When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground. I was living in Conyers, Georgia the summer it all happened. I was a second grader, but my best friend Stephanie was only in the first grade. Both of our parents were at work and most of the time they let us go our own way.
It was a hot afternoon and we decided to have an adventure in Stephanie's basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs, and spotted a red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.
"Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are fixing to paint. " She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted big stripes (条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was wonderful!
The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn't wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother's face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.
My mother shut the car door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, "What in the world were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors' trees, but this! Come inside right now !" I stood there glaring back at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art.
"Now go clean it up!" Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.
Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need some sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful. What did the writer want to do when his mother came home?
| A．To introduce Stephanie to her. |
| B．To prevent her from seeing his painting. |
| C．To put the materials back in the yard. |
| D．To show his artwork to her. |
In his mother's eyes, the writer ____________.
| A．was a born artist |
| B．always caused trouble |
| C．was a problem solver |
| D．worked very hard |
The underlined word “rainbow” in the last paragraph refers to_________.
| A．the rainbow in the sky |
| B．the stripes on the pavement |
| C．something imaginative and fun |
| D．important lessons learned in childhood |
It can be learned from the passage that parents should .
| A．encourage children to paint |
| B．value friendship among children |
| C．discover the hidden talent in children |
| D．protect rather than destroy children's dreams |
Global warming threatens to hold back human progress, and make unachievable all UN targets to reduce poverty, according to some of the world’s leading international development groups.
In a report published today, Oxfam, Greenpeace, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, WWF and 15 other groups say rich governments must immediately address climate change to avoid even “unbearable levels” of worldwide poverty.
“Food production, water supplies, public health and people’s living environment are already being damaged,” the report says. “The world must meet its promise to achieve poverty reduction and also deal with climate change.”
The report, which draws on UN predictions of the effects of climate change in poor countries over the next 50 years, says poor countries will experience more flooding, declining food production, more disease and the worsening or disappearing of entire ecosystems on which many of the world’s poorest people depend.
“Climate change needs to be addressed now. The poor will bear the burden of it. The frontline experience of many of us working in international development indicates that communities are having to fight against more extreme weather conditions.”
Climate change will play havoc (浩劫) with agriculture and water supplies and will increase diseases. “By 2025 the proportion of the world’s population living in countries of great water stress will almost double, to 6 billion people. Tropical and sub-tropical areas will be hardest hit — those countries already suffering from food shortage”.
Poor countries mostly do not need high-tech solutions, but would most benefit from education, research and being shown how to farm better. The report says unchecked global warming, more than wars or political confusion, will displace millions of people and destabilize (不安定) many countries.Who should play a leading role in resisting the more extreme weather conditions?
| A．International groups. |
| B．Rich countries. |
| C．Poor countries. |
| D．Tropical and sub-tropical countries. |
Which of the following is not true according to the text?
| A．Poverty and climate change are closely linked. |
| B．More and more people will suffer from the water stress and food shortage. |
| C．What the poor countries need badly is high technology. |
| D．International communities have to take steps to resist the bad climate. |
What is the best title of the passage?
| A．International Development Brings in Climate Change |
| B．Global Warming Is a Bigger Threat to the Poor |
| C．International Groups Work Together to Reduce Poverty |
| D．Worldwide Poverty Shall Be Avoided |
“The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” says Plato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in to his impulses (冲动) and feelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral freedom.
A single angry word has lost many friends. When Socrates found in himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order to control himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut so that you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in great anger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease. “Whoever the gods would destroy they first make them mad.” “Keep cool,” says Webster, “anger is not argument.” “Be calm in arguing,” says George Herbert, “for fierceness (狂怒) makes error a fault.”
To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strong yourself. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “begins with foolishness and ends with regret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he conquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.
Self-control is man’s last and greatest victory.
If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have no self-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lacking too. What’s the main idea of the passage?
| A．Self- control is important for a man. |
| B．We should learn to be strong. |
| C．A man who keeps cool won’t lose any game. |
| D．The great heroes in history knew how to control themselves. |
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．If you are mad, the gods will kill you. |
| B．If you lose your temper first, gods will kill you first. |
| C．If you can’t control yourself, you will be crazy. |
| D．If the gods want to kill you, they will make you mad first. |
Which of the following is NOT true, according to passage?
| A．The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself. |
| B．You will make a small mistake serious if you don’t keep cool. |
| C．You must measure a man’s strength by the power of the feelings which conquer him. |
| D．Anger begins with foolishness and ends with regret. |
Which of the following can’t help you avoid anger, according to the passage?
| A．Being calm in arguing. |
| B．Checking your temper or anger by speaking low. |
| C．Keeping your mouth shut. |
| D．Trying to make the other angry first. |
Even before my father left us, my mother had to go back to work to support our family. Once I came out of the kitchen, complaining, “Mom, I can’t peel potatoes. I have only one hand.”
Mom never looked up from sewing. “You get yourself into that kitchen and peel those potatoes,” she told me. “And don’t ever use that as an excuse for anything again!”
In the second grade, our teacher lined up my class on the playground and had each of us race across the monkey bars, swinging from one high steel rod to the next. When it was my turn, I shook my head. Some kids behind me laughed, and I went home crying.
That night I told Mom about it. She hugged me, and I saw her “we’ll see about that” look. The next afternoon, she took me back to school. At the deserted playground, Mom looked carefully at the bars.
“Now, pull up with your right arm,” she advised. She stood by as I struggled to lift myself with my right hand until I could hold the bar with my other elbow （肘）. Day after day we practiced, and she praised me for every rung （横档）I reached. I’ll never forget the next time, crossing the rungs, I looked down at the kids who were standing with their mouths open.
One night, after a dance at my new junior high, I lay in bed sobbing. I could hear Mom come into my room. “Mom,” I said, weeping, “none of the boys would dance with me.”
For a long time, I didn’t hear anything. Then she said, “Oh, honey, someday you’ll be beating those boys off with a bat.” Her voice was faint. I peeked out from my covers to see tears running down her cheeks. Then I knew how much she suffered on my behalf. She had never let me see her tears. Which can be used to describe Mom’s attitude when she made the child peel potatoes?
| A．Cruel. | B．Favourable. | C．Strict. | D．Sympathetic. |
From the passage, we know monkey bars can help a child train ______.
| A．the strength and skill to hang and sway |
| B．the speed of one’s hand movement |
| C．the skill to throw and catch things |
| D．the bodily skill to rotate round a bar |
What does the sentence “I saw her ‘we’ll see about that’ look” imply?
| A．Mom believed every aim could be achieved if you stuck to it. |
| B．The race across monkey bars was not difficult enough for a child to give up. |
| C．Mom was determined to prove she herself was better than the teacher. |
| D．What the child had said brought Mom great attraction and curiosity. |
When the author looked down at the kids, they were standing with their mouths open because
_______.
| A．they felt sorry for what they had done before |
| B．they were afraid the author might fall off and get hurt |
| C．they wanted to see what the author would do on the bars |
| D．they were astonished to find the author’s progress |
The most probable conclusion we can draw after reading the passage is ______.
| A．the last incident was sad enough to make Mom weep |
| B．the child’s experience reminded Mom of that of her own |
| C．Mom could solve any problem except the one in the last paragraph |
| D．in fact Mom suffered more in the process of the child’s growth |
Bill Javis took over our village’s news-agency at a time of life when most of us only wanted to relax. He just thought he would like something but not too much to do, and the news-agency was ready-made. The business produced little enough for him, but Bill was a man who only wanted the simplicity and order and regularity of the job. He had been a long-serving sailor, and all his life had done everything by the clock.
Every day he opened his shop at 6:00 a. m. to catch the early trade; the papers arrived on his doorstep before that. Many of Bill’s customers were city workers, and the shop was convenient for the station. Business was tailing off by 10 o’clock, so at eleven sharp Bill closed for lunch. It was hard luck on anybody who wanted a paper or magazine in the afternoon, for most likely Bill would be down on the river bank, fishing, and his nearest competitor was five kilometers away. Sometimes in the afternoon, the evening paper landed on the doorway, and at 4 o’clock Bill reopened his shop. The evening rush lasted till seven, and it was worthwhile.
He lived in a flat above the shop, alone. Except in the very bad weather, you always knew where to find him in the afternoon, as I have said. Once, on a sunny afternoon, I walked home along the river bank from a shopping trip to the village. By my watch it was three minutes past four, so I was astonished to see Bill sitting there on his little chair with a line in the water. He had no luck, I could see, but he was making no effort to move.
“What’s wrong, Bill?” I called out from the path.
For answer, he put a hand in his jacket and took out a big, golden object. For a moment I had no idea what it could be, and then it suddenly went off with a noise like a fire engine. Stopping the bell, Bill held the thing up and called back, “Ten to four, you see, and this is dead right.”
I had never known anyone carrying a brass alarm clock round with him before.Bill Javis became a news-agent when _______.
| A．he needed the money |
| B．he was quite an old man |
| C．he decided to take up fishing |
| D．he gave up clock-repairing |
Bill opened the shop so early in the day because _______.
| A．he liked to do as much as possible before he went to work |
| B．the shop had to be open when the morning papers came |
| C．he was never sure of time |
| D．it was then that he did a lot of business |
From the information given in the passage, who or what do you think was wrong?
| A．The bell was－it must have gone off at the wrong time. |
| B．Bill was－he had dropped off to sleep. |
| C．The writer’s watch was－it was fast. |
| D．Bill’s clock was－it was old. |
Have you ever heard the old saying, “Never judge a book by its cover.”? This is a good rule to follow when trying to judge the intelligence of others. Some people have minds that shine only in certain situations. A young man with an unusual gift in writing may find himself speechless before a pretty girl when he speaks. He may not be able to find the right words. But don’t make the mistake of thinking him stupid. With a pen and paper, he can express himself better than anybody else.
Other people may fool you into overestimating(过高估计) their intelligence by putting up a good front. A student who listens attentively and takes notes in class is bound to (一定会) make a favorable impression on his teachers. But when it comes to exams, he may score near the bottom of the class.
In a word, you can’t judge someone by appearance. The only way to determine a person’s intelligence is to get to know him. Then you can see how he reacts to different situations. The more situations you see, the better your judgment is likely to be. So take your time. Don’t judge a book by its cover. The passage suggests that ______.
| A．a good writer may not be a good speaker |
| B．a good writer is always a good speaker |
| C．a speechless person always writes well |
| D．a good writer will find himself speechless |
According to this passage, a student who listens attentively and takes notes in class
______________.
| A．is an intelligent student |
| B．may not be an intelligent student |
| C．will score better in exams |
| D．will not be a good student |
The passage suggests that we should judge a person’s intelligence through ______.
A. his teachers B,his deeds in the classroom
C. his appearance D. his reactions to different situations The writer of this passage wants to tell us not to______.
| A．judge a book by its cover |
| B．make the mistake of thinking a young man stupid |
| C．overestimate a student’s intelligence |
| D．judge a person’s intelligence by his appearance |
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