Having put down your pens at the end of the college entrance exam, you have ended 12 years of hard study. Forget your studies for a while. It’s time to enjoy yourselves!
There are many ways to celebrate this special month of graduation. You can have photos taken with your classmates and teachers, or dine out together and exchange gifts.
High school students in Western countries such as the United States and Canada usually have a prom to mark their graduation. It’s to mark the time kids turn into young men and women. After the prom, teenagers either go to college or find a job. It means they are no longer as dependent on their parents as they were before.
At the prom, boys usually dress in dinner jackets and bow ties, though many different types of formal clothes are worn. Traditionally, girls give boys matching boutonnieres ( 佩带在扣眼上的花). Girls traditionally wear formal dresses, or dress to shock or be noticed, in shiny or brightly colored materials.
Common prom activities include dining, dancing, the crowning (加冠) of a prom king and queen, and just talking to friends.  In some cases, high school students collect funds for their class prom through the four years of their high school.
High schools in or near large cities may rent ballrooms at expensive hotels or, to be unusual, in a pleasure cruise boat.
But often costs are cut by simply using the school gym. Students make a lot of effort to decorate the gym to make the event special. The music played at the prom will be the most popular kinds, like rock and hip-hop.
The students elect the Prom Queen. She is partnered with a Prom King who is elected similarly. These are great honors that the pair take very seriously. The two dance with each other to celebrate their election.
【小题1】The word "prom" is probably closest in meaning with________.

A．a party to celebrate graduation	B．a dancing competition
C．a fashion show	D．an election ceremony

【小题2】Which of the following is an economical way to hold the prom?

A．Renting a ballroom.	B．Taking a cruise boat.
C．Holding it in the school gym.	D．Wearing informal dresses.

【小题3】 What clearly indicates that prom is very important to students?

A．Music is played at the prom.

B．They take pictures at the prom.

C．The King and Queen dance with each other.

D．They wear formal clothes or special clothes.

【小题4】For what do the students just talk to friends at a prom?

A．They don’t want to get help from their parents.

B．They will part with their friends in a short time.

C．They don’t like to be accompanied by their parents.

D．They want to be elected by their friends as the Prom King or Queen.

【小题5】How is the prom significant to the students?

A．They can be relieved from the study pressure.

B．They are going to say goodbye to their friends.

C．They have chances to be elected as the Prom King or Queen.

D．The prom marks the graduation and after it they will be independent.

When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground. I was living in Conyers, Georgia the summer it all happened. I was a second grader, but my best friend Stephanie was only in the first grade. Both of our parents were at work and most of the time they let us go our own way.

It was a hot afternoon and we decided to have an adventure in Stephanie’s basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs, and spotted red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.

“Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are fixing to paint.” She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted bit stripes (条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was fantastic!

The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn’t wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother’s face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.

My mother shut the car door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, “What in the world were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors’ trees, but this! Come inside right now!” I stood there glaring hack at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art. 

“Now go clean it up!” Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.  

Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful.

1. What did the writer want to do when his mother came home?

   A. To introduce Stephanie to her.       

   B. To prevent her from seeing his painting. 

   C. To put the materials back in the yard.      

   D. To show his artwork to her.

2.In his mother’s eyes, the writer_______.

   A. was a born artist                     B. always caused trouble

   C. was a problem solver                  D. worked very hard

3. The underlined word “rainbow” in the last paragraph refers to ______.

   A. the rainbow in the sky               

   B. the stripes on the pavement

   C. something imaginative and fun        

   D. important lessons learned in childhood

4. It can be learned from the passage that parents should ________.

   A. encourage children to paint          

   B. value friendship among children

   C. discover the hidden talent in children                 

    D. protect rather than destroy children’s dreams

 

.

Don’t argue about it. I will _________ the matter and then tell you who is right.

A．look into

B．turn into

C．get into

D．bring into

 

In early autumn I applied for admission to college. I wanted to go nowhere but to Cornell University, but my mother fought strongly against it. When she saw me studying a photograph of my father on the sports ground of Cornell, she tore it up.
“You can’t say it’s not a great university, just because Papa went there.”
“That’s not it at all. And it is a top university.” She was still holding the pieces in her hand. “But we can’t afford to send you to college.”
“I wouldn’t dream of asking you for money. Do you want me to get a job to help support you and Papa? Things aren’t that bad, are they?”
“No,” she said. “I don’t expect you to help support us.”
Father borrowed money form his rich cousins to start a small jewellery shop, His chief customers were his old college friends. To get new customers, my mother had to help. She picked up a long-forgotten membership in the local league of women, so that she could get to know more people. Whether those people would turn into customers was another question. I knew that my Parents had to wait for quite a long time before their small investment (投资) could show returns. What’s more, they had not wanted enough to be rich and successful ；Otherwise they could not possibly have managed their lives so badly.
I was torn between the desire to help them and change their lives, and the determination not to repeat their mistakes. I had a strong belief in my power to go what I wanted. After months of hard study I won a full college scholarship（奖学金）.My father could hardly contain his pride in me, and my mother eventually gave in before my success.
【小题1】The author was not allowed to go to Cornell University mainly because      .

A．his father graduated from the university

B．his mother did not thinks it a great university

C．his parents needed him to help support the family

D．his parents did not have enough money for him

【小题2】The father started his small shop with the money from         .

A．a local league	B．his university
C．his relatives	D．his college friends

【小题3】Why did the mother renew her membership in the league?      

A．To help with her husband’s business

B．To raise money for her son

C．To meet her long-forgotten friends

D．To better manage her life

【小题4】According to the text, what was the author determined to do in that autumn? 

A．To get a well-paid job for himself

B．To improve relations with his mother

C．To go to his dream university

D．To carry on with his father’s business

 

    "Have you ever been out on a boat and felt it lifted up by a wave? Or have you jumped in the water and felt the rush of energy as waves came over you?" asked Jamie Taylor of the Wave Energy Group at the University of Edinburgh. "There is certainly a lot of energy in waves," he said.

    Scientists are working to use that energy to make electricity.  Most waves are created when winds blow across the ocean. "The wind starts out by making little ripples (涟漪), but if they keep on blowing, those ripples get bigger and bigger and turn into waves," Taylor said. "Waves are one of nature's ways of picking up energy and then sending it off on a journey."

    When waves come toward the shore, people can set up darns to block the water and send it through a large wheel called a turbine (涡轮机). The turbine can then power an electrical generator to produce electricity.

    "The resource is huge," said Janet Swain of the World-watch Institute. "We will never run out of wave power." Besides, wave energy does not create the same pollution as other energy sources, such as oil or coal. Oceans cover three-quarters of the Earth's surface - that would make wave power seem ideal for creating energy throughout the world, though there are some weak points yet to overcome.

    Swain said that wave power still costs too much money. She also said that its effects on sea animals are still unknown. What is more, wave power could affect fishing and boat traffic.

    Traditional sources of energy like oil and gas may someday run out. "Demand for energy to power our TVs and computers, drive our cars, and heat and cool our homes is rising rapidly throughout the world," Swain said. In the future when you turn on a light, an ocean wave could be providing the electricity!

1. The writer uses the two questions at the beginning of the passage to ______.

   A. test the readers' knowledge about waves     B. draw the readers' attention to the topic

   C. show Jamie Taylor's importance           D. invite the readers to answer them

2. The underlined phrase "picking up" (Paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to ______.

   A. starting again    B. speeding up          C. gathering        D. improving

3. We can make better use of wave energy if we ______.

   A. shorten its journey to thousands of homes

   B. build more small power stations on the oceans

   C. reduce the cost of turning it into electric power

   D. quicken the steps of producing electricity

4. It can be inferred（推论） that some day we might not worry about ______.

   A. air pollution     B. our boat traffic    C. our power supply   D. our supply of sea fish