1 .

I saw her at the play and because of her invitation, I sat beside her. “Do you remember the first time I saw you? You asked me to have lunch,” she asked.

Did I remember?

It was twenty years ago. I was living in a tiny flat and making little money.

After reading my book, she wrote to ask if I’d have a chat with her and give her a lunch at Foyot’s. Foyot’s was such an expensive restaurant that I never went there before, but I had £80 and a lunch shouldn’t cost over £15. So I agreed.

Still, I was shocked to see the prices. They were much higher than I expected, but her words comforted me, “I never eat more than one thing for lunch.”

“Don’t say that!” I answered generously (慷慨地).

“I never eat more than one thing, except a little salmon (三文鱼) ” Well, a beautiful salmon just came in Foyot’s. I ordered it for my guest. And the waiter asked if she’d have something else.

“No, I never eat more than one thing, unless you had caviar (鱼子酱),” My heart sank (下沉), but I told the waiter to bring it. For myself, I chose the cheapest dish.

She talked happily while I was wondering whether I had enough money to pay the bill. If no, it’d be awful to borrow from my guest, and I’d say my money was stolen. It’d be worse if she had no enough money either. Then I had to leave my watch here.

She finished eating. “Coffee?” I asked. “No more than one thing, except ice cream and coffee.” I didn’t care now, ordering one for her and another for myself. Then a terrible thing happened. The waiter came with huge peaches, and my guest took one.

At last, the bill came. I knew she thought me mean (吝啬的) when I left only £3 for the waiter as the tip, and there was nothing in my pocket.

“Follow my example,” she said as we left. “Never eat more than one thing for lunch.”

“I’ll do better,” I replied. “I’ll eat nothing for dinner tonight.”

“Humorous!” she cried, jumping into a taxi.

I had my revenge (报仇). Today she weighed 294 pounds.

1. Why did the writer have lunch with the woman twenty years ago?

A．The woman asked for a lunch.	B．They wanted to talk about the play.
C．They hadn’t met for a long time.	D．He wanted to try Foyot’s food with her.

2. How did the writer feel when ordering food?

A．He felt the food in Foyot’s was awful.

B．He felt terrible that his money was stolen.

C．He was not sure whether the woman liked the food.

D．He worried about the bill but didn’t want to lose face.

3. Why did the woman repeat saying “I never eat more than one thing.”?

A．Because she planned to lose weight.

B．Because she’d like to show her simple life.

C．Because she knew how to keep a healthy diet.

D．Because she wanted to eat more expensive food.

4. What can we infer from the passage?

A．The writer enjoyed the lunch a lot with the woman.

B．The woman repeated having meals like this for 20 years.

C．The writer learned from the woman to eat less for meals.

D．The woman felt sorry as the lunch cost all the writer’s money.

2 . 通读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从各题所给的四个选项 (A、B、C和D) 中选出一个最佳选项。

It was a sunny day in July, and I was going to fly at Panker Mountain as a new paraglider (滑翔伞) pilot. Flying in the middle of a summer day can be _________ because of the strong winds and heat. That day, however, I decided to fly at 2:00 p.m. to _________ myself.

At first, the flying went _________ I opened my wing (伞翼) without difficulty and ran west off the side of the mountain. I felt my wing lift me up and the _________ feeling of free flight. It was great! However, when I passed the top of the _________. I was suddenly blown by a strong wind. The right side of the wing fell down and closed under itself. I tried my best to keep the balance with the _________ left side of the wing. After a few awful seconds, the right side was refilled with _________ and popped (蹦出) back into place.

It wasn’t over. I felt myself being _________ from side to side by the wind. I fought with my wing, trying to keep it centered in the sky _________ my head, I passed through a crazy-strong heat that threw _________ straight up into the sky.

Luckily, I drove out of the _________ and immediately began falling towards the ground. I wanted to land as soon as I could, _________ a forest of pine trees covered the ground below me. I went over the trees and _________ next to a small river. I had _________ been so happy to be back on the ground. My hands shook, and it took several minutes for my mind and body to _________.

Pilots have a saying: “It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than to be in the air wishing you were on the ground.” They are right.

1.

A．relaxing

B．natural

C．dangerous

D．boring

2.

A．enjoy

B．change

C．treat

D．challenge

3.

A．terribly

B．smoothly

C．quietly

D．early

4.

A．magical

B．empty

C．funny

D．lonely

5.

A．house

B．building

C．mountain

D．tree

6.

A．open

B．broken

C．special

D．soft

7.

A．water

B．air

C．fire

D．electricity

8.

A．passed

B．touched

C．shaken

D．dropped

9.

A．above

B．beside

C．opposite

D．behind

10.

A．us

B．him

C．you

D．me

11.

A．heat

B．fog

C．wind

D．shower

12.

A．until

B．because

C．or

D．but

13.

A．flew

B．landed

C．hurried

D．swam

14.

A．still

B．also

C．never

D．even

15.

A．cheer up

B．carry on

C．wake up

D．calm down

3 . ①Everyone has goals and most people believe practising repeatedly will help us get a success. Actually, when we reach an acceptable and automatic (无意识的) performance, the additional (额外的) practice won’t make us improve. Suppose we’re learning to play the piano. At first, we know nothing. After taking lessons, we can gain skills as soon as we just practise a few times. Unluckily, after we can play some pieces well with little thoughts, we may find some weak points don’t disappear no matter how often we practise. That’s because automatic abilities will weaken without making efforts on purpose.

②So what do we need if we want to get further improvement? Purposeful practice could be a successful method. It’s different from just practising repeatedly. It has the following features.

③ ▲ It’s all about putting a large number of small steps together to reach a longer-term purpose. For example, passing your piano exam is not a clear goal. It may not guide you to practise effectively (有效地). You will be more successful if you change it into: “Play this piece of the music at a proper speed without a mistake three times.” That’s because it’s easier to judge whether this practice has led to a success.

④Feedback also plays an important role in purposeful practice. It’s a kind of information about how good your performance is. You have to know whether you are doing something right. If not, how you can correct it. Without feedback, you cannot find out what you need to improve or how close you get to your goals.

⑤Another key to achieving purposeful practice is getting out of your comfort zone. It means trying to do something that you couldn’t do before. Most of us like practising what we’re good at. In fact, it’s useless to focus on something we’ve already known. Getting out of comfort zone isn’t about “trying harder,” but about “trying differently”. For example, a professional striker (足球前锋) needs to practise not only shooting, but also other football skills like goalkeeping.

⑥Purposeful practice isn’t everything, but if you want to keep improving, it can be more useful than usual methods.

1. What can we learn about purposeful practice from the first two paragraphs?

A．It makes us lose automatic abilities.	B．It leads us to get further improvement.
C．It encourages us to take more lessons.	D．It helps us repeat actions without thinking.

2. Which of the following sentences can be put into ▲ ?

A．Setting specific goals is necessary for purposeful practice.

B．To make longer-term progress, we need purposeful practice.

C．Purposeful practice is an effective way to help you pass exams.

D．We should practise purposefully to improve automatic abilities.

3. Who is having the purposeful practice according to the writer?

A．Tim seldom checks his performance after he practises swimming.

B．Jason sets “getting a good grade” as his goal to guide him to study Maths.

C．Linda never stops trying some new writing methods to improve her writing.

D．Rose spends most of her time practising the singing skills she’s already known.

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Not All Practice Makes Perfect	B．Practise Till You Get Everything Right
C．Success Is No Accident But Hard Work	D．Every Failure Is A Step Closer to Success

5 .

When you’re taking an airplane, you’ll notice the soft clouds look lighter than air. But don’t be fooled —those clouds are much heavier than you think. So how much does a cloud weigh? And how can we weigh a cloud?

Clouds are mainly made of millions of tiny water droplets (小滴), so we can know the weight of a cloud by weighing the water in it. To do that, we need to know the size of the cloud and also the density (密度) of the droplets.

Margaret LeMone, a scientist from the US, has weighed the water in a grey cumulus (积云) cloud. First, she has found out that an average cumulus cloud is about 10m³ in size, considering it as a cube (立方体). Besides, the weight of water within 1m² of a cumulus cloud is about 0. 5 gram. In other words, the density of the droplets is around 0. 5g/m³. So the cloud weighs about 500 tons, nearly the weight of 100 elephants!

Of course, ___▲___. For example, cirrus (卷云) clouds are much lighter, because they have far less water. A dark thunderstorm cloud is a lot heavier, about two million tons of water. This cloud also contains much more water, which is why they can produce so much rain.

But if clouds are so heavy, why do they stay aloft? In fact, the wind helps a lot. These droplets are small enough to stay on even the lightest wind. If they get together, they can come down as rain and snow. Each raindrop is only 2mm across. So don’t worry! Those small raindrops spread out the weight enough and 500 tons of water doesn’t fall down on your head all at once.

So, the next time you see a little cloud passing overhead, just remember: 100 elephants.

1. What did Margaret LeMone do to weigh a cloud?

A．She compared the cloud to a ball.

B．She researched the size of the cloud.

C．She weighed the air inside the cloud.

D．She chose a cirrus cloud as an example.

2. Which of the following can be put into A in Paragraph 4?

A．other scientists do some similar studies

B．the research can be improved in the future

C．there are some difficulties to weigh a cloud

D．different types of clouds have different weights

3. What does the underlined phrase “stay aloft” probably mean?

A．Remain in the air.	B．Look soft and light.
C．Seem small in size.	D．Change shapes often.

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Beautiful Sky with Colourful Clouds

B．Clouds as Heavy as Elephants High up

C．Clouds in the Shape of Animals in the Sky

D．Interesting Experiments of Weighing Clouds

6 . 假设你是李华，你校正在开展“职面未来”为主题的职业规划活动，现向学生征集未来职业等信息。请你根据以下调查问卷，给活动负责人Mr. Black 写一封邮件，谈谈自己的未来职业及理由，并阐述职业规划。

Your Future Job 1. What do you want to be in the future? □A doctor. □A teacher. □ Others ______________ 2. Why do you choose that? 3. What’s your plan for the future job?

注意：
1)文中不得出现真实姓名、学校等信息；
2)词数：110词左右；开头已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Mr. Black,

I’m Li Hua from Grade Nine and I’m writing to talk about my future job.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua

7 . 听一段独白，回答下面五个小题。
1. Who is the speaker?

A．A club leader.

B．A music teacher.

C．A class monitor.

2. Where are the meetings usually held?

A．In the dancing hall.

B．In the singing room.

C．In the art room.

3. What do members do every term?

A．They take a music exam.

B．They write songs for singers.

C．They celebrate the Music Day.

4. When will the first meeting be held?

A．On 7th May.

B．On 12th May.

C．On 20th May.

5. Why does the speaker give the speech?

A．To show thanks to members.

B．To introduce plans for a new term.

C．To invite more students to join the club.

8 . ①700 years before the Wright brothers began experimenting with human flight, the Chinese had already got its secrets—with kites.

②Kites may have been invented in China as early as 500 B.C.E. While some kites were flown for fun, other kites provided key technologies for daily life. Chinese fishermen used kites to carry their lines far out to sea. Sailors used them to take a measurement of the wind.

③The Chinese craftsmen were very clever! They made their kites from bamboo and silk, and they came in all kinds of cool shapes, like 80-foot-long dragons. These kites showed off ancient China’s great technology. Their wings and tails could even move! As Chinese engineers experimented to make the kites fly even higher, they discovered the science of aerodynamics (空气动力学). They made the wings of their kites work like airfoils (机翼)—the same design used in modern planes.

④And the man-carriers were the most amazing Chinese kites. Ancient Chinese people may have made them a common sight by the 1200s. The kites were much larger than a small airplane. They were made from strong bamboo poles tied together and then covered with silk. During wars, Chinese scouts used man-carrying kites to fly high in the sky and spy on their enemies—similar to modern spy planes.

⑤In the late 1200s, the Italian businessman and explorer Marco Polo was amazed by what he saw in China, and he wrote a detailed description. When he returned to Italy, most people refused to believe him. They could not imagine that a person could fly.

⑥Centuries passed before Europeans learned the secrets—often by flying kites imported from China. In 1804, an English engineer, Sir George Cayley, built the first model airplanes. He used kites to make the wings. About 100 years later, American inventors, including the Wright brothers, also found ideas for their flight experiments by flying kites first.

1. What does Paragraph 2 mainly tell us?

A．How people made kites.	B．When kites were invented.
C．What kites were used for.	D．Where kites were invented.

2. Why are modern planes mentioned in Paragraph 3?

A．To describe the popularity of ancient Chinese kites.

B．To get readers to learn about the history of Chinese kites.

C．To show the excellent skills of kite making in ancient China.

D．To tell the differences between modern planes and Chinese kites.

3. Which is the correct order of the following events?
a. Sir George Cayley built the first model planes.
b. Ancient Chinese made large man-carrying kites.
c. Marco Polo told Italians about Chinese amazing kites.
d. The Wright brothers did flight experiments by flying kites first.

A．b-c-d-a

B．b-c-a-d

C．c-d-a-b

D．c-b-a-d

4. What’s the structure of the passage?

A．

B．

C．

D．

10 . 阅读下面短文，掌握大意，从每小题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中选出最佳选项。

“Hey! Ms. Woodall!” I was at the backyard of my house when I heard a voice call out my name. I turned around and saw William, one of my _________, who loved plants and always smiled.

It was true. William was a joy in my class. When other students were having trouble understanding the lessons, he always cheered them up and brought them _________ moments. However, because of his poor grades, I couldn’t help _________. I kept wondering if William could pass the exams because he didn’t make any progress in study.

Things didn’t change _________ we started to study the life cycle of plants. As a class project, each child planted a sunflower. I did this every year with different results in different parts. At first, it was _________ for many of the students to plant the sunflowers. _________, most kids had little patience for the growing part. They lost interest and forgot to _________ the sunflowers except William. I’d never seen him show such great _________ in class.

Every afternoon, William made sure all the sunflowers were watered. _________ even offered to care for them well during the summer holiday. To help the little sunflowers get plenty of sunlight, we __________ moved them to the perfect place behind the library with William. All of us hoped the twenty sunflowers could __________ the best.

About a month into the summer vacation, I happened to drive by the school. There, behind the library, stood William’s sunflowers. I counted all __________ of them. They must have been at least 12 feet tall with faces to the sun.

Looking at the sunflowers, I realised we teachers should __________ what was planted in our children and tried our best to nurture (培育) it. This was also __________ I chose to be a teacher, I thought. At that moment, I knew I didn’t have to worry about William. And I believed that one day he would bloom and shine __________ his sunflowers.

1.

A．friends

B．students

C．teachers

D．classmates

2.

A．simple

B．free

C．quiet

D．bright

3.

A．worrying

B．accepting

C．crying

D．laughing

4.

A．though

B．unless

C．until

D．because

5.

A．boring

B．tiring

C．exciting

D．moving

6.

A．Besides

B．However

C．Luckily

D．Suddenly

7.

A．talk about

B．pick up

C．think of

D．look after

8.

A．wish

B．interest

C．regret

D．courage

9.

A．He

B．I

C．She

D．They

10.

A．secretly

B．proudly

C．politely

D．carefully

11.

A．grow

B．feel

C．turn

D．smell

12.

A．two

B．four

C．twelve

D．twenty

13.

A．create

B．trust

C．change

D．teach

14.

A．why

B．when

C．how

D．where

15.

A．as

B．for

C．like

D．with