Every culture has a recognized (公认的) point when a child becomes an adult, when rules must be followed and tests passed.
In China, although teenagers can get their ID cards at 16, many only see themselves as an adult when they are 18. In the US, where everyone drives, the main step to the freedom of adult life is learning to drive. At 16, American teens take their driving test. When they have their license, they drive into the grown-up world.
“Nobody wants to ride the bus to school,” said Eleanor Fulham, 17. She remembered the pressure, especially from kids from richer families. “It’s like you’re not cool if you don’t have a car,” she said.
According to recent research, 41% of 16 to 19-year-olds in the US own cars, up from 23% in 1985. Although, most of these cars are bought by parents, some teens get part-time jobs to help pay.
Not all families will buy cars for their children. In cities with subways (地铁) and limited parking, some teenagers don’t want them. But in rich suburban (郊区的) areas without subways, and where bicycles are more for fun than transportation, it is strange for a teenager not to have a car.
But police say 16-year-olds have almost three times more accidents than 18 and 19-year-olds. This has made many parents think carefully before letting their kids drive.
Julie Sussman, of Virginia, decided that her son Chad, 15, will wait until he is 17.
Chad said he has accepted his parents’ decision, although it has caused some teasing (奚落) from his friends. “They say that I am unlucky,” he said. “But I’d rather be alive than driving, and I don’t really trust my friends on the road either.”
In China as more families get cars, more 18-year-olds learn to drive. Will this become a big step to becoming an adult?
【小题1】The story is mainly about _______.

A．the recognized point between childhood and adulthood

B．American teens want to drive a car when they turn 16

C．whether teenagers should have a car

D．the fact that it’s safer for teens to drive a car at an younger age

【小题2】 Which of the following is not one of the reasons that kids want to have a car?

A．With a car, it would be easy to move around.

B．A great number of teenagers have cars.

C．Having a car would mean more excitement.

D．Parents’ support for kids to have a car at an early age.

【小题3】.Which of the following is not true?

A．Some of Chad’s friends have cars.

B．When deciding whether to buy a car for their kids, safety weighs heavily on many parents’ mind.

C．In the US, 16 is considered the point between childhood and adulthood.

D．More kids from cities own cars than those from the countryside.

【小题4】The word “license” in Paragraph 2 means closest to ______.

A．driving permit

B．ID card

C．learner’s permit

D．test result

Connie Lau hates smoking. “It smells awful, and it’s so bad for you. It breaks my heart to see my friends smoking. I try to get them to give up smoking.” She says.
So why does Connie walk into convenience stores and try to buy cigarettes? She is testing to see if stores will sell cigarettes to a kid who is younger than 18. “You have to be 18 to purchase cigarettes, and I’m 16, so if they sell to me, they’re breaking the law,” Connie says.
Connie isn’t a vigilante (治安队员); She works with local police in her town of Castro Valley, California. Officers drive her to stores, and she goes in alone to try to buy cigarettes. If the person behind the counter sells her a pack, an officer comes in and writes the business a ticket for breaking the law.
Most stores obey the law and don’t sell her cigarettes. The law requires that customers show ID if store employees ask them to. “When they ask your age, you can’t lie,” Connie says. “Most stores don’t sell to me. In a year, we’ve visited almost 150 stores and had only 15 sales.”
Working undercover can be scary, even with police nearby. Connie said one cashier refused to sell her cigarettes and then got angry when he found out her age. He threatened to call the authorities. “To calm him down, the police went in to explain that I was undercover,” she says.
Most teens wouldn’t think of going undercover for the police. What’s Connie’s motivation (动机)? For starters, she can’t stand smoking. But she also believes it’s important for young people like her to try to make a real impact in their communities. In her view, teens can do more than get good grades in school, do chores at home, and do well in out-of-class activities.
Every time she stops the sale of cigarettes to children, she’s helping to uphold the law. “A single teenager can make a big difference,” Connie says. “For the most part, when stores get caught, they learn their lesson and don’t do it again.”
【小题1】According to the law what age of person can the store be allowed to sell cigarettes to?

A．Under 18.

B．More than 18.

C．16.

D．More than 16.

【小题2】Connie goes to convenience stores to ________.

A．discover whether stores can sell cigarettes to kids

B．see which stores can sell cigarettes to her friends

C．look for her friends

D．arrest the smokers

【小题3】What would happen if an owner sells cigarettes to kids?

A．The owner would be arrested.	B．The owner would be fined.
C．The kids would be punished.	D．The kids would be removed from school.

【小题4】One reason that Connie works undercover is that ________.

A．she wants more smokers to quit smoking

B．she wants to get good grades in school

C．she hopes to make a difference in the area

D．she hopes to be excellent in out-of-class activities

【小题5】Which of the following might be the main idea of the text?

A．Smoking can be forbidden with the help of a girl.

B．A good way to stop a store from selling cigarettes to kids.

C．Connie Lau — a brave girl who goes undercover for the policeman.

D．Connie Lau goes undercover to stop stores from selling cigarettes to kids.

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每小题2分，满分40分）

As China’s women’s gymnastics team enjoyed the glory of winning the country’s first team Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games，the young gymnasts took the opportunity to remind the world that they are old enough to compete．

Weeks before the Beijing Games, some international media raised questions about the ages of some of the members of China’s gymnastics team, particularly He Kexin and Jiang Yuyuan. They said the girls might be younger than 16, the minimum age for the Olympics. But the Chinese Gymnastics Association quickly provided copies of the gymnasts’ ID cards and passports, proving they are indeed old enough to compete.

In the final, He Kexin gave a clean performance on her favorite uneven bars（高低杠）, earning the second highest score after falling from the bars during qualification. “Although I fell down in the qualification, I became more confident today to make up for my mistake and I finally made it.”She said. It was a great moment for head coach Lu Shanzhen. “Our team made history today and proved to the world that we are the best.” the coach said, “The gold medal is not only for the gymnastics team，but also for the whole Chinese delegation at the Beijing Games.”

The coach owed the team’s success to a series of reforms. The Chinese team used to train a 1ot, but competed less, which led to poor results in international competitions. To improve their ability to compete and to strengthen their psychological power, the Chinese team sent more team members to compete abroad, so they could bring a competitive spirit back to the team. All six gymnasts in the Olympic team final were selected from fierce competition, and they proved themselves today.

1. Before the Beijing Games started，some international media doubted whether ________.

A. Chinese women gymnasts could win the team gold medal

B. He Kexin would fall from the bars during qualification

C. Chinese women gymnasts could make history at the Beijing Games

D. some Chinese women gymnasts were old enough for the Games

2. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A. The international media’s doubts proved to be true.

B. He Kexin’s fall in the qualification had no bad effect on her performance in the final competition.

C. Chinese women gymnasts’ success at the Beijing Games proved that the reforms did work.

D. Each team is made up of 6 members to compete for the team gold medal in women gymnastics.

3. In the opinion of Lu Shanzhen, the key to achieving success for athletes is to________.

A. practice harder than ever                    B. experience more competitions abroad

C. have strong psychological power                    D. have a competitive spirit

4. The main purpose of the text is to________.

A. tell a story     B. provide evidence           C. give a report            D. compare opinions 

 

After their 20-year-old son hanged himself during his winter break from the University of Arizona five years ago, Donna and Phil Satow wondered what signs they have overlooked, and started asking other students for answers.

What grew from this soul searching was Ulifeline (www. Ulifeline. org), a Web site where students can get answers to questions about depression by logging on through their universities. The site has been adopted as a resource by over 120 colleges, which can customize it with local information, and over 1.3 million students have logged on with their college ID’s.

“It is a very solid Web site that raises awareness of suicide, de-stigmatizes mental illness and encourages people to seek the help they need,”said Paul Grayson, the director of counseling services at New York University, which started using the service nearly a year ago.

The main component of the Web site is the Self-screening program developed by Duke University Medical Center that tests students to determine whether they are at risk for depression, suicide and disorders like anorexia and drug dependences. Besides helping students, the services compiles anonymous student date, offering administrators an important window onto the mental health of its campus.

The site provides university users with links to local mental health services, a catalog of information on prescription drugs and side effects, and access to Go Ask Alice, a vast archive developed by Columbia University with hundreds of responses to anonymously posted inquires from college students worldwide. For students concerned about their friends, there is a section that describes warning signs for suicidal behavior and depression.

Yet it is hard to determine how effective the service is. The anonymity of the online service can even play out as a negative. “There is no substitute for personal interaction(个人互动才能解决)，” said Dr. Lanny Berman, executive director of the American Association of Suicidology, based in Washington.

Ulifeline would be the first to say that its service is no replacement for an actual therapist. “The purpose is to find out if there are signs of depression and then direct people to the right places,” said Ron Gibori, executive director of Ulifeline.

Mrs. Satow, who is still involved with Ulifeline, called it “a knowledge base” that might have prevented the death of her son, Jed. “If Jed’s friends had known the signs of depression, they might have seen something,” she said.

1. The first paragraph is written to_________.

A．report a suicide of a young man

B．show the suffering of Mr. And Mrs. Satow

C．describe the Satows’ confusion over their son’s death

D．introduce the topic of a website called Ulifeline.

2.One reason that many colleges adopt the website is to _________

A．provide their students with campus information

B．offer medical treatment to students in mental disorder

C．encourage their students to seek advice about depression

D．give their students various help they may need

3. Go Ask Alice as mentioned in the passage is________

A．a side effect caused by some prescription drugs

B．intended to counsel college students in mental problems

C．a collection of medical responses from students the world over

D．meant to describe the various signs of mental disorders

4.The underlined sentence of the seventh paragraph implies that ______

A．only actual therapy can ensure adequate treatment

B．the help given by the web service is doubtful

C．doctors have expressed a negative view of the service

D．a therapist’s office is the first place for the depressed to go

5. Mrs. Satow would probably agree that _________

A．Jed’s friends can prevent her son’s death

B．her son’s suicide is unavoidable

C．Ulifeline is a worthwhile website

D．depression is the final cause of suicides

 

The area south of the Thames at Greenwich has a long history. Throughout time different buildings have been constructed on the same site. The Palace of Placentia, an English Royal Palace built in 1447, no longer exists apart from a few remains under the present buildings.
The grand buildings on the South Bank of the Thames at Greenwich were designed by Sir Christopher Wren, most famous for St. Paul’s Cathedral. The buildings were finally completed in 1745, although some parts started to be used as early as 1705. They’re now part of a university — having served as a naval（海军）hospital and a naval college and the setting for several cinemas.
But the buildings stand on a site which has a much longer history, of which now only a part remains that is below the ground. For nearly two hundred years, from around 1450 to 1650, Greenwich was one of the main royal palaces of England. Some of the most famous English rulers, such as Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, not only lived there, but also were born there.
Henry VIII put an armory（兵工厂）there, and there were also gardens, a great fountain (喷泉) and a mass of buildings. The Palace was also in a strategic location, because at the time either side of Greenwich on the Thames were important Royal Dockyards (船厂).
Eventually, though, the Palace fell into disrepair. In 1664, the King at the time, Charles II, decided to replace it with completely new buildings in a modern style. Only a cellar (地窖) from the former Royal Palace now remains, under one of the new buildings. Its red brick, typical of the 16th century, contrasts (对比) sharply with the white stone above it.
Would you like to join us to have a good view of Greenwich?
【小题1】We can learn from the passage that the Palace of Placentia _____.

A．had served as a university	B．was constructed with white stones
C．was designed by Christopher Wren	D．was of particular importance in a war

【小题2】 The buildings on the South Bank of the Thames at Greenwich now _____.

A．are in need of repair	B．differ from those in the 16th century
C．were designed in the style of Elizabeth I	D．have a history of more than half a century

【小题3】According to the passage, when did the Palace of Placentia disappear from the ground?

A．In the late 1400s.	B．In the early 1600s.
C．In the late 1600s.	D．In the early 1700s.

【小题4】Where can we most probably read this passage?

A．In a science report.	B．In a personal diary.
C．In a geography textbook.	D．In a travel magazine.