Every night for a year, Neil Simons quietly went out of his house. He wanted to “talk” to an owl settling for the night at the end of his garden. He made owl cries like a real wild owl and was happy to hear the bird “hooting (大声叫嚣)” back to him.

Last year Fred Cornes moved in next door. He heard an owl hooting and answered back. For 12 months the neighbors got into the back gardens of their homes, thinking they were talking with nature. Mr. Simmons kept a diary of all his talks with his bird friend. They would both be out again tonight if it wasn’t for a chance talk between their wives.

Mr. Simmons said. “My wife Kim was telling Fred’s wife Wendy about my owl watching and described how I got the birds to boot back. She said, ‘That’s funny — that’s just what Fred has been doing.’ Then the penny dropped, I felt such a fool when I found out. The trouble is that owl calls aren’t exactly the same and it’s easy to make a mistake.”

Mr. Cornes said, “I’m really flattered (过奖). I didn’t know I sounded so real. I love nature and I couldn’t resist hooting at the owls. I was very excited when they hooted back. I’m sorry that I was fooling my neighbor who was fooling me.”

After the talk between the wives, the two men would probably _________ .

A. stop observing owls                      B. not stay up hooting again

C. not enter the back garden again          D. make no mistakes about wild owl cries

“Then the penny dropped.” most probably means “Then __________.”

A. I understood                        B. everybody knew about it

     C. I heard the noise                      D. no money was paid

Mr. Simmons felt upset about the whole thing because __________.

A. all his efforts seemed to be meaningless  

B. his wife let out his secret by chance

C. garden owls hooted so differently

D. Fred had been doing the same

The text suggests that __________.

A. Nail seldom heard natural owl calls

B. the owl never hooted back to Neil

C. Fred was always good at pleasing owls

D. owl watching is no longer interesting to Fred

Some kids can't sit still for long. They have a hard time paying attention to just one thing. They're easily distracted(分神).They can get very impatient. They hate standing in line or waiting for their turn in a game or activity. They get bored pretty fast. They may also be impulsive—saying the first thing that comes to mind or interrupting someone else who's talking.?

For certain kids, this problem is so severe(严重) that doctors have a name for it: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Perhaps as many as 1 out of every 20 kids under the age of 18 have characteristics of ADHD. Often, these kids have trouble getting through school and face other difficulties later in life.?

Rizzo started developing the Virtual Classroom in 1999.He wanted to see if he could use it as a tool for testing and treating kids who have attention disorders.?

To diagnose(诊断) ADHD, doctors typically test patients by giving them tasks that require attention. As part of one classic test, you watch letters flashed on a computer screen. Every time you see the letter “A” followed by the letter “X”,you have to press the space bar. If you're paying close attention, you'll register all the times this combination occurs. If not, you'll miss some.?

The Virtual Classroom makes these tests more efficient, Rizzo says. In one experiment, he gave a group of kids the classic “A-X” test. Instead of looking at a computer screen in a doctor's office, though, the kids wore headsets that made it look like they were taking the test in a classroom.?

“Basically what we found,”Rizzo says,“is that, in 20 minutes of testing with virtual reality,?we? replicated(复制) a finding that usually requires a couple hours of standard testing with computer screens in the psychologist's office.”?

The first paragraph mainly tells us _______.?

A. how to find a patient with ADHD?

B. the behavior of some kids with ADHD?

C. kids with ADHD cannot sit still for a long time?

D. kids with ADHD are easily distracted

Perhaps as many as _______ kids have characteristics of ADHD. ?

A. one out of every twenty kids

B. five percent kids less than 18 years old?

C. one out of twenty kids at the age of 18

D. five percent kids more than age of 18

In the experiment, patients need to press the space bar, when _______.

A. see letters A following X  B. first see A then see B?

C. see letter X and A     D. see letters A followed by X

The main idea of the last paragraph is _______.

A. in virtual classroom, we finish the test in 20 minutes?

B. the standard test with computer screen usually costs several hours?

C. the experiment is easy to do?

D. the result of the experiment

通读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后在各题所给的A，B，C，D四个选项中，选出一个最佳答案。

I was in the queue for the supermarket checkout(付款台) earlier today．All of the checkouts were    36   , and the woman behind me was not happy! Every word that came from her mouth was a(n)    37   ! She wasn’t happy with the number of checkouts      38    ; she wasn’t happy with the amount of shopping some people had in their baskets; she wasn’t happy because this supermarket didn’t have a stand where she    39    scan her own shopping.

    I listened to her    40   looking around as I loaded my stuff onto the conveyor belt (传送带)．I didn’t want    41    to do with that kind of attitude, and if ever I’d felt like letting someone go     42     of me, it wouldn’t be such a woman!

But then I    43   back．Standing beside the woman was a five-year-old girl,    44    her granddaughter．The girl’s part of the shopping    45   of some comic books.

I couldn’t    46   it．I pushed my shopping back to the end of the conveyor belt,     47    a space．“After you,” I said to the woman and the girl, and    48    them to a big     49    ．The woman was delighted, and even    50    to complain ---- until she was walking away．

So,   51   bother having helped? It was because that little girl was probably taking in her granny’s complaint like a sponge(海绵)．She was learning how to    52    situations like that by listening to her granny．I’d seen that I could interrupt that complaining, and put a smile and some   53    into the middle of it．

We can all complain; we can all react    54    , but it doesn’t have to be like that．And, even if only for a few     55     , I wanted to leave that little soul with just a glimpse of another way．

A．busy     B．big   C．free        D．empty

A．quarrel B．argument        C．praise     D．complaint

A．opened B．closed   C．left        D．hired

A．would         B．need      C．could     D．must

A．beyond       B．without         C．with       D．by

A．something          B．nothing         C．everything           D．anything

A．ahead  B．behind   C．beside   D．back

A．went   B．glanced         C．focused  D．jumped

A．merely        B．surely           C．possibly        D．luckily

A．contained B．included   C．consisted       D．made

A．think        B．help      C．believe         D．forget

A．taking   B．leaving      C．bringing         D．occupying

A．returned  B．pleased    C．treated          D．served

A．smile    B．meal      C．joke      D．room

A．thanked  B．paid         C．checked        D．forgot

A．how         B．what      C．why            D．who

A．face with B．put with     C．deal with      D．do with

A．truth        B．kindness       C．courage         D．money

A．actively  B．correctly   C．negatively    D．patiently

A．hours    B．chances    C．years    D．seconds

What made Joan Ryan decide to be a sports writer?“Ten years ago, I was ?　36　? news stories at the Orlando Sentinel in Florida—my first job ?　37　? college. I didn't know any female sports writers. But I wanted to be ?　38　?.?　39　?,the best writing in the paper was sports.”

“Furthermore, I had the ?　40　?.I grew up in a(n) ?　41　? family: Three boys and three girls and a coach for a dad.”?

Soon after describing her ambition to a coworker, the ?　42　? of her paper reassigned Joan to the sports ?　43　?.She started out by editing other people's stories,?　44　? within a year, she was writing her own sports column.?

Today, Joan is the sports ?　45　? for the San Francisco Examiner in California. When she ?　46　? her job eight years ago, she was the ?　47　? woman sports writer on any major American newspaper.

Was it tough to ?　48　? as a female sports writer??　49　?!Take, for example, the first time Joan tried to get an interview in the men's locker room. “It was the U.S. Football League. I wanted to interview one of the players—Joe Cribbs, because he had just broken a finger. As soon as I ?　50　? into the locker room ?　51　? all sports writers interview athletes—the room went ?　52　?.Guys started yelling at me—closing in on me. It was really frightening. One guy was sitting on a bench in front of me, tapping up his ankle,?　53　? a long-handled razor for cutting the tape. Suddenly, I felt something move up my leg. It was the ?　54　? of the razor. I yelled at him and walked out.”

Joan ?　55　? interviewing Cribbs—outside the locker room.“In retrospect(回忆),I feel this was a defining moment for me as a journalist. I went back and wrote my story and made my deadline. Now I know that nothing can interfere with getting the story.”?

36. A. writing B. finding       C. editing       D. sending?

37. A. in B. out of C. into    D. before?

38. A. one      B. the one       C. it D. that?

39. A. However     B. Therefore   C. Above all   D. First of all?

40. A. knowledge   B. experience  C. Background       D. interest?

41. A. big       B. athletic       C. athrete       D. warm?

42. A. editor   B. Manager     C. Director     D. workmate?

43. A. column B. field   C. department D. paper?

44. A. and      B. So      C. however     D. but?

45. A. columnist    B. writer C. journalist    D. female?

46. A. did       B. left     C. landed D. wanted?

47. A. abed     B. only    C. brave  D. wisest?

48. A. work    B. writer C. interview    D. pioneer?

49. A. You bet       B. You believe       C. Unbelievable     D. You guess?

50. A. stepped B. entered       C. rushed D. moved?

51. A. that      B. which C. where D. when?

52. A. warm   B. crazy  C. down  D. full?

53. A. held     B. playing      C. used    D. using?

54. A. cap      B. cover  C. handle D. movement?

55. A. started  B. ended up C. Made     D. wrote??

For eighty four days old Santiago had not caught a single fish. At first a young boy, Manolin, had shared his bad fortune, but after the fortieth luck less day the boy’s father told his son to go in another boat. From that time on, Santigao worked alone. The boy loved the old fisherman and always helped him with money and food. Usually, they would talk about the fish they had taken in luckier times or about American baseball after supper, while at night, alone in his cottage, Santiago dreamed of lions on the beaches of Africa, where he had gone years before. He no longer dreamed of his dead wife.

On the eighty-fifth day, Santiago set off to fish before dawn. Two of his baits (饵) were fresh tunas (金枪鱼) the boy had given him, as well as sardines (沙丁鱼) to cover his hooks. Then he set his lines which went straight down into deep dark water.

As the sun rose he saw other boats in toward shore. A bird showed him where dolphin were chasing some flying fish. This time Santiago saw tuna jumping in the sunlight. A small one took the hook on his line. Pulling the fish aboard, the old man thought it a good fortune.

Toward noon a marlin, a common fish in the sea, started eating the bait which was one hundred meters down. Gently the old man played the fish, a big one, as he knew from the weight on the line. At last he struck to settle the hook. The fish did not come out of she surface. Instead, it began to pull the boat to the northwest. The old man followed it. Although he was alone and no longer strong, he had his skill and knew many tricks. He waited patiently for the fish to be tired.

It was cold after the sunset. When something took one of his remaining baits, he cut the line with his knife. Once the marlin leaned suddenly, pulling Santiago forward on his face and cutting his cheek. By dawn his left hand was cramped (抽筋的). The fish had headed northward; there was no land in sight. Hungry, he cut pieces from the tuna and chewed them slowly.

That morning the fist jumped. Seeing it, Santiago knew he had hooked the biggest marlin he had ever seen. Then the fish went down and turned toward the east. Santiago drank a little water from the bottle during the hot afternoon.

Close to nightfall a dolphin took the small hook he had rebated. He lifted it aboard, careful. After he had rested, he cut meat from the dolphin and kept also the two flying fish he hound in its stomach. That night he slept. He awoke to feel the line running through his fingers as the fish jumped. Feeding line slowly, he tried to tire the marlin. After the fish slowed its run, he washed his cut hands in sea water and ate one of the flying fish. At sunrise the marlin began to circle. Faint, he worked to bring the big fish nearer with each turn. Almost exhausted, he finally drew his big fish alongside and drove in the harpoon(鱼叉). The fish was two feet longer than the boat. No fish like it had ever been seen in Havana harbor.

An hour later, he sighted the fist shark, a fierce Mako, and it came in fast to chase after the dead marlin. The old man struck the shark with his harpoon. The Mako rolled and sank, carrying the harpoon with it and leaving the marlin bloody. He knew the smell would spread. Watching, he saw two sharks closing in. he stuck at one with his knife and watched it sliding down into deep water. The other he killed while it tore at the flesh of the marlin. When the third appeared, he thrust (刺) it with the knife. The other sharks came at sunset. At fist he tried to beat them with the tiller (舵柄) from the boat, but his hands were bleeding and there were too many in the sea. In the darkness, as he steered toward the harbor of Havana, he head them hitting the boat again and again. But the old man though only of his steering and his great tiredness. He had gone out too far and the sharks had beaten him. He knew they would leave him nothing but the stripped skeleton of the big marlin.

All lights were out when he sailed into the little harbor and beached his boat. He could just make out the white backbone and the upstanding tail of the fish. Once he fell under their weight and lay patiently until he could gather his strength to go on. In his cottage he fell on his bed and went to sleep.

The above story is adapted from         .

    A．Treasure Island      B．The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer

    C．The Old Man And The Sea  D．The Son Of The Sea

Why did the man feel that he could be lucky this time?

    A．Because a small tuna took the hoot on his line.

    B．Because he dreamed about the American lions.

    C．Because he saw many flying fish were chased by the dolphins.

    D．Because a lot of sharks followed his boat.

According to the text, which statement is NOT true about Manolin?

    A．The boy had mercy on Santiago.

    B．The boy often shared his stories with Santiago.

    C．The boy showed his great concerns to Santiago.

    D．The boy was Santiago’s adopted son.

Why does Santiago let the marlin lead his boat instead of pulling the big fish up?

    A．He wanted to kill the marlin first before he pulled it up to the boat.

    B．He was too tried and hungry to pull the big fish up.

    C．His experience told him not to do so before the fish was tired out.

    D．He wanted to use the marlin as a bait to catch the sharks.

Which sentence below can be used to best describe Santiago’s character?

    A．“He no longer dreamed of his dead wife.” (Para 1)

    B．“Although he was alone and no longer strong, he had his skill and knew many tricks.” (Para 4)

    C．“Almost exhausted, he finally drew his big fish alongside and drove in the harpoon.” (Para 7)

    D．“Once he fell under their weight and lay patiently until he could gather his strength to go on.” (Para 9)

．According to the text, what will be talked about in the next paragraph?

    A．the man’s action to realize his dream about the lions.

    B．people’s reflection when they saw the giant marlin outside.

    C．people’s discussion about how they ate the giant marlin.

    D．a funeral held by the boy and the local people after his death.