【推荐1】British writer John Donne once said: “No man is an island; every book is a world.” As an enthusiastic reader, I can’t agree with the latter part of the sentence more. Every summer, I endeavor to find some peaceful places where I can attack some classics without being disturbed. Thomas Hardy wants to live far from the madding crowd. I am no friend to chaos, either.

I read George Orwell’s 1984 in a New England beachside cottage with no locks on the doors, no telephones or televisions in the rooms. 1984 is a good book that needs deep reflection. Attempting Sound and Fury lying on the bed of a poorly-occupied motel, however, was less fruitful: I made it through one and a quarter volumes, but then my eyelids were so heavy that I couldn’t keep them open.

But this summer I find myself at a loss. I’m not quite interested in J.D.Salinger, say, or Frankenstein. There’s always War and Peace which I’ve covered some distance several times, only to get bogged down in the “War” part, set it aside for a while, and realize that I have to start over from the beginning again, having forgotten everyone’s name and social rank. How appealing to simply fall back on a favorite—once more into The Call of the Wild or Alice in the Wonderland, which feels almost like cheating, too exciting and too much fun to properly belong to serious literature.

And then there’s John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. This title does not amaze but confuse. We’re never short of sour grapes, but we’ve never heard of angry grapes. Anyway grapes are my favorite fruit of summer. These stone fruits can always make me feel cheerful and peaceful all at once.

1. What can we infer from Paragraph 2?

A．The author has a cottage in New England.

B．1984 is a book that needs careful thought.

C．Both of the reading attempts were not fruitful.

D．Sound and Fury was set in a poorly-occupied motel.

2. What does the underlined phrase “get bogged down” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A．Get confused.	B．Be carried away.
C．Be interpreted.	D．Make no progress.

3. Why does the author say reading his favorite books feels like cheating?

A．He finishes them quickly.	B．He should read something serious.
C．He barely understands them.	D．He gets amazed by their titles.

4. What can we know about the author from this passage?

A．Thomas Hardy is his friend.	B．He shows talent for literature.
C．He is quite forgetful.	D．He is a literary-minded man.

5. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the passage?

A．To share his reading experience.

B．To encourage readers to read books.

C．To introduce good books to readers.

D．To condemn the chaotic world we live in.

【推荐2】When it comes to friends, I desire those who will share my happiness, who possess wings of their own and who will fly with me. I seek minds whose qualities illuminate(照亮) me and train me up for love. It is for these people that I reserve the glowing hours, too good not to share.

When I was in the eighth grade, I had a friend. We were shy and “too serious” about our studies when it was becoming fashionable with our classmates to learn acceptable social behaviors. We said little at school, but she would come to my house and we would sit down with pencils and paper, and one of us would say: “Let’s start with a train whistle today.” We would sit quietly together and write separate poems or stories that grew out of a train whistle. Then we would read them aloud. At the end of that school year, we, too, were changed into social creatures and the stories and poems stopped.

When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend.He was in despair(失望) and 1 was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.

For almost four years I have had a remarkable friend whose imagination illuminates mine. We write long letters in which we often discover our strangest selves. Each of us appears, sometimes in a funny way, in the other’s dreams. She and I agree that, at certain times, we seem to be parts of the same mind.In my most interesting moments, I often think: “Yes, I must tell…’’We have never met.

It is such comforting companions I wish to keep. One bright hour with their kind is worth more to me than the lifetime services of a psychologist, who will only fill up the healing(愈合的) silence necessary to those darkest moments in which I would rather be my own best friend.

1. In Paragraph 3, “We gave London to each other” probably means _________.

A．our exploration of London was a memorable gift to both of us

B．we were unwilling to tear ourselves away from London

C．our unpleasant feeling about London disappeared

D．we parted with each other in London

2. In the darkest moments, the author would prefer to _________.

A．seek professional help

B．be left alone

C．stay with her best friend

D．break the silence

3. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Unforgettable Experiences

B．Remarkable Imagination

C．Lifelong Friendship

D．Noble Companions

【推荐3】It was the middle of third grade and I was not sure what had got into me. I lied about many things ---I lied that I had eaten all my dinner, when in fact I buried it in the trash can, I lied that I had made my bed, when clearly I had not. My lies were not hurting anyone, but for some reason I felt the need to tell lies on an impulse (冲动 )that didn't feel like my own. I was labeled a liar.

One day my sisters and I were invited to spend the weekend with my aunt we all loved it. She spoiled us with her time. And she was an amazing artist. She had cool pencils，erasers and other supplies that any young girl would love to get her hands on. Then it happened ...   someone took one of Aunt Kim's good art erasers and rubbed it across the entire top of the TV. The eraser ruined the shiny finish on the TV’s casing. All the three of us were called into the TV room and asked to admit. Nobody did! Aunt Kim told us how disappointed she was.

The next thing I knew was that she was on the phone with my parents and they were on their way to picking me up. It had to be me! I was the liar. I argued, but no one listened. And then before dinner there was a knock at the front door! Aunt Kim was standing there. It turned out my younger sister finally felt guilty! She admitted that she was the one who rubbed the eraser on the TV. I was invited back!

A lie may take care of the present, but it has no future. No matter how big or small your lies are, once you are labeled a liar, earning trust takes a lot of work and time.

1. Why does the author tell lies?

A．She just does that out of a strong desire.

B．She can find pleasure in telling a lie.

C．She is afraid to admit her mistakes.

D．She likes to play tricks on others.

2. What may make Aunt Kim disappointed most?

A．The TV’s finish was ruined.	B．The author told a lie again.
C．Nobody admitted the mistake.	D．The erasers were totally useless.

3. What’s the reaction of the author’s parents and aunt to the accident?

A．They felt puzzled about who did it.

B．None of them blamed the three girls.

C．They gave the author a chance to admit.

D．They believed it was done by the author.

4. What lesson did the author learn?

A．A bad beginning makes a bad ending.

B．A liar pays a lot to win trust again.

C．Lies can never change the fact.

D．An honest man will speak out.

【推荐1】In modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. Some value it highly. believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity; others say that competition is bad that it sets one person against another: that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.

I have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. In their single-minded pursuit of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.

However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people, I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: "I may have lost, but it doesn't matter because I really didn't try." What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean à lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true competitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one's self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only when this basic and often troublesome fear begins to disappear can we discover a new meaning in competition.

1. What does this passage mainly talk about?

A．Competition helps to set up self-respect.

B．Competition is harmful to personal quality development.

C．Opinions about competition are different among people.

D．Failures are necessary experiences in competition

2. What is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a desire to fail?

A．One's success in competition needs great efforts.

B．One's worth lies in his performance compared with others

C．One's success is based on how hard he has tried.

D．One's achievement is determined by his particular skills.

3. Which point of view may the author agree to?

A．Every effort should be paid back

B．Fear of failure should be removed in competition.

C．Winning should be a life-and-death matter.

D．Competition should be encouraged.

【推荐2】From the health point of view we are living in a marvelous age. We are immunized from birth against many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once fatal illnesses can now be cured by modern drugs and surgery. It is almost certain that one day remedies will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased enormously. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the incredible slaughter of men, women and children on the roads. Man versus the motor-car ! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people the world over are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.

It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel, his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They swear, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-years-olds and utterly selfish. All their hidden frustrations, disappointments and jealousies seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving.

The surprising thing is that society smiles so benignly on the motorist and seems to condone his behaviour. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy tragic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is desecrated by road networks; and the mass annual slaughter becomes nothing more than a statistic, to be conveniently forgotten.

It is high time a world code were created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are notoriously lax and even the strictest are not strict enough. A code which was universally accepted could only have a dramatically beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through stringent annual tests for safety. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can impair a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be mad much stricter. Maximum and minimum speed limits should be imposed on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for manufacturers, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. These measures may sound inordinately harsh. But surely nothing should be considered as to severe if it results in reducing the annual toll of human life. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars.

1. The main idea of this passage is__________.

A．traffic accidents are mainly caused by motorists

B．thousands of people the world over are killed each year

C．the laws of some countries about driving are too lax

D．only stricter traffic laws can prevent accidents

2. What does the author think of society toward motorists?

A．Society smiles on the motorists.

B．Huge car parks are built in the cities and towns.

C．Victims of accidents are nothing.

D．Society condones their rude driving.

3. Why does the author say: “his car becomes the extension of his personality?”

A．Driving can show his real self.

B．Driving can show the other part of his personality.

C．Driving can bring out his character.

D．His car embodies his temper.

4. Which of the followings is NOT mentioned as a way against traffic accidents?

A．Build more highways.

B．Stricter driving tests.

C．Test drivers every three years.

D．raise age limit and lay down safety specifications.

5. The attitude of the author is_____.

A．ironical

B．critical

C．appealing

D．militant