—Would you _____ a game of table tennis, Cathy?

       —I’d love to, but I still have piles of homework to do.

       A．care for   B．care about    C．care to    D．take care of

 

 

第二部分：阅读理解(第一节20小题。第二节5小题；每小题2分，满分50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，并在答题纸上将该

选项标号涂黑。

     When you are little, the whole world feels like a big playground. I was living in Conyers, Georgia the summer it all happened. I was a second grader, but my best friend Stephanie was only in the first grade. Both of our parents were at work and most of the time they let us go our own way.

     It was a hot afternoon and we decided to have an adventure in Stephanie's basement. As I opened the basement door, before us lay the biggest room, full of amazing things like guns, dolls, and old clothes. I ran downstairs, and spotted a red steel can. It was paint. I looked beyond it and there lay even more paint in bright colors like purple, orange, blue and green.

     "Stephanie, I just found us a project for the day. Get some paintbrushes. We are fixing to paint. " She screamed with excitement as I told her of my secret plans and immediately we got to work. We gathered all the brushes we could find and moved all of our materials to my yard. There on the road in front of my house, we painted big stripes ( 条纹) of colors across the pavement (人行道). Stripe by stripe, our colors turned into a beautiful rainbow. It was fantastic!

     The sun was starting to sink. I saw a car in the distance and jumped up as I recognized the car. It was my mother. I couldn't wait to show her my masterpiece. The car pulled slowly into the driveway and from the look on my mother's face, I could tell that I was in deep trouble.

     My mother shut the ear door and walked towards me. Her eyes glaring, she shouted, "What in the world were you thinking? I understood when you made castles out of leaves, and climbed the neighbors' trees, but this! Come inside right now !" I stood there glaring back at her for a minute, angry because she had insulted (侮辱) my art.

     "Now go clean it up!" Mother and I began cleaning the road. Tears ran down my cheeks as I saw my beautiful rainbow turn into black cement.

     Though years have now passed, I still wonder where my rainbow has gone. I wonder if, maybe when I get older, I can find my rainbow and never have to brush it away. I guess we all need some sort of rainbow to brighten our lives from time to time and to keep our hopes and dreams colorful.

1. What did the writer want to do when his mother came home?

   A. To introduce Stephanie to her.          B. To prevent her from seeing his painting.

   C. To put the materials back in the yard.    D. To show his artwork to her.

2. In his mother's eyes, the writer __ .

   A. was a born artist                          B. always caused trouble

   C. was a problem solver                      D. worked very hard

3. The underlined word "rainbow" in the last paragraph refers to __ .

   A. the rainbow in the sky                     B. the stripes on the pavement

   C. something imaginative and fun              D. important lessons learned in childhood

4. It can be learned from the passage that parents should       .

A. encourage children to paint          

B. value friendship among children

C. discover the hidden talent in children 

D. protect rather than destroy children's dreams

 

 

第三部分：阅读理解（共20小题，每小题2分，满分40分）

I made a promise to myself on the way down to the vacation beach cottage. For two weeks I would try to be a loving husband and father. Totally loving. No ifs, ands or buts.

The idea had come to me as I listened to a talk on my car radio. The speaker was quoting a Biblical passage about husbands and their wives. Then he went on to say, “Love is an act of will. A person can choose to love.” To myself, I had to admit that I had been a selfish husband. Well, for two weeks that would change.

And it did. On arriving at the beach cottage, I kissed Evelyn meeting me at the door and said, “That new yellow sweater looks great on you.” “Oh, Tom, you noticed”, sh e said, surprised and pleased. Maybe a little puzzled. After the long drive, I wanted to sit and read. Evelyn suggested a walk on the beach. I  started to refuse, but then I thought, “Evelyn’s been alone here with the kids all week and now she wants to be alone with me.” We walked on the beach while the children flew their kites.

So it went. Two weeks of not calling the Wall Street firm where I am a director; a visit to the shell museum though I usually hate museums. Relaxed and happy, that’s how the whole vacation passed. I made a new promise to keep on remembering to choose love.?

There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment, however. Evelyn and I still laugh about it today. On the last night at our cottage, preparing for bed, Evelyn stared at me with the saddest expression.

“What’s the matter?” I asked her.

“Tom,” she said in a voice filled with distress, “ I don’t?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well…that checkup I had several weeks ago…our doctor…did he tell you something about me? Tom, you’ve been so good to me…am I dying?”

It took a moment for it all to be understood. Then I burst out laughing.

“No, honey,” I said, wrapping her in my arms. “You’re not dying; I’m just starting to live.”

1.  From the story we may infer that Tom drove to the beach cottage ______.

A. with his family     B. with Evelyn    C. alone      D. with his children

2. During the two weeks on the beach, Tom showed more love to his wife because ______.

A. he was determined to be a good husband

B. he had made a lot of money in his Wall Street firm

C. she looked lovely in  her new clothes

D. the doctor said his wife was seriously ill

3. The author says, “There was one thing that went wrong with my experiment.” What does “one thing” refer to?

A. He praised her sweater, which puzzled her.

B. She insisted on visiting a museum, which he hated.

C. He knew something about her illness but didn’t tell her.

D. He was so good to her that she thought she must be dying.

4. By saying “I’m just starting to live,” Tom means that ______.

A. he is just beginning to understand the real meaning of life

B. he is just beginning to enjoy life as a loving husband

C. he lived an unhappy life before and is now starting to change

D. he is beginning to feel regret for what he did to his wife before

 

Watch out, Yahoo．There’s search engine out there with super speed and accuracy．It’s really cool．

Google is the Web’s largest search engine．In just two years it has gained a reputation for surprising speed and accuracy, delivering exactly what you’re looking for in a second．The site now does this 40 million times a day – a number achieved without spending a penny on a TV or newspaper ad．

Google doesn’t need them．In the past six months alone, the site has won a Webby （the online version of the Oscar） for technical excellence, set a new record for search engines by indexing a billion Web pages．

Yahoo still has 10 times the audience, but Google consistently ranks first in customer satisfaction: 97% of users find what they’re looking for most or all the time．“You see people smile when they use it, like they’ve found something no one else knows about,” says Danny Sullivan, editor of an online newsletter．

No one is smiling more than Larry Page, 27, and Sergey Brin, 26, who seem certain to become billionaires when the company goes public, probable sometime next year．They make a great comedy duo．When they first met as Ph．      D．students, the pair say, they found each other horrible – “I still find him horrible,” adds Brin – but were driven together by a computer – science project aimed at coming up with better ways of searching the Web．

The idea behind Google is that traditional search engines are stupid．They think relevance is based on repetition; if you type in a request for Tiger Woods, say, you’ll get websites listed according to how many times those words appear．Not only is this no guarantee of quality, but it’s also open to abuse．If you own a Tiger fan site and want to lead more people to it, simply type his name thousands of times in the site’s source code．

1.The first paragraph serves to           ．

                 A．compare two websites      B．bring out the topic

                 C．put blame on Yahoo      D．give the background of the topic

2.What does the underlined word “then” in the third paragraph refer to?

                 A．40 million times．         B．Achievements．

                 C．TV and newspaper ads． D．Web pages．

3.Which of the following wins greater customer satisfaction?

                A．Yahoo．     B．Google．   C．Page．       D．Brin．

4.It can be inferred that Page and Brin         ．

                 A．work for Google                   B．are Tiger fans

                 C．hated each other                D．work for Yahoo 

 

it tastes just chicken

  Away from home, eating is more than just a way to keep your stomach full．It is a language all its own, and no words can say, "Glad to meet you ．．．glad to be doing business with you ．．．" quite like sharing a meal offered by your host．

  Clearly, mealtime is not the time for you to say, "Thanks, but no thanks．" Acceptance of the food on your plate means acceptance of host, country, and company．So, no matter how difficult it may be to swallow, swallow．Or, as one experienced traveler says, "Travel with a cast-iron stomach and eat everything everywhere．"

  Often, the food offered represents proudly your host country's eating culture．What would Ataiericans think of a French person who refused to take a bite of homemade apple pie or sirloin? Our discomfort comes not so much from the thing itself; it comes from our umamiliarity with it．After all, an oyster has remarkably the same look as a sheep's eye; and a first look at a lobster would remind almost anybody of a creature from a science fiction movie, not something you dip in butter and eat．By the way, in Saudi Arabia sheep's eyes are a famous dish and in parts of China it's bear's paw soup．

  Can you refuse such food without being rude? Most experienced business travelers say no, at least not before taking at least a few bites．It helps, though, to slice any item very thin．This way, you minimize the taste and the reminder of where it came from．Or, " Swallow it quickly, " as one traveler recommends．"I still can't tell you what sheep's eyeballs taste like．" As for dealing with taste, the old line that "it tastes just like chicken" is often thankfully true．Even when the "it" is really rat or snake．

  Another useful piece of advice is not knowing what you are eating．What's for dinner? Don't ask． Avoid glancing into the kitchen or looking at English-language menus．Your host will be pleased that you are eating the food he offers, and who knows? Maybe it really is chicken in that soup．

1.The purpose of the article is to ____．

 A．introduce unfamiliar food

 B．share the writer's personal experiences

 C．suggest ways to overcome a cultural barrier

 D．advise on how to politely refuse to eat foreign food

2.According to the writer, people hesitate at strange food mainly due to ____．

 A．the way it looks                   B．safety worries

 C．lack of information about it         D．the unfamiliar atmosphere

3.From the article we can infer that ____．

 A．an American may feel comfortable with sirloin

 B．one should refuse strange food after a few bites

 C．English-language menus are not always dependable

 D．one needs a cast-iron stomach to travel in other cultures

4.One may say "It tastes just like chicken．" when ____．

 A．showing respect for chicken-loving nations

 B．greeting people with different dieting habits

 C．evaluating chefs at an international food festival

 D．getting someone to try a visually unpleasant meal