中考考前阅读训练

xjinshan

Always ready to help

为什么冻僵的老人只愿意向他求助？

词数 290 建议阅读时间 6分钟

IT was a bitter (刺骨的, cold evening. The old man's beard was almost frozen (冰冻的. He was waiting for a ride across the river. The wait seemed endless. The old man sat on the ground waiting.

Finally, he saw several horsemen coming. He watched them. He let the first one pass by without even asking. Another passed by, and then another. Finally, the last rider came near the old man. The old man caught the rider's eye and said, "Sir, would you mind giving me a ride to the other side?"

Stopping his horse, the rider replied, "Of course." But the old man's body was half-frozen. He could not get off the ground. The horseman helped the old man onto his horse. He took the old man not just across the river, but to the old man's home.

As they neared the old man's house, the horseman asked, "Sir, you let several other riders pass by without even asking. Then I came up and you asked me for a ride at once. Why? What if I had said 'no' and left you there?"

The old man looked the rider straight in the eyes, and said, "I looked into the eyes of the other riders. I quickly saw that they didn't care. It would be useless even to ask them for a ride. But when I looked into your eyes, I saw kindness. I knew that you would help me."

The words touched the rider deeply. "Thank you for what you've said," he told the old man. "I hope I will never be too busy to help others."

With that, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the US, turned his horse around and made his way back to the White House.

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阅读理解竞技场

1. What was the old man doing on that cold evening?

A. He was waiting for his wife.

B. He was waiting for the president.

C. He was begging.

D. He was waiting for someone to help him cross the river.

2. Why didn't the old man ask the other horsemen for a ride?

A. He didn't like them.

B. They were too busy to help him.

C. He thought they were unkind.

D. He wanted to cross the river by himself.

3. What do you think the story wants to tell us?

A. The president was very kind.

B. Nobody wanted to help the old man.

C. People should never be too busy to help others.

D. Helping old people is the president's duty.



Key: D C C

xjinshan

A useful skill ? how to read advertisements
阅读广告类文章：广告类文章难度一般不大，内容短小精悍，形式活泼多样，常配有图片。题目设置多以细节题为主。

City Museum
Extraordinary handwork is on show. Baskets, bags and mats in different colors and shapes all tell stories of everyday life.

Open daily 10 am-5 pm

Nicholson Street, Carlton

Tel: 131105

IMAX Theatre

Take a 3D journey with Academy Award winning director, James Cameron director of Titanic, to the deeps of the sea to see some of the strangest fish on Earth.

Adult $17; Child $12; Family $49 (2 adults, 2 children

Rathdowne Street, Carlton

Tel: 96635454

Bundoora Park

It has a public golf course, free BBQ, big children's playgrounds, and a scenic drive to Mount Cooper offering fantastic views. You can also feed farm animals there.

Plenty Road, Bundoora

Tel: 94624079

Choose the best answer:

1. If you are interested in handicrafts, you could visit _____.

A. Bundoora Park B. The IMAX Theatre

C. City Museum D. We don't know.

2. If you and your parents went to see the 3D show, you would have to pay _____ to get in the theatre.

A. $49 B. $46 C. $51 D. $36

3. In Bundoora Park, you can NOT _____.

A. see movies B. feed animals

C. play golf D. take a scenic drive

4. The advertisements might be looked at by people who _____.

A. are looking for a job

B. have plenty of work to do

C. are taking a vacation

D. spend most of their time alone

xjinshan

You're as good as them
词数 251 建议阅读时间 5分钟

IT'S a problem that many teenagers have to deal with. Call it "lack of (缺少) confidence", call it "low self-esteem", it means the same thing.

Lack of confidence is a terrible thing. It robs (抢夺) you of chances in life. It wastes your time. It causes feelings that hurt you.

If you are one of the huge army of teenagers who lack confidence, take this chance to change the way you look at yourself and the world.

You are a human being. You have strengths (强项) and you have weaknesses. You have talents and you have faults (毛病). In this, you are the same as everyone else. You are just as good as other people.

Maybe you are looking around, thinking, "That can't be right. He has so much natural athletic talent, and she's so intelligent (聪明的)." It may be true. But what you are also thinking is, "And I have none of that."

But there is only one real difference between you and them. They have found and accepted and started showing their talents, while you have not. You need to learn to accept.

Accept that things go wrong. They go wrong for you but they also go wrong for other people too. It happens to everyone.

Confident people dig through problems, rebuild and move on. Unconfident people just can't get out of it. So look at your potential (潜力) for success in the future rather than your failures. Then you'll feel confident!

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阅读理解竞技场

1. According to the story, lack of confidence _____.

A. is not a problem at all

B. makes a person want to succeed.

C. stops a person being successful

D. helps people find their strengths

2. The author thinks that all people _____.

A. are not really confident

B. are good at something

C. want to have talent

D. need to work hard

3. According to the author, people are unconfident because they _____.

A. are untalented

B. are unintelligent

C. waste a lot of time

D. haven't found their talent

xjinshan

Knowing how to manage your anger
词数 253 建议阅读时间 5分钟

JACK punched (猛打) his fist (拳头) into the bedroom wall. "You can't make me," he shouted at his father. "I'm not going where you want me to go!" Then he ran away from home.

Teenagers like Jack sometimes get angry. And sometimes this cause trouble.

How can we deal with our anger? What are the best ways to calm ourselves down?

Anger builds up and is released (发泄) in different ways. Think of anger as if it was a balloon (气球). When something happens and we don't like it, air is forced (加压) into the balloon. It grows bigger. Finally air has to be let out.

Some people let anger build up until the balloon pops (爆破). After this, there's a slow period of recovery (恢复).

Other people release air every time it starts to fill. They show their feelings when they get angry. Others release air by complaining. These ways the "anger balloon" doesn't fill up quickly and explode, hurting people around the angry person.

We all get angry. But we need to control and express it the right way. Here are some questions you can ask yourself.

Where does the anger come from?

How can I express my anger?

Who am I angry with and why?

Do I communicate (交流) well?

Do my feelings control me or do I control my feelings?

Don't let your anger build up. Remember that anger is part of life, but how we face it is our choice.

xjinshan

Is it tea or coffee?
词数 240 建议阅读时间 5分钟

WHAT do people drink in Western countries? They drink coffee, of course. Tea is the drink of us Chinese. Think again. In the West, tea is beginning to be cool again.

In Western countries like the UK, coffee used to be the fashionable drink. Jenny Northam, a 28-year-old English woman, remembers that ten years ago tea was unfashionable. "At that time young people didn't like tea. We thought drinking tea was uncool and old-fashioned. Tea was something we only drank when visiting grandparents."

Four years ago US pop icon (流行偶像) Madonna, who lives in Britain, published a children's book called The English Roses (《英伦玫瑰》). She launched (发行) the book with a tea party. Since Madonna is the "Queen of Cool", she played a big part in making tea fashionable. The British tradition of afternoon tea was "in" again.

In Britain, hotels receive bookings (预定) for afternoon tea weeks in advance. The trend has also taken off (开始) in the US. In New York and Los Angeles, more and more cafes are serving tea.

The tea craze is not only down to Madonna, of course. People drink tea because they connect (联系) it with the idea of living life at a slower pace (步调).

People drink coffee and tea at different times. Coffee is seen as the drink of people in a hurry; tea of those who like to take their time.

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Tea ceremony

Afternoon tea is an old English tradition of rich people, which began around 1830. It is usually served between 3 and 5 pm. Friends get together, talk, drink tea and eat cake. There are certain rules. The polite way to drink tea is to use the right hand with the little finger pointing out (伸出). The saucer (茶碟) is held with the left hand. You drink tea with either milk or lemon, but never both.

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阅读理解竞技场

Choose the best answer:

1. Young people used to think drinking tea was _____.

A. cool B. expensive

C. out of date D. healthy

2. According to the story, Madonna _____.

A. is a good writer

B. helped to make tea popular

C. enjoys drinking coffee

D. spends a lot of time drinking tea

3. The underlined word "in" probably means _____.

A. interesting B. beautiful

C. fashionable D. traditional

4. The text mainly talks about _____.

A. a newly-invented drink

B. the history of coffee and tea

C. ways to make coffee and tea

D. a new drinking trend in the UK

xjinshan

So many sheep in this country

词数 190 建议阅读时间 4分钟

WHEN Irish writer George Bernard Shaw (萧伯纳) visited New Zealand in the 1930s, a reporter asked what he thought about the place. Shaw replied: "too many sheep".

In New Zealand, there are 40 million sheep. The number is 10 times as many as that of the people in the country. So there are a lot of jokes about New Zealand and sheep.

Since there are so many sheep, for many years, New Zealand sent meat and wool (羊毛) to countries like Britain.

Agriculture (农业) has become less important recently. Most New Zealanders live in cities, and only a small number still run sheep farms.

New Zealand is a beautiful place, with its rivers, mountains and endless green plains (草原). Did you watch the Lord of the Rings (《指环王》) films? They were all made in New Zealand. The movies are an advertisement for the country's beauty.

The Maoris (毛利人) are the original people of the country. They make up about 15 percent of New Zealanders.

Most New Zealanders now use Maori words in everyday life. Maori and English are the official languages.

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