1 . Rocky was a 65-pound dog. Rita was his eleven-year old owner. When Rocky was given to her, Rita immediately liked him. Whenever she was not in school,the two were always together and within touching distance. The family would lovingly call the pair “R and R”.
But Rocky had one shortcoming. He feared water very much because of a terrible experience. When he was at the age of seven weeks long before he met Rita,he was nearly drowned by a naughty boy who had been blamed by his father.
One late afternoon, Rita's mother took R and R to a shopping area near a lake. Rita was running along the wooden bridge over the water,enjoying the beautiful scenery around. Suddenly a boy on a bicycle hit Rita. She let out a cry of pain and fell into the lake.
Rita's mother was at the entrance of a store not far away. She rushed to the lake shouting for help. Rocky seemed to forget his fear and jumped into the water to save his owner. Rocky immediately swam to Rita and held her by the shoulder's clothes with his mouth. Rita's face was quickly out of the water and she could cough.Luckily,the water was calm,they were not far from the bank,and Rocky finally reached a depth where his feet were on solid ground. He pulled Rita hard until her head was completely out of the water, and then he stood beside her, licking (舔) her face.
Rita and her family firmly believed that it was only the big dog's love for the little girl that caused him to take action that might be life-dangerous.
1. From the text, we know __________.| A．Rita was once blamed |
| B．Rocky was eleven years old |
| C．Rita spent her spare time with Rocky |
| D．Rocky lived in Rita's home since his birth |
| A．Brave. | B．Honest. | C．Unkind. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．At noon. | B．At night. | C．In the morning. | D．In the afternoon. |
① Rocky came into Rita's life.② Rocky was nearly drowned.
③They were playing near the lake. ④ Rocky saved Rita from the water.
| A．①②④③ | B．②①③④ | C．③①②④ | D．④③②① |
2 . On the evening of June 21, 1992, a tall man with brown hair and blue eyes entered the beautiful hall of the Bell Tower Hotel in Xi’an with his bicycle. The hotel workers received him and telephoned the manager, for they had never seen a bicycle in the hotel ball before though they lived in “the kingdom of bicycles.”
Robert Friedlander, an American, arrived in Xi’an on his bicycle trip across Asia which started last December in New Delhi, India.
When he was 11, he read the book Marco Polo and made up his mind to visit the Silk Road. Now, after 44 years , he was on the Silk Road in Xi’an and his early dreams were coming true.
Robert Friedlander’s next destinations (目的地) were Lanzhou, Dunhuang, Urumqi, etc. He will complete his trip in Pakistan.
1. The best headline for this newspaper article would be _______.| A．The Kingdom of Bicycles |
| B．A Beautiful Hotel in Xi’an |
| C．Marco Polo and the Silk Road |
| D．An American Achieving His Aims |
| A．China, India, and Pakistan | B．India, China, and Pakistan |
| C．Pakistan, China, and India | D．China, Pakistan, and India |
| A．The stories about Marco Polo. |
| B．The famous sights in Xi’an. |
| C．His interest in Chinese silk. |
| D．His childhood dreams about bicycles. |
| A．clever | B．friendly | C．hardworking | D．strong-minded |
3 . The word "orange" describes both a color and a fruit. Which one came first might be surprising. "Orange" when used as the name of the fruit came before "orange" as a word to describe color. While the shade itself existed before the fruit, there was not a name in the English language for the color. Before the introduction of the fruit to English-speaking countries, the color was usually described as a shade of red or yellow.
In the early 16th century, Portuguese traders brought oranges from India to Europe. The Europeans had not seen the bright colored fruit before and didn't have a name for it. The fruits were named "narancia" by Italians and "narange" by the French and were sometimes referred to as "golden apples" by English speakers.
"Orange" was first used in a phrase to describe shades of colors, including in a third-century Greek text translated into English, in 1576. It describes Alexander the Great's servants as dressed in "orange colour velvet （天鹅绒）In 1578, a Latin-American dictionary defined "melites" as "a precious stone of orange color”. While orange represents the color of the objects, it needed the word "color" to follow it in order for the meaning to be clear. In the mid-1590s, Shakespeare described a beard as "orange tawny", one of the first instances of "orange" without the word "color" as part of the expression. Tawny is a brown color often used on its own. Orange was not yet a color, just a shade of brown.
In 1616, in an account describing varieties of tulips （郁金香）that can be grown, orange was used as a stand-alone color. When Isaac Newton performed his experiments on the color spectrum （色谱），he listed it as one of the seven basic colors. After almost half a century, orange was recognized as a color on its own.
1. Which is the right time order of the appearance of "orange"?| A．As a fruit→as a color→the shade itself. |
| B．The shade itself→as a color→as a fruit. |
| C．The shade itself→as a fruit→as a color. |
| D．As a color→the shade itself→as a fruit. |
| A．Melites. | B．Narange. |
| C．NaranciA. | D．Golden apples. |
| A．My ball is a melite. | B．The ball is orange colour. |
| C．The orange ball is beautiful. | D．I have an orange ball. |
| A．How to plant oranges | B．The spread of oranges |
| C．Orange used as a color | D．Shakespeare and oranges |
4 . The Poetry Foundation, recently named American poet Jack Prelutsky as the nation's first children's poet laureate (桂冠诗人). The group created the award as a way to increase children's love of poetry.
As children's poet laureate, Jack Prelutsky will give two public readings in the next two years. He will also advise the Poetry Foundation about children's literature and take part in projects concerning children and poetry.
Jack Prelutsky has been writing poetry for children for almost forty years. He has written more than thirty five books of poems. His first book was called A Gopher in the Garden. It was published in 1967. His latest is called Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems.
Jack Prelutsky is well known for creating new words by combining two words to create a new kind of creature. For example, he combined “radish” with “shark” to get “radishark”. “Lion” and “broccoli” became “broccolion”. He also created “umbrellaphant”, a mixture of the words “umbrella” and “elephant”.
Jack Prelutsky says that children like his poems because he writes about things they care about. Poetry researchers say that Jack Prelutsky's poems recognize children's feelings. An example of this is the poem My Sister Is a Werewolf which is about how it feels to be different.
Jack Prelutsky also writes poems about American holidays. His poem It's Halloween is a very famous one about the holiday celebrated at the end of October.
1. Which of the following can be the BEST title of the passage?| A．Poems with New Words Grow Popular | B．First Children's Poet Laureate Named |
| C．Children's Love for Poetry Increased | D．Jack Prelutsky Awarded Nationwide |
| A．Creating new words in his poems. | B．His productivity. |
| C．His long time of writing. | D．His poems about American holidays. |
| A．It was A Gopher in the Garden that brought him fame. |
| B．The poet will be kept busy over a lot of activities. |
| C．Jack Prelutsky will no longer write about American holidays. |
| D．The poem It's Halloween must have been written for adults. |
a. two public readings
b. A Gopher in the Garden
c. Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant and Other Poems
d. My Sister Is a Werewolf
| A．b—c—d—a | B．d—a—c—b |
| C．b—d—c—a | D．a—b—c—d |
5 . Like many little school girls, Savannah Hart was given the chance to take home her class “pet” — in this case, a sweetly tattered(破烂的) toy monkey named Harriet.
What happened next could be the subject of a children’s storybook: the 5-year-old from Australia took Harriet on a summer trip to Buckingham Palace when things went wrong.
While visiting Queen Elizabeth’s home, the little girl misplaced the toy, and her family assumed(假定) that Harriet would be forever stuck at the bottom of the palace’s lost property collection. But after a teacher at Savannah’s school, Woodside Preschool in Australia, wrote a letter to the Queen to see if the well-worn Harriet could be located, determined palace employees set to work to find it.
Helped by the letter and photos taken during the monkey’s tour around the U.K. with Savannah’s family, Harriet was found and returned to Savannah. But Harriet didn’t come back alone on the 9,000-mile journey from London to Australia — the monkey was also accompanied by Rex, a stuffed corgi dog sent from the palace.
Before leaving the U.K., Harriet even spent some time helping out with palace tours and was given the royal treatment.
“We aim to give every visitor to Buckingham Palace a memorable experience, and after we had found Harriet the monkey near the Family Pavilion(亭，阁), she spent some time helping out the Visitor Services team before heading home,” said a spokesperson for the Royal Collection, which runs the visitor experience at Buckingham Palace over the summer. “We hope Harriet enjoyed telling Rex the corgi dog about her adventures on the journey back to Australia.”
1. According to the text, what can be learned about Harriet?| A．Harriet is Savannah’s home pet. |
| B．Harriet is a sweetly tattered toy dog. |
| C．Harriet has been to the U.K.. |
| D．Harriet has a teacher named Woodside. |
| A．A teacher and her family | B．A teacher and the palace employees |
| C．Her family and the Queen | D．All of them. |
a. Savannah’s teacher wrote a letter to ask for help.
b. Savannah took Harriet on a summer trip to Buckingham Palace.
c. The palace employees set to work to find Harriet.
d. Harriet was given the royal treatment and came back with Rex.
e. Savannah misplaced Harriet and her family thought it would be never seen.
| A．beacd | B．daecb |
| C．dceba | D．adcbe |
| A．Harriet spent some time helping out the Visitor Services team |
| B．Harriet took Rex back together with him and enjoyed telling him stories. |
| C．Whoever visits Buckingham Palace will have a memorable experience. |
| D．The Buckingham Palace employees aim to provide visitors with good service. |
6 . Stages of Hurricane: Simple Storms Grow Into Giants
A storm progresses through four different stages before it is actually considered a hurricane. First is a tropical disturbance (热带扰动), which has thunderstorms and rotating (旋转) winds. Next is a tropical depression (热带低气压), which is similar to a tropical disturbance, but has winds between 23 and 39 miles per hour. A tropical storm is the next level, which has stronger wind speeds between 40and 73 miles per hour. Once winds reach 74 miles per hour the storm is officially called a hurricane. The wind picks up energy from the warm surface ocean water.
As a hurricane crosses over land, it begins to become weaker or break apart and reduce in strength. This is because it is no longer over the warm ocean water that it needs for energy. At this point, a hurricane can still cause a lot of damage because of high winds, rain, and flooding. But unless it makes its way back over the open ocean, it is downgraded from a hurricane back to a tropical storm.
What’s Your Name, Hurricane?
Hurricanes and tropical storms are given names to help people recognize them. Scientists refer to hurricanes and storms by name as they track them across the ocean.
Before 1953, hurricanes were not given official names. From 1953 through 1978, hurricanes were only given female names, like Isabel, Camille, Claudette, and Wilma. Beginning in 1979, hurricanes were given the names of both women and men. Today, the names alternate male and female, and they are named in order of letters.
For example, in 2010, storms were named as follows: Alex (male), Bonnie (female), Colin (male), Danielle (female), Earl (male) and so on…
There are six different lists of names that change, so the same names are used every six years. The only way that a new name is added is when a hurricane has been particularly deadly or costly and the name is retired, then replaced with a new one.
1. Which of the following is the right order of stages of a hurricane?| A．Tropical depression, tropical disturbance, tropical storm, hurricane |
| B．Tropical disturbance, tropical depression, tropical storm, hurricane |
| C．Tropical storm, tropical depression, tropical disturbance, hurricane |
| D．Tropical storm, tropical disturbance, tropical depression, hurricane |
| A．It breaks apart and forms tornadoes. | B．It returns to the ocean afterwards. |
| C．It moves more quickly. | D．It becomes less powerful. |
| A．take turns between | B．carry or |
| C．come from | D．cause trouble to |
| A．Six common hurricane names are often used. |
| B．An old name will be replaced every year. |
| C．Most of them are deadly and costly. |
| D．They didn’t have official names until 1953. |
7 . When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she fought to find a place to sleep on the street. But she beat these terrible setbacks（挫折） to win a highly competitive scholarship and gain entry （录入）into Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie, “Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”.
Liz Murray, a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower and determination. Liz grew up with two drug-addicted parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member of the family who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just l5 years old. The effect of that loss became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died. She decided to do something about it.
Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets. “What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding, and by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,” she wrote in her book Breaking Night.
She admitted that she used envy （妒忌）to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others, such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself that “next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS. “I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they love me all the time. ”
Liz wants moviegoers（常看电影的人） to come away with the idea that changing your life is “as simple as making a decision”.
1. In which order did the following things happen to Liz?
a. Her mother died of AIDS.
b. She got admitted into Harvad.
c. She worked at a petrol station.
d. The movie about her life was put on.
e. She had trouble finding a place to sleep.
| A．c, a, e, b, d | B．a, b, c, e, d |
| C．c, d, b, a, e | D．b, e, a, d, c |
| A．Envy and encouragement. |
| B．Willpower and determination. |
| C．Decisions and understanding |
| D．Love and respect for her parents. |
| A．She had little experience of social life. |
| B．She could hardly understand the society. |
| C．She would do something for her own life. |
| D．She needed to travel more around the world. |
| A．Why Liz loved her parents so much. |
| B．How Liz made efforts to change her life. |
| C．What a hard time Liz had in her childhood. |
| D．How Liz managed to enter Harvard University. |
Our story begins not in the icy cold waters of the North Atlantic, but rather thousands of miles away in Egypt. It is here, perhaps, that we can find the start of the mystery of the Titanic, in the year 1910, in the great city of Cairo.
One day, a famous professor of Egyptian history called Douglas Murray was staying in Cairo, when he was contacted by an American adventurer.
The American had something unusual to offer Murray, something that was certain to thrill him: a beautiful ancient Egyptian mummy case, containing the mummy of an Egyptian queen. It was over 3000 years old, but in beautiful condition — gold, with bright paintings on it. Murray was delighted with both the object and the asking price. He gave the man a cheque immediately.
The cheque was never cashed. That evening the American adventurer died. For his part, Murray arranged to have the treasure sent back to Britain. However, it was not long before he learnt more about the beautiful mummy case: On the walls of the tomb in which it had been discovered, there were messages which warned of terrible consequences to anyone who broke into the tomb. Murray was disbelieving of these warnings until a few days later, when a gun he was holding exploded in his hand, shattering his arm. The arm had to be cut off.
After the accident, Murray decided to return to his homeland. On the return journey, two of his companions died mysteriously, and two servants who had handled the mummy also passed away. The now-terrified Murray decided he would get rid of the cursed case as soon as he arrived in London. A lady he knew named Janet Jones said she would like it, so he gave it to her. Shortly afterwards, Jones’ mother died, and she herself caught a strange disease. She tried returning the mummy, but naturally Murray refused it. In the end, it was presented to the British Museum.
Even in the museum, the mummy apparently continued to cause strange events. A museum photographer died shortly after taking pictures of the new exhibit; and a manager also died for no apparent reason. In the end, the British Museum decided to get rid of the mummy too. They sold it to a collector in New York.
At the start of April 1912, arrangements for the transfer were complete, and the mummy began the journey to its new home. But the New Yorker never received the mummy or its case. For when the Titanic sank, one of the objects in its strong room was the mummy case. Or so they say.
1. In Paragraph 5, the underlined word “cursed” is closest in meaning to ________.
| A．forgotten | B．uncommon | C．unlucky | D．expensive |
a. The case was given to the British Museum.
b. Janet Jones caught a mysterious illness.
c. Murray’s arm was cut off.
d. The mummy case was sold to an American.
e. A man who took a picture of the case died.
f. Warnings were written on the tomb’s walls.
| A．f, c, b, a, e, d | B．c, f, b, a, e, d |
| C．d, f, b, c, a, e | D．f, a, c, b, e, d |
| A．At the British Museum. | B．In New York. |
| C．In Egypt. | D．Under the sea. |
| A．To introduce an important historical event to readers. |
| B．To entertain readers with a story of mystery. |
| C．To warn readers about the dangers of mummies’ curses. |
| D．To inform readers about the true cause of the Titanic’s sinking. |
