Bobby Moresco grew up in New York's Hell's Kitchen, a tough working-class neighborhood on Manhattan's West Side. But Hell's Kitchen lies right next door to Broadway, and the bright lights attracted Bobby from the time he was a teen. Being stage-struck was hardly what a street kid could admit to his partners. Fearing their ridicule, he told no one, not even his girlfriend, when he started taking acting lessons at age 17. If you were a kid from the neighborhood, you became a cop, construction worker, longshoreman or criminal. Not an actor.

   Moresco struggled to make that long walk a few blocks east. He studied acting, turned out for all the cattle calls -- and during the decade of the 1970s made a total of $2,000. "I wasn't a good actor, but I had a driving need to do something different with my life," he says.

He moved to Hollywood, where he drove a cab and worked as a bartender. "My father said, 'Stop this craziness and get a job; you have a wife and daughter.' “But Moresco kept working at his chosen craft.

   Then in 1983 his younger brother Thomas was murdered in a mob-linked killing. Moresco moved back to his old neighborhood and started writing as a way to explore the pain and the patrimony of Hell's Kitchen. Half-Deserted Streets, based on his brother's killing, opened at a small Off-Broadway theater in 1988. A Hollywood producer saw it and asked him to work on a screenplay.

    His reputation grew, and he got enough assignments to move back to Hollywood. By 2003, he was again out of work and out of cash when he got a call from Paul Haggis, a director who had befriended him. Haggis wanted help writing a film about the country after September 11. The two worked on the writing, but every studio in town turned it down. They kept pitching it. Studio executives, however, thought no one wanted to see a severe, honest vision of race and fear and lives in collision in modern America.

Moresco believed so strongly in the script that he borrowed money, sold his house. He and Haggis kept pushing. At last the writers found an independent film producer who would take a chance, but the upfront money was too little, Moresco delayed his salary.

Crash slipped into the theaters in May 2005, and quietly became both a hit and a critical success. It was nominated for six Academy Awards and won three -- Best Picture, Best Film Editing and Best Writing (Original Screenplay) by Paul Haggis and the kid from Hell's Kitchen.

   At age 54, Bobby Moresco became an overnight success. "If you have something you want to do in life, don't think about the problems," he says, "think about other ways to get it done."

1. Rearrange the following statements in terms of time order:

a. His work Half-Deserted Streets drew attention as it opened at a small Off-Broadway theater

b. Unexpectedly Crash became both a hit and a huge success.

c. He moved to Hollywood to be a taxi driver and a waiter.

d. He started learn acting in spite of hardness with the belief of doing something diiferent.

e. His younger brother Thomas was killed in conflict among bullies.

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

2.Why Bobby Moresco did not tell anyone that he started taking lessons at age 17?

A. He wnted to give his girlfriend a surprise.   

B. His girlfriend did not allow him to do this.

C. He was afraid of being laughed at.

D. He had no talent for acting.

3.Which of the following sentences is NOT true?

A. His father did not support his work as a bartender.

B. Before he became an overnight success, his life experienced ups and downs.

C. His brother’s death inspired his writing Half-Deserted Streets.

D. Moresco grew up in New York's Hell's Kitchen which is a few blocks east of Broadway.

4.The Studio executives turned the script Crash down because ______________.

A. they thought the script would not be popular.

B. the script was not well written.

C. they had no money to make the film based on the script.

D. they thought Moresco was not famous.

5.What’s the best title of the article?

A. The Road to Success              B. Try It a Different Way

C. A Talented man—Moresco          D. Moresco’s Perseverance

6.Which of the following can best describe Bobby Moresco?

A. initiative (主动) and persistent        B. shy but hardworking  

C. caring and brave                   D. aggressive and modest

I’m seventeen. I had worked as a box boy at a supermarket in Los Angeles. People came to the counter and you put things in their bags for them. And carried things to their cars. It was hard work.

While working, you wear a plate with your name on it. I once met someone I knew years ago. I remembered his name and said,“Mr Castle, how are you?"We talked about this and that. As he left, he said,“It was nice talking to you, Brett."I felt great, he remembered me. Then I looked down at my name plate. Oh no. He didn?t remember me at all, he just read the name plate. I wish I had put“Irving"down on my name plate. If he?d have said,“Oh yes, Irving, how could I forget you?"I d have been ready for him. There?s nothing personal here.

The manager and everyone else who were a step above the box boys often shouted orders. One of these was: you couldn?t accept tips(小费). Okay, I?m outside and

 I put the bags in the car. For a lot of people, the natural reaction(反应)is to take a quarter and give it to me. I?d say,“I?m ?sorry,? I can’t."They’d get angry. When you give someone a tip, you?re sort of being polite. You take a quarter and you put it in their hand and you expect them to say,“Oh,thanks a lot."When you say,“I'm sorry, I can't."They feel a little put down.They say,“No one will know."And they put it in your pocket. You say,“I really can’t."It gets to a point where you almost have to hurt a person physically(身体上)to prevent him from tipping you. It was not in agreement with the store?s belief in being friendly. Accepting tips was a friendly thing and made the customer feel good. I just could?t understand the strangeness of some people?s ideas. One lady actually put it in my pocket, got in the car, and drove away. I would have had to throw the quarter at her or eaten it or something.

I had decided that one year was enough. Some people needed the job to stay alive and fed. I guess I had the means and could afford to hate it and give it up.

1.What can be the best title for this text?

A.How Hard Life for Box Boys 

B.Getting along with Customers

C.Why I Gave up My Job

D.The Art of Taking Tips 

2.From the second paragraph, we can infer that _______ .

A.the writer didn’t like the impersonal part of his job

B.with a name plate, people can easily start talking

C.Mr Castle mistook Irving for Brett

D.Irving was the writer?s real name 

3.The box boy refused to accept tips because _______.

A.customers only gave small tips

B.some customers had strange ideas about tipping

C.the store forbade the box boys to take tips

D.he didn’t want to fight with the customers 

4.The underlined phrase“put down"in the third paragraph probably means _______.

A.misunderstood         B.defeated         C.hateful         D.hurt 

With only about 1,000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone the animal and save these in a dangerous situation. That's a move similar to what a Texas A & M University researchers have been undertaking for the past five years in a project called "Noah's Ark".

Noah's Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos(???), semen and DNA of these animals and storing them in liquid nitrogen. If certain species should become extinct, Dr. Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas A & M's College of Veterinary, Medicine, says there would be enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future.

It is estimated that as many as 2, 000 species of mammals, birds and reptiles will probably become extinct in over 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25 years.

This week, Chinese scientists said they grew an embryo by introducing cells from a dead female panda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into a host animal.

The entire procedure could take from three to five years to complete.

"The nuclear transfer of one species to another is not easy, but the lack of available panda eggs could be a major problem," Kraemer believes. "They will probably have to do several hundred transfers to result in one pregnancy (having a baby). It takes a long time and it's difficult, but this could be groundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it is worth the effort," adds Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Project at Texas A&M, the first-ever attempt at cloning a dog.

"They are trying to do something that's never been done, and this is very similar to our work in Noah's Ark. We're both trying to save animals that face extinction. I certainly appreciate their effort and there's a lot we can learn from what they are attempting to do. The cooperation between us is very much needed."

67. The final aim of "Noah's Ark" project is to___________.       .

A. make efforts to clone the endangered pandas 

B. save endangered animals from dying out

C. collect DNA of endangered animals to study 

D. transfer the nuclear of one animal to another

68. According to Professor Kraemer, ___________.

A. the long time lasting cloning research could be successful.

B. the eggs transfers immediately result in having a baby.

C. the lack of nuclear transfer could be a major problem to have new pandas.

D. if species should die out, basic building blocks would heal them.

69. The best title for the passage may be______________.

A. China's Success in Pandas Cloning

B. Helping Ways to Avoid Extinction

C. Exploring the Possibility to Clone Pandas

D. The Practice in Noah's Ark

70. From the passage we know that______________.

A. Kraemer and his team have succeeded in cloning a panda

B. scientists try to implant a panda's egg into a rabbit

C. Kraemer will work with Chinese scientists in clone researches

D. about two thousand species are to die out in a century

In a six-week study, experts found people who played online games designed to improve their cognitive(认知的) skills didn't get any smarter.

More than 8,600 people aged 18 to 60 were asked to play online brain games designed by the researchers to improve their memory, reasoning and other skills for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week. They were compared to more than 2,700 people who didn't play any brain games, but spent a similar amount of time surfing the Internet and answering general knowledge questions. All participants were given a sort of I.Q test before and after the experiment.

Researchers said the people who did the brain training didn't do any better on the test after six weeks than people who had simply been on the Internet. On some sections of the test, the people who surfed the Net scored higher than those playing the games.

"If you're (playing these games) because they're fun, that's absolutely fine," said Adrian Owen, the study's lead author. "But if you're expecting (these games) to improve your I.Q., our data suggests this isn't the case," he said during a press briefing on Tuesday.

One maker of brain games said the company's games have been proven to boost brain power.

"Their conclusion would be like saying, 'I cannot run a mile in under 4 minutes and therefore it is impossible to do so," Aldrich said in a statement.

"There is precious little evidence to suggest the skills used in these games transfer to the real world," said Art Kramer, who was not linked to the study and has no ties to any companies that make brain training games.

Instead of playing brain games, Kramer said people would be better off getting some exercise. He said physical activity can spark(激发) new connections between nerves and produce new brain cells. "Fitness changes the building blocks of the brain's structure," he said.

. It can be inferred that the online brain games mentioned in the text are_____________.

A. costly     B. unreliable      C. illegal    D. effective

. Which of the following statements is true about the experiment in the second paragraph?

   A. The experiment lasted for a week.

B. Age didn’t affect the result of the research.

C. Every person played online brain games three times a day.

D. People who didn’t play online brain games did better in I.Q test

. What can we learn from the text?

   A. Playing games which are fun can improve your I.Q.

B. There is a lot of evidence to suggest skills can transfer to the real world.

   C. Do physical activity can boost your brain power.

D. Playing online games can spark new brain cells

The underlined sentence suggests that ___________.

   A. The research was not linked to the study  

B. Those playing the games can score higher in the test

C. playing the games can spark new connections between nerves

D. This isn’t the case that these games can improve your I.Q. 

.

Some couples spend every waking minute together. Others fill their hours with personal hobbies,outside interests and even part-time jobs, just to keep their distance from each other! "There should beprivate time and couple time," suggests Dr. Stephen Treat at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia."You don't want your latter years to turn into a process where two people unite as one. If you hold tootightly to your partner, it's going to cause resentment and anger. If you're completely separate, you'llboth be lonely and disconnected. You need balance. So you have to talk about how vou'll achieve that."

The right baiance? It's different for every couple. "Having a conversation about time can be difficult,but it's important for both partners to process those feelings out loud," Dr. Treat says. "You should notbe accusing and act as a judge - ask the difficult questions, but do it in a loving way. You could saysomething like, 'How are we going to be as individuals and how are we going to be as a couple?' "

Barbara and Chris Christensen have achieved the balance that works for them. In addition to daily

routines that keep them close - including about 10 minutes for a daily check-in and about a half hourof relaxation time - they each maintain separate interests and friendships.

"We have found that we need time apart," Barbara says. "I have a group of women friends that Ihave known for the last 30 years. We have dinner out once a month. We women also have parties and weekend or weeklong vacations as a group at a beach or somewhere. Chris, a former fighter pilot, has

many aviation-oriented(航空的) groups and friends and also a penny-ante poker-playing  (玩扑克)

group of our friends. I may be with him during the poker night, but I don't play, and the wives usually

watch a cchick flick' DVD or something while the poker group has an evening of fun. We have found itimportant to have separate time as well as together time."

61. The author writes the passage to _              .

A. offer some suggestions on how to spend the time afier retirement

B. advise couples to develop their separate hobbies

C. warn couples not to be accusing of each other

D. give people some advice on how to entertain themselves after retirement

62. Dr. Stephen suggests that              after retirement.

A. couples stay together all the time

B. couples express their feelings in a loving way

C. couples be separate

D. wives make many friends

63.1t can be inferred that

A, many couples are faced with problems after retirement

B. America has a large population of retired people

C,. most people join various sociai groups after retirement

D. playing poker is a popular activity among retired people

64. Barbara and lier friends do the following except

A. having dinner regularly

B. holding parties

C. having weekly vacations at the beach

D. having fun playing poker

65. The second paragraph is mainlv intended to

A. warn the husband not to act as ajudge

B. suggest couples have discussions about difficulties

C. suggest how to keep the correct balance

D. require couples to be considerate