My sister Jodie and I are always traveling for work. As jewelry designers, we need to go to a lot of shows. We can’t pack lightly and usually bring about four suitcases filled with our work.
Most of our stuff is made from heavy materials and metals. So part of the routine for us when we fly is getting stopped by security. Our jewelry sets off the alarms, and we’ve become accustomed to arriving early to go through private screenings. Most of the time, it’s not troublesome.
However, on our recent trip to a Paris trade show, we were stopped at security and asked to empty our bags. One of the agents walked over to another agent and they started whispering to each other. Both gentlemen came back, and one of them then told us that it seemed that we were carrying a very dangerous object.
My sister and I just said, “Huh?” Of course, we were a little concerned, thinking that maybe someone put something dangerous in one of our bags when we weren’t looking.
One of the agents then started to unpack our bags. I kept asking what he was looking for and then the object in question finally appeared. It was our Cosima necklace. It’s a piece of jewelry, with large, metal triangular spikes.
My sister and I looked at each other and breathed a huge sigh of relief. We started laughing and explained to the two male agents that it was just a necklace from our collection, not a weapon of mass destruction. They thought we were lying, and one agent kept repeating that he believed it was a weapon.
I tried to explain that we were jewelry designers going to a trade show, and this was simply a piece from our collection. But the agents didn’t buy it. Then a few women guards came over to assist. One of the women guards was holding an earring up to her ear and another was trying on a ring. Apparently, they liked our stuff.
It was only at this point that the male guards gave up. And I think they also got tired of listening to a bunch of women talk about jewelry. They let us through.
We took the names of the women agents and sent them a piece of jewelry when we got back to say thanks. When the object in question finally appeared, the writer and her sister felt _______.
| A．anxious | B．relieved | C．excited | D．frightened |
The writer and her sister were stopped by the agents because ________.
| A．their suitcases were too heavy |
| B．the agents wanted to play a joke on them |
| C．they were suspected to carry dangerous objects |
| D．the agents wanted to admire the jewelry inside the suitcases |
The underlined word “buy” in Paragraph 7 probably means ________.
| A．doubt | B．believe | C．purchase | D．understand |
The writer sent the women agents a piece of jewelry in order to ________.
| A．persuade them to buy her jewelry later |
| B．get help from them next time |
| C．show them her talent in designing jewelry |
| D．show them her gratitude for their assistance |
According to this passage, which of the following statements is NOT true?
| A．Someone put something dangerous in one of the writer’s bags. |
| B．The male agents didn’t believe the writer at first. |
| C．The female agents liked the jewelry. |
| D．The writer is always travelling on business. |
Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment. “We didn’t know at that time that there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it,” says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.
But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement. Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many, many times,” says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first Earth Day.
According to US government reports, emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10.3 million tons a year to 5.5 tons. The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9. Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with, the world is a safer and healthier place. A kind of “Green thinking ” has become part of practices.
Great improvement has been achieved. In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs, today in 1995 there are about 6,600. Advanced lights, motors, and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution.
Twenty–five years ago, there were hardly any education programs for environment. Today, it’s hard to find a public school, university, or law school that does not have such a kind of program. “Until we do that, nothing else will change!” says Bruce Anderson.According to Anderson, before 1970, Americans had little idea about ________.
| A．the social movement |
| B．environmental problems |
| C．recycling techniques |
| D．the importance of Earth Day |
Where does the support for environmental protection mainly come from?
| A．The business circle | B．Government officials |
| C．The grass–roots level | D．University professors |
What have Americans achieved in environmental protection?
A. They have cut car emissions to the lowest.
B They have reduced pollution through effective measures.
C. They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities.
D. They have settled their environmental problems.What is especially important for environmental protection according to the last paragraph?
| A．Planning | B．Education |
| C．Green living | D．CO reduction |
Arriving in Sydney on his own from India, my husband, Rashid, stayed in a hotel for a short time while looking for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children.
During the first week of his stay, he went out one day to do some shopping. He came back in the late afternoon to discover that his suitcase was gone. He was extremely worried as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his passport.
He reported the case to the police and then sat there, lost and lonely in strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a distant country while trying to settle down in a new one.
Late in the evening, the phone rang. It was a stranger. He was trying to pronounce my husband’s name and was asking him a lot of questions. Then he said they had found a pile of papers in their trash can（垃圾桶）that had been left out on the footpath.
My husband rushed to their home to find a kind family holding all his papers and documents. Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of unfamiliar papers. Her parents had carefully sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign addresses on most of the documents. At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had given his new telephone number to a friend.
That family not only restored the important documents to us that day but also restored our faith and trust in people. We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish their way.What did Rashid plan to do after his arrival in Sydney?
| A．Go shopping | B．Take a vacation |
| C．Join his family | D．Find a house |
What does the underlined word“restored”in the last paragraph mean?
| A．Showed | B．Gave back |
| C．Delivered | D．Sent out |
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
| A．Turning Trash to Treasure. | B．Living in a a New Country. |
| C．From India to Australia. | D．In Search of New Friends. |
Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the United States today because it is about simple but strong human feelings and events---love, sadness, good times, and bad times. It tells real-life, stories and sounds the way people really talk. As life becomes more complicated(复杂), it is good to hear music about ordinary people.
Country music, sometimes called country-western, comes from two kinds of music. One is the traditional music of the people in the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern Unite States. The other is traditional cowboy music from the west. The singers usually play guitars, and in the 1920s they started using electric guitars. At first city people said country music was low class. It was popular mostly in the South. But during World War II, thousands of Southerners went to the Northeast and Midwest to work in the factories. They took their music with them. Soldiers from the rest of the country went to army camps（军营）in the South. They learned country music. Slowly it became popular all over the country.
Today country music is also popular everywhere in the United States and Canada—in small towns and in New York City, among black and white, and among educated and uneducated people. About 1, 200 radio stations broadcast country music twenty-four hours a day. English stars sing it in British English, and people in other countries sing it in their own languages. The music that started with cowboys and poor southerners is now popular all over the world.It can be learned from the passage that country music comes from_____ .
| A．the Northeast and Midwest |
| B．factories and army camps in the South |
| C．the Appalachian Mountains and the West |
| D．real-life stories in small towns |
Before World War II country music was popular mainly in_____ .
| A．the south | B．the north |
| C．the Midwest | D．the Northeast |
During World War II many Southerners went to the Northeast and the Mid-west because _____.
| A．they wanted to take music with them |
| B．they wanted to make other people like country music |
| C．they wanted to work in the factories there |
| D．they wanted to make country music popular |
Country music is one of the most popular kinds of music in the world today because_______.
| A．city people said it was low class |
| B．people could sing it in many different languages |
| C．it started with cowboys and poor Southerners |
| D．it is loved by different kinds of people in the world |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．Country music is about human feelings and events. |
| B．Country music is sung by stars all in English. |
| C．Country music is popular among city people today. |
| D．City people didn’t like country music at first. |
About ten men in every hundred suffer from color blindness in some way. Women are luckier; only about one in two hundred is affected in this matter. Perhaps, after all, it is safer to be driven by a woman!
There are different forms of color blindness. In some cases a man may not be able to see deep red. He may think that red, orange and yellow are all shadows of green. Sometimes a person cannot tell the difference between blue and green. In rare cases an unlucky man may see everything in shades of green － a strange world indeed.
Color blindness in human beings is a strange thing to explain. In a single eye there are millions of very small things called “cones”. These help us to see in a bright light and to tell difference between colors. There are also millions of “rods”, but these are used for seeing when it is near dark. They show us shape but no color.
Some insects have favorite colors. Mosquitoes prefer blue to yellow. A red light will not attract insects, but a blue lamp will. In a similar way human beings also have favorite colors. Yet we are lucky. With the aid of the cones in our eyes we can see many beautiful colors by day, and with the aid of the rods we can see shapes at night. One day we may even learn more about the invisible colors around us.The passage is mainly about _____________.
| A．color and its surprising effects. |
| B．women being luckier than men |
| C．danger caused by color blindness |
| D．some information on color blindness |
According to the passage, with the help of the “cones”, we can ___________.
| A．tell different shapes | B．see in a weak light |
| C．kill mosquitoes | D．tell orange from yellow |
Why do some people say it is safer to be driven by women?
| A．Women are more careful. |
| B．There are fewer color-blind women |
| C．Women are fonder of driving than men. |
| D．Women are weaker but quicker in thinking. |
Which of the statements about the color- blind is true?
| A．Neither men nor women can see deep red. |
| B．All of them see everything in shades of green. |
| C．None of them can tell the difference between blue and green. |
| D．Not all of them have the same problem in recognizing color. |
We can attract and kill mosquitoes by using a _____________.
| A．red light | B．yellow light |
| C．blue light | D．green light |
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取) to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.
In 1849, after graduation from a medical school. she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师) , but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.
Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital , she also set up the first medical school for women.Why couldn’t Elizabeth Blackwell realize her dream of becoming a surgeon?
| A．She couldn’t get admitted to a medical school. |
| B．She decided to further her education in Paris. |
| C．A serious eye problem stopped her. |
| D．It was difficult for her to start a practice in the United States. |
What main obstacle(障碍) almost destroyed Elizabeth’s chances for becoming a doctor?
| A．She was a woman. |
| B．She wrote too many letters. |
| C．She couldn’t graduate from a medical school. |
| D．She couldn’t set up her hospital. |
How many years passed between her graduation from a medical school and the opening of her hospital?
| A．Eight years | B．Ten years |
| C．Nineteen years | D．Thirty-six years |
According to the passage, all of the following are “firsts” in the life of Elizabeth Blacekwell, except that she ______.
| A．became the first woman physician |
| B．was the first woman doctor |
| C．founded the first hospital for women and children |
| D．set up the first medical school for women |
Eilzabeth Blackwell spent most of her life in _______.
| A．England | B．Paris |
| C．the United States | D．New York City |
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