Steve Flaig of Grand Rapids, Michigan, knew he’d been adopted as a baby, and when he turned 18, in 2003, he decided he’d try to track down his birth mother. The agency from which he’d been adopted gave him his mother’s name: Christine Tallady. But online searches didn’t turn up any results, and Flaig let it go.
In 2007, though, he searched for the name again online. This time, the search results included a home address near the Lowe’s store where Flaig, then 22, worked as a deliveryman.When he mentioned the coincidence to his boss, his boss said, “ You mean Chris Tallady, who works here?”
Flaig and Tallady, 45, a cashier, had said hi to each other a few times at the store, but they’d never really talked. He hadn’t even known her name. Flaig thought, “ There’s no possible way she’s my mother.”
For a few months, Flaig avoided Tallady. “ I wasn’t sure how to approach her,” he told a local reporter. Finally, an adoption agency employee volunteered to call Tallady for him.
When Tallady realized that the nice guy she’d been waving at was her son, she blubbered. “ I wasn’t ready to be a mother at that time.” She’d given him up for adoption in 1985, when she was 23. However, she’d always hoped to meet her birth son one day. Later that day, mother and son talked for almost three hours at a nearby bar.
Married with two other children, Tallady said, “I have a complete family now.”
1.What did Steve Flaig do in the Lowe’s store in 2007?
A.He worked as a deliveryman.
B.He was as a cashier.
C.He was the boss of the shop.
D. He was a local reporter.
2.The underlined word “blubbered” in Paragraph 5 probably means______.
A.shouted aloud B. read aloud
C. said while crying D. sang happily
3.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Remarkable Reunion. B. An Adopted Son.
C.A Boss Helped Flaig D. A Cashier’s Experience
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题
Steve Flaig of Grand Rapids, Michigan, knew he’d been adopted as a baby, and when he turned 18, in 2003, he decided he’d try to track down his birth mother. The agency from which he’d been adopted gave him his mother’s name: Christine Tallady. But online searches didn’t turn up any results, and Flaig let it go.
In 2007, though, he searched for the name again online. This time, the search results included a home address near the Lowe’s store where Flaig, then 22, worked as a deliveryman.When he mentioned the coincidence to his boss, his boss said, “ You mean Chris Tallady, who works here?”
Flaig and Tallady, 45, a cashier, had said hi to each other a few times at the store, but they’d never really talked. He hadn’t even known her name. Flaig thought, “ There’s no possible way she’s my mother.”
For a few months, Flaig avoided Tallady. “ I wasn’t sure how to approach her,” he told a local reporter. Finally, an adoption agency employee volunteered to call Tallady for him.
When Tallady realized that the nice guy she’d been waving at was her son, she blubbered. “ I wasn’t ready to be a mother at that time.” She’d given him up for adoption in 1985, when she was 23. However, she’d always hoped to meet her birth son one day. Later that day, mother and son talked for almost three hours at a nearby bar.
Married with two other children, Tallady said, “I have a complete family now.”
1.What did Steve Flaig do in the Lowe’s store in 2007?
A.He worked as a deliveryman.
B.He was as a cashier.
C.He was the boss of the shop.
D. He was a local reporter.
2.The underlined word “blubbered” in Paragraph 5 probably means______.
A.shouted aloud B. read aloud
C. said while crying D. sang happily
3.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Remarkable Reunion. B. An Adopted Son.
C.A Boss Helped Flaig D. A Cashier’s Experience
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Kieron Graham always knew he had an older brother. His adoption papers, signed and sealed when he was three months old, listed a sibling named Vincent but no last name. Though Kieron spent years thinking about Vincent, he could never track him down.
That changed in December 2017, when Kieron’s adoptive parents gave their four adopted children AncestryDNA tests as Christmas gifts. Kieron, now 21, sent his saliva sample in for analysis. When his results came back, he was stunned to find he had a slew of DNA matches for relatives who had also taken the test. Most were distant connections, but one match was so strong that it was labeled “close family”. His name was Vincent Ghant. Kieron looked for him on Facebook and soon made a possible connection. “This is going to sound so wild … but I think you’re my brother,” Kieron wrote on Facebook’s Messenger app.
“I was given up for adoption in 1997 and it says on my paperwork that my mother has a son with your name and your birth date. Her name is Shawn.”
“OMG do you know your real name?” wrote Vincent, now 30.
“I think it was Tyler.”
“OMG YES!!! You are my brother.”
“Wow,” wrote Kieron.
“This is crazy,” said Vincent.
The craziness was just beginning. As they talked, the brothers realized they lived about 20 minutes from each other, outside of Atlanta. More mind-blowing, they attended the same university and majored and minored in the same subjects: political science and legal studies.
“We were like, what are the odds we’re separated our entire lives and then end up at the same school with the same interests?” says Kieron.
Vincent was nine when Kieron was born and remembers caring for his baby brother. But times were tough, and Shawn, who worked 15-plus hours a day as a nurse, decided that placing Kieron for adoption would give him the best chance to succeed.
Now the brothers had the chance to make up for lost time. They decided to meet at a local tea shop that week. “I was really nervous,” says Kieron. “I was wondering what I should say, what I should do.” As he waited outside the shop, he heard someone call his name, and he suddenly found himself in a hug with the brother he’d thought about his entire life.
The men went inside and talked. “We connected,” says Vincent, “like we already knew each other.”
1.The underlined word “mind-blowing” is closest in meaning to “_______”.
A.desperate B.grateful C.ridiculous D.surprising
2.Which of the following statement is true about the two brothers?
A.Kieron was given up for adoption as soon as he was born.
B.They grew in different environment but had a similar educational background.
C.Kieron had met Vincent before as they lived quite close to each other.
D.It was rather difficult for Kieron to track down his own brother after the AncestryDNA test.
3.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.Adopted children usually show deeper affection for their birth family.
B.Vincent lives with his mother all the time.
C.Kieron’s mother was unwilling to give him up but she had no choice.
D.The four adopted children have found their birth family after the AncestryDNA tests.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Erica and Steve Lineberry have been rock climbing since 2005. They were first introduced to it while visiting a family in Montana. Now they are at climbing centers, like Inner Peaks in Charlotte, three times a week, and on weekends they climb outdoors.
Steve said they first started climbing as part of their exercise. Years later, he lost 60 pounds. But as the couple’s interest in the sport grew, they consulted some mentors and started climbing outdoors.
Then Erica got pregnant. "Most people think that rock climbing and pregnancy don’t go very well together," Erica said. But with lots of places to go, Erica kept climbing through her pregnancy. Then her son, Canaan, was born. She says the baby immediately started participating in the family sport. "He went to the gym the first time with us at four weeks old, and then we took our first outdoor trip, just a day trip, at six weeks old with him."
Now Canaan is three-year-old, and Erica is once again pregnant: 7 months along. During her first pregnancy, she blogged about climbing while pregnant. Now her Cragmama.com website is a top resource for families who rock climb. Erica said, "I think a lot of people will say, they’ll wait a few years until they get into an easier age or an easier life phase with their kids. And I think if they wait for that they’re going to wait forever." Her message to women is to quickly climb back into the things you love; and that your life is not over once you are a mother.
Cragmama.com website is quickly becoming the face of mommy rock climbing. She contributes to a handful of climbing magazines. Outdoor equipment companies ask her to wear and use their gear(设备). And her website is a popular resource for families who are not only interested in climbing with their children, but also interested in taking on other adventures too.
1.What does the author intend to tell in the passage?
A.A family who love rock climbing.
B.A couple who learn how to climb.
C.A woman who is brave to climb.
D.A story about a pregnant woman.
2.Which can replace the underlined word "mentors"?
A.Friends. B.Students.
C.Teachers. D.Leaders.
3.It can be inferred from the third paragraph that .
A.Erica never cared about her unborn baby
B.rock climbing does good to pregnant women
C.Canaan fell in love with climbing at four weeks
D.Erica is really a courageous and fearless woman
4.Who will visit Cragmama.com website?
A.The women who expect to have babies.
B.The families who have brought up a child.
C.The women who have sympathy for Erica.
D.The families who take interest in rock climbing.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Ever since he was a little child, Steve Jobs has been interested in electronics and filled with the _______ to become one of the best engineers in this field.
A. advantage B. ambition
C. aggression D. adventure
高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
The new mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan, is a man of the people, ready to listen to their problems, but only until 6 p.m. Then he has to do his homework. Michael Sessions, 18, beat former mayor Douglas Ingles, 51, by just two votes and became the new mayor of Hillsdale. He is America's youngest mayor.
As Sessions was too young to enter the election in the spring of 2005, he registered to vote on Sept, 22, one day after his 18-year-old birthday. The day after that he started his write-in campaign, which means he should persuade voters to remember his name and write it by hand on the voting ballots（选票）.
To help get his name known, Sessions earned＄700 by selling apples over the summer. He spent the money on posters and put them on the Hillsdale's lawns.
Sessions' month-long campaign included going door to door, explaining his ideas of the town's future in the kitchens of his neighbors. "They'd look at me, and say‘How old are you again? How much experience do you have?' And I say ‘I'm still in high school', " he said. Sessions promised Hillsdale's voters he would renew local economy. “I was hopeful the whole time, ” he explained. One day he spent so long out on the streets knocking on the doors that he ended up in a hospital emergency room.
Sessions said that his schoolwork will not get in the way of his job as a mayor. “From 7:50 a.m. to 2:30p.m., I'11 be a student. From 3 to 6, I'11 be the mayor of Hillsdale," he said.
“He did a very brave thing that couldn't have been easy for him to do, "said Jack Vettel, a councilman in Hillsdale, a city of 8,200 about 75 miles southwest of Detroit. "He does care about this town. He's been here all his life.”
Sessions will receive＄3, 600 a year during this four-year term, and will work out of his bedroom since the town does not provide the mayor with an office.
1.What is TRUE of Sessions' election campaign according to the text?
A. Sessions launched his election campaign on Sept, 22.
B. Sessions worked so hard that he once tried to persuade people in a hospital.
C. Sessions won the election campaign by a very close outcome (结果).
D. Sessions felt disappointed when asked about his age and experience.
2.In order to gain more support from the voters Sessions had to do all these things EXCEPT________.
A. put up posters B. renew the economy
C. sell apples D. talk to neighbors in kitchens
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A. American mayors usually work from 3 p. m. to 6 p. m.
B. In America, young people are encouraged to get involved in politics.
C. All teenagers are allowed to enter political elections.
D. American mayors receive a salary of 3, 600 a year during their 4-year term.
4.Which of the following would best summarize the text?
A. Schoolboy becomes American's youngest mayor.
B. How to become a teenage mayor.
C. Hard work is the ticket to success.
D. Never too young to shake the world.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
The new mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan, is a man of the people, ready to listen to their problems, but only until 6 p.m. Then he has to do his homework. Michael Sessions, 18, beat former mayor Douglas Ingles, 51, by just two votes and became the new mayor of Hillsdale. He is America's youngest mayor.
As Sessions was too young to enter the election in the spring of 2005, he registered- to vote on Sept. 22, one day after his 18-year-old birthday. The day after that he started his write-in campaign, which means he should persuade voters to remember his name and write it by hand on the voting ballots（选票）.
To help get his name known, Sessions earned＄700 by selling apples over the summer. He spent the money on posters and put them on the Hillsdale's lawns.
Sessions' month-long campaign included going door to door, explaining his ideas of the town's future in the kitchens of his neighbors. "They'd look at me, and say‘How old are you again? How much experience do you have?'And I say‘I'm still in high school', "he said. Sessions promised Hillsdale's voters he would renew local economy. “I was hopeful the whole time, ”he explained. One day he spent so long out on the streets knocking on the doors that he ended up in a hospital emergency room.
Sessions said that his schoolwork will not get in the way of his job as a mayor. “From 7:50 a.m. to 2:30p.m., I'11 be a student. From 3 to 6, I'11 be the mayor of Hillsdale," he said.
“He did a very brave thing that couldn't have been easy for him to do, "said Jack Vettel, a councilman in Hillsdale, a city of 8,200 about 75 miles southwest of Detroit. "He does care about this town. He's been here all his life. ”
Sessions will receive＄3, 600 a year during his four-year term, and will work out of his bedroom since the town does not provide the mayor with an office.
1.What is TRUE of Sessions' election campaign according to the text?
A．Sessions launched his election campaign on Sept. 22.
B．Sessions worked so hard that he once tried to persuade people in a hospital.
C．Sessions won the election campaign by a very close outcome.
D．Sessions felt disappointed when asked about his age and experience.
2.In order to gain more support from the voters Sessions had to do all these things EXCEPT＿.
A．put up posters' B．renew the economy
C．sell apples D．talk to neighbors in kitchens
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A．American mayors usually work from 3 p. m. to 6 p. m.
B．In America, young people are encouraged to get involved in politics.
C．All teenagers are allowed to enter political elections.
D．American mayors receive a salary of 3, 600 a year during their 4-year term.
4.Which of the following would best summarize the text?
A．Schoolboy becomes American's youngest mayor.
B．How to become a teenage mayor.
C．Hard work is the ticket to success.
D．Never too young to shake the world.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
The new mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan, is a man of the people, ready to listen to their problems, but only until 6 p.m. Then he has to do his homework. Michael Sessions, 18, beat former mayor Douglas Ingles, 51, by just two votes and became the new mayor of Hillsdale. He is America's youngest mayor.
As Sessions was too young to enter the election in the spring of 2005, he registered to vote on Sept, 22, one day after his 18-year-old birthday. The day after that he started his write-in campaign, which means he should persuade voters to remember his name and write it by hand on the voting ballots（选票）.
To help get his name known, Sessions earned＄700 by selling apples over the summer. He spent the money on posters and put them on the Hillsdale's lawns.
Sessions' month-long campaign included going door to door, explaining his ideas of the town's future in the kitchens of his neighbors. "They'd look at me, and say‘How old are you again? How much experience do you have?' And I say ‘I'm still in high school', " he said. Sessions promised Hillsdale's voters he would renew local economy. “I was hopeful the whole time, ” he explained. One day he spent so long out on the streets knocking on the doors that he ended up in a hospital emergency room.
Sessions said that his schoolwork will not get in the way of his job as a mayor. “From 7:50 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., I'11 be a student. From 3 to 6, I'11 be the mayor of Hillsdale," he said.
“He did a very brave thing that couldn't have been easy for him to do, "said Jack Vettel, a councilman in Hillsdale, a city of 8,200 about 75 miles southwest of Detroit. " He does care about this town. He's been here all his life.”
Sessions will receive ＄3, 600 a year during this four-year term, and will work out of his bedroom since the town does not provide the mayor with an office.
1.What is TRUE of Sessions' election campaign according to the text?
A．Sessions launched his election campaign on Sept, 22.
B．Sessions worked so hard that he once tried to persuade people in a hospital.
C．Sessions won the election campaign by a very close outcome (结果).
D．Sessions felt disappointed when asked about his age and experience.
2.In order to gain more support from the voters Sessions had to do all these things EXCEPT ________.
A．put up posters B．renew the economy
C．sell apples D．talk to neighbors in kitchens
3.What can we infer from the passage?
A．American mayors usually work from 3 p. m. to 6 p. m.
B．In America, young people are encouraged to get involved in politics.
C．All teenagers are allowed to enter political elections.
D．American mayors receive a salary of 3, 600 a year during their 4-year term.
4.Which of the following would best summarize the text?
A．Schoolboy becomes American's youngest mayor.
B．How to become a teenage mayor.
C．Hard work is the ticket to success.
D．Never too young to shake the world.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
The days of having to carry a phone charger everywhere could soon be over. Michigan researchers have revealed a major breakthrough in harvesting energy from human motion.
They say it could lead to smartphones powered for a week by the motion of a swipe (重击).
Michig an State Univ ersity’s low -cost devic e, known as a nanogenerator, has already been tested. Scientists success fully operated an LCD touch screen, a bank of 20 LED lights and a flexib le keyboard, all with a simple touching or pressing motion and without the aid of a battery. The groundbreaking findings, published in the journal Nano Energy, suggest “We’re on the path tow ard wearable devices powered by human motion,” said Nelson Sepulv eda, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and lead researcher of the project.
“What I foresee, relatively soon, is the capability of not having to charge your cell phone for an entire week, for example, because that energy will be produced by your movement,” said Sepulveda, whose researchis funded by the National Science Foundation.
Electrical energy is created when the device is compressed by human motion. The completed device is as thin as a sheet of paper. The device used to power the LED lights was palm-sized, w hile the device used to power the touch screen was as small as a finger. Advantag es such as being lightweight, flexib le and low -cost could make it a promis ing and alternative method in the field of Mechanical-energy harvesting.
The device also becomes more powerful when folded. Sepulveda said, “You can start with a large device, but when you fold it once, and again, and again, it’s much smaller and has more energy. Now it may be small enough to put in a specially made heel of your shoe so it creates power each time your heel strikes the ground.”
Sepulveda and his team are also develop ing technology that w ould transmit the power generated by the heel strike to, say, a w irelessheadset.
1.The underlined word “device” in the second paragraph probably refers to .
A. a piece of equipment B. a special kind of smartphone
C. a touch screen D. a flexible keyboard
2.What can we learn about Nelson Sepulveda in the passage?
A. He works as a journalist writing for Nano Energy.
B. He plays a major role in the project of the nanogenerator.
C. He invented a type of battery-free smartphone.
D. He collects funds for the National Science Foundation.
3.From the passage we know that the nanogenerator .
A. becomes more powerful when kept flat
B. has already come into market in the USA
C. is lightweight and flexible though expensive
D. makes it possible to produce power by walking
4.The purpose of the passage is to .
A. persuade people to buy the device
B. bring in a new way to save energy
C. introduce a breakthrough in science
D. honor Nelson Sepulveda for his contributions
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Born in 1956 in Detroit, Michigan, Robert Wyland began his career in painting at the age of three. With a few cans of house paint found under the kitchen sink, he painted his first mural（壁画），dinosaurs, on the headboard of his parents’ bed.
Today you never know where you might find Wyland, but chances are that you will have to look up. This painter, sculptor, and muralist now paints giant-sized murals of sea animals on much larger canvases（画布）: walls and ceilings of hotels and other buildings, and even the outside of a stadium.
His project, the Whaling Walls, began in 1981 when Wyland painted a life-sized mural of a gray whale（鲸） and her baby on the side of a hotel in Laguna Beach, California. His goal was to paint one hundred whaling walls, which has been achieved. Painting so many murals would be a huge project for any artist, but the size of these murals is what has really made this a giant task.
How does Wyland go about creating such huge lifelike murals? Wyland says he relies on what he calls his “mind’s eye”. He explains that through his mind’s eye he can look at a blank canvas and form a picture of the finished mural in his mind.
To cover such large areas, Wyland, who is afraid of heights, depends on scaffolding（脚手架） to help him move around and produce his murals. But unlike most artists who can step back to survey their work, Wyland has to rely mostly on his memory.
For accuracy in his artwork, Wyland spends as much time underwater as he does painting. He dives to study his subjects and learn more about them in their natural environment. Through his artwork, Wyland hopes to inspire people to care more about our oceans and to respect and protect the life within them. The whales he works so hard to protect may not know it , but Wyland might just be the best friend a whale could have.
1.Where did Wyland paint his first mural?
A.In a hotel. B.In the open air.
C.In his parents’ bedroom. D.In the kitchen of his home.
2.What is Wyland’s “mind’s eye”?
A.His eyesight. B.His memory.
C.His enthusiasm. D.His imagination.
3.What does the underlined word “it” in the last paragraph refer to?
A.Wyland may be whale’s best friend. B.Wyland is good at painting whales.
C.Wyland may know whales very well. D.Wyland tries his best to protect the ocean.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.100 Whaling Walls B.The Prince of Whale
C.Look up, Enjoy the Murals D.Never Stop, Follow Your Dream
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Bertie knew there was something in the wind. His mother had been sad in recent days, not sick, just strangely sad. The lion had just lain down beside him, his head warm on Bertie’s feet, when Father cleared his throat and began, “You’ll soon be eight, Bertie. A boy needs a proper education. We’ve found the right place for you, a school near Salisbury in England. ”
His heart filled with a terrible fear, all Bertie could think of was his white lion. “But the lion,” he cried, “What about the lion?”
“I’m afraid there’s something else I have to tell you, ” his father said. Looking across at Bertie’s mother, he took a deep breath. Then he told Bertie he had met a circus owner from France, who was over in Africa looking for lions to buy. He would come to their farm in a few days.
“No! You can’t send him to a circus!” said Bertie. “People will come to see him. He’ll be shut up behind bars. I promised him he never would be. And they will laugh at him. He’d rather die. Any animal would! ” But as he looked across the table at them, he knew their minds were quite made up.
Bertie felt completely betrayed (出卖). He waited until he heard his father’s deep breathing next door. With his white lion at his heels, he crept (蹑手蹑脚地移动) downstairs, took down his father’s rifle (步枪) and stepped out into the night. He ran and ran till his legs could run no more. As the sun came up over the grassland, he climbed to the top of a hill and sat down, his arms round the lion’s neck. The time had come.
“Be wild now”, he whispered. “You’ve got to be wild. Don’t ever come home. All my life I’ll think of you. I promise I will. ” He buried his head in the lion’s neck. Then, Bertie climbed down the hill and walked away.
When he looked back, the lion was still sitting there watching him; but then he stood up, yawned, stretched, and sprang down after him. Bertie shouted at him, but he kept coming. He threw sticks. He threw stones. Nothing worked.
There was only one thing left to do. With tears filling his eyes and his mouth, he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired over the lion’s head.
1.Bertie’s mother was sad probably because she _____.
A.had been seriously ill recently
B.had decided to send Bertie to school
C.knew Bertie would hate to go to England
D.knew selling the lion would upset Bertie
2.The underlined word “they” in Para. 4 probably refers to _____.
A.other animals B.some audience C.Bertie’s parents D.circus owners
3.In the last paragraph, the boy lifted the rifle to _____.
A.threaten the lion back to the wild B.kill the lion out of fear
C.protect himself from the lion D.show his anger towards his father
4.The passage intends to show that _____.
A.animal-hunting is popular in Africa
B.parents are sometimes cruel to their children
C.people and animals can be faithful to each other
D.animals usually lead a miserable life in circuses
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析