Hundreds of people lined up at Grand Central Terminal yesterday, but they weren’t there to catch a train. They came to New York City’s famous railroad station to trade in old dollar bills for the new George Washington Presidential $ 1 coin.

The gold-colored coin is the first in a new series by the U.S. Mint(造币厂)that honors former U.S. Presidents. The Mint will issue four Presidential $ 1 coins a year through 2016. Like the popular 50 State Quarters(纪念币) program, which issues coins in the order in which each state joined the Union, Presidential $ 1 coins will come out in the order in which each President served. The George Washington coin is the first to be released. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison coins will come out later this year.

The Presidential $ 1 coins will be the same size and color as the Sacagawea Golden Dollar. However, there is an important difference. For the first time since the 1930s, there is an inscription(题字)on the edge of each coin. Each coin will show a different President on its face, or head side. It will also show the President’s name, the order in which he served and his years in office. The other side of the coin will show the Statue of Liberty and the inscriptions “United States of America” and “$ 1”.

There will be one Presidential $ 1 coin for each President, except Grover Cleveland. He will have two! Cleveland is the only U.S. President to have served two nonconsecutive(不连续的)terms.

The last President scheduled to get a coin is Gerald Ford because a President must have been dead for two years before he can be on a coin.

Hundreds of people lined up at the railway station in order to ____________.

  A. exchange money           B. visit a coin show        

  C. book train tickets           D. do some shopping

. What may you find on the head side of the new US $ 1 coin?

  A. The Statue of Liberty               B. The name of a U.S. president

  C. The year when the coin was made     D. The inscriptions “ United States of America”

Why will Grover Cleveland have two coins ?

A. He is the only one who has served two terms

B. He is the most famous President in the U.S.

C. He served longer than any other President.

D. He served two terms but not continuously.

From the passage we can infer that_________.

  A. the new presidential coin can buy more than the old coin.

  B. the U.S. Mint has issued all the presidential coins by now.

  C. no presidential coin has been released for president Obama

  D. the coins are issued to honor the greatest presidents in America


E
Larry Walters is among the relatively few who have actually turned their dreams into reality. His story is true, even though you may find it hard to believe.
Larry was a truck driver, but his lifelong dream was to fly. After graduating from high school, he joined the Air Force in hopes of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, poor eyesight disqualified him. So, as he sat there in his lawn chair, he dreamed about the magic of flying.
Then one day, Larry Walters got an idea. He went to the local Army-Navy store and bought a tank of helium (氦) and forty-five weather balloons. Back in his yard, Larry used straps to attach the balloons to his lawn chair, the kind you might have in your own back yard.
He fixed the chair to the ground and filled the balloons with helium. Then he packed some sandwiches and drinks and loaded a BB gun, figuring he could pop (打爆) a few of those balloons when it was time to return to earth.
Being ready, Larry sat in his chair and cut the fixing rope. His plan was to lazily float upwards and then lazily back down to land. But, things didn’t quite work out that way.
Instead, he shot up as if fired from a cannon! He climbed until he finally reached eleven THOUSAND feet! At that height, he could hardly risk shooting at any of the balloons, for fear of losing the balance! So, he stayed up there, sailing around for fourteen hours, totally at a loss as to how to get down. Eventually, an airliner pilot radioed the airport about passing a guy in a lawn chair at eleven thousand feet ... with a gun in his lap (腿面).
At nightfall, the winds on the coast made Larry drift out to sea. At that point, the Navy sent a helicopter to rescue him. Eventually they were able to fly over him and drop a rescue line with which they gradually get him back to earth.
On hitting the ground, he was arrested. When led away in handcuffs, a television reporter called out to ask, “Mr. Walters, why did you do it?” Larry stopped, eyed the man for a moment and replied, “A man can’t just sit around. What happens tomorrow depends on what you do today.”
Are you doing something to improve your life ... or just sitting around?
57. It is the fact that Larry _______.
A. was a qualified pilot                    B. was an amazing bus driver         
C. failed to become a pilot                 D. popped a few balloons
58. While pulled by the helium balloon, Larry took off to fly by _______.
A. shooting at the balloons to get the up-pushing power
B. using straps to attach the balloons to his lawn chair
C. fixing the chair to the balloons filled with helium
D. cutting the rope fixing his chair to the ground
59. Larry’s being arrested suggests that _______.
A. he is a wanted criminal by the police        B. it is against law to fly without a license 
C. an air liner pilot found a gun in his lap     D. he intended to steal military information
60. What might the writer think of Larry?
A. He is stupid enough to get arrested.           B. He is wise enough to be a success.
C. He is brave enough to reach his goal.    D. He is violent enough to go against law.

Jonathan James looks like just another kid about to graduate from high school. But this 19-year-old Swede is anything but ordinary, from the computer in his parents’ home he helps the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) find out the world’s most wanted cyber criminals .

Jonathan first made headlines when he and another Swede, Fredrik Bjoerck, found out the maker of the “Melissa” virus in March 1999. He came to the aid of the FBI again on May 7, finding out the suspected sender of the dangerous “I LOVE YOU” virus. The suspect was caught in Manila on May 8.

Jonathan’s special skills are in hot demand as officials around the world express alarm at the “virtual” crimewave. In between studying for final exams, hanging out with friends and refereeing his younger brother’s football matches, the quiet, gentle teenager also gives lessons on e-security (电子安全) to large companies. He reads a lot and exchanges information with other computer experts to know much about the latest tricks of the hacker trade.

Many companies have already tried to employ him, but he is not interested at the moment. Instead, he plans to begin law school in the autumn at Sweden’s Uppsala University and start up his own e-security company.

Although he works with the FBI now, his family insists he’s just “a regular kid”. “Jonathan is a great kid, he has his friends and he does a lot more than just play with the computer,” his little sister Tessa said, adding that he helps the FBI because “he likes to help”, not because he’s looking for fame and recognition.

When the world was hit by the “Love Bug” virus, Jonathan was too busy preparing a speech on e-security to look into the problem. “Finally on May 7, I had some free time, so I began looking.” Within a few hours, he had found the suspect and e-mailed his method and results to the FBI. He said his work on the “Melissa” virus, which took three weeks to solve, was a big help in finding the suspect so quickly.

“This time I knew exactly where to start, I knew what to disregard and what to look at.”

1.The passage mainly wants to tell us that ___________.

A. Swedish kid helps FBI find out the most wanted cyber criminals

B. Jonathan is really a quiet, gentle and ordinary boy

C. many companies want the young computer expert to join in

D. any cyber criminals will surely be found out wherever they are

2.The public started to know something about Jonathan just from _________.

A. his helping the US FBI to find out the sender of the dangerous “I LOVE YOU” virus

B. his work together with Fredrik Bjoerck to find out the maker of the “Melissa” virus

C. his little sister’s talk about his good qualities as a regular kid and a good programmer

D. his speech on e-security to many computer companies after his fight against hackers

3. From Jonathan’s success in finding out the sender of the dangerous ‘Love Bug” virus we can infer that _________.

A. where there’s a will, there’s a way           B. experience is knowledge

C. hard work leads to success                   D. failure is the mother of success

4.What do we know about Jonathan?

A. He is a good fame hunter with various abilities.

B. He is such a brave fighter that any criminal will feel afraid.

C. He is an expert on security, not interested in running a company.

D. He is a regular kid but does something unusual.

 

Jascha Richter once sang “don't need too much talking without saying anything” to reveal his lonely feeling in a crowd.

   Dad always told me never to ever reveal my true opinions towards other people if such opinions are negative. He said this is the “Chu Shi Zhe Xue”, the philosophy of dealing with social network.

   It seems that everybody here just follows this philosophy very, very well.

   Friends. I would say that if I were given true friendship I would definitely treasure it with my greatest care. If I really regard someone as my close friend, I would never leave her alone whenever she's in need, either financially or mentally. And I always believe, as long as I treat people with whole-hearted honesty, I would have some rewards—at least, just ONE true friend of the same gender(性别).

    Sometimes I just miss my friends in China. Perhaps when we became friends, we were still young, too young to have been polluted by any dirt in the society. But here, it is simply different. It seems that all of us have learnt how to SURVIVE in a foreign land and such an experience actually makes us learn how to extract (榨取) the most benefits from the surroundings in order to survive.

   All are friends around me. I've looked through all the dark sides of their personalities and yet I have to pretend that I know nothing. THEY ARE GOOD. THEY ARE GOOD. AND WE ARE FRIENDS. And then I can make myself comfortable enough to talk to people I hate the most. And of course, they don't say any words truly from their hearts. Neither do I.

   But, sometimes I just feel unwilling to talk to these people. Sometimes, I just want to be alone, quietly, without being forced to listen to their gossip or other useless words.

   “Standing on a mountain high

Looking at the moon through a clear blue sky

I should go and see some friends         

But they don't really comprehend”

    Jascha Richter expresses my feelings also.

67. 1.What do we know about the writer’s father according to this passage?

A. He is really a good philosopher.                          

B. He possibly gets on well with others.

C. He told the writer to reveal her true opinions.       

D. The passage doesn’t tell us at all.

68. 2.What’s the most probable reason the writer mentions Jascha Richter’s song twice in the passage?

A. She likes Jascha Richter’s song.

B. Jascha Richter is one of her friends.

C. The song expresses her feelings.

D. She uses it to perfects her article.

69. 3.Which of the following statements about the writer is TRUE?

  A. She is now living abroad but doesn’t enjoy the life there.

  B. She absolutely believes in her father’s philosophy.

  C. She shows a positive attitude towards her relationship with others.

  D. She thinks highly of her friends by repeating “They are good”.

70. 4.The writer mostly expresses her ______ in this passage.

A. happiness      B. homesickness    C. sadness           D. loneliness 

 

A clique(小圈子,派系) is a group of friends who hang out together and act in similar ways. Cliques are common feature of the teen years. Members of a clique usually have certain things in common. For example, they might all be good students. Membership in a clique is limited. Not everyone who wants to belong can join.

Cliques can have a positive or negative influence. Because most teens have a strong need to belong, they want to feel that they fit into a group. Cliques can help them meet this need. Sometimes teens feel unsure of themselves, and they use a clique to gain approval of what they wear or how they act.

Cliques can become harmful, however, if they pressure members to behave the same way as the group that may damage their health. Cliques may discourage members from making their own decisions, giving their own opinions, or having other friends who aren’t accepted by the clique. Cliques may even pressure members to act in ways that go against their own values and beliefs, such as lying to parents or teachers. Cliques can also hurt people outside the group. For example, members might make fun of a teen who isn’t in the clique.

If you find yourself under this type of pressure from a clique, here are some actions you can take to improve your situation.

● Suggest other activities. Offer ideas that don’t involve hurting others or putting anyone at risk.

● Find new friends. If staying in the clique is becoming a negative experience, you will be better off with new friends.

1.Why do teens want to be a member of a clique?

A. Because it is popular with teens.                   

B. Because it meets teens’ need of belonging.

C. Because it is where teens can be themselves.

D. Because it provides an opportunity for them to be away from their parents.

2.Why can cliques be harmful?

A. Because kids in there don’t have independent thinking.

B. Because kids in there are not allowed to have their own opinions.

C. Because kids in there sometimes are pressured.

D. Because kids in there are forced to lie to their parents.

3.What is the writer’s attitude toward the clique?

A. He is very supportive to it.                                B. He is strongly against it.

C. He is not against it, though he doesn’t like it.

D. He is not against it. However, he has some worry about it.

 

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