1 . We spoke to three students from around the world about different national holidays. There are different customs for each festival.
| Xiaodong, 15, Hong Kong | “It’ll soon be the Chinese New Year. Before it, we’ll clean the house and decorate it for good luck. Every shop is going to close for a few days and we’ll go out a lot to celebrate on the streets. We might go and see the lion and dragon dances in the city center. I love this festival.” |
| Wendy, 16, Sydney | “Australia Day is on 26th January and it’s an important holiday here. We always have a Monday off, so we celebrate for three days. My parents and I go to the countryside for a picnic and friends always come over. Many people go to beach parties or street parties and there is quite a lot of music and dancing. What fun!” |
| Amy, 14, New York | “The first Thanksgiving was celebrated hundreds of years ago when Europeans who came to America thanked God for his help. It’s still a very important day for families to be together. This year we’re going to visit my grandparents and we’ll eat a delicious meal of turkey. Thanksgiving Day is on the 4th Thursday in November every year.” |
1. How many festivals are mentioned in the passage?
| A．Two. | B．Three. | C．Four. | D．Five. |
| A．do a lot of shopping | B．eat turkey | C．go to beach parties | D．see lion and dragon dances |
| A．have a meal in the countryside | B．go to a swimming pool |
| C．have a party at school | D．clean the house and dance |
| A．A country. | B．A festival. | C．A kind of food. | D．A kind of drink |
2 . What makes you happy? Beautiful music, good friends or interesting games? If you are a food lover, nice food will make you feel happy. However, delicious food can’t always be easy to get. When you feel bad and there’s no food available, what will you do? Some American researchers (研究人员) say that you can try to draw some nice food. According to their new research, drawing pictures of the food you like will help improve your mood (情绪).
The researchers invited 61 students from St. Bonaventure University in New York to take part in the research. The 22 men and 39 women were all in their early twenties. The researchers first divided the students into four groups and gave them red, green, brown and black pencils to draw pictures of different food including cupcakes, pizza, strawberries and pepper (胡椒).
The researchers used a research tool to assess mood changes. They made the students record their mood, hunger and level of excitement before and after the five-minute drawing exercise, which was done when they were hungry.
The result showed drawing pizza improved the students’ mood by 28%, while drawing cupcakes and strawberries improved their spirit by 27% and 22%. However, mood in the pepper group improved by only 1%. The result also showed there was such a big difference in hunger and excitement levels between the groups. Will drawing pictures of food help stop people from overeating (吃得过多) one day? The researchers said the influence on mood was not known now and more researches were needed.
1. The underlined word “assess” in the passage means “________” in Chinese.| A．评估 | B．连接 | C．增长 | D．决定 |
| A．strawberries | B．pepper | C．pizza | D．cupcakes |
| A．The students for the research were all 20 years old. |
| B．The four groups of students did the research when they were hungry. |
| C．Drawing pictures of different food improved the students’ mood differently. |
| D．The researchers said the influence on mood was not known now and more researches were needed. |
| A．It’s mainly about a research on happiness. | B．It’s mainly about the level of happiness. |
| C．It’s mainly about the secrets of happiness. | D．It’s mainly about the ways of happiness. |
3 . Para 1. Stonehenge is an ancient circle of stones in the south of England. It was built about 5,000 years ago. Every year, it attracts thousands of tourists to enjoy its beauty. They also wonder about how and why it was built.
Para 2. There are about 80 stones and each is about five meters tall. The stones were 380 kilometers away from where they were made. The ancient people had only wooden tools. To move the stones they probably used tree trunks(树干) to roll them along. So it was a wonder to build Stonehenge. Scientists say it took millions of man-hours to move and raise the heavy stones. How did people move these huge pieces of stone from the place so far? No one knows the answer. One record said the great stones were carried to England by huge magical (有魔力的) aliens! But we don’t know.
Para 3. Some scientists believe that Stonehenge was a temple. Some believe it was place to bury dead people or perhaps it was used to study the stars and the sky at night. Others think it was even used to tell the time. Whatever the stones were used to do, they have always been the pride of British people.
Para 4. In modern times Stonehenge has become a huge hit with tourists.
1. Every year thousands of visitors come to visit Stonehenge to ________.| A．study how and why it was built | B．enjoy its beauty |
| C．take photos around it | D．meet the people who built it |
| A．Paragraph1. | B．Paragraph 2. | C．Paragraph 3. | D．Paragraph4. |
| A．Stonehenge attracts many people from al over the world every year. |
| B．Scientists don’t exactly know what tools ancient people used to roll the stones. |
| C．The stones have always been the pride of British people. |
| D．British men carried heavy stones from over 380 kilometers away. |
Who do you think is the greatest English writer of all time? I think that person should be William Shakespeare. His popular sayings, like “to be or not to be, that is a question”, and his stories such as the tragedy (悲剧), Romance of Romeo and Juliet, are almost known in every corner of the world.
By 1594, William Shakespeare had become a key playwright of a popular acting company in the city. Whether comedy or tragedy, Shakespeare's plays catch people’s hearts with complicated(复杂的) characters and plots(情节) that show truths about human nature.
His comedies (喜剧) shows human’s weakness and always have a happy ending. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, fairies play magical tricks on people lost in the woods. His tragedies, however, can be very dark, Macbeth tells the story about a Scottish man who becomes the king by killing all his enemies.
Shakespeare’s works also have a big influence (影响) on the English language. He is a master(大师) of words. He created about 1,700 English words, including everyday ones like“lonely”, “hurry” and “critical, according to the New York Post.
Of course,Shakespeare wrote 400 years ago and his English was very different form that of today. His plays have been translated into many languages and are acted more often than any other playwright. There are over 400 films and TV dramas adapted (改编) from his work. Shakespeare is not for an age, but for all time.
1. According to Paragraph 1, Shakespeare is ________.| A．famous among people in every corner of the world |
| B．known as the greatest English writer |
| C．not good at writing tragedies |
| D．only famous for his work Romance of Romeo and Juliet |
| A．are easy to understand. | B．include Macbeth. |
| C．aren’t as famous as his tragedies | D．always have a happy ending. |
| A．was very different from English today | B．has 1,700 English words |
| C．was very difficult to understand | D．included many words from other languages |
| A．Shakespeare’s family and educational background (背景). |
| B．Shakespeare’s works and his great influence. |
| C．Differences between Shakespeare’s words and the modern ones. |
| D．Films and TV dramas adapted from Shakespeare’s plays. |
5 . Each of us has dreams and goals for our future. What makes us study and made progress each day is closely connected with our personal dream and goal.
But why do you have dreams and goals, you still end up with nothing? What separates（区分）successful people from dreamers is their persistent（锲而不舍的）action. When you learn your lessons at school, you must work hard and not give up. You will often find some of your lessons very hard. Try and keep trying. And you’ll be sure to successfully deal with any difficulty you meet with. If we have a hard lesson today, let us try our best to learn it well and then we shall be prepared for a harder one tomorrow.
This is the famous formula（公式）for success:
Dream→Believe→Achieve
Most people have what they want（Dream）and think they can realize their dreams（Believe）. And then they do nothing. They just imagine their dreams can come true. When they get tired of waiting and lose a lot, they say angrily how terrible their life is.
I personally believe that if you really want to achieve your dreams and goals in life, you have to add one thing to your success formula:
Dream→Believe→Act→Achieve
For me, act is the most important thing for success and that’s to Take Persistent Action（Act）. If you say“I can’t do it” and give up, you can never do anything valuable（有价值的）. However, “I’ll try” creates wonders. Let’s remember that there will be obstacles in our life. We must face them bravely and solve them. Success is not something that falls from the sky. Most successful people made their dreams come true because of their persistent action.
Please remember: Action is the bridge that connects our dreams and goals to reality.
1. What do you need to do when you find your lessons very hard?| A．To ask other people for help. | B．To try my best to learn them well. |
| C．To keep trying another one. | D．To get ready for a harder one. |
| A．Act. | B．Achieve. | C．Connect. | D．Create. |
| A．Dangers. | B．Mistakes. | C．Choices. | D．Problems. |
| A．Keeping on Doing Something Valuable |
| B．Studying Hard and Making Great Progress |
| C．Realizing Dreams with Persistent Action |
| D．Separating Successful People from Dreamers |
It seems that food deliverymen are always in a rush. They wear blue, red or yellow helmets（头盔）and many of them don’t follow traffic rules. They drive on the wrong side of the road and run red lights. They use mobile phones while driving.
However, not everything goes well with food deliverymen. In the first half of last year, food deliverymen had 76 traffic accidents in Shanghai. That means every two and a half days, a food deliveryman will die or get hurt on the road.
What makes deliverymen take such risks? The strict rules of the food delivery service companies and the anxious customers（焦虑的顾客）may be the answer. Many companies will fine（罚款）a deliveryman up to 2,000 yuan if he fails to deliver an order on time, reported by China Daily. Fines also go to those who get bad reviews（评价）from customers.
To solve the problem, food delivery service companies need to improve their incentive systems（激励制度）, noted CRI Online. Some cities are also taking action. Shanghai has asked companies to train their deliverymen on traffic rules and safety. Now in Shenzhen, if a deliveryman gets caught breaking traffic rules more than twice, then he will be banned（禁止）from driving food service delivery vehicles（车辆）for a whole year.
1. The first paragraph mainly tells us that many food deliverymen ________.| A．work very hard | B．break traffic rules | C．are good at driving | D．have mobile phones |
| A．Two | B．three | C．four. | D．five |
| A．delivers an order on time | B．drive on the wrong side of the road |
| C．runs red lights while driving | D．gets bad reviews from his customers |
| A．It’s important for food deliverymen to deliver food on time. |
| B．It’s necessary for food deliverymen to follow the traffic rules. |
| C．It’s dangerous for food deliverymen to get caught more than twice. |
| D．It’s impossible for food deliverymen to drive for a whole year. |
Do you still remember the cultural TV show National Treasure hosted by Zhang Guoli on China Central TV? As a cultural show, this program is to show the background stories about some national treasures. The treasures in the show are presented by national treasure keepers who tell their stories with the collections in a special way. Today, I’ll introduce two treasures to you.
| Name | Sword of Goujian (越王勾践剑) | Tiger﹣Shaped Tally (杜虎符) |
| Material | Bronze (青铜) | Bronze |
| When it was made | The Spring and Autumn Period (770﹣476 BC) | The Warring States Period (475﹣221 BC) |
| Length | 55. 7cm | 9. 5cm |
| Width | 4. 6cm | |
| Height | 4. 4cm | |
| Weight | 875g | |
| When and where it was discovered | 1965, Jiangling, Hubei Province | 1975, Shenjiaqiao in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province |
| Museum | Hubei Provincial Museum | Shaanxi History Museum |
| National treasure keeper | Duan Yihong | Liu Yijun |
| A．CCTV | B．Shaanxi TV | C．Hubei TV | D．Hunan TV |
| A．steel (钢) | B．bronze | C．gold (金) | D．silver (银) |
| A．shorter than | B．the same as | C．longer than | D．half of |
| A．30 | B．40 | C．50 | D．60 |
| A．Wang Kai | B．Liu Yijun | C．Zhang Guoli | D．Duan Yihong |
In classes, your teachers will talk about the topics that you are studying. They provide important information for you to know when you take tests. So you must be able to take good written notes from what your teachers say. Here are the three stages（阶段） of taking notes and what you should do during each stage.
1.Before Class
Review your notes you have taken before you come to class. This will be good for remembering what was covered, and get you ready to understand new information in class.
2.During Class
Keep your attention on what your teacher is saying and “the signal words” that tell you what your teacher is going to say and it is important to write them in your notes. Examples of signal words are “the most important point… and remember that…”. Be sure to include in your notes information that your teacher repeats or writes on the blackboard. Write quickly so that you can include all the important information in your notes. Do this by writing abbreviations（缩写） such as med for medicine, using symbols such as “%” for percent, and writing short sentences.
3.After Class
Rewrite your notes to make them more complete and accurate（准确） by changing abbreviation into whole words, symbols into words, and shortened sentences into longer sentences. Use them to answer your questions. If necessary, ask your teacher for help.
| The information | |
| Before Class | ☆ Review the notes you have taken to remember what was covered. ☆ Prepare to |
| ☆ Listen to your teacher carefully. ☆ Be sure to include the important points. ☆Write them down quickly by writing abbreviation. | |
| After Class | ☆ Make your notes more complete and accurate to answer your questions. ☆ |
9 . No matter who you are and where you live, the most important thing is what kind of person you are. The following qualities are the most helpful ones.
Have a positive attitude（态度）. Life is not always a bed of roses. When you face difficulties, don't lose heart. Do you know what can help you deal with difficulties? It’s your attitude（态度）. Cheer up!
Life is like a mirror. When you smile in front of it, it will also smile at you.
Keep learning. Maybe you are used to your present life. Every day, you have so much work to do that you can’t find any time to learn. Keeping learning can help you get success in the future.
Be creative. In the modern world, the students who have creative thinking are needed most. Being creative means coming up with new ideas and having creative imagination（想象）. Creative people have more choices in their life.
Be honest and keep your promise. Honesty（诚实）is the best policy（原则）. Nobody likes a person who tells lies（说谎）. The one who keeps his words is popular everywhere.
As long as you have these qualities mentioned above, you will be excellent and make a difference to the world. Albert Einstein once said, “Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value（价值）.”
Title: | |
| Have a positive attitude. | |
| Keep learning. | You are too |
| Creative people have more choices in their life. | |
| Be honest and keep your promise. | Everyone likes the person that |
| Conclusion（结论） | Follow these qualities, you`ll be excellent and make a difference to the world. |
10 . In Chinese culture, the color red stands for many good things, for example, happiness. But writing names and letters with red pens is usually avoided. Why?
In ancient times, red was the symbol of power. Not everyone could write with red pens—only emperors. They would reply to officials’ memorials（奏折）with red pens. The red ink that emperors used was made of cinnabar（朱砂）.
Writing with red pens was also related to death. In ancient China, the criminals who were sentenced to death（被判死刑）signed their names with red pens. The records of criminals’ names were all written in red words. Names on the tombstones（墓碑）were red as well. Therefore, it was thought to be unlucky to write names with red pens. Since red words carry bad meanings, people don’t write letters with red pens.
Nowadays, red pens are used for proof-reading（校对）. Teachers mark students’ homework with red pens. Editors who need them to correct mistakes in newspapers and magazines. But writing names or letters with red pens is still a bad idea to many people.
1. Is writing names and letters with red pens usually avoided?| A．No, it isn’t. | B．It’s not usually avoided | C．Yes, it is. | D．It’s usually avoided. |
| A．White. | B．Red. | C．Green. | D．Black. |
| A．They were red. | B．They were black. | C．Yes, they were. | D．No, they weren’t. |
| A．Proof-read. | B．To Proof-reading. | C．proof-readings. | D．Proof-reading. |
| A．To mark students’ homework. | B．To correct mistakes in newspapers and magazines. |
| C．To reply to officials’ memorials. | D．To write their articles. |
