Technology today has stolen away our voices and robbed our children of memories. I’ve been keeping count of how often people sing around the house these days. The fact is, they don’t.
My earliest memories are of my mother crooning lullabies(催眠曲) in a gentle low voice as she rocked each infant in turn. She said she “didn’t have a singing voice,” but her low, wavering alto will always mean comfort to me. Every time I have sat through the night with a feverish body or held a pre – schooler through a nightmare, the melodies returned, words appearing and disappearing like fragments of a dream but held together by the hum (低声吟唱)of love.
Today, young mothers are routinely presented with lullaby tapes at the baby shower. When baby cries, the idea goes, they will be able to switch on the high-tech audio system and the little one will drift off with the voices of strangers in his ears, perfectly on pitch. If I had my way, new parents would learn the songs themselves, throw out their stereos, and give their child the gift of their own sleepy voices through the midnight hours.
These days, when we go on a trip, my daughters take along tiny personal stereos and headphones. They are lost in their private worlds, and I can’t help wishing that at least here, in the car my girls would be forced to listen to their mother’s voice raised in lost – the – words again, sure I’m out-of-tune songs that they might then pass down to another generation. Those sophisticated earphones have robbed them of something I think every kid should carry from childhood car trips into adulthood.
I drove away from that party humming, and all the way home the good old songs kept tumbling out. Dammit (该死), I thought, why did I ever stop singing in the car and start turning on the radio instead? Why don’t I sign anymore while I’m doing the dishes? I’m going to yank those stereo wires right out of the wall when I get home. We’re going to sing grace before meals, sing coals around the piano, sing in the shower instead of switching on that waterproof radio that stol away our voices and our souls.
63.The author hates today’s technology because________
A.driving a car requires high concentration
B.children are learning pop songs from tapes
C.children have lost touch with good old songs
D.high – tech systems do not record the voices of aged people
64.The underlined sentence “the little one will drift off” in Paragraph 3 means that “________ ”.
A.the play of the high – tech system is of little use
B.the high – tech system will play on and on
C.the low voice will delight the baby
D.the baby will slowly go to sleep
65.To the author, the voices of strangers ________       .
A.are not familiar to the baby
B.lack the motherly love the baby needs
C.work better to stop the baby’s cry
D.surely sound more pleasant
66.What the author wishes to make her girls do is to________          .
A.help memorize the words while she is singing
B.take off their well – designed earphones
C.listen and learn the old songs from her
D.remember their childhood car trips


第二部分:阅读理解(共25题,第一节每题2分,第二节每题1分)
第一节:阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A,B,C和D)中,选出最佳选项。
Trouve sat up on its back legs arid growled(吼叫)the words “How are you, Grandmama?” The audience roared with laughter and clapped. Twenty-year-old Aleck gave the dog a morsel(一口)of food. His hard wok paid off. His dog could talk!
Aleck was fascinated with the different sounds of people’s speech. His father taught students who had a speech problem to improve their speech. Aleck paid close attention. Could an animal form sounds into words, too? He decided to experiment with Trouve, the family dog.
The easy part was teaching Trouve to growl whenever Aleck wanted. The little dog growled for a morsel of food.
Next Aleck moved the dog’s “lips’ as it growled. It sounded like “ma ma ma.” Trouve learned quickly to stop the growling just as Aleck’s hand moved away. They practiced and practiced until the dog said “ma ma” perfectly.
Soon Aleck discovered more. If he pushed gently under the dog’s jawbone(下颚骨), it made the “ga” sound. If he pushed once and moved the dog’s lips twice, he could make the dog say, “ga ma ma”. With even more practice, it sounded like “grandmama.” Whenever Trouve said “grandmam,” Aleck gave the god two treats, so Trouve loved the lessons.
Aleck tried to teach his dog to move its tongue. So that Trouve could say more words. That didn’t work, but Aleck didn’t give up.
After many hours of practice, Trouve could say, “Ow ah oo ga-ma-ma?” This sounded just like “How are you, Grandmama?”
Friends and neighbors traveled to see young Aleck and his amazing talking dog. Rumors spread that the dog could speak by itself, which wasn’t true. No matter how much Aleck tried, the dog was never able to move its lips without help.
Aleck’s full name was Alexander Graham Bell. He wanted to know more about the world all his life. He had many ideas. Some worked; others didn’t. But he kept trying—always learning; One of his inventions was something called the telephone.
41.Which of the following is TRUE of Aleck?
A.His father had an influence on him.      
B.He had a talent for giving speeches.
C.He taught Trouve to talk in honor of his grandmother.
D.He carried out many experiments to improve people’s speech.
42.Trouve grew fond of practicing talking because         .
A.it liked being together with Aleck  B.it was given some food for that
C.it would like to develop its potential      D.Aleck treated it like one of the family
43.Which of the following words can best describe Aleck?
A.Humorous.      B.Naughty.  C.Knowledgeable.       D.Curious.
44.What contributes most to Aleck’s success in teaching the dog to talk?
A.His own hard work.         B.His neighbor’s help.
C.His father’s encouragement.    D.The dog’s smartness.

Hans Christian Andersen was a poor boy who lived in Denmark. His father, a shoemaker, had died, and his mother had married again.
Andersen’s father liked to read better than to make shoes. In the evenings, he had read aloud from The Arabian Nights. His wife understood very little of the book, but the boy, pretending to sleep, understood every word.
By day Hans Christian Anderson went to a house where old women worked as weavers. There he listened to the tales that the women told. In those days, there were almost as many tales in Denmark as there were people to tell them.
Among the tales told in the town of Odense, where Andersen was born in 1805, was one about a fairy who brought death to those who danced with her. To this tale, Hans Christian later added a story from his own life.
Once, when his father was still alive, a young lady ordered a pair of red shoes. When she refused to pay for them, unhappiness filled the poor shoemaker’s house. From that small tragedy and the story of the dancing fairy, the shoemaker’s son years later wrote the story that millions of people now know as The Red Shoes.
As a little girl, Hans Christian’s mother was sent out on the streets to beg. She did not want to beg, so she hid under one of the city bridges. She warmed her cold feet in her hands, for she had no shoes. She was afraid to go home. Years later, her son, in his pity for her and his anger at the world, wrote the angry story She’s No Good and the famous tale The Little Match Girl.
Through his genius, he changed every early experience, even his father’s death, into a fairy tale. One cold day his father showed him a white, woman-like figure among the frost patterns. “That is the snow queen,” said the shoemaker. “Soon she will be coming for me.” A few months later he died. And years later, Andersen turned that sad experience into a fairy tale, The Snow Queen.
【小题1】Which of the following is TRUE about Anderson when he was a boy?

A.His father had remarried before he died.
B.His mother was struck by The Arabian Night.
C.He enjoyed listening to stories very much.
D.He would help old weavers with their work.
【小题2】What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3 imply?
A.Almost all tales from around the world once had their origin in Denmark.
B.The people in Denmark were very enthusiastic about telling tales.
C.The number of tales in Denmark was exactly equal to that of the people living there.
D.The people in Denmark loved doing nothing but tell stories to each other.
【小题3】How many of Anderson’s fairy tales are mentioned in the passage?
A.5. B.6. C.3. D.4.
【小题4】It can be inferred from the passage that ______.
A.The Red Shoes was based on a tragedy of Anderson’s family
B.Andersen’s genius as well as his early experience made him successful
C.Andersen was educated at home by his parents because of poverty
D.Anderson wrote The Snow Queen in memory of his parents
【小题5】Which is the best title of the passage?
A.Hans Christian Andersen’s Own Fairy Tales.
B.Hans Christian Andersen’s Family.
C.Hans Christian Andersen’s Bitter Experiences.
D.Hans Christian Andersen’s Considerate Parents.

It was Monday. Mrs. Smith’s dog was hungry, but there was not any meat in the house. Considering that there was no better way, Mrs. Smith took a piece of paper, and wrote the following words on it “Give my dog half a pound of meat.” Then she gave the paper to her dog and said gently, “Take this to the butcher(屠夫), and he’s going to give you your lunch today.” Holding the piece of paper in its mouth, the dog ran to the butcher’s. It gave the paper to the butcher. The butcher read it carefully, recognized that it was really the lady’s handwriting and soon did it as he was asked to. The dog was very happy, and ate the meat up at once. At noon, the dog came to the shop again. It gave the butcher a piece of paper again. After reading it, he gave it half a pound of meat once more. The next day, the dog came again exactly at noon. And as usual, it brought a piece of paper in the mouth. This time, the butcher did not take a look at paper, and gave the dog its meat, for he had regarded the dog as one of his customers(顾客). But, the dog came again at four o’clock. And the same thing happened once again. To the butcher’s more surprise, it came for the third time at six o’clock, and brought with it a third piece of paper. The butcher felt a bit puzzled. He said to himself, “This is a small dog. Why does Mrs. Smith give it so much meat to eat today?”
Looking at the piece of paper, he found that there were not any words on it!
【小题1】The little dog went to the butcher’s ________ altogether during the two days.

A.three times B.four timesC.five times D.six times
【小题2】The butcher did not give any meat to the dog __________.
A. before he felt sure that the words were really written by Mrs. Smith on Monday
B when he found that the words on the paper were not clear
C. because he had sold out all the meat in his shop
D. until he was paid enough by Mrs. Smith
【小题3】From the story, we can know that the dog was very ___________.
A.honestB.kindC.clever D.foolish
【小题4】At the end of the story, you’ll find that __________.
A.the dog was clever enough to write on the paper
B.the dog dared not go to the butcher’s any more
C.the butcher was told not to give any meat to the dog
D.the butcher found himself cheated by the dog

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