Alice was a stubborn girl     1     always wanted to be a singer. Music was the     2     important thing in her life. She took lessons for years and     3     (practice) hard, but in spite of all the efforts she made, her voice didn’t improve. In fact, it didn’t get better, it just got     4     (loud).

Her teacher     5     (final) gave up and stopped the lessons,     6     Alice refused to give in, and one day she decided to give a concert and invited her teacher     7     (attend). The teacher was very worried about     8     to say after the concert. She knew it would be terrible and it was. She didn’t want to tell a lie, but she didn’t want to hurt Alice’s feelings, either. Then she got an idea and went backstage (后台) to greet her pupil.

“Well,” said Alice, “What do you think of     9     (I) singing?”

“My dear,” said the teacher, “you’ll never be better     10     you were tonight.”

2 . 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，并将答案转写到答题卡上。

“Traveling to China seems like traveling to another world. Its many famous scenic attractions impressed me     1     (great),”an American said. The following is     2     he wrote on his website.

My friends and I had a family visit in Xi’an,     3     old city with a long history in China. The hosts were retired or stayed at home without a job, and they were friendly to     4     (visit) from different countries coming their homes.

We     5     (taste) the true home-cooked dishes in the home of the family that we visited. For in-homing dinner, the host would prepare a list of menus in advance (提前). Our tour guide asked     6     (we) for advice about the food, so the host would try to cook what we wanted     7     (eat) at his home. We just enjoyed the locally cooked dishes. It was quite a different and exciting experience.

Many foreigners enjoy     8     (learn) how to make Chinese dumplings. We were also     9     (offer) a general cooking class in the local family. The host taught us to make dumplings step by step with lots of patience. And we didn’t need to pay any money     10     this. Travel China Guide offers this kind of service free of charge.

The family visit in Xi’an was a good chance for us to get to know Chinese people’s daily life.

I often dreamed about Pisa when I was a boy. I read about the famous building called the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But when I read the word Pisa, I felt slightly     1     (puzzle). I was thinking of pizza. I thought this tower was a place where people bought pizza. “I am sure it     2     be the best place to buy pizza in the world, isn’t it?” I thought.     3       I could go there by plane was always a question in my mind. It might be a long time later.

Many years later out of     4     (curious) I went to see the Leaning Tower. I knew then that it was Pisa and no pizza. It is     5     (approximate) 54 meters high. But there was still something special about it for me. I stared     6     the tower. It got its name because it really does lean to one side. I have fun with the shape of the tower. Some people say it ought to     7     (fix). Their first     8     (react) is that they are afraid it may fall over and they don’t like it to lean over the city.

I do not think the idea that people should repair it is good. The tower probably will not fall down. It is 600 years old. Why should anything happen to it now?

And, if you ask me, I like     9     it looks like. To me it is a very human kind of leaning. Nothing is perfect, it seems to say. And who cares? Why do people want things to be perfect? Imperfect things may be more interesting. Let's take the tower of Pisa. Why is it so famous? There are many other older, more beautiful towers in Italy. But Pisa tower is the     10    (much) famous. People come from all over the world to see it.

A best friend is someone     1     you can tell everything to, even your deepest personal     2     (feeling) and thoughts. Anne Frank treated her diary     3     her best friend. Her family hid away for nearly 25 months in order not to be caught by the German Nazis. They didn't dare go out even in the evenings. They had to stay     4     (indoor) day and night. Not being able to     5     (go )out for such a long time, Anne missed the beauty of nature so much that she     6     (grow) crazy about everything to do with it. She stayed up until eleven thirty one evening     7     purpose just to see     8     moon. She said. “This is the first time that I     9     (see)the night since I came here.”

    10     (lucky), the family were discovered at last and taken away from the hiding place.

China,which takes pride in four inventions in ancient times, has once again shown its ability    1     (change) the world with its “new four great inventions”: high-speed railways, electronic payment , shared bicycles and online shopping.

Recently, the“new four great inventions”     2     ( improve ) the quality of people’s lives.Thanks to online shopping and mobile payment, people can buy what they want     3     (simple) with a tap of the phone within doors. High-speed trains have shortened     4     journey from Beijing to the coastal city Tianjin to half an hour. As for the bikes ,they themselves are not new. It is the operating model of bike-sharing     5     (base) on satellite navigation (导航) system, mobile payment as well as big data     6     has surprised the world. Shared bicycles are bringing cycling back     7     people’s lives and they are making public transport more     8     ( attract) .

It is increasingly clear that China is no longer     9     ( copy) western ideas and is leading in many new ways. A growing number of foreign     10     ( company) hope to promote the development in their home country .

Paul and I were on our school basketball team, The Lions. My favourite player was LeBron James. Paul’s favourite player was Tyrone Bogues, a guy     1     played for the Charlotte Hornets, although we actually agree that they are both champions.

Bogues was only 1.6 metres tall, which made him the shortest ever player in the NBA. And guess what? Paul was only 1.6 metres tall, too! Paul knew that     2     (be) shorter than other players meant that he had to practise more. During all those hours of doing jump shots on his own, he used Bogues as his inspiration, Paul once said, “if Bogues could make it, why not me?”

Our coach was not so sure. Paul had to try out many times just for making the team. He was still usually on the bench, being just a replacement,     3     was really tough on him. Everyone knew Paul had real skills, and was someone who worked really hard and had a strong desire to play for the team. However, Paul didn’t get a chance.

This week, The Lions were playing our main competitors, The Bears, a team     4     record this season had been perfect. They hadn’t lost a single game. It would be a tough one. Paul didn’t know he’d soon get the chance that he’d been waiting     5    .

Figure skating(花样滑冰), as we know, got its start in the mid-19th century, when an American     1    (name) Jackson Haines combined dancing and skating for the first time. Americans did   not accept his technique, so he moved to Vienna, Austria,     2     he was an immediate success.

Figure skating became an Olympic sport before there were Winter Games. Events for pairs and singles first     3     (appear) at the London 1908 Summer Games. In singles, each skater performs a short routine(一套动作) of required steps, jumps, spins, and combinations, as well as a longer free-skating routine. The pairs event     4     (follow) the same format (形式), but with one male and one female     5     (perform) together.

Ice dance is performed by one male and one female, too. But     6     (like) pairs, ice dance does not include overhead lifts and jumps. An ice dance     7     (compete) is made up of two parts now: one is set to music which has a certain rhythm, and the other is set to whatever music the ice dancers choose.

A group of nine judges scores the quality of each figure skating performance,     8     only seven out of nine scores are used. Skaters are given a grade for each step, jump, spin, or any other element that is part of their routine. They also receive     9     "overall" score for each performance. The person or team with the     10     (high) total score is the winner.