There comes a time for every child when fantasies end and reality begins.Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny  1  to be Mum and Dad,and heroes fade away.I don’t know if most people remember this  2  ,but I know when it happened to me.

On an ordinary summer’s day,my grandfather told me one of his crazy stories.I  3  off to find the Indians that Grandpa said lived in the woods.But after some hours’ searching without success I  4  .Tired and  5  ,I went to ask Grandpa.

“How could none of your  6   ever come true?”

“Well,sometimes you have to make them come true,”he answered.“I once had a friend named Huck Finn who made his own  7  .”

He started to tell me about his friend Huck,who  8  down the Mississippi River on a raft.I sat listening to him and believing every word he said.When he finished,I went off to have my own adventure.

Two hours later I had a small and  9  raft.I took it to the pond along with  10  from a tree to use as an oar.(桨)I couldn’t swim and had been told many times to stay away from  11  .But today I had the raft,so with a big shove;I  12  it out and jumped on top.

I was fine for a total of four seconds;then I started to  13  .Frightened,I tried to use the branch to paddle  14  ,but only pushed myself farther out.Knowing that I would drown,I did    15   any other nine-year-old boy would do in a similar  16  :I screamed.

From the edge of the pond came my sister and cousins who easily  17  me.As my raft sank,so did my  18  in my grandpa.Although I never  19  loving him,something changed in our relationship that day.

  20  now,I can see that the change wasn’t in my grandfather,but in me.I was growing up.

1.A.pick out               B.turn out                  C.come out                 D.find out

2.A.event                  B.accident                 C.affair                      D.matter

3.A.sailed                  B.flew                       C.headed                    D.drove

4.A.gave in                B.gave out                 C.gave away               D.gave up

5.A.angry                  B.afraid                     C.discouraged             D.frightened

6.A.stories                 B.dreams                   C.plans                       D.wishes

7.A.differences          B.attempts                 C.inspections              D.adventures

8.A.swam                  B.floated                   C.flowed                    D.wandered

9.A.badly made          B.well equipped          C.good -looking          D.fast- moving

10.A.a stick               B.a pole                     C.a branch                  D.a post

11.A.the river             B.the lake                  C.the sea                    D.the pond

12.A.pulled                B.pushed                   C.caught                    D.strengthened

13.A.sink                   B.move                     C.float                        D.run

14.A.back away         B.back in                   C.forward in               D.forward out

15.A.how                  B.what                      C.however                  D.that

16.A.condition           B.situation                 C.position                   D.state

17.A.rescued             B.found                     C.caught                    D.helped

18.A.understanding     B.idea                       C.belief                      D.love

19.A.continued           B.forgot                    C.remembered            D.stopped

20.A.Looking back     B.Looking forward     C.Calling up                D.Calling back

Mr. Peter Johnson,aged twenty-three,battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water.Mr. Johnson took the only escape route—through the boot(行李箱).

Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch(沟渠) at Rommey Marsin,Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank.“Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,”Mr. Johnson said.“I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”

Mr. Johnson,a sweet salesman of Sitting Home,Kent,first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot.Then he began his struggle to escape.

Later he said,“It was really a half penny that saved my life.It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot.I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear,but no help came.”

It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat,and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot.Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench and began to work on the boot lock.Fifteen minutes passed by.“It was the only chance I had.Finally it gave,but as soon as I moved the boot lid,the water and mud poured in.I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled clear as the car filled up.”

His hands and arms cut and bruised(擦伤),Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife,Mrs. Lucy Bates.Huddled in a blanket,he said,“That thirty minutes seemed like hours.”“Only the tips of the car wheels were visible,”police said last night.“The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.”

1.What is the best title for this newspaper article?

    A.The Story of Mr. Johnson, a Sweet Salesman

    B.Car Boot Can Serve As the Best Escape Route

    C.The Driver Escaped Through the Car Boot

    D.The Driver Survived a Terrible Car Accident

2.Which of the following objects is the most important to Mr. Johnson?

    A.The hammer.      B.The coin.      C.The screw.     D.The horn.

3.Which statement is true according to the passage?

    A.Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down.

    B.Mr. Johnson could not escape from the door because it was full of sweet jam.

    C.Mr. Johnson’s car accident was partly due to the slippery road.

    D.Mr. Johnson struggled in the pouring mud as he unscrewed the back seat.

4.“Finally it gave”(Paragraph 5) means that“        ”.

    A.Luckily the door was torn away in the end

    B.At last the wrench went broken

    C.The lock came open after all his efforts

    D.The chance was lost at the last minute

How to Beat a Bad Mood

Having one of those days—or weeks—when everything seems to annoy you? Even if you do nothing about it,your bad mood will probably go away after some time.But with a little effort,you can forget it much faster—often within a day or two.

Walk it off

Exercise is the most popular bad-mood buster.A person who’s in a bad mood has low energy and high tension(紧张).Taking a fast ten-minute walk,or doing some quick exercises can do wonders towards changing that bad mood.

Tune it out

Listening to your favorite music for a while can also make tensions go away quickly, because music starts associations with past positive experiences we’ve had.

Give yourself a pep talk

Stop and listen to what’s on your mind.Bad moods are often started by too many negative thoughts.Write them all down on paper,the pessimistic(悲观的) message you’ve been giving yourself and then give optimistic answers.(“I still don’t have a job.”vs.“I have two interviews next week.”)

Reduce your stress

Relaxation techniques are wonderful mood-lifters.These include deep breathing, stretching and visualizing(想像),all of which sound complicated but aren’t.One easy way to visualize: close your eyes and picture a favorite place,such as the beach.Another simple way to distress is to make a to-do list.One reason for being in a bad mood is feeling you have no options.By taking control over certain areas,you realize you’re not helpless.You can make changes in your mood and life.

Avoid things that won’t improve your mood

TV may not help much: you need to increase your energy level and stimulate(激活) your mind—something that the TV show“Neighbors”won’t do.And before you reach for that piece of cake and coffee,think about how mood and food are linked.Sugar and caffeine contribute to depressed moods.The better choice? Research shows that carbohydrates,such as potatoes and pasta,produce a calming effect in people who have a desire for them.

1.We learn from the text that it might help rid us of a bad mood to     

    A.do nothing about it                   B.take a long walk on the beach

    C.do some exercises with light music      D.talk it to neighbours

2.Why is it suggested that you close your eyes and picture the beach?

    A.It is not complicated to do so.         B.It is an area to be easily controlled.

    C.It helps beat a bad mood.             D.It brings us a new technique.

3.This text most probably appears in       

    A.a TV programme on physical exercises   B.a doctor’s handbook

    C.an advertisement                     D.a magazine

When we walk through the city,we all experience a kind of information overload but we pay attention only to those that are important to us.We don’t stop,we keep our faces expressionless and eyes straight ahead,and in doing so,we are not just protecting ourselves but are avoiding overloading other people as well.

We make use of stereotypes(刻板的模式) as convenient ways to make quick judgments about situations and people around us.They may not always be accurate, and they can often be dangerously wrong, but they are used regularly.

The problem with the stereotypes is that they restrict(限制)experience.By using limited clues to provide us with a rapid opinion of other people or places we may choose to limit our communication.We may decide not to go to certain places because we believe they will not offer something we enjoy.

In the city, styles of dress are particularly important with regard to self-presentation. Different groups often use clearly identifiable styles of clothes so that they can be easily recognized.It is becoming increasingly common for brand names to be placed on the outside of clothes, and this labeling makes it easy to send out information about fashion and price instantly, and lets others tell at a distance whether an individual has similar tastes and is a suitable person to associate with.

In England, where social grouping or class continues to make social distinctions, clothes, hairstyles, people’s pronunciation and the manner of speaking are all clues to our social group.Class distinctions tend to be relatively fixed, although in the city where greater variety is permitted, they are more likely to be secondary determining factors of friendship and association.

1.People walking in cities ignore the surroundings because      

    A.they do not wish to talk to other people

B.everyone else is expressionless

C.the environment is already familiar to them

D.there is too much information to take in

2.According to the passage, the main disadvantage of using stereotypes is that they   

    A.are likely to lead us into dangerous situations

    B.may make us miss some pleasant experience

    C.can rarely be relied on

    D.make us mentally lazy

3.From the passage we may conclude that      

    A.stereotypes can help to understand people fully

    B.people are becoming more interested in fashion

    C.dressing can send messages about individuals

    D.stereotypes can do more harm than good to people

4.It would appear that in England, a person’s class      

    A.might be less important in making friends in a city

B.is mainly determined by his pronunciation

C.plays less of a role than it did in the past

D.is something that can be changed easily

Long Life Concrete Bridges

Each year, road accidents kill a million people and injure millions more.The economic costs are greatest for developing countries.

Earlier this year, the United Nations called for a campaign to improve road safety.

One way to avoid accidents is better driving.Another is better roads and bridges.Engineers in the United States have designed ten new concrete(混凝土) mixtures that they think could make bridges last longer.

Professor Paul Tikalsky leads the experiments by a team at Pennsylvania State University.He says bridges made of concrete now last about twenty-five to thirty-five years.But he says the new mixtures might extend that to seventy-five or even one hundred years.

Concrete is made of stone, sand, water and cement(水泥).The materials in the cement hold the concrete together.Ancient Romans built with concrete.Yet strengthened concrete bridges did not appear until the late eighteen-hundreds.People keep looking for new ways to improve concrete.Professor Tikalsky says it is one of the most complex of all chemical systems.

The new mixtures designed by his team contain industrial waste products.He says these make the concrete better be able to resist damage from water and salt over time.One of the products is fly ash.This is released into the air as pollution when coal is burned.

Professor Tikalsky says particles(颗粒) of fly ash are almost exactly the same size and chemical structure as Portland cement.This is the most costly material in concrete. So using fly ash to replace some of it would save money.

Over the next two years, engineers will study ten bridges in Pennsylvania.These were built from the different cement mixtures designed by Professor Tikalsky’s team.He says longer-lasting bridges could save the state more than thirty-five-million dollars a year.And he says the materials would be environmentally friendly.

The federal government is paying for part of the research.Engineers anywhere can use the technology.Professor Tikalsky says some of the ideas have already been put to use in China, the Philippines and other countries.

1.What does the underlined word“This”in the seventh paragraph mean?

    A.Fly ash.         B.Portland cement.     C.Sand.       D.Chemical.

2.What is the main idea of the passage?

    A.The causes of road accidents.           

B.The advantages about fly ash.

    C.The measures of avoiding road accidents.  

D.Latest information about long-life concrete bridges.

3.What can you conclude from the passage?

    A.Engineers have to pay a lot of money to use the new bridge technology.

    B.Pennsylvania State University is paying all the money for the research.

    C.Bridges built with fly ash are cheaper than common bridges.

    D.Fly ash is much expensive than Portland cement.

4.Which of the following statements is TRUE?

    A.Ten new concrete bridges have already been built in the United States.

    B.A new concrete bridge could last 50 more years than an ordinary concrete one.

    C.People didn’t know how to build with cement until the late 1880s.

    D.Water and salt won’t do any damage to bridges over time.

Some individuals and citizen groups have expressed worry about the level of violence in television programs, particularly in action-adventure series and cartoons.They argue that viewers, especially children, may learn to see violence as the only way to settle conflicts.

Early experimental researchers compared the play of children who had seen aggressive behavior on television with the play of a control group of children who had watched nonviolent programs.Worry was increased by findings that showed a higher level of aggressive play in the violent-television group.Other researchers attempted to determine whether violent programs simply caused higher energy levels in children or actually caused them to learn violent and antisocial behavior.The results of different studies conflicted.Some researchers thought that televised violence actually had an active cathartic(引导宣泄) effect, allowing some viewers to release high tensions; these findings, however, were not more clear in further studies.Other scholars pointed out that both prosocial and antisocial behavior can be learned from television.

Social scientists find it especially difficult to figure out exactly the subtle (细微的),cumulative(积累的) effects of viewing a broad variety of television programs throughout childhood.Telling the possible effects of television from other influences at home and at school is also difficult.Present research suggests that higher levels of antisocial behavior can result from television viewing, but further study needs to be done to make it clear or not.

Because of the long-standing tradition in the U.S.of freedom of speech and of the press, the government would probably not attempt to directly limit or censor(审查) the appearance of violence on television.Among the networks and producer, pressure from some citizens continues to be balanced by increasing popularity of high-energy action- adventure programs.

1.What is the passage mainly about?

    A.Violence in television programs.

    B.Levels of violence in action-adventure series and cartoons.

    C.Educational programs for children.

    D.Researches on television programs.

2.Those researchers who believe violence on TV has an active effect on viewers think that      

    A.it teaches people not to use violence to settle conflicts

    B.it causes higher energy levels in children

    C.it helps let out people’s too strong emotion(情绪)

    D.it helps people to fight various social ugly and ill things before them

3.A“prosocial”behavior is one      

    A.that is against the social rules          

B.that meets the expectation of the society

    C.that a child shows in communication with people

D.that can often be shaped by TV programs

4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

    A.Television viewing leads naturally to antisocial behavior.

    B.Violence on television does not help shape violent behavior in children.

    C.The effect of the violent TV programs on children needs further study.

    D.Both prosocial and antisocial behaviors can be learned from violent programs.

5.The last paragraph of this passage implies_____.

    A.The government will have to forbid violence on TV

    B.violence in television programs will continue to appear in the future

    C.producers and some citizens can work together to clean up TV programs

    D.without violence, action-adventure programs would be more popular

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