“I Went Skydiving at 84!”

As a young girl growing up in the 1930s, I always wanted to fly a plane, but back then it was almost unheard of for a woman to do that. I got a taste of that dream in 2001,when my husband arranged for me to ride in a hot air balloon for my birthday. But the experience turned out to be very dull. Around that time, I told my husband that I wanted to skydive. So when our retirement community（社区）announced that they were having an essay competition and the topic was an experience of a lifetime that you wanted to have, I decided to write about my dream.

In the essay, I wrote about my desire to skydive, stating George Brush Sr. did it at age 80. Why not me? I was just 84 and in pretty good health. A year went by and I heard nothing. But then at a community party in late April 2009, they announced that I was one of the winners. I just couldn’t believe it. Inspired by this， I decided to realize my dream, even though some of my family members and my doctor were against it.

On June 11, 2009, nearly 40 of my family and friends gathered in the area close to where I would land while I headed up in the airplane. My instructor, Jay, guided me through the experience. The plane was the noisiest one I had ever been in, but I wasn’t frightened—I was really just looking forward to the experience. When we reached 13,000 feet, Jay instructed me to throw myself out of the plane. When we first hit the air, the wind was so strong that I could hardly breathe. For a second I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” But then everything got calmer. We were in a free fall for about a minute before Jay opened the parachute（降落伞）, then we just floated downward for about five minutes. Being up in the clouds and looking at the view below was unlike anything I have ever felt—much better than the hot air balloon. I was just enjoying it.

Skydiving was really one of the greatest experiences of my life. I hope other people will look at me and realize that you don’t stop living just because you are 84 years old. If there’s something you want to experience, look into it. If it’s something that is possible, make it happen.

1.What happened to the author in 2001?

A. She flew an airplane              B. She entered a competition

C. She went on a hot air balloon ride   D. She moved into a retirement community

2.The author mentioned George Bush Sr. in her essay to       .

A. build up her own reputation        B. show her admiration for him

C. compare their health condition      D. make her argument persuasive

3.How did the author feel immediately after she jumped out of the plane?

A. Excited           B. Scared      C. Nervous        D. Regretful

4.What did the author enjoy most when she was skydiving?

A. The beautiful clouds     B. The wonderful view

C. The company of Jay     D. The one-minute free fall

5.Which word could be used to replace the word “instructor,” in Paragraph 3?

     A. doctor             B. conductor       C. pilot        D. trainer

“I Went Skydiving at 84!”

As a young girl growing up in the 1930s, I always wanted to fly a plane, but back then it was almost unheard of a woman to do that. I got a taste of that dream in 2011,when my husband arranged for me me ride in a hot air balloon for my birthday. But the experience turned out to be very dull. Around that time ,I told my husband that I wanted to skydive. So when our retirement community（社区）announced that they were having an essay competition and the topic was an experience of a lifetime that you wanted to have, I decided to write about my dream.

In the essay, I wrote about my desire to skydive, stating George Brush Sr. did it at age 80. Why not me? I was just 84 and in pretty good health. A year went by and I heard nothing. But then at a community party in late April 2009, they announced that I was one of the winners. I just couldn’t believe it.

One june 11, 2009, nearly 40 of my family and friends gathered in the area close to where I would land while I headed up in the airplane. My instructor, Jay, guided me through the experience. The plane was the noisiest one I had ever been in, but I wasn’t frightened—I was really just looking forward to the experience. When we reachen 13,000 feet, Jay instructed me to throw myself out of the plane. When we first hit the air, the wind was so strong that I could hardly breathe. For a second I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” But then everything got calmer. We were in a free fall for about a minute before Jay opened the parachute（降落伞）, then we just floated downward fo zhout five minutes. Being up in the clouds and looking at the view below was unlike anything I have ever felt—much better than the hot air ballon. I was just enjoying it.

Skydiving was really one of the greatest experiences of my life. I hope other people will look at me and realize that you don’t stop living just because you are 84 years old. If there’s something you want to experience, look into it. If it’s something that is possible, make it happen.

1.

What happened to the auther in 2001?

A. She flew an airplane

B. She entered a competition

C. She went on a hot air balloon ride

D. She moved into a retirement community

2.

 The author mentioned George Bush Sr. in her essay to       .

A. build up her own reputation

B. show her admiration for him

C. compare their health conditon

D. make her argument persuasive

3.

How did the authou feel immediately after she jumped out of the plane?

A. Excited    B. Scared    C. Nervous    D. Regretful

4.

 What did the author enjoy most when she was skydiving?

A.The beautiful clouds     B. The wonderful view

C. The company of Jay     D. The one-minute free fall

Mackenzie Hughes had just returned from school and was waiting for her older brothers to arrive home. She was home alone  1  a man started knocking on the front door, turning the handle and trying to  2 .

She’s 12 years old and she was  3 . So she dialed 9-1-1 and reached the operator Rachelle Berry. After a brief talk, Berry  4  what was happening. “OK, hang on, OK? Can you get in a  5 ?” Berry asked. Mackenzie told Berry that her phone --- it wasn’t cordless (无绳的) --- wouldn’t reach into the cupboard. “Will the phone reach under your bed?” Berry asked  6  . “No,” Mackenzie said.

“Can you hide under a  7  and pull your bedspread over you?” That’s  8  what Mackenzie did. She hid under her blanket, holding the phone and listening to Berry’s voice.

Berry talked quietly, which  9  Mackenzie. It helped, too, when Berry told her to think of something  10  . “Try not to cry,” Berry told Mackenzie during the call. “ I know it’s  11  . Do you have something you can hold onto?” Mackenzie struggled to  12  tears. She couldn’t  13  anything without showing her hiding spot. “ It’s OK,” Berry said. “You’ve got me here with you.”

“He’s in my room,” Mackenzie  14  . “Now be quiet, OK? Just don’t talk,” Berry said. For much of the call, Berry dropped her voice to a whisper,  15  the intruder (闯入者) might hear her voice over the phone.  16 , the man came into her room, then left.

Berry told Mackenzie that the  17  were on their way. Minutes later, they arrived and  18  one man in the backyard and another man in a getaway car.

On Thursday morning, the Emergency Communications Bureau gave Mackenzie its Hero Award for her  19  . Berry also received high praise. And then it was off to school for Mackenzie. But first Berry had something to  20  to the middle-schooler: a cordless phone.

1.                A．until           B．before         C．because  D．when

2.                A．get in          B．get away        C．get around    D．get through

3.                A．annoyed        B．scared          C．curious   D．surprised

4.                A．remembered    B．realized         C．reviewed D．recalled

5.                A．bedroom       B．kitchen         C．cupboard D．bathroom

6.                A．anxiously       B．calmly          C．carefully  D．happily

7.                A．sofa           B．bed            C．table D．blanket

8.                A．ever           B．never          C．just  D．still

9.                A．worried        B．helped         C．moved   D．upset

10.               A．interesting      B．strange         C．wrong D．valuable

11.               A．hard           B．important       C．useful D．possible

12.               A．hold onto       B．hold down      C．hold back  D．hold up

13.               A．discover        B．imagine        C．reach D．invent

14.               A．cried          B．shouted        C．whispered D．replied

15.               A．assuming       B．believing       C．fearing    D．confirming

16.               A．Obviously       B．Fortunately      C．Probably  D．Certainly

17.               A．parents        B．brothers        C．police D．neighbors

18.               A．met           B．killed          C．arrested   D．found

19.               A．contribution     B．success         C．kindness   D．bravery

20.               A．lend           B．present         C．show D．mail

Mikio Tanaka is a devoted father----and prove it by taking three months off to care for his baby boy. That makes Tanaka __36__ of a revolutionary in Japan, where men are __37__ known for working long hours and __38__ in the bars with clients than mixing baby milk and changing diapers (尿布).
“It was __39__, but it was also a lot of fun,” Tanaka said, sitting __40__ the living room floor with his 4-month-old son, Daiki, __41__ on his back. “ I saw the first time he __42__. It was a great experience.”
Tanaka, 31, is one of a __43__ number of fathers in Japan who are taking a bigger __44__ inside the home. Men are a __45__ sight with kids at parks and zoos at weekends, though often __46__ yawning. Books and magazines __47__ fathers on how to play with and care for their kids. For Japan’s __48__ housewives, the changing is too late. In Tanaka’s case, his wife, Ayako, 28, was __49__ to take a full year of leave , for she was a school teacher.
__50__ for Tanaka, a department chief at his company had taken the __51__ leave a few years before, so his plan to __52__ three months unpaid leave was not a total shock to his __53__. Ayako took three months off for Daiki, then it was Tanaka’s __54__ when she went back to work. Daiki started day care full-time at __55__ month. Tanaka said at that time he was able to work again.
【小题1】

Nearly two thousand years have passed since a census decreed by Caesar Augustus become part of the greatest story ever told. Many things have changed in the intervening years. The hotel industry worries more about overbuilding than overcrowding, and if they had to meet an unexpected influx, few inns would have a manager to accommodate the weary guests. Now it is the census taker that does the traveling in the fond hope that a highly mobile population will stay long enough to get a good sampling. Methods of gathering, recording, and evaluating information have presumably been improved a great deal. And where then it was the modest purpose of Rome to obtain a simple head count as an adequate basis for levying taxes, now batteries of complicated statistical series furnished by governmental agencies and private organizations are eagerly scanned and interpreted by sages and seers to get a clue to future events. The Bible does not tell us how the Roman census takers made out, and as regards our more immediate concern, the reliability of present day economic forecasting, there are considerable differences of opinion. They were aired at the celebration of the 125th anniversary of the American Statistical Association. There was the thought that business forecasting might well be on its way from an art to a science, and some speakers talked about newfangled computers and high-falutin mathematical system in terms of excitement and endearment which we, at least in our younger years when these things mattered, would have associated more readily with the description of a fair maiden. But others pointed to the deplorable record of highly esteemed forecasts and forecasters with a batting average below that of the Mets, and the President-elect of the Association cautioned that “high powered statistical methods are usually in order where the facts are crude and inadequate, the exact contrary of what crude and inadequate statisticians assume.” We left his birthday party somewhere between hope and despair and with the conviction, not really newly acquired, that proper statistical methods applied to ascertainable facts have their merits in economic forecasting as long as neither forecaster nor public is deluded into mistaking the delineation of probabilities and trends for a prediction of certainties of mathematical exactitude.

Taxation in Roman days apparently was based on

[A]. wealth. [B]. mobility. [C]. population. [D]. census takers.

The American Statistical Association

[A]. is converting statistical study from an art to a science.

[B]. has an excellent record in business forecasting.

[C]. is neither hopeful nor pessimistic.

[D]. speaks with mathematical exactitude.

The message the author wishes the reader to get is

[A]. statisticians have not advanced since the days of the Roman.

[B]. statistics is not as yet a science.

[C]. statisticians love their machine.

[D].computer is hopeful.

The “greatest story ever told” referred to in the passage is the story of

[A]. Christmas. [B]. The Mets.

[C]. Moses. [D]. Roman Census Takers.