Recently, a study was carried out to determine who was the greatest American president．Sixty-five presidential historians took part in it, and they judged the past forty-two American leaders based on ten leadership qualities, including public persuasiveness (信服), crisis leadership, management of the economy, moral leadership, and conduct of international relations．The historians also looked at administrative (管理) ability, relations with Congress, ability to set goals, and the pursuit of equal justice for all．Finally, the experts took into consideration the historical period in which the president lived．

The historians chose Abraham Lincoln as American’s greatest president．He had also been named best president in a similar study in 2000．Abraham Lincoln was the president who led the nation through the Civil War in the 1860s, and was able to unite it in the end．He also took the first steps to abolish slavery in America．

Edna Medford, a professor of history at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was an adviser on this study and the earlier one．She says Abraham Lincoln is seen to represent the values the nation most honors, such as truthfulness, moderation, and respect for human rights．

The historians put American’s first president, George Washington, second on the list, while Franklin D．Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman follow in that order．John   F．Kennedy, the country’s first Roman Catholic president, is sixth on the list．Like Lincoln, Kennedy was murdered while in office．

Among recent presidents, Ronald Reagan was named the tenth best and Bill Clinton rated fifteenth, while the historians put former president George W．Bush at number thirty-six．His father, George H.W．Bush, did much better, being placed at number eighteen．

We learn from the text that ___________．

      A．this is the second time that Abraham Lincoln has been chosen as America’s greatest president

      B．Edna Medford didn’t take part in the study conducted in 2000．

      C．George H.W．Bush was thought to have done worse in office than George W．Bush

      D．Harry Truman was rated the fourth-best president by the study

Which of the following belong to the ten leadership qualities considered?

      a．Being able to persuade the public

      b．Taking effective measures during a financial crisis．

      c．Balancing home life and career．

      d．Pursuing equal justice for all．

   A．a,b,c             B．b,c,d        C．a,b,d        D．a,c,d

Who is rated worst among the following four presidents?

     A．John F．Kennedy                B．George Washington

     C．Bill Clinton                     D．George W．Bush

The text is mainly about ________．

     A．the ten qualities a great president needs

     B．a study of American presidents

     C．the values the American nation honors most

     D．how Abraham Lincoln improved the country

Barack Obama

In the past hundred years, the U.S. presidency has turned more and more to the left – not in policy, but in handedness. Barrack Obama is the latest to join a long list of left – handed presidents from the 20th century: James Garfield, Herbert Hoover, Henry Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton were all southpaws.

What makes lefties so electable? Some experts think left-handed people have a greater aptitude for language skills, which may help them craft the rhetoric necessary for political office. And as for the bout of recent left-handed presidents, some think it’s because teachers only recently stopped working to convert lefties to rightist at an early age.

Bill Gates

Claiming the nation’s richest man among their number is a source of considerable pride for America’s society of southpaws. In fact, the Microsoft titan and philanthropist(巨头兼慈善家) is one of a surprising number of U.S. business moguls to be left-handed, including Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and former IBM head Lou Gerstner. But the club seems to be a guys-only fraternity — research suggests that while left-handed men tend to earn more than their right-handed colleagues, there is no similar advantage for women. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research floated the idea that left-handed men favor "divergent" thinking, a form of creativity in which the brain moves "from conventional knowledge into unexplored association." Maybe that’s what it takes to develop a net worth estimated at $ 57 billion.

Oprah Winfrey

The talk-show queen doesn’t need much more to set her apart from the rest — what with her estimated $ 2.7 billion fortune and a magic ability to sell books just by glancing at them — but she also has the distinction of being a member of the left-handed club. Since men are more likely to be left-handed than women, that makes Oprah doubly impressive. She’s in good company: Other show-business ladies of the left – handed  persuasion include Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie

Marie Curie

Not only was atomic scientist Marie Curie left-handed, but she was the matriarch of a whole family of accomplished, southpaw scientists. Curie, who discovered the principles of radioactivity and won two Nobel Prizes, was married to fellow lefty Pierre Curie, who was instrumental in helping Marie’s atomic research and shared one of her Nobel awards. Historians believe their daughter, Irene, was also left-handed. Irene went on to win a Nobel Prize of her own with her husband — who, you guessed it, was also left-handed.

59．The underlined word “southpaws” in the last sentence of Paragraph 1 means_______.

A．people coming from the south B．powerful presidents

C．people who use their left hand D．forceful speakers

60．What makes it so easy for lefties to be elected as presidents according to the passage?

A．Their great gift for foreign language.

B．Their great language skills to make speeches.

C．The need of left – hinders in the political office.

D．Teachers stopping to force them to use their right hand.

61．It can be implied that Bill Gates, Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller and Lou Gerstne_______.

A．have creative thinking              B．have formed a special club.

C．earn more money than their wives   D．are wealthy philanthropists

62．The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 “She is in good company” means “_______”.

A．she works in a very good company   B．she has many good friends

C．she has got on well with others        D．she is among many female lefties

William Butler Yeats, a most famous Irish writer, was born in Dublin on June 13, 1865. His childhood lacked the harmony that was typical of a happy family. Later, Yeats shocked his family by saying that he remembered "little of childhood but its pain". In fact, he inherited (继承) excellent taste in art from his family — both his father and his brother were painters. But he finally settled on literature, particularly drama and poetry. 
Yeats had strong faith in the coming of new artistic movements. He set himself the fresh task in founding an Irish national theatre in the late 1890s. His early theatrical experiments, however, were not received favorably at the beginning. He didn't lose heart, and finally enjoyed success in his poetical drama. 
Compared with his dramatic works, Yeats's poems attract much admiring notice. The subject matter includes love, nature, history, time and aging. Though Yeats generally relied on very traditional forms, he brought modern sensibility to them. As his literary life progressed, his poetry grew finer and richer, which led him to worldwide recognition. 
He had not enjoyed a major public life since winning the Nobel Prize in 1923. Yet, he continued writing almost to the end of his life. Had Yeats stopped writing at age 40, he would probably now be valued as a minor poet, for there is no other example in literary history of a poet who produces his greatest works between the ages of 50 and 75. After Yeats's Death in 1939, W. H. Auden wrote, among others, the following lines: 
Earth, receive an honoured guest:
        William Yeats is laid to rest. 
        Let the Irish vessel (船) lie
        Emptied of its poetry.
【小题1】Which of the following can describe Yeats's family?

Recently, a study was carried out to determine who was the greatest American president．Sixty-five presidential historians took part in it, and they judged the past forty-two American leaders based on ten leadership qualities, including public persuasiveness (信服), crisis leadership, management of the economy, moral leadership, and conduct of international relations．The historians also looked at administrative (管理) ability, relations with Congress, ability to set goals, and the pursuit of equal justice for all．Finally, the experts took into consideration the historical period in which the president lived．

The historians chose Abraham Lincoln as American’s greatest president．He had also been named best president in a similar study in 2000．Abraham Lincoln was the president who led the nation through the Civil War in the 1860s, and was able to unite it in the end．He also took the first steps to abolish slavery in America．

Edna Medford, a professor of history at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was an adviser on this study and the earlier one．She says Abraham Lincoln is seen to represent the values the nation most honors, such as truthfulness, moderation, and respect for human rights．

The historians put American’s first president, George Washington, second on the list, while Franklin D．Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, and Harry Truman follow in that order．John   F．Kennedy, the country’s first Roman Catholic president, is sixth on the list．Like Lincoln, Kennedy was murdered while in office．

Among recent presidents, Ronald Reagan was named the tenth best and Bill Clinton rated fifteenth, while the historians put former president George W．Bush at number thirty-six．His father, George H.W．Bush, did much better, being placed at number eighteen．

 We learn from the text that ___________．

       A．this is the second time that Abraham Lincoln has been chosen as America’s greatest president

       B．Edna Medford didn’t take part in the study conducted in 2000．

       C．George H.W．Bush was thought to have done worse in office than George W．Bush

       D．Harry Truman was rated the fourth-best president by the study

【小题２】Which of the following belong to the ten leadership qualities considered?

       a．Being able to persuade the public

       b．Taking effective measures during a financial crisis．

       c．Balancing home life and career．

       d．Pursuing equal justice for all．

   A．a,b,c               B．b,c,d          C．a,b,d          D．a,c,d

【小题３】Who is rated worst among the following four presidents?[来源:学|科|网]

     A．John F．Kennedy                    B．George Washington

     C．Bill Clinton                         D．George W．Bush

【小题４】The text is mainly about ________．

     A．the ten qualities a great president needs

     B．a study of American presidents

     C．the values the American nation honors most

     D．how Abraham Lincoln improved the country

C
President Barack Obama's speeches are proving a best-seller in Japan -- as an aid to learning English. An English-language textbook, "The Speeches of Barack Obama," has sold more than 400,000 copies in two months, a big hit in a country where few hit novels sell more than a million copies a year.
　　Japanese have a fervor for learning English and many bookstores have a corner dedicated (专门用于) to dozens of journals in the language, many of them now featuring the new U.S. leader's face.
"Speeches by presidents and presidential candidates(候选人) are excellent as listening tools to learn English. Obama's are especially so. His speeches are so moving, and he also uses words such as 'yes, we can,' 'change' and 'hope' that even Japanese people can memorize," said Yuzo Yamamoto of Asahi Press, which produced the best-selling text book.
　　Speeches by George W. Bush and former nominee(提名) John Kerry's four years ago did not have the same interest, however, and nor do those made by Japanese politicians. “We have to turn to a foreign president for someone in whom to place our hopes”, Yamamoto said.
　　The 95-page paperback features Obama's speeches in English from the 2004 Democratic National Convention and during the Democratic Party primaries(初选), in which he defeated Hillary Clinton. They are accompanied by Japanese translations.
　　The 1,050 yen ($12) book, which includes a CD of the speeches, tops the bestseller list on bookseller Amazon's Japanese Website, http://www.amazon.co.jp/. He said lawmakers from Japan's main opposition Democratic Party had bought the book to study Obama's speeches.
　　Following Obama's inauguration(就职典礼), Asahi Press plans to issue a sequel(续集) that includes his inaugural address, as well as President John F. Kennedy's 1961 inaugural speech. It will also feature a reading of President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg address of 1863.
64. Speeches by presidents and presidential candidates are excellent as listening tools to learn English because ________.
A. the speakers are all great
B. the speakers have high speech skills
C. the language is full of humor
D. the contents are good and the words are easy to catch
65. Why do Japanese place their hopes in a foreign president?
A. Because they don’t have politicians who have such a positive influence.
B. Because they have the same attitude as the foreign presidents.
C. Because they have never made a political speech.
D. Because they hope to have a foreigner as their leader.
66. Which is true about “The Speeches of Barack Obama”?
A. It contains all Obama’s speeches .
B. It has 1,050 pages with a CD.
C. It includes his inaugural address.
D. It is an especially popular book in Japan.
67. Which of the following can best describe the main idea of the passage?
A. Japan speaks highly of Obama president .
B. Japan learns English from Obama speeches textbook .
C. Obama gains his fame from his election speeches.
D. Obama gives Japanese speeches on how to learn English.