B
In the course of working my way through school, I took many jobs I would rather forget. But none of these jobs was as dreadful as my job in an apple plant. The work was hard, the pay was poor; What’s more, the working conditions were terrible.
First of all, the job made huge demands on my strength. For ten hours a night, I took boxes that rolled down a metal track and piled them onto a truck. Each box contained twelve heavy bottles of apple juice. I once figured out that I was lifting an average of twelve tons of apple juice every night.
I would not have minded the difficulty of the work so much if the pay had not been so poor. I was paid the lowest wage of that time—two dollars an hour. Because of the low pay, I felt eager to get as much as possible. I usually worked twelve hours a night but did receive a low pay.
But even more than the low pay, what made me unhappy was the working conditions. During work I was limited to two ten-minute breaks and an unpaid half hour for lunch. Most of my time was spent outside loading trucks with those heavy boxes in near-zero-degree temperatures. The steel floors of the trucks were like ice, which made my feet feel like stone. And after the production line shut down at night and most people left, I had to spend two hours alone cleaning the floor.
I stayed on the job for five months, all the while hating the difficulty of the work, the poor money, and the conditions under which I worked. By the time I left, I was determined never to go back there again.
60. Why did the writer have to take many jobs at the time?
A. to pay for his schooling                     B. to save for his future
C. to contribute to charities                     D. to gain some experience
61. The following facts describe the terrible working conditions of the plant EXCEPT ________.
A. loading boxes in the freezing cold                 B. having limited time for breaks
C. working and studying at the same time     D. getting no pay for lunch time
62. What is the subject discussed in the text?
A. The writer’s unhappy school life.              
B. The writer’s eagerness to earn money.^
C. The writer’s experience as a full-time worker.
D. The writer’s hard work in an apple plant.
63. How is the text organized?
A. Topic-Argument-Explanation             
B. Opinion-Discussion-Description
C. Main idea-Comparison-Supporting examples
D. Introduction-Supporting examples-Conclusion

You heard about the sign posted on a farm fence? Inside there was a big and mean (凶的) bull. The sign read, “Don’t attempt to cross this field unless you can do it in 9.9 seconds. The bull can do it in 10!”

Don’t try to cross that field unless you are prepared! And isn’t that the way it is in life? We have to be ready when the opportunity arises or else we will have little chance of success.

Sixth-grade teacher Ms. Shelton believed in readiness. When she walked into the classroom on the first day and began writing words of an eighth-grade level on the blackboard, the students immediately said that the words were not at their level and they couldn’t learn them.

Their teacher insisted that they could and would learn these words. She said that she would never teach down to them. Ms. Shelton ended by saying that one of the students in the classroom could go on to greatness, maybe even be president someday, and she wanted them to prepare for that day.

Ms. Shelton said those words many years ago. Little did she know that someday one of her students—Jesse Jackson—would take them seriously. She believed that if they were well prepared, they could achieve high goals.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “People only see what they are prepared to see.” If that’s true, then it is also true that they only become what they are prepared to become. And a lot of life is just about getting ready.

Think of today as a chance to prepare yourself for the exciting future you are looking for. Today is not wasted. If you desire more from life, you can use today as training. For you will experience only what you are prepared to experience. Something wonderful can happen. And you can use today to get ready for tomorrow.

68. What is the function of the first paragraph to the whole passage?

A. To explain the high speed is important to our lives.

B. To show we should get ready when the opportunity arises.

C. To introduce how to grasp the best way to cross this field.

D. To prove it’s right for Ms. Shelton to believe in readiness.

69. Why did Ms. Shelton insist students could and would learn the words of an eighth-grade level?

A. Because she believed one of the students in the classroom could go on to greatness.

B. Because the words of an eighth-grade level is just so so to the Sixth-grade students.

C. Because she believed that if they were well prepared, they could achieve high goals.

D. Because it is also true that they only become what they are prepared to become.

70. What can be the best title of the passage?

A. Get Ready for Tomorrow       B. Don’t Waste Time

C. Challenge Yourself            D. Ms. Shelton, a Famous Teacher

You never see them, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to withstand almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the device's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the device was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to（易遭受）impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft.
Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1, 2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
【小题1】What information could be found from the black box on the Yemeni airliner?

As we all know, nature has supplied every animal except man with some covering for his body such as fur, feathers, hair, and shells as a thick hide. But man has nothing but a thin skin.
If someone were to ask you, "Why did human beings start to cover their bodies with clothes?" most would answer, "To keep themselves warm, of course."
It is only when we begin to think about it a little that we realize that clothes are worn for a great many reasons that have nothing to do with our need for warmth at all.
For example, we wear clothes to some degree in order to decorate ourselves－to make ourselves, if possible, look more dignified (尊严) or nicer.
Clothes of a special kind are often worn to show that the wearer has authority or power. The individual wearing them is treated with respect because he occupies a certain office. The judge on the Bench, for example, might look a very ordinary and unimpressive figure without his wig and gown. Clothes are an important part of ceremony, whether it is connected with belief, the law, parliament, and royalty, the fighting forces or the state. How very different the Queen's Coronation ceremony (加冕仪式) would have looked without the robes, coronets and the cloth of gold.
Sometimes, even in some modern countries people wear some article of clothing, or some jewel, because they believe that it will bring them luck or protect them from evil or illness, or because it is connected with their beliefs.
None of these reasons for wearing clothes－to decorate ourselves, to show our position in the world, for ceremonial purposes, for "luck", to give ourselves dignity and authority－have anything to do with our need for warmth.
65.From the passage we know that wearing clothes is man's basic necessity to________.
A. protect skin    B. show beauty      C. keep warm    D. bring luck
66.According to the passage, the judge wearing special clothes on the Bench________.
A. looks nicer      B. looks different        C. shows wealth         D. shows power
67.Even in modern countries, sometimes people wear certain clothes because________.
A. they believe that they will get protected from bad luck and illness
B. it has something to do with their wealth
C. they want to show their power
D. they enjoy wearing such kind of clothes
68.The author's purpose in writing this article is to tell us that clothes are worn________.
A. for ceremonial occasions B. for many other reasons besides warmth
C. to keep people impressive and nicer        D. to show people's authority or power