2 . Maybe you have heard the expression—when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So when you want to do business in France, you have to get to know French culture, to make marketing plans, and to run your business by local laws.

    1     The French take great pride in their language, so anyone who does not speak it may run the risk of being disrespected by his French colleagues or business partners. Also, another reason why learning French is important is that it is a great way to show every possible French business partner that you care and respect their country's culture and language.

The first thing you should do when meeting someone new is to shake his hand firmly and always look the person in the eye. In social meeting with friends, kissing is common.

Use first names only after being invited to.     2     The French will sometimes introduce themselves using their surname first, followed by their first name.

Dress well.     3     Your business clothing is a reflection of your success and social status. Always try to be tasteful and stylish. Women are advised to dress simply but elegantly. Wearing make-up is practised widely by businesswomen.

The French are passionate about food, so lunches are common in doing business in France, which usually consist of an appetizer (开胃菜), a main meal with wine, cheese, dessert and coffee, and normally take up to two hours.     4    

Do not begin eating until the host says “bon appetite”. Pass dishes to the left, keep wrists above the table and try to eat everything on the plate.     5     This may suggest that you find the food tasteless. If eating in a restaurant, the person who invites always pays.

A．The French draw information about people based on their appearance.

B．This is a time for relationship building.

C．Remember to be as polite as possible.

D．Language should be the focus of anyone planning to do business in France.

E．Be careful with adding salt, pepper or sauces to your food.

F．Use Monsieur or Madame before the surname.

G．Make an appointment with your business partner in advance.

5 . Our bachelor uncle lived with us, who loved hunting and fishing; and it was one of the pleasures of our young life to go fishing with him.

I remember my first fishing experience as if it happened yesterday. I was very excited when I received that first fishing pole from my uncle's hand, and went fishing with him. It was a still, sweet day of early summer; the leaves seemed greener, the flowers brighter, the birds merrier, than ever before.

My uncle considerately placed me at the most favorable point. I threw out my line as I had so often seen others, and waited anxiously for a bite, moving the bait (鱼饵) in rapid movement on the surface of the water just like the jumps of a frog. Nothing came of it. "Try again," said my uncle. Suddenly the bait sank out of sight. "Now for it," thought I, "here is a fish at last."

I made a strong pull, and brought up a tangle of weeds. Again and again I cast out my line with aching arms, and drew it back empty. "Try once more," he said, "we fishermen must have patience to catch a fish." "But remember, boy," he said, with his big smile, "never say you've caught a fish until it is on dry ground. It's no use showing off anything until it's done."

How often since I have been reminded of the fish that I did not catch! When I hear people boasting of a work as yet undone, I will remember the wise caution of my uncle in that particular instance takes the form of a proverb of universal application: "NEVER BOAST (吹嘘) OF YOUR FISH BEFORE YOU CATCH HIM."

1. From the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2, we can infer that_____________.

A．the leaves and the flowers were not so beautiful before.

B．the birds ate lots of fish and felt far merrier than before.

C．that day the author was much happier than ever before.

D．that day the uncle was much happier than ever before.

2. What message can we learn from the last two paragraphs?

A．Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.

B．Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

C．One false step will make a great difference.

D．True friends have hearts that beat as one.

3. Which of the following can best describe the author’s uncle?

A．Strong and brave.	B．Wise and patient.
C．Patient and strong.	D．Lazy and talkative.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．A sweet day of summer	B．My first fishing pole
C．The way to catch a fish	D．The fish I didn’t catch

6 . 阅读下面短文，在空白处填入1个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。

One sentence from the news in Washington has remained in my mind since a trip last summer：“When you see people run against the crowd escaping     1    the danger, they are     2    （probable）firefighters, police or journalists.”

I think this is most true for the firefighters. Whenever and wherever     3    （disaster） happen, it is always the firefighters     4    take the lead to run to the very center, saving lives by     5    （risk） their own. I cried today near the explosion site, not because of the smoke from the ongoing fire     6    because of a short message a firefighter sent to a trusted friend that went viral online. It reads, “If I cannot make it, my father is     7    （you）; and please remember     8    （sweep） my mother’s tomb.” I was thrilled later to learn that he did make it. “Everyone knows it’s     9    （danger） to be a firefighter. But he has always liked it and has done it for 12 years, ” his father said. “He survived this time, but no one knows what     10    （happen） next time.”

7 . 阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文，续写的词数应为150左右。

When I was ten years old, I lived with my family in a small house in rural South Jersey. I often accompanied my mother to the A&P to buy groceries. Without a car, we walked, and I would help her carry the bags.

My mother had to shop every carefully, as she was a waitress, and her salary barely sustained (勉强维持) us. One day, while she was weighing prices, a promotional display for the World Book Encyclopedia (百科全书) caught my eye. The volumes were beautifully cream-colored. Volume I was ninety-nine cents with a ten-dollar purchase.

All I could think of while shopping was the book. I stood at the register (收银台) with my mother, holding my breath as the cashier rang up the items. It came to over eleven dollars. My mother produced a five, some singles, and a handful of change. As she was counting out the money, I somehow found the courage to ask for the encyclopedia. “Could we get one?” I said, showing her the display. “It’s only ninety-nine cents.”

I did not understand my mother’s increasing anxiety; she did not have enough change and had to sacrifice a large can of peas to pay the amount, “Not now, Patricia,” she said sternly. “Today is not a good day.” I packed the groceries and followed her home, upset.

The next Saturday. my mother gave me a dollar and sent me to the A&P alone. Two quarts of milk and a loaf of bread — that’s what a dollar in 1957. I went straight to the World Book display. There was only one first volume left, which I placed in my cart (购物车). I didn’t need a cart, but took one so I could read as I went up and down the aisles. A lot of time went by and I knew I had to leave, but I couldn’t bear to part with the book. With no detective in sight, I, impulsively (冲动地), put it inside my shirt and zipped (扣上拉链) up my jacket. I was a tall, skinny kid, and I am certain the shape of the book was obvious.

Paragraph1:

My heart beating rapidly, I headed for the register.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph2:

Back home, I told my mother what I had promised the detective.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8 . Many of us listen to music while we work, thinking that it will help us to concentrate on the task at hand. And in fact, recent research has found that music can have beneficial effects on creativity. When it comes to other areas of performance, however, the impact of background music is more complicated.

The idea that listening to music when working is beneficial to output probably has its roots in the so-called “Mozart Effect”. Put simply, this is the finding that the spatial reasoning ability is increased immediately after listening to the music of Mozart’s, compared to no sound at all.

How sound affects performance has been the topic of research for over 40 years, and is observed through a phenomenon called the irrelevant sound effect. To study the irrelevant sound effect, participants in the research are asked to complete a simple task which requires them to recall a series of numbers or letters in the exact order in which they saw them. The tricky thing is being able to do this while ignoring any background noise.

Two key characteristics of the irrelevant sound effect are required for its observation. First, the task must require the people to use their rehearsal ability, and second, the sound must contain acoustical variation. Where the sound does not vary much acoustically, the performance of the task is much closer to that observed in quiet conditions.

The irrelevant sound effect itself comes from attempting to process two sources of ordered information at the same time—one from the task and the other from the sound. Unfortunately, only the former is required to successfully perform the recall task, and the effort to ensure that irrelevant order information from the sound is not processed actually hinders this ability.

A similar conflict is also seen when reading in the presence of lyrical music. In this situation, the two sources of words—from the task and the sound—are in conflict. The cost is poorer performance of the task in the presence of music with lyrics.

What this all means is that whether having music playing in the background helps or hinders performance depends on the task and the type of music, and only understanding this relationship will help people maximize their productivity levels.

1. “Mozart Effect” is mentioned to 　　　.

A．explain how music can relax people	B．show music can improve performance
C．advise people to listen to Mozart’s music	D．stress Mozart’s music gains wide attention

2. What does the underlined word “tricky” mean?

A．Interesting.

B．Awkward.

C．Unexpected.

D．Expected.

3. Paragraph 6 is written to 　　　.

A．support an idea

B．make a contrast

C．introduce a topic

D．describe a fact

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A．Music shapes your life	B．Music develops your creativity
C．Choose quiet music for your work	D．Does music make you concentrate?

9 . When Jim Grant spotted black smoke coming out of a building on his way to work, he_________his car to call 911. Then he_________a U-turn, circling back to take another look.

Pulling up to the building, Grant saw flames（火焰）shooting out of a second-floor window. Not seeing or hearing any fire engines_________, Grant rushed to a side_________and ran up the stairs.

On the second floor, he_________every apartment door. "Get out!" Grant shouted, No one_________and he assumed that people had already_________. Reaching the end of the hallway, though, Grant_________a half-open door. He kicked it wide open, finding a_________woman in a wheelchair with a little boy and a tiny baby. "Let's__________!" he screamed. The woman looked at him in confusion and said something about changing her clothes. Grant didn't wait, clutching（抓牢）the baby to his chest and__________the boy alongside, Grant ran down the hallway. When he was__________outside, the only__________in sight was a policeman. Grant told him about the__________and they rushed into the smoky building.

Thanks to them, a family was saved from the fire. Grant and the policeman were honored for their__________.

1.

A．drove

B．stopped

C．reached

D．abandoned

2.

A．saw

B．made

C．missed

D．crossed

3.

A．burning

B．leaving

C．approaching

D．waiting

4.

A．entrance

B．road

C．building

D．window

5.

A．locked

B．kicked

C．counted

D．repaired

6.

A．agreed

B．cared

C．responded

D．understood

7.

A．arrived

B．returned

C．hidden

D．escaped

8.

A．skipped

B．closed

C．noticed

D．remembered

9.

A．frightened

B．curious

C．patient

D．grateful

10.

A．turn back

B．go up

C．get out

D．lie down

11.

A．following

B．dragging

C．examining

D．passing

12.

A．safely

B．secretly

C．suddenly

D．previously

13.

A．witness

B．guide

C．service

D．help

14.

A．woman

B．door

C．car

D．baby

15.

A．wisdom

B．generosity

C．honesty

D．courage

10 . Almost all calligraphy(书法) lovers agree that writing characters with a brush and ink on straw paper offers a way to communicate with not only history and culture, but also oneself. But now Chinese character handwriting is under threat from computers and mobile phones.

A college graduate looking for a job was reportedly turned down by a company because he wrote 24 characters incorrectly in a 400­character handwritten resume. A survey by HorizonKey, covering people from 12 major cities in China, found that nearly one third of those interviewed often experience “character amnesia(遗忘)”， with 94 percent saying this is a problem for them.

The main reason is that most Chinese rely too much on the pinyin­based Chinese language input method, which is replacing the tradition of writing characters stroke(笔画) by stroke. The software will conveniently choose the right characters according to the context or word frequency, as there are dozens of characters with the same pronunciation in Chinese.

Education is another problem. In college, most homework and papers are printed out, instead of handwritten. And few teachers use chalk and blackboards, with Microsoft's PowerPoint the most­often used software to teach knowledge to students.

The number of electronic devices in the classroom is thought to be another reason why students are easily satisfied with just a poor knowledge of the Chinese language and characters. It is quicker to look up a character in an electronic dictionary, but traditional printed dictionaries offer more detailed information on the usage and meaning of the characters. Students pay more attention to remembering a character's pronunciation, but not the other knowledge related to it, which e­dictionaries rarely provide.

Another worry is the “pollution” of Chinese characters by Internet language. Young people regard using Internet language as cool and fashionable. After they learn to use these expressions, they automatically include them in their writing.

1. With the example of a college graduate, the author shows ________.

A．that practicing can improve writing

B．why certain people are poor writers

C．that there are differences in students' writing

D．why Chinese character handwriting is in great danger

2. By saying “...those interviewed often experience ‘character amnesia(遗忘)’”， the writer means those interviewed ________.

A．are not good at handwriting

B．can't write characters accurately

C．show no interest in handwriting

D．find jobs much more difficultly

3. What phenomenon is described in Paragraph 5?

A．Dependence on electronic devices.

B．Advantages of electronic dictionaries.

C．Mastery of knowledge of the characters.

D．Disadvantages of published dictionaries.

4. What's the writer's attitude towards the Internet language?

A．Favorable.	B．Uncaring.
C．Disapproving.	D．Friendly.