On April twenty-second, some American children stayed out of school but they were not punished. They were with their parents. As Faith Lapidus tells us, it was Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.
The Ms. Foundation for Women started the program seventeen years ago, in 1993. At first it was just called Take Our Daughters to Work. Gloria Steinem and other foundation leaders pointed to studies showing that self-image suffers as girls become teenagers. They can lose trust in their abilities and intelligence, especially in areas like science, math and technology. So the Ms. Foundation planned a day for parents in New York City to show girls all the possibilities for them in the professional world. But there was so much interest, the organizers decided to make it national.
At first, girls mostly followed their mom or dad around at work to learn about their jobs. Later, employers and schools began to offer organized activities. But from the beginning there were protests(反对) from parents and others about the exception of boys. So in 2003 the day was renamed Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work.
2007 was the last year that the Ms. Foundation for Women headed the program. Now, the event is run by a twelve-person group called the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation.
The event is connected with Mattel, the company that makes Barbie dolls.
Carolyn McKecuen is president of the foundation. She says a total of about thirty-three million children and adults are involved in the program. About one-third of the adults work at large companies or nonprofit organizations. Another third are in small businesses. The rest work in education.
Carolyn McKecuen says the numbers from this year's event are not final yet. But early reports suggest that participation was up at least ten percent from last year. And she says the foundation is hoping to find support to expand the program internationally. She says there are lots of requests from other countries for information about how to set up similar programs.
【小题1】It was called Take Our Daughters to Work at first because ______.

A．girls are considered to be clever than boys

B．girls are considered to be more foolish than boys

C．girls aren’t confident in some areas as they becomes older

D．girls don’t want to learn some science subjects

【小题2】Why was the day renamed as Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day later?

A．Because some parents were against only girls’ having the chance.

B．Because some parents wouldn’t like to take their daughters to work.

C．Because some employers were against parents’ taking their children to work.

D．Because some schools didn’t want to give any students’ time to leave school.

【小题3】How many years did the Ms. Foundation for Women head the program?

A．17

B．18

C．14

D．10

【小题4】From this passage we can learn ______.

A．April twenty-second is a day for some American children to stay out of school for punishment

B．the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day is a national in America

C．Mattel is the president of the foundation whose company makes Barbie dolls

D．Lots of other countries want to set up similar programs for parents and children

【小题5】The last paragraph shows that ______.

A．the program becomes more and more welcome

B．the program will come an end without international support

C．the program has been copied by many other countries

D．Carolyn McKecuen wants more and more children to take part in the program

Although the New Year is already here, the great moments of the past year are still in the memory. Let’s look back at some of them.
United States
One of the world’s largest New Year’s Eve parties was held in Times Square, New York. The festival attracted hundreds of thousands of people to watch a brightly-lit ball drop on a landmark building at the stroke (击、打) of midnight.
A great amount of confetti (五彩纸屑) was released from the sky at zero o’clock.
Britain
Painted in shinning colors, blowing whistles, 50，000 party-goers arrived in London’s Millennium Dome to dance in the New Year. The Millennium Dome came to life at midnight as 50 DJs started up, competing on five separate dance floors to warm the crowd into the party mood.
Russia
New Year is the biggest holiday in Russia. It is traditional to put up a tree for celebrations with family and friends.
On the very last day of last year, Russians with a taste for a very cold swim braved freezing temperatures to plant traditional, festival trees on the bed of the Northern Ocean and at the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake.
Malaysia
Brave skydivers threw themselves off the world’s tallest building near midnight and floated towards the New Year.
The jump from the 452-metre Petronas Twin Tower was called a real leap from one year to the next since the group took off in the last second of the old year and landed a minute later in the New Year. “That was really cool,” said Roland Simpson, “over crowds of onlookers to the landing spot.”
【小题1】In New York the brightly-lit ball dropped ____________.

A．form the sky onto the Times Square

B．into the hundreds of thousands of watchers

C．to welcome the arrival of Christmas

D．at the point between the old and the New Year

【小题2】Which of the following is NOT traditional to welcome a new year?

A．Sharing the happiness and excitement together.

B．Setting up a tree for celebrations.

C．Planting trees on the bed of a lake.

D．50 DJs’ competing on five separate floors.

【小题3】People jumping from the tallest buildings _________.

A．spent two different years in the air.

B．stayed in the sky for two minutes.

C．landed over people’s heads.

D．floated away to the new land

【小题4】The passage mainly shows that ________.

A．New Year has been the starting point for people to have dreams.

B．people in different countries welcomed New Year in different ways.

C．people’s ways of celebrations are exciting.

D．the New Year is better than the old year.

I still remember my first day at school in London and I was half-excited and half-frightened. On my way to school I wondered what sort of questions the other boys would ask me and practiced all the answers: “I am nine years old. I was born here but I haven’t lived here since I was two. I was living in Farley. It’s about thirty miles away. I came back to London two months ago.” I also wondered if it was the custom for boys to fight strangers like me, but I was tall for my age. I hoped they would decide not to risk it.

No one took any notice of me before school. I stood in the center of the playground, expecting someone to say “hello”, but no one spoke to me. When a teacher called my name and told me where my classroom was, one or two boys looked at me but that was all.

My teacher was called Mr. Jones. There were 42 boys in the class, so I didn’t stand out there, either, until the first lesson of the afternoon. Mr. Jones was very fond of Charles Dickens and he had decided to read aloud to us from David Copperfield, but first he asked several boys if they knew Dickens’ birthplace, but no one guessed right. A boy called Brian, the biggest in the class, said: “Timbuktu”, and Mr. Jones went red in the face. Then he asked me. I said: “Portsmouth”, and everyone stared at me because Mr. Jones said I was right. This didn’t make me very popular, of course.

“He thinks he’s clever,” I heard Brian say.

After that, we went out to the playground to play football. I was in Brian’s team, and he obviously had Dickens in mind because he told me to go in goal. No one ever wanted to be the goalkeeper.

“He’s big enough and useless enough.” Brian said when someone asked him why he had chosen me.

I suppose Mr. Jones, who served as the judge, remembered Dickens, too, because when the game was nearly over, Brian pushed one of the players on the other team, and he gave them a penalty (惩罚). As the boy kicked the ball to my right, I threw myself down instinctively (本能地) and saved it. All my team crowded round me. My bare knees were injured and bleeding. Brian took out a handkerchief and offered it to me.

“Do you want to join my gang (帮派)?” he said.

At the end of the day, I was no longer a stranger.

1.The writer prepared to answer all of the following questions EXCEPT “          ”.

A．How old are you?

B．Where are you from?

C．Do you want to join my gang?

D．When did you come back to London?

2.We can learn from the passage that           .

A．boys were usually unfriendly to new students

B．the writer was not greeted as he expected

C．Brian praised the writer for his cleverness

D．the writer was glad to be a goalkeeper

3.The underlined part “I didn’t stand out” in paragraph 3 means that the writer was not       .

A．noticeable

B．welcome

C．important

D．foolish

4.The writer was offered a handkerchief because          .

A．he threw himself down and saved the goal

B．he pushed a player on the other team

C．he was beginning to be accepted

D．he was no longer a newcomer

 

One day, a poor boy who was trying to pay his way through school by sending newspapers door to door, was so hungry that he decided to beg for a meal at the next house.

However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so she brought him a large glass of milk. He drank it slowly, and then asked, “How much do I owe you?”

“You don’t owe me anything,” she replied. “Then I thank you from the bottom of my heart.” With these words, Howard Kelly left that house.

Years later the woman became badly ill and was finally sent to the hospital in a big city. Dr. Howard Kelly, now famous, was called in. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Dressed in his doctor’s clothes, Dr. Kelly went into her room and recognized her at once. From that day on, he gave special attention to her, and decided to do his best to save her life.

At last the woman was saved. Dr. Kelly asked the business office to pass the final bill to him. He looked at it and then wrote something on the side. The bill was sent to the woman’s room. She was afraid to open it because she was sure that it would take the rest of her life to pay for it off. Finally she looked, and the note on the side of the bill caught her attention. She read these words:

“Paid in full with a glass of milk, Dr. Howard Kelly.”

Tear of joy flooded her eyes.

1.The boy sent newspapers door to door in order to ________.

A．continue his schooling

B．become a famous doctor

C．thank the woman for her kindness

D．support his poor family

2.Which is true about the boy and the woman?

A．He was too shy to ask her for some water.

B．She thought he was not hungry but thirsty.

C．She wanted him to pay for the glass of milk.

D．She never thought he would save her life later.

3.After Dr. Kelly knew who the woman was, he ________.

A．began to take good care of her himself

B．told her she once gave him a glass of milk

C．decided to try his best to save her

D．asked for her bill and paid it off at once

4.The best title for this passage is ________.

A．A Warm-hearted Woman	B．A Glass of Milk
C．The Final Bill	D．A Famous Doctor

 

It’s impossible to determine how many people would have lost their lives without the contribution of African-American inventor Dr Charles Drew.

Charles Drew was born on June 3, 1904, in Washington, DC. His early interest was in education, but he was also an outstanding athlete. While in college, he was awarded as the man who contributed the most to sports during his four years in school. Drew’s sister Elsie suffered from tuberculosis(肺结核) and died in 1920. Her death influenced his decision to study medicine.

After becoming a doctor and working as a college instructor, Drew went to Columbia University, where he earned his Doctor of Medical Science degree. During this time he became involved in research on blood and blood transfusions.

At Columbia, he wrote a paper on “banked blood”, in which he described a technique he developed for the long-term preservation of blood plasma. Before his discovery, blood could not be stored for more than two days because of the rapid breakdown of red blood cells. Drew had discovered that by separating the plasma from the whole blood and then refrigerating them separately, they could be combined a week later for a blood transfusion. Drew became the first African American to receive a PhD in medical science.

After World War II broke out, Drew was called upon to put his techniques into practice. He was named a project director for the American Red Cross but soon quit his post after the government issued an order that blood taken from white donors should be separated from that of black donors.

On April 1, 1950, after he attended the annual free clinic at the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital, he and other three physicians decided to drive back home. As he was tired from spending the night before in the operating room, he lost control of his car. Drew was badly injured and was taken to Alamance General Hospital in Burlington, North Carolina. He was pronounced dead half an hour after he first received medical attention. Drew's funeral was held on April 5, 1950, at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, DC.

But contrary to popular thought, he was not refused a blood transfusion by an all-white hospital. He indeed received a transfusion but was beyond the help of the doctors attending to him. As Dr. John Ford, one of the doctors who survived the accident, later explained, “We all received the very best of care. The fact that he was a Black did not in any way limit the care that was given to him.” Over the years, Drew has been considered one of the most honored figures in the medical field.

1.According to the passage, ________ might have contributed to the invention of blood banks.

A．the combination of blood cells

B．the rapid breakdown of red blood cells

C．the development of refrigerating technique

D．the technique of separating plasma from the whole blood

2.By saying “contrary to the popular thought” in the last paragraph, the writer _______.      

A．can’t understand the doctors’ decision

B．indicates his concern about the popular thought

C．feels disappointed with the all-white hospital

D．means what the doctors did was out of expectation

3.We can learn from the passage that Dr Charles Drew is best remembered by people as _______.       .

A．an outstanding athlete                   B．a college instructor

C．a medical researcher                    D．a project director

4.What conclusion can we draw from the passage?

A. Charles Drew died in a medical accident.

B. African Americans were still treated unfairly in the 1940s.

C. Charles Drew was the first African American to receive a PhD.

D. Physicians refused to give Charles Drew medical attention because he was a black.

5.In which section of a magazine can we most probably find the passage?

A．People           B．Health            C．Culture           D．Entertainment