No more fear. The Iron Hammer is here. Lang Ping has become the newly appointed Chinese women’s national volleyball coach.
For the past four years, Chinese women's volleyball has been plagued by frustrating international results, frequent coach reshuffles, numerous injuries and a shortage of talent.
Volleyball was the first sport in which China succeeded on a global scale and was widely followed in the 1980s.
A prolonged slump might finally be coming to an end though, as Lang Ping was appointed head coach of the Chinese women's national team for the second time.
Known as the "Iron Hammer", Lang was the country's best-known volleyball icon and a symbol of the "never-say-die" spirit of the team in its heyday. She has been the favorite for the coaching post since the sports authority unveiled its four candidates on April 15. Her return is expected to bring attention and confidence back to the sport. Sina.com, more than 70 percent of participants said they believe Lang will lead women's volleyball back to the top flight internationally.
Lang's appeal among Chinese volleyball players is also expected to boost the current national lineup, which has several veterans who are planning to retire. National team player Wei Qiuyue, who was going to retire after the National Games in September, said she is ready to play for the national team for as long as needed now that Lang is the coach.
"Lang's rich coaching experiences give her quite a bit of familiarity with her opponents' strategy and character," Wei said. "She was also an outstanding athlete, which makes it easier for her to understand the feelings and mentality of the players."
【小题1】Who is “the Iron Hammer”?

I was in line waiting to pay. In line there were two people before me. A little boy was buying some rather strange clothes. He chatted with anyone who was interested in the clothes and soon we learnt that he was going to a kindergarten(幼儿园) party. He had done a great job of putting together interesting costumes.

I noticed that the little boy was paying mostly with change(零钱). It seemed that he had robbed his pig bank(猪形储蓄罐) to do this shopping. However, the cashier told him he was short after counting all the money. The boy thought for a moment and said, “Please keep the shirt and I will come back with more money. “

It was clear that he had already used all the money he had and he was $ 8.00 short. The lady in front of me said, “Well, I could pay half of that. “I told the boy that I could pay the other half. We dug into our handbags. However, both of us only had ten-dollar bills(纸币) and we needed the cashier to get the change for us. Other shoppers began digging into their pockets to find some change. It was amazing and touching(令人感动的) as all these strangers seemed to react(反应) with the same mind. All wanted to be of help. Within minutes the cashier said, “I have too much money.” The cashier didn’t need our ten-dollar bills. Then the lady in front of me, who had been the first to offer help, said, “Wait! I didn’t even get a chance to give anything!”

I smiled at her and said, “You did your share, because it was your idea and you started all this. “ The little boy smiled and thanked us. We wished him the best and he left. I was left with a good feeling. I had seen the love and goodness of others all around me. The woman in front of me smiled and said, “It sure feels good to give, doesn’t it?” I smiled back and said, “Yes !”

1.What is this passage mainly about?

A. Love and goodness.                       B. Culture and tradition.

C. Friendship and honesty.                  D. Communication and understanding.

2.Why did the writer and the woman both feel glad?

A. Because the boy had saved some money.     

B. Because they both didn’t need to give anything.

C. Because the cashier didn’t look down on the boy.

D. Because all the shoppers around were willing to help the boy. 

3.What’s the correct order of the following events?

a. The cashier got enough money for the boy’s shirt.

b. The cashier counted the boy’s money.

c. The shoppers looked for some change in their pockets.

d. The boy went to the line to pay.

A. b, a, c, d           B. b, c, a, d           C. d, b, c, a           D. d, c, a, b

阅读理解

Hearst Castle is in California, America. A person called William Randolph Hearst built it between 1922 and 1939, at a cost of more than $30 million. Last year, I had a trip to that castle.

I spent the whole day looking around. But there was much to see, and a day wasn’t enough. Hearst Castle has four houses. The main house, “Casa Grande”, is the biggest one. Visitors can live in the other three ones. Many of them are Hollywood film stars, and they often come to the parties there.

At Hearst Castle, there are also beautiful gardens and two swimming pools, one inside and a larger one outside. I loved the one outside, the “Neptune Pool”. It was a pity that we couldn’t go swimming there!

The guide told us that Mr. Hearst travelled around Europe with his mother at the age of ten and looked at paintings and castles. He never forgot that tour and wanted his house to look like a castle. When Mr Hearst died in 1951, his family gave Hearst Castle to the people of California. Now it’s a museum.

1.The underlined word “Castle” in the first paragraph means _____.

2. “Casa Grande” is _____ the other three ones at Hearst Castle.

3. There are _____ at Hearst Castle.

4. _____ made Mr. Hearst build this wonderful castle.

5. Which of the following sentences is TRUE?

While watching movies, it’s getting hard to tell what is and isn’t real. Thanks to computers, movie makers can now use their full imaginations. There’s even a new type of character--made entirely by computers—which is getting more and more screen time.
Making the impossible look easy has always been a part of movie magic. As far back as 1895, filmmakers used special effects in movies. Over the years, many few techniques（技术） were developed. Then, starting in the 1970s, computers took their place at the center of the process.
One of the first movies to widely use 3D computer generated（生成的，产生的） imagery (CGI) was Tron(1982). In the following years, more CGI characters were brought to life, one by one. Then, Jurassic park (1993) brought us an island full of man-eating dinosaurs. Shortly afterwards, Toy Story (1995) became the first cartoon made entirely with 3D CGI effects. It was a big hit, and audiences loved the characters.
By using “motion capture” technology, filmmakers can make the movements of CGI humans even more lifelike. With this technique, a real actor wears sensors（感受器，传感器） on his face and body. The sensors record the actor’s movements and send the information to a computer. Then the movements are given to a CGI character. This technique was used to make the creature（生物，有生命的东西） Gollum in the second and third The Lord of the Rings movies (2002,2003). Other films, like Beowulf (2007), have also used motion capture to help create CGI humans.
It is still rather easy to tell that a CGI human is not real. But the technology is improving every year. Over time, many problems ( like the teeth and eyes looking fake) will be solved. We will certainly see more CGI animals, monsters, and people in movies and TV shows. The question is – in the future, how many real actors will be put out of work by computer actors?
【小题1】What is the main idea?

Once there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was said that the island would go down, so all made boats and left except Love.
Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to offer her help until the last possible moment. When the island had almost gone down, Love decided to ask for help.
Richness was passing by Love in a great boat. Love said, “Richness, can you take me with you?” Richness answered, “No, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you.”
Sadness was close by, so Love asked, “Sadness, let me go with you .” “Oh, Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!”
Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even notice when Love called her.
Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.” It was an elder. Love was so excited that she even forgot to ask who the elder was. So Love asked Knowledge, another elder, “Who helped me?” “It was Time,” Knowledge answered. “Time?” asked Love. “But why did Time help me?”
Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, “Because only Time understands how valuable Love is.”
【小题1】What would happen to the island?