1 . It is hard to say the first day of school in the United States because when the first day of school is and what happens on the first day of school usually are different by districts（地区）.
The first day of school for many school districts in different states is on the day after the first Monday in September. In some other school districts, school begins in mid-to-late August. For example, the Denver, Colorado schools go back in mid-August and schools in Cleveland, Ohio start back usually one week before the first Monday in September. The Boston, Chicago, New York City and San Diego schools start back on the Tuesday or Wednesday after the first Monday in September.
Schools in Cleveland, Ohio used to start the school year on the day after the first Monday in September, but in the 1976-1977 and 1977-1978 academic years, the school year was affected by several bad snowstorms, extreme cold. In the 1978-1979 school year, the Ohio Department of Education moved the start of the year to late August, one week before the first Monday in September. This went into effect in the 1980-1981 school year.
In most school districts in Utah, the school year starts between August 25 and August 30, and goes until the last week of May or the first week in June next year.
In American high schools, the freshmen class usually goes back one or two days before the rest of the school body for an orientation（迎新）period. An orientation period helps the freshmen get familiar with their new school, its rules, and surroundings.
In some schools, the freshmen classes have their photographs taken for identification purposes. Some high schools have tried to make the first week of school fun for incoming freshmen.
1. According to the passage, which schools start their school year the earliest?| A．Schools in Denver. |
| B．Schools in Cleveland. |
| C．Schools in New York City. |
| D．Schools in Boston. |
| A．Because of some political events. |
| B．Because of the entrance examinations. |
| C．Because of the increasing number of students. |
| D．Because of the extreme weather. |
| A．About seven months. |
| B．About eight months. |
| C．About nine months. |
| D．About ten months. |
| A．a book about one's life story |
| B．an official website of education |
| C．an advertisement in a newspaper |
| D．a sports magazine |
2 . How often do you exercise? A new study found that most kids aged 12 to 15 weren't getting enough physical activity. The results were based on about 800 kids. As part of the study, the kids tracked and reported on their own activity levels, and took physical exams.
U. S. fitness guidelines suggest an hour or more of physical activity every day. According to the study, only 1in 4 U.S. kids get enough physical activity.
"It's certainly worrying to see that our kids have such a limited amount of physical activity each day,” said Dr. Stephen Pont. He is an expert on children's health.
Few kids in the study met the guidelines on physical activity that raises the heart rate and makes people breathe harder. Overall, about 25% said they got an hour of that kind of exercise every day. Kids also reported on which activities they did most often outside of school gym class--basketball for boys and running for girls.
The study found that fat teenagers were less active than normal-weight girls and boys. Fat girls were slightly less active than normal-weight girls, but levels were similar among overweight and normal-weight boys. The study also said that the percent of fat children aged 2 to 19 was 17%, or about 12.5 million kids.
"There's always room for improvement," said Tala Fakhouri, who was the leader of the study. She also said the results provide useful information to help with fitness campaigns such as Let's Move, which was initiated by Michelle Obama in 2010. To inspire kids to eat right and get in shape, Michelle visits schools and holds exercise events. She also calls on schools to offer regular gym classes.
The study also found kids who get physical education at school may get better grades.
1. What is the result of the new study?| A．800 kids don't get enough physical activity. |
| B．Most U.S. kids don't get enough exercise. |
| C．Kids should get physical activity every day. |
| D．It's important to take physical exams. |
| A．Swimming. | B．Basketball. | C．Running. | D．Gym. |
| A．To help kids to keep fit. | B．To provide useful information. |
| C．To offer regular gym classes. | D．To hold exercise events. |
| A．be less active than fat children | B．be more willing to help others |
| C．do better in their studies | D．try their best to get in shape |
3 . What would your life be like without phones?
In one of my classes today we discussed the question of how our lives would be without a mobile phone. I actually felt quite sad to hear how some kids cannot
It is true that everything
Another point was that phones are very handy for
All in all, this question is very interesting to
| A．affect | B．survive | C．succeed | D．perform |
| A．Personally | B．Specially | C．Entirely | D．Gradually |
| A．suffered | B．commanded | C．forced | D．advised |
| A．came up | B．came across | C．came down | D．came to |
| A．more than | B．less than | C．other than | D．rather than |
| A．appears | B．falls | C．works | D．grows |
| A．seconds | B．hours | C．days | D．months |
| A．customers | B．teachers | C．students | D．people |
| A．direction | B．close | C．necessary | D．kind |
| A．distant | B．wish | C．fact | D．suggestions |
| A．in person | B．in advance | C．with surprise | D．with joy |
| A．extreme | B．active | C．fair | D．important |
| A．style | B．communication | C．expression | D．argument |
| A．progress | B．compete | C．arise | D．settle |
| A．looking after | B．looking back | C．looking up | D．looking out |
| A．selflessly | B．quickly | C．hardly | D．slowly |
| A．grateful | B．peaceful | C．painful | D．helpful |
| A．textbook | B．dictionary | C．Internet | D．newspaper |
| A．forecast | B．consider | C．judge | D．select |
| A．benefits | B．skills | C．doubts | D．evidence |
Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch (沟渠) at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said, “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”
Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot (汽车行李箱). Then he began his struggle to escape.
Later he said, “It was really a half penny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew(拧开…的螺丝) the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.”
It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench(扳钳) and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had.
His hands and arms were cut and bruised (擦伤). Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said, “The thirty minutes seemed like hours.” Only the tips of the car wheels were visible(can be seen), police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.
1. What is the best title for this newspaper article?
| A．The Story of Mr. Johnson, A Sweet Salesman |
| B．Car Boot Serve As The Best Escape Route |
| C．Driver Escaped Through Car Boot |
| D．The Driver Survived A Terrible Car Accident |
| A．The hammer. | B．The coin. |
| C．The screw. | D．The horn. |
| A．luckily the door was torn away in the end |
| B．at last the wrench went broken |
| C．the lock came open after all his efforts |
| D．the chance was lost at the last minute |
| A．the ditch was along a quiet country road |
| B．the accident happened on a rainy cold day |
| C．Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down |
| D．the police helped Mr. Johnson get out of the ditch |
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left bebind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computers results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have dange according to some seientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imaginations take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faeed; they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.
1. The new products become more and more time-saving beeause_________.| A．our love on speed seems never-ending |
| B．time is limited |
| C．the prices are increasingly high |
| D．the manufacturers boast a lot |
| A．Imaginary life. | B．Simple life in the past. |
| C．Times of inventions. | D．Time for constant activity. |
| A．Critical. | B．Objective. | C．Optimistic. | D．Negative. |
| A．The present and past times. | B．Machinary and human beings. |
| C．Imaginations and inventions. | D．Modern technology and its influence. |
