With only fish and birds for company, Eric Erden has been rowing across the Pacific Ocean to Australia in his 23-foot-long boat since he left California on July 10, 2009.
This is the first part of Eric’s trip around the world using only his own energy. He will row, bike, and walk without help from any motors at all. His plan includes climbing the tallest mountain on each of the six continents he visits, to honour the memory of a fellow climber.
He says he is doing this to show kids that they can achieve any goal, but he also hopes to have some great adventures along the way.
Storms and huge waves regularly force him in the wrong direction and even threaten to overturn his boat. “Sometimes I really feel scared,” says a somewhat embarrassed Eric. “But that’s part of the journey. I knew this wouldn’t be easy when I started.”
Protein bars give him energy, and he boils water to heat freeze-dried meals on a one-burner stove. A sun-powered machine removes salt from ocean water so he can drink it, but when that fails he sometimes tries to collect rainwater in a bucket.
He’s not bothered by any of the hardships. Eric sees the world as a laboratory where there is much to learn. And when his trip around the world takes him across land, he enjoys meeting people — especially children. He has already visited several schools and shared his story.

1.
Why is Eric making this trip?
1. A.
  To encourage children to reach for their goal.
2. B.
  To learn to overcome various hardships.
3. C.
  To do experiments all over the world.
4. D.
  To honour the memory of a fellow climber.
2.
What does Eric plan to do on each of the six continents he will visit?
1. A.
  Visit schools to share his story.
2. B.
  Study the culture of the local people.
3. C.
  Climb the tallest mountain.
4. D.
  Cycle from one end to the other.
3.
How does Eric mainly get drinking water?
1. A.
  He boils the seawater on a stove.
2. B.
  He has brought fresh water with him.
3. C.
  He collects rain water in a bucket.
4. D.
  He uses a special machine to make seawater fresh.
4.
Which of the following words best describes Eric’s character?
1. A.
  Determined.
2. B.
  Intelligent.
3. C.
  Fearless.
4. D.
  Lonely.

Mr. Lang worked in a factory. As a driver, he was busy but he was paid much. His wife was an able woman and did all the housework. When he came back, she took good care of him and he never did anything at home. So he had enough time when he had a holiday. A few friends of his liked gambling(赌博) and he learned it soon. So he was interested in it and hardly forgot anything except gambling. He lost all his money and later he began to sell the television, watches and so on. His wife told him not to do it but he didn’t listen to her. She had to tell the police. He and his friends were punished for it. And he was hardly sent away. After he came out of lockup(拘留所), he hated her very much and the woman had to leave him.
It was New Year’s Day. Mr. Lang didn’t go to work. He felt lonely and wanted to gamble again. He called his friends and they came soon. But they were afraid the police would come. He told his five-year-old son to go to find out if there were the policemen outside. They waited for a long time and didn’t think the police would come and began to gamble. Suddenly opened the door and in came a few policemen. “I saw there weren’t any policemen outside, daddy,” said the boy, “so I went to the crossing and asked some to come.”

1.
Mr. Lang was paid much because _______
1. A.
  he was a driver
2. B.
  he worked in a factory
3. C.
  he had a lot of work to do
4. D.
  he had worked there for a long time
2.
Mrs. Lang did all housework because _______
1. A.
  she couldn’t find any work
2. B.
  she thought her husband was tired
3. C.
  her husband spent all time in gambling
4. D.
  she wouldn’t stop her husband gambling
3.
______, so he was put into lockup
1. A.
  Mr. Lang often gambled
2. B.
  Mr. Lang was late for work
3. C.
  Mr. Lang didn’t help his wife at home
4. D.
  Mr. Lang wasn’t polite to the police
4.
The woman had to leave Mr. Lang because _______
1. A.
  he didn’t love her any longer
2. B.
  he wouldn’t stop gambling
3. C.
  he had been put into lockup
4. D.
  he was hardly sent away by the factory
5.
Which of the following is right?
1. A.
  The boy hoped his father to be put into lockup again
2. B.
  The boy thought his father needed some policemen
3. C.
  The boy hoped his father to stop gambling soon
4. D.
  The boy hoped his mother to come back

People often said Thomas Edison was the greatest genius of his age. There are only a few men in all of history, who have changed the lives of other men as much as the inventor of the first useful electric light. But Edison could never be pleased only because someone said he was a genius. "There is no such thing as genius," Edison said. He thought what people called genius was mostly hard work.
But Edison was a dreamer as well as a worker. From his earliest days as a child he wondered about the secrets of nature. He tried to understand them, and then he tried to learn what he could usefully do with them.
Edison enjoyed thinking. He knew that most people would do almost anything instead of the difficult work of thinking, especially if they do not think very often. But he knew, too, that thinking could give men enjoyment and pleasure.
Edison could not understand how anyone could not be interested in life. As he loved to think, he also loved to work. On the day he became 75 years old, someone asked him what idea he had about life. “Work,” he answered, “Discovering the secrets of nature and using them to make men happier.” He said he had enough inventions in his mind to give him another 100 years of work.

1.
According to Thomas Edison, what's genius?
1. A.
  Hard thinking.
2. B.
  Useful inventions
3. C.
  Useful dreams.
4. D.
  Hard work.
2.
After exploring the secrets of nature, Edison always tried to______.
1. A.
  make them useful in life
2. B.
  carry out a new experiment
3. C.
  write down what he had learnt
4. D.
  share them with others
3.
Edison could not understand______.
1. A.
  how anybody enjoyed life
2. B.
  how anybody loved working
3. C.
  why anybody loved thinking
4. D.
  why anybody was tired of life
4.
The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means that______.
1. A.
  Edison was able to live another 100 years
2. B.
  life was too short for Edison to work for human beings
3. C.
  Edison was born to be a great inventor
4. D.
  Edison was ready to make his l00th invention

Botany, the study of plants, occupies a special position in the history of human knowledge. For many thousands of years it was the one field of awareness about which humans had anything more than the vaguest (含糊的) of insight. It is impossible to know today just what our Stone Age ancestors knew about plants, but from what we can observe of pre-industrial societies that still exist, a detailed learning of plants and their properties must extremely ancient. This is logical. Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even for other plants. They have always been enormously important to the welfare of peoples, not only for food, but also for clothing, weapons, tools, eyes, medicines, shelter, and a great many other purposes. Tribes living today in the jungles of the Amazon recognized accurately hundreds of plants and know many properties of each. To them, botany, as such, has no name and is probably not even recognized as a special branch of knowledge at all.
Unfortunately, the more industrialized we become the farther away we move from direct contact with plants, and the less distinct our knowledge of botany grows. Yet everyone comes unconsciously on an amazing amount of botanical knowledge, and few people will fail to recognize a rose, an apple, or an orchid. When our Neolithic ancestors, living in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, discovered that certain grasses could be harvested and their seeds planted for richer productions the next season, the first great step in a new association of plants and humans was taken. Grains were discovered and from them flowed the wonder of agriculture; cultivated crops. From then on, humans would increasingly take their living from the controlled production of a few plants, rather than getting a little here and a little there from many varieties that grew wild and the built up knowledge of tens of thousands of years of experience and close relationship with plants in the wild would begin fade away.

1.
Which of the following statements about early humans is expressed in the passage?
1. A.
  They probably had extensive knowledge of plants.
2. B.
  They thought there was no need to cultivate crops.
3. C.
  They did not enjoy the study of botany.
4. D.
  They placed great importance on the ownership of property.
2.
What does the comment “This is logical.” In the first paragraph mean?
1. A.
  There is no clear way to determine the extent of our ancestor’s knowledge of plants.
2. B.
  It is not surprising that early humans had a detailed knowledge of plants.
3. C.
  It is reasonable to assume that our ancestors behaved very much like people in pre-industrial societies.
4. D.
  Human knowledge of plants is well organized and very detailed.
3.
According to the passage, why has general knowledge of botany begun to fade?
1. A.
  People no longer value plants as a useful resource.
2. B.
  Botany is not recognized as a special branch of science.
3. C.
  Research is unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of plants.
4. D.
  Direct contact with a variety of plants has decreased.
4.
In the second paragraph, what is the author’s purpose in mentioning “ a rose, an apple, or an orchid”?
1. A.
  To make the passage more poetic.
2. B.
  To give an example of plant that are attractive.
3. C.
  To give botanical examples that all readers will recognize.
4. D.
  To explain the variety of botanical life.
5.
According to the passage, what was the first great step toward the practice of agriculture?
1. A.
  The invention of agricultural tools and machinery.
2. B.
  The development of a system of names for plants.
3. C.
  The discovery of grasses that could be harvested and replanted.
4. D.
  The changing diets of early humans.

No matter how long your life is, you will, at best, be able to read only a few books of all that have been written, and the few you do read should include the best. You can be pleased with the fact that the number of such is relatively small.
It is to be expected that the selections will change over time. Yet there is a surprising uniformity (一致性) in the lists which represent the best choices of any period. In every age, the list makers include both ancient and modern books in their selections, and they always wonder whether the moderns are up to the great books of the past.
What are the signs by which we may recognize a great book? The four I will mention may not be all there are, but they are the ones I’ve found most useful in explaining my choices over the years.
Great books are probably the most widely read. They are enduring best sellers. Gone with the Wind has had relatively few readers compared to the plays of Shakespeare or Don Quixote. It would be reasonable to estimate that Homer Iliad has been read by at least 25,000,000 people in the last 3000 years.
Great books are popular, not pedantic. They are not written by specialists about specialties for specialists. Whether they are philosophy or science, or history or poetry, they treat of human, not academic problems. They are written for men, not professors. To read a textbook for advanced students, you have to read an elementary textbook first. But the great books can be considered elementary in the sense that they treat the elements of any subject matter. They are not related to one another as a series of textbooks, graded in difficulty or in the technicality of the problems with which they deal.
Great books are always contemporary, the most readable and instructive.
Great books deal with the continuously unsolved problems of human life. There are mysteries in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Inquiry not begins with wonder, but usually ends with it also. Great minds acknowledge mysteries only honestly. Wisdom is encouraged, not destroyed, by understanding its limitations.

1.
Which is not the criterion in the following when considering a great book?
1. A.
  Although not a best seller, it must be the most widely read.
2. B.
  A great book can be read without any effort.
3. C.
  Great books are never out of date.
4. D.
  Great books will not disappoint you if you try to read them well.
2.
According to the author, Gone with the Wind is .
1. A.
  a best seller
2. B.
  disliked by readers who like Shakespeare
3. C.
  read more often than Don Quixote
4. D.
  a great book
3.
In the passage the underlined word “pedantic” means .
1. A.
  showing the feelings, esp., those of kindness, which people are supposed to have
2. B.
  serving as practical examples
3. C.
  being elementary
4. D.
  paying too much attention to details in books
4.
The best title for this passage is .
1. A.
  Great Books in Your Life
2. B.
  Great Books in Your Specialty
3. C.
  How to Find a Great Book?
4. D.
  What Is a Great Book?

For a commuter rushing to catch a train, a minute can mean the difference between dinner with the family and leftovers (剩饭) in the microwave. What most passengers don’t realize is that their minute is already there.
Every commuter train that departs from New York City — about 900 a day — leaves a minute later than scheduled. If the timetable says 8:14, the train will actually leave at 8:15. In other words, if you think you have only a minute to get that train — well, relax. You have two.
The courtesy (礼貌) minute, in place for decades and published only in private timetables for employees, is meant as a grace period（宽限期）for those who need the extra time to get off the platform and onto the train.
“If everyone knows they get an extra minute, they’re going to waste time doing unimportant things,” explained Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for the Metro-North Railroad. Told of this article, Ms. Anders laughed. “Don’t blow our cover!” she said.
Entirely hidden from the riding public, the secret minute is an odd departure from the railroad culture of down-to-the-second accuracy. The railroad industry helped invent the concept of standard time, and time zones were established in the United States in the 1880s, 35 years before they were written into law. And most commuters know their train by the precise minute it departs. The trains quickly make up the minute: at all other stops, the public timetable prevails. The phantom minute does not exist at commuter railroads in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, or San Francisco. But in New York, the secret minute dates back decades.
“That’s been done forever, from my knowledge,” said Jack Swanberg, 70, an unofficial historian of Metro-North. “I was the trainmaster starting in 1970 and I’m sure it’s been the case since 1870 for all I know.”

1.
The courtesy minute was hidden from the public to _____.
1. A.
  prevent the passengers’ idleness
2. B.
  help invent the concept of standard time
3. C.
  show the railroad company’s consideration
4. D.
  follow the ancient tradition of New York City
2.
The underlined part “Don’t blow our cover” in Para. 4 probably means “_____”.
1. A.
  Don’t publish the timetable
2. B.
  Don’t blame commuter trains
3. C.
  Don’t make it known by the public
4. D.
  Don’t forget our chances of catching trains
3.
What can we conclude from the passage?
1. A.
  The courtesy minute exists in many cities in the US.
2. B.
  One minute means a lot for most of the commuters.
3. C.
  The courtesy minute has been in place for about ten years.
4. D.
  Most railroad staff in New York have no idea of the courtesy minute.
4.
The passage mainly talks about _____.
1. A.
  the railroads in the US
2. B.
  the secret New York minute
3. C.
  the mistake of the railroad industry
4. D.
  the history of New York commuter trains

This dictionary tells you about English words and how to use them in reading, writing and speaking English. It not only gives the meaning of words, it can also help you with spelling, word building, grammar and pronunciation.
To use your dictionary correctly, you will find two spellings for this word. “Colour” is used in British English, while “color” is used in American English. When there are differences between British and American spelling, the dictionary shows it with the word “BrE” for British English and “AmE” for American English.
The dictionary also helps you pronounce words correctly. If you turn to the inside back face, you will see all the phonetic letters (音标 ) with some words to show you how they are pronounced. Just look at the inside back cover when you're not sure how to say a word.
The most important reason for using a dictionary is to find out the meaning of a word — its definition.
In this dictionary, the definitions have been written using only 2, 000 words. This means that the definitions of even the most difficult words are simple and easy to understand.

1.
________ of the words in the dictionary have two spellings.
1. A.
  All
2. B.
  Some
3. C.
  Few
4. D.
  One
2.
What is the main reason for us to use a dictionary？
1. A.
  To read the word correctly.
2. B.
  To write the word out.
3. C.
  To know the meaning of the word.
4. D.
  To find the difference between British English and American English.
3.
The phonetic letters helps you ________ each word correctly.
1. A.
  say
2. B.
  write
3. C.
  understand
4. D.
  know
4.
The Chinese meaning of “definition” here is________.
1. A.
  词性
2. B.
  词条
3. C.
  词义
4. D.
  词库
5.
How many words are there in this dictionary?
1. A.
  Two thousand.
2. B.
  One thousand.
3. C.
  One hundred.
4. D.
  We don't know.

These are the words of Chinese tennis player Li Na after she became the first Asian woman to win a Grand Slam final in the French Open on June 4.
“People were saying I’m getting old. So this is a great success for such an old woman,” the 29-year-old joked.
This is the way that Li usually fights doubts– by being humorous and sharp. “China’s number one sister” is never a pushover (软弱的人).
She has a tattoo (纹身). She has dyed (染色) her hair many different colors. And, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she told her fans to “shut up” when they got too noisy in their support.
Li started to play tennis at the age of 6. She once recalled: “As a child, I felt sad because every day I had to wake up early to practice. After school I had to practice more. I didn’t have time to play.”
Luckily, the tough girl didn’t give up, thus making history for Chinese tennis time after time.
Now the new champion is already thinking about winning another Grand Slam title. Her next stop is Wimbledon – the European grass court championship that starts later this month.
“When you have one title, naturally you will think about another,” she says, not hiding her ambition.
“Chinese people are so lacking in confidence on the tennis court. If there is a person like me who can prove we can do it, the other young players in China will feel the same,” she said.

1.
Li Na is _________.
1. A.
  a basketball player
2. B.
  a table tennis player
3. C.
  a tennis player
4. D.
  a soccer player
2.
Li Na is the first Asian woman to win a Grand Slam final in______.
1. A.
  the Australian Open Tennis Championships
2. B.
  the Wimbledon Championships
3. C.
  the French Open
4. D.
  the American Open
3.
From the passage, we know Li Na is ______.
1. A.
  outgoing
2. B.
  fashionable
3. C.
  tough
4. D.
  All above
4.
Li Na thinks that Chinese people need _______ in most.
1. A.
  independence
2. B.
  ability
3. C.
  confidence
4. D.
  ambition

SYDNEY 2005-01-01 08:33—Mother of two, Jillian Searle, had to choose between her children when she made a life-or-death decision.
Swept up by mountainous tsunami (海啸) waves at a Thai resort ( 旅游胜地), she could not hold on to both her young sons and survive . Fighting to stay above the waters , she had to choose which one would have to take his chances in the swirling torrent (漩流).
“I knew I had to let go of one of them and I just thought I’d better let go of the one that’s the older,” she told Sky News television in a report broadcast on Thursday. She said she was accompanied by the two boys, Lachie, 5, and two-year-old Blake, and their father, Brad, who had watched the drama helplessly from their first-floor hotel room, when the waves struck. “And I was screaming, trying to find him, and we thought he was dead,” she told reporters on arrival back in Australia. Lachie was found alive about 2 hours later clinging to a door and, looked uninjured as his mother spoke to reporters.
British surfer (冲浪运动员) Martin Markwell is also a lucky man. He had always dreamed of catching that perfect wave –but when it finally came along, it was a nightmare. He was on his surfboard when he was swept up by a tsunami wave.
“It was really terrible because I was surfing, I was really surfing on a wave I wasn’t supposed to be on,” he said. “As an experienced surfer, when I saw the wave come I realized something was wrong, but I couldn’t escape because my surfboard was tied to my ankle.”
His wife Vicki and son Jake looked on in horror from a hotel balcony as he crashed towards the shore. Luckily , he stayed on top of his board until he reached the hotel , jumped off and got to safety as the ocean rolled back to feed a much larger tsunami wave on its way . The family regrouped and ran to safety just minutes before a giant tsunami wave 10 meters high

1.
When the waves struck, the father Brad______.
1. A.
  reported the disaster to Sky News television
2. B.
  was watching a drama play on TV in the hotel
3. C.
  tried to find his son lost in the waters
4. D.
  watched things going on , unable to do anything
2.
The underlined word “him” refers to______.
1. A.
  an old man
2. B.
  Lachie
3. C.
  Brad
4. D.
  Blake
3.
Which of the following is wrong ?
1. A.
  Lachie and Martin were both with their family members when the disaster happened
2. B.
  Lachie and Martin both survived from the high waves when tsunami struck
3. C.
  Lachie and Martin were both travelers from Europe on holiday in Thailand
4. D.
  Lachie and Martin were both alive owing to their good luck
4.
The best title of this news story would be______.
1. A.
  Narrow Escape
2. B.
  Disaster Caused by Tsunami
3. C.
  Exciting Surfing Experience
4. D.
  Struggle Against Tsunami

We once had a poster competition in our fifth grade art class.
“You could win prizes,” our teacher told us as she wrote the poster information on the blackboard. She passed out sheets of construction paper while continuing, “The first prize is ten dollars. You just have to make sure that the words on the blackboard appear somewhere on your poster.”
We studied the board critically. Some of us looked with one eye and held up certain colors against the blackboard, rocking the sheets to the right or left while we conjured up our designs. Others twisted their hair around their fingers or chewed their erasers while deep in thought. We had plans for that ten-dollar grand prize, each and every one of us. I’m going to spend mine on candies, one hopeful would announce, while another practiced looking serious, wise and rich.
Everyone in the class made a poster. Some of us used parts of those fancy paper napkins, while others used nothing but colored construction paper. Some of us used big designs, and some of us preferred to gather our art tidily down in one corner of our poster and let the space draw the viewer’s attention to it. Some of us would wander past the good students’ desks and then return to our own projects with a growing sense of hopelessness. It was yet another grown-up trick of the sort they seemed especially fond of, making all of us believe we had a fair chance, and then always—always—rewarding the same old winners.
I believe I drew a sailboat, but I can’t say that with any certainty. I made it. I admired it. I determined it to be the very best of all of the posters I had seen，and then I turned it in.
Minutes passed.
No one came along to give me the grand prize, and then someone distracted me, and I probably never would have thought about that poster again.
I was still sitting at my desk, thinking, What poster? when the teacher gave me an envelope with a ten-dollar bill in it and everyone in the class applauded for me.

1.
What was the teacher’s requirement for the poster?
1. A.
  It must appear in time.
2. B.
  It must be done in class.
3. C.
  It must be done on a construction sheet.
4. D.
  It must include the words on the blackboard.
2.
The underlined phrase in Paragraph 3 most probably means ________.
1. A.
  formed an idea for
2. B.
  made an outline for
3. C.
  made some space for
4. D.
  chose some colors for
3.
After the teacher’s words, all the students in the class________.
1. A.
  looked very serious
2. B.
  thought they would be rich
3. C.
  began to think about their designs
4. D.
  began to play games
4.
After seeing the good students’ designs, some students________.
1. A.
  loved their own designs more
2. B.
  thought they had a fair chance
3. C.
  put their own designs in a corner
4. D.
  thought they would not win the prize
5.
We can infer from the passage that the author________.
1. A.
  enjoyed grown up tricks very much
2. B.
  loved poster competitions very much
3. C.
  felt surprised to win the competition
4. D.
  became wise and rich after the competition

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Why is Eric making this trip?

What does Eric plan to do on each of the six continents he will visit?

How does Eric mainly get drinking water?

Which of the following words best describes Eric’s character?

Mr. Lang was paid much because _______

Mrs. Lang did all housework because _______

______, so he was put into lockup

The woman had to leave Mr. Lang because _______

Which of the following is right?

According to Thomas Edison, what's genius?

After exploring the secrets of nature, Edison always tried to______.

Edison could not understand______.

The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means that______.

Which of the following statements about early humans is expressed in the passage?

What does the comment “This is logical.” In the first paragraph mean?

According to the passage, why has general knowledge of botany begun to fade?

In the second paragraph, what is the author’s purpose in mentioning “ a rose, an apple, or an orchid”?

According to the passage, what was the first great step toward the practice of agriculture?

Which is not the criterion in the following when considering a great book?

According to the author, Gone with the Wind is .

In the passage the underlined word “pedantic” means .

The best title for this passage is .

The courtesy minute was hidden from the public to _____.

The underlined part “Don’t blow our cover” in Para. 4 probably means “_____”.

What can we conclude from the passage?

The passage mainly talks about _____.

________ of the words in the dictionary have two spellings.

What is the main reason for us to use a dictionary？

The phonetic letters helps you ________ each word correctly.

The Chinese meaning of “definition” here is________.

How many words are there in this dictionary?

Li Na is _________.

Li Na is the first Asian woman to win a Grand Slam final in______.

From the passage, we know Li Na is ______.

Li Na thinks that Chinese people need _______ in most.

When the waves struck, the father Brad______.

The underlined word “him” refers to______.

Which of the following is wrong ?

The best title of this news story would be______.

What was the teacher’s requirement for the poster?

The underlined phrase in Paragraph 3 most probably means ________.

After the teacher’s words, all the students in the class________.

After seeing the good students’ designs, some students________.

We can infer from the passage that the author________.

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