When other nine-year-old kids were playing games, she was working at a petrol station. When other teens were studying or going out, she struggled to find a place to sleep on the street. But she overcame these terrible setbacks to win a highly competitive scholarship and gain entry to Harvard University. And her amazing story has inspired a movie,“Homeless to Harvard: The Liz Murray Story”, shown in late April.

Liz Murray, a 22-year-old American girl, has been writing a real-life story of willpower and determination. Liz grew up in the shadow of two drug-addicted parents. There was never enough food or warm clothes in the house. Liz was the only member of the family who had a job. Her mother had AIDS and died when Liz was just 15 years old. The effect of that became a turning point in her life. Connecting the environment in which she had grown up with how her mother had died, she decided to do something about it.

Liz went back to school. She threw herself into her studies, never telling her teachers that she was homeless. At night, she lived on the streets.“What drove me to live on had something to do with understanding, by understanding that there was a whole other way of being. I had only experienced a small part of the society,”she wrote in her book Breaking Night.

She admitted that she used envy to drive herself on. She used the benefits that come easily to others, such as a safe living environment, to encourage herself that“next to nothing could hold me down”. She finished high school in just two years and won a full scholarship to study at Harvard University. But Liz decided to leave her top university a couple of months earlier this year in order to take care of her father, who has also developed AIDS.“I love my parents so much. They are drug addicts. But I never forget that they love me all the time.”

Liz wants moviegoers (who often see films) to come away with the idea that changing your life is“as simple as making a decision”.

In which order did the following things happen to Liz?

A．Her mother died of AIDS.                           B．She worked at a petrol station.

C．She got admitted into Harvard.                    D．The movie about her life was put on.

e. She had trouble finding a place to sleep.  

A．b, a, e, c, d     B．a, b, c, e, d      C．e, d, b, a, c        D．b, e, a, d, c

The main idea of the passage is ________.

A．how Liz managed to enter Harvard University

B．what a hard time Liz had in her childhood

C．why Liz loved her parents so much

D．how Liz struggled to change her life

What actually made her go towards her goal?

A．Envy and competition.                               B．Willpower and determination.

C．Decisions and understanding.                          D．Love and respect for her parents.

When she wrote“What drove me to live on...I had only experienced a small part of the society”, she meant that ________.

A．she had little experience of social life

B．she could hardly understand the society

C．she would do something for her own life

D．she needed to travel more around the world

While firing off pictures of a curious five-month-old fox, photographer Simon Czapp soon realized his subject had quite an interest in photography herself. The clever fox was so curious about the camera equipment that she climbed right on top of it. And while she was supposed to be the subject of the shoot, the fox stood on the shutter release button (快门按钮) and took her own frames.
Mr Czapp visited the New Forest Wildlife Park to capture images of new arrival Jessie. She has been at the animal park in Ashurst, Hampshire — home to wolves, deer and other animals in 25 acres of ancient woodland — after being abandoned by her mother.
Mr Czapp said, “Jessie was very playful and curious and not at all camera shy. Soon after I arrived she was chewing my shoes and everything seemed to be a game to her. Then she started exploring the camera I had set up on a tripod (三脚架). She balanced her front paws on it and at one point knocked it over.”
He put the camera back on the tripod and Jessie soon jumped back up. At one point she had all four paws on the camera and was keeping her balance. Mr Czapp added, “She jumped up there several times and I realized it could make a good picture. As I was leaving with the public’s viewing window behind me, I thought I heard the camera go off but didn’t think much of it. But when I checked the memory card afterwards, I was amazed to see Jessie had actually taken two pictures of me photographing her. I couldn’t believe a fox had gained an advantage over me! Jessie is a lovely little fox. There were some lovely photos of her but she obviously thought the photographer was worthy of a picture too!”
【小题1】The underlined word “frames” in Paragraph 1 probably means “_________”.

A．photographers

B．pictures

C．buttons

D．advantages

【小题2】What do we know about Jessie from the passage?

A．She arrived at the park five months ago.

B．She lives at the park together with some other foxes.

C．She was sent to the park because her mother left her.

D．She loved the life in the park so much that she left her mother.

【小题3】What is the RIGHT time order of the following steps in Jessie taking a photo?
a. Jessie pressed the shutter release button.
b. Mr Czapp left the camera to take a photo.
c. Jessie climbed onto the camera and balanced herself.
d. Mr Czapp set up his camera on a tripod.
e. Jessie stood up to look at the back of the camera.

A．d, e, c, b, a

B．a, b, c, d, e

C．c, b, e, a, d

D．d, e, b, c, a

【小题4】From the passage we can infer that __________.

A．foxes are better at photographing than men

B．some foxes are more friendly than humans

C．Mr Czapp and Jessie took photos for each other

D．Jessie gained an advantage over Mr Czapp in photographing

NEW YORK— Picking a Christmas tree takes most people a few minutes, or a couple of hours if they head for the woods. Dave Murbach needs 11 months.

Almost every day of every year, Murbach’s thoughts turn to vision of a perfectly shaped evergreen tree that will take everyone's breath away.

     Murbach is the man responsible for finding the towering tree that makes more attractive Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center each Christmas season.

     “I'm always looking for a tree,” the center's chief gardener says. “I look for it even when I go to the beach in the summer. It' s like a homework assignment hanging over your head.”

     And if he gets it wrong, there's nothing hiding it.

     “Every day it's up, 400,000 people go by, and 2.5 million people watch the lighting celebration on television,”he says.

    This year’s tree, a 74-foot Nomy spruce (云杉) from Richfield, Ohio, flown to New York on the world's largest cargo plane, was lighted on December 2.

    The arrival of the tree leads in the Christmas season in New York — a tradition dating back to 1931, when the workers building Rockefeller Center put up a small tree with ornaments (装饰品). 

     The search for the next year's tree starts soon after the old tree is chopped up for wood chips and horse-jumping logs.

    Murbach has three standards: The tree must be at least 65 feet high, at least 35 feet across and leaves dense (密集的) enough not to see through.

    That's not as simple as it sounds. Though forests are full of evergreens, few get enough sunlight or space to fill out. And branches in snow regions often break under the weight, making trees unbalanced.

    Back at the office, he sorts through hundreds of letters from people offering their trees, many addressed simply to “Mr. Christmas Tree Man.”

Though there was occasional anxiety attack and sleepless night, Murbach knows the effect the tree has on people: “It's for bringing people together, attempting to bring together people you love. That's what I hope it sets off.”  But Murbach says he's always too worn out to celebrate Christmas.

51． Which is the correct order of the events in the passage?

a. Murbach’s thoughts turn to a perfectly shaped tree.

b. 2.5 million people watch the Christmas tree.

c. The tree is flown to New York.

d. It was lighted on December 2.

e. The tree is chopped up.

f. Murbach searches for the tree.

A. a, b, c, d, e, f                                B. c, d, b, f, e, a

C. c, d, e, b, a, f                                D. a, f, c, d, b, e

52． Murbach spends a lot of time         that are exhibited in Manhattan’s Rockefeller Center each Christmas season.

A. taking care of Christmas trees

B. deciding on the perfect evergreens

C. sorting the letters from people

D. deciding the TV programs

53． Why does Murbach take his job seriously?

A. Because he wants everyone to be happy with his choice.

B. Because he hopes to make everybody unable to breathe.

C. Because he enjoys showing off.

D. Because he wishes to attract people's attention to himself.

54． According to Murbach' s standard of trees, the best tree must_______ .

A. be evergreen

B. have lots of space between their branches

C. be tall enough not to see through

D. be equally balanced

55． What kind of person do you think Murbach is?

A. A person always ignoring his family.

B. A person full of love.

C. A person devoted to his work.

D. A person with great anxiety.

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a meeting in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night’s dinner. In their rush, with tickets, one of these salesmen happened to kick over a table which held a display of baskets of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their boarding.

All but one stopped, took a deep breath and experienced a twinge（刺痛）of sorrow for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned. He told his friends to go on without him, waved goodbye, and told one of them to call his wife when they arrived and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to where the apple stand had been overturned. He was glad he did.

The 16-year-old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her face. The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them into the baskets, and helped set the display up once more. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become damaged; then he set them aside in another basket. When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, “Here, please take the $20 for the damage we did.” He continued, “I’m sorry for what we did and hope we didn’t spoil your day too badly.”

She nodded with her tears. As the salesman started to walk away, the blind girl called out to him, “Mr. ...”. He stopped, and turned back. She continued, “Thank you very much”.

1.These salesmen were hurrying because they ________.

A．had to attend an important meeting

B．wanted to have plenty of time at home

C．almost missed reaching the airplane

D．hoped to have Friday night’s party

2.Which of the following is the correct order of what the salesman did?

a. He made an apology to the blind girl.

b. He told his friends to go on without him.

c. He experienced a twinge of sorrow.

d. He returned to the fallen apple stand.

e. He paid the girl $20 for the damage.

A．c-e-b-d-a	B．c-b-d-e-a
C．d-b-c-a-e	D．d-c-b-e-a

3.Which of the following can describe the salesman? 

A．Popular and friendly.	B．Good and humorous.
C．Honest and generous.	D．Kind and considerate.

4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．A Man’s Kind Action

B．Picking up the Fallen Apples

C．A Blind Girl’s Bad Luck

D．A Blind Girl Who Sold Apples

 

Once in a blue moon there is one on New Year's Eve. Revelers ringing in 2010 will be treated to a so-called blue moon. According to popular definition, a blue moon is the second full moon in a month. But don't   1   it to be blue - the name has nothing to   2   the color of our closest celestial（天体） neighbor.

A full moon   3   on December 2. It will appear again on Thursday in time for the New Year's countdown.

"If you're in Times Square, you'll see the   4   moon right above you. It's going to be that brilliant," said Jack Horkheimer, director emeritus of the Miami Space Transit Planetarium and host of a weekly astronomy TV show.

The New Year's Eve blue moon will be   5   in the United States, Canada, Europe, South America and Africa. For partygoers in Australia and Asia, the full moon does not show up  6   New Year's Day, making January a blue moon month for them.

However, the Eastern Hemisphere can celebrate with a partial lunar eclipse（月蚀） on New Year's Eve when  7   of the moon enters the Earth's shadow. The   8   will not be visible in the Americas.

A full moon occurs   9   29.5 days, and most years have 12.  10  , an extra full moon in a month - a blue moon - occurs every 2.5 years. The   11   time there was a lunar double take was in May 2007. New Year's Eve blue moons are rarer, occurring every 19 years. The last time was in 1990; the next one won't   12    again until 2028.

Blue moons have no astronomical   13   , said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

"`Blue moon' is just a   14   in the same sense as a `hunter's moon' or a `harvest moon,'" Laughlin said in an e-mail.

The popular definition of blue moon   15   after a writer for Sky & Telescope magazine in 1946 misunderstood the Maine Farmer's Calendar and marked a blue moon as the second full moon in a month. In fact, the calendar   16   a blue moon as the third full moon in a season with four full moons, not the usual three.

Though Sky & Telescope corrected the  17   decades later, the definition caught on. For purists（语言纯正癖者）, however, this New Year's Eve full moon doesn't even qualify as a   18   moon. It's just the first full moon of the winter season.

In a tongue-in-cheek essay   19   on the magazine's Web site this week, senior contributing editor Kelly Beatty wrote: "If skies are clear when I'm    20  celebrating, I'll take a peek（眯着眼睛看） at that brilliant orb（天体） as it rises over the Boston skyline to see if it's an icy shade of blue. Or maybe I'll just howl."

(   ) 1. A. wish                  B. wait                        C. hope               D. expect

(   ) 2. A. deal with            B. do with                   C. develop with     D. form into

(   ) 3. A. occurred            B. came                      C. ran                   D. went

(   ) 4. A. full                   B. half                         C. bright                   D. part

(   ) 5. A. out of sight               B. visible                     C. big                   D. clear

(   ) 6. A. until                  B. when                      C. before              D. since

(   ) 7. A. part                   B. all                           C. any                  D. none

(   ) 8. A. moon                 B. eclipse                     C. sun                  D. shadow

(   ) 9. A. each                  B. every                             C. either                      D. all

(   ) 10. A. On the whole    B. Generally speaking   C. On average       D. In addition

(   ) 11. A. last                  B. next                        C. other               D. another

(   ) 12. A. go                   B. see                          C. come               D. look

(   ) 13. A. point               B. evident                    C. theory              D. significance

(   ) 14. A. name                      B. object                      C. phenomenon     D. tradition

(   ) 15. A. created             B. came about              C. made               D. copied

(   ) 16. A. named              B. called                          C. introduced               D. defined

(   ) 17. A. error               B. name                      C. reality              D. number

(   ) 18. A. blue                 B. red                          C. yellow              D. grey

(   ) 19. A. published        B. posted                     C. printed             D. written

(   ) 20. A. in                    B. out                          C. away               D. on