I got tired of living the life that everybody told me I “should” be living , so one day I decided to start living life on my own terms. Frustrated（挫败）with my job, I came home, put on my shoes, and just started running. It felt so good to be free. That first day I ended up running 30 miles without stopping. Yes, I had rediscovered my old passion ( 酷爱的事物) — and it felt so good I set a goal to support myself and my family from my running alone.

I trained hard every day. Since I wanted to be the best I could be, I knew I would have to set some clear goals for myself. A couple of my goals were: run a 135-mile ultra-marathon(超级马拉松) across Death Valley, win the Badwater Ultra-Marathon, and run a marathon to the South Pole.

I had no idea how I was going to achieve these goals, but they certainly encouraged me to work hard. Today, I am really grateful to say that I have achieved all of them. Shortly after completing these goals, I set another goal: to run fifty marathons, in fifty states, in fifty days. Nobody had done anything like this before. To be honest, I was not quite sure if I could. But there was only one way to find out…so I just started training and preparing to give it my best try.

I completed that goal one year ago, and it felt great! But for me, life is not all about achieving goals. Sure, it feels good to succeed, but the greatest reward for me was learning more about myself and what I was able to do.

Only by stepping out into the unknown and stretching(使倾注全力) ourselves can we really discover what our true potential(潜能) is。

1.Why did the author decide to become a runner?

A．He was out of work.

B．He wanted to treat his illness.

C．He wanted to live his dreams.

D．He suddenly found running interesting.

2.Which played an important role in the author’s success?

A．Setting goals                           B．Learning from others.

C．Being honest                           D．Keeping on reading .

3.According to Paragraph 3, before achieving the goals the author felt _____________

A．very grateful                           B．not quite confident

C．quite afraid                            D．not very satisfied

4.What does the underlined part “that goal” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A．Win the Badwater Ultra-Marathon.

B．Run a marathon to the South Pole.

C．Run fifty marathons, in fifty states, in fifty days.

D．Run a 135-mile ultra-marathon across Death Valley.

5.The author probably agrees that____________.

A．life means achieving goals

B．success is the greatest reward

C．sports help develop our potential

D．everyone may have great potential.

One Saturday afternoon in February, 1943, a farmer in Mexico stopped working for a moment and looked across his fields of corn. Suddenly he saw a thin line of white smoke curling up out of his field, about 200 feet from where he stood. As he went toward the smoke to see what it was, he heard a strange noise. The line of smoke became bigger. It looked as if some great force were pushing it up into the sky.

The farmer rushed home to get his wife. While he was urging his wife to hurry from the house, the earth shook violently. When he stood up after the earth stopped shaking, he looked across the field and saw that great flames were rising from his cornfield. A volcano was being born!

They hurried across the shaking earth to the village of Particutin, which was toward their farm. They found the village was seriously destroyed and the road from the village was filled with frightened people hurrying to safety.

Particutin did not become dark that night. The volcano lighted up the sky for miles around. Flames rushed out of the ground. The volcano threw hot stones a thousand feet through the air. Great explosion shook the earth and heavy black ashes fell from the sky, covering the roofs in Mexico city, 180 miles away.

But that was not all. On the third evening a float of lava（火山岩）began to boil up from the centre of the volcano. It came over the edge in a heavy flow, 2,000 feet wide, and travelled slowly across the valley, bringing certain death to everything that could not move from its path.

1..

. From the passage we can conclude EXCEPT that         .

A. the volcano threw out a lot of ashes and hot stones  

B. the volcano lasted several days 

C. many people had to escape from the village  

D. it caused many deaths and great loss 

2..

. You can find the passage in a         .

A. newspaper                             B. government report

C. leaflet for travellers                       D. handbook 

3..

. Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. At the beginning the farmer heard a strange cry. 

B. The farmer was working in the field when the disaster happened.  

C. The farmer’s wife was working in the field at that moment. 

D. The village was badly damaged. 

4..

 What does the passage mainly tell us?

A. The damage of a volcano.         B. A terrible volcano.

C. An unforgettable memory.          D. A farmer’s experience.

Don’t take his remarks too seriously. He was so sad that I don’t think he really _________ what he was saying.

A. knew    B. knows   C. was knowing D. had known

The policeman asked ____ with the old woman.

A. what the matter was B.  what was the matter

C. what matter was  D what was the wrong

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。注意：每空格1个单词。

Searching for the truth

Collecting mid writing news is like researching in history: the best information comes from those who were there at the time. So if' we want to study tile history of China in the sixth century AD, we look at the writings of the people who lived then. They are called the primary sources because they tell us what it was like to live then. People at a much later date who write about the same events are called the secondary sources.  For example, when we read the original writings of Jia Sixie on agriculture, we are reading a primary source; when we read about Jia Sixie in our textbook we are reading secondary source because the passage was written about him and his ideas many years after he died.

When we make news we use primary and secondary sources. We can see this most clearly in TV programmes. As we watch the news on TV, the person presenting the programme in the studio is the secondary source( because he tells us about the news) and the reporter in. Iraq or Washington is the primary source (because he is telling us about what is actually happening there). Without these reporters acting as primary sources, you would never find out what really happened in a war, earthquake, sports meeting, concert or festival. These reporters explain what is happening so we have a clearer idea of what is going on there. They often take photographers with them who act as primary source by giving pictures of events.

In a newspaper the position is different because these two roles are often combined. This means a reporter who investigates a story may be the same person who writes it. If this happens, the reporter is both the primary and the secondary source. But the photographer who works with him/her is still a primary, source.

One of the reasons that it is important to separate primary and secondary sources is that they help us to decide what is a fact and what is an opinion. A fact is something that everybody agrees has happened. An opinion is somebody's idea of what happened. So facts and opinions are often mixed in any report, whether in a newspaper or on TV.

What have you learnt from the above passage?