1 . My father was Chief engineer of a merchant ship, which was sunk in Word War II. The book Night of the U-boats told the story.

Memories

In September, 1940, my mother, sister and I went to Swansea, where my father’s ship was getting ready to sail. We brought him a family photograph to be kept with him at all times and keep him sale.

Then I remember my mother lying lace down, sobbing. She had heard from a friend that the ship had been sunk by a torpedo.

I can remember the arrival of the telegram, which in those days always brought had new. My grandmother opened it. It read, “Safe, Love Ted.”

My most vivid memory Is being woken and brought down to sit o my father’s knee, his arm in a bandage.

He was judged unfit to return to sea and took a shore job in Glasgow for the rest of the war. For as long as I can remember, he had a weak heart. Mother said it was caused by the torpedoes. He said it was because of the cigarettes. Whichever, he died suddenly in his early 50s.

Ten years later I read Night of the U-bouts and was able to complete the story.

Torpedo

One torpedo struck the ship. Father was in the engine room, where the third engineer was killed. He shut down the engines to slow the ship making it easier for it to be abandoned.

By the time he got on deck he was alone. Every lifeboat was gone except one which had stuck fast. When he tried to cut it free it swung against the ship, injuring his hand and arm. He had no choice but to jump — still with the photograph in his pocket.

Three days later, he and other survivors were safe in Glasgow. All 23 with him signed the back of the photograph.

In my room is the book and the photograph. Often, glass in hand, I have wondered how I would have dealt with an explosion, a sinking ship, a jump into a vast ocean rind a wait for rescue? Lest we forget, I have some more whisky and toast the heroes of the war.

1. We can infer that the mother and children went to Swansea ________.

A．to meet a friend	B．to see the father off
C．to take a family photo	D．to enjoy the sailing of the ship

2. What did the author learn about the father from the telegram?

A．he was still alive.	B．His knee was broken.
C．His ship had been sunk.	D．He had arrived in Glasgow.

3. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 6 refers to the father’s ________.

A．weak heart	B．taking a shore job
C．failure to return to sea	D．injury caused by a torpedo

4. What can we know about the author’s father after his ship was attacked?

A．He lost his arm.	B．He repaired the engines.
C．He managed to take a lifeboat.	D．He was the last to leave the ship.

5. What is the passage mainly about?

A．A group of forgotten heroes	B．A book describing a terrifying battle.
C．A ship engineer’s wartime experience.	D．A merchant’s memories of a sea rescue.

2 . In the mid-1950s, I was a somewhat bored early-adolescent male student who believed that doing any more than necessary was wasted effort. One day, this approach threw me into embarrassment
In Mrs. Totten’s eighth-grade math class at Central Avenue School in Anderson, Indiana, we were learning to add and subtract decimals (小数).
Our teacher typically assigned daily homework, which would be recited in class the following day. On most days, our grades were based on our oral answer to homework questions.
Mrs. Totten usually walked up and down the rows of desks requesting answers from student after student in the order the questions had appeared on our homework sheets. She would start either at the front or the back of the classroom and work toward the other end.
Since I was seated near the middle of about 35 students, it was easy to figure out which questions I might have to answer. This particular time, I had completed my usual two or three problems according to my calculations.
What I failed to expect was that several students were absent, which threw off my estimate. As Mrs. Totten made her way from the beginning of the class，I desperately tried to determine which math problem I would get. I tried to work it out before she got to me, but I had brain freeze and couldn’t function.
When Mrs. Totten reached my desk，she asked what answer I’d got for problem No. 14. “I…I didn’t get anything,”   I answered，and my face felt warm.
“Correct,” she said.
It turned out that the correct answer was zero.
What did I learn that day? First, always do all your homework. Second, in real life it isn’t always what you say but how you say it that matters. Third，I would never make it as a mathematician.
If I could choose one school day that taught me the most, it would be that one.
1. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 indicate?

A．It is wise to value one’s time.

B．It is important to make an effort

C．It is right to stick to one’s belief.

D．It is enough to do the necessary.

2. Usually, Mrs. Totten asked her students to _______.

A．recite their homework together

B．grade their homework themselves

C．answer their homework questions orally

D．check the answers to their homework questions

3. The author could work out which questions to answer since the teacher always _______.

A．asked questions in a regular way

B．walked up and down when asking questions

C．chose two or three questions for the students

D．requested her students to finish their usual questions

4. The author failed to get the questions he had expected because _______.

A．the class didn’t begin as usual

B．several students didn’t come to school

C．he didn’t try hard to make his estimate

D．Mrs. Totten didn’t start from the back of the class

5. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A．An Unforgettable Teacher

B．A Future Mathematician

C．An Effective Approach

D．A Valuable Lesson

3 . People diet to look more attractive. Fish diet to avoid being beaten up, thrown out of their social group, and getting eaten as a result. That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists.
The research team has discovered that subordinate (隶属的)fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors. “In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals, a male and female, had breeding(繁殖) rights within the group, ”explains Marian Wong. “All other group members are non-breeding females, each being 5–10% smaller than its next largest competitor. We wanted to find out how they keep this size separation.”
The reason for the size difference was easy to see. Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5–10% of the size of its larger competitor, it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group. More often than not, the evicted fish is then eaten up.
It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish. Whether they did so voluntarily，by limiting how much they ate, was not clear. The research team decided to do an experiment. They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened. To their surprise，the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered，clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights, over having a feast.
The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group. Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves, so keeping their competitors small.
While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious, Dr. Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understanding how hierarchical (等级的) societies remain stable.
The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive(排他的) to humans. “As yet, we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature,” the researchers comment. “Data on human dieting suggests that, while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness, rarely does it improve long term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females’ own ideal.”
1. When a goby grows to within 5–10% of the size of its larger competitor, it_______.

A．faces danger	B．has breeding rights
C．eats its competitor	D．leaves the group itself

2. The underlined words “the evicted fish” in Paragraph 3 refer to _______.

A．the fish beaten up	B．the fish found out
C．the fish fattened up	D．the fish driven away

3. The experiment showed that the smaller fish_______.

A．fought over a feast	B．went on diet willingly
C．preferred some extra food	D．challenged the boss fish

4. What is the text mainly about?

A．Fish dieting and human dieting.	B．Dieting and health.
C．Human dieting.	D．Fish dieting.