Some people succeed in unbelievable ways.
Roussel was orphaned at the age of eight and went to live with his grandfather. He built on the music he had learned from his mother, entertaining himself by reading through the family music collection and playing his favorite songs on the piano.
Three years later, Roussel’s grandfather died, and his aunt adopted him. Her husband arranged for young Albert to take regular piano lessons. Summer vacations at a Belgian seaside resort added a second love to his life -- the sea. He studied to be a naval cadet (海軍學(xué)員), but still made time to study music.
In the French Navy, while he served on a warship based at Cherbourg, he and two friends found the time to play the music of Beethoven and other composes (作曲家). Roussel also began composing. At the Church of the Trinity in Cherbourg on Christmas Day 1892, he had his first performance as a composer.
That success encouraged Roussel to write a wedding march, and one of his fellow offices offered to show it to a well-known conductor (指揮家), Edouard Colonne. When Roussel’s friend returned with the manuscript (手稿), he reported that Colonne had advised Roussel to give up his naval career and devote his life to music.
Not long afterwards, at the age of 25, Roussel did just that. He applied characters that he had developed in the navy to his composing and became a major force in twentieth century French music. As for Eduoard Colonne’s inspiring advice that Roussel devote his life to music, Roussel's navy friend later admitted that he had made it up and that he had never even shown Roussel's manuscript to the conductor.
【小題1】Which of the following shows the right order of the story?
a. Roussel gave up his naval career.
b. Roussel was adopted by his aunt.
c. Roussel read through the family music collection.
d. Roussel had his first performance as a composer in Cherbourg.
| A．c, b, d, a | B．b. c, d, a | C．b, c, a. d | D．c, b, a, d |
| A．his mother | B．the husband of his aunt |
| C．his navy friend | D．Edouard Colonne |
| A．Roussel's aunt adopted him after his grandfather died. |
| B．Roussel read through the family music collection in his grandfather's. |
| C．Colonne advised Roussel to give up his naval career and devote his life to music. |
| D．If Roussel hadn't joined the navy, he might not have achieved so much. |
| A．A clever musician | B．A white lie |
| C．A helpful conductor | D．A great manuscript |
【小題1】A
【小題2】C
【小題3】D
【小題4】B
解析試題分析：文章主要論述了令人難以置信的獲取成功的方法。Roussel八歲時成了孤兒，后來和爺爺一起生活，在爺爺家，他不斷練習(xí)音樂。爺爺去世后，Roussel被阿姨收養(yǎng)，叔叔安排Roussel上鋼琴課。Roussel參加海軍之后，開始自己創(chuàng)作音樂，他的一個海軍朋友編了一個善意的謊言鼓勵Roussel從事音樂方面的鉆研，Roussel專心研究音樂，最終獲得了巨大成功。
【小題1】排序題：根據(jù)第二段“entertaining himself by reading through the family music collection”和第三段“Three years later, Roussel’s grandfather died, and his aunt adopted him.”及第四段“he had his first performance as a composer”與第五、六段“he reported that Colonne had advised Roussel to give up his naval career and devote his life to music. ... Not long afterwards, at the age of 25, Roussel did just that.”可知，正確的順序是c, b, d, a，故選A。
【小題2】細(xì)節(jié)題：根據(jù)最后一段“Roussel's navy friend later admitted that he had made it up and that he had never even shown Roussel's manuscript to the conductor.”可知，Roussel的海軍朋友編造了一個善意的謊言，他沒有給著名的指揮家看Roussel的手稿。A、B起到的作用沒有C大，故選C。
【小題3】推理題：根據(jù)最后一段“He applied characters that he had developed in the navy to his composing and became a major force in twentieth century French music.”可知，Roussel把在參軍時學(xué)到的東西運用到了音樂上，并獲得成功，還有就是，Roussel遇到了那個幫助他的海軍朋友。如果Roussel沒有參加海軍，他就不會獲得那么大的成功。故選D。
【小題4】細(xì)節(jié)題：根據(jù)第一段“Some people succeed in unbelievable ways.”和最后一段“Roussel's navy friend later admitted that he had made it up...”可知，文章主要講的是令人難以置信的獲得成功的方法，如果不是Roussel海軍朋友的善意謊言，Roussel不會放下參軍去專心研究音樂并獲得成功，故選B。
考點：故事類短文閱讀
科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Johnny the Explorer
Johnny was three when he ran away from home for the first time. Somebody left the garden gate open. Johnny wandered out, crossed some fields and, two hours later, arrived in the next village. He was just able to give his name and address.
By the time he was seven, Johnny used to disappear from home two to three times a year. Sometimes he covered quite long distances on foot. Sometimes he got on a bus or even a train, and simply sat there until someone asked for his ticket. Generally the police brought him home. “Why do you do it?” they used to ask. “I just like seeing places,” Johnny told them.
Johnny continued to “see places” although everyone tried to stop him. His parents used to watch him closely, and so did his teachers; but sooner or later Johnny managed to slip away. As he grew older, his favorite trick was to hide on a long distance truck. Sometimes he travelled hundreds of miles before anyone discovered him.
It is hardly surprising that eventually Johnny managed to board a plane. He was twelve at the time. It was a cargo plane and, a few hours later, Johnny found himself in Cairo. How did he get on board? No one knows! According to Johnny himself, it was easy: he just went into the airport, walked along some passages and got on board the nearest plane.
In spite of all this, Johnny did well at school. He enjoyed mathematics and languages and, perhaps not surprisingly, he was especially good at geography. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” his teachers asked him. “An explorer!” he answered. “But it’s difficult to become an explorer in this modern age,” they tried to tell him. But it was no use: Johnny knew what he wanted!
Just before he left school, Johnny saw a notice in a daily paper. A long journey was about to go to Brazil to travel up the Amazon River. There were jobs for three young people “willing to work hard and with a sense of adventure”. Johnny applied, and two months later, he was on his way to Brazil.
【小題1】At what age did Johnny board a plane for the first time?
| A．Three | B．Seven | C．Twelve | D．Not mentioned |
| A．he preferred to stay alone |
| B．he enjoyed seeing new places |
| C．he couldn’t do well at school |
| D．he didn’t get along well with his parents |
| A．tried to stop him from slipping away |
| B．kept following him to get him back |
| C．booked tickets for him if necessary |
| D．were clear about how he travelled abroad |
| A．Johnny worked for a daily paper |
| B．Johnny lacked a sense of adventure |
| C．Johnny went exploring along the Amazon River |
| D．Johnny went to Brazil two months after he finished school |
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Most people know that Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the first person to win it twice. However, few people know that she was also the mother of a Nobel Prize winner.
Born in September, 1897, Irene Curies was the first of the Curies’ two daughters. Along with nine other children whose parents were also famous scholars, Irene studied in their own school, and her mother was one of the teachers. She finished her high school education at the College of Sevigne in Paris.
Irene entered the University of Paris in 1914 to prepare for a degree in mathematics and physics. When World War I began, Irene went to help her mother, who was using X-ray facilities to help save the lives of wounded soldiers. Irene continued the work by developing X-ray facilities in military hospitals in France and Belgium. Her services were recognized in the form of a Military Medal by the French government.
In 1918, Irene became her mother’s assistant at the Curie Institute. In December 1924, Frederic Joliot joined the Institute, and Irene taught him the techniques required for his work. They soon fell in love and were married in 1926. Their daughter Helene was born in 1927 and their son Pierre five years later.
Like her mother, Irene combined family and career. Like her mother, Irene was awarded a Nobel Prize, along with her husband, in 1935. Unfortunately, also like her mother, she developed leukemia because of her work with radioactivity (輻射能). Irene Joliot-Curie died from leukemia on March 17, 1956.
【小題1】Why was Irene Curie awarded a Military Medal?
| A．Because she received a degree in mathematics. |
| B．Because she contributed to saving the wounded. |
| C．Because she won the Nobel Prize with Frederic |
| D．Because she worked as a helper to her mother. |
| A．At the Curie Institute. | B．At the University of Paris. |
| C．At a military hospital. | D．At the College of Sevigne. |
| A．In 1932. | B．In 1927. | C．In 1897. | D．In 1926. |
| A．Irene worked with radioactivity. |
| B．Irene combined family and career. |
| C．Irene won the Nobel Prize once. |
| D．Irene died from leukemia. |
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
A house of cards? Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Not if the architect is 31-year-old Bryan Berg. He’s made a career out of building fantastic card houses, stadiums, capitols, castles — and the world’s tallest card tower. How does he do it?
Bryan’s structures are amazing because they are made entirely of perfectly balanced, freestanding playing cards. He never uses glue, tape, or anything else to hold the cards together. Nor does he fold the cards. He’s discovered another way to make a strong house of cards, using a trick from nature.
To make plants strong, nature builds them with cells that have tough walls. Rows and rows of these cells form a grid(格子) that helps leaves and stems keep their shape. Bees use the same kind of repeating pattern to create strong honeycombs, where they live and store honey. Bryan designs similar grids, using cards to create a repeating pattern of cells.
He begins with a single cell made by balancing four cards against one another to form a box. Then he repeats the cell over and over, expanding outward to form the grid, which makes a good foundation for a strong card structure. The larger the grid, the more weight it can carry. Sometimes Bryan uses several cards, instead of just one, to construct the cell walls, making the grid even stronger. The trick, he tells kids when he speaks in classrooms, is to place your cards as tightly together as possible when laying out your grid, making sure the cards are not leaning at all.
After building this solid base, Bryan lays cards across the top to make the floor for the next “story” of the building. He may add towers, columns, steeples, or domes. Using the principle of repeating cells, Bryan builds structures of amazing strength.
In the Cards
Not surprisingly, Bryan has always been interested in building things. Growing up on a “big, old farm” in rural Iowa, he had plenty of room to play. “We were in the middle of nowhere,” Bryan remembers, “with lots of space to do whatever we wanted. I was always making something, using things like sticks or bales of hay.”
Bryan’s grandfather taught him how to stack cards. Bryan’s two interests — building and card stacking — soon combined. But stacking in his family’s farmhouse was challenging. “Our old house had wood floors that weren’t all level,” he reports. “And they weren’t very firm. When people walked around, it was like ‘earthquake action.’ It was a challenge to build something that wouldn’t fall down immediately.”
Bryan constructed tower after tower; he went through a lot of trial and error before he built anything taller than himself. When he placed a few decks of cards on top of his grid, he discovered how strong it was. Bryan’s towers began to grow taller.
How Tall Is Too Tall?
Bryan’s first Guinness World Record for the world’s tallest card tower came in the spring of 1992, when he was in high school. Learning that the world record was 12 feet 10 inches, Bryan built a slim tower that topped out at 14 feet 6 inches. Done as a project for his geometry class, it took him 40 hours and 208 decks of cards. Since then he’s gone on to win world records for even taller buildings. His latest winner measured 25 feet 3.5 inches and used about 2,400 decks of cards. The building, which tapered to a high, narrow point, had 131 stories.
Why don’t these towers fall down? The key is in a good solid base, a repeating pattern of stories, and a tapering top. Bryan likes to point out how card buildings resemble real ones. They are built cell by cell, story by story. The separate parts make one strong whole. The heavier the building, the stronger and more stable it is. But the weight can’t all be at the top.
After spending so much time building something so cool, Bryan admits it’s sometimes painful to see his structures destroyed. But he compares his work to the building of a sandcastle or an ice sculpture.
“They wouldn’t be as special if they were permanent,” he points out. “My buildings are like snowdrifts, or clouds in the sky. They can’t last forever.
【小題1】According to the article, which natural structure is a model for Bryan’s card structures?
| A．A sand dune. | B．A honeycomb. |
| C．A snowdrift. | D．A thundercloud. |
| A．The tallest card tower. | B．The widest card dome. |
| C．The heaviest card house. | D．The sturdiest card structure. |
| A．Plant cells and honeycombs. |
| B．World records and geometry. |
| C．Building things and stacking cards. |
| D．Playing cards and designing houses. |
| A．The floors of the house were uneven. |
| B．The ceilings in the house were too low. |
| C．The floors of the house were slippery. |
| D．The windows in the house were windy. |
| A．older | B．shinier | C．stronger | D．thinner |
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Matt Haimovitz is 42 and a renowned cellist (大提琴手) in the world. He rushed into the classical music scene at the age of 12 after Itzhak Perlman, the famed violinist, heard him play.
But nothing in his family history explains where Haimovitz got his extraordinary talent. And that’s typical, Ellen Winner, a professor says.
“People are fascinated by these children because they don’t understand where their talent came from. You will see parents who say, ‘I wasn’t like this, and my husband wasn’t like this.’ It seems to sometimes just come out of the blue,” Winner says.
It’s not clear whether a prodigy’s （天才）brain is any different from the brains of other children, in part because there have been no study comparing the brains of prodigies to those of average people.
“But I believe that anything that shows up so early, without training, has got to be either a genetic or some other biological basis,” Winner says. “If a child suddenly at the age of 3 goes to the piano and picks out a tune and does it beautifully, that has to be because that child has a different brain.”
Children who are extremely gifted tend to be socially different, too, Winner says. “They feel like they can’t find other kids like themselves, so they feel strange, maybe even like a freak, and feel like they don’t have anybody to connect with. On the other hand, they also long to connect with other kids, and they can’t find other kids like themselves.”
As Haimovitz got older, he became frustrated. He wanted to play other kinds of music but felt constricted by the image and the expectations of the boy prodigy who played classical music and filled concert halls.
“When you start that early, you suddenly start to grow up in public, and I wanted to experiment,” Haimovitz says.
So he took his cello into punk rock clubs and coffee houses. He played Bach, Haydn and Hendrix. “My teacher was Leonard Rose, and we never played any 20th-century music. He didn’t like it. But once I was exposed to James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix, Miles Dewey Davis El and others, I couldn’t really turn back. I wanted to know more,” he says.
【小題1】According to some parents, prodigies’ extraordinary talent .
| A．comes unexpectedly | B．is inherited from parents |
| C．results from hard work | D．is trained in early times |
| A．a(chǎn)verage people have their particular brains |
| B．biology is the base of a different brain |
| C．a(chǎn) prodigy’s brain is superior to those of others |
| D．genes play an important role in a prodigy |
| A．lonely | B．easy-going | C．innocent | D．social |
| A．build up his friendship | B．play different kinds of music |
| C．set up the image of a prodigy | D．perform classical music creatively |
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
While watching the Olympics the other night，I came across an unbelievable sight．It was not a gold medal，or a world record broken，but a show of courage．
The event was swimming and started with only three men on the blocks．For one reason or another，two of them false started，so they were disqualified．That left only one to compete．It would have been difficult enough，not having anyone to race against，even though the time on the clock is important．
I watched the man dive off the block and knew right away that something was wrong．I’m not an expert swimmer，but I can tell a good dive from a poor one，and this was not exactly medal quality．When he resurfaced，it was evident that the man was not out for gold – his arms were waving in an attempt at freestyle．The crowd started to laugh．Clearly this man was not a medal competitor．
I listened to the crowd begin to laugh at this poor man who was clearly having a hard time．Finally he made his turn to start back．It was pitiful．He made a few desperate strokes and you could tell he was worn out．But in those few awful strokes，the crowd had changed．
No longer were they laughing，but beginning to cheer．Some even began to stand and shout “Come on，you can do it!” and he did．
A clear minute past the average swimmer，this young man finally finished his race．The crowd went wild．You would have thought that he had won the gold，and he should have．Even though he recorded one of the slowest times in Olympic history，this man gave more heart than any of the other competitors．
Just a short year ago，he had never even swum，let alone race．His country had been invited to Sydney．
In a competition where athletes remove their silver medals feeling they have somehow been cheated out of gold，or when they act so proudly in front of their competitors，it is nice to watch an underdog．
【小題1】From the passage we can learn that the young man ．
| A．made his turn to start back pitifully |
| B．was skillful in freestyle in the game |
| C．swam faster than the average swimmer |
| D．was not capable enough to win the medal |
| A．they felt sorry for the young man |
| B．they were moved by the young man’s courage |
| C．they wanted to show their sympathy |
| D．they meant to please the young man |
| A．it’s amazing to watch an ordinary man challenging himself |
| B．it’s amusing to watch a man with awful swimming skills |
| C．it’s cheerful for athletes to act proudly before their competitors |
| D．it’s brave enough for some athletes to remove the silver medals |
| A．The event started with three men，two of whom were disqualified later． |
| B．The crowd started to laugh at the athlete’s arms waving in an attempt at freestyle． |
| C．The athlete，as well as the author，is an expert swimmer． |
| D．The swimming event is a show of courage rather than a fierce competition． |
| A．Compete for Gold! | B．Try again! |
| C．Break a Record! | D．Go for it! |
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. "Football, tennis, Cricket—anything with a round ball, I was useless." he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England's rural Devonshire.
It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind on building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.
The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway's school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man's cold-water exploits（成就）. Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.
Journeys to the Pole aren't the usual holidays for British country boys, and many people dismissed his dream as fantasy." John Ridgway was one of the few who didn't say, 'You are completely crazy,'" Saunders says.
In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter（遭遇）with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.
Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he's skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.
This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.
【小題1】The turning point in Saunders' life came when _________.
| A．he started to play ball games |
| B．he got a mountain bike at age 15 |
| C．he ran his first marathon at age 18 |
| D．he started to receive Ridgway's training |
| A．dismissed Saunders' dream as fantasy |
| B．built up his body together with Saunders |
| C．hired Saunders for his cold-water experience |
| D．won his fame for his voyage across the Atlantic |
| A．He once worked at a school in Scotland. |
| B．He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole. |
| C．He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole. |
| D．He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid. |
| A．Excited | B．Convinced |
| C．Delighted | D．Fascinated |
| A．was accompanied by his old playmates |
| B．set a record in the North Pole expedition |
| C．was supported by other Arctic explorers |
| D．made him well-known in the 1960s |
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Tasha Tudor(August 28，1919 — June 18，2008) was an American illustrator(插畫家)and writer of children’s books. She received many awards and honors for her contributions to children’s literature. When people talk about her creativity in artwork，she said,“I do it to support my dogs and my four children.”Her great publishing record, the number of magazine stories that have been written about her over the years, and her admirers have no effects on her at all.
Much of Tasha’s artwork and her reading are done in the wintertime.“I love winter. It’s delightful，”she says.“I don’t have to go anywhere because I work at home. If I’m snowed in，I can stay this way for months.”She hopes for early, deep snow to protect her garden from the hardship of the New England winter，and when it comes she puts on snowshoes when she needs to get down the mile-long dirt path that leads to the road.
Given her enjoyment of winter and her fantasy(夢幻)way of life，it’s not surprising that Tasha’s Christmas is a storybook holiday. She hangs flowers over the front door. Her tree comes from the woods,
and it goes up on Christmas Eve，lit by homemade candles and decorated with her great- grandmother’s collection that dates from 1850. In a place of honor on the tree are large cookies cut into the shapes of her animals.
The grandchildren and friends get presents from Tasha’s old dolls；so do the animals and they
have their own Christmas tree. “Of course，it’s a known fact that all the animals talk on Christmas
Eve,”she has written. Small, handmade gifts fill a big wooden box
At the end 0f each year, Tasha can look back and know that her life is perfect，that she has
again ignored the twentieth century，and that the magic continues. And for the rest of us，here’s
a bit of advice, Tasha style：“Nowadays, people are so restless．If they took some tea anti spent more time rocking on the porch(門廊)in the evening listening to light music，they might enjoy life more.”
【小題1】Tasha loved winter because it allowed her to ____________．
| A．read stories to her grandchildren |
| B．show her DIY snowshoes to kids |
| C．stay indoors working mid reading |
| D．enjoy bicycle tiding along the path |
| A．modern and fashionable | B．simple and fantastic |
| C．lonely and hard | D．a(chǎn)dventurous and inspiring |
| A．She cared little about fame. |
| B．She created an animal fund. |
| C．She wrote many stories for magazines. |
| D．She bought presents for her relatives. |
| A．Travel. | B．Sports. | C．Economy. | D．People. |
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Robert Ballard was born in 1942. From an early age, he loved the sea. Ballard grew up in Southern California. He spent his free time at the beach near his home. He enjoyed fishing and swimming. He even learned to dive. 
When Ballard wasn’t at the ocean, he loved reading about it. At age 10, he read 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a book which describes the undersea adventures of Captain Nemo. Ballard decided he wanted to be like Captain Nemo when he grew up. His parents helped him follow his dream.
Ballard was a hardworking student. He spent many years learning all he could about the ocean. By the age of 28, he was an expert. In 1970, he took a job as a scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. There he studied underwater mountains of the Atlantic Ocean. He came up with ways to predict（預(yù)知）volcanoes under the oceans. Working with other scientists, Ballard also found previously（以前）unknown sea animals. These animals lived far below the ocean’s surface, where scientists had believed no animals could live.
By the 1980s, Ballard’s interests changed. He developed unmanned（無人的）vehicles to explore the ocean bottom. His first find, the well-known ship Titanic, made Ballard famous. He was not happy with just one big find, however. He looked for — and found — other well-known ships. One was the German battleship Bismarck. Another was the U.S.S. Yorktown, an aircraft carrier (航空母艦) that sank during World War II.
Today Robert Ballard is still an underwater explorer. He also heads an organization that encourages students to learn about science. Ballard hopes that some of the students will follow in his footsteps. After all, the world’s huge oceans are mostly unknown. Who knows what remains to be discovered under the sea?
【小題1】What was Ballard’s dream when he was young?
| A．To be a science teacher. | B．To be an underwater explorer. |
| C．To be an animal expert. | D．To be a famous writer. |
| A．explored the undersea world by ship |
| B．thought of ideas to predict underwater volcanoes |
| C．found some unknown sea animals alone |
| D．set up an organization to teach students science |
| A．b-c-d-a | B．d-b-c-a | C．b-d-c-a | D．d-c-a-b |
| A．Ballard’s parents felt disappointed at his undersea adventures. |
| B．Ballard didn’t like fishing and swimming in his childhood. |
| C．Ballard was greatly influenced by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. |
| D．Human beings have explored more than half of the sea. |
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