Once there was a man who had two children, a boy and a girl. The boy was good-looking but the girl was not.
One day they found a mirror for the first time and they saw what they looked like. The boy was very pleased and he said to his sister, "How handsome I am! I look much nicer than you!"
The girl did not like what her brother said and gave him a hard push.
"Go away!" she said.
Their father saw what was happening. He went up to them and said to the boy,
"You must always BE good as well as LOOK good."
Then to the girl he said, "My dear, if you help everyone and do your best to please him, everyone will love you. It does not matter that you are not as good-looking as your brother."
【小題1】 Once a man had ____.

A．a good-looking boy	B．an ugly girl
C．two good-looking children	D．a boy and a girl

【小題2】 The boy saw what he looked like in the mirror and was pleased because he ____.

A．found a mirror	B．knew he looked as nice as his sister
C．and his sister were good-looking	D．was handsome

【小題3】The girl gave the boy a hard push because ____.

A．she was stronger	B．what he said was wrong
C．she was not pleased with what he said	D．her father loved her

【小題4】Father told the girl that ____.

A．it was important to be good-looking

B．it was a good thing to be ugly

C．if she did her best to help people, she would enjoy people's love

D．she was as good-looking as her brother

【小題5】What can we learn from this story?

A．To be good to people is more important than to be good-looking.

B．To be good-looking is very important.

C．If you want to make yourself good-looking, you must be good to people.

D．If you often help people, you will become more and more beautiful.

閱讀下列短文，從每題所給的A、B、C和D項中，選出最佳選項，并在答題卡上將該項涂黑。
Michael, a typical American, stays home on workdays. He plugs into his personal computer terminal in order to connect with the office. After work, he puts on his headphones, watches a movie on his home video recorder, or plays baseball on the computer. On many days, Michael doesn’t talk to any other human beings, and he doesn’t see any people except the ones on television. Michael is imaginary, but his life style is very possible. The inventions of modern technology seem to be cutting us off from contact with our fellow human beings.
The world of business is one area in which technology is isolating us. Experts say, for example, that many people will soon be able to work at home. With access to a large central computer, employees such as office clerks, insurance agents, and accountants could do their jobs at display terminals in their own homes. They would never have to actually see the people they’re dealing with. In addition, the way employees are paid will change. Workers’ salaries will be automatically paid into their
bank accounts, making paper checks unnecessary. No workers will stand in line to receive their pay or cash their check. Personal banking will change, too. Customers will deal with machines to put in or take out money from their accounts. Another area that technology is changing is entertainment. Music, for instance, was once a group experience. People listened to music at concert halls or in small social gatherings. For many people now, however, music is an individual experience. Walking along the street or sitting in their living rooms, they wear headphones to build a wall of music around them. Movie entertainment is changing, too. Movies used to be social events. Now fewer people are going out to see a movie. Many more are choosing to wait for a film to appear on television or are borrowing videotapes to watch at home. Instead of laughing with others, viewers watch movies in their own living rooms.
【小題1】After work, Michael likes to ________.

A．listen to music at the concert hall

B．watch a movie in his living room

C．run a program on his computer in his office

D．play baseball with his workmates

【小題2】Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．Clerks will be able to work at home.

B．One can play baseball on the computer.

C．One can listen to music without disturbing others.

D．One can borrow books from libraries at home.

【小題3】The sentence “Michael is imaginary, but his lifestyle is very possible” means ________.

A．Michael is a person full of imagination and he can make his dreams come true

B．Michael is not a real person but the lifestyle does exist

C．Michael has ambitions but he can’t make his dreams come true

D．Michael is a person full of imagination and his lifestyle is common nowadays

【小題4】What will the author most probably discuss after the last paragraph?

A．Games and sports.	B．Personal banking.
C．Music and films.	D．International business.

Jean Driscoll can go faster in her wheelchair than the world’s best marathoners can run!
In April, Jean finished the Boston Marathon in 1 hour 34 minutes 22 seconds. That’s about 33 minutes faster than the winning male runner! She competed on the track, too. She was second in the 800 meter wheelchair race at the 1992 Olympics.
Jean doesn’t like to be told she’s brave. “I’m in sports because I’m a competitive person!” Jean was born with spina befida(脊柱裂), a birth illness that damages the spine（脊椎）. She began to use a wheelchair to get around in high school. Then she tried wheelchair race and was amazed.” Players crashed into each other and fell out of their chairs,” she says, “It was fun.”
Jean tried other wheelchair sports. At the University of Illinois, her wheelchair basketball team won two national titles.
Now Jean coaches and teaches. She tries to get people to set goals. “When I sign my autograph（親筆簽名）, says Jean, “I write, dream big and work hard.”
【小題1】What made Jean take part in sports?

A．She was brave.	B．She was competitive.
C．She was strong.	D．She was disabled.

【小題2】What does the underlined word “coach” mean?

A．to train or give instruction and advice	B．to experiment
C．to get hold of and stop	D．to repeat

【小題3】What is Jean’s advice on how to succeed?

A．Work hard.	B．Hope for the best.
C．Dream a lot.	D．Have great wishes and work hard.

One of Britain's bravest women told yesterday how she helped to catch suspected （可疑的） police killer David Bieber -- and was thanked with flowers by the police. It was also said that she could be in line for a share of up to ￡30,000 reward money.
Vicki Brown, 30, played a very important role in ending the nationwide manhunt. Vicki, who has worked at the Royal Hotel for four years, told of her terrible experience when she had to steal into Bieber's bedroom and to watch him secretly. Then she waited alone for three hours while armed police prepared to storm the building.
She said: "I was very nervous. But when I opened the hotel door and saw 20 armed policemen lined up in the car park I was so glad they were there.”
The alarm had been raised because Vicki became suspicious of the guest who checked in at 3 pm the day before New Year's Eve with little luggage and wearing sunglasses and a hat pulled down over his face. She said: "He didn't seem to want to talk too much and make any eye contact （接觸）." Vicki, the only employee on duty, called her bosses Margaret, 64, and husband Stan McKale, 65, who phoned the police at 11 pm.
Officers from Northumbria Police called Vicki at the hotel in Dunston, Gateshead, at about 11:30 pm to make sure that this was the wanted man. Then they kept in touch by phoning Vicki every 15 minutes.
"It was about ten past two in the morning when the phone went again and a policeman said ‘Would you go and make yourself known to the armed officers outside?'. My heart missed a beat."
Vicki quietly showed eight armed officers through passages and staircases to the top floor room and handed over the key.
"I realized that my bedroom window overlooks that part of the hotel, so I went to watch. I could not see into the man's room, but I could see the passage. The police kept shouting at the man to come out with his hands showing. Then suddenly he must have come out because they shouted for him to lie down while he was handcuffed （帶上手銬）。
【小題1】The underlined phrase "be in line for" （ paragraph 1 ） means _____.

A．get

B．pay

C．ask for

D．own

【小題2】Vicki became suspicious of David Bieber because __________.

A．the police called her

B．he looked very strange

C．he came to the hotel with little luggage

D．he came to the hotel the day before New Year's Eve

【小題3】 Vicki’s heart missed a beat because _________.

A．the phone went again	B．she would be famous
C．the policemen had already arrived	D．she saw 20 policemen in the car park

【小題4】 The whole event probably lasted about _______ hours from the moment Bieber came to the hotel to the arrival of some armed officers.

A．6

B．8

C．11

D．14

Cole Bettles had been rejected by a number of universities when he received an e-mail from the University of California, San Diego, last month, congratulating him on his admission and inviting him to tour the campus. His mother booked a hotel in San Diego, and the 18-year-old Ojai high school senior arranged for his grandfather, uncle and other family members to meet them at the campus for lunch during the Saturday tour.
“They were like ‘Oh my God, that’s so awesome （棒的）’， ” Bettles said. Right before he got in bed, he checked his e-mail one last time and found another message saying the school had made a mistake and his application had been denied.
In fact, all 28, 000 students turned away from UC San Diego, in one of the toughest college entrance seasons on record, had received the same incorrect message. The students’ hopes had been raised and then dashed （破滅） in a cruel twist that shows the danger of instant communications in the Internet age.
UCSD admissions director Mae Brown called it an “administrative error” but refused to say who had made the mistake, or if those responsible would be disciplined （受訓）。
The e-mail, which began, “We’re thrilled that you’ve been admitted to UC San Diego, and we’re showcasing （展示） our beautiful campus on Admit Day, ” was sent to the full 46, 000 students who had applied, instead of just the 18, 000 who got in, Brown said.
The error was discovered almost immediately by her staff, who sent an apology within hours.
“It was really thrilling for a few hours; now he’s crushed （壓垮）， ” said Cole’s mother, Tracy Bettles. “It’s really tough on them.”
The admissions director said she was in the office on Monday until midnight answering e-mails and phone calls from disappointed students and their parents. She said she took full responsibility for the error. “We accessed the wrong database. We recognize the incredible pain receiving this false encouragement caused. It was not our intent.”
【小題1】How many students received an admission e-mail from the University of California, San Diego （UCSD）？
A. 18, 000     B. 28, 000   C. 46, 000    D. 18
【小題2】 Which of the following statements is TRUE about the wrong e-mail message?

A．The mistake was made on purpose to cause pain among the applicants.

B．It was UCSD admissions director Mae Brown who made the mistake.

C．UCSD admissions staff got information from the wrong database.

D．Staff did not discover the mistake until next Monday.

【小題3】The admissions director Mae Brown did what she could to __________.

A．protect the person who made the mistake

B．punish herself for the mistake

C．make up for the mistake

D．help the disappointed students enter the university

【小題4】What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. Cole Bettles was admitted to the UCSD.
B. Cole Bettles was rejected y a famous university.
C. USCD admissions office often makes “administration errors”。
D. False admission information raised the students’ hopes and then dashed them.

Do you want to have a friend whom you could tell everything to, like your deepest feelings and thoughts? Or are you afraid that your friend would laugh at you, or just can’t understand what you are going through?
Anne Frank chose the first kind. She lived in Amsterdam during World War II. Her family was Jewish (猶太人) so they had to hide, or they would be caught by the German soldiers. She and her family hid away for two years before they were discovered. During this time the only true friend was her diary, which she called Kitty.
In a diary dated on Thursday 15 June, 1944, she wrote, “Dear Kitty, I wonder if it’s because I haven’t been able to be outdoors for so long that I’ve grown so mad about everything to do with nature. I can well remember that there was a time when a blue sky, the song of the birds, moonlight and flowers could never have kept me puzzled. That’s changed since I was here for a year and a half.”
【小題1】In Anne’s opinion, the best friend is one who_______.

A．knows everything	B．likes to talk with you
C．can read your diary	D．can understand you

【小題2】Who do you think Kitty is ?

A．Anne’s sister.

B．Anne’s mother

C．Anne’s teacher

D．Anne’s diary

【小題3】Anne had grown so mad about nature. Maybe it was because ______.

A．she had been indoors too long	B．she had no interest in nature
C．she had always been such a girl	D．she had got used to living alone

【小題4】 In her diary on Thursday 15, June, 1944, Anne expressed her strong wish for ______.

A．friendship

B．schooling

C．free life

D．free weather

Yesterday the police were joined by more than 20 volunteers in the continuing search for the two missing teenagers, Vicky Gray and Tom Hunter, and their guide, Gavin Jones. The police said that they had disappeared during an adventure tour of Cape York Peninsula.
This was the second day of the search and the police were now very worried about the safety of the three missing people.
The police said that the search had covered a wide area, but the rainforest was thick and their work was made harder by the recent rain. Later on Chief Inspector Roger Fleet said, “The travelers had a radio with them. If they had been in trouble, they would have called us.”
The three travelers left Cooktown very early on Saturday morning in a Toyota car. They took a small dirt road that runs down to the Daintree River, a dangerous river full of crocodiles (鱷魚). Chief Inspector Roger Fleet said the tourists wouldn’t have got into trouble if they had stayed on the main road.
A photo of Vicky and Tom was found by a policeman under the “Be Careful about crocodiles” sign near the river. Why was the photo left behind? This is just one of the unanswered questions. Other questions are: Why was the photo left behind? Why was the Toyota parked and locked at the edge of the rainforest? The police said that the travelers had left a map of the area behind. Why? Why had someone drawn a cross on the point (地點) where the car is? Is this a sign? What does it mean? If anyone can give information or has seen these three young people, contact the local police in Cooktown.
【小題1】This article is probably taken from ___________

A．a newspaper

B．a magazine

C．a storybook

D．a guidebook

【小題2】Which of the following things wasn’t found by the police?

A．A touring map.	B．A photo of the travelers.
C．The travelers’ radio.	D．The travelers’ car

【小題3】All the following are unanswered questions except_____________.

A．why they left a photo behind	B．why they came to this area
C．why their Toyota was parked in the place	D．why a cross was drawn on the map

【小題4】The article asks people to _____________.

A．join the police in searching for the missing people

B．tell the police about the travelers’ ages and their appearance

C．learn the lesson and stop taking adventure tours

D．provide information about the missing people

I had an experience some years ago, which taught me something about the ways in which people make a bad situation worse by blaming themselves. One January, I had to hold two funerals on successive days for two elderly women in my community. Both had died “full of years”, as the Bible would say. Their homes happened to be near each other, so I paid condolence(吊唁) calls on the two families on the same afternoon.
At the first home, the son of the deceased（亡故的）woman said to me, “If only I sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold and snow, she would be alive today. It’s my fault that she died. ”At the second home, 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. It’s my fault that she’s dead.”
You see that any time there is a death, the survivors will feel guilty. Because the course of action they took turned out bad, they believe that the opposite course keeping Mother at home, putting off the operation would have turned out better. After all, how could it have turned out any worse?
There seem to be two elements involved in our willingness to feel guilty. The first is our pressing need to believe that the world makes sense, that there is a cause for every effect and a reason for everything that happens. That leads us to find patterns and connections both where they really exist and where they exist only in our minds.
The second element is the view that we are the cause of what happens, especially the bad things that happen. It seems to be a short step from believing that every event has a cause to believing that every disaster is our fault. The roots of this feeling may lie in our childhood.
A baby comes to think that the world exists to meet his needs, and that he makes everything happen in it. He wakes up in the morning and summons the rest of the world to his tasks. He cries, and 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 that childish view that our wishes cause things to happen.
【小題1】The author had to conduct the two women’s funerals probably because____.

A．he was minister of the local church	B．he wanted to comfort the two families
C．he was an official from the community	D．he had great pity for the deceased

【小題2】People feel guilty for the death of their loved ones because ____.

A．they couldn’t find a better way to express their sorrow.

B．they had neglected the natural course of events

C．they believed that they were responsible

D．they didn’t know things often turn in the opposite direction

【小題3】According to the passage, the underlined part in paragraph 4 probably means that _____

A．everything in the world is predetermined

B．there’s an explanation for everything in the world

C．the world can be interpreted in different ways

D．we have to be sensible in order to understand the world

【小題4】 What’s the idea of the message?

A．Life and death is an unsolved mystery

B．Never feel guilty all the time because not every disaster is our fault

C．Every story should have a happy ending

D．In general, the survivors will feel guilty about the people who passed away

Misery and setbacks are not always as terrible as one imagines. Hard times can offer new ways of looking at life that would otherwise never be known. And, if you are a writer, this can be the source of much of your success.
Popular British author, Charles Dickens' （1812-1870）family could hardly make ends meet. They could only afford to send one of their six children to school. Dickens was not that child. His parents chose to send a daughter, who had a talent for music, to an academy. Then at the age of 12, Dickens' life took another turn for the worse.
His father, a clerk, was placed in prison for unpaid debts. And, being the oldest male left at home, Dickens took up work at a factory. His horrible experience there became the fuel for his future writing. His father was freed three months later and inherited a small amount of money. Dickens was then sent to school.
From 1836 to 1837, he wrote a monthly series of stories. Thus the Pickwick Papers, came into being, which brought fame to the 23-year-old man.
Throughout his career, Dickens covers various situations in his novels. He wrote about the miserable lives of the poor in Oliver Twist, the French Revolution in Tale of Two Cities, and social reform in Hard Times. He also wrote David Copperfield, a book thought to be modeled on his own life.
“I do not write bitterly or angrily: for I know all these things have worked together to make me what I am,” he once said. His difficult childhood did indeed shape the person he became, as well as his writing career. There are shades of young Dickens in many of his most beloved characters, including David Copperfield and Oliver Twist.
Like the author, all these characters come from poor beginnings and are able to rise above their setbacks and achieve success. “Minds, like bodies, will often fall into an ill-conditioned state from too much comfort,” he once wrote. On June 9th, 1870, aged 58, Dickens died, leaving one unfinished work．The words on his tombstone read: “He was a sympathizer to the poor, the suffering and the oppressed, and by his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world.”
【小題1】The book that first called public attention to Dickens was ______.

A．the Pickwick Papers	B．Oliver Twist
C．Tale of Two Cities	D．David Copperfield

【小題2】The phrase “shades of” in bold means “_____”.

A．various shapes of	B．situations of
C．different experiences of	D．reminders of

【小題3】How did Dickens see his childhood?

A．He felt grateful for it．

B．He felt it a pity that things weren’t in his favor．

C．He loved writing about it．

D．He chose to forget the bitterness about it．

【小題4】From the story, we can see Dickens’ attitude towards an easy life is ______．

A．to enjoy it	B．to hate it
C．not to abandon yourself to it	D．to work hard for it

Hundreds of people lined up at Grand Central Terminal yesterday, but they
weren’t there to catch a train. They came to New York City’s famous railroad station to trade in old dollar bills for the new George Washington Presidential苊1 coin.
The gold-colored coin is the first in a new series by the U.S. Mint（造幣廠）that honors former U.S. Presidents. The Mint will issue(發(fā)行) four Presidential苊1 coins a year through 2016. Like the popular 50 State Quarters program, which issues coins in the order in which each state joined the Union, Presidential苊1 coins will come out in the order in which each President served. The George Washington coin is the first to be released. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison coins will come out later this year.
The Presidential 苊1 coins will be the same size and color as the Sacagawea Golden Dollar. However, there is an important difference. For the first time since the 1930s, there is an inscription（題字）on the edge of each coin. Each coin will show a different President on its face, or head side. It will also show the President’s name, the order in which he served and his years in office. The other side of the coin will show the Statue of Liberty and the inscriptions “United States of America” and “苊 1”.
There will be one Presidential苊1 coin for each President, except Grover Cleveland. He will have two! Cleveland is the only U.S. President to have served two nonconsecutive（不連續(xù)的）terms.
The last President scheduled to get a coin is Gerald Ford because a President must have been dead for two years before he can be on a coin.
【小題1】 Why did people line up at the railway station?

A．To book train tickets.	B．To exchange money.
C．To visit a coin show.	D．To visit the station itself.

【小題2】In which order will the Presidential苊1 coins come out?

A．Each state joined the Union.	B．Each President was born.
C．Each President took office.	D．Each President died.

【小題3】It can be inferred from the passage that         .

A．there are no words on the Sacagawea Golden Dollar

B．the new coin can buy more than the old coin

C．the new coin takes on a white color

D．the Sacagawea Golden Dollar is bigger

【小題4】Why will Grover Cleveland have two coins?

A．He served longer than any other President.

B．He is the most famous President in the U.S.

C．He is the only one who has served two terms.

D．He served two terms but not continuously.

【小題5】Which of the following could be the best title of the passage?

A．Presidential苊1 coin issued.

B．Different ways to honor Presidents.

C．The differences between Presidential苊1 coin and other coins.

D．Collections of old dollar bills.