The United States covers a large part of the North___contine

_____ were nice to me when I was in the United States.

A．The Brown’s

B．Brown’s

C．The Browns

D．Browns

The united States has about 475,000 school buses — all painted yellow. Each day they carry more than 25,000,000 children, half of all schoolchildren in the country. But these buses, on average, use four liters of diesel (柴油) fuel to travel less than sixteen kilometers. When the school year began last fall, diesel averaged 55 cents a liter nationally. The price nearly doubled, to a dollar and 8 cents, by the end of school in June.
Bob Riley speaks for the American School Bus Council. He says fuel prices for schools are not much lower than others have to pay. As a result, schools are looking for ways to reduce transportation costs. Bus routes are being redrawn or, in some cases, canceled. Some areas are buying buses that use natural gas or other alternative fuels. Other steps include fewer field trips and less travel by sports teams. And some school districts may end any bus service not required by law.
Studies show that school buses are the safest form of transportation to and from school. The American School Bus Council says cuts in bus service are bad for children and possibly the environment. It says removing buses from the road will mean an increase in other vehicles transporting students. Spokesman Bob Riley says another concern is that reducing bus services might reduce attendance.
But it could also get more children to walk or bicycle to school. And that would surely make people happy at the National Center for Safe Routes to School. More kids walking or biking safely to school is the aim of a three-year-old federal program, part of an international movement. The goal is to increase physical activity and reduce air pollution. The United States will celebrate Walk to School Day on October eighth this year. But for some students, high fuel prices could make every day a walk-to-school day.
小题1:What does this passage mainly tell us?

A．High fuel prices’ influences on school buses.

B．New measures to transport school students.

C．The safest form of student transportation.

D．The origin of Walk to School Day.

小题2:In order to cut down transportation cost, many schools take the following measures EXCEPT_____.

A．changing some bus routes

B．stopping some bus routes

C．asking parents to drive children to and from school

D．using other types of fuels

小题3:The National Center for Safe Routes to School encourages more children to walk or bike to school in order to ____.

A．save more fuels and diesel for the country

B．keep the children safe on their way to school

C．make the children live a simple life

D．keep the children healthy and the environment clean

Who takes care of the elderly in the United States today? Many people wrongly believe that when people reach old age, their families place them in nursing homes. They are left there in the hands of strangers for the rest of their lives. Their grown-up children visit them only occasionally, but more often, they do not have any regular visitors. Actually this is not true. In fact, family members provide over 80 percent of the care that elderly people need.
Prof. Samuel Preston, a sociologist at the University of Pennsylvania, studied how the American family is changing. He reported that by the time the average American couple reaches 40 years of age, they have more parents than children. This statistic (统计) shows the change in life-styles and responsibilities of aging Americans. The average middle-aged couple can look forward to caring for elderly parents some time after their own children have grown up. Moreover, because people today live longer after an illness than people did years ago, family members must provide long-term care. These facts also mean that after care-givers provide for their elderly parents, who will eventually die, they will be old and may require care too. When they do, their spouses (配偶, 指夫或妻) will probably take care of them.
Because Americans are living longer than ever, more psychologists and social workers have begun to study care-giving to improve care of the elderly. They have found that all caregivers share a common characteristic: all caregivers believe that they are the best person for the job, for different reasons. One caregiver said that she had always been close to her mother. Another was the oldest child. In other words, they all felt that they could do the job better than anyone else. Social workers interviewed caregivers to find out why they took on the responsibility of caring for an elderly, dependent relative. They discovered three basic reasons. Many caregivers believed that they had the responsibility to help their relatives. Some stated that helping others made them feel more useful. Others hoped that by helping someone now, they would deserve care when they became old and dependent.
48. It can be inferred that a middle-aged couple in the US _______.
A. spend more time with their children than with their parents
B. depend on their children’s assistance in caring for the elderly
C. don’t pay more attention to their children than to their parents
D. spend more time taking care of their parents than before
49. The most common characteristic of caregivers is ______.
A. they all have professional qualifications in care-giving
B. they all believe themselves to be the best caregiver
C. they are the eldest child in the family
D. they are close to their parents
50. Which of the following is NOT a basic reason for care-giving?
A. Respect from other members of the family.
B. Prepayment for the care they will get in old age.
C. A feeling of being needed and helpful.
D. A strong sense of duty to the elderly.
51. What is the main idea of this passage?
A. Most old people in the US are living a happy life.
B. Most old people in the US live longer today after an illness than people did years ago.
C. Most elderly people in the US are taken care of by their families, who often find the experience satisfying.
D. Most elderly people in the US prefer living with their families to living nursing houses.

[ ]

[ ]

--_____ to the United States?
　　--No, never. But I went to Canada a few years ago.

A．Have you been

B．Have you gone

C．Did you go

D．Will you go

After Lincoln was made ___ president of the United States, he insisted on the slaves___. . A /; be set free B /; being set free C the; setting free D the ; being set free

One spring day in 1950 in New Mexico, the United States, someone saw s 小题1: coming from a forest and called the fire station at once. The firemen saw a big fire on the ground between the trees, which was spreading(扩散)quickly because of a s 小题2: wind. Many people t 小题3: to fight the fire, but as soon as one area was under control, the fire spread to another area. S 小题4: , a firemen saw a baby bear close to the fire. It was t 小题5: in the bushes. The fireman bravely ran over and took it away from the f 小题6: .
After the firemen put o 小题7: the fire, a farmer took the bear to his farm. A reporter wrote about this lucky bear in the newspaper and soon many people knew his story. Soon he was given a home at the National Zoo in Washington DC. People wanted to remind everyone in the USA about the dangers of forests fires so they put up big signs with p 【 小题8】 of the bear, which said, ‘Only you can p 【 小题9】 forest fires from happening!’ The little bear became the most f 小题8: animal in the country.

[ ]