Bamboo (竹子) is one of nature’s (自然) most surprising plants. Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass.
Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist reported one bamboo plant which grew 1.5 metres (4 feet) in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe. There are more than 1, 000 kinds of bamboo.
Not all bamboo looks the same. Some bamboo plants are very thin. They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimetres (1 foot) across. This plant also comes in different colors, from yellow to black to green.
Bamboo has been used to make many things such as hats and kitchen tools. Because it is strong, bamboo is also used to build buildings.
Many Asian countries have used bamboo for hundreds of years. They often use bamboo for buildings and supporting new buildings and bridges while they are being built.
In Africa, poor farmers are taught how to find water using bamboo. These African countries need cheap way to find water because they have no money, and their crops often die from no rain and no water. Bamboo pipes help poor farmers bring water to their thirsty fields without spending a lot of money.
1.How is bamboo like grass?
A. It grows quickly. B. It’s wood.
C. It is easy to cut D. It is very thin
2.Though you can see bamboo everywhere, it doesn’t grow ______.
A. in China B. in Europe
C. on mountains D. in Africa
3.Why is bamboo used by African poor farmers?
A. Because it is cheap.
B. Because it has different colours .
C. Because it is strong.
D. Because it has been used by Asians.
4.Bamboo pipes can ______.
A. make money B. be trees
C. grow quickly D. carry water
In a room at Texas Children Cancer Center in Houston, eight-year-old Simran Jatar lay in bed with a drip (点滴) above her to fight her bone cancer. Over her bald (秃的) head, she wore a pink hat that matched her clothes. But the third grader’s cheery dressing didn’t mask her pain and weary eyes.
Then a visitor showed up. “Do you want to write a song?” asked Anita Kruse, 49, rolling a cart equipped with an electronic keyboard, a microphone and speakers. Simran stared. “Have you ever written a poem?” Anita Kruse continued. “Well, yes,” Simran said.
Within minutes, Simran was reading her poem into the microphone. “Some bird soaring through the sky,” she said softly. “Imagination in its head…” Anita Kruse added piano music, a few warbling (鸣, 唱) birds, and finally the girl’s voice. Thirty minutes later, she presented Simran with a CD of her first recorded song.
That was the beginning of Anita Kruse’s project, Purple Songs Can Fly, one that has helped more than 125 young patients write and record songs. As a composer and pianist who had performed at the hospital, Kruse said that the idea of how she could help “came in one flash”.
The effect on the kids has been great. One teenage girl, curling (蜷缩) in pain in her wheelchair, stood unaided to dance to a hip-hop song she had written. A 12-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s disease who rarely spoke surprised his doctors with a song he called I Can Make It.
“My time with the kids is heartbreaking because of the severity of their illnesses,” says Anita Kruse. “But they also make you happy, when the children are smiling, excited to share their CD with their families.”
Simran is now an active sixth grader and cancer-free. From time to time, she and her mother listen to her song, Always Remembering, and they always remember the “really sweet and nice and loving” lady who gave them a shining moment in the dark hour.
1.Simran Jatar lay in bed in hospital because ______.
A. most of her hair had fallen out
B. she was receiving treatment for cancer
C. she felt depressed and quit from school
D. she was suffering from a pain in her back
2.What do we know about Anita Kruse’s project?
A. It helps young patients record songs.
B. It is supported by singers and patients.
C. It aims to replace the medical treatment.
D. It offers patients chances to realize their dreams.
3.What does the case of a 12-year-old boy suggest?
A. Most children are naturally fond of music.
B. He was brave enough to put up performance.
C. The project has positive effect on young patients.
D. Singing is the best way to treat some illnesses.
4. What is probably the best title for the passage?
A. Purple Songs Can Fly
B. Singing Can Improve Health
C. A Shining Moment in Life
D. A Kind Woman—Anita Kruse
最近，教育部出台新规，允许在校大学生休学一年进行创业，引发了广泛热议。为此，你们学校将以此为话题组织英文演讲比赛。请你准备一篇演讲稿，字数150左右，参与比赛。你的演讲要包括以下几个方面：
1、你对此新规的看法；
2、进入大学的你是否会休学创业；
3、阐述上述两点时必须各提供至少2条理由或论据加以支撑。
【写作要求】
1．内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当；2．文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称。
3．开头已给出，不计入总词数。
Good morning, everyone! I would like to begin my speech with my view on the policy itself.
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请认真阅读下列短文，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：每个空格只填1个单词。请将答案写在答题纸上相应题号的横线上。
In Greek mythology, the Trojan(特洛伊) War was started against the city of Troy by the Greeks after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has appeared in many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homers(荷马) Iliad. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege(包围) of Troy; the Odyssey describes the journey home of Odysseus, one of the war’s heroes. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems(史诗), which have survived through fragments. The war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.
The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess of strife and discord(不和谐), gave them a golden apple marked “for the fairest”. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the “fairest”, should receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen’s husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Greek troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris’ insult. After the deaths of many heroes the city fell to the ruse(策略) of the Trojan Horse. The Greeks slaughtered(大屠杀) the Trojans and desecrated(亵渎) the temples, thus earning the gods’ great anger. Few of the Greeks returned safely to their homes.
The ancient Greeks treated the Trojan War as an historical event which had taken place in the 13th or 12th century BC, and believed that Troy was located in modern-day Turkey near the Dardanelles. As of the mid-19th century, both the war and the city were widely believed to be non-historical. In 1868, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was at Hissarlik; this claim is now accepted by most scholars. They believe that there is a historical core to the tale. However, whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War is still an open question.
Topic | Sub topic | Detailed information | |||
| 1. in Literature | • The Iliad | relating what happened in the last year of the siege | ||
• The Odyssey | 2. Odysseus’ journey home | ||||
• Epic poems | gaining 3. through fragments | ||||
• Roman poets | Virgil and Ovid included | ||||
The Trojan War | Plot Of the War | The war was 4. by a quarrel between the three goddesses for the title of the “fairest”. | |||
5. judged Aphrodite the “fairest” in exchange of Helen, the most beautiful woman, who was taken to Troy by him. | |||||
Feeling 6. by Paris’ action, Agamemnon led an expedition of Greek troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years. | |||||
With the ruse of the Trojan Horse, Greek troops 7. the city and slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated the temples, which made the gods very angry and made few of them return home safely. | |||||
| 8.Background | The ancient Greeks’ time | ■ The war was believed to be an historical event, 9. in the 13th or 12th century BC. | ||
The mid-1900s | ■ The war was regarded as non-historical. | ||||
From 1868 | ■ Many scholars 10. Frank Calvert’s claim and believe that there is a historical core to the tale, but it still remains an open question. | ||||
A few years ago, in one experiment in behavioural psychology, Stanley Milgram of Yale University tested 40 subjects for their willingness to obey instructions given by a “leader” in a situation in which the subjects might feel a personal dislike of the actions they were called upon to perform. Specifically, Milgram told each volunteer “teacher-subject” that the experiment was in the noble cause of education, and was designed to test whether or not punishing pupils for their mistakes would have a positive effect on the pupils’ ability to learn.
The teacher-subjects were placed before a panel of thirty switches with labels ranging from “15 volts of electricity (slight shock)” to “450 volts (danger — severe shock)” in steps of 15 volts each. The teacher-subject was told that whenever the pupil gave the wrong answer to a question, a shock was to be administered. The supposed “pupil” was in reality an actor hired by Milgram to pretend to receive the shocks by giving out cries and screams. Milgram told the teacher-subject to ignore the reactions of the pupil, and to administer whatever level of shock was called for.
As the experiment unfolded, the “pupil” would deliberately give the wrong answers to questions, thereby bringing on various electrical punishments, even up to the danger level of 300 volts and beyond. Many of the teacher-subjects balked at administering the higher levels of punishment, and turned to Milgram. In these situations, Milgram calmly explained that the teacher-subject was to carry on with the experiment and that it was important for the sake of the experiment that the procedure be followed through to the end. What Milgram was trying to discover was the number of teacher-subjects who would be willing to administer the highest levels of shock, even in the face of strong personal and moral revulsion(反感) against the rules and conditions of the experiment.
Before carrying out the experiment, Milgram explained his idea to a group of 39 psychiatrists and asked them to predict the average percentage of people who would be willing to administer the highest shock level of 450 volts. The overwhelming consensus was that basically all the teacher-subjects would refuse to obey the experimenter. The psychiatrists felt that “most subjects would not go beyond 150 volts” and only a small percentage of about one in 1,000 would give the highest shock of 450 volts.
What were the actual results? Well, over 60 per cent of the teacher-subjects continued to obey Milgram up to the 450-volt limit! In repetitions of the experiment in other countries, the percentage was even higher, reaching 85 per cent in one country. How can we possibly account for this result?
One might firstly argue that there must be some sort of built-in animal aggression instinct(本能) that was activated by the experiment. A modem sociobiologist might even go so far as to claim that this aggressive instinct was of survival value to our ancestors in their struggle against the hardships of life on the plains and in the caves, finally finding its way into our genetic make-up.
Another explanation is to see the teacher-subjects’ actions as a result of the social context in which the experiment was carried out. As Milgram himself pointed out, “Most subjects in the experiment see their behaviour in a larger context that is good and useful to society — the pursuit of scientific troth. The psychological laboratory has a strong claim to legitimacy(合法性) and gains trust and confidence in those who perform there. An action such as shocking a victim, which in isolation(单独看来) appears evil, acquires a completely different meaning when placed in this setting”.
Here we have two different explanations. The problem for us is to sort out which of these two polar explanations is more reasonable. This is the problem of modern sociobiology — to discover how hard-wired genetic programming decides the interaction of animals and humans with their environment, that is, their behaviour. Put another way, sociobiology is concerned with explaining the biological basis of all behaviour.
1.Why did Milgram do the experiment?
A. To discover people’s willingness for orders from leaders.
B. To display the power of punishment on ability to learn.
C. To test people’s willingness to sacrifice for science.
D. To explore the biological basis of social behavior.
2.Which of the following is right about the experiment?
A. The actor’s performance was vital to its success.
B. Its subjects were informed of its real purpose beforehand.
C. The electrical shock made the “pupil” give more wrong answers.
D. Its subjects were convinced of the effects of punishment on ability to learn.
3.What does the underlined phrase “balked at” most probably mean?
A. commented on B. hesitated in
C. got rid of D. looked down upon
4.Before the experiment took place the psychiatrists _________ .
A. believed that a shock of 150 volts was unbearable
B. failed to agree on how the teacher-subjects would respond to instructions
C. under-predicted the teacher-subjects’ willingness to follow experimental procedure
D. thought that many of the teacher-subjects would administer a shock of 450 volts
5.Which of the following is mentioned as one possible factor that explains the teacher-subjects’ behaviour?
A. Economic factor. B. Biological factor.
C. Cultural factor. D. Historical factor.
6.What’s the author’s purpose with this article?
A. To introduce a problem sociobiology deals with.
B. To explain a scientific phenomenon.
C. To report an experiment that focuses on education.
D. To argue against a scientific view.
When my friend went to Europe last summer, instead of snapping photographs of the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower or Stonehenge, she brought back 32 rolls of ... cathedral ceilings. Ceilings. For the 10 years I’ve known her I had never suspected that she was this passionate about stained glass.
Still one of the best things about such pictures — despite their obvious narrow appeal — is that they can’t help but tell us a great deal about the people who took them.
So I shouldn’t have been surprised when I got the roll of film back from my 5-year-old son’s first camping trip. I opened the envelope, naively expecting to see pictures of the nightly campfire, the sun setting over the forest, and possibly even a deer or two.
Instead, I saw an off-center picture of tennis shoes. Not even his tennis shoes, mind you, but a pair someone had lost and left in the cabin. Mystery shoes. And that’s not all.
As I went through the stack, I found that my son had also taken a picture of his sleeping bag, a penny he found in the gravel next to the car, a leaf, an orange sock, a close-up of his father’s ear, a burned hot dog, his thumb, a piece of gum, and many other similar things.
There was barely one sign of nature in the whole stack. I couldn’t help thinking that if he’d wanted pictures of assorted junk, it would’ve been cheaper had he spent the weekend in our back-yard.
AT LEAST that is what I thought until I showed the photographs to my ceiling-snapping friend, the mother of three teenagers, who said simply, “There’s nothing wrong with these.”
But of course, this is just the type of answer you’d expect from someone who photographs ceiling.
Then she told me about the time her daughter went to Yosemite Valley and returned with rolls of photographs of the hotel, restaurant, and gift shop. She also told me about the time her son took his camera to a Major League Baseball game and returned with 24 pictures of cloud formations.
I had a feeling she was just trying to make me feel better.
Then again, to a 5-year-old boy, finding a penny is more exciting than seeing a squirrel. And why would he waste good film on something like, say, some endangered water buffaloes, when he could take a picture of cool tennis shoes? Or his shiny new green sleeping bag?
Face it: Things like beautiful sunsets and campfires can’t compare to a bag of extra-large marshmallow.
So I did what any good mother would do: I marked the date on the back of the pictures and slid them into our family vacation photo album — right after the five pages of ice sculptures I took last year on our cruise to the Bahamas.
1.Which of the following proverbs best displays the author’s final thought?
A. Every dog will have its day.
B. Every man has his hobby-horse.
C. If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing well.
D. You can take a horse to the water but you cannot make him drink.
2.Who might have taken a picture of the back seat of the family car in his or her trip mentioned in this passage?
A. The author’s friend. B. The author’s son.
C. The author. D. The author’s friend’s daughter.
3.The author changed her mind on her son’s picture taking because______ .
A. her friend persuaded her to do so
B. her son’s pictures finally struck her
C. she realized the truth by herself inspired by the surrounding examples
D. it suddenly occurred to her that she herself had also taken unique pictures before
4.What can we infer from this passage?
A. Age and gender play an important role in one’s vision of the world.
B. The author’s friend is a better mum in terms of educating children.
C. The author will allow her son more freedom to choose in his future life.
D. The author will take vacation pictures of different kind from her past ones.
