Space is a lonely place. Hundreds of thousands of kilometers from home, astronauts have a hard life. It stands to reason that, once in a while, they need to have a good cry. But this is a lot harder than it sounds.
We still know very little about space, and about living in zero gravity (重力). In fact, we are discovering new things every time astronauts take to the sky. As The Atlantic reported in January, crying is not all that simple in space. This is because when a person normally cries, gravity makes their tears move downwards. But in a spacecraft, this is not the case. Here, there is no gravity, which is why we so often see pictures of astronauts floating around. This means that, strangely, when you cry, your tears have nowhere to go. As a result, they just stick to your eyes.
In May 2011, astronaut Andrew Feustel experienced this. “Tears,” as he said, “don’t fall off of your eye...they just kind of stay there.” This can be quite painful. In space, your eyes get very dry, and the added moisture is annoying. Sometimes, things get even unusual. The astronaut Ron Parise told The Atlantic that when tears get big enough, they “break free of the eye and float around”.
No one can be quite sure why we cry. Why should water in our eyes have anything to do with feeling sad? If you stop to think about it, crying is a very strange thing indeed. And now, thanks to the wonders of space, it just got even stranger.What’s the main idea of the first paragraph?
| A．It’s hard to cry in space. |
| B．It’s easy to feel sad in space. |
| C．Living in space is lonely. |
| D．Nobody wants to live in space. |
What will happen if astronauts cry in a spacecraft?
| A．The tears will move downwards. |
| B．The tears will stick to their eyes. |
| C．The tears will go out of the window. |
| D．The tears will move upwards. |
What does the underlined word “float” probably mean in this passage?
| A．静止 | B．漂浮 | C．盘旋 | D．下沉 |
How will astronauts feel if tears are always in their eyes?
| A．Sad. | B．Comfortable. |
| C．Happy. | D．Uncomfortable. |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Our eyes usually feel very wet in space. |
| B．Gravity makes people’s tears move upwards in space. |
| C．People know about living in zero gravity very well. |
| D．Tears will float around if they are big enough in space. |
The Spring Bud Project was organized by the China Children and Teenagers’ Fund(CCTF), under the leadership( 领导) of the All China Women’s Federation(联合会). The fund was started by Madam Zhou Jiebing, who donated 1 million Hong Kong dollars.
The purpose of the Spring Bud Project is to raise the quality of women’s education and ability from childhood. It has tried a lot to raise funds both at home and abroad and its aim is to help dropout girls in China’s poor, rural areas return to school.
In the past ten years, more than 10 million children in China have left schools because their families are too poor, and 70% of these dropouts are girls. In fact, girls’ education has become one of the most difficult problems in China. The CCTF wants to help hundreds of thousands of girls return to school, so it set up the Spring Bud Project.
Thanks to donations from so many people and organizations, by the end of 2009, the Spring Bud Project had raised 800 million yuan in total, built more than 1,000 Spring Bud schools, aided more than 2 million girls to return to school and provided technical training for more than 400,000 girls.What is the Spring Bud Project organized by?
How many poor girls have left school in the last ten years in China?
What may the underlined word “dropout” mean in Chinese?
Can you think of another way of saying “thanks to” ? What is it?
What did the Spring Bud Project spend the donations doing?
A concert under the theme of the 28-year-old charity song Let the World Be Filled with Love is set to bring 100 celebrated singers to perform in Quanzhou in southeast China’s Fujian Province next month. The concert is set to cover 10 cities including Beijing. Quanzhou is the first stop of the touring schedule.
The song Let the World Be Filled with Love was written by famous Chinese singer and songwriter Guo Feng. It was performed by a chorus (合唱团) of 100 singers during a concert for world peace that year. The song also made Guo Feng famous.
The concert is organized by China TV Artists Association. It aims to improve local charity programmes. The concert has so far received positive feedback (爱的回应) from some of the biggest names from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including Hollywood actor Jackie Chan.
It is well known that Jackie Chan has made great contributions to the music scene for years with songs like A Hero Never Dies and Don’t Go Home. He sang the theme song to the film Fairy Tale with Kim Hee Sun. Between shooting (拍摄) films and joining in public activities all over the world, it took Chan about a year to finish an album.
By joining in charity activities, Jackie Chan has provided scholarships for needy students and helped injured performers and their families. So far, he has been involved in over 100 public welfare (救济) projects in 52 cities in over 30 countries.The charity song Let the World Be Filled with Love was written in _______.
| A．1986 | B．1988 | C．1992 | D．1997 |
Which of the following is NOT true about the charity concert?
| A．It will be held in 10 cities in China. |
| B．Its aim is to improve local charity programmes. |
| C．It is organized by the famous singer Guo Feng. |
| D．Jackie Chan has decided to support it. |
How long did it take Jackie Chan to finish an album?
| A．About half a year. | B．About one year. |
| C．About one and half a year. | D．About two years. |
Jackie Chan joined in charity activities in order to ________.
| A．make a living |
| B．raise money to help poor students |
| C．become famous |
| D．help other singers in need |
What does the underlined part “be involved in” in the last paragraph mean in English?
| A．take part in | B．be crazy about |
| C．take care of | D．get ready for |
Bob Butler lost his legs in 1965 in Vietnam. Later he returned to the USA and began his life in wheelchair (轮椅). One day he was working in his yard when he heard a woman calling for help. He began moving towards the woman’s house, but something on the ground stopped his wheelchair going through the back door. So he got out of his wheelchair and started to crawl (爬行).
When Butler got through the back door of the house, he found there was a little girl in the pool. She had no arms and couldn’t swim. Her mother was calling for help crazily. Butler got into the pool and pulled the little girl out of the water. Her face was blue, and she was not breathing.
Butler did CPR (心肺复苏术) on her right away. As Butler continued doing CPR, he talked to the mother. “Don’t worry,” he said. “It’ll be OK. I was her arms to get out of the pool. I am now her lungs. Together we can make it.”
Soon the little girl coughed and began to cry. The mother asked Butler how he knew it would be OK. “I didn’t know,” he told her. “But when my legs were blown off (炸掉) in the war, a little girl in Vietnam said to me in broken English, ‘It’ll be OK. You will live. I’ll be your legs. Together we make it.’ Her kind words brought hope to me and I wanted to do the same for your little girl.”What did Butler hear when he was working in his yard one day?
| A．He heard a little girl crying. |
| B．He heard a woman calling for help. |
| C．He heard his neighbors arguing. |
| D．He heard someone calling his name. |
How did Butler get through the woman’s back door?
| A．By bike. | B．On foot. |
| C．By crawling. | D．By moving his wheelchair. |
What did Butler find when he got through the woman’s back door?
| A．A little girl lost her legs. |
| B．The woman was saving her kid. |
| C．The woman was in the pool. |
| D．A little girl was in the pool. |
What does the underlined word “lungs” mean in Chinese?
| A．肺 | B．大脑 | C．肾 | D．肝脏 |
What did the little girl in Vietnam say to Butler?
| A．“I’ll be your legs.” | B．“I’ll be your lungs.” |
| C．“I’ll be your friend.” | D．“I’ll be your family.” |
Gladys Holm was a secretary . She worked in an office all her life. Gladys made about $15,000 a year. She died when she was 86 years old. And she left a big surprise—$18 million! She gave the money to a children’s hospital.
Gladys Holm never got married or had any children. But she always liked children, and she wanted to help them. When her friend’s daughter was ill in hospital, Gladys brought her a toy bear. After that, she visited the hospital many times. Every time she visited, she brought toy bears for those children. After that, people started to call Gladys the “Toy Bear Lady”.
Gladys always gave toys and other presents to her friends but no one knew she had a lot of money. She lived in a small house outside Chicago. Everyone was very surprised when they learned that she was a millionaire. One of her friends said, “She always gave us nice presents and things, but we didn’t know she was rich.”
How did Gladys get so much money? She asked her boss how to make more money, and she listened to what he said. She bought the stocks (股票) that he told her to buy, and she got very rich. Before she died, she talked to her friends about “giving something to the children’s hospital”. No one knew that the “something” was $18 million!Gladys Holm often visited the hospital and gave children toy bears because______.
| A．she had too much money |
| B．she had a lot of toy bears |
| C．she liked children very much |
| D．she had never got married and had no children |
People started to call Gladys the “Toy Bear Lady”_______.
A. after she died
B. after she visited the children in hospital many times
C. before her friend’s daughter was ill
B. before she worked with his bossEveryone was surprised that________.
| A．Gladys lived such a long life |
| B．Gladys had so much money |
| C．Gladys lived in a small house outside Chicago |
| D．Gladys always gave her friends nice presents |
________, so she got rich.
| A．Gladys made $15,000 a year as a secretary |
| B．Gladys did another job in the hospital |
| C．Gladys got the money from the boss |
| D．Gladys did what the boss told her to do |
When Gladys Holm became a millionaire,________.
| A．she spent most of the money on nice presents and things |
| B．she stopped working |
| C．she still lived in the same way |
| D．she could hardly wait to tell her friends and family |
In 1638, John Harvard donated some money and about four hundred books to a new university. This was the beginning of the library at Harvard University. The gift was so important that the university was named for John Harvard.
Thomas Bray began the first free lending library in the late 1600s. He set up more than 30 libraries in the American colonies. However, the idea for this kind of free library ended when Bray died in 1730. In 1731, Benjamin Franklin and some friends started the first subscription library in the United States. In a subscription library people pay money to become members, but they may borrow the books without paying again.
In the United States, every child had a free education. This idea soon led to free libraries. One of the first libraries that used tax money to buy books was a library in Peterborough, New Hampshire. This library was set up in 1833.The main idea of the second paragraph is________.
| A．Franklin started the first subscription library |
| B．Bray and Franklin were important in the history of public libraries |
| C．in a subscription library people pay money to become members |
| D．Bray died in 1730 and Franklin died in 1833 |
The underlined word “borrow” means_______.
| A．use for a short time and then return |
| B．read and write with no help from another person |
| C．like very much |
| D．lend |
The passage does not say it, but we can guess that_______.
| A．free schools and free libraries in the United States began at about the same time |
| B．there were free schools in the United States before there were free libraries |
| C．the library in New Hampshire also had a free school in it |
| D．there were free libraries in the United States before there were free schools |
Harvard University began_______.
| A．in 1731 | B．in 1730 | C．in 1638 | D．in 1833 |
At the library that Franklin started, ________.
| A．people could use books for no money at all |
| B．people paid a little money in the beginning but none after that |
| C．people paid a lot of money in the beginning but none after that |
| D．both A and B |
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