When I was seven, my parents gave me a doll, a doll’s house and a book. The Arabian Nights, came wrapped in red paper. I was just ready to read when my mother walked into my room．

“Isn’t your doll just beautiful?” my mother asked. I looked at the doll, with fair hair in a pink dress----I’ll have to call her “she” because I never gave her a name. I folded my lips and raised my eyebrows, not really knowing how to let my mother down easily.

“This doll is different.” My mother explained, trying to talk me into playing with it.

Thinking the doll needed love, I hugged her tightly for a long time. Useless, I said to myself. Finally, I decided to play with the doll’s house. But since rearranging the tiny furniture seemed to be the only active possible, I lost interest. I caught sight again of the third of my gifts The Arabian Nights, and I began to read it. From that moment, the book was my constant companion.

Every day I climbed our garden tree, nestled among its branches, I read the stories in The Arabian Nights to my heart’s content. My mother became concerned as she noticed I wasn’t playing with either the doll or the little house. She insisted that I take the doll up the tree with me.

Trying to read on a branch 15 feet off the ground while holding on to the silly doll was not easy. After nearly falling off twice, I tied one end of a long vine around the doll’s neck and the opposite one around the branch, letting the doll hang in mid air while I read. I always looked out for my mother, though. I sensed that my playing with the doll was of great importance to her. So every time I heard her coming, I lifted the doll up and hugged her. The smile in my mother’s eyes told me my plan worked.

The inevitable(不可避免的) happened one afternoon. Totally absorbed in the reading, I didn’t hear my mother calling me. When I looked down, I saw my mother staring at the hanging doll. Fearing the worst of scolding, I climbed down in a flash, reaching the ground just as my mother was untying the doll. To my surprise, she didn’t scold. She kept on staring at the doll．

The next day, my father came home early and suggested he and I play with the doll’s house. Soon I was bored, but my father seemed to be having so much fun, I didn’t have the heart to tell him. Quietly I slipped out, picking up my book on my way to the yard. So absorbed was he in arranging and rearranging the tiny furniture that he didn’t notice my quick exit.

Almost 20 years passed before I found out why the hanging-doll incident had been so significant for my parents. By then I was a parent myself. After recalling the incident, my mother said all those years she had been afraid whether I would turn out to be a most loving and understanding mother to my son．

My mother often thanks God aloud for making me a good parent, pointing out that with education I might have been a rich dentist instead of a poor poet. I look back on that same childhood incident, recalling my third gift, the book in red-paper, and I take advantage of the experiences that have made me who and what I am. Sometimes I pause to wonder at life’s wonderful ironies （讽刺）.

1.Why didn’t the author give the doll a name?

A. Because the gift was given by her parents.

B. Because the girl didn’t care much for the doll.

C. Because her parents would give the doll a name.

D. Because the doll had little in common with her.

2.The author’s account of a childhood incident shows that, as a young girl, she viewed her parents as people who         .

A. hoped to shape their children’s future  

B. were unconcerned about their behavior

C. ruined their children’s dreams completely

D. might withdraw their love at any moment

3. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A. The mother is now satisfied with her daughter’s career.

B. The daughter now regrets what she did when she was a girl.

C. The mother thinks the daughter’s achievements are unsatisfactory.

D. The daughter wishes that she had been allowed more freedom as a child.

Is war unavoidable? Can war be prevented?

History tells that there were wars, great or small, in every century, in every decade. Throughout the ages, from the Stone age to the Atomic Age, men have been fighting, first with swords and shields(盾), then with guns and cannons, and now, hydrogen bombs and missiles are used for military purpose. But, in spite of all these, it is still my belief that war can be prevented and peace can be won, but it requires the effort of every one of us.

I am sure that we would not like to experience another world war. If it ever happens, two-thirds of the world and much of the civilization which men have gained through time, patience and effort will be destroyed. Will then the remaining one-third of the world be able to survive on its own?

Our task now is not to blame the past, but to plan for the future.

If there is peace in the world, men can use their rockets to explore the mystery of space, their submarines to explore the depth of the sea, their missiles to deliver mails and their fine equipment to penetrate(穿透) the jungles of Africa, instead of using them military.

Governments can use their money to build more schools, so that more children can be educated to be useful citizens. Scientists can use atomic energy to propel (推动) steamships and planes. They can also design new machines to increase the production of goods and thus improve the way of living of the people.

How can a peaceful world be achieved? It requires, in my opinion, the understanding and friendship between all people from all nations. Let no one suffer discrimination by reason of color, race, religion, or national origin. Let the rich support the poor and the strong help the weak.

We know that neither peace nor such a dream world can come true in a day or a month. It may even take decades or centuries. But let us plan and begin now.

1.The best title for this passage is _________.

2.In the writer’s opinion, __________.

3.We can infer from the passage that __________.

4.What should we do to achieve peace?

5.Which word can best describe the writer’s picture of the future of the world?

Los Angeles June 14, 2006 – Hollywood actress Daryl Hannah was arrested yesterday after spending two weeks sitting in a walnut tree on an urban farm a few kilometers from downtown Los Angeles. She was one of 40 people, including celebrities from the music and movie world, who were protesting at the proposed destruction of the 14 – acre farm. Police officers cut away branches from the tree and used a fire engine to reach Ms Hannah and her co – protester, environmentalist John Quigley. The two of them raised their fists in defiance（反抗）as they were removed.
Protesters, some of whom had chained themselves to concrete –filled barrels（桶），said that it was essential to keep the farm operating, as it provided food for hundreds of poor families in the area. About 350 people grow produce and flowers on the farm, which has been there for more than a decade and is situated in an inner –city area surrounded by warehouses and railroad tracks. However, the local authority recently approved plans for the area to be cleared and redeveloped for the construction of a huge new warehouse.
Ms Hannah, 45, star of films such as Splash and Kill Bill was not thrilled about being arrested. “But I felt it was important to show my support for the people,” she said. “This farm should be a model for sustainable (可持续的) urban agriculture. It needs to be replicated, not eradicated.”
The record length for a tree protest is held by a woman called Julia Hill, who remained on top of a 30-metre-high redwood tree in Northern California for 738 days from December 1997 to December 1999. She was successful in saving the tree and those around it from destruction. Ms Hill was also at the Los Angeles urban farm project this week, but her presence failed to stop the inevitable (不可避免的). No sooner had the protesters been removed than earth-moving machines moved in and began to clear the land.

The way people hold to the belief that a fun?filled，pain?free life equals happiness actually reduces their chances of ever attaining real happiness.If fun and pleasure are equal to happiness，then pain must be equal to unhappiness.But in fact，the opposite is true.More often than not，things that lead to happiness involve some pain.

As a result，many people avoid the very attempts that are the source of true happiness.They fear the pain inevitably (不可避免地) brought by such things as marriage，raising children，professional achievement，religious commitment and self?improvement.

Ask a bachelor (单身汉) why he resists marriage even though he finds dating to be less and less satisfying.If he is honest，he will tell you that he is afraid of making a commitment.Certainly，commitment is quite painful.The single life is filled with fun，adventure，and excitement.Marriage has such moments，but they are not its most distinguishing (显著的) features.

Couples with infant (婴儿) children are lucky to get a whole night’s sleep or a three?day vacation.I don’t know any parent who would choose the word fun to describe raising children.But couples who decide not to have children never know the joys of watching a child grow up or of playing with a grandchild.

Understanding and accepting that true happiness has nothing to do with fun is one of the most liberating realizations.It liberates time：now we can devote more hours to activities that can genuinely increase our happiness.It liberates money：buying that new car or those fancy clothes that will do nothing to increase our happiness now seems pointless.And it liberates us from envy：we now understand that all those who are always having so much fun actually may not be happy at all.

1.According to the author，a bachelor doesn’t want to marry mainly because________.

A．he is unwilling to take family responsibilities

B．he believes that life will be more cheerful if he remains single

C．he finds more fun in dating than in marriage

D．he fears it will put an end to all his fun adventure and excitement

2.Raising children，in the author’s opinion，is________.

A．a moral duty

B．a thankless job

C．a rewarding task

D．a source of inevitable pain

3.To understand what true happiness is one must________.

A．have as much fun as possible during one’s lifetime

B．make every effort to liberate oneself from pain

C．put up with pain under all circumstances

D．be able to distinguish happiness from fun

4.What is the main idea of the passage?

A．Happiness often goes hand in hand with pain.

B．One must know how to attain happiness.

C．It is important to make commitments.

D．It is pain that leads to happiness.

Humankind has tried to improve its standard of living since the very beginning of civili­zation. Back then, as well as today, providing food and security was the basic task for a per­son. However, nowadays the range of required goods has expanded significantly. People feel the need for not only some primary things, such as a piece of bread and a roof over their heads, but also for various facilities and luxuries. Providing humanity with these things is connected to the use of natural resources, which requires energy. In turn, the common sources of energy we use today cause pollution, so economic growth is almost unavoidably as­sociated with environmental damage.

Economic growth is the increase in numbers of goods and services produced over time by an economy, and it is calculated in terms of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Before growth is calculated, inflation (通货膨胀)is adjusted in order to take into account its mis­leading effect on the price of goods and services. Economic growth can also be explained as the increase in expected output, which results from an increase in actual output, or total de­mand.

There are certain aspects of economic growth which affect the environment. The first of these is the fact that in order to produce more goods and products, at a faster rate, the con­struction of large industrial plants is required. These plants produce a lot of waste, leading to the pollution of water and the atmosphere, which may cause negative long term health effects to nearby populations of animals, or people. They also lead to global warming.

Industrial manufacturing leads to the constantly increasing energy consumption. The traditional energy sources, which are commonly used nowadays, are considered to be the greatest polluters to the environment. There also exist so-called eco-friendly sources of energy. They are sometimes preferred but replacing the traditional sources with them also requires time, during which people have to make some sacrifices to support these undertak­ings.

In order to produce economically practical energy, a sometimes significant transforma­tion of the natural site is often inevitable. This is expensive and, has harmful effects on the environment. Application of wind energy would block airflows’ natural speed which is the reason for their decrease in strength, after crossing the windmill. Consequently, the pres­sure balance that is brought about by this current will be affected, and it is important to re­member that the environment and weather conditions are directly affected by atmospheric pressure.

For these reasons, bringing about economic growth without any resulting environmental damage, whatsoever, is impossible.

1.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A． Pollution caused by plant construction.

B． Effects of windmills on the environment.

C． Economic growth and human civilization.

D． Economic growth and environmental damage.

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

A．Goods and products                     B．The industrial plants

C． Water and atmosphere                  D．Negative health effects

3.According to the passage, the author holds the opinion that ______.

A． economic growth should be calculated in terms of GDP

B． use of natural resources causes no damage to the environment

C． industrial manufacturing may cause damage to the environment

D． a windmill is a perfect way to produce economically practical energy

4.Which of the following shows the structure of the passage?