1 . It was 1939, and the Great Depression had made all our lives much harder. But we didn’t know how poor we were until our father sat my brother and me down on the couch in our living room to have a talk.
I will always remember the sad look in Father’s eyes as he stared down at his hands, rubbing them back and forth, while he searched for the words to tell us that our family wasn’t going to be celebrating Christmas this year.
A month later, on Christmas Eve, I lay awake in bed late into the night, trying to talk myself out of sneaking into our living room to see if Santa had come. I gathered my courage, then tiptoed down the hallway, hoping I would see the bright sparkling lights of our Christmas tree standing proudly in the corner of our living room, like it did every year.
Instead, I was greeted by my seventeen-year-old brother, Frank, who slept on our living room couch. “Hey, little one, what are you doing up?” he whispered.
I started to cry. “There’s no Christmas tree.”
There would be no presents, no singing, no Christmas dinner. It felt like we were the saddest family in the world. My disappointment overwhelmed me. I looked forward to Christmas each year. It wasn’t only the presents. It was that special feeling I got from seeing my family happy. We hadn’t been happy in such a long time.
On Christmas morning, the sun shone into our chilly bedroom, waking me up. “Maybe Santa came! Maybe he came!” I suddenly insisted. My eyes searched the living room, but there was no Christmas tree. I broke into uncontrollable tears.
I ran to Father in tears and threw my arms around him. “ We aren’t going to have Christmas this year.”
“Now, now, now, calm down. Go on in and see your mother. She will comfort you.” Dad slowly pushed the bedroom door open, leading me into the room.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something different in the bedroom.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With my question answered, everything dawned on me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2 . The Best UK Festivals of 2020
We’ve picked this year’s best UK festivals——find your favourite and get out there this summer.
All Points East
Returning for a third year after its successful 2018 launch,All Points East is a general 10-day festival that takes over Victoria Park in late May.The opening and closing three-day weekends are given over to music.
Place: Victoria Park
Time: May 22,2020-May 31,2020
Ticket: Adult￡35; Age19-24 with ID￡28;Under18 years old, free
Isle of Wight
Huge headliners is one of the UK’s biggest rock festivals.Now in its 52nd year,the modern-day Isle of Wight festival is a far cry from the hippy(嬉皮士) love-in that landed back in 1968.Nowadays,big-name headliners and commercial rock and pop favorites are the order of the day.
Place: Seaclose Park, Newport
Time: Jun 13-14. 12:00 a.m.-15:00 p.m.
Tickets:￡25 Adult;￡15 Age19-24 with ID; ￡10 under 12 years old, under7, free
Love box
Consistently one of the finest festivals in London,catering for cool kids and party monsters alike,Love box has expanded again to become a three-day event in 2020.This year will be its second in west London’s Gunnersbury Park.
Place:London’s Gunnersbury Park
Time:July12-14. 1:30 p.m.-2:30 p.m.
Tickets:￡185(adult three-day weekend);￡70(adult day ticket)
Junction 2
Calling all technology heads:in 2020,this big festival is spreading out over two days again following last year’s successful expansion.Junction 2 is a meeting of some pretty serious music minds.
Place:Boston Manor Park
Time:July 15-16
Tickets:￡45 for all ages
1. Which of the following is the earliest festival of the year?| A．All Points East. | B．Isle of Wight. | C．Love box. | D．Junction 2. |
| A．￡65. | B．￡60. | C．￡45. | D．￡40. |
| A．Victoria Park. | B．Seaclose Park. |
| C．London’s Gunnersbury Park. | D．Boston Manor Park. |
3 . We know the westerners like to plan for their time carefully in order to do all the things that are important to them. So if your American or English friend asks you to dinner, he usually invites you a week ahead. But if you really have no time and can’t go to the dinner, you can ring him to say sorry. The dinner is usually served at home, sometimes at a restaurant. You should get there on time, and don’t forget to put on your fine clothes. It is also a good idea to take some little presents to your friend, such as flowers, chocolates and so on. When you are at dinner, you should also observe (遵守) some other customs. Here I’ll give you some dos and don’ts about them in the following:
1) Don’t leave bones on the table or the floor. (You should put them on your plate with fingers.)
2) Don’t use your bowl to drink soup, but use your spoon to help you instead,
3) Don’t talk with much food in your mouth.
4) Don’t ask others to have more wine. (This is quite different from that in China.)
5) After dinner, use you r napkin (餐巾) to clean your mouth and hands.
6) Make sure small pieces of food are not left on your face.
Then after dinner, you can stay there a little time. And your friend will be pleased if you leave in half an hour or so. Next day, you had better ring him up to thank him for the good dinner.
1. If your American or English friend wants to invite you to dinner, he will invite you _____.| A．on the night before the dinner | B．on the day before the dinner |
| C．a week before the dinner | D．at the last moment |
| A．get there a bit earlier |
| B．put on your usual clothes |
| C．take some presents like flowers, chocolates and so on |
| D．take your best friends with you |
| A．put bones on your plates with fingers |
| B．persuade others to drink more |
| C．drink soup with your spoon |
| D．make sure that there is nothing left on your face after dinner |
| A．After dinner, you’d better stay and talk with your friends for a long time to show your thanks. |
| B．You’d better ring your friend the next day to show your thanks. |
| C．After dinner, you’d better leave in half an hour. |
| D．After dinner, use napkin to clean you r mouth. |
| A．Custom in England and America | B．Custom in the West |
| C．Living Custom in the West | D．Custom at Dinner Table in the West |
