About 30 years ago, I left Cuba for the United States with my son. After getting settled finally in Brunswick, New Jersey, I enrolled(注册) my son in kindergarten. Several weeks later, my son’s teacher asked me to meet him at his office.

In the teacher’s office, and exchange of greetings was followed by his questions: “ Is your son mentally retarded(弱智的)? Does he suffer from any kind of mental disability?”

Was he talking about my wonderful Scola? No, no, it can’t be. What a helpless, lonely moment! I told him that Scola was a quiet, sweet little boy, instead. I asked him why he was asking me all these questions.

My son could not follow the teacher’s directions, he told me, and thus, Scola was disrupting the class. Didn’t he know my son did not speak English yet?

He was angry: “ Why hasn’t your son been taught to speak English? Don’t you speak English at home?”

No, I didn’t speak English at home, I replied. I was sure my son would learn English in a couple of months, and I didn’t want him to forget his native language. Well, wrong answer! What kind of person would not speak in English to her son at home and at all times? “ Are you one of those people who come to this country to save dollars and sent them back to their country, never wanting to be a part of this society?”

Needless to say, I tried to tell him I was not one of “ those people.” Then he told me the meeting was over, and I left.

As I had expected, my son learned to speak English fluently before the school year was over. He went on to graduate from college and got a job, earning close to six figures. He travels widely and leads a well-adjusted, contented life. And he has benefited from being bilingual(双语的)。

Speaking more than one language allows people to communicate with others; it teaches people about other cultures and other places- something very basic and obviously lacking in the “educator” I met in New Jersey.

1.The teacher asked the author to his office________.

A．to work out a study plan for Scola

B．to get Scola enrolled in kindergarten

C．to discuss Scola’s in-class performance

D．to find a language partner for Scola

2.What does the underlined word “disrupting” in Paragraph 4 probably  mean?

A．Attending         B．Disturbing         C．Breaking          D．Following

3.The author’s attitude towards being bilingual may best be described as __________.

A．positive           B．critical            C．casual            D．passive

4.This text is likely to be selected from a book of __________.

A．geography         B．medicine          C．history            D．education

25. ---- Ricky, why hasn’t Billy been with us these days?

---- Oh, he is _________for next month’s 400m race.

   Millions of people visit Yosemite National Park every year to see the tall waterfalls and mountains. Thee mountains are a splendid sight when viewed from the valley floor. Lots of stores, hotels, and restaurants are needed to handle the crowds. Also, water, roads, and other service systems are part of the infrastructure(基础设施)that must be maintained。

Unfortunately，these systems are starting to break down. It’s not just in Yosemite but in national parks around the nation.

Yosemite is thirty years old according to Dennis Galvin, a National Park Service worker. The park is not only old but worn out. Two or three times as many visitors come every year. That is too many visitors for the parks to deal with.

Four years ago a storm washed out a water pipeline in the Grand Canyon. The National Park service had to send water trucks to provide water for the visitors. Last month pipes almost broke again and roads had to be closed for a while.

Why hasn’t the National Park Service kept up the park repairs? There is a lack of money. The United States has 378 monuments, parks, and wilderness areas. Between three and four billion dollars are needs for repairs.

Yosemite is one national park that does have money for repairs. It has two hundred million dollars but cannot spend it any way it chooses. When the park workers started widening the road, they were forced to stop by the Sierra Club. The club claimed that the road work was damaging the Merced River that runs through the park.

A sierra Club lawyer, Julia Olson, feels that the infrastructure needs to be moved out of Yosemite. That way less pressure will be put on the already crowded park.

65. According to the text, the mountains in Yosemite look most splendid when they are appreciated from _______

A. the bottom of the valleys   B. the top of the mountains

C. the side of the mountains    D. the edge of the valleys

66. National parks like Yosemite in the U.S. find it increasingly difficult to meet the need of visitors because ________

A that transport management needs improving 

B. they spend too much on their service systems

C. their service systems frequently go out of order

D. they need help from environmental organizations

67. The main problem of Yosemite National Park is its _______

A. rundown water pipes   B. overcrowdedness   C. lack of money   D. narrow roads

68. According to the text, the Sierra Club is most likely to be ______

A. an environmental group  B. an information center  C. a travel service  D. a law firm

In the future your automobile will run on water instead of gas! You will be able to buy a supercomputer that fits in your pocket! You might even drive a flying car!

   For each prediction that has come true today, several others have missed by a mile. Many of these predictions didn’t consider how people would want to use the technology, or if people really needed it in their lives or not. Let’s look at some predictions from the not-too-distant past.

    Robot Helpers

   Where’s the robot in my kitchen? Nowhere, of course. And he’s probably not coming anytime soon. Robots do exist today, but mostly in factories and other manufacturing environments.

   Back in the 1950s, however, people said that by now personal robots would be in most people’s homes.

   So why hasn’t it happened?  Probably because robots are still too expensive and clumsy. And maybe the idea of robots cooking our dinners and washing our clothes is just too weird. At home we seem to be doing fine without them.

    Telephones of Tomorrow

   In 1964 an American company introduced the video telephone. They said by the year 2000 most people would have a video phone in their homes. But of course the idea hasn’t caught on yet.

   Why? The technology worked fine, but it over—looked something obvious: people’s desire for privacy. Would you want to have a video phone conversation with someone after you just step out of the shower?  Probably not---it could be embarrassing! Just because a technology available doesn’t always mean people will want to use it.

   And finally, how about that crazy prediction of the flying car? It’s not so crazy anymore! But a flying car remains one of the most fascinating technology ideas to capture our imagination. Keep watching the news, or perhaps the sky outside your window, to see what the future will bring.

The whole passage is mainly about ________________.

   A. predictions that have come true.      B. predictions that haven’t come true.

   C. why predictions don’t come true easily. D. what technology will bring about.

The author of this passage won’t believe that _________________.

   A. predictions needn’t consider people’s practical use of technology.

   B. the future isn’t always easy to guess.  

   C. not all past predictions have come true.

   D. many of the high—tech things our parents thought we’d be using by now

   simply never appeared.

The underlined word “weird” probably means __________.

   A. wonderful   B. stupid    C. practical    D. strange

What does the author think of the flying car?

   A. It is too difficult to imagine.   B. It is too crazy an idea.

   C. It is likely to be made.        D. It is often reported in the news.

--- Why hasn’t Jenny turned up?

   --- Oh! She called me just now and said that she was _____ the way.

  A. by        B. in       C. at        D. on