Bend over, take a deep breath and drink some water！This is just one of hundreds of pieces of advice you might get if you have the hiccups（打嗝）.Hiccups are so mysterious(神秘的)．We really don’t know why they start and why they stop．

Everyone has a favorite cure for a case of the hiccups．Some people think that a good scare is necessary to get well．Others eat a little sugar．Still others drink a glass of water with a knife in it．

An American man named Jack O’Leary said that he had hiccupped 160 million times over a period of eight years．He tried 60，000 cures，but none of them worked．Finally he prayed（向…祈禱） to Saint Jude, the saint of Hopeless cases, and his hiccupping stopped immediately．

A British worker didn’t stop his hiccups until eight months later. People from all over the world wrote him letters with suggestions for getting well．He tried them all，but the hiccups continued．Finally，he drank a “secret” mixture(混合物) someone had sent him. By that evening his hiccups were gone．

Why did these cures work for these two men? No one really knows. But people who have studied many cases of hiccups have an idea. Hiccups usually go away if you believe in the cure．

1.        might be the best cure for hiccups.

A．Special pills

B．A spoonful of salt

C．Cold water

D．What you believe in

2.The British worker spent __________ in stopping his hiccups．

A．4 hours

B．2 days

C．8 months

D．8 years

3.What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Different ways to stop hiccups

B．What makes hiccups happen

C．How to get hiccups

D．Jack O‘Leary’s hiccups

 

Americans thinks travel is good for people. Some even think it can help one of the country’s

w   1.    problems---crime.

Crime w  2.    a lot of people. Every year, the n   3.    of crimes goes up and up. They often come from sad homes, with only one parent or no parents at all. There are problems with drugs.

There are many young criminals in prison. But prison doesn’t change them---60 to 70 percent will go b  4.   to crime when they come out of prison.

One man, Bob Burton, t  5.   of a new idea. In the old days, young men had to live a hard life on the road. They learned to be strong and b  6.  , and to help their friends in time of danger. This helped them grow into men. So Bob started “Vision Quest(幻想探究)”.

He takes young criminals on a long, long j  7.   with horses and wagons(馬車) 3,000 miles through 7 states. They are on the road for more than one year. The young people on Vision Quest all have bad problems.  Most of them have already spent time in prison.  This is their last c     8.  .

It’s hard work on the work. The day starts before the sun comes up. The boys and girls have to feed the horses. Some of them have never loved anyone before, b  9.   they can love their horses. That love can help them to start a new life.

Not all young people in Vision Quest will leave crime behind them. 30 or 40 percent will one day be in prison a  10.  . But that’s a lot better than 60 or 70 percent. Bob is right. Travel can be good for them.

 

 

Chairman Mao once said: “It is not hard to do one good deed. It is hard to do good deeds all your life.” Guo Mingyi, 52, a worker in Anshan, Liaoning, did just that. Over the past 20 years, Guo has donated 60,000 milliliters(毫升) of blood. That is the blood of 10 people put together.

　　 Once, on a cold winter of 2009, Guo got a call from the hospital. The doctors told him that a patient needed a blood donation. Guo didn’t have time to eat lunch. He travelled in the snow to get to the hospital. When he finished donating the blood, he was so tired that he fell asleep on the hospital bed.

　　 Guo and his family live a simple life. He and his wife and daughter live in a house of only 40 square meters. They don’t have a lot of money, but Guo saves money to support poor children. In the past 16 years, he has donated over 100,000 yuan to more than 180 poor students. When the parents met him, many cried. “He looks poorer than us,” they said.

　　 Guo has also offered hands to thousands of workers, friends and strangers. His warm heart has moved many people. They call him a “Modern-Day Lei Feng”.

　　 Recently, Chinese leaders called on people to learn from Guo. They say young people especially should learn his selfless devotion(無私奉獻(xiàn)).But Guo said he did these things in order not to get famous. “It’s just that some people need some help, and there should be someone standing out to give them a hand,” he said.

1.When was Guo Mingyi born in Anshan, Liaoning?

A. In 1940      B. In 1950      C. In 1960      D. In 1970

2.Why did Guo Mingyi donate the blood to a patient on a cold winter of 2009?

A. Because they are good friends.

B. Because he had no money to eat lunch.

C. Because he wanted to sleep in the hospital

D. Because he wanted to help the patient very much.

3.Which of the following is RIGHT about Guo Mingyi?

A. He is a common businessman.      B. He has a very rich family.

C. He wants to be famous a lot.     D. He devotes what he has to helping others

4.What does the writer write the passage for?

A. To learn from Gou Mingyi’s selfless devotion.

B. To donate blood to the people in need.

C. To raise money for poor students.

D. To remember Lei Feng.

5.Which part of the newspapers can we see the passage ?

A. Sports news B. Health care C. People       D. Nature

 

 

boomerang

The Aborigines (澳洲土著) have lived in Australia for about 60,000 years. They painted pictures inside caves, and these are the rock paintings that have given us so much information about Aboriginal life. For example, some of the paintings that are about 10,000 years old show men with boomerangs. From this we know that the Aborigines started using boomerangs for hunting at that time. Other pictures show kangaroos, so we know that there were kangaroos at that time.

The Aborigines believed that spirits made people, animals and plants, and that these spirits still live in the earth. For Aborigines, no one can own the earth—the earth belongs to the spirits.

In 1700, there were many Aboriginal groups with a population of 750,000 all over Australia, and there were probably more than 240 different Aboriginal languages. The groups did not have a leader. Instead, things were decided by the older men in a group. People from different groups often travelled hundreds of miles to meet each other.

Aboriginal life changed when an English boat arrived in Australia in 1770. Many Aborigines were killed in the wars that they had with the English. More Europeans came, and they started taking land from the Aborigines. The Europeans also brought new illnesses that killed the Aborigines. The result is that today there are only about 300,000 Aborigines in Australia.

1.The Aborigines painted pictures       .

A．on animals’ fur                        B．on the land

C．on the tree                            D．on the rock

2.What do you think the Aborigines used boomerangs to do?

A．To paint.          B．To hunt.           C．To fight.           D．To play.

3.The Aborigines thought        were the most important on the earth.

A．people           B．a(chǎn)nimals           C．spirits            D．plants

4.In an Aboriginal group        decided things.

A．the older men                          B．the leader

C．the English                            D．the Europeans

5.The number of the Aborigines is small today       .

A．because their living condition was very bad

B．because the English killed a lot of them in the wars

C．because of the new illnesses the Europeans brought them

D．because of the wars and the new illnesses

 

In the Caucasus region（高加索地區(qū)）, nearly 50 out of every 100,000 people live to celebrate their 100^th birthday, and many don’t stop at 100! By comparison, in America only 3 people in 100,000 reach 100. But these Caucasus people aren’t alone. The Pakistani Hunzas, who live high in the Himalaya Mountains, and the Vilcabambans of the Andes Mountains in Ecuador seem to share the secret of long life too.
　　These peoples remain healthy in body and spirit despite the passage of time. While many older persons in industrial societies become weak and ill in their 60s and 70s, some Caucasus people aged 110-140, work in the fields beside their great-great-grandchildren. Even the idea of aging is foreign to them. When asked, “At what age does youth end?” most of these old people had no answer. Several replied, “Well, perhaps at age 80.” The very youngest estimate was age 60.
　　What accounts for this ability to survive (live) to such old age, and to survive so well? First of all, hard physical work is a way of life for all of these long-lived peoples. They began their long days of physical labor as children and never seem to stop. For example, Mr. Rustam is 142 years of age. He remembers his life experience: the Crimean War of 1854; the Turkish War of 1878; the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. His wife is 116 years old. They have been married for 90 years. Mr. Rustam has no plan of retiring from his life as a farmer. “Why? What else would I do?” he asks. Oh, he’s slowed down a bit. Now he might quit (stop working) for the day after 6 hours in the field instead of 10.
　　All these people get healthful rewards from the environment in which they work. They all come from mountainous regions. They live and work at elevations（海拔）of 5,000 to 12, 000 feet(1,660 to 4,000meters) above sea level. The air has less oxygen and is pollution-free. This reduced oxygen environment makes the heart and blood vessel（血管）system stronger.
　　Another factor（因素）that may lead to the good health of these people is their isolation. To a great extent, they are separated from the pressure（壓力）and worries of industrial society.
　　Inherited（遺傳的） factors also play some role. Most of the longest-lived peoples had parents and grandparents who also reached very old age. Good family genes may, therefore, be one factor in living longer.
　　Finally, although these three groups don’t eat exactly the same foods, their diets are similar. All of them eat little animal meat. Their diets are full of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, cheese and milk. They never eat more food than their bodies need.
　　It is clear that isolation from urban pressure and pollution, clean mountain air, daily hard work, moderate diets, good genes, and a youthful approach to life all lead to the health and remarkable long life of all these people.
【小題1】 What is the main idea of this article?

A．Cause and effect of long-lived life.

B．People in the world enjoying a longer life.

C．Factors leading to the health and long life of people.

D．A description of several societies where people living a long life.

【小題2】 “The idea of aging is foreign to them” means that _________.

A．they don’t care much about their age

B．they have no idea of how old they are

C．they won’t say anything about their age until they are asked to

D．the idea of getting old has never come into their mind

【小題3】 How do you think the writer feels about these long-lived people?

A．He is much impressed with them.

B．He doesn’t care a bit about them.

C．He hopes that they will live a still longer life.

D．He doesn’t think their life is full of pressure and worries.