Once there lived an old king in a small country. He had no son to rule the country in his place so he announced a competition: the boy who could grow the best plant in six months with a seed given by the king would be the next king.

Every boy in the country was wild with joy. They lined up for the seed in front of the palace. Among them was Jun, a boy who was really good at growing things. His neighbours would fight over the melons and peas he grew.

Jun took the seed home as if it were the most valuable thing in the world. He put some rich black soil in one of his best flower pots and put the seed carefully in the pot. Jun watered the pot every day and waited for the first little green leaf to show up as all the other boys in the country did. Soon, one of Jun’s neighbours had his first leaf. Jun was surprised but he kept waiting. Then, the second boy, the third boy and many other boys had their first leaf.

Jun’s pot was still empty. He couldn’t understand. He moved the seed carefully into another pot and put the best and richest black soil in this pot. He watched it every day but still nothing came.

Soon it was the day for the boys to show their plant to the king at the palace. Among many happy boys with strong and beautiful plants stood Jun with his head down and an empty pot in his hand. When the king saw Jun, he asked, “What is this? You brought me an empty pot?”

Jun almost cried. “I did my best. I put the seed in the best soil I could find. I watered it and watched it every day but it just wouldn’t grow. I’m really sorry.”

“Of course it wouldn’t grow. All the seeds given to you had been cooked.” said the king with a smile on his face.

29. Why did the king give seeds to the boys?

A．He had a great interest in gardening.

B．He would like some best plants for his garden.

C．He wanted to find the smartest boy in the country.

D．He was looking for someone suitable to take his place.

30. What can we learn about Jun from paragraph 4?

A．He didn’t give up easily.

B．He didn’t use the right pot.

C．He was not good at growing plants.

D．He enjoyed growing plants very much.

31. How might Jun feel when the king asked about his empty pot?

A．Angry.

B．Excited.

C．Relaxed.

D．Upset.

32. What can we learn from the story?

A．No pains, no gains.

B．Honesty is the best policy.

C．Where there is a will, there is a way.

D．A bad beginning makes a bad ending.

It may be easy to make a delicious-looking hamburger at home. But will it still seem delicious after sitting on the kitchen table under very bright lights for hours? More importantly, will anyone ever want to pay money for this hamburger if they see it like that in real?

These are the questions that fast food companies worry about when they make advertisements for their products. Video and photo shoots can take hours. The lights that the photographers use can be extremely hot. These conditions can cause the food to look quite tasteless to possible customers. Therefore, special methods are needed to make food look attractive in videos and photos.

Take hamburgers as an example. The first step towards building the perfect advertisement hamburger is the bread. The food stylist—a person to make sure the products look perfect— searches through hundreds of pieces of bread to find a piece with no wrinkles (褶皱). After that, the stylist carefully puts the sesame seeds on the bread with glue (浆糊) to make sure they won’t fall off. The bread is then covered with a mixture so that it will not get wet and soft.

Next, the food stylist shapes some meat into a perfect circle. Only the outside of the meat gets cooked—the inside is left uncooked so that the meat looks juicy. The food stylist then paints the outside of the meat with a mixture of oil, honey, and brown food coloring.

Finally, the food stylist picks the best-looking tomatoes and lettuce out of dozens of them. One leaf of the freshest lettuce and one center piece of the reddest tomato are chosen and then covered with glycerin (甘油) to keep them looking fresh.

The next time you see a perfect-looking hamburger in a fast-food advertisement, remember: you’re actually looking at glue, paint, uncooked meat, and glycerin! Do you still want it?

33. What is the use of the two questions in Paragraph 1?

A．To explain a problem.

B．To give an example.

C．To bring up a topic.

D．To express an opinion.

34. What makes it difficult to make advertisements for food?

A．Food goes bad easily and quickly.

B．It costs a lot to shoot videos and photos.

C．The hot light makes food look unattractive.

D．Special methods are not always hard to find.

35. Which of the following shows the right order of building a perfect advertisement hamburger?
a. Make some meat in the shape of a circle.
b. Put glycerin on the vegetables to keep them looking fresh.
c. Glue sesame seeds on a piece of perfect-looking bread.
d. Cook the outside of the meat.
e. Find the reddest tomato out of a dozen of them.

A．c-e-a-d-b

B．c-a-d-e-b

C．a-e-d-b-c

D．a-d-b-e-c

36. Which of the following best shows the structure of this passage?

A．

B．

C．

D．

When a teen and a parent argue, it does not mean that something is wrong with their relationship. It just means that they see things in different ways. Parents of teenagers should realize this kind of arguments happens in almost every family.

In the early years of children’s lives, parents are the most important people in their world. Their love and support mean a lot to children. As children get older and have more contact with people other than their parents, their behaviors will be influenced (影响) by other people.

Building up Independence

As teens build up independence, parents need to understand a number of points. They are still the most important influence in their children’s lives while teens are trying to become adults. One of their greatest difficulties is becoming independent while keeping a loving relationship with parents.

Fighting for Control

When children are young, many parents keep control over most parts of their children’s life. These parents choose their children’s clothes, friends, hobbies and so on. As children grow older, they realize they can never grow into adults without having control of their lives. As a result, teens begin to fight for control. In this period, even a simple topic can trigger a disagreement. Topics that cause the greatest stress in a family include family rules, responsibility and so on.

In fact, teens are still worried about losing the most important thing in their lives the love of parents. At the same time, parents may feel hurt about teens’ abilities to care for themselves. It is stressful because everyone cares so greatly about each other.

_________

What are some ways parents can begin to break the cycle of disagreement with their teens? First of all, be aware that teenagers must become independent to become adults.

If becoming independent is the task of children, then the task of parents must be to help their children reach independence by allowing them to walk (and fall), talk (and make mistakes) and slowly take control of their lives.

Also, parents should try to keep the communication lines open and be a good example for their teens to follow. Sometimes parents may need to learn new ways to deal with their own problems, instead of allowing the teen's fight for independence to get mixed up with their questions.

37. Why do parents and teens argue with each other?

A．They don’t love each other anymore.

B．They don’t see the world in the same way.

C．Teenagers want to live a totally independent life.

D．Teenagers don’t care about parents’ love and support.

38. Which of the following can take the place of the underlined word “trigger”?

A．fill with

B．come along

C．lead to

D．set out

39. Which of the following is the best sub-title to fill in “ ▲ ”?

A．Becoming Adults

B．Solving Disagreements

C．Allowing Mistakes

D．Keeping Communicating

40. What is the purpose of the article?

A．To teach teenagers how to be independent.

B．To explain why teenagers need independence.

C．To give parents advice on getting on with teenagers.

D．To tell parents to stay away from their teenage children.

阅读短文及文后选项，选出可以填入空白处的最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

“Dragon” has long been used as the translation of the Chinese word “Loong”. According to some written records, “Loong” was first translated to “dragon” in The Travels of Marco Polo in 1299.     41     “Loong” is similar to the Western dragon, in a way —for example, both are huge and can fly. But the translation is far from being able to show all the meanings that “Loong” has in Chinese culture. Instead, it makes westerners unable to understand it.

    42     As we see in movies, the Western dragon is a kind of fire-breathing cruel animal. It is usually beaten by heroes. However, in China, it’s said that the Chinese dragon can fly and has the magical power to control wind and rain.     43     Chinese use “Loong” as one of their favourite names or decorations.

“Loong” is meaningful and native to China and there aren’t any proper expressions for it in Western languages.     44     They aim to tell people the Chinese dragon is totally different from the fire-breathing one in western ancient stories. No matter which way “Loong” is translated, we must show that “Loong” is warm and joyful. It’s very different from the Western dragon.     45    

A．Chinese believe “Loong” can bring them strength and good luck.

B．In what ways is the Chinese dragon quite different from the Western dragon?

C．“Dragon” may have been the best word to describe “Loong” at that time.

D．We should always try to explain “Loong” well so that Westerners won’t get lost in the translation.

E．Culture experts believe that it’s just a good idea to bring the new word “Loong” to describe the Chinese dragon.

阅读下面短文，并根据短文大意及所给单词的首字母写出所缺单词。在填写答卷时，要求写出完整单词（每空限填一词）。

It has been raining for two days, and scientists said the rain didn’t seem to stop. I didn’t really know what that meant to us. The next morning, however, I began to understand.

The rain was still going when I woke up. I wanted to get out of the bed and see the outside more c    46     through the window. But I stopped immediately. Water was all over the floor—toys and things were floating by.

The rain caused problems. The power was out. Houses looked l    47     they were in the river. A bridge over the river was damaged because water was rushing over it. We couldn’t get to another town u    48     it was repaired. Seeing this, people felt helpless and frightened. After a while, a group of soldiers a    49    . They set bags full of sand along the roads to keep the water away, sent food to us and rescued people who were in d    50    .

51. 巴拿马运河系统于1914年建造，它大大节省了航行时间和距离。
The Panama Canal system _____________ _____________ in 1914 and it could save a lot of time and distance of sailing.

54. 系统有两个闸门。当舱室I中的水上升到和舱室I的同一高度时，闸门将打开，船驶过海峡。
_________ _________ two chambers in the system. The gate will open and the ship will sail across the channel when the water in Chamber I goes up _________ high _________ that in Chamber II.

55. 巴拿马运河为船只节省了近8000英里的航程。它在世界上起着多么重要的作用啊！
The Panama Canal saves ships almost 8,000 miles of voyage. _________ ________ _________ role it plays in the world!

56. 假如你是李华，你的学校正在开展“共建和谐校园”活动。请根据以下提示内容，以 “Building A Healthy School Life” 为题，代表学生会写一篇英文倡议书刊登在学校的英文校刊上。

Dos	Don’ts
1. show respect	1. make fun of
2. use polite words	2. quarrel with
3. …	3. …

注意：       
       1. 可在内容提示的基础上适当拓展信息；
       2. 词数80词左右（开头已给出，不计入词数）；
       3. 不得透露学校、姓名等任何个人信息，否则不予评分。

Building A Healthy School Life

Dear schoolmates,

As we all know, it is important for us to have a friendly and healthy relationship with our schoolmates. So what should we do and what should we not do?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Students’ Union