In ancient Egypt，the pharaoh（法老）treated the poor message runner like a prince when he arrived at the palace, if he brought good news. However，if the exhausted runner had the misfortune to bring the pharaoh unhappy news，his head was cut off.
Shades of that spirit spread over today's conversations. Once a friend and I packed up some peanut butter and sandwiches for an outing. As we walked light-heartedly out of the door，picnic basket in hand，a smiling neighbor looked up at the sky and said，"Oh boy，bad day for a picnic. The weatherman says it's going to rain." I wanted to strike him on the face with the peanut butter and sandwiches. Not for his stupid weather report，for his smile.
Several months ago I was racing to catch a bus. As I breathlessly put my handful of cash across the Greyhound counter，the sales agent said with a broad smile，"Oh that bus left five minutes ago." Dreams of head-cutting！
It’s not the news that makes someone angry. It’s the unsym pathetic attitude with which it’s delivered(递送). Everyone must give bad news from time to time, and winning professionals do it with the proper attitude. A doctor advising a patient that she needs an operation does it in a caring way . A boss informing an employee he didn’t get the job takes on a sympathetic tone. Big winners know, when delivering any bad news, they should share the feeling fo the receiver.
Unfortunately，many people are not aware of this. When you're tired from a long flight，has a hotel clerk cheerfully said that your room isn't ready yet？When you had your heart set on the toast beef，has your waiter merrily told you that he just served the last piece？It makes you as traveler or diner want to land your fist right on their unsympathetic faces.
Had my neighbor told me of the upcoming rainstorm with sympathy（同情），I would have appreciated his warning. Had the Greyhound salesclerk sympathetically informed me that my bus had already left，I probably would have said，"Oh，that's all right I'll catch the next one." Big winners，when they bear bad news，deliver bombs with the emotion the bombarded（被轰炸的）person is sure to have.
1.In Paragraph 1，the writer tells the story of the pharaoh to ____.
A. make a comparison B. introduce a topic
C. describe a scene D. offer an argument
2.In the writer's opinion，his neighbor was ___.
A. friendly B. warm-hearted C. not considerate D. not helpful
3.From "Dreams of head-cutting！"（Paragraph3），we learn that the writer___.
A. was mad at the sales agent
B. was reminded of the cruel pharaoh
C. wished that the sales agent would have had dreams
D. dreamed of cutting the sales agent's head that night.
4.What is the main idea of the text？
A. Delivering bad news properly is important in communication.
B. Helping others sincerely is the key to business success.
C. Receiving bad news requires great courage.
D. Learning ancient traditions can be useful.
The weather predictions for Asia in 2050 read like a story from a doomsday movie.
Many experts and green groups fear they will come true unless there is a united global effort to hold back greenhouse gas outpouring. In the decades to come, Asia---home to more than half the world’s 63 billion people-will change from one climate extreme to another, with tired farmers battling droughts, floods, disease, food shortages and rising sea levels.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” said Steve Sawyer, climate policy adviser with Greenpeace in Amsterdam. Global warming and changes of weather patterns are already occurring and there is more than enough carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to drive climate change for decades to come.
Already, changes are being felt in Asia but worse is likely to come, Sawyer and top climate bodies say, and could lead to mass migration and widespread human disasters. According to predictions, icebergs will melt faster, some Pacific and Indian Ocean islands will have to evacuate(疏散) or build sea defenses, storms will become more intense and insect and water-borne diseases will move into new areas as the world warms.
All this comes with rising populations and demand for food, water and other resources. Experts say environmental worsening such as deforestation and pollution will probably enlarge the results of climate change.
In what could be a sign of the future, Japan was hit by a record of 10 typhoons and tropical storms this year, while two-thirds of Bangladesh, parts of Nepal and large areas of northeastern India were flooded, affecting 50 million people, destroying livelihoods and making tens of thousands ill.
The year before, a winter cold struck and a summer heat wave killed more than 2,000 people in India.
1.This passage is mainly about .
A. what kind of weather we like best
B. the weather predictions for Asia in the future and the reasons
C. how to improve our environment
D. that the world will not be suitable for us to live in
2.In the future the Asian farmers will have to face the following except .
A. food shortages B. droughts C. wars D. floods
3.The underlined word “doomsday” may give us the feeling of .
A. happiness B. sadness C. peace D. excitement
That summer an army of crickets(蟋蟀) started a war with my father. Dad cared for insects no more than Mamma, but he could tolerate a few living in the basement. Mamma was a city girl and she said a cricket was just too noisy. Then to support her point she wouldn’t go to bed. She drank coffee and smoked my father’s cigarettes and paced between the sofa and the TV. Next morning she threatened to pack up and leave, so Dad drove to the store and hurried back. He sprayed poison from a jug. When he was finished he told us that was the end of it.
For a couple of weeks we went back to find dead crickets in the laundry. He suggested that we’d all be better off to hide as many as we could from Mamma. I fed a few dozen to the cat who I didn’t like because he scratched for no reason.
However,soon live crickets started showing up in the kitchen and bathroom. Mamma was upest because she thought they were the dead crickets coming back,but Dad said these were certainly new ones. He fetched his jug of posion and sprayed all over until the whole house smelled of posion, and then he sprayed the basement again.
A couple of weeks later, when both live and dead crickets kept turning up, Dad emptied the basement of junk. Then he burned a lot of old newspapers and magazines which he said the crickets had turned into nests.
While we ate supper that evening, the wind lifted some flames onto the wood pile. The only gasoline was in the lawn mower’s(割草机) fuel tank but that was enough to create an explosion big enough to reach the house. Once the roof caught, there wasn’t much anyone could do.
After the fire trucks left, Mamma took the others to Aunt Gail’s. I helped Dad and Uncle Burt carry things out of the house and pile them by the road. We worked into the night and we didn’t talk much, while all around the noise of crickets broke our silence.
1.What do we know about the author’s mother?
A. She didn’t like insects at all.
B. She liked insects more than his father.
C. She cared for insects very much.
D. She could only tolerate a few insects.
2.The author’s father drove to the store to buy _______.
A. cigarettes for himselfB. some poison
C. more coffee for his wifeD. some gasoline
3.The author’s father burned the old newspapers and magazines because he thought ______.
A. they were no longer useful
B. the crickets were afraid of fires
C. they became the home of crickets
D. the dead crickets came back to life
4.We learn from the last paragraph that ________.
A. the author’s family lost their battle against the crickets
B. the author’s parents learned to put up with insects
C. the author’s family didn’t suffer much in the fire
D. the author’s parents got divorced
I can still remember it as it was yesterday. I was a college freshman and had _______ up most of the night, laughing and talking with friends. Now just before my first _______ of the day, my eyelids were feeling heavier and heavier and my head was drifting down to my desk to make my textbook a _______. A few minutes nap(瞌睡) time before class wouldn’t _______, I thought.
BOOM! I lifted my head suddenly and my eyes opened wider than saucers. I looked around with my _______ beating wildly trying to find the cause of the ________. My young professor was looking back at me with a boyish smile on his face. He had ________ dropped the textbooks he was carrying onto his desk. “Good morning!”, he said, still ________. “I am glad to see everyone is _______. Now let’s get started.”
For the next hour I wasn’t sleepy at all. It wasn’t from the _______ of my professor’s textbook alarm clock either. It was instead from the _______ discussion he led. With knowledge and good _______ he made the material come _______. His insights were full of both wisdom and loving-kindness. And the enthusiasm and joy that he _______ with were contagious(富有感染力的). I ______ the classroom not only ______ awake, but a little smarter and a little better as well.
I learned something far more important than not _______ in class that day too. I learned that if you are going to do something in this life, do it with _______. What a wonderful place this would be if all of us did our work joyously and well. Don’t sleepwalk your way through _______ then. Wake up! Let your love fill your work. Life is too ______ not to live it well.
1.A. tookB. dividedC. stayedD. put
2.A. teacherB. testC. taskD. class
3.A. platform B. pillowC. carpetD. wall
4.A. lose B. helpC. lastD. hurt
5.A. heartB. mindC. thoughtD. head
6.A. troubleB. noiseC. failureD. incident
7.A. angrilyB. carelesslyC. intentionallyD. accidentally
8.A. smilingB. talkingC. complainingD. shouting
9.A. activeB. curiousC. presentD. awake
10.A. voiceB. shockC. interruptionD. blow
11.A. fascinating B. convincing C.puzzling D.encouraging
12.A. point B. sense C.humor D.look
13.A. strangeB. naturalC. trueD. alive
14.A. taughtB. spreadC. combinedD. started
15.A. decoratedB. filledC. leftD. entered
16.A. highB. wideC. narrowD. widely
17.A. discussingB. speakingC. cheatingD. sleeping
18.A. joyB. speedC. aimD. determination
19.A. workB. lifeC. journeyD. college
20.A. hardB. complexC. shortD. Simple
— The government requires that every primary school student do sports for at least one hour every day.
— _____. It is high time that students took exercise in order to build a strong body.
A. That’s what I don’t agree with B. That’s not the point
C. No wonder D. I can’t agree more
—Have you ever seen two leaves that are exactly the same?
—Never. Leaves differ ____ each other ____ size and shape.
A．from; in B．in; inC．in; from D．from; from
