题目内容

Some people bring out the best in you in a way that you might never have fully realized on your own. My mom was one of those people.

My father died when I was nine months old, making my mom a single mother at the age of eighteen. While I was growing up, we lived a very hard life. We had little money, but my mom gave me a lot of love. Each night, she sat me on her lap and spoke the words that would change my life, “Kemmons, you are certain to be a great man and you can do anything in life if you work hard enough to get it.”

At fourteen, I was hit by a car and the doctors said I would never walk again. Every day, my mother spoke to me in her gentle, loving voice, telling me that no matter what those doctors said, I could walk again if I wanted to badly enough. She drove that message so deep into my heart that I finally believed her. A year later, I returned to school — walking on my own!

When the Great Depression (大萧条) hit, my mom lost her job. Then I left school to support the both of us. At that moment, I was determined never to be poor again.

Over the years, I experienced various levels of business success. But the real turning point occurred on a vacation I took with my wife and five kids in 1951. I was dissatisfied with the second-class hotels available for families and was angry that they charged an extra $2 for each child. That was too expensive for the average American family. I told my wife that I was going to open a motel (汽车旅馆) for families that would never charge extra for children. There were plenty of doubters at that time.

Not surprisingly, mom was one of my strongest supporters. She worked behind the desk and even designed the room style. As in any business, we experienced a lot of challenges. But with my mother’s words deeply rooted in my soul, I never doubted we would succeed. Fifteen years later, we had the largest hotel system in the world — Holiday Inn. In 1979 my company had 1,759 inns in more than fifty countries with an income of $ 1 billion a year.

You may not have started out life in the best situation. But if you can find a task in life worth working for and believe in yourself, nothing can stop you.

1.What Kemmons’ mom often told him during his childhood was ______.

A. caring B. moving

C. encouraging D. interesting

2.According to the author, who played the most important role in making him walk back to school again?

A. Doctors. B. Nurses.

C. Friends. D. Mom.

3.What caused Kemmons to start a motel by himself?

A. His terrible experience in the hotel.

B. His previous business success of various levels.

C. His mom’s support.

D. His wife’s suggestion.

4.Which of the following best describes Kemmons’ mother?

A. Modest, helpful, and hard-working.

B. Loving, supportive and strong-willed.

C. Careful, helpful and beautiful.

D. Strict, sensitive and supportive.

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When I was about 12, I had an enemy, a girl who liked to point out my shortcomings(缺点). Week by week her list grew: I was very thin, I wasn’t a good student,I talked too much, I was too proud, and so on. I tried to hear all this as long as could. At last, I became very angry. I ran to my father with tears in my eyes.

He listened to me quietly, then he asked. “Are the things she says true or not? Janet, didn’t you ever wonder what you’re really like? Well, you now have that girl’s opinion. Go and make a list of everything she said and mark the points that are true. Pay no attention to the other things she said.”I did as he told me. To my great surprise, I discovered that about half the things were true. Some of them I couldn’t change (like being very thin), but a good number I could—and suddenly I wanted to change. For the first time I go to fairly clear picture of myself.

I brought the list back to Daddy. He refused to take it. “That’s just for you,” he said. “You know better than anyone else the truth about yourself. But you have to learn to listen, not just close your ears in anger and feeling hurt. When some thing said about you is true, you’ll find it will be of help to you. Our world is full of people who think they know your duty. Don’t shut your ears. Listen to them all, but hear the truth and do what you know is the right thing to do.” Daddy’s advice has returned to me at many important moments. In my life, I’ve never had a better piece of advice.

1.What did the father do after he had heard his daughter’s complaint?

A. He told her not to pay any attention to what her “enemy” had said.

B. He criticized (批评) her and told her to overcome her shortcomings.

C. He told her to write down all that her “enemy” had said about her and pay attention only to the things that were true.

D. He refused to take the list and have a look at it.

2.What does “Week by week her list grew” mean?

A. Week by week she discovered more shortcomings of mine and pointed them out to me.

B. She had made a list of my shortcomings and she kept on adding new ones to it so that it was growing longer and longer.

C. I was having more and more shortcomings as time went on.

D. Week by week, my shortcomings grew more serious.

3.Why did her father listen to her quietly?

A. Because he believed that what her daughter’s “enemy” said was mostly true.

B. Because he had been so angry with his daughter’s shortcomings that he wanted to show this by keeping silent for a while.

C. Because he knew that his daughter would not listen to him at that moment.

D. Because he wasn’t quite sure which girl was telling the truth.

Recently some American scientists have given a useful piece of advice to people in industrialized nations.They say people should eat more of the same kind of food eaten by humans living more than 10,000 years ago. 1.

The scientists say that the human life has changed greatly.Our bodies have not been able to deal with these changes in lifestyle and this had led to new kinds of sicknesses. 2. So they are called "diseases of civilization".Many cancers and diseases of the blood system are examples of such diseases.

Scientists noted that people in both the Old Stone Age and the New Stone Age enjoyed very little alcohol or tobacco, probably none.3. However, a change in food is one of the main differences between life in ancient times and that of today.

Stone Age people hunted wild animals for their meat, which had much less fat than domestic ones.They ate a lot of fresh wild vegetables and fruits.They did not have milk or any other dairy products, and they made very little use of grains. 4..We eat six times more salt than our ancestors.We eat more sugar.We eat twice as much fat but only one third as much protein and much less vitamin C.

5. But scientists say that we would be much healthier if we eat much the same way the ancient people did, cutting the amount of fatty, salty and sweet food.

A.Stone Age people lived a simple life.

B.But today, we enjoy having a lot of these.

C.In that case, they would live much healthier.

D.Ancient people also got lots of physical exercise.

E.These new sicknesses were not known in ancient times.

F.People today probably don't want to live like our ancestors.

G.Modern people used to suffer from "diseases of civilization".

I was in Houston a few weeks ago, and needed to be back home in Austin by the early morning the next day. So I ________ to leave that morning. ________ my tire blew out on the way. I ________ a small parking lot. Then I ________ the doors and picked up my phone to call a tow truck (拖车). Soon a man ________ on my driver’s side window and asked if he could help me. From his ________ and behavior, I knew he was far more ________ to rob than help me, so I ________ refused and told him the tow truck was due any minute. He asked again, but again I gently shook my head. He finally said, “Ma’am, you need ________. A tow truck in Houston will arrive anywhere between 45 minutes and almost ________ (which I knew was true), and you are not going anywhere until you have that tire ________.”

I looked hard, straight into his ________, and instinctively (凭直觉) saw someone different from the ________ person he appeared to be at first sight. So, against all reasonable ________, but trusting my instincts, I got out. He looked ________, but got right to work, trying to find the ________ tire. It took a while ________ it was stored under the seat.

He changed the tire, ________ the seat to its place and said, “Thank you for letting me help you. You gave me a ________ when most people would never open the door to someone like me. Would it be okay if I gave you a hug?” When I recovered, I gave him a giant hug. I left with a new tire and a renewed ________ in human nature.

1.A. wanted B. happened C. hoped D. had

2.A. Amazingly B. Mostly C. Strangely D. Unfortunately

3.A. pulled into B. walked around C. broke into D. looked at

4.A. opened B. fixed C. locked D. broke

5.A. hit B. knocked C. climbed D. checked

6.A. mood B. personality C. height D. appearance

7.A. willing B. friendly C. likely D. pleased

8.A. repeatedly B. badly C. politely D. hurriedly

9.A. money B. water C. gas D. help

10.A. never B. now C. forever D. already

11.A. balanced B. changed C. moved D. sold

12.A. mind B. eyes C. head D. heart

13.A. worried B. wise C. cold-hearted D. unreliable

14.A. arguments B. judgments C. decisions D. selections

15.A. devoted B. disappointed C. surprised D. frightened

16.A. flat B. free C. spare D. worn

17.A. so B. but C. once D. since

18.A. returned B. left C. held D. showed

19.A. lesson B. chance C. gift D. job

20.A. pride B. delight C. faith D. interest

In its early history, Chicago had floods frequently, especially in the spring, making the streets so muddy that people, horses, and carts got stuck. An old joke that was popular at the time went something like this: A man is stuck up to his waist in a muddy Chicago street. Asked if he needs help, he replies, "No, thanks. I've got a good horse under me."

The city planner decided to build an underground drainage (排水) system, but there simply wasn't enough difference between the height of the ground level and the water level. The only two options were to lower the Chicago River or raise the city.

An engineer named Ellis Chesbrough convinced the city that it had no choice but to build the pipes above ground and then cover them with dirt. This raised the level of the city's streets by as much as 12 feet.

This of course created a new problem: dirt practically buried the first floors of every building in Chicago. Building owners were faced with a choice: either change the first floors of their buildings into basements, and the second stories into main floors, or hoist the entire buildings to meet the new street level. Small wood-frame buildings could be lifted fairly easily. But what about large, heavy structures like Tremont Hotel, which was a six-story brick building?

That's where George Pullman came in. He had developed some house-moving skills successfully. To lift a big structure like the Tremont Hotel, Pullman would place thousands of jackscrews (螺旋千斤顶) beneath the building's foundation. One man was assigned to operate each section of roughly 10 jackscrews. At Pullman's sign each man turned his jackscrew the same amount at the same time, thereby raising the building slowly and evenly. Astonishingly, the Tremont Hotel stay open during the entire operation, and many of its guests didn't even notice anything was happening. Some people like to say that every problem has a solution. But in Chicago's early history, every engineering solution seemed to create a new problem. Now that Chicago's waste water was draining efficiently into the Chicago River, the city's next step was to clean the polluted river.

1.The author mentions the joke to show ________.

A. horses were fairly useful in Chicago

B. Chicago's streets were extremely muddy

C. Chicago was very dangerous in the spring

D. the Chicago people were particularly humorous

2.The city planners were convinced by Ellis Chesbrough to ________.

A. get rid of the street dirt

B. lower the Chicago River

C. fight against heavy floods

D. build the pipes above ground

3.What can we conclude about the moving operation of the Tremont Hotel?

A. It went on smoothly as intended.

B. It interrupted the business of the hotel.

C. It involved Pullman turning ten jackscrews.

D. It separated the building from its foundation.

4.The passage is mainly about the early Chicago's ________.

A. popular life styles and their influences

B. environmental disasters and their causes

C. engineering problems and their solutions

D. successful businessmen and their achievements

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