In 1995, Susan Boyle went to Glasgow to audition (試演) for My Kind of people, a televised talent show popular in the UK．She was immediately rejected．She was nervous during the audition, and felt she didn't perform well, but her brother said that she was rejected because of her plain looks．Boyle was not discouraged and continued to sing at church and at the karaoke nights in a local pub.

Boyle suffered a personal loss in 1997, when her father passed away．After his death．Boyle put her big dreams on hold to care for her sick mother Bridget Boyle．The mother and daughter often talked of Susan's possible fame．Bridget Boyle encouraged her daughter to take part in singing competitions．“She was the one who said I should enter Britain's Got Talent．We used to watch it together.” Susan later told reporters．“She thought I would win.”

In 1999, Boyle used all of her savings to pay for a professional demo (樣本唱片) tape．which she sent to record companies．In 2002, Boyle began taking singing lessons from voice coach Fred O'Neil．

In 2007, Boyle's mother passed away at the age of 91．A neighbor reported that when Bridget Boyle died, her daughter “wouldn't come out for three or four days or answer the door or phone.” She lived alone with her cat, Pebbles．For over a year, she refused to sing．But in August of 2008, O'Neil urged her to try out for Britain's Got Talent．Convinced that the performance would be an honor to her mother, Boyle auditioned in Glasgow, Scotland．She sang I Dreamed A Dream in the first round of the show, which was aired on 11 April 2009.

The 47-year-old Scottish woman's plain looks provided a sharp contrast (對(duì)比) to her powerfully beautiful voice．The performance astonished the audience and the judges．Online videos of her performance totaled over 40 million views within a week．Although she failed to win the final of Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle became globally popular．Her first album I Dreamed A Dream has sold over five million copies.

1.Bridget Boyle's attitude towards her daughter's musical talent can be described as      .

  A．critical                     B．doubtful                  C．indifferent               D．optimistic

2.From Para．4 we learn that Boyle      .

  A．was slightly discouraged by her voice coach

  B．entered Britain's Got Talent to prove her ability

  C．decided to give up her singing career

  D．was deeply affected by her mother's death

3.Which of the following is TRUE about Susan Boyle?

  A．Her international fame grew rapidly in 2008.

  B．Her audition for My Kind of People failed.

  C．She has never stopped singing since 1995.

  D．She was the winner of Britain's Got Talent.

4.In writing this passage, the author mainly intends to      .

  A．tell us how Boyle's dream came true

  B．let us know more about Boyle's personal life

  C．show how Boyle was influenced by her family

  D．explain how to enter and win a talent show

 

閱讀下面短文，根據(jù)以下提示：1）漢語提示 2）首字母提示 3）語境提示，在每個(gè)空格內(nèi)填入一個(gè)適當(dāng)?shù)挠⒄Z單詞，并將該詞完整的寫右邊相對(duì)應(yīng)的橫線上，所填單詞要求意義準(zhǔn)確，拼寫正確。

         The following is the result of a survey on the students’ v       1.____________

on their future job preference. _______ seems to be some differences 2.___________

_________ boys and girls. The most striking contrast lies in teaching: 3.___________

most girls would like to become teachers w    ____few boys want  4.___________

to do this job. _______(有趣的是), many boys want to do business  5.____________

and still some want to become _______(律師) though only a small   6.__________

part of girls s   _   interest in these two fields. The second largest  7._________

group of all the __________(受調(diào)查) students, expect to be scientists.8.______

That is, both boys and girls are w        to show their ability in    9.___________

this field. And the third c        for girls is to be        translators.    10.___________

 

Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric（結(jié)構(gòu)） of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed（加速） physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric tro lleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery（周圍）of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people.

Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl（建筑物無計(jì)劃延伸） was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision （再劃分小區(qū)）there proceeded much faster than population growth.

72．With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?

       A．Types of mass transportation.

       B．Instability of urban life.

       C．How supply and demand determine land use.

       D．The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion.

73．Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago?

       A．To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth.

       B．To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation.

       C．To show mass transportation changed many cities.

       D．To contrast their rate of growth.

74．According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion?

       A．It was expensive.

       B．It happened too slowly.

       C．It was unplanned.

       D．It created a demand for public transportation.

75．The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city,

       A．that is large.

       B．that is used as a model for land development.

       C．where the development of land exceeded population growth.

       D．with an excellent mass transportation system.

Directions; Complete the following passage by using the words in the box．Each word can only be used once．Note that there is one word more than you need．

A．survey      B．off          C．better      D．care     E．conducted

F．differed．   G．personal     H．prepared    I．contrast    J．differences,

GAN Xiaolin, 18, only gets half a day __1.__ school every week since the Hubei student started senior high school．Every day, he takes core （核心的） courses from 7:10 am to 10:30 pm．

Sometimes, Gan feels extremely stressed from the heavy workload．But he hopes that his three

years of hard work toward the college entrance examination will change his life for the _2._．

Gan is a typical Chinese student, as shown m a recently released survey．The new survey, which was __3.__ by the China Youth and Children Research Center and other foreign institutions, polled（調(diào)整） about 4,000 high school and vocational school students in China, Japan, the United States and South Korea．

The five biggest frustrations listed by all the young people were: an over-busy school life, an empty_4.__ life, dissatisfaction with their appearance, a lack of time for exercise and friends, and no spare money．

Although some of the teenage problems were y-niversai, there were big _ _5._ between the students when it came to the time they spent on sehoolwork．

For example, Chinese students spent the most time at school and on homework．Nearly 80 percent of them spent at least eight hours a week in school, and 56．7 percent spent two or more hours on their homework．By_6., only about 25 percent of US students, 20,5 percent of Japanese students, and 15 percent of Korean students had more than two hours of homework each night．

The responses from the Chinese students also _7._ significantly from their peers （同齡人）

in the other three countries when asked about their life goals．

Only 16．7 percent of Chinese students said that they didn't __8._ much about their future, while the figure for that category was 72．4 percent for US students, 59．1 percent for the Japanese and 58．2 percent for the South Koreans．The _9. found that Chinese students were more motivated than the other students to work hard for a better life．

 

Steve, a twelve-year-old boy with alcoholic parents, was failing. Surprisingly, he could read, yet,    21   his reading skills, Steve had been failing since first grade. Steve was a big boy, yet, he went unnoticed...    22    Miss White.

Miss White was a smiling, beautiful, young lady. For the first time in his    23   life, Steve couldn’t take his eyes off his teacher; yet,    24   he failed. In the middle of the first term, the entire seventh grade was    25   for basic skills. Steve hurried through his tests, and    26   to dream of other things, as the day passed slowly. One day, Miss White’s    27   voice broke into his daydreams. “Steve!” Startled (嚇了一跳), he    28   to look at her. “Pay attention!” She began to    29   the test results. “You all did pretty well,” she told the class, “   30   one boy, and it breaks my    31   to tell you this, but...” She hesitated, pinning Steve to his seat with a sharp    32  . “... The smartest boy in the seventh grade is failing my class!”

After that, Steve still    33   do his homework. “Just try it,” Miss White said one day. “Steve! Please! I care about you!” Wow! Suddenly, Steve got it! Someone cared about him? Someone, so beautiful and perfect, cared about him! Steve went home from school,    34  ,  that afternoon.

The following Monday he arrived at school on time, and waited for Miss White to enter the classroom. She walked in, all sparkle and smiles! Immediately, she gave a    35   on the weekend homework. Steve was the first to    36   his paper. With a look of    37  , Miss White took his paper. Steve walked back to his desk, his heart beating strongly within his chest.

Miss White’s face was in total    38  ! Suddenly, her face broke into a bright smile. The smartest boy in the seventh grade had just    39   his first test! From that moment   40   was the same for Steve.

 

1.A. in honor of         B. in spite of       C. in addition to         D. in case of

2.A. to                   B. before          C. until                D. upon

3.A. rich                B. young          C. fresh                D. simple

4.A. still              B. even           C. also                 D. forever

5.A. observed            B. corrected        C. selected              D. tested

6.A. struggled           B. agreed        C. continued             D. declared

7.A. cheerful            B. impatient       C. enthusiastic           D. shy

8.A. decided             B. managed      C. turned                D. forgot

9.A. go over           B. run over      C. turn over              D. hand over

10.A. except for             B. due to          C. as for                 D. up to

11.A. will              B. record          C. heart                  D. back

12.A. pain             B. stare           C. sense                  D. contrast

13.A. wouldn’t          B. couldn’t        C. mustn’t                D. shouldn’t

14.A. amused           B. doubtful         C. approved              D. thoughtful

15.A. survey                B. speech        C. report                 D. quiz

16.A. give up          B. hand in             C. turn down         D. come across

17.A. respect          B. curiosity             C. surprise               D. fear

18.A. victory           B. shock         C. sadness               D. confidence

19.A. escaped           B. taken           C. missed                 D. passed

20.A. nothing                B. something     C. anything               D. everything