Kilimanjaro Climb : a Rite of Passage for Father and Son

Climbing Kilimanjaro is a transformational experience for many people. The things that make the mountain hard are the very things that make it so powerful. In the case of my son Josh and I，the walk up Kilimanjaro proved a powerful symbol ofhis transition into manhood, and a great change in our relationship.

Day three on the mountain, Josh was hit with massive headaches. He told me every step felt like a nail driving into his head. And then, on the night we climbed the crater rim, less than 40 minutes from the summit, Josh fell. I was walking ahead, and did not even see it. He was so exhausted that he could not get up. He recalled our guides, debating whether or not they should take him straight down. Josh snapped out of it. He forced himself to his feet, shook the guides off. He set his face towards the peak and just kept marching. Near the summit he caught up with me and we reached the peak together.

“ I’ve never been in so much pain and so happy at the same time，，，he said, as we sat side by side on the frozen rock and looked down over Africa. “You know, in the past when we’d go on camping and rafting trips, you guided and took care of me through it all. But on Kilimanjaro it was different. From the bottom up, I climbed it. I never feltlike a kid, even when 1 was in pain. You never acted like a parent.”

“That’s not quite true，”I replied. “When you told me that on the summit you fell-and I did not even notice, my first thought was, ‘Oh my God! I’m such an awful parent!’ But then it hit me, ‘He got himself up. He walked to the peak on his own. He didn't need me to help.，”

I realized as I spoke that two people had died that night on Kilimanjaro. A child and a parent. It wasjust two friends who walked down the mountain together.

1.What is NOT mentioned in the first paragraph?

A． Kilimanjaro is powerful.

B． Kilimanjaro is hard to climb.

C． Many people, including Josh, have changed after climbing Kilimanjaro.

D． The writer has a distant relationship with his son after climbing Kilimanjaro.

2.From the second paragraph we know that_____

A． Josh had a slight headache.

B． Josh reached the top of the mountain with the help of the guides.

C． Josh overcame various difficulties on his way to the summit.

D． Climbing Kilimanjaro was too hard for such a child as Josh.

3.What does the underlined phrase in the second paragraph mean?

A． cheered up       B．gave up           C．burst out          D．ran out

4.What can be inferred from the talk between the father and the son?

A． Josh felt quite good about his independence.

B． Josh appreciated his parents ，company and care.

C． The father felt guilty all the time.

D． The father should have taken good care of Josh as usual.

5.Why did the father feel that two people had died?

A． Because two people had lost their lives while climbing Kilimanjaro.

B． Because the father and son had become friends.

C． Because they had witnessed an accidence of a father and son.

D． Because two friends had misled him.

The poem is hard to understand. Can you make ______ of it?

A.idea                                                             B.knowledge

C.sense                                                            D.understanding

Water costs money．In some places water is hard  1  ．What  2  when a town

has these problems？A small town in California found a happy  3．

　　Very little rain ever fell there．The town had no water of its own．The water it used was 4 from a river 300 miles away．As more people  5  live in the town，  6   water was needed．Now water 7  to be brought in from 600 miles away．All these cost 8  money．

　　The town  9  a plan．It found a way to clean its “dirty” water．Once the cleaned water was reused  10  many ways．Five man-made lakes were built．Here people could swim and fish and go  11  ．They could have picnics in their new parks．Farmers had more water  12  their crops．New factories can be built，now that they have the promise of 13  ．

　　In most places，water is used and thrown 14  ．The town that saved  15  water

has saved the town！

2.A．happens    B．happening  C is happened     D．happened

3.A．key        B．answer     C answering  D．way

Don’t you think your schoolbag is too heavy to bear? The e-schoolbag will free you from the weight.

It is said that e-schoolbags are going to be brought into use in Chinese middle schools soon. An experiment with several hundred e-schoolbags will begin in seven cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Taiyuan and Shijiazhuang. And the e-schoolbags are going to cover all over China if the experiment proves to be successful. In fact, the e-schoolbag should perhaps be called an e-notebook. It is a small hand-held computer for school students.

Heavy schoolbags have long been a serious problem for school students. The average schoolbag of middle school students weighs up to 5 kilos. But the e-schoolbag will change everything. It is much lighter than a usual schoolbag, weighing under 1 kilo.

Also, it is no bigger than a usual book, but it can still hold all the things for study, such as a textbook, a notebook and exercise book. They could be made into chips that are as small as a stamp. The students can read the text page by page on the screen. They can still take notes using a special electronic pen. If they want to know the meaning or the pronunciation of a new word, or even e-mail their teachers, it’s just a press of a button.

In some foreign countries, it is becoming common. But it is hard to tell when people will receive this new form of study. Some say that e-textbooks can be easily broken, some say that it is not good to students’ eyesight to look at the screen for long.  But only time will tell.

1.The e-schoolbag has many functions EXCEPT ________.

2.According to the passage, the e-schoolbag ­­­________.

3.Which of the following statement is TRUE?

4.The best title for the passage should be ________.