When I was growing up, I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than most of the adults in our community.

　　When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a forest.

　　The good doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant care and growth. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them so that each successive tree generation would grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things rough for them and weed out(淘汰) the weaker trees early on.

He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of moisture. I took him to mean that deep roots were to be treasured.

　　So he never watered his trees. He planted an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he’d beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.

Dr. Gibbs passed away a couple of years after I left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re extremely tall, big and robust since they have deep roots now. However, the trees in my garden trembled in a cold wind although I had watered them for several years.

It seems that adversity(逆境) and suffering benefit these trees in ways comfort and ease never could. I stood there deep in thought.

　　Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But I think it’s time to change my prayer(禱詞) because now I know my children are going to encounter hardship..

According to Dr. Gibbs’ theories, trees will become weaker if they______

    A. are lack of care   B. are watered   C. are weeded out    D. are beaten

.According to Para.3 and Pare.4, we can infer that Dr. Gibbs’moto（座右銘）may be_____

     A. “seeing is believing”        B.“Put everything in proper use”

     C. ”Practice makes perfect”     D. “No pains, no gains”

.The underlined word robust in Para.5 most probably means______

      A. strong         B. strange         C. deep        D. old

Which of the following may be the author’s best prayer for his two sons now ?

  A. I wish them strong wings, with which they can fly higher and touch the sky.

  B.I wish them nice fortune so that they can meet people like Dr. Gibbs in the future.

  C.I wish them deep roots into the earth since the rains fall and the winds blow often.

  D.I wish them great shades under the tree since the sunlight is always sharp and bitter.

Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

   A. A Nice Doctor                      B. The Deep Roots  

C. Adversity and Suffering              D. My Childhood Memory

When we think about giving help to developing countries, we often think about giving money so that these countries can build schools and hospitals, buy food and medicine, or find clean water supplies. These seem to be the most important basic needs of the people we are trying to help. However, it's far from enough. Ladies and gentlemen, we've got to come up with some better ideas to help them.

I was very surprised, then, when I read about a plan to make cheap laptop computers for children in developing countries. A man called Nicholas Negroponte invented a cheap laptop computer, which can run without electricity. He decided to invent this computer after he visited a school in Cambodia.

The laptop which Mr. Negroponte has designed is a little different from the normal laptop computers you can buy in the shops. One difference is that it is covered in rubber so that it is very strong and won't be damaged easily. As an electricity supply can be a problem in developing countries, the computer also has a special handle so that children can wind the computer up to give it extra power when needed.

These special laptop computers will cost less than 100 US dollars and Mr. Negroponte wants to build as many as 15 million machines in the first year of production. The idea is that these computers will help the children's education as they will be able to access the Internet. These computers might not help the people in developing countries immediately, but by improving children's education they should help people to find their own solutions to their problems in the long term.

Another idea to help children in developing countries is to recycle old mobile phones so that they can be used again. In the UK, and, probably in many other countries too, millions of mobile phones are thrown away every year. The waste created by throwing away these old phones is very bad for the environment, so it seems to be an excellent idea to recycle them. In this way we will be able to achieve two important goals at the same time. We will reduce the waste we produce and help others. In other words, we will be able to 'kill two birds with one stone', and that is always a good thing.

It's an excellent idea to recycle old mobile phones because _______.

A. it reduces waste and can help others  

B. it prevents waste and can earn lots of money

C. it can send the waste produced by developed countries to other countries

D. it is good for the environment and very educative for phone users

The author gives the example of Mr. Negroponte's cheap computers _______.

A. to show what high tech can bring us.

B. to illustrate the kindness of people in the developed countries

C. to show how to find business opportunities in developing countries

D. to give an example of how to help developing countries

Which of the following statements is TRUE about Mr. Negroponte's cheap computers?

      A. His computers don’t need any power to function well.

      B. His computers are covered with rubber so that they are very cheap.

      C. His computers will help children in developing countries to have better education.

      D. His computers will help people in developing countries to find all the solutions.

Where does this passage probably come from?

      A. A magazine      B. A newspaper        C. A lecture          D. An advertisement

It may help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech. At some point in every speech, every speaker says something that is not understood exactly as he has planned. Fortunately, the moments are usually not obvious to the listeners. Why? Because the listeners do not know what the speaker plans to say. They hear only what the speaker does say. If you lose your place for a moment, wrongly change the order of a couple of sentences, or forget to pause at a certain point, no one will be any the wiser. When such moments occur, don’t worry about them. Just continue as if nothing happened.

   Even if you do make an obvious mistake during a speech, that doesn’t really matter .If you have ever listened to Martin Luther King’s famous speech — “ I have a dream”, you may notice that he stumbles（結(jié)巴）his words twice during the speech. Most likely, however, you don’t remember. Why? Because you were fixing your attention on his message rather than on his way of speech-making. People care a lot about making mistakes in a speech because they regard speech-making as a kind of performance rather than as an act of communication. They feel the listeners are like judges in an ice-skating competition. But, in fact, the listeners are not looking for a perfect performer. They are looking for a well-thought-out speech that expresses the speaker’s ideas clearly and directly. Sometimes a mistake or two can actually increase a speaker’s attractiveness by making him more human.

   As you work on your speech, don’t worry about being imperfect. Once you free your mind of this, you will find it much easier to give your speech freely.

The underlined part in the first paragraph means that no one will ______ .

   A. be smarter than you        

B. notice your mistakes

   C. do better than you         

D. know what you are talking about

You don’t remember obvious mistakes in a speech because ___________.

   A. your attention is on the content

   B. you don’t fully understand the speech

   C. you know what the speaker plans to say

   D. you find the way of speech-making more important

It can be inferred from the passage that ___________.

   A. giving a speech is like giving a performance

   B. one or two mistakes in a speech may not be bad

   C. the listeners should pay more attention to how a speech is made

   D. the more mistakes a speaker makes, the more attractive he will be

What would be the best title of the passage? 

   A. How to Be a Perfect Speaker        

B. How to Make a Perfect Speech

   C. Don’t Expect a Perfect Speech       

D. Don’t Expect Mistakes in a Speech

Which of the following statements is true?

   A. If you are careful enough, you can make a perfect speech.

   B. Speech-making is a kind of performance.

   C. Listeners are not judges and they pay more attention to the message.

   D. Martin Luther King is not a good speaker.

Never go into a supermarket hungry! This is a good piece of advice. If you go shopping for food before lunchtime, you’ll probably buy more than you plan to. Unfortunately, however, just this advice isn’t enough for consumers these days. Modern shoppers need an education in how and how not to buy things at the store. First, you check the weekly newspaper ads. Find out the items that are on sale and decide if you really need these things. In other words, don’t buy anything just because it’s cheaper than usual! “New and Improved!” or “All Natural” on the front of a package influence you. Instead, read the list of ingredients(contents) on the back. Third, compare prices: that is, you should examine the prices of both different brands and different sizes of the same brand.

Another suggestion for consumers is to buy ordinary items instead of famous brands. Ordinary items in supermarkets come in plain packages. These products are cheaper because producers don’t spend much money on packing or advertising. The quality, however, is usually as good as the quality of well-known name brands. In the same way, in buying clothes, you can often find high quality and low prices in brands that are not famous. Shopping in discount clothing stores can help you save a lot of money. Although these stores aren’t very attractive, and they usually do not have individual dressing rooms, not only are the prices low, but you can often find the same famous brands that you find in high-priced department stores.

Wise consumers read magazine ads and watch TV commercials, but they do this with one advantage: knowledge of the psychology behind the ads. In other words, well-informed consumers watch for information and check for misinformation. They ask themselves questions: Is the advertiser hiding something in small print at the bottom of the page? Is there any real information in the commercial, or is the advertiser simply showing an attractive image? With the answers to these questions, consumers can make a wise choice.

All the following statements are true about the phrase “ordinary items” in Paragraph 2 EXCEPT __________.

A. ordinary items never say “New and Improved” or “All Natural”

B. ordinary products are usually cheaper than famous brands

C. producers spend less money on packaging of ordinary items

D. the quality of ordinary items is usually as good as that of famous brands

What does the writer think about ads? __________

A. They are believable.          B. They are attractive.

C. They are full of misinformation.   D. They are helpful to consumers.

One of the author’s suggestions to consumers is __________.

A. to make use of ads             

B. not to buy items with words like “New and Improved” or “All Natural”

C. to buy high quality items such as famous brands after lunch

D. to buy any ordinary items instead of famous brands

The author implies that __________.

A. going into the supermarket hungry, you may buy more than you plan to

B. the quality of ordinary items is usually high and the prices are relatively low

C. discount clothing stores are good places to go to      

D. ads sometimes don’t tell the truth

Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive(欺騙)?When someone tells you something that is true，but leaves out important information that should be included. he can give you a false picture．

For example，someone might say，“I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery(彩票)．It was great．I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!”

This guy’s a winner，right? Maybe，maybe not．We then discover that he bought $ 200 worth of tickets，and only one was a winner．He’s really a big loser!

He didn’t say anything that was false，but he left out important information on

purpose．That’s called a half truth．Half truths are not technically lies，but they are

just as dishonest．

Some politicians often use this trick．Let’s say that during Governor Smith’s last

term，her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs．Then she seeks an

 other term．One of her opponents(對(duì)手)says，“During Governor Smith’s term，the

 state lost one million jobs!” That’s true．However，an honest statement would have

 been，“During Governor Smith's term，the state had a net gain of two million jobs．’’

Advertisers(廣告商)will sometimes use half—truths．It’s against the law to make

false statements so they try to mislead you with the truth．An advertisement might say，

“Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to  take Yucky Pills to cure toothache．”It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky

Company．

This kind of deception happens too often．It’s a sad fact of life：Lies are lies，and

sometimes the truth can 1ie as well．

How much did the lottery winner lose?

A．one hundred dollars．           B．Two hundred dollars．

C．Three hundred dollars．         D．Four hundred dollars．

We may infer that the author believes people should

A．buy lottery tickets if possible       B．make use of half—truths

C．be careful about what they are told   D．not trust the Yucky Company

What do the underlined words “net gain” in Paragraph 5 mean?

A．final increase                     B．big advantage

C．1arge share                      D．total number

What can we know from the example of the Yucky Pill advertisement?

A．False statements are easy to see through．

B．Half-truths are often used to mislead people．

C．Doctors like to act in advertisements．

D．Advertisements are based on facts．

How many examples does the writer give to show how the truth is used to deceive?

A．One．    B．Two．    C．Three．  D．Four．

Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．Using half truths is against the law．

B．Technically，half truths are in fact lies．

C．Yucky Pills is a very good medicine for toothache．

D．Governor Smith did a good job during her last term．

Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A．He’s really a big loser!

B．Sometimes the truth can lie as well．

C．Advertisers will sometimes use half truths．

D．It’s against the law to make false statements．