高中英语故事类阅读试题

I used to watch her from my kitchen window．She seemed so small as she struggled her way through the crowd of boys on the playground．The school was across the street from our home and I would often watch the kids as they played during break．I remember the first day I saw her playing basketball．I watched in wonder as she ran circles a- round the other kids．She managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net．The boys always tried to stop her but no one could．I began to notice her at other times, basketball in hand, playing alone．
One day I asked her why she practiced so much．Without a moment of hesitation she said, "I want to go to college．The only way I can go is to get a scholarship to save money for our family．I am going to play college basketball．I want to be the best．My Daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don't count．" Well, I had to give it to her ?she was determined．I watched her through those junior high years and into high school．Every week, she led her school team to victory．
One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head in her arms．I walked up and sat down in the cool grass beside her．Quietly I asked what was wrong． "Oh, nothing," came a soft reply, "I am just too short．" The coach told her that she would probably never get to play for a top ranked team ?much less offered a scholarship —so she should stop dreaming about college．She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment．I asked her if she had talked to Father about it yet．She told me that her father said those coaches were wrong．They just did not understand the power of a dream．He told her that if she truly wanted a scholar-ship, nothing could stop her except one thing —her own attitude．
The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was offered a scholarship and joined the college team．She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of．
.
The author was probably the girl's___      _．

A．neighbor

B．friend

C．teacher

D．mother

.
．Why was the girl's heart broken?

A．She was considered too short to be a top player．

B．Her coach stopped her training because of her height．

C．She couldn't be on a college basketball team．

D．She wouldn't be admitted by her basketball friends．

.
We can learn from the passage that ___    _．

A．her family wouldn't like to pay her college fee

B．her father forced her to play basketball in collage

C．being a top basketball player can win a scholarship for college

D．she wouldn't like to turn to his father for help when in difficulty

.
．Which proverb best matches the story?

A．Practice makes perfect．

B．Rome was not built in a day．

C．Where there is a will, there is a way．

D．Pride comes before a fall．

A snake handler who cheated death after being badly bitten by a snake is now teaching Australians how to   36 in the case．Neville-Burns has been bitten twelve times during his long work with snakes, and uses all his   37  to give lectures to people at risk of meeting a snake  38 .
Australia is home to most of the world's most deadly snakes．So Neville  39 the people how to deal with such close unexpected meetings．．He sets up an enclosed area, and one by one, brings out four snakes so people can know the   40 of each snake．First out of the bag is a Red Black Snake．He  41  put his finger on it．That's  42  the entire forefinger on his right hand was  43 after he was bitten．But that wasn't his  44 experience．-When he was 18? a Brown Snake he had been holding by the tail  45 and bit him in the face．He was rushed to 46  and he was saved from death．
He says a Cobra Snake is perhaps very  47 but not the most venomous（有毒的）． A black Manba Snake, one of the most   48  , is the longest venomous snake in the world．A Brown Snake is the final 49 at Neville's show．It is one of the most common snakes in Australia, and is the second most venomous in the world．Several times during the  50 it bits the bag; which Neville  51 in front of it．
Neville's advice is to stay   52 if a snake is nearby, as most will only   53 if they feel threatened．He tells people to be  54 but not to pick one 'up by the tail．He then does exactly that as part of his show．He also says he   55 believes in the old saying "once bitten, twice shy"．
.．

A．survive B．move C．train D．meet

A．money B．condition C．experience D．time

A．luckily B．unexpectedly C．attentively D．finally

A．asks B．persuades C．teaches D．permits

A．skills B．characteristics C．weight D．length

A．needn't B．shouldn't C．daren't D．wouldn't

A．how B．whether C．when D．because

A．cut off B．got down C．put away D．handed out

A．best B．greatest C．worst D．happiest

A．turned B．smelt C．woke D．fled

A．office B．hospital C．school D．house

A．safe B．puzzled C．gentle D．dangerous

A．deadly B．friendly C．careful D．ashamed

A．visitor B．guest C．listener D．cook

A．report B．show C．conversation D．week

A．owns B．carries C．waves D．needs

A．noisy B．excited C．warm D．still

A．disappear B．attack C．flee D．play

A．brave B．kind C．distant D．good

A．usually B．always C．never D．sometimes

One of our biggest fears nowadays is that our kids might some day get lost in a “sea of technology” rather than experiencing the natural world. Fear – producing TV and computer games are leading to a serious disconnect between kids and the great outdoors, which will change the wild places of the world, its creatures and human health for the worse, unless adults get working on child’s play.
Each of us had a place in nature we go sometimes, even if it was torn down. We cannot be the last generation to have that place. At this rate, kids who miss the sense of wonder outdoors will not grow up to be protectors of natural landscapes. “If the decline in parks use continues across North America, who will defend parks against encroachment（蚕食）?” asks Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods.
Without having a nature experience, kids can turn out just fine, but they are missing out a huge enrichment of their lives. That applies to everything from their physical health and mental health, to stress levels, creativity and cognitive（认知的）skills. Experts predict modern kids will have poorer health than their parents—and they say a lack of outside play is surely part of it; research suggests that kids do better academically in schools with a nature component and that play in nature fosters（培养）leadership by the smartest, not by the toughest. Even a tiny outdoor experience can create wonder in a child. The three – year – old turning over his first rock realizes he is not alone in the world. A clump of trees on the roadside can be the whole universe in his eyes. We really need to value that more.
Kids are not to blame. They are over – protected and frightened. It is dangerous out there from time to time, but repetitive stress from computers is replacing breaking an arm as a childhood rite（仪式）of passage.
Everyone from developers to schools and outdoorsy citizens, should help regain for our kids some of the freedom and joy of exploring, taking friendship in fields and woods that cement（增强）love, respect and need for the landscape. As parents, we should devote some of our energies to taking our kids into nature. This could yet be our greatest cause.
.
According to Paragraph 2, the writer thinks that_____.

A．we are the last generation to experience nature.

B．the author of Last Child in the Woods don’t defend parks against encroachment

C．without having a nature experience, kids are missing out a huge enrichment of their lives

D．children should grow up to be protectors of nature

.
According to the passage, children without experiencing nature will    .

A．keep a high sense of wonder

B．be over – protected by their parents

C．be less healthy both physically and mentally

D．change wild places and creatures for the better

.
. According to the author, children’s breaking an arm is    .

A．the fault on the part of their parents

B．the natural experience in their growing up

C．the result of their own carelessness in play

D．the effect of their repetitive stress from computers

.
In writing this passage, the author mainly intends to    .
A. blame children for getting lost in computer games                 
B. encourage children to protect parks from encroachment
C. show his concern about children’s lack of experience in nature

Goldie’s Secret
She turned up at the doorstep of my house in Cornwall. No way could I have sent her away. No way, not me anyway. Maybe someone had kicked her out of their car the night before. “We’re moving house.” “No space for her any more with the baby coming.” “We never really wanted her, but what could we have done? She was a present.” People find all sorts of excuses for abandoning an animal. And she was one of the most beautiful dogs I had ever seen.
I called her Goldie. If I had known what was going to happen I would have given her a more creative name. She was so unsettled during those first few days. She hardly ate anything and had such an air of sadness about her. There was nothing I could do to make her happy, it seemed. Heaven knows what had happened to her at her previous owner’s. But eventually at the end of the first week she calmed down. Always by my side, whether we were out on one of our long walks or sitting by the fire.
That’s why it was such a shock when she pulled away from me one day when we were out for a walk. We were a long way from home, when she started barking and getting very restless. Eventually I couldn’t hold her any longer and she raced off down the road towards a farmhouse in the distance as fast as she could.
By the time I reached the farm I was very tired and upset with Goldie. But when I saw her licking (舔) the four puppies (幼犬) I started to feel sympathy towards them. “We didn’t know what had happened to her,” said the woman at the door. “I took her for a walk one day, soon after the puppies were born, and she just disappeared.” “She must have tried to come back to them and got lost,” added a boy from behind her.
I must admit I do miss Goldie, but I’ve got Nugget now, and she looks just like her mother. And I’ve learnt a good lesson: not to judge people.
.
How did the author feel about Goldie when Goldie came to the house?

A．Shocked.

B．Annoyed.

C．Sympathetic.

D．Upset.

.
. In her first few days at the author’s house, Goldie      .

A．sat by the fire	B．was angry
C．ate a little	D．felt worried

.
Goldie rushed off to a farmhouse one day because she     .

A．found her way to her old home	B．heard familiar barkings
C．wanted to leave the author	D．saw her puppies

.
The passage is organized in order of     .

A．effectiveness

B．time

C．importance

D．complexity

I would like to tell you a story about my uncle Theo. He is my oldest uncle, a tall, thin, grey-haired man whose thoughts are always on learning and nothing else. He is quiet, gentle and absent-minded and with about as much sense as a child where money is concerned. Well, he applied a post in Camford University. It was a very good post and there were hundreds of candidates who applied for it, and about fifteen, including Theo, were asked to be interviewed.
Camford is a very small town; there is only one hotel in it, and it was so full that they had to put many of the candidates two in a room. Theo was one of these, and the man who shared the room with him was a self-confident fellow called Adams, about twenty years younger than Theo, with a loud voice, and a laugh that you could hear all over the hotel. But he was a clever fellow all the same and had a good post in Iscaiot College, Narkover. Well, the Dean, who was the head of the department of the University, and the committee interviewed all the candidates; and as a result of this interview, the number of the candidates was reduced to two, Uncle Theo and Adams. The committee couldn’t decide which of the two to take, so they decided to make their final choice after each of the candidates had given a public lecture in the college lecture-hall. The subject they had to speak on was “The Civilization of the Ancient Summerians”; and the lecture had to be given in three days’ time.
Well, for these three days Uncle Theo never left his room. He worked day and night at that lecture, writing it out and memorizing it, almost without eating or sleeping. Adams didn’t seem to do any preparation at all. You could hear his voice and his laughter where he had a crowd of people around him. He came to his room late at night, asked Uncle Theo how he was getting on with his lecture, and then told him how he had spent the evening playing bridge, or at the music hall. He ate like a horse and slept like a log; and Uncle Theo sat up working at his lecture.
The day of the lecture arrived. They all went into the lecture hall and Theo and Adams took their seats on the platform. And then, Theo discovered, to his horror,  that typewritten copy of his speech had disappeared! The Dean said they would call on the candidates on the alphabetical order, Adams first; and the despair in his heart, Theo watched Adams calmly take the stolen speech out of pocket and read it to the professors who were gathered to hear it. And how well he read it! Even Uncle Theo had to admit he couldn’t have read it nearly so eloquently himself, and when Adams finished there was a great burst of applause. Adams bowed and smiled, and sat down.
Now, it was Theo’s turn. But what could he do? He had put everything he knew into the lecture. His mind was too much upset to put the same thoughts in another way. With a burning face he could only repeat, word for word, in a low, dull voice, the lecture that Adams had spoken so eloquently. There was hardly any applause when he sat down.
The Dean and the committee went out to decide who the successful candidate was, but everyone was sure what their decision would be. Adams leaned across to Theo and patted him on the back and said, smilingly, “Hard luck, old fellow, but after all, only one of us could win”
Then the Dean and the committee came back, “Gentlemen”, the Dean said, “the candidate we have chosen is Mr. Hobdell.” Uncle Theo had won! The audience were completely taken by surprise, and the Dean continued, “ I think I ought to tell you how we arrived at the decision. We were all filled with admiration at the learning and eloquence of Mr. Adams. I was greatly impressed. But, you will remember, Mr. Adams read his lecture to us. When Mr. Hobdell’s turn came, he repeated that speech, word by word from memory, though, of course, he couldn’t have seen a line of it before. Now a fine memory is absolutely necessary for this post; and what a memory Mr. Hobdell must have! This is why we decided that Mr. Hobdell was exactly the man we wanted! ”
As they walked out of the room, the Dean came up to Uncle Theo, who was so confused but so happy that he hardly knew whether he was standing on his head or heels; and as he shook Theo’s hand he said, “Congratulations, Mr. Hobdell! But, my fellow, when you are on our staff, you must be more careful and not leave valuable papers lying about!”
. Which of the followings best describes Uncle Theo?

A．Good-mannered

B．Modest

C．Childish

D．Bookish

What do we know about the post at Camford University?

A．The applicants had to sit for an examination.

B．There was much competition for the post.

C．The post requires a lot of teaching experience.

D．The post offered quite high salary.

. Adams did not bother to do any preparation because______.

A．he was quite familiar with the subject.

B．he knew the committee members well.

C．he had a well-thought-out plan.

D．he had full confidence in himself.

When Uncle Theo’s turn came, _______.

A．he felt so angry that he couldn’t see a word.

B．he felt so upset that he could not remember anything.

C．he had to put the same thoughts in another way.

D．he had to repeat the speech, word by word from memory.

When the committee went out to make a decision, Adams _______.

A．could not help feeling worried.

B．could hardly wait to show his joy.

C．felt sorry for Theo and tried to cheer him up.

D．felt ashamed and tried to chat with Theo.

Theo became successful because _______.

A．he had a better memory than Adams.
B．he was more experienced than Adams.	C．the committee knew he was exactly the man they wanted.
D．the committee knew Adams had copied Theo’s speech.

In a surprising discovery about where higher life can survive, scientists have found a shrimp -like creature and a jellyfish swimming beneath an Antarctic ice sheet.
About 180 meters below the ice where no light can get through, scientists had figured nothing much more than a few microbes (微生物) could exist.
That’s why a NASA team was surprised when they lowered a video camera to get the first long look at the underbelly of an ice sheet in Antarctica. A curious shrimp-like creature came swimming by and then parked itself on the camera’s cable. Scientists also pulled up a tentacle (触须) they believe came from a jellyfish.
“We were operating on the presumption that nothing’s there.” said NASA ice scientist Robert Bindschadler. “It was a shrimp you’d enjoy having on your plate.”
“We were just gaga (狂热的) over it,” he said when talking about the 7.5cm long, orange creature starring in their two-minute video. Technically, it’s not a shrimp. It’s a Lyssianasid amphipod, which is distantly related to the shrimp.
The video is likely to inspire experts to rethink what they know about life in harsh environments. And it has scientists thinking that if shrimp-like creatures can live below 180 meters of Antarctic ice in freezing dark water, what about other cold places? What about Europa, a frozen moon of Jupiter?
Cynan Ellis – Evans, a scientist of the British Antarctic Survey called the finding fascinating. He said it was possible the creatures swam in from far away and don’t live there permanently.
But Kim, who is a co-author of the study, doubts it. “The site in West Antarctica is at least 19 km from open seas. Bindschadler drilled a 20 cm-wide hole and was looking at a tiny amount of water. That means it’s unlikely that two creatures swam from great distances and were captured randomly in that small area,” she said.
“Yet scientists were puzzled at what the food source would be for these creatures. While some microbes can make their own food out of chemicals in the ocean, complex life like the shrimp can’t,” Kim said.
“So how do they survive? That’s the key question.” Kim said.
“It’s pretty amazing when you find a huge puzzle like that on a planet where we thought we know everything.” Kim said.
. Scientists had believed that harsh environments could only have been populated by ______ .

A．jellyfish

B．mammals

C．microbes

D．shrimp-like creatures

According to Kim, the shrimp-like creature _________ .

A．swam great distances to Antarctic	B．has always lived in the area
C．gradually evolved from shrimps	D．has nothing in common with shrimps

The finding is significant in that __________.

A．it marks NASA’S first Antarctic biological study

B．it proves there is marine life in the Antarctic

C．it could inspire further study of life in harsh environments

D．it shows that Lyssianasid amphipod is closely related to shrimps

. The last three paragraphs suggest that __________.

A．researchers will look at the places the creatures came from

B．ice scientists will drill deeper to find more creatures

C．scientists know very little about the planet they live on

D．further research will be done about what the creatures live on

…That’s my second piece of advice, very simple: Don’t make excuses. Take responsibility not just for your successes; take responsibility where you fall short as well.
Now, the truth is, no matter how hard you work, you’re not going to ace (取得好成绩) every class. You’re not going to succeed the first time you try something. There are going to be times when you screw up (弄糟). There will be times where you hurt people you love. There will be times when you make a mistake and you stray (偏离) from the values that you hold most deeply.
And when that happens, it’s the easiest thing in the world to start looking around for somebody else to blame. Your professor was too hard; the coaches were playing favorites; your friend just didn’t understand.
No, but this is an easy habit to get into. You see it every day in Washington — every day -—folks calling each other names, making all sorts of accusations on television. Everybody is always pointing a finger at somebody else. You notice that?
Now, this community could have easily gone down that road. This community could have made excuses — well, our kids have fewer advantages, our schools have fewer resources — how can we compete? You could have spent years pointing fingers— blaming parents, blaming teachers, blaming the principal , blaming the superintendent.
But that’s — Class of 2010, I want you to pay attention on this because that’s not what happened. Instead, this community was honest with itself about where you were falling short. You decided to do better, push your kids harder, open their minds wider, expose them to all kinds of ideas and people and experiences.
So, graduates, I hope you’ll continue those efforts. Don’t make excuses. And I hope that wherever you go, you won’t narrow the broad intellectual and social exposure you’ve had here at Kalamazoo Central — instead, seek to expand it. Don’t just hang out with people who look like you or share your political views. Broaden your circle to include people with different backgrounds and life experiences, because that’s how you’ll end up learning what it’s like to walk in somebody else’s shoes. That’s how you’ll come to understand the challenges other people face.
And this is not just an academic exercise. It’s a way to broaden your ambit (范围) of concern and learn to see yourselves in each other.
—adapted from US President Barack Obama’s graduation ceremony speech at the Kalamazoo Central High School.
The underlined words “fall short” in Paragraph 1 probably mean         .

A．make a decision	B．begin to experience something
C．have someone else to blame	D．fail to reach a standard

The underlined word “this” in Paragraph 4 refers to         .

A．misunderstanding your friends	B．straying from the values you hold
C．making accusations on television	D．blaming someone else for your mistake

We can infer from Paragraphs 5 and 6 that the community         .

A．has got used to making excuses	B．has lived up to its responsibility
C．is satisfied with itself	D．provides fewer resources than it used to

In the last two paragraphs, Obama calls on the graduates to         .

A．welcome different ideas, people and experiences

B．participate in as many social activities as they can

C．make friends with people who share their political views

D．be honest and concerned about the community