B
Anthony Horowitz was miserable (痛苦的) as a child. He was, as he puts it, “not very bright” and couldn’t win the attention of his very wealthy parents, who preferred his “clever” older brother. At age 8, Horowitz was sent away to an abusive (虐待的) boarding school in his native England, even though he screamed and pleaded (恳求) with his parents year after year not to send him. “The thought was, ‘It’ll be good for him’,” Horowitz recalls (回忆).
It was not. Horowitz did badly in his studies, had few friends and was bullied (欺负) for five years. “My teachers couldn’t have had a lower opinion of me,” he said. “I wasn’t even smart enough to rebel (反抗). The one thing I remember from the very earliest age was this desire to write. When I was 10 years old, I remember asking my parents to get me a typewriter for my birthday because I wanted to be a writer.”
Now, at 55, Horowitz is one of the world’s most successful children’s book authors. His Alex Rider series has sold more than 5 million copies, and the eighth book featuring the young spy, Crocodile Tears, came out this month.
The Alex Rider books tell the adventures of 14-year-old Alex Rider, an agent for the British intelligence agency MI6.
Horowitz said he doesn’t try to write for kids; it just comes out that way. “I have a feeling it’s to do with purity and simplicity. I give as little information as is necessary to describe the room, the character in the room, and get on with the action,” he said.
That style has also made Horowitz a successful writer of television shows for adults in Britain because, he says, writing books for kids is a lot like writing television for grown-ups: In both cases, it’s all about entertaining people with a good story.
Now, Horowitz couldn’t be happier with his life. He sums up his success: “…you can be anything you want to be if you just believe in yourself. I do believe it completely.”
61. The text is mainly about _____.
A. Horowitz’s popular book – Alex Rider       B. Horowitz’s miserable childhood
C. Horowitz, a successful children’s writer        D. Horowitz’s special writing style
62 In his childhood, Anthony Horowitz _____.
A. was more intelligent than his brother       
B. was paid more attention by his parents
C. couldn’t understand why he was sent to the boarding school
D. led a miserable life because of poverty
63.In the boarding school, Horowitz’s teachers ______.
A. showed great concern for him                B. often abused and bullied him
C. taught him how to write stories               D. thought little of his ability
64. Which of the following is true of Anthony Horowitz?
A. He was the beloved child of his family.       
B. He benefited a lot from boarding school.
C. He emphasizes the plot rather than character in stories.
D. Although he is successful, he isn’t very happy.
65. What advice does Horowitz have for readers?
A. Confidence is the key to success.           B. Hardship teaches valuable lessons.
C. Interest is the best teacher.                D. Diligence is the parent of success.

B

It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn’t know enough to really care. My older bother and I lived with Mom in a dingy multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses’ hoofs from “Wagon Train” or “Cheyenne”, and laughter from “I Love Lucy”, or “Mister Ed”. After supper, we’d sprawl on Mon’s bed and stare for hours at the tube.

But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But, she was much brighter and smarter than we boys know at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses she cleaned books. So she came home one day, snapped off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. “You boys are going to read two books every week,” she said. “And you’re going to write a report on what you read.”

We moaned and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn’t have any books in the house other than Mom’s Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: “I’ll drive you to the library.”

So pretty soon there were these two peevish boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly among the children’s books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them.

The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this verbal visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home.

It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip of a page.

Soon I began to look forward to visiting this hushed sanctuary form my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened: I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home to my books.

Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can’t believe my life’s journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery.

But I know when the journey began the day Mom snapped off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library.

46. We can learn form the beginning of the passage that ___________.

A. the author and his brother had done well in school

B. the author had been very concerned about his school work

C. the author had spent much time watching TV after school

D. the author had realized how important schooling was

47. Which of the following is not true about the author’s family?

A. He came from a middle-class family.

B. He came from a single-parent family.

C. His mother worked as a cleaner.

D. His mother had received little education.

48. The mother was ____________ to make her two sons switch to reading books.

A. hesitant               B. unprepared        C. reluctant                   D. determined

49. How did the two boys feel about going to the library at first?

A. They were afraid                                    B. They were reluctant.

C. They were impatient.                               D. They were eager to go.

50. The author began to love books for the following reasons EXCEPT that ___________.

A. he began to see something in his mind

B. he could visualize what he read in his mind

C. he could go back to read the books again

D. he realized that books offered him new experience

B

     When Mary Moore began her high school in 1951, her mother told her, "Be sure and take a typing course so when this show business thing doesn't work out, you'll have something to rely on." Mary responded in typical teenage fashion. From that moment on, "the very last thing I ever thought about doing was taking a typing course," she recalls.

     The show business thing worked out, of course. In her career, Mary won many awards. Only recently, when she began to write Growing Up Again, did she regret ignoring her morn," I don't know how to use a computer," she admits.

     Unlike her 1995 autobiography, After All, her second book is less about life as an award-winning actress and more about living with diabetes (糖尿病). All the money from the book is intended for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), an organization she serves as international chairman. "I felt there was a need for a book like this," she says."I didn't want to lecture, but I wanted other diabetics to know that things get better when we're self-controlled and do our part in managing the disease."

     But she hasn't always practiced what she teaches. In her book, she describes that awful day, almost 40 years ago, when she received two pieces of life-changing news. First, she had lost the baby she was carrying, and second, tests showed that she had diabetes. In a childlike act, she left the hospital and treated herself to a box of doughnuts (甜甜圈). Years would pass before she realized she had to grow u p ---again---and take control of her diabetes, not let it control her. Only then did she kick her three-pack-a-day cigarette habit, overcome her addiction to alcohol, and begin to follow a balanced diet.

     Although her disease has affected her eyesight and forced her to the sidelines of the dance floor, she refuses to fall into self-pity. "Everybody on earth can ask, 'why me?' about something or other," she insists. "It doesn't do any good. No one is immune (免疫的) to heartache, pain, and disappointments. Sometimes we can make things better by helping others. I've come to realize the importance of that as I've grown up this second time. I want to speak out and be as helpful as I can be."

61. Why did Mary feel regretful?

    A. She didn't achieve her ambition.

    B. She didn't take care of her mother.

C. She didn't complete her high school.

D. She didn't follow her mother's advice.                                                                         

62, We can know that before 1995 Mary         .

    A. had two books published

B. received many career awards

C. knew how to use a computer

D. supported the JDRF by writing                                                                                   

 63. Mary's second book Growing Up Again is mainly about her         .

A. living with diabetes

    B. successful show business

C. service for an organization

D. remembrance of her mother                                                                                              

64. When Mary received the life-changing news, she         .

     A. lost control of herself                          B. began a balanced diet

C. Med to get a treatment                          D. behaved in an adult way                                     

65. What can we know from the last paragraph?

     A. Mary feels pity for herself.

     B. Mary has recovered from her disease.

     C. Mary wants to help others as much as possible.

D. Mary determines to go back to the dance floor.

B

It was 1961 and I was in the fifth grade. My marks in school were miserable and, the thing was, I didn’t know enough to really care. My older bother and I lived with Mom in a dingy multi-family house in Detroit. We watched TV every night. The background noise of our lives was gunfire and horses’ hoofs from “Wagon Train” or “Cheyenne”, and laughter from “I Love Lucy”, or “Mister Ed”. After supper, we’d sprawl on Mon’s bed and stare for hours at the tube.

But one day Mom changed our world forever. She turned off the TV. Our mother had only been able to get through third grade. But, she was much brighter and smarter than we boys know at the time. She had noticed something in the suburban houses she cleaned books. So she came home one day, snapped off the TV, sat us down and explained that her sons were going to make something of themselves. “You boys are going to read two books every week,” she said. “And you’re going to write a report on what you read.”

We moaned and complained about how unfair it was. Besides, we didn’t have any books in the house other than Mom’s Bible. But she explained that we would go where the books were: “I’ll drive you to the library.”

So pretty soon there were these two peevish boys sitting in her white 1959 Oldsmobile on their way to Detroit Public Library. I wandered reluctantly among the children’s books. I loved animals, so when I saw some books that seemed to be about animals, I started leafing through them.

The first book I read clear through was Chip the Dam Builder. It was about beavers. For the first time in my life I was lost in another world. No television program had ever taken me so far away from my surroundings as did this verbal visit to a cold stream in a forest and these animals building a home.

It didn’t dawn on me at the time, but the experience was quite different from watching TV. There were images forming in my mind instead of before my eyes. And I could return to them again and again with the flip of a page.

Soon I began to look forward to visiting this hushed sanctuary form my other world. I moved from animals to plants, and then to rocks. Between the covers of all those books were whole worlds, and I was free to go anywhere in them. Along the way a funny thing happened: I started to know things. Teachers started to notice it too. I got to the point where I couldn’t wait to get home to my books.

Now my older brother is an engineer and I am chief of pediatric neurosurgery at John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. Sometimes I still can’t believe my life’s journey, from a failing and indifferent student in a Detroit public school to this position, which takes me all over the world to teach and perform critical surgery.

But I know when the journey began the day Mom snapped off the TV set and put us in her Oldsmobile for that drive to the library.

46. We can learn form the beginning of the passage that ___________.

   A. the author and his brother had done well in school

   B. the author had been very concerned about his school work

   C. the author had spent much time watching TV after school

   D. the author had realized how important schooling was

47. Which of the following is not true about the author’s family?

   A. He came from a middle-class family.

   B. He came from a single-parent family.

   C. His mother worked as a cleaner.

   D. His mother had received little education.

48. The mother was ____________ to make her two sons switch to reading books.

   A. hesitant               B. unprepared        C. reluctant                   D. determined

49. How did the two boys feel about going to the library at first?

   A. They were afraid                                    B. They were reluctant.

   C. They were impatient.                               D. They were eager to go.

50. The author began to love books for the following reasons EXCEPT that ___________.

   A. he began to see something in his mind

   B. he could visualize what he read in his mind

   C. he could go back to read the books again

   D. he realized that books offered him new experience

B

     Anthony Horowitz was miserable (痛苦的) as a child. He was, as he puts it, “not very bright” and couldn’t win the attention of his very wealthy parents, who preferred his “clever” older brother. At age 8, Horowitz was sent away to an abusive (虐待的) boarding school in his native England, even though he screamed and pleaded (恳求) with his parents year after year not to send him. “The thought was, ‘It’ll be good for him’,” Horowitz recalls (回忆).

      It was not. Horowitz did badly in his studies, had few friends and was bullied (欺负) for five years. “My teachers couldn’t have had a lower opinion of me,” he said. “I wasn’t even smart enough to rebel (反抗). The one thing I remember from the very earliest age was this desire to write. When I was 10 years old, I remember asking my parents to get me a typewriter for my birthday because I wanted to be a writer.”

      Now, at 55, Horowitz is one of the world’s most successful children’s book authors. His Alex Rider series has sold more than 5 million copies, and the eighth book featuring the young spy, Crocodile Tears, came out this month.

      The Alex Rider books tell the adventures of 14-year-old Alex Rider, an agent for the British intelligence agency MI6.

      Horowitz said he doesn’t try to write for kids; it just comes out that way. “I have a feeling it’s to do with purity and simplicity. I give as little information as is necessary to describe the room, the character in the room, and get on with the action,” he said.

      That style has also made Horowitz a successful writer of television shows for adults in Britain because, he says, writing books for kids is a lot like writing television for grown-ups: In both cases, it’s all about entertaining people with a good story.

      Now, Horowitz couldn’t be happier with his life. He sums up his success: “…you can be anything you want to be if you just believe in yourself. I do believe it completely.”

61. The text is mainly about _____.

   A. Horowitz’s popular book – Alex Rider        B. Horowitz’s miserable childhood

   C. Horowitz, a successful children’s writer         D. Horowitz’s special writing style

62 In his childhood, Anthony Horowitz _____.

   A. was more intelligent than his brother       

   B. was paid more attention by his parents

   C. couldn’t understand why he was sent to the boarding school

   D. led a miserable life because of poverty

63.In the boarding school, Horowitz’s teachers ______.

   A. showed great concern for him                 B. often abused and bullied him

   C. taught him how to write stories                D. thought little of his ability

64. Which of the following is true of Anthony Horowitz?

   A. He was the beloved child of his family.        

   B. He benefited a lot from boarding school.

   C. He emphasizes the plot rather than character in stories.

   D. Although he is successful, he isn’t very happy.

65. What advice does Horowitz have for readers?

   A. Confidence is the key to success.           B. Hardship teaches valuable lessons.

   C. Interest is the best teacher.                D. Diligence is the parent of success.