When John Weston awoke that morning, he remembered that his mother was going into hospital. He hadn’t worked out quite what was wrong with her. He knew, though that she hadn’t been well for some time now, and it had become almost familiar to him to see her eyes narrowed in a sudden attack of pain, and her hand pressing against her heart. Their own doctor, who she had finally gone to for advice, had sent her to an expert who knew all about these things. He had told her that just as soon as there was a bed for her, she would have to come into his hospital where he could look after her himself.
During the weeks since then the pains had come even more frequently, and the narrowed eyes became an almost permanent part of her expression. Always rather sharp, she began losing her temper over little things so that John’s father kept his thoughts to himself more and more. John, as ready as possible to make allowances, tried to think what it would be like to have toothache all the time and how bad-tempered that would make you.
So his mother would go into hospital for a few days. He was going to stay with his Aunt Daisy till she came back, and his father would stay on at home by himself. John’s cousin, Mona, was to come in and make the bed and wash the pots and dust round now and again. That was the arrangement, and John didn’t care much for it. Apart from missing his mother(and he was glad she was going away because they would make her better), he wasn’t very fond of his Aunt Daisy because she was even more bad-tempered than his mother.Mrs Weston went to see her doctor_________.
| A．as soon as she realized that something was wrong |
| B．only after her husband advised her to |
| C．a long time after the trouble began |
| D．when John asked what was wrong with her |
what did Mrs Weston’s own doctor decide to do?
| A．he decided to send her to hospital |
| B．he decided to get an expert to examine her |
| C．He decided to treat her himself |
| D．He advised her to wait for a few weeks. |
how did John react to his mother’s bad temper?
| A．he tried to imagine himself in her place. |
| B．He tried not to notice it. |
| C．He pretended that he had toothache. |
| D．He behaved himself as well as possible. |
John regarded ______as most bad-tempered.
| A．his father | B．his mother | C．his cousin Mona | D．his aunt Daisy |
Our oldest daughter is having trouble letting go of an old red sofa.
It’s not the sofa she’s having trouble letting go of as much as the memories. It was their first sofa. It has been loaded and unloaded onto moving trucks seven times. Three kids have eaten on it, dripped on it, and jumped on it.
Yet she’s having a hard time letting go and asked if I thought that was strange.
“Completely,” I said. “You get it from me.”
When we were ready to get rid of our baby things, I sold our crib (婴儿床) at the neighborhood garage sale. I had pieces of it in the garage and the other pieces of it still in the house. A young woman said she wanted to buy it.
My throat tightened and the tears began to well. She pulled out cash and I cheered up.
But by the time I returned with the other pieces to the crib, I was all sobbing. “Have you considered that maybe you’re not ready to sell it?” the woman asked.
“No-o-o-o,” I cried. “It’s fine, really,” I said. “Take it.”
Our attachment to stuff grows in direct relationship to the amount of time it has sat in one place. The longer it sits, the harder it is to get rid of it. You think: “Hey, we’ve hung onto it this long – it must be valuable!” As though yellowing and a layer of dust increase value.
People who find it extremely hard to part with things have been made into entertainment in a television show called Hoarders. If an episode (集) of that isn’t depressing enough for you, producers now offer Extreme Hoarders. Both of which are not to be outdone by Storage Wars, a show about aggressive people who bid on other people’s storage units.
Let the sofa go, I told my daughter. It served its purpose. You can get a new one. Give the kids some crackers (饼干) and juice and it will be like the old one in six weeks.What does the author mean by saying the underlined sentence “You get it from me”?
| A．“You can get another sofa from me.” |
| B．“You can get mental support from me.” |
| C．“You behave just the same way I do.” |
| D．“You are asking the right person to help you.” |
When the writer was selling the crib, _____.
| A．she felt relieved that there was someone willing to buy it |
| B．she showed a strong attachment to the old item |
| C．she couldn’t decide whether or not to sell it in the end |
| D．she changed her mind in hopes of keeping it and increasing its value |
The writer refers to the television shows to _____.
| A．prove that it’s depressing to get attached to old stuff |
| B．explain what contributes to people’s attachment to old stuff |
| C．show that people in TV shows live the same lives as ordinary people do |
| D．prove that it’s actually common for people to find it hard to get rid of old stuff |
Which opinion might the writer agree with according to the article?
| A．If you give away old stuff regularly, you are wasteful. |
| B．If the old stuff has done what it was supposed to, then let it go. |
| C．Nothing is more valuable than your love for your old stuff. |
| D．The older your stuff is, the less trouble you have getting rid of it. |
A new pollen (花粉) study showed that drought was responsible for the extinction of civilizations more than 3,000 years ago during the Bronze Age.
The reason behind why the civilizations in and around modern-day Israel suddenly broke down more than 3,000 years ago has remained a mystery up until now. A new pollen study by Tel Aviv University researchers finally solved this Bronze Age mystery.
Prof. Israel Finkelstein showed that owing to serious climate changes, the entire world of the Bronze Age crumbled in a short period of time. The discovery was made on the basis of a high-resolution analysis of pollen grains taken from sediments (沉淀物) beneath the Sea of Galilee and the western shore of the Dead Sea.
Prof. Finkelstein received support from the European Research Council to conduct research aimed at reconstructing ancient Israel. Researchers of the part of the project that dealt with climate change extracted (提取) about 60 feet of samples of gray muddy sediment from the center of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. They had to drill through 1,000 feet of water and into 65 feet of the lake bed and were able to recover evidence dating over the past 9,000 years.
“Pollen is the most enduring organic material in nature,” explained Dr. Dafna Langgut, a pollen researcher who carried out the actual work of sampling. “These grains tell us about the plants that grew near the lake in the past and therefore prove the climatic conditions in the region.”
Researchers noted a sharp decrease in Mediterranean trees like oaks and pines in the Late Bronze Age. According to study experts, this could be because of repeated periods of drought. The droughts may have resulted in long famines, forcing people to migrate from north to south.The underlined word “crumbled” in Paragraph 3 means _____.
| A．settled | B．changed |
| C．established | D．disappeared |
Prof. Finkelstein conducted the new pollen study to _____.
| A．earn some money |
| B．recreate ancient Israel |
| C．learn more about local plants |
| D．discover the ancient civilizations |
By conducting the study, scientists found _____.
| A．Mediterranean trees were rare in the Early Bronze Age |
| B．climate change was to blame for the lost civilization |
| C．people in the Late Bronze Age starved to death |
| D．droughts were rare during the Bronze Age |
The text is most probably taken from _____.
| A．a travel magazine | B．a history textbook |
| C．a newspaper report | D．an agricultural book |
Gabriela Mistral was born on April 6, 1889, at Vicuña, a small town in northern Chile. Her parents were schoolteachers, but her father abandoned the family when she was 3. Taught by her mother, she began instructing in 1904, achieving success in many high schools. In 1909, her first love died. Shortly afterward her second love married someone else. In 1922 the Mexican minister of education, José Vasconcelos, invited her to assist in his reform program, and the peak of this career came the following year, when she was awarded the Chilean title “Teacher of the Nation”. In 1925 she retired but remained active.
Gabriela Mistral devoted much time to diplomatic (外交的) activity, serving as honorary consul (名誉领事) in Madrid, Lisbon, Nice, and Los Angeles. She also served as a representative to the United Nations. In fulfillment of these responsibilities, she visited nearly every major country in Europe and Latin America. She also continued her early literary pursuits.
In 1922 Gabriela Mistral’s first book, Desolation, a collection of poems previously published in newspapers and magazines, was released through the efforts of Federico de Onís, Director of the Hispanic Institute of New York. It reflected personal sorrow.
Two years later her second book, Tenderness, appeared; it contained some of the poems from Desolation and several new ones. Fourteen years passed before the next, Felling, appeared. It was much happier in tone.
Her last book, Wine Press, in 1954, dealt with most of the subjects previously treated but in a different manner. The winning of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1945 did not assuage (减轻) the loss of her nephew. Furthermore, by 1944 she had developed diabetes (糖尿病).
Gabriela Mistral went to the United States for medical aid in 1946, living in various places and, after her appointment to the United Nations, moving to Long Island. It was there that she died of cancer on Jan. 10, 1957.
According to Paragraph 1, Gabriela Mistral _____.
| A．had a short happy marriage | B．was born in a poor family |
| C．was a devoted teacher | D．had a beloved father |
The second paragraph is mainly about Gabriela Mistral’s _____.
| A．retired life | B．achievements |
| C．works of literature | D．diplomatic activity |
The theme of Gabriela Mistral’s early works is _____.
| A．death | B．happiness |
| C．teaching life | D．personal suffering |
Which of the following is the correct order to describe Gabriela Mistral’s life according to the text?
a. She retired.
b. She developed diabetes.
c. She published her first book.
d. She began instructing in school.
e. She won the Nobel Prize for literature.
| A．e-d-c-b-a | B．d-c-a-b-e |
| C．d-a-b-e-c | D．e-c-b-d-a |
Census Bureau (人口普查局) data released Thursday show that 48 of the 50 most populous (人口稠密的) U.S. cities have grown since 2010, compared with only 40 of the top 50 in the first two years after the 2000 Census. Of the top 100, 93 have grown since 2010, compared with just 72 a decade ago.
Many of the biggest, such as New York, Houston, Phoenix, San Antonio, San Diego and Dallas, are outpacing the nation’s 1.7% growth rate since 2010.
“Urban America is recovering faster than more remote places,” said Robert Lang, a professor of urban affairs.
Only two big cities - Detroit and Cleveland - lost population between 2010 and 2012.
The urban recovery is led by mid-sized cities including Austin and Fort Worth and Charlotte. Austin grew 6.6% in two years, becoming the USA’s 11th-largest city. In 2000, it was No. 17.
Other trends:
• New York City grew 2%, adding about 161,500 people since 2010. By far it is the USA’s most populous city.
• The population of New Orleans continues to grow. In 2005 a terrible natural disaster happened to the city, causing the population to decrease. Now it has a population of three hundred and sixty-nine thousand. The number has grown by 7.4% since 2010.
• Government budget crunches (紧缩) have put state capitals in difficulty. Half are behind the growth rate of their regions.
Perhaps the biggest exception to the capital crunch is Austin. It has grown more than 26% since 2000. Population expert William Frey says Austin enjoys a number of qualities that make it attractive. It’s a high-tech city with a state university. And it’s in Texas, an attractive place for newcomers. “In some ways it’s a model of what other cities would like to become,” he says.
Frey notes that Charlotte, which grew 5.4% since 2010 has grown into a high-tech and financial center whose industries do business not just with those in other U.S. cities but with the rest of the world.The statistics in Paragraph 1 suggest that _____.
| A．there were fewer cities in the USA a decade ago |
| B．remote areas in the USA have more people now |
| C．the population in the USA has grown since 2010 |
| D．many big cities in the USA face population problems |
William Frey thinks Austin’s growth _____.
| A．is due to its education |
| B．is the steadiest in the USA |
| C．attracts well-educated people |
| D．deserves the attention of other cities |
According to the text, Charlotte _____.
| A．is a political center |
| B．has grown slowly since 2010 |
| C．is the USA’s 11th-largest city |
| D．does business at home and abroad |
Sam Allred suffers from a rare and incurable kidney (肾脏) disease. One day, when his sister was playing a song repeatedly, Sam sang along. His sister thought it was funny so she recorded it and posted the video online. The video — and Sam — became a hit. Only 8 years old at the time, he couldn’t have expected the response.
“(The television show) The Doctors called and wanted me on their show so they paid for me to go to California,” says Sam, now 13, “and we got to stay in a hotel where all the movie stars stayed.”
During that visit to California, Angie Allred, Sam’s mother, had an idea about Sam writing a children’s book. Together, she and Sam wrote Opening Hearts, which tells Sam’s experience of living with a chronic (慢性的) illness.
“I wrote the book to teach people to be kinder to people,” Sam says.
Moreover, Sam wanted to send pillows to sick children staying in hospitals around the country to make their stay more comfortable, an idea that came from a time when he was in the hospital.
“A few kind boys came in with pillows and they gave me one and it meant a lot to me that someone cared about kids in the hospital,” says Sam.
Angie thought of starting a nonprofit organization to provide a way for people to contribute money to realize Sam’s ideas. She named the nonprofit Kindness for Kids.
Since then, Sam has taken pillows to children staying at Providence Hospital in Anchorage.
Sam’s father, Scott Allred, owns a small business that contracts (承包) shipping services with FedEx Ground. He asked the company for help.
“FedEx Ground learned about Sam’s pillow project,” says Erin Truxal, manager of public relations for FedEx Ground. “We thought, ‘What a perfect way for us to get involved.’”
The company provided shipping services for Sam to ship about 5,000 pillows to hospitals.
Sam wants to send more pillows to all of the children’s hospitals in every state. His goal is simple: “Kids in the hospital as happy as they were before they got sick,” he says.We can learn from the text that Sam Allred _____.
| A．was a healthy boy |
| B．was popular at an early age |
| C．sang the song with his sister |
| D．worked in his father’s company |
Opening Hearts is a book that _____.
| A．is a best seller |
| B．is about Sam’s sister |
| C．was published when Sam was 13 |
| D．was written by Sam and his mother |
What is FedEx Ground’s attitude towards Sam’s career?
| A．Doubtful. | B．Surprised. |
| C．Approving. | D．Uninterested. |
Which of the following can best describe Sam Allred?
| A．Optimistic and warm-hearted. |
| B．Honest and responsible. |
| C．Unusual and confident. |
| D．Friendly and brave. |
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