1 . When I was 12, all I wanted was a signet(图章)ring. They were the “in” thing and it seemed every girl except me had one. On my 13th birthday, my Mum gave me a signet ring with my initials(姓名首字母) carved into it. I was in heaven.
What made it even more special was that it was about the ;only thing that wasn’t being “replaced”. We’d been burnt out in fires that swept through our area earlier that year and had lost everything—so most of the “new” stuff(东 西)we got was rally just to replace what we’d lost. But not my ring. My ring was new.
Then, only one month later, I lost it. I took if off before bed and it was missing in the morning. I was sad and searched everywhere for it. But it seemed to have disappeared. Eventually, I gave up and stopped looking for it. And two years later, we sold the house and moved away.
Years passed, and a couple of moves later, I was visiting my parents’ when Mum told me that she had something for me. It wasn’t my birthday, nor was it Easter or Christmas or any other gift-giving occasion. Mum noticed my questioning look. “ You’ll recognize this one.,” she said smiling.
Then she handed me a small ring box. I took it from her and opened it to find my beautiful signet ring inside. The family who had bought our house 13 years earlier had recently decided to do some redecorations, which included replacing the carpets. When they pulled the carpet up in my old bedroom, they found the ring. As it had my initials carved into it. they realized who owned the ring. They’d had it professionally cleaned up by a jeweler before sending it to my mother. And it still fits me.
1. The underlined “ word” in in the fins paragraph probably means “ ”.| A．fashionable |
| B．available |
| C．practical |
| D．renewable |
| A．13 years old |
| B．15 years old |
| C．26 years old |
| D．28 years old |
| A．The writer’s family moved several times. |
| B．The writer never stopped looking for her ring. |
| C．The writer’s ring was cleaned up by the new house owner. |
| D．The writer lost her ring in the morning when she took it off. |
| A．My New Ring |
| B．Lost and Found |
| C．Lost and Replaced |
| D．An Expensive Ring |
2 . Dubai boasts (夸口) that it has just built a “new global landmark”—the Dubai Tower, which stands 512.1 meters high now and has just become the tallest building in the world.
The Dubai Tower now surpasses Taiwan’s Taipei 101, which is 508 meters tall, and has 141 storeys, more than any other building in the world.
The Dubai Tower, being built by South Korea’s Samsung Corporation and scheduled for completion next year, is one of a series of great projects taking shape in Dubai. The final projected height of the tower has remained a secret since the project was launched in January 2004; however, it is rumored that the tower will be more than 700 meters tall and have more than 160 storeys.
The Dubai Tower has become the tallest building in the world in just 1,276 days, leaving behind other tall buildings.
The Dubai Tower will house 30,000 apartments in addition to the world’s largest shopping mall. It is the centerpiece (重要工程) of the 20-billion-dollar venture. Another venture gradually emerging across the desert sands is Dubailand, a series of multi-billion-dollar projects claimed to be the Middle East’s very own Orlando. Dubai also paid 100 million dollars to buy the Queen Elizabeth II, one of the world’s superb cruise liners (游轮), which it plans to turn into a luxury floating hotel.
Faced with decreasing oil wealth, the Western-oriented emirate (酋长国) has raced to turn itself into a business and leisure hub and it aims to more than double the number of tourists to 15 million by 2015.
1. The underlined word “surpasses” in the second paragraph means____.| A．is equal to | B．matches |
| C．is left behind by | D．is higher than |
| A．Dubai land | B．Orlando |
| C．Taiwan’s Taipei 101 | D．The Twin Towers |
| A．Because it wants to attract more tourists to its places of interest. |
| B．Because it produces less oil than ever. |
| C．Because it aims to race with other countries to show its wealth. |
| D．Because it wants to set a new world record. |
| A．The Dubai Tower is 508 meters tall and has more than 141 storeys. |
| B．The final height of the Dubai Tower is over 700 meters tall. |
| C．Samsung Corporation has completed building the Dubai Tower. |
| D．The Dubai Tower has apartments and a shopping mall. |
3 . “I never expected that I would be so busy. Why can’t there be 25 hours in a day?” complained Liu Ran in Hong Kong as mid-term exams were going on.
The 18-year-old was Shandong Province’s top scorer in this year’s college entrance examination. After graduating from Tai’an No.1 High School, she chose the Chinese University of Hong Kong (香港中文大学), although both Peking University and Tsinghua University promised her a place.
“I want to experience a more international school and social life in Hong Kong. I’m majoring in journalism, so Hong Kong will surely help widen my horizons,” Liu said.
It is two months since Liu first set foot on Hong Kong. She missed home a lot at the beginning, because of the food and language problems.
“The canteen offers mostly Western or Guangdong food, but it’s convenient to cook for ourselves in our dorm if we like. People speak Cantonese and almost all classes are in English,” Liu explained.
Her English and Cantonese are now both improving, but she still needs more time to adapt to the new environment.
“I’m happy that I made the right decision to study here. With a mix of the Eastern and Western cultures, there is so much to discover and learn,” she said.
Liu has 18 credit hours (学分) of classes every week and 23 non-credit hours every other week. She has signed up for four associations including the Chinese Language Debating Team and the drama club. Essays, book reports and presentations also take plenty of time to prepare. And , of course, there are various parties to attend.
“I wasn’t a party animal before, but that may be interesting part of college. I sense myself changing,” Liu said.
1. Liu Ran chose the Chinese University of Hong Kong, because___________.| A．she couldn’t be admitted to Peking University |
| B．Hong Kong is a good place |
| C．she wants to be far from her homeland |
| D．the Chinese University of Hong Kong can widen her horizons |
| A．now Liu Ran is an animal |
| B．Liu Ran hates the busy life in the Chinese University of Hong Kong |
| C．Liu Ran likes the food there |
| D．the busy and full life makes Liu Ran feel good |
| A．food | B．language |
| C．missing home | D．no friends |
It has been suggested that smaller brain appears to work faster, perhaps because the two sides of the brain are better connected in women. This means that little girls tend to learn to speak earlier, and that women can understand sorts of information from different sources at the same time. When it comes to talking to the boss on the phone, cooking dinner and keeping an eye on the baby all at the same time, it’s women who come out on top every time.
There are other important differences between two sexes. As white matter is the key to spatial(空间的) tasks, men know better where things are in relation to other things. “A great footballer always knows where he is in relation to the other players, and he knows where to go,” says one researcher. That may explain one of life’s great mysteries: why men refuse to ask for directions … and women often need to!
The differences begin when fetuses(胎儿) are about mine weeks old, which can be seen in the action of children ad young as one. A boy would try to climb a barrier (障碍物) before him or push it down while a girl would attract help from others. These brain differences also explain the fact that more men take up jobs that require good spatial skills, while more women speech skills. It may all go back to our ancestors(祖先) ,among whom women needed speech skills to take care of their babies and men needed spatial skills to hunt, according to one research.
If all this disappoints you, it shouldn’t. “The brain changes throughout our lives according to what we do with it.” says a biologist.
1. Which of the following is true according to the first paragraph?
| A．Women’s brain is 10% less than men’s |
| B．Grey matter plays the same role as white matter. |
| C．Grey matter controls thinking in the brain. |
| D．Both sexes have the same amount of white matter. |
| A．Women prefer doing many things at a time. |
| B．Men do better dealing with one job at a time. |
| C．Women do not need to tell directions. |
| D．Men have weaker spatial abilities. |
| A．Young boys may be stronger than young girls. |
| B．More women take up jobs requiring speech skills |
| C．Women may have stronger feelings than men. |
| D．Our ancestors needed more spatial skills. |
| A．Defensive. | B．Persuasive. | C．Supportive. | D．Objective. |
