Even before my father left us, my mother had to go back to work to support our family．Once I came out of the kitchen, complaining, “Mom, I can't peel potatoes．I have only one hand.”

Mom never looked up from sewing．"You get yourself into that kitchen and peel those potatoes," she told me. “And don't ever use that as an excuse for anything again!”

In the second grade, our teacher lined up my class on the playground and had each of us race across the monkey bars, swinging from one high steel bar to the next．When it was my turn, I shook my head．Some kids behind me laughed, and I went home crying．

That night I told Mom about it．She hugged me, and I saw her "we'll see about that" look． The next afternoon, she took me back to school．At the deserted playground, Mom looked carefully at the bars．

"Now, pull up with your right arm," she advised．She stood by as I struggled to lift myself with my right hand until I could hook the bar with my other arm．Day after day we practiced, and she praised me for every rung （横档） I reached．I'd never forget the next time, crossing the rungs．I looked down at the kids who were standing with their mouths open．

One night, after a dance at my new junior high, I lay in bed sobbing．I could hear Mom come into my room．"Mom," I said, weeping, "none of the girls would dance with me．"

For a long time, I didn't hear anything．Then she said, "Oh, honey, someday you'll be beating those boys off with a bat．" Her voice was soft and weak．I glanced at her to see tears running down her cheeks．Then I knew how much she suffered on my behalf．She had never let me see her tears．

Which of the following expressions can be used most suitably to describe Mom's attitude when she made the child peel potatoes?

    A．Cruel．          B．Serious．   C Strict．           D．Cold．

From the passage, we know monkey bars can help a child train ____．

    A. the skill to circle round a bar

    B. the skill to throw and catch things

    C. the speed of one's hand movement

    D. the strength and skill to hang and swing

What does the sentence "I saw her 'we'll see about that' look" imply?

    A．Mom believed every aim could be achieved if you stuck to it．

    B．What the child had said brought Mom great attraction and curiosity．

    C．Mom was determined to prove she herself was better than the teacher．

    D．The race across monkey bars was not difficult enough for a child to give up．

The most probable conclusion we can draw after reading the passage is ____．

    A. the last incident was sad enough to make Mom weep

    B. the child's experience reminded Mom of that of her own

    C. Mom could solve any problem except the one in the last paragraph

    D. in fact Mom suffered more in the process of the child's growth

The 16-year-old girl Jessica Watson is said to be the youngest person to sail non-stop alone around the world. But her record has been questioned because someone thought that she has not sailed far enough. She will also not be recognized by the World Speed Sailing Record Council, as it was too dangerous for someone under 18 years old.

Ms Watson sailed into Sydney port on Saturday, seven months after leaving on a hard voyage. Family, friends and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have gathered to greet her. Thousands of well-wishers waited at the port and watched from boats as Ms Watson sailed her pink, 10m boat over the finishing line. Many more Australians watched the event broadcast live on television. Watson said she was just an “ordinary girl who believed in her dream”.

Ms Watson left Sydney on 18 October, despite that some people disagreed her plan. Watson traveled northeast through the South Pacific and across the equator (赤道), south to Cape Horn at the tip of South America, across the Atlantic Ocean to South Africa, through the Indian Ocean and around southern Australia. The route took her through some of the world’s most changeful waters, and she battled through huge storms and suffered seven accidents of her boat.

People around the world have followed Ms Watson’s adventures on her blog, which she has daily updated (更新). On her blog, she wrote down beautiful sunrise over seas, the excitement of meeting a blue whale and the bright, terrible sight of a shooting star flying across the night sky above her boat. Ms Watson has reportedly sold her story to a news company for $700,000. She is planning to write a book on her experience.

Which of the following oceans didn’t Ms Watson cross through in her voyage?

A. The Pacific Ocean                      B. The Atlantic Ocean

C. The Indian Ocean                           D. The Arctic Ocean.

Ms Watson’s voyage will NOT be considered an official world record mainly because ____.

A. no one can prove that her route was dangerous enough

B. she hasn’t applied for the record

C. girls are not allowed to take part in the dangerous sports

D. teenagers re not encouraged to take such a dangerous adventure

We can make a conclusion from this passage that Watson ____.

A. would make another voyage for money

B. made the world round voyage for money

C. had no way to communicate with others during the voyage.

D. is so confident and brave that she could overcome troubles on her own

All the following can be inferred from this passage EXCEPT that ____.

A. her book about her voyage is a best seller

B. people in Australia had much interest in her voyage

C. she spent more than 200 days alone at sea

D. people have different attitudes towards her voyage

Xiaoming is used to send a lot of cards to his friends       1.     

at new year time. And all his classmates did same. But      2.    

on one day he read a report in the newspaper, which said     3.     

that cards are made of trees. A large number of cards would    4.     

consume a lot of trees but at present more and more trees have      5.   

been cut down lead to serious floods in some areas. Xiaoming   6.     

felt shocked at the report in the newspaper and realized the    7.     

important of protecting trees, and then he shared this report    8.   

with their classmates. From now on he decides to send his     9.   

wishes to his friends by telephone instead sending cards.      10.            

Americans: Restless? Illiterate(没文化的) ?

    Americans are queer people: they can’t rest. They have more time, more leisure, shorter work hours, more holidays, and more vacations than any other people in the world. But they can’t rest. They rush up and down across their continent as tourists; they move about in great herds to conferences; they search the wilderness; they flood the mountains; they keep the hotels full. But they can’t rest. The scenery rushes past them. They learn it. Battles and monuments are announced to them on a tour bus. They hear them, but they don’t get them. They never stop moving; they rush up and down as Shriners, Masons, Old Graduates, Bankers—they are a new thing each day, always rushing to a reunion or something. So they go on rushing about till eventually the undertaker (殡葬工) gather them to the grave.

    Americans are queer people: they can’t read. They have more schools, and better schools and spend more money on schools and colleges than all Europe. But they can’t read. They print more books in a year than the French print in ten. But they can’t read. They cover their country with one hundred thousand tons of Sunday newspapers every week. But they don’t read them. They’re too busy. They use them for fires and to make more paper with. They buy eagerly thousands of new novels at two dollars each. But they read only page one. Their streets are full of huge signs. They won’t look at them. Their streetcars are filled with advertising; they turn their eyes away. Transparent colors, cart wheels, and mechanical flares whirl and flicker in the crowded streets at night. No one sees them. Tons of letters pour into the mail boxes, through the houses, and down the garbage cans. No one reads them.

The underlined word “queer ” means ___________.

A. difficult    B. strange  C. forgetful    D. friendly

According to the text, when do the Americans stop rushing about ?

A. When they are to allowed to.     B. Where they feel tired and sleepy

C. When they are seriously ill in bed   D. When they stop breathing eventually

The Americans know the places of battles and monuments ___________.

A. when they are on the tour bus    B. by driving there in person

C. from books and magazines D. from their friends and co-workers

Why does the writer write this passage?

A. To tell people the Americans are illiterate

B. To prove the Americans to be a queer nation

C. To give the readers information about USA

D. To make fun of the American way of life

       Walk through the Amazon rainforest today and you will find it is steamy, warm, damp and thick. But if you had been around 15,000 years ago, during the last ice age, would it have been the same ?For more than 30 years, scientists have been arguing about how rainforests like the Amazon might have reacted（反应）to the cold ,dry climates of the ice ages ,but until now ,no one has reached a satisfying answer.

       Rainforests like the Amazon are important for mopping up CO2 from the atmosphere and helping to slow global warming . Currently the trees in the Amazon take in around 500 million tons of CO₂ each year; equal to the total amount of CO2 giving off in the UK each year. But how will the Amazon react to future climate change? If it gets drier ,will it still survive and continue to draw down CO2 ?Scientists hope that they will be able to learn in advance how the rainforest will manage in the future by understanding how rainforests reacted to climate change in the past.

       Unfortunately ,getting into the Amazon rainforest and collecting information are very difficult .To study past climate ,scientists need to look at fossilized pollen ,kept in lake muds .Going back to the last ice age means drilling deep down into lake sediments （沉淀  物）,which requires specialized equipment and heavy machinery .There are very few roads and paths ,or places to land helicopters and aeroplanes .Rivers tend to be the easiest way to enter the forest ,but this still leaves vast areas between the rivers completely unsampled（未取样）.So far ,only a handful of cores have been drilled that go back to the last ice age and none of them provide enough information to prove how the Amazon rainforest reacts to climate change.

64．The underlined phrase “mopping up” in the second paragraph means      .

       A．cleaning up          B．taking in                 C．wiping out           D．giving out

65．How will the Amazon rainforest react to future climate change?

       A．It’ll get drier and continue to remove CO2 .

       B．It’ll remain steamy ,warm ,damp and thick .

       C．It’ll get warmer and then colder and drier.

       D．There is no exact answer up to present.

66．What’s the main idea of the last paragraph?

       A．It’s important to drill deep down into lake sediments to collect information.

       B．It’s impossible to prove how climate changes in the Amazon rainforest.

       C．It’s hard to collect information for studies of the past climate in the Amazon rainforest.

       D．It’s necessary to have specialized equipment and machinery to study the past climate.

67．The best title for this passage may probably be        .

       A．Studies of the Amazon                          B．Climates of the Amazon

       C．Secrets of the Rainforests                     D．Changes of the Rainforests