He lived his whole life as a poor man. His art and talent were recognized by almost no one. He suffered from a mental(精神的)illness that led him to cut off part of his left ear in 1888 and to shoot himself two years later. But after his death, he achieved world fame. Today, Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh is recognized as one of
the leading artists of all time.
  Now, 150 years after his birth on March 30, 1853, Zundert, the town of his birth, has made 2003 “The van Gogh Year”in his honor. And the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, home to the biggest collection of his masterpieces, is marking the anniversary(周年纪念)with exhibitions throughout the year. The museum draws around 1.3 million visitors every year. Some people enjoy the art and then learn about his life. Others are first interested in his life, which then helps them understand his art.
Van Gogh was the son of a pastor(牧师). He left school when he was just 15. By the age of 27, he had already tried many jobs including an art gallery(画廊)salesman and a French teacher. Finally in 1880, he decided to begin his studies in art.
Van Gogh is famed for his ability to put his own emotions into his paintings and show his feelings about a scene. His style is marked by short, broad brush strokes(笔画).“Instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use color more freely, in order to express myself more forcibly,” he wrote in a letter to his brother in 1888.
Van Gogh sold only one painting during his short life. He relied heavily on the support from his brother, an art dealer who lived in Paris. But now his works are sold for millions of dollars. His portrait of Dr. Gacher sold for $89.5 million in 1990. It is the highest price ever paid for a painting. “I think his paintings are powerful and the brilliant colors in them are attractive to people,” said a Van Gogh’s fan.
【小题1】All through his life, Van Gogh __________.

A.depended on his brotherB.worked hard on art studies
C.was not recognized by people D.expressed himself in paintings
【小题2】 Van Gogh killed himself because of ___________.
A.the poor lifeB.his illness
C.his pain from left earD.the objections from the artists of his time
【小题3】 One of the characteristics of Van Gogh’s paintings is ______________.
A.the likeness between his paintings and the reality
B.the short time for him to complete a painting
C.the various styles mixed together
D.the special strokes he made
【小题4】 The selling of his paintings is considered to be the most successful because ________.
A.more and more people like his paintings
B.people can understand him through his paintings
C.1.3 million people visit his painting museum every year
D.Zundert has made 2003 “The Van Gogh Year” in his honor
【小题5】 We can infer from the passage that _______.
A.his powerful art came from his poor life
B.his fellow townsmen regret treating him unfairly
C.all his paintings were drawn in the last 10 years of his life
D.most of his paintings are kept in the museum of his hometown

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 to win a highly competitive scholarship(奖学金)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 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 loss 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”.
【小题1】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, dC.e, d, b, a, cD.b, e, a, d, c
【小题2】The main idea of the passage is ________.
A.how Liz managed to enter Harvard UniversityB.what a hard time Liz had in her childhood
C.why Liz loved her parents so muchD.how Liz struggled to change her life
【小题3】What actually made her go towards her goal?
A.Envy and encouragement.B.Willpower and determination.
C.Decisions and understanding.D.Love and respect for her parents.
【小题4】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 lifeB.she could hardly understand the society
C.she would do something for her own lifeD.she needed to travel more around the world

阅读下面短文,从短文后各题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

Growing up is not always easy. When facing difficulties, courage and a spirit of independence can be more useful than crying for     !That’s what Hong Zhanhui’s story of  __   from boy to man with family hardships  ( 艰难)tell us.

    Hong was born in 1982 in a poor family in Xihua County, Henan Province. When he was     11, his father became mentally(心理上) ill and one day came back with an abandoned ( 被抛弃的)baby girl. A year later, Hong‘s mother and younger brother both      home because of poverty ( 贫困)and pressure ( 压力)from his ill father.

  The burden  ( 负担)fell onto the 12-year-old’s shoulders: to treat his father’s illness, to    the adopted  ( 领养的)sister Chenchen, and to go on to study.

  Hong didn’t    . Since a young age, he has worked in part-time jobs to feed his family. At the same time, he has studied at college. To take care of Chenchen, he worked hard to    a room near his campus for her, and send her to school.

After Hong’s story went public, people were     to tears by his selflessness. Hard      his life was, Hong didn’t abandon his father and the adopted   , because they needed his help. With his hard –won money, he even helped other students     against misfortunes ( 厄运).

Today when many tend to worry more about their own happiness, Hong’s deeds     us of what we usually ignore(忽略): love and care for others. Without these,      of us could survive.

Hong    donations  ( 捐献) from others. He said he felt encouraged by kind offers, but he could     his own work. Short of money to buy food, the boy climbed tall trees to get birds’ eggs for his baby sister. He walked two hours at weekends to buy different things to      around his school to earn money. Through his hard life, the boy developed     to rise above misfortune that made him a hero in people’s eyes.

Hong’s story shows that with love and willpower, no hardship can    a person but himself. So when facing difficulties, don’t  ___   about bad luck. Consider what more you could do for your family and society     you will find the world smiling back.    

1.A. money               B. food        C. clothes                       D. help

2.A. caring              B. growing              C. moving            D. turning

3.A. only                  B. already               C. ever                D. still

4.A. stayed                B. went                 C. sold                           D. left

5.A. bring up             B. give up               C. stick to            D. devote to

6.A. go away         B. give up           C. run out            D. turn down

7.A build                 B. rent        C. buy               D. borrow

8.A. encouraged          B. moved      C. inspired                       D. made

9.A. as              B because             C. unless.                        D. while

10.A. brother         B. daughter       C. sister                          D. uncle

11.A. struggling              B. learning            C. running                     D. turning

12.A. leave                  B. remember             C. remind                           D. tell

13.A. anyone                B. everyone          C. none                         D. no one

14.A. threw away    B. turned out         C. ran out                     D. turned down

15.A. depend on   B. stick to             C . refer to          D. turn to

16.A. show           B. eat                C. sell                D. share

17.A. a chance           B. an ability            C. a spirit            D. a belief

18.A. bury           B. defeat             C. kick                         D. knock

19.A. worry         B. care                C. complain              D. joke

20.A. and           B. or                  C. when             D. Until

 

One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor’s salary will be higher than a bus conductor’s wages. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare a miner with an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil-rig(钻探平台)with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, the engineer and the teacher have in common is that they have devoted several years to studying in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively that these skills and these years should be rewarded. At the same time we recognize that the work of the miner and the oil-rig laborer is both hard and dangerous, and that they must be highly paid for the risks they take.

  Another aspect we must take into consideration is how socially useful a man’s work is. Most people would agree that looking after the sick or teaching children is more important than, say, selling second-hand cars. Yet it is almost certain that the used-car salesman earns more than the nurse and the schoolteacher.

  Indeed, this whole question of just rewards can be turned on its head. You can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of his reward in the form of a so-called “psychic(精神的)wage”, and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul-destroying repetitiveness of his work. It is significant that the jobs like nursing and teaching continue to be poorly paid, while others, such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.

Although the amount of money that people earn is largely determined by market forces, this should not prevent us from seeking some way to decide what is the right pay for the job. A starting point would be to try to decide the ratio(比率)which ought to exist between the highest and the lowest paid. The picture is made more complicated by two factors: firstly by the welfare benefits which every citizen receives, and secondly by the taxation system which is often used as an instrument of social justice by taxing high incomes at a very high rate indeed. Most countries now regard a ratio of 7:1 as socially acceptable. If it is less, the highly-qualified people carrying heavy responsibilities will become disappointed, and might even end up by leaving for another country. If it is more, the difference between rich and poor will be so great that it will lead to social unrest.

1.Why do people naturally expect that doctors should be well-paid?

A.Their work requires greater intelligence.

B.They are under constant pressure at work.

C.They work harder than most other people.

D.They have studied for years to get qualified.

2.In Paragraph 2 and 3, the author indicates that __________.

A.the talented should do more important work

B.unskilled jobs have less social responsibility

C.those with more socially useful jobs earn less

D.people want to pay more to important services

3.Which of the following statements would the author agree?

A.It’s difficult to define the social value of a job.

B.The market will decide what the right pay is for a job.

C.People should find a proper ratio between high and low pay.

D.Those receiving high salary should carry heavy responsibilities.

 

 

Today, roller skating is easy and fun.But a long time ago, it wasn’t easy at all. Before 1750, the idea of skating didn’t exist. That changed because of a man named Joseph Merlin. Merlin’s work was making musical instruments. In his spare time he liked to play the violin. Joseph Merlin was a man of ideas and dreams. People called him a dreamer.

One day Merlin received an invitation to attend a fancy dress ball(化装舞会). He was very pleased and a little excited. As the day of the party came near, Merlin began to think how to make a grand entrance at the party. He had an idea. He thought he would get a lot of attention if he could skate into the room.

  Merlin tried different ways to make himself roll. Finally, he decided to put two wheels under each shoe. These were the first roller skates. Merlin was very proud of his invention and dreamed of arriving at the party on wheels while playing the violin.

  On the night of the party Merlin rolled into the room playing his violin. Everyone was astonished to see him. There was just one problem. Merlin had no way to stop his roller skates. He rolled on and on. Suddenly, he ran into a huge mirror that was hanging on the wall. Down fell the mirror, breaking to pieces. Nobody forgot Merlin’s grand entrance for a long time!

1.The text is mainly about ________.

         A.a strange man              B.an unusual party

         C.how roller skating began     D.how people enjoyed themselves in the 18th century

2.People thought Merlin was a dreamer because he _________.

  A.often gave others surprises      B.was a gifted musician

         C.invented the roller skates      D.was full of imagination

3.Merlin put wheels under his shoes in order to ________ .

A.impress the party guests      B.arrive at the party sooner

C.test his invention         D.show his skill in walking on wheels

4.What is the main point the writer is trying to make in the last paragraph?

         A.The roller skates needed further improvement. 

B.The party guests took Merlin for a fool.

         C.Merlin succeeded beyond expectation.       

D.Merlin got himself into trouble.

 

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