Leehom Wang（王力宏）is different from other pop singers. He has a lot of musical talent. He can play the violin, the drums and the piano.

However, this time it is his environmentally-friendly behavior that is making him stand out. When his latest album Change Me came out, Wang used recycled paper rather than plastie to package his album and went by bicycle to the press conference.  “Everyone can make the world a better place on a daily basis,” he said.

Wang gives 10 pieces of advice in his new album. For example, he suggests that the temperature of an air-conditioner（空調(diào)）should not be lower than 28 ℃.

Wang has Captured the hearts of millions of fans by singing, dancing, acting, composing songs, and working as a producer of many major records.  “I admire Wang for his sense of duty, responsibility and hard work,” said Li Xiaoshan, 17, who traveled from Nanjing to see Wang when he was in Beijing to promote （促銷）his new CD.

Wang has established himself as a versatile （多才多藝的）musician in the pop scene and a good role model for Chinese youths around the world. He grew up in New York and first became fascinated at the sight of a violin at the age of six. His ambition has always been to be a musician. However, this was not what his parents’ wanted. They hoped he would be a doctor, which they saw as a steady and well-paid job.

Decisions about what Wang should do when he was older created tension in his family. So Wang decided to study biology at university to please his parents. But while he was studying, he continued practising singing and dancing and finally landed a record contract, which was the beginning of his career.

1. Wang rode a bicycle to attend the press conference ________.

A. to avoid the traffic jams              B. to show off his cycling skills

    C. to cut down on the cost of trips        D. to show his environmental awareness

2. Li Xiaoshan travelled to Beijing ________.

    A. to buy Wang’s latest album           B. to promote his own new CD

    C. to welcome Wang’s new album        D. to make friends with Wang’s fans

3. Why did Wang’s parents intend him to become a doctor?

A. Doctors have a big and stable salary.   

B. Doctors enjoy a high social status.

C. It is easy for doctors to become famous.

D. It is doctors’ duty to save lives.

4. What can we learn from Leehom Wang’s story?

    A. Diligence is the mother of good fortune.

    B. The wisest men follow their own direction.

    C. Determination today leads to success tomorrow.

D. Other people’s opinion of you does not have to become your reality.

I grew up in a small town. My father raised chickens and ran a construction company. I was barely 10 years old when my dad gave me the responsibility (責(zé)任) of feeding the chickens and cleaning up the stable. He believed it was important for me to have those jobs to learn responsibility. Then, when I was 22, I found a job in Natchbill at a country music club called the Natchbill Palace, I washed dishes and cooked from 4: 00 pm to 9: 00 pm and then went on stage and sang until 2:00 in the morning. It wasn’t long before I became known as a singing cook. I had been rejected so many times by record companies that it was hard not to be discouraged. One night, a woman executive (懂事) from a company named Warner Brothers Records came to hear me sing. When the show was over, we sat down and talked and after she left, I said to myself it was one more rejection. A few weeks later, my manager received a phone call — Warner Brothers wanted to sign me to a record deal. Soon after, I released my first record in June 1986. It sold over 2 million copies. My best efforts had gone into every job I’ve ever held. It was the sense of responsibility that made me feel like a man. Knowing that I had done my best filled me with pride. I still feel that way today, even though I have become a well-known singer.

Why was the writer once known as the singing cook?

A. Because he was a cook at a country-music club.

B. Because he sang for guests while he worked as a cook.

C. Because he often sang while cooking.

D. Because he liked singing better than cooking.

Who first recognized his talents and helped make his career successful?

A. Wamer Brothers.                    B. His manager.    

C. His father.                              D. A businesswoman.

What made the writer proud of himself?

A. His ability to live independently.

B. His sense of responsibility in whatever he did.

C. His courage in the face of rejections.

D. His hard work in his early days.

Franz Kafka wrote that “a book must be the ax (斧子) for the frozen sea inside us. ”I once shared this sentence with a class of seventh graders, and it didn’t seem to require any explanation.

We’d just finished John Steinbeck’s novel Of Mice and Men. When we read the end together out loud in class, my toughest boy, a star basketball player, wept a little, and so did I. “Are you crying?” one girl asked, as she got out of her chair to take a closer look. “I am,” I told her, “and the funny thing is I’ve read it many times.”

But they understood. When George shoots Lennie, the tragedy is that we realize it was always going to happen. In my 14 years of teaching in a New York City public middle school, I’ve taught kids with imprisoned parents, abusive parents, irresponsible parents; kids who are parents themselves; kids who are homeless; kids who grew up in violent neighborhoods. They understand, more than I ever will, the novel’s terrible logic—the giving way of dreams to fate (命運(yùn)).

For the last seven years, I have worked as a reading enrichment teacher, reading classic works of literature with small groups of students from grades six to eight. I originally proposed this idea to my headmaster after learning that a former excellent student of mine had transferred out of a selective high school—one that often attracts the literary-minded children of Manhattan’s upper classes—into a less competitive setting. The daughter of immigrants, with a father in prison, she perhaps felt uncomfortable with her new classmates. I thought additional “cultural capital” could help students like her develop better in high school, where they would unavoidably meet, perhaps for the first time, students who came from homes lined with bookshelves, whose parents had earned Ph. Ds.

Along with Of Mice and Men, my groups read: Sounder, The Red Pony, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth. The students didn’t always read from the expected point of view.   About The Red Pony, one student said, “it’s about being a man, it’s about manliness.”I had never before seen the parallels between Scarface and Macbeth, nor had I heard Lady Macbeth’s soliloquies (獨(dú)白) read as raps (說(shuō)唱), but both made sense; The interpretations were playful, but serious. Once introduced to Steinbeck’s writing, one boy went on to read The Grapes of Wrath and told me repeatedly how amazing it was that “all these people hate each other, and they’re all white.” His historical view was broadening, his sense of his own country deepening. Year after year, former students visited and told me how prepared they had felt in their first year in college as a result of the classes.

Year after year, however, we are increasing the number of practice tests. We are trying to teach students to read increasingly complex texts, not for emotional punch (碰撞) but for text complexity. Yet, we cannot enrich (充實(shí)) the minds of our students by testing them on texts that ignore their hearts. We are teaching them that words do not amaze but confuse. We may succeed in raising test scores, but we will fail to teach them that reading can be transformative and that it belongs to them.

1.The underlined words in Paragraph 1 probably mean that a book helps to __________.

A．realize our dreams                      B．give support to our life

C．smooth away difficulties                  D．a(chǎn)wake our emotions

2.Why were the students able to understand the novel Of Mice and Men?

A．Because they spent much time reading it.

B．Because they had read the novel before.

C．Because they came from a public school.

D．Because they had similar life experiences.

3.The girl left the selective high school possibly because__________.

A．she was a literary-minded girl              B．her parents were immigrants

C．she couldn’t fit in with her class           D．her father was then in prison

4.To the author’s surprise, the students read the novels__________.

A．creatively         B．passively          C．repeatedly        D．carelessly

5.The author writes the passage mainly to__________.

A．introduce classic works of literature

B．a(chǎn)dvocate(倡導(dǎo)) teaching literature to touch the heart

C．a(chǎn)rgue for equality among high school students

D．defend the current testing system

Mark Twain was a great writer. He was from the USA. He was born in 1835. He was also a famous speaker. He was famous for his sense of humour（幽默感）. Many people liked to listen to him talk because he liked to tell some interesting stories to make people laugh all the time.

　　   One day Mark Twain was going to a small town because of his writing. Before he was going to leave, one of his friends said to him that there were always a lot of mosquitoes in the town and told him that he’d better not go there. Mark Twain waved (搖動(dòng)) his hand and said, “It doesn’t matter. The mosquitoes are no relatives of mine. I don’t think they will come to visit me.”

   　　After he arrived at the town, Mark Twain stayed in a small hotel near the station. He went into his room, but when he was just about to have a rest, quite a few（許多） mosquitoes flew about him. The waiters felt very sorry about that. “I’m very sorry, Mr. Mark Twain. There are too many mosquitoes in our town.” One of them said to him.

   　　Mark Twain, however, made a joke, saying to the waiter, “The mosquitoes are very clever. They know my room number. They didn’t come into the wrong room.” What he said made all the people present laugh heartily.

   　　But that night Mark Twain slept well. Do you know why? That was because all the waiters in the hotel were driving the mosquitoes away for him during the whole night.

1..That day Mark Twain went to the town _____.

     A. to see one of his friends

     B. because he wanted to do something there for his writing

     C. because he was told there were a lot of mosquitoes there

     D. to see one of his relatives

2.. The waiters felt sorry because _____.

     A. they did something wrong to Mark Twain

     B. their hotel was too small

     C. the room was not very clean

     D. there were quite a few mosquitoes in Mark Twain’s room

3.. All the people present laughed heartily because _____.

     A. the mosquitoes were very clever and they didn’t come into the wrong room

     B. the mosquitoes knew Mark Twain’s room number

     C. Mark Twain gave the waiters some nice presents

     D. Mark Twain made a joke

4.. From the story we know _____.

     A. no mosquitoes troubled Mark Twain in the night

     B. the owner of the hotel told the waiters to look after Mark Twain well at night

     C. Mark Twain didn’t have a good rest that night

     D. there were not mosquitoes in the hotel any longer

His first baby was born soon after he got married, which seemed to have _____his sense of responsibility.

1. A.
   brought down
2. B.
   brought out
3. C.
   turned down
4. D.
   turned out