I’m afraid to grow old—we’re all afraid. In fact, the fear of growing old is so great that every aged person is an insult and a threat to the society. They remind us of our own death, that our body won’t always remain smooth and responsive, but will someday betray(背叛) us by aging. The ideal way to age would be to grow slowly invisible, gradually disappearing, without causing worry or discomfort to the young. In some ways that does happen. Sitting in a small park across from a nursing home one day, I noticed that the young mothers and their children gathered on one side, and the old people from the home on the other.
Whenever a youngster would run over to the “wrong” side, chasing a ball or just trying to cover all the available space, the old people would lean forward and smile. But before any communication could be established, the mother would come over, murmuring embarrassed apologies, and take her child back to the “young” side.
Now, it seemed to me that the children didn’t feel any particular fear and the old people didn’t seem to be threatened by the children. The division of space was drawn by the mothers. And the mothers never looked at the old people who lined the other side of the park. These well-dressed young women had a way of sliding their eyes over, around, through the old people; they never looked at them directly. The old people may as well have been invisible; they offended the aesthetic eye of the mothers.
My early experiences were somewhat different; since I grew up in a small town, my children had more of a nineteenth-century flavor. I knew a lot of old people, and considered some of them friends.
1.People are afraid of growing old because it is usually associated with ______.
A. insult B. threat C. death D. betrayal
2.In the author’s opinion, it is a perfect way to ______.
A. grow old slowly and then die unnoticed
B. grow old suddenly and then die
C. shut oneself up from others when growing old
D. remain young all one’s life and then die suddenly
3.It can be inferred that young mothers would try to keep their children away from the old because ______.
A. they feared their children might hurt the old
B. they didn’t like their children to take up the space belonging to the old
C. they felt it was wrong to play balls near where the old stayed
D. they didn’t want their children to have anything to do with the old
4.The author believes the division between the old and the young is _____.
A. made by people B. understandable
C. formed naturally D. traditional
5.From the passage, we learn that the author ______.
A. used to have the same experience as the young have today
B. has never been afraid of getting old
C. was quite free to know and befriend old people in his childhood
D. both B and C
Inland waters may be grouped into two general classes: standing waters and flowing waters. As is often the case, the boundary between these two classes is not sharp and clear. A pond is an example of standing water. But most ponds are fed by springs or brooks and most have an outlet. Thus some current of changing water flows through them. On the other hand, a river is an example of flowing water. In some places, however, a river may have such a slow current that it is very difficult to detect.
Standing inland waters differ in size, in age, and in many abiotic environmental characteristics. They range in size from roadside puddles to the Caspian Sea. Puddles may last for only a few days or weeks; ponds, for a few hundred to a thousand years. In general, lakes are older, though the waters of some tropical “lakes” disappear completely during each dry season. Standing waters vary from very shallow to very deep, from clear to muddy, from fresh to salty.
In flowing waters we roughly distinguish between brooks, creeks, and rivers. The size and age of flowing waters are unimportant. Speed of flow, clearness, oxygen content, and other chemical characteristics are used by scientists in studying flowing-water ecosystems.
1.According to the passage, which of the following characteristics of flowing waters is unimportant?
A. Clarity. B. Size. C. Speed of flow. D. Oxygen content.
2.The word “abiotic” in paragraph 2 can best be replaced by ______.
A. nonliving B. living C. coastal D. inland
3.Which of the following statements is true?
A. Usually the water in a river flows into a pond.
B. Scientists only study flowing-water ecosystems.
C. Usually ponds last much longer than puddles.
D. The Caspian Sea is considered as an example of flowing water.
4.From this passage we may know that the distinction between standing waters and flowing waters ______.
A. depends on how people name the waters
B. is clear
C. depends on the seasons
D. is hard to make
5.This passage mainly tells us that ______.
A. there are two major classes of inland waters
B. lakes and rivers are flowing waters
C. age and size of flowing waters are important
D. ponds and brooks are standing waters
根据句后的汉语意思填入适当的短语以完成句子。（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
1.Every year ________ ________ ________ ________ inland visitors pour into HK, which indeed causes inconvenience to the local people.
2.The Internet now is ________ ________ ________ ________ in our life. (扮演着重要的角色)
3.Let’s raise our glasses and ________ ________ the happy marriage of the bride and bridegroom. (为......干杯)
4.There’s no need for you to worry about accommodation; it is a ________ ________. (寄宿学校)
5.He ________ his survival ________ luck. (归功于)
6.The area is peaceful ________ ________ some small conflicts between villagers. (除了)
7.How can he focus on his homework, ________ the music ________ so loudly? (在音乐播得这么大声的情况下)
8.—Hey, Linda, do you know that we won’t have any classes this Saturday?
—Really? ________ ________, I will go backpacking in Tianlong Mountain. (如果这样的话)
9.Don’t forget to ________ your address card ________ your travel suitcase so that it can be returned if lost by accident. (贴上)
10.________ ________ ________ class is a basic requirement for a qualified teacher. (按时上课)
用括号内所给词的适当形式填空。（共5小题；每小题1分，满分5分）
1.When waking up, the fisherman found himself ________(face) with an enormous monster.
2.Twenty percent of the students in the university ________(be) chosen to participate in the exchange project each year.
3.The cellphones made by Samsung are enjoying their ________(popular) in recent years.
4.________(selfish) and hardworking, the newly-come employee was appointed to take charge of the department.
5.My brother John has a terrific sense of humor and could be very ________(amuse).
根据句意和首字母，写出所缺的单词。（共5小题；每小题1分，满分5分）
1.It is normal that anybody will c________ mistakes.
2.He has the special quality that proves he is a p________ player rather than an amateur.
3.After the chairman d________ the result, the whole class got mad.
4.The r________ dogs made great contributions to finding the people buried under the ruins.
5.If you doubt about the arrangement, you’d better make a phone call to c________ it.
假设你叫李华。上周五，你校邀请林海博士给同学们作了“发生事故，如何实施急救”的专题讲座。主要内容包括：
1. 首先检查事故现场是否安全；
2. 看到有人严重受伤，应立即拨打急救电话；
3. 急救的简单措施。
请你根据以上提示，给你的美国笔友Tom写一封100词左右的电子邮件，介绍这个专题讲座的内容，并谈谈你的感想。
注意：开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Tom，
I wish you all the best.
Yours, Li Hua
