One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift． Unlike other gifts，it came without wrap（包装）．
On September 11 ^th , 1 958，Mum gave birth to Richard．After she brought him home from hospital，she put him in my lap，saying, “I promised you a gift, and here it is．” What an honor! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own．I played with it day and night． I sang to it, I told it stories．I told it over and over how much I loved it!  
One morning, however，I found its bed empty． My doll was gone! I cried for it．Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital．It had a fever． For several days，I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as “hopeless”，“pitiful"，and “dying”, which sounded Ominous．
Christmas was coming, “Don’t expect any presents this year,” Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room． “If your baby brother lives, that’ll be Christmas enough．” As he spoke，his eyes filled with tears． I’d never seen him cry before．
The phone rang early on Christmas morning．Dad jumped out of bed to answer it．From my bedroom I heard him say, “What? He’s all right?” He hung up and shouted upstairs． “The hospital said we can bring Richard home!” “Thank God!” I heard Mum cry．
From the window upstairs，I watched my parents rush out to the car．I had never seen them so happy． And I was also full of joy． What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home． I ran downstairs． My socks still hung there flat．But I knew they were not empty: they were filled with love !
【小题1】What happened to the author on September 11^th,1958?

A．He got a baby brother．	B．He got a Christmas gift．
C．He became four years old．	D．He received a doll．

【小题2】What does the underlined word “ominous” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．Impossible．

B．Boring．

C．Difficult．

D．Fearful．

【小题3】Which word can best describe the feeling of the father when Christmas was coming?

A．Excitement．

B．Happiness．

C．Sadness．

D．Disappointment．

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 of 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 works. 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 the book, and Anne died in 1849.

Charlotte published Shirley in 1849, and Villette in 1853. In 1854 she married Arthur Bell Nicholls. But only a year later, she died of tuberculosis(肺结核) as her sisters had.

We know from the text that      .

A. Jane Eyre was published in 1847    

B. Charlotte Bronte wrote 22 books in all

C. the Bronte sisters received good education     

D. Patrick Bronte helped his daughters with their writing

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

       A. Shirley and Villette   B. The Professor and Agnes Grey

       C. Agnes Grey and Wutheriing Heights   D. The Professor and wuthering Heights

What do we know about the Bronte 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.

Obama Still Smokes in Secret
US President Barack Obama has just made life more difficult for cigarette makers. He has just signed a law that will set tough new rules for the tobacco industry. The new law gives the US Food and Drug Administration the power to strictly limit the making and marketing of tobacco products.
At a White House signing ceremony Monday, Obama said that he was among the nearly 90% of smokers who took up the habit before their 18 th birthday.
Obama, who has publicly struggled to give up smoking, said he still hadn’t completely kicked the habit. Every now and then he still smokes in secret.
“As a former smoker I struggle with it all the time. Do I still smoke sometimes? Yes. Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No.” Obama said at a news conference.
“I don' t do it in front of my lads．I don ?t do it in front of my family．I would say that I am 95% cured, but there are times when I mess up, " he said．
"Once you go down this path, it' s something you continually struggle with, which is exactly why the law is so important．The new law is not about me, it' s about the next generation of kids coming up．What we don ' t want is kids going down that path," he said．
Nearly 20% of Americans smoke and tobacco use kills about 440,000 people a year in the United States due to cancer, heart disease, and other serious diseases．
【小题1】The new law makes life difficult for             .

A．Obama

B．tobacco industry

C．White House

D．US Food and Drug Administration

【小题2】What do we know about Obama?

A．He no longer smokes．

B．He still smokes as usual．

C．He began to smoke at eighteen．

D．He is trying hard to give up smoking．

【小题3】According to the passage, Obama is most concerned about           ．

A．children

B．officials

C．his family

D．Businessmen

A team from Krakow, in Poland, used functional magnetic resonance imaging （机能性核共振成像）（FMRI）to assess brain activity when 40 volunteers were shown various images．Men showed activity in areas which dealt with what action they should take in order to avoid or face up to danger．But the study found more activity in the emotional centers of women's brains．The researchers, from another university, carried out scans on 21 men and 19 women．Brain activity was monitored while the volunteers were shown images of objects and images from ordinary life designed to remind different emotional states．

The images were displayed in two runs．For the first run, only negative pictures were shown．For the second run, only positive pictures were shown．

While viewing the negative images, women showed stronger and broader activity in the left thalamus（神经床）．This is an area which passes sense information to the pain and pleasure centres of the brain．Men showed more activity in an area of the brain called the left insula（脑岛）, which plays a key role in controlling natural functions, including breath, heart rate and digestion．Generally, activity in this area tells the body to either run away from danger, or meet it head on - the so-called "fight or flight response"．

While viewing positive images, women showed stronger activity in an area of the brain associated with memory．With men, the stronger activity was recorded in an area associated with visual processing．Dr Urbanik believes these differences suggest women may analyze positive stimuli（刺激）in a broader social context and associate positive images with a particular memory．

For instance, viewing a picture of a smiling child might remind memories of a woman's own child at this age．On the contrary, male responses tend to be less emotional．

1．The research shows that men response differently to__________compared with women．

A．different images    B．ordinary life 

C．different activities        D．medical scan

2．According to the passage, when faced with danger, ____________．

A．women react more slowly than men       B．women usually try to avoid it 

C．men usually have no reaction         D．men react to it more directly

3．What is discussed in the 4 th paragraph?         ．

A．Men and women’s different memories   B．The different responses to the children

C．Different reactions to positive stimuli    D．Negative results of the visual processing

3．The passage mainly develops______．

A．by inferring                   B．by comparing  

C．by listing examples       D．by giving explanations

 

Obama Still Smokes in Secret

US President Barack Obama has just made life more difficult for cigarette makers．He has just signed a law that will set tough new rules for the tobacco industry．The new law gives the US Food and Drug Administration the power to strictly limit the making and marketing of tobacco products．

At a White House signing ceremony Monday, Obama said that he was among the nearly 90% of smokers who took up the habit before their 18 th birthday．

Obama, who has publicly struggled to give up smoking, said he still hadn’t completely kicked the habit．Every now and then he still smokes in secret．

“As a former smoker I struggle with it all the time．Do I still smoke sometimes? Yes．Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No．” Obama said at a news conference．

“I don' t do it in front of my lads．I don’t do it in front of my family．I would say that I am 95% cured, but there are times when I mess up, " he said．

"Once you go down this path, it' s something you continually struggle with, which is exactly why the law is so important．The new law is not about me, it' s about the next generation of kids coming up．What we don ' t want is kids going down that path," he said．

Nearly 20% of Americans smoke and tobacco use kills about 440,000 people a year in the United States due to cancer, heart disease, and other serious diseases．

1.The new law makes life difficult for             ．

A．Obama                               B．tobacco industry

C．White House                           D．US Food and Drug Administration

2.What do we know about Obama?

A．He no longer smokes．

B．He still smokes as usual．

C．He began to smoke at eighteen．

D．He is trying hard to give up smoking．

3.According to the passage, Obama is most concerned about           ．

A．children          B．officials           C．his family          D．businessmen