare to Explore the Pacific Ocean. NG1145 14th street NW. Washington D. C. 20036
1. What is the most important for the judging?
A. Whether your article is written in a neat way.
B. The article and the drawing should be closely related.
C.Whether you show your passion to draw and explore
D. The skill in your drawing the map of the AtlanticOcean.
2. If you win the competition, you may____
A. search the beach for sea plants
B. fly a kite on the beach
C. roast the sea creatures over a beach campfire
D. win an all expense paid trip to Washington D. C.
3. What information can you get from the passage?
A. Your article should be 8t least 100 words.
B. Every kid can rake part in the competition.
C. You must send the drawing before June 31, 2009.
D. Your entry form should be downloaded and printed out.
4. You can most probably read the passage in ________.
A．a textbook B．a travel guide C．a newspaper D．a research book
People have been painting pictures for at least 30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted by people who hunted animals.They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill.Pictures of this kind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain.No one knows why they were painted there.Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals.Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories in pictures.
About 5,000 years ago,the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represrnt the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet.
Th
e Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture-writing and pictures together. When an important person died ,scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern comic strip stories.It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip .But , for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not try to make their way of writing simple.The ordinary people could not understand it.
By the year 1,000 BC,people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a simpler system of writing . The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system . This was because each sign , or letter, represented only one sound in their language.The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world.
These days ,we can write down a story ,or record information, without using pictures.But we still need pictures of all kinds: drawing , photographs, signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere: in books and newspapers, in the street, and on the walls of the places where we live and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember things more easily ,and they can make a story much more interesting.
1.Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because_________.
A. the hunters wanted to see the pictures
B. the painters were animal lovers
C. the painters wanted to show imagination
D. the pictures were thought to be helpful
2. The Greek alphabed was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons EXCEPT that__________.
A. the former was easy to write
B. there were fewer signs in the former
C. the former was easy to pronounce
D.each sign stood for only one sound
3. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet.
B. The Egyptians liked to write comic-strip stories.
C. The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one.
D. The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.
4. In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures_______.
A. should be made comprehensible.
B. should be made interesting.
C. are of much use in our life.
D. have disappeared from our life.
●Tower Bridge is one of London’s most well known landmarks. Opened in 1894, this hydraulic(液压的) bridge can be raised to permit river traffic to pass underneath.
Visitors to Tower Bridge can enjoy wonderful views of the River Thames from the bridge towers. There is also a museum which explain how the bascule bridge operates and discusses its history. Tower Bridge is often incorrectly referred to as London Bridge. London Bridge, however, is a different bridge that is located directly upstream from Tower Bridge.
●The British Museum is a “must do” for all visitors to London England. Treasures from around the world can be found in Britain’s largest and most popular museum. To top it off, admission to the British Museum is free of charge.
Due to the enormous size of the museums, visitors should prioritize what they wish to see. One “must see” is the Rosetta Stone – a key puzzle piece in the recorded history of humankind. The British Museum is located in the Bloomsbury district of London in London WC1.
●Greenwich Park is a beautiful large park located a few kilometers away from the centre of London. Attractions in Greenwich include the Cutty Sark, the Gypsy Moth and the Old Royal Observatory. A painted line at the observatory indicates zero degrees of longitude（经度）.
Many visitors to Greenwich enjoy having their photos taken with one leg in the western hemisphere（半球）and the other in the eastern hemisphere. Greenwich is the place where time was officially tracked – “Greenwich Mean Time” or “GMT”.
Greenwich is located in London SE10.
●The Eurostar high – speed train service provides fast connections between London and Paris and London and Brussels. The Eurostar trains pass through the 32 – mile Channel Tunnel under the English Channel. The tunnel is also known as the “Euro Tunnel” or “Chunnel”. The Channel Tunnel is considered to be one of the world’s great engineering wonders.
Trains leave form the Waterloo Rail Station which is located in south London.
1．If a tourist doesn’t have any money on him, which of the following can he do?
A．Visit Tower Bridge. B．Visit the British Museum.
C．Go around Greenwich Park. D．Take a Eurostar high – speed train.
2．Where can we find the attraction of the Cutty Sark?
A．On London Bridge. B．In the Old Royal Observatory.
C．In the British Museum. D．In Greenwich Park.
3．What can we learn from the passage?
A．Tower Bridge can be raised mainly to let the water flow faster.
B．The British Museum is the largest museum in the world.
C．Greenwich Park is where the western hemisphere and the eastern hemisphere meet.
D．The Eurostar train can take people from London to many cities in Europe directly.
4．In what web page do you think the passage is probably found?
A．International news. B．Study abroad.
C．Tourist Information and Travel Guide. D．Art of architecture.
“I sat-in at a restaurant for six months, and when they finally agreed to serve me, they didn’t have what I wanted”---so went a famous line. In reality, the sit-in movement was not a joke. It began in Greensboro, North Carolina, at 4:30 P. M. , on the afternoon of February 1, 1960. On that day, Ezell Blair Jr. , Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, and Franklin McClain entered an F. W. Woolworth store. They sat down at a segregated（隔离的）lunch counter, ordered coffee, and then refused to leave when told, ‘We don’t serve Negroes. ”
The four young men had expected not to be served. What no one had expected, however, was that they would sit there and politely, but firmly, refuse to leave. This was 1960, and throughout the South black people were not allowed to sit at the same lunch counters with whites, swim at the same beaches, use the same water fountains, or worship at the same churches. Segregation was the law, and it meant separation of the races in every way.
The next day, the four returned to Woolworth’s---this time accompanied by sixteen other students. Again they sat at the lunch counter and requested service. Again they were refused. And again, they declined to leave. On Wednesday, February 3, seventy students filled the Woolworth’s store. This time, the group included white students as well as black. Many brought school books and studied while they waited. By this time, their protest had become known nationwide as a “sit-in”.
On Thursday, there was trouble. An angry group of white teenagers began shoving（推搡） and cursing them but were quickly removed by the police. By February 10, the sit-in movement had spread to five other states.
By September 1961, more than 70,000 people, both black and white, had participated in sit-ins at segregated restaurants and lunch counters, kneel-ins at segregated churches, read-ins at segregated libraries, and swim-ins at segregated pools and beaches. Over 3,600 people had been arrested, and more than 100 students had been driven away. But they were getting results. On June 10, 1964, the U. S Senate passed a major civil rights bill outlawing（宣布为非法）racial discrimination in all public places. President Lyndon Johnson signed it on July 2, and it became law. But the highest credit still goes to the four brave students from North Carolina who first sat-in and waited it out.
1. In this passage, “sit-in” refers to _________.
A. an activity where people sit together and drink coffee freely
B. a bill which outlaws racial discrimination in all public places
C. a form in which people peacefully sit and decline to leave
D. a polite behavior that everyone enjoys
2. Which statement can be concluded from the fifth paragraph in the passage?
A. The sit-in movement was not successful.
B. The sit-in movement had a positive result.
C. Only black people participated in sit-ins.
D. A lot of protesters were arrested, with some students driven away from school
3. What was the purpose of the civil rights bill passed in 1964?
A. The highest credit went to the four brave students.
B. It declared that segregation was a law.
C. The students were allowed to participate in sit-ins.
D. It made racial segregation against the law in all public places.
4. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Segregation was the law in the South.
B. The first sit-in was in 1960.
C. The sit-ins helped to end segregation.
D. The civil rights bill was passed in 1964 by the U. S. Senate.
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下面短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑 A
You're in a department store and you see a couple of attractive young women looking at a sweater. You listen to their conversation:
“I can't believe it--a Lorenzo Bertolla! They are almost impossible to find. Isn't it beautiful? And it's a lot cheaper than the one Sara bought in Rome. ”
They leave and you go over to see this incredible sweater. It's nice and the price is right. You've never heard of Lorenzo Bertolla, but those girls looked really stylish. They must know. So, you buy it. You never realize that those young women are employees of an advertising agency. They are actually paid to go from store to store, talking loudly about Lorenzo Bertolla clothes.
Every day we notice what people are wearing, driving and eating. If the person looks cool, the product seems cool, too. This is the secret of undercover marketing. Companies from Ford to Nike are starting to use it.
Undercover marketing is important because it reaches people that don't pay attention to traditional advertising. This is particularly true of the MTV generation----consumers between the age of 18 and 34. It is a golden group. They have a lot of money to spend, but they don't trust ads.
So advertising agencies hire young actors to “perform” in bars and other places where young adults go. Some people might call this practice deceptive(骗人的), but marketing executive Jonathan Ressler calls it creative. “Look at traditional advertising. Its effectiveness is decreasing. ”
However, one might ask what exactly is “real” about of young women pretending to be enthusiastic about a sweater? Advertising executives would say it's no less real than an ad. The difference is that you know an ad is trying to persuade you to buy something. You don' t know when a conversation you overhear is just a performance.
1. The two attractive young women were talking so that they could ________.
A. get the sweater at a lower price B. be heard by people around
C. be admired by other shoppers D. decide on buying the sweater
2. Lorenzo Bertolla is __________.
A. a very popular male singer B. an advertising agency
C. a clothing company in Rome D. the brand name of a sweater
3. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. The two girls are in fact employed by the Lorenzo Bertolla Company.
B. The MTV generation tend to be more easily influenced by ads.
C. Traditional advertising is becoming less effective because it's too direct.
D. Undercover marketing will surely be banned soon by the government.
4. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?
A. Two Attractive Shoppers B. Lorenzo Bertolla Sweaters
C. Ways of Advertising D. Undercover Marketing
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