The Migration of Birds

   Here is a scientific experiment on the homing of birds, the fact of which are quite certain. A few years ago seven swallows were caught near their nests at Bremen in Germany. They were marked with a red dye on some of their white feathers, so that they could easily been seen. Then they were taken by plane to Croydon, near London. This is a distance of 400 miles.

   Then the seven swallows were set free at Croydon. Five of them flew back to their nests at Bremen. How did the birds find their way on that long journey, which they had never made before? That is the great puzzle. It is no good saying that the swallows have a sense of direction. These are just words and explain nothing. We want to know exactly what senses the animals use to find their way, how they know in which direction to go until they can see familiar landmarks. Unfortunately practically no scientific experiments have yet been made on this question.

   Perhaps migrating birds are the greatest mystery of all. Swallows leave England in August and September, and they fly to Africa, where they stay during our winter. The swallows return to England in the late summer for the south. A lot has been found about the journeys of migrating birds by marking the birds with aluminum rings put on one leg. An address and a number is put on the ring.

   Swallows from England go as far as South Africa and as many as fourteen birds, marked with rings in England, have been caught again in South Africa. From England to South Africa is a journey of 6,000 miles. And the birds not only return from Africa to England next spring, but often they come back to the nests in the very same house where they nested the year before.

17．The seven swallows were marked on some of their feathers because       .

A．they would be taken away by plane

B．they would be free in London

C．Croydon was 400 miles away

D．they could easily be seen for the red colour

18．Which of the following is true?       .

A．Seientists have found why the animals can see their nests.

B．No one knows why the swallows can fly back to their familiar landmarks.

C．It’s very simple that the birds use sense of direction.

D．Many experiments have been made on how birds can fly their way home

19．Swallows like to spend ”our winter” in        .

A．England      B．London        C．Africa       D．Germany

20．When do the birds return from South Africa to England every year?

A．summer        B．spring        C．winter         D．Both A and B

The first event of my life to be printed into my memory occurred when I was three. My mother stands, working in the  41  and then glances at me with a  42  smile. Two feet down the table, I knock on a chair with a bowl and a spoon,  43  my own invisible (无形的) powder. We wear  44  dresses, mine the leftover  45   from hers, sky blue — mommy’s favorite color. I am her shadow.
However, by 14 I could not  46  my mother. All that I heard every day was NO. I wanted to dye my hair and she said no. I wanted to  47  late with my friends and she said no. I didn’t understand why she said no. She was trying to  48  me from aches and pains and mistakes  49  in her teens. Several years later, I finally understood her, but it was too late. She became ill. I cried and  50 , “Don’t take her, God, please! She is my mother, my mommy, ma, the woman who gave me life. All my years,  51  the hard times and the good, she has been there,  52  to me forever by an invisible umbilical cord (脐带) that lasts longer after birth.”But this cord, this love could do nothing to stop the cancer from  53 .
A few years later  54  I myself lay in the hospital bed, my newly born daughter was  55  in my arms. I cried and smiled and prayed. Please help me to  56  her into a wonderful girl. And looking down  57  her eyes, I could see the message they held, “Your  58  would be proud.”
I stand in the kitchen now, and these thoughts flashed through my mind. I glance at my young daughter. A  59  feeling rushes through my soul as I take in the familiar  60 .
I am my mother’s shadow.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky
From its opening lines – “ ‘You my lucky piece,’ Grandma says.... Her hand is wrapped around mine” – Heidi W. Durrow pulls us into her first novel, a moving story encircling us as firmly as that protective grandmotherly grip.
When we meet Rachel Morse, the daughter of an African-American GI and a Danish woman, she is just moving into the Portland, Oregon., home of her strong-minded paternal grandmother and her warm, classy Aunt Loretta. We soon learn that Rachel has survived a fall from a nine-story apartment building in which her mother, brother, and baby sister all died. Three months earlier, Rachel’s mother had left her alcoholic husband in Germany, following her “orange-haired” lover to Chicago. But Nella hadn’t been prepared for boyfriend’s drinking and racism, or for the looks and questions she gets as the mother of three brown children.
Rachel’s “new-girl feeling” in her grandmother’s home goes beyond her recent tragedy. Having grown up with a Scandinavian mother in the more colorblind society of an overseas Army base, this is her first time in a mostly black community. Her light-brown skin, “fuzzy” hair, and blue eyes raise questions about her racial identity that are entirely new and puzzling to her.
Starting sixth grade in her new school, Rachel notes, “There are fifteen black people in the class and seven white people. And there’s me. There’s another girl who sits in the back. Her name is Carmen LaGuardia, and she has hair like mine, my same color skin, and she counts as black. I don’t understand how, but she seems to know.” Several years later, in high school, her status remains uncertain. “They call me an Oreo. I don’t want to be white. Sometimes I want to go back to being what I was. I want to be nothing.”
Winner of the Bellwether Prize, created by Barbara Kingsolver to celebrate fiction that addresses issues of social injustice, “The Girl Who Fell From the Sky” comes at a time when bi-racial and multicultural identity – so markedly represented by President Obama – is especially topical.
But set in the 1980s and focusing on one unusually sympathetic girl overcoming family tragedy and feeling her way through racial tensions, Durrow’s novel surpasses topicality.
Like Rachel, Durrow is the light-brown-skinned, blue-eyed daughter of a Danish mother and an African-American father enlisted in the Air Force. With degrees from Stanford, Columbia Journalism School, and Yale Law School, it’s no wonder she gives her heroine discipline and brains.
Rachel’s life, however, is clearly not Durrow’s. No, there’s alcohol and drug addiction; deaths by fire, trauma, and infection. There are mothers who lose their children, and a saintly drug counselor who loses his beloved girl-friend. Through it all, what makes Durrow’s novel soar is her masterful sense of voice, her assured, delicate handling of complex racial issues – and her heart.
After hearing the blues music for the first time, Rachel feels what her mother called hyggeligt – “something like comfort and home and love all rolled into one.” She wonders what might have happened if her mother had known about such soulful music, “that sometimes there’s a way to take the sadness and turn it into a beautiful song.”
This, of course, is precisely what Durrow has done in this powerful book: taken sadness and turned it into a beautiful song.
60. What should be the direct cause of Rachel coming to Portland, Oregon?
A. Her mother left her alcoholic father.
B. A deadly tragedy happened to her family.
C. Her grandmother wants her to come and stay with her.
D. There was too much racism where she used to live with her mother.
61. Durrow’s life is different from Rachel’s in that _____________.
A. Durrow has to struggle through her life, depending on herself.
B. Durrow is troubled in her life by racism, living in a poor neighborhood.
C. Durrow has come through life much easier, with a better family background.
D. There’s alcohol and drug addiction in Durrow’s suffering-laden neighborhood.
62. Why does the writer of the book review mention President Obama in this writing?
A. To show the progress in America’s black community.
B. To highlight the racial harmony in the United States.
C. To indicate Obama’s influence in helping Durrow win the Bellwether Prize.
D. To remind readers of the background when the novel was written and won the Bellwether Prize.
63. The blues music Rachel hears is, deep at the bottom of her heart, most suggestive of ______.
A. bravery          B. hope           C. sadness         D. beauty

The first event of my life to be printed into my memory occurred when I was three. My mother stands, working in the  41  and then glances at me with a  42  smile. Two feet down the table, I knock on a chair with a bowl and a spoon,  43  my own invisible (无形的) powder. We wear  44  dresses, mine the leftover  45   from hers, sky blue — mommy’s favorite color. I am her shadow.

However, by 14 I could not  46  my mother. All that I heard every day was NO. I wanted to dye my hair and she said no. I wanted to  47  late with my friends and she said no. I didn’t understand why she said no. She was trying to  48  me from aches and pains and mistakes  49  in her teens. Several years later, I finally understood her, but it was too late. She became ill. I cried and  50 , “Don’t take her, God, please! She is my mother, my mommy, ma, the woman who gave me life. All my years,  51  the hard times and the good, she has been there,  52  to me forever by an invisible umbilical cord (脐带) that lasts longer after birth.”But this cord, this love could do nothing to stop the cancer from  53 .

A few years later  54  I myself lay in the hospital bed, my newly born daughter was  55  in my arms. I cried and smiled and prayed. Please help me to  56  her into a wonderful girl. And looking down  57  her eyes, I could see the message they held, “Your  58  would be proud.”

I stand in the kitchen now, and these thoughts flashed through my mind. I glance at my young daughter. A  59  feeling rushes through my soul as I take in the familiar  60 .

I am my mother’s shadow.

1.                A．dining room     B．kitchen         C．sitting room   D．garden

2.                A．loving          B．lively           C．lovely    D．horrible

3.                A．preparing       B．mixing          C．cooking   D．eating

4.                A．matching       B．similar          C．different  D．same

5.                A．material        B．clothes         C．dress D．clothing

6.                A．agree          B．stand           C．know     D．realize

7.                A．keep up        B．stay out         C．stay up   D．keep on

8.                A．protect         B．warn           C．save D．stop

9.                A．watched        B．liked           C．heard    D．experienced

10.               A．screamed       B．said            C．shouted   D．prayed

11.               A．on            B．in             C．through   D．within

12.               A．concerned      B．shared         C．connected     D．joined

13.               A．growing        B．spreading       C．escaping   D．moving

14.               A．as             B．before         C．since D．when

15.               A．thrown         B．given          C．placed    D．taken

16.               A．raise           B．support        C．bring D．change

17.               A．for            B．through        C．up   D．into

18.               A．daughter       B．children        C．mother    D．friends

19.               A．warm          B．strange         C．painful    D．exciting

20.               A．saying          B．sign            C．scene D．paint

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky

From its opening lines – “ ‘You my lucky piece,’ Grandma says.... Her hand is wrapped around mine” – Heidi W. Durrow pulls us into her first novel, a moving story encircling us as firmly as that protective grandmotherly grip.

When we meet Rachel Morse, the daughter of an African-American GI and a Danish woman, she is just moving into the Portland, Oregon., home of her strong-minded paternal grandmother and her warm, classy Aunt Loretta. We soon learn that Rachel has survived a fall from a nine-story apartment building in which her mother, brother, and baby sister all died. Three months earlier, Rachel’s mother had left her alcoholic husband in Germany, following her “orange-haired” lover to Chicago. But Nella hadn’t been prepared for boyfriend’s drinking and racism, or for the looks and questions she gets as the mother of three brown children.

Rachel’s “new-girl feeling” in her grandmother’s home goes beyond her recent tragedy. Having grown up with a Scandinavian mother in the more colorblind society of an overseas Army base, this is her first time in a mostly black community. Her light-brown skin, “fuzzy” hair, and blue eyes raise questions about her racial identity that are entirely new and puzzling to her.

Starting sixth grade in her new school, Rachel notes, “There are fifteen black people in the class and seven white people. And there’s me. There’s another girl who sits in the back. Her name is Carmen LaGuardia, and she has hair like mine, my same color skin, and she counts as black. I don’t understand how, but she seems to know.” Several years later, in high school, her status remains uncertain. “They call me an Oreo. I don’t want to be white. Sometimes I want to go back to being what I was. I want to be nothing.”

Winner of the Bellwether Prize, created by Barbara Kingsolver to celebrate fiction that addresses issues of social injustice, “The Girl Who Fell From the Sky” comes at a time when bi-racial and multicultural identity – so markedly represented by President Obama – is especially topical.

But set in the 1980s and focusing on one unusually sympathetic girl overcoming family tragedy and feeling her way through racial tensions, Durrow’s novel surpasses topicality.

Like Rachel, Durrow is the light-brown-skinned, blue-eyed daughter of a Danish mother and an African-American father enlisted in the Air Force. With degrees from Stanford, Columbia Journalism School, and Yale Law School, it’s no wonder she gives her heroine discipline and brains.

Rachel’s life, however, is clearly not Durrow’s. No, there’s alcohol and drug addiction; deaths by fire, trauma, and infection. There are mothers who lose their children, and a saintly drug counselor who loses his beloved girl-friend. Through it all, what makes Durrow’s novel soar is her masterful sense of voice, her assured, delicate handling of complex racial issues – and her heart.

After hearing the blues music for the first time, Rachel feels what her mother called hyggeligt – “something like comfort and home and love all rolled into one.” She wonders what might have happened if her mother had known about such soulful music, “that sometimes there’s a way to take the sadness and turn it into a beautiful song.”

This, of course, is precisely what Durrow has done in this powerful book: taken sadness and turned it into a beautiful song.

1.What should be the direct cause of Rachel coming to Portland, Oregon?

  A. Her mother left her alcoholic father.

  B. A deadly tragedy happened to her family.

  C. Her grandmother wants her to come and stay with her.

  D. There was too much racism where she used to live with her mother.

2.Durrow’s life is different from Rachel’s in that _____________.

  A. Durrow has to struggle through her life, depending on herself.

  B. Durrow is troubled in her life by racism, living in a poor neighborhood.

  C. Durrow has come through life much easier, with a better family background.

  D. There’s alcohol and drug addiction in Durrow’s suffering-laden neighborhood.

3.Why does the writer of the book review mention President Obama in this writing?

  A. To show the progress in America’s black community.

  B. To highlight the racial harmony in the United States.

  C. To indicate Obama’s influence in helping Durrow win the Bellwether Prize.

  D. To remind readers of the background when the novel was written and won the Bellwether Prize.

4.The blues music Rachel hears is, deep at the bottom of her heart, most suggestive of ______.

  A. bravery          B. hope           C. sadness         D. beauty