A teacher of English as a second language is the 2004 Teacher of the Year in the United States. Kathy Mellor of Rhode Island will spend the next year as an international spokeswoman for education.  President Bush and his wife, Laura, honored her during a ceremony (仪式) at the White House last week.

    For the past nineteen years, Kathy Mellor has taught English as a second language at Davisville Middle School in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, in the northeastern United States.  She redesigned the program for E. S.L. students at her school to provide each student with one to three periods per day in classes for English learners. How much instruction the students get depends on their level of skill in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The amount of time they spend in these classes is reduced as their level of English increases.

    A teacher describes this as the most successful E. S. L. program in North Kingstown. She also praises Kathy Mellor for providing help to students and their families by forming a local parents group for speakers of other languages. This improved their ability to help their children.

    Kathy Mellor earned a master's degree in education from Rhode Island College. She studied teaching English as a second language.

    She was chosen for the national honor of Teacher of the Year from among top teachers in each of the fifty states. As Teacher of the Year, Kathy Mellor will travel around the United States and to other countries. She will talk about the importance of education and the work of teachers.

    1. This passage is mainly about _______.

A．Teacher of the Year 2004 in the United States

B．Ms. Mellor's English teaching instruction

C．Ms. Mellor's teaching skills of learning English

D．praises to Ms. Mellor from other teachers

    2. What does “E. S. L.” in the passage stand for?

A．English study learners.

B．English speaking and listening.

C．English special learners.

D．English as a second language.

    3. From this passage we can learn that _______.

A．middle school teachers from each state are honored Teachers of the Year

B．middle school teachers in the USA have to get master's degrees

C．Ms. Mellor's students have no problems in learning English

D．the American government pays much attention to education

    It was an early September day, cool and bright and just right for running, and I was in the first few miles of a 10 mile race over a course (路线) with a few high hills. Still, I felt energetic; despite the hills it was going to be a fine run.

    Just ahead of me was Peggy Mimno, a teacher from Mount Kisco, New York. She too was running easily, moving along at my speed. The pace (步速) felt comfortable, so I decided to stay where I was；Why pay attention to pace when she was setting such a nice one? I'd overtake (追上) her later on when she tired.

    So I ran behind her. The course headed north for five miles, wandered west for a hilly mile, then turned south a gain along a winding road. The race was getting harder. We had four miles left and already it was beginning to be real work.

    Peggy overtook a young runner. She seemed to know him, for they exchanged a few cheerful words as she passed him. Their exchange worried me. You don’t chat during a race unless you are feeling good, and Peggy plainly was.

    Still, I was close enough to overtake her if she tired, so I didn’t give up hope completely. We were getting nearer to a long, punishing hill now and it would be the test. We were a mile from the finish line, so whatever happened on the hill would almost certainly determine who crossed it first.

    As I moved up the hill, my attention wandered for a few minutes. When I looked up, Peggy was moving away—first five yards, then ten, then more.  Finally it was clear that there was no hope of catching her. She beat me soundly.

    There is an important lesson in that race. Women are thought to be weaker, slower and not nearly as skilled in sport. Yet as Peggy Mimno so clearly showed, the similarities between men and women runners are more important than the differences.  I have run with a number of women, and I can say that it is often hard work.

1. What did the writer think of the race in the beginning?

A. It would be hard work.

B. It would be an easy race.

C. It would be a test of his strength.

D. It would be a good learning experience.

2. What worried the writer when Peggy greeted the young runner?

A. Peggy overtook the young runner.

B. Peggy was running energetically.

C. Peggy was laughing at the writer.

D. Peggy paid no attention to the writer.

3. By saying “a long, punishing hill” (Paragraph 5), the writer implies that

A. Peggy would fail to reach the hilltop

B. men are more skilled at climbing hills

C. overtaking Peggy would be easy

D. climbing the hill would be a demanding task

4. What lesson does the writer learn from the race?

A. Women are as good as men in sport.

B. Women are better at climbing hills.

C. He should have more training in a cross-country race.

D. He should set a quicker pace at the beginning of a race.

    Every year more people recognize that it is wrong to kill wildlife for “sport. ” Progress in this direction is slow because shooting is not a sport for watching, and only those few who take part realize the cruelty and destruction.

    The number of gunners, however, grows rapidly. Children too young to develop proper judgments through independent thought are led a long way away by their gunning parents. They are subjected to advertisements of gun producers who describe shooting as good for their health and gun carrying as a way of putting redder blood in the veins (血管). They are persuaded by gunner magazines with stories honoring the chase and the kill. In school they view motion pictures which are supposedly meant to teach them how to deal with arms safely but which are actually designed to stimulate (刺激) a desire to own a gun.

    Wildlife is disappearing because of shooting and because of the loss of wildland habitat (栖息地). Habitat loss will continue with our increasing population, but can we slow the loss of wildlife caused by shooting? There doesn’t seem to be any chance if the serious condition of our birds is not improved.

    Wildlife belongs to everyone and not to the gunners alone. Although most people do not shoot, they seem to forgiveお shooting for sport because they know little or nothing about it. The only answer, then, is to bring the truth about sport shooting to the great majority of people.

    Now, it is time to realize that animals have the same right to life as we do and that there is nothing fair or right aboutお a person with a gun shooting the harmless and beautiful creatures. The gunners like to describe what they do as character-building, but we know that to wound an animal and watch it go through the agony of dying can make nobody happy. If, as they would have you believe, gun-carrying and killing improve human character, and then perhaps we should encourageお war.

1. According to the text, most people do not seem to be against hunting because ______.

A. they have little knowledge of it

B. it helps to build human character

C. it is too costly to stop killing wildlife

D. they want to keep wildlife under control

2. The underlined word “agony” in the last paragraph probably means _________.

A. form

B. condition

C. pain

D. sadness

3. According to the text, the films children watch at school actually _______.

A. teach them how to deal with guns safely

B. praise hunting as character-building

C. describe hunting as an exercise

D. encourage them to have guns of their own

4. It can be inferred from the text that the author seems to _______.

A. blame the majority of people

B. worry about the existence of wildlife

C. be in favor of war

D. be in support of character-building

    Thinking is something you choose to do as a fish chooses to live in water. To be human is to think. But thinking may come naturally without your knowing how you do it. Thinking about thinking is the key to critical (判断性的) thinking. When you think critically, you take control of your thinking processes (过程). Otherwise, you might be controlledお by the ideas of others. Indeed, critical thinking is at the heart of education.

    The word “critical” here has a special meaning. It does not mean taking one view against another view, as when someone criticizes another person for doing something wrong. The nature of critical thinking is thinking beyond the easily seen—beyond the pictures on TV, the untrue reports in the newspapers, and the faulty reasoning.

    Critical thinking is an attitude as much as an activity. If you are curious about life and desire to dig deeper into it, you are a critical thinker. If you find pleasure in deep thinking about different ideas, characters, and facts, you are a critical thinker.

    Activities of the mind and higher-order reasoning are processes of deep and careful consideration. They take time, and do not go hand in hand with the fast speed in today’s world: fast foods, instant coffee, and self-developing film. If you are among the people who believe that speed is a measure of intelligence (智力), you may learn something new from a story about Albert Einstein. The first time Banesh Hoffman, a scientist, was to discuss his work with Albert Einstein. Hoffman was too nervous to speak. But Einstein immediately put Hoffman at ease by saying, “Please go slowly.  I don’t understand things quickly.”

1. Critical thinking is important to us because if we do not think critically, ______.

A. it will be hard for us to think naturally and fast

B. we might be controlled by other people’s ideas

C. we will follow the ideas of others naturally

D. we might be footed by other people’s ideas

2. If you are a critical thinker, you will ______.

A. think deeply about different ideas

B. trust the reports in the newspapers

C. take one view against another view

D. criticize other people for their mistakes

3. In the last paragraph, “something new” suggests that ________.

A. the smarter you are, the faster you do things

B. the faster you do things, the smarter you become

C. speed can improve intelligence

D. intelligence is not decided by speed

4. What would be the best title for the passage?

A. Thinking and Critical Thinking.

B. Understanding Critical Thinking.

C. Thinking Is Natural and Human.

D. Thinking Fast Means Intelligence.

    Art museums are places where people can learn about various cultures (文化). The increasingly popular “design museums” that are opening today, however, perform quite a different role. Unlike most art museums, the design museum shows objects that are easily found by the general public. These museums sometimes even place things like fridges and washing machines in the center of the hall.

    People have argued that design museums are often made use of as advertisements for new industrial technology. But their role is not simply a matter of sales—it is the honoring of excellently invented products. The difference between the window of a department store and the showcase in a design museum is that the first tries to sell you something, while the second tells you the success of a sale.

    One advantage of design museums is that they are places where people feel familiar with the exhibits. Unlike the aver age art museum visitors, design museum visitors seldom feel frightened or puzzled (困惑). This is partly because design museums clearly show how and why mass-produced products work and look as they do, and how design has improved the quality of our lives.  Art museum exhibits, on the other hand, would most probably fill visitors with a feeling that there is something beyond their understanding.

    In recent years, several new design museums have opened their doors. Each of these museums has tried to satisfy the public’s growing interest in the field with new ideas. London’s Design Museum, for example, shows a collection of mass-produced objects from Zippo lighters to electric type writers to a group of Italian fish-tins. The choices open to design museums seem far less strict than those to art museums, and visitors may also sense the humorous (幽默的) part of our society while walking around such exhibits as interesting and unusually attractive toys collected in our everyday life.

1. Showcases in design museums are different from store windows because they _______.

A. show more technologically advanced products

B. help increase the sales of products

C. show why the products have sold well

D. attract more people than store windows do

2. The author believes that most design museum visitors _______.

A. do not admire mass-produced products

B. are puzzled with technological exhibits

C. dislike exhibits in art museums

D. know the exhibits very well

3. The choices open to design museums _______.

A. are not as strict as those to art museums

B. are not aimed to interest the public

C. may fail to bring some pleasure to visitors

D. often contain precious exhibits

4. The best title for this passage is

A. The forms of design museums

B. The exhibits of design museums

C. The nature of design museums

D. The choices open to design museums

    Millions of aircraft take off around the world every year. The skies they fly in seem limitless—miles of empty space. But, with the number of flights increasing each year, this emptiness no longer exists. Researchers in the world of aviation(航空)are worried about the increasing pressure on pilots and ground controllers. And increasing collisions, occurring at or near an airport, have called attention to the need for more aids(辅助设备)to aviation control.

    People who travel the skies are not certain about air safety. A great deal of money is spent on new and bigger air craft and airports to deal with the vast increase in passengers traveling by air. Only a small percentage of this money is spent on navigation(导航)and other aids. Actually, suitable electronic equipment has long existed, and many companies market safety aids designed to make it safer for aircraft to take off, fly any distance, and land, whatever the weather. Yet, there are two problems to be solved. The first is to get governments, airlines and airport officials to agree to basic levels of safety aids. The second problem is to find a way of meeting these basic requirements.

    But no matter how well the equipment works, operators of the equipment still play an important role. Communications between pilots and ground controllers are extremely important to air safety. It is worth pointing out that the mishearing or misunderstanding of instructions in English, and the use of another language, in an international conversation, has led to two recent aircraft accidents. A new type of instrument (仪器) called FLIGHTWATCH would help pilots prevent airport collisions. It would be particularly helpful near airports.

1. The increasing number of flights leads to the fact that _____.

A. flying is no longer limited in the sky

B. there is no empty space for aids to aviation control

C. piloting and controlling planes is getting more difficult

D. the pressure on the ground becomes greater

2. There is uncertainty about air safety because _________.

A. planes become bigger for the increasing number of passengers

B. money spent on electronic equipment is far from enough

C. suitable electronic equipment hasn’t been invented yet

D. it is dangerous for planes to take off or land

3. The underlined word “collisions” probably means _______.

A. accidents in which two planes hit each other

B. misunderstandings between pilots and ground controllers

C. quarrels among passengers

D. breakdowns of new types of instrument

4. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

A. governments and officials have paid great attention to air safety

B. there should be more companies to sell new safety aids

C. English should be used in an international conversation

D. understanding between pilots and ground controllers should be improved

    With a good shopping position and the right amount (数量) of money, any educated person ought to be able to make a living out of a bookshop. It is not a difficult trade to learn and the large chain-stores can never force the small bookseller out of existence as they have done to the corner shop. But the hours of work are very long—I was only doing a part-time job, but my boss put in a seventy-hour week, besides regular journeys out of shopping hours to buy books.

    The real reason why I should not like to be back in the book trade for life, however, is that while I was in it I lost my love of books. A bookseller cannot always tell the truth about his books, and that gives him a dislike for them. There was a time when I really did love books—loved the sight and smell and feel of them—if they were fifty or more years old, that is. Nothing pleased me quite so much as to buy a bargain lot of them on sale for several pounds. There is a peculiar flavor(独特的味道)about the unexpected books you pick up in that kind of collection: little-known eighteenth-century poets, or out-of-date geography books. For occasional (偶尔的) reading—in your bath, for example, or late at night when you are too tired to go to bed—there is nothing as good as a very old picture story-book.

    But as soon as I went to work in the bookshop I stopped buying books. Seen in a mass, five or ten thousand at a time, books were dull and even a little tiresome.  Nowadays I do buy one occasionally, but only if it is a book that I want to read and can’t borrow, and I never buy rubbish.

1. According to the passage, _________ is one of the necessary conditions to run a bookshop.

A. an educated shop-owner

B. a good position at a street corner

C. a regular journey out of the shop

D. the force of large chain-stores

2. The author should not like to be back as a bookseller for life because _____.

A. he hated his job of selling books

B. selling books was only a part-time job

C. the books in the shop gave him a dislike

D. he was unable to be honest about the books he sold

3. The books preferred by the author should be those

A. stories making readers sleepless

B. valuable ones bought on sale

C. peculiar ones with great expectation

D. geography ones from the eighteenth century

4. The author will only buy new books

A. if he feels dull and tired

B. after he gives up his job as a bookseller

C. which are interesting but hard to borrow

D. when he throws away old ones

    SYDNEY: As they sat sharing sweets beside a swimming pool in 1999, Shane Gould and Jessicah Schipper were simply getting along well, chatting about sport, life and “anything else that came up.”

    Yet in Sydney next month, they will meet again by the pool, and for a short time the friends will race against each other in the 50-meter butterfly(蝶泳)in the Australian championships at Homebush Bay.

    Gould, now a 47-year-old mother of four,  has announced she will be making a return to elite competition (顶级赛事) to swim the one event, having set a qualifying (合格的) time of 30.32 seconds in winning gold at last year’s United States Masters championships. Her comeback comes32 years after she won three golds at the Munich Olympics.

    Schipper, now a 17-year-old from Brisbane with a bright future of going to Athens for her first Olympics, yesterday recalled (回忆) her time with Gould five years ago.

    “I was at a national youth camp on the Gold Coast and Shane had come along to talk to us and watch us train,” Schipper explained. “It seemed as if we had long been good friends. I don’t know why. We just started talking and it went from there.”

    “She had a lot to share with all of us at that camp. She told us stories about what it was like at big meets like the Olympics and what it’s like to be on an Australian team. It was really interesting.”

    Next time, things will be more serious. “I will still be swimming in the 50m butterfly at the nationals, so there is a chance that I could actually be competing against Shane Gould, ” said Schipper, who burst onto the scene at last year’s national championships with second places in the 100m and 200m butterfly.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A. Stories happening in swimming competitions.

B. Two women swimmers winning Olympic golds.

C. Lessons learned from international swimming championships.

D. Friendship and competition between two swimmers.

2. Gould and Schipper are going to ________.

A. talk about sport and life

B. go back to elite competition

C. set a qualifying time and win gold

D. take part in the same sports event

3. Gould won her three Olympic golds when she was ______.

A. 15

B. 17

C. 22

D. 30

4. The underlined word “it” in the fifth paragraph probably refers to ______.

A. the Olympics

B. the youth camp

C. the friendship

D. the Australian team

5. What Schipper said showed that she _______.

A. was no longer Gould’s friend

B. had learned a lot from Gould

C. was not interested in Gould’s stories

D. would not like to compete against Gould

THE BRONTE FAMILY

Yorkshire, England was the setting for two great novels(小说) of the 19th century. These were Charlotte Bronte’s - Jane Eyre and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. The youngest sister, Anne, was also a gifted novelist, and her books have the same extraordinary, quality as her sisters. Their father was Patrick Bronte born in Ireland.  He moved with his wife, Maria Bronte, and their   six small children to Haworth in Yorkshire in 1820. Soon after, Mrs. Bronte and the two eldest children died, leaving the father to care for the remaining three girls and a boy.

Charlotte was born in 1816. Emily was born in 1818 and Anne in 1820. Their brother Branwell was born in 1817.Left to themselves, the children wrote and told stories and walked over the hills. They grew up largely self-educated. Branwell showed a great interest in drawing. The girls were determined to earn money for his art education. They took positions as teachers or taught children in their homes.

As children they had all written many stories. Charlotte, as a young girl, alone wrote 22 books, each with 60 to 100 pages of small handwriting. Therefore, they turned to writing for income. By 1847, Charlotte had written The Professor; Emily, Wuthering Heights; and Anne, Agnes Grey. After much difficulty Anne and Emily found a publisher (出版商), but there was no interest shown in Charlotte’s book. (It was not published until 1859.) However, one publisher expressed an interest in seeing more of her work. Jane Eyre was already started, and she hurriedly finished it.

It was accepted at once; thus each of the sisters had a book published in 1847. Jane Eyre was immediately successful; the other two, however, did not do so well people did not like Wuthering Heights. They said it was too wild, too animal-like.  But gradually it came to be considered one of the finest novels in the English language. Emily lived only a short while after the publication of her book, and Anne died in 1849.

Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis (肺结核) as her sisters had.

1. What did the Bronte sisters want to do for Branwell Bronte?

A. Help him write stories.

B. Help him get trained in art.

C. Teach him how to draw well.

D. Teach him how to educate himself.

2. We know from the text that

A. Jane Eyre was published in 1847

B. Charlotte Brontë wrote 22 books in all

C. the Brontë sisters received good education

D. Patrick Brontë helped his daughters with their writing

3. Which of the following was published after the death of its writer?

A. Shirley.

B. Villette.

C. Agnes Grey.

D. The Professor.

4. The underlined words “the other two” in the 5th paragraph refer to

A. Shirley and Villette

B. The Professor and Agnes Grey

C. Agnes Grey and Wuthering Heights

D. The Professor and Wuthering Heights

5. What do we know about the Brontë sisters from the text?

A. Their novels interested few publishers.

B. None of them had more than two books published.

C. None of them lived longer than 40 years old.

D. Emily was the least successful of the three.

Houston, Texas(June 8, 2002)—In 2004, the National Aeronautics and space Administration (NASA) will send two robots(机器人)to separate places of Mars to seek out past or present signs of water. It is an exciting idea to send two robots driving over very different places of Mars at the same time, to be able to see what is on the other side of the hill.

Last month, NASA announced it was sending one robot to Mars, but after two weeks, it decided there was enough money for two. The robots will be sent up within two weeks of each other in May and June of 2003 from Kennedy space Center. If all goes well, the two spacecraft(宇宙飞船)will touch down on Mars, after a seven-and-a-half-month space flight, on January 2 and 20, 2004.

The robots, each weighing 150 kilograms can cover 100 meters per day. They are designed to be able to examine the mineral content of the soil, and their special camera will take pictures of the lands and hills. Although they will be under control from Earth, the robots are able to move more freely compared to those sent up before them.

The actual landing points have not been determined yet, but the scientists say it will be in areas where they hope to find water.

1. According to the news report, scientists plan to send robots up to Mars to _______.

A. find out whether there is water on Mars

B. see if robots can find minerals there

C. test how fast robots can drive there

D. prove that robots can work on Mars

2. How long in between will the two robots be sent to Mars?

A. 1 year.

B. 7.5 months.

C. 2 months.

D. 2 weeks.

3. One of the important jobs for the robots on Mars is to ________.

A. study the Soil

B. Walk everywhere

C. test the new camera

D. find a suitable landing point

4. We can infer from the last sentence that scientists

A. have changed the landing points many times

B. hope to land the robots on the surface of water

C. are still working on the plan

D. know where they can find water