A job is more than just a job，especially to the older generation.“It’s not the money that matters，but the sense of selfworth，” 56yearold Cheng Wonlan said.So，every day Ms Cheng carries a bag of parcels，letters and documents of all shapes and sizes and does her rounds in North Point.She’s a courier(快递人员)．
Five years ago，Ms Cheng was a nurse at a private clinic.She had worked there for almost 30 years but was made jobless when the doctor migrated(移居)．It was extremely difficult for her to find another job.“People do not trust my ability when they learn how old I am，” she said.After two years of searching，the mother of two eventually found another nursing job.But then after two years，she quit.Why?
“My colleagues were young and they didn’t understand me because of my age.They often asked me，‘You are so old；what are you working for？’ I was very unhappy.” she said.So while the rest of her family left for work，she was left to lonely boredom at home.The urge to work drove her to suffering.Then，one of Ms Cheng’s neighbours told her about Employee’s Retraining Board (ERB) offering retraining courses for older people on specific occupations，such as convenience store assistants，junior clerks and so on.
“I was interested in courier work.I didn’t think my age was a barrier because I was fit and healthy.So I thought why not give it a try.” she said.Upon graduation from the ERB，Ms Cheng was offered a job by the Speeding Shuttle Courier Service Company Limited.But then Ms Cheng was faced with a conflict：she was caught between honour and employment.It took Ms Cheng 24 hours to make up her mind and eventually came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong or embarrassing about doing the job.So she took heart and went off to work as a courier.
Ms Cheng’s employer is delighted with her，“Ms Cheng has been working with us for two months and has shown a good responsible attitude to work.”Anthony Chong，who runs the company，said.Currently，Mr Chong has 60 couriers working for his company：five of them are over fifty，four of whom have been through the ERB plan.Mr Chong said he hired older people because they were able and reliable.“Age is not an important factor but attitude is.Many old people are more capable than the youngsters.They will not run from difficulties but the young ones will，” he said.“It is not easy to recruit (招募) young people since they shy away from hardship and challenges.”Why was it difficult for Ms Cheng to find another nursing job?
| A．Nursing clinics were hard to find. |
| B．People thought that old people couldn’t be trusted. |
| C．People thought she was too old to take on a new job. |
| D．People didn’t think she had enough working experience. |
Ms Cheng left her second nursing job because ________.
| A．she was bored |
| B．it was too difficult |
| C．she was too old to do the job |
| D．the other staff made her feel uncomfortable |
Employee’s Retraining Board is a plan for ________.
| A．finding jobs for older people |
| B．teaching new skills to older people |
| C．training older people to be couriers |
| D．giving older people something to do in their spare time |
When Ms Cheng was offered the courier job she ________.
| A．took it straight away |
| B．thought it over and then accepted it |
| C．thought about it and then refused it |
| D．refused it straight away but then changed her mind |
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Collectors Club Starter Pack 1. 100 used stamps and hinges. 2. The Collectors Club Guide to Collecting. 3. The latest Collectors Club magazine (packed with news and views about stamps, quizzes and competitions, all in colour) 4. Album pages 5. Badge and stickers 6. Membership card 7. Royal Mail Stamp Calendar. ﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡ Already Registered? Sign In Here! Learn More View a Flash presentation about our club (3.51MB) |
1．Which of the following is NOT included in a starter pack?
A．One hundred used stamps and hinges and album pages.
B．The Collectors Club Guide to Collecting and badge and stickers.
C．The latest Collectors Club magazine and membership card.
D．Royal Mail Stamp Calendar and Collectors Corner supplement
2．This advertisement is written for people who want to .
A．make money through collecting stamps
B．develop stamp collection as a hobby
C．get something free from the club
D．find out where the club is located
3．From the advertisement we can learn .
A．Collectors Club is among the biggest clubs in this country
B．how much you must pay to become a member of the club
C．today is the last day for stamp collectors to join the club
D．members may receive a set of album pages every month
4．Where is this advertisement most probably found?
A．In a newspaper. B．On a web page.
C．In a magazine. D．On a TV program.
第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每题2分，满分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，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Upon reaching an appropriate age, usually between 18 and 21 years, children are encouraged, but not forced, to “leave the nest” and begin an independent life. After children leave home they often find social relationships and financial support outside the family. Parents do not arrange marriages for their children, nor do children usually ask permission of their parents to get married, Romantic love is most often the basis for marriage in the United States; young adults meet their future spousesthrough other friends, at jobs, and in organizations and religious institutions, Although children choose their own spouses, they still hope their parents will approve of their choices.
In many families, parents feel that children should make major life decisions by themselves. A parent may try to influence a child to follow a particular profession but the child is free to choose another career. Sometimes children do precisely the opposite of what their parents wish in order to assert their independence. A son may deliberately decide not to go into his father’s business because of a fear that he will lose his autonomy in his father’s workplace. This independence from parents is not an indication that parents and children do not love each other. Strong love between parents and children is universal and this is no exception in the American family Coexisting with such love in the American family are cultural values of self – reliance and independence.
1．The writer discusses the marriage of young adults in order to show .
A．they choose their spouses according to their own wishes only
B．they want to win the permission of their parents
C．they have a strong desire to become independent
D．they want to challenge the authority of their parents
2．Most young adults in the U.S. get married for the sake of __ __.
A．love B．financial concern
C．their parents D．family background
3．Based on the passage, it can be assumed that ______.
A．American young adults are likely to follow the suit of their parents
B．most American people never make major decisions for their children
C．American young adults posses cultural values of independence
D．once a young person steps into his twenties, he will leave his home permanently
4．A son is unwilling to work in his father’s business mainly because .
A．he wishes to make full use of what he has learnt in school
B．he wants to prove his independence
C．he wishes to do the opposite of what his parents approve of
D．he wants to show his love for his parents
1．Falling objects are pulled down to the ground by .
A．gravity B．resistance C．speed D．acceleration（加速度）
2．Why do people make parachutes(降落伞)?
A．To look pretty and colourful in the air. B．To slow down the falling speed.
C．To push against the air in the sky. D．To accelerate the falling movement.
3．Which did Galileo discover?
A．A heavy ball falls faster than a light ball. B．A light ball falls faster than a heavy ball.
C．A light ball and a heavy ball fall at the same speed.
D．A light ball and a heavy ball fall at different speed.
4．Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A．Heavy and light objects fall equally when they are different in size.
B．When air resistance equals gravity, objects fall at terminal speed.
C．Without air; all falling objects get faster and faster at the same rate.
D．Slippers（拖鞋） and boots （靴子）fall at the same speed because they have the same shape
Mail was usually carried west on ships that sailed around the bottom of South America and then north to California．That could take several months.
So, in eighteen fifty-seven, D.C．Lawmakers in Congress（国会） in Washington wanted to make it possible to send mail all the way across the United States by land．Congress offered to help any company that would try to deliver mail overland to the West Coast. A man named John Butterfield accepted this offer. He developed plans for a company that would carry the mail—and passengers, too.
Congress gave John Butterfield six hundred thousand dollars to start his company. In return, he had to promise that the mail would travel from Saint Louis, Missouri, to San Francisco, California, in twenty-five days or less.
It was not possible to travel straight through because of the Rocky Mountains and the deep snow that fell in winter. So the stagecoach（马车） would travel south from Saint Louis to El Paso, Texas, then over to southern California, then north to San Francisco. The distance was about four thousand five hundred kilometers.
Two hundred of these stations were built, each about thirty-two kilometers apart. The workers were to quickly change the horses or mules whenever a stagecoach reached the station. There could be no delay. Each stagecoach was to travel nearly two hundred kilometers a day.
One hundred stagecoaches were built and painted red or dark green. They were the most modern coaches that money could buy. They were designed to hold as many as nine passengers and twelve thousand pieces of mail. The seats inside could be folded down to make beds. Passengers either slept on them or on the bags of mail.
The cost would be one hundred fifty dollars to travel from Saint Louis to San Francisco. If a passenger was not going all the way, the cost was about ten cents a kilometer. The passengers had to buy their own food at the stations. The stagecoach would stop for forty minutes, two times a day.
The company warned passengers about the possible dangers. A poster said: “You will be traveling through Indian country and the safety of your person cannot by granted by anyone but God.”
1．What is the passage mainly about?
A．Different ways of sending mail in the United States.
B．The difficulty in sending mails across the USA by land.
C．The first stagecoaches that carried both passengers and mail.
D．The history of the first stagecoaches carrying mail to the American West.
2．The reason why Lawmakers wanted to send mail by land was that ________.
A．mail was usually carried west on ships
B．it was safer to travel to send mail by land
C．it would take less time to send mail by land
D．stagecoaches could carry passengers and mail
3．As is described in the passage, the stagecoach ________.
A．could only stop once a day
B．was modern with seats ,beds and cooking equipment
C．was a closed wagon operated only by skillful drivers.
D．had different horses or mules pulled all the way
4．What can we learn from the passage?
A．John Buttterfield got thousands of dollars for delivering mail in stagecoaches.
B．John Buttterfield kept his promise to deliver mail straight to the West Coast.
C．Passengers might be robbed by Indians when traveling through the West.
D．Passengers needed to pay one hundred dollars for their journey.
If I were writing a history of my family, some of the darkest moments recorded would be those about Christmas trees. One would certainly think otherwise; selecting and putting up our trees have always been filled with risk. For example, one afternoon dangerously close to Christmas Eve my mother bought what she thought to be a bargain, a glorious tree that was so full and tall that we could hardly get it into the house. Once we did, my father immediately realized that we would have to hire a carpenter（木匠） to build a stand for it. Another December, perhaps the very next one, we bought a tree earlier than we ever had before. We were happy with its shape and delighted that its size was manageable. We easily placed it in a stand, decorated(装饰) it from top to bottom, and then self-satisfiedly sat back by the fire in its soft light. Two or three days passed and the truth could not be hidden; we had bought a tree cut so long ago that its needles were coming off. There was nothing to do but undecorate it, take it down, and begin tree shopping again. Our most recent Christmas tree offered still another difficult task. When we brought it home, once again it seemed larger than it was in the great outdoors. To complicate matters, we had bought a new stand, one whose nuts (螺帽) and bolts (闩子) worked more mysteriously than those of our old stands. I persuaded two young neighbors to stop playing basketball and to help us get the tree into the house and set it correctly in the stand. Unfortunately, no one noticed the mud on our helpers' shoes, so only after removing several reddish brown spots from the carpet were we able to discuss the question of where the lights and ornaments (装饰物)were stored. Perhaps those who cut their own trees have tales more painful than these. I don't care to hear them, as my family's experiences are enough to cause me to make the following suggestion:" Let's forget the tree next Christmas. Let's simply hang some flowers on the front door and over the mirror in the hall. "
1．The darkest moments in the writer's family were with the fact that _____.
A．the family bought big Christmas trees B．they had problems decorating their Christmas trees
C．they had problems picking suitable Christmas trees
D．they had problems finding carpenters for putting up Christmas trees
2．We can learn from the passage that the writer would like to _____.
A．forget about Christmas stories
B．get the neighbors to put up their trees
C．buy a better tree to celebrate Christmas
D．make other decorations rather than Christmas trees
3．When the writer said " my mother bought what she thought to be a bargain", he means ____.
A．she bought the tree at a cheap price
B．she didn't really want to buy it
C．she had to bargain hard with the salesman
D．she couldn't afford a more expensive one
4．Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A．How to Choose a Christmas Tree B．No More Christmas Tree for Us
C．Dark Moments of Life D．Christmas Without Trees
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