Life is like the four seasons. Now I am very old, but when I was young, it was the spring of my life. I was born. I played a lot, and then I started school. I learned many new things. Like a flower, I grew bigger everyday. There were happy days and tragic days; some days the sun shone, and some days it didn’t.
In my twenties, I had a good job. I was strong and happy. Then I married and had a child. In those days, I didn’t have much time to think. Every day, I was busy and worked very hard. And so, I started to get some white hairs. The summer of my life passed quickly.
Then the days got shorter. Leaves fell from the trees. My child was a university student, and then an engineer. My home was much quieter. I started walking more slowly. One day I stopped working, I had more time. I understood this was my autumn, a beautiful time when the trees change colour and give us delicious fruits.
But the days keep getting shorter and colder. Winter has come. I am older and weaker. I know I do not have many days left but I will enjoy them to the end.. According to the passage, which of the following ages may be during the autumn of his life?
| A．15 | B．33 | C．62 | D．87 |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The writer was an engineer. |
| B．The writer had a garden with flowers. |
| C．The writer was always happy as a child. |
| D．The writer now is old and weak, but he still enjoys his life. |
The best title for the passage can be “________”.
| A．Four Seasons |
| B．My Life |
| C．Four Seasons in a Year |
| D．Four Seasons in My Life |
Betty and Harold have been married for years.But one thing still puzzles old Harold.How is it that he can leave Betty and her friend Joan sitting on the sofa,talking,go out to a ballgame,come back three and a half hours later,and they’re still sitting on the sofa?Talking?
What in the world,Harold wonders,do they have to talk about?
Betty shrugs.Talk?We’re friends.
Researching this matter called friendship,psychologist Lilian Rubin spent two years interviewing more than two hundred women and men.No matter what their age,their job,their sex,the results were completely clear:women have more friendships than men,and the difference in the content and the quality of those friendships is “marked and unmistakable.”
More than two-thirds of the single men Rubin interviewed could not name a best friend.Those who could were likely to name a woman.Yet three-quarters of the single women had no problem naming a best friend,and almost always it was a woman.More married men than women named their wife/husband as a best friend,most trusted person,or the one they would turn to in time of emotional distress(感情危机).“Most women,”says Rubin,“identified at least one,usually more,trusted friends to whom they could turn in a troubled moment,and they spoke openly about the importance of these relationships in their lives.”
“In general,”writes Rubin in her new book,“women’s friendships with each other rest on shared emotions and support,but men’s relationships are marked by shared activities.”For the most part,Rubin says,interactions(交往)between men are emotionally controlled-a good fit with the social requirements of “manly behavior.”
“Even when a man is said to be a best friend,”Robin writes,“the two share little about their innermost feelings.Whereas a woman’s closest female friend might be the first to tell her to leave a failing marriage, it wasn’t unusual to hear a man say he didn’t know his friend’s marriage was in serious trouble until he appeared one night asking if he could sleep on the sofa.”What old Harold cannot understand or explain is the fact that_____.
| A．he is treated as an outsider rather than a husband |
| B．women show little interest in ballgames |
| C．women have so much to share |
| D．he finds his wife difficult to talk to |
Rubin’s study shows that for emotional support a married woman is more likely to turn to _____.
| A．a male friend | B．her parents | C．a female friend | D．her husband |
According to the text,which type of behavior is NOT expected of a man by society?
| A．Ending his marriage without good reason. |
| B．Complaining about his marriage trouble. |
| C．Spending too much time with his friends. |
| D．Going out to ballgames too often. |
Which of the following statements is best supported by the last paragraph?
| A．Women are more serious than men about marriage. |
| B．Men keep their innermost feelings to themselves. |
| C．Men often take sudden action to end their marriage. |
| D．Women depend on others in making decisions. |
The research done by psychologist Rubin centers around_____.
| A．friendships of men and women |
| B．happy and successful marriages |
| C．emotional problems in marriage |
| D．interactions between men and women |
The Apple iPhone’s impact was widely evident (明显的) at the Consumer Electronics Show, as new touch－screen devices could be found everywhere.
The consumer electronics industry came unbuttoned in Las Vegas this week. At the annual Consumer Electronics Show, companies from around the world unveiled many devices boasting (以拥有…而自豪) touch – sensitive technology, rather than traditional push-button controls.
Motorola, Sony, and LG Electronics all showed off touch-screen phones this week. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates praised and offered a touch-screen computer, the Surface, related to a flat panel TV for a tabletop. Even camera makers, such as Kodak，included touch-screen LCDs in their devices. Touch-screen tech has been in use for years，but the push to develop and weave it into consumer electronics gathered steam with the June introduction of Apple’s iPhone. “The touch-screen industry is really getting hot,” says Jennifer Colegrove, a senior analyst at iSuppli. “Since the iPhone came out, there are a lot of companies that did not have a relationship with touch screens before that decided, ‘OK, I want to make a touch screen, too.’”
The touch－screen tech ecosystem now includes more than 100 companies specializing in everything from smudge-proof (防污的) screens to sensors (传感器) able to detect fingers before they even contact the screen. Sales of leading touch-screen technologies，such as those used in mobile phones and navigation (航行) devices，are expected to rise to $ 4.4 billion in 2012, up from $ 2.4 billion in 2006，according to iSuppli estimates.What did the writer think about the Apple iPhone？
| A．The Apple iPhone was beautiful. |
| B．The Apple iPhone was popular. |
| C．The Apple iPhone was expensive. |
| D．The Apple iPhone was attractive. |
What is the meaning of the underlined word “unveiled” in the second paragraph？
| A．Invented. | B．Unlocked. |
| C．Discovered. | D．Showed. |
The touch-screen tech was used in consumer electronics mainly because of _______.
| A．traditional push-button controls |
| B．Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates |
| C．the introduction of Apple’s iPhone |
| D．the touch-screen tech ecosystem |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．The touch-screen technology will disappear. |
| B．The touch-screen technology will be replaced by traditional push-button controls. |
| C．The touch-screen technology will be as important as traditional push-button controls. |
| D．The touch-screen technology will be more widely used in electronics devices. |
33 Chilean miners were trapped nearly a half-mile underground after the mine accident. They had no real hope that they’d ever be found. Luckily, though, the men had Luis Urzua. They were rescued to safety on October 13, 2010.Urzua, 54, was the shift leader at the time of the disaster, and used all his wisdoms and his leadership talents to help his men stay calm and in control for the 17 terrible days it took for rescuers to make their first contact with them.
It was no surprise that Urzua was the last of the 33 miners to leave the mine.
Urzua --- after shaking hands with rescue workers ---- climbed into a capsule barely wider than a man’s shoulders at 9:46 and was hauled up (拖上来) from a narrow hole drilled through 2,000 feet of rock. He arrived at the top 11 minutes later.
“We have done what the entire world was waiting for,” he told Chilean President Sebastian Pinera immediately after his rescue. “The 69 days that we fought so hard were not in vain.” Pinera greeted Urzua, saying “You have been rescued, coming out last like a good leader… You have no idea how all Chileans share with
you your hardships, your hope, and your joy. You are an inspiration.” With Urzua by his side, the president led the crowd in singing the national anthem.Robinson Marquez once worked with Urzua in a nearby mine. He described Urzua as a calm, professional person and a born leader. “He is very protective of his men and obviously loves them. He wouldn’t have left until all of his men were safely above ground,” Marquez said.
Under Urzua’s leadership, the men stretched an emergency food supply meant to last just 48 hours over two and a half weeks, taking tiny sips of milk and bites of fish every other day.He described the difficulties of the first days, saying that it took about three hours for the dust to settle before the men could inspect where tons of collapsed rock sealed off (堵住) the main way out. When the rescuers first made contact by drilling a narrow hole into their refuge (避难处), the miners were so excited that everyone wanted to hug the drill hammer.After the collapse, Urzua was the first to speak to Pinera and to urge him not to let him and his men down. “Don’t leave us alone,” he asked the president, who assured the workers that they would not be abandoned, telling them he would do everything he could to get them back to the surface.The mine collapsed on ____.
| A．March 2 | B．June 3 | C．August 5 | D．October 13 |
Which word can’t be used to describe Urzua?
| A．Selfish | B．Calm | C．Optimistic | D．Talented |
What do you know about the capsule?
| A．It is very spacious. | B．It is very narrow. |
| C．It is made by Urzua. | D．It is used in space. |
The emergency food supply was designed to last ____.
| A．over two and a half weeks | B．five days |
| C．one week | D．two days |
In the United States, when one becomes rich, he wants people to know it. And even if he does not become very rich, he wants people to think that he is. That is what “keeping up with the Joneses” is about. It is the story of someone who tried to look as rich as his neighbors.
The expression was first used in 1913 by a young American called Arthur Momand. He told this story about himself. He began earning $ 125 a week at the age of 23. That was a lot of money in those days. He got married and moved with his wife to a very wealthy neighborhood. When he saw that rich people rode horses, Momand went horseback riding every day. When he saw that rich people had servants. Momand and his wife also hired a servant and gave big parties for their new neighbors.
It was like a race, but one could never finish this race because one was always trying to keep up. The race ended for Momand and his wife when they could no longer pay for their new way of life. They had to move back to an apartment in New York City.
Momand looked around him and noticed that many people do things just to keep up with rich lifestyle of their neighbors. He saw the funny side of it and started to write a series of short stories. He called it “Keeping up with the Joneses” because “Jones” is a very common name in the United States. “Keeping up with the Joneses” came to mean keeping up with rich lifestyle of the people around you. Momand’s series appeared in different newspapers across the country for over 28 years.
People never seem to get tired of keeping up with the Joneses. And there are “Joneses” in every city of the world. But one must get tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses because no matter what one does, Mr. Jones always seems to be ahead.Some people want to keep up with the Joneses because they ______.
| A．want to be as rich as their neighbours |
| B．want others to know or to think that they are rich |
| C．don’t want others to know they are rich |
| D．want to be happy |
It can be inferred from the story that rich people like to ________.
| A．live outside New York City | B．live in New York City |
| C．live in apartments | D．live with many neighbours |
What’s the author’s attitude to keeping up with the Joneses?
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. |
| C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
Tess was eight years old. Her little brother Andrew was very sick and their parents were completely out of money. She heard Daddy say to her tearful Mother, “Only a miracle can save him now.”
Tess took her money and made her way six blocks to Rexall’s Drug Store.
“And what do you want?” the chemist asked in an annoyed tone of voice. “I’m talking to my brother from Chicago whom I haven’t seen for ages.”
“Well, I want to talk to you about my brother,” Tess answered back in the same annoyed tone. “He’s really sick. He has something bad growing inside his head and my Daddy says only a miracle can save him now. So how much does a miracle cost?”
“We don’t sell miracles here, little girl. I’m sorry but I can’t help you,” the chemist said, softening a little.
“Listen, I can help you.” The chemist’s brother was a well-dressed man. He asked Tess, “What kind of miracle does your brother need?”
“I don’t know,” Tess replied. “Mommy says he needs an operation. But my Daddy can’t pay for it, so I want to use my money.”
“How much do you have?” asked the man from Chicago. “One dollar and eleven cents,” Tess answered. “And it’s all the money I have, but I can get some more, if I need to.”
“Well，what a coincidence (巧合),” smiled the man. “A dollar and eleven cents － the exact price of a miracle for your little brother. Take me to where you live. Let’s see if 1 have the kind of miracle you need.”
That man was Dr. Carlton Armstrong, a surgeon in neurosurgery (神经外科). The operation was completed without charge and it wasn’t long until Andrew was home again and doing well．
Tess smiled. She knew exactly how much a miracle cost… one dollar and eleven cents… plus the faith of a little child. What can we learn from the first paragraph?
| A．Tess’s brother would recover because there was a miracle. |
| B．Tess’s brother would die because his family had no money to treat his illness. |
| C．Tess’s family would look for a miracle to treat Andrew’s illness. |
| D．Andrew should go to hospital for a miracle. |
Why did the chemist get annoyed first？
| A．Because he was a nervous man． |
| B．Because Tess didn’t buy his medicine. |
| C．Because Tess had bothered him and his brother. |
| D．Because Tess was poorly dressed. |
What can we learn about Dr. Carlton Armstrong?
| A．He was a stone－hearted man. |
| B．He cared for only a little money. |
| C．He never helped others unless given a lot of money． |
| D．He was a kind gentleman and ready to help others. |
What can be the best title？
| A．A dying boy and her sister | B．A miracle of $ 1.10 |
| C．A kind doctor and his brother | D．A poor girl and a doctor |
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