One day, I happened to talk to a stranger (陌生人) on the bus. When he found out that I was from Chicago, he told me that one of his good friends lived there and he wondered if I happened to know him. At first I wanted to say that it was foolish (愚蠢的) to think like that, for from all the millions of people in Chicago, I could not possibly know his friend. But, instead, I just smiled and said that Chicago was a very big city. He was quiet for a few minutes, and then he began to tell me all about his friend.

       He told me that his friend was an excellent tennis player and that he even had his own tennis court (网球场). He added that he knew a lot of people with swimming pools, but that he only knew two people in the country who had their own tennis courts. And his friend in Chicago was one of them. I told him that I knew several people like that, for example, my brother and my next-door neighbor. I told him that my brother was a doctor and he lived in California. Then he asked where my brother lived in California. When I said Sacramento, he said that last year his friend spent the summer in Sacramento and lived next door to a doctor. The doctor had a tennis court. I said that my next-door went to Sacramento last summer and lived in the house next to my brother’s. For a moment, we looked at each other, but we did not say anything.

      “Would your friend’s name happen to be Roland Kirkwood?” I asked finally. He laughed and said, “Would your brother’s name happen to be Dr. Ray Hunter?” It was my turn to laugh.

Which of the following is true?

     A. The story happened in Chicago.

     B. The writer’s brother lived in Sacramento.

     C. Both the writer and the stranger lived in Chicago.

     D. Both the writer and his brother lived in California.

The writer said that Chicago was a very big city. That means _____________.

     A. it was possible for him to happen to know the stranger’s friend

     B. he didn’t want to look for the stranger’s friend

     C. he didn’t know the stranger’s friend

     D. it was impossible to find the stranger’s friend

How many persons does the story involve (涉及)?

     A. Four.           B. Five.           C. Six.      D. Seven.

Which is the best title of the story?

     A. On a bus                                       B. Two tennis players

     C. One in a million                            D. Chicago is a large city

Two elderly women in my community died "full of years,"which means both died from the normal wearing out of the body after a long and full life. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid visits to the two families.
The son of one of the deceased(已故的) women said to me,"If only I had sent my mother to Florida and got her out of this cold ,she would be alive today. "The son of the other deceased woman said, "If only I hadn't insisted on my mother's going to Florida, she would be alive today. That long airplane ride, the sudden change of climate, was more than she could take. "
When things don't turn out as we would like them to, it is very likely for us to think that if we had done things differently, the story would have had a happier ending. Any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty.
There seem to be two elements in our readiness to feel guilty. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense and that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to try to find the patterns and connections.
The second element is the notion(观念)that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. Psychologists trace this feeling back to our childhood. A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. The world works for him. When he cries, someone comes to attend to him. When he is hungry, people feed him, and when he is wet, people change him. Very often, we do not completely outgrow the notion that our wishes cause things to happen.
69.What is said about the two deceased elderly women?
A. They lived long and died after a natural life.
B. They died due to lack of care by family members.
C. They died of the tiredness after the long plane ride.
D. They weren't quite used to the change in weather.
70.People feel guilty for the deaths of their beloved ones because_______.
A. they believe that they were responsible
B. they do not know the natural course of events
C. they couldn't find a better way to express their grief
D. they didn't know things often turn out in the opposite direction
71.The underlined sentence "the world makes sense" probably means that_______.
A. we have to be sensible so as to understand the world
B. everything in the world is pre-determined
C. there's an explanation for everything in the world
D. the world can be interpreted in different ways
72.People have been made to believe since babyhood that_______.
A. every story should have a happy ending
B. their wishes are the cause of everything that happens
C. life and death is an unsolved mystery
D. everybody should obey their wills without question

Men are spending more and more time in the kitchen encouraged by celebrity (名人) chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver, according to a report from Oxford University.

 ??? The effect of the celebrity role models, who have given cooking a more manly picture, has combined with a more general drive towards sexual equality and men now spend more than twice the amount of time preparing meals than they did in 1961.

According to the research by Prof. Jonatahn Gershuny, who runs the Centre for Time Research at Oxford, men now spend more than half an hour a day cooking, up from just 12 minutes a day in 1961.

Prof. Gershuny said, “The man in the kitchen is part of a much wider social trend. There has been 40 years of sexual equality, but there is another 40 years probably to come.”

Women, who a generation ago spent nearly two hours a day cooking, now spend just one hour and seven minutes—a great fall, but they still spend far more time in the kitchen than men.

Some experts have named these men in aprons as “Gastrosexuals (men using cooking skills to impress friends)”, who have been inspired to pick up a kitchen knife by the success of Ramsay, Oliver as well as other male celebrity chefs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Marco Pierre White and Keith Floyd.

 ??? “I was married in 1974. When my father came to visit me a few weeks later, I was wearing an apron when I opened the door. He laughed,” said Prof. Gershuny. “That would never happen now.”

Two-thirds of adults say that they come together to share at least three times a week, even if it is not necessarily around a kitchen or dining room table. Prof. Gershuny pointed out that the family meal was now rarely eaten by all of its members around a table—with many “family meals” in fact taken on the sofa in the sitting room, and shared by family members. “The family meal has changed a lot, and few of us eat—as I did when I was a child—at least two meals a day together as a family. But it has survived in a different format.”?

1.What is one reason behind the trend that men spend more time cooking than before?

A. The improvement of cooks’ status.

B. The influence of popular female chefs.

C. The change of female’s view on cooking.

D. The development of sexual equality campaign.

2.What does the author think about the time men and women spend on cooking?

A. Men spend more time cooking than women nowadays.

B. Women spend much less time on cooking than before.

C. It will take 40 years before men spend more time at the stove than women.

D. There is a sharp decline in the time men spend on cooking compared with 1961.

3.How did Prof. Gershuny see the family meal according to the passage?

A. It has become a thing of the past.

B. It is very different from what it used to be.

C. It shouldn’t be advocated in modern times.

D. It is beneficial to the stability of the family.

4.Which is the best title for the passage?

A. The Changes of Family Meals

B. Equality between Men and Women

C. Cooking into a New Trend for Men

D. Cooking—a Thing of the Past for Women

If you are a male and you are reading this, congratulations: you are a survivor. According to statistics, you are more than twice as likely to die of skin cancer than a woman, and nine times more likely to die of AIDS. Assuming you make it to the end of your natural term, about 78 years for men in Australia, you will die on average five years before a woman.

There are many reasons for this, typically, men take more risks than women and are more likely to drink and smoke but perhaps more importantly, men don’t go to the doctor.

“Men aren’t seeing doctors as often as they should,” says Dr. Gullotta, “This is particularly so for the over-40s, when diseases tend to strike.”

Gullotta says a healthy man should visit the doctor every year or two. For those over 45, it should be at least once a year.

Two months ago, Gullotta saw a 50-year-old man who had delayed doing anything about his smoker’s cough for a year.

“When I finally saw him it had already spread and he has since died from lung cancer,” he says, “Earlier detection and treatment may not have cured him, but it would have prolonged his life.”

According to a recent survey, 95% of women aged between 15 and early 40s see a doctor once a year, compared to 70% of men in the same age group.

“A lot of men think they are invincible(不可战胜的),” Gullotta says. “They only come in when a friend drops dead on the golf course and they think, “Geez, if it could happen to him, __________.”

Then there is the ostrich approach, “some men are scared of what might be there and would rather not know,” says Dr. Ross Cartmill.

“Most men get their cars serviced more regularly than they service their bodies,” Cartmill says. He believes most diseases that commonly affect men could be addressed by preventive check-ups.

“Regular check-ups for men would inevitably place strain(紧张) on the public purse,” Cartmill says. “But prevention is cheaper in the long run than having to treat the diseases. Besides, the ultimate cost is far greater: it is called premature death.”

Why does the author congratulate his male readers at the beginning of the passage?

A. They are more likely to survive serious diseases today.

B. Their average life span has been considerably extended.

C. They have lived long enough to read this article.

D. They are sure to enjoy a longer and happier life.

What is the most important reason why men die five years earlier on average than women according to the author?

A. men drink and smoke much more than women

B. men don’t seek medical care as often as women

C. men aren’t as cautious as women in face of danger

D. men are more likely to suffer from fatal diseases

Which of the following best completes the sentence “Geez, if it could happen

to him, _______”?

A. it could happen to me, too

B. I should avoid playing golf

C. I should consider myself lucky

D. it would be a big misfortune

What does Dr. Ross Cartmill mean by “the ostrich approach”?

A. a casual attitude towards one’s health conditions

B. a new therapy for certain psychological problems

C. refusal to get medical treatment for fear of the pain involved

D. unwillingness to find out about one’s disease because of fear

I was a freshman in college when I met the Whites. They were completely different from my own family, yet I felt at home with them immediately. Jane White and I became friends at school, and her family welcomed me like a long-lost cousin.

In my family, it was always important to place blame when anything had happened.

“Who did this?” my mother would scream about a dirty kitchen.

“This is your entire fault, Katherine,” my father would insist when the cat got out or the dishwasher broke.

From the time we were little, my sister, brothers and I told to each other. We set a place for blame at the dinner table.

But the Whites didn’t worry about who had done what. They picked up the pieces and moved on with their lives. The beauty of this was driven home to me the summer Jane died.

In July, the Whites sisters and I decided to take a car trip from their home in Florida to New York. The two older sisters, Sarah and Jane, were college students, and the youngest, Amy, had recently turned sixteen. Proud of having a new drivers license, Amy was excited about practicing her driving on the trip. She showed off her license to everyone she met.

The big sisters shared the driving of Sarah’s new car during the first part of the trip, but when they reached less crowded areas, they let Amy take over. Somewhere in South Carolina, we pulled off the highway to eat. After lunch, Amy got behind the wheel. She came to a crossroads with a stop sign. Whether she was nervous or just didn’t see the sign no one would ever know, but Amy continued into the crossroads without stopping. The driver of a large truck, unable to stop in time, ran into our car.

Jane was killed immediately.

I was slightly injured. The most difficult thing that I had ever done was to call the Whites to tell them about the accident and that Jane had died. Painful as it was for me to lose a good friend, I knew that it was far worse for them to lose a child.

When Mr. and Mrs. White arrived at the hospital, they found their two daughters sharing a room. Sarah had a few cuts on the head; Amy’s leg was broken. They hugged us all and cried tears of sadness and of joy at seeing their daughters. They wiped away the girl’s tears and made a few jokes at Amy as she learned to use her crutches(拐杖).

To both of their daughters, and especially to Amy, over and over they simply said, “We are so glad that you are alive.”

I was astonished. No blame. No accusations.

Later, I asked the Whites why they never talked about the fact that Amy was driving and had run a stop sign.

Mrs. White said, “Jane is gone, and we miss her terribly. Nothing we say or do will bring her back. But Amy has her whole life ahead of her. How can she lead a full and happy life if she feels we blame her for her sister’s death?”

They were right. Amy graduated from the University of California and got married several years ago. She works as a teacher of learning-disabled students. She’s also a mother of two little girls of her own, the oldest named Jane.

How did the author’s parents differ from the Whites?

   A. The author’s parents were less caring.    B. The author’s parents were less loving.

   C. The author’s parents were less friendly   D. The author’s parents were less understanding

How did the accident happen?

   A. Amy didn’t stop at a crossroad and a truck hit their car.

   B. Amy didn’t know what to do when she saw the stop sign.

   C. Amy didn’t slow down so their car ran into a truck.

   D. Amy didn’t get off the highway at a crossroad.

The accident took place in _____.

   A. Florida     B. California       C. South Carolina       D. New York

The Whites did not blame Amy for Jane’s death because _____.

   A. they didn’t want Amy to feel ashamed and sorry for the rest of her life

   B. Amy was badly injured herself and they didn’t want to add to her pain

   C. They didn’t want to blame their children in front of others

   D. Amy was their youngest daughter and they loved her best

From the passage we can learn that _____.

   A. Amy has never recovered from the shock   B. Amy changed her job after the accident

   C. Amy lost her memory after the accident    D. Amy has lived quite a normal life