1 . Sitting under the national flag and separated from the media by a transparent glass wall, 50-year-old Jing Haipeng and 37-year-old Chen Dong appeared calm as they prepare to be part of, what is scheduled to be, China’s longest-ever manned spaceflight mission.

The two were scheduled to spend a total of 33-days in orbit. This would be 3rd trip into space for veteran Chinese astronaut Jing Haipeng. He has been on the Shenzhou-7 mission in 2008 and the Shenzhou-9 mission in 2012. The mission’s commander was also part of docking missions (太空对接任务) on both his previous space flights, giving him the experience needed to help dock Shenzhou-11 with Tiangong-2. Jing Haipeng said, “With the past 18 years of intensive professional astronaut training, together with the two previous experiences I’ve had flying in space, I’m very confident and determined that this mission is going to be a great success. Personally, I’m much calmer and in a more positive head-space than I was-during my previous missions. I’m very proud to be here to greet our country. I know my confidence is shared with the rest of our entire space program.”

With anunblemishedflight record of 15-himdred hours as a pilot, 37-year old Chen Dong was chosen in 2010 to be part of the next generation of Chinese astronauts. He too said he was confident of heading into the mission, even though it would be his first time in space. “I have the chance to join my first mission after 6-years of intensive training and learning. For me, the timing is perfect—not too early, but not too late either. When we train, Jing is my teacher. In life, he is my brother. He is so dedicated, and demands only the best from me and the others that he works with. Because of his experience, I am very lucky to be paired with him on this mission into space.” After being put into orbit, Jing Haipeng and Chen Dong were going to conduct a series of experiments, including testing the latest in China’s advanced life support systems, as well as scientific research.

Wu Ping deputy director of Chena’s Manned Space Program, explains the role of the two astronauts in space. “During their mission, the two are essentially back-ups to one-another. They are both capable of piloting the spacecraft, complex management, manual docking as well as handling any emergency situations or malfunctions (故障) .While in orbit, they are going to complete a number of maneuvers (演习) with Shenzhen-11, as well as orbital experiments, demonstrations and tests on human health in space.”

1. From what Jing Haipeng said we can infer ________.

A．previous experience matter a lot

B．the mission’s commander helped him

C．the Shenzhou-7 mission is to be docked with the Shcnzhou-9

D．he lacked confidence during the previous launching

2. The underlined word “unblemished” in Paragraph 3 can b replaced by ________.

A．continuous	B．surprising
C．perfect	D．significant

3. What made Chen Dong a qualified astronaut?

A．His confidence of heading into the mission.

B．His intensive training and learning.

C．His luck to be paired with Jing Haipeng.

D．His experience of conducting a series of experiment.

4. Where would you most probably see the text?

A．In a newspaper	B．In a science journal
C．In a travel magazine	D．In a government document

2 . It was the men’s figure skating final of the Winter Olympics when I was 16.I lay on our living room floor excitedly watching the battle between the Brains: American Brain Boitano facing Brian Orser in Canada. Both of them had been world champions. Both of them deserved to win. As a Northern Californian, I was for my fellow countryman. He also grew up in Northern California. We'd skated on the same ice. Brain performed successfully. The champion! I jumped in the air when his score went up.

But what happened next is what I'll never forget. Brain sat in front of the camera, surrounded by a group of journalists. Brain was talking about his career and his medal, talking to the whole world. A terrible sinking feeling went through me. I could never be in the Olympics,

I thought, I loved skating because I could express myself with my jumps and dances better than words.

What if journalists asked me questions like they asked Brain? I'd freeze up like the ice beneath my skates! And yet, there was so much I would love to say, about my family and all the support they'd given me and about following my dream of being a skating champion.

I worked very hard the next few years — on the ice and especially off. After journalists talked to me and although my heart pounded every time I spoke to them, I got to know them. And they got to know me. Slowly I learned that the best approach was simply to be myself, to be honest and gracious and do my best, just like on the ice, to answer their questions.

So when my big moment came four years after Brain's, I was ready. Remember: when you do the thing you fear most, you put an end to fear.

1. What information can we get from the first paragraph?

A．The author lives a difficult life.	B．The author comes from Canada.
C．The author preferred Boitano to win.	D．Orser won the gold medal.

2. What did Brain’s press conference remind the author of ?

A．Her fear of public speaking.

B．Her pride in Brain's victory.

C．Her dream of becoming a world champion.

D．Her hard training as an Olympic competitor.

3. What does the underlined word “off ” possibly refer to?

A．Challenges in school.	B．Contact with reporters.
C．Achievements in skating.	D．Competitions with others

4. What was the author ready to do according to the last paragraph?

A．Do her best to win.	B．Enter the Olympic final.
C．Make friends with reporters.	D．Talk to the press afterwards.

3 . My Grandpa has arthritis (关节炎), and it’s getting harder and harder for him to do certain things.

When I was a little girl, my grandpa would play this game with me. He would tell me to hold out my hand, and in it he would place a shiny silver quarter. Wow, I thought I had the world sitting in my hand. He would tell me that if I could keep it away from him, I could have it. I knew that I couldn’t keep it away from him, but I would always try. Then he would tell me that if I could get it away from him, then he would give it back to me.

I remember feeling so small compared with him, and I also remember feeling embarrassed because I knew there was no way that I could get that quarter from him. But I tried. I would climb down from my chair, with defeat weighing heavily on my back.

“Bug?” he’d say.

“Ya Grandpa?” I’d reply, trying to sound as sad as possible.

“Here.”

There in his outstretched hand would be my quarter. It always ended the same. He would always hand it over. I always knew that I would have to wait until the game was over to get my quarter, because he had so much pride and self-worth that he couldn’t lose to a 4-year-old girl. After I grew up, when we played the game again, I never wanted to defeat him. I just wanted to be with him. I loved to hear him tell me what I did wrong, and how to get it right the next time, and I loved the pride in his voice.

1. In which order did the following things happen during the game?
a. Grandpa placed a shining silver quarter in my hand.
b. Grandpa told me if I could get it away from him, I could keep it.
c. He gave the quarter over to me and I got it.
d. Grandpa told me if I could keep it away from him, I could keep it.

A．a d b c	B．a b c d
C．a b d c	D．a c d b

2. This passage is mainly about _______.

A．the writer’s grandpa’s serious arthritis

B．the writer’s deep feeling for her Grandpa

C．games between the grandpa and the writer

D．grandpa’s success in all games

3. Why didn’t the writer want to defeat her grandpa?

A．She couldn’t defeat her grandpa.

B．She liked to see his pride.

C．She didn’t want to shame her grandpa.

D．She was afraid that Grandpa wouldn’t play with her.

4 . The Internet brings us many advantages.

With the Internet, people can send and receive e-mails. On the Internet, people can skim over news. Using the Telnet, the user anywhere on the Internet can log into any other machine on which he has an account. It is possible to use the FTP program to copy files from one machine on the Internet to another.

But the Internet also brings us troubles.

Internet use seems to cause a fall in psychological (心理的) health, according to research at Carnegie Mellon University. Even people who spent just a few hours a week on the Internet experienced more depression and loneliness than those who logged on less often, the two-year study showed. And it wasn’t that people who were already feeling bad spent more time on the Internet, but that using the Net actually seemed to cause the bad feelings.

Researchers are puzzling over the results, which were completely opposite to what they had expected. They expected that the Net would prove socially healthier than television, since the Net allows users to choose their information and to communicate with others.

The fact that Internet use reduces time used for family and friends may be the reason for the drop in health, researchers said. Faceless, bodiless “virtual” (虚拟的) communication may be less psychologically satisfying than actual conversations, and the relationships formed through it may not be so deep. Another possibility is that exposure to the wider world through the Net makes users less satisfied with their lives.

“But it’s important to remember this is not about the technology; it’s about how it is used,” said one of the researchers. “It really points to the need for considering social factors (因素) when you design new inventions.”

1. The writer mainly wants to tell us that _________.

A．the Internet can bring people many advantages

B．the Internet use may cause psychological problems

C．the Internet users are not satisfied with their lives

D．we shouldn’t use the Internet

2. Why are the researchers puzzling over the results?

A．Because the results were completely different from what they had thought.

B．Because the Net proved socially healthier than television.

C．Because the Internet users were all healthier.

D．Because the Internet users experienced less depression and loneliness.

3. What may be the reasons why the Internet use causes a fall in psychological health?

A．Internet use reduces time used for family and friends.

B．Virtual communication is less psychologically satisfying than actual conversations.

C．Exposure to the wider world through the Net makes users less satisfied with their lives.

D．All the above.

4. According to the passage, which of the following is TRUE?

A．Users anywhere on the Internet can log into any other machine.

B．The two-year study showed that using the Net seemed to cause the bad feelings.

C．People who are already feeling bad spend much more time on the Internet.

D．Relationships formed through the Internet are usually deep.

5. What does the underlined part in the last paragraph mean?

A．What matters is not the technology but how it is used.

B．This passage is not about the technology but about how it is used.

C．We should remember to learn about the technology.

D．We should remember to learn how to use computers.

5 . Guide to four of the most exciting new adventure trips for 2008:
Tribal (部落的) India
Attractions: Myths and Mountains
Length: 17 days
Details: For the travelers who has already visited the best-known India sites, this new trip visits a relatively unexplored state in central India ruled by the Vindhyachal Range and known for its wildlife, waterfalls, ancient sites and tribal culture.
Departure Time(出发时间): Feb. 17
Price: $7,530
Information: 800-670-6984; myths.com
Across Patagonia: From the Andes to the Ocean
Attractions: Boundless Journeys
Length: 8 days
Details: The newest route across Patagonia starts high in the Argentine Andes and follows the Futaleufu River into Chile all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Travelers start by trekking along the river, changing to rafts before taking up kayaks for the final leg.
Departure Time: March 5
Price: $2,995
Information: 800-941-8010; boundless.com
Sahara
Attractions: International Expeditions
Length: 18 days
Details: Remember the movie Ishtar? Now you, too, can spend days wandering in the desert, just like Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman. Designed for rugged travelers, the camping expedition crosses 1,500 miles of Niger’s Sahara in four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Departure Time: Nov. 17
Price: $3,998
Information: 800-633-4734; ietravel.com
Dalmatian Coast Biking
Attractions: Backroads
Length: 7 days
Details: The company’s first foray into Croatia follows scenic roadways across four islands between Dubrovnik and Split.
Departure Time: May 7
Price: $2,298
Information: 800-462-2848; backroads.com
1. The passage is mainly about _______.

A．suggestions on the adventure trips in America in 2008

B．the guide to several adventure trips around the world

C．the attractions in India

D．the prices of four most exciting adventure trips next year

2. A trip across Patagonia starts _______.

A．on Feb. 17	B．on March 5
C．on Nov. 17	D．in January

3. Which trip costs the least?

A．Tribal India.	B．Crossing Patagonia.
C．Sahara.	D．Dalmatian Coast Biking.

6 . The Indian government may use 3D paintings as virtual speed-breakers on major highways and roads, in an attempt to check speeding and careless driving，and eventually make its deadly roads a little safer. “We are trying out 3D paintings used as virtual speed breakers to avoid unnecessary requirements of speed breakers,” India’s transport minister Nitin Gadkari tweeted.

The visual illusions (幻象) are supposed to encourage drivers to slow down automatically. Earlier this month, India had ordered the removal of all speed breakers from highways, which are considered to be a danger to safety for high-speed vehicles.

India has the highest number of road accident deaths in the world. According to the World Health Organisation, over 200,00 people are killed by road accidents due to poor application of road safety laws. This is considerably higher than its official figures of 141,526 for 2014.

The use of visual illusions as speed breakers was first pioneered in the American city of Philadelphia in 2008, as part of a campaign against speeding motorists. The technique has also been tried out in China to create floating 3D crossings.

In India, cities such as Ahmedabad and Chennai have already experimented with 3D zebra crossings in the last one year. In Ahmedabad for instance, two artists, mother and daughter have painted 3D crosswalks in the first few months of this year. The artists say their motto is “to increase the attention of drivers”, and that the concept has been successfully tested in zones where accidents easily occur on a highway.

However, critics argue that once drivers know that these speed breakers are visual illusions, they may ignore them. Others also point out that India’s decision does not consider the safety of a large number of walkers. In the end, the new policy may be just one step towards improving road safety.

1. According to the passage, 3D paintings as virtual speed breakers in India aims to       .

A．Replace all speed breakers from highways.

B．Encourage essential requirements of speed breakers.

C．Check speeding and careless driving on all highways.

D．Remind divers to speed down voluntarily for road safety.

2. What caused the high number of road accident deaths in India?

A．Speeding motorists.	B．Floating 3D crossings.
C．Free use of visual illusions.	D．Bad application of traffic laws.

3. The author explains the experiment of 3D zebra crossings in India by       .

A．giving examples.	B．analysing causes.
C．providing figures.	D．making comparisons.

4. What’s the author’s attitude towards 3D zebra crossings?

A．subjective.	B．objective.
C．supportive.	D．critical.

7 . What is success? I am not going to try to explain success. I think a precise meaning is impossible! Is it winning a Gold Medal at the Olympic Games or winning Wimbledon, or being awarded a Nobel Prize? What else? I believe personal success could be anything at all- it does not have to involve public recognition. Who is more successful? A millionaire who is unhappy, or an unnoticed person, who has led a simple, quiet, sincere and happy life? The simplest definition of success, I think, is “to set out to do something and to succeed in doing it.

The first step on the road to success starts with belief. Believe you can succeed and you will. Achieving success in whatever endeavor(努力)you choose may be the goal of life; because it gives you freedom from worry. Could that be?

Success means different things to every one of us. Some people believe it is measured in financial term; others believe it is helping others rather than helping themselves. However, most people are motivated to a great extend by public recognition. How many people are really happy? How many people are really doing what they want to with their lives? Incidentally, to imagine makes us different from animals.

Most important of all, I believe success is a matter of personal growth. If every day you are developing or growing just a millimeter, I believe one is successful. Just being a slightly better person each day for me is success. I’ve got a very long way to go them!

Finally, always remember success is a process and is not simply a matter of arriving at a destination. It’s the journey that really matters. Success is what you become in the often very difficult and dangerous journey down the river of life.

1. What is personal success according to the author?

A．Winning public recognition

B．Being an unhappy millionaire

C．Something impossible to define simply

D．Succeeding in doing what you want

2. Which plays an important role in your success?

A．Intelligence	B．Confidence
C．Wealth	D．Kindness

3. According to he text, humans are different from animals in_______.

A．belief	B．freedom
C．imagination	D．success

4. What can be the best title for the text?

A．What is success	B．No true success
C．How to be successful	D．Success is reaching a destination

8 . Choosing the right college for you is not so easy. You should have a general idea of what you want and don’t want. The idea can guide you to find what fits your needs best.    1    

Think about what major you want to study in college. If you know that, just look at colleges that have your major.    2    So think carefully about your major and interests before choosing one.

Where the college is located matters. Anyone who tells you the location isn’t important is lying.    3    If you look forward to working in the publishing industry, New York may be your best bet. If your parents want you to stay close to home, please don’t consider anywhere that requires a plane ticket to get to.

Think about how much you can afford. Are your parents paying for your education? If so, how much are they willing to spend? Do you have to contribute anything? Financial aid and scholarship exist, but don’t count on anything.    4    These are all things to consider before you fall in love with a college.

Make sure you’re going to spend time with the right people.The cool thing about college is that each different one attracts different kinds of people. For the first thing in your life, you get to choose where you get to spend your time and who you get to spend it with.    5    Make sure that the people you’re with for four years are your kind of people.

A．College is about learning what you love.

B．You’d better choose a major that is popular.

C．Go to the college with some people you like.

D．Are you willing to go into major debt over a school?

E．Remember, above all, it’s the people that make the place.

F．If you don’t like cold weather, stay away from northern schools.

G．These guidelines will help figure out what college you want to go to.

9 . I often teach about happiness and what has become clear is this: There are some qualities always unhappy people have. Here are some of them.
Happy people know life can be hard and tend to live through hard times. They take responsibility for how they got themselves into a mess, and focus on getting themselves out of it as soon as possible. Unhappy people see themselves as victims of life and stay stuck in the“look what happened to me” attitude instead of finding a way through and out to the other side.
Most happy people believe in the good in people instead of thinking everyone is out to get them. Generally open and friendly towards people they meet, happy people foster (培养) a sense of community around themselves and meet new people with all open heart. Unhappy people are distrustful of most people they meet and don’t think strangers can be trusted. Unfortunately, this behavior slowly closes all chances of meeting new friends.
Unhappy people believe someone else’s good fortune steals from their own. They believe there’s not enough goodness to go around and always compare others’against theirs. This leads to jealousy (嫉妒). Happy people know that others’good luck and circumstance are just signs of what they also can achieve if they try hard enough. They believe in unlimited possibilities and don’t get stuck in thinking one person’s good fortune limits their possible outcome in life.
There’s only so much space between the two ears. Unhappy people fill that space with constant worry and fear. Happy people experience fear and worry too, but make an important difference between feeling it and living with it. When fear or worry crosses a happy person’s mind, they’ll ask themselves if there’s an action they can take to prevent their fear or worry from happening and they take it. If not, they realize they’re spinning in fear and they lay it down.
1. Paragraph 2 mainly shows that unhappy people tend to _______________.

A．focus on what they really want

B．get worried about what will happen

C．stay focused on the past misfortunes

D．find a way to live through hard times

2. According to paragraph 3 and 4, unhappy people ______________.

A．like making some new friends

B．hate seeing others with good fortune

C．are more likely to be cheated by strangers

D．believe they can get good luck by working hard

3. What is implied about happy people?

A．They don’t think life is hard.

B．They hardly ever fear anything.

C．They try to get out of their fear or worries.

D．They don’t believe in every people they meet.

4. How is the text mainly developed?

A．By making comparisons.

B．By giving examples.

C．By showing detailed data.

D．By proving some theories.

10 . Most Beautiful of All

    1     Autumn was in the air. Rich, pleasant reds, painted by nature’s hand, were coloring some of the trees. On the ground a carpet of dry leaves had begun to form along the path.     2     High in the sky we noticed a V-shaped flock of birds heading south for the winter. As we walked along, I smiled. Beauty was all around us. It felt so good to be out in nature. I felt blessed to be watching nature’s glorious creation at its best.

    3     She was an elderly lady with gray hair. She wore old jeans and work boots. Her sweater was worn out in places. She was carrying a trash bag in one hand and a pointed stick with a nail driven through it in the other. As she slowly made her way towards us, she stopped to jab (刺) a piece of trash that she had seen on the ground with her stick.     4     When we met she smiled and said hello to us. Her teeth were cracked and worn, but her voice was as youthful as I had heard in many a day. We talked for a bit and I thanked her for making our nature more beautiful with her work. She smiled again and said, “I just do what I can before continuing down the path.”

    5     May we all have as lovely a life as her.

A．They smelled wonderful and crunched (发出碎裂声) under our feet as we walked along.

B．Then, she approached and asked us whether we had any trash.

C．I decided to take my sons for a walk the other day.

D．As is often the case, we are too busy to find the beauty of nature.

E．As we turned a corner along the walking trail, I noticed a woman slowly making her way towards us.

F．Of all the things I saw that day, she was the most beautiful.

G．Then, quickly and neatly, she placed it in the trash bag.