What would you do if you were a fifth grader ...

What would you do if you were a fifth grader facing a huge homework load every night, and you found out that there was a machine that would do all the work for you? That's the situation presented to Sam, Kelsey, Judy and Brenton in Dan Gutman's entertaining new book for young readers, The Home Machine.

The four children, all fifth graders in Miss Rasmussen's Grand Canyon School, are as different as any other 11-year-old child could be, but they have one thing in common — all are somewhat separated from their classmates. Sam is a newcomer and has had his share of school trouble before; Kelsey quietly carries her pain at losing her father; Judy's sense of justice always annoys others; Brenton is the smartest child in the school, so smart that even his parents and teachers have trouble keeping up with him. When Brenton and his three classmates are put into the same study group by their teacher, the others discover that Brenton has made a time-saving gadget(装置) to do homework for him. While the boy is perfectly able to do his homework himself, Sam, Kelsey and Judy can use the help.

Having perfect grades is something new for these three, and as they meet every day to "do homework", they find that they're learning a lot about each other. Such a good thing can't last though, and when a secret man starts trying to get in touch with them, they begin to get nervous. Soon there's an even more frightening problem ― why can't the Homework Machine be turned off?

Told in different voices as all the children make statements to the Grand Canyon Police, the story develops in an interesting fashion. Gutman is a gifted writer who has written dozens of children's books, each with a funny and impressing table that should be equally liked by boys and girls.

1. What is one common thing that all the four children have to deal with at school?

A. Getting along with their classmates.

B. Doing their homework by themselves.

C. Overcoming difficulties on their own.

D. Catching up with others to get good grades.

2. Which of the following words best describe Brenton?

A. Strange and nervous.                        B. Quiet and smart.

C. Brave and special.                        D. Clever and helpful.

3. Why did the children get frightened?

A. They lost touch with each other.

B. They were questioned by a strange man.

C. They had no idea how to stop the machine.

D. They were tracked down by the police.

4. This passage most probably comes from             .

A. a student's diary        B. a book review        C. a school report        D. a science story

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Whatwould you do if you were a fifth grader facing a huge homework load every night, and you found out that there was a machine that would do all the work for you? That’s the situation presented to Sam, Kelsey, Judy and Brenton in Dan Gutman’s entertaining new book for young readers, The Homework Machine.

The four children, all fifth graders in Miss Rasmussen’s class at Grand Canyon School, are as different as any four 11-year-olds could be, but they have one thing in common — all are somewhat separated from their classmates. Sam is a newcomer and has had his share of school trouble before; Kelsey quietly carries her pain at losing her father; Judy’s sense of justice (正义感) always annoys others; and Brenton…well, he is another story entirely. Brenton is easily the smartest child in school, so smart that even his parents and teachers have trouble keeping up with him. When Brenton and his three classmates are put into the same study group by their teacher, the others discover that Brenton has made a time-saving gadget (装置) to do his homework for him. While the boy genius(天才) is perfectly able to do the homework himself, Sam, Kelsey and Judy could use the help.

Having perfect grades is something new for these three, and as they meet every day to “do homework”, they find that they’re learning a lot — about each other. Such a good thing can’t last though, and when a secret man starts trying to get in touch with them, the children begin to get nervous. Soon there’s an even more frightening problem — why can’t the Homework Machine be turned off?

Told in different voices (as all the children make statements to the Grand Canyon Police), the story develops in an interesting fashion. Gutman is a gifted who has written dozens of children’s books, each with a funny and impressing tale that should be equally liked by boys and girls.

1.What type of text is it?

A. A book review.　　　　　　　　　　 B. A school report

C. A science story　　　　　　　　　　 D. A student’s diary

2.What is one common thing that all four children have to deal with at school?

A. Getting along with classmates.

B. Overcoming sad feelings.

C. Following school rules.

D. Keeping good grades

3.What can we learn about Brenton?

A. He is careless.　　　　　　 B. He is clever.

C. He is brave.　　　　　　　 D. He is quiet.

4.Why did the children get frightened?

A. They had no idea how to stop the machine.

B. They lost the connection with each other.

C. They were questioned by a strange man.

D. They were tracked down by the police.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

If you were given a chance to choose your favorite life metaphor(比喻), what would it be? Do you agree with Forrest Gump’s mother that life is “a box of chocolates” because “you never know what you’re going to get”? Or do you prefer the phrase from the 1930’s song that “life is just a bowl of cherries(樱桃)”? Though simply stated, each conveys a very different view. A “box” implies mystery, because we don’t know what is in a closed box. Meanwhile, a “bowl” of cherries is completely in view.

For many centuries, the metaphor of life that probably burst into most people’s mind was the one suggested by Shakespeare: “All of life is a stage…” On that stage, we take seven roles. More recently, psychologist Erik Erikson took up the idea of life as a stage. Erikson regarded development as a “powerful unfolding” in which we are driven from one stage to the next as our bodies, minds, and social roles develop.

Stage metaphors fit with many of our common-sense ideas about change, but the problem with the stage metaphor is that it isn’t particularly accurate. None of the studies that try to clarify the universality of adult life stages actually studied people as they developed over time. All of them were based on performances of their samples(样本) at one point in time. People’s actual lives don’t fit into these stage metaphors. They don’t automatically transform when people reach a certain age. Instead, people’s real lives are messy, unpredictable, and full of surprises.

Today, I’d like to focus on an even longer study, an 80-year study which is the subject of a recent book by Howard Friedman and Leslie Martin. Their final chapter summarizes the “many changes of healthy and unhealthy pathways” that their participants took over the course of their lives. As I too discovered in my research, the pathway provides a perfect metaphor of human development. We don’t all go down the same road marked with the same signposts based on age. People travel through diverse routes as they track the years of adulthood. Friedman and Martin use health and long life as their measure; I’ve used sense of achievement. In both cases, we are in perfect agreement in evaluating development not according to age but “the key features of life”.

The paths that Friedman and Martin describe seize the changes that characterize people as they age. Some examples are “The High Road” (reliable, full of plans); “Not Easy Street” (exposed to high stress throughout life), “Catastrophe Lane” (a downwardly twisty life); “Happy Trails to You” (cheerful, sociable), “The Road to Resilience” (able to handle stress with a strong will). Though I haven’t yet been able to follow my participants for 80 years, I too saw some of these pathways among my samples: “The Minding Way” , “The Downward Slope” , “The Straight and Narrow Path” , and “The Successful Trail”.

The pathway metaphor gives you hope for changing the direction of your life if you are unhappy with it so far. You can’t stop the clock from ticking the minutes between one birthday and the next, but you can adjust the road that you’re on by changing yourself, your situation, or both.

1.The author introduces the topic of the passage in the first paragraph by ______.

A. making comparisons B. giving examples

C. describing scenes　　 D. providing explanations

2.According to the passage, the “stage metaphor” ______.

A. leads to misunderstandings

B. is used in memory of Shakespeare

C. doesn’t exactly reflect one’s real life

D. hasn’t enough stages to clarify life changes

3.The author is convinced of the life metaphor Friedman and Martin suggest because she ______.

A. spent less time on her research B. has found their book a bestseller

C. considers their measure more scientific D. got a similar finding to theirs

4.When a person is facing difficulties bravely, which metaphor can best describe him?

A. “Not Easy Street” B. “Happy Trails to You”

C. “Catastrophe Lane” D. “The Road to Resilience”

5.What does the passage focus on?

A. The pathway as a perfect life metaphor.

B. Various views on life metaphors.

C. The stage as a common life metaphor.

D. Different kinds of life metaphors.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

What would you do if you were lost in the dark forest at night? The first sensible lesson is that you shouldn’t bother trying to find your way in the dark at all, but just stay where you are until dawn. Because then you won’t trip over things? No, mainly because you’ll have an idea of direction. The sun rises in the east. But you will be amazed at how many people forget they know that. Apparently, the area underneath a holly bush provides a good makeshift shelter — they are thick, and evergreen. The next thing to do — or rather not to do — is panic, for the obvious reason that unless there is someone there to hear you scream, it will get you nowhere. Just try to think of nice, happy things.

There is always a point in films when a person who is lost in the desert or the snow, dehydrated (脱水的) and exhausted, comes across a set of their own footprints and realizes they have just walked in a huge, round circle. It is wrong to owe it to the unequal strengths or different lengths of your legs. Experiments prove that, without the sun or the moon (or landmarks) as a fixed guide, lots of small errors add up over time so the brain can’t correctly identify the “straight ahead” direction. To just get out of somewhere, pick a spot on the horizon and just head for it.

There are several ways to find directions in the dark, and by far the best is to establish north using the stars. Most people can identify the Plough, which is part of Ursa Major. It looks a lot like a saucepan. The Plough rotates（旋转）through the sky, but let’s imagine the saucepan lying horizontally (水平地), with its handle on the left. You need to trace a line from the star at the right-hand base of the pan, through the star at the right-hand rim (边沿), and follow it upwards; the north star is roughly five times the distance between those two “pointer” stars. Then drop a vertical line from the North Star to the horizon and that’s north.

“Tonight is very cloudy and I can’t see the Plough.” Maybe luckily, it is quite windy. Keep in mind that almost all of our weather comes from a south-westerly direction. (This only works if you are in the British Isles). To find the direction, you can throw light bits of dried-out grass in the air and see which way they blow; or, if there are clouds and patches of clear sky, see which way they blow across the stars. You can also get an idea of direction from leggy plants. If they look as if they have been blown over, they will probably be pointing north-east. If they are simply leaning in one direction as they grow, there’s a good chance that is south (they will be reaching towards the sun). The last thing to do is to judge your direction and off you go.

What might be the best title of the passage?

A. How to survive in the forest

B. How to protect yourself in the forest

C. How to direct your way out of the wild

D. What to do if you are lost

【小题２】Which of the following pictures matches the description of the position of the north star?

【小题３】Why will people often walk in a circle if they are lost in the desert or the snow?

A. Because without anything to refer to for directions, the brain will be confused by errors.

B. Because one of the legs is longer and stronger than the other.

C. Because the desert or the snow usually covers a large area for people to get across.

D. Because people usually feel dehydrated and exhausted in the desert or the snow.

【小题４】If you were lost in Taklimakan Desert in China, _________ would NOT be dependable for you to identify the directions.

A. the sun           B. the North Star        C. wind         D. the moon

高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

What would you do if you had $5, but were limited to two hours to make as much money as possible? Buy a lottery ticket. While this is the most _______ suggestion from people, it means a significant risk in return for a _______ chance.

Tina Selling, who invented the_______ for her students of Stanford University, has a _______ story to tell.

Selling gave each of the fourteen teams a sealed envelope that contains five dollars of “seed funding”. They were, _______ to spend as much time planning, but once they had _______ the envelope they then had two hours to make as much money as possible. The next week, each team were to _______ their project in a three-minute presentation.

It _______ that most of the 14 teams didn’t use the five dollars _______. They realized that focusing on the ________ actually limited the way of solving the problem too tightly. They understood that five dollars is essentially ________ and decided to reinterpret the problem more ________: what can be done if ________ with absolutely nothing?

The average ________ on the five dollar investment was 4,000 times! So what did they ________ do?

One team started a stand on campus to check the bike tire ________for free and charged $1 to refill tires. Another team made ________ at busy restaurants and then sold each of them for up to twenty dollars to customers who didn’t want to ________ line. The team who made the greatest ________ sold their presentation time to a company that wanted to employ them to advertise. They ________ a good business for that company in the three-minute presentation and brought in $ 650,000.

1.A.fancy B.useful C.common D.interesting

2.A.slim B.big C.hopeful D.possible

3.A.form B.challenge C.plan D.method

4.A.funny B.shocking C.dull D.cool

5.A.advised B.forced C.permitted D.determined

6.A.opened B.lost C.got D.posted

7.A.study B.complete C.report D.limit

8.A.pointed out B.turned out C.brought about D.came about

9.A.at all B.after all C.accidentally D.strangely

10.A.envelope B.result C.classroom D.money

11.A.anything B.something C.nothing D.everything

12.A.accurately B.broadly C.patiently D.slowly

13.A.dealing B.working C.meeting D.beginning

14.A.number B.return C.expense D.score

15.A.actually B.roughly C.merely D.generally

16.A.air B.quality C.pressure D.size

17.A.snacks B.decisions C.appointments D.reservations

18.A.sit B.take C.serve D.wait

19.A.profit B.progress C.promise D.present

20.A.had B.created C.sold D.ran

高三英语完形填空困难题查看答案及解析

What would you do if you had $5, but were limited to two hours to make as much money as possible? Buy a lottery ticket. While this is the most ______suggestion from people, it means a significant risk in return for a ______chance.

Tina Selling, who invented the ______for her students of Stanford University, has a ______story to tell.

Selling gave each of the fourteen teams a sealed envelope that contains five dollars of “seed funding”. They were ______to spend as much time planning, but once they had ______the envelop they then had two hours to make as much money as possible. The next week, each team were to ______their project in a three-minute presentation.

It ______that most of the 14 teams didn’t use the five dollars ______. They realized that focusing on the ______actually limited the problem way too tightly. They understood that five dollars is essentially ______and decided to reinterpret the problem more ______: what can be done if ______with absolutely nothing?

The average ______on the five dollar investment was 4,000 percent! So what did they ______do?

One team started a stand on campus to check bike tire ______for free and charged $1to refill tires. Another team made ______at busy restaurants and then sold each of them for up to twenty dollars to customers who didn’t want to ______inline. The team who made the greatest ______sold their presentation time to a company that wanted to employ them to advertise. They ______a good business for that company in the three minutes’ presentation and brought in $ 650,000.

1.A. fancy　　 B. useful　　 C. common　　 D. interesting

2.A. slim　　 B. big　　 C. hopeful　　 D. possible

3.A. form　　 B. challenge　　 C. plan　　 D. method

4.A. funny　　 B. shocking　　 C. dull　　 D. cool

5.A. advised　　 B. forced　　 C. permitted　　 D. determined

6.A. opened　　 B. lost　　 C. got　　 D. posted

7.A. study　　 B. complete　　 C. report　　 D. limit

8.A. pointed out　　 B. turned out　　 C. proved　　 D. suggested

9.A. at all　　 B. after all　　 C. accidently　　 D. strangely

10.A. envelope　　 B. result　　 C. classroom　　 D. money

11.A. anything　　 B. something　　 C. nothing　　 D. everything

12.A. accurately　　 B. broadly　　 C. patiently　　 D. slowly

13.A. dealing　　 B. working　　 C. meeting　　 D. beginning

14.A. number　　 B. return　　 C. expense　　 D. score

15.A. actually　　 B. roughly　　 C. merely　　 D. generally

16.A. air　　 B. quality　　 C. pressure　　 D. size

17.A. snacks　　 B. decisions　　 C. appointments　　 D. reservations

18.A. sit　　 B. take　　 C. serve　　 D. wait

19.A. profit　　 B. progress　　 C. promise　　 D. present

20.A. had　　 B. created　　 C. sold　　 D. ran

高三英语完形填空困难题查看答案及解析

—What would you wish to do if you were a college student again?

—That's very hard to say, but I wish I when I was a college student.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

If you were to walk up to Arthur Bonner and say, “Hey, Butterfly Man,” his face would break into a smile. The title suits him. And he loves it.

Arthur Bonner works with the Palos Verdes blue butterfly, once thought to have died out. Today the butterfly is coming back — thanks to him. But years ago if you’d told him this was what he’d be doing someday, he would have laughed, “You’re crazy.” As a boy, he used to be “a little tough guy on the streets”. At age thirteen, he was caught by police stealing. At eighteen, he landed in prison for shooting a man.

“I knew it had hurt my mom,” Bonner said after he got out of prison. “So I told myself I would not put my mom through that pain again.”

One day he met Professor Mattoni, who was working to rebuild the habitat for an endangered butterfly called El Segundo blue.

“I saw the sign ‘Butterfly Habitat’ and asked, ‘How can you have a habitat when the butterflies can just fly away?’” Bonner recalls. “Dr. Mattoni laughed and handed me a magnifying glass (放大镜), ‘Look at the leaves.’ I could see all these caterpillars(蝴蝶的幼虫) on the plant. Dr Mattoni explained, ‘Without the plant, there are no butterflies.’”

Weeks later, Bonner received a call from Dr. Mattoni, who told him there was a butterfly which needed help. That was how he met the Palos Verdes blue. Since then he’s been working for four years to help bring the butterfly back. He grows astragals, the only plant the butterfly eats. He collects butterflies and brings them into a lab to lay eggs. Then he puts new butterflies into the habitat.

The butterfly’s population, once almost zero, is now up to 900. For their work, Bonner and Dr. Mattoni received lots of awards. But for Bonner, he earned something more: he turned his life around.

For six years now Bonner has kept his promise to stay out of prison. While he’s bringing back the Palos Verdes blue, the butterfly has helped bring him back, too.

1.When he was young, Arthur Bonner _______.

A. broke the law and ended up in prison

B. was fond of shooting and hurt his mom

C. often laughed at people on the streets

D. often caught butterflies and took them home

2.Bonner came to know the Palos Verdes blue after he _______.

A. found the butterfly had died out

B. won many prizes from his professor

C. met Dr. Mattoni, a professor of biology

D. collected butterflies and put them into a lab

3. From the last sentence of the text, we learn that raising butterflies has ________.

A. made Bonner famous              B. changed Bonner’s life

C. brought Bonner wealth             D. enriched Bonner’s knowledge

4.What does the underlined phrase “put through” mean in the 3rd paragraph?

A. hurt                         B. recall                  C. remember                    D. experience

5.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A. A Promise to Mom                B. A Man Saved by Butterflies

C. A Story of Butterflies              D. A Job Offered by Dr. Mattoni

高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

If you were to walk up to Arthur Bonner and say, “Hey, Butterfly Man,” his face would break into a smile．The title suits him．And he loves it.

Arthur Bonner works with the Palos Verdes blue butterfly, once thought to have died out．Today the butterfly is coming back — thanks to him．But years ago if you’d told him this was what he’d be doing someday, he would have laughed, “You’re crazy.” As a boy, he used to be “a little tough guy on the streets”．At age thirteen, he was caught by police stealing．At eighteen, he landed in prison for shooting a man.

“I knew it had hurt my mom,” Bonner said after he got out of prison．“So I told myself I would not put my mom through that pain again.”

One day he met Professor Mattoni, who was working to rebuild the habitat for an endangered butterfly called El Segundo blue.

“I saw the sign ‘Butterfly Habitat’ and asked, ‘How can you have a habitat when the butterflies can just fly away?’” Bonner recalls．“Dr．Mattoni laughed and handed me a magnifying glass (放大镜）, ‘Look at the leaves.’ I could see all these caterpillars(蝴蝶的幼虫） on the plant．Dr Mattoni explained, ‘Without the plant, there are no butterflies.’”

Weeks later, Bonner received a call from Dr．Mattoni, who told him there was a butterfly which needed help．That was how he met the Palos Verdes blue．Since then he’s been working for four years to help bring the butterfly back．He grows astragals, the only plant the butterfly eats．He collects butterflies and brings them into a lab to lay eggs．Then he puts new butterflies into the habitat．

The butterfly’s population, once almost zero, is now up to 900．For their work, Bonner and Dr．Mattoni received lots of awards．But for Bonner, he earned something more: he turned his life around．

For six years now Bonner has kept his promise to stay out of prison．While he’s bringing back the Palos Verdes blue, the butterfly has helped bring him back, too.

1.When he was young, Arthur Bonner _______.

A．broke the law and ended up in prison

B．was fond of shooting and hurt his mom

C．often laughed at people on the streets

D．often caught butterflies and took them home

2.Bonner came to know the Palos Verdes blue after he _______.

A．found the butterfly had died out

B．won many prizes from his professor

C．met Dr．Mattoni, a professor of biology

D．collected butterflies and put them into a lab

3.From the last sentence of the text, we learn that raising butterflies has ________.

A．made Bonner famous                 B．changed Bonner’s life

C．brought Bonner wealth               D．enriched Bonner’s knowledge

4.What does the underlined phrase “put through” mean in the 3rd paragraph?

A．hurt                    B．recall                   C．remember            D．experience

5.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A．A Promise to Mom                   B．A Man Saved by Butterflies

C．A Story of Butterflies                 D．A Job Offered by Dr．Mattoni

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

If you were to walk up to Arthur Bonnet and say, "Hey, Butterfly Man," his face would break into a smile. The title suits him. And he loves it.

Arthur Bonnet works with the Palos Verdes blue butterfly, once thought to have died out. Today the butterfly is coming back thanks to him. But years ago if you'd told him this was what he'd be doing someday, he would have laughed, "You're crazy." As a boy, he used to be a little tough guy on the streets". At age thirteen, he was caught by police stealing. At eighteen, he landed in prison for shooting a man.

"I knew it had hurt my mom," Bonner said after he got out of prison. "So I told myself I would not put my mom through that pain again."

One day he met Professor Mattoni, who was working to rebuild the habitat for an endangered butterfly called E1 Segundo blue.

"I saw the sign 'Butterfly Habitat' and asked, 'How can you have a habitat when the butterflies can just fly away?'" Bonner recalls. "Dr. Mattoni laughed and handed me a magnifying glass (放大镜) , "Look at the leaves. ' I could see all these caterpillars (蝴蝶的幼虫) on the plant. Dr Mattoni explained, 'Without the plant, there are no butterflies. '"

Weeks later, Bonner received a call from Dr. Mattoni, who told him there was a butterfly that needed help. That was how he met the Palos Verdes blue. Since then he's been working for four years to help bring the butterfly back. He grows astragals, the only plant the butterfly eats. He collects butterflies and brings them into a lab to lay eggs. Then he puts new butterflies into the habitat.

The butterfly's population, once almost zero, is now up to 900. For their work, Bonner and Dr. Mattoni received lots of awards. But for Bonnet, he earned something more: he turned his life around.

For six years now Bonnet has kept his promise to stay out of prison. While he’s bringing back the Palos Verdes blue, the butterfly has helped bring him back, too.

1.When he was young, Arthur Bonner

2.Bonner came to know the Palos Verdes blue after he ______.

3. From the last sentence of the text, we learn that raising butterflies has ______

4. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析