【推荐1】Elizabeth Blackwell was born in England in 1821, and moved to New York City when she was ten years old. One day she decided that she wanted to become a doctor. That was nearly impossible for a woman in the middle of the nineteenth century. After writing many letters asking for admission(录取)to medical schools, she was finally accepted by a doctor in Philadelphia. She was so determined that she taught school and gave music lessons to get money for the cost of schooling.

In 1849, after graduation from medical school, she decided to further her education in Paris. She wanted to be a surgeon(外科医师) , but a serious eye problem forced her to give up the idea.

Upon returning to the United States, she found it difficult to start her own practice because she was a woman. By 1857 Elizabeth and her sister, also a doctor, along with another woman doctor, managed to open a new hospital, the first for women and children. Besides being the first woman physician and founding her own hospital, she also set up the first medical school for women.

1. Why couldn’t Elizabeth Blackwell realize her dream of becoming a surgeon?

A．She couldn’t get admitted to medical school.

B．She decided to further her education in Paris.

C．A serious eye problem stopped her.

D．It was difficult for her to start a practice in the United States.

2. What main obstacle(障碍) almost destroyed Elizabeth’s chances for becoming for a doctor?

A．She was a woman.

B．She wrote too many letters.

C．She couldn’t graduate from medical school.

D．She couldn’t set up her hospital.

3. How many years passed between her graduation from medical school and the opening of
her hospital?

A．Eight years	B．Ten years
C．Nineteen years	D．Thirty-six years

4. According to the passage, all of the following are “firsts” in the life of Elizabeth Blackwell, except that she ______.

A．became the first woman physician.

B．was the first woman doctor

C．and several other women founded the first hospital for women and children

D．set up the first medical school for women

【推荐2】John Farish, an engineer who was staying at the St. Francis, one of the city’s finest hotels, remembered the very early morning of Wednesday, April 18, 1906: I was awakened by a loud noise, which might be compared to the mixed sounds of a strong wind flowing through a forest and the breaking of waves against a rock. In less time than it takes to tell, a shake, similar to that caused by a nearby explosion (爆炸), shook the building to its bases and it began a series of the most lively movements. Together with a frightening sound, it was followed by big crashes (碰撞) as the neighboring buildings and chimneys fell to the ground.

A few blocks away, in a comfortable room in the Palace Hotel, the world’s greatest singer, Enrico Caruso, was asleep after a good performance at the Opera House the night before. He awoke to find: Everything in the room was going round and round. The light was trying to touch the ceiling and the chairs were all chasing each other. Crash — crash — crash! It was a terrible scene. Everywhere the walls were falling and clouds of yellow dust were rising. My God, I thought it would never stop!

And at the same moment, in another part of the city, Jesse Cook, a policeman, reported: The whole street was undulating (起伏波动). It was as if the waves of the ocean were coming toward me, and waving as they came.

It was, of course, an earthquake, one of the largest ever to hit North America, and the first of 27 separate quakes that day. The first shock — at 5:12:05 a.m. — lasted more than 40 seconds. It was by far the largest, about 8.3 on the Richter scale; its epicenter (震源) was just off the coast, around the Pacific.

1. When the earthquake happened, Caruso was _____.

A．looking at the waves rushing against the rock

B．giving a performance at the Opera House

C．listening to the sounds of wind flowing

D．sleeping in the comfortable Palace Hotel

2. How did Jesse Cook describe the earthquake?

A．The street was flooded with ocean water.

B．The street was dancing like ocean waves.

C．The chairs in the room were chasing each other.

D．The light was falling to the ground heavily.

3. What can we know about the earthquake according to the passage?

A．It was followed by 26 quakes that day.

B．It caused the most deaths in history.

C．It came from the center of the Pacific.

D．It struck the place at midnight.

4. The purpose of writing this passage is to _____.

A．teach us how to protect ourselves in an earth-quake

B．find out why the earthquake happened

C．describe the happenings of a strong earthquake

D．introduce what harm the earthquake did to people

【推荐3】A heartless thief is believed to have crashed a fund-raiser and made off with a bag of cash meant to help a New York City firefighter pay for life-changing surgery for his 9-year-old son. But little Aidan Sullivan -- who was born with a facial defect and no right ear -- yesterday put up a brave front, with a message for the crook(thief): “I'm going to kick your butt!”
“I want to look normal,”said Aidan, whose father, Tim, is a firefighter in the Bronx. The third-grader has hemi facial micro soma, in which one half of the face doesn't develop correctly.
Last weekend, family friend Peter Drake, a Ridgefield, Conn., firefighter, hosted a fund-raiser, collecting between $8,000 and $9,000. But when the party at a Danbury, Conn., Irish cultural center was over, the money had disappeared.
“At the end of the night, all the money that was donated was put in a zippered bag,” said Tim Sullivan. “A bartender gave the bag to Pete... He had it in his hands. He put it down to go do something, and when he came back, he saw that it was missing.”
Sullivan said his longtime friend -- who has had fund-raisers to pay for Aidan's 10 previous surgeries -- is “devastated.”
“Pete was so upset. He kept saying, I let Aidan down, I let Aidan down,” Colleen Sullivan, 40, recalled.
“We even went Dumpster diving, in case it was thrown out.”
The Sullivans plan to go ahead with the March 1 surgery led by specialists at NYU's Langone Medical Center in Manhattan. The money would have offset the $10,000 to $15,000 that insurance doesn't cover. Yesterday, Aidan said he's not a fan of hospitals and doesn't like to be away from his sister, Kaylee, 4. But he's willing to do it. “I'm excited,” he said. “Finally, an ear.”
1. Where do you probably read this text from?

A．A magazine.

B．A newspaper.

C．A book.

D．An advertisement.

2. How did little Aidan Sullivan feel when he knew the money was missing.

A．He felt excited.	B．He felt surprised.
C．He felt upset.	D．He felt annoyed.

3. What is the money used for according to this text?

A．To help Aidan Sullivan to have another operation.

B．To help pay for Aidan Sullivan’s life insurance.

C．To return the money the Sullivans owed to the hospital.

D．To help a firefighter who got hurt in the ear.

4. What is true of little Aidan Sullivan?

A．He hates going to hospital.

B．He will go to New York for the surgery.

C．He didn’t care too much about the lost money.

D．He has received 10 surgeries before.

5. What can we infer about Pete from the text?

A．He was heartless.	B．He was kind.
C．He was caress.	D．He was a firefighter.

【推荐1】The 15-year-old actor Reese Hartwig stars in this summer’s newest movie, Earth to Echo. Recently Jack and Jill interviewed this kid actor.

JJ: How did you get started in acting?

Reese: My family and I moved from Arizona to California because my dad worked for a company that provides cars for movies like Transformers. He was already in the business. When we came to California, I decided to give acting a shot.  

JJ: How was your first audition (试演)?

Reese: My brother Ryan and I auditioned in the same building and on his birthday. Our agent said, “Why don’t you each try out for both parts? ” I ended up booking the part he went in for, and he booked mine. That’s how it started.

JJ: Is acting your dream job?

Reese: I’ve always wanted to be a plastic surgeon (整形外科医生), but I will need money from acting to get through college and medical school. Acting has been really fun, but you need a backup plan just in case.

JJ: Tell us about your new movie:   Earth to Echo.

Reese: The movie’s about three friends who live in a neighborhood that’s being torn down to build a freeway. Soon, the friends begin receiving strange messages on their cell phones. It turns out they find an alien, Echo, and try to help the alien and save the neighborhood.

JJ: How was this — your first big acting role — different from other projects you’ve done?

Reese: Very different. The movie was filmed as if we, the characters, were holding the cameras and filming the scenes. It was an interesting shooting scene with the alien, Echo, because you acted with an inanimate (无生命的) object, and then the technical staff developed the character on the computer.

1. What does the underlined part “give acting a shot” mean?

A．Give up acting.

B．Think about acting.

C．Try to do some acting.

D．Choose acting as a lifelong career.

2. The day Reese went to his first audition, ______.

A．he came across Ryan

B．it was his 15th birthday

C．he got the part Ryan wanted

D．he did some sightseeing in Arizona

3. What can we learn about Earth to Echo?

A．It is a science fiction film.

B．It was filmed by Reese’s friends.

C．It shows the importance of friendship.

D．It calls on people to protect the earth.