On one of her trips to New York several years ago, Eudora Welty decided to take a couple of New York friends out to dinner. They settled in at a comfortable East Side cafe and within minutes, another customer was approaching their table.
“Hey, aren’t you from Mississippi?” the elegant, white-haired writer remembered being asked by the stranger. “I’m from Mississippi too.”
Without a second thought, the woman joined the Welty party. When her dinner partner showed up, she also pulled up a chair.
“They began telling me all the news of Mississippi,” Welty said. “I didn’t know what my New York friends were thinking.”
Taxis on a rainy New York night are rarer than sunshine. By the time the group got up to leave, it was pouring outside. Welty’s new friends immediately sent a waiter to find a cab. Heading back downtown toward her hotel, her big-city friends were amazed at the turn of events that had changed their Big Apple dinner into a Mississippi.
“My friends said: ‘Now we believe your stories,’” Welty added. “And I said: ‘Now you know. These are the people that make me write them.’”
Sitting on a sofa in her room, Welty, a slim figure in a simple gray dress, looked pleased with this explanation.
“I don’t make them up,” she said of the characters in her fiction these last 50 or so years. “I don’t have to.”
Beauticians, bartenders, piano players and people with purple hats, Welty’s people come from afternoons spent visiting with old friends, from walks through the streets of her native Jackson, Miss., from conversations overheard on a bus. It annoys Welty that, at 78, her left ear has now given out. Sometimes, sitting on a bus or a train, she hears only a fragment(片段) of a particularly interesting story.
1.What happened when Welty was with her friends at the cafe?
A. Two strangers joined her.
B. Her childhood friends came in.
C. A heavy rain ruined the dinner.
D. Some people held a party there.
2.The underlined word “them” in Paragraph 6 refers to Welty’s .
A. readers B. parties
C. friends D. stories
3.What can we learn about the characters in Welty’s fiction?
A. They live in big cities.
B. They are mostly women.
C. They come from real life.
D. They are pleasure seekers.
Music
Opera at Music Hall： 1243 Elm Street The season runs June through August, with additional performances in March and September. The Opera honors Enjoy the Arts membership discounts. Phone: 241 -2742.
http://www.cityopera.com
Chamber Orchestra： The Orchestra plays at Memorial Hall at 106 Elm Street, which offers several conceits from March through June. Gall 723-1182 for more information.
http://www.chamberorch.com.
Symphony Orchestra： At Music Hall and Riverbend. For ticket sales, call 381-3300. Regular season runs September through May at Music Hall in summer al Riverbend.
http://www.symphony.org/honie.asp.
College Conservatory Of Music (CCM): Performances are on the main campus of the university, usually at Patricia Cobbett Theater. CCM organizes a variety of events, including performances by the well-known LaSalle Quarter, CMM's Philharmonic Orchesira, and various groups of musicians presenting Baroque through modem misic. Students with I.D. cards can attend the events for free. A free schedule of events for each term is available by coiling the box office at 556-4183.
http://www.ccm. uc.edu/events/calendar.
Rivebent Music Theater.6295 Kellogg Ave« Large outdoor theater with the closest seats under cover (price difference ). Big name shows all summer long! Phone:232-6220.
http://www.riverbendmusic.com
1.Which number should you call if you want to nee an opera ?
A. 241-2742. B. 723-1182.
C. 381-3300. D. 232-6220.
2.When can you go to » concert by Chamber Orchestra?
A. February. B. May.
C. August D. November.
3.Where can students go for free performances with their I.D. cards?
A. Music Hall. B. Memorial Hall.
C. Patricia Cobbett Theater. D. Riverbend Music Theater.
4.How is Riverbend Music Theater different from the other places?
A. It has seats in the open air. B. It gives shows all yew round.
C. It offers membership discounts. D. It presents famous musical works.
书面表达
请阅读下面短文，并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
In recent years, internet voting has become increasingly popular in China. People not only cast on-line votes themselves, but also urge others to vote for competitions like the “Most Beautiful Teacher” and the “ Cutest Baby”.
Li Jiang, a high school student, is invited to vote in the “ Best Police Officer 冶 competition, organized by the local government to let the public have a better understanding of police officers’ daily work. Li Jiang visits the website and reads all the stories. He is deeply moved by their glorious deeds. He is already thinking of becoming a policeman himself in the future.
Su Hua is invited by his uncle to vote for his cousin in the “ Future Singer冶 competition. He has already received three similar invitations this week. His uncle tells him that if his cousin wins the competition, the family will win an overseas tour for free. Su Hua likes his cousin very much, but he finds other singers perform even better. To vote, or not to vote? This is a question that troubles him very much.
（写作内容）
1. 用约30个单词写出上文概要；
2. 用约120个单词阐述你对网络投票的看法，并用2 ~3个理由或论据支撑你的看法。
（写作要求）
1. 写作过程中不能直接引用原文语句；
2. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
3. 不必写标题。
（评分标准）
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
任务型阅读
请阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。
An Extension of the Human Brain
Other people can help us compensate for our mental and emotional deficiencies (欠缺)，much as a wooden leg can compensate for a physical deficiency. To be exact, other people can extend our intelligence and help us understand and adjust our emotions. When another person helps us in such ways, he or she is participating in what I’ve called a “social prosthetic (义肢的）system.” Such systems do not need to operate face-to-face, and it’s clear to me that the Internet is expanding the range of my own social prosthetic systems. It’s already a big bank of many minds. Even in its current state, the Internet has extended my memory and judgment.
Regarding memory: Once I look up something on the Internet, I don’t need to keep all the details for future use—I know where to find that information again and can quickly and easily do so. More generally, the Internet functions as if it were my memory. This function of the Internet is particularly striking when I’m writing; I’m no longer comfortable writing if I’m not connected to the Internet. It’s become natural to check facts as I write, taking a minute or two to dip into PubMed, Wikipedia, or other websites.
Regarding judgment: The Internet has made me smarter in matters small and large. For example, when I’m writing a textbook, it has become second nature to check a dozen definitions of a key term, which helps me dig into the core and understand its meaning. But more than that, I now regularly compare my views with those of many others. If I have a “ new idea,” I now quickly look to see whether somebody else has already thought of it, or something similar—and I then compare what I think with what others have thought. This certainly makes my own views clearer. Moreover, I can find out whether my reactions to an event are reasonable enough by reading about those of others on the Internet.
These effects of the Internet have become even more striking since I’ve begun using a smartphone. I now regularly pull out my phone to check a fact, watch a video, read weibo. Such activities fill the spaces that used to be dead time (such as waiting for somebody to arrive for a lunch meeting).
But that’s the upside (好处).The downside is that in those dead periods I often would let my thoughts flow and sometimes would have an unexpected insight or idea. Those opportunities are now fewer and farther between.
An Extension of the Human Brain | |
A prosthetic nature | 荫 ●The1.can help make up for our mental and emotional deficiencies as a wooden leg can compensate for a bodily deficiency. |
Wonderful aspects: memoryand judgment | • ●On the Internet, we could quickly and easily locate the details, and check facts, without3.them in mind. |
• ●The Internet makes us smarter over4.kinds of things. It provides a dozen definitions of a key term for us to find the5.of the matter. | |
The8.sides | • ●Smartphones make it easier and more9.to check reality, watch video clips, read weibo. |
• ●Smartphones10.the possibility for new and insightful minds, and steal away our dead time. |
Not so long ago, most people didn’t know who Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was going to become. She was just an average high athlete. There was every indication that she was just another Jamaican teenager without much of a future. However, one person wanted to change this. Stephen Francis observed then eighteen-year-old Shelly-Ann at a track meet and was convinced that he had seen the beginnings of true greatness. Her times were not exactly impressive, but even so, he sensed there was something trying to get out, something the other coaches had overlooked when they had assessed her and found her lacking. He decided to offer Shelly-Ann a place in his very strict training sessions. Their cooperation quickly produced results, and a few years later at Jamaica’s Olympic trials in early 2008, Shelly-Ann, who at that time only ranked number 70 in the world, beat Jamaica’s unchallenged queen of the sprint (短跑).
＂Where did she come from?＂ asked an astonished sprinting world, before concluding that she must be one of those one-hit wonders that spring up from time to time, only to disappear again without signs. But Shelly-Ann was to prove that she was anything but a one-hit wonder. At the Beijing Olympics she swept away any doubts about her ability to perform consistently by becoming the first Jamaican woman ever to win the 100 metres Olympic gold. She did it again one year on at the World Championships in Berlin, becoming world champion with a time of 10.73 — the fourth fastest time ever.
Shelly-Ann is a little woman with a big smile. She has a mental toughness that did not come about by chance. Her journey to becoming the fastest woman on earth has been anything but smooth and effortless. She grew up in one of Jamaica’s toughest inner-city communities known as Waterhouse, where she lived in a one-room apartment, sleeping four in a bed with her mother and two brothers. Waterhouse, one of the poorest communities in Jamaica, is a really violent and overpopulated place. Several of Shelly-Ann’s friends and family were caught up in the killings; one of her cousins was shot dead only a few streets away from where she lived. Sometimes her family didn’t have enough to eat. She ran at the school championships barefooted because she couldn’t afford shoes. Her mother Maxime, one of a family of fourteen, had been an athlete herself as a young girl but, like so many other girls in Waterhouse, had to stop after she had her first baby. Maxime’s early entry into the adult world with its responsibilities gave her the determination to ensure that her kids would not end up in Waterhouse’s roundabout of poverty. One of the first things Maxime used to do with Shelly-Ann was taking her to the track, and she was ready to sacrifice everything.
It didn’t take long for Shelly-Ann to realize that sports could be her way out of Waterhouse. On a summer evening in Beijing in 2008, all those long, hard hours of work and commitment finally bore fruit. The barefoot kid who just a few years previously had been living in poverty, surrounded by criminals and violence, had written a new chapter in the history of sports.
But Shelly-Ann’s victory was far greater than that. The night she won Olympic gold in Beijing, the routine murders in Waterhouse and the drug wars in the neighbouring streets stopped. The dark cloud above one of the world’s toughest criminal neighbourhoods simply disappeared for a few days. ＂I have so much fire burning for my country,＂ Shelly said. She plans to start a foundation for homeless children and wants to build a community centre in Waterhouse. She hopes to inspire the Jamaicans to lay down their weapons. She intends to fight to make it a woman’s as well as a man’s world.
As Muhammad Ali puts it, ＂Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them. A desire, a dream, a vision.＂ One of the things Shelly-Ann can be proud of is her understanding of this truth.
1.Why did Stephen Francis decide to coach Shelly-Ann?
A. He had a strong desire to free her family from trouble.
B. He sensed a great potential in her despite her weaknesses.
C. She had big problems maintaining her performance.
D. She suffered a lot of defeats at the previous track meets.
2.What did the sprinting world think of Shelly-Ann before the 2008 Olympic Games?
A. She would become a promising star.
B. She badly needed to set higher goals.
C. Her sprinting career would not last long.
D. Her talent for sprinting was known to all.
3.What made Maxime decide to train her daughter on the track?
A. Her success and lessons in her career.
B. Her interest in Shelly-Ann’s quick profit.
C. Her wish to get Shelly-Ann out of poverty.
D. Her early entrance into the sprinting world.
4.What can we infer from Shelly-Ann’s statement underlined in Paragraph 5?
A. She was highly rewarded for her efforts.
B. She was eager to do more for her country.
C. She became an athletic star in her country.
D. She was the envy of the whole community.
5.By mentioning Muhammad Ali’s words, the author intends to tell us that .
A. players should be highly inspired by coaches
B. great athletes need to concentrate on patience
C. hard work is necessary in one’s achievements
D. motivation allows great athletes to be on the top
6.What is the best title for the passage?
A. The Making of a Great Athlete
B. The Dream for Championship
C. The Key to High Performance
D. The Power of Full Responsibility
El Nifio, a Spanish term for “the Christ child”, was named by South American fisherman who noticed that the global weather pattern, which happens every two to seven years, reduced the amount of fishes caught around Christmas. El Nifio sees warm water, collected over several years in the western Pacific, flow back eastwards when winds that normally blow westwards weaken, or sometimes the other way round.
The weather effects both good and bad, are felt in many places. Rich countries gain more from powerful Nifio, on balance, than they lose. A study found that a strong Nifio in 1997 helped American’s economy grow by 15 billion, partly because of better agricultural harvest, farmers in the Midwest gained from extra rain. The total rise in agricultural in rich countries in growth than the fall in poor ones.
But in Indonesia extremely dry forests are in flames. A multi-year drought (干旱）in south-east Brazil is becoming worse. Though heavy rains brought about by El Nino may relieve the drought in California, they are likely to cause surface flooding and other disasters.
The most recent powerful Nino, in 1997-98, killed around 21,000 people and caused damage worth $36 billion around the globe. But such Ninos come with months of warning, and so much is known about how they happen that governments can prepare. According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), however, just 12% of disaster-relief funding in the past two decades has gone on reducing risks in advance, rather than recovery and rebuilding afterwards. This is despite evidence that a dollar spent on risk-reduction saves at least two on reconstruction.
Simple improvements to infrastructure (基础设施）can reduce the spread of disease. Better sewers (下水道）make it less likely that heavy rain is followed by an outbreak of the disease of bad stomach. Stronger bridges mean villages are less likely to be left without food and medicine after floods. According to a paper in 2011 by Mr Hsiang and co-authors, civil conflict is related to El Nino’s harmful effects—and the poorer the country, the stronger the link. Though the relationship may not be causal, helping divided communities to prepare for disasters would at least reduce the risk that those disasters are followed by killing and wounding people. Since the poorest are least likely to make up for their losses from disasters linked to El Nino, reducing their losses needs to be the priority.
1.What can we learn about El Nino in Paragraph 1?
A. It is named after a South American fisherman.
B. It takes place almost every year all over the world.
C. It forces fishermen to stop catching fish around Christmas.
D. It sees the changes of water flow direction in the ocean.
2.What may El Ninos bring about to the countries affected?
A. Agricultural harvests in rich countries fall.
B. Droughts become more harmful than floods.
C. Rich countries’ gains are greater than their losses.
D. Poor countries suffer less from droughts economically.
3.The data provided by ODI in Paragraph 4 suggest that_________.
A. more investment should go to risk reduction
B. governments of poor countries need more aid
C. victims of El Nino deserve more compensation
D. recovery and reconstruction should come first
4.What is the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
A. To introduce El Nino and its origin.
B. To explain the consequences of El Nino.
C. To show ways of fighting against El Nino.
D. To urge people to prepare for El Nino.
