On May 29, 1973, Thomas Bradley, a black man, was elected mayor of Los Angeles. Los Angeles is the third largest city in the United States, with a population of three million. About sixteen percent of the city’s population are black.

News of this election appeared on the front pages of newspapers everywhere in the United States. Here is how one major newspaper reported the event:

LOS ANGELES ELECTS BRADLEY MAYOR UNSEATING YORTYBLACK WINS 56% OF VOTES

Bradley called his victory over Yorty “the fulfillment (实现) of a dream”. During his childhood and youth, people had kept telling him, “You can’t do this, you can’t go there, because you are a Negro.” Nevertheless he had won a decisive victory over a man who had been won 43.7 percent.

Los Angeles voters have had many opportunities to judge. Thomas Bradley had to form an opinion of him. The son of a poor farmer Texas, he joined the Los Angeles police force in 1940. During his twenty-one years on the police force he earned a law degree by attending school at night. He was elected to the city council (市政厅) ten years ago.

At the time of the Los Angeles election, three other American cities already had black mayors, but none of those cities had as large a population as Los Angeles. Besides, the percentage of blacks in those other cities was much larger. Cleveland, Ohio, had thirty-six percent black when Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland in 1967. In the same year Richard Hatcher was elected mayor of Cary. In Newark, New Jersey, sixty percent of the population were black when Kenneth Gibson was elected in 1970. Thus election of a black mayor in those cities was not very surprising.

In Los Angeles thousands of white citizens voted for Thomas Bradley because they believed he would be a better mayor than the white candidate(候选人). Bradley had spent forty-eight of his fifty-five years in Los Angeles. Four years ago Bradley lost mayoral election to Yorty. This time Bradley won.

In the author’s opinion, it was surprising that _______.

A. the whites would vote for a black mayor

B. a black mayor would be elected in such a large city

C. a black from a poor farmer’s family could be elected mayor of Los Angeles

D. there would be so many black mayors

From the passage we can infer that people ________.

A. voted for Bradley because of his black color

B. didn’t care much about his color when they voted

C. voted for him to give a chance to fulfill his dream

D. voted for Bradley because they trust him

Bradley hit the front page headline for _______.

A. he was the first black mayor in history

B. he was the first black mayor in the south of USA

C. he was the first black mayor of one of the largest cities in USA

D. a poor farmer’s son could also win an important election

From Bradley’s victory in the election we can see that ________.

A. blacks had equal rights as whites in the USA

B. black people’s situation began to be improving much more than before

C. one can be successful through hard work in the USA no matter what color he is

D. it is certain that someday the USA will have a black president

Dreams are expressions of thoughts, feelings and events that pass through our mind while we are sleeping. Everybody dreams. But only some people remember their dreams. Our dreams often include all the senses (感觉)—smells, sounds, sights, tastes and things we touch. We dream in colour. Sometimes we dream the same dream over and over again. These repeated(重复的) dreams are often unpleasant. They may even be nightmares—bad dreams that frighten us.

     Early in the twentieth century, two famous scientists developed their personal ideas about dreams. Austrian psychiatrist(心里学家) Sigmund Freud published a book called “The Interpretation(诠释) of Dreams” in 1900. Freud believed people often dream about things they want but can’t have. These dreams often have something to do with sex and aggression(侵犯). Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung worked closely with Freud for several years, but he believed dreams could help people grow and understand themselves. He believed dreams provide solutions(解答) to problems we face when we are awake. He didn’t believe dreams hide our feelings about sex or aggression. Today we know more about the science of dreaming because researchers can take pictures of people’s brains while they are sleeping.

     Other researchers are studying how dreaming helps our bodies work with problems and very sad emotions(感情). Robert Stickgold is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University in Massachusetts. Doctor Stickgold says that when we dream, the brain is trying to make sense of the world. He does not agree with Sigmund Freud that dreaming is the way we express our hidden feelings and desires(愿望).

     Scientists believe it is important to keep researching dreams. Doctor Stickgold says it has been more than one hundred years since Sigmund Freud published his important book about dreaming. Yet there is still no agreement on exactly how the brain works when we are dreaming or why we dream.

46. Dreams _________. 

A. are remembered by everyone

B. express all that we think in our mind

C. include few senses and things we touch

D. are sometimes nightmares(恶梦) that repeat and frighten us

47. A book on dreaming was published by _________.

A. Sigmund Freud     B. Robert Stickgold    C. Carl Jung   D. the writer

48. In the passage, all the psychiatrists _________.

A. believe dreams can help people understand all the problems that they face

B. think dreams always hide someone’s feelings about sex or aggression

C. study dream and dreaming and have their own ideas

D. have the same idea that people often dream about the things they want

49. From the passage, we know that _________.

A. Jung thought that dreams provide solutions to problems we face when we are sleeping

B. Freud developed the idea that dreams are expressions of people’s hidden feelings

C. scientists have known quite well why we dream because they can take pictures of our brains

D. other researchers have discovered how dreaming helps our bodies work with problems and very sad emotions

50.Which would be the best title(标题) for the passage?

A. The Explanations of Dreams         B. The Ways of Dreams

C. The Solutions to Dreams             D. The Mystery(奥秘) of Dreams and Dreaming

    I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the

easy carelessness of  youth. But the words, Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years

later, and ever since have been of great value to me.

Carl Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.

"Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?"

"I try to."

"Well, don't," he exclaimed. "When you grow up, time won't come in long stretches.    Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks. Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life."

When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings. For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time. Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said. During the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript ready for revision, later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal method. Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were idle moments which could be caught and put to use. I even took up piano--playing again, finding that the small intervals of the day provided sufficient time for both writing and piano practice.

There is an important trick in this time--using formula: you must get into your work quickly. If you have but five minutes for writing, you can't afford to waste four chewing your pencil. You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes. Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.

I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter has had a tremendous influence on my life. To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I plunge(投入)in without delay.

56.The meaning of “stretch” in the underlined part is the same as that in sentence “        ”.

      A.The forests in the north of the province stretch for hundreds of miles.

       B.Bob worked as a government official for a stretch of over twenty years.

       C.My family wasn’t wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.

       D.During his senior year his earnings far enough to buy an old car.

57.Which of the following statements is true?

  A.The writer didn’t completely take the teacher’s words to heart at first.

  B.Carl Walter has had a great influence on the writer's life since he became a student.

  C.The writer owes great thanks to his teacher for teaching him to work in long stretches.

  D.Rapid concentration is actually more difficult than most people imagine.

58.We can infer that the writer             

       A.has new books published each year however busy his teaching is

      B.is always tired of interruptions in life because his teaching schedule is always heavy

      C.has formed a bad habit of chewing a pencil while writing his novels

       D.can find sufficient time for mental preparations beforehand, so he's devoted to work   instantly

59.What is the best title of this passage?

       A.Concentrate on Your Work           B.A Little at a Time

       C.How I Became a Writer           D.Good Advice Is Most Valuable

When I asked my daughter which item she would keep; the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said “the phone”. Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual. Because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.
Point 1 The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?
Point 2 The mobile phone means that we are never alone. “The mobile saved my life,” says Crystal Johnstone. She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance(救护车) to her rescue.
Point 3 The mobile removes our secret. It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are , where they are going, and how their last meeting went.
Point 4 The telephone separates us. Antonella Bramante in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window. It was easy to get his number. We were so near——but we didn’t meet for the first two weeks!”
Point 5 The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives. Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously ( 同时地) on chat lines (at least my daughter does. I wouldn’t know what to talk about). We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts (if you know any) while they’re space-walking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access(存取) the Internet, the biggest library on Earth.
【小题1】How do you understand Point 1 —The telephone creates the need to communicate ?

A.People don’t communicate without telephone.
B.People communicate because of the creating of the telephone.
C.People communicate more since telephone has been created.
D.People communicate more because of more traffic.
【小题2】Which of the following best shows people’s attitude towards mobile phones?
A.Mobile phones help people deal with the emergency.
B.Mobile phones bring convenience as well as little secret to people.
C.Mobile phones are so important and should be encouraged.
D.Mobile phones are part of people’s life.
【小题3】 Which points do you think support the idea that phones improve people’s life?
a. Point 1. b. Point2. c. Point3. d. Point 4. e. Point 5.
A.c, dB.a, eC.a, cD.b, e
【小题4】It is possible to talk to several complete strangers simultaneously through         .
A.the TV screenB.a fax machine
C.the phone line hooked up to the computerD.a microphone
【小题5】The best heading for the passage is             .
A.Phone Power B.Kinds of Phone
C.How to Use Phones D.Advantage of Phones


I am a music store owner. One day, when I was cleaning the instruments in my store, I saw an old man come in. His short steps dragged on the carpet. “Is 77 too old to learn the banjo (班卓琴)?”  he asked.
“You can learn to play it well,” I replied, holding back my doubts. My mind told me I was giving false encouragement. I reached the instructor’s schedule and gave the rates, the available time and the additional information that he would need. To my surprise and delight, the old man, Carl, began banjo lessons three days later with my most patient teacher.
With nothing to do at home but practice, Carl made surprising progress. After breakfast he practiced for his required half hour. While waiting for lunch he picked up his banjo again for just a couple of minutes. Since TV was difficult for him to see and hear, he often played the banjo in the evenings. Carl was always early for lessons so it was a surprise that he didn’t arrive one Tuesday.
The next morning I listened to the answering machine with sadness. “Carl’s in hospital,” the voice recorded.
Two months later, I shared the newspaper obituary with the banjo teacher. We both shed tears for a surprisingly clever banjo student.
Several months later, a woman came into the store carrying a plant. “This is for Carl’s banjo teacher,” she said. “I’m his wife, Mary.”
“Why did Carl want to play the banjo?” I asked. Mary took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Carl was at some show when he was 10 years old. He came close to the stage to watch the performers. When they were packing up their instruments, the banjo player said to Carl, ‘You want to see this up close?’ Carl climbed up on the stage and from then on he wanted to play the banjo.” Carl had waited 67 years to realize a dream! Mary gave the plant to me. “Thank you for the best six months of his life,” she said.
68. In Paragraph 2, the author’s reaction to Carl’s question showed that he ______.
A. was willing to help                   
B. didn’t want to encourage Carl
C. didn’t want to give him false encouragement 
D. encouraged Carl though he had doubts
69. How did Carl learn to play the banjo well?
A. By working hard.                    B. By taking short cuts.
C. By asking his wife to help him.        D. By finding the best teacher.
70. The underlined word “obituary” in Para.5 means a notice that _______.
A. announces somebody has died    B. announces somebody is needed
C. announces a good piece of news  D. announces a gift for somebody

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