These days, many passers-by always spot a beggar on the Jiaochangkou Street in Yuzhong District of Chongqing in southwest China.
The beggar’s name is Xia Haibo, and he was born in Meihe Village, Tianmen City of Hubei Province. Being 25 years old, he is quite a special beggar in some ways — he doesn’t beg on his knees, as other beggars do when begging. Rather, he often stands in the crowded street, either reading a book or thinking about something carefully. He also started a blog on the Internet which has been clicked more than 500,000 times. He likes reading — he has read many classical Chinese poems. He has kept writing and recently, he has planned to publish his writings.
In 1998, Xia entered Tianmen Middle School as the best student in his town. However, a year before he took the college entrance examination, he came down with a high fever and was later diagnosed (诊断) as having rheumatoid arthritis (类风湿性关节炎). In order to treat his disease, his father borrowed 60,000 yuan from relatives and friends. However, with this money, he didn’t recover from the disease. He did not want to become a burden (负担) to his family any more. So in July, 2006, he left his hometown and went to Wuhan to make a living by begging.
Begging has become a job to Xia now. However, he doesn’t plan to go on living like this. “By July 24, 2008, when I have been begging for two years, I will stop my begging life. I promise,” he said.
It is his plan that by using the money he “earns”, he will rent a small shop in his hometown and keep on writing in his spare time.
Right now, he is trying to finish a book of his own. The book, called Love Is With Me, tells about the people who helped him during his begging life. The underlined word “spot” in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to “______”.
| A．forgive | B．record | C．beat | D．notice |
When did Xia Haibo get the serious illness?
| A．In 1998. | B．In 2001. | C．In 2000. | D．In 2006. |
How does Xia beg in the street?
| A．He begs on his knees in the street. |
| B．He writes Chinese poems for those who like poems. |
| C．He reads or thinks while standing in the street. |
| D．He teaches people how to surf the Internet. |
Which of the following is NOT true about Xia Haibo?
| A．His dream is to have his book published. |
| B．He will not stop begging until he earns enough money for his future life. |
| C．He is writing a book to express his thanks to those who helped him. |
| D．He will keep writing while running a small business. |
As an American artist and writer of children’s books, Tasha Tudor’s art and nineteenth-century
lifestyle have fascinated adults and children for decades. She received many awards and honors for her contributions to children’s literature. When people talk about her creativity in artwork, she said, “I do it to support my dogs and my four children.” Her great publishing record, the number of magazine stories that have been written about her over the years, and her admirers have no effects on her at all.
Much of Tasha’s artwork and her reading are done in the wintertime. “I love winter. It’s delightful,” she says. “I don’t have to go anywhere because I work at home. If I’m snowed in, I can stay this way for months.” She hopes for early, deep snow to protect her garden from the hardship of the New England winter, and when it comes she puts on snowshoes when she needs to get down the mile-long dirt path that leads to the road.
Given her enjoyment of winter and her fantasy(梦幻)way of life, it’s not surprising that Tasha’s Christmas is a storybook holiday. She hangs flowers over the front door. Her tree comes from the woods, and it goes up on Christmas Eve, lit by homemade candles and decorated with her great- grandmother’s collection that dates from 1850. In a place of honor on the tree are large cookies cut into the shapes of her animals.
The grandchildren and friends get presents from Tasha’s old dolls; so do the animals and they have their own Christmas tree. “Of course, it’s a known fact that all the animals talk on Christmas Eve,” she has written. Small, handmade gifts fill a big wooden box.
At the end of each year, Tasha can look back and know that her life is perfect, that she has again ignored the twentieth century, and that the magic continues. And for the rest of us，here’s a bit of advice, Tasha style: “Nowadays, people are so restless. If they took some tea and spent more time rocking on the porch(门廊) in the evening listening to light music, they might enjoy life more.”Tasha loved winter because it allowed her to ________.
| A．read stories to her grandchildren |
| B．show her DIY snowshoes to kids |
| C．stay indoors working during reading |
| D．enjoy bicycle tiding along the path |
From the passage, we can learn that Tasha’s life is ________.
| A．modern and fashionable |
| B．simple and fantastic |
| C．lonely and hard |
| D．adventurous and inspiring |
Which of the following is TRUE about Tasha?
| A．She cared little about fame. |
| B．She created an animal fund. |
| C．She wrote many stories for magazines. |
| D．She bought presents for her relatives. |
In which section of a paper can you probably read the article?
| A．Travel. | B．Sports. | C．Economy. | D．People. |
Girls who play with Barbie dolls tend to see fewer career options available to them, compared with the options available to boys, according to a new study by researchers at Oregon State University and the University of California (UC), Santa Cruz.
The study’s authors, psychology professors, Aurora Sherman of Oregon State University and Eileen Zurbriggen at UC Santa Cruz, describe their findings as significant. “This is one of the first studies to investigate how playing with sexualized dolls affects young girls, and also one of the first to look at the impact of such play on achievement or career aspirations (愿望), rather than body image,” said Zurbriggen. Sherman suggests that Barbie and similar dolls are part of the burden of early and inappropriate sexuality placed on girls.
Sherman and Zurbriggen used girls’ doll play to study the impact of fender role socialization, a process through which children learn to follow cultural norms and which encourages gender stereotypical(约定俗成的) behavior.
Thirty-seven girls from the age of four to seven from an Oregon college town were randomly arranged to play for five minutes with either a sexualized Doctor Barbie or Fashion Barbie doll, or with a more neutral (中性的) Mrs. Potato Head doll. The girls were then shown photographs of ten occupations and asked how many they themselves or boys could do in the future.
The girls who played with a Barbie doll saw themselves in fewer occupations, compared with boys. Those girls who played with Mrs. Potato Head reported nearly as many career options available for themselves as for boys.
The two Barbie dolls were the same except for clothing, with unrealistic bodies, extremely youthful and attractive faces, and long full hair. The researchers believe that the doll itself has more of an effect on girls than the role or career aspirations suggested by its costume.
“It’s significant that a few minutes of play with a Barbie doll had an immediate impact on the number of careers that girls saw as possible for themselves,” Zurbriggen said. “And it didn’t matter whether the Barbie doll was dressed as a model or as a doctor, suggesting that the doll’s sexualized shape and appearance might have more of an effect than whatever accessories (装饰品) are packaged with her.”Which of the following is TRUE?
| A．Playing with dolls affects the academic performance of young children. |
| B．Body image has a big influence on girls’ career options. |
| C．Researchers used doll play to study the impact of gender role socialization on girls. |
| D．Boys who played with a Fashion Barbie doll found more career options than girls. |
What is stressed in the second paragraph?
| A．The method adopted by the study. |
| B．The significance of the study. |
| C．The purpose of the study. |
| D．The process of the study. |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Why Barbie dolls are the world’s best-selling dolls. |
| B．That playing with Barbie dolls could limit girls’ career choices. |
| C．What negative effects Barbie dolls have on young girls in the long term. |
| D．That Barbie dolls make girls want to be thin. |
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is perhaps the most famous portrait in the world, but now some suspect that the woman with the mysterious smile may not be a woman after all. They are suggesting that the Mona Lisa may be a self-portrait, da Vinci in drag (女装).
Italy’s National Committee for Cultural Heritage (INCCH) is carrying out the research. They think the artist, who died in 1519, was buried at a French castle and they plan to dig up his body. Using CSI-style technology, they want to rebuild da Vinci’s face. Jason Rosenfeld, a member of INCCH, says, “ It shows the reason why we preserved Einstein’s brain or King Tut’s mummy (木乃伊), which throws light on the problem we are working on.”
“Now we want to get the body of Leonardo. We want to see what he died of, we want to see his DNA, we want to see the size of his head, and what his facial feature were like, so we can know whether this was a self-portrait.”
The Mona Lisa was painted around 500 years ago. Beyond that, we know almost nothing about the painting that is now on display at the Louvre in Paris.
But will the exhumation (发掘) discover the truth behind the Mona Lisa? Not likely, according to Rosenfeld. “If the French government really wants to help find out what this is about, what they should do is allow us to clean the Mona Lisa. We will learn much more from it and understand it better if we are allowed to clean the painting than by digging up a body.”What can be learnt from the text?
| A．The French government will be in charge of digging up da Vinci’s body. |
| B．The INCCH will learn more if allowed to clean the Mona Lisa painting. |
| C．The exhumation will help uncover the truth behind the Mona Lisa. |
| D．The French government wants to help find out the truth. |
Which of the following is TRUE about the Mona Lisa?
| A．It is now preserved in France. |
| B．It is a self-portrait of da Vinci in drag. |
| C．It has the same long history as King Tut’s mummy. |
| D．It was painted in 1519. |
What’s the question that the INCCH is researching on?
| A．What da Vinci died of. |
| B．Whether da Vinci liked dressing in drag. |
| C．Whether the Mona Lisa was painted by da Vinci. |
| D．Whether the Mona Lisa is da Vinci’s self-portrait. |
What the underlined phrase, “ throws light on”, in the second paragraph mean?
| A．Pays attention to. |
| B．Makes people feel confident. |
| C．Makes it possible for people to know. |
| D．Draws people’s attention. |
12-year-old Robert Looks Twice appears to be the typical all-American boy. He is the quarterback of his school’s football team, student council president and one of the top students in his class.
But he hasn’t forgotten his Lakota Sioux root. Unlike most children on the reservation (居留地), he keeps his hair long, a symbol of strength, and he performs at powwows (祈祷仪式), traditionally known as wacipis, where he is a champion of the traditional Lakota dance. Robert was inspired to start dancing by his grandfather, John Tail, who had a small role in the famous film about Indian Amercans, Dances with Wolves. Six years ago, John passed away, and Robert wears little wolves on his clothes in his memory.
We are told that his last name, “ Looks Twice”, came about because his ancestors were cautious and always took a second look.
Robert lives in a trailer (拖车) with his grandmother, uncle and eight other cousins. When he gives us a tour, the trailer is falling apart. “ It is getting ready to cave in (坍塌),” says Robert about the kitchen floor. The family also put trash bags on the ceiling, because it’s leaking. “ When it rains it gets all my shirts wet,” he says of another leak in his bedroom. Often the electricity goes off and the family have to use the burners on the stove to heat the house.
This kind of poverty is typical of the reservation. The reservation is the third poorest county in America, and Robert’s community, Manderson, is known for its high crime rate. But despite all the temptations (诱惑) of drugs and alcohol around him, Robert remain focused on being the first person in his family to go to college and then a very big dream.
“ I want to be the first Native American President,” Robert said. “ I want to build better houses and clean up the reservation, because it’s bad. Get people off the drugs and alcohol and spend that money on their children. Build a better school and playground. Try to get a mall down here to help people get work.”What can we learn from Robert’s experience?
| A．Everyone should persist in chasing their dreams. |
| B．The poor can get more help from others. |
| C．It is never too late to study. |
| D．It is necessary for everyone to go to college. |
Unlike Robert, what do most children on the reservation do?
| A．They dance like their ancestors. |
| B．They don’t worship their grandfather. |
| C．They keep their hair short. |
| D．They have Lakota Sioux roots. |
What does Robert do, even though he is living in terrible conditions?
| A．He helps people get off drugs and alcohol. |
| B．He helps people get work by getting a mall. |
| C．He keeps working toward his dream. |
| D．He is beginning to build a better house. |
Why is Robert said to be a typical American boy?
| A．He like traveling. |
| B．He has a higher position in his family. |
| C．He wants to be the first Native American President. |
| D．He is excellent in all respects. |
From Rome and Venice to the rolling hills of Tuscany and the charm of Milan, Italy is a bottomless well of attractions. It is a motherland of artists and scientists that changed the shape of the world. Here are some places you should see on your vacations to Italy.
Valley of the Temples
Welcome to Sicily and one of its most amazing attractions. The Valley of the Temples in Agrigento is an extensive archaeological site containing the well-preserved remains of various Doric temples dating from the 5th century B.C. In accord with standard criteria (标准) for both Greek and Roman temples, all structures face east so that the statue of the god housed inside will be illuminated (照亮) by the rising sun. The site being located on a ridge overlooking the town, the term “valley” is obviously a misnomer (误称)，but it quite captures the vastness of the place.
Uffizi Gallery
The reputation for being one of the finest universally acclaimed (受到高度赞扬的) museums of all time comes courtesy of masters like Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo and Rubens. Their timeless works are proudly displayed on the top floor of the palace in Florence.
Historic Centre of Siena
Siena may not equal Florence in overall artistic achievement, but its charm makes it a place that no other can compare to. Centered on Piazza del Campo, the historic district is a container of 12th –century Gothic, and a mirror of the Middle Ages. Full of pearls of architecture and cultural highlights, the historic centre of Siena is an excellent trip back in time, ideally to be taken in summer.
Grand Canal
Taking the water bus along the Canal Grande is like going back through centuries of history. The famous Venetian waterway runs more than 3.5 km through all six districts of the historic center. The impressive Renaissance palaces rub shoulders with Gothic arches and marble mixes with gold. Numerous landmarks never cease to provoke (激起) admirable sighs on the way.Which of the following would be better to visit in summer?
| A．Uffizi Gallery. | B．Valley of the Temples. |
| C．Grand Canal. | D．Historic Centre of Siena |
The main purpose of the passage is ______.
| A．to tell visitors about the advantages of travelling in Italy |
| B．to supply visitors with information about some famous museums |
| C．to show visitors the features of Italy |
| D．to suggest some good places to go in Italy to visitors |
Which are the unique features of the Grand Canal?
① There are many Gothic arches.
② You can see many Renaissance palaces there.
③ The length of the Venetian waterway is three kilometers.
④ You can take the water bus to enjoy its beauty.
| A．①②③ | B．①②④ | C．②③④ | D．①③④ |
Where can one probably find this passage?
| A．In a sports newspaper. | B．In a geography report. |
| C．In a traveling magazine. | D．In a novel. |
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