My Best Enemy

Once again, I was in a new school. So was a girl in my class named Lisa. That’s where the similarities ended.

I was tall and she was small. My thick black hair had been recently cut short into an untidy style. Her natural blonde hair flowed to her waist and looked great. I was 12 and one of the oldest in the class while she was 11 and the youngest. I was awkward and shy. She wasn’t. I couldn’t stand her, considering her my enemy. But she liked me and wanted to be friends.

One day, she invited me over and I said yes—I was too shocked to answer any other way. My family had moved six times in six years, and I had never managed to develop any friendships. But this girl who wore the latest fashions wanted me to go home with her after school.

She lived in a fun part of town that had two pizza places, an all-night bookstore, a movie theater and a park. As we walked from the school bus stop through her neighborhood, I tried to guess which house might be hers. Was it the white one with the perfect lawn or the three-story house with a front porch? I got very surprised when she led me into an old apartment building. She lived on the fourth floor in a two-room place with her mother,her stepfather, her two brothers and her sister.

When we got into the room she shared with her sister, she took out a big case of Babies, which was my next surprise. I had never played with them. We sat on the floor,laughing as we made up crazy stories about the Babies. We found out that we both wanted to be writers when we were older and both had wild imaginations. We had a great day that afternoon.

Lisa was loved by the whole neighborhood. The bookstore owners lent her fashion magazines; the movie theater gave her free tickets… Soon I was included in her magic world. We slept over at each other’s houses and spent every free moment together.

Lisa, my first real friend since childhood, helped me get through the rough year of early adolescence(青春期) and taught me an amazing and very surprising thing about making friends: that your worst enemy can turn out to be your best friend.

1.The writer and Lisa were similar in the way that_____.

2.One day Lisa invited the writer______ .

3.In the passage the writer described Lisa as a girl who was ______

4.Which of the following did the writer learn from Lisa?

Singing had always been an important part of Gloria Estefan’s life. “ Since I was three years old, I sang. I sang everything,” Gloria said. “Gubans,” she added, “are a musical people.”

Gloria was born in Cuba in 1957. Her family left the country just before Fidel Castro came to power. In Miami, where the family settled, many people did not accept Cuban immigrants. In first grade, she spoke little English, but she worked hard to learn the language. Six months after she entered school, she won an award for reading in English!

When Gloria was ten , her father returned from the Vietnam War. Soon, the family realized he wasn’t well. They soon found out that he was badly ill. Her mother went back to teaching at school to support the family. Gloria cared for her father and her younger sister.

She still made the honor roll, and she still had her music, but Gloria was lonely. However, when the band leader Emilio Estefan came to speak at her high school, Gloria sang for him. He asked her to join his band. It was the beginning of the Miami Sound Machine. Within a few months, the Miami Sound Machine was the top band in Miami. In 1978, Gloria and Emilio married.

At first, the Miami Sound Machine was known only in Miami. Then the band signed with CBS Records. Estefan and his band became stars.

Since then, the Miami Sound Machine has sold millions of records. Estefan has done more than just singing when Hurricane Andrew hit central Florida in 1992. She used only two weeks to organize an all-star concert that raised $ 2 million for the people who suffered in the hurricane. “We needed a party after that disaster,” she said.

Estefan said, “You have to stay true to the music you really love to do. There will always be people who will tell you, ‘that won’t work.’ You’ve got to be firm in spite of difficulties. Stick to it——that’s the main thing.”

1.Estefan’s father was ill ______.  

2.According to the passage, probably Estefan did the following except________.

3.The underlined word “disaster” in this passage refers to _______.

4.This passage mainly tells about Estefan’s ______.

The Coalition for the Homeless is an organization that seeks to address the needs of the homeless population in the United States. It is a network of offices, some of which provide food and houses for the homeless population, and some of which fight for the passing of laws that would give every American the right to a place to call home. According to the Coalition’s studies, of over two hundred million people living in the United States, up to three million are homeless—and the number is still growing. Since the late 1970s, fast-rising house prices, large cuts in government supported housing programs, and economic recession(经济衰退) have make it impossible for many Americans to meet housing costs. Sadly, this has resulted in a number of persons being forced to leave their homes and/or unable to find new affordable homes. According to another research, families with children appear to be the fastest-growing part of the homeless population, making up 39% of it. The old idea of a homeless person, that of the single man who gets drunk all the time, is no longer true. A much larger part of the population now finds itself homeless. Even worse, once a person becomes homeless, he often finds it impossible to find a job, since most employers require anyone who wants a job from them to provide a home address on a job application.

1.The word “ address” in the first line probably means “ ________”.

2.How many people are homeless in the U.S according to the Coalition studies?

3.Homeless people often have difficulty finding a job because_______.

4.What’s the main cause of the rising number of the homeless in the U.S.?

We are all busy talking about and using the Internet but how many of us know the history of the Internet?

Many people are surprised when they find that the Internet was set up in the 1960s. At that time, computers were large and expensive. Computer networks didn’t work well. If one computer in the network broke down, the whole network stopped. So a new network system had to be set up. It should be good enough to be used by many different computers. If part of the network was not working, information could be sent through another part. In this way computer network system would keep on working all the time.

At first the Internet was only used by the government, but in the early 1970s, universities, hospitals, and banks were allowed to use it, too. However, computers were still very expensive and the Internet was difficult to use. By the start of 1990s, computers became cheaper and easier to use. Scientists had also developed software that made “surfing” the Internet easier.

Today it is easy to get on-line and it is said that millions of people use the Internet every day. Sending e-mails is more and more popular among young people.

The Internet has now become one of the most important parts of people’s life.

回答下面问题，在答题卡相应题号后的横线上写下相关信息。

1.When was the Internet set up?（不多于3个单词）

___________________________________________________________________________

2.Why did a new network system have to be set up?（不多于6个单词）

___________________________________________________________________________

3.What is the writer’s purpose of this passage?（不多于11个单词）

___________________________________________________________________________

—How many people are still leading ______ life under ________ poverty line in the world?

   —Perhaps one fourth.

   A．a; the      B．a; a       C．/; /         D．the; /

—I hope you don’t mind my turning on the heater.

   A Yes, I don’t       B. That’s right

   C.Not in the least    D.Never mind.

The river and lakes nearby dried up and some of the villagers set off ____drinking water.

   A. in memory of     B in honor of

   C. in charge of     D. in search of

 ----The boy was so hungry that he ate up the whole cake!

   ----Oh, he was more _____than hungry.

   A. greedy.     B. considerate     C. generous.     D. athletic .

There was a fierce debate about _____we should go on with experiments on creating new life.

   A.which      B. whether        C.that        D. What

As we all know,________, the pollution will get worse and worse.

   A. not if carefully dealt with

 B. until not carefully dealt with

   C. if not carefully dealt with

   D. when not carefully dealt with