题目内容
Mr. Johnson’s son ______ lives in Chicago is a doctor.
A. who B. whom C. whose D. which
It was Thanksgiving morning. I was busy preparing the traditional Thanksgiving turkey when the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw two small children in rags huddling together on the top step.
“Any old papers, lady?” asked one of them.
I was busy. I wanted to say “no” until I looked down at their feet. They were wearing thin little sandals （凉鞋）, wet with heavy snow.
“Come in and I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa.”
They walked over and sat down at the table. Their wet sandals left marks upon the floor. I saved them cocoa and bread to fight against the cold outside. Then I went back to the kitchen and started cooking.
The silence in the front room struck me. I looked in. The girl held the empty cup in her hands, looking at it. The boy asked in a flat voice, “Lady, are you rich?”
“Am I rich? Pity, no!”
I looked at my worn-out slipcovers （椅套）. The girl put her cup back in its saucer （茶碟）carefully and said, “Your cups match your saucers.” They left after that, holding their papers against the wind. They had reminded me that I had so much for which to be grateful.
Plain blue china cups and saucers were only worth five pence. But they matched.
I tasted the potatoes and stirred the meat soup. Potatoes and brown meat soup, a roof over our heads, my man with a regular job, these matched, too.
I moved the chairs back from the fire and cleaned the living room. The muddy marks of little sandals were still wet upon my floor. Let them be for a while, I thought, just in case I should begin to forget how rich I am.
1.The writer let the two children come in and served them well because ______.
A. she wanted to sell old papers to them
B. she wanted to give them some presents
C. she showed great pity and care on them
D. she wanted to show her thanks to them
2.The writer left the muddy marks of little sandals on the floor for a while to _______.
A. show that she was a kind-hearted lady
B. remind her she shouldn’t forget how rich she was
C. leave room for readers to think about what being rich is
D. call up her memories of the good old days
3.It can be inferred from the text that whether you are rich depends on _______.
A. how much money you have made
B. what attitude you have had toward life
C. the way you help others
D. your social relationship
When my friend put out the idea of homeschooling to her parents, the first reaction they gave was, “You are cutting the child off the world.” Did the child really get cut off or did the child socialize better?
The moment we hear of homeschooling, we think the child will have no opportunities to interact with peers. However, in my friend’s opinion, we forget that when attending a regular school, the child is not into socializing all the while. The child is confined to so many other activities. Studies take a major role in a child’s life. The child hardly has the time to interact at school.
The child might be meeting and studying along with many peers; however, how many kids interact with all the kids in a class? But in homeschooling system, as my friend mentioned, the kid has all the time and can plan his day accordingly. During the day the child studies just like other school-going kids but with no burden of homework and project work, the child has so much free time in the evening as to effectively interact and play with peers. The quality time the child spends in education is really impressive.
Homeschooled kids have the opportunity to socialize more often as they have a lot of time in their hands. They can also make socializing a regular habit. Just as my friend said, her child goes to a neighboring park almost every day and has a set of friends who go there daily. Other children get back home to finish off homework and project work whereas her child who is already through with studies gets the opportunity to spend time with family members.
When I heard this, I really felt how lucky the child was. Definitely the child had a better opportunity to socialize when compares with my kids. However, I might not consider homeschooling for my kid, as I am so used to the traditional schooling system and feel regular schooling the safest bet.
1.What is the author’s attitude towards his friend’s idea of homeschooling?
A. Surprised. B. Interested.
C. Negative. D. Confident.
2.The author’s purpose in writing the passage is to _________.
A. explain what homeschooling is.
B. express his views on homeschooling.
C. share his ways of teaching his children.
D. promote homeschooling
3.The underlined word “confined” in the Para.2 can be replaced by _______.
A. free B. restricted
C. devoted D. accustomed
4.According to the author what is the biggest advantage of homeschooling children?
A. They can be better at socializing.
B. They can be more popular.
C. They will become braver.
D. They can study better.
5.How does the passage mainly develop?
A. By following the order of importance.
B. By following the order of time
C. By presenting facts.
D. By making comparison.
Even in a weak job market, the old college try isn’t the answer for everyone. A briefing paper from the Brookings Institution warns that “we may have overdone the message” on college, senior fellow Isabel Sawhill said.
“We’ve been telling students and their families for years that college is the only way to succeed in the economy and of course there’s a lot of truth to that,” Ms. Sawhill said. “On average it does pay off… But if you load up on a whole lot of student debt and then you don’t graduate, that is a very bad situation.”
One comment that people often repeat among the years of slow job growth has been the value of education for landing a job and advancing in a career. April’s national unemployment rate stood at 7.5%, according to the Labor Department. The unemployment rate for high-school graduates over 25 years old who hadn’t attended college was 7.4%, compared with 3.9% for those with a bachelor’s degree or more education. The difference is even bigger among those aged 16-24. The jobless rate for those with only a high school diploma in that age group is about 20%. At the same time, recent research by Canadian economists warns that a college degree is no guarantee of promising employment.
Ms. Sawhill pointed out that among the aspects that affect the value of a college education is the field of one’s major: students in engineering or other sciences end up earning more than those who major in the arts or education. The cost of tuition and the availability of financial aid are other considerations, with public institutions generally a better financial bargain than private ones.
She suggested two ways of improving the situation: increasing vocational-technical(职业技能) training programs and taking a page from Europe’s focus on early education rather than post-secondary learning. “The European countries put a little more attention to getting people prepared in the primary grades,” she said. “Then they have a higher requirement for whoever goes to college—but once you get into college, you’re more likely to be highly subsidized(资助).”
She also is a supporter of technical training—to teach students how to be workers, such as plumbers, welders and computer programmers—because “employers are desperate” for workers with these skills.
1.People usually think that _____.
A. the cost of technical schooling is a problem
B. one will not succeed without a college degree
C. technical skills are most important for landing a job
D. there is an increased competition in getting into a college
2.What does the underlined part “taking a page from” mean?
A. hearing from.
B. changing from.
C. differing from.
D. learning from.
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A. Public institutions charge more for education.
B. European universities are stricter with students.
C. Students with certain skills are in great demand.
D. Canadian students prefer to major in engineering.
4.Which would be the best title for the text?
A. Is the ‘Go to College’ message overdone?
B. The new requirement of Labor Market
C. Primary education in European countries
D. Is technical training more popular?
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1.What is mainly discussed in paragraph 2?
A. the heat of the EP B. the safety of the EP
C. the appearance of the EP D. the material of the EP
2.From the passage, we can learn that the EP .
A. doesn’t burn up oxygen
B. runs without any noise
C. makes people get sleepy
D. is unsuitable for children and pets
3.The underlined word “evenly” in paragraph 4 probably means .
A. continuously B. separately C. quickly D. equally
4.The main purpose of the passage is to .
A. persuade people to buy the product
B. advise people to save on heating bills
C. report the new development of portable heaters
D. compare the functions of different heater brands
Electric cars are dirty. In fact, not only are they dirty, but they might even be more dirty than their gasoline-powered cousins.
People in California love to talk about “zero-emissions (排放) vehicles”, but people in California seem to be clueless about where electricity comes from. Power plants mostly use fire to make it. Apart from the few people who have their roofs covered with solar cells, we get our electricity from generators (发电机). Generators are fueled by something----usually coal, oil, but also by heat generated in nuclear power plants. There are a few wind farms and geothermal (地热) plants as well, but by far we get electricity mainly by burning something.
In other words, those “zero-emissions” cars are likely coal-burning cars. Because the coal is burned somewhere else, it looks clean. It is not true. It's as if the California Greens are covering their eyes----“If I can't see it, it's not happening.” Gasoline is an incredibly (极其) efficient way to power a vehicle; a gallon of gas has a lot of energy in it. But when you take that gas (or another fuel) and first use it to make electricity, you waste a nice part of that energy, mostly in the form of wasted heat--at the generator, through the transmission lines, etc.
A gallon of gas may drive your car 25 miles. But the electricity you get from that gallon of gas won't get you nearly as far---so electric cars burn more fuel than gasoline-powered ones. If our electricity came mostly from wind or geothermal, or solar, then an electric car truly would be clean. But for political, technical, and economic reasons, we don't use much of those energy sources.
In addition, electric cars' batteries which are poisonous for a long time will eventually end up in a landfill (垃圾填埋场). And finally, when cars are the polluters, the pollution is spread across all the roads. When it's a power plant, though, all the junk is in one place. Nature is very good at cleaning up when things are not too concentrated, but it takes a lot longer when all the garbage is in one spot.
1.Which of the following words can replace “be clueless about” in Paragraph 2?
A. be familiar with. B. fail to understand.
C. be curious about. D. show their interest in.
2.The electricity we get from a gallon of gas may make our car run _________.
A. at least 25 miles B. more than 25 miles
C. less than 25 miles D. as far as 25 miles
3.In the author’s opinion, compared with cars using gas, electric cars are more __________.
A. harmful B. expensive
C. efficient D. environmentally-friendly
4.It can be inferred from the passage that __________.
A. electric cars’ batteries are no longer poisonous in the landfill
B. electric cars are not clean since we get electricity mainly by burning something
C. zero-emissions vehicles should be chosen to protect our environment
D. now electric cars are used more than their gasoline-powered cousins
When you sit down, you pick it out. When you are in your car, you reach for it．When you’re at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it．
Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it’s the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone．And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their desire to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships．
With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, its air of complexity, the cell phone connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away．In just the past couple of years, the cell phone has challenged individuals, employers, phone makers and counselors（顾问）in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined．
The costs are becoming even more evident, and I don’t mean just the monthly bill．Dr．Chris Knippers, a counselor at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality．
Sounds extreme, but we’ve all witnessed the evidence: the person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him．
Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?
Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, notes that cell-phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation．He points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with．Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don’t have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances via the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says．
If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it’s because it has become very widespread．Consider that in 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use．Today, something like 300 million Americans carry them．They far outnumber wired phones in the United States．
1.Which of the following best explains the title of the passage?
A. Cell phone users smoke less than they used to.
B. More people use cell phones than smoke cigarettes.
C. Cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes.
D. Using cell phone is just as cool as smoking cigarettes.
2.The underlined word “curb” in Paragraph 2 means __________.
A. control B. ignore C. develop D. rescue
3.The example of a woman talking on the phone in the car supports the idea that _______.
A. women use cell phones more often than men
B. talking on the phone while driving is dangerous
C. cell phones make one-on-one personal contact easy
D. cell phones do not necessarily bring people together
语法填空（共10小题；每小题1.5分，满分15分）
In many countries, 1.________is not unusual for families of different backgrounds to live together in the shared space. 2.________ , in the United States, this idea may still be considered odd.
But this type of housing, 3.________ (call) co-housing, is gaining 4.________ (popular) in the United States, too. Co-housing complexes (合租建筑群) are popping up across the country. For many people, this way of life is 5.________ relief to the busy modern lifestyle. A co-housing community has 6.________ (private) owned houses and shared land. There is often a “common house” with a kitchen and dining room, meeting room, and maybe a workshop of library or music room. About 25 co-housing communities 7.________ (build) in recent years, and 150 more are planned.
A co-housing complex is a place 8.________residents(居民) shop, cook, and eat together. Residents of a co-housing complex like its sense of shared community. Children have other kids to play 9.________ , which many families like. Other residents like the feeling of living in a “village”. Residents also say that they can live in co-housing for 10.________ (little) money than they would pay for nearby apartments.
The famous deaf dancer think that dancing is an activity ________ sight matters more than hearing.
A. when B. whose
C. which D. where
