题目内容
Each year, we celebrate many holidays here in America.
On January 1, we welcome the coming of a new year like many people in other countries. And we have another four holidays on the first day of a month: April Fool’s Day, May Day, Friendship Day (Aug.1) and Grandparents Day (Sep. 1).
The most important holiday for the young people comes in February. It is Valentine’s Day. Lots of boys give red roses to girls as a present.
People celebrate some holidays for their family members. We say thanks to our mother in May and celebrate Father’s Day in the following month. In November many people return home for Thanksgiving Day, so the whole family can stay together.
There are also some interesting holidays for children. For example, Halloween comes at the end of October. Children often play with pumpkin lanterns and put on all kinds of masks.
Of course, the most important festival is Christmas. After a year of work and study, people can enjoy a long holiday, eat big meals, and visit family and friends.【小题1】How many holidays do you know on the first day of a month in America?
| A．Four. | B．Five. |
| C．Seven. | D．Ten. |
【小题2】What is the most important holiday for the young people?| A．Thanksgiving Day. | B．Christmas Day. |
| C．Valentine’s Day. | D．New Year’s Day. |
【小题3】 From the reading we know that Father’s Day comes ___________.| A．in May | B．in April. |
| C．in June | D．in July |
【小题4】 Halloween is one of the interesting holidays for ___________.| A．children | B．mothers |
| C．girls | D．students |
【小题5】 Many people return home in November because they want to ___________.| A．enjoy a long holiday | B．stay with their family members |
| C．eat big meals with friends | D．spend Thanksgiving Day |
解析
 | News 1 Huang Heshan, a boy from Xinghua, has moved many people all over the country. Thanks to Huang Heshan, Yang Kangshao can go to school every day. Yang is disabled, but Huang Heshan carries him to school on his back. It’s eight years since he started to do that. They help each other. At school, Yang helps Huang with his study, too. Huang says that he feels happy when he can do something to help disabled people. |
 | News 2 In Jinan, Xiaoqing River is a good place for families to have fun. There are many green trees and the air is fresh. People can have different activities along the river. However, we can also find the waste bags and other rubbish everywhere. How can we get such bad environment? Now we are supposed to keep the park clean if we want to have a nice field trip. |
 | News 3 On March 25, more than four thousand people started to run along Quancheng Park. All the runners ran about 4.7 kilometers. They took part in the activity to lead a healthy life and show the spirit of the people in our city. After running, many runners signed their names on the flags. They called on all the people, old and young, to exercise more. |
| A．eighteen years | B．eighty years | C．eight months | D．eight years |
| A．throw the rubbish | B．find some waste bags |
| C．plant more trees | D．help keep the environment clean |
| A．cleaned the park | B．signed their names on the flags |
| C．ran about 4.7 kilometers | D．started to help disabled people |
| A．a newspaper | B．a novel | C．a TV play | D．a poster |
| A．Yang Kangshao has trouble with his eyes. |
| B．Yang Kangshao is better at study than Huang Heshan. |
| C．Xiaoqing River is very clean and beautiful. |
| D．Only young people took part in the running activity. |
On August 4, while a young man in Hangzhou was caught because of killing another young man with his car, a 17-year-old girl died because of the same reason in the same city. It’s reported that the driver was badly drunk.
Cars are more and more popular for more Chinese these days. And the numbers of car accidents are increasing. From 1994 to 2008, deaths because of drunk-driving increased 7.3%. In 2009, a total of 18,371 people were killed in car accidents because of drunk driving.
In the middle of August, there were some new rules to deal with the drunk drivers:
1. If a driver’s alcohol content(酒精含量) is 20mg per 100 ml of blood, he is regarded as a drunk driver.
2. If a driver’s alcohol content is 80mg per 100ml or more, he will be held(拘留) for 15 days and have their license revoked（吊销执照）for six months, and are given a fine（罚款） of 2,000 yuan.
The first weekend, 3,167 drivers were held because of high levels of alcohol in their blood.
So many people are calling for the law to deal with drunk drivers in order to make drivers understand that drunk drinking can make serious problems.
【小题1】The girl in Hangzhou died because the driver _________.
| A．was not careful enough | B．wanted to kill her |
| C．drank too much | D．was too old to see clearly |
| A．bigger than | B．smaller than | C．the same as | D．not the same as |
| A．be held for 15 days | B．have his license revoked for six months |
| C．be given a fine of 2,000 yuan. | D．A, B and C |
| A．in the school magazine | B．in a newspaper |
| C．in an advertisement | D．in a science book |
Street Ping Pong— Ping!
Do you like table tennis? If you had travelled to cities in the UK like London or Birmingham last summer, you might have seen one of the dozens of free tables that were there as part of a project （项目） called Ping!.
What is Ping!?
Ping！is a three-year table tennis project. It has been running since 2010 and this year, 2012, is the final year. The idea is to put free table tennis tables in eight different towns in the UK for four weeks during the summer. Each table comes with its own bats and balls and is free to play. You can find the tables outdoors.
What does Ping! hope to achieve?
It would be great if Ping！helped find a new Olympic table tennis star but what Ping! really hopes. to achieve is just to get people playing and having fun together."Putting a ping pong table on the street gives people a chance to connect with other people," said Meera Sodha, Ping! Project Manager.
One of the towns that took part in the project was Hull, a city in England. Forty-five tables were put into the city. Jakob Adamski, an ESOL student learning. English, said, "I really enjoyed playing table tennis in the park. It was also a good way for me to practise my English and meet people."
【小题1】When did the Ping! project start?
| A．Last summer. | B．Last winter. |
| C．In 2010. | D．In 2012. |
| A．Choosing table tennis stars. |
| B．Holding table tennis matches. |
| C．Teaching people how to .play table tennis. |
| D．Putting free table tennis tables in some towns. |
| A．to help people practise English |
| B．to invite people to visit the UK cities |
| C．to get people to play and have fun together. |
| D．to encourage people to take part in the 2012 0lympics |
Two Chinese spacecrafts successfully completed China’s first space docking (对接) early November 3, 2011, which has taken the country a step closer to building its own space station. 
Nearly two days after its launch, the unmanned spacecraft Shenzhou VIII docked with the space lab module Tiangong I more than 343 km above the earth surface. Shenzhou VIII and Tiangong I took apart after flying together for 12 days. On the 14th of November, the two spacecrafts finished the second docking. Then Shenzhou VIII parted from Tiangong I again and returned to the earth safely on the 17th. Tiangong I is still traveling around the earth in the space, waiting for the arrival of Shenzhou IX and X and so on in the near future.
That marked another great leap for China’s space program and made China the third country in the world, after the United States and Russia, master the space docking technique (空间对接技术).
The world’s first space docking was achieved in 1966, when the manned U.S, spacecraft Gemini 8 docked with an unmanned Agena Target Vehicle. Space docking is necessary to explore space beyond Earth’s orbit (轨道). “The capability increases China’s ability to act independently in space, as well as its ability to work together with others,” said Gregory Kulacki, a U.S. space scientist and senior analyst.
“With the success of its first space docking, China is now equipped with the basic technology and ability required for the construction of a space station,” said Zhou Jianping, chief designer of China’s manned space program.” The country is on its way to building a permanent manned space station around 2020.”
【小题1】What did the success of the first space docking mean to China?
| A．China has caught up with the United States in the space exploration field. |
| B．China took a step closer to building its own space station. |
| C．China became the first country to master the space docking technique. |
| D．China has the ability to build a permanent manned space station right now. |
| A．Shenzhou VIII |
| B．Tiangong I |
| C．The Space Station |
| D．The success of China’s first space docking |
| A．Tiangong I will fly in the space for 12 days. |
| B．The first space docking of the world was achieved in 1966, by Russians. |
| C．Without space docking technique people can’t explore space beyond Earth’s orbit. |
| D．The U.S.A helped China achieve the first space docking. |
| A．Shenzhou VIII docked with the space lab module Tiangong I on November 3, 2011 |
| B．Shenzhou VIII returned to the earth safely on November 17, 2011. |
| C．The USA , Russia and China have mastered the space docking technique |
| D．Tiangong I is still traveling around the earth, waiting for the arrival of Shenzhou IX and X around 2020. |
| A．The first space docking of China. |
| B．The history of space docking. |
| C．The first space docking of the world. |
| D．The space docking technique |
In the 1920s and 30s the airlines were just beginning. It was unusual for people to travel by air because it was expensive and dangerous. In those days, there were no flight attendants to look after the passengers(乘客). Young men ,or “stewards” helped the passengers onto the airplane and carried the passengers’ luggage(行李)but they did not provide food or drinks. But then in 1930,a woman called Ellen Church invented the “stewardess”.
Ellen Church was born in 1904 on a farm in Iowa. She was a different child. She didn’t want to work on a farm or marry a farmer —she wanted a more adventurous life. Ellen studied to be a nurse at the University of Minnesota and then got a job in a hospital. For the next few years she stayed at the hospital but also took flying lessons and got her pilot’s license.
Ellen was twenty-five years old when she first got in touch with Boeing Air Transport. She loved flying but she understood that airlines were a man’s world. Although women like Emelia Earheart were becoming famous, she realized it was impossible for a woman to have a career as a pilot .But she had another idea. Most people were frightened of flying because. flying was still an unreliable(不可靠的) way to travel. There were often delays(延误),many crashes and the bad weathers made many passengers sick. Ellen thought nurses could take care of passengers during flights and B.A.T. agreed.
The young woman from Iowa and seven other nurses became the first air stewardesses.
At first pilots were unhappy because they did not want stewardesses on airplanes, but passengers loved the stewardesses. In 1940 there were around 1000 of them working for different airlines. The early “stewardesses” had to be under twenty-five-year-old, single and slim. When a woman joined an airline, she had to promise not to get married or have children. It was a hard job and not well paid. They worked long hours and earned ＄1 an hour.
In the 1970s, stewardesses were unhappy in their job and airlines had to make some changes. Since the 1970s, “stewardesses” have been called flight attendants. They are well paid and work fewer hours than in the past.
【小题1】The underlined word “adventurous” means _____________.
| A．奇怪的 | B．平淡的 | C．有趣的 | D．冒险的 |
| A．her flying experience | B．her university education |
| C．her nursing experience | D．her life attitudes |
| A．be a nurse | B．be married | C．be a mother | D．be young |
| A．the background of early flying pilots |
| B．the experience of flying passengers |
| C．the history of early flight attendants |
| D．the development of airplanes |
Give this memory test a try. Mix up 52 playing cards. Now look at the top seven for a second. Can you remember them in order?
Players at the World Memory Championships can. In fact, the 2002 champion (冠军), Andi, memorized the order of 1196 cards after looking at them for only an hour! And a German girl, Lara, only ten years old, memorized 75 faces and names in fifteen minutes!
In 1987, a Japanese man, Mr. Tomoyori, wanted to prove that his memory was the best in the world by remembering by heart pi (π), a number in math which starts 3.14159…This number never repeats itself or ends. He recited pi to 40,000 decimal places (小数位). It took the fifty-five-year-old man more than twelve hours to say the numbers, but he did it without making a mistake!
To remember pi, Mr. Tomoyori connected each number with a sound. He then made up stories to help him remember the words he made from the sounds. In an interview after his achievement, he said, “I decided to go ahead and memorize the value of pi up to one thousand places. But it wasn’t easy – in fact, it took me three years. To get to 40,000 decimal places it took me about ten years.”
Unluckily for Mr. Tomoyori, his record was broken in 1995, when another Japanese man, Mr. Goto, memorized pi to 42,195 places.
【小题1】Why was Lara’s success special?
| A．She was just a little girl. | B．She was the 2002 champion. |
| C．She was from Germany. | D．She remembered more words. |
| A．He found pi easy to remember. |
| B．His memory was the best in the world. |
| C．He used stories to help remember words. |
| D．He only made one mistake while saying pi. |
| A．Andi. | B．Lara. | C．Mr. Goto. | D．Mr. Tomoyori. |
In a small village in England about 150 years ago, a mail coach (邮车) was standing on the street. Around the coach many people were talking to one another about it. Mail coach did not come to that village so often in those days. People had to pay a lot of money to get a letter. The person who sent the letter did not have to pay. The person who got the letter had to pay the postage (邮资). “Here?s a letter for Miss Alice Brown,” said the mailman. Everyone turned to a girl of about eighteen who was standing by the coach. “I?m Alice Brown,” she said in a low voice. The mailman gave her the letter. Alice looked at the envelope for a minute, and then handed it back to the mailman. “I’m sorry I can?t take it,” she said. “I don?t have enough money to pay the postage. ” The people standing around were very sorry for the girl. They were silent for a while. Then a gentleman came up to the mailman and paid the postage for Alice’s letter. When the gentleman gave her the letter, she said with a smile, “Oh, thank you very much, sir. This letter is from the young man I’m going to marry. His name is Tom. He went to London to look for work. He has to get enough money for our marriage (结婚). I’ve waited a long time for this letter, but now don’t need it. I don’t have to open the envelope because there is nothing inside. ” “Really?” the gentleman said in surprise. “How do you know that?” “He told me that he would put some signs on the envelope. Look, sir, this cross in the corner means that he is well, and this circle means he has found work. That’s very good news. ” The gentleman was Sir Rowland Hill. He did not forget Alice and her letter. “The postage to be paid by the receiver has to be changed,” he said to himself. He thought and thought for many years. At last he had a good plan. “The postage has to be much lower,” he said. “What about a penny (便士) for a letter? And the person who sends the letter pays the postage. He has to buy a stamp and put it on the envelope. ” “A good idea!” people said when they heard of his plan. The Government decided to adopt (采纳) the plan. The first postage stamp was put out in 1840. It was called the “Penny Black”. It had a picture of the Queen on it.
【小题1】The first postage stamp was made ________.
| A．in England | B．in America | C．by Alice | D．in 1910 |
| A．she did not know whose letter it was |
| B．the letter had already told her what she wanted to know |
| C．she could not pay the postage |
| D．the gentleman promised to pay the postage for her |
| A．the people around her felt sorry for her |
| B．the people thought that the girl was too poor |
| C．none of them wanted to pay the postage for her |
| D．the people was angry with the girl |
| A．Tom had told her what the signs meant before leaving for London |
| B．Alice was clever and could guess the meaning of the signs |
| C．Alice had put the signs on the envelope herself |
| D．Tom had put the signs as Alice had told him to |
| A．the government | B．Sir Rowland Hill | C．Alice Brown | D．Tom |
The willful blindness in hockey toward concussions (头部撞击) has dropped. Hockey Canada has followed the lead of USA Hockey in preventing bodychecking (身体拦截) below age 13. A bad head injury of Sidney Crosby, the hockey's greatest star, opened the eyes of hockey people everywhere. This country's children have been facing similar danger at early ages, and Hockey Canada had to deal with a deep worry in the minds of Canadians to make the rule change. The liking for bodychecking from an early age is part of what makes Canadian hockey what it is.
The change in rules should be taken as a chance to draw special attention to skill development in an environment free of danger. It may also control the loss of thousands of young players who don't enjoy that environment.
For years, many Canadian hockey parents and coaches have insisted that bodychecking at early ages is necessary to ensure that players can do it safely at older ages. True or not, there may be a safer way to teach hitting than to make younger players pay a price for it in head injuries. When USA Hockey changed its rules for the 2011-2012 season, it also created bodychecking-education programs that will be mandatory(强制的) for all coaches, including those teaching players in the pre-checking ages. And it began to encourage more "touch" - without real bodychecking - from 9 t0 12. It also made the rules for 13 and up stricter. The USA is trying to show that it's possible to teach hockey protective skills without putting11 and 12-year-olds in greater danger. It's worth the try.
Hockey Canada has taken serious steps to do away with hits on the head. However, it's hard to change a sports culture so connected with who we are as a country. Too often, bodychecking has been used to try to separate a player from his head rather than from the ball. Children were paying a price for this country's love of the game.
There are always changes in Canada's game, and the change in the bodychecking age sends the clearest message yet to coaches and parents that player safety is paramount(至上的) in the game.
【小题1】We can tell that the problem of bodychecking in Canada____________.
| A．is controlled strictly |
| B．is taken more seriously now |
| C．is caused by players' carelessness |
| D．is connected with players' interest |
| A．The safe ways of controlling the loss. |
| B．The steps of drawing special attention. |
| C．The possible results of changing the rules. |
| D．The methods of improving the environment. |
A. The USA found a safer way to teach bodychecking.
B. Bodychecking-education programs in the USA are successful.
C. Bodychecking is a good way to value players' skills in the USA.
D. The USA has tried to create an environment of less bodychecking.
【小题4】What is probably the best title' for this passage?
| A．Which is more important? |
| B．How do we change the rules? |
| C．Why is hockey a dangerous game? |
| D．When should bodychecking be prevented? |