I was shopping in the supermarket when I heard a young voice.

“Mom, come here! There’s this lady here my size!”

The mother rushed to her son; then she turned to me to apologize.

I smiled and told her, “It’s okay.” Then I talked to the boy, “Hi, Mickey, I’m Darry Kramer. How are you?”

He studied me from head to toe, and asked, “Are you a little mommy?”

“Yes, I have a son,” I answered.

“Why are you so little?” he asked.

“It’s the way I was born,” I said. “Some people are little. Some are tall. I’m just not going to grow any bigger.” After I answered his other questions, I shook the boy’s hand and left.

My life as a little person is filled with stories like that. I enjoy talking to children and explaining why I look different from their parents.

It takes only one glance to see my uniqueness. I stand three feet nine inches tall. I was born an dwarf (侏儒). Despite this, I did all the things other kids did when I was growing up.

I didn’t realize how short I was until I started school. Some kids laughed at me.. I began to hate the first day of school each year. New students would always stare at me as I struggled to climb the school bus stairs.

But I learned to smile and accept the fact that I was going to be noticed my whole life. I decided to make my uniqueness an advantage rather than a disadvantage. What I lacked in height, I made up for in personality.

I’m 47 now, and the stares have not diminished as I’ve grown older. People are amazed when they see me driving. I try to keep a good attitude. When people are rude, I remind myself, “Look what else I have---a great family, nice friends.”

It’s the children’s questions that make my life special. I enjoy answering their questions. My hope is that I will encourage them to accept their peers (a person of the same age, class, position, etc.), whatever size and shape they come in, and treat them with respect.

1.Why did the mother apologize to the author?

    A.Because the boy ran into the author.

    B.Because the boy laughed at the author.

    C.Because the boy said the author was fatter than him.

    D.Because the mother thought the boy’s words had hurt the author.

2.When did the author realize that she was too short?

    A.When she grew up.

    B.When she was 47 years old.

    C.When she began to go to school.

    D.When she met the boy in the supermarket.

3.How does the author feel about people’s stares?

    A.Angry.       B.Calm.        C.Painful.     D.Discouraged.

 

 

Electric cars will not be really much cleaner than autos powered by mineral fuels until they rely less on electricity produced from usual coal-fired power plants.

 “For electric vehicles to become a major green alternative, the power fuel has to move away from

coal, or cleaner coal technologies have to be developed,” said Jared Cohon, the chairman of a National

Research Council report released on Monday. About half of US power is produced by

burning coal, which gives off many times more of traditional pollutants than natural gas, and about

twice as much of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Nuclear and renewable power have to

generate a larger portion of US power for electric cars to become much greener compared to

gasoline-powered cars, Cohan, who is president of Carnegie Mellon University, said in an interview.

Advances in coal burning, like capturing carbon at power plants for permanent burial underground,

could also help electric cars become a cleaner alternative to vehicles powered by fossil fuels, he said.

Pollution from energy sources did $120 billion worth of damage to human health, agriculture and

recreation in 2008, and electricity was responsible for more than half of the damage, said the NRC

report.

  Electric cars have their benefits such as reducing imports of foreign oil. But they also have hidden

costs. Materials in electric car batteries are hard to produce, which adds to the energy it takes to make

them. In fact, the health and environmental costs of making electric cars can be 20 percent greater

than usual cars, the report said.

  The report estimated that electric cars could still cost more than gas-powered cars to operate and

manufacture in 2030 unless US power production becomes cleaner.[来源:]

1. Why are electric cars not clean enough?

   A. Because they run too slowly              B. Because they are too expensive

   C. Because they rely on coal-fired power.      D. Because they give off more carbon dioxide.

2. We can infer from the passage that ______.

   A. electric cars will soon take the place of gas-powered cars

   B. no one holds hope for electric cars at present

   C. electric cars waste more energy than before

   D. some people believe that electric cars are cleaner

3. The underlined word “them” refers to “______”.

   A. electric cars     B. batteries       C. producers        D. materials

4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a way to make electric cars cleaner?

   A. Developing cleaner coal technologies.        B. Making electric cars run faster.

   C. Generating more unclear power.             D. Making advances in coal burning.

 

C

What is blood? It is the red liquid which comes out of your finger when you cut it. There are bout thirteen pints(???) of blood in a man' s body. He can give a pint of blood at a time to

blood bank for the use of other men who may need it. A healthy body makes up one pint of bloo

quickly.

What does our blood do for us? It takes food to all parts of our bodies and takes waste awa

from them. All the parts of our bodies are made up of cells, and these cells, which are very small

all need food all the time.

The blood is like a stream. The cells take what they need out of the blood stream, as plants an fishes take their food out of water. The blood stream carries food and oxygen which it has taken up our lungs to all the cells in the body.

What makes the blood go on moving round the body in a stream? The heart sends it round.

man' s heart is about the Size of his fist. The heart is a pump. It has rooms in it with doors betwee

them. It pumps blood in and out through these doors by changing the size of the rooms so that th

doors open and shut.

The heart keeps stream of blood going all round the body and back again to itself. Everywhel the blood stream does two things: supplies the cells with food and oxygen and takes away the waste It is as if the blood kept the little fires in the cells burning and took away the ashes.

49. Blood is the_____

A. red liquid which comes from your finger    B. red liquid which we can see

C. red liquid which flows in a man's body     D. red cell

50. The blood in a man' s body__________.

A. makes food all the time

B. takes food to all cells in the body and takes waste away

C. supplies the cells with food and oxygen from them

D. takes waste away from the cells

51. __ makes the blood go on moving round the body in a stream.

A. The heart          B. The lung          C. The cell          D. The pump

52. This article tells us about__________.

A. a stream of blood                        B. the use of the heart

C. a wonderful pump                       D. something about blood

 

第二卷 非选择题(两部分,共35分)

第四部分:任务型阅读(共10小题;每小题1分,满分10分)

请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。

注意:每个空格只填一个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应的横线上。

It is said that English speakers fall into three groups: those who have learnt it as a mother tongue, those who have learnt it as a second language through exposure(显露) in a society where it is spoken, and those who are forced to use it for administrative(管理的), professional or educational purposes.

This third group, along with the supremacy(至高地位) of English in the business world, has created a fast development in institutions offering English for business. However, the average business person, while happily accepting the challenge, does not have any idea how long the process may take.

Duncan Ford, a specialist in language teaching theory, partly puts the blame on misleading publicity and says that you have to think in terms of hundreds of hours while people still think learning a language is a three-hour-a-week job.

According to him, the key is lots of variety of the activities similar to the happiness of the class. The communicative way has replaced the old–fashioned note-taking method and for those people who think that a couple of hours with the latest CD-ROM is not to replace for English classes, they should think again. While seen as a useful back-up, they are not teacher replacement.

Learning English for a Special Purpose

Classification of English speakers

English speakers are  71  up of three groups:

Those who have learnt it as a mother   72  ;

Those who have learnt it as a second language in society;

Those who are forced to use it for a special  73 .

The present situation of English for  74

Even though the third group has made institutions which offer English for business   75   fast, the average business people don’t

76   how long the process may take.

 

Specialist’s opinion

in learning English

It takes long to learn English-hundreds of hours   77   of three hours a week.

Language learners should take part in classroom   78   where they can  79   with others as much as possible.

English classes can’t be   80  by CD-ROMs.

 

 

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