B

It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn’t know enough to really care. My older bother and I lived with Mom in a dingy multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses’ hoofs from “Wagon Train” or “Cheyenne”, and laughter from “I Love Lucy”, or “Mister Ed”. After supper, we’d sprawl on Mon’s bed and stare for hours at the tube.

But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But, she was much brighter and smarter than we boys know at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses she cleaned books. So she came home one day, snapped off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. “You boys are going to read two books every week,” she said. “And you’re going to write a report on what you read.”

We moaned and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn’t have any books in the house other than Mom’s Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: “I’ll drive you to the library.”

So pretty soon there were these two peevish boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly among the children’s books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them.

The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this verbal visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home.

It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip of a page.

Soon I began to look forward to visiting this hushed sanctuary form my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened: I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home to my books.

Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can’t believe my life’s journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery.

But I know when the journey began the day Mom snapped off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library.

46. We can learn form the beginning of the passage that ___________.

A. the author and his brother had done well in school

B. the author had been very concerned about his school work

C. the author had spent much time watching TV after school

D. the author had realized how important schooling was

47. Which of the following is not true about the author’s family?

A. He came from a middle-class family.

B. He came from a single-parent family.

C. His mother worked as a cleaner.

D. His mother had received little education.

48. The mother was ____________ to make her two sons switch to reading books.

A. hesitant               B. unprepared        C. reluctant                   D. determined

49. How did the two boys feel about going to the library at first?

A. They were afraid                                    B. They were reluctant.

C. They were impatient.                               D. They were eager to go.

50. The author began to love books for the following reasons EXCEPT that ___________.

A. he began to see something in his mind

B. he could visualize what he read in his mind

C. he could go back to read the books again

D. he realized that books offered him new experience

B
Sydney—Mobile phone has become a problem for middle schools. Some middle schools in Australia have banned students from carrying mobile phones during school hours.
Mobile phone use among children has become a problem for the school this year. Several children have got mobile phones as Christmas gifts, and more students want them.
Mary Bluett, an official, said mobile phone use is a distraction (分心的事) to students during school hours and it also gives teachers so much trouble in their classrooms. Teachers were also saying that sometimes students might use phone messages to cheat during exams.
She said some schools had tried to ban mobile phones. Some parents felt unhappy because they couldn’t get in touch with their children.
Many teachers said students should not have mobile phones at school, but if there was a good reason, they could leave their phones at school offices. They also said there were many reasons why the students should not have mobile phones at school: they were easy to lose and were a distraction from studies.
Many people say that they understand why parents would want their children to have phones, but they think schools should let the students know when they can use their mobile phones.
60. Some middle schools in Australia have banned students from carrying mobile phones________.
A. because they are students                    B. when they are free
C. when they are at school                     D. because they are young
61. We know from the passage that some children get mobile phones from________.
A. the makers and sellers                      B. some other strangers
C. their parents and friends                    D. some mobile phone users
62. Some parents felt unhappy because they couldn’t _______ during school hours.
A. use their mobile phones                     B. leave their mobile phones
C. help the teachers with their work             D. get in touch with their children
63. The underlined word “they” in the fifth paragraph refers to________.
A. many teachers                            B. some messages
C. mobile phones                            D. some students

Crazy is our new normal. With two teenage boys and three little boys, our family is restless—to the baseball field, track field(田径场)and piano lessons. Even though we’ve limited each boy’s activities and try our best to defend our family time, it seems that we’re in a constant state of flight.

“Embrace it. Roll with it,” my husband, Lonny, says, “It’s going to be like this for a while.”

He is right. It’s likely that life will continue to go forward before it slows down. But I remembered the still, quiet days that our family used to enjoy. I missed long walks through the park when we held the boys’ little hands. I longed for(渴望) lazy Saturday afternoons under the tree in our backyard. I wanted to slip back a few years, when busyness was the exception and not the rule.

One night, after a particularly full day and evening games, our family gathered on the porch(门廊)for ice cream. Two parents, two teens, and three small boys piled on one old swing and a couple of rocking chairs. We were together, in one place, for a small slice of time.

The moon was full. The Mississippi River, flowing past our home, was smooth as glass. I wrapped my own arms around the son who sat on my lap and breathed deeply to inhale his little-boy scent(气味)—dirt and sweat. My heart was still and content(满足的).

I realized that while crazy is our new normal happiness is as usual. They may look different from before, but they are still there—even if they’re in the form of a single moment on the porch. Maybe I just need the eyes to see.

1.What does the author mainly talk about?

2.How did the author feel about life before the night sitting on the porch with the family?

3.The underlined word “inhale” in the fifth paragraph probably means ______.

4.Which of the following could describe the author’s present life?

5.Which of the following statements might the author agree to?

（2010•江苏模拟）

I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.

I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends, and they to me. Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today.

So here’s what I wanted to tell you today：Get a life. A real life, not a desire of the next promotion, the bigger pay-check…

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone. Send an e-mail. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of to live. I learned to live many years ago. Something really, really bad happened to me, and something that changed my life in ways that, if I had my choice, it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what, today, seems to be the hardest lesson of all.

I learned to love the journey, not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and totally. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had learned.

By telling them this：Read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness, because if you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived.

1. It can be inferred from the passage that_____.

   A. the author is a success in personal life

   B. the author didn’t try her best to work well

   C. the author spent all her time caring for her children

   D. the author likes traveling very much

2.How did the author form her view of life?

   A. Through social experience.           B. By learning from her friends  

C. Through an unfortunate experience     D. From her children and husband.

3. By the underlined sentence “ It is so easy to exist instead of to live” in the fifth paragraph, the author really means that people tend to_____.

   A. make a living rather than live a real life

   B. work rather than enjoy life

   C. waste a lot in life

   D. forget the most important lessons in life

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards work?

   A. Do it well to serve others.

   B. Earn enough money to make life better.

   C. Try your best to get higher position and pay.

   D. Don’t let it affect your real life.

Sydney Australia—Mobile phone has become a problem for middle schools. Some middle schools in Australia have banned students from carrying mobile phones during school hours.

Mobile phone use among children has become a problem for the school this year. Several children have got mobile phones as Christmas gifts, and more students want them.

Mary Bluett, an official, said mobile phone use is a distraction（分心的事）to students during school hours and it also gives teachers so much trouble in their classrooms. Teachers were also saying that sometimes students might use phone messages to cheat during exams.

She said some schools had tried to ban mobile phones. Some parents felt unhappy because they couldn’t get in touch with their children.

Many teachers said students should not have mobile phones at school, but if there was a good reason, they could leave their phones at school offices. They also said there were many reasons why the students should not have mobile phones at school: they were easy to lose and were a distraction from studies.

Many people say that they understand why parents would want their children to have phones, but they think schools should let the students know when they can use their mobile phones.

1.Some middle schools in Australia have banned students from carrying mobile phones________.

A．because they are students                B．when they are free

C．when they are at school                  D．because they are young

2.We know from the passage that some children get mobile phones from________.

A．the makers and sellers                   B．some other strangers

C．their parents and friends                  D．some mobile phone users

3.Some parents felt unhappy because they couldn’t _______ during school hours.

A．use their mobile phones                  B．leave their mobile phones

C．help the teachers with their work           D．get in touch with their children

4.The underlined word “they” in the fifth paragraph refers to________.

A．many teachers                         B．some messages

C．mobile phones                         D．some students