What Is a Boy?
Between the innocence of babyhood and the seriousness of manhood we find a delightful creature called a “boy”. Boys come in different sizes, weights, and colors, but all boys have the same belief: to enjoy every second of every minute of every hour of every day and to fill the air with noise until the adult males send them off to bed at night.
Boys are found everywhere – on top of, under, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around, or jumping to. Mothers spoil them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers love them, and God protects them. A boy is TRUTH with dirt on its face, BEAUTY with a cut on its finger, WISDOM with chocolate in its hair, and the HOPE of the future with a snake in its pocket.
When you are busy, a boy is a trouble – maker and a noise. When you want him to make a good impression, his brain turns to jelly or else he becomes a wild creature destroying the world and himself with it.
A boy is a mixture – he has the stomach of a horse, the digestion (消化) of stones and sand, the energy of an atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the imagination of a superman, the shyness of a sweet girl, the brave nature of a bull, the violence of a firecracker(鞭炮), but when you ask him to make something, he has five thumbs on each hand.
He likes ice cream, knives, saws, Christmas, comic books, woods, water (in its natural habitat), large animals, Dad, trains, Saturday mornings, and fire engines. He is not much for Sunday schools, company, schools, books without pictures, music lessons, neckties, barbers, girls, overcoats, adults, or bedtime.
Nobody else is so early to rise, or so late to supper. Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs, and breezes. Nobody else can put into one pocket a rusty knife, a half eaten apple, a three-feet rope, six cents and some unknown things.
A boy is a magical creature – he is your headache but when you come home at night with only destroyed pieces of your hopes and dreams, he can mend them like new with two magic words, “Hi, Dad!”The whole passage is in a tone (语气) of _________.
| A．humor and love | B．anger and disappointment |
| C．hope and expectation | D．confidence and imagination |
What’s the meaning of the underlined sentence?
| A．He has altogether five fingers. |
| B．He is slow, foolish and clumsy. |
| C．He becomes clever and smart. |
| D．He cuts his hand with a knife. |
According to the writer, boys appreciate everything in the following except _________.
| A．ice cream | B．comic books |
| C．Saturday mornings | D．Sunday schools |
What does the writer feel about boys?
| A．He feels curious about their noise. |
| B．He is tired of these creatures. |
| C．He is amazed by their naughtiness. |
| D．He feels unsafe staying with them. |
I was parked in front of the mall wiping off my car. Coming my way from across the parking lot was what society would consider a bum (乞丐). “I hope he doesn’t ask me for any money,” I thought.
He didn’t. He came and sat on the curb (路边) in front of the bus stop but he didn’t look like he could have enough money to even ride the bus.
After a few minutes he spoke,“That’s a very pretty car.” He was ragged (衣衫褴褛的) but he had an air of dignity.
I said “Thanks” and continued wiping off my car. He sat there quietly as I worked. “Do you need any help?” I asked.
He answered in three simple but profound words that I shall never forget.
“Don’t we all?” he said.
I was feeling high and mighty, successful and important, above a bum in the street, until those three words hit me like a shotgun.
Don’t we all?
I needed help. Maybe not for bus fare or a place to sleep, but I needed help. I reached in my wallet and gave him not only enough for bus fare, but enough to get a warm meal and shelter for the day.
Maybe the man was just a homeless stranger wandering the streets. Maybe he was more than that. Maybe he was sent by a power that is great and wise, to minister to a soul too comfortable with himself.
Don’t we all? Those three little words still ring true. No matter how much you have, no matter how much you have accomplished, you need help too. And you never know when you may see someone that appears to have it all. They are waiting for you to give them what they don’t have.
1. What was the writer doing when he met the homeless person?
A. Shopping. B. Cleaning his car. C. Admiring his car. D. Parking his car.
2. What does the underlined phrase “high and mighty” mean?
A. Tall. B. On top of the world.C. Strong and powerful. D. Filled with false pride.
3. Which of the following can best describe the writer’s feelings about himself after the encounter?
A. He felt a new sense of pride. B. Inspired and humble.
C. Great and wise. D. Successful and important.
4. What does the article tell us?
A. We should help those less fortunate than ourselves.
B. Helping a person indirectly is preferable to direct, obvious help.
C. All of us, at certain moments of our lives, need help from others and should offer help ourselves.
D. Money is all important in life.
As school starts again, there's so much more for an American parent to nag （唠叨）about, like homework，bedtime and lost hours on the Internet.
But in the age of digital childhood，Jacky Longwell, 45 , of McLean, Virginia, often text – messages what she once told her children by mouth: Be nice to your brother; walk the dog; remember your reading.
This is the world of the modern family, in which even reminding children to do something has become electronic.
There are changes in how parents nag and in what they nag about and in how often of their nagging.
With technology," you nag more, and you are a little bit more precise （其体的）with your nagging,” said Reginald Black, 46, of Woodbridge. Virginia.
For many young people electronic nagging is part of the experience of growing up.
Charles Flowers, 17, a senior at St. John’s College High School in Washington, says his mother reminds him about everything from laundry, being on time to baseball practice and mowing the lawn by text.
When she uses capitals he knows she’s serious: GET HOME!
Some say technology has made nagging less annoying. Jacky Longwell thinks texts are less emotional than spoken messages and less likely to be resisted by teenagers.
“It’s not as painful for them to hear it by text. It becomes grouped with the friendly communication.” she said. “They can’t hear the nagging.”
She thinks a good way to do it is to mix friendliness with nagging. A parent can always start by saying hello.
Not all parents like the new electronic nagging. Joyce Bouchard, 51, a mother of four in Fairfax, Virginia , texts her 14 - year - old son but says that for many things-chores, homework-the old - fashioned way works better. Nagging by text has risks. She notes: “I always think, if you’re texting them something and they’re with their friends, they are getting a big laugh out of it.”
1. The main idea of the article is .
A. what American parents like to nag about
B. why American parents like to nag their children
C. how American parents began to nag their children by text messages
D. that electronic nagging is becoming common in the US
2. The example of Reginald Black is used to show readers .
A. that her nagging is thoughtful
B. that she likes nagging her children very much
C. the kind of skills a parent needs to nag effectively
D. how the amount and kind of nagging have changed with the arrival of the digital age
3. The underlined sentence “Nagging by text has risks.” most probably means “ “
A. Nagging messages may be resisted
B. Electronic nagging costs too much
C. Receiving texts is harmful to teenagers’ health
D. Parents are likely to be addicted to nagging by text
4. We can infer from the article that .
A. it’s better for parents to nag in a friendly way
B. if nagging is electronic, it is not annoying
C. American parents generally don’t like to nag
D. American parents like to use capital letters in messages
IV、阅读理解（共20小题；每小题2分，共40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中选出最佳选项。
Perhaps you do not know it, but there is something wonderful at your fingertips. You can make people happier, healthier and more hard-working just by touching their arms or holding their hands.
Doctors say that body contact(接触) is a kind of medicine that can work wonders. When people are touched, the quantity of hemoglobin (血红蛋白) — a type of matter that produces the red color in blood increases greatly. This results in more oxygen (氧气) reaching every part of the body and the whole body benefits. In experiments, bottle-fed baby monkeys were separated from their mothers for the first ten days of life. They became sad and negative. Studies showed the baby monkeys were more probable to become ill than other babies that were allowed to stay with their mothers.
Human babies react (反应) in much the same way. Some years ago, a scientist noticed that some well-fed babies in a clean nursery (托儿所) became weak. Yet babies in another nursery were growing healthily, even though they ate less well and were not kept as clean. The reason, he concluded, was that they often had touches from nurses.
Experiments show that most people like being touched. And nearly all doctors believe touch helps to reduce patients' fear of treatment. Of course there is time when a touch is not welcome. But even if we don’t like being touched, a smile can make us feel better. Smiling increases blood flow and starts the production of “happy brain” chemicals.
So let’s have a big smile and don’t forget to keep in touch.
1. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. People may not understand the importance of touching.
B. People may work harder because of body contact.
C. Your fingertips can do something wonderful.
D. Everyone knows that body contact can make people happier.
2. According to the passage, ______.
A. not all the people like being touched
B. touches from doctors and nurses have nothing to do with treatment
C. new-born baby monkeys should stay away from their mothers
D. human brains need oxygen and blood supply now and then
3. The word “benefits” in the second paragraph probably means ______.
A. to be useful or helpful B. to get something useful or helpful C. to be ill D. to be hurt
4. The best title for the passage might be ______.
A. Why People Touch B. Smile and Touch C. Wonders of Touch D. Touch or Not
Many animals recognize their food because they see it. So do humans. When you see an apple or a piece of chocolate you know that these are things you can eat. You can also use other senses when you choose your food. You may like it because it smells good or because it tastes good. You may dislike some types of food because they do not look, smell or taste very nice. Different animals use diffe
rent senses to find and choose their food. A few animals depend on only one of their senses, while most animals use more than one sense.
Although there are many different types of food, some animals spend their
lives eating only one type. The giant panda（大熊猫）eats only one particular type of bamboo（竹子）. Other animals eat only one type of food even when given the choice. A kind of white butterfly（蝴蝶）will stay on the leaves of a cabbage, even though there are plenty of other vegetables in the garden. However, most animals have a more varied diet（多样化饮食）. The bear eats fruits and fish. The fox eats small animals, birds and fruits. The diet of these animals will be different depending on the season.
Humans have a very varied diet. We often eat food because we like it and not because it is good for us. In countries such as France and Britain, people eat foods with too much sugar. This makes them overweight, which is bad for their health. Eating too much red meat and animal products, such as butter, can also be bad for the health. Choosing the right food, therefore, has become an area of study in modern life.
56. We can infer from the text that humans and animals _________.
A. depend on one sense in choosing food
B. are not satisfied with their food
C. choose food in similar ways
D. eat entirely different food
57. Which of the following eats only one type of food?
A. The white butterfly. B. The small bird
C. The bear. D. The fox.
58. Certain animals change their choice of food when ___________.
A. the season changes B. the food color changes
C. they move to different places D. they are attracted by different smells
59. We can learn from the last paragraph that __________.
A. food is chosen for a good reason
B. French and British food is good
C. some people have few choices of food
D. some people care little about healthy diet
It was a winter morning, just a couple of weeks before Ch
ristmas 2005. While most people were warming up their cars, Trevor, my husband, had to get up early to ride his bike four kilometers away from home to work. On his arrival, he parked his bike outside the back door as he usually does. After putting in 10 hours of labor, he returned to find his bike gone.
The bike, a black Kona 18 speed, was our only transport. Trevor used it to get to work, putting in 60-hour weeks to support his young family. And the bike was also used to get groceries（食品杂货），saving us from having to walk long distances from where we live.
I was so sad that someone would steal our bike that I wrote to the newspaper and told them our story. Shortly after that, several people in our area offered to help. One wonderful stranger even bought a bike, then called my husband to pick it up. Once again my husband had a way to get to and from his job. It really is an honor that a complete stranger would go out of their way for someone they have never met before.
People say that a smile can be passed from one person to another, but acts of kindness from strangers are even more so. This experience has had a spreading effect in our lives because it strengthened our faith in humanity（人性）as a whole. And it has influenced（影响）us to be more mindful of ways we, too, can share with others. No matter how big or how small, an act of kindness shows that someone cares. And the results can be everlasting(持久的，永久的).
52. Why was the bike so important to the couple?
A. The man’s job was bike racing. B. It was their only possession(财产).
C. It was a nice Kona 18 speed. D. They used it for work and daily life.
53. We can infer from the text that ____________.
A. the couple worked 60 hours a week. B. people were busy before Christmas
C. a wonderful stranger bought a bike. D. life was hard for the young family.
54. How did people get to know the couple’s problem?
A. From radio broadcasts. B. From a newspaper.
C. From TV news. D. From a stranger.
55. What do the couple learn from their experience?
A. Strangers are usually of little help. B. One should take care o
f their bike.
C. News reports make people famous. D. An act of kindness can mean a lot.
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