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答案。选项中有两个为多余选项
Millions of people all over the world use the word OK. In fact, some people say the world. OK means all right or acceptable it expresses agreement or approval.
___1.___ .Some people say it came from the Native American Indian tribe known as the Choctaw. The Choctaw word “oken” means the same as the American word “okay”. Experts say early explorers in the American West spoke the Choctaw language in the 19th century.
But many people doubt this. Language expert Allen Walker Read wrote about the word OK in reports published in the 1960s. He said the word began being used in the 1830s. __2.___.Some foreign –born people wrote “all correct” as “o-l-l k-o-r-r-e-c-t”, and used the letters O.K. Other people say a railroad worker named Obadiah Kelly invented the word long ago. They said he put the first letters of his names--- O and K --- on each object people gave him to send on the train.
__3._ The organization supported Martin Van Buren for president in 1840. They called their group the OK Club. The letters were taken from the name of the town where Martin Van Buren was born--- Old Kinderhook, New York.
Then there is the expression A-OK. It is a space-age expression. It was used in 1961 during the flight of astronaut Alan Shepard. He was the first American to be launched into space. His flight ended when his spacecraft landed in the ocean, as planned. Shepard reported, “Everything is A-OK.”__4.__ One story says it was first used during the early days of the telephone to tell an operator that a message had been received.
There are also funny ways to say okay. __5.__ .These expressions were first used in the 1930s. Today, a character on the American television series, “The Simpsons”, says it another way. He says okely-dokely.
A. Some people say okey-dokey or okey-doke.
B. Still others say a political organization invented the word.
C. Therefore, it has become popular in that area from then on.
D. But many experts don’t agree on what the expression means.
E. Language experts do not agree about where the word came from.
F. It was a short way of writing a different spelling of the words “all correct”.
G. However, some exerts say the expression did not begin with the space age.
If you don’t prepare yourself now, retirement may be some of the most boring and dull years of your life. To have a happy, fulfilling retirement, you need to start preparing right away.
The most obvious thing for people to do when they retire is to take up a hobby. The most important step to take before retiring, though, is to make sure that you actually have started some hobbies. Once you’re retired, unless you ‘ve already started a hobby, you’ll find it very hard to get into something new. Some hobbies aren’t for everyone. Think about what you enjoy doing and start participating on a casual basis now.
Another thing many people participate in is volunteering. Not only does volunteering give you something to do, it also gives you a sense of accomplishment(成就) and can add meaning to your life .Volunteering is also rewarding in other ways, too. There are hundreds of different types of volunteer services and you’ll always be able to meet new and interesting people. Also, don’t think that volunteering is always only about helping someone for free. Many companies pay their volunteers after they’ve had enough experience and prove themselves to be valuable workers.
There are plenty of other potions, as well. Going back to school is a great way to keep yourself feeling young. Taking a vacation around the world with your loved ones is another great way to spend your retirement.
Ultimately, though, the key to a happy retirement is simply keeping yourself busy and doing whatever you love. If there’s nothing you love doing now, then you’ll find that once you have a vast amount of free time, your life will be pretty empty. Now is the time to find out what you want to do when you retire.
1.Why does the author suggest starting a hobby before retirement?
A. Because we are likely to have difficulty starting a hobby after retirement.
B. Because we are gong to have a vast amount of free time after retirement.
C. Because we will only have a limited choice of hobbies after retirement
D. Because not every one of us has already started some hobbies already.
2.What can we learn about volunteering from the text?
A. We can make devoted friends through volunteering.
B. It can help companies find hard-working workers.
C. One can even make some money by volunteering.
D. Almost everyone is willing to help in some way.
3.Which of the following can best explain “a happy retirement”?
A. Travelling around the world every year.
B. Going back to university for further study.
C. Having plenty of free time for one’s hobbies.
D. Living a busy life and doing what one enjoys doing
A super drug that could remove Alzheimer’s (老年痴呆症)，heart disease and diabetes (糖尿病) and help people live to 100 is being developed by scientists. Their research is based on the identification of three genes that help prolong lives and prevent diseases which occur in old age. Medically controlling the proteins made by the “ longevity genes” will allow millions to live longer, predicts Dr Nir Barzilai.
Those whose DNA strongly features the three genes are 80 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s. The genes also fight against the deadly impact of smoking, poor diet, obesity and lack of exercise.
Already, several laboratories are working on a pill to imitate the benefits of the genes and Dr Barzilai thinks it could be tested within three years. The pill could remove some diseases that damage old age. “ The advantage of finding a gene that involves longevity is that we can develop a drug that will imitate exactly what this gene is doing,” he said.
Of the three longevity genes, two genes increase the production of so-called good cholesterol(胆固醇), which reduces the risk of heart disease. The third prevents diabetes. They were discovered by Dr Barzilai’s team while studying the DNA of 500 Ashkenazi Jews with an average age of 100. The chances of living that long are one in 10,000 but the group, which shared relatively few common ancestors, was 20 times more likely to hit the entury. Dr Barzilai said: “ 30 percent of them were obese or overweight and 30 percent smoked two acks of cigarettes a day for more than 40 years, however they can live to 100.”
But Andrew Ketteringham of the Alzheimer’s Society said: “Alzheimer’s disease, a most common disease, is likely to be caused by a combination of genetic disosition(遗传倾向), lifestyles and life events. Many genes are probably involved.
1.Some people are able to live to 100 years because of ______.
A. a magical medicine B. three special genes C. good living habits D. longevity proteins
2.Why does the discovery of the longevity genes mean a lot?
A. Because it can bring great benefits to scientific labs.
B. Because it can help people change their unhealthy genes
C. Because it helps produce a drug that can make people live longer.
D. Because it will help scientists build up a new branch of biology.
3. From Paragraph 4 we can infer that ________.
A. longevity genes can create good cholesterol.
B. the volunteers share some common ancestors
C. bad habits are likely to have no effect on the volunteers
D. longevity genes protect the volunteers against bad habits
4.What is Andrew Ketteringham’s attitude toward the study?
A. Positive B. Negative C. Critical D. Cautious
Jeans are trousers made of a kind of clothe called denim. For many people, blue jeans represent American culture.
The history of blue jeans usually begins with a man named Levi Strauss. Although he did not invent the jeans, he is considered the first person to produce and sell this kind of clothing in large amounts.
Levi Strauss was born in Bavaria, Germany. In 1847, he and his family moved to the US. He opened a store, first in New York, and then in San Francisco, California. Among the products he sold were jeans. These trousers were especially useful for miners in California who needed clothing made of a strong material.
Levi Strauss partnered with a clothing maker named Jacob Davis, who had invented a process for making rivets(铆钉) for jeans. These metal things helped strengthen the blue jean cloth to make the trousers stronger. In 1873, Strauss and Davis received a patent to officially own this invention. They began producing “ copper-riveted waist overalls(工装裤)”. In 1928 the Levi Strauss company used the word “Levi’s” as the trademark for their products.
The 19th-century workers would probably be surprised to know that their trousers would one day become a fashion object. Today, jeans are worn by people of all ages, incomes and lifestyles. Jeans come in many colors other than blue and in many styles and at many prices.
A national museum in Washington, D.C. has one of the oldest known pairs of Levi’s jeans in its collection. Jeans have come to express different ideas about American culture based on the people who wear them. These include the heroes of the Wild West and famous Hollywood actors like James Dean and Marlon Brando in the 1950s. Writer James Sullivan published a book called Jean: A Cultural History of an American Icon. In the book, he says jeans serve as a sign for two American values, creativity and rebellion (叛逆).
1.This passage is mainly about _______.
A. the life story of Levi Strauss B. jeans and American culture
C. why jeans are popular. D. the history of jeans
2.We know from the passage that Levi Strauss _________.
A. was the first person who wore jeans. B. moved to the US from Germany alone.
C. not only sold jeans at first in his store D. helped Jacob Davis invent a kind of rivet
3.Which of the following statements is TRUE about jeans?
A. Strauss and Davis owned the invention of using rivets on jeans.
B. In California, Levi’s was the only jeans seller in 1928.
C. Jeans were called copper-riveted waist overalls at first.
D. Jeans were originally made for heroes of the Wild West.
4.According to the last but one paragraph,jeans should be best described as _________.
A. strong B. cultural C. popular D. unique
My mother-in-law, Dorothy, is showing me the red notebook that’s almost as precious to her as my husband’s baby pictures. Inside the notebook is a list of the books she has read since 2007. For some people waking up in the middle of the night is a terrible thing. But for my mother-in-law, that time is a gift. At 87, she is getting the education she never had by working her way through great literature. She has now read close to 100 books, including every single novel by Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Henry James and Thomas Mann.
My mother-in-law discusses her passion with the enthusiasm of a young girl, although she can also be a very tough critic, writing “VG’ for “ very good” in the margins next to her favorites. So far, only a handful of books have received the top prize.
Born in Ridgefield, Conn, Dorothy was the youngest daughter of an Italian gardener. She taught herself English by reading The New York Times. Eager to come to Manhattan, she became a nurse, married a dentist and spent the next several decades keeping the house and raising a family. In her later years, she put her nursing skills to good use by taking care of my father-in-law, who had lung cancer. There were many trips to the emergency room in the middle of the night and then a long hospital stay. She stayed awake to watch over him for 15 hours a day. Always a light sleeper, she developed sleeplessness as a result of the stress.
It worsened after he died. Deeply sad and lonely for the first time in her life, she began waking up around 2am. Julian and Sylvia, the elderly couple next door suggest she read literature. And so Julian, a great lover of literature, became her “professor”, providing books from his large library. Suddenly the terrifying hole turned onto a world of amazing characters.
1.Why is Dorothy considered a tough critic?
A. Because no books are inspiring enough in her eyes.
B. Because only a few books are thought highly of by her.
C. Because she only reads books by famous writers.
D. Because she finds fault with every book she reads.
2. It can be inferred from the passage that _____.
A. the books Dorothy has read were bought by her husband.
B. the couple next door are college professors.
C. the author loves literature too.
D. Dorothy was a great wife.
3.The underlined part “the terrifying hole” in the last paragraph refers to _____.
A. the frightening death
B. Dorothy’s lack of education
C. waking up in the middle of the night
D. a hole in a book that Dorothy read
4. What helped Dorothy get over the sadness and loneliness of losing her husband?
A. Living with her son.
B. Reading literature.
C. Seeing her son’s baby pictures.
D. Talking with neighbors.
完形填空 （共20小题；每小题1.5分， 满分30分）
I just came home from visiting my 90-year-old grandpa after his heart surgery. We talked and laughed and before I left he __36__me, told me that he loved me and told me not to be_37_ if he died because he had loved his life.
When my mom was in hospital due to breast cancer, I went to _38_ her. She wasn’t in her _39_. When I headed for the Nurses Station to _40_ her, I saw her coming down the hall. “ Mom, why are you out of bed? Where have you been?” She _41_ and said she’d been to the nursery floor to visit the babies.
My lifelong friend almost lost her 50-year-old husband to cancer._42_, she did her full-time job at the hospital and two other jobs to _43_ losing their house. She continued to laugh, love and find_44_ every single day in life.
And on and on---------
Maybe that’s part of why I have a positive _45_. I’m really lucky to know so many _46_ people. I’ve known so many people in my life who have _47_ the difficulties and the horrors of life with grace, humor and _48_.
When you say life isn’t worth _49_, when you say you want to die, when _50_ you know has used you, abused you, _51_ you, hated you, it’s you, your _52_ that have created a life for yourself that you don’t feel is worth living and a life no one else wants to live with you. I don’t feel_53_ for you. I don’t care about you. You’re a coward(懦夫). _54_, you should try to change things, move _55_ and learn something from the things you have experienced. Then maybe someone will really care about you.
1.A. drew B. pulled C. hugged D. showed
2.A. frightened B. sad C. nervous D. astonished
3.A. support B. visit C. encourage D. invite
4.A. bed B. office C. house D. chair
5.A. hold B. remind C. scold D. find
6.A. sighed B. smiled C. nodded D. cried
7.A. Fortunately B.Gradually C. Unbelievably D. Actually
8.A. avoid B. stop C. risk D. forget
9.A. work B. advice C. surprise D. joy
10.A. attitude B. reply C. demand D. belief
11.A. romantic B. humorous C. optimistic D. careful
12.A. lived for B. shown off C. looked for D. gone through
13.A. strength B. courage C. feelings D. spirits
14.A. living B. fighting C. losing D. noticing
15.A. someone B. nobody C. everyone D. everything
16.A. left B. envied C. educated D. appreciated
17.A. selfishness B. bravery C. behavior D. honesty
18.A. proud B. sorry C. excited D. happy
19.A. Otherwise B. Besides C. However D. Instead
20.A. downward B. backward C. leftward D. forward
