1 . After giving a talk at a high school, I was asked to pay a visit to a spe­cial student. An illness had kept the boy home, but he had expressed an interest in meeting me. I was told it would mean a great deal to him, so I agreed.
During the nine-mile drive to his home, I found out something about Matthew. He had muscular dystrophy (肌肉萎缩症). When he was born, the doctor told his parents that he would not live to five, and then they were told he would not make it to ten. Now he was thirteen. He wanted to meet me because I was a gold-medal power lifter, and I knew about overcoming obstacles and going for my dreams.
I spent over an hour talking to Matthew. _____________________” He spoke about winning and succeeding and going for his dreams. Obviously, he knew what he was talking about. He didn’t mention that his classmates had made fun of him because he was different. He just talked about his hopes for the future, and how one day he wanted to lift weights with me. When we had finished talking, I went to my briefcase and pulled out the first gold medal I had won and put it around his neck. I told him he was more of a winner and knew more about success and overcoming obstacles than I ever would. He looked at it for a moment, then took it off and handed it back to me. He said, “You are a champion. You earned that medal. Someday when I get to the Olympics and win my own medal, I will show it to you.”
Last summer I received a letter from Matthew’s parents telling me that Matthew had passed away. They wanted me to have a letter he had written to me a few days before:
Dear Dick,
My mum said I should send you a thank-you letter for the picture you sent me. I also want to let you know that the doctors tell me that I don’t have long to live any more, but I still smile as much as I can.
I told you someday that I would go to the Olympics and win a gold medal, but I know now I will never get to do that. However, I know I’m a champion, and God knows that too. When I get to Heaven, God will give me my medal and when you get there, I will show it to you. Thank you for loving me.
Your friend,
Matthew
1. The boy looked forward to meeting the author because _________.

A．he was also good at weight lifting

B．he wanted to get to the Olympics and win a medal

C．he was one of the author’s fans

D．he admired the author very much

2. The underlined sentence in the third paragraph probably means that _______.

A．the boy never complained about how unlucky he was to have this disease

B．the boy never complained about not being able to go to school

C．the boy never complained why the author had never come to see him before

D．the boy never complained about not getting a medal

3. From the passage we learn that _________.

A．Matthew was an athlete

B．Matthew was an optimistic and determined boy

C．The author used to have the same disease as Matthew had

D．Matthew became a champion before he died

4. Matthew didn’t accept the author’s medal because _________.

A．he thought it was too expensive

B．he was sure that he could win one in the future

C．he thought it was of no use to him as he would die soon

D．he would not be pitied by others

5. What would be the best title for this passage?

A．A sick boy.	B．A special friend.
C．A real champion.	D．A famous athlete.

2 .    Adrian’s “Amazing Race” started early when his parents realized that he, as a baby, couldn’t hear a thing, not even loud noises. In a special school for the hearing-impaired, he learned sign language and got to mix with other disabled children. However, the sight of all the disabled children communicating with one another upset his mother. She wanted him to lead a normal life. So after speaking to an advisor, she sent him to private classes where he learned to read lips and pronounce words.

Later on, Adrian’s parents decided to send him to a regular school. But the headmaster tried to prevent them from doing so, saying regular school couldn’t take care of a special needs students. His parents were determined to take the risk and push him hard to go through his work everyday because they wanted to prove that, given the opportunity, he could do anything. Adrian made the grade and got accepted. It was a big challenge. The pace(节奏) was faster so he had to sit at the front of the class and really pay attention to the teacher, which wasn’t always easy. But he stuck to it and did a lot of extra work after school.

The efforts made by Adrian and his parents paid off. Adrian graduated with good grades and got into a top high school. He also achieved a lot in life outside school. He developed a love for the outdoors and went to Nepal to climb mountains. He even entered the World Yacht Race 05/06—being the first hearing-impaired Asian to do so.

But none of these achievements would have been possible without one of the most important lessons from his mother.” “If you believe in yourself and work hard, you can achieve great results.” she often said.

1. How did Adrian communicate with other children in the special school?

A．By speaking.	B．By using sign language.
C．By reading lips.	D．By making loud noises.

2. Adrian’s parents decided to send him to a regular school because          .

A．they wanted him to live a normal life

B．they wanted to prove the headmaster wrong

C．he wouldn’t mix with other disabled children

D．he wasn’t taken good care of in the special school

3. How did Adrian finally succeed in his study?

A．He did a lot of outdoor activities.

B．He was pushed hard to study every day.

C．He attended private classes after school.

D．He worked very hard both in and after class.

4. Why is Adrian’s life described as an “Amazing Race”?

A．He did very well in his study.

B．He succeeded in entering a regular school.

C．He reached his goals in spite of his disability.

D．He took part in the World Yacht Race 05/06.

3 . D
Parents who help their children with homework may actually be bringing down their school grades. Other forms of prenatal involvement, including volunteering at school and observing a child's class, also fail to help, according to the most recent study on the topic.
The findings challenge a key principle of modern parenting(养育子女) where schools except them to act as partners in their children's education. Previous generations concentrated on getting children to school on time, fed, dressed and ready to learn.
Kaith Robinson, the author of the study, said, "I really don't know if the public is ready for this but there are some ways parents can be involved in their kids' education that leads to declines in their academic performance. One of the things that was consistently negative was parents' help with homework." Robinson suggested that may be because parents themselves struggle to understand the task." They may either not remember the material their kids are studying now, or in some cases never learnt it themselves, but they're still offering advice."
Robinson assessed parental involvement performance and found one of the most damaging things a parent could do was to punish their children for poor marks. In general, about 20% of parental involvement was positive, about 45% negative and the rest statistically insignificant.
Common sense suggests it was a good thing for parents to get involved because "children with good academic success do have involved parents ", admitted Robinson. But he argued that this did not prove parental involvement was the root cause of that success." A big surprise was that Asian-American parents whose kids are doing so well in school hardly involved. They took a more reasonable approach, conveying to their children how success at school could improve their lives."
1. The underlined expression "parental involvement " in Paragraph 1 probably means       .

A．parents' expectation on children's health

B．parents' participation in children's education

C．parents' control over children's life

D．parents' plan for children's future

2. What is the major finding of Robinson's study ?

A．Modern parents raise children in a more scientific way.

B．Punishing kids for bad marks is mentally damaging.

C．Parental involvement is not so beneficial as expected.

D．Parents are not able to help with children’s homework.

3. The example of Asian-American parents implies that parents should       .

A．help children realize the importance of schooling

B．set a specific life goal for their children

C．spend more time improving their own lives

D．take a more active part in school management

4 . It’s 5:00 in the morning when the alarm(闹钟)rings in my ears. I roll out of bed and walk blindly through the dark into the bathroom. I turn on the light and put on my glasses. The house is still as I walk downstairs while my husband and three kids sleep peacefully. Usually I go for a long run, but today I choose my favorite exercise DVD, Insanity. Sweat pours down my face and into my eyes. My heart races as I force my body to finish each movement. As I near the end of the exercise, I feel extremely tired, but a smile is on my face. It’s not a smile because the DVD is over, but a smile of success from pushing my body to its extreme limit.

Some people enjoy shopping, smoking, food, work, or even chocolate. But I need exercise to get through each day. Some shake heads when they see me run through the town. Others get hurt when I refuse to try just one bite of their grandmother’s chocolate cake. They raise their eyebrows, surprised by my ＂no thank you＂, or by my choice to have a salad. Over the years, I have learned it’s okay to just say ＂no＂. I shouldn’t feel sorry for refusing food that I don’t want to eat.

So what drives me to roll out of bed at 5:00 a.m.? What gives me the reason to just say no to ice cream? Commitment. A commitment to change my life with a way that reduces daily anxiety, increases self-confidence and energy, extends life and above all improves my body shape. This is the point where a smile appears on my face as I look at myself in the mirror or try on my favorite pair of jeans that now fit just right. It’s through commitment and sweat that I can make a difference within myself inside and out.

1. Why is there a smile on the author’s face in the morning?

A．Because she sees her family sleeping peacefully.

B．Because she finishes her favorite exercise.

C．Because she enjoys the interesting DVD

D．Because she feels a sense of achievement.

2. Which of the following is true according to Paragraph 2?

A．She doesn’t treat others politely.

B．She likes to make others surprised.

C．Others don’t understand what she does.

D．Others try to help her by offering her food.

3. What does the underlined word ＂commitment＂ in the last paragraph mean?

A．Good health.	B．Firm belief.
C．A strong power.	D．A regular habit.

4. What can we learn about the author from the text?

A．She acts in a strange way.

B．She wants to look different from others.

C．She aims to develop a good body shape.

D．She has difficulty getting along with others.

5 . IS IT TIME TO GET MP3?
Your computer has been playing music for years, one CD at a time. Now hundreds of songs can be stored in your PC (personal computer) if they’re in the MP3 format.
What is it?
MP3 compresses music into small computer friendly files. You access MP3 music several ways : Music can be downloaded from websites that have converted vast music libraries into MP3. Or you can prerecord CDs into your PC and convert songs in minutes into MP3. Once MP3 music is on your PC’s hard drive, you can play it through your computer’s speakers, “burn” it onto blank CDs or exchange MP3 files with friends using E-mail.
How much?
Software needed to play and convert MP3 music is often free. It comes preinstalled on most new computers or can be downloaded from many websites, including MP3. com. Some MP3 sites are free. Just type “MP3 sites” into any search engine. The popular MP3 players start at around $50and can hold hundreds of songs. A blank CD on which you can record music costs about a dollar.
Advantages
MP3 turns your home PC into a tape recorder. Tiny MP3 players are the size of a card, making it easy to take hundreds of songs with you.
Disadvantages
You may find that music at many sites is limited. And some only allow you to listen rather than download offerings. Others let you download music that then can’t be copied to MP3 players. And a growing number of new CDs make it impossible to copy songs to a computer.
1. How can you get MP3 music?

A．By turning your home PC into a tape recorder

B．By taking your own music or songs with you

C．By copying songs to a PC through the speakers.

D．By downloading from websites which have converted music libraries into MP3.

2. Which is NOT true to the passage?

A．Software needed to play and convert MP3 music is often free of charge.

B．MP3 music can be exchanged with friends by e-mail.

C．MP3 music can be downloaded for free at any site.

D．A greater number of new CDs make it impossible to copy songs to a computer.

3. The underlined word “burn” probably means_____.

A．fire

B．copy

C．download

D．play

4. How much will you pay for a MP3 player?

A．Free of charge.	B．Free downloading.
C．At about fifty dollars.	D．About a dollar.

6 . 根据短文内容,从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中的两项为多余选项。UrbanizationUntil relatively recently, the vast majority of human being lived and died without ever seeing a city. The first city was probably founded no more than 5,500 years ago.    1    In fact, nearly everyone lived on farms or in tiny rural (乡村的) villages. It was not until the 20th century that Great Britain became the first urban society in history—a society in which the majority of people live in cities and do not farm for a living.Britain was only the beginning.    2    The process of urbanization—the migration (迁徙) of people from the countryside to the city—was the result of modernization, which has rapidly transformed how people live and where they live.In 1900, fewer than 40% of Americans lived in urban areas. Today, over 82% of Americans live in cities. Only about 2% live on farms.    3    Large cities were impossible until agriculture became industrialized. Even in advanced agricultural societies, it took about ninety­five people on farms to feed five people in cities.    4    Until modern times, those living in cities were mainly the ruling elite (精英) and the servants, laborers and professionals who served them. Cities survived by taxing farmers and were limited in size by the amount of surplus（过剩）food that the rural population produced and by the ability to move this surplus from farm to city.Over the past two centuries, the Industrial Revolution has broken this balance between the city and the country.    5    Today, instead of needing ninety­five farmers to feed five city people, one American farmer is able to feed more than a hundred non­farmers.

A．That kept cities very small.

B．The rest live in small towns.

C．The effects of urban living on people should be considered.

D．Soon many other industrial nations became urban societies.

E．But even 200 years ago, only a few people could live in cities.

F．Modernization drew people to the cities and made farmers more productive.

G．Modern cities have destroyed social relations and the health of human beings.

7 . The Best of Friends
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image(印象)of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past.” We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seen to be about their families,” said one member of the research team.” They’re expected to be rebellious(叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation(商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends.” My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. ”I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21,agrees.”Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenagers rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments,” Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.”
1. What is the popular images of teenagers today?

A．They worry about school

B．They dislike living with their parents

C．They have to be locked in to avoid troubles

D．They quarrel a lot with other family members

2. The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ___

A．share family responsibility	B．cause trouble in their families
C．go boating with their family	D．make family decisions

3. Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents___.

A．go to clubs more often with their children

B．are much stricter with their children

C．care less about their children’s life

D．give their children more freedom

4. According to the authour,teenage rebellion____.

A．may be a false belief	B．is common nowadays
C．existed only in the 1960s	D．resulted from changes in families

5. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Negotiation in family	B．Education in family
C．Harmony in family	D．Teenage trouble in family

8 . The blue tits(山雀) have been inspecting the nest-box again this year. The male is the house-hunter but the female will make the final choice. He lands at the hole and turns his head to expose his white cheeks as a signal to attract the female from where she has been feeding.
Among many birds that nest in holes, the male has a light-coloured patch on its plumage(鸟羽) which acts as signal for drawing the female’s attention to a suitable nesting-place. Unlike the blue tit, the redstart(红尾鸲) may be only the male that strikingly coloured and the female is not beautiful.
A few years ago I was lucky enough to spot a pair of redstarts in action in a Walsh wood. The male was leading an interested female to holes that he had previously(先前) checked out. He sat at the entrance of each hole and put his head on to show off his white forehead, or his head in to reveal(显露) his tail.
If the female failed to react to his visual signals, the male sometimes sang for extra effect, while gliding towards her on spread wings and tail. Once the female accepts by following the male through the hole the displays stop, you must be at the right place at the right time to watch them.
1. How do the blue tits choose their nest?

A．They choose their nest together.

B．The male chooses their nest.

C．The house-hunter chooses their nest.

D．The female chooses their nest.

2. The writer was lucky to see ________.

A．how the male made his tricks

B．how an interested female played with the male happily

C．what the male displayed and won the female

D．that the male tried his best but failed to attract the female

3. You can spot a pair of redstarts in a Walsh wood ________.

A．at any time

B．regularly

C．in April

D．occasionally

4. The writer is probably ________.

A．a bird expert	B．a bird-hunter
C．a bird raiser	D．a scientist

9 . In a great many cities, hundreds of people ride bikes to work every day.   In New York, some bike riders have even formed a group called Bike for a Better City.   They declare that if more people rode bikes to work, there would be fewer automobiles in the downtown part of the city and so less dirty air from car engines.

For several years, this group had been trying to get the city government to help bike riders.   For example, they want the city to draw special lanes(车道) for bikes on some of the main streets, because when bike riders must use the same lanes as cars there are accidents.   Bike for a Better City feels that if there were special lanes, more people would use bikes.

But no bike lanes have been drawn. Not everyone thinks it is a good idea—they say it will slow traffic. Some store owners on the main streets don't like the idea—they say that if there is less traffic, they will have less business.

The city government has not yet decided what to do.     It wants to keep everyone happy.   On weekends, Central Park—the largest place open ground in New York—is closed to cars, and the roads may be used by bikes only.

1. In New York, a group of bike riders        ．

A．are keeping practicing for health

B．have no cars of their own

C．are complaining there are not enough buses

D．are trying to settle the problem of air pollution

2. The bike riders suggest that         ．

A．bikes should be used instead of cars

B．bike lanes should be drawn

C．fewer buses or cars should be used

D．the number of special lanes should be decreased

3. The advantage of the special lanes is that        ．

A．they will make cars and buses run slowly

B．they will make it easier for bike riders to go to parks

C．they will make the city more beautiful

D．they will prevent accidents