Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that he planned to give away almost all of his vast fortune, largely to the cause of global health, during the course of his lifetime. With an estimated worth of more than $ 40 billion, according to Forbes, the project will be no small feat for Gates. Having already provided the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with $ 24 billion to address global health issues, Gates said that eventually his entire fortune will be put towards the cause except “a few percent left for the kids.”

So what has made the richest man in the world to channel his resources so heavily into one interest? Gates believes that “the equality of opportunity” in which Americans take such pride needs to extend to other nations around the world. Improving the health of the populations, he says, has proven to be an essential method in helping poor countries to be financially successful. “National borders allow inequalities,” said Gates, “We all need to take a more global view, rather than just saying my country is doing well. We have to step up these health issues, knowing how few resources are going into them.”

Gates said that both his parents set good examples to him as a child. His father, William H. Gates, was the head of the local Planned Parenthood, and his mother, Mary, volunteered for the United Way. As he gathered his fortune, Gates knew he would eventually want to give back as well, but he didn’t expect to devote himself whole-heartedly to one project until he was about 60.

However, Gates, 47, began to question his ability to wait that long. “It seemed there was a real time urgency,” Gates said, “I started to think, how many lives could I save before then?”

Notes:

vast  adj. 巨额的

estimate  v. 估计,估价

feat  n. 功绩,壮举

financially  adv. 财政上,金融上

Choose the best answers according to the above:

Why will Bill Gates give away his vast fortune?

A. to improve the health of population in America alone

B. to improve the health of population all over the world

C. to avoid leaving his children too much money

D. to spare the American government the burden of health care

According to the passage, which of the following is right?

A. Americans should care about people in other countries

B. Americans should treat fellow citizens well

C. Americans should devote themselves to certain projects

D. Americans can be world-famous by giving away vast fortune

Bill Gates gave away his vast fortune earlier than he had expected because of       __.

A. his weakening health condition

B. his parents’ suggestions

C. his great success in business

D. his concerns for suffering people

According to the passage, which word can be used to describe Bill Gates?

A. brave   B. kind-hearted   C. strong-minded   D. confident

Microsoft founder Bill Gates said that he planned to give away almost all of his vast fortune , largely to the cause of global health , during the course of his lifetime . With an estimated(估计)worth of more than $ 40 billion , according to Forbes , the project will be no small feat (功绩)for Gates . Having already provided the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with $ 24 billion to address global health issues , Gates said that eventually his entire fortune will be put towards the cause except “a few percent left for the kids.”
So what has made the richest man in the world to channel his resources so heavily into one interest ? Gates believes that “the equality of opportunity” in which Americans take such pride needs to extend to other nations around the world . Improving the health of the populations , he says , has proven to be an essential method in helping poor countries to be financially successful . “National borders allow inequalities ,” said Gates : “We all need to take a more global view , rather than just saying my country is doing well . We have to step up these health issues , knowing how few resources are going into them .”
Gates said that both his parents set an example for him as a child . His father , William H. Gates , was the head of the local Planned Parenthood , and his mother , Mary , volunteered for the United Way . As he gathered his fortune , Gates knew he would eventually want to give back as well , but he didn’t expect to devote himself whole-heartedly to one project until he was about 60.
However , Gates , 47 , began to question his ability to wait that long . “It seemed there was a real time urgency,” Gates said . “I started to think , How many lives could I save before then ?”
【小题1】Bill Gates believes that one important way of developing poor countries is          .

A.to set up more foundations for them
B.to aid them with natural resources
C.to put more effort into the health issues in them
D.to help them take a more global view
【小题2】It can be learned from the text that Bill Gates thinks          .
A.Americans should care about people in other countries
B.Americans should treat fellow citizens well
C.Americans should devote themselves to certain projects
D.Americans can be world-famous by giving away vast fortune
【小题3】Bill Gates gave away his vast fortune earlier than he had expected because of          .
A.his weakening health condition B.his parents’ suggestions
C.his great success in business D.his concerns for suffering people

Mark Twain has been called the inventor of the American novel. And he surely deserves additional praise: the man who popularized the clever literary attack on racism.

I say clever because anti-slavery fiction had been the important part of the literature in the years before the Civil War. H. B. Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin is only the most famous example. These early stories dealt directly with slavery. With minor exceptions, Twain planted his attacks on slavery and prejudice into tales that were on the surface about something else entirely. He drew his readers into the argument by drawing them into the story.

Again and again, in the postwar years, Twain seemed forced to deal with the challenge of race. Consider the most controversial, at least today, of Twain’s novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Only a few books have been kicked off the shelves as often as Huckleberry Finn, Twain’s most widely read tale. Once upon a time, people hated the book because it struck them as rude. Twain himself wrote that those who banned the book considered the novel “trash and suitable only for the slums (贫民窟).” More recently the book has been attacked because of the character Jim, the escaped slave, and many occurences of the word nigger. (The term Nigger Jim, for which the novel is often severely criticized, never appears in it.)

But the attacks were and are silly—and miss the point. The novel is strongly anti-slavery. Jim’s search through the slave states for the family from whom he has been forcibly parted is heroic. As J. Chadwick has pointed out, the character of Jim was a first in American fiction—a recognition that the slave had two personalities, “the voice of survival within a white slave culture and the voice of the individual: Jim, the father and the man.”

There is much more. Twain’s mystery novel Pudd’nhead Wilson stood as a challenge to the racial beliefs of even many of the liberals of his day. Written at a time when the accepted wisdom held Negroes to be inferior (低等的) to whites, especially in intelligence, Twain’s tale centered in part around two babies switched at birth. A slave gave birth to her master’s baby and, for fear that the child should be sold South, switched him for the master’s baby by his wife. The slave’s lightskinned child was taken to be white and grew up with both the attitudes and the education of the slave-holding class. The master’s wife’s baby was taken for black and grew up with the attitudes and intonations of the slave.

The point was difficult to miss: nurture (养育), not nature, was the key to social status. The features of the black man that provided the stuff of prejudice—manner of speech, for example— were, to Twain, indicative of nothing other than the conditioning that slavery forced on its victims.

Twain’s racial tone was not perfect. One is left uneasy, for example, by the lengthy passage in his autobiography (自传) about how much he loved what were called “nigger shows” in his youth—mostly with white men performing in black-face—and his delight in getting his mother to laugh at them. Yet there is no reason to think Twain saw the shows as representing reality. His frequent attacks on slavery and prejudice suggest his keen awareness that they did not.

Was Twain a racist? Asking the question in the 21st century is as wise as asking the same of Lincoln. If we read the words and attitudes of the past through the “wisdom” of the considered moral judgments of the present, we will find nothing but error. Lincoln, who believed the black man the inferior of the white, fought and won a war to free him. And Twain, raised in a slave state, briefly a soldier, and inventor of Jim, may have done more to anger the nation over racial injustice and awaken its collective conscience than any other novelist in the past century.

1. How do Twain’s novels on slavery differ from Stowe’s?

A.Twain was more willing to deal with racism.

B.Twain’s attack on racism was much less open.

C.Twain’s themes seemed to agree with plots.

D.Twain was openly concerned with racism.

2.Recent criticism of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn arose partly from its ______.

A.target readers at the bottom

B.anti-slavery attitude

C.rather impolite language

D.frequent use of “nigger”

3.What best proves Twain’s anti-slavery stand according to the author?

A.Jim’s search for his family was described in detail.

B.The slave’s voice was first heard in American novels.

C.Jim grew up into a man and a father in the white culture.

D.Twain suspected that the slaves were less intelligent.

4.The story of two babies switched mainly indicates that ______.

A.slaves were forced to give up their babies to their masters

B.slaves’ babies could pick up slave-holders’ way of speaking

C.blacks’ social position was shaped by how they were brought up

D.blacks were born with certain features of prejudice

5.What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 7 refer to?

A.The attacks.                            B.Slavery and prejudice.

C.White men.                            D.The shows.

6.What does the author mainly argue for?

A.Twain had done more than his contemporary writers to attack racism.

B.Twain was an admirable figure comparable to Abraham Lincoln.

C.Twain’s works had been banned on unreasonable grounds.

D.Twain’s works should be read from a historical point of view.

 

A senior United Nations Children’s Fund(UNICEF) official on May 29 praised China for its remarkable achievements in children’s welfare.

A. H. M. Farook, UNICEF’s operations area officer for China and Mongolia said that China “can be very satisfied to tell the whole world what can be done with limited resources to help its children to grow healthily and happily.”

  China’s child population makes up one-fifth of the world’s total. “The reason behind the tremendous(巨大的) achievement is China’s long tradition of caring for children both at home and in society,” he said.

  “What’s more is that Chinese people have always given special attention to children who are in special need.” The UN official made the remarks when addressing a group of 50 children and staff from the Beijing Children’s Welfare Home at the Shangri-la Hotel, Beijing.

  The hotel invited the orphans to share snacks, sing, dance and play games at a park inside the hotel for a “Share the Sunshine” party, as a prelude(前奏) to celebrations to mark the Children’s Day.

  The Beijing children’s Welfare Home, set up soon after New China was founded in 1949, has at present more than 400 children.

  A leading official of the welfare institution said that the children live a happy life and that the agency spends 400—500 yuan a month for an average orphan. An average Chinese workers earned 440 yuan a month during the first quarter this year.

  Gu Xiaojin, deputy secretary-general of the China Youth Development Foundation(CYDF), said people from all walks of life have contributed to the welfare of the Chinese children.

  She said that CYDF set up the Project Hope in 1989, which calls on people across the country to donate money to help poor children to continue their schooling.

  By the end of last year, she said, CYDF had collected nearly 700 million yuan in donations, which has helped the establishment of 2, 074 Hope primary schools and enabled more than 1. 25 million dropouts to return to school classrooms.

  Three “Hope Stars” also attended the party. They were model teenagers chosen among students who are economically supported by the Project Hope to further their nine-year compulsory studies in the poverty-stricken regions. They will be torchbearers for the Chinese Team for the up coming Atlanta Olympic Games this year.

1.Children can grow healthily and happily as long as _______.

A. parents take good care of them both at home and in society

B. the whole society care for children as well as their parents

C. Schools and teachers pay much attention to the growth of children

D. Chinese people always give special attention to children who are in special need

2.Every year the Beijing Children’s Welfare Home spends _______ on the orphans

A. 1, 920, 000 yuan                    B. 2, 160, 000 yuan

C. Over 2, 400, 000 yuan                  D. 2, 200, 000 yuan or so

3.CYDF collected 700 million yuan with the purpose of _______.

A. reducing dropouts                                          

B. helping homeless orphans

C. supporting the Chinese Team for the coming Atlanta Olympic Games

D. establishing 2, 074 Hope primary schools all over the country

4.We can infer from the text that _______.

A. Every Chinese child has its own special need, so we should pay special attention to each.

B. All the children in the poverty-stricken regions of China are too poor to go to school.

C. Ever since liberation. the Chinese Communist Party has been concerned about the growth of the younger generation.

D. With the help of UNICEF officials, there are no more dropouts in China.

5.It is possible that this passage was written in _______.

A. 1992       B. 1996       C. 1998        D. 2000

 

 “There is very little in my life that is more personal and more important to me than comets!” the amateur David H. Levy told Terence Dickinson in an interview. “Not just discovering them but watching them, learning about them, writing about them, understanding what they do. It makes observing the sky intensely personal. I feel when I find a new comet a door has been opened and I have seen a slightly new aspect of nature. There is this object in the solar system that ― for a few minutes or a few hours ― only I know about. It is like trying to pry(打探)a secret out of nature. It is a very special feeling.” Ever since he was a child, David H. Levy has been fascinated by the night sky and the wonders it reveals to devoted watchmen. He developed a special feeling for comets before he reached his teens, though it was not until 1984 ― after nineteen years and more than nine hundred hours of combing the sky in search of them ― that he discovered his first one, from a small observatory that he had built in his backyard.

Since then, he has discovered or co-discovered twenty more, making him one of the world's most important comet hunters. His most celebrated find is periodic comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which he made with the husband-and-wife comet-and-asteroid-hunting team Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker. The comet's dramatic collision with Jupiter in July 1994, which constituted(组成)“the greatest planetary show in recorded history,” to quote Malcolm W. Browne of the New York Times, captivated(迷住) not only professional astronomers, but many amateurs. Although he is only an amateur astronomer ― he earns his living by lecturing and writing books and by working with project artists. They’re projects devoted to introducing astronomy to elementary school children ― he has won tremendous respect from his professional colleagues for his success in tracking down comets. “David H. Levy is one of those rare individuals blessed with the gift of discovery,” David Hartsel, who serves on the board of directors of the Richland Astronomical Society, in Ohio, has said. “Even rarer is his ability to let others share in the excitement and wonder of those discoveries through his writing and lectures.”

46. The primary purpose of this passage is to ________.

A. praise Levy for his contribution to the observation of comets.

B. show that an amateur can do things as well as a professional.

C. introduce to the readers David Levy as a professional astronomer.

D. demonstrate that strong interest is very important in helping one succeed in his life.

47. All the following are suggested in this passage as reasons that contribute to Levy's success as a respectable astronomer EXCEPT that ________.

A. he had his books published on astronomy

B. he worked on a project that is intended to introduce astronomy

C. he was born with the gift of the discovery of comets

D. he was highly praised by his colleagues for his unselfishness

48. According to David Hartsel, he most appreciates Levy’s ________.

A. gifted ability of comet hunting             C. curiosity to the sky and comets

B. ability of communicating his ideas          D. spirit of devotion to astronomy

49. Levy says that watching the sky is quite personal to him because________.

A. he has developed a very special affection for the sky

B. he can discover a secret out of nature

C. he has established a close relationship with the sky

D. he may have a personal talk with nature

50. It can be inferred from the passage that_______.

A. Levy's parents are astronomers                      B. Levy was born in the 1970s

C. Levy achieved his fame in the 1980s

D. Levy himself has discovered 21 comets altogether

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