On the 14th day, it is a custom for a boy to take his girlfriend out to dinner, buy her flowers and chocolates, write poems, sing to her or even spell out her name with rose petals! This is what you see on Valentine’s Day, a day named after Valentine who was a priest（牧师） in the third century Rome. When the emperor (皇帝) decided that single men could become better soldiers than those with wives, he didn’t allow marriage. But Valentine continued to perform（主持） marriage ceremonies（典礼） for young lovers in secret. When his actions were discovered, the emperor sentenced him to death. While in prison（监狱）, it is said that Valentine fell in love with the daughter of his prison guard. Before his death, he wrote her a letter, which he signed （签名）“From your Valentine”, an expression that is still in use today. Valentine died for what he believed in and so he was made a Saint (圣徒), as well as becoming one of history’s most romantic characters.
Nowadays, Valentine’s Day is also popular among Chinese young people. Some students are planning to make Valentine’s cards for parents, teachers and friends. Others want to hold parties at which they will exchange small gifts and eat heart-shaped（心形的） cakes. The idea is to have fun and encourage people to share in the spirit of St. Valentine.
1. Why did the emperor in Rome not allow marriage in his country?
| A．Because there were few women in his country at that time. |
| B．Because he wanted to control the birth rate. |
| C．Because there wasn’t enough food for so many people. |
| D．Because he thought men without wives could be better soldiers. |
| A．he killed one of the soldiers |
| B．he didn’t obey the emperor’s order |
| C．he stole a lot of food |
| D．he didn’t want to be a soldier |
| A．students in China send cards to their teachers |
| B．Valentine’s Day is also popular in China now |
| C．it is interesting to celebrate Valentine’s Day in China |
| D．it is a good idea to celebrate Valentine’s Day in China |
| A．Valentine’s Day in China | B．A Brave Priest |
| C．Valentine’s Day | D．A Romantic Man |
Mother’s Day was proclaimed a day for national observance by President Woodrow Wilson in 1915. Ann Jarvis from Grafton, West Virginia, had started the idea to have a day to honor mothers. She was the one who chose the second Sunday in May and also began the custom of wearing a carnation.
In 1909, Mrs. Dodd from Spokane, Washington, thought of the idea of a day to honor fathers. She wanted to honor her own father, William Smart. After her mother died, he had the responsibility of raising a family of five sons and a daughter. In 1910, the first Father’s Day was observed in Spokane. Senator Margaret Chase Smith helped to establish Father’s Day as a national commemorative day, in 1972.
These days are set aside to show love and respect for parents. They raise their children and educate them to be responsible citizens. They give love and care.
These two special days are celebrated in many different ways. On Mother’s Day people wear carnations. A red one symbolizes a living mother. A white one shows that the mother is dead．Many people attend religious services to honor parents. It is also a day when people whose parents are dead visit the cemetery. On these days families get together at home, as well as in restaurants. They often have outdoor barbecues for Father’s Day. These are days of fun and good feelings and memories.
1. According to the passage, which of the following about the second Sunday in May is not true ?
| A．It is a day to show love to mothers |
| B．It is a day to wear carnations |
| C．It is a day for people to visit the cemetery |
| D．It is a day for many people to attend religious services |
a. The first Father’s Day was observed
b. Mother’s Day was proclaimed a day for national observance
c. Father’s Day became a day for national observance.
d. The idea of honoring fathers was bought up
| A．a b c d | B．d a b c | C．b a c d | D．d a c b |
| A．Mrs. Do | B．Margaret Chase Smith | C．Ann Jarvis | D．Woodrow Wilson |
| A．one should wear a red carnation if one’s mother pass away |
| B．on Mother’s Day, families often go out to have barbecues |
| C．on Father’s Day, people often stay at home to celebrate the special day. |
| D．The purpose to have these two special days is to show love to parents |
| A．call on people to love and respect their parents. |
| B．introduce Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. |
| C．tell the difference between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day |
| D．show how important fathers and mothers are |
3 . Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.
Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members, but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care most about. I know this from personal experience.
E-mail makes it easy to work at home, which is where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren’t necessarily much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my young daughter than I might have if she’d been born before electronic mail became such a practical tool.
The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun , see a great movie perhaps-and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may tire of telling the story.
With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience, and address it to all the friends you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read only as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.
E-mail is also an inexpensive way stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children off at college.
We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don’t take the place of any of the old ways.
1. The purpose of this passage is to ________.| A．explain how to use the Internet |
| B．describe the writer’s joy of keeping up with the latest technology |
| C．tell the merits(价值) and usefulness of the Internet |
| D．introduce the reader to basic knowledge about personal computers and the Internet |
| A．spend less time working |
| B．have more free time with his child |
| C．work at home on weekends |
| D．work at a speed comfortable to him |
| A．reach a group of people at one time conveniently |
| B．keep one’s communication as personal as possible |
| C．pass on much more information than the later |
| D．get in touch with one’s friends faster than the later |
| A．Computer: New Technological Advances |
| B．Internet: New Tool to Maintain Good Friendship |
| C．Computers Have Made Life Easier |
| D．Internet: a Convenient Tool for Communication |
4 . Are you interested in country music? I like it very much! It will take me away for a while after I am tired. The guitars and songs will take me to mountains and fields.
Country music usually talks of everyday life and feelings. It's the spirit of America, easy to understand, slow and simple.
Country music developed in the Southern United States. It was the folk music of American countryside. Many of songs tell about the lives of farmers. They talk about love, crops or death.
The life of the countryside can be hard, so the words in country music are often sad. At first, people played the music only at family parties. But it became more popular later. In the 1920s, people played country songs on the radio, and they made them into records.
When people in the countryside moved to towns and cities to look for work, they took their music with them. Country music continued to change and became popular across America.
John Denver was one of America's most famous country singers in the 1970s. His song Take Me Home, Country Roads is wellknown and people still play it today.
1. Country music is usually about ________．| A．everyday life and feelings | B．farmers' feelings |
| C．the lives of workers | D．the lives of farmers |
| A．in the 1920s | B．in 1920 | C．in the 1970s | D．in 1970 |
| A．Because city people liked the music. |
| B．Because farmers moved to cities with their music and it continued to change. |
| C．Because country music talked about city people's lives. |
| D．Because country music developed in the Southern Africa. |
| A．A farmer in the countryside. |
| B．A person who moved to towns. |
| C．John Denver. |
| D．John Denver's brother. |
To really benefit from swimming, every swimmer should learn, as soon as possible, these four basic strokes; butterfly, backstroke, Breaststroke, and crawl. I feel that one of these-the breaststroke-is different from the others, since some young swimmers use this stroke naturally, without any training.
In swimming there are certain rules every swimmer should follow:
1). Never swim alone! No matter how good you are in the water, don’t risk drowning by swimming alone. If you swim by yourself, with no life guards or friends with you, you may get into trouble.
2). Don't go beyond your abilities. Most swimmers know enough not to swim too far from the bank or the beach, Showing off by doing dangerous tricks is no good. Swim safely and you will continue to swim and alive.
3). Don't smoke. Swimming depends on a healthy body; good lungs are part of it.
4). Work at any activity that builds muscles.
1. Little children can learn to swim as soon as _____.
| A．they can talk |
| B．they start walking |
| C．they have no fear of the water |
| D．they are five or six years old |
| A．stupid | B．sensible | C．dangerous | D．not smart |
| A．butterfly | B．backstroke | C．breaststroke | D．crawl |
| A．the water is too cold |
| B．your parents would not be happy |
| C．something in the water might attack |
| D．you might drown |
I’m a Senior Ⅰ study in a middle school. This term, my favorite teacher, Miss Mao, no longer teaches us. I want to see her, but I’m afraid that she no longer likes me and I don’t want to trouble her. I really miss her. What should I do?
Tian Yan
Dear Tian Yan,
It’s bad luck that you have lost your favorite teacher. But if she is still in your school, nothing can stop you going to see her. When she isn’t busy, ask her if she minds having a quick chat. You can then tell her she was your favorite teacher—everyone is happy to know that they are liked!
If she has left the school, it will be more difficult to meet her. It will be hard, but remember people always come and go in their lives. We can’t rely on them to be with us all the time.
You may be sad to say goodbye to her, but we can remember and learn from her. Think of her best qualities.
You could also try looking for similar qualities in your other teachers. Study hard and give your new teacher a chance. In time, you might start to see that he or she has different qualities to learn from.
Finally, you can not completely rely on other people to get you through your studies, or even your life.
Editor
1. The letters are from ________.| A．book | B．newspaper | C．poster | D．advertisement |
| A．Find a time to see Miss Mao | B．Have a short chat with Miss Mao |
| C．Tell Miss Mao she likes her | D．Keep quiet about the thing |
| A．completely by their favorite teachers |
| B．completely by their favorite classmates |
| C．mainly by their parents |
| D．mainly by themselves |
After the accident, my roommate called a doctor for me. I was very grateful and determined to repay him one day. But the next day, he asked me to pay him $200 for what he had done. I was astonished. He had good reason to charge me, he said. And if I wanted to collect money from the person who was responsible for my injury, I’d have to have a good lawyer. And only a good doctor can help me get a good lawyer. Now that he had helped me find a good doctor, it was only fair that I should pay him.
But every day I went to see the doctor, I had to wait about 50 minutes. He would see two or three patients at the same time, and often stop treating one so as to see another. Yet he charged me $115 each time. The final examination report consisted of ten lines, and it cost me $215.
My lawyer was all smiles the first time we met. But after that he avoided seeing me at all. He knew very well the other party was responsible for the accident, yet he hardly did anything. He simply waited to collect his money. He was so irresponsible that I decided to dismiss him. And he made me pay him $770.
Now I had to act as my own lawyer. Due to my inexperience, I told the insurance company the date I was leaving America. Knowing that, they played for time…and I left without getting a cent.
My experiences taught me two things about America: firstly, in a country like America money is everything. It is more important than friendship, honor or professional morality (道德). Secondly, foreigners are still being unfairly treated. So when we talk about America, we should see both its good and bad sides.
1. The author’s roommate offered to help him because ________.
| A．he felt sorry for the author |
| B．he thought it was a chance to make some money |
| C．he knew the doctor was a very good one |
| D．he wanted the author to have a good lawyer |
| A．be properly treated |
| B．talk with the person responsible for the accident |
| C．recover before he leaves America |
| D．eventually get the responsible party to pay for his injury |
| A．be responsible | B．accuse | C．ask as a price | D．claim |
| A．friendly | B．selfish | C．professional | D．busy |
| A．Going to court is something very common in America. |
| B．One must be very careful while driving a car. |
| C．There are more bad sides in America than good sides. |
| D．Money is more important than other things in the US. |
One day a lawyer said to him, “One thousand dollars, and here is the money.” As Hobbs took the package of notes, he was very dumbfounded. He didn’t know where the money came from and how to spend it. He said to himself, “I could go to find a hotel and live like a rich man for a few days; or I give up my work in the factory and do what I’d like to do: painting pictures. I could do that for a few weeks, but what would I do after that? I should have lost my place in the factory and have no money to live on. If it were a little less money, I would buy a new coat, or a radio, or give a dinner to my friends. If it were more, I could give up the work and pay for painting pictures. But it’s too much for one and too little for the other.”
“Here is the reading of your uncle’s will（遗嘱）,” said the lawyer, “telling what is to be done with this money after his death. I must ask you to remember one point. Your uncle has said you must bring me a paper showing exactly what you did with his money, as soon as you have spent it.”
“Yes, I see. I’ll do that,” said the young man.
1. Hobbs wanted to borrow money to _______.
| A．study abroad | B．work abroad | C．pay off the debts | D．learn to paint pictures |
| A．Surprised. | B．Frightened | C．Satisfied. | D．Excited. |
| A．planned to have a happy life for a few days | B．decided to give up his work in the factory |
| C．was to give a dinner to his friends | D．had no idea what to do |
| A．tell the lawyer what he did with the money after spending it |
| B．read his uncle’s will |
| C．buy some pictures |
| D．tell the lawyer what was to be done with the money |
Hair loss can be due to a variety of factors, including a genetic tendency (which is not genetically linked to just one parent—both parents contribute to the tendency to lose hair).
Women who are experiencing hair problems seem to have more limited choices than men. There are some female hair loss treatments that are available such as the Tricomin System which is a topical treatment that is nutrition based. Shen Min for Women is another natural treatment that contains herbs (药草) that are said to stimulate(刺激) hair growth and even restore hair that is graying to its natural color.
The majority of the popular, prove hair loss treatments are only intended for men and are not suitable for women. True, a woman’s hair issue is different from a man’s. The biological makeup is different and the needs are different. Women have different needs and their bodies react in different ways to environmental changes, physical illness and even the treatments that are available. There are many natural treatments such as vitamin and mineral supplements that are said to stimulate hair growth, but, for the most part, these claims are currently unproven.
One of the first and most important factors to effectively treating is to get a diagnosis from a doctor. Talk to your doctor about any symptoms(症状) that you may be experiencing in addition to the thinning hair. Stress, weight loss or gain, illness and depression, all of these can be contributing factors.
1. It can be learned from the lst paragraph that ________.| A．usually hair loss is hard to heal |
| B．female hair loss is more common than the men’s |
| C．women tend to suffer from hair loss during the pregnant period |
| D．only illness contributes to hair loss |
| A．Both are to solve the problem of male hair loss. |
| B．Tricomin System is effective in speeding the growth of the new hair. |
| C．Shen Min is an updated way of treating hair loss. |
| D．The former is nutrition-based, while the latter is medicine-based. |
| A．the biological structure and composition of the hair |
| B．the wants and needs |
| C．the reactions and responses to the outside changes |
| D．the approach to taking exercise |
| A．include vitamin and mineral supplements |
| B．are applied to keep the hair healthy |
| C．have been proved useful |
| D．are the most commonly-used ways |
