The Poetry Foundation recently named American poet Jack Prelutsky as the nation's first children's poet laureate (桂冠诗人). The group created the award as a way to increase children’s love of poetry.
As children's poet laureate, Jack Prelutsky will give two public readings in the next two years. He will also advise the Poetry Foundation about children's literature and take part in projects concerning children and poetry.
Jack Prelutsky has been writing poetry for children for almost forty years. He has written more than thirty-five books of poems. His first book was called /4 Gopher in the Garden. It was published in 1967. His latest is called Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems.
Prelutsky is well known for creating new words by combining two words to creat a new kind of creature. For example, he combined "radish" with "shark" to get "radishark", "Lion" and "broccoli" became "broccolion", He also created "umbrellaphant", a mixture of the words "umbrella" and "elephant".
Jack Prelutsky says that children like his poems because he writes about things they care about. Poetry researchers say that Jack Prelutsky's poems recognize children's feeling. An example of this is the poem My Sister Is a Werewolf which is about how it feels to be different.
Jack Prelutsky also writes poems about American holidays. His poem It's Halloween is a very famous one about the holiday celebrated at the end of October. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
| A．Poems with New Words Grow Popular |
| B．First Children's Poet Laureate Named |
| C．Children's Love for Poetry Increased |
| D．Jack Prelutsky Awarded Nationwide |
What is Jack Prelutsky famous for?
| A．Creating new words in his poems. |
| B．His productivity. |
| C．His long time of writing. |
| D．His poems about American holidays. |
Children are in favour of his poems because ______ .
| A．they are easy to understand |
| B．the poet is famous |
| C．children like reading new words |
| D．the poet understands their feelings |
Put the following items in right order according to the passage.
a. two public readings
b. A Gopher in the Garden
c. Behold the Bold Unbrellaphant and Other Poems
d. My Sister Is a Werewolf
| A．b-c-d-a | B．d-a-c-b |
| C．b-d-c-a | D．a-b-c-d |
Warm water freezes more quickly than cold water. Sir Francis Bacon said that almost four hundred years ago. But few people believed him until 1970. In that year a Canadian scientist George Kill proved the English professor was right. Dr Kill filled an open oil pail(桶) with cold water. He filled another with warm water. He put both in the same low temperature. The warm water froze first. The lack of covers on the pails is the secret. Some of the warm water changed into vapor. This meant that less of the warm water was left to be frozen. And so the warm water froze faster than the cold water even though it had a greater temperature drop to make.Hundreds of years ago, Sir Francis Bacon found _______.
| A．the temperature of warm water drops faster than that of cold water |
| B．warm water is heavier than cold water |
| C．warm water has the same temperature as cold water |
| D．warm water is not as useful as cold water |
What Sir Francis Bacon said was right, but people didn't believe him until _______.
| A．late in the 19th century | B．early in the 20th century |
| C．three years ago | D．late in the 20th century |
Leave a pail with warm water and another pail with cold water in the same low temperature, you’ll find that _______.
| A．cold water freezes first |
| B．warm water turns into ice before cold water |
| C．warm water and cold water freeze at the same time |
| D．much of cold water is changed into air. |
Why does warm water freeze first in the same freezing weather?
| A．Because some of the warm water turns to vapor, the amount(数量) becomes less than that of cold water. |
| B．Because warm water is lighter than cold water. |
| C．Because the temperature of warm water is lower than that of cold water. |
| D．Because cold water freezes with more difficulty than warm water. |
Thanksgiving Day is special holiday in the United States and Canada. Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessing.
Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival. This is why it is celebrated in late fall, after the crops are in. But one of the first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest. On December 4, 1619, the Pilgrims from England landed near what is now Charles City, Virginia. They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey across the Atlantic.
The first New England Thanksgiving did celebrate a rich harvest. The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. They had a difficult time and the first winter was cruel. Many of the Pilgrims died. But the next year, they had a good harvest. So Governor Bradford declared a three-day feast（盛宴）. The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for their special feast. Everyone brought food.
In time, other colonies（殖民地）began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But it took years before there was a national Thanksgiving Day. During the Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed（宣布）the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day of thanksgiving. Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their American neighbors. But the Canadian thanks-giving Day falls on the second Monday in October.Thanksgiving Day is celebrated .
| A．in spring | B．summer | C．in autumn | D．in winter |
The first to celebrate thanksgiving were .
| A．some people from England | B．the American Indians |
| C．Sarah Josepha Hale | D．Governor Bradford |
The passage mainly tells us .
A. how Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in the U. S. A.
B. how Thanksgiving Day came into being and the different ways it is celebrated
C. that Thanksgiving Day is in fact a harvest holiday
D. how the way to celebrate Thanksgiving Day changed with the time and places
I arrived at the bus station much too early for the London bus, which was not to leave until five to twelve. I pushed through the crowds, looking for somewhere to sit down. Scores of people were standing about, or struggling along with their bags and the cases to find the right lines. There was a party of school girls. I could see teachers trying to keep them in order. But there was nowhere for me to sit.
I stepped into the station buffet. I looked up at the clock there. It was only twenty to twelve. I found a seat opposite a large mirror on the wall. Just then a friend of mine called Jim came in and sat with me. "What time is your bus?" asked Jim. "Oh, there's a plenty of time yet," I answered. "Oh, I'll get some drinks then," said Jim. We talked while drinking. Then I looked at the clock again. "Good heavens! It's going backward!" I cried. "A moment ago it was twenty to twelve and now it's half past eleven." "You are looking at the clock in the mirror," said Jim. I could kick myself for being so stupid. I had not realized that the marks for one and eleven on the face of the clock were the same. The next bus was not to leave for another hour. I have never liked mirror since then. The writer went to the station buffet because ________.
| A．he was thirsty |
| B．he saw the station buffet was not so crowded |
| C．it was still early for his bus and he couldn't find a place to sit at the bus station |
| D．he had changed his mind; he wouldn't go to London |
The writer sat ________.
| A．behind a mirror | B．facing a mirror |
| C．under a mirror | D．near a mirror |
Jim came to the station buffet at about ________.
| A．twenty to twelve | B．twenty past twelve |
| C．half past one | D．twenty past eleven |
What time was it when the writer looked at the clock again?
It was ________.
| A．half past eleven | B．twelve thirty |
| C．twelve twenty | D．eleven thirty |
The word “death” is a word many Chinese friends tell me I should not say aloud. They advise me to avoid the word because only speaking of it may bring ill fortune. I deeply believe, however, that to know how to live, we must also know how to die. The problem is how we talk about death.
Like everyone in Taiwan this week, I have had “Tomb Sweeping Day”. I am proud to be part of a people whose culture sends millions of families to cemeteries on this special day to share memories and endless love.
Today, eight days after the death of Pope John Paul II, millions of people of all backgrounds still grieve(悲痛) his passing away. He was a deeply human person who knew how to laugh and show emotions, a writer with a gift for words a leader who appealed to us by the sheer light of his love for life.
On the same day and only hours before the Holy Father left us, a friend of mine named Veronica McBride died of cancer in a small Wisconsin city. My friend Veronica was 52 years old. She was an attractive, humorous young woman who, as the saying goes, “never married”. She published several humor books with her mother, Mary McBride. She enjoyed traveling, and for years sent Christmas card photos of herself standing beside monuments or odd animals. She fought cancer for five years. She joked about her treatment keeping her pretty because it kept her thin, and told me she didn’t mind losing her hair because of chemo therapy. “I get to wear nice wigs!”
The last time I saw Veronica was when I visited her family on a sunny day in August in 2003. When she burst into the front door later and saw me in the living room, she ignored me completely in her hurry to hug her newest baby nephew, leaving me shaking my head in laughter at her.
As we look to the significance of the Holy Father and his life, surely we must also keep our eyes open to see the wonder and goodness in ordinary people who show us how to live and how to die.The purpose of the article is ___________.
| A．to memorize his friend Veronica |
| B．to talk about the significance of life and death |
| C．to teach us how to face life and death |
| D．to compare his friend and the Holy Father Pope John Paul II |
The underlined phrase “chemo therapy” in Paragraph 4 probably means ______.
| A．a medical treatment | B．a kind of cancer |
| C．a kind of medicine | D．the newest machine |
Why does the writer compare the Holly Father with his friend?
| A．Because they are both the persons he admires. |
| B．Because they have a lot in common. |
| C．Because he wants to show that ordinary people can be great as well. |
| D．Because he wants to memorize them both. |
From the phrase “burst into”, we can see that Veronica is ____________.
| A．brave | B．sportive | C．humorous | D．energetic |
Supermarket Morrisons today announced to launch an online shopping operation within two years in a move to catch up with its web-savvy rivals. The UK's fourth biggest supermarket said Morrisons.com would offer grocery and non-food products but would take time to build from zero.
As part of its online development, Morrisons - the only one of the "Big Four" grocers to have a significant internet business - revealed it had invested £32 million in a 10% stake of a New York-based online grocer. The announcement came as Morrisons posted a 13% increase in underlying pre-tax profits of £869 million in the year to January 30.
Morrisons is implementing a growth strategy which is focused on expanding its e-commerce business and moving into the convenience store market. It has earmarked £3 billion in investment over the next three years. The supermarket floated the idea of launching its own website last year and today is the first firm commitment to realising that goal.
Last month, the company took its first major step to launching an online operation with the acquisition of internet retailer Kiddicare for £70 million. The company said this move, along with the 10% "strategic" stake in American online grocer FreshDirect announced today, would help it launch its own website in the future. FreshDirect was launched in 2002 and serves 600,000 customers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. The deal will see Morrisons chief executive Dalton Philips join the company's board.
Morrisons also revealed it would open three convenience stores, around 3,000 sq ft in size, in July under the name M Local. The shops will be located in Morrisons' heartland in the north of England, in neighbourhoods around the M62 motorway. The company said the convenience business was the second-fastest growing part of the market. Rival models include Tesco Metro and Sainsburys Local.
FreshDirect severs 600,000 customers in .
| A．Connecticut | B．New Jersey | C．New York | D．certain states |
Which would help Morrisons launch its own wesbsite in the future?
| A．Taking measures to beat its rivals as quickly as it could |
| B．Offering enough grocery and non-food products from zero |
| C．Building more convenience stores and market in the United States |
| D．Launching an online operation with the acquisition of interest retailer |
Which of the following would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Morrisons Has Many Business Rvials |
| B．Morrisons Will Launch an Online Operation |
| C．Morrisons Switches to Run Online Shopping |
| D．Morrisons Wants to Establish Branches |
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