It is not a secret that these are turbulent times that put everyone on edge all the time and it makes people angry with their families, co-workers, friends and relatives, frustrated (沮丧的)and highly annoyed just for the noise of the neighbors or the music coming from the opposite house. Anger and negative energy have a strong influence on everyone’s life, even when they don’t realize it.
Being in a calm state of mind is simply wonderful. Results of this can be seen when parents no longer shout at their children over any small thing and when one can keep him cool when bad things happen and doesn’t let the situation become worse by his negative influence.
Also results can be seen on a larger scale. In 1993 a very interesting scientific experiment called The US Transcendental Meditation experiment was conducted in Washington. A company called TM got 4,000 calm and relaxed people to simply sit and meditate (冥想) in a central Washington convention center. The results of this experiment showed that during those particular 8 weeks, violent crimes, such as murder, rape, assaults, clearly decreased by as much as 23%.
This is evident proof that meditation can change the state of mind, bring back peace of mind and collective meditation is contagious (蔓延的), just as anything done collectively is contagious. For example, a person has the urge to become aggressive (while in normal circumstances that person is very calm and normal), just because he is sitting at a stadium watching a football game and everyone around is shouting and is aggressive.
Isn’t increasing the quality of life worth spending 20 minutes of time on meditation? Yes, very few people follow through with a meditation method that should be a joy to do. Many start and leave it after only a few sessions.
So if collective meditation has proven that meditation works, that it calms people down and that it brings their levels of stress down, why not employ it in everyday life?
【小题1】The underlined word “turbulent” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “     ”.

A．changeless

B．disorderly

C．perfect

D．expected

【小题2】According to Paragraph 3, the scientific experiment      .

A．was to test whether meditation is useful

B．was conducted throughout America

C．asked the participants to do a lot of sports

D．had no particular requirements on the participants

【小题3】Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

A．Violent crimes are closely related to aggressive characters.

B．People are sometimes easily annoyed by small things.

C．Many people fail to carry out a meditation method.

D．Meditation can cure people of many illnesses.

Three Cups of Tea is the true story of our time. In 1993, a young American mountain climber named Greg Mortenson walks into a tiny village high in Pakistan’s beautiful and poor Karakoram Himalaya region. Sick, exhausted, and depressed after failing to climb the summit of K2, Mortenson regains his strength and his will to live due to the generosity of the people of the village of Korphe. Before he leaves, he makes a promise that will completely change both the villagers’ lives and his own—he will return and build them a school.

       The book describes how Mortenson kept this promise and many more in the high country of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The region is remote and dangerous as a breeding ground (滋生地) for terrorists. In the course of his work, Mortenson was taken prisoner and threatened with death. He suffered from local opposition, deep misunderstandings, jealousy, not to mention dangerous roads and extreme weather. But he believed strongly that balanced, non-extremist education, for boys and girls alike, is the most effective way to fight the violent discrimination that breeds terrorism. Today, Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute has constructed fifty-five schools, and his work continues.

       Mortenson first approached Karakoram as a climber and he never lost the mountaineer’s appreciation for the region’s simple beauty and incredible physical challenges. His coauthor(合著者) David Oliver Relin skillfully described high-altitude landscapes. Gradually he transformed himself from a poor climber to a director of a helpful institute.

       In the course of this description, readers come to know Mortenson as a friend, a husband and father, a traveling companion, a son and brother, and also as an imperfect human being. Relin does not shy away from describing the man’s annoying qualities—his impatience, disorganization and sleeplessness. But Mortenson never asks others to make sacrifices that he has not already made himself time and time again.

       Pakistan and Afghanistan appear in the news as the breeding grounds of terrorist training camps. In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson and Relin take readers behind the headlines to reveal the true heart and soul of this region and to show how one man’s promise might be enough to change the world.

Greg Mortenson promised to build a school for the villagers of Korphe to _________.

A. show admiration for the region’s beauty         B. show appreciation for their generosity

C. remember his physical challenges                  D. promote his strength and will to live

Greg Mortenson has devoted so much to building schools because he believes that ________.

A. both boys and girls should be fairly educated

B. people there must suffer a lot from terrorist attacks

C. people there have to deal with opposition and misunderstandings

D. education is the best way to fight discrimination that leads to terrorism

The passage seems to think that the coauthor David Oliver Relin is ________.

A. straightforward and honest                          B. unhappy with Greg’s behaviours

C. good at describing a character                     D. embarrassed to admit Greg’s mistake

The writing purpose of the book Three Cups of Tea is to _______.

A. reveal the breeding grounds of terrorism       

B. share the true beauty of the region

C. show the great power of one’s promise  

D. inspire others to make sacrifices

下面短文中共有10处错误，错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。

增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（∧），并在此符号下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分

Grandma Moses was crazy about painting soon before she picked it up and worked hard at it．She painted careful and her works were nice．She first painted only to please her, and then began to sell her works with a little money．In 1993, a collector, Louis Caldor happen to see several of Grandma Moses’ work hanging in a shop．He liked them, buying them at once, and set out to look for less．Caldor held a show to introduce the works of Grandma Moses other artists．Grandma Moses, who was world-famous, was died on December 13, 1961, at the age of 101．

 

A pair of pandas being lent by China to Japan was set to arrive in Tokyo's Ueno Zoo in the Japanese capital and raising hopes that the animals may help improve bilateral (双边的)ties.

Bi Li and his female partner, Xian Nu, both 5, were  due  to  touch  down  at  Narita international Airport in Tokyo on a flight from Shanghai.

Together with their keeper, the pair were transferred from Chengdu, to Shanghai on Monday morning, said Li Desheng, deputy chief of the Wolong Nature Reserve.

The pair, which are young adults, will be the first pandas at Ueno Zoo since April 2008, when the institution's beloved Ling Ling died.

Ueno Zoo had spent 90 million yen ($1.1 million) installing under-floor heating, a playground with a sandbox and landscaping.

The pair will dine on rare bamboo from the central Japanese mountain of Izu that is similar to what they are used to at home in China.

The zoo's first pair of pandas arrived in 1972, marking the normalization of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Expectations are running high that the pandas that will stay in Japan for 10 years will boost the local economy and improve troubled relations between Tokyo and Beijing.

Business and tourism officials expect them to bring in around 20 billion yen a year, or 10 percent of the local economy.

In 1993, a year after Ling Ling arrived in the zoo, an additional 1 million people visited the attraction. Visitors have fallen to around 3 million a year from 3.5 million since Ling Ling's death.

Since a boat collision near the Diaoyu Islands in September, Sino-Japanese relations have been at a low point. The media outlets expressed hope that bilateral relations will improve with the arrival of the pandas.

1.The passage mainly tells us         .    

A. a pair of pandas was lent to Japan by China

B. the pair of pandas from China brought hope of improving Sino-Japanese relations

C. the normalization of diplomatic ties between China and Japan

D. sino-Japanese relations have been at a low point since the Diaoyu Island incident

2.en the pair of pandas arrives in Japan,         .   

A. an additional 1 million people will visit the zoo

B. they will eat what they are used to from China

C. they will stay there for 10 years

D. they will be the first pandas at Ueno Zoo

3.According to the passage, we know that Ling Ling stayed in Japan for about         .  

A. 5 years              B. 10 years         C. 15 years        D. 20 years

4.What does the underlined phrase "touch down" probably mean ?   

A. take off             B. land              C. come up         D. meet

5. The arriving of the pandas is expected to bring several positive effects except         . 

A. boosting the local economy

B. improving the troubled relations between China and Japan

C. bringing in around 20 billion yen a year

D. attracting 3.5 million visitors from China

 

短文改错（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文，请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误，每句中最多两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。

增加: 在此处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出修改的词。

删除: 把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。

修改: 在错的词下划一横线，并在其下面写出修改后的词。

注意: 1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

     2．只允许修改10处，多者（从11处起）不计分。

Grandma Moses was crazy about painting soon before she picked it up and worked hard at

it．She painted careful and her works were nice．She first painted only to please oneself, and

then began to sell her works with a little money．In 1993, a collector, Louis Caldor happen to

see several of Grandma Moses’ work hanging in a shop．He liked them, buying them at once,

and set out to look for less．Caldor held a show to introduce the works of Grandma Moses

other artists．Grandma Moses, who was world-famous, was died on December 13, 1961, at

the age of 101．