测验开始到现在时间为：

Passage One

 Pioneers' lives were different from the lives of many people today. Any neighbors they had usually lived many miles away. There were no football or basketball games. There were no teams to play these sports. There were no movies or TV. There were almost no books or newspapers to read.

 Sometimes they got together. Just being together was an adventure. Everything people did together, and even work was fun. It was an exciting treat to be with other families. So it was natural that the pioneers found some time to play when they got together to work. When a family had a big job to be done, neighbors would gather from great distances to help. They called this gathering a "bee".

 The pioneers had many kinds of bees. In the spring they gathered to help each other plow the land and plant the fields. In the fall, when harvest time came, they helped each other again.

 Sometimes the women and girls gathered for quilting or sewing bees. While they sewed they visited. They told each other what had happened to them in the days they had been alone. When they finished, they had quilts and clothes to keep their families warm.

 A house-raising was one of the best gatherings. When a family needed a house or barn, everyone from miles around came to help. The men and boys worked hard all day to lay the logs. Then they put on the roof, covered the windows and made the door. Meanwhile the women cooked big meals for the hungry workers and the small children played.

 After the house was raised or the work was done, everyone was ready to have a good time. While they were eating supper, many tales and jokes were told. After supper they enjoyed contests, singing and dancing.

( 301 words )

1. Which of the following is NOT true with the pioneers ?( B )

(a) They lived a long distance from each other.

(b) They didn't have modern entertainment.

(c) There were no books or newspapers.

(d) There were no football or basketball games.    　

2. For the pioneers to be together was an adventure because ________.( D )

(a) they didn't like living by themselves

(b) they found being together would strengthen their friendship

(c) something unusual might occur when they were together

(d) it was an unusual event to be together

3. According to the text, "bee" means ________. ( D )

(a) covering a long distance

(b) having a treat

(c) offering help

(d) gathering together

4.A quilting bee could enable women and girls to accomplish all of the following except ________. ( A )

(a) cooking meals

(b) making quilts

(c) getting or giving information

(d) maintaining friendly relationships

5. The topic of the passage is: ________.( C )

(a) hardships of pioneers' life

(b) inconvenience of pioneers' life

(c) bees for the pioneers

(d) fun of gathering for the pioneers

TOP 

Passage Two

June 26

Last night when I was reading before the fire, a strange noise on the porch outside announced an unexpected visitor. When I looked up from the page, I came face to face with a bear looking in the window. It stood on its back legs, only a thin pane of glass between us. I grabbed the fire poker and ran up into the loft (阁楼), pulling the ladder up behind me.

The bear must have been as frightened of me as I was of him because I heard him dash off the porch. I waited a while, went quickly back down to put out the lamp, then back up again. I kept the ladder upstairs all night and slept badly, thinking the bear would be back any minute.

July 9

The bear or bears were back last night. They didn't get the little food I had left, but they did clamber about on the porch. I discovered claw marks on the wooden board that I had fixed over the window...

July 12

...I ran into a bear cub this afternoon. On my way to the car we just crossed each other's path. I could have reached out and stroked him. In fact, this was my first reaction, he looked so friendly and cuddly (让人想拥抱的). Fortunately, I knew better, one thing I learnt from a Disney film: never play with a bear cub because the mama is always nearby. She was. I saw her cross the creek and move up the hill as I ran to the car and shut the door behind me ...

(265 words)

TOP

Passage Three

Childhood was an illusion (幻觉) and the illusion was this: everything was bigger. No, I mean everything, not just houses and shops and grown-ups, but colors and flowers and journeys, especially journeys which seemed endless. "Are we there yet, Daddy?"

Funfairs (儿童游乐场) were huge things that spread for miles around you with noise and lights and exciting danger. Rainy days at home when you were ill seemed to last for ever. Being an adult yourself was an unthinkable distant possibility. Every sound was louder, every game was grander, every pain unbearable.

As I've grown old, life has become smaller. Flavors (风味） have dulled. Surprises have turned into shocks. Days are boring. How can I recapture childhood when it was an illusion?

I have only one precious way and even in this way I can regain only the echoes of that larger world. I can play upon the stage like a child, make the crowd laugh and laugh with them, sometimes helplessly like a child, and then, even though I'm a sixty-one-year-old, I can almost catch the colors and sounds and silliness of those bigger years when I was little.

(189 words)  

11. When the speaker says that childhood was an illusion he means that ________ . ( C )

(a) the illusion made houses, shops and grown-ups bigger

(b) children had a wrong idea about houses, shops and grown-ups

(c) everything, such as colors, flowers and journeys, seemed to be more wonderful to a child

(d) colors, flowers and journeys were strange to children

12. To the speaker funfairs were very big things that ________.     ( C )

(a) spread too far

(b) were very dangerous

(c) were noisy and exciting

(d) were hard to understand

13. When the speaker was a child, he thought that ________. ( B )

(a) being an adult was something in the distant future

(b) being an adult was something too distant to be real

(c) it was not good to grow up

(d) it was not easy for a child to bear pain

14. From the passage it can probably be inferred that the speaker is ______. ( C )

(a) a sick old man

(b) a theatergoer

(c) an actor entertaining the audience

(d) a man helpless among the crowd

15. The topic of the passage is ________. ( D )

TOP