Worlds of Fun

Location: Worlds of Fun is located off Highway 435 in Kansas City, Missouri. 

History: Worlds of Fun was opened on May 26, 1973, at a cost of 25 million dollars. Loosely themed around the Jules Verne book, Around the World in Eighty Days, the park was founded by Hunt Midwest Company. In 1982, Hunt Midwest bought a nearby waterpark, Oceans of Fun. In 2013, Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun were combined to a one ticket admission, providing all guests with access to 235 acres of amusement and water rides. 

Hours:  Worlds of Fun is open from April through Halloween. 

Tickets: Buy and print online. Always try to buy your tickets in advance, to save time when you get to the park.  Reservations: Worlds of Fun sells “Fast Lane” cards that save riders’ time by allowing them to bypass the majority of wait for most of rides and attractions including Mamba, Prowler, and Patriot. Ride as many times as you want all day long. 

Strategy: Most visitors tend to begin the day with Prowler, the hottest attraction in the park. Use that tendency to your advantage and head to the Patriot first. After that, try the Dragons. Then work your way back to the Prowler. After riding the Prowler, there is only one coaster left, Mamba. Hit it next. If the park is not very crowded, you can ride Boomerang on the way to Mamba. After riding Mamba, head back for a ride on the Wolf. By then you will have tried most of the popular rides and attractions in the shortest possible time. 

News: In 2017, Worlds of Fun is adding Steel Hawk, a ride that will take guests up 301 feet in the air and spin them at a 45-degree angle for a 60-second flight. Wait to have a try!  

21.When did Hunt Midwest’s two parks start to share one ticket?

A．In 1973.   B．In 2013.   C．In 1982.    D．In 2017.

22.With a “Fast Lane” card, the visitor can _________.

A．save some money             B．buy tickets online

C．avoid lining up for long        D．enjoy all the rides for free

23.According to the passage, by beginning with 　　　a visitor can try most of the popular rides and attractions in the shortest possible time.

A. Prowler            B. Dragons          C. Patriot              D. Wolf

In the Pacific Northwest there is a kind of owl (猫头鹰) that serves as a unique piece to the Northwest habitat (栖息地) — the northern spotted owl.

 Northern spotted owls are known to be curious. When seeing you, these owls will come down close and check you out.   

The northern spotted owl has been a savior of old-growth forests. Old-growth forests are forests that have been around for a long time without significant disturbances. One way the spotted owl has become a protector of old-growth forests is simply by being there. The northern spotted owl has become endangered, and so to protect them from dying out, the government has to protect their habitat. So now any destruction of old-growth forests is illegal. Another way the owls help their habitat is by eating small animals. This helps create a balance in the forest.   

So, if the northern spotted owl is in a habitat that is protected by laws, why are they still endangered?

Unfortunately, a cousin of the northern spotted owl has moved into its neighborhood. The bigger, more aggressive “barred owl” has grown in population and due to loss of the forests they lived in on the East Coast of the United States, they have begun to move to the west coast.   

These owls are taking the food source and pushing northern spotted owls out of their own home. Although the barred owl is able to live in different habitats, the northern spotted owl can only live in old-growth forests.

 Many government officials have been at a loss to find an answer to the difficult question, “What do we do with the non-native barred owls?” Some methods include shooting them. It is a difficult problem to deal with. Can you think of any possible solutions?

24. The northern spotted owl _______.

A. is particular about its food            B. has difficulty adapting to a new habitat

C. seems dangerous and aggressive     D. is a common bird in the USA

25. Old-growth forests seem to _______.   

A. become less safe for the owls      B. benefit from northern spotted owls

C. be in danger of dying out           D. regrow at a fast speed

26. Northern spotted owls are in danger mainly because of _______.

A. illegal hunting              B. the destruction of the forests

C. another kind of owl        D. environmental pollution  

27. The methods being used to help northern spotted owls are _______.

 A. creative      B. far-sighted      C. unbearable      D. ineffective

By the time I was in second grade, Dad had become a professor. We moved to a small university town in Illinois 

and found ourselves living next to a lot of young students. Almost every morning, as Dede would walk me to my 

school, we’d walk through the students’ party wasteland covered with things I was too young to know about and Dede was too old to care about. 

One day, a group of guys started shouting “Ali Baba” at us and laughing.  I turned red  and begged Dede to cross the street with me. But she refused. Instead, she laughed in her usual way, yelled “Ali Baba” and waved at them as we walked by. They just watched us in shocked silence and never said anything to us again. 

Dede set an example for me that day and forever after, because she taught me to be always proud of who I was. 

Her stories were like a movie that was rich and imaginative and she never sugarcoated anything. While Dede 

preferred the Queen’s English, her vocabulary was just as alive. The landscapes she created in her stories were so 

vibrant(充满活力的) and filled with a wild cast of characters. 

Almost every day, I would interrupt Dede, whatever she was busy with, and beg her to tell me a story. She would 

silently stare at me through the large glasses that took up half of her face. Whether it was only 10 minutes or several 

hours, I would barely speak as Dede took me to places I never wanted to come back from.

My mother died while I was a child. Without the care and guidance of Dede in every aspect of life, I couldn’t have lived happily. Dede taught me so much, not only in daily life, but also in her attitude to dealing with unpleasant things 

that I don’t want to confront. 

28. How did the author feel when the boys shouted “Ali Baba” at them?    

A. Shocked.        B. Ashamed.       C. Afraid.      D. Excited. 

29. Why was the author always asking Dede to tell stories? 

A. Her stories were lively and interesting. 

B. The author had no friends and felt lonely. 

C. The author liked Dede to speak in the Queen’s English. 

D. She could make a dull landscape seem beautiful. 

30. From the text, we can infer that Dede was the author’s_________. 

A. mother       B. neighbour        C. aunt         D. housekeeper 

31. We can learn from the text that the author__________. 

A. appreciated Dede very much 

B. didn’t like her father 

C. was very selfish 

D. thought of Dede as her teacher

Some children are natural-born bosses. They have a strong need to make decisions, manage their  environment, and lead rather than follow. Stephen Jackson, a Year One student, "operates under the  theory of what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine," says his mother."The other day I bought two new Star Wars light sabers (剑). Later, I saw Stephen with the two new ones while his brogher was  using the beat-up ones."      

"Examine the extended family, and you'll probably find a bossy grandparent, aunt, uncle or cousin  in every generation. It't an inheritable trait," says Russell Barkley, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. Other children who may not be particularly bossy can gradually gain dominance when they sense their parents are weak, hesitant, or in disagreement with each other.      

Whether it's inborn nature or developed character at work, too much control in the hands at the young isn't healthy for children or the family, Fear is at the root of a lot of bossy behavior, says family psychologist John Taylor. Children, he says in his book From Defiance to Cooperation, "have secret  feelings of weakness" and "a desire to feel safe." It's the parents' role to provide that protection.      

When a "boss child" doesn't learn limits at home, the stage is set for a host of troubles outside the family. The overly willful and unbending child may have trouble obeying teachers or coaches, for example, or trouble keeping friends. It can be pretty lonely as the top dog if no one likes your bossy ways.      

"I see more and more parents giving up their power," says Barkley, who has studied bossy behavior for more than 30 years."They bend too far because they don't want to be as strict as their own parents were. But they also feel less confident about their parenting skills. Their kids, in turn, feel more anxious."

32. Bossy children like Stephen Jackson _____.

A. make good decisions   B. show self-centeredness

C. are very considerate    D. always think about other persons

33. The underlined phrase "inheritable trait" in Paragraph 2 means _____.

A. inborn nature      B. developed character

C. accepted theory    D. particular environment

34. The study on bossy behavior implies that parents _____.

A. should give more power to their children 

B. should be strict with their children 

C. should bend before their children

D. should not set limits for their children

35. What is the passage mainly about?

A. How bossy behavior can be controlled. 

B. How we can get along with bossy children.

C. What leads to children's bossy behavior. 

D. What effect bossy behavior brings about.

Today we eat on the go, at our desks and even in front of computers. We eat takeout, delivered and packaged meals. 　36　

“Over the past three decades, people have started eating out more than ever before and purchasing more prepared foods at the grocery store, which tend to contain more fat, salt and sugar than their home-made foods,” noted US healthy living website Spark People.

　37  　It encourages us to value the time we spend preparing, sharing and consuming food, as a recent USA Today article put it. It all started in 1986 with the efforts of Slow Food’s founding father, Italian activist Carlo Petrini, who wanted to bring back food varieties and flavors that had gone dark in the face of industrialization. 　38　Now, his idea is almost the mainstream.

Starting at the table, the movement promotes an unhurried way of life founded on the idea that everyone has a right to cooking pleasure, and that everyone must also take responsibility to “protect the heritage(遗产）of food, tradition and culture that make this celebration of the senses possible”, wrote The Phnom Penh Post.

“ 　39　It means turning down the speed at which we eat and increasing the amount of time we spend dining together with other people,” Althea Zanecosky, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, told The Huffington Post,“ 　  40    　Dinner table conversations keep families together,” noted the Belgian non-profit organization Greenfudge.

A. It is a way to bring back the social togetherness of yesterday.

B. It seems that we have adapted our foods to our fast-paced lives.

C. So, the Slow Food Movement has occurred against this fast-food trend.

D. Slow Food doesn’t necessarily mean food that takes a long time to cook.

E. It is based on the idea that we should spend as much time as possible on cooking.

F. It’s not only the food itself but also the time we spend dining together that matters.

G. At that time, he asked people to follow a more sustainable(可持续的）living model.