【推荐2】A beautiful and very successful actress was the star of a new musical show. Her home was in the country, but she didn’t want to have to go back there every night, so she rented (租用) an expensive flat in the centre of the city, bought some beautiful furniture (家具) and hired a man to paint the rooms in new colours.

It was very difficult to get tickets for her show because everybody wanted to see it, so she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better and more willingly for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of the month, when she got the painter’s bill. At the bottom of it were the words “Four hours watching Miss Hall sing and dance,£3,” with this note： “After 5 p.m. I get fifteen shillings an hour instead of ten shillings.”

1. In the article, “Miss Hall” was the name of ________.

A．a place where people sang and danced	B．an unmarried woman
C．a hall	D．a street

2. The woman’s flat was situated ________.

A．near the city	B．near her home
C．in the middle of the city	D．by the side of the country road

3. The actress gave the painter two tickets, hoping he would ________.

A．be pleased	B．ask less money for his work
C．charge more money for his work	D．say a good word for her musical show

4. After the painter got the tickets from the actress, he ________.

A．sold them for £3	B．went to watch the musical show
C．paid £3 for them	D．was very thankful to her

【推荐3】Last Monday, to prepare a picnic, I decided to go into a superstore which was on my way home.

I parked my car in the big parking lot and went into the superstore. It was a huge one, spread onto 2 stories and 200, 000+sq-ft. After 45 minutes of shopping(which looked like a real escape game)to just get some tomatoes, cheese and 3 toothpicks, I arrived at the cashier line, thoughtful and a bit upset by the time I spent to get 5 articles. I wondered why I did not go to a small local store.

After 15 minutes of waiting in the line, the woman in front of me called me: "Heyyou only have 5 articles? Pass before me; I have many more articles than you!"

It wasn’t the first time it had happened to me. But her initiative(提议)was disarming, as well as was her smile. She did not wear any mask, so I could see it. Not knowing what else to do, I accepted her offering. We chatted a bit waiting for the customers ahead of us to finish-she was very pleasant. Then I thanked her, giving                           her back my brightest smile although I was wearing a mask.

Getting back in my car, I rethought about that good moment, and realized that she made my day. In the meantime, I wondered how to give it back to her. No doubt it was quite impossible, so I considered how to pay-it-forward to someone else.

While driving, I realized that she saved me 10 minutes. And while I was driving at 70mph, I reduced my speed to 55 mph. The amount of fuel used dropped down by 35%.

As a result, I re-lost part of the 10 minutes that the woman offered me, but it was a way to repay her and do a small thing for the environment.

1. Why did the author regret shopping in the superstore?

A．She found the parking lot was full.

B．She thought the superstore was too crowded.

C．She spent too much time buying too few things.

D．She thought the articles there were too expensive.

2. How much time should the author have waited in the line at least if she hadn’t changed her place?

A．15 minutes.	B．70 minutes.
C．60 minutes.	D．25 minutes.

3. What does the underlined word "disarming" in paragraph 4 probably mean?

A．A little too late.	B．Hard to accept.
C．Making people lose ability.	D．Making people feel less angry.

4. How did the author repay the woman?

A．By wasting 10 minutes.

B．By driving a little slower.

C．By paying it forward to someone else.

D．By asking others to protect the environment.

【推荐1】One summer, when I was young, my dad built me a lemonade stand. On sunny days I would set up outside the local car wash with a cooler and my little black safe. I didn’t get many customers but I always had fun, whether I was reading a book or adding paint decorations to the safe and signs.

One customer I did have was an elderly gentleman who lived across the street from the car wash.

He would come every day where I set up and buy a glass of lemonade for his wife. Even though I only charged 25 cents, he always paid me with a $1 Sacagawea coin. I built up quite a collection by the end of the summer!

Now, as a college student, I make a point of stopping at as many lemonade stands as I can, always paying more than the kids charge me. This has been going on for almost three years now but this week, I didn’t have any money with me when I stopped at a little girl’s stand. I dug around in my car thoroughly and eventually opened up one of my moving boxes showing a black safe covered in soft cloth painted rainbows and hearts. I opened it up and sure enough, there were my Sacagawea coins. I almost shut the lid again because they mean so much to me, but then I realized that this is exactly why I had to pay with the coin. When I gave that little girl the shiny gold coin, I said, “You hang on to this one; they don’t make them any more!” And her face lit up. As I drove away, I saw her running to her sister to show her the gold coin and I knew that I had made her just as happy as I was when I was a little girl.

1. What did the gentleman pay the author for the lemonade?

A．25 cents every time.	B．A collection of gold coins.
C．A one-dollar gold coin each time.	D．A little black safe with many gold coins.

2. Why did the author pay the little girl with a gold coin?

A．To pass the kindness.	B．To show her wealth.
C．To help the poor girl.	D．To make the girl happy.

3. How did the author feel when she gave the girl the coin?

A．Unwilling and hesitant.	B．Excited and willing.
C．Serious and pleased.	D．Peaceful and pleased.

4. What can be a suitable title for the passage?

A．A Kind Young Lady	B．A Shiny Gold Coin
C．A Wealthy Gentleman	D．A Happy Lemonade Stand

【推荐2】Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an English writer and author of two of the best loved children’s books in English literature — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. The characters and phrases from these books have entered and become part of the English lexicon (词典) in a way that was comparable to those from Shakespeare’s works.

Charles Dodgson was born on January 27, 1832 and spent the first eleven years of his life at Warrington. Dodgson was educated first by homeschooling, then at boarding schools in Richmond and at Rugby, and finally at Charist Church College, Oxford. In later life, he remembered his boarding school experience with no fondness. Still, he was an excellent student and did very well academically throughout. For all his brilliance or perhaps because of it, he couldn’t be bothered to spend long hours studying and so he didn’t. If things came easily, that was fine; if they didn’t, well, that doesn’t seem to have bothered him very much.

His book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland first came into being in 1862 as a story he made up for Alice Liddell, the ten-year-old daughter of his friend Dean Henry Liddell. Later he wrote it down and showed the book, illustrated with his own drawings, to another friend, the fairy tale writer George Macdonald and his children. They loved it and enthusiastically urged him to get it published. Accordingly, Dodgson revised it for publication. And in 1865, with illustrations more professionally done by Sir John Tenniel, it became an immediate bestseller. Its sequel(续集)Through the Looking-Glass proved equally popular.

1. What does paragraph 1 intend to tell us?

A．Charles Dodgson was more famous than Shakespeare.

B．Charles Dodgson had great achievements in literature.

C．Charles Dodgson once worked on the English lexicon.

D．Charles Dodgson was a writer with only two works.

2. What do we know about Charles Dodgson from paragraph 2?

A．He was a hard-working student.	B．He struggled with his studies.
C．He received very little schooling.	D．He performed high study efficiency.

3. What probably led to the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderlands?

A．The persuasion from George Macdonald.	B．The help from Dean Henry Liddell.
C．The guidance of Sir John Tenniel.	D．The demand of a publisher.

4. When Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland first came into being, Charles Dodgson ________.

A．had a little boy as its main character	B．wrote it just for his children
C．was sure it could be popular	D．didn’t expect it to be published

【推荐3】My folks bought their first house in the early 1940s after Dad got a better job in Marquette, Michigan. We lived just inside the city limits in what was still a rural area.

In the spring of 1948, when I was 6 years old, my parents bought a calf (小牛) to replace our cow, which had been killed the year before. So one day we drove to a local farm and returned with a white and brown calf we named Tubby.

We didn’t own a truck, so Tubby rode home in the backseat of Dad’s car with my 9-year-old brother, Steve and me. As you can imagine, the trip was a lot of fun for us kids.

Later that summer, Mom thought it would be cute to take a picture of me sitting on Tubby’s back. All went well until the flashlight of the camera sent Tubby charging off on a run, with me holding on for dear life and my heart pulled to my throat.

I lasted for about 30 feet before I hit the ground. Mom was quick enough to shoot a follow-up picture, so we had photos of me both on and off Tubby!

When summer had passed, the day arrived for poor Tubby to fill our freezer (冰柜). I must have been somewhere else with my mom on the fateful (决定性的) day, because I have no memory of what happened. All I knew was that the barn (畜棚) was empty, and that we had plenty of meat for dinners.

I hadn’t lived on the farm like my mother, so I didn’t understand that what had happened to Tubby was not unusual. Livestock (家畜) aren’t meant to be pets, and most farm kids know and accept the truth.

Whenever we had beef for dinner, I would tearfully ask, “Is this Tubby?” This went on for a couple of months until Dad had enough and declared, “No more cows!” That made me feel better about poor Tubby.

1. Why did the parents buy Tubby?

A．To raise it for meat.	B．To produce enough milk for the kids.
C．To keep the kids company.	D．To have Tubby help with farm work.

2. What can we know from the passage?

A．The writer witnessed Tubby killed.

B．The writer felt happy to see the freezer filled with meat.

C．The writer’s mother thought it natural to kill Tubby for meat.

D．The writer felt excited on Tubby’s back when it was running off.

3. How did the writer feel towards Tubby whenever he had beef?

A．Sad.

B．Thankful.

C．Moved.

D．Hopeless.

【推荐1】How Much to Tip

You’re out to dinner. The food is delicious and the service is fine. You decide to leave a big fat tip. Why? The answer may not be as simple as you think. Tipping, psychologists have found, is not just about service. Instead, studies have shown that tipping can be affected by psychological reactions to a series of different factors from the waiter’s choice of words, to how they carry themselves while taking orders, to the bill’s total. Even how much waiters remind customers of themselves can determine how much change they pocket by the end of the night. “Studies before have shown that mimicry brings into positive feelings for the mimicker,” wrote Rick van Barren, a social psychology professor. “There studies show that people who are being mimicked become more generous toward the person who mimics thorn.”

So, Rick van Barren divided 59 waiters into two groups. He requested that half serve with a phrase such as “Coming up!” Those in the other half were instructed to repeat to orders and preferences back to the customers. Rick van Barren then compared their take home. The results were clear－it plays to mimic your customers . The copycat waiters earned almost double the number of tips to the other group.

Leonard Green and Joe Myerson, psychologists at Washington University in St. Louis found the generosity of a tipper may be limited by his bill. After research on the 1,000 tips left for waiters, cab drivers, hair stylists, they found tip percentages in these three areas dropped as customers ‘bills went up. In fact , tip percentages appear to plateau when bills topped ＄100 and a bill for ＄200 made the worker gain no bigger percentage tip than a hill for ＄100 .

“That’s also a point of tipping,” Green says. “You have to give a little extra to the cab driver for being there to pack you up and something to the waiter for being there to serve you. If they weren’t there, you’d never get any service. So, part of the idea of a tip is for just being there .”

1. How many factors affecting the customers’ tipping are mentioned in the passage?

A．1

B．2

C．3

D．4

2. These studies show that ______.

A．tipping can be affected by physical reactions to many different waiter’s factors

B．people who are being mimicked usually tip less to the person who mimics them

C．the mimic waiters can get almost twice as much money as the other group

D．mimicry makes the mimicker feel bad

3. According to the passage, which of the following will be likely to show the right change of the tip percentages?

A．	B．
C．	D．

4. We know from the passage that the writer seems to ______.

A．object to Mr. Green’s idea about tipping

B．think part of Mr. Green’s explanation is reasonable

C．give his generous tip to waiters very often

D．support the opinions of Mr. Green and Rick van Barren about tipping

【推荐2】Six months ago, Jack came to China to study. He has heard that Yangzhou is famous for its gardens.   And he plans to visit some gardens in July, so he has collected information about them online as follows:

The Slender West Lake, named National AAAAA Tourist Area in 2010, includes the Great Rainbow Bridge, the White Pagoda, Five-pavilion Bridge, the Twenty-four Bridge, the Small Golden Hill and so on. The best time to tour the Slender West Lake is in March. During the visit to the park, the boat travels on the water and visitors travel in the picture. Ticket: Mar.—May. ￥150; Other months ￥90 Time: 8:30—17:00 Bus: No. 4, 5, 6, 17, 61 buses Tel: 0514-87357803; 0514-87370091

Ge Garden, one of the four top famous Chinese gardens, got its name from bamboo. The bamboo in the garden forms the green scenery. The centre of the garden is well-known for man-like hills. Four seasons can be experienced here at a time. Ticket: Mar. —May. ￥10; Other months ￥30 Time: Mar. —May. 7:15—18:00; Other months 7:15—17:30 Bus: No. 8, 30, 61 buses Tel: 0514-87935285

He Garden, the most famous garden in the late Qing Dynasty, is known for its long double-way corridor (走廊), which is regarded as the earliest footbridge. Ticket: Mar. —May. ￥40; Other months ￥30 Time: 7:30—17:15 Bus: No. 19, 61 buses Tel: 0514-87900345; 0514-87222353

1. How much will a ticket cost Jack if he visits the Slender West lake?

A．30 yuan.	B．40 yuan.
C．90 yuan.	D．150 yuan.

2. What’s HeGarden famous for?

A．The long corridor.	B．The green bamboo.
C．The man-made hills.	D．The boat travelling.

3. Which of the following can Jack do?

A．He can take a No. 19 bus to GeGarden.

B．He can visit the Slender West Lake at 8:00.

C．He can call 0514-87935285 for further information of HeGarden.

D．He can call 0514-87900345 to know more about HeGarden.

【推荐3】
SYDNEY: As they sat sharing sweets beside a swimming pool in 1999, Shane Gould and Jessicah Schipper were simply getting along well, chatting about sport, life and anything else that came up.
Yet in Sydney next month, they will meet again by the pool, and for a short time the friends will race against each other in the 50-meter butterfly in the Australian championships at Homebu Bay.
Gould, now a 47-year-old mother of four, has announced she will be making a return to elite competition (顶级赛事) to swim the one event, having set a qualifying (合格的) time of 30. 32 seconds in winning gold at last year’s United States Masters championships. Her comeback comes 32 years after she won three golds at the Munich Olympics.
Schipper, now a 17-year-old girl from Brisbane with a bright future of going to Athens for her first Olympics, yesterday recalled (回忆) her time with Gould five years ago. “I was at a national youth camp on the Gold Coast and Shane had come along to talk to us and watch us train.” Schipper explained. “It seemed as if we had long been good friends. I don’t know why. We just started talking and it went from there.”
“She had a lot to share with all of us at that camp. She told us stories about what it was like at big meets like Olympics and what it was like to be on an Australian team. It was really interesting.”
Next time, things will be more serious: “I will still be swimming in the 50m butterfly at the nationals, so there is a chance that I could actually be competing against Shane Gould.” said Schipper, who burst onto the scene at last year’s national championships with second places in the 100 m and 200 butterfly.
1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Stories happening in swimming competitions.

B．Two women swimmers winning Olympic golds.

C．Lessons learned from international swimming championships.

D．Friendship and competition between two swimmers.

2. Gould and Schipper are going to ________.

A．talk about sport and life	B．go back to elite competition
C．set a qualifying time and win gold	D．take part in the same sports event

3. Gould won her three Olympic golds when she was ________.

A．15

B．17

C．22

D．30

4. The underlined word “it” in the fifth paragraph probably refers to ________.

A．the Olympics	B．the youth camp
C．the friendship	D．the Australian team

5. What Spper said showed that she ________.

A．was no longer Gould’s friend	B．had learned a lot from Gould
C．was not interested in Gould’s stories	D．would not like to compete against Gould