题目
题型：安徽省同步题难度：来源：
toward it like everyone else, all of us separately chasing the same thing.
One year, through a series of unhappy events, it all fell apart.I found myself homeless and alone.I had
my truck and $56.I searched the countryside for some place I could rent for the cheapest possible amount.I came upon a deserted cottage in a small remote valley.I hadn’t been alone for 25 years.I was scared,
but I hoped the hard work would distract and heal me.
I found the owner and rented the place for $50 a month.The locals knew nothing about me.But slowly
they started teaching me the art of being a neighbor.They dropped off blankets, tools and canned deer
meat and began sticking around to chat.They would ask if I wanted to meet cousin Albie or go fishing.
They started to teach me a belief in a different American dream, not the one of individual achievement
but of neighborliness.Men would stop by with wild berries, ice cream or truck parts to see if I was up for
courting.I wasn’t, but they were civil anyway.The women on that mountain worked harder than any I’d
ever met.They taught me how to store food in the stream and keep it cold and safe.I_learned_to_keep_
enough_for_an_extra_plate_for_company.
What I had believed in, all those things I thought were necessary for a civilized life, were nonexistent
in this place.Up on the mountain, my most valuable possessions were my relationships with my neighbors.
After four years in that valley, I moved back into town.I saw a lot of people were having a really hard
time, losing their jobs and homes.With the help of a real estate broker (房地产经纪人) I chatted up at
the grocery store, I managed to rent a big enough house to take in a handful of people.It’s four of us now, but over time I’ve had nine come in and move on to other places from here.We’d all be in shelters if we
hadn’t banded together.
The American dream I believe in now is a shared one.It’s not so much about what I can get for
myself; it’s about how we all can get by together.
1. Before a series of unhappy events happened, the writer________.
A. had a wellpaid job
B. worked hard for his American dream
C. worked hard and liked to share
D. felt hopeless about his American dream
2. What does the underlined word “it” in the second paragraph refer to?
A. The house.
B. The job.
C. The company.
D. The American dream.
3. What does the underlined sentence “I learned to...”in Paragraph 3 most probably mean?
A. The writer learned to run a company.
B. The writer learned to share with others.
C. The writer learned to keep enough plates.
D. The writer learned to save money for his company.
4. Why did the writer rent a big house?
A. To make some money.
B. To show off his wealth.
C. To share with those people in need.
D. To make friends with his neighbors.
5. The writer mainly tells us about________.
A. his unhappy experiences
B. the friendly people in the valley
C. the change of his living conditions
D. his new idea of the American dream
答案
核心考点
试题【阅读理解 I used to believe in the American dream that meant a job, credit and su】；主要考察你对题材分类等知识点的理解。[详细]
举一反三
to prevent housing prices going up, ” said one house seller in Santa Monica, California.
“It’s crazy, ” said Tim, who is looking for a house near the beach.“In 1993, I bought my first place, a
twobedroom flat in Venice, for $70,000.My friends thought then that I was overpaying.Five years later, I
had to move.I sold it for $230,000, which was a nice profit.Last year, while visiting friends here, I saw in
the local paper that the exact same flat was for sale for $510,000！”
It is a seller’s market.Homebuyers feel like they have to offer at least 10 percent more than the asking
price.Donna, a new owner of a onebedroom flat on Venice Beach, said, “That’s what I did.I told the
owner that whatever anyone offers you, I’ll give you $20,000 more under the table, so you don’t have to
pay your house seller any of it.I was tired of negotiating with the house sellers.”
Tim says he hopes he doesn’t get that desperate.“Whether you decide to buy or not, you still feel like
you made the wrong decision.If you buy, you feel like you overpaid.If you don’t buy, you want to kick
yourself for passing up a great opportunity.”
Everyone says the bubble (气泡) has to burst sometime, but everyone hopes it will burst the day after
they sell their house.Even government officials have no idea what the future will bring.“All we can say is
that, clearly, these things go in regular cycles, ” said the state director of housing.“What goes up must
come down.But, as we all know, housing prices always stay up a little higher than they go down (被接
受). So you can’t lose over the long run.Twenty years down the road, your house is always worth more
than you paid for it.”
1. If Tim had sold his flat last year, he could have earned________.
A. $510,000
B. $440,000
C. $280,000
D. $160,000
2. Donna paid another $20,000 to the owner secretly because________.
A. she felt like offering 10% more
B. secret money made low price
C. the owner asked for the money
D. she was bored with bargaining
3. We can infer from Tim’s words in Paragraph 4 that________.
A. homebuyers feel hesitate facing rising house prices
B. buying a house is always a great opportunity
C. homebuyers never make the right decision
D. both sellers and buyers become desperate
4. Which of the following is TRUE about the housing bubble?
A. It is something everyone hates to see.
B. Only experts know when it will burst.
C. It is unavoidable in the regular circles.
D. It usually stays for about twenty years
One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the hall of a small hotel in Philadelphia. Trying to get out of the rain, they came the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the
night.
"Could you possibly give us a room here?" the husband asked.
The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were
three conventions in town. "All of our rooms are taken," the clerk said. "But I can"t send a nice couple
like you out into the rain at one o"clock in the morning. Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my
room? It"s not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night."
When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. "Don"t worry about me; I"ll make out just
fine." the clerk told them. So the couple agreed.
As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, "You are the kind of manager
who should be the boss of the best hotel in the United States. Maybe someday I"ll build one for you."
The clerk looked at them and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh. As they drove away, the
elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both
friendly and helpful isn"t easy.
Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the
old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a roundtrip ticket to New York, asking the young
man to pay them a visit.
The old man met him in New York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th street. He
then pointed to a great new building there, a pale reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting
up to the sky. "That," said the older man, "is the hotel I have just built for you to manage." "You must
be joking," the young man said. "I can assure you I am not," said the older man, a sly smile playing
around his mouth.
The older man"s name was William Waldorf Astor, and that magnificent structure was the original
WaldorfAstoria Hotel. The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt. This young
clerk never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become the manager of one of the world"s
most glamorous hotels.
B. cover some facts
C. promote the business of WaldorfAstoria Hotel
D. deliver a lesson
B. The old couple was too poor to afford a luxurious room.
C. The clerk was willing to help those in need.
D. The clerk received an unexpected invitation from the old man.
B. suites
C. meetings
D. hotels
B. Make hay while the sun shines.
C. Man proposes; God disposes (处理, 决定).
D. One good turn deserves another.
which cut my eye badly enough to make it blind.Trying to save the eye, the doctors stitched (缝合) the
eyeball together where it was__2__, leaving a big ugly scar (疤痕) in the middle of my eye.The attempt
__3__, but my mother, in all of her wisdom, found another doctor who knew that if the eye were
removed__4__, my face would grow up badly distorted (扭曲), __5__my scarred, sightless, cloudy
and gray eye lived on with me.As I grew, this sightless eye in so many ways__6__me.
I walked with my face looking at the__7__so that people would not see the__8__me.Yet my mother
would say to me, at every turn, "Hold your head up high and__9__the world.If you hold your head up
high, it will be OK, and people will see your__10__soul." She continued this__11__whenever I was
trying to hide.
Mama"s words were of great help for me to face the world__12__.As a teenager, even though I
tended to look down to hide my shame, I found that sometime when I held my head up high and let
people know me, they__13__me.In high school, I was__14__both academically and socially.I was
__15__elected class president.My mother"s words helped me begin to realize that by letting people
look at my face, I let them__16__the intelligence and beauty behind both eyes, even if they couldn"t
see it on the__17__.
Now I"m a happy wife and great mother.The message "Hold your head up high" has been__18__
many times in my__19__home.Each of my children has felt__20__invitation, and the gift my mother
gave me has lived on in another generation.
| ( )1. A. surprising ( )2. A. separated ( )3. A. failed ( )4. A. quickly ( )5. A. then ( )6. A. protected ( )7. A. floor ( )8. A. shy ( )9. A. deal with ( )10. A. different ( )11. A. sentence ( )12. A. bravely ( )13. A. disliked ( )14. A. comfortable ( )15. A. nearly ( )16. A. touch ( )17. A. surface ( )18. A. discussed ( )19. A. brave ( )20. A. their | B. sudden B. destroyed B. tried B. entirely B. if B. affected B. world B. elderly B. see B. beautiful B. passage B. proudly B. liked B. valuable B. even B. observe B. outing B. heard B. peaceful B. my | C. big C. cut C. succeeded C. carefully C. still C. stopped C. front C. ugly C. laugh at C. lonely C. opinion C. simply C. hated C. successful C. hardly C. watch C. head C. talked C. sweet C. its | D. bad D. hurt D. managed D. slowly D. so D. interrupted D. people D. strange D. face D. honest D. message D. fairly D. noticed D. special D. still D. recognize D. scar D. written D. exciting D. her |
| 阅读理解 | |||
| Both my parents came from towns in Mexico.Then I was born in El Paso, Texas, and when I was four, my family moved to a housing project in East Los Angeles. Even though we struggled to make ends meet, my parents stressed to me and my four brothers and sisters how fortunate we were to live in a great country with limitless opportunities.They influenced us with the concepts of family, faith and nationalism. I got my first real job when I was ten.My dad injured his back working in a cardboardbox factory and was retrained as a hairstylist.He rented space in a little shopping mall and gave his shop the fancy name of Mr Ben"s Coiffure. The owner of the shopping center gave Dad a discount on his rent for cleaning the parking lot three nights a week, which meant getting up at 3 a. m..To pick up rubbish, Dad used a little machine that looked like a lawn mower.Mom and I emptied garbage cans and picked up litter by hand.It took two to three hours to clean the lot.I"d sleep in the car on the way home. I did this for two years, but the lessons I learned have lasted a lifetime.I acquired discipline and a strong work ethic (道德), and learned at an early age the importance of balancing life"s competing interests-in my case, school, homework and a job.This really helped during my senior year of a high school, when I worked 40 hours a week flipping burgers at a fastfood joint while taking a full load of college preparation courses. The hard work paid off.I attended the US Military Academy and went on to receive graduate degrees in law and business from Harvard.Later, I joined a big Los Angeles law firm and was elected to the California State Assembly (州议会). In these jobs and in everything else I"ve done, I have never forgotten those nights in the parking lot.The experience taught me that there is dignity in all work and that if people are working to provide for themselves and their families that is something we should honor. 1. Before my father got injured, we________. A. didn"t like living in the USA B. lived a poor but happy life C. were lucky to move to the USA D. had many ways to make money 2. When he recovered, to make a living my father________. A. ran a small shopping mall B. did a parttime job C. worked as a barber D. became a street cleaner 3. Working in the parking lot for two years had taught me________. A. how to obey school discipline B. how to do two things well at a time C. that discipline and work were of equal value D. that I must do as many things as possible at a time 4. The author tells us in the last paragraph that we should be proud of those who________. A. have done all kinds of jobs B. are cleaning the parking lot C. have achieved a lot in their lives D. are bearing their responsibilities | |||
| 完形填空 | |||
| I have a close friend named Jim Forest. When I first met him eight years ago, he was working with the Catholic Peace Fellowship. Last__1__, Jim Forest came to__2__. I usually wash the dishes __3__we"ve finished the evening meal, before sitting down and drinking tea with everyone else. One night, Jim asked if he might__4__the dishes. Then I said, "__5__, but if you wash the dishes you must know the__6__to wash them." Jim replied, "Come on, you think I don"t know how to wash the dishes?" I answered, "There are two ways to wash the dishes. The first is to wash the dishes in__7__ to have clean dishes and the second is to wash the dishes to wash the dishes." Jim was delighted and said, "I__8__the second way-to wash the dishes to wash the dishes." From then on, Jim__9__how to wash the dishes. I transferred the "responsibility" to him for a whole week with heavy snow outside. If while washing dishes, we only__10__the cup of tea that__11__us, as a result, we__12__to get the dishes out of the way as if they were a(n)__13__, then we are not "washing the dishes to wash the dishes". __14__, all of us are not__15__during the time we are washing the dishes. In fact, we are completely incapable of__16__the miracle of life while standing at the sink. If we can"t wash the dishes, the chances are that we won"t be__17__to drink our tea either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely__18__of the cup in our__19__. Thus we are sucked away into the future and we are incapable of actually living one minute of life. Do you__20__wash the dishes to wash the dishes or to have clean dishes? | |||