Last July, my 12-year-old car died on California's Santa Na Freeway. It was an hour before sunset, and I was 25 miles form home. I couldn't reach anyone to pick me up, so I decided to take a bus. Not knowing the routes, I figured I'd just head east.

A bus pulled up, and I asked the driver how far she was going. "Four more lights," she said. There was another bus I could take form there. This clearly was going to be a long night.

She dropped me off at the end of her route and told me which bus to look for. After waiting 30 minutes, I began to think about a very expensive taxi ride home. Then a bus pulled up. There was no lighted number above its wind-shield. It was out of service. But the door opened, and I was surprised to find that it was the same driver.

"I just can't leave you here, "she said. "This isn't the nicest place. I'll give you a ride home."

“You’ll drive me home in the bus?” I asked, perplexed(迷惑的).

“No, I’ll take you in my car,” she said.

“It’s a long way,” I protested(抗议).

“Come on,”she said. “I have nothing else to do.”

As we drove from the station in her car, she began telling me a story. A few days earlier, her brother had run out of gas. A good Samaritan picked him up, took him to a service station and then back to his car. “I’m just passing the favor along.”she said.

When I offered her money as a thank-you, she wouldn’t hear of it. “That would not make it a  favor,” she said. “Just do something nice for somebody. Pass it along.”

1.The writer thought that he would have a long night because

A．it world be long before he could take another bus

B．no driver would give him a ride

C．he didn’t know the routes

D．he perhaps would have to take a taxi

2.Judging from its context, the place where the writer waited for the second bus was     .

A．very quiet and peaceful	B．dark without street lights
C．neither clean nor beautiful	D．a little unsafe

3.The writer wanted to take a taxi home at the end of the route because         .

A．no bus would come

B．a taxi ride would be more comfortable

C．he became impatient and a bit worried

D．he knew the driver would never return

4.The bus driver drove the writer home later because       .

A．she happened to go in the same direction

B．she wanted to do something good for other people

C．her brother told her to do so

D．she wanted to earn more money

5.The bus driver hoped that the writer         .

A．world do as she did	B．would keep her in memory
C．would give the money to others	D．would do her a favor

 

A twenty-nine-year-old kindergarten teacher from Maryland was named National Teacher of the Year in 2006. On June first she would begin a year as a national and international spokeswoman for education.

Kimberly Oliver was the first National Teacher of the Year from her state. She taught five-year-old children at a public school in Maryland, near Washington, D.C. President Bush honored her and other top teachers at the White House.

Kimberly Oliver said she wanted people to understand that the first several years of a child’s life were the most important for learning. She said investing in children at a very young age would result in great gains later in school and in life. She called on parents to read to children from an early age so they would not fall behind in school. One of the activities at her school was an event called “ Books and Supprer Night ”. Families read together at the school and received free books to take home. Parents, children and teachers also ate dinner together.

Broad Acres Elementary School was in a poor area. Many of the parents were immigrants with limited English. Kimberly Oliver helped improve learning environment at her school. She received money to buy electronic learning systems, tape players and books in English and Spanish and sent them home with students. Parents said she had shown them how to help their children at home.

She was born and raised in Delaware. She held one degree in English and another in Elementary Education. Kimberly Oliver would follow in the footsteps of another teacher Jason Kamras from the Washington area as National Teacher of the Year. Jason Kamras, as honored for his work, teaching math to middle school students in the nation’s capital.

The National Teacher of the Year program began in 1952. A fourteen-member committee choose from among teachers honored as the best in their states.

1. From the text we know that in the state of Maryland, __________.

A．no other teacher than Kimberly Oliver had been given the honor

B．Kimberly Oliver had been teaching in a middle school for many years

C．Kimberly opened her own school early in Washington in 1952

D．many other teachers were given the honor together with Oliver

2.Oliver hoped that parents should __________.

A．spend more time playing with their children

B．read to their children at an early age

C．not give too much money to their children

D．stay at school with their children more often

3.Kimberly Oliver had been named National Teacher of the Year mostly because ___________.

A．she taught five-year old children at a public school

B．the elementary school she taught in is in a poor area

C．she was helpful ahd had many special and good ideas in teaching children

D．she called on parents to read to children from an early age

4. The National Teacher just before Oliver comes from __________.

A．Delaware

B．Maryland

C．New York

D．Washington

 

The painter Georgia O’keeffe was born in Wisconsin in 1887 and grew up on her family’s farm. At seventeen she decided she wanted to be an artist and left the farm for schools in Chicago and New York, but she never lost her bond with the land. Like most painters, O’Keeffe painted the things that were most important to her, and nearly all her works are simplified portrayals of nature.

O’Keeffe became famous when her paintings were discovered and exhibited in New York by the photographer Levered Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. During a visit to New York in 1929, O’Keeffe was so moved by the bleak（荒凉的） landscape and broad skies of the Western desert that she began to paint its images. Cows’ skulls and other bleached（变白的） bones found in the desert figured prominently（突出的） in her paintings. When her husband died in 1946, she moved to New Mexico permanently and used the horizon lines of the desert, colorful flowers, rocks, barren(贫瘠的) hills, and the sky as subjects for her paintings. Although O’Keeffe painted her best known works in the 1920’s, 1930’s and 1940’s, she continued to produce tributes（贡品、颂词） to the Western desert until her death in 1986.

O’Keeffe is widely considered to have been a pioneering American modernist painter. While most early modern American artists were strongly influenced by European art, O’Keeffe’s position was more independent. She established her own vision and preferred to view her painting as a private endeavor. Almost from the beginning, her work was more indentifiably American than that of her contemporaries in its simplified and idealized treatment of color, light, space, and natural forms.

1. Which of the following best tells what this passage is about ?

A．O’Keeffe was a distinctive modern American painter.

B．O’Keeffe was the best painter of her generation.

C．O’Keeffe liked to paint only what was familiar to her.

D．O’Keeffe used colors and shapes that are too reduced and simple.

2.Which of the following is NOT mentioned as an influence on O’Keeffe’s paintings ?

A．Her rural upbringing	B．Her life in the West
C．The works of European artists	D．The appearance of the natural landscape

3.Which of the following is most similar to O’Keeffe’s relationship with nature?

A．A photoghrapher’s relationship with a model.

B．A writer’s relationship with a publisher.

C．A student’s relationship with a teacher

D．A carpenter’s relationship with a hammer.

4.Why is O’Keeffe considered an artistic pioneer ?

A．Her work became influential in Europe.

B．She painted the American Southwest.

C．Her paintings had a definite American style.

D．She painted things that were familiar to her.

 

King Midas used to love gold. One day he met a fairy who allowed him to make a wish for something. The king replied at once , ‘‘I love gold . I want everything I touch to change into gold”. ‘‘Very well , tomorrow morning, everything you touch will turn into gold .”Saying this, the fairy disappeared.

    The king waited excitedly till the next morning. To his joy ,everything he touched changed immediately into gold. ‘‘I’m the richest man in the world now.” He shouted.

    Soon Midas became hungry. He sat down at his table. All the foods and drinks turned into gold in his hand . ‘‘I’m dying of hunger.” He cried.

    Just then his daughter came running in . ‘‘Why are you so sad , dad ?” she asked, putting her arms around him. There and then she became a golden statue. The king loved his daughter very much .Seeing this ,he began to cry. He looked up and suddenly saw the fairy before him.  ‘‘Don’t you like the golden touch?” asked the fairy. ‘‘ Please take it away,” begged the king, ‘‘ give me back my daughter.”  ‘‘Well, you have learned your lesson. Go and wash in the river. Then the golden touch will be gone.” The king ran quickly to the nearby river.

1. The fairy allowed the king to make a wish because_____

A.            she hoped to make the king the richest in the world.    B. She loved gold too.

C.  She wanted to teach the king a lesson. 

D. She wanted to turn the king’s daughter into gold gold.

2. When the foods and drinks turned into gold the king was _____

   A. excited  B. hungry  C. worried   D  happy

3. Which of the following might have happened afterwards?

A. The king died in the river.

B. The king’s daughter changed back from gold to a lovely girl.

C. All the things the king had touched changed back into real ones.

D. Both B and C

4.What do you think the story tries to tell us?

A. Gold makes people unhappy.   

B. More gold , more happiness.

C. Gold is not the thing that makes life happy.

D. People feel happy if they have not gold.

 

Miss Gorgers taught physics in a New York school. Last month she explained to one of her classes about sound, and she decided to test them to see how successful she had been in her explanation. She said to them, “Now I have a brother in Los Angeles. If I was calling him on the phone and at the same time you were 75 feet away, listening to me from the street, which of you would hear what I said earlier, my brother or you and for what reason?”

Tom at once answered, “Your brother. Because electricity travels faster than sound waves.” “That’s very good.” Miss Gorgers answered, but then one of the girls raised her hand, and Miss Gorgers said, “Yes? Kate.”

“I disagree. Your brother would hear you earlier because when it’s 11 o’clock here and it’s only 8 o’clock in Los Angeles.” Kate said.

 

1.

 Miss Gorgers was teaching her class         .

A. how to telephone     B. about electricity   C. about time zone   D. about sound

 

2.

Miss Gorgers raised this question because she wanted to know whether         .

A. it was easy to phone to Los Angeles

B. her student could hear her from 75 feet away

C. her students had understood her lesson 

D. sound waves were slower than electricity

 

3.

Kate thought Tom was wrong because         .

A. clocks in Los Angeles showed a different time from those in New York

B. electricity was slower than sound waves

C. Tom was not good at physics at all

D. Tom’s answer had nothing to do with sound waves

 

4.

Whose answer do you think is correct according to the laws of physics?

A. Tom’s.   　 　 B. Kate’s.        C. Both A and B. 　  　D. Neither A nor B.