Parents are a child’s first teachers. But some parents never learned from good examples. In New York City, Covenant House tries to help homeless young mothers become good parents.

The twelve or so teenagers who live at the shelter attend parenting classes four days a week. The class is called Mommy and Me.

Teacher Delores Clemens is a mother of five and a grandmother. She teaches basic skills, like how to give a baby a bath and how to dress a baby in different seasons.

She remembers one student who learned from her mother not to pick up a crying baby. The mother said that would only make the child needy.

“I said ‘That’s not true. You have to hold your baby! He is crying for a reason. If you never pick him up, he’s going to keep crying. Pick your baby up. Hug(擁抱)him! And she started to do that. They just want a little hugging and a little love. And it works!” Delores Clemens said.

Delores Clemens says her students also learn how to be good mothers by letting themselves be mothered. “I’m doing something for them that never has been done for them before.”

In class, with her baby son, is Natasha. She lived on the streets. She is glad not only for the warmth and shelter of Covenant House. As she told reporter Adam Phillips, she is also glad for the help they offer in looking for a safer life.

“Did you go to high school?”

“Yes.”

“Did you graduate?”

“No, I didn’t. I was in my last year and then, I got pregnant(懷孕)and I got lazy.”

“You look like you are willing to accept responsibility(責任)for that.”

“Yes, I am, and I would like to finish.”

Some teenage mothers wish they themselves could be children again. 18-year-old Placida knows that feeling. “Because you have to get up every two hours in the middle of the night, and you can’t go out and say ‘I am going to buy this for myself.’ No. I have to buy pampers, clothes and food. So now it’s two. So it’s very hard.” Placida said.

55. What did Natasha want to finish high school for?

56. From what Placida said, we know that she thinks _______.

57. The passage is mainly about _______.

A Brown University sleep researcher has some advice for people who run high schools: Don’t start classes so early in the morning. It may not be that the students who nod off at their desks are lazy. And it may not be that their parents have failed to enforce(確保) bedtime. Instead, it may be that biologically(生物學上)these sleepyhead(貪睡者)students aren’t used to the early hour.

　　“Maybe these kids are being asked to rise at the wrong time for their bodies,” says Mary Carskadon, a professor looking at problem of adolescent (青春期的)sleep at Brown’s School of Medicine.

　　Carskadon is trying to understand more about the effects of early school time in adolescents. And, at a more basic level, she and her team are trying to learn more about how the biological changes of adolescence affect sleep needs and patterns(方式).

　　Carskadon says her work suggests that adolescents may need more sleep than they did at childhood, no less, as commonly thought.

　　Sleep patterns change during adolescence, as any parent of an adolescent can prove. Most adolescents prefer to stay up later at night and sleep later in the morning. But it’s not just a matter of choice---their bodies are going through a change of sleep patterns.

　　All of this makes the transfer(遷移)from middle school to high school---which may start one hour earlier in the morning----all the more difficult, Carskadon says. With their increased need for sleep and their biological clocks set on the “sleep late, rise late” pattern, adolescents are up against difficulties when they try to be up by 5 or 6 a.m. for a 7:30 a.m. first bell. A short sleep on a desktop may be their body’s way of saying. “I need a timeout.”

51. Carskadon suggests that high schools should not start classes so early in the morning

 because _______.

A. it is really tough for parents to enforce bedtime

　 B. it is biologically difficult for students to rise early

　 C. students work so late at night that they can’t get up early

　 D. students are so lazy that they don’t like to go to school early

52. The underlined phrase nod off most probably means _______.

53. What might be a reason for the hard transfer from middle school to high school?

　 A. Adolescents depend more on their parents.

　 B. Adolescents have to choose their sleep patterns.

　 C. Adolescents sleep better than they did at childhood.

　 D. Adolescents need more sleep than they used to.

54. What is the test mainly about?

For the 17 years my life was very happy. Then the first sad thing happened. My mother became very ill. Just before she died, she asked Elizabeth and me to go to her room. She said, “Victor and Elizabeth, I’m very happy because you love each other, and because one day you’ll get married. Everyone in the family loves you, Elizabeth. Will you take my place in the family, my dear? I can die happy if you look after them when I have gone.”

My mother died and we were very sad, because we loved her so much. Elizabeth was brave and helped us; her sweet smile gave us some happiness in the unhappy days after my mother’s death. The time came for me to go to university(大學). I didn’t want to leave my sad family, but we all knew that I should go. It was hard to leave, too, because the parents of my good friend Henry would not let him go to university with me. So I had gone alone.

On my first day at university I met Professor Waldman. He gave a wonderful talk to all the students. He ended his talk by saying, “Some of you will become the greatest scientists of tomorrow. You must study hard and discover everything that you can.”

After the professor’s talk, I thought very carefully. I remembered the storm when I was 15; I remembered how the lightning had destroyed the tree. From then on, I wanted to use electricity to help people, and I wanted to discover the secrets of life. I decided to work on these two things.

I started to work the next day. I worked very hard and soon Professor Waldman and I realized that I could learn to be a very good scientist.

The professor and other important scientists helped me. I was interested in my work and I did not take one day’s holiday during the next two years. After two years, I had discovered many things and I built a scientific machine that was the best in the university. My machine would help me answer the most important question of all. How does life begin? Is it possible to put life into dead things? To answer these questions about life I had to learn first about death. I had to watch bodies from the moment when they died and the warm life left them. In the hospital and in the university, I watched the dying and the dead. Day after day, month after month, I followed death, so it was a dark and terrible time.

I built a tall mast(桅桿)about 150 metres high, which is higher than the tallest building in the city, to catch lightning and send the electricity down to my machine in the lab. I believed I could use that electricity to give life to things that were dead.

Then one day, the answer came to me. Suddenly I was sure that I knew the secret of life.

47. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

48. Victor did all the following during his research in the university EXCEPT that ______.

49. According to the writer, the secret of life is to _______.

50. Which is the correct order about the life of Victor?

① Victor’s mother passed away.

② Victor got help from the professor and other scientists.

③ Victor went to university and attended the professor’s talk.

④ Victor found the answer to giving life to things that were dead.

⑤ Victor experienced a storm, seeing the lightning destroying the tree.

A passenger(乘客) told an air hostess that he needed a cup of water to take his medicine when the plane just took off. She said to him that she would bring him the water in ten minutes. 

The air hostess was kept so busy that she forgot to give him the water. As a result, the passenger was held up to take his medicine. Thirty minutes later, when the passenger’s ring for service sounded, the air hostess hurried over to him with a cup of water, but he refused it.

In the following hours on the plane, each time the air hostess passed the passenger, she would ask him with a smile whether he needed help or not. But the passenger never replied to her.

When the passenger was going to get off the plane, he asked the air hostess to hand him the passenger’ booklet. She knew that he would write down sharp words about her job,

but with a smile she handed it to him.

Off the plane, the air hostess opened the booklet, and smiled because the passenger wrote, “On the flight, you asked me whether I needed help or not for twelve times in all. How can I refuse your twelve sincere smiles?”

45. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refers to the________.

   A. medicine             B. water                C. cup                   D. booklet

46. At the end of the story, we know the passenger was ________ with the air hostess.

   A. pleased               B. unhappy            C. angry                D. bored      

She is a beautiful red-haired girl. She has been shopping with her Mom in Wal-Mart. It was   35   outside. We all stood there under the   36  , just outside the door.  

Her voice was so sweet that it   37   the dull (沉悶的) surroundings (環(huán)境). “Mom, let’s run through the rain,” she said.

“What?” Mom asked.

“Let’s run through the rain!” she repeated.

“No, honey. We’ll wait   38   it slows down a bit,” Mom replied.

This young child waited about another   39   and repeated: “Mom, let’s run through the rain.”

“We’ll get wet if we do,” Mom said.

“No, we won’t, Mom. That’s not what you said this morning,” the young girl said as she   40   her Mom’s arm.

“This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?”

“Don’t you remember? When you were   41   to Daddy about his cancer, you said, ‘If God can get us through this, he can get us through   42  !”

The crowd became   43  . Nothing could be heard but the rain. No one came or left in the next few minutes.

Mom thought for a moment about what she would say. “Honey, you are right. Let’s run through the rain. If we get wet, maybe we’ll just need to get a wash.” Mom said.

Then off they ran. People all stood watching, smiling and laughing as they rushed past the cars and through the puddles(水坑). They held their shopping bags over their heads. They got wet through. But they were   44   by a few who laughed like children all the way to their cars.

People can take away your money and health. But no one can ever take away your memories… So don’t forget to make time to make memories every day.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

--Thank you so much for the book you sent me.

--_______.

　 A. No, thanks. B. I’m glad you like it

　 C. Please don’t say so 　 D. No, it’s not so good

---Excuse me, Sir. But smoking is not allowed here.

---Sorry, I didn’t see the sign. I’ll _______ my cigarette at once.

　 A. put out B. put away　 C. put up D. put off

 ---Is that 120? A man is seriously hurt near the railway station.

--- OK. Help is _______.

   A. in the way    B. by the way        C. on the way D. all the way

 ---Do you know _______?

---At the end of July.

   A. how soon is your sister coming back home

   B. how often Nancy hears from her pen friend[

   C. when the London Olympic Games were held

   D. when will the new computer game come out

 ---Where have you _______ all day?

--- I came back at noon and I _______ in this office since then.

A. been in; had been      B. been in; was

C. been; have been        D. been; am