1 . The Winter Olympics is also called the White Olympics. At this time, many colorful stamps are published to mark the great Games. The first stamps marking the opening came out on January 25, 1932 in the United States for the 3rd White Olympics. From then on, publishing stamps during the White Olympics became a rule. During the 4th Winter Olympic Games a group of stamps were published in Germany in November 1936. The five rings of Olympics were drawn on the front of the sportswear. It was the first time that the rings appeared on the stamps of the White Olympics. In the 1950’s, the stamps of this kind became more colorful.

When the White Olympics came, the host countries (东道国) as well as the non-host countries published stamps to mark those Games. China also published four stamps in February 1980, when the Chinese sports men began to take part in the White Olympics. Japan is the only Asian country that has ever held the White Olympics. Altogether 14,500 million stamps were sold to raise money for this sports meet. Different kinds of sports were drawn on these small stamps. People can enjoy the beauty of the wonderful movements of some sportsmen.

1. The White Olympics and the Winter Olympics _______.

A．are the same thing	B．are different games
C．are not held in winter	D．are held in summer

2. The world made it a rule to publish stamps to mark the great world games _______.

A．after the year 1936	B．after the 3rd White Olympics
C．before the 3rd White Olympics	D．before the year 1932

3. The Winter Olympics is held once _______.

A．every two years	B．every three years
C．every four years	D．every five years

4. Which of the following is true?

A．Only the host countries can publish stamps to mark those Games.

B．Only the non-host countries can publish stamps to mark those Games.

C．All the countries can publish stamps to mark those Games.

D．Japan can’t publish stamps to mark those Games.

5. What may appear on the stamps of the White Olympics?

A．Basketball.

B．Table tennis.

C．Football.

D．Skating.

2 . 阅读理解。
The freezing Northeast hasn’t been a terribly fun place to spend time this winter, so when the chance came for a weekend to Sarasota, Florida, my bags   were packed before you could say “sunshine”. I left for the land of warmth and vitamin C(维生素C), thinking of beaches and orange trees. When we touched down to blue skies and warm air, I sent up a small prayer of gratefulness. Swimming pools, wine tasting, and pink sunsets(at normal evening hours, not 4 in the afternoon) filled the weekend, but the best part- particularly to my taste, dulled by months of cold- weather root vegetables- was a 7 a.m. adventure to the Sarasota farmers’ market that proved to be more than worth the early wake-up call.
The market, which was founded in 1979, sets up its tents every Saturday from 7:00 am to 1 p.m, rain or shine, along North Lemon and State streets. Baskets of perfect red strawberries, the red-painted sides of the Java Dawg coffee truck; and most of all, the tomatoes: amazing, large, soft and round red tomatoes.
Disappointed by many a broken, vine-ripened(蔓上成熟的) promise, I’ve refused to buy winter tomatoes for years. No matter how attractive they look in the store, once I get them home they’re unfailingly dry, hard, and tasteless. But I homed in, with uncertainty, on one particular table at the Brown’s Grove Farm’s stand, full of fresh and soft tomatoes the size of my fist. These were the real deal- and at that moment, I realized that the best part of Sarasota in winter was going to be eating things that back home in New York I wouldn’t be experiencing again for months.
Delighted as I was by the tomatoes in sight, my happiness deepened when I learned that Brown’s Grove Farm is one of the suppliers for Jack Dusty, a newly opened restaurant at the Sarasota Ritz Carlton, where- luckily for me- I was planning to have dinner that very night. Without even seeing the menu, I knew I’d be ordering every tomato on it.
1. What did the author think of her winter life in New York?

A．Exciting.	B．Boring.
C．Relaxing.	D．Annoying.

2. What made the author’s getting up late early worthwhile?

A．Having a swim.

B．Breathing in fresh air.

C．Walking in the morning sun.

D．Visiting a local farmer’s market.

3. What can we learn about tomatoes sold in New York in winter?

A．They are soft.	B．They look nice.
C．They taste great	D．They are juicy.

4. What was the author going to that evening?

A．Go to a farm.	B．Check into a hotel.
C．Eat in a restaurant.	D．Buy fresh vegatables.

3 . How long can human beings live? Most scientists who study old age think that the human body is ___ to live no longer than 120 years. However, 110 years is probably the longest that anyone could hope to live — if he or she is ___ healthy and lucky. Some scientists even say we can live as long as 130 years! Yet, our cells simply cannot continue to reproduce ___. They wear out, and as a result, we get old and ___ die.

Even though we can’t live forever, we are living a ___ life than ever before. In 1900, the average American life span(寿命)was only 47 years, but today it is 75 years!

When does old age begin then? Sixty-five may be out-of-date as the ___ line between middle age and old age. After all, many older people don’t begin to experience physical and mental ___ until after age 75.

People are living longer because more people ___ childhood. Before modern medicine changed the laws of nature, many children died of common childhood ___. Now that the chances of dying ____ are much lower, the chances of living long are much higher due to better diets and health care.

On the whole, our population is getting older. The ____ in our population will have lasting effects on our social development and our way of life. Some people fear such changes will be for the worse, while some see ____, not disaster. Today, many men and women in their "golden years" are healthy, still active, and young in ____ if not in age.

As our society grows old, we need the ____ of our older citizens. With long lives ahead of them, they need to ____ active and be devoted.

1.

A．designed

B．selected

C．improved

D．discovered

2.

A．completely

B．generally

C．apparently

D．extremely

3.

A．rapidly

B．harmlessly

C．endlessly

D．separately

4.

A．eventually

B．hopelessly

C．automatically

D．desperately

5.

A．busier

B．longer

C．richer

D．happier

6.

A．finishing

B．guiding

C．waiting

D．dividing

7.

A．stress

B．damage

C．decline

D．failure

8.

A．survive

B．enjoy

C．remember

D．value

9.

A．problems

B．fears

C．worries

D．diseases

10.

A．poor

B．young

C．sick

D．quiet

11.

A．changes

B．recovery

C．safety

D．increases

12.

A．dreams

B．chances

C．strengths

D．choices

13.

A．mind

B．appearance

C．voice

D．movement

14.

A．protection

B．suggestions

C．contributions

D．permission

15.

A．sound

B．appear

C．turn

D．stay

4 . More students than ever before are taking a gap year (间隔年) before going to university. It used to be called the “year off” between school and university. The gap-year phenomenon originated (起源) with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.

This year, 25,310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).

That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. “Students who take a well-planned year out are more likely to be satisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible.” he said.

But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student hardship—young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their education. “New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university up to £ 15,000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and more students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree. NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacation periods,” he said.

1. What do we learn about the gap year from the text?

A．It is flexible in length.	B．It is a time for relaxation.
C．It is increasingly popular.	D．It is required by universities.

2. According to Tony Higgins, students taking a gap year       .

A．are better prepared for college studies

B．know a lot more about their future jobs

C．are more likely to leave university in debt

D．have a better chance to enter top universities

3. How does Owain James feel about the gap-year phenomenon?

A．He’s puzzled.	B．He’s worried.
C．He’s surprised.	D．He’s annoyed.

4. What would most students do on their vacation according to NUS statistics?

A．Attend additional courses.	B．Make plans for the new term.
C．Earn money for their education.	D．Prepare for their graduate studies.

5 . Choose Your One-Day-Tours!

Tour A - Bath &Stonehenge including entrance fees to the ancient Roman bathrooms and Stonehenge -￡37 until 26 March and ￡39 thereafter. Visit the city with over 2,000 years of history and Bath Abbey, the Royal Crescent and the Costume Museum, Stonehenge is one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments dating back over 5,000 years.

Tour B - Oxford & Stratford including entrance fees to the University St Mary’s Church Tower and Anne Hathaway’s -￡32 until 12 March and ￡36 thereafter. Oxford: Includes a guided tour of England’s oldest university city and colleges. Look over the “city of dreaming spires(尖顶）” from St Mary‘s Church Tower. Stratford: Includes a guided tour exploring much of the Shakespeare wonder.

Tour C - Windsor Castle &Hampton Court: including entrance fees to Hampton Court Palace -￡34 until 11 March and ￡37 thereafter. Includes a guided tour of Windsor and Hampton Court, Henry VILL’s favorite palace. Free time to visit Windsor Castle(entrance fees not included).With 500 years of history, Hampton Court was once the home of four Kings and one Queen. Now this former royal palace is open to the public as a major tourist attraction. Visit the palace and its various historic gardens, which include the famous maze(迷宫) where it is easy to get lost!

Tour D –Cambridge including entrance fees to the Tower of Saint Mary the Great -￡33 until 18 March and ￡37 thereafter. Includes a guided tour of Cambridge, the famous university town, and the gardens of the 18th century.

1. Which tour will you choose if you want to see England’s oldest university city?

A．Tour A	B．Tour B
C．Tour C	D．Tour D

2. Which of the following tours charges the lowest fee on 17 March?

A．Windsor Castle & Hampton Court	B．Oxford & Stratford
C．Bath & Stonehenge	D．Cambridge

3. Why is Hampton Court a major tourist attraction?

A．It used to be the home of royal families	B．It used to be a well-known maze
C．It is the oldest palace in Britain	D．It is a world-famous castle

6 . This Way to Dreamland Daydreaming means people think about something pleasant, especially when this makes them forget what they should be doing. Daydreamers have a bad reputation for being unaware of what’s happening around them. They can seem forgetful and clumsy.     1    They annoy us because they seem to be ignoring us and missing the important things.

But daydreamers are also responsible for some of the greatest ideas and achievements in human history.     2    Can you imagine what kind of world we would have without such ideas and inventions? So how can you come up with brilliant daydreams and avoid falling over tree roots or otherwise looking like a fool? First, understand that some opportunities(机会) for daydreaming are better than others.   

Feeling safe and relaxed will help you to slip into daydreams.     3    And if you want to improve your chances of having a creative idea while you’re daydreaming, try to do it while you are involved in another task—preferably something simple, like taking a shower or walking, or even making meaningless drawings.

It’s also important to know how to avoid daydreams for those times when you really need to concentrate. “Mindfulness”, being focused, is a tool that some people use to avoid falling asleep.     4    Finally, you never know what wonderful idea might strike while your mind has moved slowly away.     5    Always remember that your best ideas might come when your head is actually in the clouds.

A．Having interesting things to think about also helps.

B．They stare off into space and wander by themselves.

C．Without wandering minds, we wouldn’t have relativity , Coke or Post-it notes.

D．At one time, daydreaming was thought to be a cause of some mental illnesses.

E．It involves slow, steady breathing for self-control that helps people stay calm and attentive.

F．Daydreams are often very simple and direct, quite unlike sleep dreams, which may be hard to understand.

G．Therefore, it’s a good idea to keep a notebook or voice recorder nearby when you’re in the daydream zone.

7 . Email has brought the art of letter writing back to life, but some experts think the resulting spread of bad English does more harm than good.

Email is a form of communication that is changing, for the worse, the way we write and use language, say some communication researchers. It is also changing the way we interact(交流) and build relationship. These are a few of the recently recognized features of email, say experts, which should cause individuals and organizations to rethink the way they use email.

“Email has increased the spread of careless writing habits,” says Naomi Baron, a professor of linguistics(语言学) at an American university. She says the poor spelling, grammar, punctuation and sentence structure of emails reflect(反映) a growing unconcern about the way we write.

Baron argues that we shouldn’t forgive and forget the poor writing often shown in email. “The more we use email and its tasteless writing, the more it becomes the normal way of writing,” the professor says.

Others say that despite its poor writing, email has finished what several generations of English teachers couldn’t: it has made writing fashionable again.

“Email is a critical new communication technology.” says Ian Lancashire, a professor of English at Toronto University. “It fills the gap between spoken language and the formal methods of writing that existed before email. It is the purest form of written speech.”

Lancashire says email has the mysterious ability to get people who are usually scared by writing to get their thoughts flowing easily onto a blank screen. He says this is because of email’s close similarity to speech. “It’s like a circle of four or five people around a campfire,” he says.

Still, he accepts that this new-found freedom to express themselves often gets people into trouble. Emails sent in a day almost exceed(超过) the number of letters mailed in a year. But more people are recognizing the content of a typical email message is not often exact.

1. From what Baron says in the third paragraph we can see that ________.

A．careless people use email more than careful people

B．email requires people to change their native language

C．professors in universities don’t need to use email

D．people communicate by email full of mistakes

2. What does the underlined word “it” (in Paragraph 4) refer to?

A．The poor writing.	B．Email.
C．The good writing.	D．A new communication technology.

3. In Lancashire’s opinion, email is a wonderful technology because _______.

A．it can be useful all over the world

B．it is the fastest way to communicate

C．we can express ourselves in a free way

D．we can save a lot of paper

4. This passage mainly shows us that ______.

A．people should stop using email to communicate

B．experts hold different opinions about email writing

C．Americans only use email to communicate

D．email makes people lose interest in English

8 . What is the first thing you notice when you walk into a shop? The products displayed (展示) at the entrance? Or the soft background music?
But have you ever notice the smell? Unless it is bad, the answer is likely to be no. But while a shop’s scent may not be outstanding compared with sights and sounds, it is certainly there. And it is providing to be an increasing powerful tool in encouraging people to purchase.
A brand store has become famous for its distinctive scent which floats through the fairly dark hall and out to the entrance, via scent machines. A smell may be attractive but it may not just be used for freshening air. One sports goods company once reported that when it first introduced scent into its stores, customers’ intension to purchase increased by 80 percent.
When it comes to the best shopping streets in Pairs, scent is just as important to a brand’s success as the quality of its window displays and goods on sales. That is mainly because shopping is a very different experience to what it used to be.
Some years ago, the focus for brand name shopping was on a few people with sales assistants’ disproving attitude and don’t-touch-what-you-can’t-afford displays. Now the rise of electronic commerce (e-commerce) has opened up famous brands to a wider audience. But while e-shops can use sights and sounds, only bricks-and-mortar stores (实体店) can offer a full experience from the minute customers step through the door to the moment they leave. Another brand store seeks to be much more than a shop, but rather a destination. And scent is just one way to achieve this.
Now a famous store uses complex man-made smell to make sure that the soft scent of baby powder floats through the kid department, and coconut (椰子) scent in the swimsuit section. A department store has even opened a new lab, inviting customers on a journey into the store’s windows to smell books, pots and drawers, in search of their perfect scent.
1. According to the passage, what is an increasingly powerful tool in the success of some brand store?

A．Friendly assistant.	B．Unique scents.
C．Soft background music.	D．Attractive window display.

2. E-shops are mentioned in the passage to ______.

A．show the advantages of brick-and-mortar stores

B．urge shop assistants to change their attitude

C．push stores to use sights and sounds

D．introduce the rise of e-commerce

3. The underlined word “destination” in Paragraph 5 means ______.

A．a platform that exhibits goods

B．a spot where travelers like to stay

C．a place where customers love to go

D．a target that a store expects to meet

4. The main purpose of the passage is to ______.

A．compare and evaluate	B．examine and assess
C．argue and discuss	D．inform and explain

9 . Here are some top tips for world travelers.

Travel light.    1     It’s no fun carrying a huge bag around a foreign city. Don’t take too many clothes and avoid heavy books and electrical equipment.

    2     Always keep your passport on you in an inside pocket or special travel belt. There may be thieves about. It’s a good idea to make a photocopy (复印件)of your passport and travel documents.

Transport sense.Don’t let go of your bags on the train.    3     There are always thieves on public transport. If you want to sleep,tie your bag to your arm. When you take a taxi, it’s a good idea to ask for the driver’s permit. Many foreigners pay too much money because they take unofficial taxis.

Keep clean. It’s a good idea to wear dark clothes because they hide the dirt while white clothes attract it! Make sure you have plenty of clean underclothes and deodorant (除臭剂).     4    

    5     You should always be polite and respectful towards the locals. Even if you find their habits and behaviour a bit strange, you shouldn’t show your feelings. Remember, you’re their guest.

A．Be polite.

B．Keep your documents safe.

C．You should carry a spare bag.

D．You don’t want to smell bad!

E．Keep them with you at all times.

F．Make sure your bag isn’t too heavy.

G．It’s a good idea to wear similar clothes to the local people.

10 . Do you want a bit of an adventure? Would you like to discover all the corners of the UK, or travel abroad? Maybe you have never tried the motorhome lifestyle before. Well, read this article and you will know why a motorhome is a good choice.

Nothing is better than a motorhome. It has so many uses that it is considered the most versatile vehicle and it is also very comfortable. If you are thinking about hiring a motorhome this summer, then the best choice is to book it early, especially if you are considering the school holidays. The motorhome hire service is very seasonal and motorhome hire companies will never have extra vehicles available in the summer months.

There are a lot of companies throughout the UK, and some of the big ones have motorhomes spread all over the country. At present, the largest network for motorhome hire is provided by Motorhome which is based in Cambridge. If you are in the UK, you may phone 0800612-8719 for details of its motorhome hire information. Motorhome has a network of over 500 vehicles all over England, Scotland and Wales.

Most people wishing to hire a motorhome are families that are looking for an alternative to a European package holiday, especially as flying now has become more expensive, and is considered to be environmentally unfriendly. There is no doubt that the idea of no-fly holidays is going to become more popular as fewer people think it is safe to fly. This explains why more and more people are choosing to hire a motorhome for their holidays.

1. The main purpose of this text is to explain why it is a good idea to _________.

A．take an adventure	B．travel to England
C．try a new lifestyle	D．hire a motorhome

2. What does the underlined word “versatile” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A．fast.

B．safe.

C．useful.

D．exciting.

3. Why should you book a motorhome early if you want to book one for this summer?

A．Booking early is much cheaper.	B．Summer is usually a very busy season.
C．You can arrange your time better this way.	D．Students usually book them to earn money.

4. The last paragraph tells us the advantages of hiring a motorhome by _________.

A．telling us a story	B．giving detailed data
C．comparing it with flying	D．showing the results of a study