Every American family has its own traditions on Thanksgiving Day, and mine is no difference. Once the national holiday arrives, my mom rises early to make the meal. She puts a turkey in the oven, chops carrots and bakes pies. I’m sorry to say that the men in the family – my dad, my younger brother and myself – rarely pitch in to help. Our job is to wash the mountain of dirty dishes after the meal is over.
Around 2 pm every Thanksgiving Day, family members seat themselves around the kitchen table. Plates of turkey, vegetables, salad, rolls and pies cover it. At this point, we can hardly keep ourselves from drooling (流口水) all over our fancy clothes, but it’s not yet time to eat.
First, we must bow our heads, close our eyes and say a prayer of thanks aloud to God for giving us everything we have. Under normal circumstances, I would have no problem making a list of things I am thankful for. I grew up in a loving family. My parents, who aren’t wealthy, took out loans to help me pay for university.
But, the funny thing is, every time I sit down for Thanksgiving dinner and try to say a prayer of thanks, my mind usually goes blank. I think it has something to do with my growling (咕咕叫) stomach and all of that food sitting right there under my nose.
Eventually, though, we all finish our short prayers and dig in. To be sure, the day includes other highlights – visiting with family and watching football. But usually around 6 pm we are all ourselves stuffed like turkeys and thankful to have a nice warm bed to sleep in.
【小题1】The purpose of the text is to ________.

A．tell what the family do for Thanksgiving Day

B．tell how the family spends Thanksgiving Day

C．introduce foods served on Thanksgiving Day

D．introduce the American Thanksgiving Day

【小题2】On Thanksgiving Day the author’s family do the following except ________.

A．watching a movie	B．making visits
C．having a big meal	D．watching football

【小题3】Why does the author’s mind usually “go blank” when saying a prayer of thanks?

A．He is too thankful to say a word.	B．His mind is on the food before him.
C．He feels too excited to speak.	D．He is shy to speak in public.

【小题4】The underlined phrase “dig in” in the last paragraph is closest in meaning to “________”.

A．chat with others	B．make a hole
C．mix things up	D．start eating

Our Future Homes

　What kinds of homes will we live         the future? Nobody can be sure,         architects, and scientists are         new ideas now.

　　Some architects are thinking about          whole cities under huge glass domes. Of course, complicated heating and        systems will be necessary to control the climate in the domes.        , there will never be any rain      snow, and the temperature will be always        .

　　Perhaps everyone will live in vertical（立体的）       . High rises are so large that they can contain all the necessities of life. Since vertical cities will use        land than horizontal cities, and provide homes for more people, they will be       for small countries that have      populations.

Another idea that will be helpful to        countries (and island countries) is

the      city. Monaco has already built homes, stores, and offices         the water of the Mediterranean Sea. And a Japanese       has made a plan for constructing buildings on bridges over Tokyo Bay.

　　There are some people who think we will go back to living in       . But the caves of the future will be quite      the caves of the Stone Age. Computers will control light and climate. Farms and parks will be on the land      the cave city. When people want to go to the country or to a park, a short ride in       will take them there.

1.A. in                                             B. in at                         C. in in                                   D. in for

2.A. and                                B. or                    C. but                                    D. however

3.A. working out                B. working at         C. working on                  D. thinking

4.A. burying                             B. destroying            C. founding                          D. building

5.A. cooling                              B. cold                           C. living                     D. social

6.A. So                                 B. However                 C. Therefore                        D. Even if

7.A. or                             B. and                          C. but                                    D.  with

8.A. pleased                        B. happy                  C. content                              D. comfortable

9.A. towns                               B. villages                C. buildings                    D. cities

10.A. fewer                                   B. more                       C. larger                              D. less

11.A. practical                     B. expensive               C. unnecessary                  D. useless

12.A. big                              B. many                       C. much                              D. large

13.A. huge                                    B. small                        C. strong                    D. great

14.A. floated                            B. float                          C. floating                           D. to float

15.A. in                                          B. under                      C. over                               D. on

16.A. teacher                          B. sailor                         C. doctor                            D. architect

17.A. houses                            B. caves                        C. buildings                        D. cities

18.A. different from              B. similar with      C. equal to                   D. the same as

19.A. under                            B. in                           C. over                                 D. far from

20.A. a bus                                    B. ship                          C. an elevator              D. a train

 

Michael froze as he heard the voice on the radio saying that a man had been murdered by a bullet that had come from the sky. Thinking that the shot they had fired possibly was the shot that killed Mr. Ward, he immediately drove off. For the next two months, Michael and Joe hid the secret that the bullet had actually shot Mr. Ward.

    During this time, Jenna Ward started to realize life without her father. While Jenna mourned the death of her father, a strange boy started to appear at the front steps of the church. After many nights of watching this boy, she finally recognized that it was Michael who was sitting on the steps every night.

    After months of finding out where the shot came, the police arrived at Michael’s house. His dad mentioned the gun that Michael had received from his grandpa at his birthday party. Michael told the police that Joe had borrowed the gun. Upon this, Joe said that the gun had been stolen out of his car along with his CD player. After the police were gone, Michael met Joe and told Joe the gun was under the wood pile in his backyard.

One day , Michael came home to find the police searching his backyard with metal detectors .When the Sergeant(警官)went into the woods behind the house , he came out with a bullet that Joe and he had shot off on his birthday .The bullet matched the one that they had recovered from Mr Ward , but without the gun , the police could not place Michael as the killer.

  With the pressure increasing .Michael finally broke down and realized he had to give up .On a Saturday morning , he went to Jenna’s house to confess(忏悔) to her and her mother and then turned himself in .

1.It can be inferred from the story that Michael and Joe _____.

A. shot and killed Mr. Ward by accident

B. shot and killed Mr. Ward deliberately

C. fired a bullet that killed Ward from the sky

D. were experienced professional murders

2.Why did Michael sit on the steps of the church every night?

A. He was monitoring Jenna’s whereabouts (行踪).

B. He was probably feeling upset and guilty.

C. He wanted to make sure that Ward was dead.

D. He wanted to show sympathy for the Wards.

3.The underlined phrase “turned himself in” in the last paragraph means _____.

A. returned home              B. went into the room

C. fled into the woods        D. delivered himself to the police

4.From the passage we can learn that _____.

A. Michael lent the gun to Joe at his birthday party

B. the gun together with a CD player was stolen from Joe’s car

C. Michael hid the gun under the wood pile in his backyard

D. the Sergeant discovered the bullet in the wood pile

 

Can you believe your eyes? A recent experiment suggests that the answer to that question may depend on your age.
Martin Doherty, a psychologist at the University of Stirling in Scotland, led the team of scientists. In this experiment, Doherty and his team tested the perception(观察力) of some people, using pictures of some orange circles. The researchers showed the same pictures to two groups of people. The first group included 151 children aged 4 to 10, and the second group included 24 adults aged 18 to 25.
The first group of pictures showed two circles alone on a white background. One of the circles was larger than the other, and these people were asked to identify the larger one. Four-year-olds identified the correct circle 79 percent of the time. Adults identified the correct circle 95 percent of the time.
Next, both groups were shown a picture where the orange circles, again of different sizes, were surrounded by gray circles. Here’s where the trick lies in. In some of the pictures, the smaller orange circle was surrounded by even smaller gray circles — making the orange circle appear larger than the other orange circle, which was the real larger one. And the larger orange circle was surrounded by even bigger gray circles — so it appeared to be smaller than the real smaller orange circle.
When young children aged 4 to 6 looked at these tricky pictures, they weren’t fooled — they were still able to find the bigger circle with roughly the same accuracy as before. Older children and adults, on the other hand, did not do as well. Older children often identified the smaller circle as the larger one, and adults got it wrong most of the time.
As children get older, Doherty said, their brains may develop the ability to identify visual context. In other words, they will begin to process the whole picture at once: the tricky gray circles, as well as the orange circle in the middle. As a result, they’re more likely to fall for this kind of visual trick.
【小题1】Doherty and his team of scientists did an experiment to evaluate        .

A．children’s and adults’ eye-sight

B．people’s ability to see accurately

C．children’s and adults’ brains

D．the influence of people’s age

【小题2】When asked to find the larger circle,        .

A．children at 6 got it wrong 79 % of the time with no gray ones around

B．only adults over 18 got it right 95% of the time with gray ones around

C．children at 4 got it right about 79 % of the time with gray ones around

D．adults got it right most of the time with gray ones around

【小题3】According to the passage, we can know that        .

A．a smaller orange circle appears bigger on a white background

B．an orange circle appears bigger than a gray one of the same size

C．a circle surrounded by other circles looks bigger than its real size

D．a circle surrounded by bigger ones looks smaller than its real size

【小题4】Visual context may work when children get older than        .

A．4

B．6

C．10

D．18

【小题5】Why are younger children not fooled?

A．Because they are smarter than older children and adults.

B．Because older people are influenced by their experience.

C．Because people’s eyes become weaker as they grow older.

D．Because their brain can hardly notice related things together.

John likes baseball, and I like it too. Besides, we have a lot in_____ in other respects.

A. ordinary	B. usual
C. common	D. normal