My grandmother was from a town in Michigan. Summer after summer, I enjoyed staying with my grandparents as a young child. I was from the city and loved the small town they lived in. People knew everyone, their kids, their pets, their ancestors. The bond with them continued to grow as I grew and they got older. Grandma was always using her hands for something exciting. She would make little sandwiches and we’d have tea parties. She’d make beautiful quilts for each one. I remember the small thimble(顶针) she would use while doing her needle work.
A few years ago, when Grandma left this earth, I bid farewell to a loving grandmother. How quickly our lives can change. We had just had tea together a couple of months earlier, on her 91st birthday.
On one particular birthday, when I was feeling a little low, something happened to make me feel like she was sharing that special day with me. I was arranging some colorful pillows that she had made, and suddenly I felt something inside one pillow. It was small and hard. I moved the object to a seam(接缝) that I carefully opened, and to my delight out came a tiny silver thimble! How happy I was to find something that had been a part of her. I carefully laid the thimble alongside the others I’ve collected over the years, where I could continue to see the gift God chose to reveal(启示)to me. What a precious memory of a very special lady who somehow, I knew, was laughing in delight at sewing her thimble inside my pillow.
I made some tea, using my best china, as Grandma always did, and enjoyed my tea and Grandma’s thimble. What a wonderful birthday that was! The author wrote this passage to .
| A．show how she missed her grandma |
| B．express a desire to lead a simple life |
| C．call on people to care for the old |
| D．look back upon her happy childhood |
The author liked staying with her grandparents because .
| A．she knew almost everyone there |
| B．she liked the simple and friendly town life there |
| C．she could have tea parties and eat sandwiches |
| D．she could learn to sew quilts |
How did the author feel when she found the silver thimble?
| A．Sad. | B．Proud. | C．Lucky. | D．Cheerful. |
It can be inferred from the passage that the silver thimble .
| A．was the item the author had been trying to find |
| B．was the most treasured possession of Grandma |
| C．was very precious to the author |
| D．was a birthday gift Grandma had given the author |
Metro Pocket Guide
Metrorail (地铁)
Each passenger needs a fare card to enter and go out .Up to two children under age five may travel free with a paying customer .
Fare card machines are in every station .Bring small bills because there are no change machines in the stations and fare card machines only provide up to $5 in change. Get one ticket of unlimited Metrorail rides with a One Day Pass .Buy it from a fare card machine in Metro stations .Use it after 9:30 am. until closing on weekdays , and all day on weekends and holidays .
Hours of service
Open: 5a.m Mon-Fri 7a.m Sat-Sun
Close: midnight Sun- Thur. 3 am Fri.—Sat. nights
Last train times vary .
Train times Posted in stations
Metrobus
When paying with exact charge , the fare is $1.35.When paying with a Smart TripⓇcard , the fare is 1.25.
Senior citizens 65 and older and disabled customers may ride for half the regular fare .On Metrorail and Metrobus , use a senior/disabled fare card or Smart Trip Ⓡcard .For more information about buying senior/disabled fare card , Smart TripⓇcards and passes , please visit Metro Opens Doors .com or call 202-637-7000and 202-637-8000.
Senior citizens and disabled customers can get free guide on how to use proper Metrobus and Metrorall services by calling 202-962-1100.
Travel tips
. Avoid riding during weekday rush periods –before 9:30 a.m. and between 4and 6p.m.
. If you lose something on a bus or train or in a station, please call Lost &Found at 202-962-1195.
At what time does Metrorail stop service on Saturday ?
| A．At midnight . | B．At 3 a.m. |
| C．At 5 a.m. | D．At 7a.m. |
What is good about a Smart TripⓇcard ?
A. It is convenient for old people .
B. It saves money for its user
C It can be bought at any train
D. It is sold on the Internet
Which number should you call if you lose something on the Metro?
| A． 202-962-1195 | B． 202-962-1100 |
| C． 202-637-7000 | D． 202-637-8000 |
Today, several of the world's nearly 7,000 languages face a serious risk of extinction. "For example, Ainu, a language in Japan, is now seriously threatened, with only 10 native speakers left," said lead study author Tatsuya Amano at the University of Cambridge in England.
The scientists found that 25 percent of the world's languages are threatened. After identifying where the endangered languages were, they looked for any environmental and social or economic factors those languages might have in common, such as rugged terrain or rapid population growth. "We found that at the global scale, language speaker declines are strongly linked to economic growth-that is, declines are particularly occurring in economically developed regions," Amano said.
One important implication of this new study "is that languages in the tropics and Himalayan region are likely to be increasingly threatened in the near future, because these regions still have many local indigenous languages (土语) with a small number of speakers, and at the same time are experiencing rapid economic growth," Amano said.
Economic growth may endanger languages for a variety of reasons. For instance, speakers of endangered languages may view another more dominant language as offering economic opportunities, and thus forego their own languages. There are other important factors that might endanger languages, the researchers said. For instance, policies regarding how languages are used and taught in schools can be very different among countries and even within each country, and these factors may explain more detailed patterns in language endangerment.
Amano suggested it could be possible to forecast future threats to linguistic diversity. "There exists detailed information on projected future changes in the environment, economies and climates," Amano said. "Using such information, together with the findings of this study and further analysis, we would like to understand what will happen to the world's languages, where it will happen and which languages will be threatened in particular."The language of Ainu is mentioned in Paragraph l in order to tell us that _______________.
| A．Japanese is new seriously threatened |
| B．few people speak Japanese in the world |
| C．Japanese is made up of many languages |
| D．it is most likely to disappear in the future |
What may endanger the languages most according to Amano?
| A．The diversity of society. |
| B．The decline of the population. |
| C．The development of economy |
| D．The improvement of the environment. |
The writer shows us the reasons that languages are endangered by ___________________.
| A．offering some examples |
| B．performing some experiments . |
| C．telling some interesting stories |
| D．making a list of important facts . |
It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _______________.
| A．the study is very important to languages |
| B．world's languages are developing rapidly |
| C．it is rather hard for us to protect languages |
| D．future threats to languages can be predicted |
Freda Bright says, “Only in opera do people die of love.” It’s true. You really can’t love somebody to death. I’ve known people to die from no love, but I’ve never known anyone to be loved to death. We just can’t love one another enough.
A hear-warming story tells of a woman who finally decided to ask her boss for a raise in salary. All day she felt nervous and late in the afternoon she summoned the courage to approach her employer. To her delight, the boss agreed to the raise.
The woman arrived home that evening to a beautiful table set with their best dishes. Candles were softly glowing. Her husband had come home early and prepared a festival meal. She wondered if someone from the office had tipped him off, or --- did he just somehow know that she would not get turned down?
She found him in the kitchen and told him the good news. They embraced and kissed, then sat down to the wonderful meal. Next to her plate the woman found a beautifully lettered note. It read: “Congratulations, darling! I knew you’d get the raise! These things will tell you how much I love you.”
Someone has said that the measure of love for his wife is love without measure. What this man feels for his wife is total acceptance and love, whether she succeeds or fails. His love celebrates her victories and soothes her wounds. He stands with her, no matter what life throws in their direction.
Upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Mother Teresa said, “What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. And love your friends. Love them without measure.”The sentence in the first paragraph “Only in opera do people die of love.” means ________.
| A．no love in the world is believable |
| B．love is one thing, and life is another |
| C．love in operas is truly touching |
| D．love can survive forever, though people die at different ages |
That the husband prepared her a second letter about her raise suggests that ________.
| A．he loves her because he believes that she is sure to receive a raise |
| B．he has a great way to promote his wife’s love towards him |
| C．he has a false love for people even if the person is his wife |
| D．he loves his family members truly, whether they are in good conditions or not |
From the text, we might say the author ________.
| A．refuse any spiritual emotions as embraced and kissed |
| B．criticizes the attitude of suspicion of the love |
| C．doesn’t believe there is true love in the world |
| D．thinks the true love does not expect repayment |
I am 26. I’m clear that I’m never going to catch up with Mother Teresa. But I want to do something to help people every single day like her.
Everybody thinks we just serve food and soda. The safety training is serious and stressful. Caring for 49 people in a business class in 90 minutes is not easy. I had a roommate who was a waitress; she just left a candle and a table cloth burning, and I used a fire extinguisher (灭火器) to put out the fire. If something goes bad at her job, she calls the police. But if something happens up in the air, it’s up to us.
I’m single and have no kids. I’ve flown every Christmas since 1995. If I fly, someone else can be with their kids. Christmas in an airport can be depressing, but it’s the little things that make a difference.
We’re not robots. It’s hard to put on a smile and just pretend everything is great when it isn’t. I’ve seen co-workers lose a family member the day before a trip and just pull themselves together (take control of their feelings and believe in a calm way). At the end of a 14-hour flight, it’s like, “It was really nice to help you, but I’m ready for you to get off the plane.” Those last 15 minutes can be the longest 15 minutes of your life. You can’t wait to turn off the flight attendant’s voice and get something to eat without anyone saying “Excuse me.”
Sometimes I go all day and never hear a “please” or a “thank you.” When you say thank you, it’s huge. It makes us feel like you actually see us as fellow humans. We’re up there together at a height of 30,000 feet, enjoying the miracle (奇迹) of the modern flight.What’s the author’s attitude towards Mother Teresa?
| A．Grateful | B．Fearful | C．Doubtful | D．Admiring |
How did the author like her roommate’s job?
| A．It was the same as hers | B．It was more interesting than hers |
| C．It was easier than hers | D．It was more serious than hers |
Why does the author fly every Christmas?
| A．Because she has nowhere to go. |
| B．Because she’s trying to be a helpful co-worker. |
| C．Because she owes her co-workers some favors. |
| D．Because she’d like to earn more money. |
What does the author imply by saying the underlined sentence “We’re not robots”?
| A．Flight attendants are not stronger than robots. |
| B．Flight attendants also experience emotions. |
| C．Flight attendants get tired while robots don’t. |
| D．Flight attendants need to rest now and then. |
Life gets noisier every day and very few people can be free from noise of some sort or another. It doesn’t matter where you live ---- in the middle of a modern city, or a faraway village --- the chances are that you’ll be disturbed by jet planes, transistor radios, oil-powered engines, etc. we seem to be getting used to noise, too. Some people feel quite lonely without background music while they’re working.
Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be a very frightening experience for a human being. However, some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud, and this can do harm to their eardrums (耳鼓). The noise level in some discos is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas.
One recent report about noise and concentration suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration, what really influences their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise which doesn’t change too much (music, for example) may even help to concentrate.According to this passage, the noise pollution ____________________.
| A．has become the worst in the countryside |
| B．has become better in big cities |
| C．has spread from cities to villages |
| D．has been controlled in modern cities |
Some people have their hearing harmed _____________.
| A．while listening to pop music |
| B．in complete silence |
| C．when speaking loudly |
| D．while watching TV |
Which of the following isn’t included among the things causing noise?
| A．trucks | B．motorcycles |
| C．electric engines | D．jet planes |
Scientists have discovered that what prevents people from concentrating on something is _______.
| A．all kinds of noise | B．great changes in the level of noise |
| C．background noise | D．popular music |
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