英 语 试 题

命题人：张祝源 审题人：朱法敏

第一部分：阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）

第一节（共15小题，每小题2分，满分30分）

A

It happened at 7:12 p.m. on December 20, 2013.

I was fanning my face with a plane ticket after racing to the gate at a flight at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, not noticing the young man running to catch up with me. He ran in front of me and said, “Excuse me, do I know you?”

My heart fluttered for this, a loyal reader. I smiled. “Well.” I said, “Who do you think I am?”

“Elaine?”

I shook my head. “Connie.”

“Oh,” he said. His eyes rested on my head. “It’s your hair,” he said. “You look younger from behind.”

Silence, except for the sighs from the travellers who forgot to pretend they were not listening. At the very moment when I hoped exactly no one knew who I was, a woman said, “I look forward to reading this essay Connie.”

Had this happened right after I turned 50, I might have spent the entire flight sitting in my sitting in my seat holding a mirror and combing (梳理) my hair. Five years into this adventure, I laughed and put the man’s observation on Facebook.

It takes a little time to accept that the world is onto us. Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison said in a speech at Oberlin College last year that each of us sees ourselves at a certain age, frozrn in time, which may explain why my hair still brushes （拂过）my shoulder. Inside, I’m 27.

When I was 30, I read Gail Godwin’s novel The Finishing Scholl. One particular passage says, “There are two kinds of people. One kind, you can tell just by looking at them at what point they became their final selves. However, the other kind keeps moving, changing. In my opinion, they are the only people who are still alive.”

Life was hard, and then it got better. Fifty was hard, but 55 feels just right.

1. Hearing the first words of the young man, the author felt .

A. embarrassed （尴尬的） B. frightened C. annoyed D. excited

2. After the event at the airport, the author .

A. took it calmly B. cut her hair short

C. dressed up smartly D. had a hard time on the plane

3. We can infer from the text that the author .

A. admires the young people for their liveliness B. expects more surprises from her life

C. refuses to accept the fact of aging D. misses the good age of 30

4. What’s the best title for the text?

A. Trouble at a certain age B. Life in the middle ages

C. An unusual flight experience D. The changing world around us

B.

You probably know frogs（青蛙） hop （双足跳）. But did you know that there’s a tiny frog in the Pacific Northwest that bellyflops（肚子先着水）? It’s called tailed frog.

Dr. Rick essner, who has been studying tailed frogs for the past few years, says, “I’ve looked at thousands of jumps and have never seen them land on their feet like other frogs.” Most of the time, tailed frogs land on their stomachs and then bring their back legs in to prepare dor another jump.

Essner first noticed these frogs because of the way they swim. Other frogs kick both of their back legs at the same time. But when a tailed frog swims, it pushes first with one leg and then the other.

To try to find out why tailed frogs bellflop, Essner and other scientists collected and filmed different kinds of frogs. They found that all of the frogs start their jumps the same way: they stretch（伸出）their legs. The change comes in midair（半空中）and in landing. Tailed frogs cannot move their back legs as quickly as other frogs do. Maybe they don’t need to. Tailed frogs live around water and quickly jump into the water to escape danger.

Early frogs developed around watery areas and could jump quickly into the water to escape danger. Scientists think those frogs blended in with（与……融合在一起）the green plants on the side of the rocky streams, just like today’s tailed frogs. “I would guess that other animals would have problems detecting them,” explains Essner. When they did find those early frogs, the frogs could jump into the stream. They didn’t need to continue hopping.

Tailed frogs and other kinds of frogs went their separate ways about 200 million years ago. Tailed frogs stayed by streams. Other kinds of frogs moved to places where new hopping skills allowed them to survive.

5. What’s special about the tailed frog?

A. It has a long tail. B. It jumps on one foot.

C. It starts its jump differently. D. It lands differently from other frogs.

6. Why do tailed frogs bellyflop?

A. They have never left the water to live.

B. They have trouble in stretching out their legs.

C. Their back legs can’t catch up while jumping.

D. Their front legs develop better than the back ones.

7. The underlined word “detecting” in paragraph 5 means “ .”

A. eating B. killing C. using D. discovering

8. When coming across an enemy, the tailed frog would .

A. jump into the water for protection B. hop around quickly

C. hide in the green plants near the streams D. jump onto the rock.

C

How come it seems like every kid today is a winner of something, when we know every kid can’t be a star? These days, kids are first divided by age, then by achievement, and often by the type of performance.

American culture in general has increasingly accepted prizes and awards. The winner-take-all prize tradition that characterize American culture started in the early 20th century, the attention on competition, and ranking （等级）in general, grew rapidly. The 1970s had the most prize creations, including the addition of even more prizes to fields such as film and literature. Music competition, including the introduction of the American Music Awards, saw similar growth in this time period. Since then, prizes have become increasingly fashionable, along with children’s competitive activities.

While awards may help people set goals and practice their activity, awards are also a business practice. Trophies （奖杯）help make sure that customers return year after year. Keeping kids, parents, teachers and coaches happy with lots of recognition keeps the money flowing to the organizers of the competitions.

Trophies may keep kids coming back, and their parents paying, but research finds that giving kids trophies for doing an activity means lower levels of encouragement. High levels of encouragement are exactly what we want to foster（培养）among kids to help them get long-term success and take pride in a well-earned achievement. So parents need to be careful when trying to get titles for their young kids, and make sure the honor created is for their kids and not for praise from anyone else in their children’s lives.

9. What does the author mean by saying “we know every kid can’t be a star” in paragraph 1?

A. We should encourage kids more. B. We encourage kids in a wrong way.

C. We don’t allow kids to become stars. D. We shouldn’t expect too much of kids.

10. Paragraph 2 is mainly about .

A. what prize culture in America means. B. when prize culture in America started

C. how prize culture in America developed D. why prize culture is so important in America

11. What does the author think of trophies?

A. Businessmen benefit a lot from them. B. Parents pay too much for them.

C. They help kids get long-term success. D. they mean nothing at all to kids.

12. In the text parents are advised to .

A. choose competitions for kids wisely

B. stop kids taking part in any competition

C. invite kids to join in more outdoor activities

D. let kids face fierce competition by themselves

D

No one person invented the bicycle. Instead, many people worked together over time. Experts say that the first plans came from Leonardo da Vinci. This famous inventor and artist wrote plans for a modern bicycle hundreds of years ago. But inventors did not create the first working bicycle until the early 1800’s.

The first bicycle had wheels. But it did not have pedals （踏板）to move the wheels. The rider pushed the bicycle forward. They made this bicycle with a heavy steel frame（框架）. And they made the wheels out of wood and iron. People called this bicycle the “boneshaker”. On the stone streets of that time, the bicycle shook the rider very hard.

Over the next ten years, inventors made the front wheel even larger to increase its speed. They also added rubber tires（轮胎） on the wheels. People called this bicycle “the ordinary”. But these kinds of bicycles were difficult to push forward and it was difficult to change directions while riding.

In 1885, JK Starley invented the first modern bicycle. He put similar-sized wheels on the front and back of the bicycle. He also added a thin metal chain that worked between the pedals and the wheels. But it was still difficult to ride a Starley bicycle. Itn the 1890’s inventors made more movements to the bicycle. They used better rubber for the wheels. They developed good brakes（刹车）to stop the bicycle. It was not long before people all around the world used bicycles for sport and play.

People also say that making bicycles helped scientists and inventors make better machines. In fact, famous inventors like Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers used bicycle technology to create cars and airplanes!

13. According to the text, pushbikes .

A. had one wheel B. had a heavy steel frame

C. had no pedals D. were easy to push forward

14. The “boneshaker” bicycle got its name probably because .

A. it was made of iron and steel B. it did harm to the bone growth

C. it was used on the stone streets D. it made the rider uncomfortable

15. What do we know about a Starley bicycle?

A. It had good brakes. B. It offered a smooth ride.

C. It was used mainly for sport. D. It looks similar to the bicycle today.

第二节（共5小题；每小题2分，满分10分）

根据短文内容，从短文后的玄子昂中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Things successful people do

Most successful people work differently. See what they do and why it works.

They don’t create back-up plans.

Bac