Helen Thomas, born on August 4, 1920, is a famous news reporter, a Hearst Newspapers columnist, and member of the White House Press Corps. She served for fifty-seven years as a correspondent and White House bureau chief for United Press International (UPI). She is called “First Lady of the Press”.
Born in Kentucky, Helen Thomas was raised in Detroit, Michigan where she attended public schools and later graduated from Wayne State University. Upon leaving college, Helen served as a copy girl in an old company in Washington. In 1943, Ms. Thomas joined United Press International and the Washington Press Corps. Thomas served as president of the Women’s National Press Club from 1959 to 1960.
In November, Helen began covering then President-elect John F. Kennedy, following him to the White House in January 1961 as a UPI correspondent. She later became White House Bureau Chief for UPI, where she was employed until her resignation on May 17, 2000. Thomas then became a White House correspondent and columnist.
Thomas was the only woman journalist traveling with then President Nixon to China in January, 1972. She has traveled around the world several times with Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, during the course of which she covered every Economic Summit. The World Almanac has cited her as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in America. 
On March 21, 2006, Thomas was called upon directly by President Bush for the first time in three years. Thomas asked Bush about Iraq. Helen Thomas has written four books and she is also a popular speaker at events nationwide. 
【小题1】What’s the correct order of the events?
a. Thomas joined the UPI and the Washington Press Corps.
b. Thomas traveled with President Nixon to China.
c. Thomas served as president of the Women’s National Press Club.
d. Thomas resigned.
e. Thomas was called upon by President Bush.
f. Thomas became a White House correspondent and a columnist.

Twenty–six years after a terrible bicycle accident which left her in a coma(昏迷) for two months and with permanent brain injuries, Barbara Buchan performs many actions more slowly than others. But on September 10 in Beijing, Buchan, at 52, the oldest member of the United States Paralympic team, broke the record and won the gold medal for her disability class in the individual 3,000–meter cycling pursuit.
“You can be very upset at the world and have everyone take care of you.” Buchan said by telephone from Beijing, “or get back on your feet again.”
Buchan first dreamed of Olympic gold at age 15 while watching the 1972 Munich Games. She became a top American cyclist by July 1982, when a terrible road–race crash injured her brain and left doctors doubtful about whether she would survive. She was wearing only a soft leather helmet at the time; her accident made the rule put into practice that cyclists wear the hard–shell helmets that are now common.
Buchan recovered enough of her athletic ability to run track in the 1988 Paralympics in Seoul, where she won a silver medal in the 800 meters. Women’s cycling was not included in the Paralympics yet, so Buchan trained to the point where she raced against men in the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, Australia-she finished 9th and 10th in two races-and then successfully fought for a separate women’s cycling program beginning in 2004 in Athens, where she did not get a medal.
Even though she was approaching her 50s, Buchan kept racing and again made the United States Paralympic team for Beijing-where she is twice the age of most of her teammates and competitors.
“Barbara’s almost the leader of our team-she’s been through it all,” said Craig Griffin, the United States cycling coach. “She’s never tired. She’s never let her body go and then come back. I don’t think age is as big of a deal as people make it out to be.”
64. According to the text, after the accident,         .
A．Buchan asked her friends to take care of her
B．cyclists started to wear helmets in competition
C．Buchan could not answer questions correctly
D．doctors doubted whether Buchan could come back to life
65. What’s the right order of the events related to Buchan?
a. She won a gold medal in Beijing.
b. She became a top American cyclist.
c. She won a silver medal in the 800 meters.
d. She suffered a terrible bicycle accident.
e. She took part in a cycling program in Athens.
A．c-d-b-a-e               B．b-c-d-a-e 
C．b-d-e-c-a         D．c-b-d-e-a
66. What does the underlined phrase “get back on your feet” in the second paragraph mean?
A．rise to your feet              B．walk on your way
C．go beyond yourself  D．depend on yourself
67. Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?
A．The Making of a Hero     B．From a Loser to a Winner
C．All Roads Lead to Rome  D．Health is Better than Wealth

[1] One out of many important things for the whole family to do is to have dinner together. Researchers began reporting the benefits of family dinner about a decade ago, focusing mainly on how it affects children. Studies show that those families who eat dinner at least 3 or 4 times a week together, benefit in many ways.

[2] Eating together helps families achieve open communication and build stronger and healthier relationships. Children have better grades at school and are better adjusted as teens and adults, and the entire family enjoys healthier nutrition. For many families, eating dinner together proves to be a good and effective way to reduce the risk of youth rates of addiction, and helps to raise healthier children. It is also a great time to share the events of the day, discuss news and ideas and just be together and enjoy each other's company.

[3] During dinner time parents have better opportunity to show that they are the prior to their children. Sitting at the same table and sharing meals is where and when parents can find out more about their children's school performance, daily activities and attitudes toward life. When parents have all this information they can better direct their kids toward positive things in life. They also have better chance to reduce the possibility that children will get involved with alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs.

[4] However, family researchers say that the benefits of family dinner by no means can be considered as automatic. Parents can sit down to dinner with their kids every day and achieve nothing. ______ if there is too much arguing going on, if there is no meaningful conversation or, what is even worse, if there is just plain silence during gathering.

1.What is the main idea of the text? (no more than 8 words)

2.List two benefits that parents can get by having dinner together with children.(no more than 15words).

3.Fill in the blank in Paragraph 4 with proper words (no more than 8 words).

4.What information can parents probably get about their children at family dinner? (no more than 12 words)

5.What does the word “it” (line 3, paragraph 1) probably refer to? (no more than 3 words)

Betty Skelton was often called “The First Lady of Firsts’’ because of the many records she set. She grew up in Pensacola, Florida, watching airplanes flying to and from a nearby navy base. As a child, she persuaded her parents to let her take flying lessons. By 12, Betty made her first flight alone, though not legally permitted to do so until she turned 16.
During the 1940s, female pilots were mostly prevented from commercial and military flying. So Betty Skelton decided to use her flight skills in aerobatics(特技飞行)，performing difficult turns, drops, and other exercises. She began performing and competing around the country.
She won the International Feminine Aerobatic Championship(IFAC)for three years in a row, starting in 1948. She and her little Pitts Special plane the “Little Stinker’’ became famous.
Dorothy Cochrane is an aviation expert who once studied and worked with Betty Skelton. “Betty was such a wonderful aerobatic pilot that she really set the bar high for other women to follow and she was a great role model for them. She really was as good as some of the men.”
Once Ms. Skelton had made her mark on flying, she moved on to racecars, becoming the first female test driver in the racecar industry. She set several land speed records. She also set a cross-country record, driving from New York to California in under 57 hours. And she became one of the top women advertising experts working with General Motors in support of the company’s Corvette car.
Ms. Skelton died in August, 2011, at the age of 85. Visitors to the Washington area can see her “little Stinker” plane at the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia. The small red and white plane hangs high in the air above the entrance to the museum.
【小题1】What can we learn from the first paragraph?

阅读理解

　　From boyhood he had been interested in astronomy(天文学), and while at Cambridge he would sit up at night to watch the stars. But he was not satisfied with the telescopes of those days because they didn't show him a clear picture of things. At first he thought there must be something wrong with the lens. But no matter how hard he tried to improve the lens; the trouble was still there.

　　This set Newton thinking. He began to study the nature of light and colors. In the end he found that sunlight, or white light, is actually made up of a row of colors. He counted seven colors in all. This was of course a great discovery. But Newton still wasn't satisfied His mind was busy with another problem. Before Newton's time, scientists had already discovered that the sun, not the earth, was the centre of the other planets moving round the sun. But they couldn't explain why this was so until Newton gave the answer.

　　One autumn evening while Newton was sitting under an apple tree thinking over these problems, he saw the moon rise in the sky. Why, he asked himself, should the moon go round the earth, never leaving the same path? At that moment, he heard an apple drop from the tree. Why didn't it go sideways or fly up?

　　There seemed to be only one reason：the earth was drawing it－that is the force of gravity. If a stone is tied to the end of a string and whirled around, it will fly round and round in circles because of the string. In the same way, the force of gravity, thought Newton, must be the force that keeps the moon going round the earth and the planets round the sun.

1．This passage mainly tells us ________.

[　　]

A．Newton gave the right answer to the making up of the sunlight

B．Newton found that the moon goes round the earth

C．how Newton made two of his greatest discoveries

D．why Newton made two of his greatest discoveries at home

2．Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

[　　]

A．Newton made only two discoveries in his lifetime.

B．Finding nothing wrong with the lens, Newton began to study the nature of light and colors.

C．Nobody could explain why the planets moved round the sun before Newton's time.

D．It was by chance that Newton discovered the force of gravity.

3．Give the right order of the events given in the passage.

a．Newton found that the sunlight is made up of a row of colors.

b．Newton wondered why the apples didn't go sideways.

c．Newton concluded that the force of gravity keeps the moon going round the earth.

d．Newton tried every means to improve the lens.

e．Newton counted the number of colors.

[　　]

4．Which of the following is nearest in meaning to “They couldn't explain why this was so until Newton gave the answer.”?

[　　]

A．Newton gave the answer because they couldn't explain why.

B．Newton couldn't explain why unless they gave the answer.

C．It was Newton who gave the answer.

D．Newton was the first to give the answer.