I was born and raised in the shadow of the Capitol(美国国会大厦), in Washington, D.C., as were my parents and my mother’s parents.

Our row house was on a tree-lined street just blocks from the building that was the heart of the federal legislative branch. When I was a child, in the 1940s, friends and I would pack a lunch or ride a streetcar to the Capitol. If we roller-skated, we hid the skates in the bushes in the park across the street before entering the building.

I knew every corner of the Capitol. We’d play hide-and-seek and pretend we saw ghosts in the halls and stairways. I don’t know how we got away with it. I remember the beautiful ladies’ rooms, with their marble floors and sinks. I pretended that I was a fine lady in them.

In those days, you could walk around the Capitol dome(圆顶屋), which was a little scary for me. I loved the wonderful paintings and statues and the subway rides to the Senate Office Building. It was like an amusement ride. I even used to sit in the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives—until I became bored with all the talk and went on another adventure.

Whenever I ran up the steps to the huge bronze doors of the Rotunda, I would look back to the world below like a hero. As soon as the doors were opened, the sense of history surrounded me, and I knew it was someplace special.

Those were lucky days, when an American citizen could wander in the Capitol and be a part of history.

Once war was declared, some things changed in the nation’s capital. Because of concerns that Washington might be attacked, as London had been, everyone prepared. Kids at my elementary school wore dog tags, and each of us was fingerprinted.

My father, a pipe worker, became a civil defense warden(民防队员). During an air-raid(空袭), his job was to turn off any leaking gas. Since he always had a cigarette in his mouth, maybe that was not a good choice, but he had a gas mask and flashlight hanging in the rafters of our basement. The mask looked like a monster in the ceiling. My 15-year-old brother was a junior civil defense warden. During air-raid drills, he knocked on doors and asked people to put out their lights. I remember huge searchlights that crisscrossed the skies during the drills, looking for enemy planes.

What can we infer from the passage?

A. The writer attended the meeting in House of Representative.

B. The writer’s family lived in Washington D.C. for generations.

C. American citizen, except children, could never enter the Capitol.

D. The writer’s father had a gas mask to prevent him from smoking.

When the writer said “I was born and raised in the shadow of the Capitol” (1st paragraph),    she most probably meant that ________.

A. she spent her childhood in an area near the Capitol

B. she grew up under the pressure of the Capitol

C. the Capitol had some bad influence on my childhood

D. she was born and brought up secretly in the Capitol

By telling the childhood experience, the passage suggests that ________.

A. London was attacked during the war, as well as Washington

B. the writer is a daughter of a member of Representatives

C. the writer’s father and brother joined the army during the war

D. the Capitol used to be open to the public in history

What is the writer’s attitude towards the things that changed in the nation’s capital?

A. neutral                     B. positive             C. negative D. ironic

     Along the river banks of the Amazon and the Orinoco there lives a bird that swims before it can fly, flies like a fat chicken, eats green leaves, has the stomach of a cow and has claws (爪) on its wings when young. They build their homes about 4.6m above the river, an important feature (特征) for the safety of the young. It is called the hoatzin.

      In appearance, the birds of both sexes look very much alike with brown on the back and cream and red on the underside. The head is small, with a large set of feathers on the top, bright red eyes, and blue skin. Its nearest relatives are the common birds, cuckoos. Its most striking feature, though, is only found in the young.

      Baby hoatzins have a claw on the leading edge of each wing and another at the end of each wing tip. Using these four claws, together with the beak (喙), they can climb about in the bushes, looking very much like primitive birds must have done. When the young hoatzins have learned to fly, they lose their claws.

      During the drier months between December and March hoatzins fly about the forest in groups of 20 to 30 birds, but in April, when the rainy season begins, they collect together in smaller living units of two to seven birds for producing purposes.

1.What is the text mainly about?

    A.Hoatzins in dry and rainy seasons.

    B.The relatives and enemies of hoatzins.

    C.Primitive birds and hoatzins of the Amazon.

    D.The appearance and living habits of hoatzins.

2.Young hoatzins are different from their parents in that       

    A.they look like young cuckoos

    B.they have claws on the wings

    C.they eat a lot like a cow

    D.they live on river banks

3.What can we infer about primitive birds from the text?

    A.They had claws to help them climb.

    B.They could fly long distances.

    C.They had four wings like hoatzins.

    D.They had a head with long feathers on the top.

4.Why do hoatzins collect together in smaller groups when the rainy season comes?

    A.To find more food.

    B.To protect themselves better.

    C.To keep themselves warm.

    D.To produce their young.

Mr. Flower was well-known around for growing the best flowers of the year and his four glass-houses were taken good care of. These glass-houses were close to a public path, which was always used ___36__ children and young people walking to and from __37__. Boys of about thirteen years of age, especially, were often tempted(尝试) to throw a stone or two at one of Mr. Flower’s __38_ . They managed to resist the temptation(抵制诱惑) when Mr. Flower was around, but the temptation often seemed to be too __39__ when Mr. Flower was __40__ to be seen. For this reason, Mr. Flower did his best to be __41__ his glass-houses at the beginning and end of the school days.
However, it was not always possible for him to be on guard at these times. Mr. Flower had tried __42__ to prevent the damage to his glass; but nothing that he had done had been__43__. He had been to the school to complain(抱怨) to the headmaster, but this had not done any__44__. He had hidden in the bushes(灌木丛)and __45__ those boys that threw stones __46__ his garden, but the boys could run __47__ faster than he, and they even __48__ at him at a distance. He had even walked along the path and picked up all those __49__ that he could find so that the boys would have nothing to __50__, but they soon found others, or threw lumps of earth instead.
Then just as he had given __51__ hope of winning the battle, a truly wonderful __52_ came up to him. He set up a large notice board made of good strong wood, some meters away from the glass-houses __53__ it could be clearly seen from the path. On the board he painted the __54__ : DO NOT THROW AT THIS NOTICE. After this, Mr. Flower had no __55__ . The boys were much more tempted to throw stones at the notice board than at the glass-houses.

【小题1】
A.toB.byC.ofD.with
【小题2】
A.factoryB.officeC.schoolD.work
【小题3】
A.bed-roomsB.living-roomC.reading-roomD.glass-houses
【小题4】
A.strongB.weakC.limitedD.strange
【小题5】
A.impossibleB.unableC.possibleD.somewhere
【小题6】
A.far away fromB.in or close toC.into or out ofD.at or out
【小题7】
A.in no wayB.in a wayC.in the wayD.in many ways
【小题8】
A.successfulB.cheerfulC.wonderfulD.careful
【小题9】
A.harmB.wrongC.goodD.wonder
【小题10】
A.watchedB.walked toC.waited forD.run after
【小题11】
A.towardsB.overC.out ofD.into
【小题12】
A.manyB.muchC.moreD.lots of
【小题13】
A.laughedB.lookedC.calledD.surprised
【小题14】
A.earthB.sticksC.stonesD.branches
【小题15】
A.pick upB.catchC.play withD.throw
【小题16】
A.inB.offC.outD.up
【小题17】
A.ideaB.friendC.guestD.word
【小题18】
A.whereB.there whereC.on whichD.there
【小题19】
A.announcementB.wordsC.sentencesD.message
【小题20】
A.peaceful timesB.further troubleC.more happinessD.questions

There was a time in my life when beauty meant something special to me. I guess that would have been when I was about six or seven years old, just several weeks or maybe a month before the orphanage(孤儿院)turned me into an old man.

I would get up every morning at the orphanage, make my bed just like the little soldier that I had become and then I would get into one of the two straight lines and march to breakfast with the other twenty or thirty boys who also lived in my dormitory.

After breakfast one Saturday morning I returned to the dormitory and saw the house parent chasing the beautiful monarch butterflies who lived by the hundreds in the bushes scattered around the orphanage.

I carefully watched as he caught these beautiful creatures, one after another, and then took them from the net and then stuck straight pins through their head and wings,pinning them onto a heavy cardboard sheet.

How cruel it was to kill something of such beauty. I had walked many times out into the bushes,all by myself, just so the butterflies could land on my head,face and hands so I could look at them up close.

When the telephone rang the house parent laid the large cardboard paper down on the back cement(水泥)step and went inside to answer the phone. I walked up to the cardboard and looked at the one butterfly who he had just pinned to the large paper. It was still moving about so I reached down and touched it on the wing causing one of the pins to fall out.It started flying around and around trying to get away but it was still pinned by the one wing with the other straight pin.Finally its wing broke off and the butterfly fell to the ground and just trembled.

I picked up the torn wing and the butterfly and I spat on its wing and tried to get it to stick back on so it could fly away and be free before the house parent came back.But it would not stay on him.

1.The author set the living butterfly free because_______.

A.he liked it very much

B.he had sympathy for the beautiful butterfly

C.he couldn’t bear a butterfly dying in his favorite bushes

D.its wing broke off

2.According to the passage,the author’s life in the orphanage was_____.

A.dull and full of strict rules

B.simple and easy

C.happy and full of hope

D.hard and busy

3.What is the author’s attitude towards the house parent’s pinning some butterflies on the cardboard?

A.tolerant

B.unconcerned

C.disgusted

D.discouraged

4.We know from the passage that_________.

A. the author lived alone in the dormitory

B. there were one hundred butterflies living in the bushes

C the cardboard paper was left on the step so as to be watched

D. the author failed to stick the worn wing onto the butterfly with his spit

5.Which of the following is right according to the passage?

A.I found beauty meant nothing special to me.

B.The house parent helped the children handle the quilt.

C.The house parent chased the butterfly in order to show it to the children.

D.I thought it cruel to catch the butterfly.

 

The Jordans had the best raspberries in the neighborhood, and that their bushes were always heavy with fruit.So, that summer Friday night, we snuck(潜行) into the Jordans’ backyard and  21  ourselves carefully around the bushes and started  22  their sweet, juicy berry. And we were enjoying every bite of ill-gotten berry  23  all of a sudden the Jordans’ backyard lights were turned on.

“What you boys doing out here?” Mr Jordan shouted. In all  24  ran off my friends, une aten raspberries  25  everywhere.

He made an attempt to grab one or two, but they were too quick. Speed was never my   26  . So I could just stand there and  27  whatever punishment from the Jordans and my parents. I took the scolding that Mr Jordan gave me until we reached my house, where my mother  28  . My friends said they could hear every  29  word from the darkness of our backyard, where they had gathered to celebrate their  30  .

They  31   me about it for days afterwards, while all I could do was complain about how   32   it was that I had to pay the full  33   for doing the exact same thing all of them had done without any  34   consequences. After about a week, I complained it to my father.

“You took raspberries without asking, and you got exactly the punishment you  35 ,”Dad said.

“But what about the other guys?” I asked.

“That’s not my  36  , nor should it be yours,” Dad said. “You can’t control what happens to other people. You can  37   deal with what happens to you.”

Back then I thought Dad just didn’t   38   it. But through the years I come to realize that,   39 , he knew what he was talking about. We didn’t come to earth with a(an)  40  that life would treat us fairly. The only thing we can actually deal with is what happens to us.

1..

A. allowed      B. protected            C. positioned      D. helped

2..

 A. harvesting      B. digging          C. throwing         D. hunting

3..

 A. and            B. when             C. before          D. as

4..

 A. senses          B. ways             C. directions           D. efforts

5..

 A. growing         B. running          C. flying               D. hiding

6..

 A. power           B. disadvantage     C. strength             D. attempt

7..

 A. accepted       B. rejected          C. risked              D. enjoyed

8..

 A. paid for       B. took over        C. turned away      D. picked out

9..

 A. encouraging    B. swear                C. cool            D. kind

10..

 A. stealing       B. experience           C. escape           D. behavior

11..

 A. explained       B. teased               C. scolded         D. praised

12..

 A. unfair          B. funny                C. strange          D. equal

13..

 A. number          B. accident             C. price            D. task

14..

 A. same            B. reliable             C. noticeable       D. safe

15..

A. deserted         B. received             C. refused          D. deserved

16..

  A. concern        B. purpose          C. request         D. answer

17..

 A. sometimes     B. only             C. mostly           D. almost

18..

  A. care           B. value             C. get             D. handle

19..

  A. as well        B. above all        C. as usual        D. or else

20..

A. promise       B. guarantee        C. situation       D. opinion

 

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