Marjorie Baer used to joke about her retirement plans．She wasn't married and had no kids, but she didn't intend to be alone—she and all her single friends would move into a fictional home she called Casa de Biddies．Instead, Baer developed terminal brain cancer when she was 52．But just as she'd hoped, her friends and family provided her with love and care to the end．
Ballance was only the first of Baer's friends who became her unofficial caregivers．With her brother Phil Baer from Los Angeles, they worked out a system to watch over their friend and allow her to keep some of the privacy and independence she cherished.
Baer's good friend Ruth Henrich took Baer to doctors' appointments and helped her deal with all the aspects of life —answering machines, TV controls, and even phone numbers．After Henrich sent out an e-mail request, a group of volunteers signed up to ferry Baer back and forth to radiation therapy（放疗）．Others in Baer's circle offered up particular talents: A nurse friend helped Baer figure out how to get what she was due from Social Security and her disability insurance; a lawyer pal helped Baer with her will; a partner who was an accountant took over her bills when she could no longer manage them．"There was this odd sense that the right person always showed up," says Ballance．Their arrangement worked remarkably well．
Unmarried women are one of the fastest-growing groups in America; experts are concerned about how care-giving will be managed for them as they age．If the experience of Baer's friends is a guide, the Internet will play a role．It's already making it possible to create communities of caregivers who may have only one thing in common: the person who needs their help．On personal "care pages" set up through services such as Lotsa Helping Hands, friends and family members can post a list of tasks that need to be done, volunteer to do them, and keep updated on the person's condition．As Baer's cancer progressed, for example, her friends set up a page on Yahoo! where people could sign up to deliver meals or do errands（差事）.
Catherine Fox, one of the friends who were present when Baer died, was deeply affected．"It was so comforting to know that if you're willing to ask for help, the generosity of family and friends can be phenomenal（显著的）．It makes me feel secure and hopeful to know that help is there when you need it．"The most appropriate title of this passage should be ______．
| A．On her own, but not alone |
| B．A friend in need is a friend indeed |
| C．A new practice of American government |
| D．A phenomenal advantage of the Internet |
Who helped Marjorie Baer get her disability insurance?
| A．Ruth Henrich. | B．Her brother. |
| C．A nurse friend. | D．Ballance. |
The underlined part in paragraph four suggests that the Internet will ______.
| A．play a role in American future pension system |
| B．provide online medical care for aged unmarried women |
| C．help manage care-giving for unmarried women as they age |
| D．help those aged unmarried women to kill their spare time |
The writer tells us the story of Marjorie Baer for the purpose of ______．
A．reminding us to be kind and make as many friends as we can
B．informing that there will be a new trend of care-giving for the single elderly
C．persuading us that we can enjoy our retirement even if we don’t have a child
A mother from Colorado who doctors said had died while giving birth to her son, has said it is a Christmas miracle that both she and the boy are alive.
Tracey Hermanstorfer's heart stopped beating and her son Coltyn appeared lifeless after the Caesarean section(剖腹产手术）on Christmas Eve. However a few minutes after he was born, both began breathing again. Dr Stephanie Martin told Good Morning America she could not explain how the pair survived. Mrs. Hermanstorfer and her husband Mike told the American television show that their baby was now healthy and that they were doing “good” following the drama at Colorado Springs Memorial Hospital.
The couple，who already had two children, had to go into the hospital seven weeks earlier than planned. Her husband, 37, said his wife was tired after receiving an epidural (硬膜夕卜麻醉）during the labour (分娩)but after closing her eyes, she "wasn't waking up". She stopped breathing and she is believed to have suffered a heart attack before her heart stopped beating entirely.
Dr Martin said she was called in and that the outlook was grim since in most situations like this，"despite the best efforts of the team"，the mother was often unable to be revived. In that case doctors then tried to focus on delivering the baby but when he was born he was "completely lifeless".
Mr. Hermanstorfer told the Associated Press news agency，" I had everything in the world taken from me, and in an hour and a half I had everything given to me. "
Dr Martin said she did not have a “great explanation" for why Mrs. Hermanstorfer、heartbeat re-turned. "Somewhere between four and five minutes she had been without heart rate and had stopped breathing a minute or two prior to her heart stop-ping," she said. The doctors were then able to bring the baby back to life, and the mother was alive after that.
Despite tests, she said doctors were still not sure about what had happened. However Mrs. Hermanstorfer and her husband Mike have said they believed it was down to a miracle. She said，“I got a second chance in life. ” The story happened on __________
| A．December 24 |
| B．December 25 |
| C．December 31 |
| D．January 1 |
What might have happened to Tracey Hermanstorfer just before her heart stopped beating?
| A．She became unconscious. |
| B．She took a nap. |
| C．She had a bad headache. |
| D．She suffered a heart attack. |
Which of the following is the correct order of what happened to Tracey Hermanstorfer?
a. suffering a heart attack
b. stopping heart beating entirely
c. stopping breathing
d. coming back to life
e. receiving an epidural
f. producing a baby
| A．acfdbe |
| B．fcadbe |
| C．eacbfd |
| D．eabcfd |
What feelings did Mr. Hermanstorfer experience during the incident?
| A．Sad and delighted. |
| B．Disappointed and depressed. |
| C．Sad and angry. |
| D．Touched and regrettable. |
Which of the following words best expresses Dr Martin's attitude towards Tracey Hermanstorfer's coming back to life?
| A．Shocked. |
| B．Puzzled. |
| C．Normal. |
| D．Curious. |
It's not unusual for parents to stay with sick children round the clock. But the floor nurses noticed something special about Kathy. She was always smiling even on days when Michael was very ill or received bad news about blood tests. “It was never about Kathy or the sacrifices she was making，”says Debra ,one of Michael's nurses. "She never let Michael see how hard this was on her. ”
One day, Michael told one of the nurses, Felice ,that he was so impressed by what she and the other nurses did, he planned to enroll in the nursing program when he was healthy enough to go back to college.
Michael always believed he would conquer the disease. He'd done so with other hurdles in his life. Born a premature(早产的婴儿），he overcame a learning disability and was admitted into a regular classroom by the third grade. Despite good grades, he did poorly on his SATs，the college entrance exam. He gave up a trip to take a summer prep program at Widener University, south of Philadelphia, then entered as a freshman that fall. He was always told he was too short to play sports, yet he managed to be-come a linebacker (中后卫球员）on Widener's Division ID football team.
When the third round of chemo(化疗）was finished, Michael returned home to await the results. A few weeks later, Kathy and Matthew were extremely sad when Selina Luger, the doctor in charge of Michael's illness, pulled them aside in the hall of the clinic ,out of Michael's earshot, and told them, “The chemo didn't work. Michael's incurable. ”
Matthew was shell-shocked at the news. Like his son，he always believed they would beat this. This can't be the end of it； he tried to convince himself. Kathy wept against a hallway window while Dr. Luger and Matthew walked into an exam room. We can learn from the first paragraph that __________
| A．Kathy didn't care about her son's illness |
| B．Kathy made few sacrifices for her son's illness |
| C．Kathy cared much about her son's illness but never showed her anxiety |
| D．Kathy didn't feel sad despite her son's illness |
How many hurdles in Michael's life are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Two. |
| B．Three. |
| C．Four. |
| D．Five. |
What do we know about Michael from the passage?
| A．He was born with the deadly disease. |
| B．He enrolled in the nursing program before he went to college. |
| C．He did well in his study in high school. |
| D．He acted as a linebacker just because he was too tall. |
We can conclude from the passage that Michael's father __________
| A．thought his son would make a recovery |
| B．was disappointed with his son's disease |
| C．was sure that his son would be better very soon |
| D．doubted if his son would be well |
Tang Dynasty poets sang for about three centuries in different tones. There were many famous poets living in the Tang period, such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Bai Juyi and Li Shangyin. Poems of the Tang Dynasty edited in the Qing Dynasty is a collection of more than 48,900 poems that were written by over 2,200 poets. But it didn’t cover all the poems of the Tang Dynasty.
During the Tang Dynasty, poems were recited when lovers walked under the moonlight. Poems were also recited when soldiers fought on the battlefield. People recited them in the open air or at temple fairs.
Tang Dynasty poets wrote poems to win fame and also to develop their temperament(性情). They poured our deep feelings for their friends and criticized injustice in the world through poems.
In the Tang Dynasty scholars had to be poets. Their readers were not only people of high social position but also common people. Poets recited poems, women singers sang poems and other ranks of people, including old women and children, read Tang poems. This atmosphere affected foreigners who visited the country at that time. As a result, Tang poetry was introduced to some adjacent countries, like Japan and Vietnam.
Tang poetry is a most brilliant page in the history of ancient Chinese literature. It’s a miracle(奇迹) in the cultural history of mankind. The Tang Dynasty was a powerful empire with a vast territory. It inherited(继承) Chinese civilization that went back to ancient times, was combined with the best of other cultures and adopted the benefits of other nations in the world. Tang poetry wasn’t the only spiritual wealth created by the Tang Dynasty people. Philosophy and religion, handwriting and painting, and music and dance all gained new peaks of development. Tang poetry, however, was the jewel in the crown and its greatest achievement.We can conclude form the passage that ___ .
| A．only people in the Tang Dynasty created poems |
| B．in total there was four famous poets in the Tang Dynasty |
| C．the Tang Dynasty probably existed for about three centuries |
| D．in the Tang Dynasty most common people were poets |
Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?
| A．Why the poets created poems? |
| B．Some other kinds of spiritual wealth in the Tang Dynasty. |
| C．The significance and influence if the Tang Dynasty. |
| D．The editors of Poems of the Tang Dynasty. |
The underlined word “adjacent” probably means ___.
| A．strong |
| B．neighboring |
| C．poor |
| D．rich |
What does the author really want to tell us in Paragraph 4?
| A．Tang Dynasty poems were quite popular. |
| B．In the Tang Dynasty all scholars were poets. |
| C．Many foreigners came to our country during the Tang Dynasty. |
| D．in the Tang Dynasty many poems were sung by women singers. |
Computers are very important to modern life. Many people think that in the future computers will be used in lots of everyday life. It is thought that we won’t have to go shopping because we will be able to get most things which are sold in shops on the Internet. There will be no more books because we will be able to get all texts from computers. The Internet will be used to play games, see films and buy food. Most telephone calls will be made by computers, too.
Some people are glad about these new ways of shopping and communicating. Others do not think that computers will replace our old ways.
Let’s look at books, for example. Some people think that one day we will not read books made of paper. Instead, we will buy and read books using computers. We will read texts on small pocket computers. The computers will keep many different books in them at the same time. We won’t need to turn lots of pages and paper will be saved. Computerized(计算机化) books will be used more and more.
Is Internet shopping such a pleasure as going to the shop? Many people say it is not. It is a pleasure to go into shops and look at things you want to buy. It is also unlikely that many people will want to read large texts on our computers. Because paper books will perhaps be more friendly. Maybe computers won’t change these two habits.In paragraph 1 it is thought people will use computers for ___.
| A．playing games, shopping and making telephone calls |
| B．making telephone calls, having meals and seeing films |
| C．seeing films, buying food, and going for holidays |
| D．playing games, making telephone calls and seeing the doctor |
Which reason for using computerizes books is NOT said in the passage?
| A．Computerized books won’t be very expensive. |
| B．Computers can keep many different books in them. |
| C．We won’t have lots of pages. |
| D．We won’t need any paper. |
Paragraph 4 tells ___.
| A．about the old and new ways of shopping and communicating |
| B．if the Internet will change our habits |
| C．about computerized books |
| D．about future uses of computers |
The title for this passage is ___ .
| A．Computers will replace shops and books |
| B．Computers are the future |
| C．Computers will do everything for man |
| D．How computers change our habits |
Do you spirits soar (猛增) on a sunny day? Do you relax at the sound of flowing water?
Some scientists suggest that these contacts with nature are good for your health. In one study, hospital patients with a view of trees had shorter hospital stays and less need for pain medications. Another study indicated that prisoners with a view of the outdoors had fewer doctor visits.
“Why the desire for nature? Maybe we’re programmed to need it, since our ancestors’ survival was so dependent on their connection with nature,” suggests biologist E.O.Wilson.
Want to find out if contact with nature improves your outlook on life? Try a few of these ideas.
Hang out a bird feeder and watch the birds that visit it.
Sit down in the backyard or a nearby park. Close your eyes. What do you hear? Birds singing? The wind in the trees? Crickets(蟋蟀) chirping?
Find an anthill. Sit down and watch the ants work.
Take a walk right after a rainstorm. What looks different? Smells different?
Go barefoot on a sandy beach.
Open the curtains and the window, if the weather allows it.
On a windy day, watch the trees.
Go to a creek, river or park fountain. Listen to the sound of water in motion.
Camp out in the backyard or at a nearby state park. Use a tent or sleep on the ground.
Find a wide-open space to study the stars. Learn about the different constellations(星座).
Raise a garden. Or plant some seeds in a flowerpot.
Go hiking with your family. Talk about all of the colors you see in nature.
Take a camera and capture your nature experience.From Paragraph 2 we can learn that ___ .
| A．prisoners don’t like to go to the doctor when ill |
| B．trees can be used as pain medications |
| C．prisoners should often get out of prison to some into contact with nature |
| D．contacts with nature are very helpful for hospital patients |
According to E. O. Wilson, we desire nature probably because ___ .
| A．it can help us feel relaxed |
| B．we have inherited from our ancestors who were dependent on nature |
| C．people have lived with nature for thousands of years |
| D．contacts with nature can improve a person’s outlook on life |
The author gives us many ideas in order to let us ___.
| A．find out if contacts with nature improve our outlook on life |
| B．hear birds sing and watch ants work |
| C．talk about the colors we see in nature |
| D．capture our experience in nature |
From the passage, we can learn that ___。
| A．studying the constellations is important to everyone |
| B．you can know all the colors only by going hiking |
| C．nature is quite important to us |
| D．walking in a rain storm can be very helpful |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．Go Hiking With Your Family |
| B．Let Nature Nurture You |
| C．Visit Your Doctor Less |
| D．Watch the Tree More Often |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号