“ Down-to-earth” means someone or something that is honest, practical and easy to deal with.It is  36  to find someone who is down-to-earth.A person who is down-to-earth is easy to talk to  37  accepts other people as equals.A down-to-earth is just the 38 of someone who acts importantly and proudly.

Down-to-earth persons may be  39  members of society, of course.But they do not let their importance “ go to their  40  ”.They do not  41  themselves to be better persons than others of less importance, someone who is filled with his own importance and  42 , often without cause, is said to have “his nose in the air”.There is no way a person with his nose in the  43  can be down-to-earth.Americans use another expression that means almost the same  44  “down-to-earth”.The expression is “both-feet-on-the-ground”.Someone with both-feet-on-the-ground is a person  45  a good understanding of reality.He has what is called “   46  sense”.He may have  47  , but he does not allow them to  48  his knowledge of what is real.The opposite kind of person is  49  who has his “head-in-the-clouds”.A man with his head in the clouds is a dreamer whose mind is not in the  50  world.

Sometimes  51  a dreamer can be brought back to earth 52  words from a teacher can usually bring a day-dreaming student down-to-earth.

Usually, the person who is down-to-earth is very  53  to have both-feet-on-the-ground.

     54  we have both our feet on-the-ground, when we are down-to-earth, we act  55  and openly toward others.Our lives are like the ground below us, solid and strong.

A.common       B.sad         C.pleasant         D.surprising

A.but           B.yet         C.and             D.while

A.kind          B.like     C.example          D.opposite

A.important     B.famous    C.successful       D.necessary

A.nose          B.heads      C.minds           D.forehead

A.wish          B.desire      C.expect          D.consider

A.proud        B.pride       C.famous         D.fame

A.air            B.sky         C.tree             D.cloud

A.like           B.with        C.of              D.for

A.has         B.who        C.is              D.with

A.usual         B.ordinary  C.common        D.daily

A.dreams      B.fortunes         C.advantages      D.luck

A.prevent       B.protect    C.block           D.gain

A.one         B.those       C.that             D.the one

A.reality       B.real         C.dreamful     D.true

A.so           B.such        C.each            D.that

A.Sharp        B.No         C.All             D.Bad

A.able          B.probable  C.likely           D.possible

A.When        B.While     C.As             D.Since

A.kindly       B.directly  C.friendly         D.honestly

Peggy Hilt wanted to be a good mother. But day after day, she got out of bed feeling like a failure. No matter what she tried, she couldn’t connect with Nina, the 2-year -old girl she’d adopted from Russia as an infant (幼儿). The preschooler (学龄前儿童)pulled away whenever Hilt tried to hug or kiss her. Nina was physically aggressive with her 4-year-old sister, who had been adopted from Ukraine, and had violent tantrums(发脾气). Whenever Hilt wasn’t watching, she destroyed the family’s furniture and possessions. “Every day with Nina had become a struggle,” she recalls now.

    As the girl grew older, things got worse. Hilt fell into a deep depression. She started drinking heavily, something she’d never done before. Ashamed, she hid her problem from everyone, including her husband.

    On the morning of July 1, 2005, Hilt was packing for a family vocation, all the while swallowing one beer after another and growing increasingly angry and impatient with Nina’s deeds. “Everything she did just got to me,” Hilt said. When Hilt caught her reaching into her diaper(尿布)and smearing feces(粪便)on the walls and furniture, “a year and a half of frustration came to a head,” Hilt says. “I snapped(崩溃). I felt this uncontrollable rage.”

    Then Hilt did something unthinkable. She grabbed Nina around the neck, shook her and then dropped her to the floor, where she kicked her repeatedly before dragging her up to her room, punching her as they went. “I had never hit a child before,” she says. “I felt horrible and promised myself that this would never happen again.” But it was too late for that. Nina woke up with a fever, and then started throwing up. The next day she stopped breathing. By the time the ambulance got the child to the hospital, she was dead.

Hilt is now serving a 19-year sentence for second-degree murder in a Virginia prison. She and her husband divorced, and he is raising their other daughter. She realizes the horror of her crime and says she isn’t looking for sympathy. “There is no punishment severe enough for what I did,” she told NEWSWEEK in an interview at the prison.

This story mainly tells us __________.

A. a cruel mother who killed her daughter

B. a social problem of adoption

C. a family problem in Western countries

D. an unlucky child’s fortune

How did Hilt let out her depression at the beginning?

A. By hitting her adopted girl.

B. By showing her more love.

C. By drinking heavily.

D. By hugging and kissing her.

What does the underlined sentence in Para.4 mean?

A. It was too late to hit the girl in order to make her good.

B. It was too late to save the girl’s life.

C. It was too late to regret hitting the girl.

D. It was too late to regret adopting the girl.

“NEWSWEEK” in the last sentence of this text refers to a __________.

A. magazine         B. journalist       C. book        D. policeman

Why do some adoptions go so wrong?

   A. It’s the kid’s fault.              B. It’s the mother’s fault.

   C. It’s the fault of the society.           D. The writer doesn’t mention the reason.

The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a potential hunger crisis in poor countries and an energy crisis worldwide, world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis. Wheat, corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years. And oil prices have increased more than three times since the start of 2004. These food-price iricrcases. combined with increasing energy costs, will slow if not stop economic growth in many parts of the world and will even affect political stability. Practical solutions to these problems do exist, but we'll have to start thinking ahead and acting globally.

Here are three steps to ease the current food crisis and avoid the potential for a global crisis. The first is to promote the dramatic success of Malawi, a country in southern Africa, which three years ago established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and seeds with high productivity. Malawi’s harvest doubled after just one year. An international fund based on the Malawi model would cost a mere $10 per person annually in the rich world, or S10 billion altogether.

Second, the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of paying partly for the change of food into biofuels. The U.S. government gives farmers a taxpayer-financed payment of 51 cents per gallon of ethanol (乙醇) changed from corn. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods — tree crops, grasses and wood products — but there's no case for the government to pay to put the world's dinner into the gas tank.

Third, we urgently need to weather-proof die world's crops as soon and as effectively as possible. For a poor farmer, sometimes something as simple as a farm pond — which collects rainwater to be used in dry weather — can make the difference between a good harvest and a bad one. The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation hind to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet acted upon the promise.

An international fund based on the Malawi model would______.

A. cost each of the developed countries $10 billion per year

B. aim to double the harvest in southern African countries In a year

C. decrease the food prices as well as the energy prices

D. give poor farmers access to fertilizer and highly productive seeds

With the second step, the author expresses the idea that ______.

A. it is not wise to change food crops into gas

B. it is misleading to put tree crops into the gas tank

C. we should get alternative forms of fuel in any way

D. biofuels should be developed on a large scale

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. A rain-collecting pond is a simple safeguard against dry weal

B. A Climate Adaptation Fund has been established to help poor

C. The world has made a serious promise to build farm ponds.

D. It makes a great difference whether we develop wood products or not.

 In the passage, the author calls on us to______.

A. slow down but not to stop economic.

B. develop tree crops, grasses'and wood products

C. achieve economic growth and political stability

D. act now so as to relieve the global food shortage

第二节 (共5小题;每小题2分,满分10分)

根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

I was ten when I first sat with my grandmother behind the cashier(收银台) in her general store. ______71_______ I quickly learned the importance of treating customers politely and saying “thank you.”

At first I was paid in candy. ________72______ I worked every day after school, and during the summer and no weekends and holidays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. My father helped me set up a bank account. ________73________

By the time I was 12, my grandmother thought I had done such a good job that she promoted me to selling cosmetics(化妆品). I developed the ability to look customers directly in the eye. Even though I was just a kid, women would ask me such things as “What color do you think I should wear?” I took a real interest in their questions and was able to translate what they wanted into makeup(化妆) ideas. ________74________

The job taught me a valuable lesson: to be a successful salesperson, you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist—you needed to be a great listener. ________75________ Except they are no longer women purchasing cosmetics from me; instead, they are kids who tell me which toys they would like to see designed and developed.

A.Later I received 50 cents an hour.

B.Before long, she let me sit there by myself.

C.I ended up selling a record amount of cosmetics.

D.Today I still carry that lesson with me: I listen to customers.

E.My grandma’s trust taught me how to handle responsibility.

F.Soon I found myself looking more beautiful than ever before.

G.Watching my money grow was more rewarding than anything I could have bought.

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