41．What's the function of Paragraph 2 in Jenny's blog?
A. Introduction. B. Conclusion.
C. Advantages of paper books. D. Advantages of e-books.
42．Which paragraph is mainly about the advantage of e-books?
A．Paragraph 1. B．Paragraph 2. C．Paragraph 3. D．Paragraph 4.
43．In Jenny’s opinion, ________ are easy to read. Your eyes won’t get tired easily.
A．paper books B．e-books C．dictionaries D．readers.
B
A special trip
Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi for a living. One night I went to pick up a
passenger at 2:30 am. When I arrived to collect, I found the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.
I walked to the door and knocked, \voice.
After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her eighties stood before me. By her side was a small suitcase.
I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to help the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward the car.
She kept thanking me for my kindness. \treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.\
\an address, and then asked, \ \
\(临终医院). I don't have any family left. The doctor says I don't have very long. I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked, the neighborhood where she had lived, and the furniture shop that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
Sometimes she'd ask me to slow down in front of a particular building and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
At dawn, she suddenly said, \ We drove in silence to the address she had given me. \ \
\
\
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. Our hug ended with her remark, \happiness.\ “Thank you.”
I drove into the fine morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. For the rest of the day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had got an unfriendly driver, or one who was impatient to end his shift(换班)? What if I had refused to take the run? (429)
44. The old woman chose to ride through the city in order to ______. A. show she was familiar with the city B. see some places for the last time C. let the driver earn more money D. reach the hospice on time
45. What does the underlined word \
A. 车门 B. 计价器 C. 后备箱 D.安全带
46. The taxi driver did not charge the old woman because he ______. A. wanted to do her a favor B. shut off the meter by mistake
C. had received her payment in advance D. was in a hurry to take other passengers
47. What can we learn from the story? A. Giving is always a pleasure. B. People should respect each other. C. People should learn to enjoy our life.
D. An act of kindness can bring people great joy.
C Life in space
The oddness of life in space never quite goes away. Here are some examples. First consider something as simple as sleep. Its position presents its own challenges. The main question is whether you want your arms inside or outside the sleeping bag. If you leave your arms out, they float free in zero gravity, often giving a sleeping astronaut the look of a funny ballet(芭蕾) dancer. “ I’m an inside guy.” Mike Hopkins says, who returned from a six-month tour on the International Space Station. “ I like to be wrapped up.”
On the station, the ordinary becomes strange. The exercise bike for the American astronauts has no handlebars. It also has no seat. With no gravity, it’s just as easy to pedal violently. You can watch a movie while you pedal by floating a microcomputer anywhere you want. But station people have to be careful about staying in one place too long. Without gravity to help mix air, the carbon dioxide you exhale(呼气) has a tendency to form an invisible(隐的) cloud around your head. You can end up with what astronauts call a carbon-dioxide headache.
Leroy Chiao, 54, an American retired astronaut after four flights, describes what happens even before you float out of your seat. “Your inner ear thinks you’re falling. Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you’re standing straight. That can be annoying, that’s why some people feel sick.” Within a couple of days, truly terrible days for some astronauts’ brains learn to pay no attention to the panicky signals from the inner ear, and space sickness disappears.
Space travel can be so delightful but at the same time invisibly dangerous. For instance, astronauts lose bone mass. That’s why exercise is considered so vital (生死攸关的) that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) puts it right on the workday schedule. The focus on fitness is as much about science and the future as it is about keeping any individual astronaut healthy. NASA is worried about two things: recovery time once astronauts return home, and, more importantly, how to keep strength and fitness for the two and a half years or more that it would take to
make a round-trip to Mars.
48. What is the major challenge to astronaut when they sleep in space?
49. The astronauts will suffer from a carbon-dioxide headache when______
50. Some astronauts feel sick on the station during the first few days because______
A. their senses stop working. B. they have to stand up straight. C. their brains receive differing messages.
51. One of NASA’s mainly considers about astronauts is _______
A. how much exercise they do on the station. B. how they can remain healthy for long in space. C. whether they can recover after returning home. D. whether they are able to go back to the station. D. they float out of their seats unexpectedly. A. they circle around on their bikes. B. they watch a movie while pedaling. C. they use microcomputers without a stop. D. they exercise in one place for a long time. A. Finding a right time to go to sleep. B. Choosing a comfortable sleeping bag. C. Deciding on a proper sleeping position. D. Looking for a simple way to fall asleep quickly.
D
When I was about 10, there were lots of us bored, bookish children in the 1970s. Television was largely rubbish, and our parents’ bookshelves were what was left. I thought of this when I heard author Claire Tomalin complain that children are growing up without the skills to read classic works of English literature, such as Charles Dickens and that they are not being taught to have the lengthy attention spans
(时段) necessary for his texts. She blames this attention shortfall on the terrible television programmes.
It is true that children have never had more entertainment (娱乐) to choose from than today. And it is probably true that this generation’s attention span is shorter; my children have dismissed as “too slow” or “boring” most of the childhood books I saved for them. I was quite upset about this until I reread some. It is not just entertainment that moves at a faster rate. The world does, too. And, frankly, Dickens is dense(头脑愚笨的), and hard work, as are many writers of that period.
Another fact is that not many children of my generation read Dickens for pleasure either. It took me years to come to Great Expectations and The Pickwick Papers, and then it was only
post-university when I became independently hungry for knowledge.
Dickens might be one of the greatest creators of characters in English, as Tomalin says, but today’s children see Greg Heffley’s nature in The Wimpy Kid of Jeff Kinney’s novels. And they are so interested in the resourceful Baudelaire children in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. They can recognize the adolescent (青年期的，青春期的) difficult situation of Harry Potter.
You can’t insist that childhood tastes not change for a long time. My mother encouraged me to read anything on the basis that all reading was valuable, and would act as a gateway to more challenging works later on. In turn, I believe that my children will come to the classics when they’re ready. Until then, I’ll take comfort from the fact that the 1969 classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar is still the most-read children’s book in Britain. It has underdeveloped characterization, yes, and the vocabulary is limited. But as a starter to give children an appetite (食欲) for reading, it is priceless.
52. What is important for children reading Dickens according to Claire Tomalin?
A. Vocabulary. B. Patience.
C. Knowledge.
D. Taste.
53. Which of the following would the author agree with about Dickens?