1 . Have you ever wondered how your favorite NBA team received its famous name? All NBA teams have an interesting story or a history behind their names. Some of the names reflected the city’s culture or history, others came from previous owners and many were selected through “Name the Team” contests.

For teams like the Los Angeles Lakers and the Utah Jazz, the names were not always a reflection of the city. Even though Los Angeles has no lakes, the Lakers name has been a city treasure for almost 40 years. Before going to Los Angeles, the team originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In1947, team officials changed the name to the Lakers to reflect the Minnesota State’s nickname, “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. The team name went unchanged after moving to Los Angeles in1960.

Because the Utah’s team originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was called the Jazz. In 1974, New Orleans club officials chose the name to represent the city for its reputation as the “Jazz Capital of the World”. The name stayed with the team even after they found a new home in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979.

The original owner of the Chicago Bulls, Richard Klein, named the team the Bulls. He picked the name because a fighting bull is relentless and never quits. Klein, who founded the club in 1966, believed these qualities were necessary for a championship team and hoped his Chicago athletes would live up to the team name. The Bulls, the winner of the six NBA championships, has definitely followed the belief.

In 1967, the Indiana Pacers selected their team name in a different way from most other teams. Their decision was based on what they wanted to achieve in the NBA. Team officials chose the Pacers name because the organization wanted to set the “pace” in professional basketball.

1. Which can be the best title for this passage?

A．The Long History of NBA Teams

B．Interesting Stories about NBA teams

C．Excellent Qualities of NBA Team Officials

D．Stories Behind the Names of NBA Teams

2. Why is the Los Angeles’ team named “the Lakers”?

A．The name was selected from a “Name the Team” contest.

B．The name shows that Los Angeles is a city with various lakes.

C．It was named after a city treasure, which had a long history.

D．The team got this name in another state, which had a lot of lakes.

3. Which of the following refers to the “Jazz Capital of the World”?

A．New Orleans.	B．Salt Lake City.
C．Los Angeles.	D．Minneapolis.

4. Why did Richard Klein name the Chicago’s team the Bulls?

A．He had guessed the success of the team.

B．People in Chicago used to like watching bullfighting.

C．He wished the team to have the qualities of fighting bulls.

D．Chicago was then a city famous for fighting bulls.

2 . 根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项，选项中有两项为多余项。

The wife-carrying World Championship has been celebrated in a small town in central Finland since 1992. In 1992, the people of the town decided to restart some long-forgotten traditions.     1     He was said to only accept men as members of his gang who proved their worth in challenges. At that time, it was also a common practice to steal women from neighboring villages.

    2     A large number of competitors, people, and journalists from Finland to Canada attend the Wife-carrying World Championship every year.

    3     The Wife-carrying World Championship is held on a 253.3 meters long official track. The track has two dry obstacles and a water obstacle, about a meter deep. The wife to be carried may be your own, or your neighbor’s. The minimum weight of the wife to be carried is 49 kg. If she is less than 49kg, the wife will be given a heavy bag to carry. Each time a competitor drops his wife, that couple will be fined 15 seconds.    4    

Alongside with the Wife-carrying World Championship, there is also a team competition. The distance is the same but three men in the team carry the wife in turns. At the exchange point the carrier has to drink official “wife-carrying drink.” Then he may continue the race.

    5    

While the Wife-carrying World Championship is being held, there are bands playing music, a wife carrying dance and other forms of entertainment.”

A．There are a few basic rules.

B．People everywhere hold the event.

C．A special prize is awarded to the team.

D．Do you know how these traditions restarted?

E．This event is becoming increasingly popular.

F．The winner is the couple who complete the course in the shortest time.

G．Back in the late 1800s, there was a robber called Rosvo-Ronkainen in that area.

3 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(1个单词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

My dad is an enthusiastic (狂热的) runner who     1     (great) influenced me when I was young. So I was very sporty before the age of 14. However, when my family move, my new school didn’t pay much attention     2     sports and had no after-school activities like football or running. Over the next few years, I    3    (stop) exercising apart from during Physical Education lessons at school. It looked like I was     4     (health); however, I was not.

One day, I was late for a bus, tried to run after it and in under a minute was out of breath! This made me realize how unfit I was.     5     (help) myself get in shape again, I made a(n)     6     (decide) that I would take up a kind of sport.

A friend of mine suggested a swimming pool     7     she goes to a few times a week. Now, I’m a swimming lover! I find swimming in the pool very     8     (relax). I swim for    9     hour three times a week. I hope that I will soon start to feel the benefits of regular exercise, and will become     10     (fit) than before.

4 . As a high school coach, I did all I could to help my boys win their game. I cheered as hard for _________ as they did. A dramatic ___________, however, following a game in which I was a referee(裁判), changed my _________ on victories and defeats.

It was a league championship basketball game between New Rochelle and Yonkers High. New Rochelle was _________ by Dan O’Brien, Yonkers by Les Beck. The gym was _________, and the noise made it impossible to hear. The game was well played and _________ competed. Yonkers was _________ by one point as I _________ at the clock and discovered there were but 10 seconds left to play. New Rochelle, the home team, took _________ of the ball, passed off and shot. The ball __________ around the rim(篮筐边沿) and off. The fans ____________. New Rochelle recovered the ball, and tapped it in for what looked like victory. The noise was __________.

I looked at the clock and saw that the game was over. I hadn’t heard the final buzzer(终场哨) because of the noise. I __________ with the other official, but he could not help me. So, I __________ the timekeeper, a young man of 17 or so. He said, “Sir, the buzzer __________ before the final tap-in was made. ” Yonkers won!

I had to tell O’Brien the sad news. His face __________. The young timekeeper came up and said, “I’m sorry, Dad. The ____________ ran out before the final basket. ”__________, like the sun coming out from a cloud, O’Brien’s face lit up. He said, “that’s okay, Joe. You did what you had to. I’m __________ of you.” The two of them then walked off the ____________ together, the coach’s arm around his son’s shoulder.

1.

A．honesty

B．devotion

C．victory

D．glory

2.

A．conversation

B．incident

C．gesture

D．challenge

3.

A．view

B．attitude

C．theory

D．impression

4.

A．organized

B．represented

C．imagined

D．coached

5.

A．crowded

B．cleared

C．shaken

D．arranged

6.

A．happily

B．closely

C．smartly

D．freely

7.

A．moving

B．progressing

C．leading

D．shooting

8.

A．waved

B．glanced

C．signaled

D．stared

9.

A．control

B．place

C．care

D．need

10.

A．stuck

B．fell

C．turned

D．rolled

11.

A．laughed

B．jumped

C．yelled

D．danced

12.

A．annoying

B．amazing

C．thrilling

D．deafening

13.

A．examined

B．watched

C．researched

D．checked

14.

A．criticized

B．approached

C．interviewed

D．reminded

15.

A．broke down

B．faded away

C．went off

D．carried on

16.

A．clouded over

B．softened up

C．sweated over

D．wrinkled up

17.

A．audience

B．ball

C．time

D．player

18.

A．Certainly

B．Similarly

C．Fortunately

D．Suddenly

19.

A．ashamed

B．proud

C．aware

D．fond

20.

A．court

B．course

C．track

D．field

5 . Don’t you just love ice skating every winter? I am sure that since winter is approaching, your skates are set to come out, just waiting to be used. Impress your friends with your new trick on how to ice-skate backwards with the help of these tips.

Stand straight

The first thing that you need to do is, stand straight.     1     , if you feel that you are falling backwards. Don’t worry; this happens to all.

Confidence is what you need

The most important step while learning how to skate backwards, is having enough confidence in yourself and in what you are doing. How can you achieve this? By practice. One of the important ice skating tips and techniques is that if you feel that you are losing your balance, then scissor（做剪式运动）your skates.     2     .

Maintain speed

Try sculling（滑）with one skate while rolling in a straight line with the other.    3     . Now bring the skate which you are using to scull, and then again, repeat the same process. Make sure that you put most of your weight on the skate which is moving straight and not the one with which you are sculling.

Now, try the same thing using the other foot.

    4     .

Once you are confident that you can scull with either foot, the next thing that you have to do is increase your speed. Try some of your own tricks now. Scull with either foot or with both at the same time.

Scull and be aware

While you keep one foot straight, keep sculling with the other. You can do that with both feet at the same time.     5     , but don’t get so involved that you don’t see where you are going. If you are not watching your back, you might just bang against something or someone.

A．That is, keep pushing yourself backwards with an outwards stroke（滑动）

B．While going backwards, just get used to the feeling of moving backwards

C．Keep practicing this till you are confident about it

D．Increase your speed now

E．One must be brave enough to learn to ice-skate backwards

F．Concentrate on what you are doing

G．Just put your chin up and slightly bend your knees

6 . A round of applause, please, for the Indian man who recently sang for 80 hours straight, setting a new Guinness world record. It’s an impressive feat, to be sure, but let’s just hope he still has a voice．According to Indian newspapers, Rajesh Burbure has been told to keep silent for several days so his vocal cords（声带）can heal．
It was reported that Burbure and his family are in a celebratory mood. "It's a proud moment for all of us," his wife told DNAIndia.com．
I, on the other hand, am unable to share their enthusiasm．Don't get me wrong: I hope the 35-year-old Burbure lives forever, sells a million records and becomes an international celebrity．But his record—singing for 80 hours straight—is about as meaningful as most of the other curious but crazy feats listed in the Guinness Book of World Records．
Granted, I'm not qualified to speak on the subject．I've got no world records to my name, and I never expect to have any．Then again, maybe I am qualified to speak for those of us who have better things to do than train for years to sing an 80-hour medley（集成曲）of pop songs．
But let’s not just pick on poor Burbure．He’s not the only person chasing meaningless accolades（荣誉）．The Guinness Book of World Records is full of the names of people who at one time grew the longest hair, or built the biggest bicycle, or baked the largest cheesecake．
To all of these enterprising souls I ask, simply, "What was it all for?"
Congratulations! For all of your painstaking effort, you became a footnote in a thick book that no one reads, except for you and the person who will eventually surpass you, with one more hour of singing, a few more centimeters of steel or a few more pounds of cheese．
After all, records are made to be broken．
1. From the text, we can conclude that the author _________．

A．thinks singing for 80 hours straight is completely meaningless

B．feels it a pity he was not invited to share the happiness with the Burbures

C．is quite worried about Burbure’s vocal cords

D．has no Guinness records, so he admires Burbures’ feat

2. Before someone wins a Guinness record, he or she has to ________．

A．become an international celebrity

B．know all about Guinness records

C．practice a great deal

D．bear great stress for fear of injury

3. We can infer from the article that ________．

A．after the 80 hours of singing, Burbure could no longer speak

B．Burbure’s wife didn’t support his attempt to make a Guinness record

C．many have criticized Burbure for his stupid behavior

D．challenging a Guinness record may be harmful to the health

4. The author’s attitude to some Guinness world records is ________．

A．positive

B．impressed

C．negative

D．touched