I got tired of living the life that everybody told me I “should” be living , so one day I decided to start living life on my own terms. Frustrated（挫败）with my job, I came home, put on my shoes, and just started running. It felt so good to be free. That first day I ended up running 30 miles without stopping. Yes, I had rediscovered my old passion ( 酷爱的事物) — and it felt so good I set a goal to support myself and my family from my running alone.

I trained hard every day. Since I wanted to be the best I could be, I knew I would have to set some clear goals for myself. A couple of my goals were: run a 135-mile ultra-marathon(超级马拉松) across Death Valley, win the Badwater Ultra-Marathon, and run a marathon to the South Pole.

I had no idea how I was going to achieve these goals, but they certainly encouraged me to work hard. Today, I am really grateful to say that I have achieved all of them. Shortly after completing these goals, I set another goal: to run fifty marathons, in fifty states, in fifty days. Nobody had done anything like this before. To be honest, I was not quite sure if I could. But there was only one way to find out…so I just started training and preparing to give it my best try.

I completed that goal one year ago, and it felt great! But for me, life is not all about achieving goals. Sure, it feels good to succeed, but the greatest reward for me was learning more about myself and what I was able to do.

Only by stepping out into the unknown and stretching(使倾注全力) ourselves can we really discover what our true potential(潜能) is。

1.Why did the author decide to become a runner?

A．He was out of work.

B．He wanted to treat his illness.

C．He wanted to live his dreams.

D．He suddenly found running interesting.

2.Which played an important role in the author’s success?

A．Setting goals                           B．Learning from others.

C．Being honest                           D．Keeping on reading .

3.According to Paragraph 3, before achieving the goals the author felt _____________

A．very grateful                           B．not quite confident

C．quite afraid                            D．not very satisfied

4.What does the underlined part “that goal” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Win the Badwater Ultra-Marathon.

B．Run a marathon to the South Pole.

C．Run fifty marathons, in fifty states, in fifty days.

D．Run a 135-mile ultra-marathon across Death Valley.

5.The author probably agrees that____________.

A．life means achieving goals

B．success is the greatest reward

C．sports help develop our potential

D．everyone may have great potential.

   As nanny(保姆), cook, cleaner, shopper, driver, and gardener, she has one of the most demanding jobs in Britain today. And paying someone else to do the chores(家务活) which take the average housewife 71 hours a week would cost ?349.

   At over ?18,000 a year that’s more than the earnings of 70 percent of the population, including train drivers, firemen, prison officers, and social worker. Looking after a baby less than a year old takes a housewife into a even higher pay league. According to a stud, she earns ?457 a week – at nearly ?24,000 a year, the same as teachers, engineers, and chemists.

   Researchers put a price on each chore, then tried to find out how long the average person takes doing them. They found housewives spend an average 70.7 hours a week on housework – with looking after the children (17.9hours) and cooking and cleaning (12.9 hours each) the most time-consuming(费时).

   A wife with a part-time job still works and average of 59 hours a week at home. Those in full-time employment put in longer hours at home than in the workplace. The good news is that these hours sharply as children get older. While the average mother with child under one puts in 90 hours weekly, the figure drops to 80 hours from one to four and to 66 hours from five to ten.

   Mother-of-four Karen Williams from London said, “Paying the housewives may not be practical, but the government should recognize the value of housework, perhaps through the tax. Running a house takes a lot of time and most husbands don’t understand this. For example, my husband only puts a shelf up now and again. He never cleans the kitchen – that’s the real test.”

Who earns most according to the text?

   A. A social worker.                    B. A fireman.

   C. A gardener.                        D. A teacher.

We lean from the text that looking after children ______.

   A. takes more time than doing any other housework

   B. means more duties than being a teacher

   C. requires the mother to be well-educated

   D. prevents the mother from working outside

According to the text, a housewife with a baby less than one year old may work _____.

   A. 66 hours a week               B. 71 hours a week

   C. 80 hours a week               D. 90 hours a week

By mentioning her husband, Karen Williams wants to show that ______.

   A. housework is no easy job

   B. her husband has no time to clean the kitchen

   C. a housewife needs to be paid for cleaning

   D. the kitchen is hard to clean

Student Membership--Cambridge Arts Cinema

Cambridge Arts Cinema is one of the art houses in Britain and home of the internationally celebrated Cambridge Film Festival. Since 1947 generations of students have discovered the wealth of world cinema. Now you too can make most of it and save money.

1.Which of the following is the most famous event held at Cambridge Arts Cinema?

A. The Cambridge Film Festival.   

B. Meetings with filmmakers.

C. The preview screening.        

D. Monthly premieres.

2.If you're a member of Cambridge Arts Cinema, you will enjoy free__________.

A. Darkroom Gallery shows    B. mailed programmes

C. special film events          D. film shows

3.How long will the membership for Cambridge Arts Cinema last?

A. Four months.                      B. Eight months.

C. Nine months.                      D. One year.

4.For what purpose is the text written?

A. Offering students cheaper tickets．

B. Announcing the opening of a premiere.

C. Telling the public of the cinema's address.

D. Increasing the cinema's membership.

In the fall of 1985, I was a bright-eyed girl heading off to Howard University, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a Supreme Court bench somewhere. Twenty-one years later I am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell.

My grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. She was the first in our family to reach that goal. But one year after I started college, she developed cancer. I made the choice to leave college to care for her. It meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait.

Then I got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. In 1999, we adopted our first son. To lay eyes on him was fantastic—and very emotional. A year later came our second adopted boy. Then followed Son No. 3. In 2003, I gave birth to another boy.

You can imagine how busy I became, raising four boys under the age of 8! Our home was a complete zoo—a joyous zoo. Not surprising, I never did make it back to college full-time. But I never gave up on the dream either. I had only one choice: to find a way. That meant taking as few as one class each term.

The hardest part was feeling guilty about the time I spent away from the boys. They often wanted me to stay home with them. There certainly were times I wanted to give up, but I knew I should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.

In 2007, I graduated from the University of North Carolina. It took me over 21 years to get my college degree!

I am not special, just single-minded. It always struck me that when you’re looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when you’re in the midst of it, it just seems normal. Everything you want won’t arrive in your life on one day. It’s a process. Remember: little steps add up to big dreams.

1.When the author went to Howard University, her dream was to be ______.

A．a writer           B．a teacher          C．a judge           D．a doctor

2.The author quit school in her second year of college because she ______.

A．wanted to study by herself

B．fell in love and got married

C．suffered from a serious illness

D．decided to look after her grandma

3.What can we learn about the author from Paragraphs 4 and 5?

A．She was busy yet happy with her family life.

B．She ignored her guilty feeling for her sons.

C．She wanted to remain a full-time housewife.

D．She was too confused to make a correct choice.

4.What does the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?

A．Failure is the mother of success.

B．Little by little, one goes far.

C．Every coin has two sides.

D．Well begun is half done.

5.Which of the following can best describe the author ?

A．Caring and determined.                  B．Honest and responsible.

C．Ambitious and sensitive.                  D．Innocent and single-minded.

Imagine a classroom missing the one thing that’s long been considered a necessary part to reading and writing?Paper,No notebooks,no test paper.Nor are there any pencils or pens,which always seem to run out of ink at the critical moment.

    A“paperless classroom”is what more and more schools are trying to achieve.Students don't do any handwriting in this class. Instead, they use palm (手掌) size, or specially-designed computers. The teacher downloads texts from Internet libraries and sends them to every student's personal computer.

Having computers also means that students can use the Web. They can look up information on any subject they're studying from math to social science.

High school teacher Judy Herrell in Florida, US, described how her class used the Web to learn about the war in Afghanistan (阿富汗) over one year ago.

"We could touch every side of the country through different sites? from the forest to refugee camps (难民营)," she said. "Using a book that's three or four years old is impossible."

And exams can go online too. At a high school in Tennessee, US, students take tests on their own computers. The teacher records the grades on the network for everyone to see and then copies them to his own electronic grade book.

A paperless classroom is a big step towards reducing the waste of paper. High school teacher Stephanie Sorrell in Kentucky, US, said she used to give about 900 pieces of paper each week to each student.

 "Think about the money and trees we could save with the computers," she said.

But, with all this technology, there's always the risk that the machines will break down. So, in case of a power failure or technical problems, paper textbooks are still widely available for these hi-tech students.

1.What does the part of the last sentence in the first paragraph, “run out of ink at the critical moment”, mean?

A. Pens may not write well at the critical moment.

B. Pens get lost easily, so you may not find them at the critical moment.

C. Pens may have little or no ink at the critical moment.

D. Pens use ink, while pencils don't.

2.In a paperless classroom, what is a must?

A. Pens.    B. Computers.    C. Information.    D. Texts.

3.The high school teacher, Judy Herrell, used the example of her class to show that _______.

A. the Web could take them everywhere

B. the Web taught them a lot

C. the Web is a good tool for information

D. the Web better than the textbooks, can give the latest and comprehensive (全面的) information

4.The paperless classrooms will benefit _____ the most.

A. students    B. teachers    C. trees    D. computers

5.What does the phrase in the last paragraph, “break down”, mean?

A. Break into pieces.    B. Stop working

C. Fall down.    D. Lose control.