Hey, mom, I want you to stop dropping me off at the airport for some trip that I am about to take and start becoming my seatmate. I want to travel with you---just you.
I want to explore a new place alongside a woman who raised me, who put up with my teenager anxiety and my rebellious (叛逆的) college years. I want to see my favorite cities with the lady who taught me basic life lessons, such as looking both ways before crossing the street, how to use a glue gun, and that the most important thing in the world is to help others.
I always appreciated the vacations you planned for our family. I also remember how you watched me as I read The Great Gatsby on the balcony at midday. I wonder if you felt proud of me. These days, I am sick of traveling to places with wishy-washy(无主见的) friends. I want to travel with a strong woman who can see how capable I am of learning to speak French or hiking on a glacier or eating something as unpleasant-smelling fruit.
Now I want you to see how much I grow up while abroad---I’m a different person, Mom. And I know you’d be different too. I know that someone has shared a similar burst of emotion while diving into Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for the first time.
So what do you say, Mom? Will you throw responsibility to the wind? I want to travel with you. Let’s just go---we can go anywhere in the world, just you and I. You can pick the place, and I will do the rest.
Love,
KatkaWhich life lesson does Katka think the most valuable?
| A． Exploring a new place alongside her mother. |
| B． Visiting favorite cities with her mother. |
| C． Looking both ways when crossing the street. |
| D． Offering help to others when it’s possible. |
What do the underlined words in Paragraph 5 mean?
| A． Keep my promise. |
| B． Take care of me. |
| C． Bear much responsibility. |
| D． Have a break from work. |
What’s the daughter’s purpose of writing this letter?
| A． To thank her mother for all she has sacrificed for her. |
| B． To invite her mother to see the world together. |
| C． To recall her childhood with her mother. |
| D． To show her mother how talented she is. |
He was the baby with no name. Found and taken from the north Atlantic 6 days after the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, his tiny body so moved the salvage workers that they called him "Our baby". In their home port of Halifax, Nova Scotia, people collected money for a headstone in front of the baby's grave, carved with the words: “To the memory of an unknown child.” He has rested there ever since.
But history has a way of uncovering its secrets. On November 5 , this year, three members of a family from Finland arrived at Halifax and laid fresh flowers at the grave. "This is our baby," says Magda Schleifer,68,a banker. She grew up hearing stories about a great-aunt named Maria Panula, 42, who had sailed on the Titanic for America to be reunited with her husband. According to the information Mrs Schleifer had gathered, Panula gave up her seat on a lifeboat to search for her five children----including a 13-month-old boy named Eino--from whom she had become separated during the final minutes of the crossing. "We thought they were all lost in the sea." says Schleifer.
Now, using teeth and bone pieces taken from the baby's grave, scientists have compared the DNA from the Unknown Child with those collected from members of five families who lost relatives on the Titanic and never recovered the bodies. The result of the test points only to one possible person: young Eino. Now the family see no need for a new grave. "he belongs to the people of Halifax," says Schleifer. “ They've taken care of him for 90 years.”
Adapted from people,November 25 ,2002 The baby traveled on the Titanic with his________.
| A．mother | B．parents | C．aunt | D．relatives |
What is probably the boy's last name?
| A．Schleifer | B．Eino | C．Magad | D．Panula |
Some members of the family went to Halifax and put flowers at the child'grave on November 5 ,_____.
| A．1912 | B．1954 | C．2002 | D．2004 |
This text is mainly about how__________.
| A．the unknown baby'body was taken from the north Atlantic |
| B．the unknown baby was buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia |
| C．people found out who the unknown baby was |
| D．people took care of the unknown baby for 90 years |
The garden city was largely the invention of Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928). After immigrating from England to the USA, and an unsuccessful attempt to make a living as a farmer, he moved to Chicago, where he saw the reconstruction of the city after the disastrous(灾难性的) fire of 1871. In those days, it was nicknamed “the Garden City”, almost certainly the source of Howard’s name for his later building plan of towns. Returning to London, Howard developed his design in the 1880s and 1890s, drawing on ideas that were popular at the time, but creating a unique combination（结合） of designs.
The nineteenth-century poor city was in many ways a terrible place, dirty and crowded; but it offered economic and social opportunities. At the same time, the British countryside was in fact equally unattractive: though it promised fresh air and nature, it suffered from agricultural depression(萧条) and it offered neither enough work and wages, nor much social life. Howard’s idea was to combine the best of town and country in a new kind of settlement, the garden city. Howard’s idea was that a group of people should set up a company, borrowing money to establish a garden city in the depressed countryside; far enough from existing cities to make sure that the land was bought at the bottom price.
Garden cities would provide a central public open space, radial avenues and connecting industries. They would be surrounded by a much larger area of green belt, also owned by the company, containing not merely farms but also some industrial institutions. As more and more people moved in, the garden city would reach its planned limit-----Howard suggested 32,000 people; then, another would be started a short distance away. Thus, over time, there would develop a vast planned house collection, extending almost without limit; within it, each garden city would offer a wide rang of jobs and services, but each would also be connected to the others by a rapid transportation system, thus giving all the economic and social opportunities of a big city.How did Howard get the name for his building plan of garden cities?
| A．Through his observation of the country life. |
| B．Through the combination of different ideas. |
| C．By taking other people’s advice. |
| D．By using the nickname of the reconstructed Chicago. |
The underlined phrase “drawing on ”in Paragraph 1 probably means______.
| A．making use of | B．making comments on |
| C．giving an explanation of | D．giving a description of |
According to Howard, garden cities should be built______.
| A．as far as possible from existing cities |
| B．in the countryside where the land was cheap |
| C．in the countryside where agriculture was developed |
| D．near cities where employment opportunities already existed |
What can we learn about garden cities from the last paragraph?
| A．Their number would continue to rise |
| B．Each one would continue to become larger |
| C．People would live and work in the same place |
| D．Each one would contain a certain type of business |
What could be the best title for the passage?
| A．City and Countryside | B．The Invention of the Garden City |
| C．A New City in Chicago | D．A Famous Garden City in England |
They are the sort of friends who are so close they trust each other with their lives.If one falls, the other is there to catch him.
They are Wellman, whose legs were permanently injured nine years ago in a rock-climbing accident and Corbett, an experienced rock climber. Together, they climbed up Half Dome. the famous 2,000-foot rock in the Yosemite National park, through one of the most difficult routes(路线).
During the climb, Corbett took the lead, hit in the metal spikes (尖状物)that guided the ropes and climbed up. Then, after Wellman pulled himself up the rope, Corbett went down to remove the spikes and climbed up again. This process was repeated time and again, inch by inch, for 13 days Wellman’s job was not easy either. He got himself up the rope through upper body strength alone. In all, Wellman figured(计算) that he had done 5.000 pull-ups up the rope on the climb.
However, when the two men first met, they never talked about climbing. “He knew that was how I got injured.”Wellman said. Until one day Wellman decided that be wanted to climb again and they started training
Their climb of Half Dome was not all smooth. At one point, pieces of rock gave way, and Corbett dropped down quickly. Wellman locked their rope in place, stopping the fall at 20 feet. His quick action probably saved his friend’s life.
“Your partner can save your life—you can sane your partner’s life” Wellman said as the pair received congratulations from friends “there are real close tic.”Which of the following was a challenge for Corbett in climbing Half Dome?
| A．To climb up to remove the spikes. | B．To climb it twice. |
| C．To do 5,000 pall-ups up the rope. | D．To lock the rope in place. |
Why did the two men never talk about climbing when they first met?
| A．climbed was poorly trained. |
| B．Wellman had lost interest in climbing. |
| C．Corbett didn’t want to hurt Wellman. |
| D．Wellman hadn’t decided whether to climb again. |
What do we know about Wellman?
| A．He climbed Half Dome by himself. |
| B．He was disabled in a traffic accident. |
| C．He stopped rock-climbing for some time. |
| D．He was saved by Corbett during the climb. |
The main idea of the text is that.
| A．two heads are better than one. |
| B．friendship is precious in life |
| C．the disabled should never give up. |
| D．a man can be destroyed but cannot be defeated. |
As a professor at a large American university, there is a phrase that I hear often from students: “I’m only a 1050. ”The unlucky students are speaking of the score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT）, which is used to determine whether they will be admitted to the college or university of their choice, or even have a chance to get a higher education at all. The SAT score, whether it is 800, 1 100 or 1550, has becomes the focus at this time of their life.
It is obvious that if students value highly their test scores, then a great amount of their self-respect is put in the number. Students who perform poorly on the exam are left feeling that it is all over. The low test score, they think, will make it impossible for them to get into a good college. And without a degree from a prestigious university, they fear that many of life’s doors will remain forever closed.
According to a study done in the 1990s, the SAT is only a reliable indicator(指示物) of a student’s future performance in most cases. Interestingly, it becomes much more accurate when it is set together with other indicators——like a student’s high school grades. Even if standardized tests like the SAT could show a student’s academic proficiency（学业水平）,they will never be able to test things like confidence, efforts and willpower, and are unable to give us the full picture of a student’s potentialities（潜力）. This is not to suggest that we should stop using SAT scores in our college admission process. The SAT is an excellent test in many ways, and the score is still a useful means of testing students. However, it should be only one of many methods used. The purpose of the SAT is to test students’ .
| A．strong will | B．academic ability |
| C．full potentialities | D．confidence in school work |
Students’ self-respect is influenced by their .
| A．scores in the SAT | B．achievements in mathematic |
| C．job opportunities | D．money spent on education |
“A prestigious university” is most probably .
| A．a famous university | B．a technical university |
| C．a traditional university | D．an expensive university |
This passage is mainly about .
| A．how to prepare for the SAT | B．stress caused by the SAT |
| C．American higher education | D．the SAT and its effects |
Most people think that the older you get, the harder it is to learn a new language. That is, they believe that children learn more easily and efficiently than adults. Thus, at some point in our lives, maybe around age 12 or 13, we lose the ability to learn languages well. Is this idea a fact or myth(悬念)？
Is it true that children learn a foreign language more efficiently than adults? On the contrary, research studies suggest that the opposite may be true. One report, on 2,000 Danish children studying Swedish, concluded that the teenagers learned more, in less time, than the younger children. Another report, on Americans learning Russian, showed a direct improvement of ability over the age range tested; that is, the ability to learn increased as the age increased, from childhood to adulthood.
There are several possible explanations for these findings. For one thing, adults know more about the world and therefore are able to understand meanings more easily than children. Moreover, adults can use logical(逻辑的) thinking to help themselves see patterns in the language. Finally, adults have more self-discipline (self-control) than children.
All in all, it seems that the common idea that children are better language learners than adults may not be a fact, but a myth.The main idea of the passage is ____.
| A．teenagers are more difficult to teach |
| B．Danish teenagers can learn Swedish faster than younger children |
| C．adults are more logical than children |
| D．the ability to learn languages increases with age |
According to the passage, teenagers can learn a foreign language _____ than younger children.
| A．harder | B．more efficiently |
| C．more slowly | D．more carefully |
Which of the following possible explanations for older student’s better achievement is not mentioned in the above passage?
| A．Adults know more about the world. | B．Adults can use logical thinking |
| C．Adults have more self-discipline. | D．Adults can read better. |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号