杭州市建兰中学2018年期末英语阅读提升训练AAn eight-year-old child heard her parents talking about her little brother. All she knew was that he was very sick and they had no money. Only very expensive operation could save him now and there was no one to lend them the money. When she heard her daddy say to her tearful mother, “Only a miracle(奇迹)can save him now,” the little girl went to her bedroom and pulled her money from its hiding place and counted it carefully.She hurried to a drugstore(药店) with the money in her hand.“And what do you want?” asked the salesman. “It’s for my little brother,” the girl answered. “He’s really, really sick and I want to buy a miracle.” “Pardon?” said the salesman.“My brother Andrew has some thing bad growing in-side his head and my daddy saysonly a miracle can save him. So how much does a miracle cost?” “We don’t sell a miracle here, child. I’m sorry,” the salesman said with a smile.“Listen, if it isn’t enough, I can try and get some more. Just tell me how much it costs.”A well-dressed man heard it and asked, “What kind of a miracle does your brother need?”“I don’t know,” she answered with her eyes full of tears. “He’s really sick and mum says he needs an operation. But my daddy can’t pay for it, so I have brought all my money. “How much do you have?” asked the man. “$1.11, but I can try and get some more,” she answered.“Well, what luck,” smiled the man. “$1.11, the price of a miracle for little brothers”He took up the girl’s hand and said, “Take me to where you live. I want to see your brother and meet your parents. Let’s see if I have the kind of miracle you need.”That well-dressed man was Dr Carlton Armstrong, a famous doctor. The operation was successful and it wasn’t long before Andr ew was home again.How much did the miracle cost?1.What was the trouble in the little girl’s family?A. Her brother was seriously ill.B. They had no money.C. Both A and B.D. They are hungry2.The little girl said again and a gain “…I can try get some more.”That shows___.A. she had still kept some moneyB. she hoped not to be refusedC. There was no need to worry about moneyD. she is lazy3.What made the miracle happen?A.The girl’s love for her brother.B. The girl’s moneyC.The medicine from the drugstore.D. The girl’s parents4.From the passage we can infer(推断) that _____.A. The doctor didn’t ask for any pay.B. The little girl is lovely but not so clever.C. Andrew was in fact not so sick as they had thought.D. The girl is stupid.BI bought a jasmine plant for my office. When I bought it, I was told it would bloom（开花）and the sweet smell would fill my office. I had the plant for two months, and every day I looked at it, but there weren't any flowers or pleasant smell. I was not happy, so I gavethe plant to my friend Linda.One day, another friend Mary called and invited me to her office. When I walked in, her jasmine flowers surprised me. I reached out to touch the flowers. Mary cut some andgave them to me. I couldn't help smelling them. Surrounded by the sweet smell of only a handful of these flowers, I suddenly understood something.Mary bought her plant the same time I did. It took a year for her jasmine to bloom. Iwas so impatient for mine to bloom; regretfully, I gave it away.In a way my life is like the jasmine plant. I need to be patient and let things happen.Last Sunday Linda told me that she was going abroad the next week. Before she left, she returned the plant to me. This time I am going to wait. I have learned that when we want something in our life, we have to be patient. I am slowly learning to have that patience to wait for my jasmine to bloom.1.Before she gave the jasmine away, the writer had it for .A. one dayB. one year C . two weeks D. two months2.When the writer saw Mary's jasmine, she felt____________ .A. unhappyB. peacefulC. hopefulD. surprised3.What has the writer learned from her experience?A. Patience is needed in life.B. Flowers can make life better.C. Friendship is necessary for us.D. Jasmine can be a wonderful plant.CSome days, don’t you think, "Wouldn’t it be nice if the laundry would just do itself?” Self-cleaning clothes may sound crazy. But Australian researchers have found a way to make something like this possible!A team at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, found a way to put special nanostructures (纳米结构) into clothing, which can then clean the clothes. When sunlight hits the nanostructures,they break down the dirt and stains (污渍) that don’t belong on your clothes.The nanostructures don’t break down the actual clothing because cotton and the other clothing materials are too strong to be broken down. According to CNN, the researchers cover the clothingin a solution made of silver and copper (铜) nanostructures. All it takes is 40 minutes of sunlight and your clothes will look as good as new.So if you spill on yourself during lunch, you can step outside for a walk, and it will be cleanby the time you go inside. It not only makes your life easier, but it can also be good for the environment.According to the US Department of Energy, the average load of laundry uses about 25 gallons (about 94 liters) of water. Water is a very important resource, so using less of it to wash clothesis better for the environment. But one of the scientists at RMIT University knows more needs to be done.“There’s more work to do before we can start throwing out our washing machines,” said Dr Rajesh Ramanathan, “but this is a strong foundation .”So what’s the next step? Ramanathan wants to eith er start selling the solution by itself or convincing clothing makers to treat the clothing with the solution while clothes are being made.1. What do Paragraphs 4-5 talk about?A. What advantages the self-cleaning clothes have.B. How the self-cleaning clothes work.C. How the self-cleaning clothes are made.D. What helps the self-cleaning clothes work.2.What does the underlined word “solution”in the last paragraph mean?A. MachinesB. Clothes.C. Silver.D. Design.3.What can we learn from the passage?A. Silver and copper sell well.B. The solution is not put into practice.C. Clothing makes certainly like the solution.D. We don’t need washing machines any more.DYou need some bread and milk. But half an hour later, you leave the supermarket with a trolley(手推车) full of food. What games do supermarkets play to make us spend so much money?The tricks usually start before you walk in. Outside the supermarket entrance, anybody who walks past can smell warm, fresh bread. That makes us hungry and ready to buy lots of food, not just bread.Now you’re inside and, of course, a small basket would be fine, but all they have are trolleys. And of course the problem with a trolley is that it looks sad and lonely with just one or two products inside. So we may fill it with something. In fact, supermarket trolleys are actually getting bigger so that we buy more.Of course, many people shop in supermarkets because they think everything is cheaper than in other shops. So supermarkets offer very cheap prices on some things but then have higher prices for other products. One new trick is to put red stickers on products. Customers usually connect red stickers with lower prices so the red stickers is easy to be noticed, even when there is no reduction! Interestingly, this trick appears to work more with men than with women.There is a story behind the position of everything in the supermarket. For example, customers often go only to buy milk. So they put it right at the back, forcing you to go past hundreds of shelves full of other products. The position of products on each shelf is also important. The most expensive products are usually at eye-level so you see theseimmediately. The exception is anything that children might like. These products are on lower shelves so that kids see them.Apart from what you see and smell in a supermarket, what about what you listen to? In most supermarkets they have soft, slow music. It’s so relaxing that you slow down and spend more time (and money) in the store. You also move more slowly when the supermarket is busy. Experts suggest it’s better to shop when it’s quieter, on a Monday or a Tuesday for example. And be careful with queues at the checkouts. These are sometimes deliberate(故意), to make you buy something from the checkout shelves while you wait.So, next time you go into your local supermarket, remember these tricks and see if you can come with just the things you went for.1.Supermarkets don’t provide baskets because ______.A. supermarkets don’t usually have manyB. baskets are too small to hold many productsC. it’s easy to go shopping with trolleysD. a trolley can hold one or two products inside2.According to the passage, supermarkets put red stickers on products to ______.A. make them look more beautifulB. make them different from cheaper onesC. make people think the stickers are for menD. make people think they could save money3.According to the passage, toys for children are usually placed ______.A. on higher shelvesB. on each shelfC. on lower shelvesD. on the back shelves4.It can be learned from Paragraph 6 that supermarkets usually ______.A. stop people lining up at the checkoutsB. close on Monday morningC. play loud and noisy music insideD. make customers feel relaxed5.The passage is mainly about _____.A. several ways supermarkets use to sell more productsB. some advice when people go shopping on the streetC. several rules that every business should followD. some advertisements that make people buy moreEXiaofan, a smart boy from Shenzhen, used to have difficulty in getting up on time, and his alarm clock was of no use at all. It made him very upset. One day, he had a good idea.Xiaofan went to a shop and bought a tape. Back home, he started to record what he wanted. After that, he took out a tool box and connected his tape player with the new tape to his alarm clock. A special alarm clock was born. At a certain time in the morning, the tape player would play soft music with a low and sweet voice of a young girl, “Wake up, please.” Five minutes later, the tape player would play again, and it might be loud music. At the same time, he could hear a recording of his parent, “Wake up at once, or you’ll be late!”Several days later, Xiaofan got used to the sound of the recordings. After the recordings, he was still sleepy, and even fall asleep again. That was terrible! So he went to the library and borrowed plenty of books home to deal with his problem of getting up late.He made it! With the help of what he had learned from the books, he put a mechanical（机械的）arm at the end of the bed. Now if Xiaofan still doesn’t get up at last, the arm in the bed will “beat” him, and even m ake him out of the bed.The special bed with a mechanical arm helps Xiaofan a lot, but it is not sold in stores.1._______ used to be Xiaofan’s problem in the morning.A. Playing soft musicB. Making a new bedC. Falling asleepD. Being difficult to get up on time2. Xiaofan bought ________ in the shop.A. an alarm clockB. a tapeC. a tool boxD. a tape player3.Xiaofan went to the library to ________.A. return some booksB. write a bookC. borrow many books homeD. read plenty of books there答案：A： CBAAB：DDAC：ADBD：DCDAE：DBC。