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（一）
A
If you analyze people’s actions, you will come to the conclusion that they all seek happiness. Every act is in fact a search for it, even if on the surface it doesn’t look so. Happiness is always the main target.
Going to a movie, eating in a restaurant or going to a party, is motivated by the desire to be happy. Who does not dream of a vacation in some fascinating location, a new car, a new house, or the ideal match? All people daydream, and some even try to make their dreams realities. And why is that? In order to be happy.
Many people endanger themselves by climbing high mountains, entering unexplored caves, or diving into the deep of the ocean in order to enjoy the few moments of happiness. A thief may steal because he loves the thrill of danger, or because he desires to have quick money to spend. He is actually looking for happiness, though in a criminal way.
Of course not all actions end in happiness. The motive is happiness, but the results not always bring the desire. According to some thoughts, human body covers happiness essence (实质) itself, and it is there all the time. There is a constant (不断的) desire to be aware of this happiness. This is the reason it is constantly sought.
However, there is no need to search for happiness or to create it, or to have all kinds of outer experiences and actions in order to feel it. On the contrary, everything has to be dropped in order to experience it. Every technique, which helps relax the mind and quieten the rush of thoughts, will lead to happiness.
1. Which is true in talking about happiness?
A. Many acts in our life have something to do with happiness.
B. Whatever we do in daily life happiness is always the first.
C. In fact it’s so hard to analyze people’s actions in society.
D. We don’t want to show our purposes by doing so.
2. According to the passage, a thief steals mainly because he ＿＿＿ .
A. lacks the necessary ability to support himself B. wants the good feeling when he is stealing
C. has to take a risk raising his family D. gets used to living a criminal life
3. Happiness is constantly sought mainly because ＿＿＿ .
A. people want all kinds of happiness to be an end B. the happiness essence is always in the body
C. it is a good experience to be endangered D. the results always bring the desire
4. What is the author’s opinion of happiness?
A. One should drop something in case he finds happiness.
B. Outer experiences are important for seeking happiness.
C. It’s unnecessary to search for happiness on purpose.
D. All techniques are needed in order to find happiness.
B
When I get off the bus, I’m usually greeted by the sounds of news on TV. My father welcomes me, and I help him with the usual things―changing the channel and some other tasks. My father has a disease that makes him unable to walk. Despite his disability, my father has always been my role model.
In my first year at middle school, my grades dropped greatly. My father told me I could improve. I currently keep a B plus average, and he confidently supports me in all my academic efforts.
He is against violence to the best of his ability. Love is his most important tool, and he makes sure we know that violence is never the answer.
He urges me not to fear, but to believe in what I think is right. “No matter what anyone tells me,” he says, “I believe what I choose. If someone is discriminating against you for who you are, they don’t deserve your time.” My friends are the most caring people I’ve met, because I realize that they don’t judge me, and they like me as I am.
I’ve always found it strange that people pity me because of my father’s condition. He’s not inferior (次于的) to anyone. His disease doesn’t hold him back. He’s a normal person.
When I see disabled people out in public, I consider them equal to any other individual. No one is superior (优越的) to anyone for any physical reason.
I thank my dad who teaches me the most important things I’ll ever need to know. My father is in no way inferior to anyone else. If anything, he’s even better.
5. Why does the author take his father as a role model?
A. His father is kind but sort of strict. B. His father is disabled but optimistic.
C. His father is independent but violent. D. His father is full of love but lacks confidence.
6. In Paragraph 4 the author’s father gives him some advice on how to ＿＿＿ .
A. improve his studies B. help the disabled
C. learn from failure D. make friends
7. When the author sees disabled people in public, he feels ＿＿＿ .
A. natural B. uncomfortable C. embarrassed D. sorry
8. What can we learn from the passage about the author?
A. He is proud of his father.
B. He is likely to be fooled by his friends.
C. He encourages his father to do things himself.
D. He is looked down upon because of his disabled father.
C
Dream House by Valerie Laken
336 pages. Harper. $24.99.
Kate Kinzler and her husband, Stuart, have been living in a rental apartment with a water-stained ceiling. They are 29, full grown, seven years out of college, and still living like this. Then their parents give them the money to buy their own house. The one Kate chooses is a “project” with an overgrown lawn, fake wood paneling (嵌板) and years of grime (尘垢) . Unknown to them, it also comes with a history: a man was killed within its walls almost 20 years earlier.
Fool by Christopher Moore
311 pages. William Morrow. $26.99.
In Fool Christopher Moore takes on Shakespeare, with a retelling of “King Lear” through the eyes of Lear’s fool named Pocket. The plot and cast of characters are borrowed (more or less) from the original, with several Mooreian additions ― a second fool, named Drool, and a refrain (叠句) that could come in handy for any adapter of Shakespeare, “There’s always a bloody ghost”.
Corner Shop by Roopa Farooki
355 pages. St. Martin’s Press. $24.95.
When we meet them, the characters in Corner Shop are living in London, pursuing their dreams. Fourteen-year-old Luhith Khalil, known as Lucky, who cares more for soccer than for school, wants to win the World Cup for England. His mother, Delphine, a former marketing executive, now feels trapped as a stay-at-home mother. She’d only wanted to get away from her village in rural France.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
541 pages. Knopf. $26.95.
Like his main character, Marion Stone, Abraham Verghese is a doctor born in Ethiopia who emigrated to the United States. Marion and his twin brother, Shiva, were left alone at birth when their mother died, and their father, a doctor, disappeared. Fleeing an act of political violence, Marion lands in New York, at a charity hospital called Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, where the events that happen force him to face his past.
9. Which book can you buy if you only have $25?
A. Corner Shop or Fool. B. Cutting for Stone or Dream House.
C. Fool or Cutting for Stone. D. Dream House or Corner Shop.
10. We may know from the passage Shiva is ＿＿＿ .
A. Verghese’s twin brother B. Delphine’s son
C. Kate’s husband D. Marion’s twin brother
11. Which book is the best choice to learn more about “King Lear”?
A. Dream House. B. Fool.
C. Corner Shop. D. Cutting for Stone.
12. It can be inferred from the passage that ＿＿＿ .
A. Harper and William Morrow are most probably presses
B. Fool is the thinnest and also costs the least
C. Cutting for Stone is published by Harper
D. Coner Shop is a book about history
D
“Babies who use many gestures to communicate when they are 14 months old have much larger vocabularies (词汇) when they start school than those who don’t,” US researchers said on Thursday.
They said babies with wealthier, better-educated parents tend to gesture more and this may help explain why some children from low-income families fare less well in school.
“When children enter school, there is a large socioeconomic gap (社会经济上的差异) in their vocabularies,” said the University of Chicago’s Meredith Rowe, whose study appears in the journal Science. “Gestures could help explain the difference,” Rowe told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Chicago. Vocabulary is a key predictor (预示物) of school success. Earlier research showed that well-off, educated parents tended to talk to their children more than their poorer, less-educated peers. “What we are doing here is going one step earlier and asking, does this socioeconomic status relate to gesture, and can that explain some of the gaps we see at school entry?” Rowe said.
The researchers filmed 50 Chicago-area children and parents from different economic backgrounds and counted the number of gestures, such as pointing at a picture. The team found that 14-month-olds from high-income, well-educated families used gestures to convey an average of 24 different meanings during each 90-minute session, compared with 13 meanings conveyed by children from lower-income families. When the same children entered school at the age of four and a half, those from higher-income families had better vocabulary scores on standard tests.
“At 14 months, an age when there aren’t even socioeconomic differences in their talks yet, we see there are differences in their gestures,” Rowe said. The videos showed that parents from wealthier families gestured more with their children than the other parents. Rowe said the findings suggested that gestures could at least partly explain vocabulary differences between the groups. “Can we control how much parents and children gesture, and if so, will it increase their vocabularies?” Rowe said.
13. What plays an important role in students’ results in school according to the passage?
A. Gesture. B. Vocabulary. C. Teacher. D. Money.
14. What does the underlined word “fare” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. Charge. B. Earn. C. Behave. D. Perform.
15. What can we infer from Paragraph 3?
A. Less-educated parents talk to children as often as educated parents do.
B. Parents’ educational level influences children’s gestures.
C. Meredith Rowe is sure gestures explain the gap.
D. It is the gestures cause the socioeconomic gap.
16. According to the passage, what do the videos suggest?
A. Wealthier parents gesture more with their children.
B. Even at 14 months there are socioeconomic gaps in babies’ talks.
C. Vocabularies will increase if gestures are controlled.
D. The videos completely explain the vocabulary differences.
E
In the past four months, a girl, who called herself “Lonelygirl15”, caught the attention of millions. Lonelygirl15 presented herself as a 16-year-old home-schooled American named Bree. Her blog on popular video-sharing website recorded her disagreements with her parents and her boyfriend, and it attracted loads of fans to offer advice on dealing with her problems.
But last month, the lonely girl turned out to be a not so lonely young woman, who got two filmmakers, a lawyer, and a Hollywood talent agency behind her. “Bree” is really Jessica Rose, a 19-year-old actress from New Zealand. The whole thing was a hoax!
Several weeks ago some viewers started to become suspicious (怀疑的) of Lonelygirl15 and her blog. They found Lonelygirl15’s videos seemed a little too perfect, she looked a little too old, and her room seemed a little too neat for a teenager. The mystery was later shown.
So what’s the story? The filmmakers said it was just a creative project. They took the Internet as a new way for independent filmmakers to distribute their work and find new audience. Lonelygirl15 got people talking about what’s real and what’s unreal, and it drew even more people after the truth was revealed.
On the web it’s often hard to tell what you’re really seeing and reading. People can pretend to be just about anything they want to be. Some fans were angry at the lonely girl who had deceived (欺骗) them. One of the disappointed fans said, “The creators (of Lonelygirl15) did this without any thought of how it was going to affect the community, and I think that’s really sad.” Some other fans, however, didn’t seem to care. They posted words like “Unreal or not, you guys are brilliant!”
The blog has been moved to Bree’s own website: , where the story will continue.
17. Before people knew the truth, ＿＿＿ .
A. they liked the girl B. no one knew the girl
C. some of them wanted to help the girl D. all of them believed the girl
18. The underlined word “hoax” in Paragraph 2 probably means “＿＿＿”.
A. trick B. joke C. fact D. truth
19. Why do some viewers doubt the girl?
A. The videos seem a little too perfect. B. She looks a little too young.
C. They know the truth. D. She is an actress.
20. We can know from the passage that ＿＿＿ .
A. the girl’s name isn’t Bree B. the video is made by the girl
C. we should pretend ourselves on the Internet D. all of the fans do not forgive the girl
（二）
A
Diet Coke, diet Pepsi, diet pills, no-fat diet, or vegetable diet. We are surrounded by the word “diet” everywhere we look and listen. We have so easily been attracted by the promise and potential of diet products that we have stopped thinking about what diet products are doing to us. We are paying for products that harm us psychologically (心理上) and physically.
Diet products weaken us psychologically. On one level, we are not allowing our brains to admit that our weight problems lie not in actually losing the weight, but in controlling the consumption (消耗) of fatty, high-calorie and unhealthy foods. Diet products allow us to jump over the thinking stage and go straight for the scale instead. All we have to do is to swallow or recognize the word “diet” in food labels (标签) .
On another level, diet products have greater psychological effects. Every time we have a zero-calorie drink, we are telling ourselves without awareness that we don’t have to work to get results. Diet products make people believe that gain comes without pain, and that life can be without resistance and struggle.
The danger of diet products lies not only in the psychological effects they have on us, but also in the physical harm that they cause. Diet foods can indirectly harm our bodies because consuming them instead of healthy foods means we are preventing our bodies from having basic nutrients. Diet foods and diet pills contain zero calorie only because the diet industry has created chemicals to produce these wonderful products. Diet products may not be nutritional, and the chemicals that go into diet products are possibly dangerous.
Now that we are aware of the effects that diet products have on us, it is time to seriously think about buying them. Losing weight lies in the power of minds, not in the power of chemicals. Once we realize this, we will be much better able to resist diet products, and therefore prevent the physical harm that comes from using them.
1. What can we learn about diet productions from Paragraph 1?
A. They fail to bring out people’s potential. B. People have difficulty in choosing them.
C. They are misleading people. D. People are fed up with them.
2. One psychological effect of diet products is that people tend to ＿＿＿ .
A. try out a variety of diet foods B. hesitate before they enjoy diet foods
C. pay attention to their own eating habits D. watch their weight rather than their diet
3. In Paragraph 3, “gain comes without pain” probably means ＿＿＿ .
A. it’s easy to gain weight B. it costs a lot to lose weight
C. diet products bring no pain D. diet products are free from calories
4. Diet products indirectly harm people physically because such products ＿＿＿ .
A. are over-consumed B. lack basic nutrients
C. are short of chemicals D. provide too much energy
B
Probably you have seen photos of the Grand Canyon (大峡谷) , the great valley in the desert country of Arizona. But you must go there yourself to feel its true size and beauty. The Grand Canyon is one of the greatest natural wonders of the world.
The Colorado River formed the Grand Canyon over millions of years. Slowly, the river cut down through hard rock. At the same time, the land was rising. Today the canyon is 1.5 kilometers and 445 kilometers long. The oldest rocks at the bottom of the canyon are more than 1 billion years old. The width varies from about 200 meters to 29 kilometers across. The edge or top of the canyon is about 2,300 meters above sea level on the South Rim (大峡谷南缘) , and about 3,000 meters on the other side. As a result, there are different kinds of plants and animals on opposite sides of the canyon. On the South Rim is dry desert country. The North Rim has tall forests.
The canyon looks different at different times of the day, and in different seasons and weather. At sunrise and sunset the red, gold, brown and orange colors of the rocks are especially clear and bright. In winter, the canyon is partly covered with snow.
The view from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon is the best. Most visitors come here and stay in campgrounds or hotels. Every point along the canyon’s edge offers a different view.
The North Rim of the Canyon is quieter. It takes all day to drive there from the South Rim because there is only one bridge across the Colorado River. On the way, you go through Navado Indian Lands, and a colorful pink desert called “The Painted Desert”.