The meaning of the word “volunteer” may be a little different in different countries, but it usually means “one who offers his or her services.” There are many different ways in which people can volunteer, such as taking care of sick people, working in homes for homeless children, and picking up garbage from beaches and parks.Volunteers may work within their own countries or in other countries.They are often people with a strong wish to help those who are less fortunate than themselves.Volunteers don’t expect any kind of pay.

   At the root of volunteering is the idea that one person may have the ability to offer services that can help other people.Tracy, a good friend of mine, however, recently came back from India with a new idea of what being a volunteer means.She worked for two and a half weeks in one of Mother Teresa’s homes in Calcutta.The following is her story.

   “I first heard about Mother Teresa in my high school.We watched a video about her work in India and all over the world.I was so moved by her spirit to help others and her endless love for every human being that after I graduated from high school, I too wanted to try her kind of work.So with two friends I flew to Calcutta for a few weeks.”

   “I was asked to work in a home for sick people.I helped wash clothes and sheets, and pass out lunch.I also fed the people who were too weak to feed themselves and tried to cheer them up.I felt it was better to share with them than to think that I have helped them.To be honest, I don’t think I was helping very much.It was then that I realized that I had not really come to help, but to learn about and experience another culture that helped improve my own understanding of life and the world.”

According to the text, a volunteer refers to a person who ______.

         A.is willing to help those in need without pay  

         B.can afford to travel to different places

         C.has a strong wish to be successful          

         D.has made a big fortune in life

Tracy started her work as a volunteer _______.

         A.after she met Mother Teresa              

         B.after she finished high school

         C.when she was touring Calcutta            

         D.when she was working in a hospital

Why did Tracy choose to be a volunteer?

         A.She liked to work with Mother Teresa.     

         B.She had already had some experience.

         C.She was asked by Mother Teresa’s example.  k.s.5.u

         D.She wanted to follow Mother Teresa’s example.

  The Pillow

At the age of sixteen, I joined a volunteer group with my dad. I went on my first volunteer project in West Virginia. On the night we arrived, we discovered that “our family” was living in a trailer (拖车) that was in poor condition. A crew had been working on it for two weeks, but every time they finished one problem, another surfaced.

We decided the only reasonable solution was to build a new house—something unusual but necessary under these circumstances. The family was overjoyed with their new house that was twenty by thirty feet with three bedrooms, a bath and a kitchen.

On Tuesday of that week, while we ate lunch together, I asked the family’s three boys, Josh, Eric and Ryan, “What do you want for your new room?” Expecting toys and other gadgets that children usually ask for, we were astonished when Josh responded, “I just want a bed.”

The boys had never slept in a bed! They were accustomed to plastic mats. That night we had a meeting and decided that beds would be the perfect gift. On Thursday night, a few adults in our group drove to the nearest city and bought beds and new bedding.

When we saw the delivery truck coming, we told the family about the surprise. We could hardly contain ourselves. It was like watching excited children on Christmas morning.

That afternoon, as we fitted the frames of the beds together, Eric ran into the house to watch us. Too dirty to enter his room, he observed with wide-eyed enthusiasm from the doorway.

As my father slipped a pillowcase onto one of the pillows, Eric asked, “What is that?”

“A pillow,” he replied.

“What do you do with it?” Eric continued to ask.

“When you go to sleep, you put your head on it,” I answered softly. Tears came to my eyes as my father handed Eric the pillow.

“Oh…that’s soft,” he said, hugging it tightly.[来源:学.科.网Z.X.X.K]

Now, when my sister or I start to ask for something that seems urgent, my dad gently asks, “Do you have a pillow?”

We know exactly what he means. [来源:ZXXK]

1.The writer’s first volunteer project was ______. [来源:]

A. working on a poor trailer                                  B. helping a poor family

C. donating beds and bedding                                       D. dealing with a housing problem

2.On hearing Josh’s answer, the writer was shocked because ______. 

   A. the family lived in a trailer                                  B. he expected to get some toys

   C. he didn’t know what a bed was                        D. the boys had no bed to sleep in

3.From the passage, we can learn that Eric had never seen ______ before.

A. a trailer                  B. a truck                           C. a pillow                          D. a house

4.By saying “Do you have a pillow?”, the writer’s father means that ______.  

A. what they want to get may be unnecessary 

B. they should not waste money on small things

C. they should do more volunteer work for the poor

D. what he will buy is not what they want but a pillow

 

American author Mark Twain once noted that “life would be surely happier if we could only be born at the age of 80 and gradually approach 18.” Twain’s words were only one of many complaints about aging. The ancient Greek poet Homer called old age “hateful”, and William Shakespeare termed it “terrible winter”.

Alexander the Great, who conquered most of the known world before he died around 323 B.C., may have been looking for a river that healed the ravages of age. During the 12th century A.D., a king called Prester John ruled a land that had a river of gold and a fountain of youth.

But the name linked most closely to the search for a fountain of youth is 16th-century Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon. He thought it would be found in Florida. In St. Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S., there’s a tourist attraction. It is said to be the fountain of youth that Ponce de Leon discovered soon after he arrived in what is now Florida in 1513. However, elderly visitors who drink the spring’s water don’t turn into teenagers.

But the tale of the search for a fountain of youth is so appealing(有吸引力的) that it survives anyway, says Ryan K. Smith, a professor of history. “People are more attracted by the story of looking and not finding than they are by the idea that the fountain might be out there somewhere.”

Still, a few grains of truth have helped to support the story. Kathleen Deagan, a professor of archaeology, says a graveyard and the remains of a Spanish mission dating back to St. Augustine’s founding in 1565 have been discovered near the so-called fountain of youth. Michelle Reyna, a spokesperson for the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park in St. Augustine, says the fountain has been a tourist attraction since at least 1901 and may have been attracting visitors since 1860.

1.According to the passage, who searched for a fountain of youth?

A. Ponce de Leon  B. William Shakespeare. C. Kathleen Deagan   D. Michelle Reyna

2.What does the underlined word “ravages” in the second paragraph probably mean?

A. Growth. B. Limits.      C. Damages.         D. Benefits.

3.What is the attitude of people towards the fountain of youth?

A. People find much pleasure in looking for it.    

B. People believe the existence of it somewhere.

C. People have no interest in searching for it.    

D. People consider the idea of the fountain of youth absurd(荒谬的).

4.The passage mainly tells us _____.

A. how the fountain of youth came into being   

B. why some famous people hate becoming old

C. how to remain young forever         

D. whether the fountain of youth exists

5.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A. The underlined words “the story” refers to Alexander the Great ruling a land that had a river of gold and a fountain of youth.

B. Augustine, which is the oldest city in the U.S, lies in Florida.

C. Some elderly visitors find themselves younger after drinking the water from the fountain of youth.

D. Kathleen Deagan is the spokesperson for the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park.

 

My father had returned from his business visit to London when I came in, rather late, to supper. I could tell at once that he and my mother had been discussing something. In that half-playful, half-serious way I knew so well, he said, "How would you like to go to Eton?"

"You bet," I cried quickly catching the joke. Everyone knew it was the most expensive, the most famous of schools. Besides, even at 12 or 13, I understood my father. He disliked any form of showing off. He always knew his proper station in life, which was in the middle of the middle class, our house was medium-sized; he had avoided joining Royal Liverpool Golf Club and went to a smaller one instead; though once he had got a second-hand Rolls-Royce at a remarkably low price, he felt embarrassed driving it, and quickly changed it for an Austin 1100.

This could only be his delightful way of telling me that the whole boarding school idea was to be dropped. Alas! I should also have remembered that he had a liking for being different from everyone else, if it did not conflict(冲突) with his fear of drawing attention to himself.

It seemed that he had happened to be talking to Graham Brown of the London office, a very nice fellow, and Graham had a friend who had just entered his boy at the school, and while he was in that part of the world he thought he might just as well phone them. I remember my eyes stinging(刺痛) and my hands shaking with the puzzlement of my feelings. There was excitement, at the heart of great sadness.

"Oh, he doesn't want to go away," said my mother, "You shouldn't go on like this.” “It's up to him," said my father. "He can make up his own mind." Ks5

1. His father sold his Rolls-Royce because ________.

A. it made him feel uneasy             B. it was too old to work well

C. it was too expensive to possess     D. it was too cheap

2.The writer's father enjoyed being different as long as ________.

A. it drew attention to him            B. it didn't bring him in arguments

C. it was understood as a joke     D. there was no danger of his showing off K

3.What was the writer's reaction to the idea of going to Eton?

A. He was very unhappy.           B. He didn't believe it.

C. He was delighted.               D. He had mixed feelings.

4.We can know from the passage that ________.

A. Children who can go to Eton are very famous

B. Children can go to Eton if they will

C. It is very difficult for a child to get admitted by Eton

D. Children don't have the right to decide whether they will go to Eton

 

Forget Twitter and Facebook, Google and the Kindle. Television is still the most influential medium around. Indeed ,for many of the poorest regions of the world, it remains the next big thing——finally becomes globally available. And that is a good thing, because the TV revolution is changing lives for the better.

Across the developing world, around 45% of families had a TV in 1995; by 2005 the number had climbed above 60%. That is some way behind the U.S. , where are more TVs than people, and where people now easily get access to the Internet. Five million more families in sub-Saharan Africa will get a TV over the next five years. In 2005 , after the fall of the Taliban(塔利班),which had outlawed TV, 1 in 5 Afghans had one. The global total is another 150 million by 2013——pushing the numbers to well beyond two thirds of families.

Television’s most powerful effect will be on the lives of women. In India, researchers Robert Jensen and Emily Oster found that when TVs reached villages, women were more likely to go to the market without their husbands’ approval and less likely to want a boy rather than a girl. They were more likely to make decisions over child health care. TV is also a powerful medium for adult education. In the Indian state of Gujarat, Chitrageet is a popular show that plays Bollywood songs with words in Gujarati on the screen. Within six months, viewers had made a small but significant improvement in their reading skills.

Too much TV has been associated with violence, overweight and loneliness. However, TV is having a positive influence on the lives of billions worldwide. K^S*5U.C

1. The underlined word “outlawed” in paragraph 2 probably means “           ”.

A.allowed

B.forbidden

C.offered

D.refused

2.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A.Americans used to get access to the Internet easily.

B.The world’s TV sets will total 150 million by 2013.

C.45% of families in the developing countries had a TV in 2005.

D.Over two thirds of families in the world will have a TV by 2013.

3.The author intends to             .

A.stress the advantages of TV to people’s lives

B.persuade women to become more independent

C.encourage people to improve their reading skills

D.introduce the readers some websites such as Google

4. What would be the best title for the passage?  

A.TV Will Rule the World

B.TV Will Disturb the World

C.TV Will Better the World

D.TV Will Remain in World

5. From the passage, we know _______________.

A.It is impossible for women in India to get access to TVs now.

B.Robert Jensen and Emily Oster are Indian women.

C.Women in India are more likely to want a girl than a boy because of the arrival of TV.

D.Viewers of a popular TV show can improve their reading skills greatly in half a year.

 

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网