Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding of black culture in America.

During the 1940’s and the 1950’s, Gwendolyn Brooks used her poems to describe conditions among the poor, racial (种族的) inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women.

But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience.

Gwendolyn Brooks once said that she wrote about what she saw and heard in the street. She said she found most of her materials through looking out of the window of her second-floor apartment in Chicago, Illinois.

In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago, where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was “A Street in Bronzeville” that gained the attention of literary experts in 1945. Critics praised her poetic skills and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection.

In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called “Annie Allen”. “Annie Allen” is a collection of poetry about a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and a mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death and poverty (贫穷).

Gwendolyn Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life.

Her next work was a novel written in 1953 called “Maud Martha”. “Maud Martha” attracted little attention when it was first published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult lives of many women are popular among female writers today.                                                      

1.Gwendolyn Brooks became world-famous because     .

A．she was an expert on the language of poetry

B．she introduced black culture by writing poems

C．she fought for black rights by writing poems

D．her poems showed the lives of black women

2.Which of the following can we learn from the text?

A．Gwendolyn Brooks’ poems focused on black people in Africa.

B．Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Literature was important to Brooks.

C．Gwendolyn Brooks used to suffer a lot from drugs.

D．Gwendolyn Brooks was very strict with herself.

3.How did Gwendolyn Brooks get ideas for most of her poems?

A．By observing life.                       B．By having talks.

C．By reading widely.                       D．By traveling.

4.We can infer that the book “Annie Allen” mainly deals with      .

A．family life         B．inequality         C．adventure         D．failure

Megan's Library of Love book drive began in 2006, in memory of a student who passed away. The       to send books to a school       was created by Megan's classmates at Cedar Grove-Belgium Middle School as a tribute（悼念）to her.

The project formed out of the desire      Megan, to help our community heal, and to make a       in the life of others. Students have many        of Megan, but the most vivid was her love for her family and the diligent       she gave to her classmates. They combined this with her       for learning and reading to create the Library of Love. This project honors Megan's special qualities. In the      of one of her classmates, Megan was, “A good daughter, a good student, a good friend.” We are all blessed to have been a       of Megan's life.

Every February, on Megan's birthday, fifth graders at Cedar Grove-Belgium Middle School       donations of newly purchased books and send them to a school in need. The “Love books” are truly a         of love meant to       reading and learning. Students earn the money for postage by writing letters to local       .The fifth graders also have the       of labeling every book with a Library of Love sticker（标签）,        the books into categories（类别）, and       all the books for shipping.

    In the two years since the Library of Love       began, students have collected over 5000 newly purchased books to send to schools in need. In 2006, 3419 books were sent to St. Bernard's Parish to help       their school library after Hurricane Katrina destroyed the community. In 2007, 1613 books were sent to White Mountain School in Alaska, who       their high school in a fire. Students look forward to sending the gift of       to other schools

1.A. move                   B. thought                            C. idea                         D. offer

2.A. in need                   B. in trouble                    C. in difficulty    D. in pain

3.A. help                     B. honor                             C. keep                    D. save

4.A. contribution   B. mark                             C. difference          D. start

5.A. images                    B. pictures              C. stories            D. memories

6.A. effort             B. advice                C. help                D. example

7.A. interest                  B. passion                    C. preference            D. determination

8.A. case                         B. ideas                                  C. words                      D. look

9.A. company                 B. witness                             C. part                          D. friend

10.A. get                        B. count                            C. seek                     D. collect

11.A. measure                    B. force                             C. gift              D. mark

12.A. push              B. reward                C. inspire                 D. connect

13.A. families                    B. communities                  C. factories             D. businesses

14.A. chance                    B. responsibility                 C. pleasure             D. work

15.A. dividing             B. placing                            C. sorting                 D. passing

16.A. cleaning                  B. checking                     C. packing              D. examining

17.A. plan          B. organization        C. campaign            D. project

18.A. repair                   B. rebuild                         C. remove      D. restart

19.A. lost                           B. ruined                          C. closed                 D. escaped

20.A. comforting         B. reading                 C. encouraging D. writing

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 mum,” 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 up 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.”

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

If you are having trouble falling asleep, you are in good company. About 65% of Americans said they have sleeping problems a few nights each week, according to a recent study by the National Sleep Foundation. Sleeping too little can lead to a higher risk of becoming fat and getting depressed(沮丧的). But before you go to a doctor for advice, it is worth examining your sleeping habits one more time. Some of your favorite evening habits may have something to do with the sleeping problems.

Setting a Bright Alarm Clock

The light of your bright alarm clock can prevent you from falling asleep. You can make your room as dark as possible. Cover the bright numbers with a book or consider buying a small travel clock. Your cellphone alarm may also do the trick.

Counting Sheep

When you just can’t  fall asleep, it’s useless to stay in bed to count sheep. If you’ve been trying to fall asleep for more than 30 minutes, the National Sleep Foundation suggests you get up to do some reading or watch TV for a while. Such activities will make you sleepy. Before you know it, you’ll be going back to bed really tired.

Exercising Late at Night?

Daytime workouts(锻炼) will keep you full of energy for hours. That’s why you don’t want to exercise within three hours of hitting the sack. Fierce(剧烈的)  physical activity raise your body temperature and pumps your energy level—both are bad for a good night’s sleep.

1.What can we learn from the first sentence of the passage?

A．It’s not good to fail to fall asleep at night.

B．People in a good company often have sleeping problems.

C．There are many people who have sleeping problems.

D．You should find someone to talk to if you can’t fall asleep.

2.The underlined part “hitting the sack” in the last paragraph means “______”.

A．going back home                        B．going to bed

C．going to the gym                        D．falling asleep

3.Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．The bad results o f getting too little sleep.

B．Why the bright alarm clock keeps you awake.

C．What to do if you can’t fall asleep after 30 minutes.

D．Why watching TV and reading books make people sleepy.

4.By writing the passage, the writer mainly wants to tell us _______.

A．why so many people can’t sleep well at night

B．how to enjoy a good night’s sleep

C．that sleeping problems are troubling more and more people

D．that people may solve their sleeping problems by some habits

Googlefight is a simple service available on the Internet which offers you the chance to compare two different items and see how many hits they get on the Google search engine. The seemingly simple device has proved invaluable to users, especially to help win arguments.

 For example, imagine that you and your friends are arguing about who are the most popular music or movie stars, you can decide the argument by writing the names in the Googlefight boxes. Let’s say that you are arguing about Jackie Chan and Jet Li. You will quickly discover that Jet Li is mentioned 16 million times on Google pages, whereas Jackie Chan is mentioned a mere 12 million times! In this unscientific way, you can claim victory for one Star over another.

But teachers have come up with ways of using Googlefight which are much more useful from an academic point of view, particularly when it comes to studying languages. You can, for example, find out the frequency of two words with the same meaning, and deduce (推断) from the answers which one is more common. For example, let’s take the words “buy” and “purchase”, which mean the same thing (although “buy” is only a verb and “purchase” is both a verb and a noun). It is immediately clear from Googlefight that “buy” is much more commonly used, with a massive three and a half billion hits, compared to only one billion occurrences for the more formal word.

But the real value of Googlefight to the language learner is in determining which is the more common of two phrases. For example, “raining cats and dogs” is an old-fashioned English expression about the weather. Do English speakers still use it? Or are they more likely to say “pouring down”? Googlefight suggests the latter. “Pouring down” has 898,000 Google hits, whereas “raining cats and dogs” only has 326,000.

With phrases, it’s important to remember that you need to use quote marks to make the search more accurate. For example, if you type in the similar phrases “look after” and “take care of “ without quote marks, the second phrase seems to be more common, but with quote marks, the result is reversed.

1. What is Googlefight?

A. A fight between two people on Google.

B. A way to make sure you win an argument.

C. A website showing how many hits two different things have.

D. A list of all the websites on Google.

2. Language teachers find it useful because _______.

A. there are a lot of words on Googlefight

B. it can tell them which of the two words with the same meaning appears more often

C. some words mean the same thing

D. common words have a billion hits

3. What must you remember to do if you are checking phrases by Googlefight?

A. Make sure they mean be same thing.

B. Make sure they are different.

C. Remember to put quote marks round the phrase.

D. Don’t put quote marks round the phrase.

4. Which statement is NOT true according to the passage?

A. Googlefight is effective to determine the more common of two phrases.

B. Googlefight is a scientific way to decide an argument.

C. Quote marks can make the search more accurate.

D. Googlefight is invaluable to help win arguments.