1 . Many years ago my dad was diagnosed (诊断) with a terminal illness. He was unable to work at_______job. He would be fine for quite a while, but would then fall suddenly_______and have to be admitted to the hospital.

He wanted to do something to keep himself_______, so he decided to volunteer at the local children_______. My dad loved kids. He would talk to them and play with them. Sometimes, he would_______one of his kids. In certain instances, he would give_______to the sad parents of these children.

One of his kids was a girl who had been admitted with a_______disease that paralyzed (使……瘫痪) her from the neck down. I don’t know the_______of the disease, but I do know that it was very sad for a little girl. My dad decided to try to help her. He started_______her in her room, bringing paints, brushes and paper. He stood the paper up__________a backing, put the paintbrush in his mouth and began to paint. He didn’t use his hands at all. Only his__________would move. He would visit her________he could and paint for her. All the while he would tell her, “see, you can do________you set your mind to.”

________, she began to paint using her mouth, and she and my dad became friends. Soon after, the little girl was discharged (允许出院). My dad also________the children hospital for a little while because he became ill. Sometime later after my dad had recovered and________to work, he was at the volunteer counter one day and________the front door open. In came the little girl who had been paralyzed, but this time she was________. She ran straight to my dad and hugged him really tight. She gave my dad a picture she had done using her________. At the bottom it read, “thank you for helping me walk.” Sometimes love is more________than doctors, and my dad—who died just a few months after the little girl gave him the picture-loved every single child in that hospital.

1.

A．an important

B．a steady

C．an easy

D．a good

2.

A．ill

B．behind

C．asleep

D．down

3.

A．well

B．wealthy

C．busy

D．healthy

4.

A．palace

B．hospital

C．center

D．park

5.

A．teach

B．miss

C．lose

D．treat

6.

A．speech

B．comfort

C．praise

D．help

7.

A．special

B．curious

C．strange

D．rare

8.

A．result

B．reason

C．name

D．course

9.

A．observing

B．drawing

C．painting

D．visiting

10.

A．with

B．across

C．against

D．over

11.

A．head

B．neck

C．fingers

D．eyes

12.

A．with whoever

B．whenever

C．as if

D．as soon as

13.

A．everything

B．something

C．anything

D．nothing

14.

A．Basically

B．Naturally

C．Eventually

D．Suddenly

15.

A．left

B．entered

C．rushed to

D．stayed at

16.

A．stopped

B．returned

C．hesitated

D．refused

17.

A．pushed

B．noticed

C．observed

D．kicked

18.

A．shouting

B．lying

C．walking

D．jumping

19.

A．hands

B．pens

C．paper

D．mind

20.

A．thankful

B．useful

C．thoughtful

D．powerful

2 . Although I love my life, it hasn’t been a lot of fun as I’ve been ill for 28 years.

Music has always been a great love of mine and, in my 20s, when my _______ was more manageable, I _______ ten years as a professional singer in restaurants, playing and singing folk songs. _______ that was years ago and times have changed. _______ I live with my mother on a country farm.

Two years ago, I decided that I would need to have some kind of extra work to _______ my disability pension (残疾抚恤金). _______ I needed to sleep in afternoons, I was limited in my _______. I decided that I would consider _______ to singing in restaurants.

My family are all musicians, so I was _______ when I went into our local music store. I explained that I wanted to sing again but using recorded karaoke music. I knew that discs were very expensive and I really didn’t have a lot of ________ to get started. And ________ you find only three to four songs out of ten on a disc that you can ________ use.

When I told the owner of the shop about my ________, he gave me a long, thoughtful ________. “This means a lot to you, doesn’t it?” he said. “Come with me.”

He led me ________ the crowded shop and to a bench with a large professional karaoke box on it. He placed his large hand ________ on his treasure and said, “I have 800 karaoke songs in here. You can take your ________ and I’ll record them for you. That should get you started. ”

I ________. Thanking him, I made a time with him to listen to all the songs and choose ________ that I could sing. I have come full circle with his help.

His ________ still warms my heart and makes me do just that bit extra, when I have the chance.

1.

A．loneliness

B．sadness

C．tiredness

D．sickness

2.

A．set

B．enjoyed

C．kept

D．shared

3.

A．Gladly

B．Eventually

C．Unfortunately

D．Surprisingly

4.

A．Now

B．Then

C．Sometime

D．Meanwhile

5.

A．add up to

B．make up for

C．get rid of

D．take advantage of

6.

A．If

B．As

C．Though

D．Before

7.

A．movement

B．condition

C．choices

D．positions

8.

A．reaching out

B．living up

C．getting on

D．going back

9.

A．recognized

B．interviewed

C．found

D．invited

10.

A．money

B．time

C．energy

D．knowledge

11.

A．thus

B．once

C．seldom

D．often

12.

A．actually

B．hardly

C．nearly

D．formerly

13.

A．job

B．family

C．idea

D．offer

14.

A．face

B．view

C．look

D．sight

15.

A．over

B．along

C．towards

D．through

16.

A．unhappily

B．lovingly

C．pitifully

D．gratefully

17.

A．pick

B．turn

C．role

D．step

18.

A．had to cry

B．ought to cry

C．should have cried

D．could have cried

19.

A．more

B．the ones

C．few

D．the rest

20.

A．courage

B．devotion

C．kindness

D．trust

3 . “A good book for children should simply be a good book in its own right,”says Mollie Hunter. Born and brought up near Edinburgh, Mollie has devoted her talents to writing primarily for young people. She firmly believes that there is and should always be a wider audience for any good book whatever its main market is. In Mollie’s opinion it is necessary to make full use of language and she enjoys telling a story, which is what every writer should be doing, “If you aren’t telling a story, you’re a very dead writer indeed.”she says. With the chief function of a writer being to entertain, Mollie is indeed an entertainer. “I have this great love of not only the meaning of language but of the music of language,” she says. “This love goes back to early childhood. I’ve told stories all my life. I had a school teacher who used to ask us what we would like to be when we grew up and, because my family always had dogs, and I was very good at handling them. I said I wanted to work with dogs, and the teacher always said ‘Nonsense, Mollie; dear, you’ll be a writer.’ So finally I thought that this woman must have something, since she was a good teacher and I decided when I was nine that I would be a writer.”
This childhood intention is described in her novel, A Sound of Chariots, which although written in the third person is clearly autobiographical (自传体的) and gives a picture both of Mollie’s ambition and her struggle towards its achievement. Thoughts of her childhood inevitably(不可避免的) brought thoughts of the time when her home was still a village with buttercup meadows and strawberry fields—sadly now covered with modern houses. “I was once taken back to see it and I felt that somebody had lain dirty hands all over my childhood. I’ll never go back,” she said. “Never.” “When I set one of my books in Scotland,” she said, “I can recall my romantic feelings as a child playing in those fields, or watching the village blacksmith at work. And that’s important, because children now know so much so early that romance can’t exist for them, as it did for us.”
1. What does Mollie Hunter feel about the nature of a good book?

A．It should not aim at a narrow audience.

B．It should be attractive to young readers.

C．It should be based on original ideas.

D．It should not include too much conversation.

2. In Mollie Hunter’s opinion, which of the following is one sign of poor writer?

A．Being poor in life experience

B．Being short of writing skill.

C．The weakness of description

D．The absence of a story.

3. What do we learn about Mollie Hunter as a young child？

A．She didn’t expect to become a writer.

B．She didn’t enjoy writing stories.

C．She didn’t have any particular ambition.

D．She didn’t respect her teacher’s view.

4. In comparison with children of earlier years, Mollie feels that children now are _____.

A．more intelligent

B．better informed

C．less eager to learn

D．less interested in reality

5. What’s the writer’s purpose in this text?

A．To share her enjoyment of Mollie Hunter’s book.

B．To introduce Mollie Hunter’s work to a wider audience.

C．To provide information for Mollie Hunter’s existing readers.

D．To describe Mollie Hunter’s most successful books.

4 . Holidays are really important. Many of us will have childhood memories of summer holidays where we were taken away from home to experience new environments and learn in different ways.
But holidays are expensive and, for those on low wages or living on benefits, they are often unobtainable. Even the cheapest holidays require travel and other additional costs that are difficult for many families to meet.
For working parents, the long summer break can be a very difficult problem for childcare. When an annual leave allowance amounts to only five weeks, there is a need to spread this across the year. Couples can find themselves taking leave in turn in order to care for children who are on holiday. For some, this makes even an affordable family holiday difficult.
The schools that I visit in Nottingham are full of experienced staff committed to giving our children a caring and inspiring learning environment. The number of children receiving free school meals is quite large in Nottingham and many schools have breakfast clubs to make sure that children get a healthy start to the day. Most schools undertake programs of group or individual educational support. Schools also have an important role in sofeguaiding children's welfare through the ongoing touch and support with their pupils. During the long summer holidays, much of this is missed.
While teachers are holidaying in the UK, many of their pupils spend the whole six weeks on the street where they live. The lack of free school meals for six weeks can result in pressure on a family budget and an inability to afford the inspiring experiences that help children to continue their learning.
In setting out its plans for a five-term year, Nottingham City Council (委员会)is seeking to reduce the summer holiday down to four and a half weeks, with a more balanced five terms of roughly eight weeks, each followed by a two-week break. We believe this will give real “down time" for school staff and pupils alike but will be short enough not to cause a real break in learning.
We acknowledge that this change may be difficult for some school staff, particularly whose own children are educated in other authorities. However, this must be weighed against the benefits for city children for whom we all have the greatest duty of care.
1. The passage is probably written by .

A．an experienced teacher	B．a working parent
C．an inspired student	D．a city council member

2. The underlined word "they" in the second paragraph refers to " ’.

A．environments

B．holidays

C．wages

D．benefits

3. It is suggested in the passage that the summer break be reduced to.

A．2 weeks

B．4.5 weeks

C．5 weeks

D．6 weeks

4. The plans for a shorter summer holiday will help students_____ .

A．obtain the cheapest holidays without additional costs

B．get a chance to spend six weeks a term with teachers in school

C．benefit more from the caring and inspiring learning environment

D．have more school days to receive free school meals

5. It can be inferred from the passage that _______.

A．working parents can enjoy a five-week break to care for their children

B．the suggested plans for a five-term school year can hardly be carried out

C．the long summer holiday gives teachers and students real "down time"

D．some school staff will say “ No" to the plans for a shorter summer holiday