Strange it may sound, this is a true story about a lesson of honesty happening between a lucky thief and a worthy professor.
Once a thief won a lottery ticket but left it at his crime(犯罪) scene when he stole a suitcase from a professor. To his great surprise, his victim, who picked up the ticket and took the prize money of ￡25 000, managed to get in touch with him in order to return him the case. The robbery took place when John Smith, a math professor was changing a tyre on the motorway. The thief happened to pass by. He appeared to be a warm-hearted guy and stopped “to help”. When the professor found his suitcase in the car missing, the thief had driven off as fast as he could. The professor picked up the dropped ticket on the floor and put it in his pocket before driving home.
John Smith didn’t realize it was a winner until he knew the lottery results on TV. He got the prize money and began a battle with himself silently in his heart. At last，he decided not to keep the money although he just had been robbed of his suitcase by the owner of the ticket. He set out to advertise in newspapers and on radio for finding the owner, “ Don’t be surprised that I’m trying to find the man who robbed me in order to returned him the ￡25 000—a lottery win. Please meet me without telling me your real name if you don’t want to. ”.
Later John received tens of hundreds of calls from people around the country trying to trick him into handing them the cash. But he didn’t arrange to meet the right person in the park until he recognized the voice. The robber, was moved into tears when he returned the suitcase. “Why didn’t you keep the money？”he asked, not believing what was happening. The honest professor replied simply, “Because it’s not mine.” With these words, he walked off，spurningthe thief’s offer of a reward.The underlined sentence “Then he began a battle with himself silently.” suggested that .
| A．he made an immediate decision on knowing the lottery results |
| B．he silently decided to punish the robber by keeping the ticket |
| C．he realized that money played an important role as honesty . |
| D．he hesitated about how to deal with the ticket for some time |
Hundreds of people phoned the professor because they _______.
| A．lost their lottery ticket |
| B．hoped to take the money |
| C．knew who the robber was |
| D．wanted to make fun of him |
The underlined word “spurning” in the last sentence is similar to______ .
| A．forgetting | B．accepting |
| C．refusing | D．making |
Which of the following can be used as the best title for the passage?
| A．A Magical Lottery |
| B．A Thief’s Lucky Day |
| C．A Stubborn Professor |
| D．A Reward of Honesty |
Time and how we experience it have always puzzled us. Physicists have created fascinating theories, but their time is measured by a pendulum（钟摆）and is not psychological time, which leaps with little regard to the clock or calendar. As someone who understood the difference remarked, “When you sit with a nice girl for two hours it seems like a minute, but when you sit on a hot stove, a minute seems like two hours.”
Psychologists have long noticed that larger units of time, such as months and years, fly on swifter wings as we age. They also note that the more time is structured with schedules and appointments, the more rapidly it seems to pass．For example, a day at the office flies compared with a day at the beach. Since most of us spend fewer days at the beach and more at the office as we age, an increase in structured tune could well be to blame for why time seems to speed up as we grow older．
Expectation and familiarity also make time seem to flow more rapidly. Almost all of us have had the experience of driving somewhere we’ve never been before. Surrounded by unfamiliar scenery, with no real idea of when we’ll arrive, we experience the trip as lasting a long time. But the return trip, although exactly as long, seems to take far less time. The unfamiliarity of the journey has become routine. Thus taking a different route on occasion can often help slow the clock.
When days become as identical as beads（小珠子）on a string, they mix together, and even months become a single day. To fight this, try to find ways to interrupt the structure of your day—to stop time. Learning something new is one of the ways to slow the passage of time. One of the reasons the days of our youth seems so full and long is that these are the days of learning and discovery. For many of us, learning ends when we leave school, but this doesn’t have to be.The quotation（引用语） in the first paragraph is used to indicate ______.
| A．psychological time is quite puzzling |
| B．time should not be measured by a pendulum |
| C．physical time is different from psychological time |
| D．physical theory has nothing to do with the true sense of time |
Why do units of time fly faster as we grow older?
| A．Our sense of time changes. |
| B．We spend less time at the beach. |
| C．More time is structured and scheduled. |
| D．Time is structured with too many appointments. |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．It gives various explanations about time. |
| B．It describes how we experience time psychologically. |
| C．It shows the different ideas of physicists and psychologists on time. |
| D．It explains why time flies fast and how to slow it down psychologically. |
When we’re young and we dream of love and fulfillment（满足感）, we think perhaps of moon-covered Parisian nights or walks along the beach at sunset.
No one tells us that the greatest moments of a lifetime are short, unplanned and nearly always catch us off guard.
Not long ago，as I was reading a bedtime story to my seven-year-old daughter, Annie， I became aware of her focused look. She was staring at me with a faraway, blank expression. Apparently, completing The Tale of Samuel Whiskers was not as important as we first thought.
I asked what she was thinking about.
"Mommy," she whispered, "I just can't stop looking at your pretty face."I almost dissolved（溶解） on the spot.
Little did she know how many trying moments the glow of her sincerely loving statement would carry me through over the following years.
Not long after, I took my four-year-old son to an elegant department store, where the sweet notes of a classic love song drew us toward a tuxedoed ( 穿晚礼服的 ) musician playing a grand piano. Sam and I sat down on a marble bench nearby, and he seemed as astonished by the pleasant theme as I was.
I didn't realize that Sam had stood up next to me until he turned, took my face in his little hands and said, "Dance with me."
If only those women walking under the Paris moon knew the joy of such an invitation made by a round-cheeked boy with baby teeth. Although shoppers openly chuckled(咯咯笑) and pointed at us as we glided（滑行） and whirled（旋转） around the open space, I would not have traded a dance with such a charming young gentleman if I'd been offered the universe. From the passage we know_______.
| A．Annie knew how important she was to her mother. |
| B．shoppers didn’t notice the author dancing with her son. |
| C．there are bedtime stories in the Tale of Samuel Whiskers. |
| D．Sam was not surprised at the music which was played in the store. |
When the author knew her daughter could not stop looking at her pretty face, she felt_______.
| A．sad | B．deeply moved |
| C．annoyed | D．ashamed |
Why wouldn’t the author trade a dance with her son even if she was given the world?
| A．Because she knew she wouldn’t be given the universe . |
| B．Because her son was the most important person to her . |
| C．Because she thought she was the happiest one at the moment. |
| D．Because it was very important for the author to dance with her son. |
What does the author want to prove by showing two examples of her kids?
| A．Her kids love her very much. |
| B．She enjoys staying with her kids. |
| C．The greatest moments of a lifetime always come unexpectedly. |
| D．Those women walking under the moon should enjoy the happiness with kids. |
“OK,” I said to my daughter as she bent over her afternoon bowl of rice. “What’s going on with you and your friend J.?” J. is the leader of a group of third-graders at her camp-- a position Lucy herself occupied the previous summer. Now she’s the one on the outs, and every day at snack time, she tells me all about it, while I offer the unhelpful advice all summer long.
“She’s fond of giving orders, ” Lucy complained. “She’s turning everyone against me. She’s mean. And she’s fat.” “Excuse me,” I said, struggling for calm. “What did you just said?” “She’s fat.” Lucy mumbled(含糊地说).“We’re going upstairs,” I said, my voice cold. “We’re going to discuss this.” And up we went. I’d spent the nine years since her birth getting ready for this day, the day we’d have the conversation about this horrible word. I knew exactly what to say to the girl on the receiving end of the teasing, but in all of my imaginings, it never once occurred to me that my daughter would be the one who used the F word-Fat.
My daughter sat on her bed, and I sat beside her. “How would you feel if someone made fun of you for something that wasn’t your fault?” I began. “She could stop eating so much,” Lucy mumbled, mouthing the simple advice a thousand doctors have given overweight women for years.
“It’s not always that easy,” I said. “Everyone’s different in terms of how they treat food.” Lucy looked at me, waiting for me to go on. I opened my mouth, then closed it. Should I tell her that, in teasing a woman’s weight, she’s joined the long tradition of critics? Should I tell her I didn’t cry when someone posted my picture and commented , “I’m sorry, but aren’t authors who write books marketed to young women supposed to be pretty?”
Does she need to know, now, that life isn’t fair? I feel her eyes on me, waiting for an answer I don’t have. Words are my tools. Stories are my job. It’s possible she’ll remember what I say forever, and I have no idea what to say.
So I tell her the only thing I can come up with that is absolutely true. I say to my daughter, “I love you, and there is nothing you could ever do to make me not love you. But I’m disappointed in you right now. There are plenty of reasons for not liking someone. What she looks like isn’t one of them. ”
Lucy nods, tears on her cheeks. “I won’t say that again,” she tells me, and I pull her close, pressing my nose against her hair. As we sit there together, I pray for her to be smart and strong. I pray for her to find friends, work she loves, a partner who loves her. And still, always, I pray that she will never struggle as I’ve struggled, that weight will never be her cross to bear. She may not be able to use the word in our home, but I can use in my head. I pray that she will never get fat.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 indicates that Lucy ______.
| A．often makes fun of her friend J. |
| B．has turned against her friend J. |
| C．gets along well with her friend J. |
| D．has begun to compete with her friend J. |
Why does the author want to discuss with Lucy?
| A．Because she wants to offer some other helpful advice. |
| B．Because she has prepared the conversation for nine years. |
| C．Because she is really shocked at Lucy’s rudeness. |
| D．Because she decides to tell Lucy a similar story of her own. |
What does the author want to tell her daughter?
| A．It is not easy to take the doctors’ advice to eat less. |
| B．People shouldn’t complain because life is unfair. |
| C．She herself was once laughed at for her appearance. |
| D．People shouldn’t be blamed for their appearance. |
It can be inferred from the passage that_________.
| A．the author earns a living by writing stories. |
| B．the author is a fat but good-looking woman. |
| C．the author will stop loving her daughter for what she said. |
| D．the author’s daughter agreed with her from the very beginning. |
We can learn from the last paragraph that_________.
| A．Lucy was deeply moved by her mother’s prayer. |
| B．a mother’s prayer will shape her daughter’s attitude towards life |
| C．the author allows her daughter to use the F word in her head |
| D．the author hopes her daughter will never have weight trouble |
The author’s attitude towards her daughter can be best described as _________.
| A．loving but strict |
| B．indifferent but patient |
| C．satisfied and friendly |
| D．unsatisfied and angry |
Birthdays often involve surprises. But this year's surprise on the birthday of the great British playwright William Shakespeare is surely one of the most dramatic.
On April 22, one day before his 441st birthday anniversary, experts discovered that one of the most recognizable portraits of William Shakespeare is a fake. This means that we no longer have a good idea of what Shakespeare looked like. “It's very possible that many pictures of Shakespeare might be unreliable because many of them are copies of this one,” said an expert from Britain's National Portrait Gallery.
The discovery comes after four months of testing using X-rays, ultraviolet light, microphotography and paint samples. The experts from the gallery say the image —commonly known as the “Flower portrait”— was actually painted in the 1800s, about two centuries after Shakespeare's death. The art experts who work at the gallery say they also used modern chemistry technology to check the paint on the picture. These checks found traces of paint dating from about 1814. Shakespeare died in 1616, and the date that appears on the portrait is 1609.
“We now think the portrait dates back to around 1818 to 1840. This was when there was a renewed interest in Shakespeare's plays,” Tarnya Cooper, the gallery's curator (馆长), told the Associated President.
The fake picture has often been used as a cover for collections of his plays. It is called the Flower portrait because one of its owners, Desmond Flower, gave it to the Royal Shakespeare Company.
“There have always been questions about the painting,” said David Howells, curator for the Royal Shakespeare Company. “Now we know the truth, we can put the image in its proper place in the history of Shakespearean portraiture.”
Two other images of Shakespeare, are also being studied as part of the investigation and the results will come out later this month.________.What makes the birthday of Shakespeare dramatic this year?
| A．It was found that he painted a portrait in 1814 instead of in 1609. |
| B．The Flower portrait has been found to be a fake. |
| C．Three portraits of Shakespeare are being tested to identify a real one. |
| D．It was found that there was a renewed interest in Shakespeare's plays around 1818 to 1840. |
Which statement is True according to the passage?
| A．Portraits of Shakespeare are all unreliable. |
| B．“Flower portrait” was a portrait of Shakespeare given to Desmond Flower. |
| C．1814 might be when the portrait was drawn. |
| D．The Flower portrait is not often used as a cover for Shakespeare's play. |
How many methods were used to test the portrait?
| A．Not mentioned. | B．Two |
| C．Three | D．At least four. |
The best title for this passage is ________.
| A．Birthdays often involve surprises |
| B．The surprise on the 441st birthday of Shakespeare |
| C．One portrait of Shakespeare is a fake |
| D．How can we know Shakespeare's appearance? |
Which is the best sentence to fill in the blank in the last paragraph?
| A．Soon we'll know which portrait is reliable. |
| B．Maybe we cannot find a real portrait of Shakespeare. |
| C．If the two portraits are found to be false, they will test more. |
| D．For now what Shakespeare really looked like will remain a mystery. |
The day when the jobs were handed out was one of the most exciting moments for all the children in the class. It took place during the first week of the term. Every kid was given a job for which they would be responsible for the rest of that school year.
Some jobs were more interesting than others, and the children were eager to be given one of the best ones. When giving them out, the teacher took into account which pupils had been most responsible during the previous year. During the previous year Rita had carried out the teacher’s instructions perfectly. All the children knew Rita would be given the best job.
But there was a big surprise. Each child received a normal job. But Rita’s job was very different. She was given a little box containing some sand and one ant. Though the teacher insisted that this ant was very special, Rita felt disappointed. Most of her classmates felt sorry for her. Even her father became very angry with the teacher and he encouraged Rita to pay no attention to this insignificant pet. However, Rita preferred to show the teacher her error by doing something special with that job of little interest.
Rita started investigating all about her little ant and gave the ant the best food, and it grew quite a bit bigger.
One day, a man, who looked very important, came into their classroom and declared, “Your class has been chosen to accompany me, this summer, on a journey to the tropical rain forest, where we will investigate all kinds of insects. Among all the schools of this region, your class has best cared for the little ant.”
That day the school was filled with joy and celebration. Everyone thanked Rita for having been so patient and responsible. And many children learnt that to be given the most important task you have to know how to be responsible even in what are the smallest tasks.What did the teacher base his decision on when giving out jobs to the children?
| A．Their characters and interests. |
| B．Their class performance during the previous year. |
| C．Their working performance during the previous year. |
| D．Their ability of managing their accounts during the previous year. |
What does the underlined sentence mean?
| A．Each child got an important job. |
| B．Each child got an interesting job. |
| C．The perfect student got the job of everyone’s preference. |
| D．The most responsible student got the job of least interest. |
What is Rita’s attitude to her father’s suggestion?
| A．Negative. | B．Uncertain. |
| C．Totally positive. | D．Acceptable |
We can infer that the man who made the declaration is a _________.
| A．hunter | B．director |
| C．biologist | D．principal |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Never complain about life. |
| B．Small tasks can lead to fortunes. |
| C．Men are best known by their friends. |
| D．Responsibility and intelligence bring good luck. |
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