Jack went to a barber's shop and had his hair cut, but when he came out, he was not happy with the result(結(jié)果). When his friend Bob saw him, he laughed and said, "What has happened to your hair, Jack?"
Jack said, "I tried a new barber's shop today, because I wasn't quite satisfied with my old one, but this one seems even worse."
Bob agreed(同意). "Yes, I think you're right, Jack. Now I'll tell you what to do when you go into a barber's shop next time: look at all the barber's hair, find out whose hair looks worst, and then go straight to him."
"Why shall I go to him?" Jack asked. "But that would be foolish!"
"Oh, no, it wouldn't," answered Bob. "Who cut that man's hair? Just think it. He couldn't cut it himself, could he? Another of the barbers cut it. So you know he can't be the worst barber."
【小題1】 When Jack went out of the barber's shop, he was not happy because ____.

A．nobody had cut his hair

B．the barber hadn't cut his hair well

C．the barber had cut his hair carefully

D．he was not satisfied with his old barber

【小題2】"I tried a new barber's shop today." means ____.

A．this barber's shop was a new one

B．this was the only barber's shop in this town

C．Jack often went to this barber's shop

D．Jack had not been to this barber's shop before

【小題3】After Jack had his hair cut, he thought ____.

A．the new barber's shop was the best one

B．the old barber's shop wasn't so good as the new one

C．the new barber's shop was worse than the old one

D．the old barber's shop was the worst one

【小題4】Bob told Jack to find out which barber's hair looked the worst and then go straight to him. Why?

A．Because he was certainly the best barber.

B．Because he was free all the time.

C．Because he was the worst barber.

D．Because he wasn't the worst barber.

【小題5】From the story we know that ____.

A．it's foolish to have one's hair cut at a barber's shop

B．barbers cut each other's hair

C．barbers never have their hair cut

D．a(chǎn) barber always cuts his hair by himself

The life of an actor appears attractive and many young people dream about becoming one. But the truth is, it is very hard work. If you’re successful, there are deadlines to be met, appointments to keep and the press to deal with. If you’re not successful, then life is extremely tough.
I remember when I started out, I had to search the advertisement board at my drama school every day to look for acting jobs. Drama school was expensive and I needed extra cash to help pay the fees. I welcomed every small job. I played extras in many crowd scenes and became a confident participant in a lot of TV commercials for hair shampoo, soap and washing powder.
I had been working for about two years before I got my lucky break. One day, as I was passing the drama school, I decided to go in to check the notice board. There was nothing on it and I was just leaving when the secretary came along the corridor with a piece of paper. She asked me how I was and I told her life was hard and work was difficult to find. The next moment, she put the paper in my hand and walked away. My hands were shaking as I unfolded the paper, full of expectation. To my surprise, it was an audition (試演) for a clown（小丑）for the Canadian circus. I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I had expected an audition with a famous director for a new film!
When I was at drama school, there had been a course in acrobatics and clown tricks. I had gained top marks in this course for originality and daring. Later I went to the audition feeling very strange. This was not what I’d had in mind when I enrolled in drama school. To my surprise, the job as a clown turned out to be exactly what I wanted. I loved every moment of getting dressed up and putting on the make-up. I had the opportunity to travel the world and I was more than an actor, I was an entertainer as well. I had visited over 32 different countries and entertained millions of people.
【小題1】The first paragraph is about how _______ it is to be an actor, whether you’re successful or not.

A．easy

B．a(chǎn)ttractive

C．enjoyable

D．difficult

【小題2】According to paragraph 3, the writer went into the drama school __________.

A．to look for a job

B．to see the secretary

C．to collect a piece of paper

D．to put a notice on the notice board

【小題3】Which of the following can best describe the author’s feeling when he unfolded the paper?

A．Extremely frightened.	B．Feeling anxious and excited.
C．Very worried.	D．Trembling with fear.

【小題4】From the whole passage, we can tell that the writer is ___________.

A．sad that he was not a famous actor

B．happy to travel the world

C．feeling very strange to be a clown

D．very content with his life

【小題5】Which of the following would be the best title?

A．The Life of a TV Actor	B．Acrobatics and Clown Tricks
C．More than an Actor	D．Going to Drama School

Eric and Doris King Turner are packing their bags for New Zealand. They're busy deciding what to pack and what to leave behind in Britain and are making plans to extend their new home in Nelson. Doris is looking forward to getting the garden into shape and Eric has his heart set on a spot of fly fishing. The difference is that Eric is 102, Doris is 87. Eric thinks he's Britain's oldest emigrant.

In January next year Eric King Turner and his wife of 12 years will wave goodbye to their neighbors, and set sail from Southampton on the voyage of a lifetime. The ocean liner (遠(yuǎn)洋客輪)Saga Rose will take six weeks to get to Auckland and the couple are expecting a red-carpet welcome from family.

Doris was born in New Zealand but gave up her homeland when the couple met and married in the late 1990s. But New Zealand is close to both their hearts and the attraction of family and friends, and the good fishing helped to persuade them to move.

Doris, who has five children and nine grandchildren, supported her husband's application to settle in New Zealand. The paperwork took five months. Eric says, "We not only had to produce a marriage certificate（證書） but we had to produce evidence that we were in a long and stable relationship!" He also said he was not asked about his age but had to show that he could support himself financially (財(cái)政上) in New Zealand.

"I like New Zealand. The way of life is very much the same as it is here but it is not so crowded." His wife has always been “a little bit homesick” but has never complained. Now the couple are in the middle of the task of sorting out possessions and selling their flat.

1.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．They decided to leave all the things behind in Britain.

B．The wife always complained about the life in Britain.

C．The couple will set up their new home in Nelson.

D．Doris and Eric will go to New Zealand to hold the wedding.

2.The underlined word "emigrant" in Paragraph 1 probably refers to a person who___.

A．lives in a country forever	B．moves from one place to settle in another
C．travels around the world	D．visits many places in a country

3.What makes the couple's move to New Zealand special?

A．Their age.	B．The red carpet.
C．The ocean liner Saga Rose.	D．Their marriage certificate.

4.The best title of the passage may be       .

A．Better late than never

B．Eric and Doris King-Turner are packing their bags

C．To leave or not to leave, that's the problem

D．Eric, 102, leaves Britain with his wife

 

On October 23, 2011, David Pologruto, a high school physics teacher, was stabbed (刺) by his smart student Jason Haffizulla. Jason got straight A’s and was determined to study medicine at Harvard, yet this was his downfall. His physics teacher gave Jason a B, a mark Jason believed would undermine (損害) his entrance to Harvard. After receiving his B, Jason took a butcher knife to school and stabbed his physics teacher.
How can someone as smart as Jason do something so dumb? Studies show there is little or no correlation between IQ and emotional intelligence.
During my early university years, I regarded myself as an intelligent guy. I got good marks in mathematics, physics, and other subjects. I thought such skills would surely give me a bright future. After one year of study with decent marks, I began to see two major classes of students. The first category of students turned up to few lectures, partied every weekend, enjoyed a great social life, and did minimal work to pass courses. The second category of students were intelligent and hard workers who got good grades and were very focused on their studies. Surely would these intelligent and hard-working students find the great jobs before the other lazier class of students?
Not so. Students are often shocked upon graduation that their qualifications are not as important as they once thought. Graduates enter the workforce only to realize that co-workers hate them and less intelligent people are the ones receiving promotions.
Educational skills are useless in some industries when interpersonal skills are absent. You can have great ideas, theories, and solve complex problems, but if you cannot effectively communicate in a persuasive and exciting manner by relating to your fellow humans, you will face an uphill battle in whatever challenges you encounter. It’s not that people dislike you because of your intelligence; it’s that people dislike you because you’re rude and not understanding. The intelligent person with poor communication skills is insensitive or unaware of others’ emotions.
【小題1】Jason Haffizulla stabbed his physics teacher because       .

A．he was unfairly treated by his teacher

B．he was disappointed with his downfall

C．he was not smart enough at studies

D．he got a worse mark than usual

【小題2】We can infer from the third paragraph that the author        in his early university years.

A．didn’t think communication skills were as important as intelligence

B．didn’t work hard

C．belonged to the first category of students

D．could keep a balance between social life and studies

【小題3】Intelligent people are hated because       .

A．they can solve more complex problems

B．they can’t settle the challenges they meet

C．they are envied for their intelligence

D．they are not understanding enough

【小題4】The main purpose of the text is to tell us       .

A．the relationship between IQ and emotional intelligence

B．what kind of students can succeed in college

C．smart people may have poorer communication skills

D．intelligent students will meet more challenges at work

If I raised the question, “What would be the last thing you would expect to happen while watching your son’s flag football game?” you probably still couldn’t come up with what happened to me and my family.
As we were sitting on the sidelines enjoying the game, a low-flying bird came swooping in attempting to land on my daughter’s head! It honestly came out of nowhere. We were seated by ourselves on the tree lined side of the field. I was able to calm my daughter’s shock and fear once I showed her that the bird was not some wild animal, it was in fact, somebody’s pet!
Now, we’re sitting at the outdoor fields of the Pontiac Silverdome, far from any populated area, wondering where this very social cockatiel, an Australian parrot (澳洲鸚鵡) could have come from. I walked up to the bird and put out my hand. Immediately, it hopped on and chirped in a friendly way. We looked around us and knew that we could not just leave and suppose that the bird would return to where it came from. This was a very domesticated bird that needed help or it would not survive.
The flag football game had ended so we walked the bird over to other groups of adults and asked if they knew of anyone who had lost a bird. All the kids were excited about the bird and fed it with some post game snacks. The bird’s nails were getting long and he was looking pretty dirty, so we knew it had been out here for a long time and was hungry. Since its wings were clipped, it could fly a little but probably not more than 100 yards or so at a try. We all just scratched our heads as a group wondering what to do with the lost bird.
We explained to the kids that this bird needed our help since it was someone’s pet and would not know how to get its own food, and it could not fly well since its wings were clipped. The kids understood, and all of them wanted to take the bird home! The parents however, knew this was not a good choice as one had a large dog, another two cats, etc. We explained to the kids that one of us could take the bird home for the night and then bring it to the Humane Society in the morning in hopes to connect it to its owners. We couldn’t keep the bird. It wasn’t ours. This was tough for the kids to understand at first. We couldn’t just leave the bird either. There was no way it could attend itself. The group of us sat around the Silverdome practice fields for quite a while trying to determine the best course of choice for the lost bird. It was getting dark out but no one was willing to leave that parking lot until we had a game plan for how to help the bird.
The owner of the football league, Chris Novak, offered to take the bird. It was extremely nice of him and he really stepped in to help while all the rest of us who had kids tugging on our shirts and begging to take it home. We took a box and put a bunch of holes in it and he brought it home for the night. Another mom went online and found a family that had lost a bird that looked just like the one we’d found. She emailed the info to Chris who got in touch with the family and the next day, reunited the bird with the family that lost it almost 3 weeks earlier! When Chris emailed us to let us know, we could not believe that this bird had traveled from The Rochester Tienken area all the way to the Silverdome!
We were so happy to be able to save this bird and get it back to its family. I showed my kids the email about how the other family got their pet back. The family has 3 kids who were so happy to see their bird. My kids realized what a nice ending this story had. Not only had we been able to save this bird’s life, but we were able to bring it back to the family that loves and misses him.
The life lesson in the missing bird story seemed to miss its mark with my kids at first. They were a little bummed out that they couldn’t keep the lost bird. I explained to them that when an animal or someone needs help, you just can’t turn a blind eye and hope everything works out OK. The “l(fā)ost bird incident” was also a reminder to them that teamwork and the kindness of strangers can make a world of difference and that a group of well-meaning strangers can work together to help someone. It wasn’t a heroic act, but one that I knew had sunk in with my kids when they realized that trying to help was the best and only real course of action. 　
【小題1】What happened when the author watched his son’s football games?

A．A parrot tried to eat their food.

B．His daughter was hurt by a parrot.

C．A parrot flew towards his daughter.

D．A parrot landed on his daughter’s head.

【小題2】The underlined word “domesticated” in the second paragraph probably means_______.

A．having been abandoned	B．having been used to home life
C．having been used to life in the wild	D．having been week and hungry

【小題3】Who was the first one to find the bird’s owner?

A．The author	B．Chris Novak
C．The Humane Society	D．A participant’s mother

【小題4】What can be learned from the “l(fā)ost bird incident”?

A．Strangers can also work well together.

B．Humane Society helps children in teamwork.

C．Children can keep lost injured pet birds home.

D．Helping others is always regarded as a heroic act.

【小題5】What did the author want to tell in the text?

A．How to help a lost parrot to find home.

B．The experience of watching a football games.

C．The importance of teamwork and helping others.

D．How a parrot can fly a long distance from home.

【小題6】The best title of the text should be________. 

A．What Animals Can Teach Us

B．Complete Care for a Lost Bird

C．Life Lessons When You Least Expect It

D．Love First, Teamwork and Kindness Second