So I’m driving the lovely and patient older daughter to work. At 7 a. m., she pushes the seat
warmer button as her new Honda zooms across L. A., the City of Padded Shoulders.
"Oh, look, I’m low on gas," she says.
First, we pick up her boss, then we pick up her other boss. They are all headed to Staples Center for some awards show. My daughter does something in public relations, I’m not sure what. But when this show comes along, she gets very busy.
"In the past two nights I’ve gotten, like, seven hours sleep," she notes, the implication being that I sleep all the time, which is pretty much true.
In Los Feliz, a dashboard light confirms that we are, indeed, low on fuel. This does not perturb my daughter.
"Don’t worry, we’ll get there," she says.
My daughter says nothing about getting back home, which is my job. I’ve just agreed to drop her off, so she can avoid traffic later. My task is simple, though now full of uncertainty.
I don’t know how I ended up dropping my daughter and her bosses off at 7 a.m. on a Sunday. I just know that J.D. Salinger may now be dead, but I still feel like Holden Caulfield -- at the mercy of too many yammering adults.
Now, I’ve had mixed luck with adults.
Apparently, my daughter’s job in PR is to keep everyone happy while telling the truth as much as possible. I sent her to college to study that. Now she is an expert.
"After you drop us off, you can get gas," my daughter assures me.
I have been her chauffeur for 26 years. By the time she was 3, I’d snapped her into a car seat some 14,000 times. I took her to seventh-grade dances, ski trips, college.
Even after all that, we continue to have a civil relationship, sort of a queen-mum-and-her-
driver sort of dynamic. When I screw up, she just raises her pretty chin and snorts. It’s very British.
By the way, my daughter now has a nicer car than I do, which is a sign she is doing well. Or, as with so many young people, she is up to her hoop earrings in consumer debt.
1.Which of the following statements in NOT true about the author’s daughter?
A．She is fashionable. B．She always tells the truth.
C．She is doing well in her work. D．She lives a fast-paced life.
2.The author’s tone suggests that .
A．he is feeling left behind when his daughter has grown up and begun adult life
B．he is content with his grown daughter
C．he does not like his daughter’s bosses
D．he will not believe his daughter any more
3.It can be concluded from the passage that .
A．the author won’t have any difficulty in getting gas
B．the daughter cares for her father a lot
C．the author has done a lot to help his daughter get where she is
D．the British people have pretty chin and snort often
4.By referring to J. D. Salinger and Holden Caulfield, the author is most probably .
A．recalling his daughter’s childhood
B．mentioning his family members who are now dead
C．comparing his situation to a scene in a famous literary work
D．telling a story about his daughter’s friends
5.What is the best title for this passage?
A．A PR’s Busy Life
B．Relationship Between Dad and Daughter
C．A Loving Father
D．Go Ahead and Fill Her up, Dad
Now in his senior year in Bowdoin College, a small, elite liberal-arts（文科）college in Masine, Chen Yongfang has become such a devotee of the liberal-arts approach that he’s made it his mission to spread the word throughout China. He has coauthored a book called A True Liberal Arts Education, which essentially explains the little-known concept to Chinese students and their parents. Though there have been many books about how to get into Ivy League universities, “there was not a single book in China about the smaller liberal-arts colleges,” he says.
The book, which Chen wrote with friends Ye Lin and Wan Li, who also attend small U. S. colleges, touts（兜售）such benefits as intimate classes (the student-to-faculty ratio at Bowdoin is 9:1) and professors who focus on teaching rather than research. Chen, 23, explains that he was won over by Bowdoin’s commitment to nurturing skills for life, rather than simply for the workplace. “Liberal arts is abut fostering your identity,” he says. “They want to cultivate your mind.” He admits that liberal arts may be a hard sell in a country with an increasingly competitive job market. The book states bluntly that in the short term, a liberal-arts education won’t improve job prospects. “In China, employers are looking for someone who can come in and start working immediately when they graduate, not someone who still needs to be trained in practical skills,” Chen says.
The book, which received wide media coverage in China and now has a waiting list for its second print run, is certainly timely: it plays into a growing debate in China about what national universities should be teaching. The country needs a workforce with the skills and creativity to help move away from low-cost manufacturing and, in economic terms, move up the value chain. And some educators believe liberal-arts training is vital to help China deal with its increasingly complex new realities. Yet the well-known intellectual historian Xu Jilin believes that China’s rapid expansion of higher education has had a detrimental effect on curriculum as the country’s universities race to compete globally. “Education these days in like factory-farming chickens,” he says. “Universities all wan to get into international rakings—and most of these depend on research. They’re not interested in providing a unique education for our kids.”
1.According to Chen Yongfang, the benefits of attending liberal-arts colleges are the following EXCEPT .
A．closer relationship with tutors
B．teachers more devoted to teaching
C．practical skills for getting a job in China
D．development in mind and life-long ability
2.It can be inferred from the passage that .
A．the teaching quality in big research universities not as good as small colleges
B．it is more difficult for liberal-arts graduates to find a job because employers don’t believe that they can perform well
C．literal-arts education is of little help to China’s economic development
D．research universities received more Chinese applicants than smaller liberal-arts colleges
3.The word “detrimental” in Para.3 probably means “ .”
A．instant B．rewarding C．damaging D．obvious
4.According to Xu Jilin, .
A．the expansion of higher education has improved the competitive strength of China’s universities
B．Chinese universities are providing the same courses as foreign universities
C．many universities are not paying enough attention to teaching
D．research should gain more attention in order to improve China’s universities’ rankings
5.This passage is most probably adapted from .
A．an article introducing liberal arts
B．an article introducing the book A True Liberal Arts Education
C．an article criticizing China’s higher education
D．an advertisement for Bowdoin College
阅读下列短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，在空格处填入一个适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空，并将答案填写在答卷标号为相应位置上。
Childhood is 1.time when there are few responsibilities to make life difficult. If a child has good parents, he 2.(raise), looked after and loved, whatever he may do. It is impossible that he will ever again in his life be given so much 3.having to do anything in return. But a child has his pains. He is not so free to do 4.he wishes to; he is again and again being told not to do something, or being punished 5.what he has wrongly done.
When a young man starts to make his own living, he can no longer expect 6.to pay for his food, his clothes, and his room. if he spends most of his time 7.(play) about in the ways that he used to as a child, he will go 8.(hunger). And if he breaks the laws of society 9.he used to break the laws of his parents, he may go to prison. If, 10., he works hard, keeps out of trouble and has good health, he can have the great happiness of building up for himself his position in society.
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的A、B、C和D项中，选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Obtaining good health insurance while you are studying overseas is a real necessity to protect you from minor and catastrophic medical expenses that can wipe out not only your savings, but your dreams of an 1abroad.
There are often two different types of health insurance you can consider buying: international travel insurance and student insurance in the country where you will be 2. An international travel insurance policy is usually 3in your home country before you go abroad. It generally covers a wide variety of medical services, and you are often given a list of 4in the area where you will travel who may even speak your 5language. The 6might be that you aren’t reimbursed（赔偿）for your medical expenses immediately. In other words, you may have to pay all your medical expenses and then later submit your receipts to the insurance company.
On the other hand, getting student health insurance in the country where you will study might 7you to only pay a certain percentage of the medical cost at the time of service (commonly called a co-pay), and thus, you don’t have to have sufficient cash to pay the 8bill at once.
Whatever you decide, obtaining some form of health insurance is something you should plan
9you go overseas rather than waiting until you are sick 10major medical bills to pay off.
1.A．occupation B．adventure C．education D．experience
2.A．living B．going C．coming D．applying
3.A．made B．received C．adopted D．purchased
4.A．services B．agents C．doctors D．officials
5.A．mother B．native C．foreign D．local
6.A．difficulty B．benefit C．advantage D．drawback
7.A．encourage B．enable C．allow D．require
8.A．remaining B．separate C．entire D．rest
9.A．when B．before C．once D．if
10.A．of B．about C．from D．with
Struggling in the US? Move to China!
I graduated from the university with a degree of civil engineer. It is a good field but my heart was not in it. I wanted to be an actor or work in the entertainment industry…living a creative life. My choice of civil engineering was really a mistake but I realized too late. As soon as I graduated, I move straight to Los Angeles----the home of the film and television industry!
For three years, I tried to get a job in that field. I often worked as an extra in movies and TV shows----standing in the background while actors are in the foreground. This was fun for a while, but I wanted a real acting job, where I was speaking! Sadly, in Los Angeles, there is too much competition. Every race and age is represented: old, young, black, white, Asian, and thousands of blondish-red haired Midwestern types like me. Being an extra couldn’t make enough money for me to live in LA. I had to do something else for money.
After three years of trying, I gave up my dream of being an actor and started a different career. I then tried network-marketing, but in the end, that failed. Seven years after graduating from college, I was still in debt, still searching for a satisfactory life. I decided to go back to civil engineering.
However, I was starting to get very disappointed with my life. Why is life not like what I expected?
I expected to have made a lot of money, gotten married, with a house and nice cars, kids, time freedom, etc. Millions of people lead lives with their dreams shelved, existing but not really living. I want my life to be different, more satisfactory, more alive. America was not providing that for me…
In addition, America was too expensive----always worrying about money was a headache. I wanted a life filled with adventure, romance, friendships, successes, and dreams realized.
…
I decided to move to China.
1.How can we describe the writer’s attitude toward life?
A. Practical. B. Passive. C. Disappointed. D. Positive.
2.What does the underlined sentence mean?
A. A lot of people are living but they are not enjoying their life.
B. A lot of people are living with dreams though their life is not that enjoyable.
C. A lot of people give up their dreams and yet are living a good life.
D. A lot of people don’t have dreams, nor do they want to live either.
3.What did the writer do before he finally decided to move to China?
A.
Engineer
extramarketingengineer. B.
Extramarketingengineer.
C.
Engineerextramarketing . D.
Extraengineermarketing.
Nearly thirty years ago, I went rock climbing for the first time with a group in New Mexico. It sounded exciting and 1! Anyone who has ever climbed knows that you can easily 2where there is no place to go, or so. It seems you’re stuck. But 3is not an option. You cannot just stand there and feel 4for yourself. You cannot go back down, so you are 5to become solution minded.
I held on for dear life that day, on my first climb, 6about three quarters of the way to the top. It seemed that there was no place to go, and 7to put my hands or feet so that I could 8upward. But after a few minutes had passed I realized that I had to do 9. I began to look again for a(n) 10. I then noticed a 11sticking out, which I might be able to grab with my hands and 12myself up to where I could have a small foothold. I called to the instructor at the top and asked him if that rock would hold my 13if I pulled myself up. I can 14remember his answer, “I don’t know. Why don’t you try it and see?”
In life we many times feel “stuck”. We wonder how we got into the 15that we are presently in. It is in those times that we need to be careful about how we define(定义)it. Have we failed, 16is it just a setback?
Setbacks, adversity(逆境), or being stuck is never an indication that you are a 17unless you decide that those things define your life as a failure. For people looking for a(n) 18to be a failure, there are always plenty to choose from. But if you want your life to be successful, setbacks, adversity and being stuck are 19stepping-stones to your success. Success minded people 20those kinds of things for what they really are. They know that for them, they are only temporary.
1.A. amusing B. challenging C. boring D. surprising
2.A. put away B. take up C. end up D. lead to
3.A. searching B. regretting C. refusing D. quitting
4.A. sorry B. free C. amazed D. surprised
5.A. unlikely B. forced C. asked D. bound
6.A. shocked B. stuck C. suffered D. struck
7.A. nowhere B. somewhere C. anywhere D. wherever
8.A. continue B. improve C. promote D. enjoy
9.A. everything B. something C. anything D. nothing
10.A. attention B. appreciation C. solution D. expectation
11.A. track B. sign C. tree D. rock
12.A. turn B. push C. pull D. build
13.A. quantity B. feet C. weight D. burden
14.A. still B. never C. hardly D. ever
15.A. destination B. situation C. location D. occasion
16.A. however B. otherwise C. or D. yet
17.A. learner B. failure C. thinker D. winner
18.A. signal B. excuse C. comment D. imagine
19.A. easily B. hardly C. simply D. nearly
20.A. develop B. deserve C. promise D. accept
