Long long ago, there was a small village．This village had a  31  tradition．At the beginning of every year, any boy who had reached the age of majority (成年) was given land and money to build a home．The boy had to  32 his home before winter．If his home failed to endure the cold weather in winter, the villagers could not  33  him in any way．

One  34  , Paul and Marc reached their majority．They  35 their land and money and decided to search nearby villages for ideas on building their homes．In each village, they found the nicest   36  and talked to the owners．Each owner gladly offered  37 ．

After Marc saw several homes, he  38 the best ideas and went back to his own land．Paul, however, continued collecting more ideas．Soon he had so many great ideas that he began to  39  some of them．But he always believed he could find even better ideas in the next village．

Marc began building his home．He had several false starts,  40  his home gradually rose from his land．By fall, Marc had finished his home．It wasn't perfect，but it was strong and he could  41 it later. Paul enjoyed all the beautiful homes and  42  with home owners．The first snow came and Paul, realizing he was running out of time, 43   back to his land．He built the best home he could in the time he had, but it was weak．The first winter storm destroyed his home and he froze to  44 ．The villagers mourned for him．

Marc survived the winter．Each year, Marc searched for other good ideas he could use to make his own home look better．He became a leader in the village,  45  a family, and lived a happy, content life．

1.                A．strange         B．hopeful         C．literary   D．cultural

2.                A．find           B．make           C．complete D．buy

3.                A．help           B．encourage      C．scold D．persuade

4.                A．winter         B．summer        C．autumn   D．spring

5.                A．exchanged      B．received        C．recognized    D．advice

6.                A．girls           B．jobs            C．houses   D．presents

7.                A．rooms          B．drinks          C．attention  D．advice

8.                A．expected       B．gathered        C．created   D．understood

9.                A．forget          B．believe         C．replace   D．doubt

10.               A．because        B．although        C．but   D．so

11.               A．repair          B．rebuild         C．sell   D．improve

12.               A．conversations    B．achievements    C．struggles  D．arguments

13.               A．drove          B．rushed         C．flew  D．moved

14.               A．blindness       B．death          C．sadness   D．illness

15.               A．brought        B．earned         C．contacted  D．raised

One thing the tour books don’t tell you about London is that 2,000 of its residents are foxes. They ran away from the city about centuries ago after developers and pollution moved in. But now that the environment is cleaner, the foxes have come home, one of the many wild animals that have moved into urban areas around the world.

“The number and variety of wild animals in urban areas is increasing,” says Gomer Jones, president of the National Institute for Urban Wildlife, in Columbia, Maryland. A survey of the wildlife in New York’s Central Park last year tallied the species of mammals, including muskrats, shrews and flying squirrels. A similar survey conducted in the 1890s counted only five species. One of the country’s largest populations of raccoons (浣熊) now lives in Washington D.C., and moose (驼鹿) are regularly seen wandering into Maine towns. Peregrine falcons(游隼) dive from the window ledges of buildings in the largest U.S. cities to prey on (捕食) pigeons.

Several changes have brought wild animals to the cities. Foremost(首要的) is that air and water quality in many cities has improved as a result of the 1970s pollution-control efforts. Meanwhile, rural areas have been built up, leaving many animals on the edges of suburbs. In addition, urban wildlife refuges (避难处)have been created. The Greater London Council last year spent￡750,000 to buy land and build 10 permanent wildlife refuges in the city. Over 1,000 volunteers have donated money and cleared rubble from deserted lots. One evening last year a fox was seen on Westminster Bridge looking up at Big Ben.

For peregrine falcons, cities are actually safer than rural cliff dwellings (悬崖栖息地). By 1970 the birds had died out east of the Mississippi because the DDT had made their eggs too thin to support life. That year, scientist Tom Cade of Cornell University began raising the birds for release in cities, for cities afforded abundant food.

Cities can attract wild animals without turning them harmful. The trick is to create habitats where they can be self-sufficient but still be seen and appreciated. Such habitats can even be functional. In San Francisco, the local government is testing different kinds of rainwater control basins to see not only which ones retain (保持) the cleanest water but which will attract the most birds.

1.The first paragraph suggests that ________.

A．environment is vital for wildlife

B．tour books are not always a reliable source of information

C．London is a city of fox

D．foxes are highly adaptable to environment

2.Which of the following is NOT a reason that wildlife is returning to the cities?

A．Food is plentiful in the cities.

B．Wildlife is appreciated in the cities.

C．Wildlife refuges have been built in the cities

D．Air and water quality has improved in the cities

3.It can be inferred from the passage that _________.

A．Londoners are putting more and more wild animals into their zoos.

B．Londoners are happy to see wild animals return to their city

C．Londoners are trying to move wild animals back to the countryside

D．Londoners have welcomed the wild birds, but found foxes a problem

Henry Ford was the first person to build cars which were cheap，strong and fast．He was able to se11 millions of models because he could produce them in large numbers at a time；that is，he made a great many cars of exactly the same kind．Ford’s father hoped that his son would become a farmer，but the young man did not like the idea and he went to Detroit（底特律）where he worked as a mechanic（机械师）．By the age of 29，in 1892，he had built his first car．However，the car made in this way，the famous “Model T” did not appear until 1908-five years after Ford bad started his great motor car factory．This car showed to be well-known that it remained unchanged for twenty year．Since Ford’s time，this way of producing cars in large numbers has become common in industry and has reduced the price of many goods which would otherwise be very expensive．

1.Henry Ford was the man to built _____ cars．

A．cheap and strong           B．cheap and long

C．fast and expensive          D．strong and slow

2.Ford was able to sell millions of cars，because_____．

A．he made many great cars                   

B．his cars are many

C．he made lots of cars of the same kind        

D．his cars are well known in the world

3.The young man became a mechanic，_______．

A．which was his father’s will（意愿）  

B．which was against his father’s will

C．which was against his own will

D．which was the will of both

4.The “Model T” was very famous_____．

A．before 1908              B．between 1982 and 1908

C．before 1892              D．after 1908

请认真阅读短文，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。每个空格只填一个单词。

Back to School: Why Grit(毅力) Is More Important than Good Grades?

The back-to-school season is upon us, and once again, parents across the country have loaded their kids’ backpacks up with snack packs and school supplies. It’s a good moment to reflect on what else we should be giving our kids as they head off to school.

American parents are feeling particularly anxious about that question this year. The educational process feels more than ever like a race, one that starts in pre-school and doesn’t end until your child is admitted to the perfect college. Most parents are more worried than they need to be about their children’s grades, test scores and IQ. And what we don’t think about enough is how to help our children build their character—how to help them develop skills like perseverance, grit, optimism, conscientiousness, and self-control, which together do more to determine success than S.A.T. scores or I.Q.

There is growing evidence that our anxiety about our children’s school performance may actually be holding them back from learning some of these valuable skills. If you’re concerned only with a child’s G.P.A., then you will likely choose to minimize the challenges the child faces in school. With real challenge comes the risk of real failure. And in a competitive academic environment, the idea of failure can be very scary, to students and parents alike.

But experiencing failure is a critical part of building character. A recent research by a team of psychologists found that adults who had experienced little or no failure growing up were actually less happy and confident than those who had experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood. “Overcoming those obstacles,” the researchers assumed, “could teach effective coping skills, help engage social support networks, create a sense of mastery over past adversity, and foster beliefs in the ability to cope successfully in the future.”

By contrast, when we protect our children from every possible failure—when we call their teachers to get an extension on a paper; when we urge them to choose only those subjects they’re good at—we are denying them those same character-building experiences. As the psychologists Madeline Levine and Dan Kindlon have written, that can lead to difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood, when overprotected young people finally confront real problems on their own and don’t know how to overcome them.

In the classroom and outside of it, American parents need to encourage children to take chances, to challenge themselves, to risk failure. In the meantime, giving our kids room to fail may be one of the best ways we can help them succeed.

       Back to School: Why Grit Is More Important than Good Grades?

Common phenomena       ◆Parents throughout America(1)     their kids’ backpacks up with snacks and school supplies.

                       ◆Many American parents don’t(2)    enough importance to their kids’ character building.

The writer’s(3)             ◆Parents should pay more attention to their kids’ character building.

(4)    and research findings   ◆Parents’ anxiety about their kids’ performance may(5)                        them from learning some valuable skills.

                       ◆Parents concerned only with a kid’s G.P.A. are (6)    to minimize the challenges the child faces.

                       ◆Adults who have experienced a few significant setbacks in childhood are (7)    and more confident than those who haven’t.

                       ◆Denying kids character-building experiences can(8)    in difficulties in adolescence and young adulthood.

The writer’s suggestions    ◆(9)    kids to be risk-takers.

                       ◆Give kids room to experience(10)    .

Would you want a doctor who got high marks in medical school just for trying hard? Apparently many college students would have no problem with that. They believe students are owed a good grade simply because they put a lot of effort into a class.

The researchers asked more than 800 undergraduates if they agreed or disagreed with some statements. For example: "If I have completed most of the reading for a class, I deserve a B in that course." And: "A professor should not be annoyed with me if I receive an important call during class."

Just 16 percent thought it was OK to take that phone call. But 66 percent agreed that a professor should consider effort and not just the quality of a student's work when deciding grades. And 40 percent thought they should get a B, the second highest mark, just because they did most of the reading for class.

Some experts are not surprised that students often see no difference between effort and results. Social critics like to say that in children's activities these days everyone gets an award just for trying, so no one will feel rejected.

Yet competition to get into the best colleges is fiercer than ever. Students may worry that low grades will keep them out of graduate school or a good job.

And there may be another explanation: pressure from parents to get a good return on the family's investment. These days, college can cost more than a house.

A former teaching assistant recently wrote to the New York Times about his experience with grade expectations. He would try to explain it this way when students asked for a top grade just for studying hard in chemistry class:

What if a baseball player came to spring training and worked harder than all the others, but still could not play well? Would the team accept him anyway, just because he tried so hard?

The students would say no. But most of them would still ask for an A.

1.What does the passage mainly discuss?

A．How students can get a good grade in the course.

B．Whether students are allowed to answer calls in class.

C．Whether students deserve high marks just for trying hard.

D．Why students put a lot of efforts in their studies.

2.According to the research, most of the students _______.

A. thought it was all right to answer the call during class.

B. objected to deciding grades only by the quality of a student’s work.

C. thought they did most of the work for class and should get a B.

D. agreed that they should be given top grades because of their hard work.

3. Which of the following opinions do social critics agree to about children’s activities?

A．Those who are active in the activities can get an award.

B．Only by playing an important role in the activities can you get an award.

C．An award is prepared for anyone who performs best in the activities.

D．Whoever takes part in the activities can get an award.

4.From the sixth paragraph we can learn that _____.

A．it costs much more to build a college than to buy a house.

B．the costs of studying at college are much more than staying at home.

C．the costs of sending a child to college are much more than buying a house.

D．it is difficult for parents to send a child to college.

5.What does the former assistant want to tell students with the example of the baseball player?

A．Effort can lead to good results.             B．Effort is very necessary.

C．Effort and results are quite different.        D．No good results, effort is unnecessary.