Inspired by a 9-year-old cyclist who has the use of only part of one hand, a group of students at the University of Guelph has won an international award for their invention--a bike brake lever（刹车手柄）that pulls both the front brake and the back brake at the same time.
Lauren Turner was able to ride her bike, but not as confidently and quickly as her friends.
“She couldn't use the front brake. She was only using the back brake, but the front brake makes you stop twice as fast,” says Micha Wallace, who with Katie Bell, Anina Sakaguchi and Andrew morris won the second prize in the James Dyson Awards for their single-handed bike brake lever.
“She used it all last summer and she had no problems. She said it helped her go faster because she felt more confident in her braking abilities. She felt safer,”says Wallace.
The invention was the fourth-year design project for the four students. They designed, tested and created a prototype(模型)within a four-month period.
When Wallace heard about the James Dyson Awards on the news, she and her co-inventors entered their project in the UK-based contest, which rewards student designers who creat proucts that improve the way we live. The Guelph students collected the second prize-￡2,000 for them, plus ￡500 for their school.
As well, they had a chance to meet James Dyson, a UK inventor. While praising the students for their invention, Dyson said the single-handed lever could improve safety for all cyclists. “By using both brakes at once, you could prevent the possibility of flying over the handlebars and ending up with an injury.”
The students are hoping to sell the patent to a major company.It may be used in other devices that require two hands for operation. The bike brake lever was designed with the aim of ______.
| A．taking part in a contest |
| B．making the inventors famous |
| C．helping the disabled bike more safely |
| D．helping general people bike faster |
The James Dyson Award ________.
| A．is named after a famous university |
| B．helps winners marked their inventions |
| C．awards winners money |
| D．has a worldwide influnce |
From the text, we could infer that brake lever________.
| A．is only useful for disabled cyclists |
| B．also improves the bike′s speed |
| C．has already been widely used |
| D．will have a wide market in the future |
What′s the best title for the text?
| A．Student inventors win UK prize. |
| B．Awards aimed at students are established. |
| C．Bikes will be safer in the future. |
| D．The disabled gain more attention. |
Dear Abby,
I am a very conservative woman. I don’t drink, dance, wear makeups or pants. I enjoy the company of friends despite（尽管）our differences and thought they enjoyed mine.
On our most recent outing, however, they laughed at my religious jewelry, commented on my “lack of fashion,” and made me feel guilty for not wanting to stay out late.
Despite this, they are great friends and would help me at the drop of a hat. I don’t bring up their being overweight, or that I think some of the clothes they wear are ugly. I don’t criticize them for sleeping around. I wish they would accept me for who I am.
I am considering not going out with them the next time they ask, but I don’t really want it to come to that. Any suggestions?
—Just an Old-Fashioned Girl
_____________________________________________________________________
Dear Old-Fashioned Girl,
Just this: It’s time for you to start cultivating relationships with people whose values are more like your own. The friends you have described may be lovely, but their comments were out of line and folks are known by the company they keep. If you spend a lot of time with the women you have described, people will begin to make assumptions(臆断) about you.
—Abby The underlined word “conservative” is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．beautiful |
| B．old-fashioned |
| C．overweight |
| D．ordinary-looking |
When did Old-fashioned Girl feel guilty?
| A．When her friends stayed out late. |
| B．When she stayed out late with her friends. |
| C．When she refused her friends’ request to stay out late. |
| D．When her friends refused her to stay out late with them. |
Which of the following could Old-fashioned Girl most possibly agree to?
| A．It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend. |
| B．Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty. |
| C．The friend is the one who knows all about you, and still likes you. |
| D．True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable. |
According to Abby, it’s a good idea for Old-fashioned Girl to ________.
| A．talk with her friends |
| B．understand her friends |
| C．forgive her friends |
| D．break up with her friends |
Suddenly all the lights on that crowded underground train went out. Then it stopped in that dark tunnel(隧道).
We waited. We expected the lights to come on again soon. But nothing happened. Then I began to smell something. Yes, I could smell smoke. So I asked myself, “Is this train on fire?” People around me then began to cry out in fear. “The train is on fire!” they cried.
Then the woman standing next to me suddenly fell on the floor. I realized she was overcome by the smoke. Then I saw flames appearing. “If something does not happen soon,” I said to myself, “I will be burnt alive!”
But as I stood there in the dark in that crowded burning train, I could see no way to escape. I thought, “No one can save me from certain death but God. Only God can make a way for any of us to escape death in this train.”
Before the flames reached me, I found the open door and I climbed out of the train into the dark tunnel. Then as quickly as I could, I ran from the burning train down the tunnel. Now as I ran I could hear hundreds of people that were locked in that burning train, crying out for help. I knew I could do nothing to help them, so I ran on.
Then for two hours I kept walking in that dark train tunnel. At last I saw a light in the distance. I asked myself “Why did God enable me to escape death?” I decided, “God must have a purpose for saving my life. He must want me to help other people experience what He could do for them.” What caused the woman next to me to fall?
| A．The fire. |
| B．Fear. |
| C．The smoke. |
| D．Anxiety. |
The passengers failed to escape because ________.
| A．they didn’t find the way out |
| B．they were too frightened to move |
| C．the fire and smoke were too much |
| D．too many people were in their way |
What would the author most possibly do after he saw the exit from the tunnel?
| A．Going home. |
| B．Blaming himself. |
| C．Calling reporters. |
| D．Returning to help. |
Between which two paragraphs can the following paragraph be put?
I cried, “God, if it is not my time to die, please help me!” Then I heard a noise. It was like a door opening. It was on my right hand side. So in the dark, I at once began to push my way forward to where that noise came from.
| A．Between Paragraph 2 and 3. |
| B．Between Paragraph 3 and 4. |
| C．Between Paragraph 4 and 5. |
| D．Between Paragraph 5 and 6. |
I promised Michael I wouldn’t mention this until the season was over．Now l think it's time．
Early last season, I wrote a column about an art of kindness I had seen Jordan do to a disabled child outside the stadium．After it ran，I got 
a call from a marl in the western suburbs．He said，“I read what you wrote about Jordan．but I thought I should tell you another thing I saw．”
Here it comes, I thought. It always does. Write something nice about a person, and people call you up to say that the person is not so nice.
A few weeks later Jordan and I were talking about something else before a game, and I brought up what the man had said. Was the man right? Had Jordan really been talking to those two boys in that poor and dirty .neighborhood?
"Not two boys," Jordan said. "But four."
And he named them. He said four names. And what did they talk about?
"Everything,” Jordan said. " Anything. I’ve asked to see their grades so that I can check to see if they're paying attention to their study. If it turns out that one or two of them may need teaching, I make sure they get it."
It's just one more part of Michael Jordan's life one more thing that no one knows about, and one more thing Jordan does fight for. The NBA season is over now, and those boys have their memories. So do J! When the expert reviewers begin to tuna against Jordan as they surely will, I'll think about those boys under the streetlight, waiting for the man they know to come. For someone they can depend on.The writer wrote this story about Jordan and his young friends because _______
| A．he thought highly of Jordan's deeds |
| B．he hated to see Jordan do something bad |
| C．he believed it was time to help the disabled |
| D．he felt sure he needn't keep the promise then |
A man in the western suburbs
made a call to_______
| A．know why Jordan stopped in a bad area |
| B．get a chance to become famous himself |
C．let the writ er know Jordan was not that nice |
| D．offer an example to show how Jordan helped others |
Jordan talked with the boys because he _______.
| A．needed their support |
| B．had promised to do so |
| C．liked to teach them to play basketball |
| D．wanted to make sure they all studied well |
The text implies that Jordan is _______.
| A．an excellent basketball player |
| B．good at dealing with problems of life |
| C．always ready to make friends with young people |
| D．willing to do whatever he can for the good of society |
Violinprodigies (神童), I learned, have come in distinct waves from distinct regions. Most of the great performers of the late 19t
h and early 20th centuries were born and brought up in Russia and Eastern Europe. I asked Isaac Stern, one of the world’s greatest violinists the reason for this phenomenon. “It is very clear,” he told me. “They were allJews and Jews at the time were severely oppressed and ill-treated in that part of the world. They were not allowed into the professional fields, but they were allowed to achieve excellence on a concert stage.” As a result, every Jewish parent’s dream was to have a child in the 
music 
school because it was a passport to the West.
Another element in the emergence of prodigies, I found, is a society that values excellence in a certain field tonurture(培育) talent. Nowadays, the most nurturing societies seem to be in the Far East. “In Japan, a most competitive society, with stronger discipline than ours,” says Isaac Stern, children are ready to test their limits every day in many fields, including music. When Western music came to Japan after World War II, that music not only became part of their daily lives, but it became a discipline as well. The Koreans and Chinese as we know, are just as highly motivated as the Japanese.
That’s a good thing, because even prodigies must work hard. Next to hard work, biological inheritance plays an important role in the making of a prodigy. J. S. Bach, for example, was the top of several generations of musicians, and four of his sons had significant careers in music. Jewish parents in Eastern Europe longed for their children to attend music school because ________.
A. it 
would allow them access to a better life in the West
B. Jewish children are born with excellent musical talent
C. they wanted their children to enter into the professional field
D. it would enable the family to get better treatment in their own country（A） Nurturing societies as mentioned in the passage refer to societies that ________.
A. are highly motivated in the education of music
B. treasure talent and provide opportunities for its full development
C. encourage people to compete with each other
D. promise talented children high positions（B）Which of the following contributes to the emergence of musical prodigies according to the passage?
A. a natural gift. B. extensive knowledge of music.
C. very early training. D. a prejudice-free society.（A） Which of the following titles best summarizes the main idea of the passage?
| A．Jewish Contribution to Music | B．Training of Musicians in the World |
| C．Music and Society | D．The Making of Music Prodigies |
The rise of the so-called “boomerang generation” is revealed in official figures showing that almost one in five graduates in their late 20s now live with their parents.
By contrast, only one in eight university graduates had failed to fly the nest by the same age 20 years ago. It also found that grown-up sons are twice as likely as their sisters to still be living with their parents in their late 20s. With nearly a quarter of men approaching 30 still living at home, the findings are bound to lead to claims of a “generation of mummy’s boys”.
Young professionals in their late 20s or early 30s have been nicknamed the “boomerang generation” because of the trend toward returning to the family home having initially left to study. Recent research has suggested that young people in Britain are twice as likely to choose to live with their parents in their late 20s than their counterparts elsewhere in Europe.
Rising property prices, mounting student debts and the effects of recession on the job market have forced a wave of young people to move back into the family home at an age when they would normally be moving out. But commentators warned that the phenomenon may have more to do with young people facing “dire” prospects than simply a desire to save money.
While the proportion of those of university or college age moving out from the family home has continued to
rise in the last 20 years, among those in their mid and late 20s the trend has been reversed. Overall 1.7 million people aged from 22 to 29 now share a roof with their parents, including more than 760,000 in their late 20s. In 1988, 22.7 per cent of men aged 25 to 29 were still living with their parents bu
t last year the proportion was 24.5 per cent. What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．The economic crisis has shown its effect on the young generation. |
| B．More young professionals are returning home to live. |
| C．British parents are suffering more loads from their grown-up children. |
| D．Britain is suffering more than any other country in Europe. |
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Male children seem to more independent than females. |
B．Eighty percent of university graduates were able to live indepen den tly two decades ago. |
| C．The grown-up children choose to live with their parents only to save money. |
| D．More and more children are moving out at university age. |
What does the underlined word “dire” probably mean?
| A．promising. | B．inconvenient. | C．very bad. | D．hopeful |
The following factors may account for the phenomenon excep
t _____.
| A．that living prices have risen a lot. |
| B．that it’s difficult to land a job. |
| C．that education has already cost them a lot |
| D．that parents can help them more |
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