Ma Yingjiu, chairman of Chinese Kuomintang, expressed his thought to the media     the cross – straits would be united in time.

A．which                        B．that                     C．what                   D．when

She was really too busy at the time,        she would have come to help with the dinner.

A．but    B．though      C．however   D．or

A NASA experimental jet, the X – 43A, flew at a world – record speed – 11, 260 kilometers an hour. This speed is         as sound.

A．a(chǎn)s ten times fast          B．ten times so fast   C．ten times as fast      D．ten times faster

Nowhere else in the school         such perfect silence         in the library.

A．there is; like                B．there is; as           C．is there; as           D．is there; like

   That cold January night, I was growing sick of my life in San Francisco, when I was walking home   1   in the morning after a tiring practice at the theater.   2   the performance night would be given in a week, I was busy learning my lines. Walking alone, I thought seriously about an idea to   3   the acting, especially to want to leave San Francisco. City life became so much for me.

Walking in the empty and   4   streets with dim road lights along tall buildings, I felt myself very   5   in such a modernized city and cold on such a winter night. I began quickening my steps to run, both to warm myself and to keep away from any possible robbers. Very few people were out   6   a few sad – looking homeless people under blankets. On a block not far away from my apartment, I heard a sound   7   me. I turned my head by instinct (本能地), with a   8   eyesight to see someone with a knife or a gun. All I saw was the faint streetlights and the terrible night with some stars in the dark sky. I tired to run as fast as I could. Not until I reached my   9   building and unlocked the door did I realize what the noise had been. It was my   10  that had dropped to the sidewalk:

Suddenly I did not feel cold or tired   11  . I ran out of the door and back to   12   I’d heard the noise. Although I searched the sidewalk time and again anxiously for fifteen minutes, my wallet was nowhere. Just as I tried to   13   the search, I heard the garbage truck   14   to the sidewalk next to me. When a low voice called from the   15  , “Alisa Camacho?” I thought I was dreaming. How could this man know   16  ? The door opened, and out jumped a small red – haired man with an aroused look in his eyes. “Is this   17   you’re looking for?” he asked, holding up a small   18  .

It was nearly 3 a.m. by the time I got into bed. I didn’t get much sleep that night, but I got back my lost wallet. I also got back happiness and enjoyment of   19  .  20  , San Francisco couldn’t be a bad place as long as we threw our feelings into it and loved it.

1．A．a(chǎn)t three                 B．a(chǎn)t four                 C．a(chǎn)t six                  D．a(chǎn)t one

2．A．When                   B．As                      C．After                   D．If

3．A．give up                 B．put on                 C．begin with           D．carry out

5．A．satisfied                B．great                   C．small                   D．warm

6．A．besides                 B．except                 C．except for           D．in addition to

7．A．over                     B．before                 C．under                  D．behind

8．A．confused               B．bright                  C．sharp                  D．clear

9．A．office                   B．theater                 C．a(chǎn)partment            D．square

10．A．wallet                  B．shoe                    C．blanket                D．watch

11．A．either                  B．no more              C．a(chǎn)ny more             D．no longer

12．A．what                   B．where                 C．that                     D．which

13．A．continue              B．stop                    C．make                  D．do

14．A．pull off                B．pull up                 C．carry on              D．start out

15．A．inside                  B．outside                C．ground                D．far away

16．A．the wallet            B．the truck             C．this place             D．my name

17．A．which                 B．it                        C．what                   D．that

18．A．flower                 B．book                   C．light                    D．square shape

19．A．performance        B．work                   C．city life               D．my family

20．A．As a result           B．What’s more        C．In a word            D．In fact

    Brooks, Bruce. Everywhere. HarperCollins, 1990, ISBN0060207299. 70 pages.

    Peanuts’ beloved grandfather has suffered a heart attack. Peanuts is sad over the possibility of losing his grandfather. Dooley keeps Peanuts company while the adults in the family attend to Grandfather. Dooley attempts to save the old man by a ritual learned from comic books: killing a turtle and trading his soul for Grandfather’s. With the imaginative assistance of Dooley, Peanuts discovers the healing power of hope and love.

　　Babbitt, Natalie. Tuck Everlasting. Farrar,1975.ISBN0374378487.180 pages.

　　The Tuck family has discovered a spring whose water brings eternal life. A man learns their secret and threatens to sell the water to the highest bidder. Mrs Tuck kills the man and is jailed and sentenced to be executed. Though the family knows she cannot be killed, they worry that their secret will be revealed when they try to kill her.

Baylor, Byrd. The Table Where Rich People Sit. Simon & Schuster,1994.ISBN0684196530.52 pages.

Around an old kitchen table, a young girl calls a family meeting to show her parents that they should earn more money so they can have nicer things. As she points out they are not sitting at a table where rich people would sit, her parents calculate the value of the desert hills, the blooming cactus, the calls of eagles, and one another’s company. Soon, she realizes that her poor family is rich in things that matter in life. She concludes that this is indeed a table where rich people sit.

Goble, Paul. Beyond the Ridge.Bradbury,1989.ISBN0027365816.32 pages.

There is no death；only a change of worlds—the author delivers these reassurances to readers in this book, based on the customs of the Plains Indians in America. The book reads like a prayer, expressing specific beliefs about dying. It describes a woman who is called by her long-dead mother to go “beyond the ridge”. After a steep climb, she discovers a world that is abundantly beautiful, and there she finds the familiar faces of people who have passed that way before her.

1．Which book is the thickest?

      A．Everywhere.                                       B．Tuck Everlasting.

       C．The Table Where Rich People Sit.          D．Beyond the Ridge.

2．Which book is published in 1990?

       A．Everywhere.

       B．Tuck Everlasting.

       C．The Table Where Rich People Sit.

       D．Beyond the Ridge.

3．Who wrote the book about Native Americans’ view of death?

       A．Bruce Brooks.     B．Natalie Babbitt.    C．Byrd Baylor.        D．Paul Goble.

4．Who wrote the book which shows that money is not the only way to measure wealth?

       A．Bruce Brooks.        B．Natalie Babbitt.        C．Byrd Baylor.    D．Paul Goble.

A youngster’s social development has a very great effect on his academic progress. Kids who have trouble getting along with their classmates can end up behind academically as well and have a higher chance of dropping out. In the early grades especially, experts say, youngsters should be encouraged to work in groups rather than individually so that teachers can find children who may be having problems making friends. “When children work on a project,” says LiNian Kate, an educational professor at the University & Illinois, “they learn to work together, to disagree, to think to take turns and lighten tensions.” These skills can’t be learned through lecture. We all know people who have wonderful technical skills but don’t have any social skills. Relationships should be the first “R”.

At a certain age, children are also learning to judge themselves in relation to others. For most children, school marks are not set by an inside clock but by the outside world Just as the 1 – year – old is struggling to walk and the 6 – year – old is struggling to meet expectations. “Young kids don’t know how to distinguish between effort and ability”, says Tynette Hills, professor of early – childhood education for the state of New Jersey. If they try hard to do something and fail, they may conclude that they will never be able to accomplish a particular task. “The effect is serious,” says Hills, “A child who has had his confidence really damaged needs a rescue operation.”

1．The author seems to think that a kid’s poor relationship with his classmates would         .

       A．have negative effects on his study

       B．develop his individualism but limit his intelligence

       C．eventually lead to his leaving school

       D．have nothing to do with his achievements in a course

2．For most children, school makes them understand         .

       A．that it is society rather than individual that decides one’s future

       B．that they can meet the social needs.

       C．that one’s effort and one’s ability can be two quite different matters

       D．that social needs and individual needs have nothing in common

3．Which of the following is most unlikely for the author to do?

       A．To talk to the students who have mental problems.

       B．To help students develop a feeling of self – respect.

       C．To keep a student from playing alone.

       D．To announce a student’s scores in public.

4．Which of the following is the major concern of the passage about a student’s needs?

      A．Individualism and cooperation.

       B．Academic success and independent thinking.

       C．Socialization and feeling of ability.

       D．Intelligence and respect.

    People often talk as if shyness is a disease or mental condition that can be cured. I prefer to think of it as an emotional disability. It’s something we are born with and something we carry with us in our entire lives. There are too many people, however, who seem to be determined to find some way of doing away with their shyness. In my opinion, it’s a waste of time. I don’t mean that we should do nothing about it; quite the contrary, I think we need to separate the basic fact of our shyness from our ability to take part in a social environment.

Look at one of the most famous shy people of them all, Johnny Carson. This man is painfully shy, yet for decades he made a living talking and associating with different people every night, in front of a national audience. Carson has never done away with his shyness, but he has successfully found a way to deal with it to the extent that he could be, not just a talk show host, but a legend among talk show hosts. Look also at Sally Fields, who has recently admitted her problem with shyness. This is a woman who has appeared in many films, TV shows and interviews, yet in her early years she was so shy that she turned down a lunch invitation from Jane Fonda because she was terribly afraid of meeting her.

I guess that our shyness is there because each of us is born with some insecurity and this insecurity prevents us from reaching out to others the way people with a more open personality do. As we grow up and become adults, we allow our social skills to grow and develop. But we are still stuck in kindergarten or elementary school or wherever it was when our shyness took root in our soul.

1．In the author’s view, shyness can be explained as ________.

       A．a(chǎn) disease that can be easily cured         

       B．a(chǎn) not very normal mental condition

       C．a(chǎn)n emotional disability                 

       D．something we pick up after birth

2．Which of the following is TRUE of Johnny Carson?

       A．He has dealt with shyness very successfully.

       B．He has done away with his shyness carefully.

       C．He is described as a hero in some legend books.

       D．He failed to become a good talk show host.

3．The passage tells us that Sally Fields was ________.

       A．proud all the time                             B．impolite when young

       C．shy in her early years                      D．close to Jane Fonda

4．The author thinks that our shyness is there because ________.

       A．we are not open enough                 

       B．we don’t feel secure at heart

       C．we try to reach out to others all the time    

       D．we lack some social skills

It’s very interesting to note where the debate about diversity (not being the same) is taking place. It is taking place primarily in political circles. Here at the College Fund, we have a lot of contact with top corporate leaders; none of them is talking about getting rid of those instruments that produce diversity. In fact, they say that if their companies are to compete in the global village and in the global market place, diversity is imperative. They also say that the need for talented, skilled Americans means we have to expand the pool of potential employees. And in looking at where birthrates are growing and at where the population is shifting, corporate America understands that expanding the pool and promoting policies can help provide skills to more minorities, more women and more immigrants. Corporate leaders know that if that doesn’t occur in our society, they will not have the engineers, the scientists, the lawyers, or the business managers they will need.

Likewise, I don’t hear people in the academy saying “Let’s go backward. Let’s go back to the good old days, when we had a meritocracy (不拘一格選人才) (which was never true we never had a meritocracy (精英), although we’ve come closer to it in the last 30 years). I recently visited a great little college in New York where the campus has doubled its small population in the last six years. I talked with an African American who has been a professor there for a long time, and she remembers that when she first joined the community, there were fewer than a handful of minorities on campus. Now, all of us feel the university is better because of the diversity. So where we hear this debate is primarily in political circles and in the media not in corporate board rooms or on college campuses.”

1．The underlined word “imperative” most probably means “        ”.

       A．superficial           B．remarkable           C．debatable             D．necessary 

2．Which of the following groups of people still disagree in their views on diversity?

       A．Meritocracies.      B．Politicians.           C．Professors.          D．Managers.

3．High corporate leaders seem to be in favor of promoting diversity so as to         .

       A．lower the rate of unemployment

       B．win equal political rights

       C．be competitive in the world market

       D．satisfy the demands of a growing population

4．It can be inferred from the passage that          .

       A．meritocracy can never be realized without diversity

       B．American political circles will not accept diversity

       C．it is unlikely that diversity will occur in the U.S. media

       D．in order to compete in the global market place, diversity is unnecessary.

5．According to the passage diversity can be achieved in American society by          .

       A．expanding the pool of potential employees.

       B．promoting policies that provide skills to employees

       C．training more engineers, scientists lawyers and business managers

       D．providing education for all regardless of race or sex

Over the last 70 years, researchers have been studying happy and unhappy people and finally found out ten factors that make a difference. Our feelings of well – being at any moment are determined to a certain degree by genes. However, of all the factors, wealth and age are the top two.

Money can buy a degree of happiness. But once you can afford to feed, clothe and house yourself, each extra dollar makes less and less difference. Researchers find that, on average, wealthier people are happier. But the link between money and happiness is complex. In the past half-century, average income has sharply increased in developed countries, yet happiness levels have remained almost the same. Once your basic needs are met, money only seems to increase happiness if you have more than your friends, neighbors and colleagues.

In a research, Professor Alex Michalos found that the people whose desires-not just for money, but for friends, family, job, health-rose furthest beyond what they already had, tended to be less happy than those who felt a smaller gap. Indeed, the size of the gap predicted happiness about five times better than income alone. “The gap measures just blow away the only measures of income.” says Michalos.

Another factor that has to do with happiness is age. Old age may not be so bad “Given all the problems of aging, how could the elderly be more satisfied？”asks Professor Laura Carstensen.

In one survey, Carstensen interviewed 184 people between the ages of 18 and 94, and asked them to fill out an emotions questionnaire. She found that old people reported positive emotions just as often as young people. Some scientists suggest older people may expect life to be harder and learn to live with it, or they’re more realistic about their time running out, older people have learned to focus on things that make them happy and let go of those that don’t.

“People realize not only what they have, but also that what they have cannot last forever,” she says. “A goodbye kiss to a husband or wife at the age of 85, for example, may bring far more complex emotional responses than a similar kiss to a boy or girl friend at the age of 20.”

1．Find in the passage a word closest in meaning to the underlined word “well – being.”

2．What makes people less happy according to Professor Alex Michalos’s research? (回答詞數(shù)不超過6個)

3．Why are aged people more likely to feel happy? (回答詞數(shù)不超過8個)