Dad came in the midnight. We heard every sound, but we pretended to be asleep.
Next morning he looked weak and thin, sitting in a chair by the kitchen fire. The light of the fire shone through his long empty sleeve. Everything went as usual. Grandma found something to do in the bedroom. Grandpa went out for some water. Mother, with her back to us, was getting the cakes ready for breakfast.
But nothing was right. When grandma came out of the bedroom, she walked on tiptoe. When grandpa came back, he said nothing about the weather. At breakfast Mother passed us the fruit and said something, but her voice was too high.
At last my sister, Lou, pushed back her chair. “It’s your turn to wash the dishes.” But I had washed the dishes the night before. I said nothing because it was not right to quarrel in front of Dad just home with the empty sleeve.
“It is your turn,” Lou said again. I looked at her in surprise.
“It is not,” I said because I suddenly remembered Mother had told us to go on as usual.
“Children, children,” Mother said in a quiet, glad kind of voice.
And Dad was smiling because he felt at home at last.
【小题1】What do you know happened to Dad in the story?

A.He was badly ill.B.He had a long journey.
C.He drank too much.D.He lost one of his arms.
【小题2】The family        when they saw Dad’s empty sleeve.
A.was too surprised to do anythingB.felt sad and cried a lot
C.tried not to show their feelingsD.showed no worry at all
【小题3】From the story, we know          .
A.the two sisters often quarreled about who should wash the dishes
B.the family liked seeing the two sisters quarrelling after breakfast
C.Dad loved the two sisters very much though they often quarreled
D.Mother told the two sisters to quarrel with each other the night before
【小题4】Which of the following can be the best title of the story?
A.The Quarrelling SistersB.Dad Was Back
C.After the AccidentD.An Empty Sleeve

Barack Obama

In the past hundred years, the U.S. presidency has turned more and more to the left – not in policy, but in handedness. Barrack Obama is the latest to join a long list of left – handed presidents from the 20th century: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all southpaws.

What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office. And as for the bout of recent left-handed presidents, some think it’s because teachers only recently stopped working to convert lefties to rightist at an early age.

Bill Gates

Claiming the nation’s richest man among their number is a source of considerable pride for America’s society of southpaws. In fact, the Microsoft titan and philanthropist(巨头兼慈善家) is one of a surprising number of U.S. business moguls to be left-handed, including Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and former IBM head Lou Gerstner. But the club seems to be a guys-only fraternity — research suggests that while left-handed men tend to earn more than their right-handed colleagues, there is no similar advantage for women. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research floated the idea that left-handed men favor "divergent" thinking, a form of creativity in which the brain moves "from conventional knowledge into unexplored association." Maybe that’s what it takes to develop a net worth estimated at $ 57 billion.

Oprah Winfrey

The talk-show queen doesn’t need much more to set her apart from the rest — what with her estimated $ 2.7 billion fortune and a magic ability to sell books just by glancing at them — but she also has the distinction of being a member of the left-handed club. Since men are more likely to be left-handed than women, that makes Oprah doubly impressive. She’s in good company: Other show-business ladies of the left – handed  persuasion include Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie

Marie Curie

Not only was atomic scientist Marie Curie left-handed, but she was the matriarch of a whole family of accomplished, southpaw scientists. Curie, who discovered the principles of radioactivity and won two Nobel Prizes, was married to fellow lefty Pierre Curie, who was instrumental in helping Marie’s atomic research and shared one of her Nobel awards. Historians believe their daughter, Irene, was also left-handed. Irene went on to win a Nobel Prize of her own with her husband — who, you guessed it, was also left-handed.

59.The underlined word “southpaws” in the last sentence of Paragraph 1 means_______.

A.people coming from the south B.powerful presidents

C.people who use their left hand D.forceful speakers

60.What makes it so easy for lefties to be elected as presidents according to the passage?

A.Their great gift for foreign language.

B.Their great language skills to make speeches.

C.The need of left – hinders in the political office.

D.Teachers stopping to force them to use their right hand.

61.It can be implied that Bill Gates, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and Lou Gerstne_______.

A.have creative thinking              B.have formed a special club.

C.earn more money than their wives   D.are wealthy philanthropists

62.The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 “She is in good company” means “_______”.

A.she works in a very good company   B.she has many good friends

C.she has got on well with others        D.she is among many female lefties

 

 

第四部分:任务型阅读(共10小题;每小题l分,满分10分)

请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意:每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。

Experts debunk Maya doomsday(末日) predictions -- But that hasn't stopped books, movies from cashing in.

If the ancient Maya and filmmaker Roland Emmerich are correct, the apocalypse(大灾变) will happen very fast, maybe quicker than his new 2½-hour movie.

Predictions of global ruination are rippling around the globe with seismic(地震的) force, all loosely based on a 5,000-year Maya calendar that ends Dec. 21, 2012. Countless Web sites and blogs anticipate(预料) the end of days, as do various New Age groups and would-be prophets(预言者) offering guidance and how-to tips. On Amazon.com , you can read hundreds of book titles combining the year 2012 with terms such as “apocalypse,” “catastrophe” and “end of the world.”

As always, doomsday sells — and a lot of people are buying it.

“There's the psychobabble(心理呓语) aspect,” said Robert Epstein, former editor of Psychology Today magazine and a lecturer at the University of California San Diego. “It's the Sigmund Freud/death wish idea: People glom onto(对…感兴趣) doomsday predictions because there's some small part of them that wants to die, and die spectacularly(壮观的). I don't believe it, but it's one way to look at this.”

It's Emmerich's way. The German director specializes in wreaking havoc on an epic scale, from climatic cataclysm in 2004's “The Day After Tomorrow” to angry aliens and reptiles in “Independence Day” and “Godzilla.”  In “2012,” he finishes the job.

The digitized disasters of “2012” are oversized, overwrought and sometimes literally over the top, as when a humongous tsunami washes over the Himalayan mountains, whose average height exceeds 20,000 feet. Meanwhile in Los Angeles, a 10.5-magnitude earthquake — a temblor at least 30 times more powerful than any real quake ever recorded — yanks the city apart like a giant zipper, sending chunks sliding into the Pacific Ocean.

That's not physically possible, of course. Nor is a 10.5-magnitude quake, said Thomas Rockwell, a geologist at San Diego State University. To generate that much energy, “you'd need a rupture that extends all around the planet.”

All of that other stuff “is pure Hollywood bunk,” said Bernard Jackson at the UCSD Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences.

Entertaining, though, unless you happen to believe the Maya really predicted the end of the world. They didn't, said Geoff Braswell, a UCSD anthropologist. The long-count calendar doesn't signal the end of anything except the end of that particular calendar. “It's just like a car odometer. Unfortunately, hardly anybody reads ancient Mayan. Modern media hype(骗局), on the other hand, is almost inescapable.

Nicholas Christenfeld, a professor of psychology at UCSD, suggests a more elemental human need. Being swallowed by the Earth or incinerated in a giant fireball “fits neatly with the idea that people want to believe there's a plan, that existence isn't random and pointless,” Christenfeld said.

“We all missed creation, but if we can bear witness at the other end, be part of some grand cosmic destruction, that gives life meaning,” he said. 

It helps, too, not to think very hard about the facts, said Lou Manza, a professor of psychology at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa. “These claims have been around forever, and they have all been false, 100 percent wrong,” Manza said.

Of course, prognosticators(预言者, 占卜者) usually have an explanation for that, Christenfeld said.

“They might say it was a misinterpretation,” he said. “They got the date wrong. They might claim humanity acted in time to prevent the destruction. Or faith came to the rescue because people believed something bad was going to happen, it didn't have to happen.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dad came in the midnight. We heard every sound, but we pretended to be asleep.

    Next morning he looked weak and thin, sitting in a chair by the kitchen fire. The light of the fire shone through his long empty sleeve. Everything went as usual. Grandma found something to do in the bedroom. Grandpa went out for some water. Mother, with her back to us, was getting the cakes ready for breakfast.

    But nothing was right. When grandma came out of the bedroom, she walked on tiptoe. When grandpa came back, he said nothing about the weather. At breakfast Mother passed us the fruit and said something, but her voice was too high.

    At last my sister, Lou, pushed back her chair. “It’s your turn to wash the dishes.” But I had washed the dishes the night before. I said nothing because it was not right to quarrel in front of Dad just home with the empty sleeve.

    “It is your turn,” Lou said again. I looked at her in surprise.

    “It is not,” I said because I suddenly remembered Mother had told us to go on as usual.

    “Children, children,” Mother said in a quiet, glad kind of voice.

    And Dad was smiling because he felt at home at last.

1.What do you know happened to Dad in the story?

A.He was badly ill.                        B.He had a long journey.

C.He drank too much.                       D.He lost one of his arms.

2.The family        when they saw Dad’s empty sleeve.

A.was too surprised to do anything         B.felt sad and cried a lot

C.tried not to show their feelings         D.showed no worry at all

3.From the story, we know          .

A.the two sisters often quarreled about who should wash the dishes

B.the family liked seeing the two sisters quarrelling after breakfast

C.Dad loved the two sisters very much though they often quarreled

D.Mother told the two sisters to quarrel with each other the night before

4.Which of the following can be the best title of the story?

A.The Quarrelling Sisters                  B.Dad Was Back

C.After the Accident                       D.An Empty Sleeve

 

Dad came in the midnight. We heard every sound, but we pretended to be asleep.

Next morning he looked weak and thin, sitting in a chair by the kitchen fire. The light of the fire shone through his long empty sleeve. Everything went as usual. Grandma found something to do in the bedroom. Grandpa went out for some water. Mother, with her back to us, was getting the cakes ready for breakfast.

But nothing was right. When grandma came out of the bedroom, she walked on tiptoe. When grandpa came back, he said nothing about the weather. At breakfast Mother passed us the fruit and said something, but her voice was too high.

At last my sister, Lou, pushed back her chair. “It’s your turn to wash the dishes.” But I had washed the dishes the night before. I said nothing because it was not right to quarrel in front of Dad just home with the empty sleeve.

“It is your turn,” Lou said again. I looked at her in surprise.

“It is not,” I said because I suddenly remembered Mother had told us to go on as usual.

“Children, children,” Mother said in a quiet, glad kind of voice.

And Dad was smiling because he felt at home at last.

1.What do you know happened to Dad in the story?

A.He was badly ill.

B.He had a long journey.

C.He drank too much.

D.He lost one of his arms.

2.The family       when they saw Dad’s empty sleeve.

A.was too surprised to do anything

B.felt sad and cried a lot

C.tried not to show their feelings

D.showed no worry at all

3.From the story, we know         .

A.the two sisters often quarreled about who should wash the dishes

B.the family liked seeing the two sisters quarrelling after breakfast

C.Dad loved the two sisters very much though they often quarreled

D.Mother told the two sisters to quarrel with each other the night before

4.Which of the following can be the best title of the story?

A.The Quarrelling Sisters

B.Dad Was Back

C.After the Accident

D.An Empty Sleeve

 

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