Pass Your Love On

Waiting for the airplane to take off, I was happy to get a seat by myself. Just then, an air hostess approached me and asked, “Would you mind   36   your seat? A couple would like to sit together.” The only   37  seat was next to a girl with her arms in casts (石膏绷带)，a black-and-blue face, and a sad expression. “   38   am I going to sit there,” I thought immediately. But a soft voice spoke, “She needs help.” Finally, I     39 _  to move to that seat.

The girl was named Kathy. She   40   in a car accident and now was on her way for_ 41   .

When the snack and juice arrived, it did not take me long to   42   that Kathy would not be able to   43   herself. I considered   44   to feed her but hesitated, as it seemed too   45   to offer a service to a   46___. But then I realized that Kathy’s need was more   47   than my discomfort. I offered to help her eat, and   48   she was uncomfortable to accept, she   49   as I expected. We became closer and closer in a short period of time. By the end of the five-hour trip, my heart   50   , and the   51   was really better spent than if I had just sat by myself.

I was very glad I had reached   52   my comfort zone(地带) to sit next to Kathy and feed her. Love   53  flows beyond human borders（边界） and removes the fears that keep us   54  . When we   55   to serve another, we grow to live in a larger and more rewarding world.

1. A. losing          B. changing   C. taking      D. bringing

2. A. comfortable  B. suitable  C. available   D. favorite

3. A. No problem       B. No way    C. Nowhere     D. No doubt

4. A. decided      B. wanted    C. regretted   D. refused

5. A. was          B. would be  C. used to be  D. had been

6. A. treatment    B. travel    C. pleasure    D. business

7. A. see          B. say       C. realize     D. recognize

8. A. eat        B. feed           C. choose        D. support

9. A. offering  B. needing        C. stopping      D. trying

10. A. impolite B. far            C. good          D. fast

11. A. interpreter  B. neighbor     C. passenger        D. stranger

12. A. unusual    B. direct        C. important     D. shameful

13. A. when       B. although      C. since         D. as

14. A. refused    B. wondered      C. cried         D. did

15. A. had warmed     B. had jumped    C. had broken    D.hadcheered

16. A. life       B. money         C. time          D. energy

17. A. below          B. through       C. across        D. beyond

18.  A. seldom    B. never         C. hardly        D. sometimes

19. A. separate  B. independent   C. silent        D. upset

20. A. happen         B. offer         C. wait          D. continue

As many as one in five US teenagers have some degree of hearing loss, according to researchers. They say the problem is growing.
“Teenagers really don’t pay attention to how much noise they are exposed to(接触),” Josef Shargorodsky of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston told Reuters. “Often people won’t notice it, but even very little hearing loss may influence language development,” said Shargorodsky, one of the researchers.
The study compared surveys from the early 1990s and the mid-2000s. Each included a few thousand teenagers. In the first survey, about 15 percent of teenagers had some degree of hearing loss. Some 15 years later, that number had risen by a third, to nearly 20 percent.
“This certainly is big news,” said Alison Grimes, an ear doctor. “Hearing loss is very common in old people,” Grimes said, but she added that it was worrying to see it happen in the younger age group.
In babies and young children, hearing problems are known to slow language development. The science is less clear for teenagers, but it is easy to imagine how being hard of hearing could influence learning, said Grimes.
The reasons for the rise are still unclear. When researchers asked teenagers about noise exposure – on the job, at school or from activities, for example – the teenagers didn’t report any change. But Shargorodsky said that might not be true. “We know from before that it is difficult to ask this age group about noise exposure – they underestimate it.” Few people would call it noise when they listen to music on their MP3 player, for example. “There is a difference between what we think is loud and what is harmful to the ear,” said Grimes.
Although it’s not clear that the MP3 players cause teenagers’ hearing loss, Grimes said it was still a good idea to turn down the sound and take short breaks from listening.
【小题1】The writer advises teenagers __________.

“I Went Skydiving at 84!”

As a young girl growing up in the 1930s, I always wanted to fly a plane, but back then it was almost unheard of a woman to do that. I got a taste of that dream in 2011,when my husband arranged for me me ride in a hot air balloon for my birthday. But the experience turned out to be very dull. Around that time ,I told my husband that I wanted to skydive. So when our retirement community（社区）announced that they were having an essay competition and the topic was an experience of a lifetime that you wanted to have, I decided to write about my dream.

In the essay, I wrote about my desire to skydive, stating George Brush Sr. did it at age 80. Why not me? I was just 84 and in pretty good health. A year went by and I heard nothing. But then at a community party in late April 2009, they announced that I was one of the winners. I just couldn’t believe it.

One june 11, 2009, nearly 40 of my family and friends gathered in the area close to where I would land while I headed up in the airplane. My instructor, Jay, guided me through the experience. The plane was the noisiest one I had ever been in, but I wasn’t frightened—I was really just looking forward to the experience. When we reachen 13,000 feet, Jay instructed me to throw myself out of the plane. When we first hit the air, the wind was so strong that I could hardly breathe. For a second I thought, “What have I gotten myself into?” But then everything got calmer. We were in a free fall for about a minute before Jay opened the parachute（降落伞）, then we just floated downward fo zhout five minutes. Being up in the clouds and looking at the view below was unlike anything I have ever felt—much better than the hot air ballon. I was just enjoying it.

Skydiving was really one of the greatest experiences of my life. I hope other people will look at me and realize that you don’t stop living just because you are 84 years old. If there’s something you want to experience, look into it. If it’s something that is possible, make it happen.

1.

What happened to the auther in 2001?

A. She flew an airplane

B. She entered a competition

C. She went on a hot air balloon ride

D. She moved into a retirement community

2.

 The author mentioned George Bush Sr. in her essay to       .

A. build up her own reputation

B. show her admiration for him

C. compare their health conditon

D. make her argument persuasive

3.

How did the authou feel immediately after she jumped out of the plane?

A. Excited    B. Scared    C. Nervous    D. Regretful

4.

 What did the author enjoy most when she was skydiving?

A.The beautiful clouds     B. The wonderful view

C. The company of Jay     D. The one-minute free fall

There was one thought that air pollution affected only the area immediately around large cities with factories and heavy automobile traffic. At present, we realize that although these are the areas with the worst air pollution, the problem is literally worldwide. On several occasions over the past decade, a heavy cloud of air pollution has covered the east of the United States and brought health warnings in rural areas away from any major concentration of manufacturing and automobile traffic. In fact, the very climate of the entire earth may be infected by air pollution. Some scientists consider that the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the air resulting from the burning of fossil fuels (coal and oil) is creating a “greenhouse effect”— conserving heat reflected from the earth and raising the world’s average temperature. If this view is correct and the world’s temperature is raised only a few degrees, much of the polar ice cap will melt and cities such as New York, Boston, Miami, and New Orleans will be in water.

Another view, less widely held, is that increasing particular matter in the atmosphere is blocking sunlight and lowering the earth’s temperature — a result that would be equally disastrous. A drop of just a few degrees could create something close to a new ice age, and would make agriculture difficult or impossible in many of our top farming areas. Today we do not know for sure that either of these conditions will happen (though one recent government report drafted by experts in the field concluded that the greenhouse effect is very possible). Perhaps, if we are lucky enough, the two tendencies will offset each other and the world’s temperature will stay about the same as it is now. Driven by economic profits, people neglect the damage on our environment caused by the “advanced civilization”. Maybe the air pollution is the price the human beings have to pay for their development. But is it really worthwhile?

46. As pointed out at the beginning of the passage, people used to think that air pollution _______.

　A. cause widespread damage in the countryside

　B. affected the entire eastern half of the United States

　C. had damaged effect on health

　D. existed merely in urban and industries areas

47. As to the greenhouse effect, the author __________.

　A. share the same view with the scientist.

　B. is uncertain of its occurrence

　C. rejects it as being ungrounded

　D. thinks that it will destroy the world soon

48. The word “offset” in the second paragraph could be replaced by _________.

　A. slip into   B. make up for　　 C. set up    D. catch up with

49. It can be concluded that ____________.

　A. raising the world’s temperature only a few degrees would not do much harm to life on earth

　B. lowering the world’s temperature merely a few degrees would lead major farming areas to disaster 

　C. almost no temperature variations have occurred over the past decade

　D. the world’s temperature will remain constant in the years to come

50. This passage is primarily about __________.

　A. the greenhouse effect        　    B. the burning of fossil fuels

　C. the potential effect of air pollution  　D. the likelihood of a new ice age

根据短文内容，从A到F选项中选出能概括每一段主题的最佳选项。选项中有一项为多余项。
A. A sense of humor is not an inborn ability.
B. A sense of humor can be developed in our life.
C. A sense of humor helps us from several aspects（方面）.
D. A sense of humor means more than telling jokes.
E. A sense of humor can be expressed in many ways.
F. A sense of humor helps people to better enjoy life.
【小题1】_____ As awareness of the benefits of humor increases, most of us want to get all the laughs we can. It seems that almost every day there is another new discovery about the power of humor to help us physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Every system of the body responds to laughter in some important or positive way.
【小题2】_____ Many people mistakenly believe that we are born with a sense of humor. They think that when it comes to a sense of humor, “either you’ve got it or you don’t.” This is false. What is true, however, is that the ability to laugh and smile is actually something we are born with. For example, we laugh when we are tickled under the arm, even without thinking about how to react.
【小题3】_____ The parts of the brain and central nervous system that control laughing and smiling are mature at birth in human infants, but that is not the same thing as having a sense of humor. (After all, when a baby laughs in his small bed we don’t rush over and say, “That kid has a great sense of humor.”) Your sense of humor is something you can develop over a lifetime. Don’t be nervous before others and try to laugh at yourself—then you will make them laugh too.
【小题4】_____ Humor includes a lot more than laughing and joke telling. Many people worry needlessly that they do not have a good sense of humor because they are not good joke tellers. More than jokes, a sense of humor requires being willing and able to see the funny side of life’s situations as they happen. In fact, one of the best definition of a sense of humor is “the ability to see the nonserious element in a situation”.
【小题5】_____ There may be a thousand different ways to express your sense of humor, but joke telling is only one of those ways. As more is discovered about how humor benefits our life, more people will be able to see and enjoy the humor when they are in a difficult situation. Life depends on air, food and water, but it is made easier to live with a good sense of humor.