Eddie’s father used to say he’d spent so many years by the ocean, breathing seawater .Now, away from that ocean ,in the hospital bed ,his body began to look like a beached fish. His condition went from fair to stable and from stable to serious .Friends went from saying , “He’ll be home in a day,” to “He’ll be home in a week .” In his father’s absence ,Eddie helped out at the pier(码头), working evenings after his taxi job.

       When Eddie was a teenager ,if he ever complained or seemed bored with the pier ,his father would shout, “What ? This isn’t good enough for you?” And later ,when he’d suggested Eddie take a job there after high school ,Eddie almost laughed, and his father again said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you ?” And before Eddie went to war , when he’d talked of marrying Marguerite and becoming an engineer ,his father said , “What? This isn’t good enough for you ?”

       And now ,regardless of all that ,here he was ,at the pier ,doing his father’s labor.

       Parents rarely let go of their children ,so children let go of them .They move on. They move away .It is not until much later, as the heart weakens ,that children understand ;their stories, and all their accomplishments ,sit on top of the stories of their mothers and fathers ,stones upon stones , beneath the waters of their lives.

       Finally ,one night ,at his mother’s urging ,Eddie visited the hospital .He entered the room slowly .His father ,who for years had refused to speak to Eddie ,now lacked the strength to even try.

       “Don’t sweat it ,kid,” the other workers told him. “Your old man will pull through .He’s the toughest man we’ve ever seen.”

       When the news came that his father had died ,Eddie felt the emptiest kind of anger ,the kind  that circles in its cage.

       In the weeks that followed, Eddie’s mother lived in a confused state . She spoke to her husband as if he were still there .She yelled at him to turn down the radio . She cooked enough food for two .One night ,when Eddie offered to help with the dishes ,she said. “Your father will put them away.” Eddie put a hand on her shoulder. “Ma,” he said ,softly , “Dad’s gone.”

       “Gone where?”

In Paragraph 4, the writer indicates that        .

       A．Children like moving away from them parents

       B．Children often feel regretful because they leave their parents

       C．Children wouldn’t have achieved so much without their parents’ support

       D．Children can never understand how much their parents have devoted to them   

The underlined sentence probably means “       ”.

       A．Don’t give it up             B．Don’t worry about it

       C．Don’t let him down D．Don’t touch it

Which of the following shows the right order of the story?

       a．Eddie’s father died. 

       b．Eddie worked as a taxi driver.

       c．Eddie married Marguerite.     

       d．Eddie was bored with his father’s job.

       A．baed  B．deab  C．beda  D．deba

From the last part of the passage ,we learn that       .

       A．Eddie’s mother liked to listen to the radio

       B．Eddie often helped his mother wash the dishes

       C．Eddie and his wife lived in his mother’s apartment

       D．Eddie’s mother missed her husband so much that she was at a loss

 

         Eddie’s father used to say he’d spent so many years by the ocean, breathing seawater. Now, away from that ocean, in the hospital bed, his body began to look like a beached fish. His condition went from fair to stable and from stable to serious. Friends went from saying, “He’ll be home in a day,” to “He’ll be home in a week ” In his father’s absence, Eddie helped out at the pier(码头), working evenings after his taxi job.

         When Eddie was a teenager, if he ever complained or seemed bored with the pier, his father would shout, “What ? This isn’t good enough for you?” And later, when he’d suggested Eddie take a job there after high school, Eddie almost laughed, and his father again said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?” And before Eddie went to war, when he’d talked of marrying Marguerite and becoming an engineer, his father said, “What? This isn’t good enough for you?”

         And now, regardless of all that, here he was, at the pier, doing his father’s labor.

         Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. It is not until much later, as the heart weakens, that children understand their stories, and all their accomplishments sit on top of the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

         Finally, one night, at his mother’s urging, Eddie visited the hospital. He entered the room slowly. His father, who for years had refused to speak to Eddie, now lacked the strength to even try.

         “Don’t sweat it, kid,” the other workers told him. “Your old man will pull through. He’s the toughest man we’ve ever seen.”

         When the news came that his father had died, Eddie felt the emptiest kind of anger, the kind that circles in its cage.

         In the weeks that followed, Eddie’s mother lived in a confused state. She spoke to her husband as if he were still there. She yelled at him to turn down the radio. She cooked enough food for two. One night, when Eddie offered to help with the dishes, she said. “Your father will put them away.” Eddie put a hand on her shoulder. “Ma,” he said, softly, “Dad’s gone.”

         “Gone where?”

1. In Paragraph 4, the writer indicates that       .

A．Children like moving away from them parents

B．Children often feel regretful because they leave their parents

C．Children wouldn’t have achieved so much without their parents’ support

D．Children can never understand how much their parents have devoted to them   

2. The underlined sentence probably means “       ”.

A．Don’t give it up           B．Don’t worry about it

C．Don’t let him down             D．Don’t touch it

3. Which of the following shows the right order of the story?

a．Eddie’s father died.

b．Eddie worked as a taxi driver.

c．Eddie married Marguerite.

d．Eddie was bored with his father’s job.

A．bacd  B．dcab  C．bcda  D．dcba

4. From the last part of the passage, we learn that       .

         A．Eddie’s mother liked to listen to the radio

         B．Eddie often helped his mother wash the dishes

         C．Eddie and his wife lived in his mother’s apartment

         D．Eddie’s mother missed her husband so much that she was at a loss

 

第二部分：阅读理解（共25题，第一节每题2分，第二节每题1分）

第一节：阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A，B，C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

Trouve sat up on its back legs arid growled（吼叫）the words “How are you, Grandmama?” The audience roared with laughter and clapped. Twenty-year-old Aleck gave the dog a morsel（一口）of food. His hard wok paid off. His dog could talk!

Aleck was fascinated with the different sounds of people’s speech. His father taught students who had a speech problem to improve their speech. Aleck paid close attention. Could an animal form sounds into words, too? He decided to experiment with Trouve, the family dog.

The easy part was teaching Trouve to growl whenever Aleck wanted. The little dog growled for a morsel of food.

Next Aleck moved the dog’s “lips’ as it growled. It sounded like “ma ma ma.” Trouve learned quickly to stop the growling just as Aleck’s hand moved away. They practiced and practiced until the dog said “ma ma” perfectly.

Soon Aleck discovered more. If he pushed gently under the dog’s jawbone（下颚骨）, it made the “ga” sound. If he pushed once and moved the dog’s lips twice, he could make the dog say, “ga ma ma”. With even more practice, it sounded like “grandmama.” Whenever Trouve said “grandmam,” Aleck gave the god two treats, so Trouve loved the lessons.

Aleck tried to teach his dog to move its tongue. So that Trouve could say more words. That didn’t work, but Aleck didn’t give up.

After many hours of practice, Trouve could say, “Ow ah oo ga-ma-ma?” This sounded just like “How are you, Grandmama?”

Friends and neighbors traveled to see young Aleck and his amazing talking dog. Rumors spread that the dog could speak by itself, which wasn’t true. No matter how much Aleck tried, the dog was never able to move its lips without help.

Aleck’s full name was Alexander Graham Bell. He wanted to know more about the world all his life. He had many ideas. Some worked; others didn’t. But he kept trying—always learning; One of his inventions was something called the telephone.

41．Which of the following is TRUE of Aleck?

A．His father had an influence on him.      

B．He had a talent for giving speeches.

C．He taught Trouve to talk in honor of his grandmother.

D．He carried out many experiments to improve people’s speech.

42．Trouve grew fond of practicing talking because         .

A．it liked being together with Aleck  B．it was given some food for that

C．it would like to develop its potential      D．Aleck treated it like one of the family

43．Which of the following words can best describe Aleck?

A．Humorous.      B．Naughty.  C．Knowledgeable.       D．Curious.

44．What contributes most to Aleck’s success in teaching the dog to talk?

A．His own hard work.         B．His neighbor’s help.

C．His father’s encouragement.    D．The dog’s smartness.

 

   Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do; once or twice she had looked into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of the book,” thought Alice, “without pictures and conversations?”

So she was considering in her own mind whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain(雏菊花环) would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; but when the rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit- hole under the bush.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down a very deep well.

Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end? “I wonder how many miles I’ve fallen by this time?” she said aloud. “I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think. I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. ‘Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?’ And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask.”

Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, when suddenly, thump! thump! Down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

1.What kind of books do you think will interest Alice most?

A．Books that her sister was reading.

B．Books without pictures or conversations.

C．Books about white rabbits.

D．Books with pictures and conversations.

2.Which of the following is true?

A．Alice suddenly saw a white rabbit with a strange umbrella.

B．Alice managed to fall right through the earth.

C．Alice ran after the white rabbit across the field out of curiosity.

D．The people on the opposite side of the earth walk with their heads downward.

3.Which is the right order of the story?

a. Alice jumped into a large hole.

b. A white rabbit ran close by her.

c. Alice sat by her sister, doing nothing.

d. She fell upon some sticks and dry leaves.

A．c-b-a-d

B．d-a-c-b

C．a-b -c-d

D．d-c-a -b

4. From the passage, we can see Alice is a(n)________girl.

A．helpful and friendly	B．curious and imaginative
C．brave and curious	D．ignorant and pretty

5. The following paragraph “In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.” can be put between_________.

A．Paragraphs 1 and 2	B．Paragraphs 2 and 3
C．Paragraphs 3 and 4	D．Paragraph 4 and 5

 

I left university with a good degree in English Literature, but no sense of what I wanted to do. Over the next six years, I was treading water, just trying to earn an income. I tried journalism, but I didn’t think I was any good, then finance, which I hated. Finally, I got a job as a rights assistant at a famous publisher. I loved working with books, although the job that I did was dull.

I had enough savings to take a year off work, and I decided to try to satisfy a deep-down wish to write a novel. Attending a Novel Writing MA course gave me the structure I needed to write my first 55,000 words.

It takes confidence to make a new start — there’s a dark period in-between where you’re neither one thing nor the other. You’re out for dinner and people ask what you do, and you’re too ashamed to say, “Well, I’m writing a novel, but I’m not quite sure if I’m going to get there.” My confidence dived. Believing my novel could not be published, I put it aside.

Then I met an agent（代理商）who said I should send my novel out to agents. So, I did and, to my surprise, got some wonderful feedback. I felt a little hope that I might actually become a published writer and, after signing with an agent, I finished the second half of the novel.

The next problem was finding a publisher. After two-and-a-half years of no income, just waiting and wondering, a publisher offered me a book deal — that publisher turned out to be the one I once worked for.

It feels like an unbelievable stroke of luck — of fate, really. When you set out to do something different, there’s no end in sight, so to find myself in a position where I now have my own name on a contract（合同）of the publisher — to be a published writer — is unbelievably rewarding（有回报的）.

1.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 1 mean?

A．I was waiting for good fortune.

B．I was trying to find an admirable job.

C．I was being aimless about a suitable job.

D．I was doing several jobs for more pay at a time.

2.The author decided to write a novel ______ .

A．to finish the writing course

B．to realize her own dream

C．to satisfy readers’ wish

D．to earn more money

3.How did the writer feel halfway with the novel?

A．Disturbed.

B．Ashamed.

C．Confident.

D．Uncertain.

4.What does the author mainly want to tell readers in the last paragraph?

A．It pays to stick to one’s goal.

B．Hard work can lead to success.

C．She feels like being unexpectedly lucky.

D．There is no end in sight when starting to do something.