“It was all his own idea, ” says Pat Peters, the 38-year-old wife of Palo Alto, California high school . Bob had just drawn up a “motherhood contract” ----- a document (文件) stating that for 70 days this summer he would take over the care and feeding of the couple’s four children, plus all household chores (杂务). Although he didn’t even know how to make coffee when he signed, he was quite confident.(He thought the experience would make a nice book.) After 40 of the 70 days, he was ready to give up. “I was beaten down, completely humbled, ” admits Peters. Three weeks later he spoke to the local press (also part of the bargain), stating, “Not only is motherhood a difficult task, not only is it never-ending, it is an impossible job for any normal human being.” Bob and Pat were high school sweethearts. After they were married in 1960, she worked as a secretary to help put him through university. Since then Bob has been the football and wrestling coach at Palo Alto’s Cubberley High while Pat raised the kids. Then two years ago Pat went back to work as a secretary at Cubberley. “I had been around children so much,” she sighs (叹气), “I couldn’t talk to a grown-up.” She continued to run the household, however----- until Bob signed the contract, whereupon she decided to relax and enjoy it. Although Peters had consulted (咨询) with his school’s home economics teachers and the head of the cafeteria (食堂), his meals were sometimes a disaster.
“I tried to slip the butter I’d forgotten under the eggs after they were frying, ” he says. For the last three weeks, the family ate out a lot—sometimes having Macdonald’s hamburgers for lunch and dinner. As for housekeeping, a home economics teacher had told Bob that a room always looks clean if the bed is made. “I found an easier way-----I shut the doors, ” he says. Soon the kids were wearing the same clothes for a week. “I made them wear their shirts inside out, and when we went to pick up Pat at work they turned them right side out so they would look clean.”
Now that Bob has publicly admitted he was wrong, he is routinely(日常地) sharing the child-raising and household tasks with Pat. The tentative (暂定的) title of his book about the summer is taken from something he shouted at the kids one day.
【小题1】The couple signed the contract because _______.

Housekeeping       cooking,washing dishes,sweeping and cleaning.

A.contains        B.including       C.involves   D.concerns

D
Ellen Swallow Richards was the first woman to earn a bachelor’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A chemist, social activist, teacher, and first woman member of the Institute of Engineering, she believed that housekeeping was a science. As a progressive thinker at the time, she thought that women needed to learn about money matters and have up-to-date information on cleanliness and nutrition. She encouraged women from all backgrounds to get the best education possible.
Ellen was born in 1842 and was brought up in Massachusetts. A graduate of Vassar College in New York, she returned to New England to attend MIT. After her marriage to Professor Robert Richards, she worked in a laboratory at MIT, examining pollution of water sources in Massachusetts. Her work led to the creation of the first food-inspection (检验) laws of that state. She was instructor at MIT from 1884 until her death in 1911.
Like other progressive thinkers of the time, Ellen was worried about problems of the poor and the effect of the environment on society. She considered the environment a key factor in quality of life. Within the family, as in the world at large, science was chief in tools used to help the poor. Science could help to manage money matters, keep a home safe and clean, and improve quality of life. Food properly cooked could be tasty, nutritious, and inexpensive. Better and cheaper food could protect the health and improve the lives of working-class families.
Ellen created the science of housekeeping, now called home economics, and elevated（提升）it to a serious college subject. She worked tirelessly as a national leader in developing standards, materials, and teacher training for this new field. Her publications cover many subjects—from the chemistry of cooking and cleaning to the cost of living.
57. According to the text, Ellen __________.
A. provided new jobs for the poor            B. helped to create new kinds of food
C. set up the field of home economics         D. created the ideas of food-inspection laws
58. As a progressive thinker, Ellen __________.
A. suggested people cook their own meals at home
B. believed cheap food was better than expensive one
C. advised women to get the best education possible
D. considered money matters a key factor in quality of life
59. Ellen believed that __________.
A. poor families knew how to manage money
B. families were well informed about good nutrition
C. cheaper food could not protect people’s health
D. families spent much on food but were not well nourished
60. One can infer that, as a result of the efforts of people such as Ellen, __________.
A. one may study home economics at a university for a career
B. the pollution of water sources is no longer a problem
C. most people today learn to cook at school
D. science does not help much within the family as in the world

For their nick-of-time acts, Toby, a 2-year-old dog, and Winnie, a cute cat, were named Dog and Cat of the Year by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.   

As Amy Paul choked(哽住) on a piece of apple at her home, her dog jumped up, landing hard on her chest and forcing the piece in her throat out. When the Keesling family of Indiana was about to be killed by carbon monoxide, their cat clawed at the wife Cathy’s hair until she woke up and called for help.

No one could explain their timely heroics.

Both pets were rescued by their owners in infancy-----Toby as a 4-week-old thrown into a garbage bin to die, and Winnie as a week-old orphan hiding under a barn, so helpless that Cathy’s husband, Eric, had to feed her milk with an eyedropper.

As the Keeslings recalled it, a gas-driven pump being used broke down, spreading carbon monoxide through the house. By the time Winnie went to rescue, the couple’s 14-year-old son was already unconscious. “Winnie jumped on the bed and was clawing at me, with a kind of angry sound,” Cathy Keesling said. The state police responding to her 911 call said the family was only minutes from death, judging by the amount of poisonous gas in the house.

Amy Paul’s husband was at his job when she took a midday break from making jewelry and bit into an apple. “Normally I peel them, but I read in Good Housekeeping Magazine that the skin has all the nutrients, so I ate the skin, and that’s what caused me to choke,” she recalled. “I couldn’t breathe and I was in panic when Toby jumped on me. He never does that, but he did, and saved my life.”

Both Toby and Winnie accompanied their owners to the awards luncheon.

1.What would be the suitable title for the passage?

A. Great Honors for Cat and Dog

B. Dog and Cat Honored for Saving Their Masters

C. Unforgettable Experiences

D. So Smart Animals Are

2.Winnie saved the lives of its owner’s whole family in an accident by __________.

A. jumping onto its owner                    B. calling for help

C. making some strange noises                D. clawing at Cathy’s hair

3.Which of the following has the similar meaning to the underlined word “infancy” in Paragraph 4?

A. babyhood         B. Youth       C. Middle age        D. agedness

4.What caused the carbon monoxide spreading through the house?

A. A pump breaking down.                  B. A driver breaking into the house.

C. The burning gas.                        D. The poisonous gas.

5.Why did Amy Paul choke on a piece of apple?

A. She was too young to care for herself.

B. She had a big bite.

C. She didn’t peel the skin as usual.

D. The apple was too hard.

     Juanito Estrella has been a housekeeping manager on the US-based large passenger ship Carnival Spirit for 18 months and feels he has found the suitable position in his career(职业).He has always wanted to travel.“I guess I am a really restless spirit. I Iike traveling, so when the chance came,I jumped at it,”he says.

    The chance came in the form of a newspaper advertisement for work on cruise ships(游船).At the time Estrella was the housekeeping manager at a Melbourne hotel.He applied and,after two interviews,a medical check and police clearance,the job was his.

    Estrella is responsible(负责的)for the cleanliness of the ship,making sure that 160 crew work properly.“I enjoy it because there is no other work-you wake up each day in a different place and a different culture. It’s exciting when you go to the next country and you don’t understand the language,”he says.

    Estrella likes being busy and getting to know people from all over the world. The 1,000 crew come from 94 countries,and Estrella has learnt Spanish and a little Croatian.

    But there is a downside .“You cannot get really drunk...because you have safety responsibilities to yourself and others,”he says.“You don’t really think about home.You start to think about home only when you get closer to your vacation and wonder what you’ll be doing.”

    Life on the ship is anything but cruising. Estrella and his fellows work at least 10 hours a day, seven days a week.He warns the job is not for everybody. “You have to love being busy and be prepared to work every day—and to give up drinking too much alcohol.” In his spare time, if the ship sails into a port, Estrella explores it, otherwise he works out in the crew’s gym, goes on the internet or calls home.

63.What do we know about Estrella?

 A.He is very fond of traveling.                          B.He doesn’t drink wine now.

 C.He cannot speak a foreign language.                D.He used to be a housekeeping manager.

64.The underlined word“downside”in paragraph 5 probably means  _______.

 A.disappointment B.disadvantage             C.failure                      D.loss

65.Which of the following is true?

 A.Estrella doesn’t often feel homesick because of his work.

 B.The work on the ship is not suitable for a married person.

 C.Estrella can find no other job except the one on the ship.

 D.The people on the ship are from 94 countries.

66.In the last paragraph, the writer thinks that life on the ship is  _______.

 A.not a tiring journey at all                                     B.just an interesting voyage

 C.far from a voyage for pleasure                     D.more than a pleasant travel by sea