When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street. But she overcame these terrible setbacks (挫折) to win a highly competitive scholarship and gain entry to Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie, “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”, shown in late April.

Liz Murray, a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower(意志) and determination. Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted(吸毒) parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member of the family who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just 15 years old. The effect of that became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died, she decided to do something about it.

Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets. “What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding，by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,” she wrote in her book Breaking Night.

She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others, such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself that “next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS. “I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they love me all the time.”

Liz wants moviegoers to come away with the idea that changing your life is “as simple as making a decision”.

Her mother died when Liz was ____________.

A. 9 years old    B. 15 years old     C. 22 years old     D. studying in high school

In which order did the following things happen to Liz?

a. Her mother died of AIDS.

b. She worked at a petrol station.

c. She got admitted into Harvard.

d. The movie about her life was put on.

e. She had trouble finding a place to sleep.

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

The main idea of the passage is ________.

A. how Liz managed to enter Harvard University

B. what a hard time Liz had in her childhood

C. why Liz loved her parents so much

D. how Liz struggled to change her life

What actually made her go towards her goal?

A. Envy and competition.          B. Willpower and determination.

C. Decisions and understanding.     D. Love and respect for her parents.

When she wrote “What drove me to live on...I had only experienced a small part of the society”, she meant that ________.

A. she had little experience of social life    

B. she could hardly understand the society

C. she would do something for her own life  

D. she needed to travel more around the world

Water and its importance to human life are the center of the world’s attention. March 22 is World Water Day, which has the theme “Water and culture ”this year. There are more than one billion people in the world who live without safe drinking water. The United Nations hopes to cut this number in half by 2015.

       Solving such a big problem seems like an unreal challenge. But everyone, even teenagers, can do something to help. A teenage girl in the U.S. has set an example to others of her age around the world. Rene Haggerty, 13, was awarded the 2004 Gloria Barron Prize for her work of collecting deserted batteries which pollute water.

       In 2003, Haggerty went on a field trip to the Great Lakes Science Centre in Ohio. There, she saw an exhibit about how chemicals in old batteries harm the water of Lake Erie. Haggerty learnt that recycling the batteries was an easy solution. “I think everybody can do it, because everyone uses batteries, and it can make a big difference.” With these words, she began to increase awareness in her area.

       She talked to her county government and school board. She got permission to start a recycling programmed in schools as well as the public libraries, hospitals, and churches. With the help from her family, friends and local waste-management officials, she gathered containers, arranged transportation, and made an educational video.

Over the past two years, she collected four tons of batteries and drew the attention of officials, who were in charge of a battery recycling programmed but had made little progress. When asked if she feels like a hero, Haggerty is quite modest(谦虚). “Not really. Well, maybe for the fish I saved!”

       Every year the Gloria Barron Prize honors young Americans aged 8 to 18 who have shown leadership and courage in serving the public and the planet. Each year ten winners receive ＄2,000 each, to help with their education costs or their public service work.

According to the passage, how many people probably can’t drink safe drinking water in 2015?

A. About I billion.                                            B. About 2 billion.

C. About 500 million.                                       D. About 5 million.

In order to collect used batteries, Rene Haggerty did the following things EXCEPT            .

A. gather some containers                                 B. arrange the transportation

C. make an educational video                            D. go on a field trip

The best title for this passage should be               .

A.A girl awarded the 2004 Gloria Barron Prize

B.A girl acts to clean the world’s water

C. We should protect our environment

D.A girl collecting batteries

Melissa Poe was 9 years old when she began a campaign for a cleaner environment by writing a letter to the then President Bush. Through her on efforts, her letter was reproduced on over 250 donated billboards (广告牌)across the country.

The response to her request for help was so huge that Poe established Kids For A Cleaner Environment (Kids F.A.C.E.) in 1989. There are now 300,000 members of Kids F.A.C.E. worldwide and it is the world’s largest youth environmental organization.

Poe has also asked the National Park Service to carry out a “Children’s Forest” project in every national park. In 1992, she was invited one of only six children in the world to speak at the Earth Summit in Brazil as part of the Voices of the future Program. In 1993, she was given a Caring Award for her efforts by the Caring Institute.

Since the organization started, Kids F.A.C.E. members have distributed and planted over 1 million trees! Ongoing tree-planting projects include Kids’ Yards — the creation of backyard wildlife habitats (栖息地) and now Kids F.A.C.E. is involved in the exciting Odyssey, which is a great way to start helping.

 “We try to tell kids that it’s not OK to be lazy,” she explains, “You need to start being a response, environmentally friendly person now, right now, before you become a resource-sucking adult.”

72. Kids F.A.C.E. is __________.

A. a program to help students with writing

B. a project of litter recycling

C. a campaign launched by President Bush

D. a club of environmental protection

73. What can we learn about Poe?

A. She was awarded a prize in Brazil.

B. She donated billboards across the country.

C. She got positive responses for her efforts.

D. She joined the National Park Service.

74. Kid’s Yards is ____________.

A. established in national park

B. started to protect wildlife

C. a wildlife-raising project

D. an environment park for kids

75. Which of the following can be inferred from the text?

A. Adults are resources –sucking people.

B. Poe sought help from a youth organization

C. Kids F.A.C.E. members are from the U.S.

D. Kids are urged to save natural resources.

Think of some of your favorite singers. When you listen, they can make you happy or sad, peaceful or angry. They can make you relax or want to get up and dance. Gifted singers have the power to affect us in many ways — emotionally, physically and mentally.

But becoming a great singer isn’t as easy as listening to one. It takes practice, devotion and strong lungs! Just ask the well-known American opera（歌剧）star Carol Vaness.

At the Metropolitan Opera in New York City where she often sings, Carol’s voice must be loud enough to be heard by four thousand people. It must reach every person in the theater, without a microphone, even when she’s singing softly. The reason Carol can project her voice that far is the way she breathes.

“When you breathe, it’s like a swimmer taking a deep breath before going underwater, ” Carol explains. “You have to take a lot of air into your lungs.”

According to Carol, the main difference between pop singing and opera is “how you breathe, how much air you take in, and how you control it coming out. Regular singing is more like speaking, and it’s a lot softer. When I sing for children, they’re often surprised by how the vibrations strike their ears — like waves on a beach, ” Carol says. “In opera, the air doesn’t just go out of your mouth — it vibrates in your chest, the way a guitar vibrates when it’s played.”

Ever since she started piano lessons at the age of ten, Carol has loved music. As she got older, she decided to become a music teacher. When she went to college, she took singing lessons as part of her studies. Her voice teacher discovered that nineteen-year-old Carol had an exceptionally beautiful soprano voice – the highest singing voice for women.  

Carol decided to make opera her goal, not only because she loved to sing but also because she loved the drama. Opera is a play in which the characters sing the words instead of speaking them. The stories of opera can be tragic or comical. They can be personal stories about two people falling in love or grand stories about kings and queens who lived long ago. As the characters in an opera sing, the emotions(情感) expressed by words and music come to life.

Today, Carol performs throughout the United States and Europe and she has song for almost twenty years. But she has never forgotten where she started singing in the first palace.

“Put your heart into your singing and enjoy it,” says Carol, “because singing is a great joy. That’s why I sing. In fact, that’s why everybody sings.”

According to the passage, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City _____.

A. is a five-story building                B. can seat 4,000 people

C. has no microphone in it                D. can project the singer’s voice

What is the best title for this passage?

A. Opera Singing and Pop Singing          B. The Way an Opera Star Sings

C. An Opera Star                        D. Singing without a Microphone

Which statement is true?

A. A pop singer breathes more deeply than an opera singer when he or she sings.

B. Opera singing is more like speaking.

C. A pop singer takes in much more air than an opera singer when singing.

D. An opera singer breathes differently from a pop singer when singing.

From the passage you can conclude all the following EXCEPT that _____.

A. Carol once learned to play the piano              

B. Carol worked as a music teacher

C. Carol has been singing opera for 20 years or so     

D. Carol is popular with Americans and Europeans

The sentence “Put your heart into your singing” in the last paragraph means  “_____”.

A. devoting yourself to singing         B. taking trouble to sing

C. singing happily                   D. trying your best to sing  

    Lisa was running late．Lisa，25，had a lot to do at work，plus visitors on the way：her parents were coming in for Thanksgiving from her hometown．But as she hurried down the subway stairs，she started to feel uncomfortably warm．By the time she got to the platform，Lisa felt weak and tired--maybe it hadn’t been a good idea to give blood the night before，she thought．She rested herself against a post close to the tracks．

    Several yards away，Frank，43，and his girlfriend，Jennifer，found a spot close to where the front of the train would stop．They were deep in discussion about a house they were thinking of buying．

    But when he heard the scream，followed by someone yelling，“Oh，my God，she fell in!”Frank didn’t hesitate．He jumped down to the tracks and ran some 40 feet toward the body lying on the rails．“No! Not you!”his girlfriend screamed after him．

    She was right to be alarmed．By the time Frank reached Lisa，he could feel the tracks shaking and see the light coming．The train was about 20 seconds from the station．

    It was hard to lift her．She was just out．But he managed to raise her the four feet to the platform so that bystanders could hold her by the arms and drag her away from the edge．That was where Lisa briefly regained consciousness，felt herself being pulled along the ground，and saw someone else holding her purse．

    Lisa thought she’d been robbed．A woman held her hand and a man gave his shirt to help stop the blood pouring from her head．And she tried to talk but she couldn’t，and that was when she realized how much pain she was in．

    Police and fire officials soon arrived，and Frank told the story to an officer．Jennifer said her boyfriend was calm on their 40-minute train ride downtown---just as he had been seconds after the rescue，which made her think about her reaction at the time．“I saw the train coming and I was thinking he was going to die，”she explained．

41．What was the most probable cause for Lisa’s weakness?

    A．She had run a long way．

    B．She felt hot in the subway．

    C．She had done a lot of work．

    D．She had donated blood the night before．

42．Why did Jennifer try to stop her boyfriend?

    A．Because they would miss their train．

    B．Because he didn’t see the train coming．

    C．Because she was sure Lisa was hard to lift．

    D．Because she was afraid the train would kill him．

43．How did Frank save Lisa?

    A．By lifting her to the platform．

    B．By helping her rise to her feet．

    C．By pulling her along the ground．

    D．By dragging her away from the edge．

44．When did Lisa become conscious again?

    A．When the train was leaving．

    B．After she was back on the platform．

    C．After the police and fire officials came．

    D．When a man was cleaning the blood from her head．

45．The passage is intended to _____________

    A．warn us of the danger in the subway

    B．show US how to save people in the subway

    C．tell US about a subway rescue

    D．report a traffic accident